Nice to get some confirmation

So I'm going to admit here, if no where else, that yes, I do get nervous sometimes with Christopher since we are now totally free of any state-governed oversight for his education. For the most part, I think we are doing well with him but as a parent, I think there is always that niggling doubt when you do anything outside of societal norms and you have to admit, that homeschooling definitely counts (even tho it is thankfully getting to be more acceptable).

So it was really nice to get some confirmation today that things are going well with him. I finally found my Algebra test solutions manual and got to grade his last three weeks of Algebra tests. Last year, this was a huge problem as he was struggling so badly with that material. This year? What a turn around! The most he missed was 3 out of 20 and only one of those was a problem with his formula (he forgot to account for one side when figuring out surface area and mismeasured another side). The other two were simple errors in computation. Wow! Talk about a major difference! He'd never really struggled with math until he started pre-algebra and I admit that part of me chalked it up to him being such a literature brain that maybe it was just a harder concept for him to grasp but now this year, Matthew who is a total math and science geek is struggling with pre-algebra as well! The curriculum choice for K12 is very awkward to navigate and there is NO review of previous concepts so if you aren't working on something for a unit or two, you literally do not see it until they bring it back again by which time you've forgotten it because they don't keep repeating it to make sure it's well into your brain.

Since getting Christopher out of CAVA and the K12 curriculum, we have switched over to Saxon Math which is highly recommended in the homeschooling circles we frequent. It's also the math curriculum recommended by the TJEd book I love so much. I was thrilled to find it was exactly what we were looking for. Small incremental steps in each lesson with each problem set containing review. Christopher has gone from hating geometry to needing my help with the 1-2 problems he did every day, to getting almost all of them correct! What a difference this curriculum has made for him! We just picked up Matthew's level from the same friend who loaned us the stuff for Christopher and I'm so excited for Matthew to try it and see if we can get his love of math back. It was so sad to see him start actually hating math when before it had been one of his favorite subjects.

If I ever doubted that we made the right decision with Christopher, this has confirmed that we are currently on the right path. I hope this holds true with Matthew as well but I really think it will.

Matthew's last day of CAVA

and geez, they made sure I was happy to be leaving. We had to signs tons of new paperwork for both Matthew and Jonathan and none of which had anything to do with Matthew's disenrolling. The dates the computer gave the teacher for start of new classes were totally off but of course, the computer knows all and I know nothing even tho I was PHYSICALLY PRESENT! *insert serious eyeroll here* I finally put my finger on why I'm so happy to be leaving them and that's because in the time I've been with them I've seen more emphasis put on testing, testing, and still more testing (and not always state or federal stuff either). There is more paperwork constantly, more rules and regulations about what is acceptable and all of it is limiting things further and further. All options have been pretty much done away with and now we are left with the only differences between it and public school are the teacher, oh excuse me, "learning coach" (which would be ME the person that is actually with them 24hrs a day actually TEACHING THEM!), the number of students, and that this is a richer curriculum but it's still a lot of the dry, boring, activities and after a while it chaffes. It's tons of reading and little hands on stuff.

So Matthew is officially done there. We are taking a bit of time off from heavy academics to refocus and work on our relationship and his work ethic. He'll still have some schoolwork each day but nothing that should take more than 2-3hrs so there will be no reason for him to not be getting it done. One of the things I told him he had to do was come up with a list of 20 things that he wanted to learn more about by the end of the week. (I know, I'm a mean mommy LOL) Little booger totally rolled his eyes at me and started telling me how he couldn't possibly do it so I threw out a couple of ideas at him to get him started and in 10min we had a list of 25. I think there is probably more out there but it's a good start and many things Jonathan was saying he wanted to learn too so that's even better. I'm really very hopeful that the change in direction and letting things be more about the fun and excitement of learning rather than worrying about our "progress" or testing or passing assessments will be much better for all of us.

A whole new direction

This has been a long time coming I think but it's finally gotten through my thick-skull that we need a new direction with our schooling efforts. Matthew and CAVA (K12) are just not a good fit. It's a lot of sitting in front of a computer reading stuff and doing worksheets, basically similar to the type of work you'd find in a classroom, just with richer material. This is just not Matthew's style. He doesn't enjoy reading and it can take hours to get him to read something not of his choosing. He loves having me read to him and if he's interested in something, he's fine doing the reading. It's not that he can't read (he tests several years above grade level), it's that he just doesn't enjoy it the way Christopher does.

