Something New

This week brought about a small revelation. I am yelling too much! I'll tell you how I found out:

Wednesday night I was about 24 hours into a cold. I was starting to feel like Thursday would not be a very productive day. So I went to JT and said, "If I write up a list of things I need you to finish for school tomorrow, would you be able to be disciplined enough to do the work on your own?" He says, "Oh yeah, no problem. I'd probably get done faster." When I asked why he said, "Because I wouldn't get yelled at as much."

I realized I may be micromanaging a bit. Obviously, since he's only 8, I felt the need to keep him on task. But maybe a little less could be more. This morning, even though I felt reasonably well, I wrote up the list and after some warm up work together, sent him on his way.

I kept a close eye on him from the next room. He would go good for awhile and then sputter out. I would go in, make sure he understood the instructions and leave again. After he finished a couple assignments, I spent some instruction time with him. Then we had a fun activity and lunch.

In the afternoon, he tried to work a little faster because every Thursday we play our spelling review game to prepare for his test on Friday. This involves him drawing elaborate space battle scenes on the board and getting an 'action' every time he gets one right. I NEVER win this game. We did some geography work together and then played the game. It was a good day!

Tonight he told me he liked the new method and hopes it keeps working. He also noted that I "didn't yell at all today."

Some of the inspiration for this came from another blog I read, Learn at Every Turn A recent post titled, Projects Overview, made me rethink my usual ways of trudging through the day.

Two other things I wanted to cover in this post.

1. JT has an AWFUL time with alphabetizing. I knew he had some trouble with it, but recent workbook activities have shown he really is struggling. I thought he just couldn't handle the fact that he needed to look at the 3rd letter in most words in these assignments. Then I realized he has no idea of the relationship of letters in the alphabet. Of course he knows A comes before Z, but if I ask him which is first, K or M, he really has to think. Today we started playing a game with alphabet flashcards. I hold up 2 and he has to tell me which comes first. It was much more enjoyable for him than the usual worksheets. Hopefully it will help him to visualize the relationships better.

2. I bought the most wonderful math books this week! Life of Fred If you have never seen this series you HAVE to check it out. JT did the first lesson in the Fractions book today. I was in the other room and he called to me to ask if he could PLEASE do the next lesson too. JT is good at math, but it's never been something he was thrilled about. I'm hoping this is a good sign. If you have a child who is strong in language, but not necessarily math, I highly recommend looking into this series. Here's a link that has some raves by parents. Happy People

Between the new math and new routine we should have an exciting week!

Home again, home again.....

We have survived the testing! JT handled the whole thing very well. We ended up canceling our reservations with the hotel when I started thinking about the cost of the whole thing. Monday morning we left early enough to have time to get lost if necessary. Surprisingly enough, I managed to find our destination with no trouble.

When we arrived at the test site, I found the site manager who had arranged JT's special accommodations, allowing him to take 3 test sections for 2 days, instead of the standard 2 sections for 3 days. She assured me everything would be fine. When we went to the room where the actual testing was taking place, I told the teacher what was going on.

After the morning session, we got lunch. I asked JT what the hardest math question on the test was like. He told me none of them were hard. I tried again, "Well, tell me about the one that took you the longest to solve." He said, "None of them took longer than 20 seconds." "How do you know that?" I asked. "I counted for all of them!"

Should the fact that he was able to time each question WHILE solving it bother me?

We went back to the hotel at the appointed time. We were asked to wait until they found somewhere to have him take the test. Three other families had made similar deals and were also asked to wait. It took 45 minutes for them to figure out where they should be. I thought all of this was arranged in advance. Silly me! When he finally went to the room, I asked how long that section should take. I was told about 1 hour 20 min. I figured I'd come back up to the lobby in 1 hour, knowing it wouldn't take him as long as they predicted. They came and found me 30 minutes later...he was done.

The next morning, I asked if he could finish the last 3 sections in the morning session, since he had been done early the morning before and had finished the 3rd section so quickly. Morning sessions run from 9- 11:45. They came to get me at 11. He was finished.

The most disturbing thing about this whole ordeal was the fact that other parents were being forced to spend loads of time waiting when they really didn't need to be. Why hadn't they arranged to have more convenient testing? The morning sessions were for the younger grades, afternoons for the 7th-11th. Some parents had kids in both groups and sat there all day. Some had toddlers with them. One mom told me she traveled 1 hr 40 min both ways and had to do it all 3 days.

I guess the cyber schools don't want the kids testing in their home school districts for many reasons. But wouldn't it be easier for them to pay a fee for the kids to do that? Test scores would probably be better. It might even be cheaper than the cost of renting so many locations. I'm sure there are all sorts of politics involved. Maybe I'll check that out before next year's testing.

I'm glad the testing is over. However, it was nice to spend a few hours each day in the parent waiting area. As I spoke with the other families, it was interesting to hear their educational story. No two were alike. Some had started out in brick and mortar. Some had done traditional homeschooling, some a little Christian schooling, some had always been in cyberschool. Under usual circumstances, when I try to explain our family to people, I always feel like the 'weirdo'. My daughter (now graduated) went to Christian school preK to 2nd, moved to public until 5th and then back to the Christian school 6th-graduation. Our middle child, JT, started public, moved to cyber. The youngest is in Christian K and will cyber next year. These people were like me! I felt like I had finally found my clan. No one there expected me to drop my kids off at the public school and be happy with anything they gave me. All of these people wanted their children to be educated in a way that was appropriate for the CHILD. How crazy is that?!

