Let me add some mews from Little House on Unaka (Avenue) St Athanasius Academy.
Ben (13) is now doing high school work, through Seton, which has on line support. He is to the point that he is directing his own education with minimal oversight; which is good, because Vanya (11) needs a lot of attention.
Ben's piano studies are getting him into the classical composers; he earns an average of $60 a week by snow shoveling, yard work, and helping a man in the neighborhood who has built a brick oven for old world style bread baking.
We found a teacher who formed a choir for homeschoolers, and Vanya is in that. On choir day, he also goes to the local university, where he is doing some work on his auditory processing challenges. (Russian orphan born with cleft palate which can jumble up the brain as well.)
Both boys help serve my 89 year old blind father-in-law, who is graduallly declining into dementia.
Yesterday, on his own initiative, Ben began clearing a jungle that had grown in our back yard.
Neither boy has ever spent a day in the institution. I know that Ben would be bored, and Vanya packed off to "special" Ed. Instead, we have two bright, pleasant and obedient boys, who are becoming good men.
My buttons pop off my shirt when the boys intereact with adults, who invaribly comment on what great kids they are.
That is the payback for the sacrifices we make. Worth it.