The move to our new house is looming over us - just two weeks away. I was hoping to wait until after we moved to really start homeschooling in earnest, but when school started for Henry and preschool for Violet, it seemed like it was time to dig in a little with Mitchell too. Our old school ended in May so it had already been a long summer.
I felt prepared though. I had chosen a math curriculum and an English curriculum and decided to do more unschooling and child-led learning for the other subjects, so we got started. It seems to me like things have been going well this last week, but there has been a certain theme that has carried through our week and continues on as we start this week. And the theme is "That's not how my other teacher did it". It seems like everything I try to do with Mitchell, he's comparing me to his Montessori teacher. And let me tell you, those are quite big shoes to fill. I feel really bad that he's had such a good educational experience and now I'm not living up to that. I thought I would be a good teacher, and I do feel that I'm doing a decent job, but it really hurts that I can't offer him the kind of teaching he is wanting right now. I'm doing my best, but I'm just not Montessori trained, and while I have a pretty good grasp of what goes on in a primary classroom, I'm not as familiar at all with what they do and how they do it in an elementary classroom. He wants me to give him fewer, shorter lessons and then let him work independently, but I just don't have things set up that way here now. Frankly, I don't have anything "set-up", we're working out of a box as everything gets packed for the move. But even worse, I have no idea how to set up a framework for homeschool where he can be hands-on AND independent like he was at his Montessori school. It seems like for the most part, the hands-on type of things require more parent involvement, and the independent curriculum are all on the computer or are heavy on the workbooks.
Henry too is not having a stellar start to the school year. Already I'm communicating frequently with his teacher about his behavior. Typical Henry stuff, nothing too dramatic, but still. I am also not very impressed with the coursework. They are starting out the year with their letters and numbers and shapes and friendship skills. Henry covered all that in kindergarten (though you can never practice friendship skills too much). It seems like they will be getting to some topics that will be new to him soon, but he too is lamenting the loss of his old school. He misses the practical life activities and thinks it is ridiculous that they don't get to bake in kindergarten. He vacillates between saying school is awesome and saying it is boring and he doesn't want to go. As long as I keep getting the "awesome" answer regularly, we'll stick with it, but I'm predicting I may be homeschooling both boys much sooner than I had originally planned.
I'll keep searching for the right fit for us, educationally, whether it be finding the right curriculum or finding a way to get the kids back into their old school, but right now I'm feeling pretty discouraged. It has not been our best "back-to-school".
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
I think we just might be okay...
Last night I got one of those rare glimpses of how siblinghood SHOULD be. One of those moments parents dream about but rarely happen in real life.
I did a fairly adequate job of putting everyone to bed last night. They got a bedtime snack, a story, AND got to pick where they wanted to sleep. Henry picked Ivy's bed in the basement (Ivy picked the cosleeper in our room), Mitchell picked the couch, and Violet picked the floor in her room. I find that when I have the guts to go ahead and let them sleep wherever they want, they usually fall asleep pretty fast. It's annoying when they pick to be in our room or the livingroom because that kind of puts a damper on mine and hubby's nighttime "adult" activities (no, no, not THOSE adult activities, I mean like eating Kempswiches and swilling Dr. Pepper while playing cribbage). I am pretty sure though that Mitch picks the livingroom for exactly those reasons. He likes to eavesdrop on us and beg for some of our snacks. Henry hasn't realized what kind of things his parents do at night so he picks the basement so he can be closer to us when we go to bed.
Anyways, everyone got tucked in bed and Mitchell informed me that he was really going to sleep in Violet's bed (since she wasn't using it anyways) but that he wanted to stay up and read on the couch until she fell asleep because she's annoying and loud (a fair evaluation). So Henry toddled downstairs and fell asleep the minute his head hit the pillow, and Mitch started looking for a book. I had already packed up a few boxes of books so the picking was slim.
He turned to me, pointed to a faux-leather bound volume and asked "Is this a book of poetry?".
