Kevin's Watch

I love this time of year!

Jeez I miss 'em... **sob** <snicker>

Heh, enjoy the peace and quiet.

I just started 19th grade yesterday. I got my backpack, and my books, and my paper, and my pens, and my crayons. I'm a big boy.-jay

kevins-watch wrote:Heh, enjoy the peace and quiet.

Thanks, I will! That is, if my husband stops taking "mental health days" and gets his butt back to work.

I just started 19th grade yesterday. I got my backpack, and my books, and my paper, and my pens, and my crayons. I'm a big boy.-jay

How old do you have to be for 19th grade? I think I'm in 35th grade now. Isn't school ever going to end?

This year, we get rid of two of them..unfortunatly, because of the youngest's birtdate; he won't start until he's almost six.

Wow, kids are starting school early now-a-days.... didn't it used to start in September?

My older son, the 17 year old started his university classes on Monday. Good lord, I miss that kiddo. My younger son, age 13, woudl have started public school this Wednesday, but we are home schooling him this year. He and I are having fun reading The Iliad, and studying astronomy and American history.

drew wrote:This year, we get rid of two of them..unfortunatly, because of the youngest's birtdate; he won't start until he's almost six.

I feel your pain! We had the same problem with our second (October birthday). Fortunately, she was bright enough that a teacher or two recognized she wasn't being challenged enough last year in first grade, so halfway through, they moved her into second grade for an unofficial trial period to see how she'd do. This year, she's in third (yay!). We were told you just have to be persistent with the school district and/or the teachers. We had the principal on our side, too, which helps. He may have gone behind the back of school district headquarters to do it, though.

You may have to be patient and see how he does in kindergarten, then press your case.

Just something to keep in mind when the time presents itself... you never know!

Waddley Hasselhoff wrote:Wow, kids are starting school early now-a-days.... didn't it used to start in September?

Yip! Those days are over in a lot more places now. School goes from August to May.

duchess of malfi wrote:My older son, the 17 year old started his university classes on Monday. Good lord, I miss that kiddo.

I'll be a mess when my kids are there.

My younger son, age 13, woudl have started public school this Wednesday, but we are home schooling him this year. He and I are having fun reading The Iliad, and studying astronomy and American history.

How cool is that?

My husband wanted us to home school, too, but I told him I don't have the patience to do it with my strong-willed one. So I just teach them both whatever I think they're not getting in school. Plus I have to work too much. We might revisit the idea someday, though, depending on what happens in school as they get older.

Meanwhile... ahhhhh. Peace and quiet.

duchess of malfi wrote:My younger son, age 13, woudl have started public school this Wednesday, but we are home schooling him this year. He and I are having fun reading The Iliad, and studying astronomy and American history.

Duchess, may I inquire as to why you're homeschooling? We keep thinking of it as an option for Beorn, but we have been happy with the charter schools he's attended so far. So far, we don't have that option here in Gator Town for High School.

Menolly wrote:

duchess of malfi wrote:My younger son, age 13, woudl have started public school this Wednesday, but we are home schooling him this year. He and I are having fun reading The Iliad, and studying astronomy and American history.

Duchess, may I inquire as to why you're homeschooling? We keep thinking of it as an option for Beorn, but we have been happy with the charter schools he's attended so far. So far, we don't have that option here in Gator Town for High School.

My kids are both November birthdays and so are a year younger than most of their classmates. The cutoff in our state for kindergarten is Dec. 1, so a lot of fall kids start school when they are only four years old! We are home schooling for just one year for a variety of reasons:
1. This son requested it.
2. We have been having weird problems with the 17 year old being in college so young, among others being that he cannot have a checkbook or an ATM card which is being a worry and a massive pain with him being out of state. None of us wanted to go through these particular weird problems again.
3. Most of the younger son's friends are in one grade lower than him, as would make sense since most of them are actually older than he is, even though last year he was in eighth grade and they were in seventh.
4. Our younger son is very bright, and he was getting very frustrated in school, as the pace was much too slow for him, so he was zoning out a lot and not paying attention, and missing assignments because he would be wool gathering rather than listening to the teacher. He is a Calvin, with his pet cat Bud being Hobbs.
5. The school district did not want him to repeat eighth grade because he had already passed as an A/B student and he would be in the same classes with the same teachers again.
6. Until he can control the wool gathering a bit better, we did not feel he was completely ready for high school yet, especially since he would be involved in two sports, at least one (if not both) on a varsity level. Sports suck up an immense amount of time.

