Half Way

We have reached the half-way point in our curriculum this week! It doesn't necessarily mean we are halfway through the year, but it's an exciting benchmark. JT spent the week working on some lessons and completing test Lesson 80 for all the subjects, except math. Tomorrow he will take the Lesson 140 math test. We spent 3 days covering their material on fractions that was supposed to take about 2 weeks. What we covered will allow him to take the test that only expects minimum knowledge of the concept. After the holiday break, we will spend some serious time really covering fractions. The tiny glimpse they gave brought on plenty of questions that we can cover with our extra time. Since we are so far ahead, I will request the 4th grade math be ordered, but I'm not sure if we will actually do anything with it this year. The remaining sections for the 3rd grade math are decimals and working with larger numbers. We will probably dive into the decimals much deeper than the material provides and stretch that out. After that, I think we'll spend some time exploring ancient number systems.

As the break approaches, we are spending less and less time in our regular routine. JT is still learning new things all the time, but not in such a structured way. He has been reading a book about the seige of Troy. He designed his own strategy game to play with his brother. Today while taking a break from testing, he spent 45 minutes reading online about poisonous snake bites, what to do if you are bitten, how to survive a bear attack and other fun things. I'm sure they might come in handy some day.... I'm trying to let him explore a few of his own interests this week while I get ready for the holiday. We will still have school Monday and Tuesday of next week. We have been putting together a pile of "fun" things to do then. We are planning crafts and games. Isn't that what they do the last two days before break in the brick and mortars? :-)

One small change in our classroom. I decided the chalk board was way too much of a mess. I love the feel of writing with chalk. Chalk board paint is the coolest stuff. The chalk dust all over my carpet, molding and bookcases is not. My parents bought us a new dry erase board. It's 48" x 36". We will hang it up over the holiday. I also plan to do some classroom cleaning and organizing then. It's amazing what a mess things become in such a short period of time! I am also trying to come up with a plan for a craft area. Right now, JT just works on his desk for crafts. I would like to make a counter under one of the windows to allow room to stretch out and leave projects as they are in production. That might have to wait for summer and the next school year.

I will not be posting next week. I'm taking a MUCH needed break from all things schooling. But I will be back the following week with my plans for the second half of our school year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

To Complain or Not to Complain....

When we started out with PA Cyber, I was especially pleased that they allowed us to choose between primarily virtual classes or the more traditional homeschooling option using Calvert curriculum. I am still happy that I have the choice to not use the virtual classes, but I'm starting to really despise the Calvert material.

This week we received the corrections from the Lesson 60 test for all subjects, except math, which was lesson 100. JT had all As. Personally, I don't really worry about the grades, more about if he is really learning anything. On these particular tests, there were a few things marked wrong. As I looked over the mistakes, I found that he actually had 3 of the 4 correct. One problem was on the math test. It was a matching question and two were marked wrong. I assume the answer key was probably wrong; they had just been flipped. I figured the teacher must have just missed it. Then we came to the Geography test. The test directions instructed the student to use a map from the text book to answer several questions. One section required the student to find a location on the map, then list something to the East, West, South and North of that location. JT had done it right, but one was marked wrong. From using this text book, I know that most of the answer keys are not very accurate. I have stopped looking at it and just grade the materials myself. I guess that the teacher must not have had a copy of the map available or the answer would have been ovbiously correct.

I have contacted the school about the problem. I emailed our IS and she forwarded the information to the head of the Calvert department and our teacher. It seems we are not easily able to contact the teacher. I am not sure what the reason for that is, but we need to go through the IS for most communication. I would like to press this further, but worry if I complain too much they will pull the option of using Calvert. Calvert is not the best choice of curriculum, by a long shot, but it gives us the opportunity to easily differentiate most lessons. I hate allowing faulty materials to continue to be used, but I'm guessing there would be no replacement for those who don't want virtual classes. So...do I just say, "Oh well!" and move on, or do I fight? I need to figure this out since the next math test has questions that defy logic.......

Bounciness

I think the thing that makes my days rough is the massive volume of movement JT can produce. I was never the kind of person who needed to tap my toes and twiddle my fingers. When I was really young, I chewed my hair and nails, but that was the extent of my nervous habits. This kid CAN NOT stop moving! The exercise ball does little to alleviate the problem. I send him outside to run around. I allow him to sit on the floor, lay on the floor, sit on his desk. If he's concentrating on reading a book he's really into, he stops moving. That is the only exception. If I could, I'd have him read all day! I just hope he grows out of this before his teen years, or I'll need new furniture every week.

With the holiday, we've had kind of a slow two weeks. Wednesday we put in almost a full school day and I felt like we had accomplished quite a bit. Today we had the morning in the classroom and then a friend of JT's that also cyber schools came over to play games. That was a nice break for all of us. The moms were able to visit and the kids got to play. I need to work a few more sanity savers like that into our schedule.

I'm hoping to get a full day in tomorrow. It's still difficult to get him to want to work on composition assignments. I haven't found any tricky ways to convince him it's fun. At bedtime last night we had a funny conversation. He was reading a non-fiction book about a bird rescue shelter. When he finished it he said, "I hate it when I come to the end of books like that one". I told him there are plenty of other non-fiction books at our library. "Plus," I said, "there are people writing more every day, maybe you could even write one". He said, "I'd love to write a report on fungus farms". Isn't that what every 7-year old would love to do?! This idea came because on Thanksgiving while channel surfing at my parent's home (we don't have tv, so it's always funny when the kids get access to it) he made my husband stop on the History channel. There was a show about fungus and mold. He bypassed all the cartoon channels, etc to stop on fungus and mold. Then he was irritated that everyone was talking and he couldn't hear what was being said on the show. We sent him alone to another room and he watched the whole program. Come to think of it, he sat perfectly still through the entire thing! If only I can find enough material to engage him at that level we might have peace in the classroom.

Slacking Off

I realized this week that we have fallen into kind of a slump. I could blame it on the approaching holidays, but I think it started before that. In the beginning, we would be in the classroom somewhere around 9am. Usually no later than 9:15. As the weeks went by, it would get later and later. Then lunch started lasting longer.... JT is still completing all the work required by the school. But, we haven't been doing the extra things we wanted to do. Plus, it was getting harder to get him to complete his assignments. I think my slacking off on the structure of the day caused all of this.

So, I told myself this week we would reform. Monday is usually only a partial day of class since E doesn't have school Monday or Friday. We did okay that day. We also have a lot of out of the house activities on Monday (library and piano lessons) so we take up time with those. Tuesday we had a good, full day of school. JT and I did an experiment for science class. We don't always squeeze in time for those, so that made it a fun day. Wednesday I had planned on only a half day to get ready for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I woke up sick! My husband took over and JT had a computer programming lesson. Everything else I had planned will be on hold until we start back up next week. I'm glad that we have been working so far ahead. It gives me some room to take it easy when I get stressed out.

