Time for Learning

EM completed the last of Calvert's first grade math tests today. When we come back from our Christmas break, we will start with Singapore math. I showed him the books today. He looked at them for a minute or two and said, "I think I'll work my way through those in a day. Is that okay?" I would say, "YES!"

About 2 weeks ago, I decided to try to complete all of the required Calvert spelling tests for JT before Christmas. We almost made it. We have one left for the new year. I just wanted to get them out of my hair so we could spend some time using our English from the Roots Up flashcards to create our own spelling lists.

Once again this week, JT struggled with distraction. I'm still not sure how I want to handle those days. After a fairly unproductive morning today, he did buckle down and write the first 3 paragraphs of a 5 paragraph composition on hurricanes. Later in the day, he spent some time on a piano piece he has been composing. His musical talent continues to impress me. I can only imagine how much more he could do if he had the desire to invest more time. Motivation is in short supply here.

I am really looking forward to the holiday break. We will be schooling two and a half days next week. After that we plan to start back on a full schedule January 4th. I will probably take a break from blogging until we come back in January.

Have a wonderful holiday and happy new year!

Sports

The closest thing I did to sports during my school career was band front. My husband played one season of T-ball when he was young. We are not a sports family. If it weren't for my daily dose of NPR that usually throws in 5 minutes of sports, I would never even know who is in the Superbowl, etc. My husband never knows. All of that said, because we are Americans, we feel some compelling urge to involve our kids in sports.

Tonight we took the boys to their first Upward basketball practice of the season. JT played last year. He loved it. They are a group that doesn't worry about the score or who is winning, the kids just play and have a good time. This year we signed up EM, as well. I spent the first 30 minutes of EM's practice trying to convince him to let go of my leg and play with the other kids. He would say things like, "Why did you sign me up for this?" (He asked me to.) "Mom, I'm just not used to being around other kids." (Quick look around to make sure no other parents are thinking about socialization.) "Why do I have to do this?" (Don't ask me, I'm not sure myself!)

I saw a basketball near us, so I gave it to him and asked him to do what the other kids were doing without leaving my side. Then I started walking towards the team. When he was close enough, I ran off to my seat again. He was perfectly happy and had fun. No harm done. He is not scarred for life.

JT had his practice next. They are in two different age groups, so we have 2 practices in a row. When you are not a sports person, it's hard to get excited about all this time you will spend sitting in the gym waiting. Good thing I love to read...

How Much is Enough

There are days I feel horrible guilt. Am I spending enough hours in the day teaching my children? Our cyberschool requires us to have 'school' 5 hours a day, 180 days a year. I figure we probably come close to that 5 hour number about once a week. When we transition to homeschooling next year, PA requires us to log EITHER 180 days or 900 hours (for elementary). I will no longer feel I am not meeting the goal! There is no definition of "day" in those guidelines. I know my kids are learning even when they are not being instructed by me. In fact, I often feel like they are learning more when I get out of the way.

Today JT was very resistant to my need to teach him. He happily worked his way through his math and then stalled completely on the school work. I gave him several different options. Nothing. Then he started telling me how he was working on designing a new musical instrument. Every time I was out of the room, he was rummaging through cupboards finding supplies. I kept directing him back to the work at hand.

We had to leave the house at 2pm for violin lessons. He still hadn't completed three assignments I had given him. When we came home, he rushed through the work and was finally allowed to begin his construction. By bedtime he had a new instrument created from paper towel rolls, rubber bands and popsicle sticks. He had also come up with a method of writing music for the instrument, composed a new song and written it down. He played his new piece for us before he crawled into bed. Overall, he spent about 2 hours in what I could consider 'school' hours. He spent about 5 working to design something he had created in his mind. Is that a full school day?

He had a sense of accomplishment that wouldn't have come from working hard on the assignments I gave him early in the day. After today, I am so tempted to toss everything we routinely do out the window.

How do I find the balance between old-school education and true learning?!

Thankfulness

We are coming to the end of our vacation week. In our plan to school 6 weeks on/1 week off we managed to have Thanksgiving line up with the schedule. Christmas vacation will not quite line up, so we may take the end of that week and part of the following week off and start back a bit sooner. I guess it will depend on frustration levels and where we are in our material.

Like most other Americans, I spent some time today considering my blessings. One that came to mind was the opportunity we have as Americans to homeschool our children. Others are not as fortunate. Here is a link concerning a family in Germany that may be going to jail for making the decision we take for granted. Of all the things I had to consider when choosing this path, jail time was never an issue. Even though some days, I may feel I've been 'sentenced for life', I generally feel far more freedom with my boys out of the public school system. I don't want to downplay the sacrifice homeschooling can be for some families. For me, it meant once again postponing my college education. In the large scheme of things, does it really matter if I have a degree? Isn't that kind of the same as thinking kids need to go to a 'real' school in order to be educated?

I am thankful that I have a supportive husband and extended family. I am thankful that my husband has a job that allows me to be home with the kids and not need to worry about the bills. I am thankful that my kids are happy and free from tedious days in a classroom...except for composition (if you were to ask JT).

Hands on Science

Today we took a field trip! We went to the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg. This was a cyber school sponsored trip. We were able to go to a 3D IMAX movie, Under the Sea. It's been a long time since I went to a 3D movie. WOW! I was blown away by what they can do with that technology. The boys couldn't stop reaching out to try and touch the animals.

We spent the rest of the day in the science center. They have loads of hands-on science exhibits. I realized that these museums may be wasted on the young. I wanted to stop and read and try everything. The boys ran this way and that, starting something, spotting something new...never finishing what they started. The only thing that kept them in one place was the hurricane wind tunnel. 90 mph winds have a way of doing that!

Overall it was a good day. We picked up new knowledge. We had fun as a family. The cyber school paid for part of it. I've decided I need a new plan for the rest of the year, take advantage of EVERY field trip offered. If this is our last year with them, I might as well milk it for all it's worth. Up until now, we had gone on only a couple of their sponsored events. I was afraid of taking too much time away from the necessary busy work. Now that I have lost most of my concern over those things, we are free to learn at our leisure.

Learning...it's such a funny thing. Sometimes we try to fit it into such a small container. Learning is done in a classroom. Learning requires repetition and proof of mastery. Learning must have structure. Right now, at this moment, my 8 year old is in his room reading "Blood, Bones and Body Bits" from the Horrible Science series. He keeps yelling facts to me from his bedroom, "Mom! Did you know you actually only need 10% of your liver to survive?" "Mom! Did you know that as the cells in your mouth die, they end up in your spit, so you actually end up eating yourself when you swallow?" I'm guessing he's learning...

Testing my Limits

Today started out poorly and continued at a regular rate toward failure.

I have been struggling to get a good routine established for our schooling. Every morning, I have the best intentions of starting by 9am. This almost NEVER happens. The reasons vary, but the results are the same...we trickle into our classroom in the 9:30 range. I have considered the possibility of changing our tentative start time to 9:30, but have a funny feeling then we'd start at 10.

EM usually comes ready for show and tell. He is a bit of a ham and enjoys showing off whatever toy he is enamored with that day. I allow him to give us a 2 minute presentation thinking this might be developing some future talent as a lecturer.

JT has been having an awful time with focus lately. He will stare at whatever is in front of him...the paper, a book, me...and he is somewhere else. He seems to want to connect with the world, but is struggling to do so. I have seen him smack his forehead and shake his head back and forth in an effort to concentrate on the here and now. My husband (always full of useful suggestions) sent him to play the drums for a few minutes to clear his head. (my husband has a drum set in his office...we are a family of musicians!) This does seem to help for a limited amount of time. Apart from 10 minute drum breaks every 3o minutes, I'm at a loss for a solution. I am starting to consider the need for an evaluation by a professional.

So, today I couldn't seem to get anyone interested in a word I was saying. Aside from the frustration of repeating everything I say about 50 times, I was worn out trying to find the way to be interesting enough to draw both of them to learning.

Then the mail came.

JT's packet of tests had come back from the cyberschool. I often dread opening these packets. I know there will be something in there that makes me want to tear all of my hair out of my head. I was not disappointed today.

