Home Educating Second Son

We started when on our state the "School Year" starts counting - July 1st - and as how he would be 3 going on 4 during the 2018-2019 "School Year", I looked for very minimal and so we could say we were doing something - with the fact that 3 year olds go to public preschool now, all the relatives and people on our social circles are constantly asking and wondering why i'm not doing preschool after all it is, in their words, soooooo fun.

We did well for about 4 weeks - not every day mind you but that is about as far as we got when it was apparent he was not quite ready to commit to doing God's Little Explorers (free or paid version) and it was fun and i liked many of her ideas so when the childcare room at the gym announced they would start it the week of September 10th, I felt ok with him just getting things whenever he was there. (we've become night-owls and miss the childcare hours at the gym a lot these days)

We attempted Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven program because again very gently with a Bible story and song and maybe a craft/game and a letter sound and counting - no bog down and  30 minutes or so.  That went about 3 weeks worth (not everyday but we made it through 15 days worth over the time we tried to implement just 30 minutes a day.

So I shelved it and decided that perhaps when he was 4 and a half it would be better to implement a "morning basket" time.

We started up again on April 29th with a mesh up of the Sonlight P3/4 core and HOD's Little Hands to Heaven. We've only done about 2 weeks of the mesh up guide I made and that was a record setting pace of  4 weeks to get through 10 days 😂😂😂

However, all children reach milestones at different ages and I remember when he was turing 3 and was still addicted to his pacifier, was not talking (sure he knew a few words he had his own way of saying but usually he was just silent), and still in diapers (where as his older brother had ditched the diapers by 2.75 yrs of age and his pacifier (bobby as he called it) and had been talking for as far back as i could remember by the time he was turning 3. All that to say that it might have taken little brother until 2 yrs and 11 months to decide to get vocal and 3 yrs and 1 month to drop his pacifier and 4 yrs and 5.5 months before he decided he was ready to ditch diapers - but oh yeah mini-happy dance is definitely in order and this proves that while he may not be as receptive to a little bit of preschool type things with mom just yet (like big brother was by that age), I'm confident we will get there. All in good time - enjoying the journey!

Time Keeps Moving Forward

For the 4 Year Old - torn between the better late than early Moore philosophy and that before the age of 5 to 6 the brain is a sponge that easily picks up learning...  and wondering when even some basic self-care skills will click. Enjoying the closeness, know how it can change and never see it coming... love, nurture, teach by example, and prayer.

For the 17 Year Old - continued prayer and noticing when he seems to be making better choices. Love and continue to set a good example - be a constant =)

For my husband - prayer and respect and love while doing what i can to hopefully do him good all his days and be a blessing in his life.

Isaiah 40:11 -- He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in His arms, holding them close to His heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.

new school year upon us

DS#1 plans to pursue testing out of high school and fulltime employment and moving out :'( :'( :'(

DS#2 just started week 4 of motherhoodonadime's God's Little Explorers preschool curricula, chosen becuase week 1 was X marks the spot that God's Word is a Treasure =)

This week is the Noah's Ark theme and we were short on time today (7/26/18) so we watched the veggie tales Noah's Ark (hated the silly song with Larry since we don't do that) but the other was ok in a cutesy way but so not accurate and could have done without all the bacon jokes....
Anywho as always the connections that can later be made happened as we ended up at a local park that had various animal structures each with a slide apparatus to climb up to get to said slide of varying difficulty levels ... so Noah's Ark the video and later animal climbing/sliding ....yep, that will work just fine ;-)

keeping you posted...

It seems a year ago i posted about the fast approaching publick school forray....here is a recap of how the year went:
● DS#1 started strong, was doing well in all subjects (algebra being the lowest grade) for the first 6 weeks of school.

● next 6 weeks all grades started slipping but at least still B's/C's

● next 6 weeks grades dropping fast and started skipping school

● next 6 weeks continue lowered grades, started an art class he hated so purposefully skipped almost daily

● during this 6 weeks got a car so skipped more

● last 6 weeks was more skipped classes/days and also some  trouble both at school and in community

Recap -
● I erroneously thought the school disciplined for skipping...nope even he was too lazy to get up counted as an excuse to be absent so i stopped vouching for him and even then no detentions or suspensions or any incentive to not skip
● two parent teacher conferences were all good report (after 1st trister and 4th trister)
● IN 5th trister the "your child has low grade in my class" emails started arriving
● 6th trister the phone call describing how my son and 2 other kids came to school after having imbibed was verra shocking (and the phone call 2 weeks later from the police informing me my son and another kid were caught shoplifting...)

