Our Homeschooling Adventure

I haven't written out my feelings and experiences with homeschooling Mark.  It seems a bit pointless now, though, because today was his first day back in public school- at his request.  The 'honeymoon' phase of homeschooling was over fast- in fact I'd dare say that it was a terrible honeymoon. 

We talked with Mark about what we would require of him if he were to homeschool.  We wrote down our goals for him and had him read them.  He agreed to our terms.  BUT, he didn't figure that we would follow through with them.  He figured that homeschooling would be easier than public school, that he could fly through his assignments within 2-3 hours a day, and that he could spend the rest of the day playing computer games.  Ummmm, do you want to take a look at that paper that we had you read?  It didn't allow for more than 2-3 hours of computer time and required 5-7 hours of study and volunteer time.  I didn't have all of the curriculum in place when we started, so I told him that he could do more of his computer programming and art each day until we got other things lined up.  He did the bare minimum of anything that he agreed to do. 

We had weekly meetings with me, Daniel and Mark.  Mark cried during all but two of the eight meetings that we had (not because we yelled at him or were mean, but because we told him that we would be adding more responsibility each week).  I cried after many of them.  The benefits of homeschooling (working at your own pace, spending time with family, field trips, setting your own schedule, etc.) are wonderful, but we couldn't allow Mark to homeschool without taking advantage of the academic benefits (learning more in depth about subjects, moving through textbooks more quickly,working on more subjects that aren't included in public school, etc). 

I have invested a lot of time into homeschooling.  The first half of my day is spent with Mark.  I enjoy his companionship (mostly), but I do not feel adequate to be his teacher in math and science.  I got a Bachelors of Arts, not a Bachelors of science for a good reason! I took algebra and I remember most of it, but I am not proficient in it.  He needed a better teacher.  Daniel is a great teacher and great at math, but he is really busy with work (two jobs/contracts right now plus cello and Tae Kwon Do) I did find a math resource that had instructional videos that we felt would help.  If I wasn't sitting down with Mark, he wouldn't work, but he figured that the hour that he just spent messing around while his math book was open counted as an hour of math being done.  I needed him to be more self-driven and show more effort (both issues were discussed in the afore mentioned paper)

We gave Mark an assignment to write two persuasive essays.  One on why he should homeschool and the other on why he should attend public school.  He had all day on Wednesday to do it, and we would discuss it at our weekly meeting on Sunday. Thursday was Thanksgiving so the day before and the day of I was super busy in the kitchen and shopping for groceries that I didn't check up on him.  On Friday I asked him if he had the essays done, and he threw a fit.  No, they weren't done- not even started- and he was mad that he had to do it.  We told him that he couldn't use the computer for anything until the essays were completed and turned in.  He sulked.  He was sour and mean to everyone.  A few hours later, Daniel was resting and Paul, Seth, Jane and I decided to go outside to play (the weather has been amazingly warm for November!) I decided to go and check on Mark and  I discovered that he had snuck onto the computer!  He retreated to his bedroom.  As I went upstairs, I realized that his journey  to homeschool was over. 

By Saturday morning, Mark hadn't started his essays.  Daniel gave him a deadline of noon.  If they weren't done, then he would definitely go to public school.  At noon he handed in two pages with bullet points on them.  It wasn't an essay and it was done very sloppily.  His objections to public school mounted to not wanting to stand at the bus stop in the cold weather and not being able to pick his schedule.  He said that reasons to not do homeschooling is because he has to work harder to be social (a requirement on our paper!) and he had to work harder with his school work.  He put "I'd have to put more effort into my studies.  It's not that I don't mind, but I really enjoy being lazy."

Homeschooling has to work for the family. Daniel was ready to call it quits after the first month.  Paul chided Mark a few weeks into our adventure saying, "You are ruining my chances to homeschool".  I wanted to work things through and over time get things to be how we wanted them to be. Right now I can't put the work and effort into his learning if he is going to be lazy.  I didn't realize exactly how much work it would be for me.  I really hoped that Mark would be a better independent learner.  We have no immediate plans for homeschooling any of our other children (except for Jane for preschool). I love that each family has the option for doing things to work for their family.

After 8 weeks of homeschooling, I am done.  I have mixed emotions about how things went.  I didn't expect this to make me feel so stupid- and teaching algebra made me feel that way (it has been nearly 16 years since I took algebra).  I didn't expect that I would cry so much over all of this (perhaps I would have cried over other things anyway- it has been a rough patch for me). 

Could we have made this work?  Maybe.  I'm positive that it would take a big toll on Mark and Daniel's relationship- it already had. Things may have worked out over the next year.  I was dedicated to doing it for a year, but Mark wasn't dedicated to doing it the way we had outlined at all.  I wonder if we had been doing homeschooling all along if it would have gone differently.  We  could have done things differently. We could have given this more time and perhaps had things turn around.  We struggled with knowing when to keep going and knowing when it was time to call it a day. 

