Changes...Again

I started this homeschooling venture because I felt Mikaela would be underserved by the public school system.  She was reading second grade chapter books easily before she was even scheduled to begin kindergarten.  In math, she was learning to add and subtract multiple digits with regrouping.  It just didn't seem right to send off to school to "learn" her letters and numbers.  The school told me "the best you can hope for" is that the teacher will monitor her for the first month and decide what to do from there.  That didn't give me a lot of hope, so I kept her home with me.

Despite the fact that I had accelerated her a year, it didn't take long for her to start complaining about school.  It was boring.  She already knew the work.  Did she have to do this?  Thinking I was doing the right thing, I forced her to continue with the work I had planned...because it is taught at a higher level as last year.  It wasn't until the end of second grade that an adaptive assessment test allowed me to see the problem.  She was YEARS ahead of the curriculum I was forcing her to complete.  No wonder she hated school.

Knowing that her complaints were valid, I scrapped all of my plans and started over with new curriculum the following year.  It helped some.  The complaining decreased but the joy of learning did not return.

Meanwhile, I thought I was doing well with Samuel because I had learned from my previous mistakes.  I allowed him to zoom through his math as fast as he wanted.  With some of the material that I was sure he already knew, I allowed him to prove mastery before starting the lesson.  He started our new "gifted" language arts curriculum a year earlier than planned.  He was the model student; he loved school.

But then he started getting angry and depressed.  His smile went away.  He treated his brother poorly.  He had all of these "issues" that we just couldn't figure out.  We thought it might be Asperger's and headed off to the doctor.  Our pediatrician didn't feel he had Asperger's but was willing to refer to testing if I could provide the name of a doctor I wanted him to see (because I wouldn't take him to the local specialist).  Our pediatrician that the problem was more anxiety and depression and prescribed Zoloft.

Samuel is doing much better with the Zoloft.  He's nice to his little brother.  He's not as sullen, quiet, and sad.  He smiles.  He is just so much happier.  Now, it's my job to find out why and how to help him be happy without the medication.

The math salon held a big piece of the puzzle.  I have never seem him so social and so happy.  Another mom had a similar thing happen with her son; he, too, was depressed.  She provided me with some things to think about.  Others gave me some suggested reading.  I've held a math salon of my own; it was a great success, and Sam is looking forward to both the Seattle one and our own future ones.

So, I'm revamping our schooling.  Compacting it.  Differentiating it.  Making it more meaningful, more challenging, more flexible, more independent.  The kids are liking the changes so far.  I'm crossing my fingers that it works. 

So far, I've changed our spelling, vocabulary, grammar, math, history, and science.  They like the new way of doing things.  My opinion: it's too early to say if it will work.  I'm still figuring out what I want to do with writing.  They want it changed, but I really want to work with the curriculum.  I need the structure it provides.  My plan for the next few days/weeks is to share what we are doing with each of these subjects in the event someone out there is struggling with the same issues.  Perhaps the way we are changing things around will be of use to others.