So, my last blog left off, with my son being 5 and having panic attacks when he had to write freestyle. The interesting thing is he loved to trace but if I asked him from his own head to write something, it was not correct, and if I told him so he would be frustrated and would melt down. Its like he couldn't see that it was wrong, and I didn't know how to help him. I bought Hooked on Writing, Writing without Tears, note books with raised edges so he can feel where the pencil should go as he wrote. And every time he would copy what they said do to exactly right as he traced the letters then when it got to free writing the letters, he would convert back. Both he and I were frustrated.
Maybe I shouldn't push him until he was older, so I waited...and as I waited, I would attend these home school park days where though the parents would answer my questions, they weren't exactly welcoming, and their children weren't exactly playing with mine. My son was lonely, he wanted someone to play with, he wanted a friend, I wanted him to have a friend. I wanted him to be happy. I had already gone to the regional center and found no help. I had a feeling the school would be the same. I was at a lost. I didn't know what to do?
I still taught my son orally how to read and we did math, and would do art projects and learn about science. I guess I taught him social studies by example, he knew his address and phone number and about city, state, etc. Though even from the beginning I guess I could say I was unschooling in the way of Social Studies.
One day, at the park my son hit it off really well with another little boy, and the mom and I hit it off pretty well too. Then they didn't come back for awhile, which made me sad, and then one day they did, and then they started coming more regularly. Which turned into exchanging of phone numbers and extra play dates, and I am happy to say, 4 years later. That little boy is still my son's best friend in the world. They are born 1 year and 1 day apart. My son is older. So, he finally had a friend. And the mom and I had similar views on education. We thought co-ops schooling would be best, but didn't know how to start one. We were constantly on the look out for 2 or 3 other moms that had our views to try and start a co-op school type setting.
We found one for awhile but it fizzled rather quickly. Disappointing, we finally learned about a home school interactive, hands on project based, learning center. The plus the class sizes were small and the subjects were sooo cool, the draw back was the price. As a single mom I couldn't afford those prices. So, I went to a meeting that the owner put on. And there I learned about charter schools and how they would pay you to home school. There was a new charter school just starting...it was going to give the parents the most money any charter before had ever given out. I signed up...little did I know that this charter was the charter from hell....and little did the owner of the project based learning school know that in her recommending this charter almost cost her her business as they truly were a horrible school.
Next up...the school from hell...my son's first IEP...
I have to say with darkness comes light and from the school from hell, I still took away a valuable lesson.
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