Field Trip

It gets hard to take field trips during the school year so this year I'm trying to squeeze some in during the summer. For a while now, I've been wanting to visit Horn Point Lab in Cambridge, MD. The best thing about this place is that it's free to visit and take a guided tour. Also, I worked there as a summer intern when I was in college. I wanted to show the kids where I worked and show them that science isn't all sitting in a lab. doing experiments at a bench. My two best science related jobs, ever, had me outside a good bit of the time, especially another internship I did at a University of MD research farm. I didn't even have to wear a shirt or shoes to work on most days!

Oceanography Lab

The first stop was the Oceanography Lab, where some scientists were getting ready to head to the Gulf of Mexico to measure the effect the giant oil spill has had on the Gulf. They've been there before, so they have a good baseline for conditions before the spill, and they can

One held vinegar, one water

compare results to see how much damage has been done the environment down there. Naturally, with any hands-on activity, Tyler is first in line to get his hands on. He and another little visitor were trying to figure out what those two buckets held, using their powers of observation and all their senses. I never thought Ty had much sense, but they figured it out.

Ty's just gotta touch that

My Happy Crew

They can equip these buoys with various sensors to measure conditions in Chesapeake Bay.  Tyler wanted to climb on one. He had to be satisfied with a look from the ground. Next stop, the hatchery.

Even way back when I worked at Horn Point, oysters were a main focus because their population is so threatened in the Bay by so many factors. Sturgeon, which in the 1600's and 1700's were everywhere, are now critically endangered. HPL is trying to restore the oysters and keep the Sturgeon from disappearing altogether. Sturgeon can get up to 14 feet long but you never see one that big, if you ever get to see any at all, at least in the wild. Tyler wanted to pet one, but was asked not to by our tour guide. We were told they have a big one in another tank but we weren't allowed to see it.

Ty exploring the old shells

New real estate for baby oysters

The oyster haychery was much bigger. One large tank can hold around 700 million oyster spat. Not all of them will live, but that's a lot of oysters. Once they're large enough, the spat are transferred into tanks where they can settle and attach to old oyster shells. Those shells are then transported to the bay and dumped overboard. There's a lot more involved, but I just don't have time to get into it all. It was pretty cool visited the lab and seeing it again. Not much has changed except for the size of the operation. Tyler was fascinated by the fact that you didn't need to wear a lab coat and work inside sterile walls to be a scientist. Maybe he'll decide to change his career from  Hobo to Biologist.

Being Sloths

We combined this field trip with a trip to Salisbury, to visit the small zoo they have there. Vicki and I spent a lot of time there since we went to college in Salisbury. It's not a big zoo, but it's also not in DC or Baltimore and that counts for a lot in my book. I hate traffic and crowds. Here's some pictures of our afternoon in Salisbury.

Do they ever look happy?

I have more but the baby is crying... 

School Starts

Ok, we've officially begun our school year. It feels early, but it is September and the weather has turned autumnal. The first two days of school went pretty well; just a little resistence yesterday, from Kenzie. Not my usual source of contention, but I guess she was due. Otherwise, I would rank this start among the top of my seven school year starts. In case you don't know, this year I have five students again. I added Bekah. She's four, and just started kindergarten. She's also in fourth grade with the twins, with smattering of sixth with Kenzie, and eighth with Connor. Not to mention the preK coloring and paper-cutting squad, with Keary.

Alex started 11th grade today at SSPPHS. He was anxiously anticipating getting his parking permit. BMOC. I guess he got a private kick out of the fact that we made him shave off his peach fuzz for the first day. It wouldn't do, to get his first ever demerit for breaking the dress code (including no facial hair), on his first day as a Junior.

Connor is excited because he just got his first contact lenses. Now, he's riding his bike to the barber to get hair out of his eyes. I told him he looks like a girl, his hair's so long. He doesn't care what I think, but he longer has his glasses to keep the bangs out of his eyes. Ugh! It wasn't long ago when short hair was IN.

We actually started the week with insects. Bekah found a live cicada and decided it would be a good pet. She took it on a walk with us on Monday. I think it then got fed to the chickens. She apparently did not get too attached to it.

