The end of the first quarter

I remember when Mark and I had been married about eight years and we were having one of those 'someday when we have kids conversations', I said to him "why do we say 'when we have kids', we are never going to have kids." I had no interested in kids. A year later we were filling out adoption forms. And Mark said "I always knew we would adopt children."

Then it came time for Kalen to start school and off and on over the years the subject of 'homeschooling' would come up. Mark was always interested in it. I would say I could never homeschool our kids. I have learned that when I say 'I'm never going to do something' I better prepare myself because "I will" be doing it.

Anyway, today was the end of the first quarter of school. We did it!!! I can't believe we are a quarter of the way through the school year. It's been a ride. It's been frustrating, it's been exciting and it's been exhausting. It was a good decision.

I have learned so much about my children. I have watched awesome things happen. I have come to realize some important things I want my kids to learn and some things I don't think they need to learn. Homeschooling may not be for everyone, but every parent should try it for just one year, they'll never regret it.

I have watched Kalen blossom. She has become more confident and more mature. I have watched the anxiety that she lived with going to school disappear. I have watched her enjoy learning. I have come to realize more of who she real is and who she can be.

Kaleb........the kid can figure out amazing math facts laying over a the top of a bean bag flopping like a fish. His reading was low and his spelling stunk when we started the school year. I have watched him gain in reading and I have watched his spelling get better and better. It's cool!

The history in the k12 curriculum for third grade stinks. It is about the Middle Ages/Greek/Rome. It's hard for me to teach because it's BORING and Kaleb has ZERO interest in it. The light bulb went on about two weeks ago. My third grader needs to learn American History and he needs to read. So I went to the library and got him books that he could read about American Explorers. He loves them. When he is done with silent reading he will say 'mom, did you know..........' and off he goes telling me what he learned. He is excited about it. We will force our way through the k12 curriculum, but it's not for us.

The Campbell County Virtual School has been under scrutiny this year because of low PAWS (standardize testing) scores last year in writing. (That's a whole other story). So the VS is putting the pressure on the parents and kids about writing. Every other week the teacher that monitors Kaleb has an online 'writers workshop' with her students. It is done live with her and probably 9 other kids.

As I listened yesterday to the 'writers workshop', I realized what was going on was not what I wanted for my child. To start with Mrs. B lectures about how they are going to be doing 'tons and tons' of writing this year to prepare for PAWS. She wants the kids to be more creative with their words. She was giving them words like 'good', 'really', 'happy'......and wanted them to come up with different words for them. At one point she got down right mean about how they over use words like 'good' and 'really' and they need to be more 'creative'. In the previous session Mrs. B had taught the kids how to write a 'friendly letter' and had given this strict format on how it should be written. Sure, there needs to be some basics for the 'friendly letter' but a strict format? Get real. Mrs. B put a 'friendly letter' form up on the white board and started ragging on them about how they were not doing them right (they had to write her one). So she goes over how it's to be done and it how it has to be done blah blah blah blah and then she says "this is the way it is on the PAWS test and you need to learn it."

Let me sum that up.............The kids need to be creative thinkers but they can only do it 'one way.' Is the PAWS test the absolutely know all on how a 'friendly letter' is to be written? NO!!!

I do not want my kids to be educated on info that is only important to pass a standardize test. I do not want a teacher ragging on my kids like that. And you know what, I can make that choice. More to come on that....................