His science test had 3 questions marked wrong. Two of them were obviously NOT wrong, since I double checked the definitions of the words in question in the text book. One was debatable. I think his answer could be correct. There was a point taken off in the math test, but I couldn't find any marks as to what problem was incorrect. The geography test had 3 questions marked wrong. These were worded in a way that I felt was ambiguous. I could go on and on and on about the problems with these tests. Am I just being too critical at this point? In some situations, perhaps. When I spend half an hour researching this question on the internet...

"The United States government is a ______.
a. democracy
b. republic
c. a and b

because I think the answer CAN be c, but they say it's most definitely b...maybe I'm a bit too picky. The text book seems unsure about the answer as well. "The United States is a republic." 2 sentences later, "Our type of republic is also called a representative democracy. In a democracy, every citizen has a right to take part in government." Hmm...sounds like BOTH to me. Everything I read and discussed with JT seemed to point to the fact that it's a debatable issue and some people are still on the fence. The struggle to teach my children that sometimes there is no black and white, clear cut answer is probably not best taught with a packaged curriculum. :-)

After an hour of feverish irritation, I felt thwarted by the system. I started questioning my ability to teach my children anything. My husband came to my rescue and pointed out that no one could teach using this material and succeed. Once again I will have to rethink my remaining days with the cyber school. I am certain I don't want to pull the kids out in the middle of a school year. It would just be too complicated for the reporting. The question becomes...how little of this sub-standard material do I need to teach to get through the rest of the year? We need to start working on something that will improve our mood and challenge us to learn....before all of our brains turn to tapioca.

Math

Now that we have decided to leave the cyber school, I realized I have become solely responsible for selecting what math the boys will be working on next year. Freeing yet frightening! The boys are plodding along in the Calvert math series this year. For EM, I do a lot of enrichment activities with math. He is flying through the first grade Calvert math. When he completes one of the tests, I browse through the next 20 lessons, pick out the concepts I know he hasn't mastered (usually only one or two) and give him the next test the next week. He will be done with their math by Christmas. I suddenly realized, I need a game plan for him before then. I spent some time on the Singapore math site today. I was fairly certain I wanted to pursue that option with him before today, but now I am absolutely sure. The site has a few very useful tools. Under the homeschool tab, they have placement tests available. I plan to give EM the 1A placement test next week. I am thinking I will start him with the 1B books when we have completed Calvert. That way, when he begins the year as a 2nd grader, he will also be starting the 2A math book.

JT is a different story. His first few years of schooling, like most gifted kids, he flew through the math that he already knew. Now we are running into road blocks. We have had to slow down so he can master long division. The lesson 80 test in Calvert is made up of almost all division problems. I told him I would not allow him to take that test until I thought he was ready. Maybe in a week or two he can do it. Looking at the rest of the math for the year, we should be able to move quickly through most of the remaining material. At that point, I'm not really sure where to start him with Singapore. Even the 4A placement test has concepts he has not encountered yet. I am seriously considering just starting him at that point. I'm just worried he will see the 4A book and assume he is not doing well. I know 4 doesn't necessarily mean 4th grade, but will he, even when I assure him it's fine? I had my own insecurities in math growing up...I don't want to see him have the same problems.

One other thing, not related to math...today on Pioneer Woman's blog, there was a post that mentioned a spelling web site, Spelling City. This site is a dream come true for me! For absolutely no charge, I can enter the boys spelling words and the site will generate games using those words. Matching games, word finds, unscramble, you name it, they have it. We spent the first 45 minutes of our day playing. My husband did discover that it doesn't know all words...thermodynamics was not in it's repertoire, however, repertoire is. Again today I find myself wondering, how did all those homeschooling moms survive before the internet came along?

Things I Won't Miss

I guess you all knew it was coming. I have finally made the decision to leave the warmth and safety of the cyberschool nest and make my way in the world.

I can't say exactly what it was this week that pushed me over the edge. First there was the composition mess last week. Then our cyber school decided to update their mail program, losing my address book and most of the useful functions from the previous program. It's funny...I thought a cyber school might be good with the whole 'technology' thing. Then there was the friendly reminder that EM should take the second of four online assessments for the year. I sent an email stating that I thought the tests were poorly designed, that EM had placed above grade level in all the tests in September so I thought he should not need to take them. The answer I was given is that the state is holding the cybers to the same standards as the other public schools. I'm sorry...that's not an answer. The other schools are NOT required to give assessments like these 4 times a year.

So while all of this is going on I am reading a book "Home Schooling: A Family's Journey" by Gregory and Martine Millman. Every page I turn is making me more and more sure the path we are heading down now is not the best option for our family. One of the takeaways from Chapter Two sealed the deal for me... "A school-like curriculum and school-like pedagogy only make sense in the context of a school." I realized I am not fulfilling the vision I had for my children. I also finally faced the fact that fear was the only thing stopping me from taking the leap.

We will finish out the school year with PACyber. However, we will not push ourselves to do as much of their material as we would have. I will be very sad when we have to pack up the laptops and printers and the much coveted Bamboo... We get to keep all of the textbooks (some of them might be useful in the future). I will not miss the excessive testing and busy work given to my children. I will not miss the lack of time to stumble upon new and exciting adventures. And finally, I will not miss the horrible tunnel vision we have been suffering from ever since we tried to conform to someone else's plan for the lives of our children.

Composition

I know I've said it a million times...JT despises composition. Because of this, I try to assign the least I can to meet the school's requirements. Our Calvert curriculum typically requires one composition and one other writing assignment (sometimes a poem) per test lesson. PACyber had the brilliant plan this year to send along additional required test sheets for the Calvert students. So, for the lesson 40 test, JT is required to write a composition from a list of three topics, a Cinquain and a 2 paragraph composition about Robinson Crusoe. This news was NOT greeted with enthusiasm in our household. I have tried to break the work up into smaller pieces to keep the distress to a minimum. I told him to go ahead and print for the bonus work. I know they probably want him to use cursive, but I am one of those people that think the need to write in cursive is a waste of time. I want him to be able to read it (important historical documents are no fun to view if you have no idea what they say) but I assume my kids will be working with keyboards far more than fountain pens in the future. Plus, I never mastered cursive myself, so I have no room to expect perfection. All of my teachers seemed to think my penmanship indicated a certain career in medicine.

I do want my children to be able to communicate their thoughts in written form. I just wish there was a way to pull that off in a less painful way for all of us. Earlier this week JT put together his shape planner for the composition. The school requires one for most writing assignments in 4th grade. Today I had him pull that out and get to work. His paragraphs are well written as far as entertainment value goes. I'm not so sure the teacher will grade them based on that. We shall see...

No Time

Some weeks just seem like we are doomed to accomplish nothing from the start. We came back from our trip relaxed and ready for action. Then I took out the calendar...interruptions everywhere I looked! Monday JT had a piano lesson at 2pm and EM's birthday party was that night. Tuesday we all had flu shot appointments at 1:30. Wednesday I had to be out of the house for most of the day, so JT spent his day with my dad and EM worked independently while my husband worked at home. Today we had a violin lesson scheduled for 2:30. Then a wonderful thing happened. It was canceled! Suddenly I had a free afternoon ahead of me. Plus, we had a freak snow storm (completely unheard of this time of year in our area) that gave us a half inch of heavy, wet snow. The boys were thrilled with the turn of events. They pulled the sleds from the garage and proceeded to get soaked. When they came in, we had hot chocolate. We also finally had the time to remove our eggs from their solutions and check them out. We also pulled our hot dog mummy out of his baking soda and measured and recorded the changes. Not everyone would be thrilled with our idea of fun, but we thought it was great!

So now I ask myself...how can I re-work our schedule to allow more free time? Most weeks we are cramming all of our Calvert work into the morning hours. IF we have any available time in the afternoon, we get to do the 'fun' stuff. It seems like more and more of our afternoons get scheduled with appointments and lessons. Originally I thought it was great that we could get the lessons 'out of the way' by having them in the afternoons. But now our evenings are just getting filled with other things. I'm going to need to rethink that concept. We might have to move at least one of our lessons to after school hours.

My November calendar looks fairly clear right now. I am going to work hard to keep it that way. Maybe if I'm lucky...we'll have some free time so we can actually get something done!

Refreshed

What a week!