All very valid reasons. I am putting forth positive school year vibes for you both.

Our kids start the day after Labor Day here. The house is going to be kind of empty without them.

Brooke is starting her Junior year and Heidi will be a Freshman...wow how the time flies. Ryan starts middle school this year, 6th grade, Jordan is going into 7th grade, Micah is going into 5th grade, Tristan is going into 4th grade, Chelsea is going into 1st grade, and Imani is starting preschool...whew!!!

sooooooo..it will be just the little ones at home...Naaem, Ayize, Stephen and Meggie

Ivy starts 1 week after Labor Day, but she's been in her film classes most of the summer, so I'll just continue missing her.

(Pliss Brags: Went to the premier of her 10 minute documentary at a local theater tonight. The kid managed to make Local Public Transportation funny and interesting.)

Congrats.

--A

Plissken wrote:Ivy starts 1 week after Labor Day, but she's been in her film classes most of the summer, so I'll just continue missing her.

(Pliss Brags: Went to the premier of her 10 minute documentary at a local theater tonight. The kid managed to make Local Public Transportation funny and interesting.)

That sounds great!

We are plugging along with the homeschooling. We are reading The Iliad, doing a unit on the American Civil War, algebra, and astronomy (with a little side trip to a very very fun and very very messy chemistry experiment with making diet coke geyser out of its bottles with mentos candy. ) We will be seeing a bunch of plays later this year, and going to a couple of jazz concerts as well.

Duchess....the chemistry experiment will be much less messy and much cooler if you set up a "fuse" for it.

1. Predrill a lid and some mentos.
2. String the mentos on some wire or string (doesn't really matter)
3. Feed the string through the hole in the lid and clip witha binder clip.
4. Open a new bottle of Diet Coke (this works best and is not as sticky as regular Coke) and screw the fuse assembly in place of the original cap.
5. Open the binder clip, back off and enjoy!

Sounds like fun, Lorelei!

Yes, it's a titch quieter at my house now that both kids are back in school. Drove Batsutousai back to college over the weekend -- all went smoothly. (Couldn't figure out why I was so down and grumpy on Monday morning -- then I realized, hey, maybe I missed her! Nah....)

Younger Daughter started her senior year of h.s. last Monday. She's stressing herself out something fierce: 3 AP courses, an honors course, stage manager for the fall play, and manager/statistician for the varsity volleyball team. She's racheted back her work schedule to one weekend a month, which will be a big help. But still she came down with a headache on Friday afternoon, slept most of yesterday, and asked to stay home from school today. Sigh. I think she's capable of handling everything; I think what's happening is that she's psyching herself out. We need to talk, I think....

Furls, my hat is off to you. If I had that many kids in my house, I'd go postal.

Duchess, I had a late birthday, too, and was allowed to start school a year early, which made me the youngest in the class -- which was kind of a drag. (To make things even more interesting, I finished college in 3 1/2 years, which meant I didn't reach legal drinking age until about two weeks before I graduated. Not that that stopped me....) The question of finances: we ran into the same problem when Younger Daughter was in 9th grade and spent 9 weeks as a legislative page. I solved the problem by getting a joint checking account with her through NetBank, which issued an ATM card (but not a debit card) on the account. So she could get out $$ but couldn't do direct purchases with the card. (I think they made a mistake when they issued the ATM card in my daughter's name. Last year when her purse was stolen, we tried to get it replaced and they refused -- they would only give us a card in *my* name because she's still under 18. We took the card, but she's still kind of steamed about it. )

aliantha wrote:Sounds like fun, Lorelei!

It is....I did this the first time I met my boyfriend's exented family..the kid's loved it.

You can also make rockets out of partially filled warm water bottles and dry ice...my bro and I did this on 4th of July at my cousin's house in lieu of fireworks.....again the kids loved it.

I.Love.My.School.



But then again, classes haven't started yet (hooray week-long orientation!) so tomorrow might be a different story... Intensive Russian, here I come.

I return to college soon to continue philosophy and politics.

Ah, our antiquated, out-dated, agriculturally based school calandar. Nothing resists innovation like a government monopoly! We don't need kids to help on the family farm anymore. We are 25th (behind countries like Korea) in education. Why do we give our children 3 months off a year?

The American school monopoly sucks. Per child spending has doubled in the last 30 years, yet performance has remained unchanged.

On homeschooling: good for you, Duchess. I don't homeschool myself, but I sure spend plenty of time teaching my kids. My 5-yr-old just started kindergarden, and his teacher was shocked that he already knows how to read.