School Days, School Days, Winner of HipT & Comment on Blog to Win $25.00 Outback Steakhouse Gift Card!

Recently, Ward and I made a big decision regarding Tiny's education.  Next year, Tiny will begin kindergarten.  We had the option of sending her to public school, which is a half day program, or continuing to keep her in the private school she currently attends which is a full day program or sending her to another school.  Since she presently attends a full day program, we felt that it was important to continue a full day program in kindergarten.

This past year, her current school has been an unpleasant experience not just for Tiny, but also for Ward and myself.  In fact, the way it impacted her behavior led me to reassess my life and what I was doing, which eventually led to this "project." 

Prior to this year, Tiny was an enthusiastic child who absolutely loved school; in fact, on her first day of preschool, she separated from me, said "Bye Bye Mama," turned and never looked back.  I think I sat in the car, bawling my eyes out for an hour wondering what kind of bad mother I was that she left me so easily! I now realize that was a gift!  Her first year, she adored her teacher, her classmates, everything.  Ward and I felt the same way.

This year, she entered into a "gifted and talented" program at the same school.  I was a bit fearful that it was not enough "fun" and too much academics.  I have no problem with challenging a child, but I personally believe that a child will be in school for a long time and children should also have time spent socializing and playing too.  In any event, the academics do challenge Tiny and she has learned a lot.  I would like more "fun" but overall Tiny seemed happy initially.  However, the principal's grandson is in the class.  Due to the relationship, he has been allowed to get away with murder and is the class bully.

The child has not only caused physical harm to just about every child in the class, but also emotional harm as well.  His language is horrendous, his demeanor shocks just about every adult he encounters and he seems to know that no matter what he does, there are no consequences.  Just about every parent has complained.  Ward and I spoke to the owner of the school, as there was a conflict with the principal, and since so many parents complained, the school did take some action.

The child has already gone through three in class assistants (apparently they have all resigned after just weeks of working hands on with the boy), and there has been some tiny improvement.  There is also a "behavior modification plan" in place.  However, as far as we are concerned, the damage is done with respect to Tiny.

Tiny has changed so much since this past fall. She no longer "loves" to go to school, she is deflated and tries to find excuses to get out of attending. The only reason she goes is because her best friend is in the class; this is all I have to encourage her to attend.  It is a struggle to get her out of bed and into the car most days.  Its very difficult and to be honest, it is sad to see this at such a young age. 

One day, last fall, she had the most horrible outburst of behavior due to the bullying, I was hysterical in tears that night.  I had never seen my child with no confidence, no happiness, no light in her eyes.  She was like a completely different little person.  I was devastated.  We had always talked to her about the bullying but it really had gotten to a point where she had reached her breaking point.

Ward and I questioned whether to leave her in the class or not, but after much discussion with the school, intervention by the school with the boy and helping with Tiny by more talking and reading about bullying, we decided that the best option is to leave her in the class.  All of her friends are in the class and we felt that to uproot what she knows for the past two years would do more harm at this point.

The good news is that we recently visited schools, with Tiny, to see if there were any other options we liked.  At the beginning of the visits, Tiny was saying "I am not going to school next year."  However, after visiting one particular school, she was excited and loved it.  She now cannot wait to go and is looking forward to the fall to start. We are thrilled that she is showing so much enthusiasm about school again!

I have been working with her at home, too, in both academics and of course-FUN! The "gifted and talented" class at school really takes care of the academics, so I have been working more on the fun stuff--which is really fine with me.  The "hands on" part of me prefers the fun stuff! I will soon post some more of our "fun" projects.

Speaking of FUN-- Ward and I are limiting our meat intake for Lent....so, I have a $25.00 Outback Gift Card I am offering as part of a contest giveaway.  To enter this contest, do the following:

1) Become a follower of my blog. Leave me a comment to tell me you did, along with your email in case you win!

BONUS ENTRIES:

2) Follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/LifeJuneCleaver and leave me a comment to tell me you did, along with your email in case you win!

3) Blog about this contest. Leave me a comment to let me know where you did, along with your email so I can contact you in case you win.

4) Subscribe to my blog in a reader! Let me know in a comment that you did & be sure to leave your email so I know how to contact you in case you are the winner.

Winner will be selected by random drawing on or about February 25th, 2010. Open to US Residents only. Winner will be posted here and will be contacted via email and will have 28 hours to respond or a new winner will be randomly selected.

Finally-congrats to Jen, the winner of the Hip-T contest giveaway! I will be contacting you via email regarding the details of the giveaway. Thanks to everyone for entering and please stay tuned for more great giveaways.