Last Friday, we drove to the city to hear the Harrisburg Symphony perform. They have two shows a year for school students that are free. It's a wonderful program. The conductor spends a great deal of time speaking to the students between pieces and explaining what is happening. I only took JT to the performance. EM does not have the same intense love of music. He also has some sensitivity issues with loud noises, so I wasn't sure he would enjoy it. Later that evening, we went to a Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain concert. Culture abounds!

Over the weekend I started the process of packing for a three day trip to Lake Arthur. We rented a cabin through the state park system. Even though it's a modern cabin, there seemed to be a ton of stuff we just MIGHT need on the trip. In between fits of packing, I was trying to look through both of the boys' lesson manuals and compact a full week of Calvert material into Monday at home, Tuesday through Thursday on the road and Friday at home. About the same time, I read a blog entry by the Pioneer Woman called October Homeschooling Blues. This post made me say, “HEY! That's us!”. Apparently I wasn't the only one having these feelings, since the comments were full of homeschoolers in the same boat. One of the commenters shared the fact that her family schools 6 weeks on, 1 week off. I looked at my lesson planner and realized we were heading into week 7 of this school year. I looked at that pile of workbooks and manuals I was trying to sort through. I looked at the heap of things I still needed to pack and I made a decision. We will now be schooling 6 weeks on and 1 week off! I put the manuals and school books away and declared a holiday.

When I pulled the calendar out and started counting weeks, I discovered that if we start in mid-August every year and follow the 6 to1 schedule, we will still finish a school year by June 1st. We will need to have one 5 week block and one 7 week block to fit Thanksgiving and Christmas in their proper locations. Otherwise all will be good.

Our vacation has been wonderful. In fact, I am in the cabin now with the lake right outside my door. We really only had one full day in the park. We hiked, we collected leaves, we explored and we were a bit chilly. It was overcast and windy most of the day. But, it has still been an excellent adventure. We had a campfire with 'smores last night. Tomorrow we will be examining some local geological features. Then we are spending the afternoon with fellow homeschoolers we rarely get to see before the long drive home.

All in all it has been a great trip. If I had tried to pack in worksheets and textbooks, we would have spent the evenings filling in the blanks. Instead we played Blokus and Pokemon together. If I had brought flashcards we could have sat on the picnic table drilling math facts instead of hiking around the lake and seeing a Blue Heron. Thanks to our flexible schedule my children learned how mine reclamation works while looking out over a pond with a muskrat lodge.

Who knew a week off could be so educational?

Motivation

First of all, the picture to the right is an ongoing project we have been playing with for the last two weeks. Naked eggs! We removed the shells from the eggs in vinegar (it took about 2 days). Then we took them out and felt them (lots of "eeewwws" with that). Now we are testing the permeability of their membranes. Salt water to the left, regular water in the center and corn syrup to the right. Of course, this is on the hutch in my dining room...

Motivation. How do you teach a child to be self-motivated? What if you yourself struggle with motivation issues? I used to be a bit more of a go-getter. I would have huge lists for each day of the week and would pat myself on the back after I crossed off each item. Now I have a vague idea each day that 'something should be done'. Schooling is always the priority. Because of that, I have lost some of my old structure. However, I still feel motivated to do things that need to be done and then...I do them. JT does not seem to feel that need for much of anything. Is this a trait that can be learned or is it mostly hereditary? I find myself saying things to him like, "This _____ (fill in the assignment) really needs to be done today. If you'd start now, we could do something fun in an hour." Nope. Does he not see the logic? No pain, no gain?

This year, one of my goals for JT is to help him do more independent work. I have been writing the workbook and reading assignments he has in a small notebook each evening for the next day. He is supposed to check the notebook and work his way through those assingments whenever I am not giving him one-on-one instruction. This has been successful some days. It just seems that he can see no positive benefit to working a little. That is something that worries me. Will he grow up to be a lazy bum?! It may seem a bit premature to be worrying if my 8 year old will be avoiding work 20 years from now, but it's the underlying attitude that seems troubling.

At the same time, EM is an orderly do-gooder. He enjoys working. All I need to do is say, "Finish that worksheet and I'll give you a sticker". Boom! He's done! He also leaps out of bed at the crack of dawn, makes his bed and gets dressed without being told. Where did those genes come from?

One more thing. This week I read an excellent article about homeschooling. Check it out. :-)

Tests, Tests, Tests...

As a student I adored tests. I looked forward to showing off what I had learned. I still like to play trivia games and take quizzes online. Yes, I am one of those people. So why do I detest tests aimed at my children?

Our cyber school sent us the results of the testing the boys took part in this month. Both tested above their current grade levels. One of the annoying things about the test for EM was in the results I found out one of the tests was timed. Hmmm, a TIMED test for a 5 year old involving clicking the appropriate answers on the computer screen. They didn't tell you it was timed when the test started. I probably wouldn't have let him wander around the room while taking the test if I knew that! I want to know; were they trying to test his motor skills or his recognition of high-frequency words?

The school wants EM to take these same tests 3 more times this school year. JT is going to have to take Scantron at least one more time. We are in the process of having EM evaluated for giftedness through the school. If he ends up with a GIEP, I'm planning on asking that he be excused from the testing except one time a year. I think I have a pretty good argument since their reason for testing is to assure that the kids are keeping up for the PSSAs. If he's already testing above level, I think we are good to go.

Because of this, I was already at high irritation level when I received another package from the school. It contained the "Fourth Grade Calvert Math and Reading Test Additions". Inside: "To ensure that we continue to meet the state requirements, we have made a few adjustments to the Math and Reading Calvert curriculum. Beginning with Test #40 and continuing through Test #160, you will receive the mandatory Math and Reading tests that must completed (their typo, not mine) in addition to the ones you have already received from Calvert."

Argh!

I have been stewing for two days. Am I nuts to be annoyed by these extra test sheets? JT does fine on his tests. He doesn't like to write, so the extra reading tests are not going to make him happy. They are full of essay questions. I almost sent out an email while I was still clutching the offending test booklet in my hands. My wise husband saw me at the keyboard and suggested I wait to send it, or at least let him preview what I wanted to send. So I waited...and stewed some more. I know my IS is about due to call me. At least, I think she is. I haven't heard from her in 3 weeks.

So...can I be nice?

Some Improvement

After the insanity of last week, this week was relatively peaceful. We put in several productive days for both boys. EM had a bit of a cold/cough most of the week, so he was not always a pleasant participant. JT enthusiastically completed a rough draft for a composition! However, the promise to do the final copy the next day should have been greeted with skepticism. He only wasted half a day resisting that one. I guess that could be counted as progress.

EM spent several hours in front of the laptop completing some testing for the cyber school. They employ the DORA/DOMA online assessments. This was NOT an enjoyable experience for either of us. Sitting still is really not in EM's skill set. As far as I can tell, the purpose of this testing is to determine if any early intervention is needed for the almighty PSSA tests. I am really wishing I had waited until the compulsory education age of 8 in PA to enroll EM in a formal school program. I could have happily educated him in my own way for the next 2 years. Instead, we will be jumping through the hoops. Lesson learned.

I have a few things I found/read this week that I want to share. First.... I found a wonderful book that is providing loads of fun activities. Exploratopia. In my opinion, this is a must buy book. We are currently working to mummify a hot dog thanks to this book!

I have added a blog to my following list: Art Projects for Kids , thanks to Annie from Learn at Every Turn for that one!

I also highly recommend the blog The Pioneer Woman. This post about socialization is a must read for any homeschoolers or even more for those who have doubts about homeschooling.

Tomorrow EM will spend the day with my dad as his teacher. Last year, JT went with him one day a week. This year the boys will alternate weeks to spend some time away from me and with their grandparents. It will not give me the free time I had last year, since I will still have one boy with me. It will offer me a chance to get that one on one time with the boys that is so hard to come by during our busy school days. I have promised that if the homebound boy helps me with the errands and grocery shopping in the morning, I will completely devote the rest of the day to an activity of their choice. Since JT's idea of a good time is laying on the couch reading together or watching a nature video, I think I should have fun tomorrow!

Mowing in the Dark

Things got a bit crazy around here this week. My husband and I are going out of town this weekend for a parent's getaway. Of course that means nothing would run as planned.

