Caveat: my husband is and I am formerly technologists by trade and my family is not anti-technology nor completely technology or screen-free! Let’s talk about it all… this is a long one, but filled with good points to consider… Continue reading Screens don’t have to be controversial
My BigGuy would be entering 6th grade in the fall if he were in public school. As we were discussing what he’d like to learn this year, he noted that Algebra I and Physics would normally be high school classes. I agreed. He asked “If that’s the case, what grade would I be in if I were in school?”
That was a relatively long discussion.
Continue reading BigGuy enters “middle school” for 2015-2016
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”.
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…
This morning, we got up and out of the house–smoothies in hand–and got to the library for the books we need for this week’s lessons. Egypt. Blech. I’m seriously all Egypt’d out. I cannot even wrap my head around the fact that my son actually CHOSE for us to start our history studies in the classical education model’s “Year 1”. I mean, the OCD person in me is jumping for joy to start at “the beginning” but the woman who has been parenting my kids for the last several years is like “Seriously… I cannot handle another pyramid or mummy”.
I am congratulating myself that we managed to bring BigGuy’s Information Resources workbook.
I am congratulating myself that when BigGuy pushed back on doing his work, I fought the initial reaction to hold his electronics time captive until it was done. I reminded myself that he knew everything he needed to know in life–enough math and reading to live off of–and that this rigor was his request. So I calmly told him that he didn’t need to do this. I DID explain WHY it was on his plate to be done and reminded him that it bothered him that his brain was lazy–but that it was his choice to do it.
He did it. Actually, he did most of it but not all of it. Whatever. He also negotiated for doing his Mod Design I coursework three times per week at least for this week and next week. He absolutely loves it. I don’t want to restrict him any more than I have to and he doesn’t get docked electronics (fun) time when he does this. So we’re walking a fine line. We’ll try this for 2 weeks and see how it goes.
Getting out the door so early comPLETEly threw pretty much everything off this morning… no character building story and discussion… no snuggles. BigGuy managed to some element of his bathroom chores, but I’ll need to go up and see what exactly did and did not get done.
Now I need to can the 30 pounds of organic green beans I bought last week. The kids await 4pm by popping off the ends of each bean. Off I go!
Educated Adventures 