Worst Arguments against Homeschooling article...

I woke up this morning and saw this on my facebook....  

So ...... I wasn't going to read - it was 6am - I was worried about finding the kittens my cat had during the night, but ..... thought...... nope, I'm curious.....  

I love  this article. (<--- link)

I homeschool AND I send my kids to public school.  We are a split family.  I also homeschool the two that are IN public school.  I homeschool Nathan when he's missing a lot of school and I homeschool Kaedyn because he hates being left out when we do homeschooling stuff.  So a lot of the experiments, art, and of course the field trips include ALL the kids.

I have been through the whole bullying thing even through a school shooting IN MY CHILD'S SCHOOL ...  I have been through good teachers and bad teachers.  There are teachers who are absolutely amazing, and some that just down right sucked.

One of the things this guy said in his email was that "it's parent's fault that the teachers fail" ..... um, scuze me?  How about it's the ... governments fault?  Whom ever it is that sets the guild-lines for what every child has to learn in a year.  Because four hours of "homework" is NOT ACCEPTABLE.  Kids learn at different rates, and to expect every child to be a robot and learn at the exact same rate is ridiculous.  Then there are parents like me.  I have four kids.  Four kids in public school added 2 to 4 hours of homework for each one - yeah... that's setting a parent up for failure.  Sitting down at a table and helping each child at the same time for that time period, who has time to cook, clean, bath their children -let alone give them time to play and be a kid.  It's an evening of frustration, arguments, threats, bribes, and that's after the calm talking, trying to explain, etc and so forth resulting in a note on the homework, "I sat here for hours trying to get this done with him/her and I don't even understand it."  Yep, that's a failure on the parents.  All the parents fault.   Another point is - yes, like I already said - I am the parent of four.  Two of which have medical issues which involves going to countless doctors appointments.  I have to have a certain calender just to keep all the appointments straight.  My weeks are pretty much non-stop.  Sometimes - things don't get done because I don't have time.  Sometimes I have to do things on MY schedule - what works best for our family.  I  may not get home one night until 7pm because we had appointments two hours away -and yet, I'm suppose to keep my child up and do two to four hours of homework?  When my child is crabby and unwilling to work because they are tired?  

So yes, lets blame the parents.  The world is a colony of Stepford Wives, we all do what we are told when we are told.  At least, we should.  (for those who don't understand sarcasm, that was sarcastic.)

I don't have an issue with public schools - per say.  Like I said, I have two kids who are in the "system" ..  I like Nathan's school.  I love Kaedyn's teachers.

But I would pull them out to homeschool in a second if things change.

I am satisfied with their education right now.

I was - however - NOT satisfied with Cal or Noah's education both in Wisconsin and here in Washington.

Calahan - went through YEARS of bullying and it was a vicious circle that continued over and over despite my "working with the school" ..  the bullying happened all through grade school.  It would happen, they would be told, something would happen, it would start right back up.... Cal would stop telling me because nothing was happening... when I threatened to call the cops one day because Cal was followed home by another kid who kept telling him he had a screwdriver in his backpack he was going to stab him with and kill him, they begged me not to.  Dad went and spoke to the parents.  That didn't help.  It all kept continuing.  He gets in middle school and they put him in a different "group" of kids so he's not around those kids that bullied him, but what happens?  Those kids talked to other kids and it ends up being the kids in his group start bullying him.  My absolute last straw was when a kid pushed him up against a wall, put his hand around his throat, and yanked off the necklace he was wearing.  ... I called the school and told them that he would not be returning the following week.  I had been calling the counselor for a month prior - several times, no call back, but after that call - you better believe that counselor called me back immediately and tried to talk me into keeping him in school, then started trying to make me feel like a failure for deciding to pull him out.  There was also the phone call I got from one of his teachers when Calahan got up and walked out of class one day because some kids were teasing him and he wanted to punch them, so instead of punching them, he removed himself from the situation like I told him to.  I was proud of him.  They punished him.

Noah I pulled out to homeschool him when I did Calahan in Wisconsin BECAUSE I was homeschooling Cal and Noah got sick so easily from school it was crazy.

