School in a Box!

Today there was much excitement in the house as FedEx rung the doorbell and we found a big HEAVY box waiting for, "Mr. Bright Gillispie." Ha! When you enroll in Calvert School you learn about "school in a box." Every year Calvert students look forward to receiving their box, full of all of the cool items they will need throughout the year. I thought it might be fun to start a tradition of having the kids take a picture sitting on their box. If they continue with Calvert (which we hope, if it's a good fit) it will be neat to see their bodies grow and the box stay the same size!
As you can see, we are not just talking about student books and teacher guides. We have everything from math manipulatives, to yarn, to pipe cleaners, to a pencil sharpener! In addition to the supplies and school books there are also around 30 story books that we will use with each one of 10 themes throughout the year. We will need to rearrange some things in our classroom so that I have adequate storage for all of this (x2, since Kendi's box comes Monday)! It is a great problem to have.

Although I haven't started teaching yet, I am extremely impressed with this company. From day 1 they have been professional, timely, and very communicative. The materials come with explicit directions for use. There will be no question how to use all of these things, and how to understand each part of the daily lessons. [This is something we can already tell is very lacking in the program we chose for the big kids.]

Having said all of these wonderful happy things about Calvert, I'm glad that we have only chosen it for the little ones this year. This program is going to take some getting used to. It will be MUCH more time-intensive than the more web-based programs we could have chosen. I feel like just doing it with the little ones this year will be a good way to get my feet wet. If I can handle it with them, then maybe next year the big ones can change over. We shall see. In the meantime, the box was certainly fun to open!

Love,
Anita

En garde!

Last Monday evening we got a notice about an "Introductory to Fencing" class that was starting the following day. We aren't typically ones to make last minute decisions on extra-curricular activities, but the class is only 4 weeks and is fairly inexpensive at $35. We figured it would be a good experience for the kids, if nothing else. Are the fencing uniforms too much, or what?! LOL! Since it's just an intro class it was first come, first serve on the things they had. As you can imagine, there aren't may folks Samren's size suiting up--and the helmets were HUGE!The class was for anybody of any age. I found it humorous that my little Sammy and Taevy were in line in front of a guy that must have been 6'3" or so.
They had a great turn-out (since I doubt our town is the hub of fencing in America)! It was actually pretty interesting. I really know nothing about it. The instructor explained a bit about the history of fencing as he explained the various terms (en garde, advance, retreat, foil, "french grip," etc.).
We always think it's neat to run into other adoptive families. In this class there were two Indian adoptees and two Asian adoptees. The Asian adoptees were actually the assistant instructors. I don't know if you can see in this picture, but one of the young gentleman only had on arm. Samren (who is also "different" because of his stature) found this so encouraging. He said, "See mom! People of all shapes and sizes can do fencing!" So true, little man.
Hmm....that's a pretty big sword (umm...foil) for a pretty little boy!

Can you see the focus in Samren's face?! Can you see the boredom in Taevy's face! Ha! He thought it was awesome. He was also pretty good. He has really fast little feet and was able to "advance" and "retreat" with very little bumping up and down (which is the goal). Taevy is wearing MY tennis shoes, which I think really impeded her ability to move properly! [They had to wear tennis shoes and her feet are growing so fast that she didn't have any that fit. She's a 7 and I'm an 8.5 so it was the best we could do.]

We have three more weeks of the intro class and then the kids can decide if they want to go to the "Beginning Foiling" class (which is 10 weeks and only $25 additional!). So far Samren is totaly hooked. Taevy says she will not be continuing. We'll see. The price is right, that's for sure! We checked on it and IF they decide to get more serious about it the start up kit is about $120. Sounds like a lot but if you compare it to the start up pads and stuff for something like football, it's actually less expensive. The folks at the local Fencing Club (who host the classes) were just great. They were so excited to see some young faces. You could especially see them warming up to Samren since he was SO serious about it! All in all, not a bad way to spend 1 hour a week.

En garde!
(Unfortunately, Samren is blocked in this video, but you can certainly see how bored Taevy is!)

