It's been quite the month for family values, hasn't it? North Carolina decided it knew best who should get married and who shouldn't. President Obama stood up for his beliefs about gay marriage (and now has been "outted" in Newsweek). And then there was Time Magazine displaying a mother and son nursing on it's cover - an act that should be a beautiful and private and instead made to look unnatural and freakish. The article itself brings the concept of attached parenting front and center.
I consider myself an attached parent for the most part, but I suspect that some of the more hard-core APers out there probably think I'm a wanna-be. We did/do many of the things that AP espouses. We co-slept and we never did anything like sleep/feeding scheduling. (I should say that I didn't schedule the feedings -- The Peanut scheduled herself to nurse every two hours like clock-work for the better part of the first 12 - 13 months of her life). Speaking of nursing, we did that until she was almost two. I did end up weaning her around 22 months when she decided that I made the Best Teething Toy Ever. The Peanut also spent the better part of her first couple of years in a sling on my hip when she wasn't running around getting into stuff. The Peanut learned to sign along the way so we actually had a great communication system going before she learned to talk.
Do I think our way of child-rearing is the Only Way or the Best Way? Of course not. AP was not something we actually planned to do. Truth be told, I'm not sure we had a real plan in mind when we set out other than to trust our guts and listen to what The Peanut told us she needed. We fell into AP. We co-slept because of the nursing schedule. We put her in the sling because she wanted to be held. A lot. We taught her to sign because it was clear that she wanted to communicate. So AP worked for us. Does everything about AP work for us? Not at all -- like everything else we do with The Peanut, we have a blended approach. (This will probably get me kicked out of the AP Club for admitting that, but there it is). I do firmly believe that the AP philosophy has tons of good points and makes a lot of sense, but I also get that for whatever reason, it just isn't for everyone.
Time Magazine's cover just makes me sad. First, it takes nursing which I think is something beautiful and makes it gross and sexualized. A friend of mine wondered what the mother and the magazine were thinking when they set that shot up. What's going to happen to that kid in a few years? What will he say when he sees that picture several years from now? What will the class bully say? Second, it casts AP in a not-so-flattering light. AP already has its "hippy-dippy" baggage and with good reason given some of the more hardcore APers out there who scream their message every chance they get. This picture only fuels the flames around extended nursing and by extension other AP ideas.
How we love one another and how we love and raise our children are our own business. Not the government's. Not Time Magazine's. It frustrates me that we as a society haven't figured this out yet and may never.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
The Singer as an Athlete
Our family joined a gym in late February. The Peanut needed swim lessons and there are two decent family-oriented gyms in the area with indoor pools. The one we joined gets consistent rave reviews about their children's programming so while the other gym got better reviews for the adult classes, we went with the one with the better swim instructor. Of course scheduling is always a challenge around here, so the nanny needs to take The Peanut to her swim lesson on Monday when I'm teaching. This means we had to go whole-hog and buy the family membership so the nanny could have her name on the account too. Not one to let stuff go to waste, I've been availing myself of the membership as well. I work out with a personal trainer when I can afford it. I take classes. I do the machines. I'm even getting brave enough to venture into the weight room all by myself without my personal trainer in tow. I even have an app that helps me track what I'm doing for weights (in addition to the SparkPeople app which I've used off and on for awhile). I'm slowly turning into a gym rat.
The results have been positive so far. I've dropped a pants size. I fit into my skinny jeans which are really the only pair of jeans I own right now that fit me nicely. My clothes are getting big on me. I have muscle lines on my arms. So what they say is true - you will lose weight if you exercise. But what I've been most fascinated by in this process is how my chosen profession helps me at the gym. Sadly, it doesn't help me bench press an extra 10 pounds, but what it does do for me is almost just as good.
I've discovered I'm good at three things: flexibility (which has nothing to do with singing; I just do a lot of yoga); breathing; and anything abdominal. When I do work out with my trainer, I think she puts me on the treadmill or elliptical and cranks it up to shut me up. I've sorely disappointed her several times by still being able to crab at her about whatever form of torture she has on tap for me for the day. The abdominals are kind of weird. Going into this, I was having lower back pain because I felt like my core was weak. I know that my core is not just my abdominals, but they do play a huge part in it. From the get go, it has taken a lot to challenge me in this department (which is completely not the case for any other muscle group). Now that I've been at this for a couple of months, I am actively looking for stuff that makes me feel the burn. I've found a few specific exercises and classes that do challenge me and I make them the priority. I suspect next time I meet with the trainer, if I mention it, she'll come up with some new form of torture to add to my repertoire.
I do look forward to continuing this journey. The results happened quicker than I expected them to. And here's where the athlete helps the singer -- the more fit I am, the better I feel as singer. My lines are longer. The breath control is the best it's been in years. The concert I did this past Sunday didn't wear me out. For years, I've told my students to go do something active -- even just go for a walk. Aside from yoga, I didn't consistently take my own advice. I'm happy to report that this has changed over the last few months - this singer needs a few more track suits because the gym rat is here to stay.
