Jump to content

Menu

Noreen Claire

Members
  • Posts

    1,753
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by Noreen Claire

  1. He can, but he would have to get up earlier. The older two walk home most days, weather permitting.
  2. These are all great ideas... I'm teaching 6-8th math this year, so they don't all apply exactly, but they're still good!
  3. The high school shares a parking lot with the grammar school that I teach at, and there is no high school bus if you live within 1.5 miles of the school. It's just a matter of having to get him there by 7:10, rather than having an extra 30 minutes or so. I am not required to be in my classroom until 7:45, but I do find it useful to be there at 7:15 every morning! (I drop the younger three in the before-school program the school runs.) This is something that I am struggling with. DS13 takes viola and piano lessons after school, and just joined the youth orchestra in the summer. DS10 takes trumpet lessons. DS13 & DS8 each have 2 soccer practices during the week, plus travel games on the weekend. It didn't seem like so much when we were at home during the day! Thankfully, the last soccer game of the season is today. (yippee!) Next year, DS13 will be in high school, and he will have to make some hard decisions about after-school activities. And I've already put a bug into the 8yr old's ear about playing baseball (which is all in-town) rather than soccer (which is travel) in the spring. This I will do.
  4. Both. I need both! I appreciate everyone's support, commiseration, and "been there, done that" advice. I kinda wish I had asked for the advice earlier!
  5. If I quit mid-year, I would not ever be able to work in this school district (the city that I live in) again, and I would feel immensely uncomfortable & guilty if any of my kids wanted/needed to stay in the public school after I had left them in the lurch. That bridge is much too big to burn. Unless something catastrophic were to happen, I am in this for the full year. I have streamlined as much as I can in the morning. Eating breakfast and making lunches are still issues, and this is a function of picky eaters/personalities/too small a kitchen/"do I want school lunch today?"/food allergies. Also, I think there are just too many choices sometimes - I had a bowl of cereal every single morning for breakfast, kindergarten through high school. My kids have had me home for the last 10 years, so there was always much more variety for breakfast & lunch and we need to simplify this to fewer (& easier) options. We keep working on it. Some days are better than others.
  6. This is honestly one of the main reasons that I haven't quit. I've started developing relationships with these people, and I know how hard it would be on them all if I just quit. Several teachers have quit/retired/left for medical reasons already this year (and one who was on medical leave died this past week). The school is already short-staffed. I couldn't willingly make it worse.
  7. Thank you for this. Mourning is the right word. It's a huge adjustment and I'm feeling the loss of what we gave up.
  8. I used to keep a bullet journal religiously, but I've had trouble keeping it up since I went back to work. I have a big calendar on the side of the fridge to write family appts and kid activities that I need to update. It has been a rough adjustment. I knew it would be, but I guess not to what extent. My therapist refers to it as 'playing tetris in a blender', and that's a pretty apt description - so many moving parts, and nothing solid to stand on. I do think that upping my ADHD meds for a while should help (I was doing SO MUCH BETTER before I started working!). Now that the soccer season is over (tomorrow!), I'm hoping to have time to maybe go back to the gym, or at least get some exercise in at home a few times a week. I have let my own health (mental and physical) slide since going back to work. I also need to get to bed earlier each night, but it's hard when I've been so overstimulated/overwhelmed during the day and I need to decompress before I can go to bed. Two more hours of sleep each night would be helpful!
  9. Subbing is no where near the same amount of money, and really wouldn't be worth it. Plus, I need 2.5 more full-time years to be vested in the pension system.
  10. I might put just put aside a bit of money each week for a cleaning person to do the bathrooms and floors. This would take something off my plate and be worth the cost. I've been having groceries delivered, because I can add to the order all week and not have to lose two hours to grocery shopping. The fall soccer season ends this weekend, so I'm hoping that things will slow down a tiny bit and we can do more fun things again on the weekend or evenings (though, there are still 3 music lessons and an orchestra practice each week).