I looked at the title, shocked, "No buddy, that's not poetry, that's Edgar Allen Poe. Actually I think there are a few poems in that one, but mostly it's short stories." This was like a dream come true. I LOVE literature and poetry and all things related to the English language, but so far it seemed like Mitch was only interested in stuff like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" (which I am fairly certain may have been written by the devil? I hate those books, but hey, at this point i'll go for anything that gets him to do some independent reading.) I looked through what was left on my shelves and found a large volume of American poetry and handed it to him.
"I like poetry", he said. "When I read the words it makes music in my head like a song."
"Well," I said, "Songs are just poetry with music added to them, so you're right on there." I pointed to a couple of poems in the book that were also songs - The Star Spangled Banner and America The Beautiful.
We sat down on the couch and he perused the poetry book while I sat next to him and worked on my knitting. He then decided to write his own poetry and invited me to help him (I enthusiastically agreed). Here's what we came up with together...
A possum, A blossom
A piece of cherry pie
A seashell on the shore
Just like a star up in the sky
Bright as a firefly
I was so proud I could burst. When I was a teenager and imagining what my kids would be like, what motherhood would be like, THIS is what I imagined, not all the other stuff.
After he got bored of writing poetry he asked me when we were going to start homeschooling and I said "Whenever you want." He decided he wanted to start right then. He made himself a math folder to keep his work-in-progress in, then asked if he could work on teaching Violet to read. Violet certainly wasn't asleep (she kept poking her head out of the door and looking at us) so I said "Sure, go ahead". He asked her if she wanted a lesson and she was bouncing up and down and grinning as she said "Yeah!". They went into the kitchen and Mitchell helped her spell some simple words like mom and dad with the magnetic letters. Then they called me in to see and I watched Violet put m-o-m on the fridge. It was adorable. After they tired of that, the hubby tucked Violet back into bed and we taught Mitchell how to play Pente. He did pretty well on my team (we battled Daddy) but then I played Daddy on my own a few rounds to show Mitch how to kick someone's butt at Pente. After a bit we tucked him into bed on the couch and went outside in the garage to have a beer in private, but it was really a great night. The kind of night that renews my faith in my kids and in my ability to mother them. Maybe I haven't completely screwed them up yet. Maybe there's still hope for our family :-)
I did a fairly adequate job of putting everyone to bed last night. They got a bedtime snack, a story, AND got to pick where they wanted to sleep. Henry picked Ivy's bed in the basement (Ivy picked the cosleeper in our room), Mitchell picked the couch, and Violet picked the floor in her room. I find that when I have the guts to go ahead and let them sleep wherever they want, they usually fall asleep pretty fast. It's annoying when they pick to be in our room or the livingroom because that kind of puts a damper on mine and hubby's nighttime "adult" activities (no, no, not THOSE adult activities, I mean like eating Kempswiches and swilling Dr. Pepper while playing cribbage). I am pretty sure though that Mitch picks the livingroom for exactly those reasons. He likes to eavesdrop on us and beg for some of our snacks. Henry hasn't realized what kind of things his parents do at night so he picks the basement so he can be closer to us when we go to bed.
Anyways, everyone got tucked in bed and Mitchell informed me that he was really going to sleep in Violet's bed (since she wasn't using it anyways) but that he wanted to stay up and read on the couch until she fell asleep because she's annoying and loud (a fair evaluation). So Henry toddled downstairs and fell asleep the minute his head hit the pillow, and Mitch started looking for a book. I had already packed up a few boxes of books so the picking was slim.
He turned to me, pointed to a faux-leather bound volume and asked "Is this a book of poetry?".
I looked at the title, shocked, "No buddy, that's not poetry, that's Edgar Allen Poe. Actually I think there are a few poems in that one, but mostly it's short stories." This was like a dream come true. I LOVE literature and poetry and all things related to the English language, but so far it seemed like Mitch was only interested in stuff like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" (which I am fairly certain may have been written by the devil? I hate those books, but hey, at this point i'll go for anything that gets him to do some independent reading.) I looked through what was left on my shelves and found a large volume of American poetry and handed it to him.
"I like poetry", he said. "When I read the words it makes music in my head like a song."
"Well," I said, "Songs are just poetry with music added to them, so you're right on there." I pointed to a couple of poems in the book that were also songs - The Star Spangled Banner and America The Beautiful.
