Last week the public schools in NYC had off for their spring break, and while I could have easily ignored it and gone about our usual homeschooling business, I decided we all needed a break. Besides, so many of the city's esteemed institutions have all sorts of special events for the week, it would be a shame not to take advantage of at least some of them.
Monday we hit the NY Hall of Science and got to see a great science of bubbles show. Tuesday we spent the day at the Met doing an art scavenger hunt. The last few times we've been to art museums, Rocket Boy simply did not have a good time and now like to refer to the Museum of Modern Art as "the museum I hate". This time he had a blast. On Wednesday we sent him to an all day camp at a local kids gym where they specialize in gymnastics (as in state ranked team) and rock climbing. He came back tired. Not just a little tired, but tired like when we were putting on his shoes and coat he asked if he could lay down on the bench. I was speechless. There are a number of good reasons his internet nickname is Rocket Boy. Aside from the fact that since the age of 2 he has steadfastly held on to life's goal to be a rocket scientist, he is a bundle of unstoppable energy, zooming everywhere and not stopping. Needless to say I was pleased and he's is signed up for rock climbing class there every Monday.
On Thursday, a beautiful, beautiful day, after I spent the morning volunteering at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden we went up to the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx. I love them both, but the NYBG has better drop-in events for kids. The BBG has great kids' programming, but they are mostly classes that have to be signed-up or well in advance. Rocket Boy spent a good chunk of our day in the family garden, digging and planting. Friday was another garden day - this time a homeschooler meet-up at a tiny volunteer-run botanic garden in Bay Ridge. He loved the tour, did not want to do the drawing or poetry exercise, and had a great time playing games with all the other kids.
The whole week was light on curriculum and the usual lessons, and big on experience and fun, for him at least. I learned a big lesson that I should lighten up a bit. He will learn and experience and is full of curiosity that just gets dampened when we try to pound it into school-sized shapes. We've opted to step out of the system, there's no reason I need to bring the system home with me. I'll still do lessons and have him practice some basic skills, but they need to be in service of his self-motivated curiosity.
My next big job as his parent and teacher is to perfect the art of pushing. It has to be just enough to get him past his limits, but not so much that it causes him to shut down. It's a very fine line. That said, I'll take him up to the Met again tomorrow and try to push our luck with his distaste for art museums. We never did finish last week's scavenger hunt. We still need to find a samurai, a hippo, George Washington, and a dragon. That shouldn't be too hard as long as we can navigate past the closed bits and actually find the American Wing this time.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Working on Being A Social Caterpillar
I'd say social butterfly, but we're not there yet. We've been joining more of the homeschool activities, including regular Wednesday soccer and playtime as well as any field trips anyone offers. We're starting to recognize and be recognized by others, which is a nice thing.
It has cut back significantly on some of our class hours for those days, which had me a little uptight, but I've gotten over that, mostly because, as Rocket Boy has been running around with all the other homeschool kids, I've been starting to chat with the other parents. It seems like most of the ones I manage to talk with (before I bury myself back in my book) are no so much homeschooling as unschooling. The fact that I use workbooks and aim for 4 solid hours of educational stuff every day makes me an overachiever in most of their eyes. I guess that means I can lighten up on myself a bit.
So even though I've supposedly lightened up, we spent yesterday and today doing lots of workbook stuff - yesterday was nearly all math, and today was all about writing. He rarely objects to writing when it comes to numbers, but he still struggles a bit. I was really surprised at today's writing exercises. This morning, Rocket Boy and his dad blessedly went to run some errands at our local office supply store so I could sleep. While there, they picked up yet another 1st grade writing skills book. I don't know what it is about this book rather than the others, but it had him more engaged. They also picked up a package of silicone grips. We placed them on his pencil (and I let him chew one to keep him from chewing on his shirt all day). Either the book with it's self-evaluation at the end of each activity, the grips, the chewing, or some magic combination of the three made it such that the writing got done with lots of the usual prodding but none of the angst. His writing was far cleaner and neater. I'm not sure what it is, but I'll take it.
