All The Reasons Why...And Then Some

Looking back through my posts I realize that I've never posted about the reasons why we've chosen to homeschool our kids. Truthfully, Josh and I had always planned to homeschool. My parents had wanted to homeschool me and my brother but back then they couldn't afford it and private school was out of the question. Josh was homeschooled himself through high school and had also attended private Christian schools off and on through his schooling years. We did a lot of praying and discussing and we both felt the same, we felt the Lord leading us to homeschool. I apologize for the length of this, we went through a lot before we finally opened our eyes to the wisdom of homeschooling our kids.

Then the big whammy that life threw into the mix, Joey having down syndrome and Jaysen having autism. We honestly thought that we couldn't homeschool, that they had to go to public school. It really wasn't that bad at first. Through preschool and the first couple years of elementary school, Joey had excellent teachers who were truly the cream of the crop. The kind that adore their students and love their jobs. Things went downhill with the next teacher, one who did not care for the students and was not interested in truly educating a group of special education kids. Joey went from the star student to the class troublemaker. Joey was accused of being uncooperative, mean, aggressive with other students and even accused of inappropriately touching another student (it was determined later that it wasn't true). It didn't help, either, that the school cooks weren't as careful with his dietary restrictions as they were required to be and Joey was eating a lot of stuff that made him sick. The final straw came when Joey had a potty accident and the staff left him in the bathroom for more than 30 mins without checking on him and carried on with the rest of class. We brought Joey home and never looked back. We have spent many a day wondering if the problems Joey experienced with that teacher were due to Joey truly being a problem or if it was the teacher. Our instincts told us it was the teacher but we couldn't prove it. We've since talked with another mom who had a child in that class and she had the same experience with her daughter as we had with Joey. Lesson learned: trust your instincts.

Jaysen unfortunately had a less than positive experience at first thanks to a set of dreadful Head Start teachers who refused to give him the help he needed and fought us as we sought to find out the correct diagnosis for Jaysen's issues (at the time we thought it was ADHD only to find out it was very much more). When Jaysen was recommended to spend a third year in preschool, things began to get better thanks to a wonderful teacher and staff. That following summer Jaysen was diagnosed properly with autism and was then referred to an inclusive kindergarten program designed specifically for children with autism. His kindergarten teacher was AMAZING!!!! She fought hard to get Jaysen into the right class when he went to 1st grade and helped us get set up with a fantastic teacher that Jaysen would have for two years. But that 2nd grade year was not fun. Jaysen came home from school in tears many times, the friend he thought he had betrayed him and teamed up with another boy to tease and bully Jaysen, other kids were bullying Jaysen and by the end of that school year, Jaysen was so miserable that he begged us to never make him go back. I had wanted to pull Jaysen sooner but Josh felt Jaysen needed to stick it out. Even on Jaysen's worst day of homeschool, he still has no desire to go back to public school. I know in my heart that if Jaysen had continued in public school the bullying would've turned physical and I don't want to even think what may have happened.

One of the things I had always disliked about sending the boys to public school was feeling I had no control over their lives and I had no idea what was going on. Up until they started preschool, I had been so involved in all their therapies and appointments and such. I knew everything that was happening and what it took to deal with each individual issue. Once they were in school, I knew nothing. Nobody would really answer my questions with much detail and every summer I would ask for lists from the therapists of things to do with the boys over the summer to keep up their progress; nobody ever provided a single list. More and more I felt like I was losing my children and I could nothing about it. The nagging and tugging at my heart continued until I finally listened and realized what it was; the Lord. When Josh and I sat back and listened to Him, we finally heard what He had been saying all along. We could homeschool and we should homeschool and God would open all the doors we needed to make it happen.

One of our biggest worries was how would the boys continue to get the therapies they needed. We couldn't afford to pay out of pocket and the state insurance wouldn't cover much. We found out that in our state, public schools are required to provide any and all theraputic services that children need regardless of whether or not they are enrolled in public school. That was good, but Josh and I really did not want to have anything to do with the schools at all if we could help it. Then God opened another door when our daughter was 15 months old. Katie hadn't met her speech milestones and the doctor referred her to a pediatric speech therapy practice. We talked with the staff and to our suprise they accepted the insurance for all 3 kids, so therapy problem solved!! A simple referral from the doctor and we had that fixed. Joey had actually been graduated out of 1-on-1 physical therapy at school, his gross motor skills were right on target for his age and the school therapist felt he no longer needed help and could continue in a group P.E. with just a few adaptations. Of course, with homeschooling, we can easily accomodate all his adaptations and he also participates in a baseball league just for kids with mental/physical disabilities. His fine motor skills still need some work but that is easily worked on at home with some good books and tips from the internet plus the different techniques we learned over the years.

