It didn't take long to fall of the bandwagon huh?? To make matters worse, I have to admit that I have spent the last month flying through each and every day....not taking a single moment to stop and really appreciate anything. It is the sad but honest truth. I sit here exhausted right now, thinking back over the month of February and all I can say is that we got a lot done. I don't know how, but we did it. My house is a disaster zone despite my futile attempt to keep it clean and organized. The surface is presentable but the closets, basement, garage, and any storage area should probably have caution tape across it. I almost sustained an injury today opening our coat closet and a huge pile of shoes, coats and riding gear tumbled onto me!
So whats been keeping me busy? work! OH MY work!! I am blessed to have a job especially in this economy. It is something that is required for us financially but sometimes it is so overwhelming and time consuming. I have had to put in a lot of extra hours, not to mention my time there is spent really working my tail off. When I walk out that door (and this is usually only late morning/early afternoon) I am mentally and physically drained. I have exactly a 20 minute to drive to recoup, refresh and ready myself for walking into this door and facing what the rest of the day has to bring. The hardest part is that I am on-call from 5p throughout the night so my phone is always ringing and usually starts at about 4:30a so I never have a solid night sleeps it is like constantly having an infant in the house....only Jason has learned to completely tune this "cry"out. At least he would help with a baby :) At the earliest I can make it to bed by 10p. Ideally 9 would be great, but by the time I finish out my day, read and relax it is usually already after 10. Basically I am tired and "overworked" these days ... boo hoo! My pity party is over now.
On a good note, I have been offered the opportunity to head a homeschool partnership with our local school district Center Line. This was something that was attempted last fall but due to various issues it never took off. So this year, they want to give it a shot again. Much to my surprise but pleasure, I was recommended by the former Director. She had other obligations and asked if I could fill the spot. It was an awesome offer which I of course had to accept, regardless of my already jam packed schedule and sleepless nights. The District is even willing to give us use of an entire building, a previous elementary. This opens so much opportunity for our homeschool community, and I am praying with my whole heart that we can get everything up and running for the fall. Basically the partnership allows the homeschoolers to set up classes (non core) and the school district funds it. It is ran by a fellow homeschooling parent (myself) and usually retired and or new grad teachers and staff are hired to fill any needs we have. We also strive to help boost the local communities economy by offering local businesses opportunities to come in and teach our children. For example, the local racket ball center has a certified teacher who can come in once a week and teach Beginners Tennis. The district will pay him to do this. This boosts his business, he makes money, our kids get lessons that we would have otherwise had to pay for ourselves. The possibilities are endless and there are several partnerships within Michigan now successfully running with 300+ students.
Our first and biggest hurdle is convincing the ISD to approve it. Wish me luck.
As for Olena. She is doing fabulous. We ran into some issues with her stuttering again, but it has been a few weeks now and I see that it is, as usual, improving. The doctor was a bit disappointed to find out she wasn't still in speech therapy and said that I really should consider taking her back. I am still juggling with the idea though. I am not usually one to "give up" on things that come to Olena but I just think that this is who she is. Her stuttering is always temporary and is always followed by an increase in her vocabulary and conversation speech. I know she needs improvement on her articulation but she is nasaly when she talks and I think that has a lot to do with it. None-the-less, I need to find some time to research local speech therapists and at least get an evaluation and talk to someone.
In school she is coming along pretty good. She still is not very strong in adding and subtracting but she is right on target with other aspects of math. telling time, greater than less than, we are learning mapping and measuring over the next couple of weeks. We do continue practicing with the adding/subtracting but we keep it in the background.
Other then working on math, I have stepped back a bit because she has been reading like a maniac. She picks up any book and attempts to read it. She is reading words that blow me away. She now owns the entire Mo's Book Series and they use some pretty lengthy words in those books.... Let me give you an example of what these books read like...
Mo and Lucky's day by the sea is sensational fun. Running, digging, surfing, and playing - for everyone. Vast, exhilarating, salty, and island sweet, Mo smells Blue. Mo smells freedom!
Now some of you may think that maybe she just has this book memorized. That is not the case. She now has something like 7 of these books and I have only read each one out loud to her once. When we first get it. From that point on, she has sat and taught herself to read each and every word of every one of these books. The book she read from last night was Mo Smells Pink and she got it in the mail from her Auntie Jen on Saturday. She read through several pages, pointing to each word and pronouncing each word perfectly clear. I was so proud of her and I am so happy she loves to read. Not only because the educational value but the personal joy and freedom it will give her to be able to sit down and really be engrossed in a book she loves.
So since she has been endulging herself into reading for several hours a day I have backed off on some schooling subjects. We still do some light interest base learning, like this week we are learning how to read maps and measure distances. She is into pirates and treasure maps so I thought this would be fun. We get some handwriting practice by using a few worksheet each day, and usually each unit has some math related subjects to it.
