I sit here wondering if I have, once and for all, truly
lost my mind.
In a very few hours, some time after the sun rises, I am joining the legions of homeschoolers once again. Last time we did this, it was a disaster.
The first time I did this, it was with my daughter, in California, two husbands and a life time ago. It was a raging success. Amy thrived under it, I thrived under it, and when Amy decided she wanted classroom experience, we said "Okay, go for it" and she's happily making her way through the school system now. That's all good.
The second time I did this was last fall, when Sam and I decided that homeschooling our (then) 11 year old, Widget, was a good idea. Oh man. No. This is a kid who needed more stimulation than just being one child with one adult focused on his learning. This was a kid who it just didn't work with on the one to one basis.
We moved here to Podunkville, Texas a few weeks ago and have been trying to get the three boys, Widget (now 12), Gadget (10) and Munchkin (7) enrolled in the local school district.
But when their Mama died three years ago, she apparently had things like their official shot records and social security cards stashed away, God knows where, because certainly nobody else does. And we cannot get them enrolled without these papers. Never mind that the old school has photocopies and will send. Podunkville schools require the originals, thanks.
The boys need their entire immunization series done over again. The doctor tells us this will take a minimum of three months. Getting their social security cards will take a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, my kids' brains are supposed to rot, or something. The hell with that.
Tomorrow we begin homeschooling. We've purchased some curriculum materials, such as grade appropriate workbooks. We have an encyclopedia. We have tons of old National Geographics. We have the internet.
We have three special needs boys (ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome, among other things) who are extremely bright and hard to keep focused.
This just might be hard. Somehow, though, I am thinking that with three of them all working in the same space, doing some stuff together (art, music, "citizenship" (required by Texas law for homeschoolers), some science and suchlike) and some schoolwork on their own personal levels (math, language arts) I am thinking that this may work very well.
We've joined a local homeschooler's community, there will be park days, there will be field trips. I'll be starting up my old arts and crafts group like I used to run in San Francisco. The boys are excited that tomorrow they get to do schoolwork. My kids hate summer, they see it as time away from learning, which is something they love!
So here we go. Off to the adventure.
Ma is biting her nails, hoping it works this time.