High school part-time; homeschooling part-time.Hopefully the best of both worlds.

If you have read my previous blogs you are aware of some of the issues we had this last year via the public school. For one of the bullying blogs see the entry in June labeled “(Missing blog summary #1) Bullying in Public school”. What I didn’t mention previously is that we also had issues with some teachers. 

The band teacher went off on the whole class, yelling “Who the hell do you think you all are” and using the s-word (as my kids call it). At the beginning of the year my son couldn’t wait for band because he had wanted lessons forever but we hadn’t been able to afford them. He came home after that and wanted to quit band immediately. He refused to enroll in band for the next year…and he wasn’t the only one. From what I understand 75% of the 8^th grade band refused to take band the next year. It is such a shame that one teacher can ruin a child’s love for a class in such a way. (And yes I went to the school about this but they did nothing. The teacher did apologize to the class but it was too late at that point).

The school’s policy for make-up work is the number of days you missed plus one. So if you missed 2 days of school you have 3 days to get caught up with all your assignments. We had one teacher who did not follow this at all. She expected my son to take 6 tests (voc and spelling) in 3 days! Because she had put him off for so long and it was the end of the grading period so she had to enter a grade for the tests. She also tried to dock him for 2 assignments that he “had to be present the day of to pass” (which is not what the policy says). 

We had another teacher who did not return emails and phone calls for 3 weeks! Literally. Then when she did reply her response was “I didn’t know your email required a response”!! Hello---I only asked about 4 questions in my email! Overall our experience was horrible!

So I was hoping my son would decide to go back to homeschooling. And yes I was leaving that decision up to him. He wants to play soccer and he made the JV team last year. In our area there just isn’t a lot offered for high school age kids as far as competitive sports go. I was willing to fight the school, the bad teachers, and the bullies for another year for him…if he decided he wanted to stay in public school. 

The end of July I get a call from him (he was visiting his grandparents out of state). He had given homeschooling a lot of thought and decided he really wanted to be homeschooled again, but that he wanted a different math program (we were using Saxon, which he HATED)…and then he made an off-handed remark about having more free time to do whatever he wanted to do (such as play his xbox). So I was somewhat excited but the last comment gave me pause. Was he serious about homeschooling or did he just pick it cause he thinks he can play the xbox all the time? Plus I had not looked at ANY curriculum at all! And it was close to the deadline to file with the county that we were homeschooling. So I thought about and talked to some friends. I decided we would go pick his schedule up from the high school. He did not want to do this at all, which really surprised me. I thought he would at least want to go see some friends, say hi, whatever. But he was not happy about going to get that schedule. However I wanted to see what he had been assigned. Imagine my surprise when he had ALL honors classes! Last year I made them put him in honors English. But now he was in honors science and history as well! I guess, even though he didn’t get straight A’s, the teachers must have really liked him and thought he had potential for honors classes. After I got over that shock we looked at his electives. Sure enough he had an engineering class and a technology class (like woodshop but more advanced). I asked him if he wanted to take those classes because that is not something I could easily offer him at home. Of course he did. So we visited the guidance office and then called the school board office and then went back to the guidance office again! After all that run around we finally have him enrolled part-time at the high school. He will be taking the engineering and technology classes, plus a graphic design and geometry class. He agreed to stay in the geometry class because the teacher is the husband of his old tutor. (long story for a different time!) I will be teaching him English/reading, history, and science at home. He will have half a day at the school and half a day at home. :-) I am hoping this will eliminate some of the bullying issues. And so far I like the teachers, especially the one who told me that he would be contacting me. He believes in parent involvement. That just made my day. LOL

Now all I have to do is write an “Intent to Homeschool” letter to the school board office and we will be set for the year….WAIT! I still have to buy his curriculum! Ebay here I come! :-)

(Missing blog summary #1) Bullying in Public school

As I was looking at my blog this morning I realized that for some reason some of my posts have either not been published or have been deleted. I am not sure which- either way they aren’t even showing up for me. So here is a summary of some of the posts that are mysteriously missing.

My oldest started public school this past year. I found out in the middle of Nov that he was being bullied…by someone we knew. This bully is involved in just about everything we do too. He is a yes/no sir kid to your face but if you keep watching him (and he doesn’t know it) you will hear him say/do things that just don’t seem right. So I let it go- they are at the age where it is a power struggle thing. I let it go until the first weekend in Dec when the kid threatened (in front of several kids and on school camera- since they tape everything!) to break my son’s wrist. He had injured his wrist in wrestling and had it taped. After that I went to the coach, teachers, and Scout leader. The coach blew it off, said he would have a talk with BOTH my son and the bully (which I was pissed about). But I don’t think he ever did. The teachers were surprised (remember I said he was a yes/no sir kid) but said they would keep an eye out. The Scout leader said that sometimes power goes to a kid’s head when they become a leader (he was a senior patrol leader in the troop) and they would have a meeting with him and discuss what being a leader means, etc.