When we moved to Washington I gave the kids the choice to homeschool here or try the public school.  They both wanted to try the public school, so they did.

Calahan started getting teased, not even bullied, but the second he felt threatened, he shut down.  He wasn't feeling safe at school - and it was discovered he has PTSD from the bullying.   He also has anxiety.  So I felt the need to get him out of the school experience where he was currently learning nothing because of the PTSD an anxiety factors from the bullying.  He was learning NOTHING.

Noah .... once we got here.... was okay.  But I had begged the schools here to hold him back.  Not to keep pushing him forward into grades where he was not understanding the curriculum.  However, they always told me NO .... it was "more important to keep him with his peers."  Which I did NOT agree with.  Yes, it can be damaging to be held back - however, it can be damaging to also be pushed forward too.  How?

Noah got pulled out from class for special one on one or small group education.  In 4th grade, he had a folder in his desk in his classroom that had work that was at his level...  he would take it out when discussions were going on that he didn't understand.  Group work, the other classmates would write on his papers (after asking him the answers) and do most the work.  They would carry him.

Noah started to come home saying "I'm dumb" ... "I'm stupid" ... "I don't understand what the other kids understand" .... he was being damaged, deep down ... wondering WHY he couldn't do the same work the other kids were.

I had to stop that thinking in it's TRACKS.  No matter what I said, it wasn't helping.

On top of that, he was missing a lot of school due to being sick all the time.  He would catch everything.

This year, Nathan got sick - ALL THE TIME.   He missed more school than he's been in it.  So next year, it maybe that we might have to homeschool him too.

We haven't made that choice yet though.

Cooking!

Calahan was very proud of himself for making his own eggs!!

Crossroads

I am standing smack in the middle of a crossroad ...  Friday pushed that crossroads out a little and made us more determined.   Been talking about it, questioning it, trying to figure out what's best for our children and we had pretty much decided to let Calahan learn at home, Noah was up in the air.

Noah gets speech therapy and he's very social.  Those two facts alone had us questioning if homeschooling him would be right.  We fully planned on working through the summer with him to see how he did and make that determination later ....  but....  now.... after he handed me his report card, I'm so irritated and pissed ..... I am certain that my kids are falling through the cracks.

I have discussed in previous posts how Calahan is feeling uncomfortable at school.  There is a little bit of bullying that has been going on the last 6 months or so.  He is uncomfortable with the drinking and drugs and smoking going around.  He has some major anxiety issues.  But he's made some good friends.. and he was thrilled when he got his yearbook.  He thought it was super cool.

Now, I have to say that I'm really proud to know that I instilled in him ... I  never did any sort of drugs, unless it was prescription ... lol... highly against smoking and have many pet peeves of others smoking habits infringing on my direct air quality.  I have lung issues and my kids have lung issues, so it's a little more than just me not liking it.  I don't like the taste of alcohol.  So I would take sips now and then of my friends stuff, but I never liked anything.  Then I dated a bartender when I was 29 and he created a drink where I didn't taste the alcohol ... Drinking has never been important and I keep telling those I'm around that if you don't start it - you won't miss it.  That's one reason Calahan is uncomfortable around it - he has very strong convictions about it already.

Based on a lot of reasons, I think homeschooling is a better choice for him.

Then there is Noah....  we were back and forth over what's best with him... but when he handed me his report card for the year - it pushed me over the edge.

37 out of the 56 spaces for grades is marked *  .... meaning "ungraded"

He got no grades in Reading, Writing & Math... and Participates In Service (whatever that means)

In Science:
Effort - he got a "Satisfactory" when he got "Excels" the prior two grading periods.  
Content - He got a "2" meaning "Approaching Standards" which is what he got both the prior two grading periods also.

In Social Studies:
Effort - he got a "Satisfactory" when he got "Excels" the prior two grading periods.  
Content - He got a "3"meaning "Proficient" which is what he got the prior grading period, and a "2" the grading period before that.