The results have been positive so far. I've dropped a pants size. I fit into my skinny jeans which are really the only pair of jeans I own right now that fit me nicely. My clothes are getting big on me. I have muscle lines on my arms. So what they say is true - you will lose weight if you exercise. But what I've been most fascinated by in this process is how my chosen profession helps me at the gym. Sadly, it doesn't help me bench press an extra 10 pounds, but what it does do for me is almost just as good.
I've discovered I'm good at three things: flexibility (which has nothing to do with singing; I just do a lot of yoga); breathing; and anything abdominal. When I do work out with my trainer, I think she puts me on the treadmill or elliptical and cranks it up to shut me up. I've sorely disappointed her several times by still being able to crab at her about whatever form of torture she has on tap for me for the day. The abdominals are kind of weird. Going into this, I was having lower back pain because I felt like my core was weak. I know that my core is not just my abdominals, but they do play a huge part in it. From the get go, it has taken a lot to challenge me in this department (which is completely not the case for any other muscle group). Now that I've been at this for a couple of months, I am actively looking for stuff that makes me feel the burn. I've found a few specific exercises and classes that do challenge me and I make them the priority. I suspect next time I meet with the trainer, if I mention it, she'll come up with some new form of torture to add to my repertoire.
I do look forward to continuing this journey. The results happened quicker than I expected them to. And here's where the athlete helps the singer -- the more fit I am, the better I feel as singer. My lines are longer. The breath control is the best it's been in years. The concert I did this past Sunday didn't wear me out. For years, I've told my students to go do something active -- even just go for a walk. Aside from yoga, I didn't consistently take my own advice. I'm happy to report that this has changed over the last few months - this singer needs a few more track suits because the gym rat is here to stay.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
The Brain's School Year Review
The school year isn't quite over yet, but we're coming down the homestretch. We'll be taking a break for July and August -- The Peanut has 4 weeks of summer camp lined up and (if we get enough sign-ups), I'll be running four weeks of summer camps for the music school I'm involved with. Between camps, vacations, and just the need for some downtime, we cannot (nor we probably ever will be) one of those year-round schooling kind of families.
As I look ahead to next school year -- which I've been doing now for several months -- it's helpful to reflect on what worked and didn't work.
Scheduling. This year, I got rid of the notion of "school vacation weeks". Last year, I found it really challenging to get us back on track if we took more than a long weekend off. Our school weeks have ranged from 2 days to a full 5 days - most are 4 or 5 day weeks. Occasionally we even did school on the weekend. I found that this gave me more flexibility than trying to stick to a more standard routine, but it wasn't without its issues.
The issue actually lies in the balance of my work life and my teacher life. Currently, I work on the afternoons of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We have a nanny that watches The Peanut when I'm working. Tuesday mornings, we meet with the home school group for a couple of hours. Thursday afternoon is gymnastics. We will occasionally meet with the home school on Thursday and/or Friday mornings as well. While I can rely on the nanny to handle some things for school, I don't want her to do the entire lesson plan for a day. While I have done this in the past with our previous nanny, I feel that it's different now -- Wombat and I are the ones who are responsible for educating The Peanut, not the nanny. Further, the previous nanny was an early childhood education major who brought a lot to the table in this area, so I felt she really rounded out, if not augmented what we were doing. The current nanny has different strengths and still augments what we do, but in a very different way. My point is this: we have a limited time each week for The Peanut and I to sit down and get our work done so if something comes up, I need to do a bit of juggling across the coming weeks to make sure that I'm comfortable that we're doing enough.
In reality, I'm sure that I'm being overly anal about the whole thing as I suspect that we have gotten more done this year than most grade schoolers - and the added bonus is that we're having fun while we're doing it (most of the time, at least). I also know that she's experienced stuff this year that a lot of kids don't, so that's a win as well. I will probably continue to be anal about this one aspect, though, because it is my nature. I'm OK with this because I've learned to let it go on many other fronts.
Academics. Here's where I've learned a great deal. Overall, I think the academic plan I decided to try this year was successful. I can't say The Peanut loved every second of it, but overall, she got into much of what we were doing and has learned a ton. (Despite this, if you ask her what she learned for school today, her answer will be "I don't know".)
Language Arts - The big hit here was "Poem of the Week". Every week we pick a new poem, read it, study it for rhyming, alliteration, etc. She gets to illustrate a copy and put it in a binder. We also pick out words for vocabulary and spelling. I will continue this next year which will fit nicely with the language arts curriculum we'll be using as it also has a large poetry component to it.
Everything else had its ups and downs. I know she's not a fan of the handwriting practice, but she does see the improvement as we do it. Spelling is spelling. She actually really enjoyed the grammar text I picked for the year, though, I did have to do a lot of modifications/acceleration to keep her interested as it was very repetitious. We also did tons of writing. I used a writing workbook for exercises but also frequently branched out and did other stuff like poetry. We also write letters almost every week -- something that she really seems to enjoy doing. (I think it helps that when she writes to my mom, my mom takes the time to write a short letter back to her).
