One doing homeschool, one doing school at home

We finished our week of adjusting to two students with two very different learning agendas. How did it go? Well, for the most part it was okay, but also a bit nerve wracking.

Peanut is happily working, full steam ahead, on his homeschool. He has learned his “doubles” in math, and expanded it to “doubles plus one” ie 7+7=14 and 7+8 is 7 doubled plus one. He’s also learned that when adding something to 9, the nine wants to “suck up” a 1 from the next number because 9 wants to be 10!

Popeye, on the other hand, is doing fairly well in spite of the school at home situation. Popeye’s teacher is giving daily work for the class, which is great in some ways, but frustrating in others. Learning how to do a concept through watching busy or long winded videos may work for some kids, but both Popeye and I kind of zone out during these 20 to 30 minute long videos.

I still have him watch the videos (yeah, I’m a mean mom, hahaha) but then we take the first one or two questions and work them out together on the whiteboard. Then I let him loose to do his assigned work.

One nice thing that came out of this is that after Popeye was done all his assigned work from his teacher each day, he actually asked if he could work on his Khan Academy. Wow, a kid that actually WANTS to do math because he thinks the homeschool math was fun! This does my heart good.

So what kind of work is Popeye doing for his Standard 4 teacher? In Math he’s been working on percentages, and for Language Arts Popeye is doing conjunctions, synonyms and antonyms. Not too bad, all in all, and we were really looking forward to a nice, quiet weekend.

But this weekend there won’t be much time for rest and relaxation. Popeye has to memorize the spelling of 74 commonly misspelled words. 74 words. He will be tested on this coming Monday. Yikes! This is too much for an adult, let alone an 11 year old child. Let’s just say my visions of a restful and fun weekend just went out the window.

And on top of that, he’s also got to memorize the 13 times tables up to 13 x 13 by heart for a test this coming Thursday.

I will definitely be enjoying a glass or two from a jug of wine tonight.

Home sweet classroom

Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the fly. This past weekend I felt like I was finally making some progress with homeschooling two boys instead of one. I noticed that because Popeye is now part of our homeschool, all of us needed time to adjust. Peanut began to learn to do more independent work while I helped Popeye. Popeye began to feel more comfortable with the idea of homeschooling, and actually started to show his curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

We began to develop a nice rhythm to our day as I slowly added more work for Popeye to do. Finally he was at the point to be able to handle a full homeschool day. I was so excited.

This past weekend I pretty much locked myself in the bedroom with a glass of wine, my computer, and my planner. I created a full week’s unit study based on The Magic Treehouse book Dinosaurs Before Dark. I read the book, and pulled together a lapbook on dinosaurs. I planned to read 2 chapters aloud a day while they colored or used playdough to create dinosaurs or other things in the story. For art I planned to make dinosaur eggs from paper mache, make a fossil, do a vinegar and chicken bone experiment, and even have them do a diorama. For science they’d learn about paleontology and do a dinosaur dig in the garden. We’d learn about the various dinosaurs, and research 2 in depth. For Geography we’d focus on Pangea.

Then we got the message from Popeye’s teacher.

Popeye’s teacher was preparing to begin his third term class on Google Classroom. I had to go to Popeye’s school and collect all his school books. His teacher hopes to have this up and running by the end of the week at the latest.

So Sunday night, surrounded by lesson plans, books on dinosaurs, pages printed out for dinosaur lapbooks and for the read aloud story comprehension, I cried. I really cried. We’re talking ugly cry. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Popeye will continue, at least via the computer, to attend his school. I’m glad his teacher will be continuing to teach, even if it’s through a virtual classroom. But I somehow feel deflated and sad, almost like I’m in mourning.

When Popeye saw his stack of school books on the living room table, he couldn’t hide the look of sadness and revulsion on his face. I think this hurt the most. I hate the thought of any child not enjoying learning.

As I sat between Peanut and Popeye as they did math today, Popeye told me he really liked doing Khan Academy math. Much more that using the textbook from school. I was both overjoyed to hear that he likes math and heartbroken because within a day or two he’ll be once again using his dreaded textbook.

The one thing that really struck me about the pile of textbooks Popeye has, there isn’t anything other than math and language arts. No science. No history. No Geography. No arts. The only exception is one social studies workbook. It’s only about our local holidays and customs, not bad, but kind of underwhelming.

The school is teaching for the SEA exams next year. All the ‘non-essential’ subjects have been purged. In that pile of books, all I saw was meat and potatoes. No dessert. It feels so wrong.

Peanut will continue doing his daily work too, he’s doing so well this year! I can’t plan to add anything to Popeye’s day yet, at least not until we know what kind of workload his teacher has for him. Once we get an idea what a typical day will be like, then I can add the fun things. But for now we’re back to doing things one day at a time.

Until then, I’m going to need a lot more wine.

When the world stops, we homeschool on…

We’ve had a very rough six months. My husband had a heart attack at the end of October 2019. It was most likely caused by uncontrolled diabetes. After waiting 3 weeks in the hospital, he finally got 2 stents and was able to come home. We were getting back to a new version of normal which included a new low-carb diet, more exercise, and letting go of stress.