In Health and Fitness:
Effort/Cooperation - he got a "Satisfactory" when he got "Excels" the prior grading period and "Satisfactory" the period before
Demonstrates Knowledge - he got "Excels" all three grading periods

In Music:
Effort/Cooperation - he got "Satisfactory" all three grading periods
Skills and Concepts - he got a "Approaching Standards" and was completely ungraded the two grading periods prior. 

In Behavior:
Cooperative Learner - he got "Excels" in all areas, all three grading periods, for:

• Cooperates and interacts positively with others
• Respects rights, feelings and ideas of others
• Resolves problems with peers appropriately

Quality Worker - he got "Excels" in the following areas: Shows willingness to try and Keeps workspace and materials organized (for willingness he got Excels in all three grading periods, in organized, he got Excels, Satisfactory, Excels) ......  "Satisfactory" for Shows persistence (as he did in all three grading periods) ... and "Below Expectations" for Writes legibly (which is funny since he got a not graded the first period, and then Satisfactory for the second, then went down to Below Expectations?) and "Ungraded" for Produces Quality Work (as he did all three grading periods).


Self-Directed Learner - he got "Ungraded" for all grading periods for Works Independently, Completes assignments in a timely manner, Returns home assignments on time, and Makes productive use of class time...... and for Follows Directions he was "Ungraded" for all grading periods except the current one for which he got "Excels".... he also got "Excels" for Is prepared with materials, and Follows school/classroom expectations. 

He got two notes for June....  the first under Reading is:
"(Noah) is very sociable and interacts well with peers.  Displays a positive attitude towards learning."

The second note that was on this report card for June is the one that set me off (other than all his ungraded spots) ....
"Noah was administered the DIBELs Next Progress Monitoring in June. The DIBELS NPM consists of 3 sub tests: Oral Reading Fluency (Words per minute); Retell of the passage read; DAZE Passage (fillin the missing word comprehension passage).  A Composite score of 400+ is considered grade level performance in June and an oral reading fluency (ORF) words per minute (wpm) of 118+.  Noah scored a composite score of 10 and an ORF of 24 wpm." 

 Yeah ...  I'm kinda pissed.

  This is the graph I found for the wpm part....  I don't know if it's reflective on the previous grades, however - if it is - he's Kindy level....

And I can't find anything for the other part since it varies from grade to grade and isn't reflective on the previous grade.  BUT a TEN???  My heart sank for him!!!   So did my husbands!

Now that the decision is made, I'm feeling a lot of things - excitement to help encourage or refresh my children's love of learning....  creating fun interactive lessons for them on things they love or have interest in .... but I'm scared I'm not going to do the right thing or enough....that I'm going to fall short, and all sorts of things. 

I feel like yelling - WHAT ARE THEY DOING FOR MY CHILD!?!?!  Other than giving him self-esteem issues?   

There is a big ol' YAY and WOW in my head.... and the the hesitant Oh BOY!!

Do you have any advice?  Things you wish you had known starting out? 

Last Day of PUBLIC School

So today is the kids last day of PUBLIC school...   I thought about letting them just stay home, but I also have this need to make sure that they do what they are suppose to. 

Calahan is finishing up his Sophomore year, which he completely and utterly failed. 

Why did he fail?

1. He didn't turn in work.
2. He has a lot of trouble asking for help.
3. He has major anxiety.
4. The School was not following his I.E.P. 
5. He stopped caring.
6. He was uncomfortable at school
7. There was some bullying. 
8. He had a lot of absences

So yeah, there are a lot of reasons - some in his control, some not.  Regardless - my biggest concern is that they aren't following his IEP.  I brought it up - and the first thing out of the counselors mouth was "are you reminding your teachers?"

I realize that a lot is piled on top of teachers these days... they are over worked, over stressed, and have to use a lot of their own money to make sure their classes are fun and interesting.... 

But since when is it the CHILD'S responsibility to make sure their I.E.P. is followed??? 

So we are certain we're going to allow Calahan to Homeschool/On-line School this coming fall.

Noah did really well this year... 

