thoughts on school

**This will be my first post EVER without a picture.  I hope you are not too bored.  My camera is tucked away in the back bedroom with a sleeping boy.  I dare not wake him!!

I've had really mixed feelings about public school. Some of our challenges have simply been because my kids were used to homeschooling. Neither Emma or Hannah had spent much time in a typical classroom. Much of what is difficult for them has to do with just being in an environment with children who learn/behave differently from them. Here is a list of pros and cons. I'll start with the positive.

Pros:
*The girls have had to learn to be responsible. Remembering homework, lunchboxes, water bottles, gloves, etc. They really have to have their act together!! I admit that I babied them in this area when they were home.

*They have had the opportunity to face some "real-life" issues and really live out their faith. I guess this could be a negative too, but I've thought of it more as something that they would not have otherwise been challenged by. I hate the thought of my kids growing up in a Christian bubble. "Be in the world, but not of it". There is quite a bit of debriefing that we do each afternoon. Mostly, I've been really proud of how they have kept a firm footing on the foundations that we've laid up to this point.

*It has been fun for them to make new friends and get to know the kids in our neighborhood. Their whole bus is taken up by kids that live in our development!

*It has widened their cultural scope and given them compassion and understanding for kids who have less or live differently. They have also been touched by the special needs children in school. Hannah calls them "unable". She means disabled. Both girls were moved to tears about the condition of these children and have had the opportunity to volunteer as helpers in this area.

*Both of the girls' teachers have been wonderful about keeping me in the loop.  They have been available to me via email, phone conversations and have always welcomed me in the classroom.  I appreciate their willingness to include me.

Cons:

*It is a REALLY long day. They leave for the bus at 7:40 and don't get home until 4pm. I don't ever plan anything for the evenings. No piano lessons, no swim team, no evening errands. They are maxed out when they get home. It was never that way with homeschool.

*The class size is huge and almost unmanageable. I don't knock the teachers. Who could control a bunch like that? Both girls have 27 students in their classrooms.

*I sort of feel like they may get overlooked. They don't have learning disabilities or behavior issues, so I'm not sure how much attention they really get individually. There is a lot of "heads together" learning. Hannah came home crying up a storm about not being prepared for a test that she was to have the next day. Come to find out, the kids on her team were doing all of the work and she never really learned the principle being taught.

*Obviously, in a class of 27 kids you cannot teach to each child's learning style. This is especially a problem for Hannah who learns almost entirely in a kinesthetic way. Visual print just doesn't work very well for her. Emma is an audio learner, and she often says, "mom I just can't hear myself think at school." She prefers to read aloud to herself and her comprehension suffers when she cannot (like during silent reading time :)

*I'm not impressed with the curriculum. Lots of worksheets, very little "living books". I have, to date, not heard of one history lesson in either class. There has been some struggle with a transferring of skill sets. Emma is no longer required to write in her beautiful cursive writing (they don't even teach it). Hannah spent a great deal of time memorizing math facts last year (+2, doubles plus 1, +9, etc)- this year she was being taught to use her fingers to add? Both girls have felt ahead in math and been somewhat bored.

*Things seem to be fairly rushed. There doesn't seem to be much emphasis on doing beautiful work. Hannah's penmanship is really horrible. She says that they go so fast that she has to write sloppy just to keep up (this may be just her laziness too- I'm still trying to figure this one out.)

*I hate the standardized testing.

*I hate the candy reward system that happens on the bus and in the classroom.

*They have a tough time with the whole discipline process, with waiting for behavior issues to be resolved during class time, and with suffering the consequences of someone else's actions. (ie the whole class losing 5 min of recess time because other students were off task) I guess this is part of real life, but I hate to see it jade their love of learning.

And lastly, and probably most sadly...I asked Hannah if she thought her teacher liked being a teacher. She answered no. Hannah said that she doesn't think that she can control that many kids without getting stressed. Pretty perceptive for a 7 year-old.

My original reasons for sending them had to do with what I was feeling able to accomplish with an on demand nurser. I was worried that they would suffer because I was biting off more than I could chew. As Ian grows and things settle into a more predictable pattern of nursing and napping...the thought of homeschooling doesn't feel quite so overwhelming. 

I'm not sure what we will do next year. Both girls have asked to come back home- Emma especially.  I just feel so frustrated that their doesn't seem to be a perfect solution. Homeschool is a lot of work and somewhat isolated. Private school is expensive. And public school, well, see above :)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.