It has been four weeks since my younger son attended the homeschool "not a co-op".
The program has caused me stress and anxiety. I have lost sleep over it.
The program has caused my son stress and anxiety.
The program has changed our family schedule because the requirement of about 40 hours of work for a seventh grader in six day's time is not do-able given the fact that I have a second kid to homeschool and that homeschooling academics is it the only activity in our children's lives. I had never homeschooled seven days a week before and I have discovered it is unhealthy for me and my son to do.
The stress between the two of us over the assigned work spilled over to negatively affect my older son.
There is also the fact that I disagree pedagogically with too much of the program's assigned work. I did not know this until we completed three month's work.
I disagree with their choice to use adult level readings or high school level readings for a seventh grader. Some may be alright but too much is just too much. My goal is learning and when it is too much of a stretch to teach many grades above his level work to him it just is not worth it to me.
There have been errors made by teachers and other staff which have caused my son to suffer from negative self-esteem and created low self-confidence. (However I just got a report from the Headmaster that my son's work is excellent and much high quality than they expect from a student in his grade level. All he did and we did together was what was being asked.)
I have been attending to the higher priority of attending to my kid's health and general welfare.
Thus we have taken a break for the last four weeks (one week was off due to Thanksgiving vacation). Instead we have done regular homeschooling under my direction as we used to, in between health and medical appointments.
My husband and have been thinking and praying about what to do. We have listened to what both of my sons have to say about the impact this program has had on all of our lives.
My husband and/or I have had three meetings with the powers that be to discuss the situation.
I am spending time dealing with the immediate concerns in our family on a micro level while allowing ourselves time to think and evaluate what is best for the long term, on the macro or big picture level.
A lot has gone on with our family since August, not all of it has been blogged and some may never be due to privacy concerns.
In the spirit of keeping it real I wanted to share this turn of events.
(Some of my readers may be glad to hear this as I have received comments about putting family harmony and desiring good relationships with children as a top priority.)
In summary I should tell you that life has been getting better and better on multiple fronts. We have experienced only one negative thing by not attending or doing that work: loss of money spent on unattended classes.
No final official decision has been made about the future plans.
I am listening to and following my heart and what I feel God wants. I am pushing aside peer pressure from people outside my family. And so far it feels fantastic!