So today we visited the local middle school to discuss enrollment....

[blondeviolin]

My husband left on Sunday. He's TDY in WA state, enjoying sleeping through the night, running paths, the jacuzzi, and breakfast being made for him.

 

He left me home to suffer from children poisoning.

 

Sunday night, my 2yo was up all night vomiting. Last night it was the 4yo with an ear infection. I am currently bribing my kids to finish our basics so we can take a picnic to the park where I won't have to clear the table for the 8th time in one day.

 

It's a Diet Coke day.

[Mom-ninja.]

Let's see a/c broke. Just dropped $500 on the repair. A temp repair mind you. Need to replace everything which will be around 10K. So yeah. I'm a bit nauseous right now.

[Mom-ninja.]

How do you handle it without going absolutely bonkers? I don't mind if a child doesn't understand something, but this lack of effort/focus/caring is just about wearing down my last nerve.

 

Sometimes a bit of Kahlua in coffee works wonders to keep me from going bonkers.

[momto2Cs]

So... my day yesterday. Woke up to extreme sciatic pain, but forced myself to go to work anyhow. Then I took my aging father to his dr's appointment, and one the way home, a hose blew out and the car overheated. Took the tow truck driver (nicest tow truck driver EVER) about 10-15 minutes to get my dad into the seat in the tow truck so we could be hauled 8 miles. Get to the car repair place to find out it is closed on Mondays, so I had to have my mom (they're divorced) come and pick us up. Then I borrowed my mom's van to pick my husband up from college, and while waiting for him (class ran over) dealt with a very nasty screechy woman who accused me of purposefully blocking her driveway (which I didn't), and screamed at me, while honking nonstop from inside her car, that I had better never do it again.

 

Yep. That was about it. After that, I managed to get home, put food on the table, and collapse.

 

ETA: Forgot to mention, my dad has to have an ultrasound done on his kidneys, as there may be some issues, and he suddenly informed me that as he finally did his "end of life" paperwork, that I will have Medical Power of Attorney. While we're not really very close, never have been as he is simply not that kind of dad, this still brought it home to me that he's getting nearer to that end of life.

[Luckymama]

THUD

 

This is the sound of the other shoe dropping! Tears all day long from dd...

[SunnyDays]

So, everyone's week is going well all around, then.... :grouphug:

 

Our week is having its foibles, but. Nothing major in the grand scheme of things.

 

8, I'm glad your husband seems to be doing okay, that's scary.

 

Halcyon... Ugh. I don't have the sibling stuff, but I fully get the spacing, wandering around, stopping for a snack, and generally dawdling. Is it the age? Is it a boy thing? I don't know.

 

All that said... We are actually looking at sending DS back next year for 6th. We have the option of a good Christian, college prep school for secondary. It's not cheap, but not horribly expensive, especially considering I only have to pay for one. I'm realizing that I don't really have the drive or desire to homeschool him through high school... I can see why it'd be beneficial, but not if my heart isn't in it. :( So we want to get him established there.

 

I hope things start going better. It sucks to not have any good alternatives, because even when you know you're doing the right thing for your family, sometimes it's just nice to know plan B is out there.

 

(And I can't remember if it was Rose or Halcyon that said 11% proficiency... Really!?! I mean, aren't most standardized tests largely multiple choice? Shouldn't you get at least 20-25% with random guesses?!? Yikes....)

[mama27]

I have days like this. Every week. Usually on Mondays. One thing I have done is deny any video games, computer, etc. on the week days. Also, I have given them more textbooks which I do not like but it makes them more responsible for doing "their" work. I have to check it but that's it. I also make them redo anything they get wrong.

I started this a few weeks ago because I am FED UP with them not paying any attention to anything I say, I read they have no clue what I'm reading about. I do an activity, they goof off and make a mess and say things that have nothing to do with anything even remotely close to what we are doing.

I am also FED UP with them taking SOOOO long to do any work at all. Even before this my 11 yo would take 7 or 8 HOURS to do some school work that should not take more than 2 hours. I mean the boy isn't even doing Saxon math for petes sake! He's doing MUS Delta! No hard grammar here, COPYWORK and EIW.

Their brains literally fall out on a regular basis and they don't pick them up so they have no clue how to do the simplest things, recall the simplest things, understand anything remotely related to common sense. Yet they sure can play these complicated video games with no problems at all! They can recall all the names of the Skylanders, Pokémon, whateverinthehecks, with no problem at all!

sigh

I feel you. Really.

Plus, I'm pmsy so I'm not in a good mood.

 

[Critterfixer]

He left me home to suffer from children poisoning.

 

I love this.

 

We are actually having a pretty good day. Well, up until lunch when I graded their math tests from this morning and found that when I thought they were not paying attention over the lessons tested, I was right.

Gave them the opportunity to show me I was wrong. I was right again.

Sooooo....guess who has homework? Guess who gets to repeat those lessons and test again? The two little weasels sniffing and feeling sorry for themselves over their afternoon tea.

[Sobeknofret]

I bought a new bookcase for Darth Kid's room yesterday. Yay organized me!

.

.

.

.

Today we discovered that the truck that I was borrowing to bring it home is too small. So all the money I saved buying the bookcase scratch and dent/clearance is now going towards renting a truck that I can get it home in... :thumbdown: Sometimes, I wonder how I remember to breathe.

[Luckymama]

I saved the day by suggesting she work through some of her number theory book:

 

Dd :( -----> :D

 

I wish it was that easy all the time!

[quark]

:grouphug: Hugs to all having bad days. That gas leak story was super scary.

 

Gonna hug DS super tight now.

[Mommy22alyns]

Ouch!

