State Testing: An Education Super Fail

It's 4:16 AM.  Instead of sleeping, I'm here drinking coffee and blogging.  Why?  Because today was absolute utter hell in my home, and my daughter just got to sleep about two hours ago.  I'm still running on pure adrenaline and righteous anger.

Let me back up a bit.

Last year, I began homeschooling my children.  The reasons are many, but it mostly comes down to my belief that education is not one size fits all.  My children are both diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, and my son additionally has a diagnosis of expressive/receptive speech disorder.  Both of them also have sensory processing disorder.  Mostly, in everyday life, this means little.  They have coping skills, they are really great kids, and they deal with the things that pose challenges like a couple of champs.  We realize, though, that it is having the freedom to be who they are in a supportive and loving environment which allows them to really shine like they do.  A public bricks and mortar school was not that environment.

K12 seemed to be a perfect fit for us.  I loved the curriculum.  Yes, I am using past tense words here, because I am beginning to realize that K12 is susceptible to the very same pitfalls, in terms of actual education, that any other public school suffers.  Perhaps it hit me extra hard this year because the language arts curriculum reading materials were severely slashed in terms of quantity, while at the same time we received a pile of test preparation materials which seemed more than a bit over the top.  The only reason I can think of to remove so much of the reading materials is that kids struggled with the amount of it, and spending additional time working through it would mean less time spent on test preparedness.  It also affects the kids' grades, and thus the school's reputation.  Now, I'm not blaming K12 for this at all; the state regulates their schools just like any other public school.  If anything, I think K12 is fucntioning exceptionally well given the circumstances and all of the red tape.

I wondered to myself, what would a curriculum look like if the schools were not being judged and the children were not being dragged through this nightmare known as state testing?

Today, I sat beside my daughter as she worked through a math Scantron assessment, her eyes welling up with tears, shaking with frustration, rocking back and forth.  She is good at math, but she hates it.  Her mind is definitely geared more toward right-brain activities than the logic-based, left-brain activities involved in math.  She hates math that is typical for her grade level, but this is the type of problem she had to work on:

Forgive me, since it's been quite some time since this was first introduced to me, but isn't this something you'd expect 7th-9th grade students to be working on?  I know a lot of adults who would struggle with this.  I almost wonder if they gave her the wrong assessment or something, because the problems were almost all at this level of difficulty and this was complete and utter torture for a 3rd grade child who detests math to begin with.

I have no idea what is in store on the actual state testing, but if it's anything like this, I have no idea at all what the goal is.  This is ridiculous.

I hope I feel better about things at some point, but right now I've had a rough day and I'm not feeling very warm or fuzzy about any of this.  Kids should not have to go through what my daughter went through today.  And you know, I'm quite sure that these state tests and district scores won't mean a damn thing in 100 years, but the contributions these children make to the world because of actual knowledge and experiential learning (read: not from tests for pretests for pretests to prepare for the pretest for the actual test) will.  Einstein, Tesla, George Washington, Hippocrates, and Galileo did just fine without all of this state testing crap.

Alrighty, then.

In Which I Get Depressing

My kiddos have been using some of their free time to watch older television shows on Netflix.  I love this option, even if it's Spongebob, because they're not being mentally flooded with a bunch of lies and deceit (i.e. "Whether it's corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can't tell the difference!" - The Corn Refiners Assoc.) or McDonald's telling them that joy if a gift you can find in a Happy Meal box.  But it turns out they may be getting something unintended from their viewing indulgences.

Reezle commented the other day about how someone learned a lesson of some kind in each episode of Dinosaurs.  "Earl learned that his family was more important than TV," she said.  And while this should be common sense, it is far from the message kids are receiving today - to the point it really stood out for my daughter.  The lesson learned in earlier family television shows were part of the feel-good aspect of those that I grew up with.  Sure, real problems don't work themselves out in 30 minutes and conclude with the entire family collectively vomiting glitter and sunshine (a common criticism of family sitcoms back in the day), but somehow it did provide a sense that hope was not misplaced and eventually things would work out.