P.S. Taevy, thank you for letting mommy post these pics! I know you weren't too thrilled about me posting them, but you look so cute and one day it will be a fun memory!

First Day of School

We enjoyed our first day of school on Tuesday! The kids feel right at home in their classroom (pun intended)! Seriously though, they are eating up all of the little "beginning of the day" procedures we've put into place--like saying The Pledge, changing the date on the calender, etc.. The big kids like feeling like they are in "real" school (you know...as opposed to all the "fake" stuff we've done the last two years)!

We don't yet have all of the materials to begin fully. We're waiting on our box of supplies from Calvert for the little ones, and long in information for A+LS for the big ones. We're tired of waiting, but it's one of the concessions we have to make as Epic works out the bumps in getting started their first year. We have received 3 of the 4 laptop computers (which are very nice).
Until we have everything to get started on their actual curriculum, we have been doing filler activities. Lots of vocabulary, and math review with the big ones; pre-writing skills, alphabet hunts, and counting with the littles. [We're searching for "A" this week!]
Each day after lunch I've been having a lot of fun teaching them music. For some reason I've never done this with my kids. You'd think with a degree in music ed (specializing in early childhood music) this would be the last thing left off the schedule, but it's just....different, teaching my own kids. Still, it's pretty cool to see how much I remember. I've discovered that all of that teaching goodness is still inside of me, has just been waiting for me to pull up the file. The kids have especially enjoyed our music lessons. We've started basic, learning the difference between beat and rhythm and pitch, and practicing simple patterns in each of those areas.

I've learned the last three years of homeschooling not to try to set up a schedule from the beginning. These first weeks of school are about figuring out what works for us. By around the 6th week of school I figure we will have melded into a schedule that we can put in writing and start to really depend on. We're all looking forward to a great year in Pre-K, K, 3rd, and 5th grade!

Classroom--Finishing Touches

Our classroom is finished--ready for the first day of school tomorrow! Here are some of the finishing touches...

My mom and I found this cute primitive schoolhouse (which is also a lamp) at our local antique/craft mall. I have ordered a Pledge of Allegiance primitive plaque that will go up on top of the armoire with it, once it gets here.Mom mom brought us this old book stand that was used at her school (when she used to be a school secretary). Isn't it lovely and perfect?! We'll use it for our checked out library books.

We have had this huge empty frame for years. It was white. Taevy painted it brown this weekend. We're going to use it as a place to post numbers 1-31 and to mark the month and day.

The alphabet cards turned out just has we had hoped. I like that we're using the big blank space of the window sort of like a bulletin board. We tried hanging them with mini clothes pins first, but they were hard to work with and the bottom flipped up. Mounting wax did the trick! We kept the clothes pins on for the look though. They add a little something.I love how the light pours in during the day. We can't open the blinds because of the alphabet cards, but we can pull them up half way (which is almost as good).
Our last big find this weekend was the chairs. I want to mix old and new in our room, so we were searching for old chairs to go with our new IKEA table. We found them--at the LAST booth of a HUGE craft/antique mall. It was a good lesson to my daughter, who was ready to go 3/4 of the way through. I actually said, "You just never know when the perfect thing might be at the very last booth." Wouldn't you know it? That's exactly what happened! $45 for all four (solid) antique chairs was exactly what we were hoping for.

Tomorrow a new school year begins, after much anticipation. With such a wonderful spot in the house to learn new things, I think we are all expecting it to be a great year! I know none of this was "need." It is an absolutely luxury that we were able to switch rooms around so we could have a learning space. And another luxury that we were able to spend the time and money required to make it something even more special. I so appreciate my husband for his hard work as he provides for our family.

Love,
Anita
P.S. Thank you mom, for helping us make this a special place.

From "dog vomit" to this!

Just to refresh your memory, a week or so ago we were putting our classroom together and it looked something like this:Today I had a free day (no outside appointments) so I got up with a mind to finish the painting in the classroom. I had the "dog vomit" green and the bottom blue portion done. Today's chore included LOTS of taping--more taping than I ever want to do again in my life! Tape the bottom blue portion off. Tape off the top section so I could paint blue there. Use the laser level thingy and hope I was straight.Top blue section, done. Tape second line on bottom, preparing for a brown stripe.

