Today, Elizabeth brought a note home from school saying that Mr. Cowart died this morning.  Ugh!  I felt terrible for thinking that he had flaked out by leaving the class in the middle of the year.  Elizabeth said that the school counselors had spent the afternoon in her class, talking with the kids about Mr. Cowart and helping them make cards for his family.  I thought that was a good way to help them deal, at least as a class.

When Elizabeth showed me the note, she said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”  Later, though, she cried and said, “Why do all these people I know have to die!”  As far as I know, the only other person she has known that died was her grandmother, and that was before she was old enough to remember.  Still, she has a lot of unresolved feelings about that, including the fact that she doesn’t remember her grandmother.

My mom said she was going to send me some things about helping a child deal with grief, but right now I’m kind of at a loss.  I guess the best way to handle it is to just let her talk about it when she wants to.

We have also really enjoyed his science and history curriculums that we picked out together.  Both of them are so hands-on.  He was so proud of the lapbook that he finished on Thursday for astronomy.  It was an accumulation of everything he learned about the sun, the moon, the earth, Mercury, and Venus– the first half of his book.  It was like a massive nine weeks’ test, but with a creative and kinetic element.  We both loved it!

I was hesitant about continuing with homeschooling this year, but I am so glad that we did.  We would have missed out on a lot if we had decided not to do it.  My only regret is that Elizabeth is not joining us, but I know the one-on-one time will be good for our relationship, especially as he gets into the preteen years.  Hopefully, Elizabeth and I will get the chance to do something similar for a year or two.  I think she would flourish under the one-on-one instruction (without competition from Caleb).

To bring you up to speed, she had to change teachers after the first week of school because her teacher was moved to third grade.  The explanation offered by the school was that there were not enough second graders registered to warrant the number of second grade classrooms at her school.

Teacher number two turned out to be kind of flaky.  He was in his second year of teaching, and Elizabeth was unhappy with the number of rules he had and how difficult it was to follow the rules.  In fact, she spent so much time trying to follow the rules that we worried about whether or not she was really trying to keep up with her schoolwork as well.

My mom visited Elizabeth’s classroom to read while she was here for the Hurricane Gustav evacuation.  She is usually not critical of people, but she told me when she came home, “There’s something wrong with him.”  She thought at first he might have some kind of disability, but later she thought maybe he was just very socially awkward.

That day turned out to be his last day in Elizabeth’s class.

For the past two weeks, she has had a subsitute teacher– actually, several different substitute teachers.  She cried Monday and Tuesday of this week because she didn’t know who her teacher would be.  I called the school on Wednesday and spoke with the assistant principal who is over her grade.  I was told that Elizabeth’s teacher had taken a leave of absence, and they didn’t know when or if he would be back.  In the meantime, the school had hired a permanent substitute who began teaching on Wednesday.

This makes Elizabeth’s third teacher of the school year– a school year that began six weeks ago!  She’s seriously regretting the decision to quit homeschooling and go to public school, and so am I!

She had a great first week at school, but unfortunately, we received a call last Friday from the assistant principal saying that the school did not have enough second graders, so Elizabeth’s teacher was going to be moved to third grade. This meant that Elizabeth would be moved to a different teacher after the first week of school.

Elizabeth’s first teacher had been a 25 year veteran, who had spent 12 years teaching second grade at that school. I was shocked that they moved her. Elizabeth’s new teacher is a man who has been teaching for 2 years. Big difference!

She had a rough first few days, but she seems to be doing better. She told me the second day that there were a lot of new rules, and she was having trouble keeping up with them all. By yesterday, though, she told me she was able to relax a little and have fun. So, things are looking up!

Caleb is having a great start to his year. He is tackling a lot of difficult subjects this year–particularly Latin, which he wanted to take–and I am pushing him in math and language arts. He’s not happy with me this week, because I am making him read Alice in Wonderland, and he is struggling through it. Once he finishes this book, I think his attitude will improve!

Caleb is also taking some new classes in Germantown this year. Their homeschool group has weekly classes, so he is taking Creative Writing, geography, and karate. I’m involved in a Bible study during his classes. He loves the classes, and I love the weekly interaction with other adults.

I feel bad that Ellie’s school year is not going as well as Caleb’s. I could be made to feel guilty about it, I guess, but I also think it was her decision to go back to public school. She is adjusting, and I think she will be fine by Labor Day.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, cried at least two or three times a week about how much she hated homeschooling. If she had decided to enjoy it, I think we could have had a good time, but she was determined to hate it for the entire semester. Her main beef (besides having me for a teacher) was that it was so hard for her to make new friends here when she didn’t go to school with them. She was also closed and withdrawn whenever we went on an outing with other homeschooling kids, so I think she was determined not to make any friends there.

She and I visited the public school she will attend, and we both felt good about it. The school is K-5, which will be different for her (she is used to PreK-1 only), but the principals were nice, and we liked the facilities. She will also attend school with other kids in our neighborhood, which I think will help her sense of “belonging.” She has continuted to call Perritt (in Arkadelphia) “her school,” which hasn’t really helped the transition process for her.

Caleb is thrilled that he will be homeschooling again, and the fact that it will be WITHOUT his sister is just gravy. He loves all of the zoo classes and Pink Palace Science Museum classes that we do throughout the year, and he’s already made a few good friends who homeschool in our area. He wants to sign up for a bowling league and a swim team with other homeschoolers as well.

I’ve taken some flack from both sides of the aisle for straddling the fence on this issue. Some other homeschooling moms (and my parents) think I’m not committed enough to homeschooling. Others, including a public school teacher in my Sunday school class, think I’m doing them a disservice by homeschooling at all. I think the decision that we’ve made will probably irritate people on both sides of this issue, but after much prayer I’ve decided it doesn’t matter as long as my kids are happy.