Being sick this week brought something I've been thinking about a lot lately into play. What would happen to my kids if I became very ill or died suddenly? Of course it's something all parents think about at some time. That's why we have wills. But now that I have committed to providing my children's education, it feels like there is so much more at stake. I am planning on calling our insurance agent in the near future to discuss increasing my policy. When my husband and I took out our policies, I only took out enough for myself to cover funeral costs. I assumed the kids would be in school and my husband would be available for evening care. Now we would either have to have someone care for them during the day and my husband provide schooling in the evening or find the money to send them to a private school. The school our youngest attends for Kindergarten, although not the best fit, would be a reasonable substitute if necessary. Adding the extra payout to my policy could provide the tuition for their schooling. Under NO circumstances would I want them to attend our public school. It's not a good fit. Plus, I kind of went to a school board meeting at the height of our school battles and told them my children would NEVER come there again. There are a few burned bridges there.....

I guess this is kind of a morbid topic. But, it's something that's been bouncing around in my head for awhile. In fact, one of my friends who also homeschools told me she has the same fears. I don't know what the odds are that I could be unable to teach them all the way to graduation. I know I have no control over those things. I've decided to do the best thing I can to plan instead of just worrying about the possibilities. What else is there to do?

Freedom

This morning we woke up to a winter wonderland, in November! This is the earliest in the season I can remember having snow since I was a kid. The boys were very excited. We had a very productive morning, since I could keep saying, "The more time you waste on school work, the less time you'll have outside!" If only it would snow every day..... Today we were very happy to have the flexible schedule that allowed us to play in the snow when it was still daylight. If they were locked up in a traditional classroom, they wouldn't have gotten off the bus until 30 minutes before sunset.

I didn't enjoy the snow as much as they did. At least not last night. I was in Harrisburg attending a group viewing of a SENG hosted webinar by Dr. James Webb titled, "Common Misdiagnoses and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults: What Parents, Educators and Psychologists Need to Know." The drive home in the premature wintry weather was not much fun, however, it was a great night out for me. I was able to spend time with friends that I don't often see due to our geographic mismatch.

Far too many gifted children are misunderstood by medical professionals and end up diagnosed with psychological problems that they don't have. I have often wondered if JT's endless need to move and difficulty in focusing on my directions meant he had ADHD. After this webinar, I'm pretty certain he is a normal, gifted child. If you are wondering the same about any quirky behaviors your child has, I suggest reading a little about Dabrowski's overexcitabilities. These intense traits may make our children hard to live with on a daily basis, but after taking the time to explore these characteristics I can better appreciate the special needs my children have.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

When I first started writing my blog, I promised to record, "The good, the bad and the ugly". Well this week, I think we had all of that!

The good. First of all, our trip to the Symphony and museum was terrific. JT enjoyed himself (he did complain a little about the amount of walking we had to do around Harrisburg). He told me he definitely would like to learn to play the flute, now that he experienced an orchestra first hand. He already plays piano and guitar, so what's one more instrument? The museum was also a good decision. It was a school day, so we practically had the place to ourselves. If your kids are in public brick and mortar school, I highly recommend taking a day and getting them the "educational journey" permission slip so you can enjoy things like museums without the crowds. JT zipped through pretty quickly and I was afraid we were not spending the kind of time we needed to really see the exhibits. When we were leaving, he immediately asked to go to that museum again, so I guess he did get something out of the trip.

The bad. Wednesday will be the last day JT has his virtual class for an hour in the afternoon. At first, I would spend the whole hour hovering over him to see if he was listening and responding appropriately. About the 3rd week in, I suddenly realized he had somehow managed to be "alone" in his previous school all day. So I started using that hour for things I wanted to do! Whenever I feel JT is working independently and I can leave the classroom for a few minutes, I get a horrible guilty feeling. Like I should be in the room at all times or the education will not happen. It may be a silly thought. But when the online class is happening, I know he is doing something he's supposed to be doing and the responsibility is temporarily removed from me. I'm REALLY going to miss that class. I hope they offer something else he is interested in the next time around!

The ugly. Tuesday was one of those days where JT can't seem to focus. I was feeling stressed because I wanted to get a good, full day of school in due to interruptions I knew we would have later in our week. He was working on part of the Geography test for the next mail in packet. I gave him instructions and he was being flat out defiant about doing the work the way it was supposed to be done. I started with the ticks on the board process. Within 5 minutes we were almost at ten. I was losing my temper big time. Finally I said, "Get out of the classroom!" He just sat there, so I picked him up (not so easy anymore!) and dumped him outside the door. Then I told him, "Go see your dad." My husband has been acting as our principal on occasion. He works from home, so he's in his office about 20 feet away most days. I had to propel my child into the room where I announced, "Talk to your son. He's been kicked out of class."

I waited in the classroom feeling awful for losing it. Ten minutes later he was back. He apologized for not doing what he was supposed to be doing. Then he told me what his punishment would be. His father had assigned a composition. It was to be two pages long. One page is "what I like about cyber schooling", the other is "why I'm lucky my mom is teaching me". Until it is finished, he has lost all computer/video game privileges. He's actually very upbeat about the whole thing. He's planning to finish it in time for Saturday when he typically has extra computer time. The best part was, he sat down and finished the Geography assignment without a problem.

From the very beginning of this whole adventure, I have been waiting for the day I just CAN'T take it anymore. So far, the day has not come. If my husband had not been home Tuesday, that may have been the day!

Solo

This week my husband was out of town for work. This has been the first time I had to fly solo since we started cyber school. Typically he is not very involved with the school day. He does work from home and I do pop into his office from time to time to chat or rant...depending on how the day has been going. This week, there was no one to rant to. I drank a lot of coffee. I also found out that even one piece of Halloween candy after breakfast can cause an already bouncy child to become nearly unbearable.

My husband is now home and I can stop considering the Prozac IV drip....

This picture is a sample of what things look like as I plan for a week of school. I like to see what I am working on... I need that hands on kind of work zone. I can now typically prepare a week's worth of work in about an hour. I also spend maybe 15-20 minutes the night before pulling the books for the next day and checking that I know what is coming. Much better than the sleepless nights I had the first month.

Tomorrow JT and I are going to a performance of Beethoven's 7th Symphony in Harrisburg. It is offered free to children through the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. I am going with a group of other moms and kids who either home school or cyber school. JT and I are also going to the Harrisburg State Museum while we are close. He has been bugging me to take him to a museum for months, so we can't miss our chance. I just hope I can find my way around the city.

Tonight we were chatting about how this school week had gone. Even though things were more stressful than usual, I felt like it had been a good week. We spent more time than usual focusing on the arts. It really made the learning so much more meaningful. Today JT spent about 45 minutes drawing a picture of a castle and battle (some of his favorites) while listening to the symphony that we will see performed tomorrow. He also spent more time than usual playing piano this week. We have spent so much time focusing on Math since school started. Once again we fell into the same trap as the brick and mortar schools. School is not only about Math and learning to read. It's about learning to love to learn. We did that this week.

*Check out this site to find out ways to expand your child's art exposure: Americans for the Arts

Halloween

I suddenly realized as I was eating my lunch... I forgot to do my blog! Considering how crazy things are, it's amazing this is the first time I forgot.

We spent a lot of the free time we had this week working on JT's costume. As you can see, it turned out to be pretty cool! My husband wants to keep it in his office after Halloween is over.

We had a good school week. The writing assignment about the civil war soldier has really kept his interest. He took the Lesson 100 math test, only 3 more to the end of the 3rd grade math material. Now we will be starting the chapter on units of measurement. That one may actually require a little bit of work. JT has not really covered metric yet, so those will be new concepts.

