I swear we're still here. And still homeschooling. And doing ok. I think we've found our groove for the most part. Now we're just treading water. I am a list-maker so here are my lists for this post:
THINGS THAT ARE GOING WELL:
- the three Rs
- the independent folders
- independent reading
- organization
THINGS THAT I NEED TO WORK ON:
- taking more pictures
- staying motivated THROUGH Thursday so that we can get to our special projects
- integrating music and art in to our day
- getting started no later than 9am
The three Rs are going pretty smoothly. Both The Boy and The Girl are on track to finish their current math levels by Christmas break. Maybe even sooner - their motivation and enthusiasm increases as we get closer to the end of the book! I've promised them that we will NOT start their new math levels until after Christmas break so that means that the sooner they get done with their current books, the sooner they have one less subject during the day.
Their independent folders are a part of the morning routine and I'm seeing the payoff in other areas of our lives. Their chores and morning tasks are incorporated into their folders so I have less reminding to do on a daily basis - the folder checklists do it for me! I do not like being a nag and prefer to let natural consequences teach the lesson (didn't do your chores? No money this week for you.) and the folder seems to help that.
Even though we've not been to the library for two weeks, both The Boy and The Girl have been good about reading independently during breaks from lessons. They both enjoy reading which really warms my heart and I love it when they find a book (either here at home or at the library) that ties in with their lessons and get excited. The local schools here "mandate" 20 minutes of independent reading per day and I'd say that The Boy and The Girl double that (The Girl probably quadruples it) on a daily basis.
While things are going well, I'm finding that I'm in the "treading water" mode right now. The newness of homeschooling has worn off and now we're down to the "what is the minimum we need to do to get through the day?" mode. Therefore things like taking pictures of day to day activities (and blogging!) have fallen by the wayside. Time to refocus on that. And, tied into that, I find our energy and enthusiasm fading by the time Thursday afternoon rolls around (our usual time to dive into whatever project we have planned for the week). It's easier to blow it off and go play outside.
And our art/music lessons were never fully integrated into our weekly routine so they, too, have fallen off. We're coming up on our fall break in two weeks and, during that time, I plan to have the kids do lots of art projects. And, as we get closer to the holidays, we need to decide on what to make for our neighbors and friend as gifts.
Lastly, because we have a tendency to finish our lessons pretty quickly, our start time has been pushed back a bit. MacGyver doesn't usually leave for work until 8:45am or so which is fine (we tend to wait until he heads to work to get started with school) but lately, I'm finding that it's 10am and we've not done a thing other than eat breakfast.
All in all, things are going well. I suppose this counts as our weekly update (times 4?) and hopefully I will be more consistent from here on out. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!
Pau.
- hfs
10.31.2010
10.12.2010
Still homeschooling
No, we have not been washed away by a tsunami. We're still here and still chugging along. I'm having a tough time believing that we're at week NINE of this adventure!
I know I haven't been on the ball with regard to our Week in Review - surprisingly, this homeschooling thing takes up a lot of my free time! I had to laugh - the other day, a friend of mine was lamenting on Facebook about the fact that, out of 84 waking hours in her week, she only had nine (9!) hours to herself. Once I stopped laughing, I had to restrain myself from making a snarky comment on her Facebook page. Her children are younger than mine and she's not been at this parent thing all that long. In addition, she works outside the home and so does her husband. I don't want to get into any kind of a pissing match as to who has it harder - stay-at-home-moms or working moms. I've been on both sides of that fence and whoever says the grass is greener on the otherside is fertilizing it with BS. Both are tough gigs.
But her post got me to thinking...how much "me" time to I have during a regular week? And I was surprised at what I came up with: counting bathroom breaks (assuming that The Boy or The Girl doesn't have a question that JUST.CAN'T.WAIT until I'm done in the bathroom...) it looks like I have a whopping two hours and 45 minutes. Here's what my week looks like, in case anyone is wondering where those 165 minutes come from:
Monday: school, teach sign language at church
Tuesday: school, art class (about 60 minutes on my own!), dinner, family time, etc.
Wednesday: school, BMX practice, Awana
Thursday: school, dinner, family time (soon: Bible study)
Friday: Co-Op, Ohana group at church
Saturday: BMX practice, Saturday Night Service at church
Sunday: church, BMX races, Ohana group
Somewhere in there are 15 minutes of bathroom breaks (my only other "me" time) each day which accounts for the remaining 105 minutes of "me" time each week. Huh. No wonder I find myself craving silence and blank walls on Sunday evenings. Interesting.
