We started school on Monday. It is now Wednesday. Things are still not going well. I have had a migraine since Saturday night. I actually had Mr. Math Teacher take me to the doctor's office yesterday for an injection. It worked really well until about noon today. Mr. Math Teacher started his week of preparation for student teaching this week. I was not as prepared as I would have liked to have been, but I think we might have done OK if I didn't have the bad headache.
Monday we were plagued by bad weather and bad attitudes. But, we got most of the work done without too much whining. Tuesday was the day of the bad headache. I called a Code H. This is based on the medical "Code Blue" for medical emergency. Code H is headache emergency. In this case, the kids are responsible for doing all the schoolwork they can do independently and then watch the educational DVDs (I have some planned for every week) or work further in a workbook or on Spanish or typing. They are also responsible for keeping the kitchen straight and getting dinner going. Well, Mr. Math Teacher was around for yesterday afternoon, so he took care of dinner. The kids didn't do as much work as I would have liked.
Today, though, was the real kicker. We got up early to take Grandma to the airport. We left at about 8:05 - right on time. We got Grandma to the airport successfully (despite the construction). No problem, right? Well, I was going to take the kids for breakfast at Wendy's, but they don't serve breakfast. So, I decided that we would do the Food Court at the Mall. This sounded like a great idea because they could get something from McDonalds (makes them happy) and we could get some schoolwork done before we did the rest of our errands (Sam's club doesn't open until 10, so we had time to kill). Ga'Hoole Girl was decidedly against this plan, but, I read history to them while they ate. When they were done eating, I pulled out some workbooks and had them working in the workbooks. Everything was going so well that I decided to go get me a little something to eat. The Food Court is nice and open, so the kids were always in my sight. When I got back to the table, the kids told me that some adults had apparently walked by and commented on how terrible it was that they were already starting schoolwork. They didn't stop to talk to the kids - good thing. I wish I had been there to run interference. The adults didn't stop, so the kids didn't say anything, but it seriously reinforced Ga'Hoole Girl's idea that doing schoolwork in the Food Court is a bad idea!
I really could not believe that this actually happened. I wish I knew what those people were thinking. Did they think that I'm a terrible homeschooling mom for starting the kids so early (the public schools here start on Tuesday - although in some states, kids have been in school for several weeks)? Did they think that I'm some psycho mom who makes her kids do schoolwork before school starts so they are "ahead of the game"? Who knows? But, it is really the first seriously negative comment that we've ever had about homeschooling.
Next, we went to Sam's Club. The kids were happy because I bought some school supplies - a small whiteboard for me with a package of all kinds of fun whiteboard markers. Math and memory work are going to be colorful now, if nothing else. I also got the kids spiral notebooks and clipboards. I only make them sit at the table or desk for handwriting. Now they can take their workbooks around the house without pulling all the big books off the shelf to use for writing on.
Then, I tried out a new yarn shop. The prices are reasonable, and the owner wound my hanks of yarn into balls. Actually, she got it set up and let the kids spin the little machine. The shop is right near Wild Man's reading lesson - probably dangerous! The reading lesson went quite well. Wild Man is really reading and using some expression in his reading. Totally cool.
But, we got home and my headache just exploded. The kids were being crabby (tired from getting up early) and I felt rotten. So, I put on a DVD (Walking the Bible) which ended up providing lots of fodder for good discussion. Anyway, I eventually went upstairs to take a nap. Things have been better since then, although my head still hurts.
So, my plan now is to lay off the academics for the next two days and organize the school room and finish my lesson plans. I'm sure the kids will be just thrilled to help me clean the school room!!! But, we'll restart Tuesday and finish this week's worth of work next week. I think we'll survive - but there are no guarantees!
1 comment:
It's amazing how rude people can be! School started here 2 weeks ago. We started homeschool this week. I know that last year when we started homeschooling, I got several people making negative remarks and it really bothered me. Most of it was "Aren't you concerned that E won't be socialized?" So.....I went online and bought a car magnet which says (in a yellow diamond) "CAUTION: Unsocialized Homeschoolers on Board" It made me feel better! I've also had a family relative (not immediate) say that she wants her children to learn how to live in the real world (implying that E won't since he's homeschooled). I've just learned to ignore what other people say and think about how we educate E and remember why we made the decision in the first place. It's hard at times but I know we're doing the right thing despite what others say.
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