Monday 22 November 2010

It's the price you pay...


As most of you know, Caleb is having a few troublesissues and things at the moment.  We are trying everything we can think of to help him.  One of the things we firmly believe in is that Caleb needs to be in a school where he receives special attention - now.. here comes the problem...

Caleb is in a private school.  We believe it is one of the best schools in our area and we love it.  The thing is, Caleb's school is rather expensive.  On the plus side, there are only 18 children to a class, and each class has a teacher and a teachers aid, which means that Caleb gets personal attention and the teacher is not over-worked - which means that she is able to pick things up as soon as they appear.

Take Caleb's current "troubles", she noticed at almost the same time we did that something was up... that there was something going on..  So based on that, Adam and I firmly believe that we have Caleb in the right school.. the problem is that their fees have increased by 27% for next year.  Now don't get me wrong, we understand that everything is going up.. but 27%??? Its insane..

If you take into consideration that Daniel will start school next year sometime, and I am still not pulling my weight financially in the home, this is leading to quite a few sleepless nights for me...  We have been considering that we may have to move him to a different school for 2012.. The headache is, where do we send him?  A few people have mentioned the names of one or two other "good" schools in the area that are far less expensive, and Adam and I have been looking into it.  However, every school we consider has between 35 and 50 children per class with only one teacher...

Only one teacher for that many children means that Caleb may slip through the cracks... and if that happens, who knows where we will be by the teenage years. 

Caleb is extremely bright... we have known this for a while.. In fact, we have been told it by many different people - most of them the Doctors and Specialists we have been taking him to recently to try to figure out how to help him... Children of Caleb's intelligence are sometimes misdiagnosed with ADHD because they are unable or unwilling to sit still and do the same repetitive work over and over...

Our latest specialist, who Caleb saw an hour or so ago, was testing his eyes, the health of his eyes, as well as any neurological issues with the eyes to try to determine if perhaps he is struggling with converting what he sees into something he can understand.  She told me that Caleb's eye-sight as well as eye-brain development is advanced for his age.  She also asked if we are aware that Caleb is a very bright child, and have we considered that he may be misdiagnosed with ADHD... I laughed...

She also asked me if we have considered kitting out our garden to better entertain him and keep him stimulated.. I laughed at that too... You see, our garden is really geared for children - we have a HUGE trampoline, ropes hanging from the trees (it looks like Monkey World), swings, a large jungle-gym, a sand-pit and numerous other play things.  He has a skateboard, a weird modernised looking skateboard, a couple of bikes and a section of the garden specially designed for him to play with his toy snakes and things.. so yes, I think our garden is a pretty good haven for an active boy.

So I am not sure where we go from here... Next week he will be having his ears tested to ensure that there is nothing going on there that could be causing his headaches etc... but other than that, I do not know where to turn..  And on top of that, the worry over the cost of his school is enough to age any parent before their time..

I guess all things work out the way they should... I just hope that this one works out the best possible way for our Special Caleb...

2 comments:

The Other Me said...

That must be really worrying!
The cost of school fees is one of the main reasons I left SA.

There was no way I could Afford The School caleb goes to!

I am however really happy with where we are now! She is in a class of 30 with a teacher an assistant teacher and a nursery nurse, Every morning when I Drop her off I know Ive done the right thing It doesnt however make me stop missing everyone and missing South Africa like crazy.

Anyway my point it..... what is right for Caleb will happen, and if you go towards the wrong path you will feel it in your gut.

you are doing a great job as a mum, I miss you x

Ang! said...

I've said it before...your kids are super clever for choosing such awesome parents!