The Spanish class we signed up for has turned out to be a waste of time. I thought it would be similar to the Fine Arts podcasts that he does for Art. Instead, it's a cartoon woman, poorly animated, saying a word in Spanish and asking you to repeat it. Each one is about 5 minutes long. Very boring and slow paced. Her mouth isn't even animated to match the sounds she is making! Plus, if you pause the video, the audio and video get out of synch and she's saying, "cinco", with a picture of a 3 on the screen. I guess we'll handle Spanish on our own!

We also had a playdate this week with a family we met at a PA Cyber event. They live in our district and this is also their first year with cyber schooling. It was a nice day. It was especially nice to have someone I could connect with about previous school experiences and the new challenges of cyber school. Hopefully this will help to provide JT with the socialization everyone is so worried about!

Have a Happy Halloween!

Is this part of the new cruelty?

I finally had to crack down this week. I couldn't take another day of..."PLEASE do your work so we can move onto something else. Wouldn't you like to get done early once????" I know I would! I don't expect our days to go the same as a brick and mortar school. I do not expect JT to sit still all day. In fact, he usually spends most of the school day bouncing around the classroom or tilting his ottoman he sits on at all sorts of dangerous angles. Some days he even sits ON the desk. So, I am not being ridiculous thinking that one lousy math worksheet should be finished in less than 1 1/2 hours.

We now have a two part plan. The first part involves completing assignments. I show JT what I would like him to do. I give him more than ample time to finish it. If it is not done, it's homework. Homework! What kind of craziness is that? We are already doing 'homework' all day. My husband thought this brilliant plan up and it works like a charm. The mere mention of the dreaded 'homework' has turned my procrastinator into an industrious worker.

We'll see how long that lasts....

I also borrowed another motivational technique from one of my friends. Up until now, our usual punishment for misbehavior is taking away computer privileges. It's hard to make that work very well when JT is capable of losing it within the first five minutes of the school day. My friend has a system where the child gets ten 'ticks' before they lose the computer. Now I keep a tally of the ticks on the chalkboard throughout the day. Morale is improving! Especially mine!

I finally dug through my pile of enrichment materials this week. Today I gave JT a creative writing assignment I found in a book called "Historic Happenings Projects to Integrate History and Language Arts" (I did not pay the price Amazon is asking for this book, it was just the first link I found with a description of it...you can buy it for much less) His assignment is to keep a journal as a Civil War soldier. He needs to describe himself, family and home. He will also need to choose one battle from the war and describe it from his point of view. JT is very excited about it and has started preliminary planning. He loves history and writing (as long as it's not in cursive) so it's a great supplement for us.

This week will bring a new challenge. When asked what he wanted to dress up as for Halloween, my son thought for one second and said, "An angler fish!" Now I get to try to come up with that costume. Luckily, I found a step by step guide on making an angler fish paper mache head online. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? Just when you think you have the weirdest child on the planet, you find out there are full grown adults out there just as weird as he is!

Reality

This week was spent debating whether cyber is truly the best fit for our situation. I have only had fleeting thoughts of traditional homeschooling, mostly due to the fact that I would have to document so much of what we are doing instead of the cyber school taking care of that for us. I feel sometimes like I spend too much time working through tedious, unnecessary material just because it's in the Lesson Plan. I bought a lot of educational material from many different places as soon as I made the decision to pull JT out of brick and mortar school. I never seem to have the time to supplement with those activities.

Two of my friends who are cyber schooling as well helped me work through my dilemma. I am a list person. I write lists for everything. I LOVE to check things off of the list. The problem with Calvert's material is that every lesson plan is laid out in list form. When I don't 'check' things off the list, my little mental dysfunction screams, "You can't skip that, you need to check it off the list!"

So yesterday I decided not to look at the list during our school day. I made up my own list and followed that instead. We did a little better. Last night, I went online and found a good site for challenging math word problems. Today instead of the monotonous worksheets, we did math that took up the whole chalkboard. We found the volume of two tubes we made out of paper. We calculated problems involving speed and distance. We had fun and JT learned useful math. He will still have no problem passing the math tests as long as I am sure to instruct him in their definitions and methods for specific problems. Hopefully as I work through my own behavior therapy I can come up with a happy medium that allows JT to learn with flexibility.

JT finally experienced his first virtual class on Wednesday. It is an enrichment class meant for 5th-8th graders. I signed him up anyway based on his reading level. The class had 4 students. JT is the youngest, but he did fine. I listened in for the whole session to help him with the little details of the technology. I think he'll be fine on his own for the next one. The kids had a good discussion on the elements of a mystery novel. They will be reading a book and doing enrichment activities covering math, art and history. The book is 'Chasing Vermeer'. The only problem is that the teacher only wants them to read the first 4 chapters before next week. JT had already read 3 before the class began. Luckily he's preoccupied reading 'The Fellowship of the Ring' for now. He's only a couple chapters from the end, so I'll have to throw something else his way to keep him from jumping ahead too far in the book for his class.

This week was not the best week we have had. I think JT had an ok week, but I had a sudden realization; I will be doing this until 2021. With our youngest in K this year and his projected graduation date in mind, I saw my life pass before my eyes. I spent a couple days being a little negative (my friends know this is stating it mildly) and now I'm going to press on trying to keep John Lennon's quote in mind. "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."

Technical Difficulties

One day this past week, I asked my husband to fill in for me for a couple hours while I ran a few errands. He had taken the week off of work to do some odds and ends around the house. I said, "Could you just help him review his multiplication tables?" The picture to the left is what I found them working on when I came home. I guess he figured why cover them all individually when you can put them into one massive problem?

JT's first virtual class was set up for this week. It was supposed to be held Wednesday from 2pm-3pm. The day before, I checked if we had it listed in his "courses". It wasn't there, so I contacted his IS (Instructional Supervisor) and she assured me he was registered. Wednesday at 1:45 pm I attempted to get things set up. The class wasn't showing up. I started worrying that I was doing something wrong. I had used the software once for a parent forum, so I figured we were probably good to go.

2:00, I really start to panic. I send an email to our IS and the gifted education coordinator. I also call and put in a tech ticket. Around 2:15, JT says, "Is it ready yet?" Then I get the email. Don't worry, you are all signed up. It's a virtual classroom tech issue. It will be ready next week.

I'm not feeling very impressed with the technical know-how here. This is a "CYBER" school...right? The tech guy called me today, nearly 24 hours later. I said, "Never mind."

This was also the first week that I was sick. I have a nasty bit of congestion going on. Unfortunately, there was no substitute available. So, we had a very lame day on Wednesday. We covered Math, Composition, and a little Science. Then I said, "Let's watch a video for History today." I slept on the couch while he watched Liberty! The American Revolution. It's a PBS series that is very well done. I had watched the first volume with him when I wasn't sick. I felt a little guilty dumping him like that, but considering the fact that we are already on lesson 81 in math...and there are 160 in the year, I think we can afford a day of slacking off.

I am still struggling to find a way to make the Science curriculum fit our situation. The third grade material is too simplistic and the sixth grade material isn't quite right either. I guess I'll really have to work to find an acceptable substitute while still covering enough of the curriculum specific terms in the Calvert material to have him pass the tests.