He "finished" 4th Grade, and by finished, I mean he made it through the school year.  He is at a 1st or 2nd grade level academically and they just keep pushing him forward even though I don't feel it's doing any good.  I have asked repeatedly that they hold him back a year.  I was told "no, we feel it's more important to keep him with his peers then giving him the stigma of being held back" .... Thanks No Child Left Behind Act ..... but let me ask you this....  How do you think it makes him feel to be pulled out of the class and exposed to the fact that he isn't at the same academic level as the other students in his class? 

When we moved here and decided to give the school district a try here ... I asked them to hold him back a year then, to make things a little easier on him.  They wouldn't.   So this past year, he was pulled out of class a lot, he couldn't work with his classmates because he wasn't at their level...  he was allowed to not do work because he couldn't... because it wasn't at his level.  When things were too hard in class, he had a folder of work (at his level) he could do ...  so he would pull that out and work on that while the class worked on something else.  Which is great, he showed initiative on pulling out work he could do... but ...  I don't think it's fair to him.  What exactly is he learning by this?

And then, he expressed to me one day - he doesn't feel smart because he can't do the same work as the other kids.

This broke my heart....

............ broke it....

So DB and I discussed it - and we're going to give it a chance through the summer and see if he'll listen to me and do his work, if he does - we're going to homeschool him, if he doesn't ... then I have no choice but to put him back in public school next year.  

Noah is a whiner - he whines at me all the time not to do stuff.  I still make him do it but it's a chore and hard  ... he doesn't act like this at school.  He listens, he's good, he's behaved....  I wish I had that Noah more often. 

In addition to that - we found out that Noah has Dyslexia - which I suspected and Calahan has something called Dysgraphia.   I actually wrote a blog about the Dysgraphia recently ...  check it out. 

I'm giving both kids a week off - one because it's my birthday on Monday - ha ha - and I don't want to start then.  But I think we're going to start the following week, on July 2nd.   That'll give me some time to get a plan in place. 

As for the babies ..... we'll see.  Nathan *hates* going to school - he cries everyday.   Kaedyn LOVES going to school ...    Nathan gets services through school like Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy ...  which are important.  And he needs to be exposed to a structured social environment right now, due to his Autism.  So we feel it is important to at least *try* to get him to like school.  He's starting a new school next year, and Kaedyn will be returning to the same pre-school.  We have no idea how this is going to go over since they were in school together this past year, and next year, they aren't even at the same school.  

So we're going to start off with the older two, and see how it goes with the younger ones..I'm excited!!

Crazyness Ensues ...

Loooong long ago I decided to homeschool my boys.  Due to bullying issues and a few other issues that were going on with Noah just not learning.

We spent a year "de-schooling" and not doing a lot.   It was everyday learning type of stuff... plus two babies in the house - I was B.U.S.Y ....

Well, we moved to Washington State and we debated between homeschooling and putting the boys back in public school and try it out here ......

At first, we were going to homeschool... so I started to prepare .....

And then.......  Cal decided that he wanted to try public school.   So we started down that route ...

They are about to finish their 2nd year in the school system here....   we're not happy.

Calahan is starting to deal with bullying again here ..... but at least here he has friends here.  It's nothing like what it was in Wisconsin...  however, he was hit a few times by one kid, and being the GOOD BOY that he is, Cal befriended this kid.  I remind him a lot of "bullies" have bad home lives.  So he became friends with the kid who was slapping him occasionally.   Then this other - bigger kid - I guess ...  one day... was trying to pull the chair out from under Cal when he was sleeping in class (don't get me started on the sleeping in class) ....  and when the first kid dropped his books and papers all over the floor, and Cal stopped to pick them up ....  he was bent over on the ground gathering them up - and the second kid came and kicked him in the butt sending Cal flying into the fencing.

They also are not following Calahan's IEP at all....  he's suppose to be pulled out for testing because he has trouble getting thoughts from his head out through his hand (he has Dysgraphia) ...  one way or another he's suppose to verbalize the answers to someone who writes them down for him. 

Because of all this - he's failing .... and doing his work at home or through home ... means I can keep a better eye on what he's done and what he hasn't.  I have also asked time and time again that the teachers email me with work that he hasn't gotten done each week so I can keep on top of it ...  and they don't.  I can't help him - if they don't help me....