With the exception of a few things here and there, nearly all of Joey's behavior issues have disapeared. We still have a problem with the habit he learned with his last teacher of "playing stupid" when he doesn't want to learn but he's figuring out quickly that if he doesn't do his lessons then he's in big trouble. Both boys have improved so much with being homeschooled and we are really proud of how hard they work. Katie is our only one who will be homeschooled from the start and she's doing well, although she has some cognitive delays as well as her speech delay but the beauty of homeschool is we can work with her issues and help her more.

Homeschooling the kids is anything but easy. But I will take a bad day of homeschool over a day of either of the boys coming home from school in tears any day of the week.

A quick look at the next school year

I try to make the month of May my annual time to go back over how the school year has gone and make whatever necessary changes need to be made. We're going to take a new adventure with schooling this next year and venture into unit studies.

So this is what we're narrowing it down to (could be many changes before we hit the start):

Both boys
The Prairie Primer (covers history, geography, writing, science, health, Bible, social studies)

Jaysen
Ray's Arithmetic (multiplication, division)
McGuffey 1st reader
Rod & Staff spelling 2
Easy Grammar grade 2
HWOT cursive
weekly guitar lessons
Bob Ross painting lessons dvd and various learning to draw books

Joey
Math U See Primer
McGuffey Primer
HWOT printing
our own spelling list
life skills (operating a calculator, recognizing various public signs, operating household appliances, etc)
flash cards

Katie
Developing The Early Learner
HWOT preschool
HOD Little Hands to Heaven
Rod & Staff preschool books
flash cards

Jaysen is still a couple years behind but I try not to focus on that but focus instead on simply learning the skills and encouraging him. Joey is going to focus more on practical skills and life skills, a bit less on academics. I'm not too much worried about Katie really doing any formal schooling just yet, she mostly wants to do school because her brothers are. Katie does have a delay with her cognitive skills so we are throwing in the new book this year to see if that will help her.

And for those that don't know what the initials stand for, HWOT is Handwriting Without Tears and HOD is Heart of Dakota.

My plan, at this point, is to start The Prairie Primer either the end of May or beginning of June. Josh is wanting to go camping the first week of June so that may delay our start by a week. Well, we'll just have to see. :)

New things in our school

Trying to play catch-up with posting. I've got all kinds of things in my head that I need to write and rarely have a few moments to get them typed out. Here goes. Thankfully I always have the option to come back and edit later.
We've made some recent changes for the boys and I'm very excited that they seem to be working pretty well so far. I posted before about starting the boys on the McGuffey readers and looking into Ray's arithmetic for Jaysen. Both have made a difference! Jaysen is enjoying reading, to the point that he is practicing his reading skills everywhere we go. Even reading street signs and menus and cereal boxes. Reading is finally beginning to click for him and it's beyond words exciting to see him loving his new skills. Joey is also enjoying the books and is beginning to learn new words.

The math was just what he needed. Ray's is based more on mental math and is perfect for Jaysen. He learned back in second grade, on his own and the astonishment of his teacher, to do mental math and has fought tooth and nail to write out his work when doing worksheets. His argument is always "if I can do it in my head why do I need to write it down?" He does make a good point, although it does make it tricky for Mom & Dad to help him fix his mistakes if I can't "see" where he went wrong. But, this is a natural skill for him and a strength and we need to encourage his strengths. Doing mental math was not something that was stressed much when I went to school and to this day I struggle to do math correctly in my head.

We have also decided to try our hand at a unit study. Eeek! Seriously though, I have always been intrigued by them and wanted to try them. It can be a bit overwhelming as they do require some time and effort to plan and prepare. Plus, what topic do you choose? To help with that decision I had the boys watch some documentaries on different topics and noted what caught their attention. Jaysen showed a huge interest in medieval times and the old west/pioneer period. Both are two of my favorite time periods. I did some research and found a literature based unit study based around the Little House On The Prairie book series called The Prairie Primer by Margie Gray. Everything I read about it called out to me that this was just what we were looking for.

I sat down with Josh, showed him the website, we talked and prayed about it. We both felt that this may be a good program for the kids. We asked them what they thought and both boys were really excited about it. So, we bought it! It's going to take some prep work and planning, but as I read through it I know the boys are going to have a lot of fun with it. Now we just have to decide when to start it. I can't wait to get started!

Relaxing with a visit to the library

If there's one thing that makes us different from other homeschoolers it's that we don't visit the library as often as we probably should. We're so busy with work and church and just life in general, we don't schedule in library time as much as we should. I don't want to think how long it's been since our last visit, but I made a point of going today. I took Jay with me while Josh stayed home with the other two kiddos (Katie was napping and Joey wasn't interested in going). I don't always get an opportunity to do things with each of the kids so I snap up the opportunities.