One brown strip, done!
Tape second line for second brown line.
Done! The pic below is dark, but I love how the lines line up with the window.Our color scheme.Eric and the kids ripped off all the tape, swept and mopped the floors, and put the room back together again! [So thankful for that, as I am DONE after all that taping and painting on my own!]

Isn't it soothing? I could learn in this room! The goal was for our learning space not to be too over-stimulating. I won't be adding a ton of bright and colorful things to the wall.
All this, from a little storage container with an interesting color scheme!This weekend my parents will be coming to town to help us finish up our home-improvement projects. My step-dad and Eric will be on blind and ceiling fan duty upstairs while my mom and I get to decorate the classroom and go shopping for "old school" chairs and other fun additions. I love it anytime my mom comes to town, but especially when we have a good reason to go shopping together!! The hard work is done. Let the fun stuff begin!

ABCs, 123s, and "Screen Time Please!"

For our classroom we're going for a "schoolhouse chic" look. I just love Esty. Don't you love Esty(.com)?! With my mom I found these awesome vintage Alphabet cards to hang. I love that they show upper and lower case. I love that they have a whole little cute sentence. And I adore the vintage illustrations! Perfect. I will either hang them around our large window, or display them across the blinds using mini-clothes pins. [Which do you think would look better?]

To go with the oh-so-perfect ABC cards, the shop also had 123 cards! I have plans to display these in a large empty frame I have. The frame is like 2 feet by 3 feet. I'll put wires across it and then connect the cards with mini clothes pins. One problem. The number cards are TINY. I was imagining them to be around the size of a playing card. Nope. They are about the size of a domino (height-wise, and a bit wider across). Boo! They absolutely won't work. So...the hunt for our number cards continues. The thing is I don't just want 1-10. I want 1-31, or would compromise 1-20.
Tonight both Eric and I had to work during the evening. The kids asked for screen time and we decided they could have a few minutes. On their own they all cozied up to the breakfast bar and set up both computers, snuggling in on two stools. I just love those moments when they are all a team. The big ones were helping the little ones, and the little ones were patient when it wasn't their turn.

Love,

Anita

Step by Step Classroom

White walls.Upper walls that are "dog vomit" green/yellow. I was SERIOUSLY wondering about this color at first, but it got better as it dried.
"Dog vomit" green/yellow with nice pretty calm blue on the bottom. LOVE the blue Coincidentally, you can see the inspiration storage cube at the top of the wood shelf. Not too bad.

The colors, close-up. This is a pretty good representation of what they really look like (unless your computer colors look different than mine)!

We like the blue so much that we'll be painting the area from the upper window sill to the top of the wall blue as well. Then, we'll devide both blue areas and the green area with a nice brown stripe! The stripes are stressing me out--the thought of taping and going crooked. We bought a handy-dandy laser level thingy, but I could easily mess that up!

Phase One Classroom--CHECK!

Phase I of our classroom is done! We have unpacked and organized most everything that is to be in the room. We will receive materials from Calvert here in the next few weeks, as well as 4 laptops (one for each child) from Epic Charter School. Even though I'll be moving all of the items in this room tomorrow (to start painting) I just had to set it up for inspiration.

On the top of our "pie safe" shelf I added books from each country in our family (U.S., Cambodia, Vietnam, and Ghana).
I am hoping for window dressing inspiration! Let me know if you have cute ideas! On each side of the window we will display student work--littles on the left and bigs on the right.

We have 3 doors in this room (closet, bathroom, and entry/exit). We decided to put them to good use and paint them with dry-erase paint! I'll need to save up money, so this will be a future project.
This is our "home-living" area. The kids (all of them) love this. I mean really, who doesn't like to play house? The other night they were all taking turns shopping at Aldi and then serving up food to each other. I don't know if you noticed, but the "table" is actual a large drum with real animal hide, from Africa. I bought it way back in 1999 when I first started teaching music. It is a STRONG drum. It's served us well. Oh--the classic game console is on top of the table, for when the kids feel like playing checkers, chess, etc.. The wall above this area will be pre-k and kinder stuff (ABCs, 123s).This part looks really boring now. This is our awesome Ikea table (thanks M!). Each child has their own small white board and sitting area. We will have 4 laptops from the school that we can set up when need be. For now, the littles won't normally need that. I am hoping to find 2 more cubes of the right size to put in the back area, but right now we are using our dining chairs. On this wall we'll put our big map of the world and other "big kid" stuff.
This is what you see when you walk into the room. On the left, a bookshelf with the home living area in front of you.

