School

I'd put this one off for a while. If I put it in writing it makes it seem too real.
Aaric is going to school this year. Real, away from our house, school, with a teacher other than myself. I figure some people who know me said things like, "well, duh, of course she couldn't pull it off," when they heard about the change of plans.
I think he could do WONDERFULLY homeschooled. And I do think that I could be a wonderful homeschool-mom. But I'm not sure that I can be the one to wonderfully homeschool HIM. His brain works too much like mine. ( see "ADHD and Me" from last October for a dazzling description of how my brain works) You'd think that maybe if his brain works like mine, that's a good thing, because I can teach him all my cool tricks for efficiency! You know what? One day when I learn those cool tricks, I'll get right on that!
I'm not entirely convinced that school is the perfect option for him. But I'm not any more convinced that homeschool is the perfect option for him right now, either.
His school is visible from our yard. It takes 10 minutes to walk there. It's a DOD school, and I have a friend who is a teacher at a DOD school, and she assures me that he'll be fine. They strongly encourage lots of parental involvement, which I plan to do as soon as I'm ready after the baby is born.
All that said, though, I'm totally freaked out. He's going to be leaving our little bubble on an almost daily basis. He'll be interacting with kids who I don't know and may not approve of. Who knows what all horrific things they're going to fill his brain with! He's going to learn that other kids don't fill their recycling bin more than their trash can. And that some people eat chips and cookies on a regular basis - not even organic ones!! He may even learn that some kids take MEDICINE when they're sick.
Then again - he just cut his finger a minute ago, and just walked up to me and held out his bleeding finger and said, "Look mom, I'm a vampire" and proceeded to lick his finger. So I'm sure there will be some corruption on all sides. Other parents probably worry about their kids playing with weird kids that THEY don't approve of, and the exact description they have in mind includes "vampire kids."

The good news is that I just managed to not hyperventilate when I signed the form consenting to all sorts of OTC meds. I didn't cave on the cough drops though. He's survived 6 years without cough drops - surely he can make it through K without them!