Public School VS School at Home

Well, we had to make a hard decision this past week. We have decided that Seth will stay home with me this year for kindergarten. I will be teaching both Elizabeth and Seth this year with the help of Connections Academy. We had him registered at the local school and were all excited for him to attend his first year up there. BUT, 2 weeks ago I received a notice that said something about welcome to our PM kindergarten class. Just a few days before that I was told Seth had gotten a morning slot which is what we wanted, which is what was going to make time with Elizabeth so much easier. That started the process of phone calls that led to discouragement and more frustration. Our school had to lose a kindy teacher, leaving the remaining teacher with 70+ students to manage. This of course led to only two kindy classes being taught and Seth was moved to afternoon. At last count his class was up to 38 students. Which to me seems like a nightmare. I don't care how good of a teacher you are, that is insane. We called the school to see what could be done, we called the district to complain, knowing none of it was going to do any good but we had to try. No good, this poor teacher is still stuck with 70+ kids and we were stuck with a PM time that was really inconvenient. We did hear the district was kind enough to give the teacher an aid, and then they gave her a permanent substitute teacher to work with her. And I heard a rumor last night that a teacher who retired last year will be offering her services as a volunteer this year. Still, not good enough. Too many kids, and really I start to get claustrophobic just thinking about that many kids in one classroom and then 4 adults trying to manage them all. NO THANK YOU!
When we made the decision in the spring to send him to the local school it was based on factors that, at the time, were adding quite a bit of stress to our lives. At that time I was SURE I couldn't handle starting elementary over again, especially where Elizabeth is now at a point where she is more independent. But now several of those stress factors are gone and after getting angry enough I realized I was more than happy to have Seth home with me this year. Fortunately, I feel I have options and do not need to sit around to wait and see what happens with the school and district.
As it sits Seth is almost completely registered with Connections so we should be getting his books in the next week or two. I'm excited, I haven't actually ever done kindergarten at home. The older boys did it up at the local school and Elizabeth skipped it. So something new to try this year :) Seth was slightly disappointed when we talked to him. However, after explaining the situation the best we could and why we felt he should be home, he ran upstairs and very excitedly told the other kids that he was going to get to stay home to learn with Elizabeth. Very happy the disappointment didn't last long!