A few months after my last post unexpectedly my husband was offered a new job (higher pay) in a new city. We packed up everything, sold our house and drove a U-haul, our car with a trailer attached and FIVE chickens in my front seat to our new house. A new start! With a new house, and having to pay for a new house we had to adjust our budget. Seeing our budget we realized that I needed to go back to work. This meant that our son needed to go back to public school.
The new school. (grade 2 Half way through the year)
We ended up with transferring our son in November. I know, I know we were asking for trouble bringing our son to a new school in the middle of the school year. We were faced with bullying, lack of communication from his teacher and the inevitable acting out from our son due to all the stress.
This teacher let school work build up in our son's desk for over a month and sent home the heaping pile and said that it all needed to be done right away! This did not make us very happy as we had been asking for feedback and check ups since day one. This teacher also kept pushing us to get our son on prescription medications for ADHD. While we do struggle with our son being on the lower end of the spectrum with Asperger's Syndrome. ( Yes, he was diagnosed by an actual doctor .... NOT Dr. Google) We will not put him on medication.
Some of our struggles are:
-Obsessive Interests (He can tell you every detail of the Titanic, also information on dinosaurs and there correct names)
-Volume issues when speaking (often WAY too loud)
-Social isolation- This is a huge issue for our son. Other kids make fun of him for his "odd" behavior. He lacks social cues from others.
-He had a few motor skill issues. He didn't learn (despite all of our efforts) to tie his shoes until after his 9th birthday.
-He had a bit of issue with imagination play at school. He would get angry if another student "played the game wrong" which in reality was the other kids not playing the games just like our son had pictured or expected.
At his winter parent/teacher conference the teacher talked down on us and told us that at this time he would not be willing to pass him on to the next grade. A few weeks later the teacher called me and yelled in my ear when I told him that I was not willing to hold my child back. He told me that he was the teacher and I (the parent) don't want to do what is best for him. The thing is my child is plenty smart. He is fully capable of doing the work, but needs closer attention and strong communication between parent/teacher or else our son takes advantage of both parties.
(Grade 3)
This school year we had a great teacher for our son that was very cooperative with communication. We had a few snags but we don't really have any complaints. By snags I mean issues with bullying. He was attacked walking home from school and on the playground on a number of occasions. He was passed to grade 4 with no problems. We did still deal with his Asperger's issues but that's normal for us.
(Grade 4) Current year
This year has been very challenging. The teacher almost refuses to communicate with us. We have begged and pleaded for communication and all we get is a few emails and a "I'm sorry it slipped my mind" He has been bullied and has been suspended 4-5 times if I am remembering correctly. 2- 1 day suspensions, 2- 3 day suspensions and this latest one was a 10 day suspension ( that I got knocked down to a 3 day so I could enroll him in K12 online public homeschool. This decision was a long time coming I think. The school was blaming our son for his reactions to the bullies with the bullies getting away with everything. The principal talking down on us for our sons behavior at school. Which is very frustrating because I can't keep him in check when he is not in my care... he is at school. Our son's report card this year does not in any way reflect his ability which is very frustrating. The teacher says he can't do multiplication, whereas with us he can do 2-3 sheets of multiplication in under 10 minutes. The teacher says he is a terrible reader, but he reads chapter books and spends Christmas money on more chapter books ($50).
So here we are. In the middle to end of the 4th grade and starting K12 online public charter school. We are set to start on the 17th of February, 2015. I am able to homeschool again because I am a stay at home mom again and we also have a 10 month old now to take care of. Lets hope this transition goes smoothly.