It all started over the weekend. Our cat had not been eating well for about a week. I took him to the vet and he needed emergency surgery for a stomach blockage. I had little time for getting ahead on housework, but did manage to plan a week of school. Monday, even though it was a holiday, we had a bit of school work, knowing things would be busy later.

Tuesday morning, JT had an allergy shot appointment. He had a major reaction, which culminated in him being given the Epipen and staying in the office for 2 hours. Not much schooling THAT day.

Wednesday we did manage to put in a full school day! We also were able to check out our protozoa we have been growing from a kit we purchased. The boys fought a bit over who should be looking in the microscope. I have now added one of these to my wish list for the classroom.

Today was a day where nothing seemed to go smoothly. We started late. JT did spend a good deal of time working on his Life of Fred book, completing 3 chapters. EM spent some time with me reviewing time telling on analog clocks using one of the center activities we put together.

Then the trouble began. Composition. I dread even mentioning it to JT. As soon as I say something about the need to write...he sets his face with his most defiant look and glares at me. I gave him a choice between finishing the final draft of last week's composition or beginning one for this week. He sat there for a good 45 minutes before he realized he wouldn't win this one. My husband discovered last week during a similar stale-mate, that the best way to make him act seems to be to remove the actual paper from the room and make him come to us and ask to start it when he is ready. In the meantime, he sits at his desk and stares into space. No amount of logic can budge this child. Explaining that if he really wants to be a biologist when he grows up, he will need some writing skills, seems futile when he's 8. (Not that I haven't tried it!) Threatening, pleading and yelling are all worthless. You just have to walk away and wait.

That was when I had to run the cat to the vet because he decided to remove his own stitches.

All of this ended with me riding the mower in a nearly pitch dark back yard.

Next week will be smoother. Right?

Keeping it Simple

We seem to have established a good rhythm for this week. I am far more relaxed this year than I was last year at this time. My evenings are being sacrificed to planning more often than I would like, but as the school year progresses, I'm hoping to find a better method for prep work. It does feel nice to have a routine again. Over the summer, we would slip from one day to the next. I think we were all a little tired of the lack of structure.

Our current game plan is: everyone up by 8am and finished with breakfast by 8:30. We have school time from 8 until about 11:30. When I need to work individually with one of the boys, the other one moves into the library and uses the table there for independent work. After lunch and recess time, we come back to the classroom to complete any unfinished seat work. Then we move on to the shared lessons in history, science or art. We usually wrap up by 2pm. If we have somewhere to be (piano, violin or library) we quit by 1pm.

I have been able to incorporate the 'fun' stuff more often this year. It has almost been a necessity with both boys schooling at the same time. This week we were reading about the origins of writing in "Story of the World". A few years back, I had picked up a set of stamps and book called "Fun with Hieroglyphs". This was a big hit! The boys spent a whole afternoon working on notes to one another. JT wrote a short story about a crocodile using the stamps.

At another point this week, JT suddenly said, "Can you find me a diagram of the inside of a tornado?" I helped him find one online. He then proceeded (completely unprovoked) to make his own diagram, look up information in two books and write a short report on Tornadoes. Yet another of my goals being met! "Provide opportunities and direction for the boys to explore their own interests."

We are keeping up with our Calvert material as well. JT is working his way through a bit of review before he takes the Lesson 40 math test. I promised him when he takes that test, he can spend a week working on the Life of Fred fractions book. I think we will follow a 2 week of Calvert/ 1 week Life of Fred routine until the Calvert material has been completed. Then we will continue with Life of Fred and a Pre-Algebra workbook that I ordered. JT also finished reading the abridged version of "Robinson Crusoe" in a couple days. The Calvert material expected him to spread it out over about 50 lessons, so I will have him complete the reading section of the first 3 tests now.

EM has surprised me with what he knows. He is not as outgoing as JT when it comes to showing his ability. He pulled off a 100% on his spelling pretest. He also zips through the reading material set for the first 20 lessons. I need to look ahead and find a good place to start for him. For now, I am reading books I borrowed from the library with him during our reading time. I also learned something interesting about his math skills. He does much better with addition of larger numbers. Ask him what 4 + 5 is and he has to think for a bit. 40 + 50...he answers quickly. Interesting. I also found that he has a hard time with flashcard math, but does terrific with dice. Good thing I bought that tub of 90 dice from Lakeshore Learning. :-)

One more thing I found this week. If you are at all interested in incorporating Bible study into your child's homeschooling, I found a great site! ABC, I Believe has free Bible lessons for younger children with fun activities that you can work into many different subjects. I especially like the worksheets that you can print. The first four lessons are completely free, if you want to purchase all 26, it is $12.95. We used the first lesson and the boys had fun following the "ant trail" to the clues.

In the end, this has been a good start to our year. I am feeling positive and enjoying finding things that benefit both of the boys' learning.

Here We Go Again

We are well into our first week of school and I am t-i-r-e-d. I spent many hours since the Thursday arrival of our material trying to get a good handle on my direction for this year. My first attempt at planning was to go through both of the boys' lesson manuals provided by the publishers of the curriculum and decide which individual activities we should do. That idea turned out to be very overwhelming. I threw plan one out the window and tried a different approach. I went through the first week of lessons and looked for the key concepts that were being introduced or reviewed. Then I went through the text and work books and found material that I judged worthwhile that taught those concepts. After that, I added my own things from my immense pile. This plan suited me much better and also fits the new flexibility theme.

Now...do you remember the schedule plan? EM was to start the day at 8:30 with JT coming in around 9:30. Monday morning both boys were up at 7:30 ready to go. JT NEVER gets out of bed that early. I decided to stick with the plan and sent EM downstairs to wait for me. JT was told he could finish breakfast and read until it was time for him to begin. When I walked in the classroom, EM was sitting at his desk with his hands folded. How cute is that?! That will probably be the only time it ever happens. My plan worked fairly well the first day. I felt like we accomplished some learning and some schedule adjusting. In the afternoon, we had an archaeological dig in our sandbox (strainght from the activity book for "Story of the World: Volume 1"). Hands on learning. Check another item off my new goals list!

The second day was a bit more of a struggle. JT had an allergy shot in the morning, so we had less time for schooling. EM was home with my husband and did some worksheets while I was away. I couldn't get the rhythm back that day. We did manage to do a couple experiments involving buoyancy from Janice VanCleave's Physics for Every Kid.

As the week has progressed I have realized this juggling act will require me to have less balls in the air. I am trying to pack so many things into a day, that I keep dropping the balls. Today we went with the 'less is more' method. We had to be somewhere a little after noon, so I planned very few things for the morning. We finished all of our work and I resisted the urge to add more to that free time. I felt a bit less stressed.

This weekend I will have limited planning time due to a Saturday family reunion 4 hours away. I think keeping it simple may turn out to be more complicated than it sounds...but I'll give it a try.

Wouldja Look at That!

The big brown truck finally backed into our driveway this afternoon. We will be starting our school year Monday. How nice that they arrived in time. (read with much sarcasm) The large pile to the left is EM's first grade materials. 19 separate books! I have 4 lesson manuals just for him. JT's is not as overwhelming, but I have issues with that as well. (of course) Calvert offers two different versions of it's curriculum, Scholastic or Academic. Here is a description of the differences from Calvert's site:

Calvert Academic (Pre-Kindergarten through Eighth Grade)

The Calvert Academic curriculum is our traditional instruction with the rigorous pace that our families have come to expect from Calvert. Students enrolled in Academic courses cover more topics in history and science; write additional, more complex compositions; and complete more advanced work with literature selections.

Calvert Scholastic (Fourth through Eighth Grades)

The Calvert Scholastic curriculum provides Calvert's challenging and integrated core curriculum, but it is structured in a way that gives students extra support in grammar, composition, and critical thinking. Its instructional focus meets the needs of students who require extra support in these key subject areas through additional review and skill reinforcement while maintaining the challenge of a Calvert experience.

Hmmm, additional review...just what we need.

PACyber used to purchase the Academic version for all of their students. This summer they decided they didn't like the History text offered for that version because it was thought to be 'too religious' and didn't follow PA standards closely enough. Now all students using Calvert have to use the Scholastic version of the curriculum. I have only made a quick survey of what we received at this point, but I can tell from the tests we won't be having much challenge from this material.

