Thursday, August 23, 2007

Zero Hours of Quiet

So it is mid-day, but things did not work out as planned.

See... first Hubby called and asked me to bring him something he desperately needed.

Then the middle school called to tell me that Brian was no longer enrolled because the Charter School that he wants to attend requested his records. Brian is sitting in the office and I need to pick him up. "The Charter School never called you? That's strange."

Hubby calls to ask me if I can attend Frankie's IEP meeting tomorrow at 2:30. I burst into tears about how I haven't been able to get work done; he's been working all day and most of the evenings and I have been with the kids non-stop; about how long I had been looking forward to having this morning to myself, but don't because BRIAN ISN'T ENROLLED IN SCHOOL ANYMORE! Hubby attempts to be helpful, but I get off so that I can call the Charter School.

Charter School is surprised that the Middle School un-enrolled him as they only asked for grades and attendance record to consider him for admission. The nice woman expresses concern about Brian's past attendance. I tell her how much he wants to go. He does, by the way. He has been asking to go there since his anxiety issues got bad in the spring, and he went to see his friend in a school-related recital. She says he may enroll.

So I pick up Brian, drive him to the Next Town Over, wondering about car pools and how often I am going to have to make this 20 minute drive, and take him to the Charter School. We fill out paper work, buy uniforms (store for pants, in-home business for polo shirts embroidered with logo), get lunch, and get home at about the time when Brian would have come home if he had gone to school as planned.

The Charter school is a done deal and it is probably the very best thing for Brian. Okay, so it is not as diverse as his school. He's been going to schools that are 50% Hispanic for 8 years now. The Charter School is still a public school. It's not all white. And so what if it is 20 minutes away. We know at least one other family who attends and they are already in a car pool. Of course Hubby may not be able to drive very often, but I won't have to drive all the time either. And I bet they have never had to lock down because someone brought a gun to school.

And it is an arts school. Brian will have drama and music every day. Brian loves drama and band has always been one of his favorites. He is academically gifted, but soically awkward and he is convinced that he will "fit in" at the charter school for the arts. He already knows a couple of kids who go there. The child psyciatrist (whom Brian sees because ADD meds give him panic attacks and we ain't putting him on nothing else without a bono fide expert monitoring him) and the child counselor both have said that they have seen kids like Brian do much better at schools like these.

So we are going to give it a try. He has to go full days, and he can't leave in the middle of the day with mysterious anxiety-related symptoms. He just can't. Brian though is happy and excited. He doesn't even mind about the uniforms.

So I hope it works for him. The school has recently added high school, so he could continue to attend if it works out for him.

I'm trying to be excited for him. All I can think of at the moment though is my own time crunch.

Oh, and I just got an email reminding me that tomorrow night is PFLAG business meeting. That of course was when I was planning on painting Frankie's room so that he could move in on Saturday morning. Brian and Andrew are not complaining about sharing a room in front of Frankie, but I can see the stress building.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about zero hours. I know how much you were looking forward to it.

    Will you have some quiet time tomorrow during the day?

    ReplyDelete
  2. does this mean you can or can't carpool with the other family in your town? 20 minutes one way is a big chunk of time daily!

    ReplyDelete

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