Monster Man's birthday is September 6, just a few days after the cut-off date for our school system. As a result, he started off school a year behind most of the kids his age. While this may have benefited many other kids, it wasn't the case for Monster Man. He taught himself to read before pre-k, catching on to the reading lessons I was giving to Angel Baby. By kindergarten, he had surpassed his sister's reading level and was actually reading (and understanding) books from the Harry Potter series. His skills in math were advanced, as well, so he quickly became bored in school.
Last school year, we made the decision to pull him out of school and homeschool him using Georgia Cyber Academy, which allowed him to work at his own pace. Since he was already advanced, GCA allowed him to complete both the 3rd and the 4th grade at home. He returned to public school this school year in the 5th grade.
Prior to his diagnosis of Tourette Syndrome, and before he started having so many problems as a result of his TS, we had no doubt in our minds that we'd done the right thing for him. As he started struggling more with short-term memory, numerous tics, and his OCD leading him to believe that he was doing poorly in school just because he wasn't getting all A's, we began to question if even being back in public school was the right thing for him at all. Thankfully, he had teachers that were more than understanding and were able to work with him in just the ways that he needed.
I am pleased to announce that Monster Man completed both the 5th grade and elementary school on Thursday! We are working on ways to improve his memory or to overcome the issues he was having with forgetting things (sometimes even forgetting to turn in work he had completed), such as writing more down in order to keep track of what he needs to get done. He is looking forward to starting middle school in the fall!
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