 

Well, I tried to freehand burial masks onto foam posterboard.  In trying to cut them out, I realized that our only blade was dull and too short to do much of anything.  So there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth as I tried desperately to Do Art.  I eventually stabbed and ripped them out only to set up my girls on the kitchen floor and find out that one bottle of gold paint doesn't go very far.

 

And then DH was late getting home because it was storming in town and he was supposed to drop off Rebecca and RUN to my doctor's office to pick up meds and get them to send in my records for Disability.

 

And my stomach is a little upset.

[Mommy22alyns]

My dd7 gets this speech very frequently:  I am your mother, it is my job to see that you get an education.  It is The Law.  If I didn't make sure you got an education I would be failing my duty as your mother and Breaking The Law (somehow this one makes a big impact on her!  Whatever works  ;) )

 

 

LOL, I also add in the little visual of the police coming to arrest me and that generally does the trick.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

:eek:

 

You three win!

 

We actually had a pretty darn good day. We watched a two hour+ documentary about the Pilgrims called "Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower." It was truly fascinating. I usually dislike documentaries with recreations of historical events but these were well done with actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Massachusetts Wampanog tribe.

 

She didn't complain about doing English (for the first time this year!) and she successfully wrestled with some tricky geometry problems before her online class this evening.

 

Waiting for the other shoe to drop :lol:

Any links?

[Luckymama]

Any links?

Here you go http://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Crossing-Untold-Story-Mayflower/dp/B000JU7JE6/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1378855552&sr=1-1&keywords=desperate+crossing+the+untold+story+of+the+mayflower

[kathy_overman]

I just walked in from lamenting, if I give one more ounce of myself to these spoiled unappreciative kids, I will truly lose my mind.

 

School stinks, they think everything is a race to get done.  Learning doesn't matter. Quality doesn't matter.  Handwriting doesn't matter.  Multiplying fractions doesn't matter.  The right answer doesn't matter.  Remembering what I read doesn't matter.  The list goes on.

 

All that matters in their minds is "Can I play Lego now?".   NO.  It is 11am and you have only done math. NO. NO. NO!!

 

I like the idea of torturing them with a tour of the local school.  My evil mean mind loves the fantasy of giving a little of what I get all day.

 

I keep telling myself, it is like this every September, by November I will love like it again.

[oneddmanybooks]

We haven't started school yet for this year.   :leaving:  :leaving:  Of course the reason for that is because my health is in the toilet, but I can still brag!

 

Jean, I'm sorry to hear about your health. Is it the fibromyalgia? Saying a prayer for you and hope you feel much better soon!

[texasmama]

Oh man, I just about had a heart attack!   :lol:   Yeah, one of the things that gets me through the rough days is knowing that our local public school are ranked at like 16%.  Out of 100%.  Even on my worst days as a teacher, I can do better than that!   ;)  :grouphug:

Yes, the school district we are in is ranked dead last in the county for SAT scores.  Yep, we can do better.  :)

 

(((hugs))) Halcyon 

 

I think sometimes the best thing you can do for motivation is to examine all of your options, even the unattractive ones.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Jean, I'm sorry to hear about your health. Is it the fibromyalgia? Saying a prayer for you and hope you feel much better soon!

Thanks.  Yes to the fibro.  I've been checking in with doctors to see if it might be something else as well.  The rheumatologist said that I'm fine as far as he is concerned (he doesn't treat fibro).  The neurologist said that i'm fine as far as he is concerned too.  I had a sleep study last night.  Hopefully I'll find out soon what those results are.  

[texasmama]

Hard, weird week here, too.  I've been at work for two days and said goodbye to my fab boss, who is leaving for greener pastures.  Our loss.  Former coworker is now boss.  Tried to shove an anxious college intern through the training process with minimal success and instead babysat her all day in a small office with officemate.  Informed rather than asked new boss about babysitting intern. Oops.  Was called at work with one child throwing up.  Three of us, including me, have colds.  Also got a call from a mom at co op asking me to make gluten free fruit tarts for the class.  Um, no.  Just no.  Not this week.  Not any week in the foreseeable future. Dh has had work/coaching commitments the past two nights.  Throw up boy did not do co op homework.  Boys have physicals for bball on Thursday so we will lose half a day of school.  Wondering what we can get done realistically with illness and appointments. 

 

Bright spot in days at work:  Was asked to write vignettes of mentally ill people for an evaluation/testing exercise for a new assessment the direct care staff will be using.  I wrote one about my MIL and one about my crazy high school boyfriend Charlie.  It was very therapeutic.  :D

 

There's some other stuff, but I think I'll stop there.  :)

[Ameena]

Ugh today was just as bad.

 

Had to wait over 3 hours to be seen at the Dr {see my recent post about how the appointment went :( } today, with dd in tow.

 

And finally got home tonight in time to get the pipe fixed, or so I though. Yeah my friend who fixed it isn't coming, and didn't tell me until I texted him to see cuz it was getting dark. He needs to "grocery shop" because he is leaving for QST or some other navy drill think in San Diego, and doesn't trust his wife with money {cuz she spends it like water}. Plus he doesn't want to run an extension cord outside on account of it being misting rain {I have an outdoor grade heavy duty cord}. Yeah TOTALLY more important than fixing the broken pipe that you didn't fix the first time. NOT. He's being his usual lazy self, and I made the mistake of paying half last night because they "needed" it for gas. And then his wife let it slip that really they needed it to go eat out.

 

I swear, as the HIVE is my witness, I WILL NEVER hire him again for anything. This is about the 5th time he has "moved" the date or time of repairs without telling me, in addition to screwing up a few sales of stuff because he couldn't get his stuff together.