Jay and I had a great time. I quickly got the books I was looking for so he would have more time to look for himself and not have to be bored waiting on mom. He had his heart set on finding a book he could read by himself and a book that would be "fun".  But, this trip to the library wasn't going too well, the poor kid was getting pretty frustrated and overwhelmed by the selection. He was already dissapointed that someone had already checked out all the Lego books and movies.

I suggested that we try to find something new we'd never heard of before. He wasn't too wild about that idea, he's pretty rigid about things (to be expected with a child with autism). I shared with him how I looked for new books when I was his age. That I would go through the rows, pick out a random book and try it out. I found many wonderful suprise favorites that way. So I did just that, grabbed up a random book and handed it to him. This particular book was one of a series of books, each about a different member of the Knights of the Round Table. Jay still wasn't too sure, especially that this particular one I picked up wasn't the first of the series. We found where the others were, the first one was checked out but the second one was on the shelf. I picked it up, handed it to Jay and suggested he sit down and look through it while I went to grab a book I needed that I forgot. He shrugged his shoulders and went to the reading area. My hope was that after he took a look at it he might get interested in it.

It worked! When I got back I asked him what he thought. He said "well, I like the pictures and it's not a really big book and I know some of the words". I asked him if he thought he'd like to try it and he said he would. I reminded him that if he didn't like it he simply had to bring it back and get something else. Then he said "I think I'll probably like it. I like knights and stuff." Good job kiddo!

I'm working on getting Jay to broaden his interests in books and not stick to the usual super heros and Lego themed choices. For one, there's not that many options in our library system for those and two, I really want him to see how large a world there is in books. Since he started working with the McGuffey readers, his reading has improved big time and he's becomming more confident and excited about reading. I want to cultivate that new found love of reading and open his eyes to just how fun and amazing reading can be, especially if you step away from the "safe zone" and explore something new. He made a first step today.

The siren call of the 3-ring binder

This is such a stupid post but I am going to write it anyway. Of all the school supplies I use, the 3 ring binder has become my all time favorite. It's so easy to organize with them, should I ever get the time to sit down and actually organize anything (wink wink). But I do like them. The boys are even getting into how handy they are. We recently switched Jay to a new math book and we found it free online (public domain). I printed up a couple chapters and initially put them in a vinyl folder with the metal tabs. It was nice except the the part where the metal tabs is connected stuck out so far onto the paper that it made it tricky for Jay to keep the pages open without bending them up. I switched it out to a 3 ring binder and he says "Mom this is so much easier to read now". Score one for mom.

I am now fighting to not take every teacher's guide and workbook I have for the kids and whack off the bindings, 3 hole punch everything and stick them all in binders. It's going to become an addiction. Come back to school supply sale time I may be in serious trouble if there are any really excellent sales on 3 ring binders.

I'm late, I'm late for a very important grade!!

On Wednesday morning I took Joey in for his annual checkup at the pediatrician's office. Kinda scary that this was his final pre-teen checkup (he turned 12 this year), but apparently according to the pediatrician Joey has technically stepped into the realm of adolescence and therefore there was a new form to fill out. A form for kids 12 years old and up that, from all appearances, is a sort of assessment of the mental and emotional state of the patient.

I had to work hard to not laugh right out loud when the receptionist spoke to Joey and told him she had something for him to fill out, considering that he has down syndrome and can't read let alone give written answers. ;) So, we sat down and went over it together. As expected, most of the questions didn't apply to Joey mainly because intelligence-wise they just didn't relate to him. But I came across one question that made me stop and think. The question was if he's happy with his grades. The problem is, we don't give grades.

I have never given my kids "grades" or graded their work. Plus I'm not sure how to assign grades. Personally, I've never liked grades. I've always felt that if a student knows the concept, does a good job on the work and shows they are learning from it, then why are grades necessary? Some would argue so the child will have something to show for their efforts or that they need the reinforcement from seeing how well they've done by a letter grade or that kids need the incentive to work to achieve the next level and other arguments. But, again, I just don't see the need for them for our children. I have taught the boys in the manner that they get their assignment, complete their work then bring the work for me to look over and mark for corrections. If it needs correcting, we go back over what the mistake is, how the mistake was made and how to fix it. If they've done the assignment with no corrections, I let them know how proud I am of them for their hard work and they then run off to dad to show him what they've done. Of course our kids are still young enough that it's enough for them to keep working harder by receiving praise and encouragement from their parents.

So I thought long and hard about it and talked with Josh about it. Should we be giving grades? Should the kids be expecting to see an "A" or "B" or whatnot on their papers? Is it enough that we work on their mistakes and then on to the next assignment/subject/etc? Is it fine that we give them praise and encouragement to keep up the good work? Then I remember back to my own school days and how I used to stress over what my report card would say and whether or not my parents would be pleased or disappointed. I have to ask myself what is the point of giving grades and what purpose would it serve with our kids. Plus, out in the real world, no one is giving out grades. Your work is more or less critiqued as you go and as more often than not you are lucky to get anything more than a "keep doing what you're doing". The more I ponder, the more I just don't see how giving out grades would benefit our kids.

