Raising Up Hackers (Part 2)

So I was feeling really overwhelmed and decided school was the main culprit. I remember our first year of homeschooling. Sweetheart was in 2nd grade. Little Bit was 3. We used ABeka curriculum and added in lapbooks and unit studies and we were still finished by lunchtime every day. My children had tons of time to play and explore. I remember watching with delight as Sweetheart figured out what things SHE liked doing....not just what had been cool in first grade among the popular kids. (Turns out she didn't really enjoy Littlest Pet Shop nearly so much when she didn't see other kids with 50+ pet shops playing at recess every day.) The point was, they had time to do things they wanted to do AND get school done.

Now granted we weren't involved in very much that first year. We did go to gym days and field trips and parties with our homeschool group. We still do that. But over the years we've added in piano lessons and choir and now Toddler Time at the Library for Baby Bee. So we run a bit more than we used to. That won't change any time soon.

And of course 8th grade and 4th grade are a bit meatier than 2nd grade and no grade. Obviously there is more school.

But why should my homeschooled children spend their whole day doing lessons just like public school kids? Where is our benefit? Sure, they can sit on the couch or lay in the floor instead of sitting in a desk.....but that doesn't seem like enough difference to me. Shoes or no shoes? Small potatoes.

So in the midst of my dissatisfaction, I saw this article someone posted on Facebook. What I took away from that article was, "Shoot. MY kids are unhappy in school. THEY have lost their zest for learning!" Some of the descriptions of the public school kids rang true about my own daughters. I didn't like that. 

Then, my husband clicked on this TED Talk. I'd seen it before, but as I sat across the room listening to it again, it only solidified what I was thinking.

Untraditional.
Time to hack their own education.
Time to explore what they are interested in.

These these were not true of our homeschool. They weren't happening.

WHY???

And THEN, I read this blog post. And now my wheels were really turning.

Everyone says it's OK for your kids to not go to college and I totally agree. I suspect a lot of homeschoolers agree with that. Yet, we really still feel that we owe it to our kids to educate them as though they ARE going to college. I mean, you're supposed to. We don't want to write off their fate in the 9th grade and have a child graduating who doesn't have a transcript that will help them in their future! What failures we would be!

Plus, so-and-so's kids are studying ______________ and _______________! Is it really asking too much for my kids to study ________________? I mean, that's not even 1/4 of what this friend's kids are doing! And on the field trip, that kid knew so much about _______________ and asked such intelligent questions and my kids were just standing there looking dumb! I have failed them! We haven't done enough! We haven't learned enough! Must. Add. More. Courses. Must. Hit. (fill in subject). More Often!!

****deep breath****

And that's pretty much how we got to where we were at the beginning of this month. We were doing every single thing we could possibly fit in. And still I was lashing myself for not having Sweetheart spend time on that vocabulary app I downloaded. Because her vocabulary needs work. I know because she took a standardized test last spring. How can I fit vocabulary in? I know! I can have her do it while she's in the bathroom!!! Otherwise that's just wasted time!

OK I'm kidding. But that's how crazy we can get. Maybe it's just the pressure of being completely responsible for our children's education. Maybe I'm starting to crack.

But those three items started my wheels turning. And that started a conversation with my husband.

Next time....

Raising Up Hackers (Part 1)

(By the way, we made it through December.)
(That's what my last post was about and I was told I should update all my readers.)
(So there.)
(All 3 of you can consider yourself updated.)

I hit a wall this last week. I laid in bed Sunday morning completely overwhelmed. Like, to the point where I just laid there and looked at the ceiling. It's all I could do.

I was so overwhelmed by everything I really couldn't even think what to do. What would help?

Would it help if we weren't so busy? Well, not really. Our schedule is do-able.
Would it help if we had a maid? Well, of course it would...but that's not exactly in the budget.
Would it help if I had a mother's helper? Well, yes...but what would I even have her do?

I decided what I needed was a nice, older woman like Michelle Duggar had that comes over to do my laundry. And my dishes. Where are my Titus 2 older women???

Then I decided it was school that was killing me. It's simply taking too many hours lately. My whole day is filled with that.

You know, pioneer women might have taught their children to read, but I know they spent precious little time on that compared to daily chores.

Housewives in the 1950s spent their time on the house. But their children were in school.

Working moms have to do a lot (it's hard, I know), but their houses look better because everyone is gone all day long.

