New year, New school

2014 is going to be an adventure for the Miller family.

My youngest is 9 years old and is in 3rd grade.  Since the age of 3 we've known she was a little different.  She learned to read on her own when she was 3 and she's been excelling ever since.  For the last 3 years, she would say that she was bored in school but that it was okay because her teachers made it fun.  That changed this year.  Third grade is when school becomes more serious, they start getting grades in all classes, instead of just Language Arts & Math.  Now school was just boring, no longer fun.

I contacted the school soon after school started because I was concerned about how bored she was.  She said she was reading almost all day every day.  It took a month to get the administration to actually respond to my requests for a meeting and after several meetings, tears, and lots of promises that turned out to be lies, I was still frustrated.  She wound up with a new teacher, who was better than what she had but after 2 weeks with her new teacher she was still frustrated & bored.

So starting next week, we begin virtual school.  It's been really interesting to see how people react to it.  The biggest questions we've gotten are "what about the social aspect of school?" and "how will that work?"

Both valid questions but after you get asked the same question 900 million times, it gets a little old.  Socially, she's in competitive dance and she's at the studio at least 4 days a week and she's in Girl Scouts and goes to church.  I'm not worried about her social life.  We've worked out how it will work for now.  As she gets older, she can spend time at home alone but we aren't quite there yet so for now she'll spend time with friends of mine in the mornings while Dad is in class.

I really hope this is the answer she's looking for.  It's a little scary to a mom to think of her kid trying to get through school faster because it means she will be leaving us that much sooner but I have tried very hard to let my kids find their own path in life, to let them make their own choices.

Wish us luck!!

Mommy, will you homeschool me?

I never would have thought that one of my kids would have asked me that.  All my kids really seemed to love school up until this year.  My youngest is in 3rd grade this year and is, well, smart.  She tests above the 99th percentile for Math & Reading on the tests they gave her at the beginning of the year.  A couple of weeks into school she looked at me and said "Mama, I'm so bored at school." I looked at her and said "Why honey?" and she said "because I know all this stuff already and I'm tired of them talking about the same stuff over and over again."

Wow.  This kid is my Mom.  My Mom is extremely intelligent.  I always felt dumb growing up because I never understood what my parents were talking about.  Turns out I'm not dumb (thankfully) but my parents were just wicked smart.  They taught Physics & Economics at the college level so it's really not a surprise that I was totally clueless at the dinner table.  Thank heavens for spaghetti and the china cabinet.  Anyway, my youngest is just gifted.  She taught herself to read at 3 and not by memorizing words.  She was reading wonderful, beautiful, generous and mischievous at 3.  It was like a light bulb turned on in her head and she never looked back.

The first 3 years of school she always said she knew the material but it was okay because it was still fun.  Apparently the fun factor has dried up.  She's tired of knowing everything.  I asked her yesterday how many times she has to read something to remember it and she said "usually once, at most twice."  I asked her if she understood that this was not how most people learn and she said "yeah, but is it a bad thing that I learn that way?"  OMG, parent failure.  "No sweetie, you're just special is all."  That's when she looked at me and said "Mommy, will you homeschool me?  I want to learn at a faster pace than what my teachers can do."

OK, well, I work full time and so does my husband so homeschooling is a challenge.  I'm trying to get her to explore virtual public school or possibly skipping a grade.  Homeschooling is a BIG task.  I would have to start cutting back on my responsibilities in other areas of my life for certain.  I don't know if I'm up to the task and I honestly have no idea where to start.

This kid blows me away.