I've changed homes

My new home is An ATC Addict. I hope you'll join me there.

One of those days...

It's one of those days...

We're between materials from cyberschool. This means that for the past week (going on 2 now) I've been searching online for work for my daughter to do. It's been really hard to find anything worth doing so we've only been doing about 30 minutes of work each day. Now after a busy weekend, I've reached a point where I just want to curl up on the couch and chill. After all, what difference is 30 minutes of schoolwork going to make today? So, here we are, enjoying a day off.

That's one of the greatest benefits of homeschooling year around though. We take days off when we need them, not when the school district tells us to take them. Of course, there are times when we take more time off than at other times. Like this week we won't be doing a whole lot. Between me being bloody tired today and my daughter's birthday being Thursday, we'll probably only do about 3 days of school this week. However, come Thanksgiving time or winter/spring break, we'll probably be doing school while others are enjoying a break.

In the end, I'm sure this all works out but I do feel guilty sometimes. Today is one of those days that I'm feeling a bit of the guilt but not feeling as though I can do much about it. So, I'm putting the thought aside and chilling out instead.

Homeschooling days

OK so I took the jump and sent in the paperwork for my daughter to skip a grade. She finished all the tests and now we wait...

We have spent a total of 60 minutes on school work this week. It feels so odd but I don't have any materials to use while we're in transition. So, we haven't been doing much. Nevertheless, it seems that my daughter is doing her own unschooling type of thing around here, which is very neat to see. Yesterday she was learning how to spell new words and today she's looking through an Ocean Atlas.

I'm glad that I keep educational materials around the house. It's so hard for me to figure out what to teach her right now but she's finding her own interests to teach herself about. I'm glad because I thought she'd be doing nothing intelligent, so to speak. Just a nice glance at something good that's going on this week...

Skipping Grades

I contacted my daughter's instructional supervisor yesterday after having another difficult day of homeschooling. I told her how much I hate Calvert curriculum and how crazy it is that my daughter is doing the same exact work that she did last year. To my surprise, she told me to go ahead and just do the tests with my daughter and she'll move her into second grade. We were going to do this at Christmas time but it seems that none of us are going to be able to last that long LOL I enjoy the fact that we have the freedom to do this now and I am proud of my daughter's academic abilities but I'm not so sure what I think about skipping grades. So, I'd really like to know: What are your thoughts on skipping grades?

Educational Games

I love educational games but I love them even more whenever they allow you to donate to those in need. Here is one that I've found for all the cat lovers of the world...

Explaining School Days To Others

I cannot seem to understand or even begin to wrap my mind around why some people seem to think that just because you homeschool you can go whenever and do whatever at any time of the day. Otherwise sensible adults seemingly take it for granted that just because I choose to homeschool my daughter, that I can be at their beck and call whenever they want to meet with me. Then when I try to explain that it's too disruptive for our school day they're kind of like, "Huh?!?!?" It's as if we're not meant to have a schedule and that because we school at home we can do whatever we like whenever we like. I'm growing really tired of trying to explain this to people too. I'd love to hear what your thoughts on this are...

{Sorry, / end rant LOL}

Doing it all

Being a WAHM can be hard enough but add to that cyberschooling your child and you may feel as though you're about to drown, literally. I should know because that's how I feel most week days. While neither of these roles are easy, put them together and you have a near lethal combination. That is unless you are able to do what I've done and find jobs to do that don't require you to maintain a set schedule or to really have to answer to anyone. Thankfully I don't need to make a ton of money every month in order to survive. I only actually need to make a few hundred dollars. This is something that the jobs I now have should easily allow me to do between the couple of jobs that I now have. I'm doing transcription for a company (soon to be 2 companies if things work out right), data entry, Cha Cha and still writing for a few clients occasionally. While it takes a lot of energy to jump on and off the computer to do all of this, the reason that I share this with you is to simply say: It IS possible to be a WAHM and a cyberschooling parent at the same time... And "Oh yeah!" did I also mention that I'm a single mom too? :D