Still Learning Lessons

Oh My GOODNESS!! What a week+, we have had! It seems like Team Drennan is taking care of their issues within the span of a couple of months. At least that is what I am telling myself. LOL My favorite saying lately is, "A girl can dream, can't she!!" 

Anyway, school is getting done but not as quickly as I had planned. Honestly, our schedule had been so disrupted that I only plan ONE (1) day at a time now.  Yep! That's right. The visions of weeks of lesson planned are no longer dancing in my head. I am now a realist plus, I was really wearing out my eraser and figured this was a much better use of my time and energy to just stop the madness.

Friday week, our AC went out and it took them until Tues morning to get it working. Right after that resolved itself (or was repaired), the septic system took a dive so there was that issue to deal with. (No description needed!) Fortunately, the Lord blessed us and the repairs to both systems were minor in the scheme of things and didn't cost near as much as we expected. Factor in the fact that, Kiddo had his bi-annual cleaning AND I had to make an emergency trip to the eye doctor because my new contacts didn't agree with me AND Kiddo had a follow up appointment with his asthma/allergy doctor AND our Crystal Springs Preserve monthly trip fell on this week AND Awana started at our church AND swim practice times kept changing AND Kiddo had to put in a 2 mile run before he ran his first cross country meet this past Saturday.  WHEW!! I'm exhausted just writing all of that! 

Nevertheless, school was done and lessons were learned. Some of it was purely doing math in the car by me quizzing him and going over history lessons by having him re-tell me stories and "clarify" things I couldn't exactly remember. He loves to think he's smarter than me! To be honest, many times he is and I am blown away by the amount he retains. I kick myself every time he does this, because half the time I am not even sure he is paying attention and then BAM!!, he shows me that he was paying attention! 

To be fair, with the exception of the household issues and doctors' appointments, the rest was pretty fun! I am thankful that I have allowed us the grace and simmered down and not stressed.....well not as much as I used to.... about getting everything on MY list done. 

Kiddo impressed me and showed so much fortitude with his first cross country meet this past Saturday. We got up at O'dark Thirty to be at the event by 630am. He ran at 9 against Middle school JV and V kids from all over the state.  He did great!! He finished and had a huge smile on his face when he saw his Grandma, cousins, Mom, Dad and his coach on the sidelines cheering him on! I was (am still am) very proud of him. This after only ONE (1) month of training. This from a kid that for all intents and purposes is perfectly happy sitting on the couch playing video games. He showed me that it's okay to push him because he will rise to the challenge. Not only will he rise but he actually likes it. Not to mention the fact, that seeing his confidence increase along with his physical endurance brings tears to this momma's eyes.

So, as a family we have persevered and pray that we get a break for a little while. But at least we know that "we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us." (emphasis mine - Phillipians 4:13). 

I also have been reminded that Kiddo is capable of so much more than he lets on that he can do. I am going to try and challenge him more with my expectations of his work and the things we do at our humble learning environment.  

That's it kiddies -- that's how this momma homeschools this week!! (Again, just taking it a day at a time and trying to be FLEXIBLE!)

Do I have any hair left?

We are in the thick of the homeschool process and we are ramped up and should be ready to go. Life, however, continues to throw kinks in my plans.

Kiddo really enjoyed his first day at his STEM class on Thursday so that was a "no plan" day for me. I had planned to get some work done on Friday but instead lessons plans were shifted again. (See! That eraser is already getting a workout!! )We've had some health issues at our little abode the last couple of months. Thanks to great insurance and wonderful doctors that want to find out what is wrong with Hubby, scheduling his needs has taken top priority. 

Friday, Kiddo and I changed our writing assignment to list making then combined that with a lesson in economics by visiting our local store to pick up items that we needed for the weekend to help the Principal feel better.  Real-life math lessons came into play with calculating if we were getting the best value when looking at sizes and brands. Later, we continued the science and math aspect of our day with cooking. We were able to utilize measurements, cause effect and time management.  I feel better being able to rationalize it that way!

We did get a little "book learning" in during the day but it was limited and we were really distracted with all that we had going on. 

Monday came and Kiddo went off to a friend's for the day so I could tend to the Principal and take him to some doctor's appointments. I sent Kiddo off with some work that was to be completed. Once he came home, he advised me he only completed one page because he thought it was just busy work!!

Well, that didn't sit too well with me. Kiddo learned a hard lesson today because not only did he have to do yesterday's work that he incorrectly deemed as "busy work" but he also had a full load of work today as well. 

Fortunately, all looks well with the Principal but I discussed with Kiddo today that at almost 11 years old, he is expected to work independently at times. I explained how we work as a team but I can't be there all the time to make sure he gets his work done. 

