school update

Esther is still doing well.  I'm reasonably happy with our curriculum, our routine, the pace at which we're moving, and my method of record-keeping.  I'm not so happy yet with my own time management; I am going to have to work on finding ways for Esther to do some work independently so I can do some of my work independently!  But on the whole, I'm pleased.  Some random thoughts:

I wonder how much of Esther's tiredness last school year was due to...well...tiredness!  We are putting her to bed at the same time this year, and she is getting up about 45 minutes later than she did last school year, which makes me wonder if she was sleep-deprived all last year.  If she returns to "regular school" next year, we will have to look into moving her bedtime earlier!  Unfortunately, that won't work on some nights of the week due to activities...like Wednesday night church.  At any rate, whether it's due to her getting more sleep or having a less regimented day, we have not seen any loss of energy this year.  She is in a two-hour gymnastics class this year and LOVING it--she tried out for a three-hour team class and enjoyed it thoroughly, but her coach thought it best for her to wait until the summer to transition to that class.  Right now they are training her on Level 2 artistic gymnastics routines, which she will be able to perform at a competition hosted by our gym in December.

We are taking full advantage of our local library.  Right now I have both my card and Esther's card nearly maxed out, and I just wrote down a list of additional books that I may want to get for this week!  We're currently studying the kingdoms of living things, with the help of books like a biography of Louis Pasteur (related to bacteria), an explanation of ocean food chains (related to phytoplankton), and photos taken with a microscope (so far, most useful in our study of fungi).  I have learned some things, too!  Did you know that coral has no color of its own, but derives its color from algae which have a symbiotic relationship with coral polyps?  I did not know that--although Esther informed me that she had already learned it from Wild Kratts!  That is her favorite show on PBS Kids and she has learned an amazing amount of biology from it.  Besides our local library, I have been relying a lot on Youtube as a source of information.  Of course I have to preview the videos for accuracy and age-appropriateness, but we found some awesome animations of bacterial reproduction and the life cycle of malaria parasites, as well as a really nice tutorial on how to compost, several videos (not animations) of ameobas ingesting things, and a time-lapse video of mushroom growth.  Can you tell I'm having fun??

I have, however, discovered that I'm putting pressure on myself (and therefore Esther) to move along at a predetermined pace.  I guess I'm worried that if we don't get a lot accomplished upfront, something might slow us down later and keep Esther from learning all that she's "supposed" to this year.  And it doesn't help that I don't have a firm grasp on what she's "supposed" to accomplish in any area but math!  I think we'll be fine...but I realized, when a cement truck pulled into our neighbor's driveway in perfect view of our schoolroom window this morning, interrupting our math session, and my first reaction was frustration at the prospect of missed school time rather than excitement at the opportunity to observe a cool machine up close...that my attitude toward "teachable moments" is not quite what it was when the only thing being interrupted was housework.  I adjusted my attitude as best I could and we watched the truck for a while.  Of course, I might have been more excited about the opportunity if we weren't coming off of a week of having math interrupted by a backhoe working on the same project, or if I didn't know that the cement truck will probably come back every day this week to finish what it started today.  I just might be relocating math class...

Meanwhile, Daniel's school has been a roller coaster.  He continues to love choir and seems to be doing well in his compensatory skills class with his vision teacher.  He now likes his gym teacher and is mostly enjoying that class.  He has had issues with the person who stands in line next to him (they are assigned places in line) talking trash to him; he told me that it bothered him at first but now he just ignores it.  I could ask the teacher to move him, but sometimes learning to deal with obnoxious people is just life, and I think he's handling it pretty well.  His math teacher finally came back today.  He still doesn't have the magnification device that would let him see what is happening on the board.  His vision teacher ordered it in plenty of time, but someone in the county is being slow about getting the device to him.  His vision teacher is extremely frustrated.  She pointed out to me that the county is currently out of compliance with his IEP, because his IEP states that he is to use this device, and it hasn't been given to him yet.  So I could probably raise a stink about it, but they are supposed to get it to him soon and then hopefully it won't be an issue again for the rest of high school (because he should be using the same devices throughout).  He told my grandmother today that he can do about 70% of his math if a teacher is available for him to talk to as needed.  That is just plain amazing considering that two years ago he was doing single-digit addition and subtraction, was hazy on multiplication, and knew that he had seen division before but couldn't remember how to do it.  As for English--OY!  First he had a string of subs, each less capable than the last of figuring out what to do with him.  One sub asked another student--with Daniel sitting right there--what Daniel was supposed to be doing, as if Daniel couldn't communicate for himself.  Another disciplined him for being disruptive by making him stay in the classroom and put his head down while the other students went to the library.  So I had a meeting with the vice-principle (the same one who helped us get everything lined up before school started), and she was as unhappy as I was with how things were going.  At that point Daniel was on the verge of getting one long-term sub for the duration of his teacher's maternity leave (and possibly until the end of the semester, if she takes sick days as well).  So we decided to leave him in that class.  Since the new sub started no miracles have happened, but no disasters either.  Today he got the laptop that he will be using for the next four years and she let him use it to access educational sites in class.  She didn't tell him what to access, so he ended up on PBS Kids with the sound off (since he doesn't have earbuds yet) and didn't get anything out of it, but hopefully she will come up with a plan for him over time.  Meanwhile, we had our LEP (Limited English Proficiency) meeting for the year.  We established that Daniel will NOT be pulled out of math (right now he is getting pulled out of gym), and Daniel's ESL teacher is looking into a particular curriculum that both Daniel and I feel will be more helpful for him learning to read than what they have been using.  So...maybe some progress!  At least he is coming home less frustrated than he was the first couple of weeks.