We sat down on the couch and he perused the poetry book while I sat next to him and worked on my knitting. He then decided to write his own poetry and invited me to help him (I enthusiastically agreed). Here's what we came up with together...
A possum, A blossom
A piece of cherry pie
A seashell on the shore
Just like a star up in the sky
Bright as a firefly
I was so proud I could burst. When I was a teenager and imagining what my kids would be like, what motherhood would be like, THIS is what I imagined, not all the other stuff.
After he got bored of writing poetry he asked me when we were going to start homeschooling and I said "Whenever you want." He decided he wanted to start right then. He made himself a math folder to keep his work-in-progress in, then asked if he could work on teaching Violet to read. Violet certainly wasn't asleep (she kept poking her head out of the door and looking at us) so I said "Sure, go ahead". He asked her if she wanted a lesson and she was bouncing up and down and grinning as she said "Yeah!". They went into the kitchen and Mitchell helped her spell some simple words like mom and dad with the magnetic letters. Then they called me in to see and I watched Violet put m-o-m on the fridge. It was adorable. After they tired of that, the hubby tucked Violet back into bed and we taught Mitchell how to play Pente. He did pretty well on my team (we battled Daddy) but then I played Daddy on my own a few rounds to show Mitch how to kick someone's butt at Pente. After a bit we tucked him into bed on the couch and went outside in the garage to have a beer in private, but it was really a great night. The kind of night that renews my faith in my kids and in my ability to mother them. Maybe I haven't completely screwed them up yet. Maybe there's still hope for our family :-)
Friday, August 20, 2010
I Could Never...
I hear this quite a bit when chatting with other moms about some of our "lifestyle choices". Like "I could never do cloth diapers", "I could never do a GFCF diet", etc. Yeah, it can be overwhelming to think about switching to things like that, but i've found that the day-to-day practice of it is no where near as tough as what you imagine. For example here is what we've been eating today...
Breakfast: Nothing much - I was feeling overwhelmed and crabby so I told the kids to get their own breakfast so they had (I think) brownie Clif Z-bars and apples.
Lunch: Tortilla chips topped with leftover taco meat, chopped tomatos, and chopped cabbage (I was out of lettuce, they never knew the difference) and then blueberries on the side.
Dinner: We have chicken breasts defrosted so we may throw them on the grill with some potatoes and green beans in the microwave. If I can muster the ambition we all really love chicken fried rice (just chicken, rice, scrambled eggs, chopped onions, minced garlic, and soy sauce brawling in the wok) but I haven't been feeling very chefy lately...
So really, not hard and not a bunch of weird foods (though we have been eating more weird stuff lately). They usually have water to drink or juice. I usually wait until they are done and have left the kitchen and then chug Cherry Dr. Pepper and eat a spoonful of Skippy peanut butter and their leftovers but that's a whole other story. I know for me, hearing about the day to day routines helps me more than just "how-to's", so maybe it would be helpful to some if I regularly posted about what we were eating? We'll try that for a while. That makes it easier on me too because then I have more fodder for posts. It's a win-win :-)
Breakfast: Nothing much - I was feeling overwhelmed and crabby so I told the kids to get their own breakfast so they had (I think) brownie Clif Z-bars and apples.
Lunch: Tortilla chips topped with leftover taco meat, chopped tomatos, and chopped cabbage (I was out of lettuce, they never knew the difference) and then blueberries on the side.
Dinner: We have chicken breasts defrosted so we may throw them on the grill with some potatoes and green beans in the microwave. If I can muster the ambition we all really love chicken fried rice (just chicken, rice, scrambled eggs, chopped onions, minced garlic, and soy sauce brawling in the wok) but I haven't been feeling very chefy lately...
So really, not hard and not a bunch of weird foods (though we have been eating more weird stuff lately). They usually have water to drink or juice. I usually wait until they are done and have left the kitchen and then chug Cherry Dr. Pepper and eat a spoonful of Skippy peanut butter and their leftovers but that's a whole other story. I know for me, hearing about the day to day routines helps me more than just "how-to's", so maybe it would be helpful to some if I regularly posted about what we were eating? We'll try that for a while. That makes it easier on me too because then I have more fodder for posts. It's a win-win :-)
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