I think we'll stick with what we're doing.

Day 1 Nature study journey

The day dawned bright and sunny, just a light wind sweeping fluffy white clouds over a beautiful blue sky. The perfect day to be outside and enjoy it. Okay, enough with waxing poetic.

It's too nice a day to stay inside so I got the kids ready and we went for a walk. I gave Jaysen an assignment, pick two flowers to take home and pay attention to everything going on around you. We didn't go far, I still have some trouble breathing and didn't want to overdo it, but far enough that the kids got to enjoy the wind blowing and the sun shining. We listened to a rooster crowing away and watching sheep grazing in their pasture. We stopped to watch a small group of young bulls in their pen, some even came up close to the fence to eyeball these goofy kids of mine. Katie jabbered away to the cows; what 3 year old doesn't enjoy a lively conversation with a muddy black cow?

Jaysen commented on all the different kinds of dogs we saw in yards; old dogs and young dogs, everything from a mini Pincher to an English bulldog. There were few houses that we didn't have a dog dash up to the fence and bark its greeting. There aren't many flowers blooming just yet as spring is really just getting going here but we saw daffodils and crocus and some other flowers we don't know the names of yet. Shades of purple, yellow, blue and orange. The trees are just beginning to bloom and it's nice to see the light haze of green spreading through the tree tops. Yards are turning all shades of green as the new spring grass is beginning to really take off in it's growth.

When we got back I had Jaysen draw a picture of the flowers we found. We had to search hard to find something and what we found was tiny. Jaysen could draw a nice picture but trying to identify the different parts of the flower was tricky. We will try to find out what kinds of flowers we found online later. We did our best then Jaysen went out to play with his little sister. The best part of the day was listening to Jaysen point out the different things in the yard to his sister. Of course, Katie could care less about it all and the only thing that interested her was trying to chase a bird they saw. But it was cool to see that Jaysen enjoyed the activity and did his best to include his little sister. Then he gave up and they went to find some Nerf guns.

I'm looking forward to the spring and summer and helping to open up the natural world of God's creation to the kids. I can't take credit for the assignment idea. I found a wonderful blog full of great idea's and our assignment was based off the one I was sent in the email I got today. Check it out, it's really cool! Handbook of Nature Study

Maybe this time...maybe this time...maybe this time!

I'm beginning to think there will never be a time when I won't question our curriculum choices for the kids. There will always be something out there that looks better. The last 2 years I got hit by the spring curriculum fever. I notice it seems to hit a lot of homeschool moms out there this time of year. Looking to the future, burned out and fighting cabin fever at the same time, moms (and dads) across the country begin to look at the stacks of homeschool books they already own and think "I bet there's something out there that would keep us more interested and we'd probably like better". Sometimes it's a good thing, more often than not it's a less than good thing.

When the urge to rethink our entire collection of books hits, I'm reminded of the scene in "Bee Movie" where Barry the bee slams himself into the closed window over and over again saying "maybe this time...this time...this time". That's the way I feel. That maybe this time we'll make the right choices. After having done hours and days and weeks and months of research, believing we have FINALLY found the right program, sit down to start teaching and know just moments in...this.will.not.WORK! That is the absolute most frustrating moment. That and because we bought it used there's no returning it and getting our money back. Right now I'm stuck with the decision of whether to continue the science book that we are halfway through and is boring us to tears or to ditch it and either get rid of it or go back to it later. It's hard to let go of something you know isn't working.

Josh and I have talked and prayed for a while and we think we are going to work towards using more old fashioned, tried and true curriculum choices. After discovering the good old McGuffey eclectic readers available on Kindle, I downloaded all the ones available and tried them out with Jaysen. Low and behold, it clicked for him! The only hitch is he doesn't like having an actual book in his hands, that was easily remedied recently when I found an affordable set for sale. I've also discovered that the old Ray's Arithmetic books are available free on Googlebooks and I'm going to look those over closely soon. I've found a good resource for finding older (think 1800s) curriculum: An Old-Fashioned Education

Our feeling is that what worked for the older generations should be good enough for our kids. Back then, kids got a good, solid education. Much more in depth than what kids get in public schools today. I think at least some of the reasons were back then many of the young men left school early to work the family farms and many of the young ladies married before they could finish school. Therefore, it was necessary to squeeze in as much education as possible to make sure that kids got as much "schooling" as they could get before it became necessary to leave the schoolhouse behind forever.

