It's The End Of The 1st Quarter! 1 Down And 3 More To Go!! Woo Hoo!!!

     Since we are now in football season I wanted to incorporate it into my blog although I'm not a sports fan so I needed help with this part of the blog from my husband.  It's the end of the first quarter and my sons Jason & Joshua still have possession of the ball and I am fighting hard for a turnover (turnaround).  In other words it's NOVEMBER and they are back to trying my patience!  For the last 3 Mondays they have been completely off task and not focusing on paying attention to me so that we can get through the lessons in a timely manner.  On the days that our schedule is short because we may be ahead of schedule and we should breeze right through the lessons that seems to be the days that last forever.  But I'm still in it to win it and they are still "little people" in training.  For the most part they are doing well and both are carrying an A average and I have a support team of loved ones and friends who are always encouraging me to keep up the good work.  

     However, there are days when I think to myself, "really?  I am really homeschooling my sons."  I don't think this because I can't do it.  I think this because I never wanted to do it.  My mom asked me years ago, would I ever consider homeschooling and of course I said, "NO, never that!!"  I also remember all of the teachers and principals who always told me that I would make a good teacher.  (Keep in mind this was not told to me as a child but as an adult when I was working as support staff in classrooms and school offices.)  Now fast forward years later and I am working in the capacity of a teacher educating my own sons although officially I am a "learning coach." So since I am the coach and I can make all of the plays I plan on getting possession of the ball and turning these boys (players) completely around! With a little more training, coaching and discipline we are going to win.  

By the way, the field trip that we attended last month was to a Lego Robotics event and then we had lunch at Chili's.  My daughter went with us and all we could say is that "boys will be boys."  They had fun and it felt good to get out of the "classroom" so I won't complain.

Peace and blessings to all.

Making Learning Fun and the Socialization has begun!

Well, it is the middle of October and this is my first blog for this month not because I was being lazy or neglectful just because I've been busy, busy, busy! I must say that I have gotten the hang of this "cool school" called cyber school and my sons and I are much happier. I have now realized that I do not have to be a stickler for getting everything completed on time and that there are going to be days that things are going to happen and assignments may need to be rescheduled or completed over the weekend.  With that being said, I have started to make learning fun or should I say "more fun" for my sons by incorporating "Jeopardy" into our study time. So far we have played Social Studies Jeopardy and Science Jeopardy and my youngest son won the Social Studies Jeopardy and my oldest son won the Science Jeopardy and he was a more gracious winner than his younger brother who was not in the least bit pleased that he did not win!  One of my main concerns about cyber school and being part of the "homeschooling club" was the socialization factor and that has been resolved. My sons are now on soccer teams that meet every Saturday so they play soccer as well as playground fun and tossing the football with their new acquaintances that they have met on the soccer field and at the playground.  Coming up this week: Our First Field Trip!!  Hooray! I think that I'm more excited about it than the boys are.  Well, that's all for now.  Continue to be blessed and keep us in your prayers.  Peace and love.  

                         
By the way I almost forgot to mention that even though yesterday was a school holiday and there were no lessons scheduled my sons logged onto their laptops and completed 4 independent lessons that were scheduled for Tuesday - Thursday.  They also got their own breakfast that was set aside for them the night before.  I wasn't feeling well and they let me rest and were very peaceful and quiet throughout the whole day!  Woo Hoo!!  Kudos to my "dynamic duo sons!" 

One Month Down, Nine More To Go!

Well it is the last day of September 2013 and I am still adding to my home classroom. We have made it through the month of September with only a few tears...mine!  I would be lying if I said, "they were tears of joy" because they haven't all been tears of joy.  Some have been tears of frustration, some of them have been tears of realization and some have just been tears because I needed a good cry.  A few have been tears of sadness because my husband's mother passed away this month.  But through it all I have stayed on the course that my husband and I agreed upon back in May of this year. Ironically, a staff member of one of the Charter School's that I applied to in the Spring called my husband last week to apologize because the boys paperwork was misplaced with another grades and we can still apply in October if we are still interested in having our sons attend and they had seats in the 4th grade available now.  Well, considering that they are both in the 3rd grade that does NOTHING for us and  NO, thank you anyway!  If they are just finding paperwork NOW and we are now two seasons past the time that I applied then that is a sure sign of disorganization and other negative attributes that I personally don't want any parts of!!  I was very grateful that my husband received the call and not I because I would not have been as cordial as he was.

