He was so cute I couldn't resist. lol
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
GCA/K12 Summer starting up
I applied for GCA. I submitted all paperwork and had to resubmit my ID. Two weeks later we have been approved and anxiously waiting for materials to arrive, teachers to be assigned, and meet and greets to get started. I had to get the hearing, dental , and eye exam paper completed as well as the shot record to send to the school.
. This has been a long summer. The children participated in some of the online summer camps. Unfortunately they stay up late and sleep late so they have missed almost all of the summer camps because of it. Not to mention my nephew is here and my children think they have to be glued to him and can’t function beyond what he is doing. I don’t know what they are going to do when he moves.
Materials finally arrived in July by way of UPS. We received an email telling us the items had shipped. That was the longest wait. When they arrived it was like Christmas in July. LOL We took pictures of the children with the unopened boxes when they arrived. We had one box that arrived two weeks later because the items were on back order. We finally were assigned a kindergarten teacher for my little man on July 28th. School starts on August 15. On July 25th I decided to go ahead and see if we qualified for a computer. Yeah we qualify for the computer. They put the order in and we received the monitor and central processing unit on Saturday July 30th through FedEx. On Monday August 1st we received the printer and accessories box. We are still waiting to get a first grade teacher for my daughter.
We planned on going to a meet and greet but our car is broke down so I couldn’t go. We were going to go to Jekyll Island I am sad that we had to miss that outing. Maybe the car will be fixed so we can go to the next one.
I have been added to the following facebook pages: Georgia Cyber Academy Family Page, GCA Region 11, K12 Learning Coaches, K12 Flat Travelers, Georgia Cyber Academy Learning Coach Support Group, and K12 Lowcountry Learning Coaches. In addition there is a Yahoo group ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/K12LearningCoachSupport/). You may ask why so many groups. My answer I don’t know. Maybe everyone is trying to give good information and support to all the newbie’s coming in. Some of the pages are so we have a place to vent and it doesn’t matter what is said and how it is said. But some of the pages monitor and will put you off of the page if what is being discussed is inappropriate. Get in there and share your ideas. Follow what is happening. Meet new people and most of all enjoy your family and your time together.
. This has been a long summer. The children participated in some of the online summer camps. Unfortunately they stay up late and sleep late so they have missed almost all of the summer camps because of it. Not to mention my nephew is here and my children think they have to be glued to him and can’t function beyond what he is doing. I don’t know what they are going to do when he moves.
Materials finally arrived in July by way of UPS. We received an email telling us the items had shipped. That was the longest wait. When they arrived it was like Christmas in July. LOL We took pictures of the children with the unopened boxes when they arrived. We had one box that arrived two weeks later because the items were on back order. We finally were assigned a kindergarten teacher for my little man on July 28th. School starts on August 15. On July 25th I decided to go ahead and see if we qualified for a computer. Yeah we qualify for the computer. They put the order in and we received the monitor and central processing unit on Saturday July 30th through FedEx. On Monday August 1st we received the printer and accessories box. We are still waiting to get a first grade teacher for my daughter.
We planned on going to a meet and greet but our car is broke down so I couldn’t go. We were going to go to Jekyll Island I am sad that we had to miss that outing. Maybe the car will be fixed so we can go to the next one.
I have been added to the following facebook pages: Georgia Cyber Academy Family Page, GCA Region 11, K12 Learning Coaches, K12 Flat Travelers, Georgia Cyber Academy Learning Coach Support Group, and K12 Lowcountry Learning Coaches. In addition there is a Yahoo group ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/K12LearningCoachSupport/). You may ask why so many groups. My answer I don’t know. Maybe everyone is trying to give good information and support to all the newbie’s coming in. Some of the pages are so we have a place to vent and it doesn’t matter what is said and how it is said. But some of the pages monitor and will put you off of the page if what is being discussed is inappropriate. Get in there and share your ideas. Follow what is happening. Meet new people and most of all enjoy your family and your time together.