One of the things I've remembered from my own school days was how boring and tedious it was. I rarely could get really interested in the lessons. Several of my teachers over the years confessed to my parents that they knew the school work was too easy for me and was boring, but with a classroom full of students they just didn't have the time to come up with more interesting lessons for me. So I muddled through and got lower grades than I probably would have if the lessons had better. I don't blame my teachers, I had wonderful men and women teach me over the years and several of them I will never forget. But I know I want better for our kids. I don't want them bored to tears. I don't want them left to struggle with no hope of ever catching up. I want them to WANT to learn and I will do the best I can to give them that love of learning. Even if it means changing our approach to how we do that and what books/materials we use every year to accomplish it.

Learning to homeschool realistically

I've been thinking a lot lately about the whole topic of "homeschool style". There are so many out there with some of the most popular being classical and Charlotte Mason. Then there are the more controversial styles, most notably unschooling. One can get mightily overwhelmed, along with developing the most intense migraine ever known to man, just reading up on the different styles. At the end of the day you are left with the big questions. What style do we choose? What style fits our family? How do we know which style is best for our family? How do we know it's working? And then that migraine comes back to life.

When I think of the style we use, I admit I'm stuck. We really don't follow any specific style. For a while I called us "eclectic" in that we use many, if not all, styles. To be honest, we use whatever works and that may change from one day to the next. All depends on what mood the kids are in...and the parents. Let's be honest, if you wake up feeling terrible you are not going to be an effective teacher and before long both you and the kids are exhausted and cranky and not one thing has been accomplished. Shoot, I remember that happening in public school all the time, you could tell the moment when the teacher walked in if this was going to be one of "those" days. And it usually was.

So, as I was thinking about it the other day, the answer finally hit me. The best way to describe our style is "realistic". The best way I can think to describe or define this is: realizing that there will be no one-size-fits-all method for our family and doing whatever has to be done to get through the day/week/month/year and accomplish as much as possible in the least painful way possible and as simply as possible. For our family, this is very true! Some days we get so much done I can't believe it and I'm honestly afraid to admit we had a wonderful day for fear of jinxing the possibility of having another great day. Other days you know the best thing to do is to throw up the white flag of surrender and put on any educational documentary on Netflix that will keep the kids interested for more than 5 seconds.

I am learning quickly to not compare ourselves to others and that we have to do what works for our family. It doesn't matter what others think or if they approve. As long as the kids are learning, it really doesn't matter how, what, where or when. It only matters that they are learning. And when one is homeschooling special needs kiddos, specifically developmentally disabled kiddos, you have GOT to be willing to bend and be flexible or you will break and it won't be pretty. I have had too many of those days already where I am curled up on the bed, sobbing my heart out and feeling like I have done nothing but fail our kids. You know those days, when you are mere moments from picking up the phone and re-enrolling them in public school.

But then the moment of self-pity passes. You wipe your swollen eyes, take a deep breath and pray. Your reevaluate what you are doing and what needs to be changed. Most of the times, it's Mommy's expectations and preconceived notions that need to change. I am too hard on myself and expect too much. And that's where the realistic approach comes in. I look in the mirror and say "you can only do what you can do and you can't expect the kids to do more than they are able to do". The boys have come a long way and are learning. Neither of them are at the grade level their "typical" peers are, but who cares? With both boys, you can only push them so far before they totally shut down and all learning progress comes to a screeching halt. And what's the point of that? Too much of that took place in public school for them both and became yet another of the many reasons we withdrew them. So why am I trying to continue what's already been proven to fail for them both? That, my friends, becomes the million dollar question. Why am I continuing to make the same mistakes that public school made? Because I got caught up in the very unrealistic idea that the boys should be doing "x, y, z" instead of seeing them for the individuals they are and creating a realistic learning environment based on their individual selves.

Josh and I sat down over the week along with my parents (who are a huge part of the kids lives) and made a monumental decision. To be realistic homeschoolers and set realistic goals for the kids. Combining life skills with academics and above all: simplify!!! Simplify is a word I'm trying very hard to get my foggy brain to focus on and incorporate into every aspect of our life. De-cluttering is another but that's for another post on another day.

Getting the show on the road

It's that time of year again, time to get things going with a new school year. We do school year round, but we go lighter in the summer, not as formal as we do during the rest of the year. I usually spend the summer having the boys work on the basics (math, reading, writing, etc) while I  spend the time researching curriculum, making purchases, making lesson plans and getting the school room organized. Since we are taking a different direction with our teaching methods this year (switching to the Charlotte Mason style), that demanded some projects on my part. Well....okay, I'll be honest, I WANTED to do some projects. ;)

Since we will be doing lots of notebooking/journaling this year, I got the idea to create a notebook for the boys for geography and nature study. Sure, I could've just purchased a binder and filled it with paper. But what's the fun in that? No, I had to go dig through the craft stores for travel and nature related scrapbooking paper and stickers. I had the idea to cut out rectangles of cardboard then glue on the paper and stickers to make covers, followed by punching holes in the covers and using binder rings to make "books". My mom had done this a long time ago when she was a nursery director for church, she had made a story book for the children and they loved it.