One major win is that The Peanut is starting to ask to learn certain things. A very recent example comes out of spelling where she has a hard time remembering using 'ck' versus 'k' or 'c'. She specifically asked me if we could do a unit on that, so I stepped away from our Spectrum spelling book, and made her a week's worth of activities.
Math - Originally we were going to stick with the curriculum that we used last school year - mainly because it was in my comfort zone. Within a week or two of starting school, I decided to scrap it and went with CSMP Math - the best decision of the year. We still have our challenging days where The Peanut decides that she's all done thinking about this stuff, but there are so many components in this program that she enjoys that even if she didn't like a concept the first time around, when it shows up again embedded in a Detective Story, a story book, or a String Game (Venn Diagrams), she's all over it without a word of complaint. We'll be sticking with CSMP for the long haul, I suspect.
Science - This has turned into a mixed bag. I bought two different curricula and merged them together as I liked what each had to offer. I did not want to write my own science curricula mainly because I did it the previous year and I was a little burnt out from it. Overall, science was good and The Peanut got a lot out of it, but I've learned over this year, that this is one area that needs more customization than I could easily do with the packaged solutions. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it -- I just always feel like it could be a little better. I've already begun writing my own science curriculum for next year using a series of books (Building Foundations for Scientific Learning) as a guide. I'm writing things up a little differently so I (hopefully) don't get burnt out this time around. My experience with planning the history lessons has really helped me get better organized for writing up science.
History - We are working our way the The Story of the World Series. We're not even halfway through the first book, and that's OK. I wish more curricula was created like this as it presents a basic lesson and then a whole pile of activities and additional resources that you can use (or not) as you choose. I use a ton of their resources and will often times spend several weeks on one chapter in the text book. It allows us to go deep and I'm finding that's what The Peanut really thrives on. I see us using this series for the long haul.
Arts - The Peanut started piano lessons this year with a great teacher and seems to be really enjoying it. Her perfectionism gets in her way and it's been a constant dialogue between her and I about how it's OK to make mistakes. (The perfectionist in me gets where her head is at). Instead of classes at WAM this year, she meets with her teacher from WAM for art lessons as our schedules and finances allow. It helps that I'm friends with her teacher, but I think The Peanut really enjoys the one-on-one attention and has shown some real talent in this area. Again, the perfectionism gets in her way on occasion, but her teacher is really good about not letting her take herself too seriously.
Friends - If I had a buck for every time someone asks me about whether The Peanut has a social life or not, I could be like one of those famous movie stars who think homeschooling their kids involves hiring several expensive tutors to do all the work. (Oh the bon-bons I could eat while someone else runs The Peanut through her math facts...)
The Peanut has a better social life than I ever did. She has a wide variety of friends and at least 4 or 5 very close friends who she can truly relate to on one level or another. In our home school group, there are two other only-children who are incredibly intelligent and creative -- kindred spirits for her. Likewise, church is a rich social place for her where she has many friends of varying ages. While it is a little more work for me to make sure that she sees her friends regularly, I think it's better quality time together than trying to cram in that time over recess or lunch period. All the things they say about homeschooler friendships being meaningful and strong (and perhaps sometimes better than what you get when you get thrown into a room full of your age-mates) is absolutely true - at least for The Peanut.
Overall, a very successful year. She and I have both learned a lot and have had a bunch of fun along the way. Looking ahead to next year, I see where some tweaks can be made to make it even better for both of us... but that's fodder for another post.
As I look ahead to next school year -- which I've been doing now for several months -- it's helpful to reflect on what worked and didn't work.
Scheduling. This year, I got rid of the notion of "school vacation weeks". Last year, I found it really challenging to get us back on track if we took more than a long weekend off. Our school weeks have ranged from 2 days to a full 5 days - most are 4 or 5 day weeks. Occasionally we even did school on the weekend. I found that this gave me more flexibility than trying to stick to a more standard routine, but it wasn't without its issues.
The issue actually lies in the balance of my work life and my teacher life. Currently, I work on the afternoons of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We have a nanny that watches The Peanut when I'm working. Tuesday mornings, we meet with the home school group for a couple of hours. Thursday afternoon is gymnastics. We will occasionally meet with the home school on Thursday and/or Friday mornings as well. While I can rely on the nanny to handle some things for school, I don't want her to do the entire lesson plan for a day. While I have done this in the past with our previous nanny, I feel that it's different now -- Wombat and I are the ones who are responsible for educating The Peanut, not the nanny. Further, the previous nanny was an early childhood education major who brought a lot to the table in this area, so I felt she really rounded out, if not augmented what we were doing. The current nanny has different strengths and still augments what we do, but in a very different way. My point is this: we have a limited time each week for The Peanut and I to sit down and get our work done so if something comes up, I need to do a bit of juggling across the coming weeks to make sure that I'm comfortable that we're doing enough.