Thankfully, I have a husband who truly enjoys his children and is quite happy to hang with them if I need a break. And, over the past nine weeks, he's really stepped that up because he knows that the kids and I are together 24/7 otherwise. Which is fine - I love my children and they really are fun to be around. However, we all benefit with a little bit of time on our own.
If and when we get to our next duty station and he deploys again, I am going to really have to ensure that I have a little bit of "me" time carved out each week because I won't have his tangible support to rely upon for that year. Thankfully, the place it looks like we will be heading has wonderful homsechooling support so I don't think I'll have much trouble finding what I need. If anything, we might be overloaded with options!
I'll try to get a Week in Review post up this week. Last week was a little slow because the public school kids were off so we scaled back on our work. Which makes for a BORING post! So I skipped it.
Pau.
- hfs
I know I haven't been on the ball with regard to our Week in Review - surprisingly, this homeschooling thing takes up a lot of my free time! I had to laugh - the other day, a friend of mine was lamenting on Facebook about the fact that, out of 84 waking hours in her week, she only had nine (9!) hours to herself. Once I stopped laughing, I had to restrain myself from making a snarky comment on her Facebook page. Her children are younger than mine and she's not been at this parent thing all that long. In addition, she works outside the home and so does her husband. I don't want to get into any kind of a pissing match as to who has it harder - stay-at-home-moms or working moms. I've been on both sides of that fence and whoever says the grass is greener on the otherside is fertilizing it with BS. Both are tough gigs.
But her post got me to thinking...how much "me" time to I have during a regular week? And I was surprised at what I came up with: counting bathroom breaks (assuming that The Boy or The Girl doesn't have a question that JUST.CAN'T.WAIT until I'm done in the bathroom...) it looks like I have a whopping two hours and 45 minutes. Here's what my week looks like, in case anyone is wondering where those 165 minutes come from:
Monday: school, teach sign language at church
Tuesday: school, art class (about 60 minutes on my own!), dinner, family time, etc.
Wednesday: school, BMX practice, Awana
Thursday: school, dinner, family time (soon: Bible study)
Friday: Co-Op, Ohana group at church
Saturday: BMX practice, Saturday Night Service at church
Sunday: church, BMX races, Ohana group
Somewhere in there are 15 minutes of bathroom breaks (my only other "me" time) each day which accounts for the remaining 105 minutes of "me" time each week. Huh. No wonder I find myself craving silence and blank walls on Sunday evenings. Interesting.
Thankfully, I have a husband who truly enjoys his children and is quite happy to hang with them if I need a break. And, over the past nine weeks, he's really stepped that up because he knows that the kids and I are together 24/7 otherwise. Which is fine - I love my children and they really are fun to be around. However, we all benefit with a little bit of time on our own.
If and when we get to our next duty station and he deploys again, I am going to really have to ensure that I have a little bit of "me" time carved out each week because I won't have his tangible support to rely upon for that year. Thankfully, the place it looks like we will be heading has wonderful homsechooling support so I don't think I'll have much trouble finding what I need. If anything, we might be overloaded with options!
I'll try to get a Week in Review post up this week. Last week was a little slow because the public school kids were off so we scaled back on our work. Which makes for a BORING post! So I skipped it.
Pau.
- hfs
10.08.2010
Bullies
If you are a parent, I would encourage you to read THIS.
If you are a teacher or work in a school, I would encourage you to read it. Same goes for anyone who has anything to do with children/youth. It is an incredible piece on what it is like to be bullied.
The Girl was bullied. Back in Kindergarten, there was a boy - we'll call him M - that was a troublemaker from the get-go. Literally, from the first day of school, this child was a problem for anyone around him. It was hard to believe but this Kindergartner was in the Principal's office just weeks into the start of the school year. And he was in The Girl's class.
Thankfully, at that age, they are relatively easy to control, distract, redirect, avoid, etc. and The Girl was able to keep her distance from this child. He was more of an annoyance at that point than any kind of serious trouble. And thankfully he was not in her class in 1st grade. He was still trouble but he was somebody else's trouble.
