Why I Home School...

It started with my son... a child who was the epitamy of "square peg trying to fit into a round hole." He did not behave in school. He would not stay in his seat, ran, skipped and slid around the classroom. He made noises and there was even one report from a teacher that he colored with a red crayon when asked to color with a blue crayon. Teachers found it easier to remove him from the classroom when his behavior was disruptive. School secretaries and School Leaders became tired of his trips to the hall and office and called me from work to come and get him. At first monthly, then weekly. We had meetings, divised plans, changed schools...promises were made to provide services to meet his emotional needs... but these promises could not be kept. During the 2nd half of 6th grade... the camel fell! My son had been through 5 schools in 6 years. His reading and comprehension levels were getting lower and lower every year. I realized that the only school that he could not get suspended from was mine...MHS. I must say... I do not know why we had to go through the route that we did to get to this place... but I know that this is the right chioce for us and we have been so very blessed to be able to homeschool. After 2 years of homeschooling my son, I brought my daughter (she was in 3rd grade) home to join our "student body". (LOL!) I love the way my children learn and I really enjoy modifying informaiton to meet their individual learning styles. My style is pretty structured right now, but I feel that changing a bit after joining the world of blogging. Anyway...I don't have many readers, but thought I would put my story on here just because.

:)De

The School of Blogging...

I am new to the world of blogging and must say that there is so much more to it than I could have imagined. I have read so so so many blogs and have learned so many things...some of them even good! LOL So many of you that home school have given info on great Internet resources. I am so excited to learn about other printables. The children however are not so happy. Ha Ha! I started this in order to allow the children to get more feedback on their writing (this year we are focusing on sentence structure and other writing skills). While we are not getting as much feedback as I had hoped for them, I have enjoyed "getting to know" some of the other blogging families. To those of you who have visited (all 10 of ya' and you know who you are) thanks for helping me to see that my free counter is working!

:)De

"Big Toys" by Jeffrey

On Thursday January 17, 2008 I went to the R.V. show at the Pavilion (of 1 of the Big Ten Colleges). We were early for the show, so we waited in an area where some of the agriculture classes were. I saw steers while I was there. There was a class there who was learning how to mark and rate the cows. At first they looked like cows, but the professor was there with a class and I found out they were steers. It smelled very awful in the arena.

Once the show opened, I saw many R.V.’s. My favorite one was the Georgetown. It was a coach bus and it was a 2007. It was really spacious and roomy and it slept nine. The other one I fell in love with was the MXT By k-z. I liked it because it had a garage in it so I can store my bikes and quads in it. It sleeps four and is really nice inside… A “must see”. That was all I did and it was really fun.

Short Story Summary by Jordan Rose

I read a short story from the Pockets Magazine. The title of the short story is Nothing Special. The name of the author is Diana R. Jenkins. The name of the main characters are Lena, Amber, and Beth. Lena is a girl and she is mad all the time because she thinks her life is boring. Beth is a girl and she is Lena’s friend. Beth is happy because she thinks her life is not boring. Amber is Lena’s friend and she tries to help Lena think of good things.

In this story, Lena is a little girl that is very sad. When she would talk to her friends, if they did not agree with her, she got upset. Her friends didn’t want to make her feel bad so they left her alone. One day her friends asked if she wanted to go to a birthday sleep over. She said “Yes.” She was happy until she got to the house. Lena expected to play games at the sleep over. She was very sad because they didn’t play games. Since she was grouchy about the games, they were grouchy and didn’t want to talk to her.

I learned that you should not be sad all the time because that might ruin stuff. Lena should stop being sad because it is making her friends not want to talk to her. I hope she learns to be happy. I hope her friends help her to stop being grouchy.

More About Us

The weekend is over and we start setting up for the school week. On Friday we went ice skating again with our home school group. This time, there was less falling and no blisters! It has been great to participate in the extra-curricular activities. This week we plan to work at our local food bank for a couple of hours and begin painting the Styrofoam planets for our solar system project. We will also begin planning our speeches. Any ideas for good speech topics?

:)De

Chapter Summary

I am reading a book titled, Report to the Principles Office. The author who wrote this book is Jerry Spinelli. One of the main characters of this book is Eddie. Eddie is a 6th grader who is going to his first day of Middle School. He is scared about going to the new school and does not know what to will happen. One of his friends from elementary school warned him to stay away from 8th graders, so he is worried about that too. Another main character is the principle of the Middle school. His name is Mr. Brimlow. He is new to this middle school too and is worried that the kids will not like him. Mr. Brimlow’s plan is to learn the name of every kid in the school.

In the chapter that I read, Eddie can not find the classroom that he is supposed to be in on the first day of school. He asked a boy for help who just happens to be a bully (an eighth grader). Eddie asks the boy where a certain classroom was and the boy leads him to a boiler room with pipes instead of the science room. Eddie is really scared now, but finds his way out of the boiler room. The principle finds him wandering around the hall and takes him to the principle’s office. Mr. Brimlow surprises Eddie by knowing his name and being nice to him. Mr. Brimlow invites Eddie to come back to the office later for lunch and shows him to the right classroom.

I learned that it is a good idea to know where I am supposed to be. Eddie should have gone to the orientation or something so he would know his way around the building. Based on what has happened so far, I think Eddie will be afraid to ask anyone else for help and will keep getting lost at school. He will probably get teased again by the eighth grade boy in the hall until he learns his schedule. Hopefully he will find a friend that will help him.

Jeffrey

Jordan's Poem " My Doll"

I like to play with Bratz dolls,

I like to comb their hair.

I dress them in their fancy clothes

And sit them in their chair.