The Elf

I've just emailed the director of special services in our school district, inquiring about the process to enroll a special needs child. I've asked in my email if there is a way we can transition him into classes slowly and not formally have him enrolled until next school year.

That, I think, should give us enough time for testing and maybe my helping to patch up the inevitable gaps we're going to find in Elf's schoolwork. We all have them, and I'm not following their curriculum, so there you go. I'm sure the school peeps will figure out that he can read and understand almost anything but has trouble spelling. Will that mean they don't think he's sixth grade material next year? Or will they want to hold him back? He can do simple sentence diagrams and tell you the difference between "let" and "leave." Please tell me that counts for something!

We had such an awful experience in the elementary school that that would mean he'd likely have another year at home if they wanted him to repeat fifth grade at the building where he was treated badly. Yep, I'm a picky parent, and if I don't at least get my way on the IMPORTANT things, well... I'm just gonna take my kid and go home.

There will be innumerable smaller things, unjust things, unfair things, that I'm going to have to learn to just deal with when Elf goes through them. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for that. Reminding myself that in this district, the people in the middle school were not mean to my older children.

Did I like or agree with everything they did? Um, no. They didn't do anything horrid, though. But it's been almost four years since my children have gone to this middle school. I hope things have not changed too much, or if they have, that they have all magically changed for the better.

In this era of reduced funding, maybe I am just fooling myself. But I sort of have to to get by. Elf is my very heart, but he needs to learn to have as regular a life as possible. And that's going to mean dealing with at least some unfairness.

I'm not really looking forward to it. D says it will be less work as I will have one fewer homeschooler, but this is not true. I will still be teaching all the same lessons AND juggling yet another school/bus schedule. I'm freaking out just thinking of the bus ride, let alone how the rest of the day is gonna go.

Here all I have done is email someone, and I'm already frazzled. :(