I am still getting acclimated to the scheduling of classes and just figured out last week that when I have appointments, etc., that I can rerun the schedule to shorten the number of lessons for that day or even postpone them to another day.  This worked out great for my mother-in-law's Memorial Service.  I put it on the online calendar, checked off that it would affect the whole day, reran the schedule and Presto, Change-O, no classes for that day.  The BEST part of all is that it will not affect the end date for lessons/school because the lessons were set up to gradually end a few days before the last day of school, which by the way is June 6th. So by the last day of school the boys will have 1 lesson to complete in 1 subject compared to now where they have 5 lessons in 5 different subjects plus an hour a day of Live Lesson with their teacher. This also applies to standardize testing so they won't get bogged down with lessons and testing all in the same day like the "brick and mortar" schools.

So with the month of September officially over I am pleased with the progress that is being made so far and looking forward to see what else the future holds.  But for now I will continue to take it one day, one week and one month at a time.

Peace & Blessings Always.

Uniforms, Id's & Behavior Charts!

   We are now at the end of week 3 and if I said that it's getting easier then I would be lying.  My intentions were to have my sons/students in full uniform by day 1 of Cyber school but that didn't happen.  However, they were in uniform with id's around their necks by this week.  I also HAD to make up a behavior chart because no matter how many times I give directions and instructions and post the classroom rules on the wall my sons/students are intent on doing their own thing.  It is truly frustrating and takes away from times that we should be moving forward in lessons. All of my years of working in the behavioral health field with problem children and working with students in the public school system should have more than prepared me to be able to educate and discipline my own sons right? Yeah, right!! Because the lines have been crossed between parent and educator (although the parent is a child's first teacher and I've been informally educating them from day 1) and I am now educating my sons in a more formal setting they are challenging me everyday. 

   We will occasionally find ourselves falling behind, sometimes because of appointments, other commitments or just getting started later than usual but mainly because of them being off task and trying to engage in nonsense. When this happens we find ourselves having to do an extra lesson the next day or God forbid over the weekend which is what happened this past weekend. Like everything else there are going to be good days and bad days and I can honestly say that the good is outweighing the bad. This Cyber School "stuff" is still a work in progress and even during my moments of frustration I wouldn't change a thing.  My sons are slowly adjusting and making great progress so far, Twin A is averaging 93% and Twin B is averaging 92% so with that being said, "onward and upward."

Peace & Blessings to you all!

We Survived Our First Week of Cyber School!!!

         Well our first week of cyber school is officially a thing of the past and even though it was only a 4 day week since last Monday was Labor Day it felt like a 5 day week if not longer.  Now that I am in the capacity of my sons Learning Coach and I'm in charge of their learning I can fully see their deficiencies that may not have been caught by the classroom teachers of yesteryears.  One of the main ones being that they do not follow through with the directions that they are given.  They hear me speaking but they clearly are NOT listening to the words that are coming out of my mouth! One important direction being to reread your assessment questions and answers for a 2nd time before pressing the submit button.  Each son has failed to follow these basic instructions which now forces me to hover and make sure that they are doing so. I also caught my youngest son answering questions during an assignment without bothering to read the passage first. Now this we have discussed on numerous occasions prior to cyber school because this seems to be his mode of operation which always works against him as it would for anyone.

By day 2 I had to put up a partition between my sons because they would not stop talking to each other even during the times that I was trying to give instruction which was very frustrating! I know that this is still new to them as well as to me but my sons know me and they know what my rules are as a parent and as a learning coach but yet they are still willing to see just how far they can test my patience. Nowadays it doesn't go very far especially since they  have a lot of work to get done.

     Now that we are into week two and the Live Lessons have started with the classroom teacher it gives me a break from having to "teach."  The classroom teacher teaches Language Arts and Math (a half an hour for each subject) but they still have to complete those same subjects once the live lesson is over which actually adds to the the length of our day because the actual lesson is about an hour long and the teacher isn't necessarily going over the lesson for that particular day especially, since we are four days ahead of her schedule. So for now this is working against us. I've already told my sons that they will have to start their cyber lessons a half an hour to an hour earlier in order to make up the time spent in Live Lessons.  We will see how that works out for us.  Well, that's all for now. 

Peace and Love.

    

We Survived Our First Day of Cyber School!!!

     

Well, nothing ever goes according to planned but somehow it always manages to work out.  According to my carefully and meticulously laid out school schedule my sons and I were suppose to start by 9:00AM and be finished no later than 4:00PM if not earlier.  HA!  We officially started around 9:20AM and was finished approximately 9 hours later, YOU do the Math!  Now don't misunderstand me we did not work all of those hours because there was a lunch break, recess, bathroom breaks and "I need to stand and stretch breaks." For the most part following the curriculum of Commonwealth Connections Academy Charter School is easy and straightforward.  Since I love being on the computer and I didn't have any technological issues I can honestly say that working from an online curriculum in the capacity of a Learning Coach was a cakewalk especially since everything is already set up for you. My sons and I all agree that it seems to be much more work than a brick and mortar school and they have projects to work on already and this is only the FIRST day!!! Our schedule got turned around because I did not find out until trying to get them logged in for the Live Lessons that the Live Lessons portions of subjects do not begin until September 9th but we know now for the rest of the week.

