School

Let's just say that Daniel is not an easy child to "place" academically.  In age, he is fourteen, and his physical appearance more-or-less matches his age.  In behavior, it depends on the circumstances.  In friendship, at least in China, he gravitated towards adults or kids who were several years older than he is.  In math, he might be around a second-grade level.  In reading, he is working on kindergarten skills.  In science and other practical skills, he knows quite a lot about some things, but there are random gaps in his knowledge.  In receptive English language, he's an infant.

I am still figuring out his prior school experience.  From what I've learned so far, it seems to have been much more vocational than academic.  I know the students spent time making handicrafts, and that they helped to cook their own lunch.  They do not seem to have spent much time actually in class.  Daniel is very fond of some of his teachers, but has not said anything about any of his fellow students.  When I told him the other day that he would want to know some English when school starts here so that he can talk to his classmates, he told me that he never chatted with his fellow students in China because "they were all know-nothings, even stupider than Esther."  (I don't think he intended that last as a comment on Esther's intelligence, but to say that they knew less than a four-year-old.)

For the last several weeks, I've spent the mornings doing homeschool with Daniel and Esther.  First we go outside for an hour (if we get out the door early enough, which we often don't!).  Then we study together for half an hour, mostly pre-reading activities although I have also worked with them on recognizing different coins and understanding how they compare in value.  Then I have them take turns playing educational computer games while I work with the other one individually for half an hour each.  Then we end together again by doing calendar and miscellaneous stuff.  It has provided some much-needed structure to our days (our boy does not do well when he's at loose ends!), allowed Tim uninterrupted work time, and helped me get a handle on where Daniel is academically.

Some things I have learned from our summer homeschool:
--Neither child is willing/able to do very much work independently.  Both do quite well when I can work with them one-on-one, but we have had some issues with them inciting each other to naughtiness when I am working with them together.
--It is hard for me to find time to adequately prep; I don't know how I would manage to prep for more than the two hours a day that we do!
--Daniel is faster than Esther at learning alphabet letter names, but still slower than I would have hoped.  (After about fifteen days of several-times daily reviewing the 26 letters of the alphabet, he still only knows some of their names.  This would be remarkable for a kindergartner, but I was hoping it would go faster for a teen!)  Daniel has no trouble associating meaning with words (he will look at "Dad" and read "Father"), but it takes a lot of repetition for him to remember what they sound like in English.  He memorizes his sight words very quickly.
--I don't think Daniel has ever been taught to be methodical about learning.

There would certainly be some benefits to homeschooling Daniel, but there are some drawbacks as well, to wit:
--I don't have a car most days (we are a one-car family), so would have no way of getting him and Esther to homeschool events.  I'm a little less worried about giving them chances to socialize than I would be with just Esther, since they do interact well with each other, but I'm still not keen on the idea of being completely homebound for their education.
--Daniel's English acquisition is going sooooooooo slowly, and I think the fact that he can speak Chinese with me is a large part of the reason.  I don't want to stop speaking with him in Chinese because it's great for his emotional adjustment to be able to communicate with his family, but I think being in an all English-speaking environment will give him a needed kick in the pants to start actually using English to communicate.  He is interested in English and tries to pick up words and phrases, but...needing to use it is a much more effective motivator than wanting to use it.
--If we homeschooled, I'm just not sure how I would manage to give Daniel the amount of one-on-one time he needs academically without parking Esther in front of a screen for more hours than I'm comfortable with.  But sending her to preschool every day would be daunting logistically due to the car issue above.  I'm also not sure when I would find the time to prepare for teaching Daniel, especially given that Tim will be more busy once his classes start back up!

So, we are sticking with our original plan of sending Daniel to our local middle school in seventh grade.  Some of our reasons have changed, but I still think it's our best option for the moment.  That will give him six years rather than four to "finish" high school; I don't see any way that he could be at a high school level academically by the time he hits twelfth grade, but hopefully the two extra years will be of benefit.  Meanwhile, he won't be enough older than his classmates for them to think much of it.  I don't know whether or not he'll make friends, given his experiences in China, but at least he's not likely to feel let down if he doesn't.  I can't enroll him until next week, when the guidance office re-opens, but based on previous conversations I believe that they are going to test him not only for English but for special education services.  I'm not quite sure how they plan to do that with a non-English-speaking student, but any extra help they can qualify him for will be great.  At the very least he will get pull-out ESL instruction twice a week, have an IEP to address his vision needs, and be steered towards classrooms that have more than one teacher.  I'm hoping for pull-out instruction in reading and math as well, since seventh-grade lessons are going to go right over his head.  And I will continue to work with him at home on basic skills.  He will probably think that's torture, but...he'll live!

Anyway, back to summer homeschool: Daniel had his first really good day today!  We had fun when we were first getting started, but he and Esther were a little wild together.  And there have been some days when I was about ready to tear my hair out by the time the morning was over.  After a particularly bad day on Friday I put some thought (and prayer!) into how to make this work, and decided to have a written lesson plan each day of all the activities I wanted to accomplish, and give each child a star for each activity they complete successfully (success being things like following directions, focusing, not complaining, and not rolling around on the floor).  They have to get a certain number of stars in order to eat ice cream in the afternoon, and even more in order to eat two ice creams.  (Our ice creams are small.)  This method seems to be working for them.  (Now watch tomorrow be a disaster!  Ha.)  But I was SO PLEASED today that Daniel was engaged in studying, followed directions, and didn't (so far as I remember) even complain once!  Esther didn't have such a good day, but I know she is capable of it, so...hopefully tomorrow!