A New Role

A year ago, I was just a mom. Last year, I was a preschool teacher. This year, I'm a first grade teacher. I'm scared.

Being a mom isn't easy. Looking back, though, it seemed much less complicated than what I'm dealing with, now. By no means do I want to devalue the education and work of a preschool teacher. Still, I chose to go pretty light on the structured teaching and make it seem less like work for them. That resulted in a lot of fun, self-guided learning.

This summer, I've got two six-year-olds who I am proud of. They can at least count to fifty (we sometimes make them count each push in order to get pushed on the swing set, but we stop at fifty), sound out complicated words, recognize an array of simple words, sound out to spell with improving accuracy, and understand the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Socially, I'm noticing that one is much more observant and adept than the other, but they're both beginning to understand the significance of being individuals. They're learning that other people have needs and feelings, and that is really important considering all of us have to live in the same house.

As an aside, I think that point might be significant to new parents (and I know quite a few). Kids aren't just born knowing that other people have needs and feelings. When I first had my twins, I'm not sure if I didn't know that, or if I just never really thought about it. All I can say is I certainly expected them to figure it out a lot sooner than they did. If you can avoid it, don't make that mistake.

According to my rudimentary internet research, kids don't typically start to really understand other people's feelings until between age 4 and 5, and it can be a pretty slow process from there. My twins are 6. They have more or less figured out the minefield of "other people's feelings", I think. Sometimes I think they truly believe their 3-year-old sister doesn't have any, but they typically treat others much better than they used to.

They don't understand other people's obligations. I still have to remind them that I don't, in fact, work for them. Sometimes I have important things to do, and setting up a game for them to play is less important than getting my driver's license renewed at the moment.

So, back to the point: This year, I have to submit a plan for homeschooling. I already wrote our plan, but there's not a lot of information available regarding what it has to include. Last year, I started out thinking I was going to track our contact hours, even though it wasn't required, just for practice. That didn't last long. Shortly after we started, I sent them to visit their dad and he didn't record almost anything. 

Now, I have to keep track of hours and show at least 172 days, averaging 4 hours per day. The idea of this is pretty daunting. I don't think that's a lot of time or that it will be a difficult goal to meet. The concern is that I have a whole year to make mistakes, forget to write things down, and worry about their hours.

This is pretty exciting. This year, I'm a teacher. But, again, I'm scared.

Not Going to Minnesota

We had planned a nice, summer trip to Minnesota this week. None of us have ever been, except for Papa, who grew up there. I hear it's beautiful, and the people are pleasant. A lot of Papa's family lives up there, still.

Admittedly, it was going to be a bit of a stretch for a few reasons. We did just get back from a week in Winter Park. With four kids, coming back from a vacation generally calls for some down-time. Not to mention, after that trip, and some lingering pay discrepancies from Papa's job change, we were going to have to borrow some money to make it to Minnesota. We have money enough to live our usual lives, and Papa is seeing chunks of his missing income showing back up here and there, but a long (probably two-day) drive is less affordable. You have to consider a hotel room, and a lot more fast food than we usually budget.

All of the logistics aside, we gave up on the plan to visit Minneapolis for one, big reason we couldn't simply solve: sick kids. In fact, I think Papa called his dad to cancel the day we found out the Cub had pneumonia. The Cub is still on antibiotics and S now has symptoms, too. C still has her tests to take care of. M is the only one who is in the clear, as far as I can tell.

Instead, we're staying home. I made the Cub a blanket, and plan to start on blankets for each of the girls. I bought cross stitching kits for the twins because they expressed an interest in learning to sew. Mostly, we're just taking it easy.

In other recent developments: M got a new bike. Ever since the day the twins had their training wheels removed, she's been trying to come up with impressive new things she can show me on her tricycle. All that confidence and showmanship made it apparent that her three wheels were holding her back. Now that she has her bike set up as a balance bike, like the twins did, she's much less interested in riding it. Hopefully that will change.