Now we'll go "four corners." Just imagine yourself walking around the room! We are standing in the home living area and this is what you see.

Head on over to the TV corner and below is what you see. Ach, I love my "pie safe!" It's so perty! I really like the cubbies that we put in there for storage as well.

Move to the learning table corner and this is what you see. Over on the bookshelf we carried over the storage containers on top. We put our printer on that shelf, as well as a shelf dedicated to mine and Taevy's crochet habit. =-)
Finally you are at the entry door. The little green chairs? Yeah. Not sure what we're doing with those. They might have to go.
Below is our color inspiration! I knew I wanted green and blue. At first I thought of doing a more true green on the bottom, sort of like hills, with blue on the top, sort of like sky. But duh! Then I remembered our storage bins, which have an awesome blue and green scheme. We'll be going with this deeper blue on bottom, and this yellow-ish green on top. I'm still hoping to be inspired to do something geometric (but not to hard or time intensive) to split the two colors. I might just do a deep brown strip between the two. What do you think?

Love,

Anita

The Plan, Man!

We took several days to pray, research, and see if things set right in the 'ol gut. Finally, I think we have a real plan (that won't change next week) for the 2011-2012 Gillispie kid school year! I really hope this is *IT* for this year.

We are staying with Epic Charter Schools. This means that we have a $1000 student learning fund for each of our four children. We choose curriculum from several providers on their website. The rest of the money can be used for supplementary educational materials and extra-curricular activities.

Kendi and Bright: Our two little ones will be doing Calvert School curriculum this year. This is a "school in a box" program. We get their fun little workbooks, teacher's guides, and lots of manipulatives (blocks, paint, clay, etc.). There is very little planning involved with the program, but it will take a few hours a day to teach. That's okay. I really REALLY love teaching early childhood. It's so fun to watch your child grasp something as life-changing as reading. In addition to Calvert School, we are also doing a fun program called "Reading Eggs" with them, and are purchasing them each a subscription to Study Island. Mostly, there day will be full of play.

The little ones did testing yesterday, to see where they are at with social, emotional, and behavioral development. Kendi tested average for her age, which we expected. Bright tested as "delayed" (one step away from "very delayed"), which we expected. I didn't want that for him, but I am trying to see it as the first step to getting him the educational assistance he will need. [Our school is a public program, so we have all the special needs benefits of public school.]

Samren and Taevy: Samren will be repeating 3rd grade this year. We just didn't feel that he was academically or emotionally ready to go to 4th. He's okay with this. Taevy will be in 5th grade.

We have chosen the A+ Anywhere Learning System for our big kids. You've probably never heard of it. It's a program that is usually utilized in the public school system, for kids who are behind or need alternative education. It's really quite basic. No frills. The kids are presented with a study guide, pre-test, essay area (sometimes), and mastery test. When they pre-test they can use the study guide. They can pre-test as many times as they wish. When they feel ready, they go to the mastery test. They can do the mastery test multiple times as well (highest grade counts).

We feel this will fit both the big kids, but for different reasons. The testing philosophy will be good for Samren, who has severe test anxiety. I have seen him completely fail a test of material that he knows through and through, just because it's a "test." Also, we think this will be a good opportunity for Samren to "catch up." If he works hard, he really can get through 3rd grade and into 4th grade in one school year. For Taevy, we think this will be good because she can move through her basic education requirements quickly and have plenty of time to follow her own rabbit trails for deeper learning. She's our one kid (so far) that I feel could be an unschooler. She is motivated to research things and learn on her own.

