Remember when I had you guys ask me questions, and then I promptly ignored the questions and went on with my life. Well, I'm answering some of them.
Roberta asked about my health. Yes I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. And I'm very, very lucky. I had a rough time in the beginning but since then I have had one Lupus flare. One. And I literally could not get out of bed and couldn't move. And it has been almost 3 years. (Knock on wood.) I'm on plaquenil which keeps my immune system up and running. My biggest complaint is that when I get sick I get really, really sick. I can't seem to to shake thing when I get them. Like I had pink eye for 2 weeks and the stomach flu for four days. But otherwise, I'm doing ok.
Leticia wanted to know about Michael's pillow pets and how he is doing in school and if we regret our choice. We have 8 pillow pets. They all, except for my unicorn and Doug's bee, sleep on Michael's bed in a "pillow pet fort." NO MORE PILLOW PETS.
As for school, I actually have never looked back. Which is odd. I'm not normally like that. I feel like we made the decision with all the information we had at the time and either way we were right. There are many reasons I'm glad we chose public school at kindergarten. Socially, we definitely made the right call. He has made many friends in the neighborhood, one of which he is playing with as I write this. He is going to be in school with these kids, forever. I'm glad he is making friends and he feels comfortable.
Academically, I really like his teacher, but sometimes I feel as if she is overwhelmed by the 22 kids in her class, and a lot of them have very strong personalities. The school has responded quickly and effectively when I have had concerns about Michael, or when something has come up. Is it perfect, no? Will anything be perfect? Probably not.
Kindergarten is tough, especially in this county, especially in this cluster. There are times I feel like Michael is lagging behind the other students, and partly because the expectations feel a bit ridiculous. Writing 2 sentence in January? Reading at a level 6 in June? The amount of homework this child gets is insane.
If I had all the money in the world we would be looking at private school. But I don't. So we are where we are and most of time I feel ok about it. And we will see what happens as the years go on.
More answers to your questions to come. Thanks for playing.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
When we stay in a hotel, I pile all the pillows up and sleep on them. My fiancé calls it my fort. A pillow pet fort sounds kindof awesome.
Writing 2 sentences by January? In Kindergarten?
Damn. Comparing that to my daughters’ K curriculum… it’s like they’re trying to set up Michael to be a rocket scientist, and kids in my town to be the ones who pump the gas into the rocket.
I bet any private school in this area would also have the same academic expectations though…
So… writing 2 sentences in January. Zoe’s TOTALLY accomplished that… as long as they just mean she can rewrite the same 2 sentences over and over and over again.
: )
You Kindergarten sounds overwhelming. Zoe doesn’t even have homework. At all. I think my worry is on the other end of the spectrum. Zoe will be pumping gas with TwoBusy’s kids.
I think you still have to be pretty smart even to pump rocket gas…
Private school is not all it is cracked up to be. I wished my parents had left me in public.
School is tricky. It can’t be a perfect fit for 100% of kids. No matter WHAT they do. Kids are always at vastly different levels academically and socially. The hardest part about public school for me when my kids attended was to not compare their “Grades” to anyone else or their abilities to anyone else. I have since learned that the government really has no clue about what MY 8 year old should be able to do or how MY 5 year old should be behaving, socially. They aren’t made from a cookie cutter and neither is your son. Be his champion, and he’ll be fine!