Homeschoolers are the only idiots trying to completely educate their children and completely keep house at the same time. And about a million other things.

It's just not possible, I tell you. Not when we're doing school pretty much like the public school system.

It's time to think outside the box. I was OK with that in elementary. I had no need of school being exactly like the classroom when the girls were younger. I absolutely would take them to the museum and consider that checking off several subjects at once for the day.

But approaching high school has kind of got me freaked out. I thought, "It's go time. No more taking it easy. It's time to get real!"

Yes folks, as if we haven't been doing "real" school all along!

So I left the Christmas break with a renewed purpose. It was the second half of 8th grade and I had to get with it. High school is 6 months away! I haven't been practicing keeping records! I haven't been grading! We're all of us going to starve!!!

OK. Whew. I'm calmer now. Sorry.

So we launched January by getting up at 6 a.m. every morning. Sweetheart is doing physical therapy now but that was no matter. We had to get serious! And for about a week we got every single subject done. My checking-boxes-off self was very pleased.

And I was exhausted.

And the kids were unhappy.

And then I read or listened to three things.

...to be continued...

If We Make It Through December

I took dance for P.E. in high school. Much better than having to play volleyball or run. We stretched every morning to music. That was a really nice part of my day. The teacher played things like Bread and Prince and yes, even Merle Haggard. Those lyrics came to me this morning, sadly.

Whew. Finances are kicking my tail. I'd like to see us as poor, put-upon, hard-working Brenda and S who give so much and have such hardships come their way. But I'm more inclined (always) to see us as stupid, irresponsible Brenda and S who cannot get their act together financially. In truth, I don't think either one are correct views of the situation. And probably its a combination of the two plus some other view I don't even have.

All I know is that I'm glad God loves us. When I quit my job 9 1/2 years ago to come home (part time at first) there wasn't any possible, feasible way it was going to work on paper. And yet here we are. The Lord ALWAYS amazes me with the way things work out. He has an open stage to amaze me this month because from where I stand, things aren't good.

As if a year and a half of medical bills (still paying for Bee and that other little trip I took to the hospital) weren't enough, we've had a doozy of a spending spree on the medical front lately. Nothing like Carrie. She's the queen of the copay this fall. Still, we've spent nearly $400 on medical and medical related stuff since the week before Thanksgiving. Ouch.

On a happier note, we have our homeschool group's Christmas party today. The girls are each going to play a song on the piano. Little Bit has worked SO HARD to learn hers. It was so difficult for her and I'm so proud of her effort. I had to enlarge the sheet music and copy it onto 2 different colors of paper so the lines are alternating colors. I pasted all that inside a file folder so she can see the song better. Seeing double is a bummer. The girls are also going to do a little comedy act together. They've had so much fun practicing for it. And of course we have a book exchange. Our used book store here in town is going out of business and we got 3 books for the names we drew, plus a book Sweetheart wanted, for $7. I was very happy about that!

We are finished with piano and choir until the new year. That's a relief. I like being "off" for a while. Today we are knocking off of school because we have the Christmas party all afternoon and I need to drive to the big city to pick up a form for Sweetheart's physical therapy. Having some trouble with all that which I'll update you on later. So we're going to spend our remaining few hours cleaning the house. Whenever finances are bad, I ALWAYS have a desire to clean the house.

Is it because I feel out of control and want order? Does it make me feel more responsible? Do I think "Well, the least we can do is have a clean house?" I don't know, but it always happens. Psychoanalyze that.

And now I will count my blessings. Some of them.

1. Salvation from my Lord.
2. My husband and daughters.
3. A roof over our heads.
4. Cars to drive.
5. Food in the kitchen.
6. Heat.
7. Clothes to wear.
8. God's love.

These Things Were More Fun When I Was Little

Whew! The girls had their first choir concert last night. Due to losing our first venue, we had to have the rehearsal and concert all on one night. This resulted in a crazy schedule of keeping up with who needed to be in the auditorium at what time and getting them dressed in the bathroom at certain times and feeding them in between all of that. Goodness. All while keeping up with this little one who ran around for 4 hours before the concert started.

One of the finer moments was me sitting in a chair in the handicapped stall trying to put on my tights and trying to hurry because I knew our friend would need the handicapped stall in a minute....Little Bit was body blocking Bee from playing in the toilet. Bee is yelling, "Go 'way! go 'way!" to Little Bit and then she just dropped her arms down by her sides, threw her head back and screamed the most ear piercing scream ever.

