I Didn’t Shoot the Messenger

But I was sorely tempted.

If you hang out on Facebook, you probably already saw this.

My oldest is 7, he attends virtual charter school which is funded by the state of South Carolina’s public school system. Today I sent an email, through their obnoxious proprietary mail system, to the teacher to make sure everything was up to date and that we were we needed to be.

My kid isn’t a genius. He’s bright, he’s inquisitive, and can almost rival me in the stubborn department.

Last year my son started kindergarten and finished the 1st grade curriculum for phonics and math. They don’t let children complete more than one year in the other subjects: history, science, art, music, and PE.

That was fine, his favorite subjects are history and science and he’d do those all day long, if I facilitated it. Don’t worry, it’s not like I restrict learning activities after school is done for the day, I just don’t force them or do the ones provided by the school after our work is completed. Maybe that means I’m not “up to the task” or not cut out for this. Whatever. He’s ahead, he’s happy, we’re getting through. I think that means we’re doing ok.

What ticked me off is this. The response to my email was, “your son is progressing too quickly in math and will run out of lessons.” They won’t release the third grade curriculum for him until he is in the 2nd grade. She suggested instead of progressing, he should “play learning games.”

Our daily math lesson usually consists of handing him two assessments. If he makes a 100% he’s got the concept mastered. If he doesn’t we go over the lesson(s).  Sometimes we play a math game, he loves the games.

Is it crazy to want to reach a point where my child is challenged by the curriculum? I don’t really think that’s out of line.

What I’d like is to progress to a point where the lesson is actually needed, so he can learn how to learn. I was a lazy student, I didn’t get that skill until well into college. I relied on my ability to absorb the information from half-listening to my teachers. I coasted with good grades, without doing homework, until after graduation.

My husband? Same story.

What I hate is that each week we have to sit through a one hour online lesson geared toward where the 1st graders should be in the 1st grade curriculum. He’s bored, I’m bored, but we sit through it. I’m sure review is great, yada yada yada. (We also have the same deal for Language Arts, makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a pencil, but I plaster on a smile and redirect his attention to the computer screen every 25 seconds for 45 – 60 minutes)

As far as Language Arts, he’ll finish the 2nd grade program this year. We’ve reached a point where he has to work to remember the spelling words, but he gets them. His reading and comprehension are great. His grammar is good. I’m ok with this. He’s still developing the fine motor skills for good handwriting (and the patience to write is another story entirely, but we’re getting there). So I don’t push him in Language Arts, we’re moving at the expected pace.

Next year he’ll be labeled a 2nd grader, but take 3rd grade English and 3rd grade math.

I need the structure of a program like this one. Where there is a laid out curriculum and some oversight, it helps keep me on track. What I don’t like is this arbitrary crap preventing his progress.

We Did. Again.

Tim and I finally were married within the Catholic Church.
Many thanks to Father Ed for the pictures.

And tomorrow?

There’s turkey.

I Have Fun.

Sneak Peek

Tomorrow I’ll be creating an email list for those who want to be notified of the book launch. My editor was kind enough to shoot over a jpg of the cover. I thought some of you might be interested.

Eek!

Sometimes

I look like I know what I’m doing.

You have to click through for the full version, sorry.

Don’t be fooled, I missed the shot.

Thank you for the pic, Dave.

The Great Big Name Drop Post 2010 Style

I’ve spent the past few days in Las Vegas, a surreal version of life. There’s a whole lot of glitz, sparkle, and glam but don’t look too close or you may notice the veneer, and the carefully placed marketing.

Does that take away from the fun?

Heck no. I’ve enjoyed seeing fancy hotel suites and being treated as though I’m a VIP, but it’s not real. I get that. Do I mind the occasional free drink or schmoozing? Not one bit, it’s fun.

This list isn’t complete, there are several more names I need to add, as I internally match names with contact info, but so far I’ve had the pleasure of meeting or catching up with:

Angel Djambazov

Annabel Candy

Brent

Dave Griner

Dave Taylor

Howard Greenstein

Jeffrey Powers – who says I have a familiar face. Uh huh

Jordan Cooper aka NotaProBlog

Kelby Carr

Lucretia Pruitt

Ryan Hupfer of iSocket (on a side note, my kids call my sister Aunt Teppy)

Ryan Wynia

Shawn Christenson aka The Canadian

Srini Rao

There’s still a lot of fun to be had, sessions to attend, and people to meet and then time to kill in the airport. Hopefully I can squeeze in another trip to In and Out.