I just completed the projects today after spending all day Tuesday printing up piles of free notebooking pages, cutting and gluing and getting pretty irritated with the whole process. It didn't turn out just how I wanted, but the boys love their books and I guess that's all that matters in the end. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance to take them.

I'm really looking forward to using the nature study books. I found some nature scavenger hunts that I printed up and included in their notebooks, they are looking foward to doing those. I was hoping to find some gardening related pages as the boys had planted a late season garden at their grandparents' house, but couldn't find any free pages. Someday I'll have to find the time to sit down and create my own pages. I did find some pages for weather watching, bird watching, sky watching, nature walks, leaf/tree/flower identification and just general notebooking pages. Fall, winter and spring are so wonderful to see in our area, I know the kids will get lots of use out of their notebooks.

Probably the single most exciting aspect of our new school year is that our daughter will be joining her brothers in school and start doing some preschool activities. She'll be 3 on the 14th of August and can't wait to "do school" with the boys. What makes this exciting is our daughter will be the first of our children to be homeschooled from the beginning. Both her brothers had gone through a few grades of public school before we had found out that we could homeschool them despite their disabilities. The boys are very excited to have their little sister join them. We'll see how long that really lasts, lol!

I will end this entry on that note and get myself back to the task of completing lesson plans, chore charts and getting the school room organized. I have a beautiful stack of brand new school supplies just waiting to be put in their proper places. Once I get everything set up and ready to go...I give it a full week before the place is trashed. ;)

Chilly Weather & Basement Schoolrooms

It's turning colder here, we had to use the fireplace last night and put extra blankets on the beds. Since our schoolroom is in the basement, it gets even colder down there and I've come to the realization this morning that the one space heater we have down there isn't going to cut it. So either we are going to have to find another space heater or move lessons upstairs to the kitchen or living room.

I'm not wild about either idea due to space issues and the number of distractions there are. The whole point of having the schoolroom in the basement was to eliminate the constant "mom can we please watch tv now?" issue. But, keeping the kids warm and healthy is more important than my stress level, lol!

One thing is certain, before next winter (provided we are still living here) we will have to save up the money and get drywall or a drop ceiling put up in the schoolroom. Currently, it's open beams and that doesn't help with the heating issue or the help the fact that it can be incredibly dark down there. To help the lighting issue, we have a couple small lamps placed around the room. It doesn't solve the problem, though.

In the meantime, we will keep our books and supplies downstairs and we will troop up and down the stairs for what we need, keeping our blood pumping and our bodies warm and maybe keep the heating costs down. There's that ever-present silver lining. ;)

Not Quite Perfect, But Getting There!

I finally got our schoolroom better organized and arranged more how I want it. Originally I was sitting at my desk facing the boys and I didn't like that. Felt too "schoolish" if that makes sense.  Now I have my desk against the wall and the boys are right behind me, much easier for when I have to work one-on-one with either of them. I also switched out desks with Josh, I have a lot more space with the bigger desk. I wish I had at least a couple drawers, but the thing about drawers is it's too easy to just dump everything in a drawer and never clean it up, then you have the fun of digging around in it.

I arranged two big comfy chairs around the small bookcases and the toys so we now have a reading area and play area. Eventually we'll get the little hallway cleaned out so I can arrange a play area for the toddler. It's a square hallway and the perfect space to put her play kitchen and her table set. With the gate up, she can see me and the boys easily and still be part of things without constantly having to distract her from bothering her brothers.

We have an art area now, completely seperate from the rest of the room. The easel is in that space and I put a bulletin board on the wall for the boys to display their art. I'm not entirely done yet, I have a couple more storage things my mom got us at a yard sale that need to be used. It's so nice to have enough storage bins and units to have a specific place for everything to go. Now that I have enough storage, I can get the paint and other art supplies I've been putting off purchasing.

I painted one wall of the room, but I'm not sure I like the color enough to finish painting the entire space. It's a color I got for the kitchen but had misgivings about the shade. Unfortunately, Sears has closed up their paint department so I'm stuck with the paint. It's not an ugly color, just not what I wanted to paint the kitchen. I left the trim white and the brickwork on the fireplace was already painted white so I left that alone.

I'd love to win the lottery so I can have custom cabinets put in, lol! Course, if we won the lottery we would have a custom house built for us or we'd get a huge Victorian style house or farm house and completely gut it and remodel it. There's a beautiful farm house next door to where Josh works and it kills me everytime I see it, just gorgeous!

Dreaming aside, it feels nice to have a better arrangement in our schoolroom. Easier to move around, designated areas for different activities, less hassle. Now if only getting these kids to learn would be so easy. :)

If I'm lucky, I might just get around to posting some pics!