The A+ program won't take a lot of time each day, so we have time to add other things. For math we are going to use Teaching Textbooks. I am so impressed with what I hear about that program. I will be shocked if it doesn't work well for our kids. For foreign language, the kids will be doing Mango Languages (Spanish). For a bit of online fun that corresponds with our Oklahoma Pass Skills, they will each have Study Island. With additional learning funds we requested a photo editing program for Taevy, and an at-home speech therapy program for Samren (who can't yet say his "r" sound).

All four children will benefit from homeschool choir throughout the year. We will also do swimming lessons for a few months. [Paid for with school learning funds.]

So THAT is the plan as far as Epic Charter Schools go! That's all of the "official" stuff. However, we have a few other plans.

We'll be supplementing English with "Daily Guides." These are daily review worksheets for grammar skills. Short and sweet. Actually, I would do the whole Easy Grammar system with the kids if I were doing typical homeschool. Looks right up our alley.

The history/social studies through A+ will be sufficient, but the kids and I want to do more history exploration. We're still finalizing what sort of books/programs we want to buy to add in to our normal school day. I'm thinking about something where we study important people in history, but I'm open to suggestions!

For art, we're going to have fun with "Discovering Great Artists." It's a book where you learn about an artist, and then do an art project using the same methods as the famous artist (i.e. Michelangelo painted on a ceiling, so the kids can experiment with painting on a paper that is taped to the bottom of the table).

I'm hoping to reinforce multiplication facts using "Time Tables the Fun Way." It was recommended by a friend whose son struggled with multiplication...until they got this book. Hoping, hoping, hoping!

The learning environment is going to change!

As we prayed about all of this both, Eric and I had a sense that one thing we really desired in order to make this school year as successful as possible is a dedicated learning space. To this point we've had an awesome table, and a storage cabinet. It's time for more. In our house 3 bedrooms are upstairs and one bedroom (the master) downstairs.

We spent the weekend cleaning up and changing around 4 bedrooms! Master bedroom = future classroom. Kendi's bedroom = new master bedroom. Taevy's bedroom = new boy's room. Boy's room = new girl's room.

I am so excited! Once a teacher, always a teacher. There is NOTHING like the beginning of a new school year where you get to decorate your classroom! I get to paint it, and put our homeschool table just like I always imagined, and have plenty of room to store our materials! Oh yeah...and the kids get to have a dedicated learning space! ;-)

Love,

Anita

On the edge...

Wow. I am in a weird place. Our educational plans for 2011-2012 have fallen out from under us TWO times in the last month. Is the Lord trying to tell me something? Eric and I spent the entire night last night praying and brainstorming and trying on different homeschooling shoes to see which ones felt the best. The one that feels the best is also the most "expensive" (not monetarily, but of our time). I am so scared to make the wrong choice. I don't want to make a choice that isn't realistic.

Basically, if we want to stay with Epic Charter School (which we do) we have two curriculum choices. One is to do Calvert School. The other is to do Compass Learning Odyssey (aka Time4Learning) with supplemental helps such as Teaching Textbooks and Study Island. Here are some factors we have to consider with each option.

CALVERT:

*traditional

*expensive (would take up pretty much all of our $1000 "learning fund" for the big kids, with about half left for the little ones)

*books/workbooks format with online enrichment and quizzes/testing

*requires a teacher to teach each concept and evaluate mastery

*time-tested, solid program

*confidence that our kids would be learning all they needed to learn, with plenty of practic

*feels complete, and easy in that way

COMPASS (T4L):

*inexpensive

*new, and the kids love it

*unproven long-term results (with less than desirable results last year for our kids)

*majority of learning occurs online, with extra projects and writings assigned offline (70/30)

*the program is the teacher; mom is the support/extra help/overseer of progress

*not enough confidence that this is a stand-alone program (after using it for a year)

*would use Teaching Textbooks for Math (a plus--love it)

*fine with Compass for History and Science

*DISLIKE Compass Language Arts, but no other L.A program we can find to replace it (must have online component and be secular).

*Would purchase Rodd and Staff English to supplement LA on our own

*Extra money in the learning fund to purchase computer, pay for extra-curricular like choir and sports.