Well I need to get myself some dinner and answer a few emails so I will do my best to get into the habit of my "journaling", and maybe even find time to take a picture or two and post them!
So whats been keeping me busy? work! OH MY work!! I am blessed to have a job especially in this economy. It is something that is required for us financially but sometimes it is so overwhelming and time consuming. I have had to put in a lot of extra hours, not to mention my time there is spent really working my tail off. When I walk out that door (and this is usually only late morning/early afternoon) I am mentally and physically drained. I have exactly a 20 minute to drive to recoup, refresh and ready myself for walking into this door and facing what the rest of the day has to bring. The hardest part is that I am on-call from 5p throughout the night so my phone is always ringing and usually starts at about 4:30a so I never have a solid night sleeps it is like constantly having an infant in the house....only Jason has learned to completely tune this "cry"out. At least he would help with a baby :) At the earliest I can make it to bed by 10p. Ideally 9 would be great, but by the time I finish out my day, read and relax it is usually already after 10. Basically I am tired and "overworked" these days ... boo hoo! My pity party is over now.
On a good note, I have been offered the opportunity to head a homeschool partnership with our local school district Center Line. This was something that was attempted last fall but due to various issues it never took off. So this year, they want to give it a shot again. Much to my surprise but pleasure, I was recommended by the former Director. She had other obligations and asked if I could fill the spot. It was an awesome offer which I of course had to accept, regardless of my already jam packed schedule and sleepless nights. The District is even willing to give us use of an entire building, a previous elementary. This opens so much opportunity for our homeschool community, and I am praying with my whole heart that we can get everything up and running for the fall. Basically the partnership allows the homeschoolers to set up classes (non core) and the school district funds it. It is ran by a fellow homeschooling parent (myself) and usually retired and or new grad teachers and staff are hired to fill any needs we have. We also strive to help boost the local communities economy by offering local businesses opportunities to come in and teach our children. For example, the local racket ball center has a certified teacher who can come in once a week and teach Beginners Tennis. The district will pay him to do this. This boosts his business, he makes money, our kids get lessons that we would have otherwise had to pay for ourselves. The possibilities are endless and there are several partnerships within Michigan now successfully running with 300+ students.
Our first and biggest hurdle is convincing the ISD to approve it. Wish me luck.
As for Olena. She is doing fabulous. We ran into some issues with her stuttering again, but it has been a few weeks now and I see that it is, as usual, improving. The doctor was a bit disappointed to find out she wasn't still in speech therapy and said that I really should consider taking her back. I am still juggling with the idea though. I am not usually one to "give up" on things that come to Olena but I just think that this is who she is. Her stuttering is always temporary and is always followed by an increase in her vocabulary and conversation speech. I know she needs improvement on her articulation but she is nasaly when she talks and I think that has a lot to do with it. None-the-less, I need to find some time to research local speech therapists and at least get an evaluation and talk to someone.
In school she is coming along pretty good. She still is not very strong in adding and subtracting but she is right on target with other aspects of math. telling time, greater than less than, we are learning mapping and measuring over the next couple of weeks. We do continue practicing with the adding/subtracting but we keep it in the background.
Other then working on math, I have stepped back a bit because she has been reading like a maniac. She picks up any book and attempts to read it. She is reading words that blow me away. She now owns the entire Mo's Book Series and they use some pretty lengthy words in those books.... Let me give you an example of what these books read like...
Mo and Lucky's day by the sea is sensational fun. Running, digging, surfing, and playing - for everyone. Vast, exhilarating, salty, and island sweet, Mo smells Blue. Mo smells freedom!
Now some of you may think that maybe she just has this book memorized. That is not the case. She now has something like 7 of these books and I have only read each one out loud to her once. When we first get it. From that point on, she has sat and taught herself to read each and every word of every one of these books. The book she read from last night was Mo Smells Pink and she got it in the mail from her Auntie Jen on Saturday. She read through several pages, pointing to each word and pronouncing each word perfectly clear. I was so proud of her and I am so happy she loves to read. Not only because the educational value but the personal joy and freedom it will give her to be able to sit down and really be engrossed in a book she loves.
So since she has been endulging herself into reading for several hours a day I have backed off on some schooling subjects. We still do some light interest base learning, like this week we are learning how to read maps and measure distances. She is into pirates and treasure maps so I thought this would be fun. We get some handwriting practice by using a few worksheet each day, and usually each unit has some math related subjects to it.
Well I need to get myself some dinner and answer a few emails so I will do my best to get into the habit of my "journaling", and maybe even find time to take a picture or two and post them!
Comments