Someone please send this to my child's school

This article was shared with me on Facebook. Talk about hitting the nail on the head. 

A high schooler to his mother, “You really haven’t been in school for a while. Now you know how I feel. I always thought it was my fault. I thought I wasn’t paying close enough attention. I thought I might have ADHD. It never occurred to me that they weren’t actually saying anything.”

Teachers if you have to say something 3 times for your students (collectivly)to get it, you failed. Say it once, show it once and then move on to practicing. Get your lazy ass out of the chair, walk around, and help every student who didn't get it. Have a challenge page ready for those who finished early.

....and while we're at it. Please do your prep work outside of classroom hours. I was a teacher, stop gossiping during lunch and and right after school. You want to go home an hour after school ends, move your ass and stay focused. Don't you dare put a non-educational movie or tv show on, so you can do prep work on my kids time! You especially have no excuse if half of your class parents stay at home and are only an e-mail or phone call away. 

Anyway off my high horse....

Here is a link to the article:

 http://educationaladvancement.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/disrespectful-or-misunderstood-gifted-students-in-the-classroom/

It's almost that time again

As anyone who has been following knows, I always wished for 4 children and I wouldn't complain (too much) if I would have had more than that. 

When my husband's nephew had problems he stayed with us for a year. He came to live with us when he was 15.5 years old. Now it is his sister's turn (for a different reason.)

  She will be joining our family days after her 16th birthday. I know it will be tough, but I have got to learn to deal with girl drama...after all...I have 2 daughters.

   She is scared and excited. Rightfully so. She is scared to leave her mom who she loves dearly. She is scared about having no friends. She is excited about having her own room and all the new opportunities she will have. 

Her younger brother will also join us for about a month. I love seeing things through children. I love taking them on new adventures and giving them opportunities to try new things. While 1 month is the longest I've had with all 5 of them, the more I think about it the more I feel like that is not enough time.

Phew ... it wasn't in my head

My son who is 5 and currently in Kindergarten took the Cog AT. Now we always said he was smart. Others always said he was smart. But no one wants to be like the American Idol contestant who has been told how well they sing by everyone and then shows up only to learn how horrible they really are.

You can imagine my relief when we received a letter saying he score at or better than 97%. Then you can imagine my happiness when I looked up his actual percentile up online and it said he scored higher than 99% of kindergartners nationally. 

As a mother my thoughts again turned to my oldest. She would have been in the 95-97% in Kindergarten and how now slipped to the 85-90% by 2nd grade. I pray I am as strong of a teacher, as I think I am. I need to capture her interest and love of learning once again.

Call me a Tiger mom if you must, but I want to give my children the best possible start. I don't care where they decide to go to college of if they go at all, I just want doors to be open to them so they can choose the best fit when the time comes.

I am ready

I read "100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriclum" and took the quizzes. I am an eclectic mix of Unit Studies, Charolette Manson, and unschooling. I have a Social Suzie and a Confident Carl, and I am not sure what category the youngest falls into yet. :)

It was an interesting book to look through, but not something I would invest in. Most of the information can be found online and in a more updated form.

I read through the curriculum and common core standards. Yes, it is as much fun as it sounds. 

I went to our local homeschooling bookstore. Thank God I knew what I was looking for walking in. So many choices and more than half of them Christian based/biased. I walked out with a Science text book that covers everything my children need to know in Elementary school, a math book for my oldest, a dictionary (we didn't have one), and Story of the World Vol.1 with activity book. Grand price $97.

I went online and added Art in Action home to our curriculum. 

Planned out the first 2 weeks of lessons.

My oldest was so excited she started on her new math text and read the first 4 chapters of Story of the World. I decided, go with it. So this weekend we all sat down and did Story of the World together and activities for the first 2 chapters. It went amazingly well everyone was engaged and participating.

 Now if only I can get my coordinating art lesson set up and ready to go by this weekend. 

To homeschool or not to homeschool...

You would think living in one of the best districts in your state would amount to something. Not necessarily. 

Some schools look great on paper but once you are behind the scenes, you realize it was just a bunch of adults trying to better their careers. What good are fancy awards if the students are not achieving basic competence in regards to state and national standards for their grade level at school ? 

My oldest talks until she is blue in the face and rarely gets her work done at school. There is rarely enforcement of the rules. My son needs someone to engage his mind, not bore him to death. Both of my children need to spend more time on academics than assemblies and presentations on how to be a better person. Their 6th grade teachers will care more about their ability to multiply than their ability to resight the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (especially if the adults teaching them were not capable of being a good example nor enforcing them.) 

When they say a parent is their child's best teacher, it wasn't a lie :)