Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The Challenges of Being a Parent

Well I have really dropped the ball on blogging these past few months!!!! The end of our summer was busy with our wedding and honeymoon (which I will post about later). On returning from our honeymoon the 2013-14 school year started a few days later for our son. And to say the least it has not been a great start to the school year.

Mr. J was passed onto the 4th grade even though he did not complete the state mandated summer school which is a requirement for children who do not pass the reading evaluations called the DRA..... We decided that we were not going to send Mr. J to summer school because all the educators at the school wanted to do was pass him on the the next grade because he excelled at math...... who cares that he is only reading at a second grade level, or the fact that he can't even spell common words, and doesn't understand the structures of a simple sentence.  So countless phone calls, emails, and notes written to the teacher still have not chipped away at the issue.  The school doesn't believe he needs to repeat because there is a possibility that he will never catch up to where he will be on grade level...... and they are not interested in giving him a chance to even try........ The principle told me that if they kept every child that was struggling behind they would have students driving themselves to school..... can you imagine how mortified I was hearing that over the phone.

So it has been determined that I am going to be one of those parents this year that the school and teachers dread dealing with. Because my only concern is my son!!!! Yes I understand that they have many students and there are other children struggling ...... but I will not allow my child to be swept under the rug and passed on because no one wants to deal with it.

I already has one meeting because there were parts of Mr. J's IEP that were not being implemented...... one's that would have prevented notes being sent home about how he's not paying attention, he can't sit still in his seat, or how he had a rough day (no other details but that). And the excuse is "OH we didn't see those when we glanced over his IEP." And shortly I will be having another meeting about his work load and the demands of it...... because no child should be spending 4+ hrs on 2 worksheets especially when the school already knows that there is a learning disability!!!!

So because of all this Mr. J is having a really rough time dealing with it all. We have constant melt downs during homework and a huge change in attitude!!!!! The kid that loved soccer now want's nothing to do with it because he doesn't think that he is good enough....... what 8yr old should be saying or even thinking that. He comes home telling me he is stupid and that he can't do anything. We are acting up in school because he is too overwhelmed and doesn't understand.  I have no idea what I can do


It breaks my heart </3

I have never told my child that he is not good enough or that he is dumb..... We encourage him to try even when it looks hard because we know he can do it. But because he is so far behind compared to his classmates to the point he is taking notice........ the confidence that was once there is now gone :(  We do our best to build that confidence but everyday it seems like what we had strengthen in his mind is beaten back down to where we picked the pieces up.


So life has been busy with Mr. J which has put a hault to everything else.... fingers crossed that this whole situation gets fixed and things start smoothing out for him.....



HUGS
XXX

~D~