Well, there was this time when I said I had to try very hard not to pull the kiddos out of public school now. One escaped. That is, Divagirl is now being homeschooled. Hehe. The school curriculum and processes were failing her and it was painful to watch her try to keep up and learn to hate school. There were aspects that she loved (teacher, friends, playing) but most of it she didn't love. Although she was ever the trooper and went to school with a smile and told everyone how much she loved school. Which was why it was with great trepidation that I suggested to her that I might homeschool her instead of going to school everyday. It was with great relief that I heard her say "Yes mom!" And when I took her to her class the next Monday so she could say goodbye to her teacher, I felt a little guilty when she bounded up to her teacher with a huge smile and said "My mom's going to teach me at home!!" as tears rolled down her teacher's cheek. (Oops, oh well)
But really, it was inevitable. The only reason it hadn't happened sooner was that I was heavily invested in that class. I was Room Parent, classroom volunteer and website manager. And, selfishly, I liked my alone time, brief as it was. Trouble is, I never did anything productive with it. I did talk to the teacher, but she was teaching at an accelerated rate that the top 10% of the class could keep up with and her methods included vast amounts of worksheets. Divagirl loathes worksheets. She's a kinetic learner and most school settings aren't the best place for kinetic learner to thrive. One thing that clinched it for me was that I followed a hunch that Divagirl might be left-handed so I had her write her alphabet with her "wrong" hand and then her right hand. Aside from it being awkward because she didn't know how to hold the pencil and floated it across the paper, all of her letters looked as good or better than the letters she wrote with her right hand that she's been practicing for 3 months! When I showed it to the teacher and told her I suspected she was a lefty the teacher basically responded with I don't really care what you do with her at home and implied she wasn't going to change anything at school. Really? I then asked her how many lefties she has had in the last 10 years. None. Yup, that explains it. Teach by demonstrating the right hand. Unless the child comes in fully grounded in left-handedness, they will be a right-hander by default.
I also have a hunch that she may have some form of dyslexia. Its not the kind where you transpose letters, but the one where you can't remember whole words, but can spell and sounds them out. She also has difficulty reading the word on the next page after successfully reading the same word on the previous page. The type that I'm watching for in her is called Dyseidetic. Perhaps also mild Dysgraphia since she hasn't chosen a dominant hand yet. At least now I can keep an eye on her progress.
Doing the best for your child is what its all about. So homeschooling here we come!
