There is one thing that most all parents feel very strongly about; their children's education. We all have opinions about what is better and what doesn't work. Every child learns differently and will react different to the classroom. I think a parent really gets to know more about their child once that kid starts school. I know I did.
My journey with schools, as a parent, started when McKenna was almost three. She is an extremely social girl. Has been from day one. So the summer she turned 3 I knew I needed to get her out of the house and into a preschool. In her opinion, there were not enough kids at home to play with. That summer I sent her to a 2 days-a-week summer program. It only lasted 2 months, but it was the perfect introduction to the school environment. In the fall she started at Headstart.
Headstart was a great program. She didn't learn her ABC's or do anything academic but she did learn about safety, health and how to play well with others. It was also good for me. I realized that I am a very involved mother. I learned all the others kids' names so I would know who McKenna was talking about and I volunteered whenever I could. I really liked this about myself but secretly wondered if it was just because my first baby was in her first year of school and I was having attachment issues.
When that year was over we moved to Texas. We were only in town for a week when McKenna asked when she could start her new school. I was really worried about finding one for her. No way could we afford to send her to a private preschool and Headstart was already full for the start of the year. She really, really needed this and I was afraid I would have to break her heart.
We came home from shopping, after living here for a week and a day, to find a flyer for Rise Academy. The flyer said they were opening up a new Pre-k class and it was free. I called immediately. I couldn't believe my luck not only was this a free preschool but it was a Charter school. Ryan and I are very passionate about Charter schools.
Rise Academy turned out to be a very fast paced academic program. Mckenna had homework 3 days a week and had poems she had to memorize and recite every two weeks. She excelled. In fact she won a medal for "Best Orator" (public speaker). I was very proud of her and so happy that I stumbled onto this school.
Her kindergarten year went almost as well. About halfway through the year she started having problems. She wasn't finishing her seat work. Seat work is a packet of papers that the kids need to work on and complete while the class is splitting off into their reading groups. So minus the time she spent in her reading group she had 90 minutes to complete about 12-15 pages. It came to the point that she never finished her packet. The teacher didn't make too much fuss about it because it's not graded and McKenna clearly knew the material. She just couldn't motivate herself to get it done on time. But, at the end of the year, she once again won the Best Orator. She was so proud of herself. There are only 5 medals given out for different things, so to be one of the kids that gets one is pretty special. She also left kindergarten reading at a 2nd grade level.
This school year (2009-2010) has had some ups and some really big downs.
Evan was now old enough to start Pre-k at Rise. Ryan and I really struggled with whether or not to send him there. We wanted him to have two years of preschool and start Kindergarten right after turning six. He is an active boy and has a hard time listening, he is also a follower. He will do anything that someone else does first even when he knows he shouldn't do it. He will be much better off socially and academically if he is an older boy in the class. So knowing that Rise expects their students to sit still and listen as well as finish their work, I was worried about Evan. It turns out I was right to worry. He was only in the program for 2 weeks when there started to be a problem.
Evan was very well behaved. He was polite and respectful but, like McKenna, he couldn't finish his work. It's not like it was a 12 page packet. In pre-K they only had two pages. One to color and one was tracing lines. He was given 15-20 min to do these pages. When they were not done independently he would have to spend the beginning of lunch with the teacher sitting in front of him until he finished. There were days when he brought the rest of his lunch home because he only had time to eat his sandwich. I was NOT okay with this. He began to wake up and tell me he didn't want to go to school anymore. (Mind you, this is only the 3rd week) When I asked him why, he would tell me that he wasn't any good at school, "I always mess up", and the teacher yelled at him all the time. This was heartbreaking to hear and after discussion and prayer Ryan and I decided to pull Evan from the program. I didn't see the situation getting better, only worse. Nothing, not even education, is worth destroying the self esteem of a 4-year-old. He stayed home for a few months until I enrolled him into Headstart. He loves it and is doing really well. Next year he will attend a private pre-K program.
McKenna's 1st grade year was a little better but also required a lot of prayer to get through. She was showing problems with seat work right from the start only this year they were not going to let it slide. If she didn't get it done everyday she had Saturday school (8-10am) to work on it. She has had Saturday school every weekend since October. I started talking to her teachers about McKenna possibly having ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Ryan had mentioned it one night over dinner when I was stressing out and on the verge of tears about what I could do to help her. (neither reward nor punishment seemed to make achange) My immediate response was that McKenna is not hyperactive, she does not have this. But he explained to me that sometimes the child is not hyperactive but inattentive. Translation, she can't focus on something for a long period of time. Her brain will wander and she is unable to block out ANY background noise or distraction. There are many other symptoms (that I will talk about in another post) but this is the one that affects her the most right now. After months of struggling with doctors, medicaid, waiting rooms and child therapists, someone officially diagnosed her with ADHD, inattentive subtype.
During all this time I didn't feel that she was getting the support and understanding she needed from her school. Her teacher is great but her hands were tied by school policy and McKenna suffered for it. After much prayer, temple attendance and discussion. Ryan and I decided to move her to another school. Next Fall she will attend Jose Ramirez, a Magnet school that will focus on teaching the sciences. She will have Art, P.E., hot lunch and many other learning experiences that she has not had yet. I feel that Rise was a good place for her to be in the early years of learning. She is reading at a 4th grade level and doing 3rd grade math. She has all the foundations required to be really successful at any school. Now I want her to have some fun while she is learning.
A VERY long story short - Know your kids. Know how they learn best and pay attention so you can know if something is off with them. If you live in a place that has options, then check out different schools. There are so many choices these days.
I know I have at least two kids with ADHD. (I don't need a Dr to tell me that Evan has it.) We have many years of school struggle ahead of us. But I feel that we all learned a lot this year.
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