The Plan Comes Together

As of yesterday, my classroom had objectives written all over the white board, books spread all over the floor and my filing cabinet looked like it had thrown up. Today is not much better.

In PA, you must file an affidavit to homeschool your children. This affidavit must include a list of your educational objectives. Everyone I have spoken with has strongly encouraged me to keep these as vague as possible. This was a challenge for me. I love details. I rewrote these stinking things about twenty times before I had something vague that made me feel satisfied to put my name on it.

Once that was finished, I realized the fun had only just begun! Now...what to teach these boys? I wrote out the list of subjects required to be taught in elementary when homeschooling on our whiteboard. (Pardon the lousy photography...it was late, but you get the idea.)

At the elementary school level, the following courses shall be taught: English, to include spelling, reading and writing; arithmetic; science; geography; history of the United States and Pennsylvania; civics; safety education, including regular and continuous instruction in the dangers and prevention of fires; health and physiology; physical education; music; and art."

Well...I didn't write it quite like that. I only said safety education, not "including regular and continuous instruction in the dangers and prevention of fires." I guess PA can thank Benjamin Franklin for that one...

Then I went to my enormous pile of books and materials I have always wanted to use and sorted them by subject. This left me with a floor covered in piles of books. Too many books. I spied the Calvert boxes that I had not yet unpacked and pulled out more books. This just made more piles.

I decided to change my approach.

"Let's do this by subject," I said to myself. (I had banished all other humans from the room.)

I chose science first. I pulled the Calvert 2nd and 5th grade science text books from the piles and checked what topics they would cover. They seemed to line up with each other fairly well. I sat down at the computer and outlined the units and chapters from each book, including vocabulary words. Two hours later, I had a plan. I chose three of those units to cover in this school year. I pulled all books I had related to those three topics and put everything else away for later.

One down...how many more to go?!

I am looking at math next. Math and science are the two that give me the most difficulty because I'm always second guessing the best approach for the boys. I just learned of a cool math program today and think it might be the ticket for JT. Living Math! If I had to do it all over again, this looks like the kind of math I could have enjoyed in school. I printed out their suggested book lists and a sample lesson to check out.

I am feeling a bit stressed by all I need to do. But I'm also feeling a freedom I haven't felt so far in this process. I was telling a friend who cyberschools her children about our decision. She told me she had been considering making a change too. She said, "I always feel like I'm racing to meet some goal. Like there's a carrot dangling in front of me that I can never reach."

I'm so glad we've left the race. I never really liked carrots anyway.



Please note: This will be my last week posting at Adventures in Cyberschooling. We will be making the transition to a new blog shortly. I have a name...but I won't tell you until it's ready! I will provide the link here when the move is complete.

Polar Opposites

"I hate math!, I hate math!"

The sound of my 9 year old in the midst of a unit on decimals. I was in our classroom with my younger son. JT was out in our library chanting his mantra.

EM yelled back, "I love it!" In the meantime, EM was struggling with a card game I made for him. The cards have sets of rhyming words that need to be matched. EM has a horrible time hearing the rhymes. (I am starting to consider having him evaluated for auditory processing problems, but that's another story.) JT has always excelled in everything related to language, so for him, that game was always a piece of cake.

Five minutes later, JT burst into the room and said, "Can't I please just sit and read the dictionary all day?!"

Now, I can really relate to that sentiment. I was competent in math in elementary and middle school. When I reached high school things went down hill. I have always loved reading, language and history. I like science, if it doesn't involve too many equations. :-) Like, JT, a day with the dictionary would be far superior to math.

I believe it's okay to not like math. (Gasp! I've said it out loud!)

The question is...does he dislike this subject because he just can't relate to it, or is he honestly struggling with the math? Sometimes it's so hard to tell. He wants to be an entomologist when he grows up. Will math play such a vital role in his future? If he can pass math without honors, will it really matter? If I push him to excel at something that isn't his cup of tea, will he hate it more?

In the meantime, I have to find a way to teach these two boys with completely opposite styles and strengths. I really can't imagine how a classroom teacher has a chance at reaching a room full of a kids. I have enough trouble with only two.

Progress

I was sure this week wasn't going to amount to much...but today made up for the slow pace. It seems like I can pretty much count on one really good day a week. JT seemed to be more interested in learning today. We worked on fractions and decimals. Since we have finished our 3rd grade math and decided not to start the 4th grade material at all this year, we started really going deep into the fractions. I have a hard time knowing when he is really paying attention. That drives me nuts! He'll tell me that I should know he is usually paying attention when he looks like he isn't and isn't when he looks like he is. So today, he looked like he wasn't, but when I put problems on the board for him to work on, he did them perfectly. I had him take mixed numbers and turn them into improper fractions and back again. Then we took fractions and converted them into decimals. I really want him to have a good grasp on some of these concepts before he gets to the higher level math. I feel like too often the math curriculum in our country doesn't allow kids to really 'get it' before they move on. Then they drag the same stuff out again the next year. A preliminary look at our 4th grade math text shows me that we will only need a few months to cover the material for next year. In fact, it might only take 2 based on the lack of new concepts being introduced.

Another great thing happened today. I had been dreading the composition assignment for this test packet. The last one took us a week to really get around to doing. Today, I helped JT think through what he was going to write and left the room. When I returned in 10 minutes, the first half was done! With a little praise, he completed it in one sitting! This is pretty much unheard of around here. So, I laid on the praise pretty thick and he had some free time for an art project. Hopefully whatever magic happened today can be recreated the next time I say the words, "composition"!

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!

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.