Fractions- We don't need no stinkin' fractions!

I keep a private blog for our homeschool, mainly because I like to have a place to keep up with our virtual links, online accounts, and other things I come across on the internet; otherwise I tend to keep notes and links scattered among all of our computers and various pieces of paper and notebooks around the house. We use the comments area to share links for each other that are accessible from either computer.

It is also a good way for me to keep track of what we have done throughout the school year for when I have to write my end of the year assessment for our records. Our first year I started out keeping notes on a legal pad, but this seems to work better.

I even added a Shelfari widget to make a virtual library on the blog to organize and display the hoard (yes, hoard) of free ebooks that I have collected for my Kindle.

Our little blog makes me feel super organized- even though I 'm really not. 

Since Padawan insists that we MUST do school, one thing that works really well for us during the official school year is for me to make a blog post at the beginning of each week for which lessons come next and to strew things for our tentative plans.

Over the weekend I take a quick look over the lessons from all of his curriculum, and add the topic for the scheduled lessons, then I strew some suggested activities, Youtube videos, links, and a couple suggestions from Netflix.

It doesn't take very long to do this and it makes everything look and feel official.

I said all of that so I could tell you this...yeah, that's how my brain works.

Question Everything

We're coming up on the 2 year anniversary of when Padawan out of Public School. I think we have pretty much found our groove. We still don't fit under any one homeschooling label. My views toward education lean toward radical unschooling more than anything, but if someone looks at how we do things we probably look more like a family of (mostly radical) Relaxed Homeschoolers. That's ok; I'd rather just do what we do and let the labels fall where they may. The downside to this is that sometimes I worry that others may perceive me as talking out of both sides of my mouth or not practicing what I preach.

Snippits From Unschooling

-1-

We've finally been spending some time OUTSIDE. 

Padawan has taken a (renewed) interest in Air Soft guns. He spent his birthday money on a new a rifle complete with scope. My parents were gracious enough  to let him have his present a couple of weeks early since the weather has been so nice and we all know it could get hot and humid here any time now.

Before and After

Unschooling Typing, Spelling, and Writing
A Progress Report...

I know I've mentioned before that I started suspecting Padawan has dysgraphia not long before I pulled him out of public school in November 2010. He is also not a natural speller. And forget about anything handwritten being legible, unless he takes a REALLY long time to write it.

Our Conversation About The Standards

My child is a riot. Sometimes I can't decide if he's trying to parent me, give me hints on how to parent him, or if he's just outright messing with my head.

Since we've been home educating, I haven't been following "The Almighty Standards" that had been drilled into his head from 3rd to 5th grade. I did look over "The Standards" (a) to be nosey, (b) to see what his friend would be doing in school this year, (c) to see if I wanted to plan any of that for the Middle School Years, (d) to see praise God for what I would not be stressing out over for the first school year since Standard Based Education began.  

Well, apparently Padawan had been thinking missing all the hoopla about "The Standards" in his new life and decided to have an impromptu talk with me about it.

(I can't remember word for word, but this is the general gist of the conversation.)

Padawan: (randomly stops what he is doing, sits at the edge of the recliner, crosses his legs, and leans towards me as he begins to speak in a tone that sounds freakishly like Ben Stein) Mooooom, you don't really like The Standards...dooooo youuuuuu?

Me: (trying not to laugh at the serious look on his face) No, I don't much care for them. Why do you ask?

Him: (in a sing-song voice) I'm just asking.

Me: Ok.

Him: (waits a minute for a dramatic effect) Whyyyy don't you like The Standards?

Me: Do you really want to know what I think about the Standards?

Him: Yes.

Me:  I think a lot of them are random. The Standards stress the kids and teachers out too much when half of them are repeated on the next grades list. The teachers have to teach you the actual list of Standards instead of just teaching to the Standards.  Besides, when you were in 3rd grade they were having you do things that I didn't do til High School because of the Standards. They should save some things to learn in High School.

Him: Well, you went to school waayyy back in the 80's things have changed since then.