I still haven't made up my mind if this is good or bad. I have LOADS of things I can do in addition (and would actually prefer to use) to what they have sent. EM's first grade books seem a bit below where he is now, but I can see some value in a few of the things I have looked at so far. So it's not a total loss. It just seems so ridiculous to keep up this routine. Have I said all of this before? I am compiling a list of questions for the homeschooling liason at PDE. That call is on my list of things to do in the next month. I want to do my research before I call, but it is definitely a direction I am interested in heading.

In more interesting news...I am almost done with the centers box. I made a great find at Wal-mart last week. They had a whole pile of learning activities on clearance! I bought an Active Minds Pocket Chart and sets of cards to go with it. They had Spanish/English words and some 3 and 4 letter word matching games (good for EM). I also found an Addition Facts bingo game. Yes, I could have made it myself...but it was only $2. I did make my own flashcards for rhyming words (EM), time telling (EM) and at the suggestion of JT, cards to build sentences. I had to come up with nouns, adverbs, adjectives, verbs..etc to print onto cards that he could arrange into 'funny' sentences. I color coded them to parts of speech so EM could also use them to master that concept. I also made cards (at the suggestion of a friend) with things like, "make 48 cents using 7 coins". We have a nice set of play money from Discovery Toys that will work for that one.

I read an interesting article this week about parents hiring tutors to prepare their children for Kindergarten. In the article they mentioned how cut-throat Kindergarten can be now in the United States. Children who can not read by the end of that first year of school are being held back to repeat. The author brought up how we are trying to compete with other countries and falling behind. However, it was mentioned that in other countries children typically begin school later and are not expected to read until age 8. What are we doing wrong? Are we trying too hard? It really hammered home how I want this year to be a less structured year...especially for EM. He is 5 (will be 6 in October) and is enrolled as a first grader. He will be expected to complete that level of work. I believe it will not be hard for him to master the concepts, but I will not expect him to sit and do seat work for the amount of time they recommend. He will be exploring the world in a more hands on way. Whether using the center activities or Legos or just hanging out in the backyard checking out nature. I want him to seek out information, not force feed him from a big box the UPS man brought to our door.

Promises, Promises....

Still no books ordered by our cyber school! I can not get a good answer as to why they can't order yet. I was told on Tuesday, that they will be ordered by the end of the week. Sure.

In the meantime, JT and I had a long talk about our schedule for this year. He was used to having me all to himself most of the time last year. Now that EM will be joining our happy little group, things will be changing a bit. I asked JT if he thought he could be responsible enough to get up on his own, get some breakfast (if I leave some helps along the way...i.e. milk in the creamer for his cereal) and be dressed and ready to join us by 9:30am. EM is an early riser, so I figure I will work on his reading and math for an hour before JT joins us. Then we can do some shared learning, move on to gym and then EM can go work on some independent learning while JT and I work on his instruction time. JT seemed to think it was a good idea and promised to work on following the schedule. All of this sounds lovely...until the first day when EM is running late or JT won't get up or.....

Oh yeah, flexibility!

I also felt ambitious this week and put together some index cards for our "fun" box. These activities are things we can do together. Some of the cards say things like 'take a walk', 'play an educational game' or 'watch an educational video'. I am thinking I will need some stress relief as I adjust to two kids in the classroom. These cards will be for days when we are starting to feel the pressure. Educational activities...but ones I don't need to direct. I am still working on activity cards the boys can use independently when I am working with one of them. I have found several teacher sites with 'center' activities. The problem I'm having is that most are geared for more than one child. I will need more than what I have put together at this point, but I have a few for the beginning of our year. I want to be able to say, "Go work on an independent activity" and have it be a packaged, ready to go kit.

Finally, I found a new site/catalog that I LOVE! Home Science Tools. I placed my first order this week after poring over the catalog for days. I have page after page marked for my wish list. We ordered a slide making kit for our microscope, a protozoa hatchery kit and a cool laminated photo elements chart. At the rate I'm going, I won't need the curriculum from the school! I could teach for the next 5 years with the things I already have in my classroom.....and maybe I just will.

A Little Progress

I finally forced myself to go into the classroom and begin tackling the piles. I went through everything on the floor and have one small stack left that will take a little extra thought. I also cleaned the desks and the windows and took every last thing off the bookcase! Now I have the top shelf dedicated to reference materials and the bottom will hold our current textbooks. I also ordered a new larger bookcase for my office for all the material we will use in the future. For some reason that pile has grown quite large this summer....maybe something to do with book sales? :-)

I also made a discovery. I have far too much in mind for this year. So, I pulled a few things from each pile and set them aside for 'later'. Maybe we will get to them this year, but if not, that's perfectly alright. I made 3 groups of with the remaining books. Things for JT, things for EM and things for both. History, science and Spanish will have a lot of overlap. I STILL don't have the Calvert material. I think there may be some benefit to NOT having it. I am spending more time and energy planning with the 'supplemental' things, that maybe I'll have an easier time ignoring what I feel to be the inferior material.

Finally, I took some time to put together our list of general educational goals:

1. Teach PA standards through Calvert material.
2. Provide opportunities and direction for the boys to explore their own interests.
3. Expose the boys to a wide variety of things they may not have been exposed to yet.
4. Develop a love of reading. (not a problem with JT...could be a challenge with EM)
5. Create life-long learners.

Light the fire!

More Frustration

This week I received an email from our instructional supervisor saying, "I'll be ordering your materials after the first of August". !? I went back through all of the recent emails and found one from July 2nd that said, "Email me when you receive your curriculum". Silly me! I thought that implied the materials had been ordered at that point. After a few heated emails and one subdued phone call, I am resigned to the fact that the bulk of my books will not arrive until August 17th. I was told that the school CAN NOT order from Calvert until August. I asked if it would be possible to write into our GIEP that in order to compact the curriculum and create a plan with (what they call enrichment material and what I call the REAL learning) I should be allowed to order the next year's Calvert package in June. GIEP is supposed to trump school policy. However, in our state, cybers are not actually required to follow a GIEP. At this point, no one at the school seems to know the regulation and they follow the rules as if they could get called on it if they didn't. I'm hoping to use this to our benefit for next year. I just don't know if I can feel fully prepared with so little prep time.

We have set our start day for August 24th. The school's first day is actually the 31st, but we are taking a week off in October, so I'd like to put in 6 weeks before that break. At this point, I have done little with the piles in the classroom. I did begin looking through the 4th grade math text. JT will be taking the lesson 20 and 40 tests after we review one or two concepts. When I asked him, "How would you like to cover 40 lessons in one hour?" He said, "Cool!". We will probably then move back into the Life of Fred books that we started at the end of last year. I might throw a day or two of Calvert math in, but probably won't really start it again until after the October break.

I also went online to the Calvert website and found that I could look inside most of their text books. I was able to look at the table of the contents for the 1st grade math for EM. It looks like he will have an extremely compacted year with the math. I only found about two concepts that I think we will need to explore. Depending on how that pans out, I may move him directly into Singapore Math.

I also found out that first grade has science as an optional class. We will not need to worry about sending in tests, which means I can attempt to teach similar units for the boys together, going more in depth for JT. We will also have more opportunity for hands on fun!

My game plan now is to leave the entire week of the 17th open for planning. Maybe my material will come when expected and maybe not....but since my new goal is flexibility, we will just have to go with the flow!

Oh, How I Wish....

This picture really has little to do with what is on my mind tonight, but I had to share! The pile of books in the foreground came from a local book selling fund raiser. All of those for $15! The handle on my bag broke twice while I was shopping. The mess in the background is the material I am planning to use in addition to the as of yet unseen Calvert. So far, I have sorted them into piles according to subject. The next 7 days I plan to REALLY get to it!

