Ben's last day of school is Monday. I talked to his teacher this morning. I cried. She cried. She wants to have a party for him at 1:30. She also gave me a TON of materials for language arts and math.
After a lot of soul-searching, debating, talking, writing down thoughts, and sleepless nights we have decided to pull Ben out for the rest of the year and finish the year by homeschooling him. His mood and personality are just suffering more and more. By the time he gets home from school he is too exhausted for tutoring to be effective so every day he falls further behind. April is the month of high-stakes testing so school is focusing really hard right now on preparing the kids for the reading and math testing they will have to take. There is NO way he can pass the reading. The math will also be a struggle because he cannot read the instructions or the word problems. So we are going to take him out for the rest of the year.
We will be working on phonics, copywork, memorization, math, nature studies, art, science, music and history. We are starting with Ancient Egypt! Woo hoo! Mummies, pyramids, pharaohs, weird gods -- what could be more fun?! Ms. M wants us to come back and teach the class about Egypt because they are doing an Egypt-themed float for the book parade. Too bad we can't culminate the unit with an actual trip to Egypt.
In the fall we will either move to Roswell so Ben can go to Swift, homeschool him for a year and then send him to Woodward Academy (their program only starts in 3rd grade), or we will see if we get in to Schenck.
1 comment:
Lots of decisions to be made. Ben is very fortunate to have such gifted, educated, caring and involved parents. Sounds like you have done lots of research and soul searching and have come to a good decision for him. From what you have written, he will be working with subjects that will stimulate him and his desire to learn. My good thoughts go with you.
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