Well, after about 2 years of on and off discussions about whether or not we should homeschool our son, Caleb, we have bit the bullet and decided to do it. A bit of history - Caleb has always been slower on the developmental side. (Aside from the fact that he smiled at me quite early! Nay-sayers can tell me it was probably just gas, but it wasn't. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)
Anyway -he was later to walk than the girls, when he began talking it was with a stutter (cute at first, but not so much when you worry about starting kindergarten and having kids make fun of your kiddo), he has struggled with dyslexic challenges from his very beginning preschool reading attempts. His pre-k teacher told me to keep an eye on it, which I did. His kindergarten teacher said the same thing. So, when Caleb entered 1st grade, I asked his teacher to have him tested for dyslexia. She assured me he was too young to test and that the state of Texas required testing to wait until 2nd semester of the 1st grade year. I said that would be fine -I'm a rule follower, so waiting wasn't a big deal. So, 2nd semester came around and I pushed again for testing. The teacher wouldn't agree to it because she said there weren't enough signs or symptions and she didn't think it was necessary. Deep down, I disagreed with her, but was hopeful that Caleb was growing out of this and maybe he really did not have dyslexia.
Over the summer, Caleb attended a summer camp and one of the things he did was design a postcard. As he wrote on this postcard, he did the entire postcard backwards. The stamp was on the left, return address on the right AND backwards. I could hold that postcard in the mirror and read it perfectly. I held on to that little gem and took it to his second grade teacher and showed it to her at the initial, 1st six weeks parent/teacher conference. I believe I reminded her that Caleb was the oldest in his class because he has a September birthday, let her know I'd been trying to get this testing done for a year, and that last year's teacher hadn't seen enough consistency with challenges in Caleb's reading/writing to warrant the testing. I assured her we had a problem and I wanted him to get help.
Even after all of that, testing for Caleb didn't happen until the final six weeks of his 2nd grade year. It is a long, frustrating story and I'll spare you the details, but the bottom line is, Caleb didn't get help until his 3rd grade year of school. I don't know if earlier diagnosis would have helped or not. I can't dwell on that now because it doesn't matter. It is what it is.
This year, Caleb is in 6th grade, and rapidly falling behind. He is getting pushed through a system that isn't working for his learning style. He was getting the lessons in class then being sent to a content mastery room where he was getting help with his classwork. He'd make A's and B's on classwork -because he was getting help. Caleb was failing almost every test he'd take in every subject. His teachers would send the test home, allow him to correct it, and then give him a 75 on it. So, his test grade average was a C or better. His report cards looked good, but he wasn't learning and I knew deep down that this was about to be a train wreck if we didn't intervene.
So, here I am trying to figure out a way to teach my son in the way God designed him to learn, figure out how to help him cope with the dyslexia, and get him caught up and on grade level (he's about 2 years behind -hmmmmm, the amount of time he missed getting intervention in the public school) all while working for Batteries Plus from home.
It's been an interesting first week. Caleb has had a couple of meltdowns, but he's moved on. He's working hard and I'm very proud of him. This afternoon he and another homeschool friend are going to make a volcano. He is totally stoked about that!
I am praying God gives me wisdom in how to teach my son. My daughters are doing well in public school (other than Rachel's jealousy about Caleb being home and finishing his work before her) so they remain there unless I'm shown they need to do something else.
I'm glad it's Friday -time to make sure next week's lessons are in order!