Then my son broke his collar bone during a soccer game. (a whole other blog) The first thing he said after the pain went down was that he couldn’t return to school because “the kids already mess with him. What would they do to him now that he had a broken bone.” I was furious! At both the school and him. He hadn’t said anything lately about kids bullying him so how was I to know? And the teachers were suppose to be watching for this – they knew what was going on! So I had a conversation with the assistant principal about the safety of my son and kept him out of school for over a week. The assistant principal seemed shocked that anything was going on. I told him if my son gets injured or touched in any way once he returned to school he would hear from my lawyer BEFORE he heard from me. I will no longer put up with the bullying!

The kids get away with bullying because there is no REAL punishment unless they physically harm someone or damage property. My son informed me that he can’t tell because the teachers don’t listen and it gets worse when he does say anything. These bullies get their hands slapped and then get sent back to class to make life even worse for kid being bullied. So much for the “No Bullying Policy”.

Books and Bullying

So we have had issues with bullying in public school and with “friends” in the past. This hasn’t been a huge problem lately though- Thank goodness!


I came across a book this past week. I read it in 2 days- it was that good! It is The Year of Learning Dangerously by Quinn Cummings. I didn’t agree with everything she said but I love that the author was willing to admit her own shortcomings in her own education and how she felt overwhelmed at times and doubted that she was doing the best for her child by homeschooling her. This is an issue that all homeschool parents have at some point- Am I doing what is best for my child? Anyways- one of the parts that stuck out to me (so much so that I wrote it down!) was her summary on bullying. She is talking about all the questions someone (who she refers to as the interrogator) asks when they find out you homeschool. Here is the quote that I wrote down from pg 24: “‘But,’ the Interrogator might ask, ‘how will these kids learn to deal with bullies and jerks?’ As luck would have it, there are bullies at the Scout meetings, in the mall, on the playground and even at family reunions. There are jerks everywhere you look. Children who homeschool do get to negotiate with socially toxic people. What they don’t get to do is grimly endure an entire year sitting two feet from a person who makes their lives miserable on a regular and predictable basis. It’s not unreasonable to hope that by the time homeschooled children enter the world as adults, they will have acquired the self-possession required to walk away from someone who is belittling them and been spared the recurring nightmares of being trapped in the locker room with the bully.”

This is SO true! I had tried to figure a way to sum up the answer to this question, particularly since we have experienced bullying in various place and not just the public school. I absolutely love this part: “What they don’t get to do is grimly endure an entire year sitting two feet from a person who makes their lives miserable on a regular and predictable basis.” I like that particular part because bullying is one of the reasons I pulled my 2nd son out of public school. Yes he still gets bullied occasionally by “friends” but it is not a consistent thing. He isn’t coming home from everything we do crying that no one likes him, so-so was mean to him, etc. Instead of coming off the bus every other day crying and upset I now have a child who gets upset only occasionally about another child bullying him- maybe once a quarter, instead of every day. And because of the homeschooling community that we are in if he tells me about it when it happens I know I can always make it into a teaching lesson with all the kids involved…and the parents won’t be upset that I “corrected” their child! LOL

Updates

We left the group I was telling you about in the last blog and found another that is very accepting. They are so nice! They keep asking us our opinion on things…and they appreciate and respect what we do say.




I have to say I HATE that my oldest is going to public school! I didn’t think it would be a big deal. But he brings nothing home…literally no homework (except spelling & vocab). All their work is done in class. I have no clue what he is learning. They don’t have textbooks that they are allowed to bring home. They do have copy papers in their binders that they bring home. They do not require assignment books. There is no communication from the teachers to the parents at all. If you have an unorganized child this is setting them up to fail. I finally went in to the school and talked to the teacher in the class he seemed to be having a problem in (low grades for him). Come to find out the reasons he wasn’t doing well was because he was rushing through his work, sloppy writing, incomplete sentences, messy pages, and talking. When she showed me his work I told her I would not have accepted it from him. I would have made him take it back and redo it. She seemed very relieved to have a parent “on her side” (meaning not blaming her) and asked if I could be the parent of a few more of her kids. :-) We worked out a solution to his disorganization problems in her class and she now knows that if she has a problem with him she can just call/email me and I will take care of it. I am happy with the results of our meeting and I actually like her.

The school year has begun!!...and with it some changes

A new school year!! This year brings some changes to our house.


We have decided to allow our oldest to attend public school. We made this decision for many reasons but the main three were: 1. In our school district 8th grade is in our high school. 2. Our local Parks & Rec doesn’t offer hardly any sports for kids who turn 14 yrs old. & 3. I want him to enroll in dual enrollment (the kids get college credits for high school classes thus starting their college career early).

“Meet The Teacher” Night was 5-7pm and let me tell you…they lock the doors at exactly 7pm!! I was told we could come anytime with the 2 hrs. I had planned to be there at 5 – 5:30 at the latest. Hubby got home from work late (he wanted to go too) so we didn’t get there till 6pm. Between teachers not being in their class, where they are suppose to be so we can meet them, and the school telling teachers to lock their doors and leave at exactly 7pm (yes they said this over the loudspeaker) we didn’t get to meet every one of his teachers. It was very frustrating. When my kids were in elementary school they had the same times but the school was open till you got done, not on lock-down right at 7. Literally at 7pm the teachers locked their doors, the lights were being turned out, and teachers and administrators were leaving.

