For some reason I've always had a problem with school and my kids. I've never been super happy with anything they've been in. Michael attended the public school in our neighborhood K-2. Then about 2/3 of the way through 2nd grade I began noticing problems. He was in a class with all the trouble kids. Because Michael is so quiet, he gets put in the middle to break them up. After talking to his teacher and realizing there's wasn't a lot we could do in this oversized system of 32+ kids in a class, I pulled him out and moved him to a smaller school about 15 minutes outside town. I've been driving him to the bus stop every morning & they bus him to the school. He liked it there though he was sad to leave his other friends. Still, 24 in a class with a part-time aid was much better.
Aliyah went to a Montessori pre-school and since she did so well, we kept her there for kindergarten as well. (If it had been available for Michael we would have done that but it's a newer school.) For 1st grade she joined Michael at his school...for a couple months. We started noticing problems at their school. While it had small classes (135 kids in the whole school of K-8), it was run by a principal and the board. The superintendent got put on leave and can't be replaced until next summer. It's a tiny town run by country folk with a "Good 'Ol Boy" mentality. Bullying is a big issue though we never had a problem thank goodness. Aliyah thrived, she was elected ASB officer in her class and had many friends. After being in such a tiny K class (10 kids) she loved being around a lot of kids.
There were some things we were willing to overlook for the kids to have a different experience out there. But then there were some bigger issues amongst the administration. Well after sitting on it for a couple of weeks, and praying about it, 2 of my friends and I all pulled our kids out. That's 8 kids total, on the same day. I couldn't put the kids back in a local school with 32+ kids in a class. I know that for some kids that's ok, but for mine, it doesn't work well.
So what do we do? All the private schools are denominational, some are very anti-mormon. A couple weeks ago my friend suggested homeschool and I laughed and said NO WAY! Matt said the same thing. Well guess what... we're homeschooling.
We found a program called Trivium where they go to school 2 days/week and are homeschooled 3. It's a classical education at school. They cover Science, History, Geography at school. I'm in charge of Math, Reading, Spelling, Grammar, PE etc. I ordered my curriculum last week and am now so excited! After sitting down with the curriculum specialist and telling her How my kids learn, she was able to help me pick what they would excel at. They are no longer learning in a mold of the public school curriculum.
Today was our first day. They started at 7:30am and were done by 10:10. They took a 15 min break and they practiced music for 25 min in that time. I don't have my actual curriculum yet so I had to get a bunch of my own stuff from the internet (there's gobs!). I met up with my other 2 friends who left the last school and are now doing this. One of them is a teacher/substitute and when I mentioned my concern with them getting their work done so quickly, she said that's way more than they'd ever get in a school day. So anyway, we'll see how this goes. I'm mostly concerned about the down time and how to keep them busy but hoping it'll pay off with all they learn.
I'll keep you posted.
Aliyah went to a Montessori pre-school and since she did so well, we kept her there for kindergarten as well. (If it had been available for Michael we would have done that but it's a newer school.) For 1st grade she joined Michael at his school...for a couple months. We started noticing problems at their school. While it had small classes (135 kids in the whole school of K-8), it was run by a principal and the board. The superintendent got put on leave and can't be replaced until next summer. It's a tiny town run by country folk with a "Good 'Ol Boy" mentality. Bullying is a big issue though we never had a problem thank goodness. Aliyah thrived, she was elected ASB officer in her class and had many friends. After being in such a tiny K class (10 kids) she loved being around a lot of kids.
There were some things we were willing to overlook for the kids to have a different experience out there. But then there were some bigger issues amongst the administration. Well after sitting on it for a couple of weeks, and praying about it, 2 of my friends and I all pulled our kids out. That's 8 kids total, on the same day. I couldn't put the kids back in a local school with 32+ kids in a class. I know that for some kids that's ok, but for mine, it doesn't work well.
So what do we do? All the private schools are denominational, some are very anti-mormon. A couple weeks ago my friend suggested homeschool and I laughed and said NO WAY! Matt said the same thing. Well guess what... we're homeschooling.
We found a program called Trivium where they go to school 2 days/week and are homeschooled 3. It's a classical education at school. They cover Science, History, Geography at school. I'm in charge of Math, Reading, Spelling, Grammar, PE etc. I ordered my curriculum last week and am now so excited! After sitting down with the curriculum specialist and telling her How my kids learn, she was able to help me pick what they would excel at. They are no longer learning in a mold of the public school curriculum.
Today was our first day. They started at 7:30am and were done by 10:10. They took a 15 min break and they practiced music for 25 min in that time. I don't have my actual curriculum yet so I had to get a bunch of my own stuff from the internet (there's gobs!). I met up with my other 2 friends who left the last school and are now doing this. One of them is a teacher/substitute and when I mentioned my concern with them getting their work done so quickly, she said that's way more than they'd ever get in a school day. So anyway, we'll see how this goes. I'm mostly concerned about the down time and how to keep them busy but hoping it'll pay off with all they learn.
I'll keep you posted.
I think this is great! I almost did it but opted out. We are very happy with our school but we do supplement with homeschool work. Keep us posted. You will do great!
ReplyDeleteYou are making me look bad - you are way too awesome! ;) I don't know how you do it all. But, we gotta do what's best for our kids, don't we? The joys of motherhood! :)
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