Then, on Tuesday, we discovered this nest of wasps under the deck. I count between 40 and 50 of the buggers there. Makes my skin crawl. Thank goodness for bug spray.

I'm looking forward to Summer Vacation '10.

Homeschool Field Trip

We went on a field trip to Historic St. Mary's City yesterday. It was windy and cold, but it was a lot of fun. I was surprised at how much they had for people to do and see.

We started in the Indian village, where we learned about how the Indians that met the Maryland colonists lived. Below are some of the kids using a rock to make tools from rocks and bones. Tyler was grossed out by the guy who was scraping meat off a deer hide to make clothing, but he gets grossed out by a lot of things.

We moved on to the Town Center, where we met colonists dyeing wool and operating their shops.

We learned how to use a seventeeth century printing press.

We also were drilled as Maryland's early militia, and got to see the firing of a musket. Everybody thought it was pretty loud. Connor could not believe that the colonists could perform the seventeen steps of loading and firing this gun, not once, but three times in one minute.

Then we moved on to the boat that brought them here, the Dove. Everyone loved this part. This was the only part of the day we were glad is was windy because you could really feel the boat rocking.








While Kenzie and Bekah fit in the bunks just fine, I can't imagine how grown men slept there, nevermind all the passengers, who had to sleep on floor of the hold.










Finally, it was off to the tobacco plantation where we ground up corn to make flour, made some corn bread, planted some beans, worked in the field, and fed the cows.

School Board Day

Today's the day we get to go to our Winter meeting with the county school board. It's basically the only legal requirement we have, to be allowed to homeschool here. I still thinks it's too intrusive. I am of the belief that how I raise my kids is my business, not the government's, so I do my part to punish their intrusiveness by overwhelming their system during review time. Here's what the homeschool monitors will have to deal with today. It's what my kids kids have done so far this year:

Now, add to that pile of stuff to be looked through a three month old baby, a two year old toddler, and a four year old ball of energy, and imagine the chaos that will ensue in that meeting room. Oh, and it's pouring down rain today, so everybody, and everything will be soaking wet. When we're done, we'll go visit Poppop, who is the HR Director for the county school system. This usually is good for a bit of disruption in the HR department, but I think he secretly relishes these little visits at his office.

And the fringe benefit for the kids is, I let them sleep in and skip school today. This counts as one of those numerous "Professional Development Days" public schools stack their schedule with.

Recess

Here's how we spent Friday, when we decided the weather was too nice for school...

Mental Health Day

Today's Forecast:

FRIDAY: Partly cloudy, unseasonably mild...Highs 70-75...Winds: Northwest 5 mph.

If I can get the kids to stop arguing, we're taking today off school. A benefit of Homeschooling; nice day in November? Take advantage of it.

I love South Dakota, but right now, they have four feet of snow. I imagine Canada gets a lot of snow, too. Hmm, these things must be considered before heading North.

Extra Credit for Connor

Last week I graded a History quiz that Connor took. He scored an 80%. Whenever he doesn't get a perfect grade, he goes back and checks his answers with the text book. He is a perfectionist, and is always determined to prove me wrong when he doesn't get 100%. When I grade his quizzes, I use a key, and I don't necessarily read each question. This particular History quiz had a true/false section, where if the sentence was true you write "true"; if it's false, you write the correct answer for some underlined term in the question.

Here's the question: The first European city in the Americas was Isabella.

The key said it was true. Remember, I didn't read the question, just Connor's answer. He wrote "Isabela", not "true" so I marked it wrong. Connor brought to my attention that Isabella was spelled wrong in the question so 'technically' it was false, so he fixed it. Regardless of which spelling is actually correct, the text book spelled the answer Isabela, not Isabella, a difference of one "l". Not only did I give him his 10 points back for knowing the answer was true, I gave him five extra credit points for all the obvious reasons.

