School Plans for 2014-2015

As some know, we homeschooling moms like to plan our kid's education way in advance.  Here it is barely into 2014, but I'm already thinking of what our school plans for next year will look like. Sage has been homeschooled since Day One of Kindergarten.  He's now in the middle of his Third Grade year.   I like homeschooling him.  He likes being homeschooled.  Therefore, we will continue to homeschool.

The big question has been, "Will we send Scott to Kindergarten next year?"  This year, he attends a special needs preschool for his language delays (expressive and receptive delays).  Last week, we had a parent-teacher conference.  I asked the question, "If a decision had to be made right now, do you think Scott would qualify for the special needs preschool next year?"  Both his teacher and speech therapist said that no, they do not feel he would qualify for special services next year because he has been doing amazingly well.

Academically, he is right on target, if not still above average (he was given two tests before the school year started, and he scored 'Above Average' on those).  Shockingly to us, his teachers/therapist say that he is very pleasant at school.  He is very social, walks into the classroom each day with a smile and a greeting for his teacher, follows rules, reminds others of the rules if they break a rule, is friendly with everyone, loves to share his 'Share Item' each day.  What a stinker!!  Oh, if they could be a fly on the wall in our house right before the bus comes each day to pick him up!  He fights me every day saying that he doesn't want to go to school, he hates school, etc.  So based on his language progress, his academics being on target, and his social and behavior skills, he will not qualify for the special needs preschool next year.

So...the next question is, "Will we send him to kindergarten or homeschool him?"  IF we were staying here in Ohio, he might have sent him to kindergarten.  (Although, they are considering changing to ALL DAY kindergarten here, and I know I would NOT send him if they do change it to that!)  However, we will not be in Ohio next year.  We will be in Florida.  So the answer is pretty simple.  I will homeschool BOTH boys next year.

I'm excited to getting back to the more hands-on, real world learning that homeschooling provides. This year, we haven't done a lot of that because of Scott being in the preschool which is five days a week, half days.  He goes to the afternoon classes which doesn't allow Sage and I to go and do fun learning activities because of the time restraint of having to be home to put Scott on the bus and get him off the bus.  Next year, we will have a whole new state to explore.  And I'm excited to go to all those theme parks in the middle of the year with a Florida resident discount!  Disney World in September?  Islands of Adventure in October?  Legoland in November?  Sea World in January? Animal Kingdom in February?  Universal Studios in March?  Epcot Center in April?  Yes, please!  

If we feel that Scott still needs speech therapy next year, we will seek out a private therapist for him.  Personally, we feel he has gotten better in his receptive delay (meaning we feel he 'understands' the spoken word better).  We, however, feel like his expressive delay is still pretty strong.  His biggest issue is sentence structure and verb tense usage.  Hopefully, we will continue to see improvements since he has 4 more months of therapy.  Also, he should improve as he gets older.

So, there you have it.  Both boys will be staying home with their momma next year!