  11. I think it depends on the day, and the kid. I've been saving about 80-85% of my pay each week. Though, taking this job has been expensive to start! Everyone needed school "stuff", and I continue to have to buy things for my classroom every week. He knows, mostly. When I said that he's taken over the laundry and the dishes, I meant that *in addition to* the stuff he has always done. He does as close to half of the driving kids, the housework, etc. as he can. He puts the kids to bed most nights. But, he also works two other jobs in addition to teaching high school (he teaches night school at the high school one night a week, so he's not home on Tuesdays until after the kids are in bed, and he's teaching one asynchronous college course so he's got random student zoom meetings during the week). One of my main stressors is getting everyone up and out each day, and he cannot help with that because he leaves for work by 5:15am each day. I get up at 5, get the kids up at 6, and we need to be in the car a few minutes before 7am so my 8th grader can make it to his math class at the high school by 7:15. (It should be a 5-min drive, but the school traffic is awful!) But, I am the one with all the mental load, still. Who needs shoes? Where are the warm jackets, and who needs a new one? When is the next dentist/orthodontist/pedi appt? etc. I will also readily admit that I have a hard time giving up mental load to him, as I have control issues and I want/need things done a certain way. It's also just easier to have one person in charge of all of the logistical stuff. 1. The youngest is enjoying school now, but September was rough. He's also been the sickest. The 8th grader is enjoying the social aspects; he loves being around friends. He also enjoys being in the band (he's learning a 3rd instrument). He does realize that he's not getting quite the same level of education -- he asked me the other day, out of the blue, if we could start learning Latin again! The 3rd grader loves being around kids all day, but the need to be good, quiet, and still during school hours might just kill him. He comes home absolutely fried each day, hungry and tired and out of spoons. I also think he's gone backwards in his reading from where he was in the summer, so I'm trying to figure out how to get that in with him each day without him thinking we are doing more school. My 5th grader is completely academically unchallenged with 5th grade work, but our goals for him are social this year. (He's got a recent ASD diagnosis.) I am happy that the Special Ed director at the school recognizes that the school academics are not appropriate for children with his abilities, and she's trying to figure out how we can challenge him while also leaving him in the 5th grade classroom so that he can continue to interact with age-appropriate peers. 2. I need 2.5 years to be vested in the state pension system. In four years there will be kids to send to college, which is why I figured it was time to go back to work, as I could pay off debt, make repairs/upgrades to the house, and buy a new car before we need to start paying for colleges. 3. Dh has taken 3 of the 5 sick days so far between us. I've had my dad and his dad each come stay a day with a sick kid. My mom retired last week (::happy dance::), so she said that she would be happy to help as much as I needed. And just in time, too, as I have a professional development day next week and all my kids have the day off!