[Ameena]

Let's see a/c broke. Just dropped $500 on the repair. A temp repair mind you. Need to replace everything which will be around 10K. So yeah. I'm a bit nauseous right now.

 

What size a/c? If you are anywhere near south texas I got a 4ton complete system with gas furnace for sale :) Only $1000.

 

sorry couldn't resist :)

[Halcyon]

Halcyon, here's what I want to know:  Did it work?  When you drove into the middle school parking lot did he freak out and promise to do better?  

 

Not really. I think he was sort of stunned, to be honest. I hadn't told him where we were going, just that we were going "for a drive". He was vaguely curious, in fact. He has a lot of friends in public school so I think he wanted to see the inside. We went in, and a mom up front was trying to figure out how to ensure that her daughter's absence for sickness was recorded as such, and the back and forth between the admin and the mom had me shaking and jittering--I really don't want to deal with that. That took 10 minutes. Then we were called back to the office and the woman was quite...brusque...didn't say hi to my kids, didn't even acknowledge them, and she proceeded to tell us we were at the wrong school and that OUR school was a different, much worse one (she didn't say that last part LOL) She then went back to our paperwork; I assumed I was excused.  :glare:

 

We saw a sign that said "6th graders lunch: 11:56 to 12:22" and I just couldn't shake that. But I don't think he noticed. Then he decided to read reviews on the school online, adn found out that the teachers don't care and that bullying is "rampant" (according to the reviews). He was shocked when he found out that the math scores were 46% and reading 54% (whatever that means--doesn't sound good). 

 

He said the school looked like a prison. 

[Halcyon]

Hard, weird week here, too.  I've been at work for two days and said goodbye to my fab boss, who is leaving for greener pastures.  Our loss.  Former coworker is now boss.  Tried to shove an anxious college intern through the training process with minimal success and instead babysat her all day in a small office with officemate.  Informed rather than asked new boss about babysitting intern. Oops.  Was called at work with one child throwing up.  Three of us, including me, have colds.  Also got a call from a mom at co op asking me to make gluten free fruit tarts for the class.  Um, no.  Just no.  Not this week.  Not any week in the foreseeable future. Dh has had work/coaching commitments the past two nights.  Throw up boy did not do co op homework.  Boys have physicals for bball on Thursday so we will lose half a day of school.  Wondering what we can get done realistically with illness and appointments. 

 

Bright spot in days at work:  Was asked to write vignettes of mentally ill people for an evaluation/testing exercise for a new assessment the direct care staff will be using.  I wrote one about my MIL and one about my crazy high school boyfriend Charlie.  It was very therapeutic.  :D

 

There's some other stuff, but I think I'll stop there.  :)

That's great about work!

 

My work is going well, too. The transition to my new office has been seamless, and I really like the psychotherapist who works in the office. It's weird--i must have been really tense at my old place, because I feel so...relaxed and not uptight--I guess not being responsible, or FEELING responsible, for my ex-partner's behaviour is very freeing. I go to work, do my job, and leave. I love my patients, and they have all been so supportive, bringing me little gifts for the office and promoting me to their friends. :)

[Halcyon]

Oh, and we've been trying the checklist this week. Seems to be btter, but he is still not getting everything done. Tell me honestly, does this seem like too much for a 6th grader to do in a day (assuming the school day lasts from 8:30 am until 2:30 with 30 minutes for lunch)?Sorry about the strikethroughs. I can't seem to remove some of them. 

 

Wednesday 9/11

⟳ Math: C from yesterday and Writing the Slope of a Line given two points Exercises A-B Tabletclass

⟳ Latin Exercise 1.13

⟳ Notes for history paper--get another book from library and write notes

⟳ Typing Practice

⟳ Science Read OM 6 and see what needs to be done

⟳ Map work

⟳ Caesar’s English 4 new words

⟳ Read 60 minutes of The Giver

⟳ Vocab Test: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

⟳ Writing Workshop--redo first draft. Add more detail, description and adjectives.Final draft due tomorrow!!!!

[Chrysalis Academy]

That looks reasonable to me.  Here is my 6th grader's list from yesterday, for comparison:

 

Math: LOF PreA Ch. 12 & 13, ZRWA p. 43

English:  Essay Voyage Lesson 6 (half the lesson) & Caesar's English 2 Lesson 17

History: Watch 2 episodes of "The Impressionists" documentary

Lit: Read Angel on the Square 1 hour

Science: Read The Planets Ch. 3 and take notes, and watch Part 2 of The Cosmos

Problem Solving: Jousting Armadillos CH 1 Lesson 2

Typing Practice

 

Play rehearsal 4-7 pm

 

(She didn't have a specific writing assignment because she's in the process of taking notes for a report on the planets, while we discuss report./essay writing.  Most days she would have a writing assignment, but she had a 3 hour play rehearsal yesterday, so this was already a pretty full day.)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Not really. I think he was sort of stunned, to be honest. I hadn't told him where we were going, just that we were going "for a drive". He was vaguely curious, in fact. He has a lot of friends in public school so I think he wanted to see the inside. We went in, and a mom up front was trying to figure out how to ensure that her daughter's absence for sickness was recorded as such, and the back and forth between the admin and the mom had me shaking and jittering--I really don't want to deal with that. That took 10 minutes. Then we were called back to the office and the woman was quite...brusque...didn't say hi to my kids, didn't even acknowledge them, and she proceeded to tell us we were at the wrong school and that OUR school was a different, much worse one (she didn't say that last part LOL) She then went back to our paperwork; I assumed I was excused.  :glare:

 

We saw a sign that said "6th graders lunch: 11:56 to 12:22" and I just couldn't shake that. But I don't think he noticed. Then he decided to read reviews on the school online, adn found out that the teachers don't care and that bullying is "rampant" (according to the reviews). He was shocked when he found out that the math scores were 46% and reading 54% (whatever that means--doesn't sound good). 

