So much I can't talk about...

This week has been a zoo.

There are a lot of personal things going on right now that I want to blog about but need more time to think about whether I should blog those things or not.

I'm in the same boat when it comes to pics of my kids. They are totally fine with me posting their pics on the blog BUT they have requested that their mother never get a picture from me of them or ever be able to see pictures of them now...so, um...yeah.

I'm not sure how I can do both things since the internet is like, public and all. :-)

Special thanks to Anonymous, the comment that was left here on my last post led me to rethink what was going on here. In the process, I found out the oldest basically missed almost the entire first and third year of school.

My point to Anonymous was going to be that I live in a state that is ranked 47th when it comes to education. In fact the very day I got the comment was the day the state cut $15 million more dollars from the school district's budget.  I think the school district is going to have to sue our state to get the funds they need. It's a mess. I also noted in our local paper the very next day headlined that our schools didn't make AYP.

In the past before I decided to homeschool, I tried to purchase a house in the area where the best school for special needs children was located.  Because of the economy, I couldn't buy/sell a house/my house. So I tried to put my kids on a waiting list after trying to transfer them. No luck.

Some of my kids were mistreated in the school system. I witnessed some of it. I knew the district wasn't going to do anything for my kids because they don't look like anything is wrong with them.

The best place for my kids is here in my home. After the comment I realized what a shitty education my kids were getting and then it hit me. My kids were at the top of their class, they had told me the boy was the best reader they had, yet he couldn't read.... maybe they WERE the best. But also maybe they weren't being taught the things that are normally taught everywhere else but here for their age range.

I didn't realize that even though they were at the top of their class at school, when I signed them up for their grade curriculum they ALL struggled and it was because the program was ahead of them.  Therapists told me the kids would struggle to concentrate and sometimes I think they do.   They won't tell me when they have problems and I've been working with them on that. For some reason my kids think they should just know stuff already. I keep having to explain that they have to learn it like everyone else. Nobody just knows something.

I've moved some of my kids back a couple of grades. In the case of the oldest, I moved her back to first grade.  So far we've discovered that she's never really done place value. She's touched on it, but never got the full explanation of it.  At first she was bummed to be going so far back, but since she found out she missed place value, she's changed her mind about going that far back.  She seems happier with school now and she comes and talks to me about what she's learned that she missed before.  I had talked with her about it because I felt she was struggling because she had holes in her education. She was missing the basics in some things and had no clue sometimes when I would mention certain building blocks that led to what she was working on. I have a feeling it's going to be a lot more that she'll discover she missed. But I'm really glad that the attitude has shifted almost overnight from hating on me and school, to being excited to log in to school and find out what's in store for the day.

I can't believe this stuff didn't cross my mind to begin with. Sometimes I get so tangled into the reasons why, that I miss the point entirely. lol!