Help for Sam finally

Okay I decided that this would be better as a weekly blog.  I just don’t have the thoughts to do a daily one...

This past week was informative.  For people who do not know, I have 2 children from my husband’s first marriage, Sam (15) and Krissy (13) in addition to our daughter Katie (9). 

On Thursday I had a meeting at the high school for Sam, he is failing 5 of 7 classes.  At the meeting we discussed the fact that he has not had passing grades since 4th grade, and there is FINALLY something that can be done about at school.   At home we have tried everything, rewards for doing the work, he spent 6 months being grounded for not doing his work once, sitting with him to get work done, and I even went to class with him in my big flannel pajamas none of that worked but none of that worked.  Now after fighting with him for 6 years the school has stepped in and is able to help.  He has an IQ of 111, but has the math skills of a 4th grader and reading grades of a 6th grader, and with the large gap between his ability and his performance he has qualified for Special Education classes.  Next year he will be a Freshman again with the possibility of having some Sophomore classes.  I think that with the smaller class sizes in the Special Education classes he will do better and I know one of his possible teachers for next year and I believe that they will work very well together.  He also has shown quite a bit of interest in continuing his drafting (he is passing that and PE) with Mr. Aikenhead, my old drafting teacher.  As it stands right now we will play the wait and see game and hope for the best.

UPDATE: Sam will be in 4 Special Education classes next year (Study Skills, Math, English, Science) and 3 'regular' classes (Computers/Health, English, History).  He choose most of his classes for next year and is excited about having smaller class sizes and more teacher help.