Buzzing around College Orientation

Buzz registered for college classes last night! We both attended a nice student/ parent orientation at the local community college. The first half hour was an introduction from the college president, and then they divided the students and parents into their own separate sessions.

Earlier in the day, Buzz asked me if we could talk about classes that might be solid choices for him and to show him how to read a course catalog. We spent over an hour perusing and discussing options that would make for a solid yet interesting first semester. He laid out two potenial schedules that will have him at school every day. It was so AMAZING to finally be in the role of helpful parent instead of resented homeschooling mom!

I am very satisfied that we have chosen community college for Buzz to start his college experience. This school has a large and modern campus. All the instructors have PhD. and mandatory office hours to help students. There are sports and community organizations and a myriad of counseling services available with only a single request.

The parent orientation was such an affirmation of the way we have chosen to educate for both of us. One of the speakers was a Dr. K from the math department, who brought in a copy of the syllabus from a beginning algebra class that she teaches. I watched with astonishment as she explained to the families how to show their children the important point of a syllabus, as most were panicked because their children had NEVER SEEN ONE!

The woman from the student services center discussed the available help options for tutoring. I was again dumbfounded when she mentioned "the challenge" that most of these freshman will face in writing their first major research papers of 6-8 pages, while explaining the online writing lab. I breathed another sigh of relief, because again I have had mine writing like this since middle school, and by high school they are producing four 10-15 page papers a year on top of all their other work.

Three hours later, Buzz and I were reunited. As we drove home, he bubbled over with enthusiasm. He will be taking Intermediate Algebra, Biology and Lab, English 105, Public Speaking and Psychology. He is already planning to spend at least two hours a day in the library at school, hoping to develop a good habit for when he is away at university and living in dorms next year. He will study more at home as well, planning to use the formula of 2 additional hours for each classroom hour.

He shared that a student representative spoke to them about writing the big freshman research paper that was so challenging, but encouraged the kids to not be afraid and get to it. All the kids around Buzz were panicking at the thought, wondering how they would manage such a daunting task. When a girl next to him asked his view, he replied with calm, "I've been doing four of those a year all through high school. No problem." She told him how lucky he was, and asked where he had gone to school! .

Buzz THANKED me for profusely at this point, and apoligized for being such "a tool" (his word) fighting me for all those years. It was a moment that I always had prayed would come, and I am grateful. He is at such a great place with me now, where I am finally an ally bearing good advice. He even came home and shared with KingBee how well-prepared he felt.

And this Queen Bee is buzzing around with delight! Tonight is our homeschool prom...so pictures are promised!

Tip of the Week: Know Your Vacation Style

We are finally settled back into our lives at home after vacation. Unfortunately for us, over 17 inches of rain fell in Florida while we were there. We all tried to look on the bright side of things; at least we didn't suffer terrible sunburns or heat stroke. We did squeeze in some fun on the rides in the early morning hours before the rains filters in.

A rainy vacation certainly threw us a curve, and we quickly realized some glaring differences. I like to refer to them as "vacation styles" , following the traditional format for temperment. These differences might be something that can be worked around on sunny days, but become significant when weather limits your options.

There are those who are "relaxers" and those who are "adrenaline junkies." While relaxers might enjoy a day at an amusement park and AJ's can similarly enjoy a sunny day at the beach, all things change in the rain. Honey and I are relaxers, and really did not enjoy walking around the parks day after day in our plastic ponchos, hoping the rides would start running again. But our fun-seeking male counterparts were like addicts hoping for a fix.

Back at the house, Honey and I happily doned the same ponchos to go walking around the lake to watch the local wildlife, or happily sat sketching the digital photos we took. This drove our antsy men crazy. They instead sulked around surfing between all the weather channels, bemusing the continued prediction of storms. Any suggestions to visit museums or indoor activities (other than an arcade) was quickly shot down.

So, we left our vacation irritated with each other , which is never fun. This trip definitely convinced us that while we love each other dearly, we really need to consider taking separate vacations in the future!

We're going to Disneyworld!

