Theater of the Soul

In the next few weeks, several changes will be coming to my world. Nothing earth shattering, but changes, nonetheless.

At the end of 2005, I was informed by one of the internet companies that I subcontract through that there will be a restructuring (good God how I hate that word) that will all but eliminate the need for me to perform the duties I was originally hired to do. I began working on the internet in 1989, so I have been through many restructurings, but this company was my first and best loved. I still have several other contracts that, for the moment, seem stable…but if there’s one thing I KNOW, it’s that these things can change at a moment’s notice.

Anyways, as most of you know, I also have a nice little position managing several properties for a friend. While this job alone will insure that we won’t end up in the poor house (and is much more stable than any of my contracts), it’s not something that I particularly enjoy doing and it’s not something I planned to do for the rest of my life. I will be graduating with a Associates degree in IT this summer and I’ve already started a dual Bachelors degree in Information Technology and Business Management. I’ve always had my eye on starting my own business when I graduate, thinking…wrongly…that I HAD to have a degree.

Now, after having spent a large portion of time in college, I’ve realized that I’m not learning anything I didn’t already know. I know that sounds conceited, but it’s the truth. I’m tutoring fellow technology students that are at the END of their degree requirements…they’re taking classes that I can’t even take yet because I haven’t fulfilled the prerequisites. I don’t really feel that my college experience has been wasted…higher education is NEVER a waste. I do, however, feel that I need to change my game plan a little bit. Up until now, finishing college has been my priority (after my children, of course). I’ll be reducing the number of classes I take each term from 4 to 2 and using the additional free time to plan a business. It will take longer for me to recieve that silly little diploma but I don’t have a problem with that now that I’ve convinced myself that I don’t need it yesterday.

I’m going to take a few baby steps this year towards the goal of starting my own web programming company, as well as another blog venture. Theater of the Soul will continue on the way it always has…as a depository for my drivel and silly memes…but I’ve begun working on another blog to reflect another change that will be taking place soon.

Many moons ago, I homeschooled my oldest son through second-grade. He wanted to try public school and, truth be told, I was relieved. Homeschooling was a very lonely endeavor for us because we didn’t fit in with any of the groups in our area. We’re not religious, we’re not salivating government school haters, I’m not a coddling ‘my child does no wrong’ type of mommy. I simply wanted to give my son a GREAT education…not involve myself with the peripheral issues that so often brings these people together. Booboo did well…with one small slip in grades last year when he figured out that the teachers don’t hold him accountable for not doing his homework. He didn’t do his homework for the last half of one entire term last year and they failed him without so much as a courtesy phone call to me. I hit the fucking roof, with both the school and the kid. I don’t expect the school to let him slide or make any accomodations for his obvious fuck up…but I DO expect someone to call me to at least warn me or find out what’s going on. Nothing. I considered pulling him out last year because I’m definitely not happy with the quality of work that he’s being allowed to get away with. He’s pulling A’s on essays that I CRINGE to read. I KNOW he is capable of better work than he’s getting away with. Math is his weak subject but he does pick up on the concepts with enough practice. His math teacher this year assigns very little homework and, as near as I can tell, grades the kids on a curve…which is enough to send me into a hissy fit. This school has supposedly made ‘HUGE strides’ in bringing up their standardized test scores…now I know how that’s happened.

The last straw was the report card that came home on Friday. He recieved an F in science, due to missing assignments from when he was out with the flu for a week. He got all of his missing assignments on the day he went back…unfortunately that was a day that he didn’t have Science, so he forgot to get them. I never accept ‘I forgot’ as an excuse, so his ass is grounded until progress reports come out next month again. But I am BEYOND pissed off at the teacher.

Saturday night I made the decision to pull Booboo out of public school and return to homeschooling. I tried to come up with reasons to leave him where he is, but I simply can’t justify it. I’m lucky enough to work at home the majority of the time and he’s independent enough to not rely on me for every bit of information fed into his brain. He’ll continue attending public school for now…I need time to get my shit in one sock and I need to decide whether taking him out in the middle of a year is a good idea. I ordered a Math curriculum this morning but I plan on going in a different direction with his Science, Lang. Arts and Social Studies stuff.

So hopefully, sometime within the next couple of weeks, I’ll launch a new blog geared towards non-traditional families like mine who are making the leap into homeschooling. By the time I do that, I should have everything all set to be a homeschooling mom again. Shortly after that, we’ll be (hopefully) moving to a new, larger apartment. Sometime during all this, I’ll be offering up a limited number of free website designs and/or hosting. If you’re willing to be a guinea pig, drop me an email.