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[quote=Anonymous]We have been limping through elementary school in DCPS with a smart kid who is just not able to function well enough even with help.  It's depressing and damaging to him and the rest of the family.  So we have been looking for private sped schools for middle school.  We cannot possibly afford to pay full freight, but with the help of financial aid, we could really really scrimp and save and make what has to happen happen.  It would be very hard and would be completely dependent on getting a significant amount of aid.  We will not get funded, it's just not going to happen.  The further concern is getting him to school every day and picking him up.  It would be very difficult to continue in my current job and also get him to and from school.  Aftercare would just make the traffic worse.  The closest school that could be a fit takes at last 35 minutes each way.  Then there's my other kid who would still need to be gotten to a separate school and picked up and is very sensitive to the idea of extra attention being paid to the sped kid.  At this point, I'm feeling like we should just homeschool already.  Not forever, but at least to repair some of the DCPS damage and just take a break.  My thought is that we would do the DC on-line charter school supplemented with homeschooling classes, field trips, and paying someone to spend some time with him, take him for athletic outings (swimming, biking), while I get work done.  Then we would have ample time to do therapies that are hard to fit around school hours and we wouldn't have to spend so much time repairing what happens at school.  Has anyone else thought of this and made it happen, decided against it.  Pros, cons that I haven't thought of?

Cons:  really worried about socialization -- would love to find another kid or 2/3 to do cooperative classes with -- I would be happy to conduct the classes, honestly, for the benefit of the socialization for my son.  Non-class activities would also be great -- meeting up for a trip to a museum, playing games together, etc.  Just something that was regular socialization in addition to getting together with his current friends.  Any ideas on finding these magical kids who would want to participate?  I've been searching websites but haven't seen any ones that seemed to hook people up in this way.

Having my son drive me crazy.  However, I somewhat feel that 2 hours in the car every day (at least) IN traffic (which I cannot STAND), would not necessarily be worse than monitoring his school work and taking him out.  I already have to monitor his homework (academically fine, but would prefer not to do it).  I would absolutely be paying for help to get him away which I still figure would be cheaper than even partial payment of private school.  Again, we don't have a lot of money, but I just can't watch another year of this, honestly.

Having my son be a huge pain about doing his work.  I'm hoping the on-line program helps with keeping the kids motivated?  He likes to learn in general, just likes his free time too.  Likes to jump around the house and play legos and be a kid.  I think the decrease of sheer amount of stuff in his day, and therefore more time for free time, would make plowing through his work better?  I'm sure there would be some awful days, but there are some awful days when he's at school too.

I know I'm missing some thinking here.  I feel like I'm letting the school system get away with failing to serve him.  I feel like I'm crazy for thinking I can take this on.  And yet I feel like I could, with professional help, do a lot of healing of his little soul and get him ready to rejoin some sort of group school situation.  Please be gentle.  I know it's not a perfect solution, but might it be the best one for a year or 2?[/quote]

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