After apologizing to everyone in the restroom, we got done and out of there. But the good news is she behaved very nicely during the concert.

 Little Bit, middle...

Sweetheart, top middle...(unedited pics. Sorry)

So I am very proud of them, etc. But more than that, I am relieved its over! What a lot of stress for a Mama! So many logistics to consider. Being a kid is much easier.

We got home well after 10pm so everyone is sleeping in today. After that, and pancakes, Sweetheart and I will be going to her first physical therapy appointment. School will happen in bits and pieces again today.

And Saturday we are going to see the Texas Tourette Association's Christmas Tree featuring an ornament by Little Bit. She's going to be so proud.

Have a great weekend!

The House o' Therapy

S and I thought it might be fun to drop a bunch of dough on doctor's visits in 2 days' time last week. Whee!!! We know how to party.

So, Bee had an ear infection--$25 copay
Sweetheart needed her back looked at as we were concerned about the curve of it--$25 copay.
Sweetheart was sent to have x-rays of back--can't actually remember but I think we spent money there too.
Little Bit went to an opthamologist because we found out she has double vision--$50 copay.
Sweetheart went to an orthopedic surgeon to look at back--$50 copay.

So the bottom line is this:

Bee got some antiobiotics. It's only her 2nd ear infection of her life so I wasn't upset about that. Problem solved. $10.00

Little Bit has convergence insufficiency. That means her eyes are not playing nice and working as a team. So when she does any "near work" her eyes take turns wandering outside of where they should be. You can't really see it happening, but it is. This explains the headaches, the crying, the frustration, the rubbing eyes, and all the trauma we've had in school this year.

I went back and looked at her last year's work and I could not believe the difference in font size between the two math books, the two phonics books, etc. Her reading books obviously are smaller as she's reading chapter books now. No wonder this problem has come up this year. (Alhtough she's always struggled in school. I can't imagine double vision + tics were helping.)

She says she's always seen double as long as she can remember. We found all this out during a conversation with my dad. We had Little Bit screened for Irlen Syndrome, we took her to the optometrist and her gave her reading glasses----nothing was helping. Then my dad told the story of when he used to get headaches and got some reading glasses as a young man in the Air Force. He descirbed how he sees double--Little Bit pipes up from the backseat, "That's how I see too!"

Um...what??? Good to know! So we dropped $64.00 on a computer program we can use here at home. She's to do the program, which will be her vision therapy, for 7 minutes a day, 5 days a week. It will take her a few months to complete the program and hopefully, this will fix her eyes. Oh I certainly hope so!! I could really go for school being easier. I was losing my mind before Thanksgiving break.

We are also using a homemade slant board for school for now. There is a really nice one for $30 online, but that can wait until after Christmas.

As for Sweetheart, she has a diagnosis of scoliosis and kyphosis. If you haven't heard of it, kyphosis is when the spine curves too much from the side view, causing a "humpback" look. We've been concerned about her back for about a year. We tried doing some different stretches, because I noticed her hamstrings are incredibly tight. She literally can not sit up straight on the floor with her legs out in front. She also could not do the stretches. We've nagged her about her posture for a really long time, and her walking posture has improved. But then we'll see a photograph of her sitting or bending over and it looks just awful. A friend of hers was diagnosed with kyphosis recently and when I found that out, I hit the internet. Oh....NOW I knew what exactly our concern was. It can be caused from poor posture, or a progressive disease called Scheurmann's disease. She has the latter. Some of the vertebrae in her back are wedge-shaped. So, she was relieved to find out it wasn't her fault. The good news is no surgery or brace neeeded. She's to do physical therapy for 6 months and come back for an x-ray. Physical therapy 2x a week for 4 weeks (or until she learns the exercises). I was going to take her to all eight sessions because I figure she'll do better with a professional watching her than she will at home, but at $25 a pop, we'll see...

We are also considering a gym membership for her so she can just generally strengthen her muscles, which will be needed to combat this disease. She doesn't have any gym clothes to wear to physical therapy or a gym.

Are you sensing a theme of concern by me? I KNOW I shouldn't be worried about money when my children's health is at stake. And really, the most important thing to me is that they are OK. I was relieved to have both diagnoses and a plan of action for both girls. BIG load off my mind. I've had enough time now to consider the cost of everything though. Ouch.

So, I'm hoping Bee doesn't feel left out, being the only child with no therapy going on at the moment. We're good, Bee. No, really.