Friday was her last day of public school. She's already second guessing her decision but she knows we're doing this for the rest of the school year and if she doesn't like it, she can go back to middle school for seventh grade.
It's really a pity, up until this year public school was a good match for Jane. Actually it's interesting how we were led to public school. Jane struggled so much as a small child, just not comprehending language, vocabulary, grammar, basic sentence structure was completely absent from her speech. It was frustrating for both her and us. She obviously needed help but I held off until four determined to do everything I could for her.
It's interesting because I'm no dummy with language and no stranger to speech and language delays but something about Jane's processing made it impossible for me to reach her. I just didn't know how. So feeling like a failure I went to our Local early learning (schooling for special ed between 3 and kindergarten). Actually I tried getting her into head start but our income was way to high, luckily the individuals I talked to recognized that even though I didn't know the system and didn't realize that help was available for Jane, she needed help. So after testing she was admitted to school.
It was a good year for Jane and she learned a lot but was still short of what was needed for Kindergarten. We plowed forward anyway and were lucky enough to meet Susan M. the speech teacher, a woman fiercely devoted to her kids. She latched onto Jane and spoke on her behalf, getting her every ounce of services we could muster from the school district. Susan along with a smattering of teachers did everything they could to reach Jane's needs.
Hindsight is a funny thing. I can see why Jane needed public school, even more I can see why *we* needed Jane in public school. See, when Jane was in the system and getting so much help, I got pregnant. We didn't realize it but that pregnancy would change our lives and I simply would not have been able to home school at that time. Between doctors visits and bed rest topped by a whole lot of worry, yeah, I had no time for schooling kiddos. My children were fed and clothed and everything else was survival mode.
I don't think we attended a single parent teacher conference that year. :)
Jane's support continued even after she tested out of her IEP at the end of forth grade. See the local elementary had no problem setting an iplan into place. In Idaho if child that doesn't qualify for resource room is recognized as needing extra help, an iplan is put into place. It's not legally binding like an IEP but the school sets forth on what they're going to do to help the child, reading like an IEP. Basically it sets kids like Jane up for success. I think it's wonderful to catch those borderline kids and was thrilled that for fifth and sixth Jane's elementary was going to do everything possible to get Jane ready for middle school.
It was a great plan and for fifth grade worked fantastic until the school district got this fantastic idea to move sixth graders to middle school.
We lost sixth grade, half the time we had counted on, I had counted on, to prepare her for middle school. Jane freaked out at moving up and I worked hard to reassure her that we'd make it work.
Fifth grade ended and summer was okay. Jane was nervous, well we all were nervous but Jane had a couple of good friends she could lean on and I knew that would help. I remember how my good friends pulled me through those difficult times making it possible to keep going forward. Finally the first day of school arrived and Jane walked with her two friends. They continued to walk again through most of September.
Things were a bit more frustrating with what was happening inside the school.
The very first frustration was after being reassured that sixth graders would be kept at a sixth grade elementary format, the middle school put them on a rotating schedule going to different classes just like the seventh and eighth graders.
That was the beginning, then there was Jane's iplan. Even though the elementary had sent the iplan to the school and Jane tested extremely low in language comprehension (which HELLO, makes everything harder!), basically for eight weeks, the school said "we don't know what to do to help her." She was frustrated, we were frustrated. Finally I made some important connections getting her some help. To start with I contacted her math teacher, who was completely puzzled that Jane had never been exposed to long division. I explained that Jane was a resource room kid that had not yet reached grade level.
Light bulb moment for her teacher.
I explained that we had counted on the sixth grade to get her to level for seventh grade. *sigh* And we lost that chance when the school district kicked those kids to middle school. This teacher offered to help Jane after school two to three times a week and I encouraged Jane to see her. Within just a few weeks Jane's math improved tremendously.
Here was a child that had math explained in a room with five other students, thrust into a room with 30 students with language comprehension problems being told to perform at a level she hasn't even reached yet! And this was just math.
The school had an after school night the end of September (school had started mid-august) and Kent and I made sure to speak to every one of her teachers and we got some directions to move her forward and get her the help she needed. We felt good, most of her teachers recognized that she was struggling and wanted to help her. Her main teacher also was working to get her back into resource room.
This was a step in the right direction, then a week after this school night where we had talked with all of Jane's teacher we found out the middle school hadn't confirmed the states requirements for sixth graders. The state requires over a hundred minutes a day back to back, without interruption for the language arts. Since the middle school didn't follow through on the elementary school format and had them switching periods, they were not fulfilling the states requirements. So seven weeks into school after we had talked with and worked with Jane's teachers, Jane got a new schedule with all new teachers.
*frustration level rising*
And if this wasn't hard enough for Jane, her two friends, one of which she'd been best friends with since first grade dumped her. Said they didn't want to be friends with her anymore. Started crossing the street while walking home to get away from her. I haven't confirmed but I believe they decided to go with more popular "cool" people and Jane just didn't fit the bill. It was a crappy thing to do to Jane and school turned even more lonely.
Now I don't believe Jane was bullied or picked on more then anyone else, but she's sensitive, she internalizes making any teasing that much more painful.
When school started, I had expressed a desire to home school but acknowledged that with my schedule, it just wouldn't be possible for sixth grade. I have to give volunteer time at head start. The twins are also home on Mondays. Ean has a nightmarish rotating day schedule, going to school Tuesdays and Thursdays and every other Monday. The boys make an environment that is not conducive to serious learning. Trying to help Jane with homework with boys jumping all over us has worn my nerves to a frazzle as is. However I had a brainstorm.
My mom bought a house within walking distance. I talked with mom and she's agreed to help. Of course I would be Jane's primary teacher but my mom's house would be a perfect study hall. A quiet place to do school work without all the distractions our home has. I think Fridays will become Ean's special day with Mormor. That will give us one more day during the week with Ean free time, where we could focus one on one.
I talked with Jane. She completely balked at the idea. It was crazy talk. Not go to school?
We entered a balancing act of me trying to push Jane to understand what home schooling really involved and Kent stressing that it was HER choice and that it wouldn't happen unless Jane said so. I confess that stressing it was Jane's choice worried me because I didn't want her to continue on being miserable until she was beaten down and her esteem was in the toilet. I know it had to be her choice, but I worried that she'd hang in there until she just couldn't stand it anymore.
After talking to her dad about what it's like to be home schooled, she asked me if she could stay home one day and see what it was like. I let her know that one day wouldn't give a fair picture and she needed at least until the end of the year to really decide if she liked it or not. When I let her know that if she didn't like homeschooling, we'd register her for seventh grade at the middle school in the fall, She made her decision on Wednesday before school.
She asked if she could just stay home. :) I told her she needed to finish out the week. Get all the telephone numbers of her friends, people she wanted to stay in contact with and she needed to clean out her locker, return books ect.
Friday morning right after sending her off, I called the school and let them know.
Jane is already second guessing herself. The unfamiliar is always scary. I think she'll settle down quickly as we establish a routine. She was also disappointed when I took her booty from her locker and sorted out "all the good stuff" to put in the newly dubbed "school tubby".
So I am Jane's teacher. For everything. Wish us luck.
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