School's Out

On Monday, we had our semi-annual homeschool review with the county Board of Education. This closed our fifth year of schooling at home. The meeting only took about five minutes for all four kids to prove they did sufficient school work since our last meeting in December. The county uses homeschoolers/former teachers to do this, so it's a fairly simple process. Everybody kind of knows what everybody else is doing so the whole thing turns out to be little more than a formality.

Connor and Kenzie still have some History to finish up, though. They do a ton of Language Arts during the year, so if they're not finished everything by Review Day, I usually let them put it all aside until next school year. But I like the History stuff they're doing so I'm making them finish that up this year. I also keep all the kids doing a little bit of math for the whole summer. I can't stand completely idle brains for extended periods of time. We wind up taking some time off for the summer, not never a straight two months.

Alex is a little peeved this morning. His History class had scheduled a field trip to the Spy Museum in D.C. today. But, his baseball team has been scheduled to play in the championship game today. Recent rain-outs have wreaked havoc on the schedule so this conflict was not in the plans. We told Alex he was not to miss his field trip. He has only played in two of his 19 games, and we're quite confident his playing time would not be increased today, so there is no way we would put a baseball game above this trip. His teacher is also giving extra credit to students who dress up as a spy. Alex was wearing shorts and t-shirt this morning when I told him, at Vicki's behest, to get his spy suit on. I got a really interesting look from him at that point (not my first one of the day). Besides, I told him I never want to see him wearing to school what he had on this morning. Just because it's a "tag day" (where they are allowed to wear something other than their uniforms), you still need to dress nice: not like you're heading outside to practice sliding into second in thunderstorm. Ugh. I admit I have very little fashion sense, but Vicki would have been pleasantly surprised that I caught that one.

We had about 5 or 6 inches of rain over the past few days, topped off by some really strong winds. On Mother's Day, at Vicki's parents' house, the kids did as they always do, and climbed the purple leaf plum tree. The next day, some of that wind blew this tree down. Now they need to convince Poppop to buy something else they can climb on.

Finally, here's some pictures of Kearsyn at the park the other day.

Parental Rights Are Out the Window in California

As a homeschooling family, I guess we won't be moving to California, where a judge recently ruled against homeschooling your children. With the expense, waste of money, and demonstrable failure rate of our public schools, I can't believe people will allow this ruling to stand. In that state, now you must be a "credentialed" educator to teach kids, even your own. Of course, the state will determine who gets those credentials, and what requirements must be met to receive such credentials; as if a credentialed government employee is better suited to take care of children than their parents, including all areas of their education.

I can understand the need to fix abusive situations, but you need to show abuse before you start denying all parents the right to raise and educate their own kids.

I'd go into this more, but I have to get back to homeschooling my kids...

Algebra I

Connor is eleven. He is (age-wise) in 6^th grade. Today, he started Albebra I. I really wanted to hold off on advancing him to Algebra, but I simply ran out of stuff that challenged him in math. At least we don't have to feel rushed to get through this material, like I was with Alex. He started Alg I late in eighth grade, and never actually finished Alegebra I before getting placed in Algebra II in ninth grade.

This kind of thing is Reason #2 for Homeschooling.

Community Service

Some of us homeschoolers got together yesterday for a small community service project, cleaning up some flower beds, planting some Fall/Winter ornamental plants, and spreading mulch at the Chesapeake Exploration Center. The kids, especially the older ones, actually did do some of the work. Five of mine are in that picture, somewhere.

First Day of School...ok, I'm serious this time.

God gave us a fantastic first day of school today. We did have that one dress rehearsal day last week, but that was kind of shaky and it was still August, so I didn't really count it. Today, Alex left bright and early, at 7 am to catch the county bus to his school. The rest of us headed to the classroom to start our school day at 8 am.

I didn't really stress getting every little thing done, but it all got done regardless. Kenzie and Connor went their own ways to work out their schedules on their own. Kenzie had a few issues, like not spending sufficient time on some subjects and not reading instructions carefully enough, but I addressed that with her, and we'll see what happens tomorrow. I still haven't checked her work for the day, which will tell me if she devoted enough time and effort to the job. Connor took longer to do all his work, and he's always been pretty conscientious about his work (we won't discuss the cheating episode of last year; I think he's felt enough guilt over that to last a while; especially after confessing it all Father Jennings, our pastor) but, again, I haven't checked today's work yet. Both Connor and Kenzie have been eager to start school this year, for some reason, so i don't expect too many problems, at least for a little while.

