When Extracurricular Activities Need to Take a Backseat

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My old high school, Mar Vista High, has an awesome alumni website thanks to the effort of a single alum, Henry Vargas Ascasio.

Occasionally, we receive a bulk email with a request from a current student who needs financial assistance for a unique {academic} opportunity. This morning I received the following forwarded message from the webmaster:

FIRST EMAIL
Hello Henry Vargas my name is Keith B***** you might know some of my uncles. Well I wanted to ask you of you could maybe help me put the word out there for me because I have been selected to be part of the Bands of America Honor Band with will be marching in the 2013 Tournament of Roses Parade. I am in mar vista high schools band an ROTC an cheer team. I need to raise 2,500$ for this once in a life time chance. So if you could please help me get to word out to all the mariners to see of any of them could maybe help out a younger mariners to get a one in a life time chance I am one of two kids from California an we represent the whole state. After high school I plane to join the marines an be a marine musician I love playing my tuba I am a tuba player an I have two more years left at MVHS. I am a mariner for life an thank you for your time to read this an please can you get the words. Out to all the mariners also I am attaching  my letter of being selected to this wonderful Band an one in a life time chance

Mo peas, tank 'oo!

My little man Ilyas started speech therapy last week. We are very blessed to have one of the best speech programs for preschoolers in the San Diego school district only 2 minutes from our house!

I'm very happy to see him being encouraged to use his words! His second lesson he said, "Mo color peas, Miss Howee." (More color please, Miss Holly.) He's now intimating this same concept at home.

He still has a way to go - but I'm excited to eventually see our days of communication frustration come to an end!

Homeschooling is Pure Entertainment!

Homeschooling my kids has been an entertaining experience. Is it frustrating at times? Absolutely. However, I've laughed so many times it's almost worth the frustration.

Last week Miss Halimah met with her "check-up" teacher to assess her for her first grade courses. I brought her to the assessment confident she would do extremely well (based on her performance at home thus far). Unfortunately in the beginning she was a bit shy, during the middle she started getting sassy and was making mistakes, and by the end she wasn't paying attention.

Link: The Public School Parents' Guide to Homeschool Parents

I came across an awesome post, The Public School Parents' Guide to Homeschool Parents, discussing several misconceptions about homeschoolers.

Sufficient Practice?

I admit, while I'm not particularly fond of it, homeschooling Aaliyah is relatively easy. She is extremely bright, and I don't just say that as her mom, she really picks up on stuff and has a stellar memory.

She also excels in science and math... she started 1st grade math when she was still in Kindergarten... and now she has completed her 1st grade math and is ready to move into 2nd grade math while she's still in 1st grade. I emailed her "teacher" to let her know Aaliyah is nearly finished and maybe set up an assessment so she can order Aaliyah's 2nd grade math curriculum... here's the email I get:

Thanks for the heads up on A’s progress, I dint’ realize she was that close. I am trying to get through the end of the semester paperwork so I am kind of behind on that. You are really moving through the curriculum quickly, that is good, but I just want to make sure A. is getting all of the material and having sufficient practice. I want to look at what she is completing more closely. I will contact you next week so that we can chat about things in more depth.

I didn't think we were moving through the curriculum quickly... we might have been a little ahead, but not by a significant amount. The school allots 1 hour for math each day. Aaliyah can do about 2-3 math lessons in 1 hour. So, if we truly spent an hour each day, then she would most definitely finish early.

I was also told that if Aaliyah knows the material that I can go ahead and have her take the assessment and move on. Now, all of a sudden, we're moving too quickly? I guess I'm just a little bothered by the fact that one of the great points of homeschooling is so the child can progress at their own pace... and now we're going to be evaluated because of it.

Believe me, I'm not doing any more work than I have to - again, I'm not particularly fond of homeschooling myself - I believe in it, I just don't like doing it (in all honesty I don't have the patience for homeschooling). What do you think?

Our Adventures in Homeschooling...

Yes, miraculously, we're still homeschooling! Halimah is about to start kindergarten in a few weeks and I will be officially homeschooling 2 kids! Admittedly, I'm nervous and a little overwhelmed... I've had more than a few panic attacks just at the thought of homeschooling both girls at the same time.

I thought, maybe, if I share my fears with my husband he would reconsider this whole homeschooling thing and let me send the kids to a semi-private charter school. No luck... hubby said he would help teach Halimah's math and science instead. Honestly, kindergarten math and science are so simple that his teaching those subjects wouldn't be a big relief. However, at the same time it would be nice to give him a small taste of my frustration - especially when the enthusiasm for doing school starts to wane.

I'm finally being more active with the kids - mainly because I'm starting to feel more like myself... I still have major irritability issues, but I'm much more active than I was before. Aaliyah is required to do at least 20 minutes of physical education every day - so we are now taking family walks through the neighborhood for 30 minutes or so. Yesterday we walked to the park, I let the kids play a little and then we walked back home. It was soooo hot, Halimah asked if we could go swimming instead. HA!

Although I would prefer to send the kids to school, for my own sanity, I've pretty much succumbed myself to the fact I'm going to be forever homeschooling. However, the amount of homework kids get sent home with these days - it's probably better that we homeschool because at least I can enjoy my afternoons and evenings without having any homework - we get all the work done first thing in the morning!

It's Spring Break...

Finally - a much needed break from homeschooling. Although, truth be told, we're still doing a few lessons a day just to stay on top with her schoolwork. We're currently scheduled to finish the semester a couple weeks early - so we're looking forward to a longer summer!

We're planning on getting together and doing a picnic with friends later in the week!

We've Finished Math!

I'm so proud of Aaliyah! She has already finished her math for the entire year and she will be starting her first grade math curriculum shortly.

She's able to count to 100, count by 2, 5's (struggles with the 5's though), 10's), she can also add, subtract and she's learned to tell time (she can read the digit clocks perfectly she's still working with the analog clock and the minutes).

While Halimah will not officially start Kindergarten for another year, she's not too far behind Aaliyah either. She's just as bright as her big sister and I'm proud and just how talented my little bug and little bee are!

Homeschooling

In a nutshell - homeschooling is one great adventure! I like to believe that children learn from the moment they are born; life, itself, is one BIG learning experience. So, technically, we’ve been “homeschooling” since birth!

When the idea that I would have to “formally” teach my children at home came into play I was concerned... I wasn’t quite sure where to begin! I tend to do well with schedules and organized plans - rather than just approach things willy nilly.

Thankfully we discovered a wonderful online schooling option where I’m supplied all the course materials, a general outline/daily schedule, etc... So, rather than spend countless hours developing my own lesson plans and gathering resources - I can spend time being my children’s “learning coach.”

It’s such an amazing experience watching my children get excited about learning something new; so have fun learning with us!

If you want to learn more about the program we're using visit the K12 website I highly recommend their program thus far!