*If we did Compass, we would like not enroll Kendi this year. Would just do pre-K on our own at home.

Here's the thing. No matter what the above lists say, our hearts are also involved. I am someone who naturally is ready to jump off the proverbial cliff into uncharted waters pretty quickly. I love the excitement of a new challenge. This is why we get dogs on a whim (or cats, or guinea pigs). This is why we have done 3 homeschooling programs in as many years. This is probably why we have 4 children. I don't know if Eric would have ever made that jump alone!

However, we even each other out. Without Eric's calm leadership and discernment, I may be way in over my head (or...some would say...more over my head than I already am). I love the feeling of knowing that without the Lord keeping me afloat I'd definitely be drowning. Eric, does not. His strongest spiritual gift is discernment. This has been affirmed several times in our marriage, when he has felt a certain way that was against what common sense might tell us. On lots of things, Eric does not have opinions and leaves me to make decisions. This means, when he does have an opinion, I take it seriously.

We both look at each of these options and know that Compass would be "easier." We could do more with the money (learning fund, $1000 per child). There is less time commitment for me. We did Compass last year so at least we know what the strengths and weaknesses is are and how we need to supplement. It's the easy decision. But is easy, right?

We both look at Calvert and know in a perfect world, this would be our choice. We have confidence in the program. It's a traditional teaching role for me, which is my biggest earthly and spiritual gift. We know we wouldn't have to wonder if our kids were missing this or that concept. We also know Calvert would eat up our learning fund. We know that the time required to teach 4 kids in 4 different grades would be challenging, at best, and impossible, at worst. In this way, Calvert is the difficult option.

I don't know whether I can do this program justice, while also staying up with housework and medical stuff and my work. To make this program work, we (Eric and I) would need to sacrifice. We would also need to be innovative because I KNOW that me straight up teaching 4 kids in 4 grades and still doing my adoption work cannot all happen in a single day. I called Calvert today and spoke to an educational advisor. Without me even mentioning my job she told me honestly that not many people were able to successfully do that program with 4 different grades at once. Hmm.... So here are some ideas that are floating around...

• 
  
  What if dad does science with the big kids at night?

• 
  
  What if Taevy acts as Junior Teacher to the littles for parts of their day like "music time" and "game time." [It's very play-based learning in pre-k and k.]

• 
  
  What if Taevy (and possibly Samren) could self direct in some subjects instead of mom telling them what to do? Starting in 6th grade the manuals are actually written TO the students, so this would be asking Taevy to take that step a year earlier. [We looked at a lesson example and she feels up for that.]

• 
  
  What if more of the housework was done at night?

• 
  
  What if more of my adoption work was done at night?

• 
  
  What if, instead of the pretty fly-by-the-seats-of-our-pants schedule we have right now, we scheduled blocks of time where I am working, or teaching, or just being mom? [I know, novel idea, right?!]

Anybody else have innovative ideas that may help us succeed at teaching 4 kids in 4 different grades one of the more time-involved homeschool curriculums around? One nice thing is that there is basically NO planning. They have an excellent format that has everything laid out for you each day.

If I didn't feel that so much was at stake, I would be ready to jump off this cliff and go with Calvert. But this is my kids' education. This is my work. This is my marriage and family. I don't feel that any of those things can be sacrificed just so we can try to do the "best" curriculum of the options available to us. Also, there's no option to back out of Calvert and do another curriculum if it's not going well (if we wish to stay with Epic this year). Really...if we stuck with Compass/T4L it would be okay. It would be better than our public school option. There's nothing WRONG with it (well, there is, but not horribly wrong). It just doesn't give Eric and I the same feeling as when we think of the "ideal"--doing Calvert. [I really shouldn't say "ideal" since this is Plan C within the last MONTH!]

Long Post Script:

We did discuss non-Epic options as well. We do not have any money set aside to buy curriculum for 3-4 kids that is even remotely expensive. And I do not have the time available to piece together an educational program for each of the kids from all of the free/low cost resources on the internet (those that can are my heroes)! This leaves us with T4L (which is an option through Epic!) or Rodd and Staff. I really like a lot of things about R&S, but it is not at all a good fit for Samren. We tried, and failed miserably.