● 1 DAY after the district received my letter to withdraw and phone call to them that said i felt my son was wasting their time (and the sigh of relief from the guidance counselor), a letter was received that said my son had missed 28 days of education when all the absences were tallied so therefore his grades which were all ready 60 or below would have dropped 30+ percent which would have meant failing anyway.

Conclusion:

1 Corinthians 15:33 - Don't be fooled. “Bad company ruins good character.”

And in a 1300+ kid school, my son seemed to be a thermometer and not a thermostat

Public School Really is DUMB

The unwanted educational transition continues...

8/2 - the school called to say they are placing DS#1 as a Freshman because he had no high school level credits. I rechecked my text messages from DS#1 from 7/6/17 where he stated he would only go IF he could be in 10th grade because he was not going to repeat a grade just to be with this kid he has been hanging out with all summer. Then I let him know on 8/2/17 of the school's grade level placement decision and he was like "ok"  (really sticking to your original decision there kid :NOT:)

8/7 - had to go to the counselor's office to take a math and reading test. He scored 47% in math and they said good enough for Algebra 1 ( o_O ) and 43% in reading and again they said yes that is Freshman level reading ready ( again o_O they must have low standards). So we go into the counselor's office (nice enough guy and all but still this is my kid who is rejecting me/stomping on my heart and so not honoring and respecting his dad AND MOM) and he makes a class schedule for DS#1 and tells us that he can still graduate in 3 years but he has to take a full load of classes, take one class at a community college, tutor elementary kids after school (not during like those who have 4 years to get their work done), attend summer school every year (even the summer after graduation to get 1 credit or else they retain the diploma), and that if he fails a class he will be taking 4 years to graduate. Then we get told he needs 2 vaccines for sure (maybe they will say more but we went with only the 2 they stated at this time) or else he can not even be there for the first day of school. Then we paid a textbook fee, student planner fee, and oh yeah everyone gets a laptop to keep so their is a tech fee for that. (so laptops being paid for with tax payer money and junior college is paid for too if he gets good enough grades in all classes and does the tutoring ... again who is paying for that?  guess we will be seeing property tax increases possibly just a little higher every year so we can "boil the frog without him noticing")

oh and yeah the dreaded "health" class -- and it does teach "alternative lifestyles" and they even have a club at school that meets in a teachers classroom for this and I think the teacher heads up this "Alternative lifestyle" class --- so this is ok but teachers can't promote clubs for Believers on school property?

8/15 - vaccine day --- long lines, nurses very happy to stick kids with the toxins that carry the virus,  have to keep him away from DS#2 due to shedding from mmr shot,  and oh yeah, "mom, no one has taken me clothes shopping" (spend $275) and "I need some supplies" ($50)  -- what part of this is "free" public school?

8/16 - Received a text with DS#1 on his first day from the people who are all so very happy he is going to publick school (rainy day)

after school, I did the customary text asking how his day was (sent 1 minute after the last bell rung) ... of course he talked in person with all those who persuaded him to do this long before he replied to me "Good"

8/17 - same thing with the text ... eventually tells me his day was good just busy

8/18 - I did not send a text ... this was also my first week watching another child from my home and she keeps me busy and that evening I went to dinner at my sister's house (moms have lives too ya know ;-) )

8/19 - took DS#2 to the zoo so no time to talk to DS#1

8/20 - no talking to DS#1 - he does his church day stuff with the other fam and has for years so this is usual no word day

8/21 - This would be best in pictures

I was sendinging huh??? and received the reply about not the kissy face so my huh??? goes after his thinking I called him dumb not as a reply to the no mom not that face (technology is not always super fast)

OK so then I get emails with grades from the school, so let's look at these silly things he is getting grades for just to prove how DUMBED DOWN education is

Some of these are silly and yet a grade for - where as the A.C.E. school only gave grades for test taken to prove what was retained after finishing a worktext...even being in plays or talent shows and Bible verses memory were not percentage grades (they did earn E,S, N, etc marks)

and American History did not start at the civil war so why start there? Also note these do not give the parent any detail about the assignment...

and another one that "takes the cake" -- having to friend people in class on facebook?  I saw some recently added "friends" on DS#1 account and come on teen girls stop showing us your pouty lips and cleavage and puppy dog filters ...

with easy assignments like these being recognized, it is no wonder DS#1 thinks he is "hot stuff" and that I was the problem .... (?)

