Tag Archives: language arts

Netiquette and other technology lessons…

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Oy… did mama get a lesson toDAY.  People, lemme tell you something: my Master’s is in Secondary Education with a specialty area of Education Technology.  I taught high school in the business department and that included (other people) teaching office productivity applications and an end-to-end systems architecture overview (which I taught) but it did not include teaching typing, netiquette or some of the other ins and outs of collaborating or learning online.

And you do not learn this well on your own.  This is how I found out…

Continue reading Netiquette and other technology lessons… →

The gentle flow of gray winter…

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It’s been a less productive time lately.  I have a very hard time with the shortening of the days.  No amount of vitamin D or special lighting has ever provoked a response in my body.  Even magnesium supplements have not helped (there is a contingent that yells loudly about the need for magnesium to help with vitamin D absorption).  So things have gotten slow… and moved to the big bed.

Continue reading The gentle flow of gray winter… →

The Dragonnaire Cluster

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I just needed to update you all on BigGuy’s writing.  I’m VERY. PLEASED with it!  He’s seriously coming along really well!!  We don’t work on this every day but after his first whipping out of a page of writing, I introduced the process of rewrites.  There is a local homeschool mom I admire very much and she recently divulged how she tackled writing instruction and the gusto with which she embraces the rewrite.  Her kids (who are high school age) know that there is pretty much no set number or max on rewrites.

I gave this some thought, and decided that I would really rather my son be prepared to rework his writing many times over than assume he was done after any set number (likely a number close to 3).  Continue reading The Dragonnaire Cluster →

Totally hacked my son’s education today

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Sho ’nuff did.  So, I have not been able to get my act together–especially to facilitate Socratic/thinking discussion.

But I was inspired by my son’s willingness to write when the writing was about the fictitious land he created and made a map for.  Then I saw a TEDx talk on hackschooling.   Suddenly, I remembered the whole reason we’re homeschooling is to allow our kids the experience of learning by way of the things they love–that drive them to learn. Continue reading Totally hacked my son’s education today →

My kids did a LOT of writing today

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Please note the circles that are the dots in the “i”. The catalog doesn’t do that–it’s allll her. Hold on, puberty… it’s not your turn yet!

Girly loves, love, loves, LUUUUURRRRRVES the Magic Cabin catalog.  Me, too.  Inasmuch as our family has tried to phase out “Santa” for more reality-based ideas about the December holidays, Girly will have none of it.  She wants to believe in Santa and there’s really no way to gently let her down; and I will not shatter that illusion in a disturbing manner. Continue reading My kids did a LOT of writing today →

So unprepared… so much pain

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Yesterday I threw my back out in a way that I’m not sure I have ever thrown my back out.  It hasn’t responded to anything that has ever helped.  I honestly don’t know that I have ever had this much pain.  I can’t even walk standing upright.

Needless to say, I am in rare form today–and I’m really not liking myself at all right now.  At all.  At 11:01am.  I’m in tears as I’m typing this because I’m so disgusted with the things that have come out of my mouth this morning, in the tone and volume they have come out to people inside AND outside of my home.

I also tried to follow my Tapestry of Grace curriculum this morning (having forgotten to prepare this weekend) only to find myself clueless about his notebook (which was a central component since we are STILL attempting week 1 for the second week in a row–which is totally fine).  Apparently, all I needed to do was Google “Tapestry of Grace notebook setup” to find this neat little page called “First Steps to Set Up Tapestry“.   THAT would have been useful a week or two ago.   Ugh… on the up side, I think that between what I bought this weekend for BigGuy’s grammar & composition notebook plus what I already own (which is TOO. MUCH. CRAP) I should have what I need.

BigGuy and I did sit down and go over “how it’s gonna go down” in terms of the Tapestry of Grace stuff (heretofore referred to as TOG).  We agreed that we would do Critical Thinking Company’s Word Roots rather than vocabulary and we’re ditching the timeline thing.  So there’s that.  I sent him off to do his Math-U-See which resulted in trying to find his missing workbook which is still MIA.

Girly watched the LeapFrog video to learn her vowels.

This afternoon we’re going to watch a Netflix video about Ancient Egypt after we do a Character Building Day by Day story.  The first week was “kindness”, the second was “helpfulness” and I think this week we’ll do “cleanliness” since I am having a VERY hard time with my therapies and the cleanliness of the house is a huge PTSD trigger for me that we have been unable to really resolve.  This might be a good fit.

“I still love you”

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Today was a Thursday.  Every Thursday, we have a babysitter from 1-5pm.  He’s a big, goofy 30yo man from Spain and our time with him is temporary as he is due to leave the country soon.  My kids love him.  We will call him Nando.

We were supposed to go to some homeschool event this morning, but Mama got up at 4:30am with horrible anxiety and had to take some medicine that I wasn’t sure was safe to drive with.  So I canceled that.

Instead, BigGuy got through his Biology lecture.  He then managed to get his bathroom chores done.  Oh–I didn’t tell you that he actually did his bathroom chores yesterday, too.  He often gets motivated by the potential for earning his screen time back.  Pfffft…

We did our helpfulness story this morning.  Yay!

I hadn’t organized any learning for him today because I thought we’d be out all morning and he’d be with Nando all afternoon.  He finished any unfinished work from earlier this week–except the stuff he needed me to be involved with (he asked, I just wasn’t prepared).  The deal is: he can only do the electronic-based schoolwork when the rest of it is done.  Only because the screens really screw with his head.

Girly and I sat down to read and it became clear that she needed some instruction on vowel blends.  So I let her watch “LeapFrog: Code Word Caper“.  But then I realized that she doesn’t really know her vowels COLD, so tomorrow she will be watching “LeapFrog: Talking Words Factory“.

I’m not really sure what the kids did all afternoon with Nando.  I went to therapy and ran errands and came home in time for Husbeau to go to a group where he could hang with other energy workers (he does reiki… I don’t fully understand it all, but he can pretty much put me to sleep on nights my anxiety is in overdrive).  I took the kids to get ice cream because I was just not having a great day and ice cream fixes everything.  When we got home, I tried to respond to an e-mail, but Girly wanted. to go. to bed.  And she was NOT happy that I was allowing an e-mail to keep me from putting her down.  And I was pretty grumpy about her not letting me finish the e-mail.

Shame on me. (I mean that seriously–not sarcastically).

She was so whiny and upset.   When I finally got upstairs and snuggled her (about the time Papa got home) I apologized to her.

“I’m so sorry I was finishing my e-mail instead of coming to put you to bed.”
“It’s okay–just don’t do it again.”
“I’ll try not to.  I’m sorry I was grumpy about it because I love you and I wasn’t acting like I love you.  I’m so thankful that you are our girl.  You’re so helpful all the time and I wasn’t being kind or helpful to you; and I’m really sorry about it.”
“I still love you.”

Ugh… tears.  I seriously don’t deserve these kids sometimes.