Colleges Coveting Home-Schooled Students

It’s always nice to read this kind of thing from the mainstream media.

Math Frustration

My son has my math brain. He also has my difficulty with concentration. Those two are a combination straight from the pit of hell. I have worked with him for two solid weeks to try to help him get a leg up on this math annoyance.

My hatred of math has been renewed.

On the bright side, God has blessed this child abundantly with common sense. I thought common sense (i.e. critical thinking) and math abilities went together. Not in this kid’s case, apparently.

There is more to life than math … There is more to life than math … There is more to life than math …

It’s Home Education Week …

in Nebraska. It’s also Home Education Week in Florida.
Dana at Principled Discovery has provided suggested writing prompts for every day this week for those who are participating in Home Education Week. This is Today’s prompt:

Looking Back Sunday, March 30

Share your personal history…before you were a home educator. What was life like? Think about things you miss and things you and your family have gained.

Even though we are Michigan Home Schoolers, I feel like celebrating with the Nebraskans and Floridians.

 

Before I discovered my abilities in home educating, I was looking forward to my kids going off to school and leaving me alone to clean my house, have complete thoughts, and watch soap operas every weekday. I could not wait for my kids to start school!

Mr. N had suggested, numerous times, that I go to college to get a teaching degree so that I could teach our kids at home. My reaction the first time I heard this was, “NO WAY.” I could not imagine what I’d do with those kids all day, every day. I couldn’t imagine sitting at the table or at a desk for 7 hours a day doing schoolwork.

When Dub was little, he was tough as nails. He had to know what was going on at all times. He was a hand full and I couldn’t imagine keeping him busy on a full time basis until he grew up.

Before I became the huge fan of home schooling that I am today, I did not appreciate my kids as much as I should have. I was one of those, “I can’t wait to get them out of my hair” people. Don’t get me wrong. Everyone needs their space, but sometimes I think we mistakenly treat our kids like challenges to overcome. Home schooling helped me understand what comes naturally to other mothers.

Since we’ve taken this previously dreaded, very active, hands on role in our kids education, we’ve discovered that real life is rich with learning experiences. Dub’s desire to know what’s going on has been a huge benefit in his education. It has been a joy to watch him learn. We are still fighting the guilt that comes from being raised in the traditional schooling method - and not schooling the kids that way, but the best times we’ve had bore little resemblance to our own experiences with school, and the benefits far outweigh the guilt.

If I had to do it all over again, I would embrace the idea behind Mr. N’s suggestion to become a teacher. Right off the bat, I would throw myself headlong into discovering my kids’ learning styles and nurture their natural sense of wonder and their sensitivity toward God.

One great and encouraging thing about home schooling is that we don’t have to wait until next year to change our program. If we see that things are not going well, we can shift gears right now and not waste six months.

I’m rambling now. Sorry to ramble. I’ve been feeling rather rambly lately. I’ve got about five or six posts that sounded good at the beginning and then got all rambling and nonsensey, so there they sit, in the draft bin. *sigh* Anyway …

Happy Home Education Week, Nebraskans and Floridians!

 

 

The Stuff of Life - Part 2

I am very glad to have gotten through this week, though I wish we had accomplished more. We have a busy weekend and a busy week coming up and there are so many tasks I would like to have finished.

The Migraine Prodrome

I’m so glad to know about the Migraine Prodrome. For the longest time, I thought I was succumbing to laziness or losing my mind, but I have documented 5 separate Migraine episodes that are preceded by several days of low energy and mental “cloudiness.

This past week was “Migraine Week” at my house. That had an impact on pretty much everything else going on for the entire week. Yesterday was the first day that I actually felt normal. I wasn’t quite the sweet, loving, kind, gracious, and merciful person that my family knows and loves this week. It is overwhelming to have a grocery list of things to do and have almost negative amounts of energy and motivation.

I recognized what was going on this time almost right off the bat, so I persevered, but I did not do as much as I needed to. Thankfully, Mr. N was around to help motivate the troops to get their stuff done.

