summer school

I haven't blogged lately because I've been so busy with all the kids. The four kids are staying with us this summer, apparently. For summer school, I coordinated a graduate student to tutor Connor an hour a day in Chinese and Math. That will eliminate the need to drive 45 each way on Tuesdays. I have been taking him to the college library (10 min. away)for his lesson. While we are there, I read to all the other kids and help them find books to take home. I'm an alumni, so we can use all the college facilities. After Chinese/Math, starting next week, all the kids will go to swimming lessons. All, that is, except for the little guy who is only two. Swimming lessons end at 11:15, and I signed up two of the kids for the Geneseo Reading Clinic. It runs from 1:30-3:30 four days a week. Connor has Tae Kwon Do 1-2p three days a week. So between Chinese, Math, guitar, swimming and Tae Kwon Do, I'm wondering when Connor will find time to take his online course in computer programming. He's supposed to begin that July 8th. I might have to call to see if we can postpone it.

Funny you tube vidoes

Two funny links to homeschool Spoofs
Will Survive- Homeschool Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOogqa-5GA&feature=email


Tim Hawkins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM6uqj0_jQc&feature=email

Wed. June 17 Civil War Reenactment

I dropped both boys off at the YMCA homeschooling Civil War Reenactment event this morning, and I'm sitting in the Subaru dealership waiting for my car to be maintained. When I left the Y, Austin did not look happy. Most of the kids at the event were girls,and they were all Connor's age. Oh well.

Tuesday June 16

Tuesday was NOT a good day. We left early for Chinese because we had some errands to do, and I ended up losing my temper with Austin. I won't elaborate, but I find that I am beginning to resent the fact that we pay $10K a year for his education (and drive almost two hours a day to transport him there and back) and he doesn't seem to appreciate the sacrifices. We ALL give up things to pay for and transport him (Connor spends a chunk of his school day in the car) and Austin has turned into a big jerk. Now I'm threatening to homeschool Austin too. Funny, huh? At the beginning of homeschooling, Austin begged me to homeschool him too; now, I use it as a threat. Austin sees that Connor does twice as much work in a school day, and he no longer wants to homeschool. He may not have a choice.

Ignatian Prayer for Parents

This sums up my goals for our sons to a tee!!!

Ignatian Prayer for Parents

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Build us sons, O Lord who will be strong enough to know when they are weak, and brave enough to face themselves when they are afraid; sons who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build us sons whose wishbones will not be where their backbones should be; sons who will know Thee—and that to know themselves is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead them, we pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and sour of difficulties and challenge. Here, let them learn compassion for those who fail.

Build us sons whose hears will be clear, whose goals will be high; sons who will master themselves before they seek to master others; sons who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; sons who will reach into the future yet never forget the past.

And, after all these things are theirs, add, we pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that they may always be serious, yet never take themselves too seriously. Give them humility, so that they may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. Amen

From St. Xavier High School Cincinnati OH

Monday June 15

I didn't blog on Friday because we didn't do too much. Connor went to Chess club, and then he left to go to Pennsylvania with his aunt and uncle for the weekend. Today we went to church, played Risk, studied Chinese, practiced guitar and went to Tae Kwon Do class. At Tae Kwon Do, one of the students (an adult) asked me quite a few questions about homeschooling. She wasn't being critical, she was just curious. She wanted to know if we take the summer off, just like "real" school. (The answer is no). I explained that although Connor is done with his Math, Geography and a few other subjects, he also takes guitar and Chinese, which he needs to continue all summer in order to progress. Reading is another activity we do every day, all summer long, and I hired a math tutor to work with Connor over the summer. In Tae Kwon Do class, Connor is extremely focused, attentive and driven; I think the woman was asking about homeschooling because she sees Connor at his best. What I find annoying is that I feel we are constantly being measured and evaluated because we are homeschoolers. Kind of a pain, but I guess it goes with the territory. I just need to memorize a standard answer to say when I get questions. I know that after Ken died, I just started saying, "I'd rather not talk about that." I simply got tired of giving out a long explanation to virtual strangers. People are curious and determined to offer their opinion, but I refuse to be put on the defense all the time. My family, and those who know Connor well, know that homeschooling is right for us at this time. It might not be right later, or for another child, but for us at this minute, it works.

Thurs. June 11th

Xiao is done with school, and so is Austin. Connor, however, is not quite finished. I gave Connor a blank map of the world today, and he was supposed to place the 292 countries/states/provinces/territories on the map. He found that he could remember about 3/4 of the map, but he needed to refresh his memory on the rest. Therefore, Connor spent a few hours today playing geography games online using Sheppard software. I am also threatening a cumulative vocabulary test (300 words) so he brought out his flash cards for a bit to review. After that, Connor studied Chinese with Xiao, played Risk, read Thief, and went to horse-back riding lessons. At 7pm we attended the show Walking with Dinosaurs at the Blue Cross Arena. The show fit in nicely with Monday's study of fossils and rocks etc. Lucky timing, really.