In reality, I'm sure that I'm being overly anal about the whole thing as I suspect that we have gotten more done this year than most grade schoolers - and the added bonus is that we're having fun while we're doing it (most of the time, at least). I also know that she's experienced stuff this year that a lot of kids don't, so that's a win as well. I will probably continue to be anal about this one aspect, though, because it is my nature. I'm OK with this because I've learned to let it go on many other fronts.
Academics. Here's where I've learned a great deal. Overall, I think the academic plan I decided to try this year was successful. I can't say The Peanut loved every second of it, but overall, she got into much of what we were doing and has learned a ton. (Despite this, if you ask her what she learned for school today, her answer will be "I don't know".)
Language Arts - The big hit here was "Poem of the Week". Every week we pick a new poem, read it, study it for rhyming, alliteration, etc. She gets to illustrate a copy and put it in a binder. We also pick out words for vocabulary and spelling. I will continue this next year which will fit nicely with the language arts curriculum we'll be using as it also has a large poetry component to it.
Everything else had its ups and downs. I know she's not a fan of the handwriting practice, but she does see the improvement as we do it. Spelling is spelling. She actually really enjoyed the grammar text I picked for the year, though, I did have to do a lot of modifications/acceleration to keep her interested as it was very repetitious. We also did tons of writing. I used a writing workbook for exercises but also frequently branched out and did other stuff like poetry. We also write letters almost every week -- something that she really seems to enjoy doing. (I think it helps that when she writes to my mom, my mom takes the time to write a short letter back to her).
One major win is that The Peanut is starting to ask to learn certain things. A very recent example comes out of spelling where she has a hard time remembering using 'ck' versus 'k' or 'c'. She specifically asked me if we could do a unit on that, so I stepped away from our Spectrum spelling book, and made her a week's worth of activities.
Math - Originally we were going to stick with the curriculum that we used last school year - mainly because it was in my comfort zone. Within a week or two of starting school, I decided to scrap it and went with CSMP Math - the best decision of the year. We still have our challenging days where The Peanut decides that she's all done thinking about this stuff, but there are so many components in this program that she enjoys that even if she didn't like a concept the first time around, when it shows up again embedded in a Detective Story, a story book, or a String Game (Venn Diagrams), she's all over it without a word of complaint. We'll be sticking with CSMP for the long haul, I suspect.
Science - This has turned into a mixed bag. I bought two different curricula and merged them together as I liked what each had to offer. I did not want to write my own science curricula mainly because I did it the previous year and I was a little burnt out from it. Overall, science was good and The Peanut got a lot out of it, but I've learned over this year, that this is one area that needs more customization than I could easily do with the packaged solutions. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it -- I just always feel like it could be a little better. I've already begun writing my own science curriculum for next year using a series of books (Building Foundations for Scientific Learning) as a guide. I'm writing things up a little differently so I (hopefully) don't get burnt out this time around. My experience with planning the history lessons has really helped me get better organized for writing up science.
History - We are working our way the The Story of the World Series. We're not even halfway through the first book, and that's OK. I wish more curricula was created like this as it presents a basic lesson and then a whole pile of activities and additional resources that you can use (or not) as you choose. I use a ton of their resources and will often times spend several weeks on one chapter in the text book. It allows us to go deep and I'm finding that's what The Peanut really thrives on. I see us using this series for the long haul.
Arts - The Peanut started piano lessons this year with a great teacher and seems to be really enjoying it. Her perfectionism gets in her way and it's been a constant dialogue between her and I about how it's OK to make mistakes. (The perfectionist in me gets where her head is at). Instead of classes at WAM this year, she meets with her teacher from WAM for art lessons as our schedules and finances allow. It helps that I'm friends with her teacher, but I think The Peanut really enjoys the one-on-one attention and has shown some real talent in this area. Again, the perfectionism gets in her way on occasion, but her teacher is really good about not letting her take herself too seriously.
Friends - If I had a buck for every time someone asks me about whether The Peanut has a social life or not, I could be like one of those famous movie stars who think homeschooling their kids involves hiring several expensive tutors to do all the work. (Oh the bon-bons I could eat while someone else runs The Peanut through her math facts...)
The Peanut has a better social life than I ever did. She has a wide variety of friends and at least 4 or 5 very close friends who she can truly relate to on one level or another. In our home school group, there are two other only-children who are incredibly intelligent and creative -- kindred spirits for her. Likewise, church is a rich social place for her where she has many friends of varying ages. While it is a little more work for me to make sure that she sees her friends regularly, I think it's better quality time together than trying to cram in that time over recess or lunch period. All the things they say about homeschooler friendships being meaningful and strong (and perhaps sometimes better than what you get when you get thrown into a room full of your age-mates) is absolutely true - at least for The Peanut.
Overall, a very successful year. She and I have both learned a lot and have had a bunch of fun along the way. Looking ahead to next year, I see where some tweaks can be made to make it even better for both of us... but that's fodder for another post.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Giving Thanks
I am, of course, thankful for the roof over my head and the food on my plate. But there's so much more that I'm thankful that a quick little list just can't adequately describe. So at the risk of sounding a little sappy, here's what I'm thankful for right now:
My totally awesome family. I have a wonderful husband who continues to support this crazy career of mine while we homeschool The Peanut. This has not always been easy, but we continue to make it work. I also have a really cool, smart little kid who continues to amaze me on a daily basis.