These days we have a bit too much "reality" on television.  I realize people tune in largely for the shock value and out of morbid curiosity; after all, it's often like watching a train wreck in slow motion.  But it seems this is not a sideshow or a fleeting glimpse into the lives we all should be glad we're not living; it has become acceptable, even admirable, to live for oneself and flaunt abuses of excess and material possessions as if these things could somehow ever compensate for what these individuals lack in substance and character.  From the Bachelor to Housewives, I wonder endlessly why anyone cares about the smallest details of a person's dating life or how spoiled, entitled women spend their husbands' fortunes to the point of bankruptcy.  I'd like there to be a reality show about the benefits of making good financial decisions, saving money, and preparing to put your kids through college.

Children's shows have eroded into nothing more than screaming, whining stupidity, completely devoid of any value whatsoever.  What happened to shows that had a moral to their stories?  Where are the shows emphasizing the importance of family and friends, regardless of what form those come in?  They're relics of the past, apparently, replaced by a world that is obsessed to the point of isolation with creating virtual existences behind the screens of laptops, cell phones, game consoles, and other electronic devices.  Even when we do interact with others, it's through some device much more often than not.

Our whole existence is fake.  Our lives are on a screen, our images are filtered and Photoshopped, our language is abbreviated, we eat food-like substances instead of actual food, and kids today want to grow up and get their own reality TV show instead of being a doctor, firefighter, or astronaut.  How can we stress the importance of not engaging in stupid behavior when talentless celebrities are made famous for doing exactly what we're warning against?  What happened to wanting a good future, an interesting career, and a family?  When I was growing up, having money meant you wanted financial security.  Now it means you feel entitled to more in that paycheck because your husband's salary, which should be sufficient for a family of 6 to live comfortably in a reasonably-sized home with a couple of reasonable family cars, isn't enough to pay for the Escalade and a $500,000 house you feel you damn well deserve because, hey, everyone else is doing it and being harassed by these creditors isn't any fun!

What has happened to our society?  It's like human beings are no longer evolving; we reached a point where our technology far surpasses our intellect and ability to use it appropriately, and now we're circling the drain.

Happy Autumn

Soon, the leaves will begin to change and Miss Reezle and I will be searching for more foliage shots like the one above. After their season's grand finale, the trees will grow more bare with each of the typical windy, chilly nights we expect this time of year. As for us, we will be doing more cooking and baking now that days and nights are cooler. Chili, hot cocoa, and holidays are on our minds more often than popsicles and hooping in the sun, now. We love this time of year, the perfect blend of warm days and chilly nights, shorts and hoodies, pleasant weather and howling winds. Pumpkins are showing up everywhere and we have our Halloween decorations up.

 Welcome, Fall.

Data Entry

My complaints tend to be minor and few when it comes to K12 and the curriculum.  However, I'm not a fan of the changes they've made to Language Arts (I think it is a scattered, disorganized, diluted version of the previous one), and I absolutely loathe the answer entry forms that I must do after my kids do math (and some other) assessments.  Assessments are printed from an online document, or are in the workbooks provided in the curriculum materials.  The kiddos complete them, and I enter the results in an online form when they're finished.  Instead of making a simple form where we click Yes or No the entire way through, or enter their answer in a box for each item, it goes more like this:

1. Did the student answer correctly?  Yes No
2. Part 1: one point.  Part 2: one point.  Enter the number of points the student earned.
3. 465 - 200 = ____________
4. 76 - 20 = __________
5. Did the student answer correctly?  Yes  No
6. Part 1: one point.  Part 2: two points.  Enter the number of points the student earned.
6. 98 - 45 = ___________

I mean, really?  I can't recall how many times my children have arrived at the correct answer, and I've entered the wrong one, clicked the wrong circle, put the correct answer in the wrong box, etc.  I basically feel like I am doing the assessment after they do the assessment with all of the trick data entry stuff going on.  Very annoying, time-consuming, distracting, and completely unnecessary.  Not to mention the fact that my son is prone to melting into a pouting puddle when I enter something wrong that he got right.  Ugh.  #parentfail

