I'm trying so much to be positive about school and support the kids. But now, after one week, Princess says she doesn't like it. "There's nothing to do, and it's so boring." On her third day, she had a math worksheet. With a limited amount of time to finish, I think she got stressed and forgot how to subtract when you have to borrow a one but the one is a zero and you have to go to the next column. Anyway, she was slow to finish and was sent into the hall with the other slow kids.
The kids were very sweet, trying to help her. A boy named Isaac wrote on her paper in his messy handwriting, but it didn't make much sense. "Yeah, he's not very good at math," Princess said.
So as kid after kid finished, and Princess still couldn't remember how to do the work, she began to cry. As she sat in the hallway, eventually all alone, she began to sob. Then she was too embarrassed to go back into the class. Finally, she sucked it up and went back in. The teacher could see she'd been crying and apologized. "I guess I shouldn't have sent you into the hallway."
The teacher sent the math worksheet home so that I could help her. Sounds familiar, right? Kinda like homeschooling, right?
Nothing else like that has happened, but there is a constant feeling of being slightly in trouble, if only because someone in the class is talking or fidgeting or not paying attention. Princess is frustrated that her little pod of four desks is in trouble if anyone there is talking.
I told her none of this surprised me; I have been to school. "If you thought I wouldn't like it, why did you let me go?!" she wailed.
Now I have to decide how long she should go to have given it a fair shot. I can't imagine anything changing. I would at least write the teacher a nice note. I'm not mad at her, and I appreciate her efforts to make Princess feel welcome. At the end of the week, the teacher handed out eight bags of popcorn to the students who had worked hard and been quiet all week. Princess got one. There is a lot of emphasis on being quiet, which you need in a classroom, I know. It's just hard for kids to be quiet, you know?
Gameboy, meanwhile, isn't sure what to think of school. He got a 31 out of 36 on a physics test for which he hadn't been around for the lessons. He got all his vocabulary words marked wrong because he capitalized the first word in the definitions and ended them with a period. I felt bad about that because I know he's trying to write it properly; he's normally really sloppy about capitalization, etc. He was excited to be in choir, but for the first entire week, they didn't do any singing. (I heard perhaps the teacher's husband is sick, so I feel bad for her if that's the reason.)
I think they thought school would be a place with other kids who liked to do stuff. But as most of us know, it's a place full of kids trying to get out of doing stuff. I'm going to feel like a flake if they come home so quickly, but I can deal with that.
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5 comments:
I feel for all of you so much. Princess's frustration with getting into trouble because other kids were talking was a constant issue for our kids in school. My kids recognized how unfair it was to be in trouble for something they did not do and frankly it did not make me happy either.
I admire Princess and Gameboy for giving it a try, even if they do decide to go back to homeschooling. And I especially admire you, Beverly, for being such a great source of support to them while they explore the whole public schooling thing!
wishing you all the best on this journey.
cyndi
It doesn't surprise me that they're not enjoying it, either. There are a lot of un-fun things about going to school. Not only is it stifling at times, but you have to get up early in the morning and stay in the same building all day and cater to a whole classroom full of other kids who don't have the same interests or priorities as you. In pretty much every way, homeschooling wins--especially the way you do it, Beverly.
BUT... I would also say your initial idea about making them stick it out until the end of the year was good. This is a HUGE change for them. Of course it's going to take some time to get used to the new environment and expectations. And frankly, to learn how to survive it and succeed despite all the bad parts. I'm not saying you should make them suffer or let their education suffer, obviously. And I understand wanting to let them quit and go back to the way things were. But as a mom who would like to homeschool and has had to come to terms with the impossibility of that, I just wanted to let you know that despite the stuff they're experiencing, school can be okay. And if you let them quit now, they'll never know that.
I am so with you on this. I'm enjoying this particular journey your kids are on as I know one day mine will be too.....
Great for them to have the experience. Public school is a lot like having a government desk job. I guess Princess can rule that out of her career options.
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