StacyinTN wrote:
Sis wrote:
Hi Tami. I may be the least qualified person here to chime in on this discussion but I won't let that get in my way.
How old is she? If she is jr hi age I think it may be difficult for awhile. (Hormones and all that make life kinda crazy.)
I'm a little confused about activities vs support? What kind of support is lacking? And you said she's involved in activities but "these things are really not available" in your area. ??
The fact that she has "met the challenge" speaks volumes! Can she do the speech therapy for the summer? However, "no time for tutors", if they are in fact needed, means less time for activities. It's just a fact of life. Work before play, ya know.
I think it boils down to the goals for her. Is it to keep busy with activities and involved with friends? Is it academics - perhaps college bound? Is it to be self-sufficient? Is it to learn a trade, get a job? Are these her goals for herself or your goals for her?
Perhaps assessing the goals and setting down the steps needed to get there would be helpful.
Great post.
You raise some valid points, thank you! She is 12.
She will be doing speech therapy in the summer for sure.
We do not get off the carpool line until after 4:00. It's a nightmare, so there isn't much time for other things. As far as activities, she NEEDS to be physically active so cutting out things like gymnastics, dance and horse riding lessons are not an option. So I would say that is a goal we both feel that needs to be maintained.
She has also started equine therapy which I am hoping will help with her anxiety.
When I talked about lack of support, I meant within the homschooling community in my area. For example, when we moved here, we met a very nice family with one girl and two boys. My daughter hit it off with the girl and they became great friends. The issue is we never really got to see them often because we were going in different directions all the time. They live about 30 minutes away and they were off doing things the boys needed to do as well. So although my daughter was friends with the girl, there wasn't enough opportunity to spend together. Since my son went to school, I had more time to devote to taking my daughter places, but that only worked when there were places to take her.
I was also referring to the activities she gets to do in school (dances, etc.) that she didn't get to do while being homeschooled. Those aren't available in our area....or I should say there are some, but she would have to go alone because she wasn't making friends to go with.
There are some co-ops in the area, but again, my daughter would struggle to keep up with the work and that leads back to our original problem with me teaching her.
As far as goals, my goals are for her to be self-sufficient and have the option to go to college, if she wants. She was not getting what she needed at home as far as academics, and sometimes I thought that was OK.
As far as goals for herself, she has only expressed interest in doing one thing and that would require a college degree. I am hoping that has she gets older and matures, she will learn how to compensate for her struggles if this is truly something she wants to do.
You are right, the fact that she has met the school challenge does speak volumes. She never went to school full-time and now she is changing classes and doing everything she is supposed to be doing. She is very well-behaved in school. She does want to do well and does the best she can. Still, she is failing tests and the school has a lot of kids. The teachers cannot afford to give her individual support all the time. She gets math tutoring at the school once a week which has helped.
She is not aggressive so there have been times when there were not enough textbooks in class (the other kids took them first) and she couldn't do her work. Sometimes the computers freeze or there aren't enough. Or some kid is using the computer to put in names of other students to "find their perfect match." It's things like this that make me feel negatively towards the school environment.
I just have a nagging feeling that won't go away that there has to be a better option.