Long Post, Post Script:

We have also discussed, briefly, whether we would have the kids doing different programs. It is POSSIBLE that we could do one thing with the littles and another thing with the bigs (since really, prek and k is so easy to do without any curriculum at all!). However, the thought of having (for instance) Taevy in Calvert and Samren in Compass makes my skin crawl! I couldn't do that, I know. My head would explode. That would be way worse than just doing Calvert for all of them.

Love,

Anita

Next Question---CALVERT

So...next question...has anybody had experience teaching multiple grades with Calvert? How much time would I be talking about spending teaching each day? PreK, K, 3rd, and 5th grade. Could I realistically teach all four grades and still keep up with my adoption work? That is the question.

CALLING ALL HOMESCHOOLERS!

Does anybody know of a good solid English program that has some online componant? Must be secular. It doesn't have to all be online--just some part of it. For example, online monitoring of progress, or online activities, or online testing.

Innovation in Education

I am learning a hard lesson right now. In education, there are too many players that don't want anything to change. If someone comes along and wants to do something innovative, someone else will do whatever they can to ruin it. Heaven forbid we should have more CHOICES for our children.

Yeah...in case you can't tell...something else "too good to be true" was really too good to be true. No Bob Jones through Epic Charter School. The State Department of Education and the Homeschool Legal Defence Fund made sure of that.

We are back to square one. We haven't saved money for homeschool curriculum, and no other choice with Epic feels like a good one right now (although I'm not saying we're leaving Epic). I don't know what we will end up doing. Prayers appreciated.

Anita

Back to Bob

Our homeschool table, given to us by a dear Ghana mom!

Oh, the best laid plans....

I posted a few weeks ago about the EPIC decision we had made for our kids--to them to go to an on-site Charter school. That post is HERE. Well it appears that we may have a case of us counting our chicks before they hatched. I had no idea at the time that there was any opposition to the "learning resource center" idea, but in fact, the state had big problems with it.

Our school's charter describes a home-based virtual schooling program, not a site-based virtual schooling program. The state seems to have an issue with a "virtual" school bringing kids and teachers together in the same learning environment each day. If we do that, it's a school-school. Ho hum. No big deal for our family (since we were already excited to be home-based) but I think it's a total lose for the working families in our state that would like their kids to take part in a program like this, but can't because they have to be at work. This would have solved that problem for them. In the end, the state is so scared that someone might do something to pull students out of their public schools!

It's back to Bob Jones University Press for our kids--and we are totally fine with that! I'm trying to get back into the frame of mind that I won't have 5 hours of quiet each day after all, and that instead of the juggling act that is my day getting easier, we'll be adding a few more things to the mix (named Kendi and Bright's school). We were blessed with the awesome table above last year, and this year we'll be setting up for four students (each with their own laptop thanks to the school)!

The way BJU is set up is that there will be a teacher teaching each lesson to them (via streaming video). After the lesson is taught, they do whatever assigned work they need to do for that lesson. If they need help, mom is here. In addition, with the charter school we've chosen, we'll have as much one on one involvement from an OK certified teacher as we wish.

Oh how I am praying that BJU is the right way to go. It's so hard to find one program to fit 4 children, but we really desire our kids to do the same program as much as is possible, and we also desire our kids to stick with the same program until graduation. So far we've done 3 different things in 3 years of homeschooling! I've heard from several BJU moms who have taken their kids all the way through with good results, so I'm trusting, and praying, and praying, and praying!

Anybody need 4 really cutsie brand new lunch boxes from Target? How about 4 brand new backpacks? Yeah...we won't need those after all. =-)

Love,

Anita

Thursday Thoughts...

