No questions here... just venting.
DD8 desperately desires to go to school, to be around other kids. This is the only reason we're not homeschooling through elementary school. The private options in our area do not provide adequate support for gifted, and so we cannot justified the price, leaving us with the public option. She has been yanked out twice and homeschooled, due to various issues. She has returned twice now, based on changed situations that were expected to make the fit better. This time around, the change was that we made the grade skip that the school refused to entertain via the homeschool route.
Here are the changes that made things look better for this attempt:
- She's enrolled as a 4th grader now. That should make her homeroom time better socially, and at least less awful academically.
- At the 4th grade, the number of hours in the G/T pull-out increase. She spends most of her day there now.
- There are more G/T kids at her grade level now. When she was in first grade, she was the only first grader in G/T. In second grade, there was only one other, and it was a boy. They didn't connect.
So, a few weeks in... how's it going?
Well...
Good:
- DD has a friend in G/T, who is also assigned to her same homeroom.
- Another kid in the neighborhood who had been besties with DD when she went to public school (Episode II) and mysteriously stopped playing with her when we pulled her out, has started playing with her again. She'll even be joining DD in Girl Scouts.
- So far, DD seems engaged, enjoys going to school, and even looks forward to homework.
Bad:
- DD's lunchtime is 20 minutes. This includes the military drill of lining up and being yelled at, before marching to the cafeteria, filing through the line, etc. It also includes the cleanup and marching out time. DD's lunch is mostly coming home uneaten. This inspires her to seek unhealthy snacks when she gets home.
This appears to be out of the principal's hands, because every elementary school in the district allots exactly 20 minutes to lunch for each grade separately.
- DD notes that none of the 4th grade kids want to play at recess. They walk around a chat. She also notes that 3rd and 4th graders share the playground at after-lunch recess, but they're segregated into different parts of the playground. The 4th graders get the grass. Some kid "got in big trouble" for violating those boundaries.
What the...?
In other news, this is providing a teachable moment for behavioral perfectionist DD, as we're explaining that sometimes rules are stupid, and cry out to be ignored.
- DD's G/T pull-out schedule has forced her to choose between her favorite subject (math) with her favorite teacher, or PE, library, and music. She chose math.
- DD's math schedule also overlaps with her homeroom's science and social studies time, two subjects she's expected to keep up with nevertheless. DD is never present for any class discussion on these subjects, and has to work the worksheets on her own, so it's not surprising she's struggling some (currently earning a C+/B- in social studies). DD says during reading time in homeroom one day, she opened her social studies book, and the teacher ordered her to put it away and open "a real book."
There are no words.
- On a nightly basis this week, we're noticing DD swinging wildly between uncontrollably silly to despondent, with no middle ground. This is an indicator of lack of sleep. It's turning bedtime into a battleground.
DW and I are taking action on the social studies/science issue. DD will bring home each textbook (one per day, so she doesn't hurt herself) and DW will see where we can get a copy. If we can't score one for a reasonable price, we're going to ask the school for a home copy, citing DD's lack of class time on the subjects.