 

He said the school looked like a prison. 

 

 

My kids frequently comment that the junior high in town looks like a prison.  It really does - it's all gray cinderblocks and very creepy-looking.  

 

Dd7 wanted to walk past her old school yesterday when we walked the dog - she went up to the chain link fence and peeked through at her old classroom and giggled.  "I'm so glad I'm not there right now" was her comment.  Yeah, me too, kiddo!  :D

[mom2scouts]

Halcyon, I think we might have the same 11 year old boy.  Mine can make the simplest thing take forever because he's distracted by every little thing.  You have my sympathy.

[Mrs Twain]

Oh, and we've been trying the checklist this week. Seems to be btter, but he is still not getting everything done. Tell me honestly, does this seem like too much for a 6th grader to do in a day (assuming the school day lasts from 8:30 am until 2:30 with 30 minutes for lunch)?Sorry about the strikethroughs. I can't seem to remove some of them. 

 

Wednesday 9/11

⟳ Math: C from yesterday and Writing the Slope of a Line given two points Exercises A-B Tabletclass

⟳ Latin Exercise 1.13

⟳ Notes for history paper--get another book from library and write notes

⟳ Typing Practice

⟳ Science Read OM 6 and see what needs to be done

⟳ Map work

⟳ Caesar’s English 4 new words

⟳ Read 60 minutes of The Giver

⟳ Vocab Test: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

⟳ Writing Workshop--redo first draft. Add more detail, description and adjectives.Final draft due tomorrow!!!!

That seems like a reasonable amount of work, though I am not familiar with those programs.

 

I wonder if it would help if you had your son take more breaks.  My eldest is in 5th grade.  We do school from 8 - 2:30, but we do it in 4 sessions with breaks between each session. My kids start with their hardest subjects first (math, grammar) for 1.5 hours. Their energy levels and productivity are waning even at the end of that first session, but giving them time to run around and take a break after it helps them recharge.  When it is time to work, I do stay close by to make sure they are working hard to get their assignments done, though.

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yeah, doing things from harder --> easier is absolutely key for us, too.  We have always done math and writing first, because they take the most effort & brain power.  After an hour of math, dd definitely needs a break.  We go from there, with the day getting "lighter" as it goes on, and we always reserve any documentaries/videos till last thing in the afternoon.

[TraceyS/FL]

Yesterday I went to court... At the last minute the ex agreed to sign what we had agreed to the night before.... Otherwise I was going to court for contempt.

 

The good news is I do not have to send my middle schooler back to that place.... The place that is like a prison, they are proud they are on full lockdown all day.... Every day.

 

I also lost the stress of co-owning my house with my ex for the next 10 years. That alone is going to be a positive.

 

But the stress of the day.... Sucked. My kids were stressed because I couldn't stop crying. It was like the nasty divorce all over again. Because that was sooooo much fun the first time around. Not.

 

Oh and my youngest has a massive sinus infection, which has made school hours hard this week. Ugh.

 

Today is new day. New start in a way.....

[Grover]

I am glad to hear I am not alone in my frustrations over school work.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm making the right choice.  Usually after being near my mother.  sigh.

[Sahamamama]

Oh man, I just about had a heart attack!   :lol:   Yeah, one of the things that gets me through the rough days is knowing that our local public school are ranked at like 16%.  Out of 100%.  Even on my worst days as a teacher, I can do better than that!   ;)  :grouphug:

 

I don't know what the schools are ranked here (we recently moved), but where we used to live, they were at the 15th percentile (elementary school) or below. I'm with you, CA, even on my worst days, we can do better than that!

 

Halcyon, I hope all is well with you and the boys. Hang in there. :grouphug:

[Sahamamama]

Yeah, I do that - a very specfic checklist written fresh every morning, listing exactly what needs to be done this day, with the things we do together starred.  Work has to be done before playing, screen time, or extracurriculars - horseback riding, theater, etc.  It does help. Expectations *crystal* clear.  

 

I don't think I'd ever send my kids back to ps, but I do intentionally keep that to myself.  It needs to be a credible threat for those especially tough days, KWIM?  

 

I know I have it pretty easy with my girls right now, but I gotta say, when I say "Time for X" and the response is "AWWWWWW" it puts me under such a black cloud, it can ruin my whole day.  

 

This is exactly what we've been doing for the past several months, instead of my pretty plans in the binder (LOL). The notebook-paper-planning-method works great. I list exactly what each student has to do -- subject, lesson numbers, pages to read, what to do with me, what to do independently, and so on. No times are attached, because then we'll feel behind if someone has to poop after breakfast, KWIM? [sorry, I know that's gross, but it's the unvarnished truth. I have one daughter who can disappear for 20 minutes.]

 

I've been writing the lists at night, after the girls are in bed, or first thing in the morning while they are getting ready and doing chores. I set the work out, so it's ready to go in the morning (they also use modified "workboxes," sort of). Sometimes I number the lists (if they have to do the work in a certain order), and sometimes I don't (and they can choose).

 

It's just notebook paper and ink, but it is flexible and keeps us moving along in the material. It allows us to focus some days on seatwork and some days on the more "fun" subjects, such as Science or History or Art. I don't put anything other than school work on the lists -- so, for example, no chores or free time ideas, just school work.

 

I hope you find a way to reach the heart of your oldest son, Halcyon. I have three girls. Hmmm.... I think girls might be a bit easier in some ways. ;) I do tell them, "It's your life. It's your education. I've already done this and I already know it! But you have to learn it, to get through life, to be competitive, to be an educated person. Do you want to be ignorant?" This seems to make an impression, LOL.

