Toothless Tuesday

The 3 rd one out. It really hit me that she is growing. Tears....... She is already so eager to be a teenager. She talks about it a little bit too much for me. I love this girl.
~Kristina ~

I want better for my girl. Let's reach for the stars because I know you can do it !!!!

So Aaron and I made a pretty big decision this past week.... To homeschool Ava. Of course for a number of reasons, I will try to keep them short. When we sent Ava to public school back in September, I had reservations, I think one of them being we are a Christian family and her being influenced by kids of different backgrounds and situations. I came to the conclusion that ultimately we are the ones who influence her. We also ... I anyway was concerned because the year prior I had homeschooled her kindergarten but being this school yr she was turning 6 after the cutoff date I was concerned they would not allow me to push her to 1 st grade..... on where I felt she need to be. I enroll as kinder, contacted her teacher 3 weeks in because I feel that, yep she has already done this work I'm concerned about her getting behind. She says no, Ava is in the right grade. Talk to her about 4 weeks after that and she says Ava is doing well. I don't think she will be bored in kinder her teacher says but I'm thinking but will she be challenge ?! All this time I'm asking Ava what she is doing in school, looking at the work she is bringing home and thinking to myself she has done this work, mastered it and it's time for her to move on. I contact the principal and her Aaron discuss having Ava do first grade reading and math for a month re-evaluate and decide wether to go to first or keep her in kinder. We would have the teachers evaluate her progress and they would report to the principal and make a decision. Let me tell you this month period happened in the middle of Christmas break and then her kindergarten teacher was out for literally 4 weeks. I contact the principal at the end of "the month" and tell her it's been a month, can we make a decision about this because time is ticking and the school yr is moving by the day. She tells me that her kinder teacher has been out for a month she will be back next week and let's have her see how Ava is doing and meet a week later and make a decision. OK. I go in for a conference with the principal, Ava's first and kindergarten teachers and they are almost immediately pointing to he fact that Ava should stay in kindergarten. Reasons being: developmental- she cried the first day she went into first grade. Something about my daughter she will give anyone a performance that will listen to her. No, I'm not excusing the fact that she was probably a little concerned about being with a new group of kids... but not that much. This same day that the first grade teacher said Ava cried she came home and said she loved first grade and she liked the school work. (I didn't find out about the crying until a week later. ) Ava never mentioned to me anything about crying and she has been pretty open with me about telling me things that she might think I'd get upset about. The other concerns they mentioned wanting to keep Ava in kinder was both teachers said developmentally because the kinder teacher asked her to write a sentence and Ava didn't want to. The math teacher mentioned that whenever it was time for Ava to do a math problem at that moment Ava saw her kindergarten class walk by and she didn't want to do the problem anymore. I mean i feel like those reasons- that's it you are not going to work with her!! I think she was simply being stubborn and did not want to do it. She does the same thing about things at home. Those were the reason "developmentally". They did say that when she first came in first grade reading she was testing at middle of the year reading level and when we were meeting she is testing at the end of the year reading level. They didn't want her to do 1 st grade math because being at the point they were in the school yr it was too fast for her to jump in and keep up with the class and she said she didn't have time to help Ava when she had other students to work with. So the final decision was keep Ava in kinder but continue first grade reading.

Well for me personally I felt like she is falling behind. I know she can be challenged more and I felt me bringing her home was the only way I could do that.

Talk to daddy Button about it before I even meet with the teachers because I had a feeling they wanted to keep her in kinder because of phone conversations I had with them. He told me to make a list of books she needs, how much it's going to cost and a schedule for both girls on what I'll be doing everyday. Double done Dear!!! What next? :)

I received a email from Ava's teacher on Friday:

Good morning,

I hope you are doing well. Ava has mentioned for the past 2 weeks that she will not be coming to school anymore. And then this morning she is very sad that today is her last day. Is this true? I hope it is not, we enjoy having her in class watching her learn and grow.

I asked Ava later that day about her being sad and she said well I was a little....


I wrote her back:


Mrs....
Yes, it is true. My husband just faxed the Notice of Intent for home instruction yesterday. I had planned on writing you and Ms. Asst principal over the weekend as I wanted to make sure that Office of Student Services had received the fax.
I know Ava has mixed feelings about leaving school. This is something I discussed as well as prayed about with my husband over the last month.
Since enrolling Ava in August, I have had a open mind about wether or not I would home-school Ava, send her to private or public school and decided I would re-evaluate as this school year progressed.
After our last meeting with Ms.asst. principal and Mrs. 1st grade about Ava's placement, I understood all 3 of your perspectives of how Ava has/is progressed and felt it was best that I finish the rest of the year homeschooling Ava.

We have no hard feelings at all, we just feel that this decision is in the best interest of Ava and our family at this particular time. We appreciate everything you have done for Ava. We appreciate Ms . Asst principal trying to work with us and also for Mrs. 1st grade for working with Ava as well.

Please feel free to fwd to Ms. Asst principal and Mrs. 1st grade this email but I will send a more official email over the weekend stating our intentions.

Thank You so much Mrs. Kindergarten and sorry you are finding out this way. I wanted to make sure everything was done on my end before I contacted you and at the very most Tuesday would have been Ava's last day. I contacted student services and they did receive the fax so Thank You again.

So there you have it, our decision, how it went down and what's to come. Being the second day homeschooling in: she has mentioned school how she is a little sad but I assured her we will make learning fun and we will have a blast doing it together. I really feel like we made the best decision regarding her education thus far this year. Things are going according to schedule here on the home front.
I feel so confident, I know this will be hard work but I rather put this energy into doing this for my kids then going to school having conferences on wether or not they will move her for me. If I won't be my child's advocate then who will? Maybe someone but my sole responsibility is for me to be her # 1 advocate!!!!
~Kristina ~

Copyright 2012 @ Kristina Button

Takin it back - ol skool

I had a glow worm when I was a wee one and I have been wanting to get my littles one since I had Ava..... Which was 6 years ago. Anyway, I finally purchased one for my lil' guy to have now apart of his childhood. It's the little things and I love including the happy moments into kids lives.