Me and Daddy and lil TIgger too!

It's been quite a while

2011-05-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

...but we are back!

I will be reviewing a home school planner coming up.

As far as what we've been up to. TONS! Boy Scouts, Karate and a homeschool P.E. class. Brett has really started coming out of his shell!

Lesson Pathways

2009-10-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

I am hoping to win a free year of Lesson Pathways!

Brett and I worked on the "Sick" pathway today. It it the wonderful poem by Shel Silverstein. It's one of my favorite poems as my Grandmother read it to me when I was a little girl. Brett found it to be hilarious!

http://blog.lessonpathways.com/

This is the link for the giveaway! Wish me lots of luck as we could REALLY use this. Homeschool funding is getting a bit low - but hopefully this will work out for us!

Headsprout

2009-10-22T19:40:00.001-07:00

We have started using Headsprout for reading. Brett and I BOTH love it. It's fun and he blends his sounds using that system.

We are still doing WONDERFULLY in math.

2009-10-22T19:28:00.001-07:00

Preamble

2009-09-25T18:40:00.001-07:00

We did a "G" walk

2009-09-16T14:58:00.001-07:00

All I could think of that we would find was "grass."

The little guy got up and VERY personal with a bunch of

**Goatheads**

It was very funny!

Bored

2009-09-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

I FEEL BORING!

Uggh.. Does anyone really care that my kid is fast on his l's and o's but is having trouble with his g's?

**sigh**

And tomorrow hopefully we learn our first word "log."

However, that doesn't make me feel any less boring. What I really need is a "night out." I haven't had one in 2 years...

Finished L

2009-09-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

We finished our L lesson and moved on to the "O"s.

With review of course (daily) - so currently we are doing 2 Saxon lessons per day.

My sister in law tried to attack our way of learning yesterday. She went on for quite some time about how great school was and how her son's elementary was going to pay for his college because it's a "No Excuses University."

While this "No Excuses University" might be great - I can't imagine it actually agreeing to PAY for it's student college education when it comes time. But then, she does have a propensity to twist or confuse things she hears. So who knows what they actually told her.

I must remember - it's all ok. We are doing great! AND we are having fun!

4 DAYS per LETTER?

2009-09-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

We are on Day 2 of the Letter L (Saxon Phonics)

I have to tell you - we are already getting bored our of our MINDS. I am unsure we can GO 4 days on one letter!

I am tempted to speed up a bit. Some part of me says GO we'll be FINE! Another part says "What if we fail?"

....

Well what if we "fail?"

So what???

Saxon Pre-test

2009-09-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

We just finished a Saxon pre-test for his math to see if I am buying the right books. As I assumed - he passed K math with flying colors so we are going to start with math 1. (He ADORES math.) He got a "90."

AND he can't count to 100 yet - so we have to work on that. (Actually I am unsure if he "can't" or "just got bored." Anyway that was the one we missed.

The test to "bypass" grade one was a joke - cause I FAILED:D (I hadn't turned my calendar over to September yet.) So.. he now thinks its August and I can't get him to accept that mommy was WRONG - it's really September....

Oh well - we have plenty of time to work on that - he didn't really get many of the 2nd grade questions yet because we have not even started working on that stuff yet.

It was fun though.

We started our Saxon Phonics as soon as it came in today. I think it will be helpful. It gives us other fun ideas to do other than just "write the letters."

It's A Day!

2009-09-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

I am watching Ebay for Brett's math books. From what I am being told the Saxon Math books can be very helpful. They are also very expensive. I am hoping to grab some of what we need used off of E-bay because the "regular" prices are rather ridiculous. (The home school store we went too wanted over $90 for the Saxon 1 math set.)

We are working on the letter "A" today. Yesterday my son discovered the joy of cutting things out. So today we are cutting out the letter A alongside our normal writing practice.

He enjoys working on his schoolwork so much sometimes I forget it's "work." In fact, around here it's less "work" and more "play" so I think we may be doing something right!

Labor Day

2009-09-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

We have a couple of coloring pages and are taking it easy to Labor day. We are making a "Labor Day" lap book. "What does daddy do?" and "What does Mommy do?" We decided it was good Brett saw Mommy as "having a job" in the home. My family has always been so judgmental about it - I have sort of a complex about it. Actually there is no "sort of" about it. I have a huge complex over it. But who wouldn't - my father gets his jollies by sitting around telling me he has no respect for "lazy people who sit around and do nothing for a living."