On the homeschool front: I've just finished up writing our plan for this year and dedicated an entry of my blog just to that. I have edited out our personal information in the version I'm making public. Also, it was three pages long, so I don't expect you to read it in its entirety.

Plan 2013

Homeschool Plan 2013

 

This year, we have two children who are six-years-old and will be seven on February 16^th. This will be their first grade year. My Name Was Here (their mother) will be their primary instructor. They will be educated mainly in the home.

Information

Name: C – 6 years old

Birthday: February 2007

 

Name: S – 6 years old

Birthday: February 2007

Address of Residence – Colorado

Days of Attendance – August 5 – May 16 Monday – Friday (with the exception of the week of Thanksgiving, the week of Christmas. Extra days included in case of unforeseen problems) We intend to include educational field trips and large projects on weekend days, throughout the year. We may trade those days for a week day off, or an early summer if, near the end of the year, we have already met our 180-day personal minimum.

Hours of Attendance – Irregular. At least four hours per day, when possible, with the expectation that we will average well over four hours per day at the end of the year.

What They Know

Coming into this year, they have met or surpassed what my research suggests they should know by now. They are both able to read, write, spell by sounding out, count to at least fifty, add, subtract, with vary degrees of skill and confidence.

They have become much more self-motivated over the last year, and better at following directions when given a list of commands, and even when directions were given some time before they can be followed.

We have already set the stage for learning about money, and they understand the days of the week, and how the calendar works, but there are definite gaps in their knowledge, here. They also have a very basic understanding of the clock (analog and digital). With regards to money, we have already taught them the values of coins.

There is already an established understanding of past, present, and future. We have talked, sometimes in great detail, about periods of history that they were interested in, such as prehistoric earth, and westward movement that resulted in the settlement of Colorado.

Last year, we began work with descriptions, asking them to describe to each other, or to us, what they were looking for. Verbs and nouns have already been presented by name and explained, but briefly. Capitalization and punctuation have been introduced as well.

They already have an understanding of the water cycle, what clouds are made of and how they are formed, and that rain is important for plants and animals. We have also discussed animal classification as well as the planets and our solar system.

One of our special focuses is on technology. Our six-year-olds have controlled access to their own computer. They have an art program and Scratch, which is a visual programming language. ,

What They Will Learn

Time and Money - We plan to reinforce their understanding of the days of the week and how the calendar works and help them understand the months of the year as well. Also, we will be strengthening their understanding of how to read hours and minutes, how many minutes are in an hour, and how many hours in a day. To improve their understanding of money, we will revisit that as well. Then, we will move on to math with coins and possibly work on how to make change.

Social Studies - Since we have built an understanding of our state, and our country over the past year, we plan to teach the about the original populations of North America, the European discovery of the continent, and the settlement of the East coast. We don’t plan to talk much more about the westward movement until later, because we feel that the cultural implications might require more maturity.

Math – We will review what they already know in counting, addition and subtraction. The basic concepts of multiplication and division (such as number groups – three groups of four is 3x4) will also at least be introduced and practiced.

Writing, Reading and English – We focus heavily on communication. They will be encouraged, and sometimes required, to practice description and definition skills with each other, and with adults. More parts of speech will be taught, with practice identifying them in sentences and alone. We will build on their basic understanding of capitalization and punctuation with short writing assignments and lessons about how and when to use proper noun capitalization, question marks, exclamation points, periods, commas, and quotation marks. This summer, we spoke briefly about how to determine fact and opinion. We will examine that further and they will be confident in that skill by the end of the year. They are already reading first grade level books with little trouble. We will continue reading every day, fortifying their phonics skills, and adding sight words to their reading vocabulary.

Science – We believe that a lot of science topics, at this age, should be determined by the interests of the children. So far, this has served them well because they’re always interested in what we’re teaching. However, there are a few topics we will definitely cover this year.