Getting back to the routine

We're supposed to have our "official" first day of school next Tuesday, September 7. Then I got a phone call from my cousin on the west side of Washington that she and my aunt will be coming here that day and would like to get everyone together for lunch or something and visit. Josh said for family, we can rearrange the schedule or just have an extra day off. Great, expect I have almost all of September planned out and my planner looks so nice I don't want to scratch everything out and re-write it, lol! But, he's right. For family, we can rearrange our schedule.

I am proud of myself for getting the whole month's lesson plans written out. I have a huge stack of teacher's guides and student textbooks/workbooks to go through for each day in order to make the plans. That's what I get for going the eclectic route instead of the all-in-one curriculum route. But with the boys and their individual needs and learning levels, we really don't have a choice. I have looked into programs like ACE and Alpha Omega where you can get each subject in a different grade level. We may do that next year, who know's we may end up doing that halfway through the year. One thing I've learned with homeschooling, nothing is set in stone and nothing is guaranteed to work. You can only try it, see if it fits, then either keep going or change it. I had to do that already last school year with Joey.

We had tried out Heart of Dakota. I really liked the program and the format (not too long for Joey, just what he needed) but it didn't fit him as far as what he was learning. Everything either went right over his head or wasn't challenging enough. It was not a fun daily process, either trying to "dumb down" the lessons or find something to supplement the lesson to give him enough learning. Yet, I will still recommend Heart of Dakota to anyone who asks. Plus, if it hadn't been for Heart of Dakota, I wouldn't have discovered Rod & Staff which has turned out to be the PERFECT fit for Joey.

So my goal is to finish September's lesson plans today, then in 2 weeks to start mapping out the lesson plans for October. I would like to go into each month with a full month's lesson plans ready to go. It's not been easy. I've spent many wasted minutes just trying to hunt through teacher's guides that aren't very clear on how to use the curriculum trying to decipher the instructions and figure out how to plan daily lessons. I really don't like having to "wing it", which is what I suspect the author of Jaysen's math program had in mind, lol! I'm the kind of gal that really needs it mapped out for me, at least until I get a better understanding of things. I feel we are still in our first year of homeschooling as Joey was just withdrawn last November.

I'm still learning, still stumbling my way along in the dark. But the good news, I see the light ahead of me, ready to guide me as soon as I pick myself up off the ground and am ready to continue the journey.

New project...Workboxes!!

I've found something new to add to our homeschool, Sue Patrick's Worbox System.

http://www.workboxsystem.com/

I had this suggested to me by another homeschool mom online that I have gotten to know and I love the idea!!! I already have been doing something similar, but this will help me get it more organized and a more functional system in place. I was lucky enough to come across a copy of the book at a good price and Big Lots had 7 drawer organizer carts on sale for $18 today so I ran over and got one for each of the boys (they were in colors too, "more fun" was Jaysen's words lol). I like these organizers, they have different size drawers which will be very handy for days when a subject has a lot of things (manipulatives, games, etc).

Can't wait to get the book so I can start putting our new system together! I do plan to add pictures when I get the workboxes put together. I think this will be wonderful!

To homeschool the 8yo or not...that is our question.

Today we had the spring parent/teacher conference for Jaysen. Josh and I had agreed at the beginning of 2010 when Jaysen's behavior issues began to escalate that we would make a firm decision whether to withdraw him after spring break or ride out the rest of the school year after the conference. Well, spring break is next week and we are no closer to a final decision than we were before. If anything, I'd say we are more confused than ever.

During the conference, I really felt the teacher was waffling a bit. He seemed like he genuinely cares about Jaysen and the problems he's having, but at the same time was covering his rear. Jaysen isn't exhibiting as many issues at school anymore, but at home he's having more and more problems. Jaysen is picking on his brother, teasing and taunting him. He's gotten downright mean and nasty with some of the things he says and does. We know it's mostly his frustrations and this is the only way he knows how to cope right now, but our concern is where is it coming from? We heavily monitor their TV, video games and movies for this type of stuff; so where is he learning it? Josh and I are sure beyond doubt that he's picking it up from school. Some of it, he's observing others doing. Some of it is being done to him. I can tell when it's something that's been done to him, those are the days when he doesn't want to talk about what has happened at school and he's particularly nasty to Joey. He's also getting pretty easily irritated with Katie.