The Dreaded Week is Coming

We must travel to Williamsport this coming week so JT can take the all-important PSSAs. We signed a contract when we enrolled with PA Cyber that we would do this. I have been dreading it most of the year.

Williamsport is approximately a one hour drive from our home. That is the closest test site available. We need to be there at 8:45 am. We are NOT morning people. SO, I decided to book a hotel room to keep from needing to drive there both mornings. We are staying in the same hotel the testing is taking place. We will stay Sunday and Monday evening. I am NOT thrilled that I am shelling out the money to do this. What else can I do? We did manage to get them to cut JT's test days down to 2 instead of 3. They are setting up a private room for him both afternoons to take an extra test. The other kids will be there 3 days. I guess they figure he is advanced and can handle the extra test each day. I understand there isn't much they can do to make this situation any better. I feel a little bad for having to be assertive and insist that they bend the rules for us.

The real problem here is that I am now getting nervous JT won't do well on the tests. I have been giving him practice work off and on throughout the year to get him ready. Most of the math is well below where he is currently working. The reading multiple choice questions are usually a breeze (except when they throw in some off the wall question that even I can't answer)! Yesterday I sat him down to do the long answer reading questions and he totally choked. He was asked to read two poems, find 2 things alike and 1 thing that was different. He wrote the two things that were the same (in sentence fragments) and claimed to be done. When I told him to read the directions again to see if he had done all they asked, he claimed to be happy with his answer. Complete panic ensued! I hope by reviewing the "make sure you read all the directions" rule enough over the weekend, we may still pull this off.

I know ultimately to me, it doesn't really matter what kind of score he gets on these tests. They are not a good tool for measuring his progress for the year. What I am really concerned about would be what the school will think after they bend over backwards to accomodate my needs expecting him to score advanced and he doesn't. Could be a tough sell next year.....

Handy Websites

The Calvert Curriculum that PA Cyber provided offers geography the first half of 3rd grade. When we finished the book, I had an older 6th grade geography text book lying around that I decided to use as a supplement for JT. We spent a few months getting a general overview of world geography including things like natural resources, world population, climate, etc. Starting last week, we zeroed in on the United States, specifically the North East. I found a picture of a blank US map and cut and pasted just the NE to make it big enough for easy identification. I wanted an easy way to quiz him on the states and capitals. That very morning a friend of mine sent me a wonderful email full of links including a state quiz. Here are a few....

map quiz of the United States
http://www.mccollam.com/fun/geoquiz/usaquiz.html

excellent group of quizzes (mostly math)
http://www.thatquiz.org/

math flashcards (you can chose if you want to be timed or not)
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/thats_a_fact/english_4_6.html

jigsaw puzzle quiz of United States
http://jimspages.com/States.htm


I sometimes think about how hard it must have been for parents doing traditional homeschooling before the internet came on the scene. These websites are wonderful tools that not only help us teach our children, but also allow us a few free moments of sanity!

When my son asks me some off the wall question about science or history and I have to stop and really think about the answer, it's so nice to know help is only a Google search away. No wonder my mom bought the gigantic encyclopedia type book a door to door salesman brought to our house when I was a kid. She probably wanted a break from answering questions!

It was a good week to be thankful for technology.

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"!

Technology Downsides

Tonight I am blogging over dial up. Our house is located in a very rural area. Our only option for high speed internet is wi-fi. Tonight it stopped working. My husband called the provider and they told us there has been a fire where their equipment for the wifi system is housed. They have no idea how long it will be down. Apparently they don't believe in having a redundant system.

Fortunately for us, we use the homeschooling option PACyber offers. I really only need to log in one time a day to count for our school day. The rest of our time is spent in a more traditional setting. JT does take one virtual class right now on Thursdays. Hopefully they will have worked out the problem by then or we will have to find an alternative location. But it really made me think, what if we were signed up for virtual classes? Would it be our responsibility to find a way to attend those classes? I have been playing with the idea of switching to a new school that might involve regular attendance online. Maybe I need to rethink that possibility. At the very least, I need to find what the policy would be in those situations.

One other thing, this week I have started spending more time on JT's Spanish instruction. We have only been playing with it off and on from time to time. Today I made a whole pile of labels for all sorts of things around the house. I'm hoping that the presence of these Spanish words will indirectly plant them in his mind. I am looking for some good teaching materials for our foreign language for next year. If you know of any, please send it to my comments.

Learning to Write

This week I have been attempting to teach JT how to put together a decent composition. He has had many composition assignments from the school. Generally, these assignments have been things like, "My Pet" or other journal-type writings. I wanted him to learn how to do some research and put his thoughts together on paper. I told him to pick one of the people we learned about in his history text last week and write a short biography on that person. JT chose Robert E. Lee.

We started out finding some good information online and a book from the library. I gave him the pack of index cards and told him to write a separate idea on each card. He needed a little direction throughout the process. Next we sat down and I helped him split his cards into groups. Then we worked together to write an outline based on the cards. At that point I said, "Number your cards in the order that matches your outline and then you will need to write the report." He needed some encouragement and then a little pushing to get through this part. Today he wrote his last paragraph for the rough draft. Tomorrow we will look for spelling mistakes. Monday he is going to type up the report.

This is not a major report. It will have 5 paragraphs total. I just really wanted to help him know that learning the material does you little good if you don't have the ability to share what you have learned. I think more kids need to learn this process earlier in their schooling. It often isn't until late middle or early high school when these skills are taught. It requires a slightly different way of thinking. I hope by beginning early, JT will have it easier when he reaches college and needs to be able to communicate in this way.

Now if he'd only stop fighting me when I ask him to write in cursive!