Thought he knew better than to be persuaded with trinkets like grades for silly things .... He has already proven that he can not stand and be his own man ....

And when people say, "oh I hope he likes going to school" I reply how I pray he hates it because he is soooo leaving me out in the cold here and there is no promise for things to go well for those who kick their mom to the curb ....

DS#1 would get an education being home educated (he wanted to use Monarch) or even going to a small private school and shouldn't that be what matters?  What is happening seems like sticking it to me and hurting me and all about getting DS#1 to be on "their side" ... like they want him to have nothing to do with me.

Should i be allowed to ask why the school is allowing his dad to sign his homework when the school only has me listed as a parent? His dad never signed his homework slips when he was at the A.C.E. school ....

and now the basement is flooded ... so much to do and yet will have a 2 and 6 year old around all day too....

Is it a Sweet 16?

Perhaps you have seen this meme floating around

There is one line in there - "But, my son is a promise that I will have a friend forever!" that makes me scream - "LIE!!!"

Today, my firstborn turns 16. He used to love me and I thought we were going to have a friendship that would last past the parent/child stage ... here are some pictures from right before he started to pull away

I love this boy and I thought he loved me. Yes, I am his mom, but we enjoyed being together and going places and living life together. We liked the same tv shows (SpongeBob, Danny Phantom, Ben10, Jimmy Neutron, Big Time Rush, Drake and Josh, iCarly, Zoey101, Victorious, Jessie, Dog with a Blog, Liv & Maddie, etc ... those were just the "kiddie" shows as we also watched Lost together after it was off the air because my mom was very confused by the ending so at that point i was finally interested in the show).

At one time he did genuinely enjoy being home educated as well. When he wanted to play a sport, I would go to all the practices and games. When he wanted to go to the skatepark, I went and read a book while he skateboarded. When I was interested in something he knew he would have to come along as we were always together.

We also used to spend the weekends with our Torah Community and another family with an only child we met through this community. We had service and oneg and afterwards would either hang out playing Wii and having fondue or we would go skating or just play board/card games with this other family.

Then I had to work full time and he had to spend weekends with his dad (see previous post) and it seemed he had a place to escape to if he got tired of any supposed rules at our new home with a new man in our lives.

He was even blessed with a little brother after many years of wanting one and still it was not enough to keep his heart close to our home.

After seeing photos from the birthday party his other family threw him yesterday, I just felt like he totally shows how much he is proud to be with them. It has made me cry several times today and it is not even noon yet. I feel like it is no big deal that i am his mom.

Well I need to get going for my "token" time with him...we were going to actually do something fun (indoor race track, darts, billiards, bowling) but since one of his friends is not able to come along now, he just wants me to take him for food and oh yeah clothes for school (what part of stay at home mom means I'm made of money???) (not to mention you are breaking my heart choosing public school </3 )  and then frozen custard and then he wants to stop by our house just to get a pair of contacts for next month. (Mom aka "I need something")
Happy Birthday to Noah & "happy" mom day to me
💔😢😢😭💔🎂

Rejection

I always wanted to be a home educating momma. When I had just the one child I desperately wanted more, yet they did not come. So the dad of the one child would always say he would let me homeschool but he wanted no part in it and would blame me if his son did not grow up and fit into the real world or was not smart. When this child was three years old, his dad said, "Don't you think you should be reading up on how to do this homeschool thing you are planning to do?" I set out to read every book my local library had on education, with a particular emphasis on homeshooling but I also read books on just the topic of education itself. Along with reading books, I also educated myself on the various methods of education and variety of curricula that abounded to choose from. I do not think i went into this lifestyle choice blindly nor was I just "flying by the seat of my pants."

I hate it when people assume that one method of education should produce genuises over another type, so no, this child was not a genius yet he was educated. He did learn his "three R's" (some skills 'stuck' sooner than others) and he enjoyed being home educated and even would comment when we drove by a school how he felt sorry for the kids trapped inside all day. Other than it seeming to take "forever" for reading to click for said child, he was all good until those 'dreaded' fractions came along (I hear from many a person they too liked math until fractions entered the picture). We had been using  Abeka for math when we first encountered fractions, so I did some more research and switched to Math Mammoth because it didn't require the use of fancy manipulative tinkery things, and when that still did not seem to 'click' for this child, we switched to A.C.E. for math because of the mastery based emphasis in hopes that much repetition would finally help him to understand and not dread fractions. It finally seemed that fractions were no big deal to him anymore and then came decimals and the junior high years and what I am told is "normal" pre-teen/teen 'laziness' (sigh).

