I have taken a step back and seriously thought about my son's experience in the public school system and while I still remain undecided and quiet hesitant. For now I need to step back and wait.
Before I swoop in and save my son, I need to give him a chance to save himself. So...I am taking his evaluation to heart and am spending the next few weeks acquiring items that will make our home a perfect environment for him to develop the skills they feel he is lacking.
For example, we have always chosen to shave our little man's hair, because it's quick, cheap and helps because he sweats A LOT! However, when asked if he can comb his own hair, he says no because he doesn't have any hair to comb. He gets marked down.
Second example, He has picked out a couple pairs of shoes from time to time that have laces. unable to tie his own shoes at school, he gets marked down on putting his own shoes on.
So, we are going to help him acquire these skills and or reevaluate if we "the parents" are helping too much, or giving him items which are not age appropriate. So we are off to buy another pair of Lace free shoes, because the average child learns to tie their shoes at age 6, so for him as an early 4 it's not developmentally appropriate.
I had no idea that preschool was like that. It is making me reconsider. Marked down for silly things? What about his colors and abcs, maybe they should be grading him on things like that. I would feel like it's a judgement towards myself as a parent. Thats just my first reaction to that. I dunno, I never went to preschool and have not much knowlege about it in general, but I thought it was there to prepare your kids for kindergarden like knowing shapes and how to write their names.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what you decide, I'm sure C.J. will thrive, because you obviously put so much into him and don't just expect him to learn everything he needs to know at school!
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel like Montessori is the answer to the problems you talked about in parts one and two, but then having all children in Montessori isn't really practical, or at least won't be until we have more public programs. Personally, the more I think about it, the more I lean toward the idea of homeschooling, or rather unschooling. Thank goodness I have a few years to decide, because I go back and forth. I'll be interested to see what you decide is best for C.J. and how things go as time goes on :)