Zachary's Schooling

While I was looking into enrolling Zachary into TXVA (virtual public school) I discovered that there was another virtual public school in Texas. This one is called Connections Academy and is offered through the Houston ISD to all students in the state of Texas.

After reading more about CA (Connections Academy) they offered more in the way of gifted education. They have a gifted Math, Science and Language Arts course. The school is for 3-8 grades. I contacted them and they said they would except Zachary is they thought his course of study this year was equal to 2nd grade. Well, I knew he would get in. I started gathering all the paper work. One of the papers they needed to enroll Zachary was a letter signed by my local school district superintendent.

I took the letter to get signed. I called to see if he had signed it and he wanted to talk to me. He said that he needed to let his legal team look at it before he signed it because it was a blanket statement that covered all students in his district. I told him it wasn't and it was only for Zachary. He said he would call me back.

He called back and told me about another virtual school program that was really good and I should check into that for Zachary. I did check into it and it is for High School students. I told him this and he said "Oh, I didn't know". Then why did he suggest it for my 7 year old son? UGH!

So, he called me back a few times. We exchanged words as to me saying that the public school didn't do anything for Zachary's academic needs and him saying they did. He doesn't know what really happened in Kindergarten. He called me back and said he wasn't going to be signing that paper. That he didn't want any kid in his district to be going to another school that was out of his district. That the schools here offered an excellent education. However he did say that the district didn't have the funds needed to provide the gifted classes that this virtual school offered. His other concerned was over the funding. If Zachary goes to CA then Houston ISD getting the funding for Zachary and not the local school district. He didn't want his funding money to go to another district. I told him that right now he wasn't getting any funding for Zachary anyway and that he was more concern about the money then my son's education. At first he said he wasn't but then he agreed he was. It all came down to MONEY.

So, without his signature Zachary can not attend CA. So, I completed the enrollment for TXVA. Zachary is currently set up to attend TXVA next year. He will also be in 3rd grade. We have gotten a one year grade skip for Zachary, however I don't think that will be enough for Math. I am going to try to get him into 4th grade math.

I am not happy with the way the current superintendent has delt with this issue. To put MONEY ahead of a child's education is not right. My child may not be attending the local school district right now but may be in the future. It will be with my voting that I will change my local school district.

Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary

Mark and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on April 17. We left the kidos with his sister, Alison. We then traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana for a long weekend. We arrived at Sam's Town, who had comp. our room for both nights, check-in and then headed to the steak house.

The steak house was great! It was very nice and quiet. Mark had the Ribeye and I had Blackend Snapper with a crawfish cream cheese sauce. We split an order or chesse grits w/red pepper and grilled asparagus. We then had split dessert.

After such a nice meal we headed to the to play the slots. Mark showed me a lot of the new slots and how to play some of the table games. The last time I was in a casino they still used the coins. Well, they have taken the coins out and it is all computerized. We did sit down to a blackjack table and enjoyed ourselves for a long while until we ran out of money. We decided to go ahead and head to bed. This was at 11:30pm.

Well, the next day I just couldn't sleep in. So, I got ready and went downstairs to the coffee shop with a book. Mark eventually joined me. We walked around outside a while and then had a big breakfast. After breakfast we got the car and went to the boardwalk. The boardwalk has all these shopping places, restaurants, boweling alley and movie theater. We shopped some and walked a lot.

We then headed to an Italian place for Lunch. It was starting to sprinkle on us but we didn't care. We had a caprse salad and a margarita pizza. The pizza was made like we had had when we went to Italy. The owner is from Italy and he had something on the deck. By this time the rain was coming down in sheets. I realized that the man had a huge block of ice. When we asked about it he said that he was going to carve the ice in a face. We left very satisfied.

We then went back to the boardwalk and watched the movie "Knowing". If you haven't seen it go, it was really good. We then walked around more and did some more shopping. We then went to eat at Coplands Cheescake Bistro. We had Cheese dip, Cesear salad, and hot wings the size of turkey legs.

We then went back to Sam's Town and went to bed. I sleep in till 9:00am. I do not remember the last time I sleep in for that long. We got up and Mark went for a run. I went to the coffee shop and read my book. We did a little gambling and then went and packed up. We headed to Barnes and Noble and looked around for a while. Afterwards we went to Superior Bar and Grille for Lunch around 1:00pm. They have the best fajitas in the country. We then headed home.

What a great 10th wedding anniversary!

First Family Campout

Friday I packed everything that the whole family would need for our first campout. Mark and Zachary has gone to Dad and Lad and Zachary and I have gone to Mom and Me but this was the first campout that the entire family was together, including Brooke. The campout was with the other families from Zachary's Cub Scout Pack.

Brooke, Zachary and I arrived at Lake Bob Sandlin Stat Park around 1:30pm. I set up camp by myself. And NO it didn't fall! Another family showed up shortly afterwards and the boys played. We went on a short nature walk and then came back and relaxed. Other campers started arriving around 3:30pm and all the boys had a blast running around and acting crazy. Mark got there around 5:00pm.

The ladies started setting up the food tables for dinner around 5:00pm and I got started cooking 44 hamburger patties and 20 hotdogs. After dinner the boys played in the dark with glow sticks while the adults sat around the campfire and talked.

Brooke started getting sleepy around 9:00pm so our family went ahead and got ready for the night. The others were still up till 10:00pm which made it difficult for Mark and I to go to sleep. But the kidos where off to sleep very fast despite all the screaming outside our tents. Apparently someone cut open one of the glow sticks and it got on the dog that was there. Then everyone started cutting them open and putting it on each other and playing like they were infecting each other.

I sleep ok except for the fact that Brooke was in my sleeping bag with me and I was falling off the side of the blow up mattress. About 5:00am this morning Zachary crawled onto the blow up mattress and said he was cold. So, I feel off the mattress completely. I felt of Brooke and she was running fever. I estimated it to be atleast 102. So, I went to the bathroom and then came back and got Brooke. We left the camp grounds around 5:30am. Once home I gave her some medicine and we laid down in my bed together until 8:30am. Now that was the best 2 hours of sleep all night.

Mark and Zachary stayed and had pancakes for breakfast. The boys played while the men talked around the campfire. Then a park ranger came and talked to the boys about local snakes and fishing. Did you know that you can fish off of any bank or dock in any state park without having a fishing lic. We didn't know that. Mark packed the campsite up and loaded everything into his car. Thankfully we had 2 cars at the park.

So, as a first family campout this wasn't the best. Brooke got sick and Zachary is coughing too. Maybe next time we go camping it will be better!

And OH, by the way I didn't take any pictures. I did bring my camera but was to into the moment. But atleast taking the camera is a good step. Usually I forget the camera. Maybe next time I will actually take pictures.