For those of us with school-aged kiddos

[tiredmommy]

How are things going? The good, the bad and the ugly! When does school start up again in your area? Are things better with the freedom of summer or the structure of the school year? For our home schooling families: do you take a summer break or do you go year round?

We're only about half way through our break but beginning to think about it. Duckie has down well overall but the age (12) coupled with girldom can really have its challenges. She's either attached to my hip or wants absolutely nothing to do with husband and I. I'm not sure which one is worse.

The lack of structure isn't really a good thing for her. She'll sit around doing nothing waiting for someone else to come up with to do. We survived a week long vacation with my inlaws fairly unscathed. A major storm moved through last week and the power went out during her sleepover with two friends. Good times, lol! She's doing a 2 hour dance class three evenings a week this week and will do a few more rehearsals for dance to perform in a two parades in September. She goes 4 days to a STEM camp next week and 3 days to a volleyball camp in August. She takes weekly viola lessons. We also hope to finally start a renovation/addition to our upstairs next month. So we've things to do, but not like usual.

 

[Bunny]

We don't go back until September 3rd, which means we have just over a month left of summer vacation. easy child does really well with the more relaxed structure of the summer days, and while difficult child has been pretty well behaved for the most part, he does much better when there is more structure to a day. He's also chosen to do absolutely nothing over the summer, except a one night a week bowling league.

All in all, the summer hasn't be too bad in terms of behavior, but I will not be sorry to see September roll around.

 

[svengandhi]

A 3rd NY'er here. We go back September 9, after Rosh Hashana. Babyboy did set building for a local show but otherwise has done nothing. He refused to go to camp and isn't keeping up on his promise to study 5 SAT words a day. PC17 is depressed and we are putting him in counseling. He confessed to H that he drank once but didn't like it. We have notified the cops of the store where he got the liquor and hope they will have a consequence. He is working sometimes delivering for a local deli and is hanging out with his friends. He doesn't want to go back to his BOCES program but his dyslexia is really an obstacle to AP classes so I'm not sure what to do. He'll be a senior but I don't know what to do about college. He has to go to summer review because he failed the English Regents. difficult child is working at a local movie theater and, after taking a gap year, is going to college next month as a sophomore due to his AP credits. He is thinking of law school and has a political internship lined up for next summer. As he becomes an adult, much of his ODD is going away. He insisted on being treated as an adult even as a 4 year old, which was ok, but the converse, that he was allowed to treat adults as his peers, was not. Now that he's older, he can interact with adults in the way he's always wanted to. Oldest boy is almost 23 and is still struggling to find himself. I am so afraid he will never be self-supporting because he is so impulsive with his money. And, of course, one and only daughter is doing great. She's been playing out at various locations and even had a paid gig in the Hamptons. She's in her masters' program and will be student teaching in the spring. I'm nervous because she now says she doesn't want to teach, she wants to travel the country teaching people to play ukulele!

Anyway, I am freaking out because babyboy hasn't begun his required book yet. As for easy child, half the books are about suicide (The Pact, The Things They Carried) and given his depression, I don't want him to read books like that. I have to call the school to get an alternate.

I am enjoying the summer a bit because I hate the cold and there's no homework.

 

[Liahona]

We keep homeschooling through the summer, but difficult child 1 is in public school. So he has summer off. He does do better with the school schedule. Right now he goes to an autistic teens group twice a week and he can earn 15 min of minecraft time for an hour of work. He wants to know down to the second how much time he has earned. The rest of the kids have school Monday - Thursday. Just the last few weeks I've started Elsie with school. I like to start about age 4. difficult child 3 is starting to catch up in reading and math to difficult child 2 and that will sting a bit for difficult child 2. difficult child 2 though soaks up science like no one I've seen before. I still have to find a good science curriculum for him. Ann I think has some learning disabilities. It is very hard for her to learn how to read. Buster has his own work to do. His EI therapist calls it a learning box. We just got it today. Its a bunch of fun adult directed activities he and I sit down to do. Cherub is just learning how to scoot. She sometimes can go backwards but never forwards. She gets mad about this. She does roll a lot.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

If you've been around for awhile, you know I'm conflicted -- I love winter weather but love the summer for the more relaxed feel.

The past two years since I've gone back to work full time still have me enjoying the reduced schedule demands of summer. This summer has been a great one for difficult child. He had been working as a buser/bar back/runner on the weekends for the past year but didn't really like the job. When school let out this summer he started a new job working in maintenance and he loves it!

