Homeschooling...Approved

I finally got the call yesterday saying that we can begin homeschooling. I was so excited! I called the school and told them it would be the girls' last day and that I would be picking them both up when they got out. I sent out our letters of intent. Everything was going great!!! Then I remembered last Thursday, when the girls came down with MMATSA (Mommy's Mad At the School Again). It was a bad case and I decided to keep them home and start using their new curriculum. It was a mess. I didn't know what I was doing...they didn't know what I was doing.

Today, was a bit better. Not much. If my three-year-old wasn't used to having me to herself all day, every day, she probably wouldn't throw such big fits when I am working with one of the other girls. Hearing her scream, "You need to color with me" at the top of her mighty loud lungs makes things tough. Then when you send her to her room for not listening or behaving, she gets louder. "I done being loud mommy. I done wit my fit!!!" Mmm hmm, sure you are!

I was told a week or so ago that I was in for a fun ride. At the moment, I feel like I'm in an old Yugo, broken down on the side of the road. A road with no passer-bys. I know it will get better. We are, after all, just starting. I just hope that by summer I will have upgraded to a Pinto.

The Fight To Homeschool Almost Over!!!

Some of you may know that Chris and I have been fighting to get DHS approval to homeschool the girls since early December. Since they are technically still foster, it is up to them to decide until the adoption is final (just a couple months to go). I have a million reasons that I would like to homeschool, and at the top of that list is Shyann's diabetes. The school has done a deplorable job of taking care of her and I am so close to blowing my top that I can't hold out too much longer. That wouldn't be good, because I still have to have close contact with them and need all of us to be on the same team.

Last Thursday I looked in Shy's backpack for notes from the teacher and her blood-sugar readings for the day. What I found were several crumpled up candy wrappers from a Valentine bag the teacher had given her. I checked her blood-sugar and it was 477!!! That took the cake. Why would they give a 6-year-old diabetic candy and expect her to not cave in to temptation. She's SIX! I called the school this morning and told them that she would no longer be attending on days that parties were planned and that they needed to let me know when they were planned in advance.

Then I called our adoption worker. He told me that he had a meeting with the DHS branch manager on Thursday regarding the homeschooling. He told me to prepare our letter to ESD, that he saw no reason that they would turn us down. He had sent me a letter stating all of the stipulations for homeschooling foster kids and I sent back a pointed response to each issue clear back in December. I also created a letter addressing all of their concerns. He said that those, along with all of my research into it and contacting the homeschool group would go a long way and that he was positive that the answer would be yes.

This will be a major victory in our lives! I am so scared everytime I see 'Public School' show up on my caller ID. I worry that something terrible could happen to my daughter, not to mention all of the crap that is the government school. I really thought after her diagnosis that transferring her to this school was going to be a good thing (her last school didn't call me the day she was diagnosed with diabetes and she was in ketoacidosis, with only hours to go before she would have gone into a coma). I continue to pray that it is truely a go-ahead.

God Bless!