3rd Grade, K12, Teachers, and Learning Coaches

Miss Reezle had an opportunity to meet with the 3rd grade K12 teacher via internet/phone conference today, and for the first time ever, actually expressed an interest in doing math.  I was impressed.  I'm not sure what changed, and I kind of wonder if it is the attention her little brother gets for being brilliant at it, but I'll take it.  Math has been a struggle when it comes time for lessons, and not because she finds it difficult; Reezle simply doesn't like math.  Well, until today.

The conference went well; Reezle enjoyed it, talking about her hobbies (photography and hooping, a girl after my own heart) and excitedly announcing that she was going to send her teacher an e-mail weekly.  Oy.  After reading a few passages and word lists, the teacher asked Reezle if she read a lot.  When Miss Bookworm announced with great enthusiasm that she does, the teacher told her that she'd just been reading a list of 5th grade words.  Reezle grinned proudly from ear to ear.

People are sometimes confused when I mention my children's teachers.  "Aren't you their teacher?" they ask.  Well, yes and no.  They're independent learners, and I do present material to them and explain it in various ways to meet their unique learning styles.  I answer questions when they have them, supplement material that is relevant to our lives and in areas where they need additional enrichment or a better understanding, and basically do the things a teacher does.  K12 calls me a "learning coach".  I don't like the term; I'm not merely standing on the sidelines cheering my kids along.  All parents are teachers.

Each child is assigned a teacher (or teachers, depending on grade) by K12 for their grade level.  This person is the child's primary school contact, does assessments, holds online connect sessions like reading and math groups and other fun and educational events, and helps keep the kiddos on track.  Contact, for us, is minimal, as my children are typically pursuing their own interests and learning well beyond the assigned school day.  We might put in an hour a day of Spanish for attendance, for example, but we're speaking it and going over the words right up until bedtime.  Our learning never really stops, and the kiddos are always walking around with workbooks, notebooks, and pencils in hand.  They love to learn, and my husband and I love to teach them.  It is not uncommon for the kids to be snuggled up in the recliner with Daddy when he gets home, going over binary code or fractions, playing some strategy game like chess or Solitaire, or playing Sudoku puzzles.

Those are a couple of G's illustrations depicting fractions.  And, of course, they read so much and so fast that I can barely keep up with their books!  Not that I'm complaining...

Special Needs Kids

From a blog called Bringing The Sunshine, I felt compelled to share the following quote:

"When you’re a mom of a kid with special needs, people tend to put you on a pedestal. They admire you from afar and say things like, “God only gives special children to special people,” while simultaneously thanking their lucky stars that they aren’t you, because they “couldn’t handle it.” We aren’t worthy of the pedestal, and we handle it not because we’re strong, but because it’s the hand we’ve been dealt."

I had an almost identical conversation with my grandmother last week, and several times previous since deciding to homeschool my children.  Others have said similar things to me about how "amazing" it is that I "am able" to handle raising, let alone teaching, a child with autism and a speech disorder.  The universe must have chosen me for this, because surely there was no other parent that could handle this exact child.

I don't believe any of that.  We rise to the occasion as parents.  There are a lot of families out there raising children with various special needs, from autism to down syndrome, premature birth to traumatic brain injuries, and even gifted children who present their own surprising challenges.  We don't belong on pedestals, and we don't want to be on them.  We're not any different from you, we just do things based on the unique needs of our unique families, which is really no different than what anyone else does.  We don't need to be told how difficult our lives are, because most of us believe that the rewards are equal to the extra effort; and while understanding is the message most people intend to convey, it often comes across as pity.  With the exception of a rough day here or there, we don't feel sorry for ourselves.  Now, I realize there are exceptions to this rule, but the majority of special needs parents I've spoken to share similar viewpoints on this.

