What’s Next?

Ever since Dr. P. mentioned the possibility of a break from chemo, my mind has been reeling with, “What next?”

Before chemo, I was in school, working part-time at a copy shop on campus.  Now, knowing that I will eventually be back on chemo, I don’t see the point in going back to school.  I didn’t earn enough money at work to make it worth going back.  Day care is our biggest expense and I can’t earn enough to pay for that.

We’ve been talking a lot about where Little Man is, mentally.  There’s something called “reading readiness” and he is exhibiting all of the signs.  He can point at words as we are reading.  He knows that books are read top to bottom, left to right.  He can name every letter and the sound it makes.  And lately, without us asking, he will look at a word and make the sounds.  (For instance, he will say, “Buh- Aa – Tuh” if he sees the word bat.)

I took enough classes to know what reading readiness is, but not enough to know how to teach reading.  I taught fourth and fifth grade, so my kids were way beyond that point by the time they got to me.  So I’ve been doing a lot of research about how to teach my kid to read.  Apparently there’s a movement out there called “home preschooling”.  A lot of the moms in my local moms group are talking about doing it with their kids.

So after a lot of research and a lot of discussion, we have decided to pull Little Man out of day care.  He will still attend public school in the mornings for his speech therapy, but I will pick him up afterwards and bring him home.  We’re going to give my body a few weeks to recover first, but I think I feel good enough to be able to handle this.  We will be able to put the $152/ week we were paying for day care towards paying off the credit card balances that have accumulated throughout this process, and Little Man will get a lot more one-on-one time.

I’m going to sign him up for a couple of activities around town so he is still able to socialize and we’re going to have a couple hours of “structured” learning time each day.  This also means I have to get my butt in gear and create a schedule and stick to it.  My boy NEEDS a schedule or he falls apart.  He’s been that way since he was an itty bitty baby.

That’s about all I know for now.  I’ll try to keep you posted as I work out more of what the future holds for us.  I’m not sure how much this blog will change now that I’m no longer receiving treatment.  Perhaps I will update with all the normal, everyday stuff or perhaps I will let it be until something cancer-related comes up again.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.