Tay and ty are usually my most daunting projects. They are SO different, not only from each other, but from all the other students I've taught. I have begun by splitting them up this year. I am going to try teaching them Religion, History, and Science together, because they take turns doing a lot of out-loud reading and I want them to get good at reading and following while somebody else (not me) is reading. Then they split up for Math and Language Arts, which is where they differ so much. They either do different things in the same room, or I send one away while I teach the other; depends on the moods we all experience at any given time. Tay clams up, Ty turns on the waterworks. Today, I dealt with both scenarios much better than I have in the past. This is evidence that my prayers for calm, patience, wisdom, etc. may be reaching God's ears. Taylor even practiced piano after he finished his classwork.

Bekah also started some preschool stuff, even though she doesn't even turn 3 until October. Kenzie took that job from me. She had more fun helping Bekah cut and paste and learn some letters and numbers than Bekah did, I think. (It also keeps Kenzie busy until I get time to help with her stuff)

Alex's high school soccer team had their first official game today. They lost, 3-2, but Alex wound up being a starter at Halfback, which I am very proud of. He has worked very hard at the practices, and it seems to have paid off. I credit today's loss with his team's bus sitting in traffic for three hours because of a school bus accident (not his bus) en route to the game, which started over an hour late. Because the team had to leave school a couple hours early, he missed a couple classes for which he had to get today's work last week. Well, he worked very hard over the weekend to get all his work done, without complaint. I have to say that I am very proud of him. I'm going to have to stop grumbling so much about all the upheavals this new school thing has caused us. Alex is dealing with it all very well so far (much better than I).

Well, tomorrow is the Next Day Of School. We'll have to see how it goes.

School Notes

The check is in the mail. Really, it is. Alex's tuition check, that is. Ugh. Almost four times what we usually pay for homeschool books for all the kids for a whole school year. Plus, I had to buy his books, which have been trickling in from various sources. I went on a scavenger hunt for his books on the web. Overall, compared to publisher's prices, I saved about half by buying books (mostly used; some only available new, but I still got them cheaper than list price) from Amazon, half.com, and ecampus.com. Next comes the bill for $500 in "fees", whatever that means; then the uniform expenses. Luckily, Alex is small and we have some hand-me-downs from friends. He has plenty of shirts, but we'll have to buy pants, shoes, etc. We'll just have to start selling more eggs.

Once again, I flipped (or is that flopped; I feel like John Kerry) on the public school vs home school issue for the twins. With Alex going off to private school, and the baby hopefully not being SO needy (yeah, right) this coming school year, and Bekah's old enough to start doing some pre-pre-K stuff (maybe keep her a little busier with crayons, etc), I've decided to try it again with Tay and Ty. This time, I'm going to try to teach them completely separate from each other; one in the a.m., one in the p.m. And I'll try not to get so uptight when one surpasses the other in a particular subject and vice versa. I started ordering my homeschool books, and they've begun arriving as well. We're going to use a combination of curricula, mostly from Seton and A Beka with a smattering of Apologia, Sonlight, Alpha Omega, and Horizon. Seton stuff is on the way. A Beka stuff I'm going to order at a show next month to save on shipping costs. The rest, I have or will order as needed. I'm really going to see the credit card bills when they start coming in. We haven't paid interest on a credit card for a decade, now, and, God willing, we won't have to now.

Annual check-ups start today. All the kids get their physicals in the Summer, despite when their birthdays fall on the calendar. This avoids having to take well people to a sick office in the Winter. Today is Tay and Ty's turn. Next Thursday, Alex and Connor. The following Thursday, the girls. It gets a little hectic, but it's better than trying to schedule all this stuff during the school year.

I'll leave you with a baby picture from this morning. Keary just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Serves her right, for getting me up early this morning. Of course, this cat nap only lasted about ten minutes.

