Thursday the Poster Saw Red

It's very difficult to get excited about work these days; just an endless, ongoing, monotonous episode of answering questions and writing documents and trying to catch up on all the technical issues that come up in a complex aircraft environment.

And there's the distraction of home school.

School is officially over for the kids today. It's only a half-day, and they aren't going to be doing anything in particular, but for some reason, it still counts.

Don't get me started on the number of days the teachers have taken for "in-service" days. It's a wonder the kids have learned anything at all this year.

Frankly, we're a bit disappointed at their progress. And we're going to do something about it. We're going to try a little Experiment.

We're going to start home schooling.

Not full-bore. Not yet. Just a couple hours each day during the summer, to find out where the kids are at, to help them along a little bit further. To keep them challenged. To get them where we think they ought to be.

Our fear is that the kids are getting bored. James is certainly getting bored. His grades took a bit of a dip this last quarter, and it wasn't in areas where he has had trouble in the past. His handwriting has gotten sloppy. He has been rushing through his assignments, being careless, just wanting to get it done so he can go somewhere and do something else, anything else.

Adam needs to move further along in math. He is ready for pre-Algebra concepts, but they have not been ready for him at school.

Deborah and Mary need to keep practicing their writing. Their reading skills far exceed expectations, but they still need some basic (unfortunately repetitous) work on spelling and grammer and handwriting. And I’d like them – especially Deborah – to work on reading out loud.

Then there’s History and Geography and Home Economics and House Maintenance and Sportsmanship and Athletics. There are so many things they need to learn!

And there are field trips we’d like to take, including Greenfield Village and Chicago and Richmond and all points in-between.

Unfortunately, there’s this problem of work. I still have to work, you know. That whole paycheck thing. And I’m torn. I’d much rather be home helping the kids learn, but there is the matter of paying bills.

And I hate to leave it all in Cheryl’s lap. Sure, she’s a professional teacher, but that’s still a bit much to be asking her to whip up lessons for four kids in four different age groups in all those different areas, and keep on top of them while doing all the other things she has to do during the summer.

So, like I said, we’re trying an experiment. I’m going to stay home a little longer in the mornings and get the homeschool thing going, since I’m the morning parent around here, and then when Cheryl’s had her coffee and the caffeine has taken effect, she can take over while I run to work.

I’m going to start them off with their reading and writing assignments, do some basic dictionary drills and handwriting exercises, then have them take a break to do some physical workouts (soccer, volleyball, ball-tossing, etc.). Then Cheryl will go through the History and Geography and Math topics, ‘cause she’s really good at Math and History.

So we’ll start off with a couple hours in the mornings and see how it goes. Whether it works or not, it’ll be interesting!