......

I cook, clean, and teach. I take care of my family. THAT IS MY JOB. Granted, I realize he sees my job as completely irrelevant. (I wonder if that could be because he AND MY MOM pawned my sister and I off at my Grandparents' at the first convenient moment.) THEN he started the family he "really wanted." He ditched us - and went and got a new family. Found a young wife - and had 2 boys. They sent them through the system so that their mom could be "respectable" and have a job.

I have a big ole chip on my shoulder over this stuff.

Regardless, I think it might be good for ME that my son have respect for stay at home mommies like HIS daddy does.

My husband is supportive - and tries to ease me through the heartache caused by biological family. In fact, he is constantly telling me - WE are your family now. ME AND BRETT. Who cares what they thing? :)

The big family hug that follows inevitably makes me feel better.

L, I or 1!!

2009-09-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

The poor little guy is getting awfully frustrated at some of our learning. I never thought about how CONFUSING it might be trying to figuere out the differences between a capital L a capital I and the number one - sense when most people write the three are the SAME!

I am thinking we are going to take a few days and focus on the differences between the three. Maybe that will help.

The Trouble with "School"

2009-09-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

Since Brett's traumatic first and last day of school - he has decided even the WORD school is unpalatable. However, he still loves "learning."

So instead of being a "home schooler" he's more of a "home learner."

Though I find myself feeling the same way, the past few months were a lot more stressful than I was admitting. The past few days - after deciding NOT to public school have been so relaxing and comfortable. I guess I felt as if the school was the bringer of the "us vs. them" mentality of so many children these days. And after that day in school I understand why.

I am unsure why but (especially in "problem cases" there is almost an unspoken line drawn. The child is on one side. The teacher, parents and administration are on the other. What can I say - helping to "gang up" against my child seems completely unnatural. (Especially considering he's already learned what the kindergarten class was teaching. He's already learning to read, write and add. In "school" they were still working on their color, number and letter recognition.

When the principal called asking about his "bathroom skills" - I considered going to pick him up right them. (It's been suggested he could be "a special needs child." Asperger's has been mentioned. However - this is mostly been by "well meaning" family because he had late speech.) We had mentioned this to the school and ... well I am unsure what they thought Asperger's meant - but apparently they thought it might affect his "bathroom skills."

I think I was .. well offended. I probably shouldn't have been but I was. It was at that point I realized however that they were LOOKING for problems with him from the first second. I am of the belief that what you look for you will find. So I was not interested in helping them find "issues" with my kiddo. He's not perfect - but he's normal - even though he spoke late.

Etsy

2009-09-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

I realize I am "behind" but I just found this amazing new site called "Etsy." I am thinking maybe me and the little guy can get our collective creative juices flowing. Maybe we can supplement Daddy's income a little bit!

I am not thinking "get rich" or anything crazy like that. In a single income family, every bit helps though. Generally when I see things like these sites I get that negative "I can't do that feeling" - but when I saw this site - all I could think was "I HAVE to TRY!"

It could be fun!

The Decision

2009-09-02T09:36:00.001-07:00

It was funny. It's been a crazy week here. My only son was supposed to start real school this weed. I had planned on homeschooling him from BIRTH. In fact this is what I did in my spare time - planned for when we started school. I did this for three years. By year 4 - people had pretty much frightened me our of trying to teach my own child. (Even though.. I have been doing it this entire time.)

So 2 days ago I put his backpack on, gave him his lunch box and off he went. I came home to the emptiness and quiet and remembered something you said in one of your podcasts. When we send them to school we are implicitly giving permission for whatever is being taught to be taught.

I thought about that all DAY..

Then I went and picked him up at school. When I dropped him off that morning, he was excited and happy! Like he always is. When I picked him up, he tore out of there like a madman breaking out of prison. THEN his teacher approached me. It was NOT "good news" - depending on your definition of good news. Technically we had taught him that if a stranger ever got him - to make a LOT of noise and do NOT do what the stranger says...

Well - in this case "teacher" = "stranger" - she looked like someone had put her through the wringer.

I thought about more of your podcasts and remembered them all talking about taking RESPONSIBILITY for ones actions - and I realized the main reason I was trying to put him in school was so that in the worst case scenario I'd be "able" to blame someone else for the failure. I realized I was preparing for the worst... Even though I KNOW he's capable of GREAT things however I was willing to roll over and fold because a few people (my family) informed me they thought I was an idiot for trying to take care of this myself.