WOW

Vicki's Blog expresses our excitement about Alex and his acceptance and exceptional placement in classes at his new high school. I just needed to add my praise for Alex,as well. Again, when we started homeschooling four years ago, Alex was entering 5th grade, testing at 3rd grade in math. Four years later, a private, Catholic school placement test places him in Honors Algebra 2. WOW.

God has led us through this journey, and all credit goes to Him. I never would have dreamed of doing this on my own, and I thank Him, and pray that He continues to carry us through this homeschool experience. He has answered my questions concerning the continuation of homeschool for the rest of the kids. Despite the many failings that result from our human weaknesses, with Him we will continue to be successful. We only need to 'bend' enough to do it His way.

Egg Update

No eggs yesterday, but we got one this morning. Kenzie's getting a little impatient for full production to begin, but I think she's got a couple weeks to wait before we see that. At least she has an egg to eat for lunch today.

Alex begins guitar lessons tonight. I told him the secret this morning. I figured part of the fun would the anticipation of starting his lessons, and I didn't want to deprive him of that. I'm trying to show him good things happen to those who earn them. He's done well this week, except for a slight slide in yesterday's language arts work. He's been very stubborn about learning a couple concepts that I have to repeat over and over and over again. That's true of everybody, though. They (We) all have things that we just can't seem to get stuck into our brains. I'll just have to keep stuffing into the one ear whatever keeps falling out of the other ear.

Homeschool Update

Alex has shown a lot of improvement over the past week, at least in the amount of effort he's willing to put into his work. I know that he has a lot of trouble with studying. He just doesn't understand how to do it. I, personally, never had to put much effort into learning stuff at his age: things came kinda naturally. So, even though I can teach the 'stuff', I'm not great at teaching how to get the 'stuff' into the head. This past week, Vicki has been working with Alex to help him learn methods for doing this. I know I didn't do much of what she had to do, because she and Alex have been spending many hours together, going over material for Alex to learn. He has done much better on some of the re-tests I have given him, even the science test I had make up from scratch. I hope this trend continues. I'm going to help it along by limiting, even more, everyone's "electronics" time at home. I already try to limit their electronics, but hopefully less time in front of video games should give everyone more time in front of books.

On another note, Alex attended his first meeting at our volunteer fire department last night. As he submitted his application to become a Junior Volunteer, they asked him if he'd like to stay for their bimonthly (semimonthly? twice a month. I always get those two prefixes mixed up. so much for my learning stuff without studying...) fireman's meeting. Naturally, he stayed. I guess all went well, because when Vicki picked him up, he was in the middle of a crowd of volunteers, looking like he already belonged. Plus, they all said, "See ya next meeting", as he left. They still need to vote on his membership, but that seems to be only a minor formality. I still have no idea what a Junior Volunteer does, but I know he won't be going on any emergency calls. He's allowed to hang around the firehouse and, I guess, begin learning about what the volunteers do, and helping out around the station. The fire chief also told me Alex may be allowed to go on non-emergency calls (no clue what that would be: maybe a house fire, or brush fire, or something) where he could help the firemen in the background, getting them drinks and stuff.

I had my doubts about adding something else, like this, to his schedule, but, like with SSPP, it's something he's getting more and more excited about all the time. Maybe it'll be some motivation to get, and keep, his grades up. I also think it's the kind of thing where he can put in as much, or as little, time as he can manage. We also have another surprise for him coming up soon that I can't mention because he might read this. I'll bring it up later, and let you what it is and how it went.

Alex's Roller Coaster

Remember the struggle I was having with Alex? No energy; no initiative; lots of resistance to anything and everything; no input or effort regarding the near term future of his education; etc. Well, my old Alex has emerged.

Sunday evening, at our church's Youth Group meeting, the local (for us, local means about 40 minutes away by school bus) Catholic school principal paid a visit to promote a private, Catholic high school education. This is kinda EXACTLY what I've been talking at Alex about for the past two months, which he's been resisting with every fiber of his being. That one little talk did everything all my efforts failed in doing. He has become energized and excited about something. All the things about private school that were not good (uniforms, long commute, too much money, etc) that he was feeding me (and which I countered as not being real obstacles) are now minor inconveniences, or even positives ("Dad, I won't have to worry about what to wear if everyone is wearing a uniform!"--where have I heard that before).

