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Homeschooling, Week 1 Overview

A woman demonstrating science to children

NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION!

cool bird huh?  Chris was there and loved it.

 

What was week 1 like for him?  Well…

 

Every day was like a field trip.

The next video doesn’t have a screaming bird, but it DOES have a lady in a cape TPing kids in a library with a leaf blower.  My god what fun.

As you already know, he went on a nature walk at the lake and something else.  I can’t even remember the first day was of this writing.  

On socializing:

Children in a waterpark sitting by a sprinkler.
We're making progress.

No meaningful connections yet but I see myself using the website to start a parent group if he decides to do homeschooling in a permanent sense.

AVXPRO has become a swiss army knife for the family and I love it.

In the Classroom:

He came to me ABSYMAL.  He didn’t know his constitution, all three branches of government, or even what a noun was.

The school taught him how to pass the tests... like a cheat sheet.

Good for the school but pretty bad for him.

Digging deeper, I found his ADHD much more severe than I previously realized. He doesn’t really know what ADHD is and he considers it unmanageable.   He even has trouble eating… it’s affected his weight and his self esteem. 

I asked him about stress management tactics and he responded “IDK”.  I breathed a silent prayer and we got started right away, top priority.

 

Enter the book:

Cat sleeping on teaching materials
"Thriving with ADHD" by Kelli Miller. Photobomb by the family cat who is quickly becoming a classroom mascott.

The author started by explaining what ADHD is to him and ma… and you know what, let me go shoot some video RIGHT NOW of the effect the book has had.

One of the activities in the book had us call a bunch of friends and ask for words that describe Chris.

Clipboard with uplifting words written by a child
This was our result

The last few activities have been building those good vibes and we are about to make a special box to put everything in that way it’s all kept safe.  When he’s having a hard day, he’ll be able to open it and remind himself that he has value.

OMG I CAN’T TYPE THIS… THE WATER IN MY EYES!!!!

And his studies?

He’s got his nouns / verbs / adjectives, etc.  We’ve been working on 5th grade vocabulary and increased by 15-20 words!  We touched upon government a little bit and we do “current events” every day.  One day we learned about the Baltimore Bridge collapse. 

 

Another day we learned that Joey Chestnuts can eat 76 hotdogs in 10 minutes.  We both lost focus that the current event was Joey losing his sponsership due to signing multiple contracts with competing companies… but COME ON!!!  SEVENTY SIX HOTDOGS IN 10 MINUTES!!!!

One day he spontaneously read for an hour and a half about UNC campus life and what accomplishments alumni make after graduation.

And here's how we ended the week:

And we had some company over too! Good stuff.

How am I holding up?

It’s tiring but I got this.

Early lesson plan.
We've got a screen and I put the current activity up NINE FEET WIDE and we read from it. It really helps.
I've got the meal planning.
I got the dessert. Heck, I made those cakes from scratch.
And we're getting out as much as possible.
That is all. Thank you for reading.

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