This year we put him in a brand new charter school that was hyped up to be AMAZING. Long story short, it didn't turn out to be amazing and actually had a LOT of problems. The daily routine was similar to jr. high with 7 or 8 different subject classes each day with as many teachers instead of one homeroom. Initially, I thought this might be a "pro" because our little man has had difficulty focusing at his desk all day in the past, but it turned out that having one teacher to monitor behavior and progress throughout the day is crucial to these younger kids especially. Behavior and even accountability to do schoolwork is out the window when nobody is right there to guide all the way through the day. Every subject's teacher would have to be accountable for every single student in the school, since they teach every grade a period every day. ANYWAY, we got him back into the neighborhood school only a block away, but it almost didn't happen. The transition and ease of agreement with his other household was awesome. I couldn't have hoped for a better conversation as we talked about it, and I was a little worried that they would blame me since I was the one who came up with the idea of having him go to this "wonderful new school" in the first place. (They taught Spanish and sign language and monthly hands on field trips... sounded great!) But I underestimated them, and I'm so glad we all just want the best for our son.
At his flag football games, I've had a little more interaction with his mom than normal, and it too has all been good. Maybe I need to just let go of my gun-shy-attitude that results from past hurt. I'm sure I've hurt her in some way or another in the past too.
