After much thought, discussion, and prayer, Thomas and I have decided that we are going to home school Eler Beth beginning next year.
We had no problems with the middle school that she would be attending. Andrew did fine there. But Eler Beth is different, and this year has been a challenge.
For the first time this year she has really had no respect for her teacher. I wrote about an episode in a previous entry (and to update everyone on that, I did contact the board of education and have left it in their hands), and I didn't say anything about how I feel about this teacher personally in that entry, but I really have little respect for her as well. That is a very hard thing for me to say, because I have a lot of respect for teachers in general and for the teaching profession. But I have caught this teacher out in one lie and suspect her of others. And I don't like the way she talks to Eler Beth, so there! (Okay, we're dealing with my daughter here, so I can't help but get just a little bit personal.)
But, anyway, all that aside, Eler Beth is still having panic attacks, just not as often, and she still has stress-induced headaches. She has a few very close friends at school, (although her very best friends don't go to her school) but this is one of the years that girls can really start getting "catty", and she has had to deal with that. Eler Beth is a very independent thinker and she has never just gone along with the crowd. She isn't shallow in her thinking or in her personality; she isn't into the fashion magazines and tabloid gossip and idol-worship of celebrities, like so many of the girls in her class, and this has resulted in some mean talk, hurt feelings and depression. She takes it all so very personally. And though Thomas and I have, with patience and understanding, tried very hard to help her to develop the tools she needs to deal with these situations, we've made very little progress.
Yes, we're going to all of us have to deal with this type of thing all of our lives. I never quite fit into any mold that was designed for me either. Neither did Thomas, and neither does Andrew. We three seem to have the resources to deal with it and move on, but for some reason Eler Beth doesn't have those resources yet. I'm sure she'll develop them in time, but in the meantime, her joy in learning and in school is suffering, and I know that it will only get worse in the sixth grade. She is such a confusing combination of sensitivity and spunk, this girl!
I am capable of homeschooling her. I've tutored before, and even tutored students who are being home schooled. Chances are she will go on to the local high school. She definitely wants to go to Prosser Tech. when the time comes.
It was not an easy decision to make. I know plenty of people who have home schooled for at least a few years, and I know a couple of families who have home schooled their children from K-12. These kids are smart, talented and many have gone on to be professionals. I've also known some parents who have home schooled for what I believed to be the wrong reasons, and who, in my opinion, weren't doing their children any favors by schooling them at home. (My own opinion kept to myself, of course!) But I know, without trying to be arrogant or anything, that I am qualified to oversee her home schooling, especially with the resouces that will be at hand.
The important thing here is that she really, really wants it. And we have no problem with paying a little extra so that she can have private lessons in music or art if she is interested in either. I am confidant that she will be deprived of nothing.