I tried to get Buzz to do one of those interviews for you , but he wasn't game. I walked around the house asking over and over "You've just graduated from high school in three years. That's quite an accomplishment. Now what are you going to do?" Obviously, my snarky humor is way over his head.

We really are going to Disneyworld, and Universal Studios, and the beach in sunny Florida later this evening. The bags are packed, our friends are being kind enough to house/pet sit for us all week, and we can't wait !

We rented a house, but I do not think it has internet access, so I will probably be absent until Memorial Day. I promise to take lots of pictures!

The good, the bad, and the geeky

THe Good:

I finished both kid's portfolios yesterday in a marathon session that ended around 2am. I completed Honey's first, as it was a simple task of taking photos of some of her art work and putting in report cards from co-op classes. Isn't this watercolor completion excercise lovely?

It took a LOT more work to get Buzz's portfolio together, as expected. I even handed some of the easy tasks to him (compiling typed reading lists, curriculum, etc) And I was controlled enough to remind him only a handful of times how angry I was that he can remain a disorganized procrastinator only on his own time! :) He did in fact apologize numerous times, and made me a hot ham and cheese sandwich without prompting, worried that I hadn't taken a break to eat. Yes, things will be much better when I am just mom and not teacher!

The Bad:

Honey had a health scare. On Tuesday morning, she collapsed when she got out of the shower. After a warm breakfast and a little time, she wanted to try to go to co-op for the last day. She made it through lunch before she was feeling dizzy again. Buzz drove her home, and she snuggled on the couch all day. While she was no longer dizzy, I was just uncomfortable with the whole thing. Collapsing is NOT something to take lightly.

So I forced her to go to the Dr the next morning against her stoic protests. I am so glad I did. After a series of test, it was determined that 1) her sugar is fine and 2) she has significantly low blood pressure. Her standing BP drops 10 points from when sitting, and that would explain dizziness upon rising. While the doctor reassured us this is common in young women, we are going to be continuing with tests to rule out any issues with her heart.

Still, we are worried about this. We definitely are altering our break-neck paced plans for Florida (much to my joy!) to a more lazy and safe pace, hoping to avoid other episodes. She is pumping up her fluid intake, and we are hopeful that dehydration had a lot to do with it. Still, she is worried. Any information on this would be greatly appreciated!

The Geeky:

My hubby brought me a gift yesterday. He is currently running a road reconstruction job in Southeastern PA. The crews have been digging through the edges of a 200-yr old farmland, helping to install drainage for an area that has been flooding.

He noticed this pipe stuck in the red clay soil, and dug it out for me. It is in lovely condition, and the imprinting from the mold "short derry" makes it easily traceable to the Civil War-era. I realized I was having a seriously geeky moment when he mentioned that I was just as excited about this pipe as I was when he bought me jewelry from Tiffany's!

Not Dead...Just Bitchy

I've started getting personal emails, wondering if everything was all right.

I admittedly have been avoiding posting because I am not in the nicest of moods. I'm irritated and resentful and all those things that aren't really fun to read about when surfing Blogland. But, as a dear friend suggested, it might be nice for some folks to know that even seasoned homeschooler's have struggles.

Long story short...Buzz has gotten himself into an academic mess. In our state, we need to compile portfolios and see educational evaluators each year. Our appointment is May 14th, as we leave for FL on the 15th, and Buzz is to start working full-time the week we return. This is the week we have had evaluations for the last four years, so the timing is not rushed or new.

The only new thing this year was I took everyone's advice and dropped back on my level of involvement with Buzz's homeschooling. I still planned his syllabi and projects, and had many discussions along the way. We decided that he needed a trial in academic responsibility and organization that he had not yet truly had, as I was always riding and reminding him to meet deadlines. Which lead toward a great deal of frustration and tension in the house, and an unhealthy mother-son relationship.

On one hand, this worked very well for me emotionally. I was no longer walking around stressed and confounded by his absolute refusal to meet deadlines and study appropriately for high school level courses. I would love to say that Buzz and I regained our past close relationship, but the year was more of an awkward dance between former opponents now put on the same team. There were good moments, but in general, he held me at arms length.

