This fall brings more changes to the Neepeople.  Jim and I made the decision to put the kids in the local public school this fall.  When Ana would have begun attending three years ago, the passing scores for reading and math were, frankly, abysmal.  A new prinicipal has arrived at the school and the scores have soared, from 60% of students passing to 90%.  The class sizes are said to be small and inappropriate behavior by students is not tolerated (according to my neighbors).

Before I went to back to work in January, I was able to get the kids out of the house and somewhat involved in the community several times a week.  That is now nearly impossible as I take the car to work and Jim has his own work responsibilities in the house.  The kids were spending most of their afternoons entertaining themselves, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but they were beginning to get on each others nerves quite a bit and we were becoming concerned with their abiity to have friends and “a social life” for lack of a better term.  It just doesn’t seem like a good way to live.  Kids, even good kids, can get into trouble when left to much to their own devices and we all need friends.  So, on we go.

The current plan is for them to attend the public school this year with an eye towards possibly transferring them to private school next year.  I am going to add a day of work to my schedule, with a different company that places therapist in the school system.  The pay is excellent and were I to go full time, we would likely be able to afford the expense of private school if we deem it necessary.  Working one day a week in a school gives me a chance to “try out” working in that setting before committing.

I am in a slight quandry mentally right now about the whole thing, as my work situation right now, while not terrible, is also not ideal.  My caseload this last month has been quite low, with an average of 2 to 3 patients every day, leaving me with two to three hours to kill each day.  This doesn’t seem particularly cost effective for the company I work for and I also feel a bit, well, useless.  I have no complaints about my co-workers or my supervisor; they are all wonderful people and the clients that I do have are wonderful people/families whom I truly enjoy serving as a speech language pathologist.  But, I could make twice the money working for the other company and work school hours to boot (with summers off!)

I am also concerned about my own “extra-curricular” activities, chanting at church and Sunday School.  I hardly practice chanting now  and not being a real musician, I really should.  Adding an extra day of work to the mix certainly isn’t going to give me more time to practice. The last few months of Sunday School last year saw me making last minute preparations each week.  Luckily our Sunday School has a rotation for teachers so that I teach three weeks on/six weeks off.  Still, it doesn’t seem right that the kids should get a bummer of  a lesson every time I teach.

And, of course, I am also dealing with a parent’s feelings around sending my kids to school for the first time, albeit a little later than most.  Will they get beat up?  Will they make friends?  Will David be a trouble maker in class?  I don’t have to worry too much about Ana on that score, she is way to concerned about “doing the right thing.”  David, however, marches to his own beat and sometimes thinks rules are for other people.  There is the sadness of knowing I won’t see them all day since I’ll send them to school at 8:30, report to work myself at 12:00 PM and not see them again till I get home from work at 5:30 PM(another reason to seriously consider switching jobs).  I do plan on volunteering at the school at least one morning a week.

Then, there is the weird, “letting go of homeschooling” thing going on.  It’s easy to get your pride up as a homeschooling parent because you constantly have to defend your decision to keep the kids at home.  Well now, we’re kind of just like everyone else.  We never “spit in the face” of regular schoolers, but I suspect that there was a bit of hidden pride in there, which is now feeling somewhat wounded, as if we failed our children somehow and everyone knows it.  Nyah, nyah, nyah.  Yes, I know it’s ridiculous.  But there it is, may God and all of humanity forgive me!

I do admit that there is a part of me looking forward to having a morning or two to myself.  This has been, ladies and gentleman, a difficult year.  I don’t want to re-hash it, but suffice it to say that I am a bit weary and could use a little time to decompress.  I am afraid I would start to get bored with so much time to myself every day, but a few weeks of spare time could definitely be put to use.  There are some writing projects that I could maybe re-address…if I even remember them.

I think that’s all the news that fit to print at the moment.  We here at neeopolis would certainly covet your prayers and good thoughts as we begin our latest adventure!