Prior thoughts, found on this echo from Chris Gilliland 
to Zaynab Richmond on 09-12-96  05:43:
 
Hi, Chris... it is me, late again, but I finally figured out which mail
packet had my old h/s messages in it. :)
 CG> Here our school system seems OVEReager to medicate!  :(
I am just wondering, how does the /school system/ do this?  Do they have
a doctor on staff?  Do they write letters to the children's doctors, or
what?  Here, the school system has /nothing/ to do with a decision to 
medicate.  Even with Cimeron's very obvious hyperactivity problems, not
one school teacher or administrator has ever asked me to get medication
for her.  Yet, I hear people in other states saying things like this
all the time.  Please, tell me, what is going on out there?? 
 
 ZR> All the children in the class were expected to
 ZR> do the same kind of work and my son and his different drummer were a
 ZR> big challenge to the teacher because he  was just refusing to fit in! 
 ZR> (He went to Kindergarten for 1/2 the year  because he requested to have
 ZR> the experience of it, and he ended up requesting  to stop going because
 ZR> other kids in the class were being physically cruel to  him and the
 ZR> teacher couldn't stop it.)
 CG> This is so sad.  How old is he now?  Did he take it personally?
He is six now.  I don't know if he took it personally, but he really loves
that teacher... and is still very adamant about not wanting to be in public
school.  We go down to the school to use their library once a week... and
he looks forward to seeing the teacher then.
 CG> started to entertain thoughts of home-schooling.  It may still be an
 CG> option if things start to backslide!  ;)  Are regulations tough, as
 CG> I've heard? I've heard that they follow the same regulations as home
 CG> daycare! Would you know if this is true?
What state are you in?  I only know about California homeschool law, but
might be able to find out something about other states from my internet
connections.
 ZR> he did  get the order right -- he just did the whole word backwords so
 ZR> it reads:  "noolas".  I didn't tell him -- he was so pleased with this
 ZR> project he went to sleep with it last night.
 CG> This is SO cute!  He must've been SO proud of himself!  :)
Yes... since he made that wild-west town, he has also made quite a few
other buildings.  It started with his Taco Bell, which remains one of
his best paper-building creations.  Then he made an airfield complete
with control tower, and a few other things.  While we were reading
_Norman the Doorman_ (read it about 4 times last week) he created a
"Museum of History" which features a nicely-decorated back porch area. :)
Then he found a broken video tape and used the tape for telephone wires.
It is nice, but space consuming and messy.  Oh well.. that's the price
we pay for having creative kids. 
 
 CG> That's one of the reasons (*too* many,
 CG> unfortunately...) that my husband feels that I can't homeschool.  I
 CG> have a short attention span, "Huh?  What did you say?  Care to repeat
 CG> that?", can't concentrate,"Don't ask me to do that right now, I can't
 CG> think...", lose things constantly, "Where did I put those keys???",
 CG> and am occasionally short-tempered. Other than that... (shrug).  Once
 CG> my daughter was diagnosed, I did some reading up and found a lot of
 CG> similarities between us and our 'behavior'. I'm STILL trying to get
 CG> myself tested! 
I don't homeschool for 4 hours straight anyway... perhaps I'm a lot like
you... but we do little bits and pieces all day long.  Sometimes we watch
something on the Learning Channel late at night (ten-ish) and I'll add that
to my list of things that count towards Aaron's schoolwork.  He couldn't
take doing it non-stop either.  He does one project at a time.. then plays,
and when I get myself back on task, if he is ready we start on another
project.  Somehow, during the day, we generally come up with enough hours
of genuine learning activity.  The homestudy office is supportive of this
kind of teaching.  Personally, I believe that my son is getting a /much/ 
better education than he would at school.  I try to teach him at /teachable/
moments, taking into account /his/ mood... it isn't done by the clock or
by teacher's schedule.  It is the times when he is emotionally available
for learning that we actually do things together.
 CG> Also, while we're on the subject, do parents find it necessary to put
 CG> a homeschooled child on meds.?
Never heard of it...
Zaynab
... It's not hard to meet expenses, they're everywhere.
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