Sure, raising a child with special needs can be challenging, but raising any child is challenging at times!

Book Reviews: Sticking With It and Worrying Too Much

One thing we can all agree on in our family is that we love to read!  My husband and I enjoy fantasy books, like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.  We also enjoy various historical, self-improvement, and humorous reads, among others.  Reezle has a penchant for animal books, from birding to caring for cats, and other non-fiction.  And Little G can't get enough of his children's human body and science books, when he isn't toting around his favorite math workbook.

Since reading is a well-received way of learning new information for my kiddos, I like to get them books that help them through various things they may be struggling with.  Recently, I bought my daughter a workbook on anxiety.  While her brother is the type to shrug off most things, she tends to worry, worry, worry about the smallest things.  And since worries tend to grow over time, I thought it would be wise to address it now and provide her with tools to manage the feelings of stress.  Among those tools is What To Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety by Dawn Huebner, Ph.D.  It's full of brilliant metaphor and exercises to help children understand and manage their fears.  I would give it 5 stars and would absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants to help a child who may be prone to worry.  Recommended reading level: age 6 or grade 1 and up.  Mama Bonn's thoughts: I think this is a suitable workbook for children through elementary school.

Little G, our easily-frustrated kiddo, often has little to no patience with himself any time he doesn't already know how to do something.  Learning, though not difficult for him, causes frustration because the little dude feels like he should know it already.  My goal with him is to help him realize that making mistakes is part of the process of learning, and actually helps us retain our knowledge better if we don't allow the frustration to be the focus.  My mantra with him has been everyone makes mistakes, and that is perfectly okay!  He doesn't seem to be convinced, so I looked around for, of course, a book. I found a winner!  Try And Stick With It by Cheri J. Meiners, M. Ed. discusses the very issues Little G is struggling with and offers useful suggestions.  We have several of Cheri J. Meiners' books, and they're all wonderful so far.  They even have a section in the back of the book with information on how parents (grandparents, teachers, etc.) can discuss various sections of the book in more depth.  Again, a 5 star book that I would highly recommend.  Recommended reading level: Reading level states 4 years and up.  Mama Bonn's thoughts: For independent readers, I would say it's a great book for 1st graders, so the age range on this is probably preschool through grade 2 or 3, generally speaking.

Aimsweb Scores: Little G

I like how they included his Fall, Winter, and Spring scores from Kindergarten.  It seems, by the chart here, that they expect the kids to lose some of what they learned the previous year.  Little G didn't, but then, he was rarely without a book or workbook all summer long.  I'm so proud of him.

Learning On The Go

Today, we took PE class to the beach.  Little G is waist hooping like it's his job, and my sweet Reezle is just behind him practicing her halos.  I'm really impressed with their skills, and glad they enjoy hooping so much.  It's wonderful exercise, and I've noticed a difference in G's motor skills since he's begun hooping almost daily.

We grabbed a local map (Little G has been absolutely obsessed with the K12 map Reezle received with her 3rd grade curriculum because it's much more detailed than the K-2 maps), and took History and Geography on the road.  The kiddos read road signs and told me where they thought I should be going.  I won't be letting them navigate just yet, but it was fun anyway.  It gets them familiar with what signs are for and what the various different ones mean.  Social studies?  Anyway...

We did math at the mall, where we made a quick stop to get a "special treat" (candy from a local chocolatier) and check out the Halloween decorations.  The kiddos used division to figure out how many pieces of candy we would each be able to have if we all got equal portions.  They also used addition to estimate the cost of the Halloween decorations mommy, um, kind of splurged on.  What can I say?  We all love Halloween.  A lot.

We even worked in some OT. Little man was doing some great work with balancing. Too bad he wasn't quite as coordinated with running; he took a flying dive into a pile of gravel and got a stone embedded in his palm. He's got a nice hole to show for it, but he didn't shed a tear. Tough guy! I'm not ashamed to admit I probably would have cried! Ha!

