The winds of change

I love change...don't you love change? Okay, I jest. I don't particularly care for change, but once again my life has been thrown for a loop. Not only have we been fighting illness since before school started, I am now Home Schooling Samuel. Well technically we are using the K12 Wyoming Virtual Academy, but I am his "learning coach" aka teacher... although, he does have a licensed teacher who oversees everything but I do the teaching.

After a year long fight and IQ and other assessments that said Samuel should be in 2nd grade (although quite a few of his results placed above the 2nd grade level) the school district decided not to do what Samuel needed. Samuel got to the point where we were fighting to get him to go to school and was VERY depressed. I didn't know a 6 year-old could get like that! So, we pulled him out. It's been almost 2 weeks and he is doing FANTASTIC! He is learning so much more than the schools here in Rawlins offer. He gets to take Art, History and Science. They do a little bit of History and Science here in the schools. But absolutely no Art. He has already learned a little bit about Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Nomads, Mummies, The Fertile Crescent, The Nile River Valley, Amun Ra, Osiris, Isis etc. He thinks the Nomads and Mummies (because their insides are taken out before they are made into Mummies...quite a good reason to like them. Don't you think?) are the coolest ever.

It's been a pretty big change for me as I'm not used to spending a big chunk of my day working on school work with him and planning for what we need for the next day. However, I think it's been positive for Samuel & Phillip. Phillip is learning quite a bit along with Samuel and was "measuring" things during Science the other day with Samuel, and at the very least it has helped Phillip sit at the table and do some "school work".

Having Samuel home means we don't get to run out and do whatever we want, but with a little planning we can still do quite a bit. It's been so great to have our son back again! It's a little scarry to have your son so depressed. And I'm grateful for options that allow us to get him what he needs.

A lot of people have asked how KatieJo feels about all of this. Well, we offered her the option of staying home to do school as well. But, she was very adamant about wanting to stay at Mountain View. She is a social butterfly by nature and needs the social interactions. Samuel on the other hand enjoys being at home. It perplexes me about how different my children are! However, I am SO very glad they are who they are!!!