School Dealings and Lego Fest

We’ve had a lot going lately.  Daniel had been having a rough year at school this year.  It got the point where we felt like the teacher was focusing on Daniel and picking at him constantly.  For 2 weeks straight I got home notes to the effect of:  he rolled a pencil on his desk today; he played with his gloves today, today he didn’t read well; he made a bad choice by not buying lunch today (and he was made to go back through the line and buy a lunch); and so on and so forth.  

Most of these issues I felt are issues that were VERY minor and could have been easily dealt with at school.  Not that I don’t want to be notified of things going on at school, but I don’t want my son picked on either.  Now, don’t get me wrong, Daniel DID toilet paper the bathroom, but I’m still of the opinion that this was something that took far more than 2-3 minutes considering that he had done a n umber 2 also in the time period.  I mean, folk, look at the single-ply quality (ha!) toilet he was working with and there isn’t even a tear!   All of my friends and co-workers (who got a charge out of it) agreed that this was a 3^rd or 4^th graders work and that it took at least 10 minutes.  What can I say?  My son is that talented!!  Seriously, it means to me that he was gone from class too long and no one noticed.  For the record, he punished at home by being on kitty litter duty for a week.

We went to the teacher, guidance counselor and assistant principal, then to the principal herself.  It did not go well.  I asked for something positive about my son to come home in the next couple of weeks and we got nothing.  No follow up, no phone call, nothing.  Daniel’s never had a show and tell day ALL YEAR – I sent a note asking why, got no response.  He’s never been the star student.  There hasn’t been much good for him this year. 

He said himself that he felt like the teachers were always in his ears saying do this, do that.  He got yelled at by a teacher one day and when he calmly said “I don’t like your noisy voice”, he got in trouble again for that.  I really don’t like that a teacher was yelling at my 6 year old.

It’s been a rough year.  There are more examples, like a nasty skin abrasion that didn’t even rank a visit to the office or school nurse, but instead got a tissue handed to him to wipe the blood.  Sigh….

Finally over the last 8 weeks or so we noticed a change in attitude, crying the morning, and wetting pants (the wetting we had been controlling well all year due to his medical condition).

Soooo, after much unhappiness. (on our part and Daniel’s) and after much research and exhausting our options, we felt like it was time to move out of the public school system. 

We delivered our NOI (Notice of Intent) to homeschool, along with proper documents for teaching at home yesterday morning and we went to the school and removed him mid day.  Probably not the best time, but we did it quickly and I couldn’t stand the thought of him there a minute longer.  Troy was brave and went to the classroom and grabbed belongings at mock speed and Daniel was non the wiser.  We will tell him tonight after Tic-Tac is in bed.

I won’t lie, I was so happy when I saw him coming toward the truck, but I cried anyway.  I cried because I’m upset about what happened, I’m upset that my child can’t attend school like the majority of the kids can, I’m upset for the friends he may not see again, and I’m upset that there are other children who may be undergoing some of the same treatment.

Sorry – that turned out much longer than I expected! 

Now on to the good stuff!  After picking Daniel up we rushed ourselves to Lego Fest!!!  We took our 4 year old nephew and Daniel and my mom took care of Tic Tac for the evening!  We had such a ball playing in piles of Legos!  There were awesome Lego sculptures, tons of places to build, Chima races, shows, monochromatic Lego builds and loads of activities.    We came home with free posters, Lego magazines and we may have spent a little more than planned in the Lego shop! 

Here are just a few photos of our good time!!  Oh, and I couldn't resist taking a picture with the Harry Potter gang - Hagrid was HUGE!!!