The Nay-Sayers and my response Wed. June 10

Yesterday, Wed., a woman came to look at the puppies for the second time. She asked me, with a critical tone, why I homeschool Connor. I briefly explained to her his need for challenge, and how NYS does not mandate that schools have gifted programs or accelerated academics. She restated that she's "Against homeschooling, but perhaps she can see where I might have no other option for a child who is working 3-4 grade levels above his peers." Then she again brought up the socialization issue. Kids need to be with other kids. Yes, I agree, to a point. As I said before, there are a million homeschool groups that we can join when/if he wants to hang out with other kids. But how many other kids does a child really need to be well-socialized? We have a houseful of siblings (biological and otherwise) and beyond that I think a child only needs one or two good friends. Even in school, Connor only really socialized with the two kids he liked. When I worked with 90 other women my own age, I only socialized with the three whose company I enjoyed. The rest of the woman I avoided. As an adult, we choose our friends and seek out their company. Why should children be forced to "socialize" with children that do not share their values or interests? Is the purpose of school to learn academics, or to learn how to get along with others? I believe we can learn how to get along with others just be being active members of our community. If school teaches socialization so well, why then can I point out several people who have poor social skills, after attending public school? Get this straight please--homeschoolers do not sit at home all day with their children chained to the desk in the basement! The other point the woman made is that children often learn better and listen better to someone who is NOT their parent. Agreed. That is why we have a guitar teacher, a horse-back riding teacher, a Chinese teacher, a Tae Kwon Do teacher, a boat-building teacher, a chess teacher, etc. etc. etc. Connor learned a ton about construction in the last few weeks just by hanging out with the workers building our sunroom. He learned about rocks and fossils this week from an instructor who has her PhD in paleontology. Hard to beat that! Thursday night we are attending the show Dinosaurs Alive at the Blue Cross Arena. The experts there will teach us more about the Triassic, Jurassic and Crestaceous periods. At this point in Connor's life, I see no benefit to school. He sees his friends a few times a week, and that is more than enough!!

Tues. June 9th

A quiet morning, finally. Church on Tuesday is at 9am, which gives us a few hours of quiet time in the morning before we have to run out the door. We took care of puppies and then spent an hour studying Chinese and having a leisurely breakfast. After church, Connor reviewed geography using Sheppard software. We met a woman yesterday (at the diamond mine) who was talking about a friend who adopted recently. The woman knew that her friend's adoption took place in Africa, but she couldn't remember the country. I called over Connor to see if he could name the various African countries to jog the woman's memory. Unfortunately, Connor could only remember a few of the countries, which made me decide that a geography review day was in order. We then did more vocab., read The Lord of the Rings, practiced guitar, went to Chinese class and practiced Tae Kwon Do. For almost an hour today Connor pestered the workers who are building the addition to our house. They were laying the tile, and Connor was interested in the tile cutter and the whole tile process. The tile-cutting machine is similar to the gemstone polishing/cutting machines we saw yesterday at the mine. The workers showed Connor the diamond that is the blade and answered his zillion questions. Diamonds are of the hardness scale 10, and they are the strongest cutting tool. Connor got out his new Herkimer diamonds (hardness 7.5) to show the workers. The difference between "real" diamonds and Herikmer diamonds is that real diamonds are made of Carbon, and Herkimer diamonds are sulfite. They both form naturally from the forces of nature, and they both have 18 facets and look exactly the same. When we got home from Chinese class at 5:30p, I dropped Connor off to go horseback riding with his friend. By the time I got home (I had to drive Austin to Civil Air Patrol) it was 9:30p and Connor was in bed already.

Monday June 8th

Today we went to Herkimer diamond mine!! What a fantastic day. Here are Connor's thoughts. I'm just too tired to type!
Hello everyone. It is Connor! Today I had to wake up at 4:30 am. and we had to get in the car at five. The car ride was 2 hours and 52 minutes long. What a bummer, being in a car for three hours with mom! She made me listen to Chinese Cds the whole time. It was so boring!!! Luckily, I fell asleep for half of the ride. When we got to Herkimer, I went upstairs to the museum. They had a real dinosaur skull! After the talk about what to do, and how to do it, we went into the mine. It was not underground, but was all rock and open. I got a nasty cut from the rocks on my knee. Anyway, I spent an hour of fun, smashing rocks and finding beautiful Herkimer diamonds. Then we when sluicing. I got a partner and a bag of soil, then put it in a cage-like thing. After that, I put the cage-like-thing in the running water, and moved it around. Out came beautiful gems, after the soil washed away.
Well, after that, I got snacks. We then looked at how jewelers smoothed out stones with grinding machines. There were two machines, and they did different jobs. Two of them smoothed out stones and one of them makes the faces of the diamonds really clear. Then we went to the appraising table. I found some drusey (spelling ?) that they told me is worth eight dollars, and a few perfect little diamonds.
Then my mom and I learned about Igneous, Metamorphic, and Sedimentary rocks. After lunch, we decided to mine the rest of the day. I found tons of diamonds. I could sell them all for $100+ dollars. That was my trip at Herkimer Diamond mine!