My really cool friends. I have several friends that even if I don't see for awhile, we can pick up where ever we last left off and just keep going. I am also blessed with a couple friends who are also mentors. The one thing I can guarantee with just about any of my friends that if we're together, we're going to laugh and have fun.
My cat. Seriously. My cat Pandora is my BFFF (Best Furry Friend Forever). She spends a good bit of her time either in my lap or snuggling next to me. At night, she sleeps next to my pillow. She follows me around like I would imagine a dog would and has a personality like no other cat I've ever owned.
My church. I am not terribly religious, but I was raised Presbyterian and I do believe in a God. Church started as a gig for me a little over 10 years ago. I thought it was cool to be paid to do something that I would do for free and I didn't really care what I was singing so long as I was singing something. My boss turned out to be amazing and took me under his wing -- see above about my cool friends. Overtime, the choir became a second family for me. I ended up joining the church and while the music program is still my primary focus, I have become involved in a number of facets.
Music. It's my life. I am one of those people who almost always has a song stuck in their head. (Right now, it's "Rejoice Greatly" from Handel's Messiah since I am preparing it for an upcoming gig. Give me 5 minutes and I'll probably be mentally running another movement even though I don't mean to do it...) Anyways, I can't imagine what the heck I'd be if I didn't have music. Even if I didn't teach, I'd still find somewhere to sing and make music. For me, teaching is icing on the cake - it gives me the chance to share my passion. I think this is doubly cool with kids -- to watch them make connections and creat their own music makes me indescribably happy.
Games. Board games, card games, Wii, Dungeons & Dragons... you name it. I love games. What I'm most thankful for, though, is how they bring people together. Whether it's the hubby, Peanut and me trying to escape Forbidden Island, a whole bunch of my word-smithing friends duking it out over Bananagrams, or The Bickering Eight fighting the latest battle (either with a dragon or amongst themselves), it's a chance to connect, play, and be silly for awhile.
I really do feel blessed for everything that's going on in my life right now. And for that, I'm very thankful.
My totally awesome family. I have a wonderful husband who continues to support this crazy career of mine while we homeschool The Peanut. This has not always been easy, but we continue to make it work. I also have a really cool, smart little kid who continues to amaze me on a daily basis.
My really cool friends. I have several friends that even if I don't see for awhile, we can pick up where ever we last left off and just keep going. I am also blessed with a couple friends who are also mentors. The one thing I can guarantee with just about any of my friends that if we're together, we're going to laugh and have fun.
My cat. Seriously. My cat Pandora is my BFFF (Best Furry Friend Forever). She spends a good bit of her time either in my lap or snuggling next to me. At night, she sleeps next to my pillow. She follows me around like I would imagine a dog would and has a personality like no other cat I've ever owned.
My church. I am not terribly religious, but I was raised Presbyterian and I do believe in a God. Church started as a gig for me a little over 10 years ago. I thought it was cool to be paid to do something that I would do for free and I didn't really care what I was singing so long as I was singing something. My boss turned out to be amazing and took me under his wing -- see above about my cool friends. Overtime, the choir became a second family for me. I ended up joining the church and while the music program is still my primary focus, I have become involved in a number of facets.
Music. It's my life. I am one of those people who almost always has a song stuck in their head. (Right now, it's "Rejoice Greatly" from Handel's Messiah since I am preparing it for an upcoming gig. Give me 5 minutes and I'll probably be mentally running another movement even though I don't mean to do it...) Anyways, I can't imagine what the heck I'd be if I didn't have music. Even if I didn't teach, I'd still find somewhere to sing and make music. For me, teaching is icing on the cake - it gives me the chance to share my passion. I think this is doubly cool with kids -- to watch them make connections and creat their own music makes me indescribably happy.
Games. Board games, card games, Wii, Dungeons & Dragons... you name it. I love games. What I'm most thankful for, though, is how they bring people together. Whether it's the hubby, Peanut and me trying to escape Forbidden Island, a whole bunch of my word-smithing friends duking it out over Bananagrams, or The Bickering Eight fighting the latest battle (either with a dragon or amongst themselves), it's a chance to connect, play, and be silly for awhile.
I really do feel blessed for everything that's going on in my life right now. And for that, I'm very thankful.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Balance... or am I just crazy and biting off way more than I can chew?!
School starts for us the week of August 29th, so of course I get tagged for jury duty for that Monday. The court system of Worcester County must really like me because I also went for jury duty almost 6 years ago when I was pregnant with The Peanut. Needless to say, school will be delayed by a day. I doubt The Peanut will complain too much -- I think on one level, she's ready to get back to school and the routine it offers her. I know she thinks she likes having time on her hands, but I find that her attitude gets pretty bad after awhile -- especially after a couple of days of rain. Our schedule should still allow for plenty of outside time on the nice days. I won't keep her chained to her school table all day...