The teacher also left me frustrated with his insistence that Jaysen inform him when kids are teasing and calling him names. Now, we agree that Jaysen needs to learn to handle things on his own as much as possible. But, there comes a time when a student can't handle it and needs a teacher or other adult to intervene or at least be informed of what is happening. I know Jaysen has been frustrated by trying to inform teachers and adults of what is happening and he has been blown off and told to deal with it himself. I wanted to see how the teacher would respond to our informing him that Jaysen is telling us of stuff going on at school, I had purposely not been letting the teacher know. So I guess it really doesn't surprise me of the teacher's reaction/response, but it still leaves me frustrated and confused. Is he really interested in helping Jaysen or is he just saying things to make us happy and give us a false reassurance that he will handle it? One thing, surprisingly, is that the teacher agreed that although socialization skills are important, one has to accept that there comes a time when you have to ask is the socialization detrimental or beneficial? And if it's detrimental, what exactly is the purpose of the student continuing in public school?

We also addressed an incident a couple weeks ago where Jaysen came home sobbing that he was treated badly by a substitute P.E. teacher. Jaysen said he was not feeling good and asked to sit down while running laps and the P.E. teacher insisted Jaysen had to keep going. Jaysen's classroom teacher agreed this wasn't acceptable for any student, but especially a student with developmental disabilities.

In the end, I think even Jaysen's teacher was beginning to see that continuing in public school may not be the best option for Jaysen. The social skills issues for Jaysen are much more complicated than his teacher was really willing to acknowledge and we all know it's only going to get worse as he gets older.

Jaysen's academics are coming along well, he's still struggling with reading but we expected that. Jaysen did get a big thumbs up for his math, seems Jaysen is pushing on ahead into mental math (figuring the problems out in his head without needing to write out the work) something that none of the other kids in class are able to do just yet. And doing it with large numbers, too! Good job Jay!!

There are 49 days of school left (not counting holidays and non-student days). On one hand, that's not that much. On the other hand, for Jaysen that is a lot of school left. Especially considering that every single day there is some new drama or issue to deal with. So, I guess we continue to pray about it and see what happens. Josh hadn't realized that our agreed deadline for a decision is pretty much here already and he's trying to stall for more time. But even I am not sure just what to do at this point, either.

We went into this conference hoping for some answers and confirmation for our decision one way or the other. We left even more confused and unsure of what to do than we were before.

A brand new road

As of November 1st, Josh and I have decided the time has come to start homeschooling our children. For now, it's only Joey. Jaysen is doing well in public school, has an excellent teacher, so he is staying there for now. Joey had so many issues happening at public school that we felt he needed to be at home.

We actually had begun the process of researching curriculum a couple months before we officially withdrew Joey. I narrowed down some choices and began making some purchases. It's trial and error in the world of curriculum choices, pick something that best appears to match your goals and beliefs and give it a try. If it doesn't work, find something else.

We have a base curriculum with some additional options we use. I continue to research other choices as we will have another child next year when we bring Jaysen home and I'm not convinced our current choice is going to be the best fit for him. Jaysen needs more challenging work than Joey does.

Josh and I are splitting the subjects up according to our individual strengths and weaknesses. I will focus on english, history, social studies, reading and writing. Josh will focus on math, science, music and art. We will both teach Bible and health.

Joey isn't the easiest student to teach. He has learned a lot of naughty little habits to avoid the work he isn't wild about and is using them all. Out of 4 weeks, we've had 1 excellent day. I know better than to expect perfection, but it's frustrating all the same. He's stubborn, strong-willed, defiant and belligerant. In other words, he is his mother's son. And yes, my face is rosy-red with embarrasement.

The biggest part of my teaching is learning how my son learns and what he knows. Joey is much brighter and smarter than he has let on at public school. He knows a lot, but his willingness to show what he knows is based in part on what he thinks he'll get in return. The more rewards available, the more willing he is to show his stuff.

Joey had led his public school teachers to believe he doesn't know how to count beyond 5 and doesn't recognize numbers. Just today I saw beyond doubt that Joey indeed can count well beyond 5 and recognizes his number up to number 6. But the second he gets bored with the lesson and would rather do something else, he starts "forgetting" and "doesn't know" anymore. Daily lessons in patience for mommy.

I also need to get out of the internal pressure to teach him like he was taught at school. To stop thinking "now what did the do at school" and compare it what I'm doing at home. Obviously, what was being taught at school wasn't working so why am I trying to continue doing it at home? And so what if what I teach at home doesn't resemble what he was taught at school? As long as he learns it, isn't that what matters in the end? Isn't that the goal, that he learn basic skills?

I need to keep in mind what my good friend and teaching mentor has told me "as long as he learns it, it doesn't matter what you do to get him there." Even Jaysen's school teacher has said the same thing for Jaysen. As long as it works, who cares? There's no "right way" or "wrong way" to teach, it's all teaching in the end.

I do worry if I'm doing enough and doing it right. But isn't that what most all parents worry about whether or not they choose to homeschool? Homeschool is just one component, in all things all we can do for our kids is to do our best to teach them in all aspects of life and pray for God's guidance and wisdom. We do our best and pray we've given them the tools they will need in life.

My best, it's all I have to give.