I know it was a little extreme to have him do everything today and we missed our weekly park day with our homeschool group as a result. I must admit, I didn't intentionally miss park day -- I truly forgot about it because I neglected to put in on my planning calendar. YIKES! I need those park days just as much as he does.  

He did get a lesson in Civics today as we voted in our local Primary! I am glad that he is interested in the democratic process. So, I am putting this one in the "WIN" column for today.

He and I agreed that he will be more focused on getting his work done and  he realized that the more he goofs off, the more work he will have to do in the end. He is going to start using a daily checklist that we created together to make sure he gets his work done. We agreed that there will be days that we don't do it all and are not expected to do it all but at least by looking at the chart, he knows to check to make sure.

At this point, I am just trying to get both of us back in the routine of doing school but allowing flexibility to take scheduled, as well as unscheduled, breaks. 

He and I differ on our views of education. I loved school and would have devoted my life to being a professional student if I could have found a way to make a decent living at it. LOL  He, on the other hand, is very laid back and doesn't see the need to "dig deep" and go beyond what is expected. 

It's been one of those days in which I try to remember what it was like when he went to school for the entire day. All I can remember is, how much I missed him! I realize that even on these rough days, I am still called to travel this homeschool journey. That's what I hold onto when I start getting frustrated with him. It's the little things that get me through.

That's how this momma homeschools and today it is all about transparency.

We're Back......sort of....

We started almost 2 weeks ago but I have been lax in taking the obligatory beginning of the year photo or even posting about our return to our home classroom complete with new books, papers, pencils and all the normal "school" flair.  My original intent was that we would school through the summer so there would be no actual "First Day of School," rather "a constant progression of learning with frequent breaks" was more my plan. But I should have learned by now in my many years of revolving around on planet Earth -- Paula doesn't always get her way.

I digress and shift back a couple of month. It started on Saturday morning April 19th when I received a frantic early morning text then a phone call from my mother. My brother was in ICU after emergency brain surgery and was clinging to life on a ventilator. She had suffered through the wee hours of the morning without calling because she didn't want to bother me. OY VEY!!! Anyway, the world shifted upside down and we can began a very hectic ride on a very unpleasant roller coaster.

Suffice it to say, I basically moved to the hospital located 45 minutes away to wait with my mother around the clock until we got some direction from the doctors. During that time we prayed and waited. All the while, schooling stopped for us and my kiddo was shipped off to wonderful families that were willing to take him into their homes while hubby and I held vigil with my family. Two weeks passed on with this ordeal and my brother was deemed to have no brain activity. He never regained consciousness and we had to honor his advanced directive and remove him from life support. SIGH!!!  As very blessed side note, he was an organ donor and his gift saved the lives of three people.

The following weeks were spent planning a funeral, dealing with grieving, caring for his minor children and establishing some sense of normalcy in our lives. As a result of his death, his minor children were placed into the custody of my mother. In order to help her out, we took my nephew with us for a month. Not that we were in the mood or frame of mind to school, but it was very hard to attempt to school with my nephew here. He attends public school and in his mind, he was on vacation and also in a period of mourning.  Rightfully so! Plus, none of us had the emotional energy to "buckle down." So, we enjoyed ourselves and tried to make him as happy as possible with the passing of his dad.

A couple of weeks later, hubby came down with something and to this day he is seeing doctor after doctor to try and figure it out. So, here we are!! April came in like a LION and kept roaring all through the summer and it still purring pretty loudly in August.

I must say that we have been doing a pretty good job of getting some school work done and my star pupil has stepped up this year. Hard to believe he is in the 5th grade. It is amazing how independent he can be when I get out of the way!!

I tested him all the first week using Hewitt Homeschooling PASS testing to give me a benchmark. The second week (last week), we started our curriculum but I haven't added everything in just yet. We are taking BIG baby steps (how's that for an oxymoron?) and biting off big pieces but not shoveling in the whole thing.

Here's the line up for us this year:

• My Father's World - Rome to Reformation
• Math U See
• IEW - Writing
• Winston Grammar (which he enjoys  -- really, he loves to do this program)
• Phonetic Zoo
• Rosetta Stone (Spanish)
• Handwriting without Tears (general cursive review)
• SKrafty - Minecraft Classes
• STEM classes weekly with our homeschool group 
• Cross Country Team
• Stroke School in preparation for the swim team

I am sure I am forgetting something and you know what? -- That's okay!! I've had a lot on my plate and it's completely understandable. I am giving myself permission to just roll with it this year and take it literally one day at a time! I know God is Good - all the time -- All the time -- God is Good!! 

