Schooling

I ended up being more sick than I thought! I think I was just in denial and hoping it would get better on its own. I went to the doctor, and she said it had moved into my chest.. my glands were still really swollen (and the lump on my neck was in fact a lymph node).. I had fluid in my ears.. all sorts of non-fun stuff! I was put on an antibiotic, inhaler, and told to take Mucinex. I felt better within just a couple days! I'm very glad I went because of that and because the shortness of breath was a little scary! I still feel short of breath occasionally, if I really exert myself, but overall I'm back to being well again.. thank goodness! I have to say too that I *SO* enjoyed the time with only my kiddos. Most of the time, I really wish that we could afford for me to be home with only them.

Westen had a couple of issues with school lately... He hasn't been wanting to go. :-/ That always throws up a red flag for me, because I figure there has to be a reason he doesn't want to go. His teacher sent home flashcards with letters on them for him to work on, and he has absolutely not wanted to. I tried to do some fun things with them, and I've tried to work on letters with him before, but he is just NOT interested. I'm wondering now if that's why he wasn't wanting to go.

I had bad school experiences.. I loved the learning, but I hated just about everything else about it. My mom made me go anyway, and I know for a fact all of it impacted who I am now.. not so much in a positive way. She says now that she would do it differently.. and I also intend to, if it should ever come up with my kids. However, this recent issue with Westen made me realize it's much more complex than I thought! He wouldn't tell me why he didn't want to go, so I couldn't decide if he really shouldn't go or if he just didn't feel like going that day. (I didn't tell my mom at first either, though..) I ended up keeping him home one of the days, and he ended up wanting to go later! So much so that he threw a pretty big fit about it & kept asking why I wouldn't let him go! (It was too late by then, but he didn't understand that!)

I also recently read a blog post by someone who had been homeschooled and had attended school.. It was really interesting, and I wish I could find it to post the link but I can't. Anyway, I've read some about unschooling too, and it all has me questioning the whole institution.

I'm also facing this myself, since I just started school again. I do love college for the fact that it was SO much different than any other school experience I had. I was actually able to THINK and learn what I wanted to. I have also had some bad college experiences (in my first Master's program actually), though, so that plays into all of this too. I went to my first class last night, and I am looking forward to the learning and exploration... but I just don't know how I feel about GRADING and all that. Grading = Judgment. The instructor seems pretty cool, but you never know. So far, it seems much better than my previous program, so I'm hopeful!