At Last.. the first day!

Tom hard at work on Math Upgrade and Reading Comprehension Upgrade

Well, Day One of homeschooling is now complete! Although it was a great success. I am emotionally and physically exhausted. You see, I spent the entire weekend agonizing over doing this. Did I do the right thing? Will Tom miss his friends? What about his playing the saxophone. He has made much progress this year. I kept pestering my husband all weekend long. "Walter, are you sure you will continue to give Tom his sax lessons every week? I will make sure that he practices every day. He won't be taking them in school anymore. We also need to find him a new community group to play with. Let's make sure he plays a solo at the German Club Spring Concert so that he still has something to work towards. I was up two nights (no lie) questioning my own ability to do this, even though I just received a Masters Degree in Teaching and Learning Technology. On and on it went. Till this morning dawned. I got a call from the school. Apparently, the school nurse never got the memo. I'd sent my Letter of Intent and my letter withdrawing Tom from school days ago. "OK, Patty, This is your last chance to bail out". But I held firm. "No, I am sorry. I have withdrawn Thomas from school in order to homeschool him". Deep breath. "Oh, how nice", was the nurse's reply, "I wish you the best of luck and I hope he likes it". So we were off and running. Now to attend to Thomas, who was already waiting in our office (my husband has a piano tuning business)/computer room. I first asked him what he had been reading in school. He told me "Reading Raz" so I signed up for a trial membership. We tried the story Tom had been working on and he hated it. So much for that. Onto the computer program that his tutor recommended the other day. First he did "Math Upgrade" and liked it. He even sailed through place value up to a million, which is usually a problem for him. That was followed by two sections of "Comprehension Upgrade", which was also a hit with him. By that time, it was nearly noon and time to go to the Dyslexia Tutor. Now that we homeschool, we can see him earlier in the day. It made a difference. Tom was fresher and got most of his Dolch spelling words.
The best part of the day came when Tom said to me, "Mom, today I feel as though I learned something". I hope he can keep his positive attitude. Best of all, he still got invited to the annual Last Day of School Party that his friends and their moms usually hold. Time will tell how he will feel about this. He has fallen out with one or two of these kids this past year but is still friendly with others. I am off to listen to the saxophone concert in the living room. I will be back tomorrow!