Public school is going to be a lot of work for Mark.  He will be bored in class.  He will spend just under an hour walking through the hallways to change classes.  He will be subject to foul language and possibly bullying.  He will be surround by (gulp) girls (yes, he notices girls!).  He will learn to adhere to the rules set before him or reap the consequences.  He will struggle with deadlines. These are things that he will adapt to.  He will need to make choices as to what kind of person he wants to be and who he wants to associate with.  I am excited for him to make these choices- to watch him progress and become a young man.  He has been armed with the ability to make good choices.  It is up to him.  That is hard to accept as a parent.  I have to allow him to fail. 

I mentioned that he cried at all but two of our meetings.  The last meeting we had, I expected him to cry and throw a fit at us when we discussed the idea of him going back to public school, but he didn't.  He was very calm, easy to talk with, and almost relieved.  If he wasn't relieved, he was resigned.  He didn't want to do homeschooling OR public school, so he had to decide between the two.  He decided to go to public school (with a bit of persuasion on our part!).

I am at peace with our decision (but the house sure seems quiet today!)

Happy Birthday Seth!

Seth is 8 years old today!  He had a fun birthday party last Saturday.  He wanted it to be a science themed party, but he wanted the details (including his gift) to be a surprise!  He said that he wanted a surprise, but not a girl toy.  It was a little bit frustrating trying to figure out what he wanted, but I am glad that he feels content with what he has and doesn't feel like he NEEDS something. 

 

The weather was beautiful for a November in Utah until the day before his party.  It snowed all day long and Saturday was a super cold day (high of 34 degrees!)  We were going to do a Mentos/Diet Cola bomb, but it was way too cold and snowy to venture outside for the party.  (We could have done it, but I didn't want to deal with all of the wet shoes in the house afterward!)

 

I haven't done a themed party in a long time.  I know that the kids really just don't understand the amount of work that goes into the decorations and events, but it was good for me to do at least one fun party for Seth before he gets too old for themes! 

For the lab coats: I bought white t-shirts and cut them down the front (size boys xl) no sew and simple! 

Name tags: I wrote "Dr. Seth" and on the bottom it said, "Now let us pause for a moment of science"

Lab glasses: sunglasses from the party department at Walmart.  I punched out the lenses, cut off the silly stickers on the sides and wrapped tape around the middle. 

I didn't get a picture of the decontamination station, but I cut two plastic table cloths into long strips and hung them on the ceiling next to the bathroom.

 

 

The first thing we did was make pizzas.  Each scientist got to put on his own toppings.

 

Then they helped me blow up some balloons with vinegar and baking soda.  We used the vinegar/baking soda trick again with food coloring on spoons to help determine groups for the rest of the party.

 

The green group went to the dry ice bubbles first.  My friend Shelley has a cool machine that makes fun bubbles.  This was definitely the hit of the party!  Thank you so much for helping out with the party Shelley! (A big thanks to your grandpa for making the machine!)

 

 

When the bubbles pop the mist that was trapped in the bubble is left and it is a lot of fun!

  

 

It was even "cool" enough for the big boys to play with it!

 

Jane had a blast running around to the different stations.  Her favorite was the dry ice bubbles!

 

We had a container with dry ice, water and soap.  It produced tiny bubbles that they could play with.  It was the same concept as the big bubble machine, but on smaller (and not as impressive) scale!

 

 

You can see the yellow and green decontamination station in the upper left side of this picture!

 

While waiting for their turn to play with the dry ice bubbles, the kids played with magnets, a reflection table,  and flashlights with water balls.  After they had their turns with the games, they ate lunch.  Daniel was hard at work in the kitchen getting the pizza ready. 

 

 

 



Seth requested brownies for his cake. 

 

 

Jane playing with the water balls in a test tube.

The kids played with balloons.  They got them to float in the air above the fan.  I put a hex bolt in some of the balloons.  If you spin the bolt around inside of the balloon, it will make a fun sound.  The boys loved making the noises (I planned this for the last thing to do before going home!) We sent the boys home with a kit to make snow at home and a set of rattling magnets. 

 

The experimenting didn't end when the party ended!  We played around with the water balls, we held lights to them, bounced them, smashed them, froze them! These are little balls that you can get in the floral department for floral arrangements.  They absorb water  and grow bigger.  They look a lot like bath beads.  I dumped them into one large container after the party, and the next day the colors had all blended together!  Instead of yellow, red, orange and green balls we had brown! 

Seth Paul and Mark playing with the tornado machine that was a birthday gift from Carson.  I decided to give Seth a plasma ball, he was surprised and loves it!

Having Daniel take over kitchen duties was a ton of help!  This isn't the best picture of him, but I wanted to show that he was there!  Daniel even wore the glasses! 

The party was a great success! 

 

Happy birthday Seth!  I'm glad that you had such a fun day! 

 

Now I need to figure out what to surprise him with for Christmas!