  12. I have so many words, but they are mostly incoherent....... I decided to go back to work. I didn't NEED to go back right now, but I felt maybe this was a good time, so I enrolled all four kids in the local grammar school and I took a job there, too. I'm fairly sure that I made the wrong choice. Don' get me wrong - I love the *teaching* part. I love the kids and the relationships and the math. It is every other damn thing about it that is awful. Awful? Stressful? Stupid? Disappointing? IT IS SO MUCH MORE &*%$ WORK TO GET MYSELF AND FOUR KIDS UP, DRESSED, FED, LUNCHES PACKED, AND OUT OF THE HOUSE EVERY DAMN MORNING. So much more work to get everyone home and fed and homework done. No time -- NO TIME -- to do the things we loved to do together - museums, day trips, playgrounds, rabbit trails in the curriculum, learning what we want, leisurely trips to the library multiple times a week, outside time in the daylight and fresh air, etc... And it almost all falls on me. DH has taken over the laundry and the dishes, but that's the mindless, easy, little stuff. I still have all the heavy lifting, plus more now that we're outside the house. EVERYONE IS CONSTANTLY SICK. NOT A SINGLE DAY WITHOUT COUGH/FEVER/SNIFFLES/EAR INFECTIONS/STOMACH VIRUS/ANTIBIOTICS/ER VISITS/MORE COUGHING/MORE SNIFFLING IN TEN WEEKS! I've got a follow-up next week, and I will have put on (more) weight and my ADHD meds will need to be upped, because it's not cutting it anymore. [I wrote and deleted many other paragraphs about my kids and all the ways learning at home was better for them. I'll just skip that for now.] There's nothing to be done about it. I made the decision, and now I have to stick with it. DH says, "you can change your mind at the end of the year," but I cannot imagine that he would want to give up the salary I'm making once we're used to depending on it. Not a day goes by that I don't seriously think about quitting... DH went to the library to pick up a book for me and the librarians at the desk were worried, because it was *only one book* and we hadn't been around much. She asked him if I was sick... He told me this story and I started weeping in my kitchen. The only people who are sad for me and my kids are the librarians. My DH and my BFF and my family all think it so SO GREAT that the boys and I all go to the same school together! It must be so wonderful! So convenient! So much fun! They have no idea what I made us all give up. I miss homeschooling. 😞
  13. DS13 would have a flare whenever he had inflammation of any kind - vax, loose tooth, scraped knee, ingrown finger, cold, whatever. I would have expected him to have a larger-than-expected flare after getting both a covid booster and a flu shot at the same time a few weeks ago, but he's been having a long-term recurrence of PANDAS symptoms since he had a mild case of covid in May/June. He's improved a lot since his symptoms returned, but he's still not back to where he was before getting covid. I'm really hoping that this does not become his new 'normal'.
  14. So, this morning she emailed and said that he did "excellent" and that she "highly recommends" him for the honors geometry class. 😁 I will have him sit for the alg2 exam after school starts, to get that out of the way (before he forgets it all!) and then he will be all set to start at the HS next year in a pre-calc class. As always, thanks for letting me vent!
  15. We just listened to The Magician's Elephant on a long car ride and my boys (5, 8, 10, & 13) really enjoyed it.
  16. I emailed copies of his exams from the end of 6th and 7th grades, but I got no feedback from them. 🤷 He finished, said it was pretty easy. I may ask if he can also sit for the alg2 exam before school starts in order to get ahead of the placement issue next year!
  17. So, the superintendent, assistant superintendent, and principal of the pubic school were all completely fine with DS13 taking geometry at the high school first period everyday, and then walking next door to the grammar school to do the rest of his 8th grade day. No one second guessed my course placement for him (he's finished both algebra 1 and 2 already - had planned to do geometry at home in 8th but now we're all going to pubic school next month). HOWEVER, the math dept head at the HS insisted that he take the honors algebra 1 final exam that she gives her students to "prove" that he's capable of the honors geometry class (I guess the only 1st period geometry class is the honors level). If I was just "homeschool mom", I guess would understand, even if I don't like it. They've probably had homeschooled kids come in unprepared before. (Or maybe not? We don't have a large homeschool community here.) BUT! I was hired to be the advanced math teacher at the grammar school, who will be the one teaching alg1 to 8th graders and sending students to the HS ready for 9th grade geometry. If anyone is qualified to say whether he should be in honors geometry, IT'S ME! So, I need to keep my attitude in-check and go along so as to not be seen as pushy or bitchy to my new colleagues before I even start my job. Bah. To top it off, DS13 is worried that, if he does poorly, it will reflect badly on *me*, and doesn't want to let me down (even though he would rather be in my alg1 class, so he can sleep 45 minutes later in the mornings!). Anyway, I'm sitting in the parking lot with my emotions, waiting while he takes the honors alg 1 final exam in the guidance office of the HS. I brought my knitting, but I don't seem able to focus...
