Thank you cards!

We received this email from Connor's former 3rd grade teacher, regarding the China presentation.
Connor & Sandy,

Your presentation was GREAT!! The class loved it and so did I. You really knew your material and presented it well. All of your artifacts added so much to what you were speaking to and I think it really helped the class to understand. I do have an envelope of "ThankYou" notes from the class that I will drop off to you after school today. I realize that no one may be home but I will leave them hanging on a door or something. Again, you did a fabulous job and I really appreciate you sharing what you know. You were actually the first of a bunch of lessons I am doing about what cultures value and how they are so different from ours. Everyday we meet a different family in the "Material World" series. By studying pictures and family photo albums we can figure out alot about their culture and what they value. So, thanks SO much for coming in to share with us! It was great to see you!

Sue Hurd

Library

On the way to pick up Austin at McQuaid today, I briefly stopped by the Brighton Library. I was talking on the phone with David as I pulled in the parking lot, so I sent Connor in ahead of me for a minute, even though he had never been in that particular library. We only had 15 min. before we had to fetch Austin, so time was of the essence on this trip. When I entered the library, Connor was standing in front of the reference desk rattling off all the books that he wanted the librarian to "find" for him. All the books he wanted were newly released, therefore the library did not yet have any of them on the shelves. I had to update my library card, and I let Connor wander off with the librarian to find alternate books. When I finished at the circulation desk, I went to collect Connor. He had a stack of 6 Brian Jacques books, and he was chatting away happily with the reference librarian about various authors, books and genres. As we were leaving, the librarian remarked, "He is just the most Amazing child!" I conceded that he does know and appreciate literature, and left it at that. I almost added that he's home-schooled, but I decided to leave well-enough alone.

China presentation

Yesterday, Connor went to Geneseo Central to present
a project about China to a third grade classroom. Connor was awesome!
He had spent hours and hours creating a power point presentation, and
he had a huge table covered with artifacts from China. The
presentation was supposed to last 45 minutes, but Connor ended up
staying at least an hour and 15 minutes. The 3rd graders were engaged
and they had many insightful questions for Connor. He also taught them
how to count to 10 in Chinese, and how to write it in Chinese
characters. He spoke of Chinese history, geography, religions, art,
food etc. It was apparent that he knew his topic thoroughly, and all
the teachers that watched were impressed. Connor was at first nervous about
returning to his old school. He said he feels awkward now, whenever he sees
an old classmate. This presentation helped with that. He saw many of his old
friends, and everyone was welcoming and nice. The principal even gave Connor
a hug! No one tried to talk him into returning to the school, and no one said,
"Don't you miss school?" That is the question Connor hates the most. There is
no good answer to that question.He doesn't want to hurt their feelings by saying, "No. I don't miss school (or you)." But he also doesn't want to make it sound as if he is missing school, because he still attends school--just at other places now. Anyway, the visit was all good, and I'm glad that we went.

Extra curricular activities

We've noticed lately that extra curricular activities have become a large part of our home-school curriculum. With the upcoming adoption, we decided that we will need to cut back on some of Connor's "extra" activities. Currently, he takes Tae Kwon Do ( 4-5 times a week) , guitar (once a week and daily practice), Chess lessons (once a week), Chinese lessons (twice a week) and horse-back riding lessons (once a week). We also downhill ski, run and work-out together as a family. Whew! It makes me tired just typing all of that! All these extras have been wonderful for Connor, but even he sometimes feels that he is just too busy. Down-time is important too. So this week I asked Connor what activities he would be willing to forgo. We need to free up some money and some time, with our two sons arriving soon. We just need to slow down and give our new sons at home time to adjust. Connor decided that after we go to China, he will stop horse-back riding and Chess. He can horse-back ride occasionally at his friend's house, just for fun, and he can play Chess online or with his brothers. We don't want him to quit his guitar lessons or Tae Kwon do. Music and exercise are just too important. Chinese is important because of our adoption plans. What I find the most interesting about this whole "problem" is that Connor decided on the solution himself. He loves horses, and has begged me to buy him one in the past, but he recognizes that he can't make the commitment to that sport right now. So only six more lessons, and then Connor will take a break from both Chess and horse-back riding. Seems like a plan.