September and October in a Blur

I am so far behind on my blogging.  Lately I have just felt 'off'.  Nothing horrible, but I've just been unable to get into a rhythm since the summer.  It is messing with me more than I'd like to admit. I'm going to do a quick catch up and then hopefully get things back together. 

This post is huge- lots of pictures.  It is my 300th post, so I might as well make it a 'special' one right?!

Here is a round-up of what we did in September:

Labor Day: Shelley and her boys joined me and the boys on an adventure to Red Butte Gardens, Ensign Peak and a tour of the Utah State Capitol building. 

It was hot and Mark was feeling very photogenic! 

 

 

Paul created a ninja comic strip.  I love his little ninja!

Jane loves to help the boys empty the dishwasher in the mornings.  I just noticed that Paul is giving Jane rabbit ears.

We went to City Creek Mall in SLC for my birthday dinner.

Paul left me a birthday message in the bathroom after he cleaned it.

Paul gave me a frowny face during his least-favorite exercise in Tae Kwon Do

Paul made a pyramid with the blocks at Lowe's.

 Sorry, this next picture is gross. 

We had a piece of plastic fall into the dishwasher, so I had to take it apart to get it out.  This is only some of the disgusting mess that I found (note- our dishwasher was working fine- or so I thought!) once I removed the blades and such.  I already cleaned out a lot of the junk before I took a picture.  So gross.  So gross.  I got the parts soaked and scrubbed, put it back together and smiled!  I did it!  Then the door handle broke the next week, so I ordered the part, removed the front panel and replaced the door handle mechanism!  I saved us a couple hundred dollars!  I am so proud of myself! 
 

 

 

October

Paul and Seth were off-track from school for the first 3 weeks of October.  We went to Kennecott Copper Mines with my sister Kim and her kids

Me and Kim

Seth and Nathan

Afterward, we went to the park and had a picnic lunch.  Jane climbed this play structure and loved it, but it had me scared.  She climbed to the top and was about 12 feet up in the air! She had no fear!

 

 

At least I know that she was concentrating- she had her tongue out most of the time!

The boys had a Tae Kwon Do demonstration at their old elementary school in West Jordan. Paul was picked to do a flying side kick that was pretty impressive.  He jumped over 6 boys and broke the board that Master Hong was holding!  I was a bit emotional watching him because it was a tricky move and he was a little bit nervous! 

Seth and Paul took archery lessons.  The instructor was really impressed with Paul.  Paul was able to hit the small target most of the time (usually kids are given the large target like the one that Seth is using)

We picked pumpkins at the farm next to our house. Jane was pushing the wheelbarrow without picking it up, so she quickly abandoned the wheelbarrow because it wouldn't move far!

Paul and Seth

Right after this picture was taken, the wind picked up and a huge dust storm blew over us.  We ran as fast as we could to the van to escape!  I didn't notice the huge clouds until it was too late!  They moved in fast!

We spent an afternoon at the Living Planet Aquarium.  We had season passes that expired at the end of October, so we decided to get one more visit in.  The aquarium will be moving to a new building soon, so it will be fun to visit the new exhibits.

I didn't even have to ask them to pose!

Daniel's family came into town again.  This time it was to get together with Nathan (Daniel's brother) to say good-bye to him before he was deployed again (Afghanistan?  I don't remember where he is going.) We had a lunch planned over at our house at noon.  We had about 30 people over for lunch.  We sat and talked and joked and played.  Around 5 o'clock I realized that no one was showing a sign of leaving, so we made up a huge batch of rice and a chicken stir-fry and we licked all of the bowls clean!  I spent a lot of time in the kitchen that day, but it was worth it.  We all had a great time.  We had family in from Arizona, California, Colorado and Illinois.  Of the 14 living children, 12 of them were able to be there!  It was great to see family, to meet new babies and to visit. People started to leave around 9 at night and the house was 'empty' by 10:30.  (A big thank you to Andrea for the photos!)

Chad, Deb and Jaxon

Daniel and Jane

Most of the grandchildren

Nathan photo-bombing.  He wasn't feeling well and went to the hospital that night because he had strep throat.  When I found that out the next morning, Daniel and I disinfected every surface in the house that we could.  Thankfully none of us got sick too.  We felt badly that Nathan spent part of his leave being sick.   

Janet

Mark and Alys

Most of the group

Me

Jane

We received a surprise package a few days later from Daniel's parents.  The note said: "We can't thank you enough".  The flowers came on a very dreary day, so they helped lift my spirits! I didn't get a great picture of the flowers, but they were beautiful.  Each day the lilies opened a bit more and it was fun to watch them!   

 

We went to Scheels to see what it was all about.  We are now homeschooling Mark, so he was able to join us on our adventure with Madeleine!

Madeleine showed Jane some jewlery and she got very excited!

Jane patiently waited for the boys to finish their ride on the ferris wheel.

Seth at the school Halloween party

Carving pumpkins

Halloween night.  Mark stayed home and handed out the candy in exchange for a bag of Butterfingers and a box of cereal! 

So there you have it! I'm all caught up (well, at least for those months!)