Miss Reezle, as we were leaving one of our stops, said, "I sure wish I could use the camera and take some pictures."  I had two options; I could hand over my cell phone and let her take some low-quality snaps that would be heavily blurred once I started driving, or I could ::gulp:: hand over my Rebel and let her click to her heart's content.  Her interest seemed very genuine, and she's mentioned taking photos a lot lately, so I let her use my baby, er, camera. Ha!  She handled it with great care and took some really great pictures!  The one of her sparkly shoes wasn't exactly the most brilliant of all, but it was fun and cute, and something about it made me smile.  Maybe it was just the ability to see from her perspective, if just one little thing and only for a moment.

Based on her interest and some of the really good shots she captured today, I think it might be time to give her my SX20 to tote around when she goes out. Maybe I'll even try to find a fun little padded case so she can carry it safely around. Her birthday is coming right up!

As for me, I'm exhausted.  Sleepy time!

The New Blogger Interface

I'm not diggin' it.  At all.  I'm really trying to give it a chance, though.

Remembering 9/11

I found this worth-a-thousand-words photo online today.  I do not know where it originated, as it has been reposted numerous times, so I can't give proper credit.  It isn't mine, but it really speaks to me.  I will never forget that morning, those towers falling, the fear and horror I felt, or that we lost so many precious lives that day.

Peace to all of the survivors, and all of those lost on 9/11.

Today is Suicide Prevention Day.  No matter how bad things are, no matter how difficult life is, you have hope as long as you continue to live.

Wrapping Up Week Two

As we wrap up our second week of this new school year, two things are absolutely certain; Little G still loves his math, and Reezle can't seem to get enough Spanish! She chatters her newly-learned words at every opportunity, and she seems to have a really good understanding and comprehension of the material.  Some words we are currently working on include: planta/plant, cara/face, hoja/leaf, formas/shapes, círculo/circle, triángulo/triangle, cuadrado/square, maleza/weeds, hermano y hermana/brother and sister, nosotros/we, ¿Por qué?/why, jugar/play, jardin/garden, ve/see.  Again, not a complete list, but ones we are becoming more familiar with in addition to the previous words.


 Despite being good at math, it remains Reezle's least favorite subject. Getting through the lessons can feel like I'm dragging her through the entire way. I wish she would realize that attitude is everything. Well, 98%, anyway. She makes it more difficult than it needs to be by creating her own distractions, those being her mood and behavior. I have no idea where she gets this trait from. At all. Ahem.

 

On the bright side, Reezle is an absolute delight to work with in every other subject. She's a smiling, interested, and enthusiastic learner, and that makes my part a lot more enjoyable. She also eagerly helps her brother when he runs into any issues, though honestly, this is very rare. Perhaps that is part of the allure! When she was in a traditional public school, she had many opportunities to help her classmates and really enjoyed being able to do so. Interestingly, she seems to be at such a similar academic place with her brother that they probably require each other's help about equally as often. I love it that they ask each other questions, and both enjoy helping the other figure something out.

We're going to do some work this weekend, in hopes of being able to escape to the larger "classroom" of the world sometime this coming week for a field trip.  The nice weather is calling, and fall is in the air.

Happy Friday!

Little G: Fall Benchmark Assessment

Little G just had his fall benchmark assessment.

He is 6 years old and in 1st grade (but taking 2nd grade curriculum, soon to be 3rd grade math). I asked if he could be assessed for reading fluency, which they typically do not assess as part of the fall benchmark for 1st graders. His teacher (all K12 students are assigned teachers through their state's school) was super about it and had the assessment up and ready in less than 5 minutes. She's great.


Little G read 115 words per minute. For perspective, Little G reads within average WCPM expectations for 4-6th graders in fall. Crazy. It's a little scary having a 6 year-old who is smarter than you, trust me on this. Ha!

For our next assessment, Mrs. C. has asked Little G to have a book to share with her. He is currently running back and forth from his room with various books, asking, "Mom? Do you think she would like this book? What about this book? Do you think she wants to hear about anatomy? What about cats?" He has two months to decide, hopefully that will be enough time. Heh.

