Returning to Home Schooling

With the school year coming quickly to a close, I've been thinking a lot about what the next year of home schooling is going to look like. I'm excited about getting back into what we enjoy most, and hoping that BW's year of third grade wasn't too damaging to him. He's learned that it's not OK to get excited and ask lots of questions about things - you get in trouble for that!

The kid has almost all A's (one B) and he's constantly getting in trouble for talking, which tells me he's bored. He does have a little bit of a persecution complex, and he talks so much and so fast that what most people hear is a general buzzing - I liken it to a gnat on coke who just drank several cups of coffee and wants to discuss his REALLY GREAT IDEA, DUDE. I try to keep that in mind when he tells me about his day, but sheez, when he's excited about what he's learning and asking tons of questions and being shut down, it pisses me off.

I do get that the teacher does not have time to answer off topic questions about the subject, but, it's sad. If a kid is interested in something and wants to learn more, it bites that he's being punished for asking questions. He's been sent to another teacher's classroom, to the "trouble desk" for it. I had to bite my tongue and not ask if he had to wear a conical hat with 'dunce' written on it as well. Here's to humiliating kids as a form of discipline! And BW tells me this stuff, I have yet to get a note from the teacher or any mention of this during the parent teacher conferences. WTF?

We're both looking forward to getting him the hell out of the system. He did say he didn't want to finish the school year, but when we talked about it more, he decided he'll stick with it until it's over. I had initially told him he had to, but recently gave him the option of leaving before the end if he wanted to.

Anyway, we have a math program we've liked in the past, so I think we'll go back to that. BW wants to learn Greek. We've talked about starting with Latin, which is going to be a hoot since my only exposure to a foreign language curriculum was two semesters of high school Spanish - my only take away from that year is the all important 'Donde esta el bana?'.

Other than math and Latin, I envision lots of trips to the library and local museums, lots of reading, and lots of exploring our city. And maybe some letterboxing. I think we'd have fun with that. I'm also going to have to start meeting some Phoenix home schoolers, which makes me feel a little nervous. Not because of them - I'm sure they're very nice - but mostly because I'm shy and meeting new people fills me with trepidation. It's going to feel like my first day of work all over again.

So we'll be spending our summer recovering from the school year. I've got us season tickets to one of the local water parks, we've got a vacation to plan for the end of August, and a load of library books to read. It's going to be a beautiful summer.