Yes, we are officially homeschooling again.

And now we’ll need a few days to decompress from the ‘heightened state of awareness’ lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to living.

Because when you are a special needs child or the parent of a special needs child and you are dealing with lower functioning public schools [of which there are way too many here in the often frustratingly backward Southern States], you become used to functioning at a very high internal frequency.  A state of heightened awareness and anxiety.  You hope for the best and yet continually find yourself always waiting for the call of doom.  Always waiting to hear what’s wrong with your child or what’s not being done or how your kid is not meeting expectations and what your kid is not doing… and on…and on….and on.  And everything that goes wrong is always your child’s fault.  The school is never, ever to blame.  Or is, God forbid, incompetent.

It’s exhausting.

And ultimately a waste of time, energy, self esteem, and resources.

So, once again, we bailed.  We pulled the plug.  We dared to wish for more and cried ‘Uncle’.  And thanks to Don (we love you Don!) we are lucky to have that option as the cost on all of our souls was becoming just too high.

And now…we are free!

No more worrying about IEPs that aren’t being followed.  No more annoyance over BIPs that aren’t being followed.  No more expecting people and teachers and administrators to do the right thing.  Or to do things they are supposed to do but are never actually going to do, despite being obligated by law.  Because, as many of you know, when push comes to shove the laws only are only in place to protect the schools and their staff and not the actual students.

But alas, no more.

It’s over.

Over, I say.

Now we just need to allow our bodies and minds relax again.   The experiment is over.  Public schools are not for us.  We are gypsies at heart.  Non-conformists, I suppose.   We like to march to our own drum.

Hello, relaxed homeschool life.  We’ve missed you!

When underwater, the world above is muffled.  The sounds are hardly detectable.  The sight is blurred.  And the weight of the water pushes on the body like a gentle, loving embrace.

Rye is out of school now until the school can come with a better plan for him.  Being a victim to physical assault and gross disregard for and refusal to follow IEP plans are issues that one must not ignore.  And as he wound up and up and up with the situation at hand, I finally decided he had had enough.   I placed the burden on the school system after all that they have done to him, and yanked him out.

Yesterday the healing process began.  Tensions were still high as he had his defenses up and was ready to fight the fight.  Today he is realizing he has been rescued.  It is sinking in.  He is exhaling.

And it is unrecognizably serene here at the homestead.

I can’t remember the last time the atmosphere in the house was this relaxed.

It is calm.