Homeschool Fears

I started this blog for two reasons. One was to journal all my home schooling successes or failures and the other was journal things that I have learned in web design.

You see, I am a home school mom and I teach a 10 and a 12 year old… both are boys. This in itself is a challenge. You see, when it comes to planning school, I could use some pointers. You don’t realize how much a student has to learn in one year. It is mind boggling!

You have to plan for Math, Reading, Writing, History, Social Studies, Language Arts, Health, Arts, and so much more. I mean, you really want the best for your child. You want them to have good careers, good lives… right?

You figure that as a teacher, all you really need to do is to teach reading, math, and writing… for the most part this is correct. You really do want your student to have the ability to teach himself. No, I don’t mean that is really all you do, but that is the biggest responsibility you have as a teacher.

If you can teach your child to read, write, and do math, they CAN do the rest. All you would need to do is to plan what they are to learn. Like the old fashioned water pump, you need to prime them. However, that is not all I need to do. When you make their lessons completely out of a book though, you create a mental boredom. There is no interest in reading all the time. You have to put some action into their learning.  For instance, when we studied topography, we created a topographical map out of clay. When we studied the crossing of the Jordan River with Joshua leading them into the Promised Land, we took 12 stones and painted them and labeled them after each tribe. We stacked them as a memorial on our front porch. We were studying memorials and this was one that was a memorial to God.

So, now my 12 year old goes into Jr. High (a.k.a. Middle School) this next fall… I am petrified. I know he needs more Science and he’ll learn more Algebra… but am I teaching adequately? Do I spend quality time preparing lessons for him…? These are fears that I have.

The only way I, or any home school parent, can overcome these fears is to take it to the Lord in prayer. Only He can guide you and give you peace…

I have blogged before on how I ended up here, home schooling our children. I won’t go through that over again. You can read it on my Homeschool Journal.

Now, more than ever, I seem to be more anxious over this next year than I have been in a very long time.

In my next blog, I will discuss curriculum decisions.

Happy Schoolin!

Our Vacation

Well, we finally did it. We finally took a vacation. It has been 6 years since our last vacation to California... It is such a long drive to go to CA... Now, since we live so far north, it is a 3 day trip to drive.Let me ask this...Is it still a vacation if you can't really afford it? This has been our dilemma for 6 years. There just has been no extra cash to make the trip. Then when Marty lost his job, it became impossible.Well, we finally took time and left for California and I thought I would write about our excitement.We spent months trying to decide how we were going to go to California. We were meant to go to Lompoc to visit Marty's parents, whom we have not seen for 6 years at least... Marty's mom had a car that she wanted us to have... so we knew we were going to drive home. But, now we had to decide how to get there. If we drove there, it would be a 3 day drive. Then when we came home, again it would be 3 more days and maybe two vehicles to get home. NOT FUN!

We made the decision to fly this time. Our boys were more than excited… for they had never been on a plane (except for Matthew when he was 6 months old). The days were counted down and finally we get to the day when we are to fly out.

Our itinerary was to fly from Moscow/Pullman airport, to Seattle (SeaTac), and then LAX, and finally to Santa Barbara Airport.  This was exciting, scary, and long. We planned for everything… at least we thought so.

Since this was the boys’ first plane flight, we knew they were too excited to know safety facts like, stay on the plane until the plane came to a complete stop, and stay close to Mom & Dad NO MATTER WHAT!! There was so much I stressed over as a Mom… Perhaps you understand.

I digress… O.k. we board the plane in Moscow/Pullman… boy this was a surprise… sort of. The plane is a prop plane. It seats probably 60 people and it has two large props to it… It looks safe enough, but we watch the engines just the same. Now, remember, this plane is supposed to fly direct to SeaTac. At least, that is what we understood on the ticket information. But NOOOO … we fly to Lewiston first. This was idiotic to us. You see, we live right smack in the middle between Lewiston (to the south), and Moscow/Pullman (to the Northwest). It is cheaper to fly out of Moscow/Pullman, but we still took a stop off in Lewiston… this is all of a 15 minute flight. On the ground in Lewiston, we had a delay. Apparently, the pilot was called out of the cockpit to take a look at the right engine. It was leaking. We were right next to the right engine. After his inspection, all is fine… Finally, the plane taxis down the tarmac and we take off for Seattle.

On this flight, the boys got to sit together, but Mom & Dad had to sit separately. Mom sat behind the boys and Dad sat several seats ahead of them. So, the boys were, more or less, on their own to do what they wanted. They were in heaven!

So, we land in Seattle…boy what a HUGE airport! We deplane and head into the terminal… we had a bit of a layover so we take time to visit the restrooms. We found the gate that our tickets say that we’re to be at… and we sit there… Marty charges his Palm, I watch the kids… the kids beg to run off and look at things. It all seems relaxed and calm. One thing I really didn’t teach the kids, but they figured out on their own was the arrival/departure board. You know the one you’re supposed to look at for all flight information. Yeah, well, Matthew goes over to that board and begins reading it. He comes back to me and says … “Mom, what time is the plane supposed to be here?”

I looked at my watch; it time for the plane to be boarding… So I look up to notice there is NO PLANE! I explained to him that the plane should be there… He told me that I should take a look at the board. So we go to the board… You know what we found out? Our plane was at a different gate! I am panicked now… I run to the counter to ask one of the attendants… Sure enough, we’re supposed to be at another gate that is clear across the terminal and it is loading now. Yikes, do you remember I said that SeaTac is really big?? Yeah!

So, I get instructions on how to get to the gate… I send the boys after Marty who is charging his Palm… and we bolt for the gate. We had to catch a tram to get there… We finally made it and got seated. The plane took off shortly after we boarded.

We flew for quite some time before we got to LAX. They gave us food and drinks and the boys each had a window seat… they could see forever!

Now this last plane was excitement in itself. LAX is just as large as SeaTac, plus there is always construction. We had to go to a different terminal but couldn’t get there from where we landed. We had plenty of time to eat dinner, so we did. After dinner we headed toward our gate, only to find out that the terminal that we had to be at was clear across the tarmac! We had to catch a bus to go over there.

The last plane we had to get on was smaller than the first. It had really big props on it… It only would seat like 20-25 people. The boys’ seats were right behind the prop and when the engines started, it looked like the propellers were going to slice right through the fuselage. The engines were so loud we could barely hear the flight attendant on the P.A. system. Boy, I was so glad to get off that plane.

After three planes and five airports, we ended up at our destination without any real problems. The boys were exhausted by the end of our flights. We started our adventure at 2 pm and finally got to our hotel in Lompoc, CA by 12:45 am.

I’ll have to write more to describe our drive home!

More later!

Heidi