Feeling good...

I'm NOT feeling good today but I AM feeling good about Q not attending public school. :-) Every day lately, I have just had this sense of peace come over me. More and more people are seeing that our school system is broken. There are 4 documentaries coming out now. The War on Kids and The Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America's Achievement Culture, just to name a couple. I'm excited about this, but it seems Americans are slow to realize that these issues are in fact issues and slow to realize when it's time to do something about them. As in, the time is NOW. They are also a bit ignorant in realizing that homeschooling is not about letting your kids sleep in, stay up late and run around doing whatever they want, whenever they want, although there are some families who do that and that is THEIR decision. No one else's. Look around- what we see now is what the public school system has been putting out- kids who bully others, committ suicide, steal, vandalize and disrepect people. Of course there are good kids who go through the public school system, but it seems to be fewer and fewer all the time. I'm excited to see all of the great, intelligent homeschoolers and unschoolers who are going to become adults in the next 10-20 years. I bet it's going to be amazing. :-)

Working hard to let go...

Today has been interesting. Yesterday, I gave Q the day "off." He doesn't do more than an hour of "official" school work each day, but I do have him read some and he enjoys a book we have called "Mind Benders" where he can solve logic puzzles. I want him to know his multiplication tables and his basic division facts. I took much of last year thinking about what I, as his mom (and a teacher), want and think he should know, but to be honest, it's not a lot. Just the bare basics. Today, I kept thinking, "Make sure that at least he does some math today..." He has been playing on Roblox.com for a while. He loves that. He's very creative and he is learning math by converting "tix" to "Robucks." They each deal with sets of 500 and 1,000 so he has to multiply large numbers. Yesterday he asked me what 1,040 times 62 was. We worked it out on paper. He "does" math every day. Why do I keep thinking that he has to learn a certain amount/concept in math at a certain age? I mean, realistically, I don't believe he does, but there is this fear of "what if?" that I can't shake. What if he is 15 and doesn't know how to multiply multi-digit numbers? What if someone asks him in the next few months what 78 divided by 3 is and he doesn't immediately know? Q is an excellent reader and he has great comprehension. If he needs to find information, he can find it and understand it easily. I need to figure out why I get so hung up on "he must do some school work every day."

SO, guess how much formal school work he did today? NONE! :-)

(it feels kind of good!)

I'm figuring it all out!

I feel so good about this school year. It was the first "Back to School" season I didn't have to participate in and I can't tell you how FREEING it felt. After I pulled Q out of school, I realized the stress I felt every Sunday night, trying to mentally prepare for the upcoming week, thinking, "What's going to happen THIS week?" or "What will Q get in trouble for THIS time?" or my favorite thought, "What 'mean thing' will his teacher/an aide say to him THIS week?" I didn't have to worry about ANY of that. Then the holiday season came... I realized that we were not BOUND by the "school schedule." I don't just mean 9am-3pm, Monday through Friday. I mean bedtime, morning time, even weekend time. We can stay up late or get up late... Q is learning ALL DAY LONG, EVERY SINGLE DAY. School ended for his public school friends and I didn't have that, "Thank GOD!" feeling like I always had, so incredibly happy that he would be home for the next 2 and 1/2 months. It was just another great day that would lead into more great days... I felt such peace and it was amazing. When school started up again a couple of weeks ago, I had that peaceful feeling again. I didn't have to buy school supplies, only to have them "divied" up between his entire class, I didn't have to buy a pair of "cool" markers for school AND for home (because he would never know what he'd end up being able to keep or not depending on how his teacher set up the supply "system" in the classroom). I had such a calm feeling as I often do now.

I am figuring it out as I go. I'm a teacher and a "hard-core pro-public schooler" turned anti-schooling (for kids under 18, at least). I'm learning new things every day and reading as much as I can. My son is happier and taking in more than he's even aware of. He's finally not saying that he "hates learning" all the time. He's realizing that learning is fun and interesting and that it's not a CHORE; something he is forced to do.

Peace. :-)