Then in January the whispers of a new deadly virus started to circulate. By March our island had closed it’s borders. Popeye’s school closed. He now joined Peanut in our homeschool. My husband was deemed well enough to return to work even though he’s in 4 of the 8 high risk groups for this virus. So off he went because he’s an essential worker. Every time he walks out the door, my stomach ties up in knots. I say a silent prayer that he’ll be okay.

In this time of crisis, the world has pretty much shut down. Here on the island we are on lockdown. Like almost every other country, our motto right now is “stay home, stay safe.” Our government has closed all the beaches, restaurants and fast food joints, recreation facilities. We aren’t even allowed to go for walks or bike rides etc. in pubic for exercise. Grocery stores close at 6 pm. Pharmacies close by 8 pm. Everyone is encouraged to wear a cloth mask to prevent spreading the virus.

 

The only constant in our crazy times has been homeschool. It gives Peanut the feeling that everything is still okay, his routine hasn’t been too disturbed. Homeschooling Popeye too has given our days more laughter in these four walls, and I’ve begun to find the gaps that public school has left him with. For me, homeschool takes my mind off of the never ending fear of the state of the world and our island.

Since Popeye is coming from public school, and will be returning once this crisis is over, I’m limited in what I can do with him. It’s so frustrating sometimes. He does his best work when using online or computerized curriculum. He’s doing well with Khan Academy math. But unfortunately public school uses textbooks, paper, and pencils. What takes Popeye 20 minutes to do on computer will take him 1 hour to do on paper. It breaks my heart that I can’t really use Popeye’s learning style. He has to use the public school’s methods because next spring Popeye will sit the SEA exams. He needs the practice to prepare for it. It breaks my heart that he’s being taught to pass this test, and not being taught to actually be engaged and learn about the world. It breaks my heart that I can’t homeschool him until university like I will for Peanut.

So now my battle with the math demons are happening again, but this time with Popeye. I know he’d excel with a curriculum like Teaching Textbooks or Khan Academy. But we need the paper and pencil type curriculum. I’ve tried the free student workbook from Harcourt, not bad but it really needs the textbook to make this a viable option. I’ve tried MEP math, but Popeye can’t handle the mental math and the concepts. He has learned to be spoon fed information and can’t seem to break out of that kind of thinking. I was thinking of Mathematical Reasoning, but again, it doesn’t explain the concepts. We tried Easy Peasy math, but it’s game based. Great for learning, but not great for pencil and paper practice. Free math  is a really great online curriculum and has promise, but again, it has lots of worksheets etc, but doesn’t teach the concepts.

I pulled out an old copy of Saxon 5/4, thinking this may be our solution. Nope. Popeye needs to see and hear the concepts being taught. He mentally shuts down when he has to read pages of instructions. He’s used to a teacher hand feeding him the lessons.

I decided that Math Mammoth would likely be a good fit. Almost every lesson has a video explaining how to do the concept, and the worktext is thorough and challenging. I printed out the placement test for Math Mammoth grade 4. If he passed it, he was ready for grade 5.  He failed it. He failed grade 3. He failed grade 2. He barely passed grade 1. I was shocked. How could a child that knows how to multiply fractions not know how to tell time. How could he not understand the concept of a fact family. How could he not know how to check his work by taking his answers and using a reverse of the question to check? How could he not know how to measure with a ruler? I was stunned. I felt like someone kicked me in the stomach, and I felt sick. I personally felt like I failed Popeye.

When the government announced that school will most likely be closed until September, I rejoiced. I would have at least 15 weeks with Peanut to teach him what he should already have known. Then it hit me. How am I going to fill in 3 years worth of learning gaps in only 4 months? Should I cave in and let him use the computer for math, let him get a grasp of the concepts through Khan Academy (which he also placed in grade 1) or do I use Math Mammoth, but pick and choose the topics? Do I do what’s in the best interest of Popeye, or what’s in the best interest for Popeye to pass the SEA exam and ignore his gaps?

I’m leaning towards letting him use the computer, then maybe in the last few weeks before public school begins again, have him focus more on written work.

Meanwhile Peanut has all but graduated into grade 2. For him we use the Good and the Beautiful for Language Arts and Math. He and Popeye also play Prodigy math a lot too. He still uses Reading A-Z, and is reading like a pro.

Because of these strange times, we haven’t really done much for science, geography, or history. We’ve all been a bit on edge and not in a “school” frame of mind. But I’m ready to slowly ease back into a full curriculum. The problem is finding something that can include Popeye, so I’m looking for either a unit study approach or something similar so we can do maybe one or two topics while Popeye is here. The Good and the Beautiful has some science units like this, and possibly Expedition Earth would be good for Geography.

So this crisis has definitely changed our lives. The constant sound of cars driving by is gone. The pollution is clearing up, the noise pollution is definitely a whole lot less!

As I sit here this morning with my coffee beside me, the sun shining through the window, I am being serenaded by a songbird just outside. I can hear parrots chattering in the distance. It’s maybe pulled us closer as a family. Maybe the whole world may soon see we are all one big family. We’re all in this together. Maybe while we are staying home, staying safe, mother nature is healing, and maybe as a world, we can heal too.