SEEING THROUGH THE 'CAMOUFLAGE'

If you read my last post, you know then that in pursuit of public home school for Alex, we are in a position now that requires us to consider it for Diego instead. We have been thinking through having Diego at home for school versus having Alex at home.  We have come up with  many good reasons why it is better to bring Diego home for school than Alex. Perhaps the most important is the amount of pressure that will be on me versus the school. If I took Alex home I would have a lot more pressure on me to perform and heaven forbid it did not work. 

It makes a lot of sense for many reasons to have Diego home. 

• He is very close to grade level; 1-1 teaching would likely prove all he needed to prevent him from dropping further behind.
• What if the program did not work for Alex and he got even further behind.  The first year we were Bentonville schools, they felt that Alex was behind only because we were in Decatur Schools and so they did not take his disability seriously; cannot risk this happening again with a program we haven't tried even though it has great feedback.  
• One of my fears in bringing Alex home was that school would be less apt to help Diego, because they would expect I would take him home if all failed. Could I handle both at home? 
• Alex is much more driven by people and competition, home will not give him this
• Diego is not as social and does not care so much if others are around him, he is going to do what he wants because he wants to rather than work to please or compete.
• Alex has excellent behavior and is very easy going for others who teach him, rarely has a complaint on behavior.
• Diego is always in trouble for not following directions.
• Alex has hearing aids now and we are feeling that the school has been putting out more for him since we have gotten them.
• Diego's hearing is still not severe enough for hearing aids; He will be harder for us to make sure he is given the appropriate attention in the public domain.
• I have already established myself and my views with respect to Alex's disability with the school personnel.   I have not had much opportunity to involve myself for Diego, because it was so difficult for me to carry the load for both of the kids in school.
• By having one of them home (regardless of which), I will only have to worry about helping one child with home work after school (homework was a disaster to me this year, because there is so much of it, both of them require the one on one help to complete it, and there is only one me.

I think that it is key that Diego's number on the wait list is 3, because it will give us just enough time to think out the reality of the situation, before we jump in with both feet w/o return. Likewise, if he made it and was not on the wait list, I may have turned it down without thinking about it.  If Alex made it, we would have never thought things out in the reverse respect; we have only thought about only Alex or both. We are thinking it looks good now and will likely remain a good thing.