April 2010

Wow! I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a month!!! I was blogging on our adoption site, and, of course, we were in China for almost 3 weeks. That is its own story, and you can read about that on Petersadoption.blogspot. com. Our home-schooling has taken a strange twist. I say strange, only because it was completely unexpected. Connor is seriously considering returning to public school. Every year at this time, we begin to look at next year's curriculum. John and Ben, our newly adopted sons, have been going to Geneseo Central everyday now, and I think Connor feels "out of the loop." In the interest of saving money, I've cut back on several of the extra-curricular lessons, and now Connor has (maybe) too much time at home alone. Or maybe he just wants to be more like his brothers. Whatever the reason, Connor says he wants to go back to "regular" school next year. One part of me is relieved (I could go back to work full-time, and we need the money), but another part of me is disappointed and sad. I asked Connor to name the advantages and disadvantages of public school, and he admitted that home-schooling has a ton more advantages than public school. However, when he compiled his written list on his blog, he made certain that the pro and con lists are equal in length. I think he's just forgotten the inconveniences of public schooling. For instance, last week he told me that he was "into" his writing piece and was going to just write most of the day. I reminded him that if he was in public school he would not have that flexibility. As a matter of fact, if he were in public school he would have been assigned a specific writing topic, and he would have a specific outline to follow. I can't imagine how Connor would fare in such a constrained situation. Like most creative people, Connor is a fabulous writer, when simply left alone to write for hours. Then later in the week one of his friends (also home-schooled) called and wanted to come over to play. It was around noon, and normally I would have said yes. We could finish his work in the evening if necessary. Instead, I decided to tell Connor that he can't even call his friend back until after school. I told him that at public school you can't just decide to call a friend, and you certainly cannot have a playdate in the middle of the day!!