Normally I’m not one to promote things on this blog.  However, a friend of mine wrote this app so I thought I’d take a minute to speak about it.  And, I’d like to think I inspired this one a bit with our family’s adventures in homeschooling. But that may just be my active imagination.

The color graphics and photos in the app are awesome.  And it is easy and fun to use.

Here’s how Google describes it:

America’s 50 States is the quickest way to learn state flags, birds, flowers, maps.  America’s 50 States is a fast and fun way to learn the state flags, state birds, state flowers, state maps, state capitals and state nicknames for all fifty states. It offers great graphics and audio feedback with a flexible format that allow 3 or 6 choice quizzes and a concentration on single or multiple attributes. Quizzes can be set to 10 or 20 questions. Players don’t even notice how much information they’re absorbing.

Here’s the link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appwranglers.americas50states&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5hcHB3cmFuZ2xlcnMuYW1lcmljYXM1MHN0YXRlcyJd

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So, there you go.

Learn the states.  Learn the birds, the flowers, the flags, and the maps.  Make quizzes.

Learn and have fun doing it!

Well, getting back into a routine is proving to be a tad more difficult than I hoped it would be.  And the struggle can be felt throughout the land.   Setting limits.  Limits are not what Rye always likes but are what he desperately needs.  And so we set them.  And we follow through with them.  And we get some pull back.  And some push back.  Until we all understand each other and are clear on what is acceptable and what is not.  When we can see friends and when we cannot.  What work we must get done and what work won’t be left undone. And we are getting there.

But it’s not easy.

One thing I have learned in raising Rye…I need to be flexible.  But not overly flexible.  Because this kid is very strong willed and can try to run you over like a dump truck to get what he wants.  If you let him.  That said…This is my house.  With my rules (well, ok, Don and I but Don is traveling for the next few weeks so it’s just me) .  And I can bend with you to accommodate your needs.  And I can be very understanding, to a point.  In the end, though, it’s my way or the highway.

Oh, yes. That’s right, Rye.

Miss Percy P is back in town and school is in session.

Love it or leave it.

It’s funny, when you homeschool the most common comment you hear from other parents (or at least I hear, I can really only speak for myself) is “Oh, that is great that you do that.  I could never spend that much time with my child.  I mean, we need time apart and I enjoy the time he/she is in school.   I could not do without it”  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that.  And I used to think that way as well, before I started homeschooling.

But here’s the thing, once you get used to having that time together, you actually really enjoy it.  I really enjoy being with Rye.  Teaching him, learning from him,  learning together.  I mean do we need breaks from each other?  Oh yes.  Do we get sick of each other sometimes?  Oh yes.  And yes.  But we get breaks from each other.  Rye plays sports, he takes outside enrichment classes, he goes to friends’ houses, he goes to summer camps.   And now I’m starting to see…this time we have together is going to start passing quickly.

Because the conversation is changing.

While Rye and I used to talk about this or that, we now talk quite a bit about him and his friends working on engines, fixing 4-wheelers and dirt bikes, buying parts, saving for a car, getting his driver’s permit and license, getting a moped before he can get a car, getting a part-time job, making money, saving money, girls, girlfriends, hanging out with friends, going to the lake with friends, telling him he has to come home some and not spend all of his time with friends, and on and on.

It’s all changing.

Rye turns 14 this summer.  In the next year or two he will be able to get a part-time job, save money, buy a car, have a girlfriend, etc.  And for a kid who has always had a lot of separation anxiety, I can see that that is starting to play less and less of a role.

I’m happy and sad all at the same time to watch him grow up.

It’s bittersweet.

I really love that kid.  I love him with all my heart.

And I’m starting to see, he won’t be a kid for too much longer.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love Teaching Textbooks.

When we started this year [Grade 7], Rye would not use this program.  We tried a few sample problems from their website

http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/

and I loved it but because he is learning disabled and was used to having a live person teach him, he wanted to continue learning in the way that was familiar to him.  So, we did.  We used the textbook Bob Jones Pre-Algebra, I made lessons for him every day, I made worksheets for him by hand, and I taught him.  It was dry, boring and a bit tedious and after six months of it, he was ready to try something new.  And so was I.

Enter Teaching Textbooks.

What a difference this has made in our lives!  Teaching Textbooks is interactive, interesting, broken down into reasonable sized lessons, incorporates a lot of review and looping back (which I was not great at), and takes nearly all of the work out for me.  All of the grading is done online and everything is planned, laid out, and taught for you.   And Rye really likes it (well, as much as he will ever like math).

Now, I will say that because Rye is learning disabled, I still do have to jump in from time to time and explain some things to him.  And so it’s not completely hands-off for me.  But, it’s about as good as it’s going to get because he will always need some help and I am happy as a clam to have 95% of the work done for me.  And at this level it gives cute encouraging displays when the student does well and those are nice.