This year marks Kindergarten for The Peanut. Last year, I was perfectly content to share the schooling with our nanny because I considered it a "gravy" year. Technically, this year is another "gravy" year, but since I had to actually call the school and tell them she wouldn't be showing up for Kindergarten orientation, it feels more official. (In Massachusetts, a parent doesn't have to file paperwork to homeschool until the child turns 6... The Peanut is 5.) So I feel like the burden of educating The Peanut should fall much more squarely on my shoulders (and my husband's as his schedule allows). Please don't get me wrong -- the nanny has done a wonderful job helping me -- lots of great ideas and a different perspective. I think for as long as she sits for The Peanut, she will always help -- just not as much as this past year. This transition is made easier (or is being forced, depending on how you want to look at it) by her need to cut back her hours because of her course load. I really am looking forward to taking on the vast majority of the school work -- the last couple of months have been spent prepping for this year and I'm really excited about what's coming up.
This year also marks the start of Shrewsbury Arts Alive. The rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated. It is in fact kicking off under Pakachoag Music School's umbrella. In reality, the church voting the program down was probably the best thing that could have happened to it. We're starting out with a stronger program selection right out of the gate. I also have a supportive board and some semblance of a budget to work with and a marketing team. And - most importantly - while this is still pretty much my baby, I am backed by a school that's been around for 30 years and a team of individuals who have tons of experience in this realm. How awesome is that? I will continue to see students privately while managing this program and acting as one of the music class instructors.
And this year marks the start of creative homeschooling. We will be one of those families who makes it fit within our crazy schedules. It may mean that The Peanut does not get to sleep until 10am in the morning -- she's much more of a night owl than a morning person. (Sadly, she's not so good at concentrating on school stuff much past dinnertime). And it may mean that at least one day a week, The Peanut will be doing schoolwork with me at the church as I need to be onsite because other instructors will be there -- I won't have much to do beyond turning on some lights and making sure the heat's turned up in the wintertime. Why not find a quiet place to do our lessons? It may also mean that my husband will have to take on some of the responsibility when he gets home in the evening or over the weekend. (I'll just be sure to save the lighter fare for him for both their sakes!)
So many firsts and exciting things this year for us. Juggling it all is a daunting task, but I look forward to the challenge!
This year marks Kindergarten for The Peanut. Last year, I was perfectly content to share the schooling with our nanny because I considered it a "gravy" year. Technically, this year is another "gravy" year, but since I had to actually call the school and tell them she wouldn't be showing up for Kindergarten orientation, it feels more official. (In Massachusetts, a parent doesn't have to file paperwork to homeschool until the child turns 6... The Peanut is 5.) So I feel like the burden of educating The Peanut should fall much more squarely on my shoulders (and my husband's as his schedule allows). Please don't get me wrong -- the nanny has done a wonderful job helping me -- lots of great ideas and a different perspective. I think for as long as she sits for The Peanut, she will always help -- just not as much as this past year. This transition is made easier (or is being forced, depending on how you want to look at it) by her need to cut back her hours because of her course load. I really am looking forward to taking on the vast majority of the school work -- the last couple of months have been spent prepping for this year and I'm really excited about what's coming up.
This year also marks the start of Shrewsbury Arts Alive. The rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated. It is in fact kicking off under Pakachoag Music School's umbrella. In reality, the church voting the program down was probably the best thing that could have happened to it. We're starting out with a stronger program selection right out of the gate. I also have a supportive board and some semblance of a budget to work with and a marketing team. And - most importantly - while this is still pretty much my baby, I am backed by a school that's been around for 30 years and a team of individuals who have tons of experience in this realm. How awesome is that? I will continue to see students privately while managing this program and acting as one of the music class instructors.
And this year marks the start of creative homeschooling. We will be one of those families who makes it fit within our crazy schedules. It may mean that The Peanut does not get to sleep until 10am in the morning -- she's much more of a night owl than a morning person. (Sadly, she's not so good at concentrating on school stuff much past dinnertime). And it may mean that at least one day a week, The Peanut will be doing schoolwork with me at the church as I need to be onsite because other instructors will be there -- I won't have much to do beyond turning on some lights and making sure the heat's turned up in the wintertime. Why not find a quiet place to do our lessons? It may also mean that my husband will have to take on some of the responsibility when he gets home in the evening or over the weekend. (I'll just be sure to save the lighter fare for him for both their sakes!)
So many firsts and exciting things this year for us. Juggling it all is a daunting task, but I look forward to the challenge!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Puttin' my teacher hat on.
