There is nobody more surprised than me at the current state of BigGuy’s grades through the virtual school. He is completely done with the first unit in each subject. Each subject is broken down into roughly 5-6 units. Here is how it’s going…
Tag Archives: math
The “backup plan”
BigGuy is still a-twitter about going to the state-sponsored math and science academy when he’s old enough. Knowing my son, I made sure to preemptively strike his negative side and discuss the alternate plans if he didn’t get in. It would be very much like him to be working very hard and push himself only to talk himself into being lazy with the excuse that “he might not get in anyway”.
Netiquette and other technology lessons…
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…
Inspiration strikes!
Last spring, our school district and two others started a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) charter school. The kids had to qualify for the lottery; but homeschoolers and private schoolers were not allowed into the lottery. BigGuy saw the trailer for the new school and was out of his mind with excitement that was quickly squashed. He even asked me “if I go to the regular school for a year, THEN would I be allowed to go to the STEM charter?” It was heart-breaking to see him so moved only to be so knocked down… because he’s a homeschooler.
The gentle flow of gray winter…
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.
Totally hacked my son’s education today
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
Folks, we have a 6-year-old in the house
And she is very taken with the concept that yesterday she was 5, but today she is 6. Mind-blowing. She also had a fit today, stating that she is “the worst writer in the world” because she wrote something and her brother couldn’t read it. Oh my…
Every year I e-mail the social worker that first handled her case and met her birthmother. His birthday happens to be the same day as hers and had he been able to catch the birth certificate processing in time, our Girly’s first legal name would have been the female version of his. So he and the social worker that handled the remainder of the case get an e-mail each year with a link to a photo album of pictures. Occasionally, the first one responds. I have no idea if either of them still work for the state, but I send it anyway. Continue reading Folks, we have a 6-year-old in the house
My guy and math facts
BigGuy has a math facts issue. He can correctly answer all of his addition and subtraction math facts in 3 seconds or less when being drilled on xtramath.org; but when he attempts to do them in any other scenario, he can barely even walk himself through figuring them out. Even if he’s using his fingers. It’s IN. SANE. Especially given his very typically autism spectrum memory. The child remembers everything. Just not math facts. WTF? Continue reading My guy and math facts
Allowances
I actually speak on this topic and people always find it informative so I thought I’d share it here. Financial education is near and dear to my heart. When I taught high school, I taught business and computer courses. My business courses were Intro to Personal Finance, and Business Management. I loved them both; but it became really clear that the majority of my students knew very little about financial responsibility even though many of them had jobs. I didn’t want that for my kids.
So unprepared… so much pain
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
Educated Adventures 