Menu Planning

I accomplished my goal of revamping my menu. It didn’t require much effort. Mainly, I just needed to look it over and update my grocery list for the next shopping trip. I still need to figure out calorie counts for the meals. Funny. That has always been so intimidating to me until this week.

We really have to be careful what Aunt Buttercup eats, so we usually eat better at lunchtime when she’s here. We’re going to begin using the same care when she’s not here.

My Mom emailed me on Monday to tell me that my Dad’s dr. suspects that my Dad has congestive heart failure. My Mom emailed me because she was so upset by that news. We Googled and emailed back and forth for a while and are encouraged that this doesn’t have to be a death sentence.

My Dad always comes to mind when the subject of weight comes up at our house. My Dad has always been overweight. He has had five or six heart attacks, several angioplasties, a triple bypass, and now has diabetes. On three separate occasions, he had post angioplasty episodes of ventricular fibrillation which could’ve killed him.

The third episode of v.f. was the most severe. The medical staff worked on him for 45 minutes. It was at that time that my Mom, my Sister and I asked the cardiologist if he had any idea what causes these incidents. He didn’t know about the other two times. He asked a few more questions and recommended further testing, which showed that my Dad has an electrical malfunction in one of his ventricles. He recommended the icd, and we pretty much jumped on it. And then off. And then, hesitantly, but hopefully, back on.

My Dad has had his icd for two years and it has saved his life at least once. Last summer, he collapsed at Little League. He was walking around the complex for exercise and no one saw him go down. He felt funny, grabbed a fence and woke up on the ground an unknown amount of time later. Thank You, God, for the extra time with my Dad!

Weight is not necessarily a factor in v.f., but the heart attacks did not help. Many people who have never had heart problems have v.f., and, unfortunately, die from it. I’m not trying to blame that on obesity. I’m saying that the added strain on the heart does not help!

So anyway, that has been on my mind more this week than usual. Maybe that’s why the calorie counting doesn’t seem so intimidating.

Dogs Rule

Heidi had her turn to visit our friendly neighborhood veterinarian this week. She was such a good girl! She was very nervous, but the vet is very nice and still enjoys dogs after all these years!!! She allowed him to pick her up and weigh her after he checked her out all over, pronounced her healthy and gave her her shots. She weighs 60 pounds! I think I already knew that because Homer has weighed her, but it still surprises me because she is still so slim.

Mr. Veterinarian said that Heidi is a great looking dog. I wish I could remember all that he said, but he mentioned her good proportions, coloring and fur.

Heidi has spent the last half hour watching Animal Planet. Heidi seems more interested in dogs than Komodo drags. Both dogs seem to be able to watch shows on HDTV.

Why I’m Glad We Homeschool

My niece, Peanut*, was sick for about 6 weeks this school year. She missed two weeks this semester when she had her tonsils out to hopefully put an end to the constant sickness. She was really sick and weak for about a week and a half after her surgery.

Because Peanut missed so much school, she has had a LOT of work to make up. She is doing well in all of her classes except math. In fact, she’s acing one of the classes, but failing math. She still has about a week’s worth of math homework left to do. At parent teacher conferences this week, Peanut’s mother was informed that if Peanut doesn’t get caught up real quick and do well for the rest of the school year , she is going to have to repeat her current grade level! 8-0 All because of math homework.

Peanut does well on her math tests, so clearly this is not about whether or not she knows her stuff. She could fail 5th grade because of busywork. > I just love the traditional schooling method in instances like these.

I am not saying that kids should be allowed to develop a habit of being slack, but it irritates me royally that these kids are stuck in a system that is so rigid and inflexible that it misses the point. And what is the point, exactly? In this instance, I thought it was to teach these kids math.

Well, I have to go call Peanut’s teacher and ask if she would please register on the publisher’s website so Peanut can work from her textbook online when she finishes her worksheets. She forgot her real book at school. Pray for me!