 

I also have threatened them with the Yellow Bus, a few times. I'm not proud of that, but my oldest gave me a bit of nonsense this past year and I thought I'd let her know that I'm not going to be The One Who Cares the Most.

 

Currently, I still am that person in her life. I do think it will transfer over to her someday, but who knows when that will be? If you hang in there with L & J, someday they will take it up and run with it. :grouphug:

[Halcyon]

I just walked in from lamenting, if I give one more ounce of myself to these spoiled unappreciative kids, I will truly lose my mind.

 

School stinks, they think everything is a race to get done.  Learning doesn't matter. Quality doesn't matter.  Handwriting doesn't matter.  Multiplying fractions doesn't matter.  The right answer doesn't matter.  Remembering what I read doesn't matter.  The list goes on.

 

All that matters in their minds is "Can I play Lego now?".   NO.  It is 11am and you have only done math. NO. NO. NO!!

 

I like the idea of torturing them with a tour of the local school.  My evil mean mind loves the fantasy of giving a little of what I get all day.

 

I keep telling myself, it is like this every September, by November I will love like it again.

 

I feel for you!!! (((Hugs)))

[katilac]

Oh, and we've been trying the checklist this week. Seems to be btter, but he is still not getting everything done. Tell me honestly, does this seem like too much for a 6th grader to do in a day (assuming the school day lasts from 8:30 am until 2:30 with 30 minutes for lunch)?Sorry about the strikethroughs. I can't seem to remove some of them. <snip>

I'm going to give you the ever-helpful 'it depends' answer.

 

Timewise, the day seems long for a 6th-grader to me, but I know that it isn't uncommon. You might experiment with a shorter day; you may find that he gets just as much done b/c he focuses and is more motivated, and his attitude may improve.

 

Workwise, it depends on what some of the directions really mean. For example, 'read science and see what needs to be done.' Does that mean, go ahead and do whatever needs to be done? If so, it might be reasonable for some lessons and much less so for others. Also, 'history, get another book and write notes.' If you mean read and outline an entire book, that's too much, imo.

 

Language arts looks heavy. An hour of reading, plus revising a paper, taking a test, and a (short) session of vocabulary - that would take a very quick worker at least an hour and a half, and most 2 hours or more, I would think.

 

Typing practice: how long?

[Mandy in TN]

I am tired of being the one who CARES THE MOST about education in this family. Sometimes I feel like I am dragging him along behind me and it is so.

I think that it is very, very normal for a mother to care more about her 11yo's education than said 11yo. ;)

 

Mandy

[mama27]

Not really. I think he was sort of stunned, to be honest. I hadn't told him where we were going, just that we were going "for a drive". He was vaguely curious, in fact. He has a lot of friends in public school so I think he wanted to see the inside. We went in, and a mom up front was trying to figure out how to ensure that her daughter's absence for sickness was recorded as such, and the back and forth between the admin and the mom had me shaking and jittering--I really don't want to deal with that. That took 10 minutes. Then we were called back to the office and the woman was quite...brusque...didn't say hi to my kids, didn't even acknowledge them, and she proceeded to tell us we were at the wrong school and that OUR school was a different, much worse one (she didn't say that last part LOL) She then went back to our paperwork; I assumed I was excused.  :glare:

 

We saw a sign that said "6th graders lunch: 11:56 to 12:22" and I just couldn't shake that. But I don't think he noticed. Then he decided to read reviews on the school online, adn found out that the teachers don't care and that bullying is "rampant" (according to the reviews). He was shocked when he found out that the math scores were 46% and reading 54% (whatever that means--doesn't sound good). 

 

He said the school looked like a prison. 

Why in the world do they have a 26 minute lunch????

[Halcyon]

Why in the world do they have a 26 minute lunch????

 

No clue. I thought it was odd they had such a very precise time!

[Matryoshka]

Why in the world do they have a 26 minute lunch????

 

I think they try to pare down all the extra time to a bare minimum?  My high school kids get 4 minutes between classes (they can barely get there on time, forget locker visits), and lunch is - yes - exactly 26 minutes long.  Including getting there and standing in line for the food or going to your locker to get a packed lunch.

[katilac]

No clue. I thought it was odd they had such a very precise time!

It's logistics. They have to be really precise when moving hundreds of kids from one place to another - you don't want the 6th-graders going to lunch at a time when they are going to run into the 8th-graders changing class. With so many kids, classes, and lunches to coordinate, you can't rely on the standard hour, half hour, and quarters. You wind up with some really weird times!

 

My kids used to go with me sometimes to cover stories at local schools, and the surging mass of humanity in the halls always freaked them out a bit, lol.

[TraceyS/FL]

No clue. I thought it was odd they had such a very precise time!

IN elementary DDs was 11:19 to 11:49.

 

It ran like clockwork, the kids marched... 'er, walked, on the painted lines.

 

The high schoolers have less time I think - because they are trying to cram so many of them in. THey also didn't allow them TIME to buy lunch. If lunch ended and you hadn't gotten your food yet - too bad. One lady I talked to at gym about it said her DD was having lunch from 1-1:30.... school got OUT at 2!!! She was leaving the house to catch the bus about 6:15!

 

My middle schooler had lunch with the 7th graders, so it was 12:45 I think. THe 8th graders went last. They didn't start school until 9:15 though.... got out at 4. Her bus didn't drop her off until 5. I'm dreading dealing with that place for the youngest - hoping my "life circumstances" are different enough in 3 years I don't have to worry about them.

