It’s 10:53 and I want to be off this computer by 11:00. I’m way behind on my TV watching and it just isn’t good when I get too far behind on Dancing With The Stars… Hubby spoils the surprise everytime! (he hears stuff on the news, apparently?) And I’ve got 3 episodes of Chuck waiting on the bedroom tivo. It’s just pitiful when I don’t even have time to zone out to my favorite shows!
Gosh, how shallow am I? The whole entire VN blog world is talking about serious topics and I’m babbling about television? I oughta be ashamed, I know. But can I just say… I am SO PROUD of you guys!!! Seriously, I am just amazed at how many people are speaking out about ethics and holding agencies accountable and … well, frankly, you all don’t need me right now and that makes me very happy. I’ve been wanting to post for days but NaNo is killing me and the in-laws arrive tomorrow and I stayed up until almost midnight the other night ordering all of K~’s homeschooling books… and now I don’t have to do the post that was running through my head because Nicki just said everything I was thinking! So, just go read that and while you’re at it click on every single link she’s got on there too… it’ll take you a while to get through them all, but it will be well worth your time!
Ack, 10:59. Who am I kidding? I can’t write an entire post in 7 minutes!
Okay, about the homeschooling thing… I can’t exactly explain why we decided to pull K~ now. Well, our state law says kids can only be pulled out for homeschooling before the beginning of the year or within 2 weeks of a new quarter. So we did have something of a deadline. But there was nothing really horribly wrong, except for the fact that her school is so absolutely lame that my stomach clenched up every time I read a book about gifted education because all I could think was “K~ is getting the life sucked out of her at that school!” (and man was that one seriously long run on sentence!) Seriously though… I think someone has to be skimming some money out of our district’s budget or something because clearly the money is not being spent appropriately. They have 1 set of books per subject, per teacher. Which means the text books stay in the classroom and the kids have to read them together during class time and do all the assignments together in class. K~ was bored silly. The ironic part is they finally got around to testing/qualifying kids for their so-called “gifted” programs in Language Arts and Science and K~ qualified for both. But these aren’t special classes, these are just outside projects the kids do on their own and present at the end of the quarter to get the word “honors” on their report card. Well, if you know anything about the average gifted child’s personality, you realize that such a program is a big huge joke. The kids need to be in classes with other gifted kids and they need to be taught by a teacher who understands how they think and knows how to encourage, inspire and challenge them. And that is so not happening at our middle school. So now, I guess it’s on me. I don’t see this as the ideal solution because obviously we’re still lacking the “working with other gifted kids” part but at least we can choose curriculum that excites K~ and challenges her. I hope. I want to say a big thank you to the other homeschooling moms who commented with encouragement and especially to Elizabeth who suggested we take some time to rest and find our rhythm. Knowing myself as I do I’m sure I won’t be able to do that, but I really needed to hear that it would be okay if I did. I feel very much like I’m jumping into the deep end of a pool and I’m not sure if I remember how to swim… and someone just told me to remember I can float on my back for a while. Okay, weird analogy and I’m seriously just rambling now… so I should go. Besides it’s 11:13 which means I’m 13 minutes over my allotted blogging time for the night. Darn, definitely not going to get to watch my Dancing Stars again tonight.
I’m glad I could help. And, really, it WILL be okay!
K~ is going to thrive in her new “school!” I just know it. And it’s not like you made this decision lightly – you’ve known she deserved better from her teachers for awhile now. I am excited to hear how well it all works out for her.
I’m very eager to hear how K’s schooling is going!
And of course you’re always needed.
I can’t wait to read what you have to write…if/when you get the chance. Yikes, you have a lot on your plate girl!
Don’t worry! You are going to do a great job working with K! Just the fact that you’re worried about it proves you’re going to be fine!
How’s it going with the NaNo? I am woefully behind the quota.
I hope you’re still plugging away! I should take my own advice and get writing…
The british one original one is even better
I can’t plug their adoption system, but the “Strictly Come Dancing” (same two male judges, plus two more) is genious! The US one is on here too – go SPICE! Although I like Jennie too!
okay, you know I get serious thoughts running through my head to blog about, I welcome debate, but something holds me back….