My children are now being homeschooled. After a few weeks of searching for a school that wasn't full and then getting word that the board of education refuses to transfer my children to another school even though I would have provided transportation, I decided I was going to homeschool them. I can already see a great improvement in Alex. He is much happier now and the playgroups we go to for socializiation purpose, he talks at. He particaptes in all the songs and games they have. There is a homeschooling store in town where my friend who homeschools her children shops at. I went to that store and it is owned by a teacher so she was very helpful at finding things that I needed in order to homeschool my kids. Reading, writing, math, science, social studies and phonics. My biggest problem is phonics because it requires the kids to sound out words and me being deaf, I cannot really help them out that much with it. Forunately, my family will be helping out with that part. This is going to be a wonderful experience and will bring the kids and I closer as a family.

Now for the final step, I have to hand in a form to the school principal telling him of my intent to homeschool the kids. I expect him to give me a hard time about it but I already researched a lot about homeschooling so I am prepared for it.

"parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their child"

(1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

This is what I will be using if he refuses to sign the papers.

And the policy/memorandum No. 131 is extremely important because it ensures that homeschooling parents are innocent until proven guilty.

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/extra/eng/ppm/131.html

And lastly, for a while there, I was concerned about getting into trouble because Alex wasn't in school. (parents can be charged with trundacy and fined up to $200.00) But then I discovered this from the Education Act...

Subsection 21(1) requires every child to attend school from the age of six until the age of sixteen.

For those who doesn't get it, Alex is not yet six years old. He is five until December 30th. :-)

Now that the worrying was reduced, I was able to set up a plan for the kids. It includes playgroups a few times a week and then the kids will join with my friend's children along with their homeschool group that takes place every Friday. Then Alex will go on with his workbooks. Alex with his grade 1 work and Sky with her hands on educational toys. I found that Sky is not interested in workbooks except for math so I didn't purchase any for her except for the math workbook. She's still four so there's a lot of time for her. I bought a math workbook for her because she loves counting and figuring out how many animals, insects, etc there were in a group and matching the numbers to the group of animals, etc..

I've found I am usually exhausted by 9-10 pm each night but it's a happy exhaustion because I know the kids are getting the best now.

Good night all.

Well, I decided not to buy the house but to rent it for at least one year. My goal is to get out of Thunder Bay within a year.

There is just no future for the kids and myself here.

A year is going to be spent saving up and finishing up studying my GED and starting with the math tutor next week. Then I will take the test and when I pass (not if, I'm that confident in myself and it's about time!!) I am going to work hard at getting into a school that will provide interpreters.

That is a big risk I am going to take, quitting my job and turning down on the chance to buy a house in order to get a better education so I can get a better job and a better place to raise the kids in. But anything for my kids because they deserve a wonderful life.

Yesterday, I talked to the vice principal of Alex and Sky's former school. She was a HUGE bitch to start with. She started off denying that the bullying happened more than once. When I told her that Alex's teacher, Caleb's parents and Alex himself told me of more than one thing have already happened, she went on how safe the school was and that they had enough supervisior in the lunchroom and that Alex's classmates are very protective of Alex. But Alex's classmates are only 5-6 years old and they are not going to keep an eye on Alex all the time nor they should even be expected to. They are just children for pete's sake!! Then I told ehr that it doesn't matter because I still felt it was better to move the kids to another school. Alex has already said that he is willing to talk at another school and that the reason why he wouldn't talk at that school was because he was scared to. And guess what she said? She said "It sounds to me like Alex's running the show here." I nearly flipped on her!! I stayed calm while I explained that this is a hard thing for me to decide because there is not that many parents who have a child who chooses not to talk in school so I have a little support from a very few parents so I am mainly going with what I think is right for my child. She then said that it was my decision. Damn right, woman, it's my decision!! From the conversation, I saw a couple of things in her. She did not care about how Alex felt. She did not believe three people who have already said what happened. And worst of all, that boy is getting away with this. My sister in law thinks maybe she was friends of that child's family so that's why she's not even doing anything about it.

When I went back to the school to pick Alex's stuff up, Alex would not even step in the school. He demanded that I let him stay in the car while I picked his stuff up. Don't tell me that this child is not afraid of that school.

Being a mother means you have to confront idiotic people who obviously don't know what's the best for your child. Always listen to your insticts because it's always right. I'm glad I listened to mine.