J worked on "Fourth Grade in Review" today, unscrambling state names and practicing multiplication problems. When it was time for silent reading she chose the Colonial Times book again. She was horrified to read how humiliating school could be back then, with dunce caps, whispering sticks, and signs you had to wear. We went to the playground after picking up W and she bought 3 churros from the churro-cart-lady (with her own dollar). It is getting way to cold for the playground. W has Picture Day tomorrow (actually it was today but I forgot his envelope). The teacher promised me she'd take him before he eats lunch so his shirt isn't splotched with tomato sauce and chocolate milk in the picture. LOL. In the evening all 3 kids went to Musical Theater class. W is still reluctant to participate with no other boys in the class. He does end up joining them 20 minutes before class ends, though. I guess it's too much to just sit back and watch from the side.

I have been giving more thought to homeschooling K. I spoke with B and my mom and after 30 minutes of talking, THEY ACTUALLY AGREE WITH ME! K has been nothing but a ball of stress this year and she is pulling away from her family. When she gets home from school, she unloads all her angst and anger onto us. She has gone from being a polite, caring, perfect child, to a nasty, sneaky, lying, disrespectful kid who only cares about clothes, friends, and boys.

I want my daughter back. K is adamant about being in school, though. I need her to realize there is so much MORE out there for her. She has a wonderful sense of self-motivation and taught (unschooled) herself so many things - how to knit, how to do HTML and make great websites, how to play guitar, how to cook, etc. She has the desire to learn and took the steps to find things out. I am seeing that slowly disappearing. As soon as I receive The Teenage Liberation Handbook in the mail I'm giving it to her to read. Now that I have family support, I feel I can put more effort into convincing K that this is the right thing to do. But how can I do that? She lives in a school clique fantasy world that has this vice-grip on her. I have to go about this very slowly and carefully - I feel like one wrong move will ruin everything. I'm going to start with taking her out of school for outings every few weeks. I am starting up read-alouds with her again. I forgot how much she loves that. Tonight we started Little Women and she listened so intently and when she was about to fall asleep she puckered up her lips to kiss me goodnight. I don't remember the last time she offered me a goodnight kiss. All it takes is a little sign like that to let me know I'm on the right path.