We are ALMOST done with our full-time year. As you all know we school year-round, but May, June, and July are reserved only for one or two subjects, and only twice a week or so. Our main thing in the summer is softball. This will be C's SIXTH year of softball, and E's SECOND.
Quick school update. E finished her Spelling Friday. She has only 5 lessons left in math and she and C have just one chapter left in science. C also has only 5 lessons left in math, including her chapter 4 test, at which time she will be exactly 28% of the way done with her 7th grade book, which she doesn't technically begin until next August.....make sense? C also still has approximately 4 weeks left of Social Studies, but again, this will get her 25% of the way through her 7th grade book, so she will be ahead in that also. This works out very well as many days as they now seem to miss during the typical public school schedule due to having to go so far away to visit their dad.
That is about it for school that we HAVE to do. My intentions for the summer are to have C work through at LEAST 1 more chapter of math very sporadically, and do a module or two in her science. E needs to continue working with English and spelling, so she will be doing "fun" review workbooks to keep her on target to begin 3rd grade. Besides....it just might be that the teacher ordered a ton of books a year or two ago, and forgot about some of them until I cleaned through all our home school materials a few months ago and found things I completely forgot about. Oops! So.....what was bought as curriculum is now going to called "fun" review books. LOL
Now....what I am just SO excited about, and can't wait to finally have a moment to tell....is......I FINALLY bought C a violin! The poor child is 12 years old, and has been wanting a violin since she was 8. She played when she went to public school, and that was, in fact, the one and only reason I kept her IN school for an extra 5 months....because she loved the violin so. I have periodically looked at student violins online, and a couple of weeks ago I decided to do so because it had been awhile. And lo and behold there was a student, full sized, brand new violin with horse-hair bow on sale for 70% off retail price! That's not a typo, it was 70% off! I called C to come see it, and we studied it for about half an hour, and she had just the hugest smile on her face, and I just could not pass this up. I have NO income, and not even child support anymore, and the little I have I need to live off of, but I just simply could not pass this opportunity up. So we called and ordered it, and it arrived last Tuesday.
I have to thank fellow homeschool blogger, Michelle, for inspiring C and I with her regular postings of her own daughter's violin progress beginning also at age 12.
Anyway....I have NO knowledge of violins whatsoever. I never even actually saw one in person until C's arrived last week. So.....I have lined up an instructor for her that knows what he is doing. He will begin lessons with C in the middle of May. I don't know who is more happy about it, me, or C. This has been her ONLY musical passion for YEARS, and God blessed us and led us to one we can afford.
The girls are gone right now. This is day 2 out of 5 they are spending at their dads. I HATE this visitation stuff, I HATE it. We used to be such a strong, happy family. : (
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
My Favorite Teacher
I was not homeschooled. I might as well have been, as many days as I was either sick for real, or got my mom to call in and SAY I was sick. She pretty much didn't care if I went to school or not as long as I kept getting A's, so I had a lot of freedom as a kid.
I liked school all the way up until high school when I got too busy with a social life to care about wasting hours in school sleeping through things I already knew. But I have to say that 3rd grade was probably one of my favorite years, and it was due to the teacher. Her name was Mrs. Rigsby....I can say that because she is no longer living, and because very few people read this that actually know where I'm from. LOL
Mrs. Rigsby liked me too. I was "teacher's pet". She called on me all the time, thus allowing me to shine in front of an audience of other 8 year olds. She let me progress at my own pace, which meant that I finished all my books for the entire year by October, and was allowed to go outside with the other smart girl (my best friend, Laura) and play on the playground all by ourselves while the rest of the class had to sit and do lessons. Hmm....now that I think about it, maybe she just let us do that so I would stop "shining" and give other kids a chance to answer, LOL! But for real...how many public schools today would allow a kids to work through all her books in one month NOW? To be fair, I doubt the school knew she let us do that, but still....we sure thought we were cool back then.