We will teach them about weather: some weather terminology, cloud types, storm types, fronts, types of precipitation, climate zones, and seasons.

Another important topic will be space travel. We plan to follow the activities of the space station and the progress of SpaceX, this year, as well as reaching into the past to discuss the moon landing, and many other successes and failures in space flight. Then, into the future and the prospect of reusable rockets, and maybe colonizing Mars (and why that would be beneficial to humans).

We will teach the different states of matter and how they appear, behave, and are structured differently.

Forces (push, pull, gravity, magnetism) will be explained and experimented with. We will test and observe how different forces effect different materials.

We will also review their understanding of animal classification, as we’re not sure they remember it clearly.

Technology – This year, the children will practice typing, mouse usage, navigating websites, and understanding some programming terms. We expect them to be able to write and send simple emails, type original ideas, or copy prewritten words, into a text program, and print.

Other – It is important to remember that these are homeschooled six-year-olds with a natural, and encouraged sense of curiosity. There are certain things we expect them to learn in order to keep up with state standards, but many things they learn will be unplanned. We believe in catering to their education rather than dictating it, whenever possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone else's gloves

A couple of months ago, when Papa's mom (Grandma J) was visiting, I was talking about gardening. For some reason, I mentioned that my gardening gloves, while they are basically adequate, really inhibit my ability to feel what I'm doing. They've got nice, reinforced palms and finger pads that protect me from the perilous spines on the stalks of thick weeds. But they are not good for digging or planting.

Grandma J had an idea. She suggested that she could mail me some of the blue nitrile gloves she uses when she works in her pottery studio. Not that she was absolutely certain they were the solution to my problem, but she thought it might be worth a try.

I got the package and, to be honest, I didn't try them right away. I was worried that the thorn-like bits on the weeds would just destroy them. Besides, I had already planted my garden and didn't really require gloves for maintenance.

One day when we were all doing yard maintenance, I found my usual gardening gloves, woefully neglected, laying near a spiderweb.

I'm not irrationally afraid of spiders. I feel like it is totally justified to be reticent to put my hand in a glove found so close to a spiderweb. I decided I was going to turn them inside out to check for arachnids.

Again, I'm not irrationally afraid of spiders. I believe it is totally natural to startle and drop your glove to the ground when something comes racing out of it at impressive speed. I can have a spider in my house, on my ceiling, above my bed... I can even have one in my hand without much worry. But when anything comes bolting out of the dark unknown, I panic.

It was decided: I was not going to wear my gardening gloves again until they had been washed. So I retrieved the Nitrile gloves and pulled them on (dramatically, like a TV surgeon). Then, I made creepy finger gestures. I'm not sure why, but I can nearly guarantee you that I have made creepy finger gestures every time I've put any kind of rubber gloves on. When I wear gloves to dye my hair, I make creepy hands. Dish washing gloves, too? Yes. When I was in Anatomy class and working in the cadaver lab, despite bad taste, I wiggled my fingers like a maniacal made scientist before getting back to serious business.

Predictably, the fingers were a bit too short for me, resulting in finger webbing that made me feel a bit like an otter. You can see what I mean in the picture on the left (click to enlarge). Grandma J, this is not to say your fingers are short, I just seem to have consistent trouble finding gloves of any kind with a good finger-length to palm-size ratio for me.

I pulled a lot of weeds. Many of them had sharp bits, but none of them "destroyed" the gloves, like I had thought they would. In fact, I could feel everything quite well, and the gloves survived the whole process. It was actually a nice experience.

Still sick kids

We went on vacation, and the Cub got sick. I wrote about that in my previous blog post. Since then, I've been telling everyone, "he's getting better" or, "he seems completely fine, now." So, before I get into the meat of this blog, let me assure all of you who have heard those reassurances: It was honestly true when I said it.