I am a much happier person though, having realized that while I couldn't control his choices, I certainly could control my reactions to them. I decided to not allow myself to get angry over those things any longer, and I have enjoyed the year a lot more. Honey has mentioned how much happier she is not having to listen to the residual arguing.

In March, however, the amount of backlog was nearing the point of ridiculous. His GPA was miserably low, and he was no longer eligible to take part in the Early Scholars program at our community college next year. He was totally disconnected from his work for me at home...thinking only about girls and snowboarding. Perfectly normal teenage behavior, but not conducive for me to consider teaching him challenging classes like College Algebra and Physics at home his senior year.

Long family pow-wows were needed to reach an alternative: he would graduate early, and enroll full-time in the community college. I will officially resign my role of teacher for him. I've been excited for both of us.

Until two weeks ago, when I finally felt the need to start putting together the kids portfolios for evaluation. I knew things were behind, but I had no idea how far. In layman's terms...he is two months or more behind in American history, German and college and career planning class.
He had not done the editing and final drafts for any of the 9 essays and 3 research papers he had. He ignored 8 history quizzes, and forgot to finish his final book selection for history and write an essay response. And, he is behind 6 chapters in German. Egad!!!

Now, before you think I had totally ignored him all year, I must clarify. I did give gentle reminders, but I didn't nag . I did ask proding questions each week, only to be told that "I'm right on track, Mom." I am now realizing that track was headed in a direction different than the one where the work actually get done.

So, what do you do with that as a homeschooling parent? One suggestion was to just fail him for those classes. But, he needs American history in order to graduate. The reality is that would be punishing everyone else in the family, mainly me. Our parent- teacher relationship is so unhealthy that I must get out from it. Still, I am not willing to lie on his transcript and reward this behavior. He has stayed on track and completed all his work for his classes at co-op: Algebra II, Literary Analysis, Psychology, Govt. and Biology. IT is just these classes at home for me that are, per usual, ignored.

As such, I weighed the options. He did a large amount of writing for history and all of his reading. He was given the choice to either take the first draft grade on all writing, or log in some massive time in revision. His GPA will automatically be down on full letter grade, as everything is late.
He must review the history chapters and take all the quizzes. He has been spending a great deal of time completing this daunting task this week, logging in 16 hour school days to catch up. He's almost there.

The German and College / Career planning were both electives, and not needed for graduation. He logged enough hours to earn half credits in each, instead of the full credit we had planned. He is really upset about this, because he always took pride in the fact that he earned 10-11 credits a year. This year, he will earn 7, with a huge drop in GPA.

We had a great moment. He admitted that for all the complaining about how I rode him unfairly in the past about better study habits and discipline, he was absolutely wrong in thinking he could get by on his wits only. He asked me to show him again how to use a planner properly to plot out his work next year (instead of as a journal to write down things after they were done) . Hopefully, this has been a real lesson learned.

So why am I so bitchy, with him hammering away so long and hard? Because his procrastination has a trickle down effect on me. I still have to GRADE all of this work, and will be putting together the portfolio at the last minute. Right now, I had planned to be giving the house a good cleaning for our friends who are house sitting,and packing for Florida so that we are all ready when we leave on Friday.

I do not thrive in the final hour. I hate pressure at deadlines, and always try to have things done a week or more in advance. that is my comfort zone, so that I can make sure everything is correct. I am an anal, type-A uber-planner. So frankly, I am angry that I am now in a place of stress and last-minute pressure. The littlest thing will set me off right now. I'm struggling a lot to not remained morphed in fire-breathing dragon mode. I have no idea how I will get all of it done in the time remaining.

Then, a solution so beautiful came to me. Since Buzz is the one who put me in this time crunch, Buzz will be the one to help me . Tomorrow afternoon he should be done with the last of his school work. But he will not get to relax while I am pulling all nighters to get it all done.

He can clean the house.... :)