Portfolios and Registration

I live in a state that does not require homeschoolers to register, nor do we have to inform the district of the intent to homeschool, but this year I may. As mentioned, my 1st grader has several special needs that have made him eligible for physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. Academically, he has always done better in our "school" setting as evidenced by the progress he made here on the days that public school had "no school". I just think that the classroom setting was too overwhelming for him and his speech and comprehension skills made it difficult for him to follow along with instruction in the classroom. He did however do well in PT, OT and speech which I believe had a great deal to do with the 1 to 2 ratio. So while I look forward to having him home with us this year, I don't want him to miss out on helpful special education services. Thus my thoughts on possibly registering with the school district.

Also this year I am keeping student portfolios for the crew. Because our curriculum is on the computer, I have just always kept several back-ups of completed work, attendance and grades on different hard drives. This year I am actually keeping hard-copy records of attendance, curriculum plans and will keep samples of the students writing and other work samples in file folders. Thanks to all of you bloggers who have unknowingly helped me in improving my record keeping.

Peace,
:)De

Almost Ready...

Today we had orientation and it was crazy, busy, fun. The 5th and 10th graders did a very nice job of figuring out their schedules, every one got books and school supplies for their new desk and we took pictures for school i.d's. The new shirts look great with our school logo and I may have to invest in another long-sleeve set for the winter season.

My first grader is so very excited! He was finally able to get his own library card this past month and is becoming a "pro" at finding interesting books.

I hope to spend the next week getting that last bit of relaxation before the daily challenge. I ask for prayer. My first grader has special needs that create learning disabilities, reading, and speech delays and difficulty retaining new information. However, he enjoys schoolwork and is very eager.

One more week and off we go.

REPEAT OFFENDERS!

I am thankful and I recognize that I have well-behaved children. I praise God for the opportunity that I have been given to parent these four blessings. Wherever we go; church, stores, restaurants… someone ALWAYS comes up to us and compliments my children on their behavior. It is humbling because while I am a single parent, I know that God is my lead and that I am not doing this alone.

Now! Let me tell you something about these four children… They are REPEAT OFFENDERS! LOL!

My kids are kids and each little blessing has his/her own behavior issue that gets them into trouble regularly. Not out and out defiance and not willful disobedience; if/when that spirit raises its head in this house the repercussions are swift and most unpleasant. I am talking about behaviors that are usually dealt with using redirection: running in the house, leaving the water running, leaving bikes and toys out and the shed open (a big no no!) that kind of thing. But even that gets old on a daily basis.

So I am incorporating a Repeat Offender Program. It entails having to do very mundane chores over and over again if mother dear has to redirect over and over again for the same behavior. So now I am the proud owner of the cleanest baseboards, door jabs and light plate covers in the whole neighborhood to be sure! And after 3 days, I am noticing that I don’t have as many applicants for the program as I did when I started….Huh…go figure!

Staff, Please Report to the Office...

After today, my summer break is over. All... well almost all of my curriculum is here. (I am still looking for a good foreign language "Spanish" curriculum. By good I mean a program that can be adjusted over 1st, 5th and 10th grade and is cheap/free.) Switched-On Schoolhouse has been loaded for 5th and 10th grade and I have browsed through my teacher guides for 1st grade Lifepac. My orientation letters are complete and will be mailed out next week. Available classes are listed.
The children pick the order of classes during orientation.

I am still tweaking homework schedules, but they are pretty standard.

My son made two desk last year as part of his woodworking. He will need to make another as my 1st grader does not want to use his Spiderman table any more (they grow up so fast LOL).

I need to start/finish lesson planning for state history and take the time to adjust the SOS Curriculum to fit our needs (not difficult, but time consuming) to be ready for a Sept. 2nd start. Believe it or not, my crew is asking for an early start! I hope their enthusiasm last past the 1st week. LOL

It's $ Time... I Mean Football Time.

My 10th grader starts football practice today. He has been playing since he was 7 or 8 years of age. The community teams in our city are pretty affordable, it's the equipment that empties pockets, wallets, purses and that big ole jar of change that you keep on the dresser. And of course, his feet grew 1 1/2 sizes this summer so he needs new cleats. But we have been blessed to have very decent coaches and great booster clubs so it is always worth the cost. Oh! and we tackle (some pun intended) that socialization concern that people have. LOL

:)De

The Naming of A School

I have enjoyed seeing all of the different names of home schools while bouncing around Blogger. I have read many different reasons that people home school, but I now wonder how families named their schools?

Dressing for School

I have always been one of those parents that preferred school uniforms. I like the ease of picking out clothes in the morning:


Mom:"Would you like to wear the white shirt with the blue pants or the white shirt with the blue pants?"

Kid: "Sigh!!"

LOL

It also makes laundry easier for me. With a steady stream of foster children (sometimes there are six kids to one mommy) there is lots of laundry and having similar loads is easier.

My kids went to school where uniforms were required. When my son came home to be schooled halfway through 6th grade, I required him to continue wearing uniforms, 1) to instill in him that he was still "in school" and 2) because I had spent a great deal of money on those uniforms and we were gonna get our money's worth!! The habit just stuck. For us, it helps to distinguish school time from home time and the kids like changing into play clothes when done with school. The laundry ease still applies and when we go on field trips, people seem to respect us as a school group.

This year I am hoping to develop a logo for our school. As a back to school gift, this year I am giving each child a new polo shirt with our school initials and mascot name. This simple logo is what I have so far:


I found a seller on E-bay that does 'em (she says the extra stitching won't be on the shirts). It was a bit of a splurge, but the kids have always talked about having shirts with our school name on them. I think they will like them.