Part of a group

Tonight, on the way home from a late track meet, Austin (age 14) had an interesting thing to say. He told me that at McQuaid, he feels like he's part of something important. He said he never felt like that at Geneseo Central. And he doesn't feel like that with his other activities either. He's quite active in the Civil Air Patrol, and he's now an NCO with CAP, but he made sure to tell me he doesn't have it with CAP either. Austin very specifically told me, if it wasn't for that feeling of "membership" at McQuaid, "something important", he would decide to be home-schooled too. Austin has been for years telling us that because he is super athletic, he could be one of the jocks, but he's also super academic, so therefore, both the jocks and the athletes rejected him at the public school. Austin never felt one of any group at Geneseo. At McQuaid, it's just Assumed that every student is above average at academics, and the athletic students can play sports without pretending that they're dumb. Austin is now in 9th grade Science and Math (he's in 8th grade), but no one at McQuaid expects anything less.What they really want him to do is break the 5min mile (he's sooo close!). This all came up tonight because I reminded Austin that with our two sons coming from China in March, his tuition is on the line. If Austin isn't performing at the high honor roll level (over 95 GPA) it's easier for us to stop justifying the tuition, for one of now 4 boys.We can't afford to send all 4 boys to McQuaid (10k per year) and so if Austin isn't going to be the top 1% of his class, that is an easy out for us. Yep. It's a mean and gruesome reality. But, so far, Austin has always had a 96% GPA, and he is now ranked as the fasted 8th grader in the history of McQuaid. But still...if Austin wanted to be home-schooled, if, for instance, he wasn't quite so enamored with McQuaid, that would be a great thing for me. I remember the year we skied together, all the time. Austin was almost 5 and could've gone to Kindergarten that year, but I kept him back one more year, since he had a November birthday. We had the most fabulous time together. We skied, and colored, and read a million books!! Yes, I'm ok with McQuaid because it's what makes Austin happy...but NEVER in a million years would I have imagined that I'd say this....I'm also ok with home-schooling.

The coolest thing!

Connor today got to do the coolest thing (according to him)for his birthday. He went to the University of Rochester Life Science Center for his monthly science class, and there they got to test a new heart medication on water fleas. Did you know that water fleas have exoskeletons, so when you look at them under the microscope you can see all their inside parts too? After looking at fleas under the microscope, the kids learned about blood pressure and heart rate. They used blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes to find their own BP and resting HR. Then, they experimented with various new heart drugs to see how it affected the heart rate of the water fleas. I didn't get all the details, but again, I just want to reiterate--it is wonderful to live in a city with such a multitude of resources! Connor was in a working lab and a University assisting with a real drug trial. Wow!! What a great way to spend his birthday.

Flu Season

Recently, one third of our public school children were out sick with the Swine Flu. This is yet one more advantage to home-schooling. First of all, Connor has been sick only once since we began to home-school a year ago. I'm not even going to bother getting Connor the flu vaccine this year. He simply doesn't get exposed to quite as many viruses. I can also carefully monitor his hand-washing, his diet, and his sleep and exercise. All these, I'm truly convinced, make the difference in a child's health. Our friends' kids seem sick all the time, and we are very rarely sick with anything. Secondly, when Connor is ill, our school day doesn't just cease. Unless he's vomiting, Connor continues to read. And even ill, Connor can play on the computer; this translates to games on Biology4kids or freerice.com. Today is Connor's birthday. Do I miss sending in sweets for his celebration? NO!! We work very, very, very hard to provide our children with healthy diets that do not include excess sugar, dyes, and artificial everything. At public school there seems to be a party for something practically everyday. When he was at GCS, I just couldn't prevent Connor from consuming junk quite regularly.Even the school lunches were often based on junk food. A pretzel with artificial cheese sauce is a balanced lunch? Now, since it is his birthday,I will take Connor out to lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Tonight, I will let Connor bring in a birthday treat to his Tae Kwon Do class. He can celebrate with his TKD friends, and then get back to healthy eating tomorrow. Yippee.

Opportunities abound!

The other day I was chatting with another mother (York school district) while I was waiting for Connor during his Tae Kwon Do class. She was all excited about a field trip that her son was going on with school to the U of R to participate in a simulated "Crime Scene" and learn about forensics. She was going on and on about this wonderful field trip. Basically, she felt that Connor was missing out by not going to public school. I finally had to interrupt her to tell her that Connor goes to the same place (the Life Science Center) once a month for four hours. To date, Connor has studied, at the Life Science Center, the principles from the physical sciences and nanotechnology to create new biological tools,how snowflakes form, bacteria, and the effects of medicines on heart disease (and how the medicines are developed) and alternative fuels. The "Crime Scene" and forensics lab will be later in the year, I think in May. Connor doesn't miss out on the school field trips at all. Any field trip I believe is educational, is already on our curriculum. What we DON'T do, is waste a whole day on a field trip to watch the Disney movie "The Beauty and the Beast" (Katelyn went on that one,and we already own the video!) or go to the local park, Highland Park. Every year the school wastes countless days on absolutely useless field trips that have no relation to the curriculum. I remember when Katelyn went on a field trip to tour Main Street Geneseo. Please! Another time I chaperoned a trip to watch a skit of The Hungry Caterpillar at Genesee Community College. It literally took the entire day to watch the 30 min. skit, and the kids barely paid attention. It is a story written for kindergartners, and the kids were bored to tears. Katelyn also went on a field trip to the Arboretum when she was in 4th or 5th grade. An older biology student would get a whole lot out of such a trip, but the little kids spent the entire time playing tag through the gardens. So, back to my topic, Rochester has a million opportunities for field trips, and I feel grateful to live in a city rich with theatre, art, museums and science. No, we don't miss out on school field trips. In fact, on Thursday, we are going to the Rochester Museum and Science Center to view the Titanic display.