Hope everyone has a blessed school year!! 

Taking it a day at a time,

Paula

This and that

Kiddo has been doing a great job of getting his work done lately. I "borrowed" a friend's daily checklist (with her permission) and tweaked it to show Kiddo what he has to get done each day. He is in charge of marking off what has been completed and it is up to him to check with me to see if there is anything to do in each of the categories.

It's been nice to have him take some ownership and I think it motivates him to mark things off and see his list shrinking. Ooppss! I may have passed that list making gene down to him!!

We are scaling down as we will be integrating school when we go over the river and through the woods to grandma's house for Thanksgiving. We are making a couple of overnight stops there and back to historic areas of the country. Kiddo is excited because he will get to visit forts and complete work to earn Jr Ranger Badges at the national parks! He is so excited, I may have to develop patches for Math,  Writing, etc.

That's the beauty of homeschooling in that everywhere and everything is a school room. In some cases, like our upcoming trip, it's easier and more defined as an educational experience. But, remember a trip to the grocery store can be just as informative or taking them to shop when they have to spend their own money is an even better "life lesson."

Tweaking (not to be confused with twerking - that's a whole different subject and I am not even sure what it is) and Flexibility are my two favorite words this year. That along with writing in my agenda with pencil has been, oh so FREEING!!!  It's the little things that make this momma happy and it's why I homeschool!

We're stil here!

Our weeks have been a blur! We are in full mode with all of our activities and actual schooling in full-swing! Thus, the reason for my lack of posts lately.

We haven't added anything - as if I had the time - and we haven't really changed anything about our days. We do have a functioning homeschool room and that has been a blessing for us! It is not completely done as I once envisioned but I totally need to avoid inundating Hubby with all his extra stuff that sits in the corner. I have already piled a good chunk of stuff in the corner of his office. To be fair, I will be helping him organize his office before moving onto the final phase in the homeschool room evolution.

Had a rough couple of weeks - emotionally with schooling and my attitude. I am in the process of composing a blog post about that as well. I must admit that I have taken solace and comfort in the fact that many of my homeschool friends are experiencing the lack of honeymoon phase in their own homeschool journeys.

I am not in the least glad that they are feeling challenged and even discouraged but it does bring me comfort that I am not alone and for that reason I am not the "bad mother" I kept thinking I was and that I not "messing my son up" in his education or psychological growth.  Hang in their sisters and we will get through this with lots of patience, prayer and good old fashion cry sessions.  At least that's how this momma currently homeschools.

Why we Homeschool

I can't believe the summer flew by like it did!! We were so busy and I must confess that we didn't even get to close to my idealistic summer plans of "light schooling." Kiddo, for the most part, completed his required daily 20 minutes of reading and did his 15 minutes on Dreambox.com, but we did little else. But that's all water under the proverbial bridge and we are fired up and ready to go.

I say, "WE" because my kiddo is excited to move into the 4th grade. A week and half ago, I pulled out our brand new Math U See, which is new to us this year. Kiddo watched the first video in which Steve Demme tells the students they should be proficient in the prior steps before moving on. I was very proud of my son when he said, "Mom, not sure I am ready for this as you and I both know, I don't know the other stuff really well." Proud moment but then I scrambled and ordered the next level down with the reminder to my son that he would be moving on to the current math level in no time.

That's one of the things, I love about homeschooling is that there is no pressure to be like everyone else or to be on the same level as everyone else. I love the diversity in approaches and curriculum choices. What I once deemed as overwhelming had become comforting in the variety of choice. I don't feel "stuck" if something isn't working. I am becoming one of those homeschool moms that has a closet or box of curriculum that didn't work for us, but am happy to say, we have found some that work really well.

My goal is to keep my kiddo motivated, encouraged and confident in the work that he does. He likes the idea of being in 4th grade, but I think he really likes the reality that he is right where he needs to be in regards to his education progress. Gone are those days where he feels inadequate because some kids are "getting it" while he struggles. Gone are those days in which he feels insecure because he has questions and is too afraid to raise his hand.  He's in a safe environment in which he can be himself and learn in his own way! Bringing him home from institutionalized education is helping him blossom and grow! He is free to raise his own bar and does so exceptionally well!!

That is one of the main reasons why this momma homeschools.

Making it up as I go along....

I must admit that my kiddo has been pretty good about school lately and we have had the opportunity to pepper in some field trips to keep things interesting (and to get us out of the house). The problem lately is that my enthusiasm that I was so infused with in August has waned considerably. I have found myself not really wanting to "do" school but yet want to mark off the many non-homeschool items I have relegated to my "to do someday" list.

