School Troubles

We were given a zoo membership that came with free tram, train, and carousel rides.  With the improved weather we made our first trip on Friday after school.  The kids loved the train and carousel.  Since they close at four we had limited time and saw only a handful of animals.  We made plans to be back soon. 










On Saturday we went to our garden plot.  The base here has a few garden plots for rent.  I called twice on the phone and was denied a plot because they were too full but a neighbor had put my name down and somehow one became available.  It was an incredibly windy day.  The kids mostly played at the nearby soccer field while Buddy made rows and I planted.  The ground was already tilled.  I don't remember the dimensions of the plot but it was a generous size.  We haven't planted it all yet.



The week was busy with meetings at the school.  I had a meeting with the principal and the upcoming principal on Tuesday.  On Friday we had a meeting with the four second grade teachers, the principal, and the upcoming principal.  It was an hour long meeting.  Bohdin's teacher made outrageous claims about Bohdin including the fact that he couldn't write a complete sentence when he entered school.  We ignored pretty much everything she said because our focus (Buddy was there as well) was to improve his current situation instead of fighting about where he was when he started.  After an hour the only thing they would agree to was to let him do extra work if he finished his work early.  They were very confident in their curriculum and thought it would benefit him to sit through it no matter how bored he was.  The principal was concerned he might have a hole in his education somewhere and thought it best that he sit through 99 lessons he does know just in case there might be one thing he doesn't.  I understand their position.  They have to teach to the test.  It's how they get their funding and accolades.  It's extremely important for a school that he know absolutely every item on the test.  There are no extra points for students who know history, science, or geography.  The test doesn't show if a student can work above grade level.  It's not really their fault.  It's the system.  They have to play the game and get the lowest performers as high as possible.  If I don't like it I can homeschool. 

I did consider pulling him out immediately but Buddy thought he should stay until the end of the year.  Bohdin wants to do the science fair next month and he can only do that as a student so he will stay in school. We did discover that his thinking ability has decreased so we'll have to do work at home again to keep him from backsliding too much.  I like the school okay for Nyla.  She is having fun and learning.  When I was looking back at some of Bohdin's writing I noticed that Nyla can't compose her thoughts as well as she used to either.  Back in September I wrote down what she said about Disney World.  It's a lot better than what I wrote a few weeks ago about school.  I think that may just be a product of being around little kids all day.  Instead of listening to audio books with advanced language she is listening to five and six year olds.  She can't follow a story the way she used to either.  Now when she hears that kind of language she is confused and doesn't understand. 

One of the things the school does well is their specials - art, music, and gym.  The second grade concert was on Thursday.  I think the music teacher did an incredible job.  There are four second grade classes.  One at a time a class would come up and play music while the rest sang.  It far exceeded my expectations.  I can't believe the music teacher was able to accomplish that.  There were several different instruments so it wasn't her teaching 18 kids to do the same thing.  She was teaching 18 kids to do at least 8 different things at the same time. 



We went to the zoo again today.  The first thing we did was ride the train which is a favorite.  Bohdin really wanted to see the hyrax after reading a book about them so we made our way by tram to the Africa section.  They leave a decent amount of space for the animals which I like.  It took a lot of walking but we finally made it to the hyrax. It was interesting going to the zoo with Bohdin because he knows a lot.  I felt like I had a little tour guide with me spouting off interesting facts.   After walking back to the tram stop, Cora threw up.  She then threw up maybe eight more times in the next few hours.  She couldn't keep anything down.  I'm hoping it's not contagious.  I couldn't help but get it on me and there is no sink in the minivan.  She threw up around four times in the minivan.  She was feeling better by 9pm and now she's sleeping.