Back to hs'ing -

Thank god.

It was a nightmare, people.

My son hated it. HATED IT. Everything about it. The kids, the teachers, the environment, the subjects, the methodology, the atmosphere, everything. The teasing. The constant harassment. (He's a ballet dancer - so OF COURSE he MUST BE GAY! Not.)

Don't get me wrong, he made a few friends and sorta liked some of his teachers - but overall - he found the whole school environment very tension-filled and oppressive.

He was on Honor Roll. He never studied - just did the mindless busy-work they called "homework" which was only time-consuming. He was exhausted. (He went from 9 hours of sleep to 7.) He had no time to READ! He was bored out of his freakin' mind.

The teachers and Admin ADORED him. His SS teacher cried when I told her he was withdrawing. He was a good kid. Polite, well-behaved, funny, smart, and nice to all the kids no one else was nice to (another reason he was teased because a lot of his "friends" were the "weirdos" in the school.)

They offered to skip him up to 9th grade (what I wanted in the Fall) but he's so burnt out on "school" he needs a break. Besides, starting highschool 1/2 way in is probably not the wisest choice.

Anyway - first day back to hs'ing. We're reviewing our options. He basically said the last four months were a complete waste of time in that he didn't learn much of anything of note.


PS -

Anybody got $600 I can borrow for more Teaching Company tapes? B-)

I've been homeschooling my eleven-year-old for 1-1/2 years now; I don't know if we could ever go back to the conventional classroom. My kid is polite, well-behaved, funny and smart. When she went to the two-day per week (in a fun charter school classroom), her teachers loved her. She wanted to go 'total homeschool,' however, and, so far, it's been a superb experience!

I remember when you originally posted about him going back; I didn't think that it would last. Something inside said he would come back to homeschooling.

Good luck and good fortune to you and yours! Take care!