Bad Year 2011-2012
At the end of the 2010-2011 school year I made the decision to home school. I had two children in our local elementary school. My kindergarten student had wonderful teachers. We loved them and enjoyed every minute in their class. I was welcome no matter what was taking place. I had a bad year with our local school/1st grade teacher. I never felt welcome and was made to feel like I was intruding on them when I arrived at school. I missed all of her parties because I felt very uneasy in the 1st grade classroom. They started out not wanting parents to walk students to class or pick them up at the room at the end of the day. I stopped walking my daughter to her classroom but other parents never did.
I would go to her room in the afternoon and go to the library with her so she could check books out in my name for us to read for the night. They told me that I would have to check her out of school in order to take her to the library. Now mind you I am talking about the school library. We were not leaving the school to go to the library. I was told she was missing instructional time because of being checked out. I said ok and spoke to the library about how late they stay so we could check out books. They were very understanding and we worked it out so she could check out books. When my daughter was in kindergarten they would allow us to check 7 books out in my name and my daughter would take AR test. At the end of kindergarten my daughter had 150 AR points. However, when school started for 1st grade I was told she was only allowed to check out 5 books because the policy had changed but one day when I was waiting on her to get to the library after school there was a student checking out 7 books but my daughter was not allowed. At the end of 1st grade she had 268 AR points and received a trophy for it. She had the highest AR points in 1st grade. You go baby show them you can do it. I felt as if she was being discriminated against this year. At the beginning of the year they told my daughter that if she read another kindergarten book she would have her card moved that she should be reading only 1st or 2nd grade books. They said she was racking up AR points to fast. I wouldn’t mind this tactic if the school was doing their job. Not to mention that another student’s parent was going up to the school and was allowed to take her child to the library and nothing was never said.
It took an entire year to get her tested for gifted. I started asking about gifted testing the 1st week of school but they couldn’t do it until the end of the school year but other schools were testing there students and these schools are all in the same system so I don’t understand why our school had to wait. The 1st week of school I went to the teacher and told her that my daughter knew all of the spelling words when she got home that afternoon and was there anything that could be done to give her a harder spelling list so she would have a little bit of a challenge or a reason to be doing homework. I was put off and told that spelling was only 10% of her grade. Well that would be fine if she was failing but I want to see growth. 9 weeks later the finally did a spelling inventory and put her in an appropriate spelling level. I also asked about a higher reading level and they mentioned crossing her over grade levels for reading but nothing ever happened that is all it was a momentary thought and nothing more came of it. She would get her new reading book and sit in the back seat on the way home and read the entire book. I asked about skipping a grade up but they never would do it. I guess because she was not related to someone or back to the discrimination thing again.
During the wait for gifted testing my daughter was accused of hitting another student with her book bag. My daughter came home from school crying saying she had to lie to the vice principle and say she did something that she didn’t do. I asked her what happened and she told me and said they told her they knew she did it and she might as well admit to it. What why would you tell a 1st grader that. The assistant principle approached me to talk to me about it and I told her yes I had heard and my daughter had also told me about the incident in the gym when the same girl accused her of hitting her again. I went to the assistant principal’s office and told her that my daughter said she didn’t do it and I was told that she admitted to it. I told her that no they told her she did it and they forced her to say she did something she hadn’t done. I told them that I told her to never admit to anything she didn’t feel she had done again. I also told them that I didn’t see how my daughter was able to go across the room and hit another student in the head with a book bag without the teacher or other students seeing it. They talked to the teacher and she didn’t know anything about it until the assistant principle spoke to her. The assistant principle went to the gym teacher and spoke to her about that incident. The gym teacher said that the other little girl complained about my daughter hitting her. They had the other girl show them where my daughter hit her at. They didn’t see any marks but the other girl kept crying saying it really hurts and making a big deal over it. They gym teacher looked at her told her they don’t see any marks to be quite and get back in line. They ended up telling me not to worry about it because they felt the other little girl was just doing it to get attention. Ok, my daughter is ok to get into trouble because they don’t want her hitting another student but the other student doesn’t get into trouble for lying or making up stories about my daughter. No it is not ok, I am not having my child picked on by anyone. This was not right nor was it fair. I had to tell my little one just to stay away from her. I told her don’t talk to the little girl. Whey would parents run to the school for every little thing that takes place, their daughter was in the wrong and the one causeing problems. Their daughter is the one that was calling my little one ugly but I never ran to tattle on her.
