We had to homeschool and there are days when I still feel really sad that my son doesn't have a childhood like I remember with lots of kids to play with at recess and also kids in the neighborhood to play with in the evening.
At home my son doesn't have to deal with bullies and he can learn the way he learns best, but I still feel like something is missing. He has once a week musical theater classes with other kids and he does cub scouts once a week, but that is all. So a few hours a week, he is with other kids. He says he is happy and he never wants to go back to school but he says he wouldn't mind going to just band or a one hour a week gifted class or just hang out on a playground with other kids at school, just so he could get to know some of them. He doesn't fit in with any of the kids in our homeschool group.
Yesterday, I finally sent letters to my state legislators asking them to consider requiring our public schools to provide a part time school option for children with special educational needs. Last year I sent emails to the state superintendent of public schools, several people with the education department and even the governor with no response other than some brief reply saying they were forwarding my message to the superintendent of public schools. I wasted all that time sending emails and the only person who bothered to call me and really talk to me was a woman with the gifted coordinator's office who told me that it wasn't fair that my son couldn't get an appropriate education in our public schools or play with other kids on the playground during school hours, but there was no law in Oklahoma requiring them to provide an appropriate education for twice exceptional children and that I should write letters to my legislators about it instead of sending emails. She wished me luck, but said there wasn't really anything else she could do. She said she thought I was doing the right thing by homeschooling my twice exceptional son and to remember that "he is worth it."
My husband and I struggle financially to provide the things our son needs. I see that my son's friends in public school get to take band and a one hour a week gifted class that I think my son should be able to take but can't because he is homeschooled and it just isn't fair, especially considering that even the superintendent or our school told me I needed to homeschool when I talked to him about my son's testing results. His comment to me at that time was "This is a good problem to have."
Even some of the homeschoolers are against part time school because they say the government will try to get involved in their lives if homeschoolers start attending the "government school" part time. Some of them see me as a trouble maker because I am trying to get help in educating my son, so I don't do much with our local homeschool group.
In our small town the school seems to be the center of the community and they all seem to value sports more than education. Our town has a nice football field and they recently added a skate park, but no library, because a lot of people here are not interested in reading. I feel like we are cut off from what is happening in the community and we don't fit in. My uncle is the town mayor and even he is more interested in sports than reading. He doesn't see any need for a library.
I would move if I could, but I can't.