I still need to do some research on therapies for him. The chewing has gotten more consistent and his trouble with the writing has led me to look into other therapies for his fine motor skills. I need to pay more attention to his sensory seeking more often and provide more stimulation throughout the day. I'm also going to look into rock climbing for him. There's a kid's gym nearby that has a wall. I'll find out tomorrow about the cost. I really hope it's not too expensive, I think it would be perfect for him.
As for myself, I need to get out there a little more with the other homeschool parents. My social skills are rough and it's far easier to read a book during soccer than to actually interact. I feel like I need to read a primer of how to talk to strangers. If I can have at least three conversations with other parents tomorrow, I'll feel like I accomplished something. Besides that, I need to look into organizing a few activities. I'd like to start a regular gardening club of some sort, or an outing group that has to do with the gardens. I'm certainly qualified to do those and it will help me meet more parents. I wouldn't want to do it as a one-shot, mostly because I want the kids to get some regularly repeated playtime with the same kids over a few weeks so they can actually form relationships. I've told myself that I'll wait until after the never ending taxes are done before I add something else to my plate. (Yes, we are last-minute filers. Every year we owe, so every year we wait to file till the very last minute. It takes forever to do them since we take so many deductions. It is a bit of a marathon. Sure we could have run this marathon in February, but we didn't. The marathon is all the same to us, no matter when it is. So there.)
It has cut back significantly on some of our class hours for those days, which had me a little uptight, but I've gotten over that, mostly because, as Rocket Boy has been running around with all the other homeschool kids, I've been starting to chat with the other parents. It seems like most of the ones I manage to talk with (before I bury myself back in my book) are no so much homeschooling as unschooling. The fact that I use workbooks and aim for 4 solid hours of educational stuff every day makes me an overachiever in most of their eyes. I guess that means I can lighten up on myself a bit.
So even though I've supposedly lightened up, we spent yesterday and today doing lots of workbook stuff - yesterday was nearly all math, and today was all about writing. He rarely objects to writing when it comes to numbers, but he still struggles a bit. I was really surprised at today's writing exercises. This morning, Rocket Boy and his dad blessedly went to run some errands at our local office supply store so I could sleep. While there, they picked up yet another 1st grade writing skills book. I don't know what it is about this book rather than the others, but it had him more engaged. They also picked up a package of silicone grips. We placed them on his pencil (and I let him chew one to keep him from chewing on his shirt all day). Either the book with it's self-evaluation at the end of each activity, the grips, the chewing, or some magic combination of the three made it such that the writing got done with lots of the usual prodding but none of the angst. His writing was far cleaner and neater. I'm not sure what it is, but I'll take it.
I still need to do some research on therapies for him. The chewing has gotten more consistent and his trouble with the writing has led me to look into other therapies for his fine motor skills. I need to pay more attention to his sensory seeking more often and provide more stimulation throughout the day. I'm also going to look into rock climbing for him. There's a kid's gym nearby that has a wall. I'll find out tomorrow about the cost. I really hope it's not too expensive, I think it would be perfect for him.
As for myself, I need to get out there a little more with the other homeschool parents. My social skills are rough and it's far easier to read a book during soccer than to actually interact. I feel like I need to read a primer of how to talk to strangers. If I can have at least three conversations with other parents tomorrow, I'll feel like I accomplished something. Besides that, I need to look into organizing a few activities. I'd like to start a regular gardening club of some sort, or an outing group that has to do with the gardens. I'm certainly qualified to do those and it will help me meet more parents. I wouldn't want to do it as a one-shot, mostly because I want the kids to get some regularly repeated playtime with the same kids over a few weeks so they can actually form relationships. I've told myself that I'll wait until after the never ending taxes are done before I add something else to my plate. (Yes, we are last-minute filers. Every year we owe, so every year we wait to file till the very last minute. It takes forever to do them since we take so many deductions. It is a bit of a marathon. Sure we could have run this marathon in February, but we didn't. The marathon is all the same to us, no matter when it is. So there.)
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