It was during this journey of understanding fractions that this child's dad decided he rather liked the cheating on me that he had been doing throughout our entire supposed "union" and he wanted to be "free" of me to pursue his 'endeavors'. He however wanted to make perfectly clear that he was only leaving me and not his son thus entered two weekends a month father/son visits while I was trying to hold down a full-time job and still home educate said son. At first my son did only see his dad per the custody agreement but over time he started spending more and more time with his paternal family. The same people who tell him things like he will never have friends unless he goes to public school and that his mom is weird because she is a Believer yet follows Torah in order to live out John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." (and when I went to get this verse from Biblegateway, this was the verse of the day - I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.     Psalm 119:60 niv). Over the years my son has rejected doing things with me that he always did before he started spending so much time with his dad's side. My son no longer goes to Torah Community Events with me and even regular old secular calendar 'holidays' are spent more and more with the other side. I feel so rejected by my son and like maybe i should have been the parent who walked away, then would he be chasing me and trying to maintain our relationship, the relationship that saw him through the first 10 years of his life? My son's Bonus Dad used to tell me that perhaps I had my son to love because the L-RD knew his dad was not going to love me. (this statement really bothers me because I now have a son with this Bonus Dad....)

Three years into the new way of split life and my son finally got a little brother and I was able to be home again but I did have my hands full with a high needs baby and trying to home educate a seventh grader. Surely at that age one should be able to do their work, after all it was A.C.E. which is meant to be self-instructed and read alouds from AmbleSide list. My son would tell me he was doing his work but then when it was test day, he would break down and cry and beg me not to tell his dad that he was not doing his work or else his dad would take his playstation away (cry me a river, here's a quarter.... right???).  All three of my son's parents decided to put him in a private school for "eighth" grade and I had really prayed for two things: 1)  that my son would deepen in his relationship with Yeshua and embrace the Hebrew Roots of his faith
2) that he would realize what a privilege it is to be home educated and long to be so again

 He did come around to my second one during his second year at this school. During both years there was constant "mom. can I skip school today" battles and at the beginning of his second year there he started telling me he wanted to be homeschooled the following year and utilize an online learning platform and we researched and agreed on Monarch. His instructor at the Christian school also told me of moments he noticed my son growing closer to Jesus.

Everything was on track for starting up online homeschool this fall and my son also wanted to get a job and save to build his own computer and so he could pay for car insurance since he will be a licensed driver by then. Then summer started AKA non-stop time spent with his dad's side of the family and one kid younger than him who starts public high school this fall and some girl who was my son's "girlfriend" but dumped him for some other guy but yet has been hanging out with my son all summer...(i digress)....and suddenly on 6/30/17 i start receiving text messages from my son saying he wants to go to the public high school (groan and pain in my heart) ... he doesn't seem to care about all the most likely unnecessary vaccines (definitely no long term "are they safe?" results and many of which while his system is incubating these vile sickies he can spread them in our household - nothanks! ) nor that if lice or some other icky thing spreads at the school that I do not want it in my house!!!! When I press him for why he wants to go he replies because his friend will be a freshman and thinks it would be cool to have my son in the same school, that he can listen to music during class, and that he said his (paternal) papa will be more proud of him if he graduates from a real school.

What about me, does what I want (hope and dream) for you not matter to you?

(Guess it is 'ok' to break a mom's heart, after all they love you unconditionally and you don't have to "earn" their love)

Whelp, time to go see what needs to be done to let everyone else get their way .... (think i'm gonna be sick)

Don't mind me I'm just a kicked to the curb, rejected mom and I have always been told "can't complain, no one wants to hear it anyway"

(yes I have another son, he is too young to formally educate ... he so needs to work on speaking more and oh yeah, potty training :P) (also hoping that since my second son's dad and I are on the same page Faith wise and home education wise that he will have my back more and not work against me like the former one did just to get things his way)

PS - i have no idea why there is pink lettering, I did not tell it to do that and every time I select all text and default all to black ink, it does not mind...I should so be used to being ignored