I never thought I would end up here. The situation at my son's school worsened. His self esteem had hit an all time low. He ran out of the school building crying and was caught in the parking lot. My husband and I decided that for his safety and mental health we needed to remove him from school.
This happened right before Spring Break. We took a lovely vacation to Arizona, where my sister and parents have bought a vacation home together. It was very relaxing. It also gave me time to organize my homeschooling plan. I had already considered it as an option, so I had an online curriculum chosen. I gave Nathan a few tests to determine at which levels we should start.
We are just over a week into homeschooling. It has been an eye-opener. My son could have gone 3 times as fast in his reading/phonics, but he requires remedial attention in math. News to me. We started on the First Grade Level for every subject. At this rate, he will finish the First Grade Language Arts this summer. We went back to Kindergarten Level Math. He'll finish that this coming week. Then we'll continue with First Grade work, going at a much slower pace than the other subjects. We're wrapping up a few items that he hasn't learned (from us) in 1st and 2nd Grade Science, then in the Fall, we'll start 3rd Grade Science. I LOVE that I can tailor this to his needs and strengths. At school, they were learning about Living vs. Non-Living things, but he wants to start Chemistry! Also, he gets to do Science and Art every day instead of once a week.
It is an incredible amount of work to set up the lesson plans each day, but I'm finding my groove. We're having tons of fun! Nathan is so much more relaxed. We try to make it to the playground each day at 3pm. His interaction with other children is much better. I think he's not drained and as a result he can enjoy their company.
The night after our first day homeschooling was the first decent night's sleep I'd had in ages.
