When we decided to stay in Virginia while Reed was in California, I knew there had to be a reason. I knew it had to be more than just me being scared (because I WAS!) and us struggling to sell our house. I knew that it was a God sized reason. I also knew that something HAD to change for Anna in terms of school. So, last summer, I set out to find a job and put her in private school. Private school didn't work out for us because of the curriculum gap between private and public schools. I was faced with a HUGE dilemma. The private school I was looking at wanted her back in second grade. Now, if Anna's birthday were in August or September, I'd have probably agreed. But, she has an October birthday. That means she's almost 6 when she starts Kindergarten. That would mean she'd be graduating at 19.5...Um, no thanks. They seriously tried to convince me I was doing the right thing by holding her back. So I looked at other schools. One of them acted as if Anna is a problem child because I was looking for alternate school situations for a kid with ADHD. Nope. She's perfectly well behaved. She just can't sit still, thanks. I applied to put her in York County Public Schools. The cost was MORE than private school. Ouch. Then my mom suggested the most wonderful woman! She said she had a friend that she knew used to teach and used to work for her when she worked at McGraw Hill that home schooled her kids. She knew this friend wasn't doing much in terms of work other than teaching her kids and thought that if it were legal, that Robin may want to teach Anna along with her girls. I called Robin and didn't hear back from her right away. I got nervous and called other private schools. I did find a school that I thought could work for Anna. And, then Robin called me back. We talked, let the girls meet and looked into the legalities of what we wanted to do. The crazy thing is that Robin was looking for something from God to let her know that she was to continue to teach her girls instead of heading back into the classroom to make ends meet. She said as soon as she got my phone call she knew that God had sent the answer. The girls hit it off immediately! They played and played and played. Robin and I also got along really well from the get go! I told her that my only expectation is that Anna could go back into a public school if we ever have to move without problems. Robin said that is exactly how she treats their education anyway.
This year has been SO amazing. I've watched Anna grow. I watched her learn to love reading...something she truly struggled with in public school. I was able to sit and talk with Robin and come up with plans to get Anna back on track. It was so nice that I didn't have to schedule a conference with her teacher. She's been so helpful in monitoring how Anna has been doing on her ADHD meds (and patient too when we had to find the right ones and right dosage). She has prayed for Anna, prayed with Anna, prayed with me, prayed for my friends, prayed for our health...I really can't even tell you what a blessing she has been to us!
All of this homeschooling though has hinged on 1 key thing...her test scores. In VA, they have to take the Iowa Test to show that they've done the work at home to complete a grade. Testing was in May. We were all very nervous about it. But, Robin seemed to think the girls did well. There was a day that Anna missed her meds...I've been on pins and needles waiting for the results to come back. They did last week while Reed was home. They are AMAZING!!! Overall, she scored above the national average in almost every category...except spelling. We know Anna's never going to be a great speller. We're teaching her to use spell check and the dictionary. But, she scored above 90% on most of the test!
I keep repeating Jeremiah 29:11 lately. And, while this time apart from Reed has been really hard on all of us, I know that HIS plans were for us to stay here. I think we'll look back on this year and realize it was a turning point for Anna. His plans were for her success. I do not know how long we will continue to home school her but we're going to take it year by year. Anna has done so well that I can't imagine putting her back into public school. And, please don't think I'm knocking public school. I would put another kid in public school in a heartbeat IF they would do well there. Anna simply couldn't succeed in that environment and I will thank God probably for eternity for helping us find Robin, helping us find a solution and helping us find a way for all this separation to count.
1 comment:
Yay! Great job Anna!!
Post a Comment