School, Interrupted
On January 13th, my daughter and I embark on a new school journey. She concluded last semester in a standard classroom setting. For the second semester, she will be doing online school.
We didn’t come to this decision lightly, and I don’t think online or homeschool is right for everyone. But we decided it was right for our daughter.
Starting in third grade, even when her medication was working great, she would get upset by someone breaking the rules or normal classroom noise, and she could not let it go.
In fourth grade, the boys in her class realized that she would give them the big reaction they were looking for when they annoy her. She ended up fixated on one particular gum incident for the whole year (to be clear- it was boys being purposefully annoying by clicking pens and smacking gum). Luckily, one of her team teachers was very communicative and worked with me on medication adjustments and seating arrangements away from the boys. Her other teacher was not so accommodating, and my daughter spent a lot of time in the guidance counselor’s office calming down and talking about ways to ignore the boys.
This year is fifth grade and if I had to hear “she just needs to pay more attention” one more time from one of her teachers, my head was literally going to explode. Yes, she needs to pay attention but that doesn’t happen just because you write “How could you get these wrong, we did them in class” on her worksheets in red pen. This was after I was told she didn’t have focusing issues in class. I wasn’t getting any feedback on medication changes, and she now had a standing appointment with the guidance counselor for all her frustrations with her peers. When I told her I was thinking about online school, she was so excited, and her first exclamation was “So there won’t be so many distractions!?”
Now I know people will point out that there are distractions everywhere in life and we must deal with them every day as adults. True, but she is in fifth grade and needs to learn pre-algebra math and different writing skills. So, we will give this a try. I can monitor the medication changes closer as she progresses through puberty, and she can try a different classroom style to see if that helps her focus on classwork with more ease.
So, with fingers crossed, realistic expectations, and good support from her therapist and doctors, I will share our new school adventure with you through the rest of the semester.