School starts for us on August 29, 2011 and will run through mid-June 2012. It will end no later than June 22nd, but we may finish up a little sooner than that. This year, aside from a scheduled break around Christmas -- because, really, it's busy enough as it is -- we aren't doing formal school vacations. I've found them pretty difficult to recover from this past school year. Instead, a school week will have 3 - 5 days in it. The 3 day weeks are around holidays that I know the hubby and I will more than likely be off work. The rest of the weeks are either 4 or 5 days -- if we did it as I have roughly mapped out in my little planner calendar, 180-ish days hits the week of June 22nd. If The Peanut decides to work ahead on a short week and do 5 days instead of 4, then I can shave time off the end. I figure this system will give us tons of flexibility for impromptu field trips, sick days, and don't-wanna days. This is an experiment -- we shall see how it works. If after a month or two it is making me crazy, then we'll go back to school vacation weeks.
Stuff we'll be working on...
Language Arts:
Stuff we'll be working on...
Language Arts:
- Grammar: First Language Lessons Levels 1 & 2
- Spelling: Spectrum Spelling, Grade 2
- Writing: Spectrum Writing, Grade 1
- Hand-writing: Zaner-Bloser Hand-writing, Grade 1
- Reading, Reading, and more reading.
Since The Peanut likes writing her stories and has recently taken a huge interest in poetry, the Spectrum book will be heavily supplemented with other materials. I have a couple sourcebooks around making books with children. I also have a list of resources (books and websites) for grade school poetry writing. Each week, I'll sprinkle something in from one of these sources to keep her on her toes. Also, since some of the Spectrum Grade 1 book is material we've covered this year in other sources, we'll be skipping some of it. I anticipate getting into the Grade 2 book before the end of the school year.
As for what we'll read, some of it will be stuff I'll have her select either from her own personal library or from the public library. I'll also find things that I think will interest her that she may not pick for herself. Last school, I picked all the reading. This year, I'm going to give her at least some of the responsibility. There will also be plenty of reading to do for History and Science. Honestly, it doesn't matter what I put in front of her (within reason) -- she absolutely loves to read and does so every chance she gets.
Math:
We're starting the school year with Saxon 3. We started this a couple of months before the end of this school year. With skips for repetition, we're about halfway through it. I am not sure what we'll be doing when we finish up. I am leaning towards moving over to Singapore Math and supplementing with Life of Fred "Before High School Mathematics" series. This is something that I will explore further in the Fall once I get everything else squared away. We may go to Saxon 4, but it kills me to pay for all the material and really only use half of it -- even used, Saxon isn't cheap.
History:
We'll be learning about ancient cultures using Story of the World, Volume 1. Using their teacher guide, I'm taking each chapter at least a little deeper than the high level overview each chapter provides. I highly doubt we'll get through the entire book this year. Instead, we'll finish it up at the beginning of the following school year. We've got time and I think it will be fun exploring this time period. Most everything for the school year has required only basic planning. Since I want to go deep with this, I have been spending most of school prep time on this - a process that I've actually enjoyed doing.
Science:
I am taking the advice of a couple of moms who have science/math kids -- which The Peanut is -- and am starting with the basics. This year will be all about Chemistry using two sources: Elemental Science and Real Science 4 Kids. I like Real Science 4 Kids quite a bit, but with only 10 chapters, it isn't enough to use it by itself for an entire school year. I toyed with supplementing each chapter and basically writing my own material -- at this level, it's fairly easy to do so, but I only have so much time. Elemental Science is close to a full year's worth of material by itself, but doesn't do as good of a job (in my opinion) explaining the basics. It does however do a good job of taking the basics to the next step. The two programs combined make for a nice elementary school chemistry program.
Spanish:
We may pick this up again. We had to stop working on Spanish this past year because it was turning into an exercise in frustration for The Peanut. I think she likes the idea of learning a foreign language, but doesn't like that it's a lot of drill work and practice to actually do anything with it. We were using a program put out by Hooked on Phonics on her computer and I was supplementing with activities, songs, and worksheets from a couple of different sources. The last level on the HOP program was challenging and required concentration. The Peanut gets frustrated if she doesn't get something on the first or second try -- and this level required several more than a couple tries in many instances. I may wait and start Spanish a month or two into school (or even after the holidays). Learning Spanish was The Peanut's idea so I'm happy to support her efforts to learn it and provide resources, but I do not consider this a priority at the moment. Since many of the materials for other subjects will be new and the routine is new, I'd rather get her settled into these before figuring out how to fit Spanish in.
Art:
We will probably continue taking classes at the Worcester Art Museum. If we cannot fit one of their classes in our schedule, I may ask the teacher to come work with us one-on-one (or organize something for area homeschoolers with her). Since I am friends with the teacher, I don't see this as being a big deal to do. History also gives us a chance to do some art appreciation as well, though I think she prefers to make masterpieces over viewing them.
Music:
Time permitting, I'll give her piano lessons to teach her the basics. I have a fantastic teacher lined up for her when she gets a little older. He has asked that I get her going with the basics and he will take over when she reaches a certain point.
Physical Education:
Although I am questioning how interested she really is in it, she has asked to take gymnastics again this year. I personally believe that she enjoys just getting out of the house and doing something. We will probably explore other options through a neighboring town's recreation department as well as a local health club that has a great kids fitness and swimming program. Since one of her grandparents has generously offered to pay for gymnastics next year, we'll sign up for a half year and see how it's going around the holidays.