I also need to complain about math....WHY do these kids need to be able to explain how they answered a math question? Why can't the state just be happy that they know the right answer? I struggle to teach my child how to answer these questions. When I was complaining to a friend of mine about this problem she said, "Yes, I also hate needing to explain math with language instead of math. It is like playing baseball using your feet. Why? Why not just use your hands?"

Amen to that!

Test Packets

The Calvert curriculum that we use through PA Cyber has a packet of tests that you send in for grading every 20 lessons. We sent our lesson 20 packet in a little under 2 weeks ago. Today we received the graded tests along with a pile of information. We have been assigned our ETF (Elementary Teaching Facilitator). She sent a nice letter to JT, introducing herself and explaining some of the things she was looking for in his testing packets. We had been asked to fill out a student survey to send in with the first group of tests, so she knew some things about our family to allow for a bit of conversation in the note. She had also graded all the tests and sent a summary on each subject. JT had A's in all subjects. She did point out that he made a few spelling errors that she had overlooked for the first test, but would not on future testing. After we read the letter, JT said, "I think she'll be really good for us." It's funny to think of the long distance relationship we will have with this woman. It's so foreign to the standard student-teacher relationship we think of nowadays.

One of the other things that came with this package, was a new incentive the school is offering. PSSA's are a big focus with the cyber school, just as they are in our traditional schools. In fact, they are probably even more important to them, since they can lose their charters if they don't make AYP (annual yearly progress). The students are being offered a chance to add percentage points to their grades if they complete worksheets geared towards test prep. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I haven't looked at all of the materials. If they are below level, I can't see wasting JT's time (and mine) doing any busy work. We have a hard enough time squeezing in our regular subjects!

This coming Monday, we are going to attend our first "meet and greet". It's a lunch get together hosted by "family link". Family link is a cyber version of the PTA. We will have a chance to link up with other families in our area that are using PA Cyber. I'm hoping JT will find someone in his age range. He has lots of local friends, but it would be nice to have someone local within the same school system.

He will also be starting his first virtual class this coming week. Gifted students are offered a few enrichment courses throughout the year. JT has signed up for a class that will be reading the book, "Chasing Vermeer". There will be discussion and activities every Wednesday from 2-3 pm, virtually. I thought this would give him a chance to see what the virtual classes are like and maybe make a few connections with other advanced learners.

Once again we have had a good week. Today we were working on a little Spanish. JT said, "Let's practice having a conversation in Spanish." We have done this in the past. It usually consists of me saying, "Como estas?" (How are you?) He says, "Muy bien, gracias." (very well, thanks) I usually also ask him how old he is and if he likes school. He used to say that he didn't like school. Today he answered..."Me gusta escuela. Gracias por el aula." (I like school. Thank you for the classroom.) It was a good day.....

5 weeks down!

Time has been flying by in our house. I spend most of my hours either teaching or planning what to teach or having conversations about teaching. I will certainly enjoy all of our holiday breaks this year.

This last Friday our youngest spent his first full day schooling with us. Up until now, he has been in school (private K, 3 days a week) or with another child care provider most of our school hours. I was avoiding the time he would need to be integrated into our little system. Things went much more smoothly than I could imagine! Granted, we didn't get as much 'hard-core' learning done that day, but it wasn't bad for a first attempt. We started the day with Geography. JT and I had been studying the 13 colonies. I had E (3rd child now dubbed) work on putting our giant USA floor map together while we were working on the colonies. During math, JT learned about Roman Numerals while E used a yard stick as a number line and did simple addition problems. We also had art...easy stuff for mom! We did a Science experiment with yeast and went on a bike ride late in the afternoon. The only time all day I had to send E to find something to keep him occupied, was during JT's Spelling test.

I know next year it won't be as easy when I actually have a lesson plan I need to follow for both boys. If E continues to progress at the rate he seems to be going, he should be reading independently by then. That would make things much easier. If either of them could be told to read something while waiting for my attention, I could juggle things a little better. Fortunately, I have almost a whole year to dread that step!

Thanks to a friend who took pity on our caterpillar situation, we now have two Black Swallowtail caterpillars living in our jar! We are hoping these guys will put on a real show for us. They are feasting on dill and slowly turning green. JT said they are, "turning into pickles". :-)

What is the right answer?

It's been another fairly good week. I keep waiting for the crisis when I say, "I CAN'T do this anymore!". There are definitely moments. Most of them involve JT completely ignoring my pleas that if he'd just finish the 5 problems left on the paper, we could have free reading time. Stalling is certainly one of his strong characteristics.

Our new schedule seems to be working fairly well. Sometimes we don't get through all I want to do in one day, but neither do teachers with a classroom full of students. This week JT did his Lesson 20 tests. Every 20 lessons there is a series of tests that are completed and sent in to the school. Some of these tests have questions that have wording I consider confusing. JT proved the point today when he came across the fill in the blank question:

The ability to do work is called ____________.
Instead of using the words in the box he was supposed to choose from he wrote "a learned trait". The correct answer (I assume, as I do not have the answer key) should be "energy". I thought his answer made sense. He did a couple others in the same way. Now if he was in a traditional classroom, the teacher would have spent the last 2 weeks being sure he was programmed with the correct answer through tedious review. I took my chances with just reading the chapters in the Science book and going over the review questions once or twice and then jumping into something JT had more interest in learning. Does this mean I have not taught my son well? I can't believe that that is true. Last night as he was getting ready for bed he said to me, "I think we should use some of the words in my History lesson as Spelling words. I think they are probably on my level and I would really like to be able to spell declaration, independence and constitution". By giving him the desire to learn I have opened far more opportunities to him than by teaching him to recite the answer I expect to hear.

On a side note, last week I posted about our capture of the Monarch caterpillars. It turns out, I should have done my research better. My poor child trusted his mother to know a Monarch caterpillar from a Tiger Moth caterpillar. (see here)
They both like to munch the Milkweed....who knew? Since the Tiger Moth overwinters in his cocoon, we won't be having any excitement for quite some time. At least we learned something new this week!

Settling In

The classroom is almost complete! We just need some curtains... eventually. Things are coming together in other ways this week too. I have finally set up something remotely like a routine. We now have a weekly schedule that I try to stick to. Calvert provides a suggested schedule, but it wasn't working for us. Calvert's schedule has History two times a week and Mythology two times a week. I found that we needed more time for History and less for Mythology, so we borrowed a day from the Mythology schedule and compacted it. We like to really immerse in the History discussion, so we do!

I had another 'duh' moment this week. As I've said before, the Spelling list is definitely below level for JT. I hadn't really even looked at the book closely. I would pull out the list, orally pretest JT and throw it back on the bookshelf for a week. This week, I happened to look at the book closely. It turns out, the entire Spelling list is in Spanish in the back of the book. Over the summer, we started a little introduction into Spanish and I had been planning on adding Spanish to our day. Now I have my material! I guess I should investigate all of the material they sent me a little more closely.

We went on a nature hike on Wednesday. We wanted to find some Monarch caterpillars and we came home with two. Now we just need to wait for them to turn into butterflies. JT is keeping track of their every movement in his Science Journal.

Also this week, the Reading assignment included a short version of a story of Sacagawea. So, we went into a little more detail. I had JT read a more thorough version of her story. In Geography, we were learning how to measure distance on a map, so I incorporated the Lewis and Clark journey into that. I had JT plot the route on our large USA map with a dry erase marker. Then we measured the distance.

