Wow.  New Year’s kind of snuck up on me this year.  We’ve been in a vacation coma of eating junk food and watching movies for over a week now and it just dawned on me yesterday that today is New Year’s Eve.   We don’t have any big plans for the evening.  I think we’ll grill steaks and I’m making a rum cake for the first time but that’s about it.  We’re still in hibernation mode resting to start the New Year – which is slated to be a big one for us.

As for 2011, it was a tough one.  2011 was a year of big decisions and big change for us.   We started the year with Rye homeschooling and with Don in a job that he enjoyed but in which he had reached the maximum potential as far as challenge and responsibility.  Don was under challenged, underpaid and left wanting for more.  With Rye still in middle school and Don in his mid 30’s, we needed to make some decisions.  Was where we were, where we wanted to be for the next 5 years?  With limited exciting job options for Don where we were and a move being required to get to better schools for Rye if he wanted to go back for high school, we realized the answer was no.  We decided where we lived was not the ideal place for Rye to go through high school.  We also decided that the time was now for Don to make a career move if he ever wanted to find his dream.

So, we looked and discussed.  We weighed the pros and cons of leaving what we knew to head out to something unknown. We weighed leaving the family and the friends and the house we loved to risk it all on an unknown.  We weighed the fact that we would need to find a new doctor for Rye and how would he fare leaving his friends and family?  Would we be risking the stability he had and possibly face another hospitalization due to the stress of the change?

But, with all that, we decided to chance it.  Don looked for a job and within weeks (and with the direct touch of a guardian angel, no doubt),  he found his dream job.  It was a risk.  And it was all the way across the country.  But it had promise.  It had everything he was looking for.  Literally, everything.

Fast forward 6 months and here we are.  West Coast residents.  With very few of our original possessions.  And Don loves, loves, loves his job.  In fact, he just got a promotion to start the New Year.  And with that will come greater financial stability for us.  And amazingly, Rye is back in public school full time.  He wanted to go.  With the move we found great public schools that offer great special education services and with that, Rye is able to do well in school.  And stay all day.  And he enjoys it.  And it still stresses him some, but not too much that he can’t go.  And he is learning, learning. learning.  And he sees and knows the value of an education because nearly every kid at his school now wants to go to college.  And it’s no joke to them.  Education is key where we live now.

And Rye’s stability has held.  He is still doing well.  No major fall aparts.  No crazy antics.  Not even a remote need for hospitalization.  He’s thriving.  And we are still looking for a permanent psychiatrist.  But sometimes that takes time and that’s ok.  That would be the case anywhere.

As for me, with Don and Rye doing so well I am about to go full steam ahead with my company.  I put it on hold for years as I was homeschooling Rye but now that that need is no longer there, it is time to get back to business.  And I am really looking forward to it!

So, as we say goodbye to 2011, I am happy.  It was a tough year.  But it has set us up for a great year to come in 2012 as we settle in and begin our new life out West.

And start working for our big dreams to come true.

This is a must see documentary.

‘Waiting For Superman’ attempts to tackle the problem of public schools in America and explain at least some of the reasons why the overall public school system is generally a failure today.

It looks at how the public school model is outdated, why drop out rates are so high, why even when are kids are in school they seem to know so little, why teachers are such an important part of the equation, where the money goes that is sent to schools (a lot of which never makes it to the schools), how teachers unions protect inept teachers and contribute to the issue, and the list goes on and on.

Now, I will say that obviously the film oversimplifies the problems at hand as they only have two hours of time to work within.  And they do place a great deal of emphasis on the benefits of charter schools which we all know, despite being smaller and not constrained by teachers unions, are often in many ways just like general public schools in that some are great are some are not great.   However,  given the time restraint and the enormity of the issue I really think the film does a great job of bringing some of the issues to light and showing how although so many families want a great education for their kids and no matter how hard these families fight for their kids, these families may have very little chance of getting that education through their local public school system, despite their socioeconomic status.

It really makes you wonder why America never privatizes public schools like many other countries do.  And it makes you wonder what ever happened to trade schools and teaching kids that don’t want to go to college useful skills where they can start working and making a good living at 16 or 18 years old and not just attempt to warehouse them in giant inept schools and treat them like children that can’t make a decision for themselves until they give up on learning completely and have their self esteem destroyed.   Kids that want to go to college should have that opportunity and kids that don’t should be taught a true job skill so that they can support themselves at a level above the poverty line by 18 years old.  It seems obvious.  And yet it’s not done.

Obviously ‘No Child Left Behind’ isn’t working.  Going by current drop out rates and current grade level test scores around the country, most children are being left behind.

And at this rate, America won’t be a superpower much longer.  This is obvious.

One of the things I love about homeschooling is the time and freedom it gives us to do and learn things that we may not do otherwise.   This is particularly true in our case with Rye because he only has a smallish window of time in the day when he is open to learning in a traditional manner.  So, we have to use that window to it’s fullest and then find other, more unconventional, ways of learning that appeal to his other senses. In that, one  resource I use a lot when we are homeschooling is documentary films.  I love documentaries and Rye does too now.  I feel they are a great way to learn about the world.

The Boys of Baraka is a great documentary film.  It chronicles the lives of a few 12 and 13 year old African American boys and shows what happens when they are removed from their lives in the ghettos of Baltimore and are taken to a private school in Africa where they can focus on learning in an open and violence-free environment.

Here is the PBS link telling about the film.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/boysofbaraka/

We have seen this before but are watching it again today as it was a few years ago when we first watched it and I think it will have more meaning now that Rye is the same age as the boys in the film.

Check it out.

I was watching “19 Kids and Counting” tonight and Michelle Duggar said this about her kids and homeschooling, the world is a classroom.   I thought it was great.   Because it’s so true.  And I wonder, is “out-of-school schooling” better for some kids that “in-school schooling”?  Could be.  And I may have one of those kids.

Now, on a slightly unrelated note, I have a not-so-secret desire to be a Duggar.  So my opinion on all of this is biased.  I just love them.  Their kids are so calm and pleasant and mature and responsible and courteous, etc. etc. etc.  I find it just really amazing.  And wonderful to see.  Granted, their kids don’t seem to have any neurological struggles as mine does.  Nonetheless, they inspire me.  And I wonder if they would all still be that way if they had to go to public school for 8 hours a day.  But alas, we’ll never know.

Anyway, Rye is out of school this week.  He told me today he does not want to go back to regular school.  He wants to homeschool.  He says there is too much drama and chaos at the school and life is much calmer not going.  And he doesn’t mind doing schoolwork.  He just can’t take the atmosphere there.   I guess it was fun for a while and then it all got to be too much.  Way too much.  And with everything that has happened in the past few months that makes perfect sense.  So, now I wait until the IEP meeting on Monday and see what we can come up with.  I suggested to Rye maybe a happy medium would be a half day at school but he’s luke warm on that idea right now.  I guess we’ll just see.  I have to work part time so we’ll have to do something.  I am intrigued though to think about all of the things he could learn if he wasn’t in a classroom all day.  Especially since now he has no art, music or related art classes (foreign language, careers, computers)  at school.  The possibilities are endless.

Anyway, it is my experience that a lot of special needs kids homeschool so the parents can create the atmosphere the kids need to be happy and successful.  And focus on the child’s strengths vs their weaknesses.  We’ve actually done it before and it worked really well.  Rye was a much calmer, more mature, less frantic kid.  I  guess we’ll just see what the future brings.