Second grade was different. He was back in her class in 2nd grade. And by that time, he wasn't easily controlled, distracted, or redirected. Nor was he easily avoided. He was persistent. And mean. He was quite good about seizing on any little flaw and teasing mercilessly. And he did. All of a sudden, my normally enthusiastic 2nd grader was complaining of tummy aches and not wanting to go to school. Thankfully, The Girl is not good about hiding anything (she will never make a good poker player, sadly) and I was able to ferret out the reason for the change in her demeanor.
Come to find out, this boy had been teasing her constantly for passing gas in class one day. He'd follow her around - just out of earshot of the teacher - and call her all sorts of horrible names. He'd make snide comments, corner her in the hallway or on the playground and say horrible things to her, and make her life miserable any chance he got. Other kids would join in, adding to it all.
She finally got tired of it and tried to stand up for herself and he proceeded to tell her, "I hope your dad dies." This was just months after her dad had returned from a 15-month deployment to the Middle East. She was devastated and it was then that the tummy aches began.
At the time, her regular classroom teacher - a very firm personality - was filling in as Vice Principal for the school and The Girl's classroom had a long-term substitute. The substitute was a nice person but not a strong personality and, when The Girl tried to tell him what was happening, he was not very firm in his response to the situation. M seized upon that as well and ramped up his efforts. By the time I found out what was going on and stepped in, this had been going on for about 6 weeks.
I called the substitute and requested a meeting with him the next day. We met and I explained to him that this needed to be stopped immediately and, if it wasn't, I'd be speaking to the administration. He agreed and informed me that the regular classroom teacher was due back in the classroom at the start of the next week - a blessing because the regular classroom teacher was the type not to tolerate crap from anyone.
At the same time, I found out that M and his mom went to a church in which I knew the pastor. I spoke with the pastor and he agreed to try to set up a meeting between myself and The Girl and M and his mom. The goal being to give The Girl a chance to face this boy and tell her side of the story, for M to tell his side, and hopefully for there to be some kind of truce/compromise reached. When the time came for the meeting, the mom showed up without her son. She claimed to have spoken with him and that he placed the blame of the situation upon The Girl (even though there were other children who had already corraborated her story). The mother, after listening to my (then) 7 year old child tell her side of things, called her a liar and accused my child of bullying her son.
I.Was.FLOORED.
I listened as this parent sat there and, with a perfectly straight face, explained how it was her son that was constantly being picked on by the kids at school, by the administration, and now by the pastor of her church. She refused to acknowledge that her son shouldered any responsibility and accused a 7 year old child of conning 4 of her classmates into lying about the things that were witnessed. It blew my mind.
I thanked the pastor for taking the time to meet with us but that the meeting was over and we were leaving. I explained to the mother that, should her son go anywhere near my child again, I would seek to employ a temporary restraining order...against her child. The next morning, I relayed the same to The Girl's teacher and to the administration. The school had two choices: either find a way to keep M away from my child - AT ALL TIMES - or move him to a different classroom (or school...I didn't care which). Otherwise, the problem would leave the school and move up to the district where lawyers would be getting involved over the fact that my child was being denied access to an education that is rightfully hers.
To say I was angry would be putting it mildly.
The child was moved and has since moved on to bullying other children. Supposedly the school is still "working with him on his behavior issues" but I don't buy that for a minute. A few weeks back, there was a dad that bullied a bunch of kids on a bus for having bullied his child. I don't condone his behavior but I most definitely understand where he was coming from. I have never wanted to hurt a child - ever, in my life - until M bullied my daughter. And I was shocked at my response - this was CHILD. But he hurt my daughter with his words and his actions and I was seeing red. I still do and this situation was a small part of the reason we chose to homeschool our children. Not simply because there are bullies in public schools - there are bullies everywhere and my children must learn to deal with them in appropriate ways - but because the schools themselves fail to hold firm to the policies already in place that are supposed to address situations like this one (see "Chapter 19" with regard to the Hawaii Department of Education).
The post by Single Dad Laughing was spot on and I encourage you to read it in its entirety.
Pau.
- hfs
If you are a teacher or work in a school, I would encourage you to read it. Same goes for anyone who has anything to do with children/youth. It is an incredible piece on what it is like to be bullied.
The Girl was bullied. Back in Kindergarten, there was a boy - we'll call him M - that was a troublemaker from the get-go. Literally, from the first day of school, this child was a problem for anyone around him. It was hard to believe but this Kindergartner was in the Principal's office just weeks into the start of the school year. And he was in The Girl's class.
