Just because Dallin is no longer homeschooling doesn't mean that he is going to be left out of this blog.
Dallin started school at the local middle school at the beginning of the month. I am very grateful that I was the one to receive inspiration to make this change, and that I received that inspiration very early in the last school year, so I had almost an entire year to accept that this would be happening and prepare myself emotionally for it. I have had almost complete peace about it for some time now.
My only real concern was how he would do academically. As homeschoolers, sometimes we feel on trial for our choice, especially if a child is not "at grade level" (whatever that means). Being Dallin's teacher for the past five years, I was intimately aware of every academic weakness he had, and I had visions of his future English and math teachers wondering what on earth this kid had ever been taught.
Not to worry!
The academic transition has gone more smoothly than I ever would have thought possible, even considering the fact that Waldorf grades are done differently. We sent Dallin back as a public school eighth-grader, since it aligned with his grade when he was pulled from school, even though in the Waldorf system he would have been a seventh grader. I did make him work on math throughout the summer to bridge any gaps between the things we had covered and what he would need to know. How nice that the very topics he has been learning this first month of school are exactly the topics he and I covered this summer!
I had the chance to meet his teachers at Parent Night, and it was immensely gratifying to have his English teacher tell me that he had been "well-prepared". Almost every little thing I fretted over in his writing at home has miraculously disappeared now that he is writing for someone besides me. The teacher sent home a request that parents NOT edit assignments for their kids, and other than a few choice reminders to "see if you need to include any quotation marks in this piece" and things like that, I have stayed out of it. And he is writing just fine. He is managing to spell things mostly correctly (who knew?) and to use mostly proper punctuation.
His favorite class is--wait for it!--math. He is managing to pull A's and B's in all his classes. I must say that my days are far less stressful. Sariah's lessons are stretching out to fill almost the entire day, and I have a hard time imagining how I ever managed to teach two main lessons each day, plus other academic drill, caring for Preston, and basic household activities.
Dallin started school at the local middle school at the beginning of the month. I am very grateful that I was the one to receive inspiration to make this change, and that I received that inspiration very early in the last school year, so I had almost an entire year to accept that this would be happening and prepare myself emotionally for it. I have had almost complete peace about it for some time now.
My only real concern was how he would do academically. As homeschoolers, sometimes we feel on trial for our choice, especially if a child is not "at grade level" (whatever that means). Being Dallin's teacher for the past five years, I was intimately aware of every academic weakness he had, and I had visions of his future English and math teachers wondering what on earth this kid had ever been taught.
Not to worry!
The academic transition has gone more smoothly than I ever would have thought possible, even considering the fact that Waldorf grades are done differently. We sent Dallin back as a public school eighth-grader, since it aligned with his grade when he was pulled from school, even though in the Waldorf system he would have been a seventh grader. I did make him work on math throughout the summer to bridge any gaps between the things we had covered and what he would need to know. How nice that the very topics he has been learning this first month of school are exactly the topics he and I covered this summer!
I had the chance to meet his teachers at Parent Night, and it was immensely gratifying to have his English teacher tell me that he had been "well-prepared". Almost every little thing I fretted over in his writing at home has miraculously disappeared now that he is writing for someone besides me. The teacher sent home a request that parents NOT edit assignments for their kids, and other than a few choice reminders to "see if you need to include any quotation marks in this piece" and things like that, I have stayed out of it. And he is writing just fine. He is managing to spell things mostly correctly (who knew?) and to use mostly proper punctuation.
His favorite class is--wait for it!--math. He is managing to pull A's and B's in all his classes. I must say that my days are far less stressful. Sariah's lessons are stretching out to fill almost the entire day, and I have a hard time imagining how I ever managed to teach two main lessons each day, plus other academic drill, caring for Preston, and basic household activities.
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