Above are the book bags we bought for the kids. I shared about our plans for the kids to attend the Learning Resource Center for Epic One-on-On Charter school last week. Well, this week we learned that the state is challenging Epic's ability to open an actual site for the school, since the Charter was for a "virtual school." Ho, hum. The regular public school system is so scared to lose students (and the money that comes with them) that they will do anything possible to fight innovation in education. Today several articles came out in our state, with a slant against the "school" we've chosen for our children. Of course, they found the meanest looking picture they could of the founder (when in actuality he is a super jovial guy)! The reporter for one article was at a meeting we attended last night, and interviewed our family for several minutes. Not one quote was used from our family. They were obviously just too pro-Epic! Only negative quotes for this paper please!

The good news is that even if our kids don't have the option of attending the Learning Resource Center, they will still be Epic students this upcoming school year. We have waited over a year for this school to become reality (had hoped to enroll them last year, but the state stopped it). If we don't do the awesome Calvert School curriculum on-site, we'll do awesome Bob Jones at home! No way to keep us down, I tell ya! We win either way!

I must admit, I will be a little bummed if we don't have the on-site learning option. I was sort of looking forward to seeing what it would be like to have 5 quiet hours each day to do my adoption work. At the same time, I was mourning NOT having the kids home all day. Sometimes something sounds better than it actually is, ya know? I might realize that, as nice as quiet is, it's even nicer to have my children learning next to me. The biggest bummer about possibly losing the on-site option is that we already spent money on book bags and super-cool lunch boxes! Jump the gun much Anita? Yep, sure do!

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Ha! Okay, I'm totally laughing out loud now because I just pushed the "publish" button by accident--therefore "jumping the gun" once again! I speak truth to you my friends! LOL!

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After three months of having the kiddos sleeping in our room--hoping to help with some sleeping insecurities and such--3 out of 4 are once again in their own beds. I happily shared my room for those 3 months, but honestly, there is just not enough space for 2 adults, 4 kids, and 2 dogs in one 12X14 room. I was feeling very claustrophobic. My sleeping time was pretty much the only time in my life without the kiddos, and with that gone my "window of tolerance" was being tested! Since we will be starting school again soon it seemed like a good time to start transitioning back into their beds upstairs. The exception is Bright.

Sunday night we sent Bright up to sleep in his own bed (shares a room with Samren). He was beside himself. Sometimes it's hard to tell when a kid is throwing a fit because he'd just rather sleep with mom and dad, or because he is really scared. Bright was really scared. He's always been scared to sleep by himself. Ugh. I think of all the months when he was just 2 years old that we had him sleep in his room. He didn't cry or anything, but he slept on the floor, by the door, with his hands reaching out of the threshold. I didn't recognize what a cry for help that was. [Sometimes it's so hard to see what's in front of your face!] Anyway, we did insist that Bright try to sleep in his bed on Sunday night. I prayed over him and we reassured him. He went to bed with a happy face.

Starting Monday, Bright had a horrible time. He has been doing somewhat better, but Monday and Tuesday were days full of crying and grunting and stealing and pouring/squirting. [He pours or squirts things for stress relief. He craves the happy chemicals that sugar gives him, so steals anything sweet he can find.] It was horrible. I was so sad for my baby boy. Needless to say, Bright will continue to sleep with us until some point in the future where he is recovered enough to sleep without us and not feel overwhelmed with stress and anxiety the next day.

Going back to the site-school thing....one of the reasons we thought it would be a good fit is so we could start doing more intensive stuff with Bright while the others were "at school." His needs are beyond us. We've got to get him into some sort of therapy. It's much more difficult to add therapy multiple times a week if the other three kids don't have a place to go. I guess we'll wait and see what happens. Either way, time is up. No more trying to help Bright on our own. We need help. Please pray with us that we find the RIGHT help--the help we believe the Lord has lined up for Bright if we can only discern His will in this situation!

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I have been a crocheting fool lately! I just finished three twirly scarves in Autumn colors for the AAI Holiday Project Auction. I will go and stare at all of my new skeins of yarn tonight and hope to become inspired about what comes next! I go half a year at a time without crocheting, but when I come back to it it always feels so good. There is something very soothing about the fibers sliding through my fingers--creating something out of "nothing." There are no heavy thoughts--none of the subjectivity my life is usually filled with. It's simple. Follow these instructions and something beautiful will be the result. Wow. Good for my soul.