Throughout all of the problems with the teacher I wanted to volunteer in the classroom but when I went to the vice principle about this I was told that I couldn’t volunteer in my daughters classroom but I could volunteer for any other classroom. I said that was fine and volunteered for a little while. Toward the end I just backed off of everything because I was just tired of dealing with the school. Now mind you another parent was allowed to volunteer within the classroom. I had not done anything to this teacher but offer to help and yet the made me feel like I had threatened her life.
Finally toward the end of the school year the school added a shelter at the pickup area and they roped off the parking lot trying to keep parents from coming into the building and picking up the students. Talk about trying to make your parents feel unwelcome. It didn’t stop me. I still parked only in a different area and I still walked in and picked her up. One day when I was in the hall I heard a parent ask the principle of the school how the new set up was working out and she responded that it was going well and most of the parents had stopped coming in the afternoon. Ok, they want parent volunteers but they don’t want you there unless they choose for you to be there. How do they expect parents to want to back up the school when it comes to discipline problems but yet they don’t make parents feel welcome?
At the end of 1st grade on the last day of school, I received my daughter’s report card. I asked why my daughters words read per minute only had a 1 point increase. She went from 102 WPM to 103 WPM. I was told not to worry about it because she only needed to read 64 or 68 WPM I don’t remember exactly how many it was. Well I am worried. I feel like we wasted an entire year of school. She did not have any growth. Why didn’t we have the growth? Why didn’t the school care?
In March I was so disgusted with all that had taken place during the school year so I felt I needed to look at my options. I researched homeschooling and came across a site called K12. It said it was a free public school but I was weary of it. I figured that if it was public why had I never heard of it before. I called my local board office and explained to them what had happened throughout the year. He said that there was an online public school but he would have to find the name and give it to me. I told him K12 and he said yes that was it. That I wouldn’t have to summit time or anything that the normal homeschooler turns in. So I felt like this was what we were looking for. Now my daughter won’t have to be picked on by an adult or student. Now she won’t have to be accused of doing things she hasn’t done. Now we can work on her lessons at her pace and her ability level. This seems to be the answer to my prayer. I promise I was not a parent that wanted to keep my children home. I was the parent that couldn’t wait for school to start because of how bad my children fight. I looked forward to my break but I stayed so upset and frustrated with the school this past year that I am willing to deal with my children and work through these types of issues instead of dealing with the school. GCA look out because here we come!! LOL
I would go to her room in the afternoon and go to the library with her so she could check books out in my name for us to read for the night. They told me that I would have to check her out of school in order to take her to the library. Now mind you I am talking about the school library. We were not leaving the school to go to the library. I was told she was missing instructional time because of being checked out. I said ok and spoke to the library about how late they stay so we could check out books. They were very understanding and we worked it out so she could check out books. When my daughter was in kindergarten they would allow us to check 7 books out in my name and my daughter would take AR test. At the end of kindergarten my daughter had 150 AR points. However, when school started for 1st grade I was told she was only allowed to check out 5 books because the policy had changed but one day when I was waiting on her to get to the library after school there was a student checking out 7 books but my daughter was not allowed. At the end of 1st grade she had 268 AR points and received a trophy for it. She had the highest AR points in 1st grade. You go baby show them you can do it. I felt as if she was being discriminated against this year. At the beginning of the year they told my daughter that if she read another kindergarten book she would have her card moved that she should be reading only 1st or 2nd grade books. They said she was racking up AR points to fast. I wouldn’t mind this tactic if the school was doing their job. Not to mention that another student’s parent was going up to the school and was allowed to take her child to the library and nothing was never said.