Now, of course, deadlines are approaching for enrollment, but this has not deterred Alex. Where, before I couldn't get to him to even think about getting involved in the admissions process, he is now calling people in the community, asking for letters of reference. He is chomping at the bit to go to a shadow day (which we arranged for Monday) and to go to the admissions interview with the principal (also Monday). He has not even balked at taking the placement tests (which he despises more than broccoli).

I am so thrilled to see this change in him! I hope it lasts. He has even shown a renewed energy in homeschool stuff, with the prospect of attending SSPP (the Catholic School) next Fall.

As far as the rest of our lives, it's still incredibly busy around here. Earlier on Sunday, we had both sides of the family over to the house, to celebrate the January birthdays. That was fun. No arguments or even serious debates, which are difficult to avoid when we all get together. I tend to be a wee bit more conservative than my school-administrator FIL. And my mother and I also seem to have at least one major disagreement whenever we talk to each other.

Yesterday, we all went to the dentist. They lined up two hygienists to work on our family, in tandem. Of course, we also had other things to do at the same time. The dentist appt. was at 9; I had to get Tay and Bekah to their play-date ate Secret Garden at 10. We squeezed Tay and me in first, then I took Tay and Bekah (and Kearsyn came for the ride) to their playtime, while Vicki stayed to finish teeth-cleaning with the rest of the crew. They all got home just in time for lunch, then off to piano lessons for Tay, Kenz, and Connor. Tyler was in his typical mood, and wouldn't do his piano homework, so I made him stay home. I talked to his teacher, and said something's gotta be done differently, or Tyler's going to be pulled out of piano. Ray said he'd try some new things, starting next lesson, but I'm not going through this battle much longer. Tyler's young enough where he can start piano again in the future, if he decides he wants to.

Ok, I've spent long on this blog this morning. Gotta go and get folks moving. We missed a school day yesterday and I don't want to miss another one. It may snow enough for the sledding hill (yes the hill: there is only one for miles and miles) to be useful on Friday, so we may be taking Friday off, too. With this warm Winter, we have to make use of any snow we get before it melts, even it means taking off school.

Thanks, Ron, and Others

I don't know who you are or where you came from (I have a good idea, though, considering all the pray that has been going in to this decision), but your comments could not have been more well timed or appropriate for the situation we've been going through.

In about twelve hours, we're scheduled to go sign Alex up for government school. A phone call tomorrow morning will cancel this appointment. Who would have thought that this decision would seem to be such an earth-shattering one to make? But it has turned my life upside down lately. Vicki and I just finished another talk with Alex. Somehow, over the past few days, Vicki has managed to get a few snippets from Alex, expressing his concerns and problems. From our talk tonight (us talking, and him grunting a little, when appropriate), we decided to try and make some adjustments to how we do things around here, before transferring him to school.

I have been talking to many people about this, trying to get advice, including my parents, who have always been opposed to homeschooling our children. The recurring theme (other than from my parents) has been: it makes more sense to try to fix what we have before making the major move of sending Alex off to public school. It took a stranger's comments to drive this message home at the eleventh hour. Pretty cool how the Holy Spirit works, huh?

I have had many people helping me in this process, through prayer and advice. I don't think we're finished; now we have to actually implement the changes we decided on, so please keep it coming.

Thank you all so much.

The School Conundrum

I want to thank Ron for his comment to my last post. It has inspired me to elaborate on our current homeschool conundrum.

It all began six years ago when Alex was in second/third grade (public school, or government school as I sometimes refer to it). To make a long story short, we noticed that he was being passed through the grades without really understanding the lessons, primarily in Math. The "new" math curriculum was such that Vicki and I had no way to help him because we didn't understand these "new" ways of teaching this subject. After two years of futilely attempting to get help and answers from the school, we threw our hands in the air, and pulled Alex and Connor out of the system we deemed broken. Alex had just been promoted to fifth grade; Connor to second. BTW, Connor's issues were antithetical to Alex's. In first grade, by March/April, Connor had completed all the material available to his teacher, who had "run out" of material to give Connor and essentially just began to give him busy work until the school year ended. That was unacceptable to us.