  18. I didn't look before he started. I just pulled it up and had him work through it - he was able to do parts 1 (a & b), 2 (a & b), and 4 (a) by himself, and the rest with a bit of scaffolding from me. Honestly, the Intro C&P book starts at exactly where BA4D leaves off, and whatever concepts that he needed to solve the more complicated problems I was able to explain to him as we went along.
  19. Yes! Honestly, this was up there in the list of reasons to take this job - all four boys will be going into the same building together -- two in the lower school, two in the upper school -- and they will be there to support each other. (DS13 will be in the high school next year, so this is the only year that this would happen!) We will all go in together in the morning, and all leave together in the afternoon, so no worrying about bus schedules or parent drop-off/pick-up.
  20. I accepted a teaching job at the local school, and I finished the enrollment process for my rising 8th, 5th, 3rd, and K'er this afternoon. This evening, I got today's district-wide email about school meals, so I guess it's official - we are public schoolers again. I'm excited to return to the classroom! All I ever wanted to do was teach. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and to the paycheck! But, I'm also mourning the homeschool life that we've lived these last six years. I will dearly miss the freedom to do what we want, when we want. I will miss the control that I had over books, curricula, and other resources. I will miss sleeping late and snuggling on the couch with my littles, a book, and a cup of tea. 😭 We aren't/weren't ideological homeschoolers; DH and I were/are public school teachers. We started homeschooling with DS13 because he had serious neurological issues after a strep infection (he had PANDAS), and was absolutely not well enough to return to the public school in 2nd grade. We just had a lot of fun, and found that it was a good fit for these kids and just kept doing it. However, this job, at this school, at this time, is (I hope) the right choice for now. I'm happy. I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm sad. I'm worried. I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm a giant tangled ball of emotions! (My therapist has been very helpful!) There's still so much more to do... educational evaluations, making sure placement is correct in math/honors classes, buying school supplies that we didn't need at home (backpacks, lunchboxes, etc), getting covid boosters, rescheduling all of the appointments I've made for the next 6 months or so that we can no longer make because we will be in school... and so.much.paperwork. Anyway, thanks to all of you for the support, knowledge, and kindness you've shared with me over the last six or seven years. I'm still going to be here, but will be more of an 'afterschooler' from now on. (Is someone cutting onions in here? Something in my eye...)
  21. They are nervous, and full of questions. I told them that I was also nervous, and that this was a thing that we would all be doing together, which made them seem a bit more at ease. They all say that they would prefer to stay home, but they aren't *totally* opposed to going to the public school, either.
  22. So, they called today and offered me the position. (Well, the building principal wants to put my name forward to the school department, and then the Superintendent will make the final decision, I think?) I may have cried, fought an immense urge to vomit, threatened to throw myself into a volcano (are there any volcanoes in New England? lol), talked to my BFF for over 30 minutes, tried to figure out where I would fit on the pay scale, and had a long discussion with the four younger boys about what would happen if I accept the job and enroll them all in school.... DH said to sleep on it (who can sleep when it's still 85F at 10:30pm?) and make decision in the morning. I have to email the building principal tomorrow with my decision.... Ugh. 😱 🤮🤔 Change is scary and hard and I'm not a fan...
  23. Coming back to post an update (of sorts) for anyone who opens this thread at a later time... DS10 is still going through the Intro to C&P book. He's not working for long periods of time (it is summer, after all) but he is still working in the book and enjoying it and doing well. In the process, he's learned how to solve absolute value inequalities, learned how to derive the quadratic formula by completing the square, and greatly improved his ability to "see" ways to simplify a problem before attempting to solve it. But, he really seems to have hit his stride with the geometric probability section - he wrote up an alternate solution to a problem for me to send to AoPS, and the author of the text replied with his approval. That made him very pleased!
  24. They posted the position on Saturday, and I applied for it Sunday night. They called Tuesday morning to schedule an interview for Wednesday. It's all going so fast!
×
×
  • Create New...