Ha! Thank God for working out the math book thing!

One of Peanut’s friends returned her call and will let her borrow his book just for this afternoon. (He still needs it!) My sister just happens to need to come into town and is going to bring the book with her on the way. I’ll copy the assigned pages, hand it back to her an hour later, Peanut’s friend will have his book back by dinner time, and Peanut may very well be caught up by the time she goes back to school on Monday!!! Woo hoo!!! Thank You, God, for providing for Peanut!!!

—————————————————

She did it!

She worked from about 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. until 8:30 p.m., with 10 minute breaks about every hour and an hour for lunch and to play.  Dub worked with her until 3:30, and then I sat with her and helped her until 8:30, and she finally got it all finished!  Way to go, Little Sister-once-removed!!

The Stuff of Life

After being sick all last weekend, I had a busy week catching up from behind. I have been trying to reestablish our “anchors” so that things can run somewhat smoothly even if something unexpected comes along. (Anchors are those things that remain the same every day, day in and day out.) It has gone okay. The kids are finding that they have a lot more free time than they realized was available to them. This is so different than the survival mode we’re used to when The Dad is away.

Dub received a word of encouragement from his guitar teacher the other day. When he arrived for his lesson, one of the first things his teacher asked was how much practice time he got in since the previous lesson. Dub said, “Not very much. I think I only practiced about twice.” I didn’t catch what the teacher said, but I did catch what he said later, after he and Dub played one of the pieces Dub was supposed to have practiced. He said, “Wow. I would give you an A on that, if I gave grades! If you had told me you practiced every day, I would’ve believed you!” That was really nice to hear. He didn’t have a great practice week last week, but in general, he has been practicing more consistently, and it shows.

One of the things I’ve been trying to emphasize with the boys, something that has been sadly lacking for way too long, is the fact that God has a plan for each of them, and they need to work hard so they can be ready to do whatever it is that He has for them. You might be amazed at the difference in attitudes when I remind them of the eternal perspective. They are no longer striving after things that aren’t going to matter in a hundred years, but are more contentedly working toward something that has eternal value. I have got to work on helping them keep that perspective in focus. I’m not sure when I slacked off on that, but I did, and now I pray that God will help me get back on track. Time is going so fast and before I know it, these men-in-training will be all grown up and these prime opportunities will be gone. But let’s move on to slightly less heavy things …

Some of us in this family have weight issues. A while back, I had a great menu/grocery shopping/cooking system that worked well for us. Somehow we got into shopping in such a way that I can’t make a menu ahead of time. Women who are more culinarily talented than I could throw a two week menu together in 5 minutes, but I am not one of those women, so, when someone in this house decides to try to improve upon what works for me in the kitchen, that usually throws things into a state of chaos, and several waistlines tend to suffer. Tomorrow, I’m going to sit down and straighten this mess out. [whine] Oh, how I hate almost everything involved in meal planning with food issues! It’s soooo confusing and frustrating and discouraging and haaaaaaard!! [/whine]

I can’t remember, at this late hour in which I can hardly keep my eyes open, if I’ve shared about my attempt to read through the Bible in a year. If not, this time I’m using The Daily Bible. It is a chronological reading of the Bible. The format is similar to a “regular” book. Each chapter and verse is not numbered the way that it is in most Bibles, but the references are for a range of verses and are located in the margins next to the corresponding passages. There is some commentary and background information within each day’s reading for added insight.

Most Bible reading plans that get through the whole Bible in a year have the reader reading from 3 or 4 different books of the Bible each day. The Daily Bible sticks with the chronology and doesn’t skip around. For me, this has been a really good thing. In the past, I have had a very hard time sticking with Bible reading plans that have you read from multiple books at once. Maybe it’s just me, but I like the way The Daily Bible is set up, in that it’s read like a book, and I highly recommend it.

It seems like there was something else, but I’m going cross eyed, so I’ll just have to share whatever profound and utterly important thing it was some other time.

Good night!