It seems I have been asking the “Did you get your assessments done today?” Several times a day, only to go and check anyways, and then spend more hours getting said 8th grader caught up.
The plan is to be back on track by Sunday night, with all grades going up a level. It is way too early in the school year to start getting behind 🙂 How do you keep your homeschoolers on task?
So True!
I have to say, this has been one long week! I am super-happy that Erin’s Friday classes I had to take her to are done for the year. I am also still waiting to hear from the K12 program to get her enrolled in online school for 8th grade. Kendall’s Drivers training got pushed out from starting Monday to starting on April 14, which makes me super-happy as well.
Statistics ends on Wednesday, so I am going to be spending my weekend getting my final assignments and exam finished.
It appears that it is going to be a very rainy weekend here in West Michigan, but it isn’t snowing and I’m not complaining!
What are your fun plans (or maybe not-so-fun chores) for this weekend? Enjoy it, no matter what you are doing 🙂
It’s about that time; I will begin the enrollment process for my homeschooler so she can do 8th grade in an online environment.
I almost feel like I am giving up, passing the buck, putting the responsibility on someone else. Yeah, I probably am. But with everything I have tried for the past 7+ months, I cannot seem to find what is needed to motivate Erin to be excited about learning. She used to love school (before the bullying issues) and she does really well with some of her homeschooling. World History is a breeze; math, not so much. Reading stories and doing book reports? Piece of cake. Science, ehh, she could take it or leave it.
I think something more structured, with a set schedule and hard and fast deadlines will help her stay on pace. Obviously I cannot do anything to reward or punish her enough to make her want to do her work consistently. I realize that homeschooling is generally a more laid back type of learning environment (I mean that in the best way possible), but unfortunately, I have the personality of schedules, time frames, and deadlines. This is still an environment I am trying to adjust to.
Having experience with online learning for numerous years, I do think she will do well with this.
Have you done online learning, and what did you think about it?
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Since Erin and I have been experiencing some difficulty with her homeschooling (it is beyond difficult getting her to complete her daily assignments, on a daily basis) I am looking into a virtual school for 8th grade. I think this type of set schedule will definitely keep her on pace better than I have been able to, and the social aspect will definitely help her. She certainly isn’t entirely to blame for this; I seem to be a poor motivator (threatener, punisher, reward-giver, and whatever else I have tried).
I can enroll her in March, and as I know she is not ready to go back to public school at this point, I think this is the best option for both of us. I am working on my Master’s degree, online, and will be for a couple of years. I think her being in the same school-type environment as I am will be good for her.
Have you done a virtual school for your child/children? Did it work for them?
I feel like I have been falling behind on several things since 2014 began. I would like to blame college but that 1st class was only 3 weeks long, and it ended a couple weeks ago.
I really think the lack of sunshine is making me so tired (and yes, bitchy! Remember that last post?) I have stocked up on some Vitamin D, hoping this helps. Normally I would go tanning, or fake-and-bake as we say here in Michigan. As much as I love the look of a nice tan, I have stopped doing this a couple years ago due to concern about the safety of it, as well as skin cancer. Being red-headed, fair-skinned, and full of freckles, I should have never had a tan, ever 🙂
I feel like I have been getting off-track on the homeschooling. If Erin is getting behind, it is because I am not pushing her hard enough. And I am not talking about making her do school 8 hours a day (although I wish she would!) I am talking about making the time I need to in order to make sure she is understanding everything, and what she has questions on. Checking her work every day is just not enough, and what used to be hours a day discussing her work feels like less and less.
So as each day here in West Michigan gets a bit longer with more sunshine (even though we don’t see it), I am refocusing on staying on task, and keeping Erin on task. I would like to wrap up her 1st year of homeschooling on a positive note, having accomplished everything we planned out last August. My intention for her 8th grade year is to enroll her in online school. I think that will help keep her on task and more focused. She sure gets distracted easily! And yes, she gets it from me 🙂 Online schooling takes a special kind of discipline, and since I have been going to college like this for more years than I’ll tell you, I think this is definitely going to help both of us with homeschooling.
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How did I not know that my 9 year old, 4th grade daughter cannot read or write in cursive? What else have they stopped teaching in public schools? It’s bad enough they changed how they teach math that I am no longer capable of helping her. But to stand behind her while she is on the internet and she tells me she cannot read the text because the font is in cursive. WHAT???
What happened to this?
She “learned” it in 3rd grade, her 4th grade teacher has not once mentioned reading or writing in cursive. I fear that we are getting to the point where kindergarteners are going to learn how to type on a tablet, and they won’t even know how to write or what a pencil is.
How my 4th grader feels about cursive writing
So, my solution is I am going to teach her cursive reading and writing. And then I am going to wait for her to tell me what her teacher says when she turns in her spelling words written in cursive.
Does everything in our lives have to change or disappear because of technology? Can’t they coincide and get along???
What are your kids not being taught anymore?
When I go to college, I tend to live my life in 6-week increments; 6 weeks is how long I have to complete each class. I have to say the best feeling is the last assignment turned in for a class; knowing you can do absolutely nothing else!
This journey has showed me that I need to keep my focus. My focus on my girls, the homeschooling schedule, the church schedule, and squeeze in some me-time 🙂
I love my lists!
