On Monday, December 28th, Serafina was crying in her room. I thought she was upset because we were making her go on a hike, but what was bringing her to tears was the very thought of having to go back to distance learning the next week. I comforted her and gave her the same offer I've been giving since summer - I could homeschool. She paused and didn't answer right away. She had always said a quick "no" in the past. She confessed that she wanted to do homeschool but she didn't want to put more stress on me. I was very touched by her consideration but I assured her that I wouldn't have offered if I couldn't handle it. She said that "yes, she wanted to switch to homeschooling". We agreed to think about it for a couple of days, make a "pros and cons" list and do some research. I reached out to a neighborhood mom that chose to homeschool her 5th grader, one of Serafina's former classmates, and we had a super informative chat. We went to the teacher supply store and got some materials and workbooks. We created a daily schedule. This week she was supposed to go back to school on Tuesday, but instead I reported her absent and we took a couple days to do a test run of homeschooling. We both really like it. She no longer has to be on the screen all day, bored and not participating. We are deep diving in some of the topics that interest her (space, the American Revolution) and we are focusing on the areas where she could use more work.
We felt good about our decision so I emailed the principal on Wednesday night and officially withdrew her on Thursday. It's a little scary, of course, but it's only half the school year - a very strange school year at that. It's not how I envisioned either of our time at the elementary school would end, but it's definitely the right thing to do. There's no reason for her to be miserable day in and day out because of school. There's enough other things making each day hard to navigate.
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