Reading -- a whole lot

I just logged yet another book on Connor's reading log, and because I had a few minutes to kill, I decided to count how many books Connor has read so far this school year. Amazingly, Connor has read 46 books to date. Yes, 46 books, of more than 200 pages each. Actually, in that count were three short stories (all classics that I made him read; such as Flowers for Algernon). I guess that means he read 43 books really. All the books are at least 200 pages, and the ones he chose (the fantasy ones) are usually over 350 pages. Connor and I have reached a compromise about the books that he reads. Every other book he can choose, and he usually chooses fantasy, and every other book he reads must come from either the John Hopkins University List of recommended books, or I chose the book from the classic book shelf at Borders. After Christmas we went to Borders to shop, and I had a hard time finding a classic book that he Hasn't yet read (at his age-level). Certainly, Connor's reading ability is advanced enough to read other classics, such as Count of Monte Cristo, but I also have to consider the content. Connor is only ten, and his maturity level is that of an eight year old most days. But he does Love to read. It certainly makes our school days much easier. When I'm not "on," I simply tell Connor to go read for awhile. He considers that a prize. Lucky me!

New Year still

It's still the first full week of the New Year, and we are settling into our new schedule. I've begun a low-carbohydrate diet, and as a result, I've been more impatient than usual. I have had a headache every day (it's caffeine withdrawal) and I've had to take a nap every afternoon just to get through the day. Connor has been a good sport. He meets with a tutor everyday now from 9-10a, and that's working out well. Tonight, during dinner, Connor said that his "good thing" was that his biology tutor came today. I think he has a little crush on her. After church and the hour with the tutor, Connor wrote another fable. He read Aesop's Fables last week (a whole book of them) and decided to write his own fables. The first one was pretty good, and for once I praised his work more than criticized. Yeah, I've really got to work on that. The second fable was mediocre at best, and I wasn't overly enthusiastic. As a result, Connor decided to read the works of Edgar Allen Poe next, to help his writing branch out a bit. What a contrast to Aesop's Fables!! I just think it's wonderful that Connor imitates various writers after reading their works, and then moves on to another genre entirely. We talk quite a bit about genres and branching out in our reading and writing. On another note, I received a fantastic email from a listserve about an unschooler's day. One learning activity just naturally leads into another, almost effortlessly. As I've said a million times, I have a definite idea of our goals and our curriculum, and I'm quite structured and time-oriented, so I would never consider myself an unschooler. But it is great to see how it works for some families.

A New Year

Yesterday was the first official school day of the New Year, and it was quite productive overall. First of all, we went to church. We learned about the woman (Seton) who began the Catholic Church movement for the immigrants. Then, Connor's new math/biology tutor was here from 9-10a, and I went to the gym. It's wonderful to go work-out without guilt. Previously, all Connor's tutors came on Thursdays when I had to work. On my days off, when I wanted to go to the gym, I would give Connor independent work to do while I was gone. It wasn't a problem, and Connor did a wonderful job completing his work in my absence, but I always felt guilty leaving him. Independent learning is a cornerstone to home-schooling; however, I never felt comfortable being gone for 60 min. in the morning. Now that Connor's computer programming class is over and I'm not working, the tutors can come first thing in the morning. I can go to the gym without guilt, knowing that Connor has a teacher at his disposal. Connor still needs to do independent work when I shower and such, and he uses that time to practice his guitar. Yes, timing is everything. We work hard to NOT waste time. It's easy when you're home-schooling to fall into the sleep-in and relax in my PJs mode. Some home-schoolers cite this is a the best and most important part of home-schooling--the slower pace. For us, it's just the opposite. We feel that we can use every single minute. Schools waste hours of the day just lining kids up in a row for lunch, or having a drinking fountain break. At home, Connor reads while he eats. Of course, Connor thinks of reading as his "treat," not as school. I think that like everything else, home-schoolers need to define their own style. We pack more in a day than most schools pack in a week, but we like it that way. Otherwise, we're bored. So, to us, home-schooling is the opportunity to learn every minute, with no time wasted on busy work or changing classes in the hall.