So, we've found a new school!

So after seeing my happy, go lucky daughter turn into a couch potato (I actually called her a pig in a blanket because she was all rolled up in a beige blanket at my Mom's Sunday morning...doing nothing after an overnight stay.)  Mom said she really didn't want to go anywhere (they were going to see a movie) or do anything.  She'd been like that for DAYS.  Just moping around.....sadness in her eyes.  I would send her off at school and watch her:  head down, walking slowly............looking so lost and sad. 

So Sunday when I saw her on the couch I said: THIS IS IT!  I stayed up all hours of the night researching new schools, weighing the Pro's and Con's....trying to decide if I was just going to pull her out and home school her...but then I'd have to do curriculum, buy books or other materials, be the "bad guy" with lessons.  UGH!   I didn't really want to go that route!

And then, out of nowhere.......this little Google search turned up AZ Distance Learning Academy. It's LIKE home schooling, but it's considered a charter school, so she's still enrolled.  They sit down with you and your child and figure out a curriculum designed for YOUR CHILD after TESTING them!  There are several different ways to deliver the material, again customized to hour your child learns best !!!!!  The teacher issues home work and tests, which you proxy at home.  The teacher can do Skype sessions for one-on-one tutoring and you send in attendance on Sunday night.  25 hours a week of study are required. But you do it all at home.....or anywhere with high speed internet access!  She can go from our house, to Nana's to Amy and Chelsie's!

Mac can go as fast as she wants to through the material!  She will be tested on-site four times a school year and she has to do AIMS testing there as well (state tests).  The best part?  They'll pay us $150 a semester reimbursement for private music or art lessons!  Plus all books and materials are free if returned.  WOW!

She found an Arts school she wants to go to in 7th grade....and we're going to talk to them about maybe going the year she'd be a 6th grader instead.  Her therapists both think skipping one grade is fine for her...so she may only do the Distance Learning for a few years, which is great. It's a solution for the in-between years left!

The good news is I found a school that we don't have to get her up for at the crack of dawn (which has been the main reason she's lost so much time historically!) as she can do this schooling from noon to 5 or 9-2 or 3 to 9: any day!  So we can do school on the weekend if we so choose!

When I told her that this would be her last week at her school, she started backpedaling, with the "well, I don't want to leave.  I'll be fine......." but after a wonderful session with Dr. Beth, who assured her that those feelings of anxiety were NORMAL for leaving a situation, she's doing a bit better now.  Still very anxious, she hasn't sleep well at all and has stayed home more this week than going.  But she's going to go tomorrow because she talked with Dr. Beth about closure....and how important that is.  So we are going to take treats to school and tell everyone that we've found a school which is better suited to Mac's needs and that she will miss (some) them. (Really, only one,  but we'll be nice!)

The new school called and I just need two more documents submitted and then next week we'll start the testing.  I'm going to fax those docs now so our adventure can begin............YEA to new beginnings!