None of these things we've done this week are part of the curriculum provided. I have been staying up until midnight every night planning the next day's work. That will have to stop soon! I think now that we're getting a rhythm, I should be able to lay out at least a couple day's worth of work. Overall, things are good. Every morning, JT and I have a prayer to start our day. This week he thanked God that his mom could be his teacher now. That simple thought makes it all worth the effort.

Realizations

My friends were right. I am exhausted! I think things are starting to move towards something like regularity. It's still hard to judge.

I spent the first week attempting to follow my own altered version of the Lesson Plan book provided with the Calvert material. I pretty much disregarded the Phonics book, skipped through the Spelling book and massively compacted the Math. What I was left with still felt too much like busy work. Then I began to panic. What things did I absolutely have to use from the curriculum in order to allow JT to pass the assessments? Was I short-changing him by skipping too much? I am so incredibly thankful to have a friend that has been cyber schooling longer than I have. She is full of encouragement and advice. The kind of advice you can take and use!

I called her and vented one day because I could not get JT to sit and do one lousy math worksheet. It took one ENTIRE hour to complete. Now, this had nothing to do with the level of challenge. He just didn't want to do it. He wanted to draw a picture of a space battle (which he did in the space between the math problems). This was a creative drawing, spaceships and planets named after elements; planet Neon being attacked by the spaceship named Hydrogen. However, it was not the right time for Art! How strict must I be with our schedule? An important thing to know about me is that I am a list person. I get great joy from crossing things off the to-do list. In fact, right after I had our last son, I felt like I could never get anything done. I would write things on my list after I had done them, i.e., "took a shower", and cross it off to feel that satisfaction. My friend was straight with me and told me to stop trying to pack in so much stuff that really wasn't necessary. She made me realize that JT will get more new learning time in half an hour at home than he would have in a whole day in a brick and mortar school. That idea really struck a chord with me. I had the power to give him that learning, if I could just stop feeling the need to follow the drill I had been given.

So, this morning I said to JT, "I think this 3rd grade Science book is too easy for you. I believe you already know most of what is in here. What do you think?" He agreed with me. I happen to have a 6th grade Science text book from the same series. I told him if he would look at the chapter in the 3rd grade book and be sure he could answer the questions, we would move on to the 6th grade book instead. We had a wonderful day! The stress level was much lower. We went outside and dropped rocks off the deck to prove that objects of different weights really do fall at the same speed. I did have to do a little arm twisting to complete the dreaded Composition assignment. But as a reward for minimal whining, we did the enrichment activity included in the History assignment about Molly Pitcher. We cooked Johnny Cakes for lunch!

So, my new plan of attack will be to keep the individual subject lessons as brief as possible. I will also attempt to offer fun, hands on activities after every lesson that requires sitting still. When JT asks a question requiring more information than I can pull from my brain, we will spend the time to look it up. I realized I was doing the same thing to him that his previous school had done. He would ask a deep, probing question and I would say, "Not now, we have to finish this worksheet." Wasn't that one of the reasons for bringing him home? I want to allow him the chance to immerse himself in something he's interested in. Why continue having him do the busy work, just because it's in the box. Sometimes I can be so dense.....

Ready or not, here I come!

We are up and running! Monday morning we spent some time working on a few subjects, but didn't really dive in since our youngest was at home. Tuesday morning, with the little one off for his first day at K, we started the real thing. We are using our new classroom. The addition is mostly finished. I still haven't moved everything into it's rightful location, but we are getting there.

*from here on out, I will refer to our son as JT...I'm tired of saying, "our son" or "our child"!

The first day went pretty well. It's really difficult for me to decide exactly how much of the provided material I need to cover. I want to be sure JT has a full grasp of all of the content in each course and yet, I know he doesn't need the volume of repetition provided. I used the vocabulary words as a substitute for spelling words as I had planned. I was so happy! He got six wrong out of 15! It may seem funny to be happy about wrong answers, but for the first time my son needed to study his spelling to prepare for the spelling test he will have tomorrow. I think he will still get a 100% on the final test, but he had to work for it. The main problem with using the vocab words is that there are no exercises in the material for those words. They are meant only to be a challenge to read, not spell. So we went for the old fashioned, write a sentence using the word method.

Another challenge has been dealing with perfectionism issues. Calvert curriculum encourages third graders to be using cursive writing. JT spent little time in second grade working on his penmanship. When I asked him to write a few sentences for practice, he had a minor temper tantrum. It finally dawned on me that he was worried he wouldn't do it perfectly. I encouraged him to "just try" it. Finally, he made a very half-hearted effort and did a lot of grumbling under his breath. I heard him muttering, "I can't believe I thought this would be better than public school...". I would have to say that has been the low point of this week! After lunch, he had recovered and we had a good afternoon. Today I told him we would need to work on his writing again, but he could chose when in the day he wanted to do it. That made all the difference. He said he'd like to get it out of the way, we did it immediately and he did a great job.

Some other issues with Calvert...the material does not have the depth my child desires. For example, the History course for third grade is a study of famous Americans. It starts with Samuel Adams. There was a short passage (less than two pages) with a worksheet or two following. Then it moves on to Patrick Henry. We went to the library Monday afternoon and took out books on both men. He has already finished the one on Samuel Adams. We were able to have a much more thorough discussion after that. I would love to see PA Cyber look into possible supplemental material for advanced students. They could take the framework of the Calvert curriculum and provide a few extras for those who request it. I even said so in our GIEP meeting this afternoon.

The GIEP meeting was kind of funny. Having been a pretty outspoken advocate for my child's education for the last 3 years, it was very difficult to accept the meager GIEP we were offered. I know the GIEP really means nothing since I am able to provide appropriate education within what they require from me. However, in principle, it bothered me to sign something I would have laughed at had our original school provided it. The PA Cyber reps were very positive on the phone and offered to look into getting additional materials about ancient history and WWII (JT specifically requested learning about those this year). We were also offered opportunity to sign up for a few virtual enrichment classes, which we will check out. BTW, the Scantron tests I was worried about, turned out fine. His scores were good and our IS (Instructional Supervisor) was happy with them.

I tried to plan for the next days work during times that JT was completing worksheets or reading from his books. So far, that has worked pretty well. I can't plan too far ahead, since I am not following their Lesson Plan book very closely. Right now, we are on Lesson 20 for Math, Lesson 5 for most other subjects and we are completely skipping Phonics and only occasionally pulling necessary info from the Spelling text. I am following a friends advice to mark each topic with a different colored skinny post it sticker. That is keeping me mostly sane.

So, all in all, this week has been positive and fun. I hope I can keep up with the demands of home and teaching. I know I will really start to appreciate the weekends!

Determining Where and When to Start

The official first day of school for PA Cyber was August 18th for Calvert students. The virtual classes begin on September 2nd. Our addition is slated to be mostly done Tuesday, August 26th. I didn't really want to start classes until then anyway, since our youngest starts Kindergarten that same day. When I called the school to ask if the 18th was set in stone, no one wanted to give a definitive answer. Apparently, as long as we log our 180 school days by the end of the year, it's up to us how we go about it. So, we will have our first "official" day of school on the 26th.