Thankfully, at that age, they are relatively easy to control, distract, redirect, avoid, etc. and The Girl was able to keep her distance from this child. He was more of an annoyance at that point than any kind of serious trouble. And thankfully he was not in her class in 1st grade. He was still trouble but he was somebody else's trouble.
Second grade was different. He was back in her class in 2nd grade. And by that time, he wasn't easily controlled, distracted, or redirected. Nor was he easily avoided. He was persistent. And mean. He was quite good about seizing on any little flaw and teasing mercilessly. And he did. All of a sudden, my normally enthusiastic 2nd grader was complaining of tummy aches and not wanting to go to school. Thankfully, The Girl is not good about hiding anything (she will never make a good poker player, sadly) and I was able to ferret out the reason for the change in her demeanor.
Come to find out, this boy had been teasing her constantly for passing gas in class one day. He'd follow her around - just out of earshot of the teacher - and call her all sorts of horrible names. He'd make snide comments, corner her in the hallway or on the playground and say horrible things to her, and make her life miserable any chance he got. Other kids would join in, adding to it all.
She finally got tired of it and tried to stand up for herself and he proceeded to tell her, "I hope your dad dies." This was just months after her dad had returned from a 15-month deployment to the Middle East. She was devastated and it was then that the tummy aches began.
At the time, her regular classroom teacher - a very firm personality - was filling in as Vice Principal for the school and The Girl's classroom had a long-term substitute. The substitute was a nice person but not a strong personality and, when The Girl tried to tell him what was happening, he was not very firm in his response to the situation. M seized upon that as well and ramped up his efforts. By the time I found out what was going on and stepped in, this had been going on for about 6 weeks.
I called the substitute and requested a meeting with him the next day. We met and I explained to him that this needed to be stopped immediately and, if it wasn't, I'd be speaking to the administration. He agreed and informed me that the regular classroom teacher was due back in the classroom at the start of the next week - a blessing because the regular classroom teacher was the type not to tolerate crap from anyone.
At the same time, I found out that M and his mom went to a church in which I knew the pastor. I spoke with the pastor and he agreed to try to set up a meeting between myself and The Girl and M and his mom. The goal being to give The Girl a chance to face this boy and tell her side of the story, for M to tell his side, and hopefully for there to be some kind of truce/compromise reached. When the time came for the meeting, the mom showed up without her son. She claimed to have spoken with him and that he placed the blame of the situation upon The Girl (even though there were other children who had already corraborated her story). The mother, after listening to my (then) 7 year old child tell her side of things, called her a liar and accused my child of bullying her son.
I.Was.FLOORED.
I listened as this parent sat there and, with a perfectly straight face, explained how it was her son that was constantly being picked on by the kids at school, by the administration, and now by the pastor of her church. She refused to acknowledge that her son shouldered any responsibility and accused a 7 year old child of conning 4 of her classmates into lying about the things that were witnessed. It blew my mind.
I thanked the pastor for taking the time to meet with us but that the meeting was over and we were leaving. I explained to the mother that, should her son go anywhere near my child again, I would seek to employ a temporary restraining order...against her child. The next morning, I relayed the same to The Girl's teacher and to the administration. The school had two choices: either find a way to keep M away from my child - AT ALL TIMES - or move him to a different classroom (or school...I didn't care which). Otherwise, the problem would leave the school and move up to the district where lawyers would be getting involved over the fact that my child was being denied access to an education that is rightfully hers.
To say I was angry would be putting it mildly.
The child was moved and has since moved on to bullying other children. Supposedly the school is still "working with him on his behavior issues" but I don't buy that for a minute. A few weeks back, there was a dad that bullied a bunch of kids on a bus for having bullied his child. I don't condone his behavior but I most definitely understand where he was coming from. I have never wanted to hurt a child - ever, in my life - until M bullied my daughter. And I was shocked at my response - this was CHILD. But he hurt my daughter with his words and his actions and I was seeing red. I still do and this situation was a small part of the reason we chose to homeschool our children. Not simply because there are bullies in public schools - there are bullies everywhere and my children must learn to deal with them in appropriate ways - but because the schools themselves fail to hold firm to the policies already in place that are supposed to address situations like this one (see "Chapter 19" with regard to the Hawaii Department of Education).
The post by Single Dad Laughing was spot on and I encourage you to read it in its entirety.
Pau.
- hfs
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