(Now we're going to backtrack some...)
I didn't handle the classroom atmosphere so well as a kid, but our homelife prevented us from being able to utilize homeschooling. I did so much better with hands-on lessons and broken down analogical examples and stories. I learned things easier from experience, not from sitting behind a desk listening to someone talk. I'm serious when I say that my brain just literally refused to accept verbal and written teachings. My logic told me that because of this, my children could possibly, and likely, be the same way. So far, it's proving to be true with Chuug as well.
Back home, at Habibi's family's insistence, I enrolled him in a public school for Pre-Kinder. I remember the day we were scheduled to go in for his assessment test- I was not allowed to be with him, but I could hear the teacher asking him questions ("What shape is this?" and "If I have this many, but I take this many, how many are left?") and he answered loud and clear, with hardly any hesitation. I felt so proud of him. Then the teacher left him with the TA and came to sit with me with a folder of papers. When she sat down, she told me his speech and comprehension skills were wonderful for his age, told me he was very funny and had a great personality, and then she asked me "Did he go to a starter school or a daycare before now?" I told her no, he'd been home with me since the day he was born. Her response? "Really? Wow."
At first I was proud- someone was surprised that my child learned so much from his parents. But after several minutes of stewing on it, I felt a little insulted. Why wouldn't he learn so much from us? Right then, in that moment, I knew homeschooling would totally work with our kiddo. I'd brought it up many times before that day and Habibi, being a born and raised mainstreamer, swung back and forth between my belief and others' opinions. In the end he sided with everyone else and felt that it'd be better for him socially.
After two months in the school, the only issues he seemed to be having were attention. ADD and ADHD were brought up constantly by everyone. FYI, I hate, hate, hate "ADD" and "ADHD". I don't know why, but it just leaves an awful taste in my mouth and a horrible ringing in my ears. Children are children. They are a mirror of their surroundings, their examples, their lifestyles. It can be a bad thing, but it can also be a totally normal, good thing. To me, it just sounded like people were pissing and moaning about a four year old being hyper. If you're like me, that last sentence probably made you say "DUH!" (Just my opinion!) ANYWAY... In the third month was when we pulled the kiddo out, packed up and headed to Bliss.
So here we are. For the last couple of months I have been researching schools in the El Paso area, trying to figure out which would be the best to put the kiddo in. When we first got out here, after speaking with so many Bliss wives who had awful things to say about the schools, we thought maybe we could swing paying for a private school. New Orleans is a pretty expensive city, and back home my Momma pays about $3,600 per year for my brothers' private school. So I figured El Paso, having a lower cost of living, would either be the same or cheaper. BOY was I wrong. $5,600 per year, plus $900 per semester for transportation services for PRE-K and KINDERGARTEN? SERIOUSLY? So much for that... I went back to the drawing board and searched through the public schools again. The ones I called around our area, unfortunately, told me their Pre-K programs had been cut, their transportation had been cut or they had no transportation to begin with. I was completely taken aback.
When Habibi got home, I showed him what I found and told him it really didn't look like we had many good choices... and that really the best choice for us seemed to be homeschooling. Personally, I wasn't worried one bit. Pre-Kinder and Kindergarten, to me, are both simply teaching children basic life skills. It's not that hard! So we drove to the PX, where I'd been told there was an aisle of homeschooling books and supplies, and bought a bunch of workbooks and flash cards. I found some really cool workbooks the kids write in with wet/dry erase markers, so you can wipe it clean and use it again! I also had a dry-erase board for him to practice his writing on.
When we got to the checkout, the cashier smiled at us and said "Who will be teaching him?" Habibi pointed to me and she nodded and said "Very good!" This, of course, made him (hubby) feel better about the decision as well, to see the approval and acceptance from others. The approval has since grown... it's extremely common to find yourself mashed between two homeschooling families in the checkout aisle at the grocery store. I've also learned there are so many groups located all over the city dedicated to socializing homeschooled children- getting group rates for places to have field trips and for ballet and karate... Amazing.
So that's where we're at with the schooling! Chuug stays home with me during the day and we practice writing, letters, numbers, simple math, telling time and sounding out letters and simple words. He's already got writing his first name down... and was so proud of himself he decided to write it all over his bedroom walls and furniture! I wasn't sure whether to be mad or proud. I went with proud, but told him if he wrote it on paper it would be WAY better. =) He's also learning/learned how to sort laundry, how to cook simple meals and he loves washing dishes. (Ladies, start lining up your daughters now! Haha!)
It's amazing to see him comprehend so much, my heart just swells. I'd love to homeschool him for Kindergarten as well, but I'm still looking through public schools. Some days he tells me no, he wants to stay home with me. But there are other days where he says he misses school (the whole two months he was there). I don't want to give up just yet, because I want him to experience both worlds. So in the next year or so, we'll see where this goes.
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