I tried several avenues to get my 4th grader switched to another county school and was told emphatically that the school policy is that "there are no changes allowed unless the student is in a transition period (ex: switching from elementary to middle)" or the student is moving into another district. Really!? Well, that's odd considering all the students I know that are driven to school because they are out of that district. Still county, but located in the zone for another school. And.... I am not counting those students that I know are "transitional" students. I'm not going to follow up with that because I don't want to interfere with those who did manage to get away with it. The school system know or should know who the students are and that's that.
Apparently the rules are only followed "absolutely" sometimes and exceptions and changes are allowed. Imagine that!
So.. we are homeschooling for 4th and 5th grade. I can see that it will definitely be a challenge. And with my ADHD, I will have to work a little bit harder to keep us on track and focused. But the learning opportunities are endless and we are so excited this school year. I get up every morning eager to look over the lesson plan and double check that we are ready to go. I find that I have a tendency to overplan and sometimes have to trim the lessons down just a bit.
So far this week we are just reviewing. I've already found some strengths and weaknesses which will help me firm up a schedule. Right now we are just working on certain subjects on certain days without a strict time for each subject. I'm dismayed by how much math work we are going to have to do. For the last school year the students didn't bring home work if they finished it at school so I rarely saw what Grace was working on. I would see a graded test and that was it. A very big positive to homeschooling is that I will KNOW what she is working on and I will be able to allow extra help on trouble areas.
Grace has already read an entire chapter book and wrote me 2 paragraphs about what she read. Another trouble spot: writing. She is very expressive verbally; we just need work on getting the thoughts onto paper in a logical and organized way.
We are going to do as many science experiments and art projects that we can this year. Grace is very creative and is usually in the middle of painting, making playdough creatures, designing and coloring a book... so I want to incorporate hands-on learning projects into the lessons. This seems to be her learning style so we will run with it.
Good luck to everybody this school year, I hope it is a happy one!
