Sick Kids & Edumacation

It's Thursday, I think. It's hard to tell, with the kids home sick from school. They were sick all weekend, and I thought they would be well enough to go back to school yesterday. I set my alarm, and woke them up in the morning to find that they were still running fevers. I called the doctor's office down in Lewisburg, but they didn't have any appointment times open (groan), so I ended up making the 30-40 minute drive into Spring Hill. Finley was confirmed sick with the flu, and although Joe seemed to have gotten over the flu, had developed pneumonia. They will be home for the rest of the week. At least I have the doctor's approval to keep them home.

A friend of mine who is homeschooling her seven eight kids posted an article yesterday about homeschooling entitled "Want To Tell The State To Stick It? Homeschool Your Kids." Bad timing, Shyla. I really didn't want to read an article like that after what we've been going through this year with the government trying to trump my rights as a parent to keep my kids home from school when they are sick without having to obtain a doctor's note or the school nurse's approval.

To make things worse, I went to parent-teacher conferences last Tuesday. The kids were doing fine, really, but I just wanted some face time with the teachers. Finley's homeroom teacher and I were talking about Finley's sloppy handwriting. I mentioned that I thought writing in cursive might help. Her teacher said she wasn't sure when she'd have time to teach it, and wondered out loud if it they would ever use it anyway with most communication done these days via computer. I made a half-joke about spelling not being necessary either.

That opened another can of worms. She said the state is no longer emphasizing spelling, that after 2nd grade, they really aren't required to study spelling, but she thought it was important. She said spelling is one of the the first things to go when the state/district wants them to focus on something else. She told me she wished the teachers had more input into what was being taught instead of the school district and/or state (ie. the people NOT in the classrooms on a daily basis) dictating what the focuses should be. Wow. It's nice to know that my kid can go sit at a computer playing games for a half an hour (in the interest of learning how to use a computer) instead of learing how to spell.

Anyway, inspite of the fact that I absolutely love the teachers and staff at the elementary school, I am starting to have the thought that maybe we should be homeschooling again.