We're Coming Out

Listen, I have an announcement to make and quite frankly, I'm more comfortable with saying that I'm gay than what I'm about to say...we are going to homeschool Beatle for 2nd grade. Yes, we are now officially freaks to society. I saw it coming but this is the nail in the coffin for any cool-points I hoped to score. I'm sure our decision will be misunderstood by some, judged by others and we'll be back-slapped by more awkward people than I care to be seen with in public.

Reasons: Things are not working well with the school she's at. Because of the way God made her, she requires more individual attention and less distractions. I have the opportunity to be one-on-one with her for a year of intensive study to (hopefully!!!) catch her up (Birdie will be going to preschool in the fall). And, it will work better with Brent's work schedule since his stands directly opposite of the school's schedule. Translation: Anytime we want to get away and have family time, someone is missing something important that they should be doing. It is ABSOLUTELY NOT to hide her away from the world! If anything, I hope we can experience more of the world by appointing a time during the week for us to volunteer (outside of the church) together. And this is ABSOLUTELY NOT an insult to public schools!

We've looked at another school that would be great for Beatle. It would be a slower pace than what she's in right now and they do math and reading interventions and pull-out programs that she would absolutely benefit from but the point is, it's still school. She'll still have the same yearly schedule, daily schedule with homework at night with the same pressures that testing and mainstream academics bring these days. I think we all can agree that public school has changed a lot since most of us went and that chop-chop, high-pressure experience is absolutely not Beatle. Beatle's not competitive so things like AR tests don't motivate her. She becomes easily discouraged. She's as slow as a turtle. If I told her to run because there was a man with a gun, she'd need to stop and tie her shoe and then she'd wonder what kind of gun he had and what got him to that point that he'd need to wield a gun. She's not a strong independent worker because she lacks focus. Her current teacher said that Beatle requires a lot of time to complete things and she needs a smaller ratio. When we toured the other school, I asked how many per class because it looked smaller and the Dean of Students, said that there were 20 per class "of course ideally, we'd love it if there were 10 per teacher." I can do 1-to-1! I hope that this adventure will challenge her in her weak areas; teaching her to be a self-starter, giving her lessons including things she likes and feels successful at, while demonstrating the need to complete things in a timely manner. It will definitely challenge me in the patience department! We fully intend to re-evaluate this decision every year and if we go back to public, she would be very happy at the school we toured last week.

In the 4th and 5th grade, I terrorized a kid at church because he was SO WEIRD! He had a weird name, a weird accent, ate weird things things like clam chowder and, worst of all, he was HOMESCHOOLED!!! Who does that?? I was so pro-public school and so ignorant and opinionated about homeschool for the last 20 years that when these ponderings started bubbling up in my heart a few months ago, I was both horrified and excited because anytime I've felt led to do something directly opposite of what I want to do, I know that's part of how God leads me. Beatle and I may go down in a blaze of glory for the 2nd grade but we are going to give it our best shot, by golly. And like Beatle's said before about home, "Mom, this is my habitat."

Ok, major change of subject. This has happened twice with people at church! Two women have mistaken Jasmine for Birdie. How does this happen??? Do they even know my family? First of all, Jasmine's half black for crying out loud!!! There would be some major problems if I birthed Jasmine with my white, minister husband standing by my side. Secondly, time flies, people! Birdie can drive now. Ok, not that much time has flown by but still, we can definitely sit-up on our own by now and have had a couple of birthdays under our belt. Once, I'd just chalk it up to some batty (or blind!) old lady but twice?!? That's a head-scratcher.