 

 

 

[Mandy in TN]

Oh, and we've been trying the checklist this week. Seems to be btter, but he is still not getting everything done. Tell me honestly, does this seem like too much for a 6th grader to do in a day (assuming the school day lasts from 8:30 am until 2:30 with 30 minutes for lunch)?Sorry about the strikethroughs. I can't seem to remove some of them. 

 

Wednesday 9/11

⟳ Math: C from yesterday and Writing the Slope of a Line given two points Exercises A-B Tabletclass

⟳ Latin Exercise 1.13

⟳ Notes for history paper--get another book from library and write notes

⟳ Typing Practice

⟳ Science Read OM 6 and see what needs to be done

⟳ Map work

⟳ Caesar’s English 4 new words

⟳ Read 60 minutes of The Giver

⟳ Vocab Test: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

⟳ Writing Workshop--redo first draft. Add more detail, description and adjectives.Final draft due tomorrow!!!!

It may be too much composition depending on the child and how close at hand you are while he works. Is he actually writing notes for history by hand or is he typing? Is he doing Writing Workshop by hand or is he typing? If he is typing these two, then I would drop typing. If not, could you consider having him do so? Does OM science also require more report/ composition type work? If you are doing composition through both history and science, can you integrate composition into those two instead of doing an additional composition program?

 

Ds is 10yo, but he will turn 11 this fall. We ditched both our history and science last week. So, this week ds is using a modified version of the Egypt portion of Tanglewood 5 and a hodgepodge for science. Also, this week we are skipping Story of Science, because we are a week ahead. If you look at what we did, it looks like a lot, but notice how little actual writing he did. He didn’t write anything for Science, German (he already wrote his word list this week and after he writes it he uses his notes with the recording instead of the book.), Logic, or Music. The rest of his writing was worksheet writing. Even his notes are guided in the Write-In Reader and he writes directly in the book. Most of his work is hole-punched and placed in a regular school folder. I even had the binding cut off of the Write-In Reader. (Having a whole week of work in a folder has really helped.) We talk a lot and I stay pretty close at hand the whole time he works. Composition wasn’t scheduled yesterday, but will be today. I don’t care if he stretches his new comp assignment until next Tues or if he finishes it today. However, since he doubled up on some things yesterday, I don't expect the day to be longer. Everything, except instruments and math tutor, was completed between 10:30 and 3:30 including a 30 minute break for lunch. I know others spend longer, but 5 hours, not including lunch (the extra 30min we had yesterday reflects the fact that he didn't do composition) is about the max time he can spend on school before he needs to wiggle and have down time. It is also about as long as he can spend and retain the information.

 

Yesterday he:

Language Arts

Grammar: In Holt Elements of Language Introductory Course, he reviewed prepositional phrases as adj and adv phrases and studied (we discussed) independent and subordinate clauses. He then completed 4 worksheets from the coordinating workbook.

Grammar: Completed 2 days in Evan Moor Daily Paragraph Editing Grade 5

Spelling: completed a page in SWO

Reading: Read and took notes on the short story Zlateh the Goat in EMC’s grade 6 Write-In Reader

Literature: Read Hittite Warrior for 30 min

Vocabulary: Completed the worksheet/ test for the vocabulary in this section of Hittite Warrior

He did no composition. His new assignment at Write at Home came out yesterday, but he will start it today.

 

Math

Review: He completed 3 days in Evan Moor Daily Math 6, so that he wouldn’t have to do it the rest of the week.

Alg2: Completed Derek Owens Lesson 1.7

Math tutor: Wed is math tutor day. This is where ds’s brain stopped functioning. He completed spaced out and couldn’t remember basic geometry. :-/

 

Social Studies

Geography: His workbook is wrapping up Africa this week and he completed the rest of the week, so he wouldn’t have to do it the rest of the week.

History: We ditched the textbook A Message of Ancient Days.  Right now the first week of Tanglewood 5 Egypt is  just more geography. He filled in the countries of the Middle East on a worksheet from ilike2learn.com and he reviewed the capitals of the Middle East and read about them from stuff I printed. Next week he begins ancient Egypt.

 

Science

We ditched Paul Hewitt last week.

Yesterday, he read and we discussed 1.18 Scientific Process from Physical Science Concepts for Middle School from ck12.org. He did Easy Peasy Chemistry and Physical middle school day 3: watched an animation of a steam engine and explained to me how it worked. He watched a portion of Intro to Physics on Udacity and did the little click screen question.

 

German

Listened to phrases in the car on the way to math tutor.

 

Logic

We just started The Fallacy Detective this week and I am just using it as our read aloud- an interactive read aloud. Hehe I haven’t called it a separate subject. It is just what I am reading aloud to him while we snuggle first thing in the morning. Yesterday, we did lesson 2. Sshh, don’t tell him it is more school work, cuz right now he likes it. :p

 

Music

He practiced mandolin for 30 min. Light session.

On violin, he did about 20 min of warm up and then had a 45 min private lesson.

As long as he is interested, he will keep playing. Some days practice is much longer than others. Mondays are particularly long music days because he has a 2.5 hour orchestra practice.

 

In general, I expect him to work steady and get it done. There are always bad days and sometimes bad weeks, so this is definitely an ideal that doesn't always happen. (Last week I sent him downstairs to get his science book. He didn't come back and I found him laying on the couch!) However, I know, when he doesn't dawdle, what I have scheduled isn't over 5 hours worth of school work.

HTH-

Mandy

[quark]

It may be too much composition depending on the child and how close at hand you are while he works.

 

I agree.

 

 

 

Yesterday he:

Language Arts

Grammar: In Holt Elements of Language Introductory Course, he reviewed prepositional phrases as adj and adv phrases and studied (we discussed) independent and subordinate clauses. He then completed 4 worksheets from the coordinating workbook.