He had a fever… then he didn't. It came back, and it was gone. Throughout, he had a runny nose and a cough, but we figured he just got whatever cough his 6-month-old cousin had when we were all on vacation together. Her doctor had said not to worry about it, so we didn't worry about the cough. The Cub's doctor recommended that, if the fever persisted, we bring him in on Wednesday.

The Cub's fever was so sporadic that Wednesday came and went with no sign of it. Early Thursday morning, though, it was back. Once the clinic opened, Papa made him an appointment and checked his temperature again while getting him dressed… it was normal.

I had to take C to a check-up, scheduled for 10 minutes after the Cub's appointment. So, Papa took the Cub and S to his clinic, and I took C and M.

I'm not sure I'm comfortable sharing C's problems right now (for her own privacy), but her doctor referred her to the Children's Hospital for an abdominal ultrasound. Now, I wait for a call from them. After the ultrasound appointment, if I feel that her story is relevant or might be acceptable to share, I will.

The Cub, on the other hand, had a chest x-ray during his appointment. The doctor told Papa he really hoped it was pneumonia, because it definitely wasn't an ear infection, and all of the other possibilities were worse. A viral infection that he'd just have to soldier through… a blood infection… I'm glad I wasn't there. I would have been sick to my stomach. 

I'll save you the suspense: The Cub has pneumonia and is now on antibiotics. Everyone else around here sounds a little congested, so we'll see how that goes. 

I guess this is how it goes. We had a wonderful, fun, family-filled vacation… now back to the grind. :)

Family vacation

Summer vacation time! We just got back from Winter Park, CO, where we met up with a bunch of Papa's family. All of his brothers and sisters-in-law were there (except the pair who live in China), as well as his mom and step-dad. And, a lovely addition: one of his cousins, her husband, and their three-year-old daughter drove down from Minnesota.

I had never met the cousin and her family. Papa hadn't seen them in over two years. He has told me stories about things like locking her in a dog kennel when they were small, emphasizing that he only had older brothers, and she was like a sister to them.

We also hadn't seen one of the brothers (and his wife) since this time last year. His sister-in-law and I were both pregnant a year ago, and we delivered the cub and his baby cousin a mere four days apart, 1,200 miles distant. Anyway, this was the first chance we've had to meet their first daughter. Also, they finally got to meet the cub and all of the girls.

There were a lot of things we wanted to do while we were all together. On our list were things like boating, horseback riding, hiking, a s'mores event at a resort, the longest alpine slide, a blues festival, and maybe hot air ballooning.

We did manage to enjoy the s'mores, a ski gondola ride, trail riding, and blues festival, but hiking proved too much for both three-year-olds. Most of the other adults went kayaking, but we didn't join them, opting to do more kid-friendly things.

Each night, dinner was prepared by a different brother and/or his wife, with one night also assigned to the cousins. We had a build-your-own pasta bar, pulled pork, homemade pizza, halibut (which one of the brothers recently caught in Alaska), barbecue on the Fourth, and leftovers on the last day. We made the homemade pizza with fresh dough and sauce from my recipes. It was all delicious, but the girls have become frustratingly picky eaters, so we had grilled cheese with tomato soup instead of leftovers.

The Cub woke up sick on Friday. He was congested, feverish, and sleepier than usual, but still eating and we weren't worried about him... That is, until he threw up. He ejected a few ounces of formula in a big puddle right in the middle of his beloved space blanket. That went straight into the washing machine and Papa went straight to the phone. He called the nurse's line at the Cub's clinic, and they reassured us that we were doing the right things, and gave us specific signs to look for before taking him to the hospital.

He's almost entirely better, now. He still has a slight fever, and wants to sleep more often. When he's awake, though, he's his usual self.

A lot of games were played: checkers, shut the box, trivial pursuit, cranium, tsuro, cards against humanity, zombie dice, Monaco, bananagrams, spelunky, and kirbal space program.

A lot of fun was had. We're excited to see everyone again.