It took an entire year to get her tested for gifted. I started asking about gifted testing the 1st week of school but they couldn’t do it until the end of the school year but other schools were testing there students and these schools are all in the same system so I don’t understand why our school had to wait. The 1st week of school I went to the teacher and told her that my daughter knew all of the spelling words when she got home that afternoon and was there anything that could be done to give her a harder spelling list so she would have a little bit of a challenge or a reason to be doing homework. I was put off and told that spelling was only 10% of her grade. Well that would be fine if she was failing but I want to see growth. 9 weeks later the finally did a spelling inventory and put her in an appropriate spelling level. I also asked about a higher reading level and they mentioned crossing her over grade levels for reading but nothing ever happened that is all it was a momentary thought and nothing more came of it. She would get her new reading book and sit in the back seat on the way home and read the entire book. I asked about skipping a grade up but they never would do it. I guess because she was not related to someone or back to the discrimination thing again.
During the wait for gifted testing my daughter was accused of hitting another student with her book bag. My daughter came home from school crying saying she had to lie to the vice principle and say she did something that she didn’t do. I asked her what happened and she told me and said they told her they knew she did it and she might as well admit to it. What why would you tell a 1st grader that. The assistant principle approached me to talk to me about it and I told her yes I had heard and my daughter had also told me about the incident in the gym when the same girl accused her of hitting her again. I went to the assistant principal’s office and told her that my daughter said she didn’t do it and I was told that she admitted to it. I told her that no they told her she did it and they forced her to say she did something she hadn’t done. I told them that I told her to never admit to anything she didn’t feel she had done again. I also told them that I didn’t see how my daughter was able to go across the room and hit another student in the head with a book bag without the teacher or other students seeing it. They talked to the teacher and she didn’t know anything about it until the assistant principle spoke to her. The assistant principle went to the gym teacher and spoke to her about that incident. The gym teacher said that the other little girl complained about my daughter hitting her. They had the other girl show them where my daughter hit her at. They didn’t see any marks but the other girl kept crying saying it really hurts and making a big deal over it. They gym teacher looked at her told her they don’t see any marks to be quite and get back in line. They ended up telling me not to worry about it because they felt the other little girl was just doing it to get attention. Ok, my daughter is ok to get into trouble because they don’t want her hitting another student but the other student doesn’t get into trouble for lying or making up stories about my daughter. No it is not ok, I am not having my child picked on by anyone. This was not right nor was it fair. I had to tell my little one just to stay away from her. I told her don’t talk to the little girl. Whey would parents run to the school for every little thing that takes place, their daughter was in the wrong and the one causeing problems. Their daughter is the one that was calling my little one ugly but I never ran to tattle on her.
Throughout all of the problems with the teacher I wanted to volunteer in the classroom but when I went to the vice principle about this I was told that I couldn’t volunteer in my daughters classroom but I could volunteer for any other classroom. I said that was fine and volunteered for a little while. Toward the end I just backed off of everything because I was just tired of dealing with the school. Now mind you another parent was allowed to volunteer within the classroom. I had not done anything to this teacher but offer to help and yet the made me feel like I had threatened her life.
Finally toward the end of the school year the school added a shelter at the pickup area and they roped off the parking lot trying to keep parents from coming into the building and picking up the students. Talk about trying to make your parents feel unwelcome. It didn’t stop me. I still parked only in a different area and I still walked in and picked her up. One day when I was in the hall I heard a parent ask the principle of the school how the new set up was working out and she responded that it was going well and most of the parents had stopped coming in the afternoon. Ok, they want parent volunteers but they don’t want you there unless they choose for you to be there. How do they expect parents to want to back up the school when it comes to discipline problems but yet they don’t make parents feel welcome?
At the end of 1st grade on the last day of school, I received my daughter’s report card. I asked why my daughters words read per minute only had a 1 point increase. She went from 102 WPM to 103 WPM. I was told not to worry about it because she only needed to read 64 or 68 WPM I don’t remember exactly how many it was. Well I am worried. I feel like we wasted an entire year of school. She did not have any growth. Why didn’t we have the growth? Why didn’t the school care?
