Where school seems to go on forever

Unlike most of the rest of the country, my kids are still in school. I know... it seems to last forever and yet it's never long enough! We've got one more week before they're out for the summer. This is the week of final exams. They go in at weird times, and leave at weird times. I have no clue when they should be where. I figure that it's their responsibility to get to their final exams on their own.  Once the exams are over, they're both going to be home all summer long. Yup, all summer long. Gulp!

I'm of mixed emotions. I have to admit, I love tossing the alarm clock and knowing that I won't have to see 6:30 am again until September.  Sleep is very important to teenagers and for a couple of months they'll get enough to keep them on a fairly even keel. I hope.

I also love having them around much of the time. Despite what you might have heard, I like my kids and I enjoy their personalities and their wit. Most of the time. I like doing things together with them, I like when their friends come over and I can eavesdrop on conversations and find out what the heck is going on in their lives. I like when they come up with bizarre ways to entertain themselves.

However, they eat like starving grizzly bears, they are the messiest human beings on earth, and they tend to argue. A lot. It's never nice and peaceful for very long around here. My son tends to entertain his friends here more than he ever goes anywhere else. There will be 2 or 3 day marathons of video games, shouting, eating the shelves bare, and taking over my house. I think it's better that they are here than if they were unsupervised someplace else. But OMG, the noise, the mess!

My daughter leaves school and the second she is off the property, every single thing she has learned all year empties out of her head. I've never seen anything like it. It's as if she does this brain dump in the parking lot. As summer progresses she gets dumber and dumber. By the end of summer I'm ready to scream in frustration. I must say "THINK" about 3 million times a day. She totally loses the ability to think, read, or write come summer.

Additionally, the school still have no clue of what they are going to do with her next year. It's her junior year. They want her to transfer to the other high school so they can wash their hands of her and not spend a penny on her special education needs. She has refused the transfer. I have refused the transfer. The school has no alternative. She is not registered anywhere for next year. Legally, the school has to follow her last signed IEP, which says she's enrolled in their school. So far they're refusing to do that. Which is against the law. To make matters worse? The social worker who has been working with her, and who we both like, just lost her job due to budget cuts. Today was her last day. So my kid doesn't have anyone to represent her best interests. She gave me the name of some other person whom I've never met and is male, who will be taking over for the social worker. I'm so unhappy about this.

Thus this will be, for me, the summer of lawyers and lawsuits. So looking forward to this. Not. But it has to be done. She has to be in school. We've been homeschooling and it's not the best option for my ultra-social kid. If we have to, we'll continue to do so, but I'm going to make the school let her do math and science there. I can't teach either math or science at home.

Summer is also the time when I become a professional chauffer for my kids. "Mom, take me here." "Mom, I need it NOW". This will be the last summer, because they'll finally turn 16 at the end of August and then the fun really begins.

Driving lessons.

Oh lord, kill me  now.

So maybe I shouldn't be so anxious for school to be over after all. I can't even imagine what kind of hell it will be once they learn to drive.

Comments

[suburbancorrespondent]

Brain dump - ha! That's good.

I think the noise and the mess are why all us Derfwad Manor fans are clamoring to join the Women's Colony.

[Ilona]

You have your hands more than full. Good lord.

Good luck with the lawyer-ing up. When lawyers are involved, a summer isn't very long to get the necessary accomplished. Can't do this sort of stuff without them, but lordy, they're SLOW.

In this school district, if a child can't attend school for any reason (and I would assume a school's refusal to take them would be one), they are obliged to provide tutoring. It doesn't provide the social stuff she likes, but it would give her the math and science...

[Devilish Southern Belle]

Wow, that really sucks about the school. I'd be going after them, too!

I have a 15 y.o. and a 14 y.o. My 15 y.o. just got his learner's permit, and now we begin the task of teaching him to drive. I'm skeered.

[janice]

Good luck with the lawyers and the drving lessons.

[Daisy]

Lawyers and Driving Lessons and IEPs -- oh, my! I'd like to wish you a good summer, but it might sound sarcastic, as such an occurence might be unlikely.

[pippi]

Just hold to your heart the belief that you are the mother this kid needed. What would have happened to her with someone else? Someone who would actually give in instead of fighting. Keep your chin up! And make sure YOU get some fun this summer too.