This week we had some 'sort of' school days. We did some pre testing. The first chapter of spelling was no problem...so spelling is finished for this week. Now, I know that was not the kind of challenging material I want to be offering for my child. I am planning on pre testing the bulk of the Spelling within the first month of school and then moving on to some other materials. A friend found a link for me to a Teacher's Guide to the Fellowship of the Ring.

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/readers_guides/lotr/fellowring.shtml

There are comprehension questions, vocabulary words and discussion and essay topics for each chapter. Since our son has started reading the book in the last week, this seems like a great possibility for us. We may use the vocab words as spelling words. If they are too difficult, I'll step it down and use the reading words provided by Calvert. They are more challenging than the spelling and we will come across them in the other materials.

We also did a little math pre testing. The Calvert math book comes with a review and test at the end of each chapter. I used the review as a pre test. Out of the 10 lessons from chapter one, there were two concepts we needed to solidify. We spent a little time one day working on one and will finish the other Monday. On the first day of school, we will do the chapter test. None of the reviews or tests from the book are sent in for grading. At the end of lesson 20 (day 20) students take tests in each subject that are sent in to the school. We will do the first math test by the end of our first week of school. We are allowed to send more than one math test in at a time, so when we send our Lesson 20 packet at the end of September, we will send in as many as we have completed. I'm guessing we will have two or three done. After that, there are a few concepts that will be new material so our pace may slow.

This week our child was required to complete two online pre-assement tests. I spent a few hours convinced that I would certainly go crazy during this school year. While taking the computer test, my son was incapable of sitting still for more than 5 seconds. When he wasn't bouncing out of his seat, he was chatting away about the questions...even when I left the room! It will be interesting to see what kinds of scores come back. I learned two things from this process. I will absolutely have to get an exercise ball for him to sit on during class ( a suggestion from at least two friends with similar kids) and the possible need to play music while he is working. My husband concentrates best with music playing. I'm guessing my son will be similarly motivated.

Overall, there was learning this week regardless of the lack of a true classroom. We completed a weeks worth of spelling, almost 20 days worth of math, began reading a book that will challenge and expand his vocabulary and had a wonderful discussion about how to identify male and female daddy long legs while spitting watermelon seeds in the backyard. (I was the one who learned how to tell them apart, my son taught me!)

Now that's a school I can support!

Distractions

Today while painting our soon to be completed classroom, I started thinking about how I was spending so much time getting the room ready to teach and not nearly enough time on preparing to teach. How true is that in the brick and mortar schools?? There are so many things the administration gets caught up in that have absolutely nothing to do with learning. That's what school is for....learning, right? Instead they need to worry about No Child Left Behind, safety in the schools, problem students and don't even get me started on sports....

I'm taking comfort in the fact that once I have given the initial time investment to establish our little learning zone we will have little to concern us beyond actual learning.


We have our GIEP (Gifted Individualized Education Plan) meeting Thursday the 28th. It will be a phone conference. We received the NORA (Notice of Recommended Assignment) in the mail this week along with a questionnaire for both the parents and the student. On the child's portion, when asked what he expected to learn this year, our son wrote, "improve my reading level, understand more of what I read". I thought that was kind of funny considering he's 7 and already reads somewhere around a 5th grade level. The reading materials they have provided are not going to help him meet that goal. I decided I would finally let him start reading The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkein. He's been bugging us to let him read it for a year. I was holding off until he was a little older. I'll just need to find a good study guide online to make it work.

The other funny thing about the papers they sent, was the NORA. As a charter school, they are not held accountable to Chapter 16... they don't have to provide anything special for gifted kids and are not subject to the regulation. It was a painful experience to sign my name to the most inferior GIEP I've ever accepted. But I know the GIEP isn't what's important in this situation. We can allow our son to learn. I don't need a special paper that will make that happen now. I get to make it happen!

Out of the Box

It's finally here! Last Friday when the UPS truck pulled up to the driveway, I couldn't wait to rip into my box. Of course, it would come on a weekend with absolutely NO free time. So, I took a quick peek and put it aside. Yesterday I managed to pull enough time together to really start checking it out. Most people probably don't get all that excited about textbooks but I LOVE them. I buy them at yard sales, I take them free when the library doesn't know what to do with them, I even buy them online!

Looking through the material I realized a few things. First of all, I have a lot of questions I need to ask before I'll know exactly what I'm doing. Luckily, I have a friend who is already familiar with PA Cyber. I made a phone date with her for tomorrow to pepper her with all of my doubts and fears.

I also realized that the Spelling words are way below my son's level. He reads around a fifth or sixth grade level right now, so third grade spelling isn't going to cut it. My current plan is to give him the pretest on Mondays. If he knows them, we will use the reading words (much more appropriate level) as his spelling words. Since these words are already involved in the lesson plan, I won't have to do much beyond that to teach them. Of course there's always the old, "Use these words in a sentence" method.

I have also found that the math may not be as far off for him as I thought. Part of this may come from the fact that our former school seemed to be a little behind the state standards. It may also just be the change from Saxon to Calvert. My plan for math currently looks like I will be giving him the Chapter tests as a pretest and then covering what he doesn't know. It's so hard for me to be sure where he really is in math. Last year he spent a lot of time using Pearson's Digital Learning at school. This program allowed him to move ahead in math, but didn't give any instruction. He moved ahead to a level the program considered to be end of 3rd grade, but I don't know what kind of gaps he has in that material. It will take us a little while to figure out where he really is. The good thing is, I was told he may move ahead at his own pace and when we complete the 3rd grade material in math, they will send us the 4th grade material. I think we should be able to finish it by Christmas. But even if he doesn't, that's okay. We will move at a pace that allows him to learn appropriately for his ability.

Have I mentioned how much I love this plan!

On another note, I had a conversation with a mom who is considering cyber for her child. I realized I am not having my usual school- is- starting dread that accompanies the end of summer. I would start worrying about all the conversations I would be having with school personnel that would go no where. I would know that my child was heading into an environment that did not allow for his special needs to be met. It was great to realize this load had been lifted. Thanks to the parents who convinced me I was capable of taking matters into my own hands. I wouldn't have done it without the knowledge you have passed on to me.

The First Package

Today a big box was delivered by Fed Ex. It's our Techkit! I'm very excited to feel like things are finally rolling. Inside this jumbo box we have an HP laptop (complete with case), an HP printer (including ink cartridge), a very nice headset, software (Microsoft Office Pro!) and the coolest thing of all, a Wacom Bamboo Fun! You may be saying, "What is that?!" A quote from their website explains it well:

Now there's a simple, easy, and fun way to harness your creativity. Bamboo Fun makes your computer your canvas, allowing you to freely express yourself by simply touching the pen tip to the tablet. Touch up digital photos, draw by hand, create artwork and paintings, and even write in your own handwriting.


This link will take you to the sample of what it can do: click here

Tomorrow we will pull it all out and set it up to make sure it's all in working order. Our addition to the house is moving along, but is not ready, so we'll make do with a small table in the family room. The contractor says about 3 more weeks. Since PA Cyber's start date is August 18th, I don't know if we'll make it. Thanks to cyber flexibility, I don't need to sweat it!

I hope the box with our curriculum will arrive soon. I'm really looking forward to checking out that material. Our plan is to pretest our way through third grade math and cover any gaps in the first couple months. When our son was tested by a psychologist in March, he was said to be working at a high 3rd grade math level. We figure we can start into fourth grade math shortly. If he was in a brick and mortar school, he'd still be reviewing the second grade material by the time we have reached fourth grade.