Now...How I wish....my son could have access to a school that is something like what he is experiencing this week at Kids' College. A local university puts together a day camp every summer geared towards gifted kids. They don't advertise it that way, but that is really what it is. He attends 4 different classes every day. In the morning the sessions are titled, "Think Like Leonardo", "Westward Ho!" and "CANS of Creativity". Afternoon he is in "Bug it Up!". He absolutely LOVES it. They dissected frogs, they ATE bugs, they are thinking outside the box from the minute they walk through the doors. After the first day, he was so excited he could barely tell me about what they had done. Tuesday afternoon he was already worried that the week was going to end too soon. Tomorrow is the last day and I'm a bit concerned that the let down will be a bit too much for him. I am trying to come up with something fun for our evening to try to bring him down slowly. On our ride home Tuesday, he said, "Mom, wouldn't it be great if I could go to a school like this every day?"

Obviously, the educators involved in these programs have the ability to pull out all the stops for one week worth of activities. Teachers in traditional settings couldn't possibly put the time and energy into a learning environment like this one for a full school year. But I am not an educator in a traditional setting! I am trying to look at the excitement this week has generated and translate that into my need to push myself to allow learning in non-traditional ways. Yes, we need to do the worksheets and testing the school needs to show what we have learned. However, this week has cemented my goal to do as little of that as possible in our next school year. It's time to think like Leonardo!

The Long Wait

While talking with a friend today, I realized I could find out exactly when we received our Calvert material last year by checking my old blog posts! It seems things arrived August 1st. Now I can stop getting excited every time I see the UPS or Fed Ex truck coming down the road...it's probably not coming yet. I really don't want the Calvert material in order to know what we are doing for the year, I actually want to see it so I know what we are NOT doing. After I see how much of it we can toss aside, I'll know how much other material I can squeeze into our days.

In the last week, I realized that our first year of homeschooling was not what it could be for one big reason. We were trying to create a 'school at home' instead of homeschooling! I found this comparison in the book I am reading, "Homeschooling" by Sherri Linsenbach. She says in her book, "A school is an institution or a facility. A home is where you live with your family. Homeschooling is a way of living." That really struck me as where we had gone wrong. Instead of homeschooling, I was playing school. I am trying far too hard to make our day follow a school-like routine.

So, I'm scrapping the old plan! This year may be a bit messier, but it should also be less stressful. That will be important since I want to lose as much of the Calvert script as possible and explore JT and EM's interests as often as possible.

I have been spending lots of time on the web looking for the perfect things to supplement this year's learning. So far I have purchased Susan Wise Bauer's "Story of the World: Ancient Times" text book, activity book and test book. I think I will use this series for both boys. The reading level will be beyond our 1st grader (for now) but he will still be able to participate in the study. I also ordered, "Mysteries in History", by Wendy Conklin as a supplement for JT.

At a yard sale last year, I picked up a set of science activity books put out by the PA Energy Office in the early 90's. The material appears to still be valid and is put together very well. Each unit has teaching tips, reproducible worksheets and suggested activities.

I also borrowed some study guides put out by Educational Impressions for a variety of children's literature. I am planning to order a few for this year, mostly for JT.

My problem now is deciding what I want to do for EM. He is more of a hands on kid. He does not enjoy reading as much as JT, but when he wants to, he does a great job. I think I'm going to use the provided material to begin and get a good feel for where he really is. His Calvert work should take no more than 2 hours a day from what I have seen on their website. If he joins JT for the science activities and the Story of the World, he should have a pretty good day.

I am STILL tossing around the idea of traditional homeschooling. This will be the year that decides. If I can find a way to use the Calvert only as much as necessary and still provide what I would like for the boys, I will stick with PACyber. If not....we'll strike out on our own.

Flexibility

I have tried to keep myself from thinking too much about schooling this summer....but now I really need to get my act together! When I look at the calendar, I see July packed with fun and interesting activities with August lurking around the corner.

First, let's talk about summer! I had hoped to keep summer free of too much activity, but that plan failed. June was packed with wedding prep for my daughter, followed by one week of peace. Since then we've had things happening almost every day. JT now has a weekly violin lesson. So far, so good there. He likes it and seems to have some natural talent. These lessons are just our 'trying it out' period. If he wants to continue, it will be added to the fall schedule. We have also been participating in our library's summer reading program. This year's theme is 'Being Creative'. The boys both feel it's more for the girls! I don't know if I agree completely, but I did allow them to skip the day with the theater make-up. Next week, we will have the first of our 'summer science' days. This is our third year getting together with other moms and their kids to do experiments and learn about science. Later this month, JT will spend a week in day camp at a local university. Our youngest, EM, decided he would like to take piano lessons this year, so we will probably have the initial lesson in August.

Today we took part in a GATE/STARR activity that PACyber offered. We drove 2 hrs west to Parker Dam state park for an environmental day. It was wonderful! The boys learned about predators and prey, camouflage and aquatic life. We also got to link up with friends who also use PACyber, but live 2 hours further west. However, the day did present a few challenges...

I do not always adapt smoothly to new ideas...people who know me well are laughing at this understatement. My boys do not swim yet. They are just beginning to learn to be comfortable in water. My parents have a pool and I grew up swimming. We've just been slow to get them over this hurdle. One of the activities today was kayak safety. This included putting my kids in a kayak on a lake. Granted, they were going in the tandem with an adult (the adult ended up being my husband) but I still had a mini anxiety attack and claimed they weren't going in. Fortunately my husband is used to this bizarre behavior and stood back until I felt comfortable enough to allow it. My friend that was there kept assuring me they wouldn't drown, they had pfds on..etc...

When it was all over, the boys had a great time, my husband was convinced he should buy a couple kayaks and I calmed down. I also learned that I need to work hard to become more flexible! I watched my friend's children happily jump in the kayaks on their own. They had never been in them before but she was calm and positive and there they went.

The flexibility issue made me think about the book I'm currently reading "Homeschooling: Everything You Need to Know to Educate Your Child at Home" by Sherri Linsenbach. It's your typical, 'this is how to homeschool book'. But reading this book, it is becoming clear to me, I am not being flexible enough with our schooling. Next year it's going to be so much more important to be able to go with the flow when I have both the boys in the classroom all week.

I'm hoping my little kayaking lesson will be able to remind me to focus on the big picture in our boys education. I want them to be prepared for life. Not just in an academic sense, but ready to tackle new situations. Ready for all the adventures on their distance horizons.

Conclusions

Our experiment has ended. I have survived this first year of so many unknowns. Last night JT said, "The year sure went fast!" "Thanks for doing this for me."

This morning we began our last official day of school ON TIME! I don't think we've started many mornings when I said we would, but for some reason, today we were feeling inspired. We only planned for a half day of school, since today was also our youngest's last day of Kindergarten and they had a half day.

We had four things on our list for the day.

1. Spelling test
2. Talk about what we accomplished this year and changes we can put in place for next year.
3. Make some summer plans.
4. Register for a subscription at BrainPop.

The spelling test went well. 100% after he had only 9 out of 20 right on the pretest last week. He had been a little discouraged by the pretest score. We talked about how he would need to work hard at learning those words if he wanted a good grade. He was very happy that he pulled off the perfect score. I honestly was amazed that he did it. This was probably his hardest list. Some of the words: necessary, recommend, ascending, descending, duodenum (his suggestion!), concentration.

When we finished the test we moved on to talking about where we have been and where we are heading. We went subject by subject and talked through some of the new things he had learned. We both agreed that he had made a lot of progress in spelling. We decided that next year we will spend more time focusing on the meanings of words rather than just how to spell them. I'm thinking a list of 10 words each week (instead of 20) with the expectation that he be able to spell and define them on the final test. We also will need to spend more time on alphabetizing.

In Math, we felt that he had made real progress in his knowledge of fractions and decimals. He also learned to factor numbers and identify prime numbers. We agreed he needs to focus on memorization of basic math facts, instead of his unusual method of quick calculation every time. He will also need much more practice in long division.

Even though he seems to completely despise composition, he managed to do a decent job on his assignments this year. For next year we will be working on improving his outlining skills, adding more descriptive detail and more variety in word choices. I would also like him to become more proficient at keyboarding. I really think he would put forth more effort in content if he didn't need to spend so much energy on the physical side of writing.

Science... the subject we were so excited to have under our control this year, really didn't pan out the way I expected. I spent far too much time trying desperately to do ALL the school provided and never went far enough beyond what they had. Yes, we had our moments where we explored a tangent, but overall we did not do what we could have. JT said his favorite part of science this year was our unit on digestion. That was the one time we did our own thing completely, with not a bit of the school's material. He can very accurately describe the process of digestion from start to finish in all of it's gory details. That is one thing I am very proud to have taught him.