In March I was so disgusted with all that had taken place during the school year so I felt I needed to look at my options. I researched homeschooling and came across a site called K12. It said it was a free public school but I was weary of it. I figured that if it was public why had I never heard of it before. I called my local board office and explained to them what had happened throughout the year. He said that there was an online public school but he would have to find the name and give it to me. I told him K12 and he said yes that was it. That I wouldn’t have to summit time or anything that the normal homeschooler turns in. So I felt like this was what we were looking for. Now my daughter won’t have to be picked on by an adult or student. Now she won’t have to be accused of doing things she hasn’t done. Now we can work on her lessons at her pace and her ability level. This seems to be the answer to my prayer. I promise I was not a parent that wanted to keep my children home. I was the parent that couldn’t wait for school to start because of how bad my children fight. I looked forward to my break but I stayed so upset and frustrated with the school this past year that I am willing to deal with my children and work through these types of issues instead of dealing with the school. GCA look out because here we come!! LOL
Monday, July 18, 2011
K12 Homeschooling
We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our K12 materials. They started out as showing in warehouse and then on Thursday they were showing as shipped and arrival for 3 boxed was on Friday and 1 box was scheduled for Monday. When Friday arrived the shipment showed that all boxes would arrive on Monday. We still don't have shelving ready for books and supplies. We cleaned the family room area and removed toys and extras that were not needed in the room so we will have room for our classroom. I will be so glad when we have everything ready and organized. I want to get things going for my students/children. They were so excited to get to open the boxes. My daughter read the book titles to me so we could check them off of the list while my 5 year old played with the snap cubes. He made patterns and a sword out of the cubes. LOL I can't wait to get things finished. LOL
For organizing files I followed the recommendation of http://wwwasmart.com/?p=191.
1. I purchased a file crate from Wal-Mart for $3.47. I purchase 36 file folders and 100 manilla file folders.
2. I numbered the manila file folders from 1 to 36. I made two sets of these folders because I have 2 children. I numbered one using blue marker for my 5 year old son who will be starting kindergarten with K12 and I numbered one in red for my 7 year old daughter who will be in 2nd grade with K12.
3. I place the manilla folders inside of the file folders. The folders are numbered from 1 to 36 to equal the number of weeks within the school year.
Will pick up as we decide how to file the student sheets and books as well as anything else that is needed. :)
For organizing files I followed the recommendation of http://wwwasmart.com/?p=191.
1. I purchased a file crate from Wal-Mart for $3.47. I purchase 36 file folders and 100 manilla file folders.
2. I numbered the manila file folders from 1 to 36. I made two sets of these folders because I have 2 children. I numbered one using blue marker for my 5 year old son who will be starting kindergarten with K12 and I numbered one in red for my 7 year old daughter who will be in 2nd grade with K12.
3. I place the manilla folders inside of the file folders. The folders are numbered from 1 to 36 to equal the number of weeks within the school year.
Will pick up as we decide how to file the student sheets and books as well as anything else that is needed. :)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
May 2011
On May 30th Alejandro's 3rd tooth broke through on the top left side of his mouth. He has another ear infection and is real whinny. He started climbing on the sofa unassisted on May 25th. Alex has gotten to where he brings my sister a bracelet and has her hold it open and he puts his arm through it. On May 31 he said Julian and on May 20th he started saying stop. He is always bringing us his books to read to him. On May 30 after we picked up the toys he ran to the toy box and started slinging toys back out of the toy box over his head. May 19th was the last day of school. We have had so much going on. LOL Esperanza had a field trip to Jeykell Island, they had a Parade and field day. The children were in the Parade and they had water slides for field day. They also finished up softball and T-ball this month. To add to all of the excitement Joel has been taking the kids out to the pond to go fishing almost every day and he slept in the tent with the kids on May 31.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
April 2011
April 1st was Carlos' birthday. We bought a monster truck set up and had it put on a cake for him for his birthday.
April 16th - Alejandro has started bringing us his shoes to put on him so he can go outside. He whines and points toward the front door to let us know he wants outside. On the 17th he kept whining and pointing at the tv and we couldn't figure out what he wanted. So daddy gave him the cover off of the wii control and then gave him the wii control because he kept crying. He took the control over to Joel and started pointing at the tv while crying. So Joel turned on curious buddies he stopped crying.