     The issues that I did encounter stemmed from my two sons who I lovingly like to call "the dynamic duo." They are still in "summer brain vacation mode" and getting them to pay attention and stay focused was a challenge.  Unfortunately, for them and me I wasn't able to ease them into their lessons it was full blown lessons which consisted of them working on the laptop, reading from their textbooks, workbook assignments, writing in notebooks and on looseleaf paper, setting up folders AND taking Math and Reading Assessment tests. Oh, and I almost forgot they also had a Spelling Pretest. So needless to say we had a VERY FULL first day of Cyber School.  

     I have to keep in the back of my head that this is new for them as well as for me and it's going to take baby steps for all of us to come to a happy medium on how we want our days to progress. I MUST make time for them both to get up and "GET THE SILLIES OUT!"  That way we will all avoid becoming stressed out and irritable. Were my feelings hurt when my oldest son Jason (older by 1 minute) said that he wanted to go back to his old school?  Nope because I have to remember that he has feelings also and I have to validate them. Now did I entertain his statement?  Of course not, we've been down this road many times before and I'm sure we'll go down them many more. My sons are learning at an early age that sometimes change is good not just for them but for all involved.  This journey is a labor of love and I'm in it to win it!

     May peace, love and blessings follow you all the days of your life. 

Desks, lamps, decorations. Oh My!

         Well, the Summer is quickly disappearing and Autumn is slowly approaching which means "SCHOOL DAYS."  One week from today and cyberschool begins.  I am such a procrastinator!!!  I still have to set up my sons "classroom" which consists of me putting together 2 computer desks that arrived last week along with their desk lamps and setting them up, getting them acclimated to the online classroom (which I have done a little) as well as making their learning environment "school friendly" by decorating the wall with my school decorations.  Oh, and I need to purchase 2 more surge protectors.  Why oh why do I procrastinate so?  I really don't know but it will get done! I have organized their textbooks, workbooks and other supplies on a bookshelf that I'm reusing from my daughter's childhood days so that's all set and ready.  I also went through my learning coach orientation months ago so I'm okay in that area for now. They just completed their school orientation online yesterday and got excited when they saw that they can look at their grades as they progress through the coursework. 

     I still have not put them on their school sleep schedule and that's mainly because they will not have to get up as early as they would have if they were going into a school building. That goes for me as well since I'm a night owl anyway. However, they have been getting themselves up by 7:30 - 8:00AM everyday this week so that's perfect.  The great thing about cyberschool is that the learning coach can make up the class schedule because the only thing that is set in stone are the Live Lessons. For their grade level they have to have 5 hours a day of attendance which isn't bad at all.  The true test will be seeing if all of the work that is required can actually get done in 5 hours a day. Time will tell and I'll keep you posted.

Peace, Love and Blessings.

Learning Coach? Me? Really? Okay, Why Not?

     My countdown has begun and it is 2 weeks and 1 day before I officially take on my new role as my identical twin sons Learning Coach. Am I ready? Of course not! They are excited about the idea of learning online and at home and not having to get up earlier than usual to go into a brick and mortar institution of learning. Thanks to the negative decline of their former Charter School that they attended from grades K-2 and the fact that none of the other 5 or more Charter Schools contacted us to inform us that they were accepted into their schools, Cyberschool/homeschool is about to become "Our New Normal."  Although, I guess I should mention that we did get postcards from one school letting us know that they were 100+ on the the waiting list.  Hmm, maybe they'll get in by the 5th grade which does nothing for us now since they are in the 3rd grade.

     I started this enrollment process back in May after talking to my husband about not hearing back from the Charter Schools that I applied to and us needing to have a back up plan for the new school year. The enrollment process was fairly easy which consisted of filling out information online as well as forms that needed to be faxed to the school. Physicals, immunizations, dental records, etc. are all required just like a regular school and this is because the children will come in contact with other students during face-to-face activities and outings. The enrollment counselor kept in contact with me on a regular basis making sure that I was faxing in all necessary forms and making herself available if I had any questions or concerns. The best part of all is that all of the equipment is provided by the online school (that would be our tax dollars hard at work). Each son/student received their own HP laptop, a wireless printer/scanner that they will share, 2 pairs of headsets, ink for the printer and a huge box full of textbooks, workbooks, handwriting and reading books and other supplies such as a science kit, physical education kit and an art kit. Oh, and I almost failed to mention that we will receive a stipend 3 times during the school year to cover the cost of the internet service.

     Well, that's about all for now.  Keep me in your prayers and I'll do the same for you.  Be blessed.