Day 29- SSMS - Schizophrenic School-Mom Syndrome

Ok, I know I haven't blogged for a few days, and I apologize to my loyal fans (snort) who simply can't live without a few profound words from me every day (guffaw). I rarely bother with weekend blogging. Monday, I didn't blog because somebody made me feel guilty over the weekend and I spent all of my free time doing housework. No, it wasn't my husband, so you can quench your righteous indignation before it boils over, splattering all over my comment zone. Oh, and yesterday I was just too darn busy. So those are my excuses, people! Get over it already!

Anyway, today I thought I should probably write about The Experiment (or school, for those who don't remember what the experiment is all about), so anyone not even remotely interested in this topic may as well stop reading now (Dad...and probably Steph...maybe even Jeremy, although he usually pretends to be interested for my sake...for that matter, is anyone interested? Well, I don't care, cause I'm going to write about it anyway! Bleh-Sticking my tongue out at all of you).

Right. So we will begin with Jacob, who is in public school for the first time this year. We went to his curriculum night last week, which is a night that we parents go to the school, hear numerous speeches from a variety of school staff, and then go sit in our child's classroom and hear about what the teacher will be attempting to teach our little urchins this year. Since he is in fourth grade, I can safely say that my hubby and I were the only parents there who had never been to anything like that before. Which would explain why I was the only one sporting a goofy grin the entire time and saying things like "What a cool idea!" and "Oh, I just have to find all of his stuff on the wall!" and "Let's go look at his locker!" all in a high-pitched girlish squeal.

Yes, I am amazed at how excited I got over the whole thing. I mean, we homeschoolers have basically rejected the establishment and thumbed our noses at "the man" (AKA the school system). I should have probably roamed the halls with my arms crossed, glowering at all the pathetic sheep parents and the wolfish teachers stealing their lambs as easy prey. But no, I looooved hearing about all of his special activities, like gym class, where they get to use pedometers!; and music class, where he'll memorize and sing little solos in front of the whole class!; and art,where he'll learn, um, lots of artsy stuff! And then to sit in his very desk, across from the parent of one of his new friends, next to the desk where Bobby (a girl he talks about like every day ooooooh) sits, where, I might add, Jeremy actually sat since her parent was not there, and to thumb through all of his little workbooks and materials and schoolish stuff, was just, like, the coolest thing ever. I mean, I have been there for basically everything in his life, literally right on top of him for all of his learning and experiences up to this point. This is the first time I've ever really let go for a long period of time, and not knowing just what he's doing all the time has been killing me! I feel like I'm missing out on so much! But for that moment, I got to feel like I was there with him. I got to see what he sees and does each day, at least in a general way. It was like a cracker for a starving woman: thank you thank you for this cracker, teacher! If only I could have some more?

But then it was over, and we were forced to leave this hallowed realm in which our children were hidden away for hours each day. My only solace was that Jeremy and I managed to leave our mark upon his other world. We left notes in his desk AND taped to his locker, and I put all of his crayons back in their box (they were rather tragically spilled all over the inside of his desk). Hah! Maybe now he'll think of me whenever he gets out a crayon, or opens his locker, and I will, in some small way, still be there with him. I really do not know how anyone could possibly send their five or six year old child off to kindergarten each day. It would be beyond me to part with them that early. I would miss them soooo much!

The tests and work I am seeing from him have improved, too. You may recall I mentioned disappointment over some extremely low math grades ( on stuff I know that he knows. Grumble grumble) that he brought home that first week. Well, gratefully, that appears to have been a product of nerves, and he is now bringing home the sort of work I would expect from him. At least in math. His writing is still appalling, but, hey, one thing at a time, right?

Oh, and those friends I was so freaked out about are still his friends, but he has several more whom he actually appears to be spending more time with, since the others don't do anything but "hang out in the field catching grasshoppers," which he has decided is downright dull. So, once again, I was just making a mountain out of a molehill when I should have just been trusting and waiting. What can I say, I'm a bit emotional these days.

So, on the whole, while letting him go into the school system has been rather traumatic for me, he seems to be adjusting just fine.

On to Joshua, my homeschooler. He, too, has adjusted very quickly to the new year, falling rather easily into a daily rhythm and puttering along like a champ. I created a new system for him, consisting of an ingenious (if I do say so myself) little flip chart where I place his assignments each day, which he then works through, one section at a time, as his schedule dictates. This is important for him for several reasons. First, he tends to get overwhelmed by seeing too much work. Last year, I gave them weekly sheets with their entire week's assignments. Generally, this led to him reading every day over and deciding it was just soooooo much work and that his life was just sooooo boring and sooo hard. He would then be completely unmotivated to do anything at all. Also, I have made this year about the periods rather than the assignments. In other words, I have broken the day into chunks (for example, Grammar from 9-9:30, Latin from 9:30-10, etc.) and have told him that when it is time to move on, he should move on, even if the assignment is not completely done. He then finishes the assignment either the next day during this period, or, occasionally, at the end of the day. This is important for him because, again, he gets overwhelmed by too much. If he sees a long assignment and thinks it will take him all day, it will, literally, take him all day, because he stares off into space or sits thinking about all the other things he'd rather be doing instead of just getting down to work. But now, knowing that no matter what he only has to do this thing for a half an hour before he gets to do something else, he is able to really concentrate on it for that time period. After all, he can even handle something completely boring as long as it's only for a half an hour.

All of this is basically about knowing my student and tailoring the program to best suit him. By contrast, Jacob's experience at school is about him forcing himself into the mold they have created. It has taken him weeks just to figure out the "way things are done" and now he is working on changing himself in order to do them that way. With Joshua, however, I have been observing him for his entire school career and can do things his way, thus saving wasted time and energy trying to force his square peg into a round hole. Some may look at that as an unrealistic representation of the world, where we are expected to adapt to our environments rather than the other way around. Yeah, that's true, but right now they are only kids. It's about teaching them reading, writing, arithmetic, etc. They can learn about the "real world" when they're teenagers. That's how homeschooler me feels, anyway. Mom-of-public-schooler-me is giddy with pride at how my Jakie is adapting so well to his new classroom experience. Talk about schizophrenia.

So, that's the update on The Experiment. Stayed tuned for future episodes. That is, if you're actually even remotely interested....