He wants to e-school next year.

Noah is still only at a 1st or 2nd grade level depending ...  he was diagnosed with dyslexia.  I keep begging the school to hold him back ... but ... thanks to No Child Left Behind ...... he's getting pushed further.   He wants to participate in class, he wants to learn - he's very eager but he gets pulled out of class and he doesn't understand some of the hard stuff in class so he's forced to pull out a folder of work (which he does on his own) to work from while the class carries on.  He has expressed to me more than once that he's "stupid" because of this.

In addition to that - one of my worst fears came true.  There was a school shooting at Noah's school, it made national news.  I really don't want o rehash it but you can read about it on my main blog .....  Serial Killers & School Shootings .....   and my gut instinct was to pull him out and homeschool him again.  Yes, the shooting was an accident, but it was because the kid was BULLIED.... 

My biggest problem homeschooling last time was that Noah wouldn't listen to me and do his work (this was before we knew he had dyslexia but I suspected it.) and coming up with work ...

But now I found the best resource EVER .... Pinterest!  I have tons of boards on homeschooling lessons and ideas ......  I'm really excited.  If you homeschool and want an invite to Pinterest - leave me a note with an email address I can send a invite too :)  (heck even if you don't homeschool! LOL)

So I told Noah that we'll do a "trial" over the summer - and if he listens, then we'll homeschool.   He really wants to do it .... so I think it'll be a success ...

YAY!!!

Cooking 101 - Pies & Cookies

Daddy, Calahan & Noah put on their aprons (note to self, by more "manly" aprons .. ha ha ha) ...  I thought penguins were great!  The one Dennis is wearing is the one Calahan made for me one Mother's Day :)

So the plan for the day....  making some Pig Ear Cookies (it's just a name people) and Chocolate Silk Pie  ...

We made them from scratch.  (Great thing about having Dad in Culinary School!) ...  First him and Cal started to make the filling for the pie... 

Noah is so silly...  he was waiting for his turn to do something, the graham crackers sitting there is for the home made graham cracker crust...

Here is Noah cutting cookies with Daddy

 

 Pie half done  (a smaller pie in a bowl was made for Noah)

Looks yummy doesn't it?  Dennis then gave Cal a bottle with chocolate syrup in it, told him he got to decorate his pie...  told him he could do lines, swirls, or write something....  so...

He wrote "DAD" ...  now this is a BIG thing ... Dennis is Calahan and Noah's step-dad for those who don't know and Calahan doesn't normally call Dennis "Dad" even though Noah calls Dennis both "Dennis" and "Daddy" ..  it has always been left up to them what they want to call Dennis BUT we make it a point that they always respect their Dad too...  so it was a proud moment.

Here he's piping the topping onto Noah's bowl Pie

BREAK FOR CRAZY FACES!!!!!!!

Here is Noah with his chocolate decorating! LOL...  He is going

and keeps going until he RUNS OUT

 Proud Moments

The cookies are done too!!

The best part of baking ...... eating the evidence!!

Even Kaedyn got into the fun (Nathan was sleeping)

Break Is OVER....

So we've been on a bit of a hiatus over the last few months - after public school ended I just wanted to kids to shake off the stress of school and start the mind frame of homeschooling. So we talked about it, started getting prepared, they'd see me put cool stuff away that they wanted to do RIGHT NOW and beg me to do, and of course, I made them wait (such a mean Mommy...er... I mean Teacher!) ... but we are starting school up early because we'll be facing a move (most likely) come late winter this coming year. (Around March 2010) ...

So we've been working on some stuff, trying to decide where to go ... and just going from there.

One thing we'd always do is ask Cal what "1 1/2 plus 1 1/2 is?" and he'd never be able to get it right - the first time - he'd throw out random answers and it was hard for him.

