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....................

People say the stupidest things.......

These pictures were taken last Christmas morning.

Their are people out there that just say stupid things. We keep our own hours as homeschoolers. We work 4-5 hrs. a day on school. We usually start at 8:30, but that can also vary because we HOMESCHOOL!!! It's been one of those weeks with denist appts. and orthodontist appts. It's one thing if you have the child with you that is having the appt. but its another thing when you have the child with you that isn't having that appt. People find it necessary to ask "why aren't you in school?" Like its any of their business. Maybe I need to come up with the responds "are you the worlds hall monitor?" Oh, well.

So today, Kaleb and I needed medical attention. The swine flu is running wild here. There was no way we were getting into our regular doctors so we went to the walk in clinic at about 10:00 a.m. Kalen went with us. When we finally got back to the exam room, the nurse proceeded to asked why the kids weren't in school. We explained. Then the doctor comes in. He asked the same thing. Then he asked if the kids were in sports. So Kalen said she danced and Kaleb played soccer. Then he said "well, at least you get some socialization." It's interesting to see how the world perceives homeschooling. I wish I was quick witted enough to respond, but it takes me several hours to formulate a reply. Then again I probably didn't want to be quick witted to the guy that stuck a needle in me.

I was tested for the flu, but it was negative. Of course the test is only 60% acturate. My oxygen level was down to 93% (at 90% you go to the hospital). Since I have asthma the doctor treated me agressively. I got a steroid shot in my vein and an antibiotic shot. He wants me to take the tamaflu even though the test was negative, along with oral steriods. He didn 't bother testing Kaleb for the flu. He isn't real sick but starting to wheeze so he gave him a prescription for oral steroids and tamaflu. He thought it was best not to risk it with both of us having asthma. I don't feel all that bad, just run down and tire.

What I do with my life.................

Once in a while I do something with my spare time that doesn't involve horses. I quilt a little, but I haven't done much the last year and a half. Below is a paper pieced table runner that I finished over a year ago and never quilted. Then this summer our friends daughter got married and I decided I wanted to give her a keepsake wedding gift, so I quilted this and gave it to her.

This is a baby quilt that I made for our pastor and his wife that had a baby on 9/11. I made this quilt design a couple years ago. The orginal piece I made I have not quilted, but I need to get it done for a silent auction the library is having. I couldn't find a pattern I liked for a quick baby quilt (that's what I'm into QUICK) so I decided to use this one again. (I also like to make my own designs because I don't read directions well. So if I make up my own I get along better.) I decided that I would not buy any fabric. I forced myself to use scraps for this. I love bright colors for babies. As it turns out, the quilt is the same colors as the nursery. Who would have thought!

But this is my true passion. Some people call it fiber arts, some people call it portrait quilts or it might be called studio art quilts. Anyway, I spent 7 months making this. Part of the length of time has to do with my spare time and I also like to work a little at a time and ponder my color choices. This is made from a photo I took of our mare Tari and her first colt Whit. The quilt is called "The Kiss". I have joined a studio arts group and have entered this quilt is a show they are having this fall. (I mix my horses and quilts.)

Thoughts from the homeschooling week

I've done some thinking this week about Language Arts. Kaleb is learning subjects and predicates, Kalen is learning direct objects, indirect objects and compound indirect objects. So far this year Kalen has reviewed verbs, nouns, pronouns, proper pronouns and adjectives. Yeah, its been a walk though the past for me.

I pondered this thought the other day as Kaleb and I are going over subjects and predicates........... why do you need to go any further in life picking a sentence apart than knowing what the subject and the action is in a sentence? Does a sentence really need to have all these word labels? It makes you wonder. I'm not sure that it makes you a better person for knowing them. I guess on need to mark "english teacher" off the list of what I want to be when I grow up.

Will

Back in July we brought home a horse when we went to the Torrington horse show that Mark got from a trainer in Nebraska. The mare was two and had never been started. She is the one that we had a struggle with naming her (Mark wanted to call her Tommy, but she ended up being Mo).

The first week that Mark spent with Mo she seemed o.k. But he never gained anything with her after that. After about a month, he still hadn't ridden her, because she never progressed. (Usually in 7-10 days he is riding them). It finally seemed like maybe she was getting it and then one day he was working with her and she acted like she didn't know anything. We both decided it was a waste of time and he quit her. Some pal of Marks that messes with horses around here has her. I guess we still own her, but thankfully she doesn't live here anymore. She was a knot head.

Mark has a buddy that lives west of Gillette that is into cutting horses. They breed their own horses and always have a bunch of young horses around. So he called him and asked if he had anything he would sell. The guy told him to come by and he would see what he had. The guy ran a two year old mare and a 3 year old gelding in from the pasture. Both of them green broke. He rode them for Mark and told him he could have his pick. Mark chose the gelding and brought him home. His buddy told him to try him out and if he didn't like him, bring him back. Well, he liked him and bought him. Thankfully, he has a name and it was workable (one syllable) so we didn't have to go thru the name game again. This is Will............................

In this picture Mark is petting Will on the right side. When he came here you couldn't do that. The guy that owned this horse is a real cowboy and could ride anything. Gently a horse isn't something he does. He does enough to get a saddle on them and get on their back. When Will first came here three weeks ago, he would stand across the pen from you with a wild eye and look at you. He didn't want anyone close to him. He was kind of hard to catch. Once Mark was on his back, he was fine, but he had some serious "don't touch me" issues. Mark has spend some time on ground work to get past that. Now Will will follow you around the corral like a dog. Mark likes to ride him and thinks he has potential. He is a half brother to our little Tara. They are from the same stud.