Stuff People Say to Speech Parents

When my son was just 2 years old, he was referred for a speech evaluation by the doctors who diagnosed him with autism. At age 2, Little G had the speech of a 12-15 month-old. Speech therapy was unavailable for various reasons, and we were expected to play the waiting game. Thing is, I wasn't having any of it. I started researching various options and found Baby Signing Time. I cannot even begin to express what an asset those DVDs were. We bought a few and borrowed many through the inter-library loan program, which brings materials from libraries throughout the county to those who request them. It prepared Little G well for speech therapy when we eventually did obtain services for him; prior to learning sign language, he had resorted to massive meltdowns any time he wanted or needed something because the stress of what it took for him to communicate was utterly overwhelming.

Now, as his 7th birthday approaches, he still struggles with speech but has come a very long way. His official diagnosis is "expressive-receptive speech disorder", which basically means that he has two-way communication deficits; there is difficulty processing what goes into his brain and what his brain can do in terms of speech production. It is a disorder, not a delay, and it will likely be lifelong.

Early on, when I shared with others that my son had a speech disorder and was in therapy for it, I heard a lot of trite statements regurgitated almost verbatim. I never realized that just about everyone, for example, has a family member who didn't say a word until age 4, at which point they spoke a complete and very witty sentence and never stopped talking for more than five minutes in the 40 years since. Also abundant are younger siblings who just never bothered to speak because their older sibling(s) did it for them. Another standard response was, "He'll talk when he's ready/when he wants to."

None of these things are helpful or reassuring, unless your point is to reassure me that you are completely clueless about my son's diagnosis. These all imply also that I need some sort of coddling or reassurance that my son will someday be "normal" by your definition, or that we have something to feel bad about. He's already normal by my definition and always has been, and frankly, I don't really care about your definition. Everyone has their challenges, this is one of his, and it's not a big deal. It is frustrating for him, and sometimes for us, due to the nature of the challenges posed by a two-way communication disorder. But it can be dealt with, just like people deal with any other challenge in life.

You may be wondering how, then, to respond to a friend or family member whose child has just been diagnosed with a speech disorder. First, don't go repeating some tripe you've heard regurgitated ad nauseum by others. You don't know the child's projected trajectory, and you may not have ever personally encountered a child with the same disorder, so you end up coming across as offensive and sounding like an ass. Personally, I am open to questions. When people ask questions, it tells me they are interested in understanding rather than just pretending they understand. If you have experience with a speech success story, feel free to share it. If you have experience with any speech disorder, feel free to share it. We probably just need you to listen, and if you feel the need to offer something but don't know what, simply letting us know that you have confidence in how we're handling it is nice to hear.

Our Tuesday

Day 6 of the new school year, and 6 year-old Little G has completed 23% of 2nd grade math. He keeps me busy. The great thing about this is that getting to the math portion of his studies is an incentive to get through the less desirable portions of his day. And speaking of less desirable...


The changes to the curriculum aren't, in my opinion, positive ones. I'm as stunned as anyone could be that I have anything less than glowing to say about K12, but this splitting of the language arts into multiple categories is confusing, time-consuming, and annoying. It makes it appear like a lot more work when it really isn't. It doesn't streamline anything; the new format is kind of like a jar of marbles being dropped on a hard floor - it's all over the place and it's an effort to go looking for everything.

They also took a very my-kid-friendly version of language arts (i.e. lots of books and lessons about comprehension) and replaced it with a bunch of rote memory tasks, far fewer books, and these lessons where my speech-impaired son has to record himself reading passages. Even with the mic turned all the way up, and my little guy practically yelling, the recordings still need to be redone five times because they are deemed "too quiet" by the system. After language arts today, Little G was exhausted and didn't want to speak at all. He also decided to forego his typical reading time, which he usually does while Reezle is doing the portions of her lessons which require me to be present. I don't like this trajectory. At this rate, his love of reading and language arts is going to be kaput by the end of the month.