With a week to go, I am feeling comfortable that I can do this, and get my MBA. I can teach Erin her homeschooling, and support my other 3 girls in everything they have going on. I can get to church every Sunday morning (I have made it every weekend this year! Do you remember my to-do list for 2014?) And I can work long hours and still get up and cook dinner and eat with my girls, play Mario on the Wii, and watch mindless TV (Sleepy Hollow anyone? anyone?)
It is a snow day, again… Such is life in Michigan. I get to work again this weekend, and am looking forward to some sound sleep, getting up and having dinner with my girls, and relaxing before work. Oh, and homework. I have to get some posts in or my grade will go down.
So here’s to wishing you a Happy, warm weekend, and may you get to do the things you want to do!
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Yesterday my girls let me sleep, didn’t destroy the house, and Erin actually did some of her homework she was behind on. Here’s hoping for the same mad-luck today, and that it wasn’t just the Tylenol PM working heavy-duty and they really did get along without fighting and yelling at each other. Car thermostat on the way to work last night? -2 degrees. Windchill? -20+ degrees. And still getting colder.
Oddly enough, I am hoping they don’t have school tomorrow either, because I have a very busy day with limited sleep and not having to get kids up for school would be a huge help!
Are you snowed in as well, or are you warm and balmy somewhere that the sun is shining?
I guess I should feel a little bit guilty that I have assignments set for my 12 year old homeschooler to complete; while her two sisters have a snow day today, and more than likely tomorrow. Their school closed early last night (Okay, all schools in West Michigan closed basically by 7pm last night). She has gotten a bit off-task, and my intention was to get her caught up and on-task while I was off for Christmas break. She ended up going to her Fathers for 10 days and although she did some work, she did not complete near the amount I had hoped she would.
I asked her 15 year old sister to please help her with her math, and she has a lot of Ancient History work to get done before she goes to that class on Friday. I will have to keep my fingers crossed that she actually does what I need her to do, and leaves the puzzle sitting on the kitchen table alone. She is the only person I know who may very well like to do puzzles even more than me.
So the game plan is I am going to get safely home from work, take 2 Tylenol PM, put in my earplugs, put on my eye mask, turn on The Hobbit in my DVD player and turn my television up to 50, and hopefully I can get a good day’s sleep and be ready to dig into some Algebra with Erin after dinner. I just hope their game plan is to not argue, fight, or try to go outside with -35 degree wind chills. I got a feeling this is going to be a long, cold, tiresome week. And how is your Monday?
Since I have been up for hours (it is currently 5:45am) as is normal for me on weekends that I don’t work, I figured I would watch “The Sound of Music” which was shown live Thursday on NBC. Did I want to watch it? Not particularly. But the aftermath that went on from this live version really had me wondering “How bad could it really be?” So I had to see for myself.
I am not an actress; I have never been, or wanted to be. I have never been in a school play, a production of any kind, and the most I got in front of a crowd was for band concerts, one invisible kid in a crowd of kids. So I am not going to make any comments of what I feel the quality of the acting that happened during this LIVE performance was. And I will not write the names here of the previous actresses whom acted in the original movie version with Julie Andrews, as the various children in the movie. They do not deserve mention, and should wholly be ashamed of themselves.
What I would like to know, is exactly how many takes each one of their scenes took, because every single time they made a mistake, someone said “Cut!” and they got to go back and fix it. Time after time. After time. How would they have done live? Probably not so hot. But they would not have gotten bullied while they were continuing to act live on a stage knowing the whole world was waiting for them to fail. Hoping for them to fail.
“How dare you try to play a role Julie Andrews played!” “Almost painful to watch!” Really? Painful? What is painful is reading comments from a couple has-beens who are sitting behind an electronic device giving criticism on a role they never had to perform. I agree with Carrie Underwood that these critics need Jesus. Boy do they ever. They need a lot more than that. Would putting them on the other side of the fence make them understand? Not likely. Most bullies do not ever believe they have done anything wrong. Not all, but a lot.
Am I a fan of Carrie Underwood’s? No, I am not. I think she has an amazing voice (I can’t carry a tune in a bucket!) but I do not like country music. I am familiar with some of her songs; they are catchy and good, but I haven’t heard a song yet that has me going to the store to buy her CD. But that doesn’t mean I wish her to fail.
As a parent of a child who suffered through 3 years of terrible bullying before finally telling me the whole truth of what was happening to her, to what I went through for 3 years fighting with a young girl every single day to go to school; being threatened with court, jail, and fines; to having a homeschooler who is calm, content, and successful, I have to say, this display of public bullying really, REALLY pisses me off. (I just had to erase what I typed after that because it was not what Jesus would say, and I will not allow someone to turn ME into a bully too!)
I understand we live in a world of instant information, and I still can’t say that I think this is a great thing. When I was growing up, I could go home, not answer the phone, did not have a computer or cell phone going off non-stop, and could have peace and quiet. Now our children can be harassed 24 hours a day, and it is a very difficult thing to stop.
We can all be better people, and make better examples for others. We can each make a positive difference, if we choose to. Or we can be part of the problem.
Be a friend, not the enemy.
I want to be part of the solution. Who’s with me?
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