Other stuff:
A local homeschool group loosely organizes a girl scout group. It's not a troop, but instead, a bunch of Juliettes (independently registered girl scouts who aren't affiliated with a troop) who get together once or twice a month for field trips, craft projects, etc. The Peanut has expressed an interest in participating as a Daisy. Since it's low-cost and fairly low-commitment and a great social opportunity, we will do that.
The Peanut will also continue to participate in our church's Cherub Choir -- our choir for 4 - 7 year olds.
It looks like it will be another busy year for The Peanut -- lots for us to look forward to!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Start-ups, Politics, and Crazy Ideas
Several months ago, my boss, Malcolm, and I had a crazy idea to start a music school. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea at the time: Shrewsbury loves the arts and they love their kids participating in them. Shrewsbury, like most school districts, don't offer as much in the way of arts education as they once did. Granted, they're still better than some. And Shrewsbury doesn't have a full-service performing arts school -- lots of places to take lessons and some one-off programs here and there, but by and large, nothing on-going.
Malcolm and I put together a great package that included group music classes on a variety of topics, a theater program, and even some visual arts classes. I had several top-notch teachers lined up who were excited about the program. While we certainly planned on starting with the youngsters, we had a vision of expanding our classes to include adults as well in all three areas. Our plan was to include it under the existing music ministry at the church. The school itself would be secular, but he and I saw plenty of opportunity to expand upon church offerings and programs using the resources that the school would have in place.
Our church loves politics. And here's where our grand idea gets squished. After several months of back-and-forth, the church decided that this school was too risky. Despite having seed money squared away, a built-in student base from several sources, and tons of excitement from younger families -- families that already participate in our church as well as others outside the church -- the school was killed in committee. Our timing was off. Those that were most excited about the school were not around for the vote given that it finally happened early last week. Also, true to form, as one sub-committee asked for one thing, another one was unhappy with the answer/result. Sadly, the school could have benefited everyone -- even if they did not directly participate in it -- because it meant an additional income for the church as well as new offerings for church programming. Nevermind that it would be a great marketing tool for the church.
We were told, instead, that we would need to form a separate entity - most likely a 501(c)3 non-profit - and then apply for space usage (and pay a fee for that space). So the church would still get its income with none of the "risk" or side-benefits. The problem is that in making this decision, the church overstepped what it could decide for us -- entity type, governance, etc. While we can certainly ignore some of the church's decision, Malcolm is rightfully hesitant to move forward. He's busy enough for three people - another board, another organization, etc would probably tip the scales for him. I'm right there with him -- as it was, this was going to be a challenge for me to juggle next year. The added stress of putting together a separate non-profit would probably be too much unless he and I draw in more help from the get-go..
I have a few options to explore for this, but I fear that our great idea is dead in the water unless people show a ton of enthusiasm and push for it. As of right now, I'm tired and more than a little burnt out from the process. The lack of vision and possibility continually astounds me but it is what it is. The next month will be spent regrouping and figuring out options (if any).
Malcolm and I put together a great package that included group music classes on a variety of topics, a theater program, and even some visual arts classes. I had several top-notch teachers lined up who were excited about the program. While we certainly planned on starting with the youngsters, we had a vision of expanding our classes to include adults as well in all three areas. Our plan was to include it under the existing music ministry at the church. The school itself would be secular, but he and I saw plenty of opportunity to expand upon church offerings and programs using the resources that the school would have in place.
Our church loves politics. And here's where our grand idea gets squished. After several months of back-and-forth, the church decided that this school was too risky. Despite having seed money squared away, a built-in student base from several sources, and tons of excitement from younger families -- families that already participate in our church as well as others outside the church -- the school was killed in committee. Our timing was off. Those that were most excited about the school were not around for the vote given that it finally happened early last week. Also, true to form, as one sub-committee asked for one thing, another one was unhappy with the answer/result. Sadly, the school could have benefited everyone -- even if they did not directly participate in it -- because it meant an additional income for the church as well as new offerings for church programming. Nevermind that it would be a great marketing tool for the church.
We were told, instead, that we would need to form a separate entity - most likely a 501(c)3 non-profit - and then apply for space usage (and pay a fee for that space). So the church would still get its income with none of the "risk" or side-benefits. The problem is that in making this decision, the church overstepped what it could decide for us -- entity type, governance, etc. While we can certainly ignore some of the church's decision, Malcolm is rightfully hesitant to move forward. He's busy enough for three people - another board, another organization, etc would probably tip the scales for him. I'm right there with him -- as it was, this was going to be a challenge for me to juggle next year. The added stress of putting together a separate non-profit would probably be too much unless he and I draw in more help from the get-go..
I have a few options to explore for this, but I fear that our great idea is dead in the water unless people show a ton of enthusiasm and push for it. As of right now, I'm tired and more than a little burnt out from the process. The lack of vision and possibility continually astounds me but it is what it is. The next month will be spent regrouping and figuring out options (if any).
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