Reflect, Assess, and Move Forward

Wasting Away Again...

Waiting for it to warm up in Virginia is like waiting for the apocalypse.  It is 36 degrees in the middle of May, ridiculous.  I need some warm weather stat.

Alas, the time has come and I am returning to my second home in beautiful St. Croix.  With this trip comes the blessing of some much needed 'girl time', family time, and husband time.  My friend Kim will return with me to the island and my mom will follow shortly.  We have lots of plans for beach time, yoga, and a trip to the Captain Morgan's Rum Factory.  I can't remember the last time it was just girls and I'm really excited about it!

The following week Rob will bring the boys and we will enjoy a much needed refresher.  The boys were a little reluctant to return so soon, I think it's strange, I mean who wouldn't want to go to a beach where the weather and the water is warm? Right?

Lastly, the boys will return to the states and Rob and I will have one week all alone, yep, alone.  It's been too long since we've had any extended alone time and it will our be the first time on the island by ourselves since we discovered the little gem. We'll have fun exploring and being kids ourselves.

Airline Tickets 101

The last few times I've booked my tickets it was basically like being robbed.  I have theories concerning the airlines games for jumping up prices (like tracking your computer or phones ip address). This time the theory was confirmed by none other than an airline phone agent.  Last week I read an article on the best times to buy tickets and all I really got from that was to be really nice to the agent on the phone.  So, I got my husband, Rob, to call.  Everyone loves Rob, he's a likable guy.

It worked! The agent actually told him you have to clear your cache each time you search because they do track and raise the prices the more you look.

For an iphone this is a simple process: 

• Settings
• Safari
• Clear cookies and data

The second valuable piece of information was to book late Monday or late Tuesday.  The prices are raised through the weekend for obvious reasons and raised Monday and Tuesday mornings because of the influx of business tickets sold.  Lastly, tickets prices are raised during the summer for seasonal travel, not a whole lot to do about that one.

End of the School Year?

Schooling the boys is always a job that is in transition.  We obviously do not live a very structured life and our schooling follows suit.  I'm okay with this most of the time, there are the other times when I would like for the kids to get up early and diligently study for the majority of the day.  

Every August in the state of Virginia we have to file an our intent to homeschool and send in an assessment or testing results to prove that our children are indeed making progress.  This causes some anxiety for me, I mean no one likes being judged, especially when legal repercussions are at the end of the worst case scenario.  I know it's highly unlikely, yet it does up the anti. Besides, I don't believe or want my children to believe that learning is something that starts in August and ends in May.  That is just silly.  

Last year we used a licensed teacher to do an assessment.  She based this assessment off of SOL test questions which worked well at the time because the boys had only been out of public school half the year.  This year I'm a little confused about which method to use.  We have not followed the SOL at all.   We have done some classical and some unschooling, not to mention that I believe they are still in adjusting to wanting to learn.

Wanting to Learn

A novel idea is that a child would actually enjoy learning.  Unschooling appeals to me for this very reason, it's basically child led structure, yes structure.  Extreme unschoolers may not have what appears to be structure, but actually it takes a lot of time and work for children to follow their own dreams and ideas for their life.

An example of this within our home is my youngest son Nathaniel's love for animals.  We have brought different animals as pets, we buy books on animals, talk about animals, watch animal movies and shows, and feed wild animals.  He says he wants to volunteer at a pet shelter.  

We live next to a horse farm and recently I suggested riding lessons, the boys weren't really interested.  A couple months later, Nathaniel comes in and announces that he went up to the horse farm and talked to them about volunteering.  This is major coming from a somewhat shy and reserved child who usually likes to be under the wing of his mom.  So, I filled out the necessary forms and he has worked up at the horse farm at least 5 times in the past week.  The other day he came in and said he's ready to take riding lessons.  This is a positive example of giving a child an inch and they take a mile.

Mother's Eyes

Watching the way my children are blooming into themselves makes this process worth it.  I can see their individuality; the strengths, the weaknesses, and the passions igniting.  While I can see the importance of learning basic arithmetic, language arts, sciences, and history; I also want them to decide what they want to learn.  I want to facilitate for them an opportunity to pursue with a love of discovery the subject of their hearts desire.  

I realize the whatever method we choose this year to 'prove' to the state that our children are learning probably won't do them justice because what they are learning cannot be summed up in an achievement test.  What they have learned in the past year cannot be fully understood by anyone other than themselves.  And that is okay with me.