Me: (appreciating him pointing out just how ancient I am becoming) Do you want to follow "The Standards"? I can print out a checklist, and we can follow "The Standards". 

Him: No, I was just asking.

What We've Been Up To....

Now that we are settling into our official school year, I thought it would be a good time to give a progress report on how things are going.

The One Where I Feel Inadequate

I'm in no way trying to sound conceited here, but I'm no dummy. I know pride is a sin, but brains are the gift that God gave me and I had always secretly worn my IQ points like a badge of honor. When I was growing up it was the main thing that was always praised and encouraged by the adults around me- besides my innate ability to be submissive and "good". (But that's besides the point) 

Advice About Curriculum & Socialization From Yours Truly

Ok, so I know I've only been at this whole Homeschool thing a short time, and am not really in a position to be giving too much advice...but I seemed to have gotten myself into this one. Carolyn over at Guilt Free Homeschooling was asking on her Facebook Feed for Mom's from all over the U.S. to sign up with her if we were willing to answer questions from parents in our area. I let her know that I was pretty new myself, but I would be willing to answer some questions the best way I could. Little did I know 2 days later I would be presented with a question about Curriculum AND Socialization! From an experienced teacher- no less!!

My 3 Year Plan for the Middle School Years

When I first started homeschooling my son last fall, I asked myself what my goals for my his education were. During our time of trying to do "school at home" I was trying to stick close to the state standards because I didn't know any other way. Then I noticed that many career homeschooling families recommended not even looking at the standards. Hmm..on some level that made sense. After all, I was completely free to choose what we would be doing for the first time in his educational life.

My Shortest Post So Far

Today has been a productive day!

I finished my saga AND I decided what I'm calling our method of Homeschooling. It describes the way we are doing things almost perfectly, and there are no set standards to obsess about.


Guided Natural Learning


That settles it.

Deciding To Homeschool - Part 7 - The Dramatic Conclusion

Fifth Grade Fiasco-  A Recipe For Disaster

If you're just joining us you can read the whole story from the beginning here or you can just jump right in.

Unschooling Experiment

We finished our required days for homeschool last month. I feel like I am almost completely deschooled, (YAY!) and as far as Padawan is concerned he's on summer break.

Even though I do have a general map for us to follow this fall, in addition to the things that he wants to learn and whatever else pops up, I thought it would be interesting I continued my observation over the next two months by keeping track of what he learns and what we do together (educationally speaking) without one of us saying "let's do school". That way I'll have a general picture of what unschooling looks like for OUR FAMILY without adding any of the extras that he would consider "doing school".

So, I will start at the beginning and list what I can remember that we have done so far since summer break started. Then I will try to keep it updated as we go along.

There were a couple of days before we filled up our (little) pool that it was finally warm enough for Padawan to play with the water hose.  The first day, he filled up a Rubbermaid storage container with water, and was filling up water balloons. He figured out that he could fill them REALLY full if he held them under the water when he filled them up. He thought that air pressure may have something to do with the reason the balloons would hold more water that way.  He tried the experiment where you fill a cup of water, put paper over the top, and turn it upside down - But we couldn't get it to work. He also experimented with some other things that I can't specifically remember.

The next day he played in the water again. I took my Kindle out there, and thought instead of reading something to myself I would read to him while he played. Well, I read tried to read The Hobbit aloud. After the first 3 paragraphs, he said he didn't like the Hobbit. So, I switched to The Storybook of Science, and read for a few minutes. He had gotten sunburned the day before, so I told him that he needed to wear sunscreen or a t shirt so he wouldn't get sun poisoning. He asked me to look up sun poisoning, so I did and read the definition. Then he asked more questions about it, so I jokingly asked "What do you want me to read- symptoms, treatment, or prevention?" He said,"All of it!" So I read the entire article to him. Then he asked me to look up spiders, and after that ants.

He has asked me to read more of The Storybook of Science to him at bedtime on several occasions. (He hasn't wanted a bedtime story in a few years).

He is still playing Roblox, chatting with his friends, building games, and designing uniforms using Photoshop, MS Paint, and Paint.net. Paint.net is a new program that he wanted needed to learn to use so he could make uniforms with transparent backgrounds. He learned how to do this by looking up "How To" videos on YouTube. I helped him download and install the program, and he figured the rest out himself. His designs are getting more creative and detailed all the time.

He has also learned how to make models in Roblox, save them and upload them to public domain, and has been finding and modifying scripts for extras that he wants to add to his games. He is still asking me how to spell words, and I have noticed his spelling is continuing to improve without us doing any formal lessons.

His multiplication skills are improving because he needs to calculate how many days it will take him to earn "X" amount of Robux. He also is using percentages to calculate profit and seller fees for things that he buys and sells on Roblox. He is learning about ratio and proportion because he has to resize graphics that he incorporates into his uniform designs. (All this in his head)

One night, we watched a documentary about the recent tornado outbreak while doing a craft that I found through a homeschooling blog. (paper Angry Birds) After that we experimented with his electronic tornado maker and two coke bottles connected with a tornado tube. He also has plans to make a video with the Angry Birds that we made.

We have gone out to the pool and talked about all kind of things from tadpoles and mosquito larvae to really deep subjects. One thing we discussed was about everyone having a purpose in life - even his 8 year old cousin who recently passed away who was blind, and well..basically (for lack of a better word)..a vegetable since birth. He could only laugh and smile.

His friend came over the other day. They played in the pool, and made plans for him to spend the night. They wanted McDonald's, but I told him that it wasn't in the budget for this week. So, Padawan paid for their food out of his own money. I was impressed with his generosity! By the way, (as it usually happens) his friend got homesick and left around 10 o'clock that night, so we had to deal with the disappointment from that.

We have still been watching documentaries and shows like Mythbusters, PawnStars, Swamp Brothers among many others that are full of science, history, and geography. As always, he asks tons of questions and learns several new vocabulary words each time we watch anything together.

Last night we watched Dual Survival which was full of geography and science. He chose to watch part of a documentary about Abraham Lincoln instead of a movie that I found while we were surfing through the channels. We also watched a show about Ancient Egypt, which included information about architecture and religion. He even came up with ideas of how the Egyptians and other architects could have done things differently.

That is just what I can remember worth mentioning off the top of my head. I know there is much, much, more, AND learning and teaching didn't stop just because I declared summer break.

Repeat after me....Homeschool is Fun

At my Chiropractor appointment this afternoon, my Dr. asked me how Homeschool was going and I immediately said blurted out “FUN”!

If you have read any of my blog about The Public School Years, you will know for a fact that I never thought that the word FUN would ever describe anything having to do with MY son and the word SCHOOL.

Then I told her blurted out about how there was a method called Unschooling, where you take the lead from what your kids are interested in. I told her about how Padawan was interested in so many things and how we mainly go with that, and how he has learned so much.

I also told her about how when I took Padawan out of Public School how he could barely spell. I told her that now that he has a need to know how spell he is interested in it, and asks me to help him spell words “hundreds” of times a day.

I laughed and told her that Unschooling was an unusual way to describe what we have been doing, because its not UN-teaching or UN-learning. I also told her about Padawan was a perfect example of the quote about throwing marshmallows at your kids and calling it eating.

She told me that it looked like it has been really good for Padawan and that he looked a lot less stressed.

Then she asked me if I ever planned on putting him back in school, and I said “Not if I can help it!”

Happy Mom Moment

Operation Covert Education- Success!

I recently finished writing an End of Year Assessment for Padawan. I decided at the beginning of our homeschool journey that I was not going to assign grades- since they were not a motivation to Padawan in the first place. The state laws where I live are vague on how this assessment should be written or what it should include. It ended up being 7 pages, because I included what he had accomplished, his areas of strength, and the resources and activities that we had used during the school year. I also included specifics on how I plan to work with him on his areas of weakness, build on his strengths, and encourage his interests in the upcoming school year.

I asked Padawan last night when he would like to start the upcoming school year. He pointed to the end of September on his calendar. I told him that if we started our school year that late, we would be "doing school" into next summer.   He quickly replied. "Its not like we did that much anyway; we're slackers!" I told him that just because I hadn't required him to do much writing, it didn't mean that he didn't learn anything or that we were slackers. :)

I smiled on the inside. If I could write a 7 page assessment and summary of what he had learned and worked on during our 7 months of Homeschool, and he didn't feel like he had been "doing school" that much-  my plan to follow my instinct was a great success!!

What's My Homeschooling Method?

DEFINE YOURSELF


Ok, so I signed up for the Blog Roll at Hip Homeschool Moms for the upcoming school year. New Homeschoolers can sign up in the New To Homeschool category and also under a category of teaching style. The categories are Traditional, Montessorri, Eclectic, Unschooling, Unit Studies, Charlotte Mason, and Classical.



Well, since we're fairly new at this, I wasn’t too sure if we have even found our style yet. It really got me thinking about what style of Homeschoolers we are.


You ask - Why such deep thoughts on a simple subject?

Well, it is because my mind LIKES to pick a random and not-necessarily-so-important topic and think on it obsessively and completely until there is nothing left to think about- ESPECIALLY at night while I'm trying to sleep.

And now that I have a blog, I can write about all of these deep thoughts too. (Hey- I warned you that I'm a smartypants)


Defining ourselves at the beginning of this journey was easy. The label was already chosen for us- Accidental Homeschoolers,. As an Accidental Homeschool Mom, my first concern was to pick out a curriculum that would give Padawan what he needed to finish the year out. The only game plan I had in mind was to print the State Standards and find something that in some aspect followed them. A few weeks before pulling him out of Public School, I Googled the word curriculum and was immediately overwhelmed with the amount of choices.


I'm having a hard time choosing between 7 styles of Homeschooling- how do you think I felt looking at literally 100's of choices of curricula?!? Yes, I also learned that the plural of curriculum is curricula- just in case you didn't know and were wondering.


I quickly decided that the best thing for Padawan for the time being was to use Time4Learning. I loved Time4Learning! I liked that the lessons were all planned out for me and they looked fun and interactive too. Another deciding factor was that we wouldn't be spending money on a year's worth of curriculum for a half-year of school. It would also buy me some time to figure out what the heck I had gotten myself into! I guess you could say it was an Emergency Curriculum.


The first two weeks we were on somewhat of a schedule because Padawan had wanted to be finished with school by the same time he used to be. We were careful to watch the clock and make sure that we had done the required 4 1/2 hours-not a minute less-  like the school board was watching us on candid camera! The first few days of Homeschool felt like a cross between letting Padawan play hookey and getting  him to do make-up work.


The schedule flew out the window the 3rd week because we had taken a week off for Thanksgiving Break, and we are just not a schedule type of family. His dad had recently started a new job during the previous summer and he wasn't even on a predictable schedule.


Things have changed so much since those first weeks of our journey. There is so much difference between our way of "doing school at home" when we first began and our way of doing things now.


A lot of days it feels like we are becoming “Almost Unschoolers". See, we're not all the way Unschoolers, because I'm not completely following the Unschooling Philosophy of letting go and letting Padawan totally lead the way. I find the concept and philosophy completely liberating, but frightening at the same time. I can almost embrace it on some levels.


I totally understand how Unschooled does not mean Uneducated. Some of the smartest people I know never had a formal education, and there are schooled people that I have met that were very uneducated. I can also see how Unschooling would totally not work for some children. I love the idea of Unschooling for Padawan because it is a joy to see him follow his passions and soak everything up that he can. But then my thoughts come back around to what I know and am familiar with and what feels safe. It makes it seem like completely Unschooling would just be a guilty pleasure for both of us.


During our time of trying to "do school at home” Padawan was somewhat willingly paying attention to some lessons, and I could see him shutting me out during other lessons- especially math. We fill in some of our school time with things that he suggested. His favorite was to look up random YouTube videos on animals, science, or whatever. (It still is his favorite when we say "Let's do some school". ) He also asked me to teach him how to cook, and he would make up his own science experiments. One day he asked if we could float different kind of chips in a bowl of water to see which ones sank first. When we were doing things like this he would often say “I can’t believe this is school- it’s so much fun!”


This way of “doing school” works ok, but I can still see where the road bumps and battles could come into play again...Math and Writing. I’m trying not to stress over doing things perfect right now, because this is new to both of us, and he was learning so many other things eagerly. I had read before that it takes a while to de-school too. Using the formula of 1 month for each year that a child was in Public School, I calculated that would have put us at right about NOW.


You see, on days that we "do school" later in the day and Padawan is allowed to have his free time first and to discover the world around him as he chooses, he follows his obsessions. (Like he used to only be able to do during summer break). He naturally soaks in so much History and Science that it blows my mind. He's always building, experimenting with things, and watching what makes things work. He comes up with detailed theories to explain why he thinks things happen. He's so full of questions. This is a child who watches documentaries because he likes to. He can repeat an encyclopedia's worth of facts on anything that he becomes interested in. A lot of the things he likes to do involve reading and math of one sort or another too. He asked me to show him how to do laundry because he wanted to, and he likes it! Don't ask me why. All the time he's asking me if he CAN do some laundry.


I’ve been kind of conducting a secret experiment. If I add up all the time that he's spent on educational activities without either one of us saying "Let's do some school" at some point during the day or on days that we aren’t “doing school” it is well over the state’s requirement of 4 1/2 hours. Learning comes so natural to him, and we are not longer at odds with each other. I hear "I love you, Mom!" over and over throughout the day. This from my child that I have been at war with 10 months out of the year since Pre-K because of school.


Padawan told me once that part of the problem with school was that they were trying to teach him things he had already learned at home from me and his Dad.


I guess my biggest fear about completely Unschooling is that I want to make sure that he will be able to get into a college of his choosing- if that's what he decides to do. I worry that I will not have prepared him for that if I don't at least stay out in front of him and guide some of his education.


So, I try to throw in some story time to get him interested enough in a book to finish it himself. I squeeze in a spelling lesson or writing assignment and a math lesson here and there. I find documentaries on the history subject at hand - this year was US History. Sometimes I come up with an experiment, art project, or activity. Sometimes I'll do something without him, but within range just to see if it catches his interest. I've even attended online classes from Currclick by myself in hopes that he would take part.


You know, if it were all up to me, our Homeschool would probably end up being looking like Traditional school- maybe not so much with a tight schedule, but definitely with structure. That's what I know and what I am comfortable with. It is the most common path. Its all laid out there in textbooks and workbooks. You can just get it done and get on with the day. Its all there in black and white to see what was accomplished. But you know- that way was not working and it took me way too long to see it. My Padawan has proven to me and his father over and over since the day he came into this world that he came with his own unique set of instructions- only we didn’t get the complete owner’s manual.


When family or friends ask me how school is going...my answer is: "Fine, but you know it doesn't look much like school." And I’m sure they think that's a bad thing, and on some level a small part of me still does too.

So, to answer my own question… I am a Spirit-Led-Relaxed-Eclectic-Montessori-ish-Unschooling-Traditional-Trial-and-Error kind of Homeschooling Mom!


I’ll go check the Eclectic box now!

ROBLOX As A Homeschool Teaching Resource?!?!

As the saying goes....IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM, JOIN THEM!

Since my homeschooling adventure began about 6 months ago, I have been researching and learning a lot of the ins-and-outs of how my child really learns...what he loves, what he likes ok, what he will tolerate because he trusts me that its important, and what he downright refuses to do.  Mostly, I have learned that he is most cooperative and attentive when "doing school" doesn't feel or look anything like school.

A few months ago, my nephew introduced my son to a free online gaming site called ROBLOX. I briefly checked it out, determined it was safe enough, and helped him get an account set up.

Parents can set up a parent account too and link it to their kid's account to set the chat to safe mode or free chat, and to allow/disallow private messages.There is also a dashboard that shows if they have had warnings from the moderators, how much money they have spent, the last ten things they bought and a few other things.

It only took a few days until he was completely obsessed with this site. He was totally in love with this thing called ROBLOX, and as it is with anything that he is interested in- it became the only thing he wanted to do when we weren't "doing school". He even gave up his 3 month long obsession of daily Lego building and everything to do with Lego Star Wars. That was a big deal!

I eventually needed to install an internet timer to regulate his time on the computer!

So, I began to wonder..what exactly is this thing called ROBLOX that has captured his interest. Is it really educational like they claim or is just a mindless game???

The Mom and the researcher in me got busy trying to find out more about it. ROBLOX claims to be educational, but I still couldn't see the point - yet.

But gradually I began to notice.....

My child...
who was socially awkward and had made very few friends during his time in public school....
who had spent the last two years of his career at public school learning that it was ok for kids to pick on other kids as long as you weren't the first one to get caught...
who was realizing that the law of the "jungle" in 5th Grade was to bully or get bullied....
who hates to talk on the phone...
explained to me how important it was to him that he was able to chat with other kids, and how it made up for the fact that he didn't get to talk to kids at school anymore. He showed me that he had already made some friends on there (some of the were other homeschoolers). He told me about how they were showing him the ropes and being nice to him. He was also talking on the phone to his cousin who lives an hour while playing Roblox together.

Score points for ROBLOX - Socialization

My child that had always hated (insert refused) to have much of anything to do with typing, spelling, and/or writing was suddenly typing messages, writing summaries for groups that he made up, and asking me to spell words for him over and over throughout the day. I was seeing how the Unschooling philosophy of how a child will learn what they need to know when they need to know it in action right in front of me.

Score points for ROBLOX- Spelling, Typing, and Language Arts

On Roblox they also have two types of virtual currency and are able to exchange one for the other according to a determined exchange rate. The kids are able to buy items for their characters, and even sell certain in the marketplace. The system takes a percent of the sales price.


Score points for Roblox- Math



He also NEEDED to know how to download templates to make his own designs for clothing for his virtual character...think of it as paper dolls for the computer. So now he was asking me to show him how to do this.
First, I showed him how to do it with MS paint, and he started designing away. I showed him how to save files where he could find them again later to upload to the website. Next, he NEEDS to make better "clothes".  I knew that could be done with Photoshop. (I dabble in Graphic Arts, but I am still trying to figure out and remember where to find all the tools on that Photoshop. So I quickly learn how to do certain things in Photoshop so I can teach him.)


He showed me games that other kids had built, and told me about how he wanted to build a really cool game that would make it to the first page. He said that he needed to learn how to make scripts...and I was like "What?"... I had to look that up.
Scripts... Roblox uses a programming language called Lua and users can write their own programs to add special things to the games. I had heard of scripts before, but I didn't really know anything about them.
Ok..so that one was over my head. You can make games without knowing how to script, but he insists that we need to learn to do this so we can make some cool games. We're still working on that one..it may be a while.

Score points for Roblox- Computer Technology, Art

Now that he knew how to do all this stuff himself, he retreated into his inner world again busy, busy, busy with everything Roblox... and I could feel us getting disconnected...so I began having mixed feelings about this again.
That's when I made my own Roblox account- so I could enter his world. Although it would be UNCOOL to for his new friends to know, he thought it was the greatest thing that I was entering his world!  We build together, chat together, and learn together.
He even built a virtual school so my character can teach his character!

Score for Roblox- A place where this Mom (who isn't very physically able) can be a hero and play with her son.


I have even noticed more maturity because of this obession with ROBLOX. When I first set the time limit, he didn't feel that it was fair enough. Instead of throwing a fit and having a long drawn out meltdown, he went to his room and secretly typed me a very logical and mature letter explaining all the reasons why I should consider giving him more time. I was IMPRESSED!

Having to earn computer time has also been a great incentive to get cooperation in doing his other lessons, doing housework, brushing his teeth, etc, etc, etc

Score points for Roblox- Time Management, Cooperation, Life Skills

I'm still figuring out my homeschool philosophy and obviously, this is not the only thing we have done for homeschool....BUT....I'm already thinking of ways to use ROBLOX as a teaching tool for the next school year...that is...unless he has moved on to a new obsession. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"ROBLOX is an online virtual playground and workshop — where kids of all ages can safely interact, create, have fun, and learn. It's unique in that practically everything in this infinite playground is designed and constructed by individual members of the ROBLOX community.


Each player starts by choosing an avatar and giving it an identity. They can then explore ROBLOX — interacting with others by chatting, playing games, or collaborating on creative projects.


Each player is also given their own piece of undeveloped real estate along with a virtual toolbox with which to design and build anything desired — be it a navigable skyscraper, a working helicopter, a giant pinball machine, a multiplayer "Capture the Flag" game or some other, yet-to-be-dreamed-up object or activity.


By participating and by building cool stuff, ROBLOX members can earn specialty badges as well as ROBLOX dollars ("ROBUX"). In turn, they can shop the online catalog to purchase avatar clothing and accessories as well as premium building materials, interactive components, and working mechanisms."

Aut-2B-Home

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Deciding to Homeschool part 1 "A Strong Willed Child Is Born"

My son and I have recently become what the Homeschooling community calls Accidental Homeschoolers. 


Accidental Homeschoolers are typically families who had not planned to homeschool. Many of these families had children in school but found that it was not working out and as they ran out of traditional school options, started homeschooling.

Not working out...now that has become an understatement in our situation!

Before I get into the thought process of my decision to homeschool, I think I should give a little background on the subject...

Shortly after the turn of this new century I gave birth to a beautiful bouncing 8.8lb boy. He was so healthy and PERFECT in every way.... then we brought him home from the hospital!
It only took a couple of days to realize I had given birth to one of the MOST STUBBORN and INDEPENDENT human beings that had ever been born! I should have known something was up when he "decided" to stay in the womb up until the very day they were going to kick him out through "induced labor".
I am not exaggerating when I tell you he was holding his head up, looking around the morning after he was born. The nurse at the hospital was amazed!
At a few days old he would struggle like he wanted to leap out of my arms and take off walking. I would laugh and tell him he was a newborn and that newborns could not do that!
In fact, he has always acted and talked like he is a little grown up stuck in a child's body.
Now, he may be my first and only child, but he was definitely not the first baby or child I had ever cared for. I had a LOT of previous experience through babysitting as a teen and as an adult. I also had a hand in raising a few nieces and nephews, and teaching children at church during the 12 years my husband and I had been trying to conceive. I'm not trying to sound conceited here, but my husband and I were great with children and they loved us. Having a child of our very own would be a piece of cake..or so I thought!

Little did I know that The Good Lord had decided to give us a child like no other we (and many others) had ever experienced!

Our little bundle of joy, grew, and learned, and grew some more. Each step of the way asserting his independence in the learning process. Teaching him anything would become a challenge because he wanted to learn it HIMSELF! Oh, he would learn things from us, but the second he suspected he was being taught- the shields went up and the resistance began.
(Among other things he has taught himself to swim, ride his bike, ride an electric scooter, play video games, and use the computer.)

Well, time flew by and one day before we knew it, our precious little bundle of joy was old enough to go to school. We debated about whether or not to put him in Pre-K. I had also entertained the idea of homeschool, but decided it would be best for him to be around other kids in addition to the kids at our church. (Since I worked part-time, and my parents had been watching him during my working hours.) I also had decided that just maybe he would let someone besides us teach him things. It turns out he did..mostly...

To Be Continued....

Part 2 - PreK and K
Part 3- 1st & 2nd Grade
Part 4- 3rd Grade
Part 5
Part 6- 4th Grade
Part 7- 5th Grade - The Dramatic Conclusion