What I learned in homeschool today

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See this child? I learned that she can write in cursive today. It may not seem like a big deal to you. But let me tell you the story.

When Kalen was 5 and started to pre K her fine motor skills and her vision hindered her from being able to draw a circle or make a cross and the alphabet was not legible what so ever. Kalen spent a year in vision therapy with a wonderful optometrist here. She went through several sets of lenses in her glasses dealing with different prisms to jiggle her visual spacial issues. By the time she went to kindergarten she could draw a circle, make a cross and her letters were better, but not very good. Toward the end of kindergarten, once more she had a change on her glasses with a different prism and overnight her alphabet was legible, not great but legible.

It has been a long road getting her penmanship visible. She went to occupational therapy twice a week at school. Her printing is very legible now. Last fall we did one last try with the prisms in her glasses and that brought on some drastic changes once again for the good.

I don't remember if Kalen was suppose to learn to write cursive in third or fourth grade, but I was told she couldn't do it. The OT worked with her and said she got her as far as being able to do her name. I never questioned it, I was happy that you could read her printing the way it was. Last fall when she was going into fifth grade it was brought up at her IEP meeting that at some point during the year the kids were going to be made to write everything in cursive. I was told once again that Kalen couldn't do it. I never questioned it. It was written in her IEP that she didn't have to write in cursive.

At her IEP meeting again this fall I was told Kalen can't write in cursive. It is starting to be an issue because she has so much writing to do that it is very cumbersome for her to print everything. I asked about her keyboarding skills and the OT told me that she had worked with her, but it was very difficult for her.

Yesterday afternoon Kalen was doodling and she wrote someones name in cursive. I was pretty impressed. I asked her if she knew how to write cursive. She said 'yes'. We talked about it and I told her that I was going to have her write a paragraph for me to see what she knew. She told me that when her 5th grade class was told that they had to write everything in cursive, she was told she could print so she never wrote in cursive. This is where the asperger comes in, she thought she was told not to write in cursive and that they wanted her to print. Oh, boy.

This morning I ask Kalen to write a paragraph about herself. I didn't care what it said, I just wanted to see her handwriting in cursive. I was absolutely shocked. Not only did this kid write in cursive, it was good. I asked her if it was easier for her to write in cursive and faster and she said it was. I told her to do it then. This is such a huge leap from where she started.

So, I'm going to load a keyboarding program on the computer and find out what she can do!

Another week down

It was a trying week in the homeschooling world. But that is to be expected. We have received all of our curriculum, so that is good. We had a few days of students working against the teacher. So I had to take away some privileges and that worked really well.

Last Saturday we went to Mark's company picnic. In social occasions like this Kalen tends to stay right by my side. We hadn't been to the picnic very long and I was talking to someone and realized that Kalen was nowhere around. I looked for her and she had found a girl about her age and they buddied up and stayed together the whole time.

Monday was Kalen's first dance day for the year. It is nice that she can get dressed at home now since she doesn't have dance until 5:45 p.m. We got to the dance center and I asked if she wanted me to go in with her. She said 'no', she was fine on her own. I ended up going in anyway to pay her tuition. When I left I heard Kalen striking up a conversation with another girl that she has danced with in the past about what classes she was taking this year. She is usually pretty aloof to the girls that she dances with.

On Wednesday, Kalens teacher Mr. Schliske (its easier to call him Greg) called for their bi-weekly conference. I had warned him that Kalen may not talk on the phone. Talking on the phone is something that she truly hates to do. Anyway, Kalen got on the phone with Greg (he is a super nice man) and they talked for over ten minutes. I was quite impressed.

I went to Kalen's IEP meeting on Thursday. When Mrs. K called me to set up the meeting and tell me that the people that had provided her 'services' at Conestoga were to be there, I cringed a little. I cringed because I'm 'so done' with the resource teacher Miss S. I have nothing good to say to the woman. Mrs. K told me that I could request that Miss S. not be there and I did. I knew that Kalen's speech and OT teachers would be there along with the district autism specialist Mrs. L.

Now, Kalen's speech therapist Mrs. W and her OT, Miss E have been with her since kindergarten. I know they have made a HUGE difference in Kalen's life. Mrs W has been a rock over the years for Kalen and I both.

The meeting went very well. The principle from k12 showed them that Kalen was ahead on her work and Mr. Schliske talked about their conference and that she was retaining her info and thought she was doing well. The speech and OT teacher talked about where Kalen was at the end of last year. When they asked what I wanted to do about services I decided it was time to explain why we made the decision to homeschool. I left out my issues with Miss S. It wasn't appropriate not to invite her and then talk about her. I talked about bullying issues and our concerns for Kalens self esteem. I also told Mrs. W and Miss E what a difference I thought they had made in Kalens life. When I was done talking, much to my surprise Mrs. W spoke up and said "don't think that you have offended us with pulling Kalen from Conestoga. I miss her, but I also commend you for doing what you think it right for her." They all spoke up and basically said that same thing. They knew it was hard to step out of the box, but commended us for looking out for Kalen's best interest. The IEP was written to give us services as needed, which we may need. After the meeting Miss. E told me to call her for any kind of help, it didn't matter what the IEP said, she would do whatever she could. Mrs. W held back and let the rest of them leave reinforced what she said about doing the best for Kalen and thought we had done the right thing.

It was good to have the support, especially from people that have been a big part of Kalen's life. When you say you are a homeschooler, people look at you a little cross eyed. You must be convicted. At this point, the difference that it has made in Kalen's life is worth all the cross eyed looks!!