Parent Teacher Conferences

You can buy a t-shirt at homeschool conferences that says, "If you see me talking to myself I'm having a Parent Teacher Conference." It cracks me up because it dually draws attention to our moments of insanity and reminds us that we have less things to attend while we tend to our kids.

While I'm not concerned about them missing Prom, freshman hazing, Sweetest Day flower sales, or Pep Rallies, the one thing that I am...was... curious about was Parent Teacher Conferences. I wanted to have that opportunity to hear insights about my kids from someone else. Comparing notes has the potential to really help steer them in a direction that's right for them.

Their Friday Class program had Conferences yesterday. I stayed to talk to all (but one) of their teachers and this is what I heard:

Regarding J:
"He's one of my best students. This comes easy to him." -- Pre-Algebra Teacher
"He zooms through projects and is easily frustrated." -- Art Teacher
"He's got great energy and he's so animated." -- Theater Teacher
"He participates a lot and he has missing assignments." -- Journalism Teacher

Regarding B:
"He's one of the most mature kids in the class. He's a leader." -- Science/Karate Teacher
"He genuinely seems to enjoy the class and he's very respectful." -- Computer Teacher
"He pushes through the hard stuff and he appears excited when he 'gets' things." -- Language Arts Teacher
"He seems to enjoy the process of creating." -- Art Teacher

Funny thing is. I KNOW all these things about my kids. It's just affirming to hear it from someone else.

(Yes, we'll get the missing assignments caught up (on OUR timetable). And we'll make sure he knows it's okay to not like the process of making art, but you still have to be respectful.)

Flexibility and Balance

There are families who can drop everything in order to do something completely different for a day. We are typically not one of those families. But, sometimes, God gives me a schedule that lets me at least appear flexible. It's pretty cool when that happens.

Last week I took two subjects out of our school days because I knew that we had dentist appointments and company on the calendar. In addition to that we had a major snowstorm, an impromptu babysitting opportunity, and a playdate that we've been needing to do.

We've had a fabulous week and I don't think they missed spelling at all.

A Snow Day Book

From the kitchen: Mulled apple cider and peanut butter paisley brownies.

From the learning time: Our Read Aloud, Math, Colorado History, Poetry, Reading.

From the children: "Can we go out again?"

From the calendar: We had to put the axe to Tae Kwon Do, Swimming, Tae Bo and Chess.

From the bookshelf: Finn by John Clinch, Cowboy Small by Lois Lenski, and Star Wars graphic novels.

From the weatherman: 12 inches currently with more to come.

Winner

1. At home we are studying Colorado History (now that we are in a state that we think we'll stay in for a while. Fourth try is a charm).

2. B has been playing Colorado Trivia Jeopardy at his Friday Classes the past two weeks.

3. Guess who won?

A Glimpse into our Space

Our school space is predominantly in the basement. It's our family room (the side of the room you don't see are the bookshelves and television). There is a bathroom nearby so they don't have to go upstairs and get lost on their way to it. The laundry room is down there too so if it's safe to do so, I can leave them to think on their own a few minutes while I put in another load. Additionally the basement contains the master bedroom (a nice alternative work space for someone who needs quiet) and the 3 year old's bedroom. I had hoped that he'd be more likely to play in his room when we were working on our studies, but that rarely happens.


This is how we transform it when we're working on learning activities. The curtain reveals our whiteboard (and one of these days, our cork board). The other curtain is actually a window. The table unfolds to give us more workspace. The drawers in the table contain our whiteboard markers, our pencils/colored pencils/markers, and there is a drawer of things for S to do as well. If we have to move locations we can pull the drawers completely out and take the stuff with us. Having two couches is also a great plus. These kids have no idea what sitting at a desk all day feels like.

The downside is that this space is also our company space (one couch is a hide-a-bed) so we have to move our study space around when we have guests. No problem. With the exception of the whiteboard we are portable.

We store three containers in our laundry room and bring them out when we get started. First, our supply box. Stuff that we usually go looking for, glue, tape, hole punch, stapler, index cards, timer, etc.

Second, our books. This magazine rack contains their notebooks and any library or reference books we're currently using.

Third, our station box. This is where they find their assignments. All workbooks, instruction sheets, read alouds, spelling words, etc. are in here as well as blank paper and a space for my stuff.

When we're done for the day we close up shop, put the containers back in the laundry room, fold down the table and close the curtain. I don't want to live in a school room. But I do want to have everything close by (there is a ton of storage for everything else in the laundry room). This does the job nicely.