Grammar: Completed 2 days in Evan Moor Daily Paragraph Editing Grade 5

Spelling: completed a page in SWO

Reading: Read and took notes on the short story Zlateh the Goat in EMC’s grade 6 Write-In Reader

Literature: Read Hittite Warrior for 30 min

Vocabulary: Completed the worksheet/ test for the vocabulary in this section of Hittite Warrior

He did no composition. His new assignment at Write at Home came out yesterday, but he will start it today.

 

Math

Review: He completed 3 days in Evan Moor Daily Math 6, so that he wouldn’t have to do it the rest of the week.

Alg2: Completed Derek Owens Lesson 1.7

Math tutor: Wed is math tutor day. This is where ds’s brain stopped functioning. He completed spaced out and couldn’t remember basic geometry. :-/

 

Social Studies

Geography: His workbook is wrapping up Africa this week and he completed the rest of the week, so he wouldn’t have to do it the rest of the week.

History: We ditched the textbook A Message of Ancient Days.  Right now the first week of Tanglewood 5 Egypt is  just more geography. He filled in the countries of the Middle East on a worksheet from ilike2learn.com and he reviewed the capitals of the Middle East and read about them from stuff I printed. Next week he begins ancient Egypt.

 

Science

We ditched Paul Hewitt last week.

Yesterday, he read and we discussed 1.18 Scientific Process from Physical Science Concepts for Middle School from ck12.org. He did Easy Peasy Chemistry and Physical middle school day 3: watched an animation of a steam engine and explained to me how it worked. He watched a portion of Intro to Physics on Udacity and did the little click screen question.

 

German

Listened to phrases in the car on the way to math tutor.

 

Logic

We just started The Fallacy Detective this week and I am just using it as our read aloud- an interactive read aloud. Hehe I haven’t called it a separate subject. It is just what I am reading aloud to him while we snuggle first thing in the morning. Yesterday, we did lesson 2. Sshh, don’t tell him it is more school work, cuz right now he likes it. :p

 

Music

He practiced mandolin for 30 min. Light session.

On violin, he did about 20 min of warm up and then had a 45 min private lesson.

As long as he is interested, he will keep playing. Some days practice is much longer than others. Mondays are particularly long music days because he has a 2.5 hour orchestra practice.

 

In general, I expect him to work steady and get it done. There are always bad days and sometimes bad weeks, so this is definitely an ideal that doesn't always happen.

 

 

Oh, and we've been trying the checklist this week. Seems to be btter, but he is still not getting everything done. Tell me honestly, does this seem like too much for a 6th grader to do in a day (assuming the school day lasts from 8:30 am until 2:30 with 30 minutes for lunch)?Sorry about the strikethroughs. I can't seem to remove some of them. 

 

Wednesday 9/11

⟳ Math: C from yesterday and Writing the Slope of a Line given two points Exercises A-B Tabletclass

⟳ Latin Exercise 1.13

⟳ Notes for history paper--get another book from library and write notes

⟳ Typing Practice

⟳ Science Read OM 6 and see what needs to be done

⟳ Map work

⟳ Caesar’s English 4 new words

⟳ Read 60 minutes of The Giver

⟳ Vocab Test: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

⟳ Writing Workshop--redo first draft. Add more detail, description and adjectives.Final draft due tomorrow!!!!

 

That's a lot of assigned subjects. Maybe it's the norm for a lot of you but I know it will be hard for my DS to do.

 

On paper, he seems to be doing less but I don't have issues like bad attitude or slacking off. It's only the exec function stuff that drives me batty most days. He works from about 10.00-2.30, some days 3.30pm and lately, he has been having to add an hour or two during weekends too due to a math class that is requiring more homework than I had budgeted for. Number of hours above usually includes PE, but doesn't include piano practice which is about an hour a day 4x a week (he chooses to do this in the evenings). He also does lots of reading/ math in his free time that I don't count into the 10-2.30/3.30 hours above.

 

I mentioned in another thread, also started by Halcyon, that it is easier to have him be a responsible student when the work is more meaningful to him. He has a lot of say and control over what he does. This year, resources were mostly chosen by me but veto-ed by him not the other way around so when I choose I am VERY carefully ensuring it really is high quality stuff and at least 90% challenging, with about a 10% leeway with simpler resources. So I guess I am being sneaky in that way...maybe he does not realize that his veto power is not really all that powerful. But thankfully, he likes to have more challenging materials to work from anyway.

 

This year, we are doing less loosey goosey stuff actually, although I hadn't planned it that way. I was actually planning to give him an easier year but we've just somehow flowed into having this routine and it does feel like it's working the way I wanted it to. I guess it feels more leisurely despite doing less loosey goosey stuff because I combine things as much as possible, e.g. reading can be done on the treadmill, if writing notes is involved then walk slowly so you can get both done together (I have attached a makeshift shelf onto the treadmill). I do not require a lot of essay writing yet though. The bulk of his time is spent writing in his math notebook...both computational sort of stuff and also writing proofs. Typing practice is via emails he sends to his teachers or through blogging in his free time. I will start integrating typed note taking soon when we start more active history readings. Still easing into the routine here. Vocab is via reading and discussion, no writing needed. This leaves him with enough time in the evenings to read or do his fun math if he wants to. He normally finishes an entire short novel or nonfiction book in a day, at most 2-3 days, and I don't have to assign this because he does it of his own free will.

