Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A series of unfortunate events........

One of the first questions most people ask me when they find out my minions are not in public school is WHY?  I was familiar with homeschooling the thought had crossed my mind on numerous occasions but like most my minions were in public school. I was too busy to homeschool, I wanted a career.
So why did I??
Let me tell you about a series of unfortunate events…..

When we moved to the city the minions (except Bug, she was still a baby) were enrolled in a public school only 4 blocks from our house, we thought it was a stroke of luck. Now living in this particular city was very different from the cities we had been in before within the first three months we had seen, heard and dealt with more violence than any other city we had been in, We brushed it off as "it's the city what can you expect."
    Summer holidays came and went and Zed was going to middle school, a different school than King Connaher and Willowtree. He was so excited!  There was going to be a bit of a bus ride on the city bus, but it was for students only the “School Special” they called it. Unfortunately the bus driver had a problem with the student only policy and let other passengers on all the time. The first disaster was a drunk who vomited all over the bus, then there was the junkie who wouldn't leave the kids alone and another junkie who freaked out and stole some kids backpack and terrified the whole bus. We complained every time and were given various excuses and told that we could always take him ourselves.     
    Meanwhile Willowtree had been having some bully issues at her and king Connahers school, we had been to the school a few times and the school was not doing a thing about it.
     Samhain was coming and one week before our favourite holiday one of my worst nightmares happened.  King Connaher and Willowtree were walking home from school about a block from our house when a guy in a beige van pulled up and ask them if they wanted a ride, they kept walking. Then he pulled up closer to the curb and asked them if they wanted some candy and held up some chocolate bars. They started to run and were screaming “Get away from me Stranger!! After I called the police I called the school to alert them and they brushed it off saying “this close to Halloween it could have been some one in the spirit” not even caring to alert the parents of the other students of this potential danger.
    At Zeds school there were some very disturbing events going on. He would come home with stories of fights being broken up by staff using excessive violence. Then Zed got into a fight at school it was a minor scuffle with some pushing, no punches were thrown and it was over before the teachers showed up to break it up but for some reason Zed and the other boy were very roughly physically restrained. Now I was pissed!! NO ONE puts there hands on MY CHILD!! We went to the school to deal with it and were told that the teacher was sorry and it wouldn't happen again but with what they had to deal with on a daily basis it was to be expected. What a load of BULL!!
     At this same time King Connaher was invited to start at a new school, his artistic talents had been noticed and he went to a special program in a different school to foster these skills.
    A few weeks later terror struck our city when a little girl was sexually assaulted in her school bathroom. I was horrified and even more disgusted when I found out how close this had happen to our school and that day they let the kids walk home even tho the monster had not yet been found. I called the principle to inquire why? He told me it wasn’t his school it had happened at and not a big deal that the kids had walked home! Willowtree never went back!! She was enrolled as a home school student the next week.    
     Awhile later a boy at Zeds school walked out into the crowded hallway during class change and slit his wrists from hand to elbow. That was the last straw now Zed was being homeschooled as well. 
    So that is the answer to Why I home school my minions, a series of unfortunate events led to the most wonderful adventure of our lives so far…… Oh and what of King Connaher you might ask…. Well he finished out the year at his new school but come fall the next year he wanted to be at home with the rest of the minions having a blast. So hubby and I decided that all of the minions would be homeschooled from then on.

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