I find myself being more lax in what we cover and giving the literal shoulder shrug along with "eh" if we don't get to everything on my lesson plan. To compensate, I make sure my plans are made in pencil that way I can move the item to another day or erase it as if it never existed! Oh the little things that make me happy!

I really do like My Father's World as our curriculum choice and I like the latitude of being able to pick and choose from the core what I want to cover and when.  Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone but, sometimes their prescribed one week lesson plan has taken G and me 2 weeks!!  You know what??? It's okay!! The ground didn't open up and swallow me whole and no one knocked at my door to chastise me for not completing the map game assignment.

Now this latent attitude has not affected any work that G can do on his own, such as his spelling, reading and math. It is just the areas in which I need to be very involved. But guess what, he is moving forward in math and even doing extra lessons because his old mom's lazy attitude with stretching stuff out has freed up his time. I won't argue with progress!!

The library is helping too as on those days that I feel "eh" -- I pull out a topical book related to the study on my lesson plan and we read that together. On those days, I am in "to-do list" mode, topical DVDs are great too!!  I am finding that when we do get to the actual lesson plan, we have already covered most of it and no one is any the wiser that I took a different direction.

The subsequent result is one of the many benefits of homeschooling. We get to make it up as we go along and we learn all the way down our rabbit trail!!  As for me and my house, we wouldn't have it any other way!

Yes! This is how we learn!

I am happy to report our life has been relatively quiet and non-eventful, meaning our homeschool process is going well. We've gone on a couple of field trips, tweaked our schedule and accommodated last minute changes. My stress level with the kiddo has decreased but I think that has more to do with my expectations. Many times throughout the day, I remind myself that there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way to teach my kiddo. Furthermore, as long as he is exposed to knowledge, albeit non-traditional at times, he is learning.

I was talking with a friend who shared that her mother-in-law was concerned that her children weren't learning anything by being homeschooled. Later at dinner with several extended family members including the 'concerned' mil, one of the 'uneducated' children was able to enlighten a family member of the merits of the Mona Lisa complete with information about Leonardo DaVinci. That's pretty impressive for a 4th grader. With smug satisfaction my friend was able to give her mother-in-law a knowing smile to say 'case closed'!! Her kids may not seem to be learning 'traditional' classroom elements everyday but are learning those skills in other ways!! All in all, the kids are growing and learning. 

Just as there are different parenting styles, coping styles, learning styles, and so on. There are different teaching styles -- traditional, Charlotte Mason, unschooling, classroom, experience driven and many many more. The great thing about it is that there is nothing wrong with any of them as long as our kiddos grow! 

What is a stride anyway?

It's only our second week of our official school year and I have already decided to switch up what we're doing each day. Fortunately, I am not changing curriculum -- but that is never off the table either. I am however taking a look at our family dynamic, demands on our day, activities, likes/dislikes and so on when making changes. Just because something looks good on paper doesn't mean it will function well in practice!  For instance, on paper I would function quite well with a bigger house and a full-time maid but in reality, there is a small problem with finances. Oh well, I can at least put it on paper!

This past week, many of my homeschool friends were commenting on their Facebook pages and in various groups about successes, triumphs, firsts, complaints, questions, and the like with their first week of school. One major demotivator for the majority of them was that they hadn't found their stride. They were feeling overwhelmed and unprepared. In essence, they weren't feeling this homeschool thing. I am  sure most just wanted to vent and look for some words of encouragement but I am thinking that a few of them were re-thinking the whole homeschool concept.

I remember feeling that way especially last year since it was our first year. I know I looked around and everyone else seemed to have it together and with much deeper curriculum and activities for their kiddos. I considered many times throwing in the towel because I was sure that I was doing G more harm than good. I had a good network of support from veteran homeschool moms that I would often lament to. They in turn would offer words of encouragement and assure me that what I was feeling was normal and that they too had experienced (and still did from time to time) many of things I complained about.

My take away from my first year was that G was learning everyday in all that we did so it really didn't matter if we didn't finish all of our science or make it to the cool field trip or complete every task laid out for me in my leader guide.  I don't need that kind of stress and neither do you. In time, you will find your stride and if you don't, oh well -- it won't be on the year end evaluation!

One of the many benefits of homeschooling is the freedom to totally tweak your homeschool activities, day and even curriculum to fit your family like a glove. This is not to say that the glove will always fit because as you family goes through life, the glove may loose it shape, get too small, or just not work anymore. The beauty is that you have an unlimited supply of gloves and it just takes a LOT of trial and error to find one that fits. (just like a good pair of shoes or in my case a comfy set of PJs).

Blessings on your journey!!