My Foray Into Alternative Schooling

Next week, school starts.

Well...maybe for everyone else in the valley.

Colter and Annika are victims to my inherent tardiness and persistent procrastination when I decided to explore an alternative option for their education...last week. I wish I could say that the epiphany was mine. Instead, it was actually Jud who, after seeing a TV ad, mentioned that maybe Anni would be interested in it. One thought led to another and next thing I knew, I was on the internet enrolling both children for the Idaho Virtual Academy.

They were out of town visiting a cousin for a week in Montana so they didn't know about my grand scheme. I'm not sure that I knew what my grand scheme was either, for that matter.

The idea had merits though I have never considered home-school as an option mostly because I considered myself ill-equipped for the role of a teacher.

And to my own kids no less.

Surely, this could only lead to a certain degree of bloodshed.

I pressed forward in, more or less, state of denial. While I did attend an Ask-a-Grad webinar and and in-person information seminar in Idaho Falls, I ignored the calls from the K12 organization. I skimmed the follow up emails, and I completely disregarded the important email about the upcoming enrollment deadline for the August 24th start date.

The only redeeming aspect of my behavior was that I graciously offered this as an option to my children instead of telling them that it's my way or the highway.

Annika was, surprisingly, an easy sell. Though hesitant at first because she didn't want to miss out on her friends who will follow her into 6th grade, the information we received during the seminar swayed her. She's a great student, highly motivated and agreeable. I have no doubt that she would fit into this program seamlessly. I did ask her what it was that made her decide to choose the program.

"I liked that I'll be able to learn more stuff." she replied.

Colter is the polar opposite of his younger sibling. At 14 and entering high school, he struggled  academically from an early age. Into his 5th grade year, we belatedly realized that he had ADD and Tourettes Syndrome, a tic disorder, that we had wrongly attributed to allergies and sinus issues for a very long time. Even then, we resisted the label and made only half-hearted attempts to put him on medication.

Fast forward to the present day.

While we know a little more about his condition, we have felt like unwittingly incompatible parents to a baby that was  dropped at our doorstep. We tried all sorts of logical avenues that failed to bring any real improvement–not just to his academic achievements–but to our relationship with this very special but seemingly misunderstood child of ours. In short, we've failed to figure out what makes our son tick and at this point, I was willing to try one more thing that I have yet to (or dared to) try before: home school.

So....

I have one that's eager and the other–not so much. Today, I received the approval notification for Annika. She starts on August 29th and we are excited for her materials to arrive. Because she has no special needs, her coursework is pretty standard. Colter will start out at the local high school for the next few weeks. I hope that this will make the transition into virtual academia a little easier for him (and for me).

In the meantime, I continue to push forward and check on Colter's status which may take a little longer to process because of his IEP needs. I am navigating my way through the online school's website to familiarize myself with a dizzying amount of information. I compile a list of questions to address with our school liason.

I tell myself that I can do this, take a deep calming breath, and pray for the best.