Summer home school ideas

We will return to the regularly scheduled drama after this short message.

Summer is coming soon.

No! Really! It’s almost mid February, which means that March, April, and May are all that stand between me and a 3 month break from school for my boysies.

So I am trying to plan ahead to prepare for the extra time and lack of structure that will ensue.

Jeremiah is especially anxious about having three whole months off. He hates it when there is 1 day off of school. At all of his former placements, they had year round, in-house school, so he has never experienced summer break before.

Sooo….Mom is trying her best to plan now for how to fill the time with structure and learning to help him and Gabe stay on track academically as well as help Miah feel more at ease with the break.

So, (yes, that is how I am starting paragraphs this post) I need help from all my awesome home schooling mom and dad friends out there to help me with resource ideas.

Here are the topic areas that I think the boys would most benefit from:

Gabe

• Algebra 2
• Chemistry or Physics (I have to find out what he is signed up for next year. I can’t remember what the order is.)
• English 11, especially focusing on vocabulary, writing skills, and reading comprehension. (This is Gabe’s worst subject, so it will need to be something that is very comprehensive.)
• US History (He’s currently failing this class because of….well…laziness, so I really want to grab his attention. I like the Drive Thru History DVD’s, but am curious of any other good history resources out there.)

Jeremiah

• 4th and 5th grade math (He hasn’t mastered basic math skills yet, such as counting, adding etc…but we are trying to help him work near grade level as well, so any program that has a variety of elementary levels would be helpful. Computer programs would be a good motivation for him as well. )
• Reading and vocabulary (This is Miah’s hardest subject as well. He reads at about a kindergarten/first grade level, and comprehension is very difficult, so any help in this area would rock.)
• Science exploration (We will be doing a lot of traveling this summer, so something that will incorporate a lot of exploration would be excellent.)

Okay, so that is what we need. We will be going all over the place this summer, from Northern MN, to Chicago, to the Black Hills, maybe even Texas, so my goal is to incorporate learning where ever we go. The lower the cost for the materials the better, but we will pay for quality materials.

I feel like I should know more about this by now, but since both of my boys are in public school right now, I’ve lost my motivation to research.

HELP!

Blessings!

Hannah

Oh, and let me know if you want to send me a longer message and I will shoot you my e-mail.

7 comments so far (is that a lot?) | Tags: Education Everywhere, Learning differences, The SAHM Adventure

Tidbits of my first day of SAHM-ness

Good

• Got to go back to sleep after getting the boys off to school.
• Got some good cuddly time with the hubby person.
• Had an AWESOME IEP meeting with Jeremiah’s teachers.
• Got to visit with our awesome social worker and felt totally supported and encouraged.
• Our awesome social worker is returning tomorrow to do 1-on-1 counseling sessions with the boys.
• Got to utilize Lisa’s amazing lie detector test and avoid some big power struggles in the process.
• Successfully helped Jeremiah change it up and have a positive end to his day.
• Found out the renters of our other house are going to use their tax money for a down payment to BUY IT!!!! YAY!!!!!
• Taught Juji how to spin on command, which is our family’s signature trick for our dogs…and now our parrot too.
• Successfully helped Gabe with high school math homework.

Not so good

• Gabe is still not talking about some very big feelings and/or the choices he has been making lately. The lie detector tests are working, but he is still not opening up.
• Found out Gabe has been accessing his m*space (which is a big no no for some big reasons) with his PSP by bypassing the parental controls. He can’t do it here at home because hubby person blocks it on our network, so he is accessing it at public hot spots.
• Hubby person had to remove the network card from Gabe’s PSP, which in itself is not bad, but it was a pain in the tuckus to remove. Screws EVERYWHERE!

Over all, a very good day! I just wish Gabe would talk. I know he’s in pain, but how do we help him heal if he won’t talk?

Blessings!

Hannah

2 comments so far (is that a lot?) | Tags: Adoption, behavior challenges, Learning differences, marriage, parenting, RAD, the critters, The SAHM Adventure

Learning as we go

I feel like I failed the first day of school test.

Okay, not all of it. I got the boys up on time, even though we didn’t get back from our trip to my mom’s until very late. I made them a hot breakfast and avoided my eldest’s attempts to pick a fight over whether or not he was going to take his medication. I got the boys to school on time, and I think I even avoided embarrassing Gabe on the front steps. I got Jeremiah to the elementary side…and that’s where the trouble started. Miah was fine, but I went into the elementary principal’s office to make sure everything was good and the principal pulls me aside. She looked panicked. In hindsight, it was kind of humorous that one little boy could make a grown woman look like that.

“How can you just expect to throw him into school like this?” She said in a very not-happy voice. Basically she was upset because they had no background on him and therefore had no plan in place.

I told her that I understood her frustration, but that he was only officially placed with us two weeks ago, and therefore we had very little official background information to offer them. I was barely even able to enroll him in school because our caseworker only got us his file with his birth certificate and immunization records in it a week ago. I basically gave them a rough background, as far as I knew, and spoke to his teacher as well. I felt so unprepared.

So, now I’ve searched through his file more thoroughly and found a functional behavioral assessment dated December of 08 and a IEP-like progress report dated April of this year. Hopefully that will help. Hopefully they will understand that these are dated and that he has made incredible progress since then.

Breathe.

No emergency calls, so that’s good.

So, calling all super moms! I am so full of questions. How much do I tell the school? How much do I share with his teacher? I don’t want them to see my boy as a diagnosis. What’s the balance between assertive and cooperative?

I feel like I am swimming in the middle of Lake Superior with this one. (That means I’m surrounded by miles and miles and miles of water, surrounded by waves that can overtake the largest boats for those of you land-locked friends.) Was that a forced analogy? I don’t know. It’s how I’m feeling right now.

Two hours of school left. We can do this.

Oh, and Kaleb is in LA this week, which makes things all the worse. Jeremiah did not like the idea of Dad being away, and Gabe is convinced he’s going to screw up.

God is with me. I can feel it. I need more of His peace.

Blessings!

Hannah

7 comments so far (is that a lot?) | Tags: Adoption, behavior challenges, foster care, Learning differences, parenting