I did hear one potential negative rumor about PA Cyber today. Someone I know was told by someone else that the Calvert Curriculum may be phased out. I would really hate to see that happen, so I'm going to pretend I didn't hear it. At this time, PA Cyber offers two choices; Calvert or Lincoln Interactive. Calvert is presented in more of a traditional homeschooling option. The facilitator at home does most of the teaching. I'm told it is very flexible and easy to differentiate. Lincoln Interactive is the Virtual classroom option. It follows the same pattern as a brick and mortar school. Scheduled lessons with a teacher moving all students at approximately the same pace. A good choice for children who left their traditional school as a typical learner. More of the same for anyone who needs a faster or slower pace. I REALLY hope it's only a rumor!

Do you know what your child is doing in school?

A new study has been done that shows...ready for this?....children should be expected to master math concepts! Isn't that a shock? If you have looked at the math that comes home from most public schools you'll know that mastery is a *new* idea. When I was in school, mastery was the norm. First you learned addition, then subtraction, then multiplication...and so on. Now, every year through elementary school a child is given a little bit of many math concepts. They never work to the point of mastery in any one concept. The general consensus among the experts for the last several years was that this was the best way to teach math. In some ways it makes sense. The regular reviewing helps to keep things fresh in mind. However, for kids of average intelligence, this can be extremely tedious. For kids who are above average, with high rates of acquisition and retention, it can be torture. I am hoping this study will be used to improve the curriculum offered in schools. It will be funny to see how quickly spiraling curriculum will be labeled as horrible for kids. Many in the gifted ed community have been saying that for years, but until the *educational experts* declare something law, it's not true.

Waiting.

We still hadn't heard from our IS (Instructional Supervisor) at PA Cyber, so I called to see what was the hold up. They are still waiting for the school nurse to approve our son. He's entering 3rd grade. All 3rd graders in PA need to have a dental exam form filled out. I haven't sent it in yet, since we already have a check up scheduled for the beginning of August. Apparently we have to wait until that is sent in to get the ball rolling.
I am anxious to get my hands on the materials so I can have time to see what we will be doing. However, it probably is best that I don't have more to do right now. The addition is moving along nicely. The roof is on and the inside walls are framed. No windows yet. Next week will be the electrical, plumbing, windows and deck. Then we move onto the really messy stuff...drywall. I've been running our son to a Cartooning Camp that he signed up for this whole week. He loves drawing, so it seemed like a good summer activity. I could do without the extra driving, but he's having a good time.
We have started collecting other educational tools for the classroom as well. I won an auction on Ebay for a lot of Eyewitness books. We already have tons of books in the house, but there's always room for 15 more! I also placed an order with Mindware http://www.mindwareonline.com/MWESTORE/Home/HomePage.aspx?
and Educator's Outlet http://www.educatorsoutlet.com/
They are both great websites for parents who want to supplement their children's learning at home. I love the clearance section on Educator's Outlet!

Only a little over a month left until we dive into this new endeavor! I am still excited, but also nervous about the responsibility. The occasional negative comment by well meaning friends adds to that concern. I know that whenever someone tries something outside of the norm, they are going to encounter resistance. When we first made our decision, I was telling everyone about our exciting new plans. Now I just keep it to myself as much as possible. It's what our family has decided is our best option. I don't need anyone else's approval.

Space is at a premium.

Most people who decide to cyber school generally just find a quiet corner somewhere in their house to allow their child to do their school work. Not me. I decide we should add a two story addition!

This was actually a plan we had from the time we first bought our home. Our kitchen is a smallish, eat in style kitchen typical in a ranch home. The house we lived in previously had been built in 1920 and had a huge kitchen and dining room. The downsizing was irritating, but we loved the location and decided to just deal with it. I would occasionally mention the need to add a "real" dining room someday. Once we decided to cyber school, I knew I had my chance!

I believe one of the great aspects of cyber schooling is that you can do it anywhere. Of the families I know that do cyber school, most use a desk in a living room or family room. One friend took her previously unused formal dining room and turned that into cyber central for her 3 children. At an information session I went to for PA Cyber, a teacher told us about some of her students. One girl had a father who was a very successful businessman. He spent a lot of time traveling in his private jet. She would travel with him, laptop ready for school anywhere, anytime. One student was in the hospital waiting for a bone marrow transplant. This child needed to be kept away from others physically, but could still interact with classmates through cyber schooling. What incredible opportunities technology has opened up for learning!

So...do we need a new classroom added to our home? Probably not. I'm enjoying myself imagining and planning what it will be like. Ultimately, what will make the difference for my child will be the opportunity to immerse himself in learning for the first time in his school career. I know that could be accomplished anytime, anywhere when he is given the freedom to dive in and drink it up.

Why Cyber?

When we first started looking into alternative schooling for our children, we weren't sure which way to go. Our oldest child went to a private Christian school for most of her school years. That decision was partly made due to the fact that her father and I lived in different school districts (for her middle and high school years) and the transportation issues would have been difficult. My husband and I lived in a less than desirable district at the time and didn't like the idea of her going to school there, either. So the private school tuition shared between two households seemed like a good deal.
When our second child was born, we decided to start looking for a home in a "better" district. So we moved to a more rural, conservative district thinking we would fit in better; being conservative people. Little did we know that may have been the least of our worries! When we recognized the need to pull our son out of the school he was in, we started considering cyber school.
I had met a neighbor who was cyber schooling her son. She told me how wonderful it was. I listened, but thought, "you just don't know what it would be like for me to deal with this kid all day!" But, the more I listened, the more I tried to picture myself teaching my child. I also met another mom who had just started cyber schooling her 3 gifted children this year. She had nothing but positive things to say about her experience. She told me that all the time and energy I was spending arguing with my school about the best way to deal with my child could be better spent teaching him myself. In fact, I would probably have less stress if I brought him home. I hope what she said will prove to be true!
Why cyber school over traditional home schooling or private school? We ruled out private school mostly due to the cost. Our youngest will be going to one of the local private Christian schools for Kindergarten, but after that he will also cyber school.
Home schooling has a lot of positive possibilities. However, the need to document and plan for every lesson and/or pay for the materials out weighs any benefit I could see. So, it was to be cyber school.
In PA we have 11 schools to chose from. If you are not familiar with cyber school, I'll give you a basic course in how it all works (at least in PA):
Cyber schools are a part of the public school system. They are charter schools. They are paid for by tax dollars. Therefore, there is no cost to the parents. The home school district pays the tuition from the funding they receive for that child. That home district keeps a small portion of the alloted money to cover the expense if your child would chose to participate in extra curricular activities (which they have the right to do according to PA state law). Here's a link to the PA Department of Education website that provides additional info and links:

http://www.pde.state.pa.us/charter_schools/site/default.asp?g=0

The cyber school provides the curriculum, all the classroom materials including text books, a computer, printer, headset, reimbursement for internet service, as well as postage to send in any assignments or assessments. The cyber school does all the reporting to the state on our child's learning. That takes a big chunk of the responsibility off of the parent's shoulders. Some schools also provide other services. Our school provides a reimbursement towards PE class every year.
There are also opportunities for the children to get together. At a statewide level, there are field trips offered. On a more local scene, there is a group, similar to PTA, that helps keep the kids connected through various social and learning events. So, if you are worried about socialization (we are not, due to involvement in other activities) that helps cover that aspect.
Parents are the facilitators of the classroom. For the younger children, it's much more hands on. The older kids take "virtual classes". There is a teacher who has a group of students as her "class". The students participate in the class by wearing a headset and watching on their monitor. When a student has a question, they can raise their hand by clicking an icon on the screen. The teacher "calls" on them and activates the mouthpiece on their headset so the whole class can hear the child speak. Here's a link to PA Cyber's website that explains a little more about the virtual classroom:

http://www.pacyber.org/students/technology.aspx

We have chosen to use Calvert curriculum which will make our schooling more like home schooling for the elementary years. We did have the option to chose virtual classes starting with 3rd grade, but we wanted to keep the ability to modify the curriculum based on the speed our son was learning. That's the joy of the whole cyber school experience! We can choose what suits our child's needs best! PA Cyber's tag line is, "Build your own school....out of choices, not bricks". I just love that. Every time I see that on the materials they have given us, I feel so positive about the next school year. For so long it's been, "We don't do that here".
I know this is going to be tough. I know there are going to be days that I want to run after the big, yellow school bus and beg them to take my children with them. But, I also know this is a small sacrifice I can make so my children can continue to love learning. With the opportunities before us, I guess we will soon find out....

What's wrong with this picture?

This is one of the many shirts my son has destroyed with his teeth! In K-4 he would suck on his shirt collar and sleeves. I figured it was just a security issue and would fade with time. Eventually, he broke the habit, or so we thought. After the grade skip, the habit started again, with a vengeance. Not a day went by that my son came home with a shirt that didn't look like swiss cheese.

Was this just a bad habit or a sign that something was really wrong? Considering my son's level of energy, I knew sitting still in school was not a fun experience. He never got in "trouble" for it, he just found an outlet. I noticed at home, when he worked on something that was challenging for him, he never chewed. It was only when doing mindless, routine activities that the chewing would happen. Even if he read at home, there was no chewing, so I was pretty sure it was inappropriate placement that was doing him in (and killing our clothing budget!)

When talking to friends with gifted children about my experience I found out this was a common sort of problem. Some situations were much more severe than ours. One friend had a son go through a nervous breakdown in elementary school and a daughter that picked at her skin until it became full of infected sores. I heard about many children who either zoned out all day in class or became the ultimate trouble makers. What were all of these highly intelligent children suffering from? I believe it all boiled down to lack of appropriate challenge and improper educational placement. Sometimes it was educator's lack of knowledge about gifted children that brought it on. Sometimes inflexible rules about what was allowed in a certain district.

The shirts were a clear sign to me of what was going on inside of my son everyday. Not enough learning=shirt chewed to bits. Some days he would come home and blow up about every little thing. When I'd ask what the problem was, he would say it was a bad day at school. He had a hard time being specific about what was wrong. He loved his teachers, especially his second grade teacher. He wanted to be happy in school. I think some of the time he felt guilty for wanting so much more than they were willing to give.

When I first suggested the possibility to him that we might pull him out of public school, he worked harder to fit the mold. But a few months after we first mentioned it, he told me he wanted to leave his school and be at home. I was glad he had made the decision on his own. It would make my job so much easier. I know so many kids whose parents just can not bring their kids home to cyber school. They need to work full time or have other issues that prevent it. As a person who has worked with an advocacy group for the last two years, I want to make the public brick and mortar schools do what is right for those children. I hope to still have enough energy while working with my kids to devote time to that effort. No child should have to suffer. These are supposed to be the best years of their lives! Why should they be forced to slow their pace to match their classmates?

I'll close this post with a link to one of my favorite sites, Hoagiesgifted. This particular link is to the, "Ridiculous things I've heard today" page. These are the kinds of things parents and children are being told on a regular basis.

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/ridiculous_things.htm


Something needs to change in our educational system. It is broken, can we fix it?

And so it begins.....

Thursday afternoon we enrolled our middle child in a cyber school. I never thought I would make a decision like that. Don't get me wrong, I love my children and enjoy spending time with them. However, I was enjoying the upcoming freedom I was seeing with my youngest heading off to Kindergarten. Things never go quite the way you think they will.

The trouble began when our son started K-4. We knew he was probably going to test as gifted even before he started school. Our little boy said things to us that we recorded in the baby book... "My sandals make the sound of a bird's wings cutting the air", age 3. "Look Mom! There's an unusually large fleet of pirates in our back yard!", also age 3. He wasn't one of those kids doing phenomenal math problems at age 2 or reading at age 3. He was just a really deep thinker who picked things up as soon as we taught him, or even before we did.

In school, they recognized this and told us he could be tested when he started Kindergarten. By half way through the K-4 year he started telling me he didn't like school. When I asked why, he would say, "We do the same things everyday." I told him not to worry, Kindergarten would be better. I couldn't have been more wrong.

At the start of K, we requested testing. By January we were told, "Congratulations! Your son is gifted. He can participate in the pull out program 2 days a week, 45 minutes a day." Basically, they would give him the reward of extra work. By now, I had been doing a lot of research online about gifted children. I was concerned about underachieving. I asked about the possibility of having him skip first grade since all of his scores seemed to show he was already working at least one grade level ahead in every subject. The answer? "We don't do that here." So, we pressed on. We requested that they test him further to explore grade skipping, even if they didn't "do that here". Eventually, after filing Due Process, we were granted the grade skip. We told our son, "Don't worry, things will improve next year." Wrong again.

The summer between K and second grade he read "The Hobbit". He was six. I remember one conversation in the car about war and dictators. It was a very deep, intelligent conversation. He was 5. I knew public school was never going to meet his needs. But, the desire to have that free time pushed me to keep trying to make it fit. He spent his second grade year improving his writing skills, but really picking up little else in education. When I asked him what he learned in math so far that year (around January) he told me, "curtains come in pairs". I emailed his teacher regularly asking for something to change. I went to parent teacher conferences and made suggestions for things that might allow our child to have a more appropriate education. None of these things amounted to much. Usually I was told something along the lines of, "your child is benefiting from the work he is being given". My child was chewing his shirts to bits while bored out of his mind in class! So, I made the decision. We would stick it out to the end of year (per child's request to stay with friends) and start with PACyber in the Fall of his 3rd grade year.

I spent time through the Spring talking with our son about his future in cyber school. When I told him he could spend an hour each afternoon reading, I thought he was going to cry with joy. We started planning the kinds of things we would like to do. We looked over some of the curriculum that the school would offer him. He has never been more excited about school than he is now. HE can't wait to start, and neither can I.

This blog is going to be dedicated to following our progress as we move into uncharted territory. I have talked to many parents of gifted kids who are so frustrated with their children's schools, but don't know if they are ready for the challenge of cyber school. I'm planning on letting everyone see the good, bad and ugly of the day to day cyber schooling of a gifted child. This year I will be working with only one of our children. For the Fall of 2009, I will also start my youngest in first grade. For this year, he will attend a private K. I wanted to dedicate this year to getting our 7 year old back into the habit of learning in school.

If you are considering the possibility of cyber school, please follow us on our adventure. Even if you are not, follow us to learn how our public schools, in most cases, are failing the children they are designed to teach.
And now......

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

--JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit