Homeschooling on the Go

Although both of my children are currently enrolled in preschool five mornings a week, I have been flirting with the idea of homeschooling for quite some time. Last spring, after a lot of research, I purchased a math program and a reading program to try with the children over the summer. I wanted to get a taste of what homeschooling might be like in our home.

Ava had just turned three and it was just a little too soon. We were having fun, but it felt early and a little too much work for children so young. So I put it aside for a while. When I realized that Michael and I would be spending 50 minutes in a waiting room twice a week this fall while Ava is in her speech group I decided to pull the materials back out.

For the first six weeks I've been winging it preparing for each lesson during the hour before I had to leave the house to pick up the children. Last week I got organized. Everything fits into a small bag along with Ava's speech binder. I keep the bag hanging in the coat closet in between uses and grab it on my way out the door.

Inside the bag I keep Ava's speech binder and Michael's Homeschooling binder. There's also our abacus, the books we are working on, and our pencil bag of accessories. Inside the binder I have a math section which includes the reinforcement chart I made and the next several RightStart Math lesson plans. A handwriting section contains the first several pages I copied from our HWT workbook. The reading section contains the free worksheets you can download from the Usborne Very First Reading website. I also keep the flashcards I made from their free downloadable word bank in the accessories case. All of the math manipulatives are also kept in the pencil bag. In one bag I have everything I need to do a math, reading, and handwriting lesson on the go.

Michael and I really have a lot of fun during our 45 minute homeschooling lessons. I have to say, so far I'm still leaning towards homeschooling next fall, but I won't be making a final decision until the end of the school year (or possibly the end of next summer).

Mistreated

I have not shared this before, but I have a phobia. The free dictionary defines a phobia as "A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous." In my case, I have a needle phobia. I've had this phobia for as long as I can remember. This phobia played a huge part in my decision to choose natural childbirth - twice.

I manage it though. When I need bloodwork or a shot, I don't say no. I try to prepare the nurse ahead of time. I explain, through tears, that I am going to get upset. I will need to sit in a corner. I am going to try to pull away several times. I won't faint. "The key part," I tell them, "is that I won't try to pull away once the needle is in. I'm too petrified by then." I have to tell them that last part or they freak out. The entire experience is humiliating every time. But I do it because I refuse to let this phobia make important health decisions for me.

Last week I was sick and my doctor wanted to run some bloodwork. The extremely nice nurse I had been working with throughout my visit freaked out and left me in the midst of a panic attack to go get someone else to draw my blood. I'm pretty sure that is the first time I've actually scared someone off. She came back in with another nurse that she introduced simply as the office expert in blood draws.

I wasn't completely listening at that point. I really just wanted to get it done, but I nodded assent. This woman came over to me and told me, "Now, if you're going to behave like a child I'm going to treat you like a child and hold you down." Somewhere in the back of my not entirely rational mind I was pretty pissed, but I certainly wasn't able to articulate anything at that moment. She made the other nurse hold my arm down at the wrist and elbow while she used her body to restrain my torso. Then they drew my blood.

Being restrained pretty much against my will at a time I wasn't able to even articulate a protest contributed further to my sense of panic. To be honest, I felt somewhat violated and was left with a lingering sense of extreme dislike for that nurse. I gathered my things and left as soon as possible.

My husband wanted to call the office and lodge a complaint. My mother suggested I write a letter to the physician. I would feel bad about that. I don't hold grudges. I don't want a negative letter to be put in her permanent file or anything. Nevertheless, the incident lingers in my mind and I've been trying to put my finger on what exactly it was that I couldn't let go.

Then I figured it out. She said, "If you're going to behave like a child, I'm going to treat you like a child..." That is not how you treat a child. And it is certainly not how you treat an adult. No person deserves to be treated that way. If anyone had tried to handle my child in that manner I wouldn't have permitted it and I probably would have complained to someone in charge. Why won't I apply that same logic to myself?

The Weekly Review: Week 80

SLP Resource of the Week

We Give Books is a website that has dozens of fiction and non-fiction books for children 0-10 years of age available for free online. Sign up for a free account and then sort books by age-range, subject, or author and a bookshelf full of amazing titles appears before you. Many of the nonfiction books are DK Publishing. Other familiar titles are classics by Jan Brett, the Skippyjon Jones series, and the Llama Llama series.

Ava this Week

It sounds like a little thing, but Ava finally let me buy her a leotard for gymnastics. She absolutely refused to put one on before now. Then, this week, she saunters over to the leotard display they have in the waiting area and asks why I hadn't gotten her one? I asked her, rather suspiciously, if she'd actually wear it if I bought her one. She assured me she would, so we picked out her favorite and I bought it. She wore it for the next 24 hours before I peeled it off her and told her it was just for gymnastics from now on.

Weekly Michael

Michael and I have been homeschooling while Ava is in speech. So, twice a week for 45 minutes we do a RightStart Math Lesson and work with our Usborne Very First Readers. We have the best time. The child takes in math like breathing. Reading takes a little more effort, but for 4 1/2 he's pretty darned good.

Weekly Weight Loss

This week I'm up a pound. I have to say that compared to the 3.5 pounds a week I've been losing on the low-carb diet I was very disappointed. I was hungry all the time and craving carbs for the first time in weeks. I had started to slowly increase my veggie intake and even add a slice of apple or two here or there and I thought that was the problem at first.

Then I realized the weight gain, cravings, and water retention began at almost exactly the same time I began a 10 day course of antibiotics. I did a little research online and found that water retention, cravings, and other unpleasant side effects often accompany antibiotics due to all the good bacteria in the gut being wiped out along with the bad germs. Too bad I wasn't prepared with a really good probiotic a week ago.

I took a closer look at my data and realized that although the scale has gone up by a pound, my fat mass (as measured by my fancy scale) had gone down 1.2 pounds which seems to confirm that the gain I'm seeing on the scale is water weight. We'll see if things turn around next week after I finally finish off these antibiotics.

Weekly All Consuming Obsession

Not working! Other than daily blog posts I took a complete break from working on the speech resource kits this week. I needed a break after the big push I made getting the first two products ready to go and getting the store and back end stuff set up. I took the opportunity to survey you all to see what phoneme you'd like to see in the store next and I'm glad I did. I wouldn't have guessed /k/, but that has the lead by quite a bit. This week I watched some fall tv on Hulu and read several books. I'd better not count up quite how many books I've read this week, but they were a great change of pace. I'll start working on the /k/ resource kit next week. I'm hoping to have it up by next month, but until I get into it, I can't be sure how quickly the project will come together.