Life lessons

I noticed that I blog a whole lot about academics, and I often skim over the life lessons. I think that is because I am trying to make our blog readable for the nay-sayers of homeschooling or something. Tonight, while everyone sleeps, I want to comment about normal life lessons. Earlier, under the blog entitled "Socialization 101" I chatted about how people are worried about my homeschooler's opportunities for socialization.I expounded on the myriad of activities homeschooling groups have etc. etc. Look at the older post. What I want to comment on now is life lessons afforded because we have the time to devote ourselves to LIFE LESSONS. For instance, we have four foster children. I refer to them in this blog as "our babies." I can not even begin to describe the learning that goes on when we have them here. The McQuaid motto is "Men for Others" and we simply live that way every day. Connor has to navigate and negotiate these four children all of the time!! When it gets difficult (Connor can be bossy) I have to remind him of their recent history and he really steps up to the plate. My point is, I guess, is that we are more grounded in the real world and socializing FOR THE GOOD OF THE WORLD than is the school.

Friday June 5th

The morning was the usual stuff-- church, vocabulary, Chinese, and then guitar. Math is officially done for the year, but the economics of horse-owning is certainly math, and we're doing a whole lot of measuring with the construction crew. Math surrounds us daily. At 11a was Connor's chess club, and at 1p we went to Tae Kwon Do.We sold another couple of puppies, and we had the four foster children again today (and all weekend).

Thurs. June 4

A much better day today overall. I slept in until 7:30 (wayyy late for me) and Connor was already working on his vocabulary book when I got up. He wants me to hurry up and get his vocab. test over with so he can do the other things on his "list." He prioritized his day (he does this every morning) and made this list: Vocabulary, Chinese, guitar, read, essay questions, build tree fort, build slide, write story about pirates, horseback ride, play basketball, make hickory bark syrup. He finished the first half of his list, then spent time watching the builders work on the sunroom/deck. Drywall mud was the topic of today's building lesson. After horse-back riding, Connor decided that he needed to buy his own horse. Four hours later, he comes to me with a spreadsheet of how much it costs to board, feed etc. a horse, and how much he can make an hour grooming dogs, picking strawberries, sell hickory bark syrup and clean stalls. He is going to save up enough money to cover the costs for one year, $10,000, to be safe, he tells me. "How much is a pound of sugar, Mom, to make the syrup?" Me:"I don't know; go on Wegmans site." Connor: "Am I old enough to get a job picking strawberries? I'm fast at it." Me: "I don't know, call J & A farm market and ask them." From 4p, when the horseback riding lesson ended, until 8p this continued. "I found a horse for sale in Naples. Is that too far away?" Me: "Use google maps and see how long it takes to get there." All this was not on the learning list for today, yet it was authentic learning for sure!

Wed. June 3rd

Wow, I am tired today. I got a call to come get our "babies" today, and I wasn't organized and ready for it. Generally, when I have the extra 4 kids I get up early, start dinner at 5am, get Connor up by 6a to do his math, vocabulary, writing etc. etc. Instead, Connor and I went to church and found out at 8:30a that I was going to have the little ones. Also, the contractors are here building the addition, the furnace guy is putting in the new furnace and air conditioning, and I'm selling/showing puppies. We had no running water for two hours due to the construction. At 12:30p, I took Connor to Tae Kwon Do lessons, at 2:15 he had a guitar lesson, at 3:30p we were in Rochester to pick up Austin at McQuaid (listening to Chinese in the car), and at 4p I dropped Connor off for his horseback riding lesson. I just felt disorganized all day and behind the eight ball. Fortunately, all the car time is conducive to learning Chinese. Even the babies are beginning to babble Chinese sentences! Too cute.

Tues. June 2nd

This morning I asked Connor what was on his agenda for today, and, after attending church, Chinese was at the top of his "to do" list. We have Chinese lessons at 3:30 on Tuesdays, and he likes to go into class prepared. So he spent at least two hours today studying Chinese. He also finished correcting his math workbooks. I give him the answer key, and he does all his own "edits." Basically, it means he finds out that he made a mistake, OMG, and then he tries to figure out where he went wrong. Connor is also writing a gospel song on his guitar. The song has evolved this week from a serious Catholic church type song, to a rockin' with the gospels song! Too funny!! But each time Connor writes out the lyrics (and the notes), and then he reworks the song. Yet, it's still not a song that I'd say is "good." But the experience is important, and the patience attached to songwriting is something we are working on developing. We practiced our Tae Kwon Do form for a bit, and Connor spent awhile watching the guys build the new deck/sunroom.

Monday June 1st

We had a normal day today. Church, reading, guitar, writing, Tae Kwon Do etc. Connor finished the vocabulary book the other day, and he spent a long time today making flash cards to review. I am going to administer a cumulative vocabulary test, and he needs to knuckle down and study the 300 words. Yes, he learned 300 vocabulary words in 5 months, along with the spellings and parts of speech. Not too shabby. Connor also found an online course offered by John Hopkins University that he wants to take. I contacted the University to find out the prerequisites, and they emailed me a placement test. Wow, is it difficult. It's all higher level math, at least at the 10th grade level. I doubt that Connor will pass the test, but hey, it's worth a shot. He is now more motivated than ever to work with Xiao on Algebra and Trigonometry. Thank goodness we have Xiao here!!! What will we do when he leaves?