On a more positive note, Reezle loves Spanish. This language course seems to be to her what math is to Little G; I can get her to complete just about any school task without complaint as long as she gets to do extra Spanish. Win! A few of our current words are:

so/bear, rata/rat, tigre/tiger, amigos/friends, uno/one, dos/two, hueco/hole, pelota/ball, zapatos/shoes, ropa/clothing, sucia/dirty, jardin/garden, con/with (con mis amigos - with my friends), roca/rock.


This isn't a complete list, it's just what I recall off the top of my head. I've been practicing them repeatedly with the kiddos, in addition to some various words they already know, and trying to build from there. I really like how the course is set up, from what we've done thus far.

Like the English language arts courses, Reezle also has recordable portions. She likes them, though, and they are neither challenging nor the lengthy passages G is required to read aloud. And on that note, it is time to get back at it.

Happy homeschooling!

Heading Into Week Two

We spent the weekend working ahead on some of our school subjects and getting familiarized with Reezle's Spanish course. I had been waiting on her teacher to explain how to log in to the course, but I hadn't heard back. As it turns out, simply logging in using Reezle's user info did the trick. She completed the first 3 units, and the course looks great! Little G is even following along.

Reezle spent a good amount of time enjoying some books and her favorite Poptropica computer game, while Little G worked on Math almost non-stop from the moment he woke up each day until he went to bed. It is rare to see the little guy without his math workbook. He encountered a bit of frustration when doing math problems which required him to borrow more than once, especially when zeros were involved. He is an extreme perfectionist and has absolutely no patience for his own mistakes. It took me a bit of time to convince him that it is a perfectly acceptable part of learning to make mistakes, and that these can even help us to learn better. He wasn't having it at first, but he eventually calmed down and accepted it. He did a retake on his assessment, and scored 100% the second time. He was fine after that, of course.

We also did some writing, vocabulary, analogies, and spelling, but typing out all of our spelling words for each unit - especially at the rate at which my kids are currently burning through them - is tedious and probably not enjoyable to read anyhow. Suffice it to say they are tackling some pretty challenging words and doing an exceptional job. I'm very proud of both of them.

Much like last year, we are continuing our hoopdance practice and doing mostly that and running for our physical education. We did a lot of it over the past week. I incorporate nutrition and information about how physical activity benefits the body into our PE curriculum. It seems there is a huge overlap between our health and PE material, so I kind of wing it with how much individual time we're giving to each. We probably do a lot more physical activity than I log for PE, all of it educational, but I was actually told to stop logging it last year due to the amount of hours. Heh. Better a bit more than needed than not enough, in my opinion.

On the agenda for tomorrow is Study Island, in addition to our typical studies. They changed the format and wow, what a positive change. Little G has his first Aimsweb assessment of the year later this week, and we're also planning a family field trip in the very near future. I love getting back into a routine again!

Hoopdance

One of the questions I often get from people about homeschooling is, surprisingly, about gym class (i.e. physical education). People are curious if we are required to do it at all, and if we are, how we go about it. While there are a lot of ways to fulfill this part of our curriculum, one of our year-round favorites is hoopdance! I started about 2 years ago.

It didn't take long for both of my children to become interested as well. My husband and I started making hoops, and the kids each have their own custom-sized hoops. They are really quick at picking up new skills, and they have so much fun!

And it's super adorable. And great exercise. And it builds strength, promotes flexibility, and helps them with balance and coordination. And...well, I could praise hooping all day long. Mostly, it's just something we really love to do.

The best part about doing PE this way? We can hoop at home in the living room, out in the yard, at the beach, on road trips when we stop for a break, at the park, and so many more places that we probably couldn't come up with a comprehensive list if we tried. We're not confined to any particular space, and we love that!

The kiddos also have fun decorating their own hoops. Heck, even I enjoy making pretty hoops. My only problem? I want to keep them all! Heh.

PS: It's September already? Whew. What happened to August!?