We both felt that Spanish, geography, history and reading could have been far more challenging. I think most of that could easily be blamed on me and lack of motivation. The material provided by the school in those subjects was below level for JT and I knew it, but I still did not invest the time and energy to bring them up to an appropriate place for him.

Overall, I think the year was a success for me and JT. We were both challenged to learn new things and we had fun. I still wonder how I am going to keep up with him as we move along this path. I wonder how in the world I am going to have the energy necessary to keep both of the boys learning and engaged next year. I wonder if they will tire of being with me both day and night long before their years of education are complete. But all this wondering is a good thing... after all, isn't that what education is about?

So Close....

I really can not believe we are so close to the end of our school year! We only have 3 school days left in our house before we leave the realms of 3rd grade.

We had our GIEP meeting with the cyber school on the 13th. It's kind of a joke to me now to take part in these meetings. When JT was in brick and mortar school, I would prepare my test results and other relevant data to defend my position. Now I say, "Sounds fine." It's not that the school is doing much to assist my child in getting an appropriate education, it's that they don't prevent him from having one. By allowing me the freedom to tweek what they offer, they provide him with opportunities he would never have had in his former setting. While I am sad that they can't see how much better they could make things, I am happy that this works well for us.

One thing that did come out of the meeting...I had to fill out a survey asking about strengths, weaknesses and goals for the future. One of the things I mentioned was that JT is more than likely 'below level' in organizational and study skills. I asked if they had anything to offer that I could use to help him work on those skills. The team agreed to sign him up for a Lincoln Interactive class called "Exploring Study Skills". This class is a self-paced enrichment course. He will have until Dec of 2009 to complete it. I like the fact that this is graded work. He will have some accountability in a subject in which he does not excel. We also need to learn more about the technology involved for the interactive classes. Up until now we have really had little to do with the 'cyber' aspect of our cyberschool! Our IS told me if he decides he doesn't like it, we can always drop the course.

We also made another new committment this week. JT will be taking violin lessons this summer! We have talked about trying a new instrument for some time (he already plays piano and a bit of guitar) but had put off the decision. He only has 3 piano lessons through the summer months, so we thought it might be a good time to try something new. We signed up for ten 30-minute classes at the local university. Now we need to make a road trip to the closest place that rents violins (45 minutes away).

Next week, I plan to blog about the rest of our summer education and fun plans...and then take my own summer sabbatical until July. My daughter is getting married in mid-June and once school is out, we will be in the heat of the final planning. After the dust settles, I will be cleaning and making improvements to the classroom for next year!

What am I going to do with myself with all this free time? :-)

Fractions and Praise

I had a few ah-ha moments this week.

JT was having a hard time reducing fractions. At first he really seemed to understand and would successfully complete the problems I would assign. Occasionally, he would have these strange moments where he'd take wild guesses at answers. I thought he was just having a hard time focusing. Turns out, that was not the problem...

Most of the early problems we encountered involved fractions like: 5/25 or 3/9. He could do those no problem. Then we came across.... 12/39. The wild guesses began. I suddenly realized he didn't understand what we had really been doing. He thought the numerator was always the number you used to reduce the fraction! After some further conversation, he was able to handle numbers like 27/72. All of this made me consider the fact that I have a hard time knowing when he is goofing off or not really getting it.

What had annoyed me in the whole situation was the fact that I felt like I had explained it well enough. We had spent the last couple days factoring numbers and discussing primes. Sometimes I get so frustrated when I feel like I need to repeat things over and over again. It's not that he's not understanding and needs more explanation, it's that he thinks he knows what I'm saying and stops listening. Did this come about because he cruised through his first couple of years in school so easily? Or does he just naturally think he knows it all?

I've been reading a very good book this week, "How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer. In this book, he brings up a study done by Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford. She took a group of students in New York and gave each an easy test. When they finished she said one of two things to them, "You must be smart at this" or "You must have worked really hard". The students then had a choice to take either a test similar to the one they just took, or a harder test. Out of the kids that had been praised for their effort, 90% chose the harder test. The ones praised for their intelligence mostly chose the easier test. The study went on with several more testing options resulting in the children that were praised for their effort taking on more challenges than the ones praised for intelligence.

This study just blew me away. I thought of all the times I tell JT he is 'a smart kid'. Not neccesarily in a way that I would think of as trying to make him feel better than others, just as a positive statement for something he was doing. I wondered if I was responsible for making him lack motivation in the ways I praise him. So....I decided to change that this week.

When I gave JT an assignment Tuesday, he thought it was 'too hard'. He sat there complaining with no signs of getting starting. When I told him he would 'have to work hard' and that he would 'learn a lot if he tried it' he gave in and began to work. When he finished I praised him with the phrase, "You really worked hard on that!", he told me he was happy I had assigned that because he learned something new. What an eye opener!

Depth

At the end of last week, we decided to spend a little more time really exploring the biology of the digestive tract. This subject has great appeal for small boys; you get to talk about bodily functions in class and no one stops you! One morning this week, as I was doing my before school day web surfing, JT was quizzing me about body parts.

"Mom, is your bicep or tricep the one on top of your arm?" "Mom, where exactly is my liver?" Then he disappeared. A few minutes later, he came back in the room and said, "You are REALLY going to like what I did downstairs!" This being the kind of comment that puts fear in my heart, I immediately went down to check it out.

The picture on the right is what I found on the board in the classroom. (The stars were an unrelated bit of earlier art) Not bad, for his first serious attempt. I pointed out that the large intestine shouldn't really be connected to the stomach. That turned into a search for a good picture of the digestive tract. Here is what we found. Cool pic. We printed one out on card stock paper and started our studies. We used the same book by Dr. Mehmet Oz that we were using to study the immune system. We read about the function of each organ. When we got to the part about how bile works to make fat soluble and it was compared to dish soap cutting through grease, we went to the kitchen for an oil, water and dish soap experiment. Later we read about the evils of High Fructose Corn Syrup (which I have been telling him for years and now he believes) and the importance of fiber in our diets.

What an exciting day for both of us! He was engaged and learning. I felt that I had provided opportunity for him to explore something important. Most importantly, he saw that when he had a question, he could do the work to find an answer.

I have found that since we have moved out of the Calvert material and onto our own agenda, we are spending more time per subject and covering fewer subjects per day. This has allowed us the freedom to really dive into each topic.

For history, we have been watching the DVD's of the John Adams series done by HBO. The series is based on the book by David McCullough. Some of the content is not appropriate for 8 year olds, but I have previewed and skipped when I thought necessary. If you have not watched it, I highly recommend this series.

In math, we continue to use the Fractions book in the Life of Fred series. We have slowed the pace a bit and added supplemental material to be sure JT is confident in each concept before moving on. We also drill some multiplication facts daily.

Overall, I think this last month is going to prove to be the most exciting month of schooling this year. I hope we can keep it up in the fall. Actually, JT has asked if we can keep having spelling tests through the summer.... I'll have to think about that one.

Conveniences of Cyber Schooling

For the last two weeks we have been dealing with various health related issues. Last week, JT had a bad reaction to one of his allergy shots. We were still waiting in the doctor's office when it happened, so things were fine. However, for the rest of the week, he didn't feel well. Because of that, we had a low key kind of week.

Over the weekend, he developed a fever and rash. I called into the doctor's office a few times to get advice and on Monday we went to the clinic. It turns out, he had strep throat that ended in Scarlet Fever! JT's first comment was, "Scarlet Fever! Just like in the pioneer days!" Fortunately, we had just learned about the immune system last week and he understood the role of antibiotics. Learning experience in real life!

During the course of this mess, I realized how wonderful schooling at home is when you have health problems. JT had missed quite a bit of school each spring when he still attended brick and mortar. His allergies would flare up and he just couldn't deal with being in a school that had no a/c and windows open letting in all the pollen. With this illness, he would have missed almost 2 whole weeks of school. Because we are at home, he only missed a couple full days of schooling. Add that to the list of positive attributes of home schooling!

