after test swim

pre-test prep -- Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor

this is how we prep for the fall Scantron assessment test

Back to school, ehhh...

I'm in 6th grade ( Big deal). This new school year, despite mainly being review, is still a pain in the ass. I just finished mapping with almonds, but that was still a challenge. Usually, I just estimate the latitude and longitude numbers, but the hardest thing was keeping your almonds on the line of long and latt. Also, I just got an email from Gamestop to get some shiny legendary Pokemon (Yes, I am a die-hard Pokemaniac). The thing is I'm racing against time to do Scantrons (tests you do in the beginning of the year). The thing is if I finish the Scantrons before 4:30 today, I get to throw water balloons at the teachers at Community Day! I finished the Reading Scantron on Saturday, and then the website was down and acting up so I couldn't log back in to do the Math part. My mim thinks I have plenty o' time, but, I don't.

wooggily-boogily-woogity.

~RLG~

we're back -- bigger & better

It's our second Monday of the 6th grade. This is our fourth year of using K12's curriculum through CAVA (California Virtual Academy). We now have an extremely good grasp on how to work through the curriculum, how to make it more interesting when Rile gets bored, how to get a good day's work in under almost any situation. I have learned how to maneuver through certain parts of his curriculum to make them work better for us, to optimize the lessons, to work them into his novel writing and other interests.

We had a crazy time last school year when he broke his right arm (dominant, writing hand) on September 1st with two huge goals with deadlines --- to get all of the 4th grade curriculum completed before Thanksgiving break AND to write a 30,000 word novel written in the month of November as part of NaNoWriMo. I am happy to report he managed to get everything accomplished!

The past two years have seen a lot of upheavals and moving - we had to leave our Morning Glory Cottage when the landlord lost his own home and evicted us to move his family onto the property. Eldest daughter moved out on her own, Little Dude & I struggled to get by and when that fell apart, we moved out of the county to live with my mother's family & help care for my 93 year old grandfather, who suffers from dementia. When that ended, we were able to return "home" to San Diego. Luckily the job I took (with housing!) allowed us to begin attending our local Community Day program. That shifted our K12 CAVA experience into a whole new level and we are so thrilled by that.

Now, we have moved yet again, with another move just off in the wings. I am now more than just vocal about the option of online schools, I am officially a parent advocate and have been to Congressional offices to talk about it. Rile & I have set out new goals and are seriously looking at his path to med school (ACK!). We are starting a LEGO Robotics team at our Community Day, as well looking into another extracurricular STEM team activity. I will be writing for a Non Profit website & am beginning a personal business venture in great earnest this year, too. This may be our busiest school here to date. And it is certainly one we want to share with you in our blog. Rile & I have committed to updating on a VERY regular basis as part of our schedule. We thank you in advance for joining us!

K & R

grades, schmades

poo

There won't be an actual promotion to the 4th grade for Little Dude, but he will be doing the 4th grade curriculum, just as he did the 3rd grade work without being a 3rd grader.

Paperwork, deadlines, requirements we were not aware of etc

Makes no matter - we will keep working & he will keep doing his thing on his pace & when he gets to public school it will be just fine one way or the other.

Crunch Time

When Rile goes to his father's, I create lesson plans they can complete offline & still stay on track. Since it's Boy & Dad time, I save all the Science experiments for them to enjoy together. Since Dad isn't as sharp with the math facts, I juggle around units sometimes so they can have math to do without needing to both be scratching their heads or calling me to teach over the phone. The last time Rile was at his dad's was for over 3 weeks due to last minute schedule changes. When he came home, we were trying to get the routine back, I was sloughing through correcting the work done away from me and getting it all marked off on his On Line School (OLS). Throw in a sudden need to move & I am a little behind. Toss on that he has to have as much logged in the OLS as possible by Monday because we are putting in for a mid-year promotion. So what I had put on the back burner to do over the long Winter Break needs doing today & over the weekend.

The good news is he has done much of the work - just not the handful of math problems in each lesson which need to be done on-line to pass the lesson with Mastery. And since he wrote a NANO novel again, most of the composition was done in different forms. It's just a matter of time - time for him to do the on-line math problems & time for me to assess which elements & hence lessons he did in his novel or other writing to mark off.

Hard Work in a Difficult Year

We have had another difficult year - we have "lived" in Wisconsin for a week, a hotel for a week, a time share for a month, a vacation rental for two months, the Morning Glory Cottage since late April & we are moving again at the end of the year.

Thankfully, our home school program is flexible & portable so we can continue working no matter what our living situation is. And Rile hasn't just worked; he has worked hard. He finished the 2nd grade curriculum last January, a semester ahead even with our having moved about 5 or 6 times since the start of the school year. Now, almost a year later, he has completed the 3rd grade curriculum at the end of the Fall semester. While it took him a full school year, he is still ahead by a semester. This time I have requested his teacher put in for him to be advanced to the next grade level not just to the next year's curriculum.

He & I have discussed that we are going to make a renewed commitment to this blog. A plan in place had been that he would return to public school next year for the 5th grade. I am not too sure about the school district in the part of San Diego where we are moving to temporarily. Just because we had said public school next year doesn't mean I will send him if the school district isn't up to the level he has achieved. I know the few districts I will happily send him to; if I can relocate us to one of those before the beginning of the next school year then I will stick to my "plan" for his re-integration.

My main reasons for sending him back into the fray are; socialization before the scary preteen years are in full force, so I could either go back to school or work and because I am finished with home school. It has been a rewarding & fulfilling experience. But I am tired. I know we could do another year; even continue into middle school. I just don't think it's fair to all of us. He needs friends, I need something else besides staying focused on my son.