 

He doesn't get much screen time on weekdays because a lot of his work is already computer-based and I don't want him staring too much at a screen all day. He is not a lego kid. Any free time on weekdays is usually spent with a book of some sort and maybe documentaries and if I am feeling very kind he gets a short computer or iPad game. Or we do some activity together (board game, walk the dog etc).

 

Every weekend, I plan ahead for the coming weekdays and write out 22-23 hours worth of work-time with 22-23 checkboxes (not including PE or music or chores). We usually split it into a 5-4-4-4-5 routine (M-T-W-Th-F). I list it on a grid-style post it pad, peel off the post it and stick it to my planner. Every evening before the specified day, we sit together with my planner and he chooses 5 checkboxes for Monday, 4 for Tuesday and so on. Some Mondays it takes more or less than 5 hours, some Tuesdays more or less than 4 boxes but it all balances out by the end of the week. Striving for balance over long term rather than a set number of hours in short term if that make sense?

 

Is something here helpful? Am I expecting much less from kiddo than I should? We came up with this system after a lot of trial and error over the years. Feels like it's working for him. But I always worry that I expect too little. :D

[mathnerd]

No clue. I thought it was odd they had such a very precise time!

In my DS's school, they do this because the lunch hall can only accoomodate X number of kids at the same time. So, they schedule lunch for each grade for a particular timeslot and then rotate all the grades through the lunch hall from 11:00 AM - 12:30. Since DS is in a private school, they have "lunch monitoring staff" who walk around reminding the kids to eat their lunch quickly, talk less during lunch and take bigger bites of food so that they keep to the schedule. My DS loves this because he couldn't care less about eating and the earlier he finishes, the more time he gets for free play which he highly aniticpates every day! I can see how it is a big problem for others with kids who are slow eaters because I am a slow eater myslef and get really annoyed when people push me to eat fast. I am hearing that more and more PS are adopting this policy of fixing a certain time for certain grades to eat lunch.

[Mandy in TN]

Is something here helpful? Am I expecting much less from kiddo than I should? We came up with this system after a lot of trial and error over the years. Feels like it's working for him. But I always worry that I expect too little. :D

 

But, hey, no fair, your young man is doing at least high school level math, science, and German. Those have to take quite some time. He also reads like a fiend. Apples and Oranges. 

 

In the mean time everything, except math, that I schedule is pretty much early middle school material. If I didn't schedule things, my ds would sleep, eat garbage, play video games, chat online and off, never bath, and definitely never do anything that looked like school.

 

Mandy

[quark]

Apples and Oranges. 

 

Thanks Mandy. I have NO clue about that from day to day though because I have no other kids to observe to gauge what's the norm so I often feel like he should be doing more, especially when I see how much you guys are doing and more importantly, how much MORE writing you guys are doing with your kids. I don't know anything else other than what I see at home to be honest because I rarely compare curriculum/ study time with his friends' parents. WTM is the one place I can make some sort of comparison and I guess the overall nature of these boards and the parents here skews things a lot? I worry that when it comes to college application time they'll send me emails asking why he hasn't written an x number of pages or something like that lol or they'll just reject every application and it will be all because we didn't spend enough time on writing. Silly maybe, but I worry still.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Thanks Mandy. I have NO clue about that from day to day though because I have no other kids to observe to gauge what's the norm so I often feel like he should be doing more, especially when I see how much you guys are doing and more importantly, how much MORE writing you guys are doing with your kids. I don't know anything else other than what I see at home to be honest because I rarely compare curriculum/ study time with his friends' parents. WTM is the one place I can make some sort of comparison and I guess the overall nature of these boards and the parents here skews things a lot? I worry that when it comes to college application time they'll send me emails asking why he hasn't written an x number of pages or something like that lol or they'll just reject every application and it will be all because we didn't spend enough time on writing. Silly maybe, but I worry still.

 

I think we all worry about this!  I know I do, and I always laugh when the people who I worry when I compare us to admit that they worry when they compare themselves to us!  We're all on the same merry-go-round, and we're all doing our best for our kids, right?

[quark]

I think we all worry about this!  I know I do, and I always laugh when the people who I worry when I compare us to admit that they worry when they compare themselves to us!  We're all on the same merry-go-round, and we're all doing our best for our kids, right?

 

:tongue_smilie: :blush: :001_smile: So glad we are in this journey together!

[PachiSusan]

Okay, so my kids say they want more GAMES, so I say to myself, heck it's the first few weeks of school why not? So i do a sort of vocab challenge with them (they are working on the same words). DS11 starts to get ahead of DS8 so DS kicks him. DS11's leg is against mine and somehow he gave me a big bruise on the side of my leg. Arg. This was after DH spoke to older DS about not applying himself, complaining too much, the need to respect me as the teacher, not whine and GET IT DONE. Today I am fed up with his woe is me attitude. It's not that he can't do the work, it's just that he spends so darn long on it, looking out the window, getting water, petting the dog, cracking a joke, interrupting DS8's work to "help" him. It drives me nutso, and today was the final straw. 

 

I am tired of being the one who CARES THE MOST about education in this family. Sometimes I feel like I am dragging him along behind me and it is so. very. tiring. 

 

So in a fit of annoyance, I loaded both boys into the car to visit the local middle school. After calming down, we have talked through (YET AGAIN) another strategy which hopefully will help. A checklist. Yes, we've done a checklist, but this will be more specific, rather than just saying "Math" I am going to write out exactly the lesson to do, etc. 

 

Hopefully it will help. Public school is not an option. We found out that the school we THOUGHT we were zoned for, which is fine (not great, but fine) is NOT our school. Rather, we're zoned for a much cruddier school nearby. 

 

What did the boys say when you did this?  I won't lie, I've been tempted to do so but I'm not willing to do the follow through and actually sign her up, so I've never threatened it.