In addition to one month of schooling and 8 months of playing outside....Mrs. Rigsby invited Laura and I to her house. For home made popcorn balls. Which no one even makes anymore because they might spike them with razor blades or something. And she introduced us to her husband as her "star pupils", which made Laura and I just about bust with pride. Laura and I used to have free reign to walk all over town. (I was the youngest of 5 kids, and my mom simply didn't care too much what I did...the older 4 tired her out. Laura was the OLDEST of 5, and her mom probably never even noticed she was missing. LOL) We went to our public library almost daily, seeing which one of us could read more books. Once we tasted Mrs. Rigsby's home made popcorn balls we began making a point to always walk past HER house on the way to the library. (Yes, I was a geek...I might have mentioned that on this blog a time or two before.)
I was always so excited to go to school in 3rd grade. I just KNEW I would have a good day (playing on the playground) and get A +'s on the rare occasions I had to take a test or something else I couldn't work ahead on. Mrs. Rigsby was not only a teacher, she was the BEST teacher I had. She knew to make a child love learning meant letting them go at their own pace,letting them be themselves. She became a friend, all the way up until she was no longer living, 20 years later.
Maybe that's why I like home schooling my daughters so much. I can let them learn at their own pace. I can let them be themselves, and not have to worry about them being homogenized versions of every other girl their age. And so far they both still consider me their friend, and there is nothing my girls and I don't share or talk about.
Anyway, here it is 2011, and I've raised 4 daughters. My YOUNGEST is now going to be entering 3rd grade. So, I've been thinking about 3rd grade, and I just wanted to put into writing how much I loved Mrs. Rigsby.
I liked school all the way up until high school when I got too busy with a social life to care about wasting hours in school sleeping through things I already knew. But I have to say that 3rd grade was probably one of my favorite years, and it was due to the teacher. Her name was Mrs. Rigsby....I can say that because she is no longer living, and because very few people read this that actually know where I'm from. LOL
Mrs. Rigsby liked me too. I was "teacher's pet". She called on me all the time, thus allowing me to shine in front of an audience of other 8 year olds. She let me progress at my own pace, which meant that I finished all my books for the entire year by October, and was allowed to go outside with the other smart girl (my best friend, Laura) and play on the playground all by ourselves while the rest of the class had to sit and do lessons. Hmm....now that I think about it, maybe she just let us do that so I would stop "shining" and give other kids a chance to answer, LOL! But for real...how many public schools today would allow a kids to work through all her books in one month NOW? To be fair, I doubt the school knew she let us do that, but still....we sure thought we were cool back then.
In addition to one month of schooling and 8 months of playing outside....Mrs. Rigsby invited Laura and I to her house. For home made popcorn balls. Which no one even makes anymore because they might spike them with razor blades or something. And she introduced us to her husband as her "star pupils", which made Laura and I just about bust with pride. Laura and I used to have free reign to walk all over town. (I was the youngest of 5 kids, and my mom simply didn't care too much what I did...the older 4 tired her out. Laura was the OLDEST of 5, and her mom probably never even noticed she was missing. LOL) We went to our public library almost daily, seeing which one of us could read more books. Once we tasted Mrs. Rigsby's home made popcorn balls we began making a point to always walk past HER house on the way to the library. (Yes, I was a geek...I might have mentioned that on this blog a time or two before.)
I was always so excited to go to school in 3rd grade. I just KNEW I would have a good day (playing on the playground) and get A +'s on the rare occasions I had to take a test or something else I couldn't work ahead on. Mrs. Rigsby was not only a teacher, she was the BEST teacher I had. She knew to make a child love learning meant letting them go at their own pace,letting them be themselves. She became a friend, all the way up until she was no longer living, 20 years later.
Maybe that's why I like home schooling my daughters so much. I can let them learn at their own pace. I can let them be themselves, and not have to worry about them being homogenized versions of every other girl their age. And so far they both still consider me their friend, and there is nothing my girls and I don't share or talk about.
Anyway, here it is 2011, and I've raised 4 daughters. My YOUNGEST is now going to be entering 3rd grade. So, I've been thinking about 3rd grade, and I just wanted to put into writing how much I loved Mrs. Rigsby.
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