So finally, after hearing it repeatedly for so long I explained to him... he still wasn't getting it. So then I transferred it into money - what kid doesn't like money right? FINALLY he gets it. He did 5 worksheets of fractions and got 3 wrong on 2 papers and 100% on the other two, I gave him a chance to figure out the RIGHT answer for the ones he got wrong (2nd chance answers) and he got 5 out of the 6 he got wrong, right! YAY CAL!!! What impressed me the MOST was that I printed out the 5 worksheets and he did 3 one night, I told him he didn't have to do them ALL - he could wait and do the other two either the following night or sometime over the weekend. What impressed me was HE took the initiative and HE grabbed them, worked on them, and gave them to me! YAY!!

See... Calahan has been known to NEVER work on math willingly!

Then, Noah - who we bought one of those more educational games for his hand held game system, hasn't touched it since he got it at Christmas. Has NOT touched it at all. We went up North a week ago and I took that game with us. Apparently he played it - finally - on the way up North. THEN .. today, he pulled it out and was playing it before all his "cool" and "fun" games...

YAY!!!

Hummmm... maybe, just MAYBE this is the right thing to do. SUDDENLY learning is becoming FUN for them and not just a chore! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!!

We're starting up Homeschooling tomorrow.

Books Books Books!

So we have started to bring our our OLD collection of K/1st Grade stuff for Noah ... and started to pick up stuff for Calahan. The top shelf is The Man's school books, and then there are some of the books for Cal, Noah's workbooks for this summer, and then more stuff for Noah on the next shelf, and on the bottom is some more work books more Pre-School age and Nathan's coloring books and such. We went to Borders the other day and found a couple of GREAT books on clearance! I'm so excited I wanted to share!



We got The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology and The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt ... Here are page examples of each! They were only $10 a piece!! Big huge thick books too packed with all sorts of great info!!



Then I found some Atlas ones. Got a Children's World Atlas, a New World Atlas which actually goes over the way the world looked during different eras. And then the Children's Picture Atlas. The Children's World Atlas is a bit more gered to Cal's age, and the Picture Atlas to Noah's. The New World one is just cool! The World Atlas was about $6, the Picture Atlas was about $4 and the New World one was $10!




When I finally found the Homeschooling book section, I found this... and decided it would be my first book buy! I haven't had a chance to look at it really but when I do I'll be sure to share! This was just a little under $20.

With Mr. Man going to school too, I figured the English Grammer & Punchuation thing would be a good reference for EVERYONE... also got a Writing Tablet for Noah to work on his writing this summer.
Our family is struggling so bad right now, with The Man going to school himself, and my staying home with the babies cuz it's cheaper then daycare - plus we can't afford to have Nathan or Noah exposed to anymore germs then necessary! They both get sick so easy. Noah I want to keep of antibodics as much as possible because of his kindey failure in 2007, and Nathan just can't afford to be sick and lose weight. I wish I hadn't spent the money right now, but I knew the books would be of GREAT use and we need them if we are going to succeed. After all you can't get ALL your info from the internet!

Anyway - I ended up buying so much (or who knows, maybe they had a promotion going on) that I got a free $10 Gift Card with my purchuse!! (shakes head in shock) ... I was so stunned that I didn't ask why, or maybe.... it was more fear of "well, you can not have it then" LOL... who knows...

Anyway - I also picked up these math books at a garage sale


They might be geared for more down the road a bit, but it'll be good anyway! Can't beat $5 for them all!

And I'm not sure if Noah will go back to school next year or not. I think I might end up leaving it up to him, or possibly, I may send him next year too, and play it by ear. (If he gets a certain teacher for 2nd grade I think I will most likely send him because she was GREAT with Calahan and about the only teacher with Cal who actually put forth a lot of effort to help with his needs.) Then play it by ear for 3rd Grade. I really hesitate to pull Noah out because even though he is behind from his hearing loss and other issues, he thrives in that enviornment because he is such a social butterfly!!

In example, I brought him in late one day from a DR appt and the kids were getting ready for lunch/recess and one kid saw him, which lead to "NOAH IS HERE" to all the other kids around getting excited going "We missed you" "you weren't here" "where were you?" "you are here!" and all sorts of things. They literally all gathered around him and he was blushing. It was so cute! LOL...

Anyway - again, I am still debating on him. But we are most definitely working this summer to get him reading and writing better, and doing simple math. YAY!!!