I came across an interesting discussion on Amazon of all places regarding homeschooling versus public school.  A person on there came across this topic on another forum and saw this statement:

“By the way I am a teacher ,I had to study years of child development and psyc ,as well as subject material ,how everyone now thinks they can home school is a joke.Even Judge Judy asks what university did you graduate from ?when someone says they home school.How do they feel so qualified!”

Now, Madison attends a private school, so this question doesn’t quite apply to me.  However, to each their own.  Seriously.  I’m not a fan of our public school whatsoever.  I lucked out that I did find a private school that we do like that Madison is excelling in.  I’d love to know your thoughts on this topic!

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Most of us know the sorry state of education funding whether we have kids in school or not.  I live in IL where the budget is calling for a 17% cut in education spending.  Our schools aren’t getting the money from the state like they are suppose to.  I won’t find out if Will will get preschool from the public school (even though he qualifies for it with his speech delay) till the middle of August!  Madison will be back into school most likely before I find out!  Education is in a sorry state in the country.

Bing’s Teacher Appreciation Website helps teachers help themselves. Here’s how it works: a teacher can log onto the DonorsChoose.org website to start a “classroom project” or donation request. Parents and students can then visit the Bing Teacher Appreciation site to leave a comment [up to 5 per visitor] about a teacher who has made a difference in their life, enabling them to receive a $5 giving code to donorschoose.org [one per comment]. Parents and students can then apply the $5 giving code to the “classroom project” of their choice. Classroom projects are created by teachers, so reach out to your childrens’ teachers and encourage them to submit their own projects!

Madison and I embarked on doing this.  The Bing site is super easy to use and $5 can add up quite quickly.  As my children have learned, every little bit counts.  I’ve also taught my children about giving back, so I let Madison choose what classroom project we were going to donate too.  I was given a $100 giving code to use.  Donorschoose.org is another awesome site (though I wish they would include private schools so my daughters school could benefit from this).  There is a classroom project for everyone!  Madison picked a classroom of kindergarteners like herself in Texas.  We were able to get a science kit for a class of 22 students.  What grabbed me was this statement in the description of the project:  ”Imagine a class full of little students walking around with a magnifying glass in the garden looking for bugs and looking for the grooves of a leaf.”  That is Madison to a tee, so I am very happy to help fund this class!

Make sure you check out the Bing’s Teacher Appreciation Website and write about your favorite teacher and help some kids in the process!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Bing and a $100 DonoseChoose.org giving code to facilitate my review. Mom Central also sent me a thank-you gift certificate.

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I hate dealing with our public school.  They make things 10 times harder than they have to be for everything.  Seriously. However, with Will aging out of speech therapy in June, I have no choice but to deal with them.

In March, we were suppose to have a transition meeting.  The state and the public school were to set up this meeting and let me know the date.  Said meeting never happened, so I started making phone calls at the beginning of this month.  When I called my service coordinator, I was told the school hadn’t called them back.  I waited another week and then I called the school directly.

Getting to the right person wasn’t too tough.  However, whatever list we were suppose to be on — we aren’t.  I was like “I have a letter from the state saying that we need to get this scheduled”.  She then put me on hold for at least 5 minutes and then magically found Will’s paperwork.  We scheduled what I think is an evaluation for next Friday.  She told me I had to go to our home school and fill out a bunch of paperwork and prove residency.  She gave me a list of what I had to bring to do that.

Will and I went this morning to get the paperwork and give them what I needed to prove residency.  The paperwork was annoying and long (Just like it was when I had Madison screened for preschool.  Seriously, why is it any of their business how much I make and how old Bill and I are).  The kicker — I didn’t bring the right information in, because I was told the wrong stuff!  Needless to say, I was pissed.

Now, I’m not the first person doing this.  I do not understand why 1.  they can’t use all the crap I filled out for the state or 2.  how the administration building and the school don’t have the same requirements.  I was told from the school that they would not send the paperwork over unless I proved residency first (even though I have an evaluation scheduled for next week).  Now, the admin people told me that I could fill out the information packet and not to worry about having the other paperwork.  I could have screamed.

Now, you’d think the two buildings would know what the other one is doing.  Seriously, you;d think they don’t want to give us services.  Needless to say, after about 2 hours of running around, I got all the paperwork and went back to the school and turned it in.  Now, hopefully they manage not lose it between now and next Friday.

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I often second guess my decisions (really, who doesn’t?).  I usually hem and haw, and don’t ever want to decide in case I guess wrong.  You can ask my husband — it drives him bananas.  However, that being said, I know we made the right decision in sending Madison to private school.

As many of you may remember, this is a decision we really did struggle with.  It sucks paying high property taxes and then have to pay tuition too.  That being said, I am not happy with our local school district.  I’ve been trying to find out how many kids are in a class since last August.  They refuse to tell me.  The school tells me to the call the district, and the district refuses to tell me.  According to the referedum paperwork (said referendum has failed 4 times now), there is up to 34 kids in a class.  Oh yeah, and no teacher’s aides either.  The public school also has no music or art classes.  Kindergarten is also only 2.5 hrs a day.  Would you send your child there?

We opted to pay the tuition and send Madison to private school.  There she has gym, computer, art, and music once a week.  It is also full day.  We knew that going in and were happy with it.  What we didn’t count on was how much she was going to love it.  We also didn’t count on in the first 5 weeks of school, she would be learning to read already.  She has 20 sight words she can do!  She also learned the sign of the cross, the glory be prayer (I don’t know what the name of the prayer), and the our father!  She is terrified to get a yellow or red light (which is how the teacher keeps them in line).  She loves her teacher, and she loves being in school.

We recently went to her open house Tuesday night.  We learned that her teacher had been married in the church there and had sent her own children to this school.  That makes me feel good.  It means she also is invested in the school and the church.

Since the first week of school, I have been a peace with my decision.  I knew it was the right one after seeing how happy she was and how much she has been learning.

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