So, where are we?  Well, although we have already spent most of this year on 7th grade math, we decided to start fresh with Teaching Textbooks and start from the beginning with the Grade 7 math curriculum.  Just to make sure we have it down.  So that is where we are now.  My goal is to be through Grade 7 this summer (as most of it is review for us) and start next fall on schedule with Grade 8 (Pre-Algebra).

Wish us luck!  And check it out if you haven’t already.

Also, I would say this would make a great at-home supplement for kids struggling with math even if you don’t homeschool.  It really breaks down the concepts, explains them very well, and makes sure your child has the basics down well.

I can’t help but think

that one day I will look back

on this time in my life

and think

these days

were some of the best days

of my life.

Rye and I are on a road trip right now.

Road trips allow us to enjoy some of the best aspects of homeschooling.

Togetherness. Freedom. Flexibility.

Learning. Living.

Socializing.

And fun.

We watched this movie yesterday as a part of our studies on American History and specifically the time of slavery in America and the abolitionist movement.

We both loved it.

Rye feels like he is just like Huckleberry Finn so he really related to the movie. Or, as he says, “that kid is just like me.”

And I’d have to agree.

Apparently Rye’s talk with God the other day helped.

Last night he sat down, completely of his own free will while Don and I were watching TV in another part of the house, and wrote a 2 page, single-spaced story about himself.  No one asked him to do this.  There was no assignment he was trying to complete.  No one was waiting for a finished product.  He just did it.  For himself.  He just sat down and wrote and wrote and wrote.  And the grammar was decent.  And the spelling was reasonable.  And the story made sense.  It flowed.  It gave good visual references.  And it told a complete story with a beginning and an end and used a variation of sentence types.

This is nothing less than a miracle.

This is a kid who 3 months ago at age 13 could only write 3 or 4 barely legible sentences at a time.   He hated writing.  He is dyslexic and it has always been very, very difficult for him.  And because of this no one, including me, has pushed him to learn it.   Now, however, with the help of a tutor twice a week and him relaxing at home and leaning in a relaxed environment [and me and the tutor constantly reminding him (gently, of course) that if he can't learn to write well he will never be able to do college level work], this is what happens.

Beautiful.

And to top it off, he looked at me last night and told me he now thinks writing is fun and that maybe he will be a writer when he grows up.

Do it, Rye.

You will be nothing less than great.

It’s oddly quiet in our house this afternoon.

Don is home from a business trip and had to fly overnight last night so he is now in bed sleeping as he didn’t get much sleep on the plane.

Rye and I did our math work this morning and then we didn’t make it much further than math when he asked for an additional Seroquel after he came in from standing outside where he told me he was talking to God (?)  Was he kidding? Was he praying?  Is he having psychosis?  I’m not sure.  I asked him what God said to him but he just looked at me like I was crazy so…  He took the extra Seroquel and is now asleep on the couch.   I think I’ll be able to tell more when he wakes up.

I hope he’s ok.

As we head into Christmas week, I think we are ready.  We are having a very low key Christmas this year so that makes it easier.

As for homeschooling next semester, I think we are prepared.  Rye is signed up for a more intensive pottery class where he will learn to use the pottery wheel, I signed him up for a writing class (something I never thought I would hear myself say as he really struggles with writing but this woman is supposed to be great with kids who struggle), I found a writing tutor who will do weekly one on one work with Rye,  he is currently playing on a basketball team and will play on another one in the spring, and I will continue to teach him math, american history and science.

As far as medication goes, we have upped Rye’s Seroquel to one 25 mg in the morning and one in the evening and I think now for the first time in the past few years he is not hypomanic.  The medicine was very sedating at first and this has always been a problem with Seroquel for us but now he seems to be adjusting [and one nice thing with homeschooling is we can be so flexible with our schedule to accomodate these issues - we never could do this when he was in public school as they would get mad if he was hyper, then mad if he was tired or sleepy, then mad if this, mad at that, and on and on, making it essentially impossible to get the meds right because the feedback was not at all useful or effective].  And he is doing well.  He can sit and be quiet for a while now and when we went to a hands on science museum a  few days back he was actually able to sit by himself and work on a completely self driven project for at least 15 minutes.   Quietly.  And without help.  I hardly even recoginized him.  It was nice though.  He seems to have some mental peace and relaxation now.

In sports, Rye is getting very into basketball.  He loves it and has a great coach who he really admires so that makes it all the better.  At just shy of 6ft. he is the tallest kid on his team of 12 & 13 yr olds.   He is not quick and not nearly as nimble as the other kids but he is holding his own on the court.  He is tries hard and listens to his coach and is learning and definitely offers the team a large physical presence.  If nothing else, the kid is big.  And he has scored in every game so far so this is helping his self confidence.

And, I guess that’s about it for now.  We are still doing light homeschooing this week to make up for lost time but we will take all of next week off.

And we are looking forward to that.