April 18th - We went to Savannah to take Esperanza to Dr. Greenburg. Then we took them to Chucky cheese after words. Esperanza weighs 69 3/4 lbs and is 52 3/4 inches tall. They havestarted her on 18 mg of concerta.
April 16th - Alejandro has started bringing us his shoes to put on him so he can go outside. He whines and points toward the front door to let us know he wants outside. On the 17th he kept whining and pointing at the tv and we couldn't figure out what he wanted. So daddy gave him the cover off of the wii control and then gave him the wii control because he kept crying. He took the control over to Joel and started pointing at the tv while crying. So Joel turned on curious buddies he stopped crying.
April 18th - We went to Savannah to take Esperanza to Dr. Greenburg. Then we took them to Chucky cheese after words. Esperanza weighs 69 3/4 lbs and is 52 3/4 inches tall. They havestarted her on 18 mg of concerta.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Thrush still :( and more
It is March 14, 2011 and I continue to have thrush. It is not as bad as it was but it is still there.
March 9th the assistant principle approached me and informed me that my little girl admitted to hitting another student in the head with her book bag on March 7th. I told her my daughter said she admitted to this because they insisted she was lying. She felt they were not going to believe her no matter what. However, no one saw her walk across the room and hit the other child in the head with her book bag. Not the teacher or other students so I don't feel that this has happened. The other child claimed my daughter hit her on the 8th but when the gym teacher looked at her there was no marks of any kind not even pink. For some reason the other child is saying things that are not true or exaggerating what is happening.
I have been trying to get my daughter tested for gifted but the school waited until Feb to start testing. They claim that they have to wait to do the testing but I have a friend that is in our school system and her son was tested in Nov in K and placed into the gifted program.
I am so tired of getting the run around from our school system. I have checked into the Georgia Cyber Academy (K12). I have applied and hopefully my two younger children will be accepted into the program. This is a public online school and it is free. They are an accredited school and hopefully will have all of the grades by the time my two children get there. They are accredited K thru 10 at this time. My older daughter has to finish high school thru our local board but she only has one year of high school left and then she will be out of it and onto college.
March 9th the assistant principle approached me and informed me that my little girl admitted to hitting another student in the head with her book bag on March 7th. I told her my daughter said she admitted to this because they insisted she was lying. She felt they were not going to believe her no matter what. However, no one saw her walk across the room and hit the other child in the head with her book bag. Not the teacher or other students so I don't feel that this has happened. The other child claimed my daughter hit her on the 8th but when the gym teacher looked at her there was no marks of any kind not even pink. For some reason the other child is saying things that are not true or exaggerating what is happening.
I have been trying to get my daughter tested for gifted but the school waited until Feb to start testing. They claim that they have to wait to do the testing but I have a friend that is in our school system and her son was tested in Nov in K and placed into the gifted program.
I am so tired of getting the run around from our school system. I have checked into the Georgia Cyber Academy (K12). I have applied and hopefully my two younger children will be accepted into the program. This is a public online school and it is free. They are an accredited school and hopefully will have all of the grades by the time my two children get there. They are accredited K thru 10 at this time. My older daughter has to finish high school thru our local board but she only has one year of high school left and then she will be out of it and onto college.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Alex taking steps
My little man taking steps on 2-9-11. He turned 8 months today. He started taking steps on 2-4-11.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Thrush still :(
It is Jan 22, 11 and I still continue to have thrush. I went to the doctor last Wen. she was a new doctor and she does not seem to realize how long I have had this and all of the ideas I have implemented to try and get rid of this stuff. She gave me another round of Nystatin Ointment. I called in to try and get a prescription of antibiotics to take but she won't give it to me even though the peds doctor and the lc say it is safe for the baby. If this round of ointment doesn't work I have to go back to the doctor. :( It is very difficult to pump while fighting thrush. My nips are real tender and hurt. I have had 3 milk blisters now and it is taking me an 1hr to 1 and a 1/2 hours to pump 2 5 oz bottles. I do wish this stuff was gone. I thought pumping for 30 minutes was tiring.
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