Mixed Feelings

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

So why, when someone imitates, or it appears that they have, do I get that “Eew, copy-cat copy-cat” feeling?

And just to toss out how big of a hypocrite I can be, it’s entirely possible that I accidentally did it to Mom101 when Ivy and I first started Home Ec 101.

Standards, People, Standards

I don’t talk about faith too often. I’m not ashamed of who I am or what I believe, I just try really hard to live a quote I’ve heard attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:

Preach the gospel always. Use words when necessary.

Am I good at that? Probably not, but I hear effort counts for something.

Why do we hold Christian media producers to a different set of standards than secular?

Could we please start at least judging Christian art, in whatever form takes, on its actual merit and not its intentions. This is something I see a lot with my more evangelical friends. If a movie is labelled Christian, then no matter how bad the acting is, you’d think it was the best thing since sliced bread.

It’s not.

No matter what the intentions, bad movies are still lame.

Bad acting is bad acting.

Every time someone creates a bad movie and promotes it on the Christian platform, they really aren’t doing the rest of us any favors.

Plenty of people I know immediately knock IQ points off of anyone who claims to be Christian. It’s an obnoxious and cruel assumption, but it’s out there. In that light, I believe excusing bad media for its intentions or message does Christianity and faith a huge disservice. It’s one thing to be mocked for your beliefs and it’s another to embarrass yourself.

Knock it off.

It is a beautiful thing to create to glorify Him, it’s another to expect others to glorify you for the effort.

Having faith in God does not make a person an artist.

Michaelangelo was not commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel because of his faith, I’m not even sure he was Christian, I think I remember hearing he was Humanist or Platonist, but I could be wrong. He was chosen because his art would best glorify God.

Menu Monday 10/4/2010

I’m moving my weekly menu from Home Ec 101 to here. It just feels more appropriate. Posting them helps keep me accountable. Bold items are recipes I hope to post on HE101.

Monday – Chicken soup for Tim and I, & dumplings for the kids, coleslaw

Tuesday – Tuna melts – in cabbage leaves for Tim and I- celery, carrots, broccoli + ranch

Wednesday – Beef stew with zucchini and pan roasted rutabaga -I also plan on retaking pics of the stew-

Thursday – Clean out refrigerator night

Friday – Salmon or steelhead trout with pecan crust, steamed vegetables (cheese sauce for the kids), sauteed cabbage

Saturday  - Pizza night. The kids miss it. (Pizza crust recipe, pizza sauce recipe)

Sunday – Roast chicken with chili honey glaze, Brussels sprouts, roast cauliflower

Do you menu plan? What’s on yours? Are you trying anything special this week?

Coming Home Again

I had an amazing time in Asheville. It wasn’t the not cooking or cleaning, having my work already done. Those things were nice, but that wasn’t what made my time there as great as it was.

I learned something this trip.

It’s not really the kids that get me down.

It’s those stretches of time where I don’t talk to intelligent people for days on end. Tim comes home from work and falls into bed. By that time, I’m also too tired to articulate anything coherent, but at least he has co-workers. This isn’t a post about my marriage, don’t try to read between the lines, there’s nothing there to see. We have our ups and downs, we’re human, fallible, but generally forgiving.

I miss people outside of this house.

I’m tired of fact families and phonics, where saying, “wipe your nose”, and “flush the toilet” are the bulk of my human interaction.

My sanity is held in check by a few Skype contacts and the promise that it’ll get better. I know I’m not the only one and I know my situation isn’t at all dire. It’s just frustrating. I hate that I hang on hoping for an hour or two where I might get to see adults where the conversation moves past the social niceties.

So many of my local friends have left, if not physically in practicality: Jared, Janet, Dan, Don. It’s like one by one the people are packing up and moving on. The ones that haven’t left yet, seem to be making plans, Nathan, Chris, Greg, Matthew -see above about fallible- is it true?

If I’m down, it’s because coming home means heading back into the isolation I accidentally created for myself. I’m trying to break free of it, I’m just not sure where to start.

For now I escape into podcasts. I think it’s because I can at least fool myself for a little while that my world isn’t really as quiet as it has become.

Over the weekend I got to spend time with women I consider my mentors: Aliza Sherman, Wendy Scherer, Kelby Carr, Deb Ng, Alli Worthington, Megan Jordan, just to name a few.

Each one is a bit farther down the road than I am.

I’m trying to be brave.

A few years ago, I wouldn’t have even tried.

Photo Credit: Alli Worthington

I thank you for the example.

I’ll get there and maybe, just maybe I’ll learn that choosing to be remarkable is a good thing.