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.