Mom's Group = Information Overload

I have recently joined a homeschool group.  Everyone said that this is an essential part of being a homeschooler. We opted for a small group that is in our town.  Not Houston, mind you, but the little town of Tomball.  We are on the outside edge of both Houston and Tomball, but our address is Tomball.  So, I decided to give TCH a go.  It has been wonderful so far.  It's been nice getting e-mails through the yahoo group.  There is a plethora of information on many things from which veterinarian to use, great camp sites, organized groups for kiddos, library activities, and much more.  One of the things that we had the chance to do through the group was a woodworking class.  The boys loved it!  The focus tool of the day was a router.  The young man, Danny, walked them through how to use the router to curve the edges of the little sailboats they made.  He showed them how to hammer nails (I know this should be obvious, but for my little city boys...not so much.) and how to drill holes in wood.  The finished product was great.  They were so excited to come home and test their sailboats.  They had the opportunity to do just that the next day in the kiddie pool out back.  Happy happy boys!!

Last night, was the monthly Mom's Group.  It is a time for homeschool mom's to gather around and chit chat about what is happening.  Fun, fellowship, and food.  You know, the normal girls' pow wow sort of thing.  There is usually a topic.  Our topic was what things do you wish we had a "do-over" on.  (That's in my words.  The organizer's topic sounded better but I just can't remember.)  We really didn't focus much on the topic.  It was more about what is everyone doing that works and what hasn't worked as well.  I took notes, of course.  I walked away with so much info swimming around in my brain that I guess it is going to take a while to filter through.  I thought that I could just write all of my bullet points down and see if anyone who reads this might have some insight as to whether they have any idea what this stuff is and if it is good or not.  Some of it is not really a curriculum or a book, per se, but just ideas that you might expound on by suggesting a book that pertains to the topic.

Anyways, thanks for reading.  Here goes:

• Character Sketches, ATAIA
• Teach them the Joy of Learning=Discovering
• Different Children Different Needs
• Take 2 Cups.  Fill one cup with the rooms in your house and the other with a subject.  Shake them up and let your child pick one of each.  This adds variaty to the day:  Reading in the Family Room, Math in the Kitchen, Science in the Bedroom, etc.
• Bribing Children with M & M's to finish problems.  (Thought my boys would probably not do so well with this.  Imagine my wiggle worms on a sugar high!!)
• Nickles on the Table.  Place 10 nickles on the table.  Each time they drop their pencil (or other distracting thing they tend to do) they lose a nickle.  The hope is they keep their money and you keep your sanity.
• One lady said her boys (she has 6) took way too much time on math--like an hour and a half.  She started making them do it the night before with dad.  They finished in 20 minutes.
• Add 5 problems for every problem they get wrong in math.
• Easy Grammar
• Season's Harvest Cafe
• Organizing a Field Day
• ALEKS Math
• Homeschool Special Needs Support Groups
• HSLDA
• CC
• Follow My Leader
• Seeds of Praise
• EPGY Math, $15/month

Getting Started

We so did not want to be a homeschooling family.  I love all my sweet homeschooling friends, but the idea of entering into the home school arena was about as appealing to me as having my wisdom teeth extracted.  But, alas, God has a plan.  Like most times, I am the last to go along with His plan.  I was pretty determined that my two little boys would attend public school.  I thought that they could be like Daniel and Joseph and stand firm in a world of corruption shining out like a beacon through the darkness that is public school.  They were blessed to be just that for a time.  They did shine brightly.  However, their circumstances were not such as would allow us to keep them in public school.


Jackson is a pretty special little boy.  I have known for a long time.  His 3K teacher stated that he excelled in patterns.  At three he knew every variety of dinosaurs that ever existed.  By Kindergarten, he talked like a man.  To tell you the truth, he has always been a little man.  In between 1st and 2nd grade, Jackson wanted to learn Geometry while other kids want to play with Transformers.  Jackson has a bit of a focus problem.  Well, okay, he has a big focus problem.  In first grade, the teacher called me and told me that he needed to be tested for ADD and that he should get some medication.  She stated that it was so easy.  She said she thought that they even have a patch that he could wear.  We were seriously alarmed.  First of all, what was this teacher doing giving us a medical diagnosis?  Second of all, why did he have the ability to read for hours on end without any problems focusing?  We took him to the psychologist and had him tested.  The sweet lady who tested him came out and said that his biggest problem wasn't ADD.  She said that he has an extremely high IQ and that he needs to be stimulated mentally.  She said that we should send him Rice University in the summers for programs and tell the teacher to never make him do single digit addition again because it was extremely unjust for him to be tortured in such a way.  Well, we persisted in keeping our Jackson in public school.  He did get into the Gifted and Talented program.  Even in this, he was never truly challenged.  Well, unless you count the impossible challenge of paying attention.


My precious little Grant is a whole other story.  He is Autistic.  His diagnosis is mildly Autistic and ADHD.  Yep.  Oh, yeah, that's right.  He bounces.  He runs.  He is full of energy.  Grant didn't start talking until he was 4 1/2 years old.  This was only after private speech therapy.  The therapist let me sit in and when I would go home, I'd make tons of flash cards.  We would go over them time and time again.  He learned to speak by learning his letter.  He is now an excellent speller.  He learned how to pronounce each letter individually giving him a strong knowledge of his phonics.  You know the saying.  Once they start talking, they never stop.  This has been the case for Grant.  He just has to say exactly what he is thinking pretty much all day long.  School was tough for Grant.  The first week of kindergarten, he was crouched under the table scrubbing his nose into the carpet.  It wasn't pretty.  He would do things like stop drinking water so that he wouldn't have to go to the bathroom because he hated the sound of the toilets.  He wouldn't play with other kids on the playground because of anxiety with bugs.  He believed everything that everyone told him.  He even believed that his birthday was a different day than it really was.  He knew his birthday, but they wrote it down wrong at the school and so he believed what they said instead of what he knw.  It is sad, really.  He lacks discernment.  He lacks wisdom.  These are just some of the reasons that we decided to home school him.  I think the straw that broke the camel's back was when one of the staff told me that he didn't want to read so she told him to just pretend to read so the other kids wouldn't be upset.  My husband and I agreed that there was absolutely no reason that Grant shouldn't read with the other children.  We saw that the school's "accommodations" were, in fact, going to prevent Grant from getting the best education that he could receive.


So, here we are.  The school year ended.  The boys are officially homeschoolers.  We have all of our curriculum.  We have started a little bit to get used to each other.  I can see already that God is going to mold me through this.  I am sure that it will be as much to my benefit as theirs.  I really am thankful that we are going to do this.  I really think they have needed their mama.  They needed guidance.  This summer as we get used to being around each other again, I see how much they really do need their mom.  Even more than that, I see how much they need God's Word covering their lives.  I can't wait to see the fruit that they will bear.  It is kind of exciting.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for them!