So we are biting the bullet and making the switch for all our sanity. We are disenrolling Matthew from CAVA effective Friday and I'll be starting the enrollment process for both he and Jonathan with Ocean Grove. I plan to leave Jonathan in CAVA until he's officially enrolled with Ocean Grove since he's still fine with the curriculum and we need to keep his services going but I'm really excited about the new direction.

One thing that has always been hard with Matthew not being very independent if he's bored is that both boys are learning totally different things in 6 different subjects. It's just impossible to try and actually "teach" both of them, sitting in on every lesson and being totally there without it taking all day which means nothing gets done around the house and Nico spends yet another day in front of the tv or computer. So our new goal is to do more a classical education/unit study approach with lots of reading classics aloud and discussing them and then finding stuff the boys are interested in and finding unit studies for them and going totally in-depth with it. Lots of hands-on stuff and trying to find ways to include Nico in some of it and keep those darn monitors OFF! I'm even hoping to have some studies where Christopher can participate as well next year to make life even easier.

So here's to the start of a whole new adventure. I'm really excited by it and praying that this solves many of the school stresses we are currently struggling with.

Time to review the continents

So this morning Jonathan figured out a plan to keep Matthew and Christopher from fighting. His idea? Send Matthew to "ArtAfrica" where the penguins live and Christopher to the Polar Bears.

Obviously we need to review the word "Antartica" with him but hey, at least he knows that penguins are in the South and the Polar Bears are in the North. That's more than a lot of people seem to realize.

Scantron Fail

Well, CAVA insisted that all their 3-8 grade students take this K12 scantron test in the first two weeks of the school year. Matthew hemmed and hawed and did so only reluctantly and under great protest (ok, that goes pretty much for all schoolwork with that boy so it's not a big surprise). I finally got his test results today and discussed them with his teacher.

Here's the biggest suprise....his reading scores were out of sight. Seriously, lowest score (and this is testing for where he should be at the end of 5th grade which is what he's just started) was an 88. The computer could not come up with any objectives for him to work on. So the teacher asked the computer to throw out his grade level and it still couldn't come up with anything based on how far they had tested him. What's so amazing by this is that this is my child that HATES to read. Seriously. The fights to get him to read anything that isn't school related or a comic book are just amazing. He's finally reading the Animal Ark series a little more seriously but still, we both know it's well below what he's capable of reading. But wow, I think I may need to crack down a little harder on him on getting him to read at least slightly more challenging material. The biggest thing that drives me nuts is that he starts books and never finishes them. Ugh!!

His math scores were good but not as high as I would have expected tho that is also the test that I know he was wondering all around for and totally goofing around so I suspect that had a lot to do with it so I won't give him too much grief over it. Even there the only thing the scantron could come up with to work on was his figuring out what to do with the fractions in a word problem and this is a known problem for him and one we are always working on. The teacher is going to give us some additional worksheets to help address that one area but still, even that wasn't awful or anything.

Of course, I wasn't expecting all that much from it considering this is the same test they insisted I give Christopher last school year after he finished their 8th grade Literature and Composition class and they couldn't move him up to the next level so they needed to test him to find busywork for him. I gave them a whole write-up on what I thought he needed to work on but nope, they needed to have this test so they could tell me what he needed to work on. It came back with "needs work on identifying misplaced dangling modifiers". Um..yeah... ok, whatever. We worked on my objectives for him with the teacher's blessing after that.

But still, I do like having the reassurance that the boys are doing well so I guess it serves some minor purpose...so long as I'm not hoping for any great insight or revelations into what I should be working on with my kids.

Life Lessons in the Kitchen

Things that come directly out of a 425F oven are hot and don't feel good when you pop even a crumb into your mouth:
Yes folks, this is real life learning experiences right here at the Academy. LOL

Just 7 Minutes

That was the verdict from Jonathan about how long to cook 3 cans of Campbell's Chunky soup. He opened all the cans, dumped them in the pot on medium heat, and then stirred every minute (using a timer). After 7 minutes, he asked me to come check and I showed him how to see that the soup was indeed done (steam rising off it, small bubbles when not stirred, feel the heat off the spoon).

It was only then that I noticed he had a piece of paper and a pencil and had been recording how many times the timer went off and he announced to me that it took 7 minutes.

His next announcement took the cake tho...

"See mom, now all I need is a cell phone and you can leave me home to make dinner!"

Don't bet on that happening any time soon honey, but good try anyway. LOL