Our new PA Cyber course catalog came in the mail this week. As I paged through, I realized they didn't have Calvert listed beyond 5th grade. Up until now, they had it from K-8. When I told my friend who also uses PA Cyber, she told me that in small print it says Calvert is available up to 8th grade by request. I get the feeling they are working to direct families towards the virtual classes. I know that we will leave PA Cyber when Calvert is no longer available (if not sooner). It made me really start thinking about setting a few long term goals for our education plan. This year, we were busy learning how to just handle day to day goals. Now I need to consider whether we would consider other options besides cyber. I want to remain flexible, but also realize we need something in mind as far as a master plan goes. I like not feeling the need to conform to the norms of education for my kids. But I don't want to be a nonconformist for nonconformity's sake.

Why Are Text Books So Boring?

Today we were reading one of our last chapters for Calvert science. It covered our immune system. As usual, the book was not a very in depth study of the topic, so we turned to other sources. I remembered that the "You: The Owner's Manual" book by Dr. Mehmet Oz, had a comic strip covering how our immune system would attack Staphylococcus, and I figured JT would enjoy that more than the exciting 'diagram' in the text.

We started reading Chapter 9. "All throughout your body, you also have your own security systems to defend your body against intruders. Skin and bones protect your internal organs in car accidents and from errant golf balls, hair protects your scalp from UV rays, and eyelids protect your eyeballs from finger-poking friends." At this point, JT stops and says to me, "This is really funny!"

We spent over an hour reading through the entire chapter on the immune system. Not only was it funny, but full of good, solid teaching material. When we finished, JT completed a journal entry about what he had learned. While the entire book is not appropriate for some kids (a little too much detail on impotence!) I found much that I could use. Then I started thinking how much better kids could learn if all new material could be taught with a touch of humor. I know there are other good teaching books that are not text books out there...the 'Horrible Science' and 'Horrible History' series are just a few good examples. But what about the books from which we expect our kids to learn the bulk of their knowledge? Maybe when I have free time (in about 12 years...ha!) I'll have to embark on a mission to write educational and FUN textbooks!

We managed to squeeze in two field trips this week. One to the Children's Discovery Museum where JT experienced the many hands-on learning exhibits. He also got to pet a Tarantula. (I did not watch!) Later in the week we went to the Thomas Taber Museum in Williamsport. JT really liked the exhibits about the early inhabitants of PA. He also liked the wall murals of giant prehistoric bugs.

Finally, we registered our 5 year old with PA Cyber for first grade 2009-2010. I've started really thinking about how I will need to structure my days to make that work. Less classroom, more hands on, I believe. I also will need to have TONS of planned material I can pull out on the fly when one boy needs occupied while I cover a new concept with the other one. I like a challenge....but this one might change all of that!

Special Education Conference

I have just returned home from a two day trip to Hershey for the annual Pennsylvania Department of Education Special Education Conference. Our state provides parent scholarships for those with a child who has an IEP or GIEP. What a wonderful opportunity! I had a chance to network with parents, spent some time with my long distance fellow cyber schooling friend and heard some excellent speakers.

I was able to attend three sessions with two different speakers. The first was Tracy Cross. His presentation was titled, "From Underachievement to Suicide: How Students Cope with Being Gifted". He was such an engaging speaker and so full of knowledge on the subject of gifted children; especially adolescents. He has written much on the topic, both in book form and in articles in many publications such as Gifted Child Today.

I also participated in two sessions that Carolyn Coil presented, "Motivating Gifted Underachievers" and "Differentiation for Students Who are Gifted". She also has a fantastic collection of materials she has published. (books) Including the book "Motivating Underachievers".

What a thoroughly enriching experience! As soon as I came in the door I started spewing out all of my new found knowledge. My poor husband was in no state to receive this information. He had happily taken on the care of the boys for 2 days and was ready to drop. Normally, JT goes with my dad on Wednesday. Unfortunately, this week he didn't feel well. Then this morning, my youngest went off to Kindergarten. The school called mid-morning to ask my husband to come pick him up. They thought he looked like he had pink eye! My husband does so much to support our cyber schooling endeavor. He deserves extra kudos for this one!

There is one thing I learned at this conference that may change my entire approach next year. During his presentation, Tracy Cross pointed out that if you look back at what a particularly successful adult spent their childhood doing; you will find it was usually directly related to what they have accomplished. So many gifted kids are forced to be well-rounded. Dr. Cross points out that gifted kids usually aren't well rounded, "they're lumpy"... and that's okay. I am going to sit down with JT tomorrow and ask him to start thinking of something he feels particularly passionate about. Then I am going to work that into our plan for next year. I need to stop trying to make him less "lumpy". Yes, he needs to learn the things that all kids need for success. However, his quick learning style should allow us to master those and then move our focus to what he loves. Who cares if 4th graders don't usually spend half the year studying Archaeology!? If that's what he loves, we are going to be all over it next year!

If you live in PA and are interested... save the date for the 2010 conference..April 6th-9th. I'd love to see you there!

One Month To Go!

Due to my extreme curriculum compacting and our steady pace for the last several months, we have approximately 8 Calvert lessons remaining. Because I do not want to be 'done' with school at the end of April, I made a list of the things I'd like to do with those 3 or 4 weeks until the end of May.

Life of Fred
JT has started working his way through the Life of Fred Fractions book. So far, he loves reading the stories and is challenged by the math. I'm wondering if it might not be a little too challenging. The parent introduction in the book suggests that the parent does not need to assist the child, that all the lessons are self paced. I am finding that I need to sit with JT when he gets to the questions at the end of a lesson to be sure he understands what he is being asked to do. We will continue working through this book to the end of the school and possibly sporatically through the summer. We are also still practicing the multiplication tables daily. They just don't want to stick in his head!

Geography
We have been using a geography text book (I believe 5th or 6th grade) off and on throughout the last couple months. Right now we are working on learning states and capitals by region.

Spanish
Our language studies have been on the back burner for a while now. I really want to spend some time working on conversation skills. I've been checking popular children's books written in Spanish from our library to read aloud with JT. I want him to hear the language more than be able to read it at this point.

Power Point
I am not that talented when it comes to using Power Point and other similar applications. I would like to allow JT to spend some time just playing around with it and see what he can come up with for fun. Maybe I will learn a little in the process.

Arts Alive
This is the fine arts program provided by PA Cyber. The child watches a short video online and then logs that they have watched it. We are a little behind in these, so I see a marathon day of internet viewing....

Composition
Our weakest subject needs some real attention as we come to the end of the year. I have to admit, I avoid it like the plague. Not because I dislike it, but because JT does and lets me know it! I am hoping to have him spend more time learning to organize his thoughts and working on his sentence structure. I will be having him keep a journal through the summer. We can't afford to lose ground on this one.

Getting out of the house!
We are going to spend at least one day a week on mini adventures in May. We have a trip to a local museum planned and one to a state park. I'm not sure what the other days will involve, I just know we've spent enough time in the house and deserve a little fun.

It's hard to believe the year is nearly over. I'm hoping the next several weeks will be the best of the year. I know I am looking forward to a little more variety!

Field Trips

For a couple of months, my dad has been picking JT up Wednesday morning and keeping him for the day. This has really given me a chance to recharge. It also gives JT many opportunities that he wouldn't necessarily have with me.

Last week they went on a little adventure... First they went for breakfast. Food is extremely important to my son. He is a very skinny kid, but eats like a horse. I think his constant movement burns off all those extra calories.

After the restaurant, they headed out to a local cheese factory. JT had a tour of the facilities and was able to try some fresh Swiss cheese.

Next they went to a small area airport and had a tour. JT learned about the planes and came home with a small, wooden glider.

When I started this new phase in our lives, I had many plans. We wouldn't sit in a classroom all day. We would go on exciting, educational adventures..... I'm still hoping to get to that point someday. Right now, I feel like I need to stick with something that 'feels' like school. Our schedule for the Calvert curriculum should allow us to finish all of their materials for third grade sometime around the end of April. In order to reach our 180 school days this year, I will continue schooling through the end of May. I'm starting to look into a few one day field trips for those days. I want JT to have fun this last month of school. Maybe that will make him work harder next year, knowing we could have those same opportunities if we put in the time and effort earlier in the year. In the meantime, there's always Wednesday!