Friday, September 5, 2014

First Week: Senior Year

The Senior:  S made it through the first official week of senior year.   I worked all summer to have a plan for this year, so things would run smoothly.  He just laughed at me....


His recent diagnosis of Low Vision has led us down a new path.  As we are working to get him enrolled to take a distance course at the Hadley School for the Blind, that has changed some of our plans for this year. This week his focus has been on College Algebra, English, and working on his initial high school entrance assignment for the Hadley School for the Blind.  This enrollment will allow him to take a course called "Human Eye 1" which will teach him about the anatomy of the eye, eye exams, and eye conditions.  He will follow this up with "Human Eye 2".


His focus this week was College Algebra, English (working on Brave Writer's "Help for High School", and his Hadley entrance assignment which he sent off yesterday.


One very positive thing for this school year is that S has started his work prior to 9:00 every morning which is a big deal for him.  He enjoys sleeping!  [Side note:  He was up at 5:45 this morning to have breakfast with us.] He is doing well with College Algebra.  He worked diligently on his Hadley assignment and spent a great deal of time writing his personal essay.  


For English, he is working on an Exploratory Essay for English and FINALLY completed the research.  Now, he is supposed to write. He has a great introduction, but he is stuck. Research papers are a struggle for him.  We have been working on research for years, and he has done research papers before.  He freezes every time we do a research paper.


A lot of the problems are related to his ADD.  He becomes distracted while researching and jumps down rabbit holes. He has a hard time organizing himself.  Prioritization is not important to him. He has no concept of time.  He has no idea if he's been at the computer trying to write for 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or an hour or more.  This is all compounded by his CP which means everything he does just takes longer. We have worked through the years to come up with helpful techniques.


After some frustration on everyone's part, we decided we are going to start all over.  We are going to sit with him through every step of this and talk it through with him - modeling every step with him.  We have explained the importance of writing research papers in an efficient manner since he wants to go to college.  He knows what to do.  We have a variety of writing curriculums (IEW, Brave Writer, Analytical Grammar, various books, ideas off of the Internet) hoping that one of them will have the magic solution to make research papers less scary to him.  Practice makes perfect! That is what we shall do!  


For now, we shall all take a break from this and let him regroup.  He has had some fun doing some free writes.  He wants to start a blog of his own; however, talking about it doesn't make it happen.  Maybe he can focus on getting that started next week.


Next week, he will get started on his World War II unit.  That will be fun for him.  He is looking forward to doing that.


Maybe, just maybe, he will finish his last book for his summer reading.... http://sixbottlestoparis.blogspot.com/2014/09/secret-plans-are-best.html


Volunteering:  S volunteered for 6 hours at the Casemate Museum.  When I picked him up Sunday afternoon, he said, "Guess who I saw?"  A close friend of ours who doesn't live in the area came into the museum.  He was surprised to see her there, and she was surprised to see him there.  


The Sophomore:  J had a good first week of school also.  His bus was closer to being on time than we had anticipated.  He, generally, likes his schedule.  My son, the gymnast, doesn't like PE; however, he will be done with that after first semester.  This is his last year of Spanish also.  I told him to view each time he walks into Spanish as being one day closer to being finished.  He likes all of his teachers which is good.  His homework load hasn't been too bad.  It will come!  I had more than my fair share of paperwork to complete.  I won't complain since I only had to fill papers out for one child.  I only had to pay $21 in fees.  Again, not bad.


We are all adjusting to the early morning start.  The alarm going off at 5:30 is a rude awakening!  My husband and I get up and have breakfast with J since it is the only meal we can eat with him during the week.  


Practice:  J's practice schedule changed from this summer.  He is staying at 5 days/week, but it is now Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  He didn't make it Tuesday night.  He was exhausted after the first day of school and the early morning start.  


Coming up:  We have a busy weekend planned.  My husband and S are going to Richmond on Saturday to volunteer at the Nascar Foundation tent and then attending the race that evening.  We like to support organizations that have helped us. Our family has had the privilege of attending Victory Junction Gang Camp for Family Camps and the boys have attended weeks in the summer also.


J is going with some friends to an adventure park for zip lining and some other fun.  


Our church is having Rally Day on Sunday.  Praying for nice weather so we can enjoy the service and fellowship at the park!


After this first week, I will be enjoying a good book on the couch with chocolate!


Linking up with:
Weekly Wrap-Up

2 comments:

  1. My youngest is legally blind...without her glasses she literally sees only a shadowy blur of the world around her and learned before even getting glasses how to get around. I've had to plan her school life much differently than I've planned the other children's lessons. Eventually she will not be able to see even with her glasses but in the meantime we're doing everything possible to stimulate her visually as well as in all other aspects of her lessons

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    1. What a blessing that you are able to homeschool to make sure your daughter is getting the necessary stimulation! We are very thankful for the opportunity to homeschool, so we can change our plans as necessary and make sure S is getting exactly what he needs to be successful. This was supposed to be the easy year after all these years of hard work. Adapt and move forward!

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