Skip ahead. I now have five students, a two year old, and a three month old in the classroom. The grades I teach are 8, 5, 3,and two first graders. Of course, all but the first graders are not really doing grade level work. Alex is almost finished ninth grade math. Keep in mind, when I began homeschooling him, he was at least two years behind, in math comprehension. Connor is advanced in all but Science, as is McKenzie, who I think is 'the most' advanced, compared to where her brothers were at the same age. Over the years, each of the older three has become more and more independent; as they could handle more, I let them have it. Now, other than review and checking (I check and discuss all their work, every day, to make sure they understand their lessons, which are pretty much self-guided), they are pretty much on their own until they come to me for help with some new concept.

The problem. Recently, meaning since about the beginning of this school year, Alex has become less and less enthusiastic about just about everything. He maintains a high level interest, to the point of a life's passion, in the care and well being of his siblings. He loves his baby sister, feeds her, changes her, looks after her whenever he can. Same with Bekah, the two-year-old. Oh, and of course, he'd spend every other waking moment in front of PlayStation or cartoons, if I let him. He won't show any interest in anything else. He even says he doesn't want to play baseball this Spring. Playing baseball has always been the reason for existence, for him. I've tried talking with him, to get him to understand that he can have a say in what he does, if he just talks about it. I'm answered by silence and shoulder shrugs. I'm chalking the change up to the beginnings of puberty, but that doesn't make it easier for me to deal with in the middle of all the other things going on around here. I don't want to throw away this school year by continuing to do something that simply has not been working; that is: he and I butting heads every day over his school work. I still am not confident that I know exactly what he wants. He's said he wants to try school again. But he's also said that he doesn't. And he's never given a reason for either option. Well, since we do want to do what's best for him, the first step seems to be changing the situation we're currently in. The only way to do that, within our budget, is to send him back to the government school for at least the remainder of this school year. We'll see what happens from there.

I've talked to friends and family. No one has the answer, except that what's happening now is not what's best for this family. I still feel a little uncomfortable about sending him back to school, but it doesn't have to be a permanent decision.

We are scheduled to meet with the school tomorrow morning to get Alex registered. The third quarter starts on the 24^th, his birthday, so he'll have about a week to acclimate to the new arrangement before his grades will start to count. Nothing else to do now except wait and see how it goes. I don't think it'll be worse than staying home and doing what we've been doing (I also don't think it'll be any better, but you never know).

Off To Our Review

This state is not the best when it comes to being homeschool-friendly, but there are worse. The one big pain in the binder is that we have to go to the county Board of Education office twice a year to get "monitored". It's like a reverse parent-teacher conference where, instead of the teacher showing the parent what they've done in school for the past semester, the parent has to show the county representative what they've done at home. Technically, all I have to do is show them a portfolio (no grades or tests are required) of representative work in each subject the government schools would have attempted to teach in their school. In reality, we pack up almost everything we did for the past 4 months (plus the work we did over the summer) and lug it all down to Centreville. The monitors are usually former government school teachers turned homeschooler, so they are very easy to deal with; they know exactly what we homeschoolers are going through. Rather than being a difficult ordeal, it's fun for me to talk about and compare homeschool curricula with them. There are other options available that would get me out of having to cart the troops to the county office, but I kinda look forward to the feedback I get. Also, the kids' grandfather (Vicki's dad) is HR Director for the Board of Education and, as he works in the building we'll be going to, we get to go cause a bit chaos in his office (whether he's in or not, the ladies that work in his office love to see the kids on their semi-annual visit). Plus, today is Poppop's birthday, so hopefully he'll be there when we arrive.

The really really nice thing about today is that we'll be done school until January 2. Government schools are open all week, so this is the kids' treat, being off for an extra few days before Christmas.