Anyways I liked one of his teachers and told people about her. As soon as I did I started receiving very bad reviews about her last 5 yrs with the high school. It was everything from “she doesn’t teach instead she befriends them and has the girls doing her hair during class time” to “she loses homework and blames it on the child” to “if she finds out that your child ‘got her in trouble’ then she bullies them by punishing the whole class and naming your child as the reason”. I tried to get his scheduled changed but they wouldn’t do anything…So needless to say I am keeping my eye on her. I didn’t put him back into public school for him to have a teacher who doesn’t teach and worse bullies the kids!! I will be on first name basis with that school. They will know my car when I pull up outside and will run and hide! LOL I am somewhat serious though. I will not have my child bullied by a teacher and not be taught anything. He had enough of that (the not learning anything) in elementary school.

The high school has an unusual schedule, at least to me. They have an A/B schedule but it isn’t just A/B every other day…there is also A/B every nine weeks or half year. My biggest complaint is that they do not have math all year. It is a half year class, meaning they have it every day for half the year. The other half year is a foreign language. Why couldn’t they have foreign language and math every other day all year? It would help with their retention. They have English every day all year. They have Science & History every other day all year. Then they have one class that is all year every other day and for the other day it changes every nine weeks. They don’t have a study hall…instead they have a half hour advisory period after lunch. In advisory period they can do their homework, go see teachers about make-up work if they missed days, or see teachers for work they didn’t understand.

So school started last week. He was very excited but nervous. His first ½ week (they start on Wed) went well. He hasn’t had any homework at all, which he is loving. I have been reviewing his work every day but it isn’t like he brings books home. I am not even sure if they have a book for every child. He does bring home copied papers so I can see what they are talking about in class though.

I am hopeful for the year but at the same time I am apprehensive. I have a vision in my head of me crashing through the doors and yelling at people. LOL Hopefully it won’t come true. If it does I will be writing about it! After all I am under no illusion that public school is the best system…and I would not hesitate to pull him out and homeschool him again if I feel that is the only way he will get a good education.

Who doesn't like a good party?!?

The local school superintendent recently announced a change in the public school food policy. Well, it blew up- literally. The local schools (mainly elementary) took the policy and rewrote it or miss-communicated it to their students/parents. It became this HUGE deal - when in reality it isn’t that big of a deal.


The actual policy says

1. Teachers can’t use food/candy as a prize. So when the kid answers the question right they don’t get m&ms or skittles… (Who doesn't like m&ms now and then?!?! :-) )

& 2. The school employees can’t bring in food to feed to the students.

But what came from the above policy was “the classes can’t have parties anymore”.


Nowhere in the policy does it say that!! And this is not a new policy- this policy went into effect in 2005 when my middle son was in 2nd grade. (I remember it because the same “we can’t have parties” was going around.) The school employees are going wild with the no party thing. "Oh we can't have a valentine's day party". Aside from the fact that the policy doesn't say you can't have food or a party---Since when does the word "party" mean "food"? When we were kids a valentine's party was exchanging of cards and maybe a little extra snack. ONE snack- not every kid bringing in a bag of candy or a dessert and sharing it with the other kids…so the kids leave a sugared up mess.


The policy is a good policy! Why do you want the kids sugared up on candy just for answering a question? And what about the kids with food allergies or diabetes? This policy doesn’t hurt anyone and it protects so many. Obviously this policy doesn’t affect my kids now since we homeschool …but what if something happens and I have to put them back in public school? My middle son reacts to red dye and gluten…which are in most candies and easy snack items. If he ever did have to return to public school he would have to have a medical IEP (Individual Education Plan) for his food allergies.

At the end of the day this food policy goes a long way in keeping my child, and many others, safe in a public school environment.

So do bears Hibernate or are they Dormant?

We use Apologia for our science curriculum. I love it because I can have a “science class” with all grades and then just assign work according to their level. Yesterday for our science lesson we were learning about bears. According to the lesson bears don’t hibernate- they go dormant. Hibernate means that breathing slows and body temperature drops to the same as the surrounding air. Dormant means a temporary state of inactivity, kind-of like a long nap. So bears are actually experience dormancy and don’t hibernate. Anyways the boys have been taught in public school that bears hibernate all winter. So here is our conversation:


Me: “Do you know what many bears do during the winter?”

Jason and Kenneth: They hibernate.

Me reading from the book: “They sleep! Because of this, some people say they hibernate, but that’s not really true.” I go on to explain the difference between hibernate and dormant. And the fact that they can even give birth during their dormancy.

Jason: So they don’t hibernate?

Me: No they don’t.

Kenneth: Well why did they teach that at public school?

Me: I really don’t know but now do you understand why I have chosen to homeschool you??

This is not the first time in the last few weeks that we have had a similar conversation, where they boys have found out that something they learned in public school was not correct. It just reaffirms one of the many reasons why I homeschool.