He told me one of the things he didn't like about the other job was being around so many people. At this job, he works along side a supervisor and they spend their days cleaning apartments and facilities, making tenant repairs, doing lawn car, etc. He has lost a little weight, gained a little strength, sleeps really well, and has actually shown increased maturity.

Not sure what the school year will bring. His high school has gone to no more early dismisal for seniors and he only needed 4 classes to graduate so he was going to leave early and work. His guidance counselor won't be back until second week of August so we can sort out classes....

All in all, a great summer so far and heading on vacation to the shore for a week tomorrow so things are looking even better!

*Sharon

 

[tiredmommy]

Bunny~ I agree, structure tends to be good for a family.
Svengandhi~ I hope you can get easy child's books switched, I wouldn't want a depressed teen reading about suicide! Your difficult child sounds a bit like Duckie... the older she gets, the better she fits.
Liahona~ you sound busy! I can understand why you would homeschool year round, it could be difficult to get things running smoothly after an extended break. Cherub sounds adorable!
LDM~ It sounds like difficult child has found an area that he thrives in, good for him! As for school, would it be possible for him to get formal internships in order not to stay all day?

 

[svengandhi]

Liahona -

Even though you homeschool, you should still be entitled to an evaluation for Ann. H is dyslexic, as are easy child and babyboy. easy child was diagnosed very early and was taught to read with Orton-Gillingham at first and then switched to Wilson because he was picking up so quickly. I recommend having her checked out because the earlier you intervene with Learning Disability (LD)'s, the better outcome you can have. easy child reads well though slowly and has excellent comprehension. Books on tape can also be a good option and if she is diagnosed, your state or district might provide resources even if you homeschool.

LDM- I agree it's good to keep them busy. Today, H, the 3 younger boys and two friends are doing yard work at our other house and then at mother in law's house. Oldest boy is at his job. Later, they will all go camping while I go to a community theater show with friends. I don't do the country well, even though the camp site is literally 3 miles away. Our HS doesn't do early dismissal of seniors but they don't have to attend AP classes after the tests in May.

 

[HaoZi]

Storm goes back in about two weeks, and I'm NOT looking forward to it. Not looking forward to early mornings of dragging her cavebear self out of bed, or the anxiety that goes along with the school year, the homework issues, etc. She's so much easier to deal with during the summer! Registration is in a few days and I have to drag her to that because they take their picture there for the lunch cards, which is also the first school picture and yearbook photo. Yay. And they didn't follow the IEP and stuck her in phys ed and swimming, so I'll get to make sure they change her schedule, too. More yay stuff, and school hasn't even started!

 

[IT1967]

I was worrying so much about difficult child 1 and thought it'd be a much better summer for difficult child 2, and of course it was the other way around! difficult child 1 went to drama camp and it was FABULOUS! She had some nice friends that she went with and it was just a great all around experience. The camp really focuses on building the kids' confidence and it was perfect. difficult child 2 on the other hand went to sports camp. I had expected it to go fantastic because it's sports all day which he loves and several of his friends were at the camp too. Nothing drastic happened but I picked up some weird vibes that things didn't go perfectly smoothly with-his friends at camp and I totally stressed about it the whole time. Now camp is over and we have a month until school starts. Quite frankly, I'm dreading it a bit. The "I'm bored" complaints have already started. Camp ended Friday!! We are going on a short vacation next week, so we should be okay until those last 2 weeks. On top of it all, my mother in law is extremely sick with-end stage Stage IV cancer, and it's been a nightmare. We haven't discussed it a whole lot with-the kids. When we started to talk about it with-difficult child 1, she just shut down and did NOT want to discuss it. She is extremely close with-mother in law and I'm so scared thinking of how devastated the kids are going to be. It's awful. :cry

difficult child 1 has been doing *fairly* well, knock on wood, poo poo poo! There are still the harsh sharp reactions, but immediately followed with-an apology for the most part. But out in public, she's been really great, thank God! I'm more concerned with-difficult child 2. He's just so immature and still has been difficult at times. Far less than before, but I'm feeling concerned about him a bit. We see our therapist on Wednesady and I'm looking forward to it because we haven't seen her in over a month. We need a few visits to hash out approaches to deal with-difficult child 2 and guide us through telling the kids about mother in law. All in all, it's been better here, but it's never smooth sailing completely. Blah.

 

[tiredmommy]

(((IT1987))) We lost my mother in law to brain cancer last year. Duckie was 11 and very close so... I understand. My advice? Let mother in law and difficult child 1 spend time together. Do everything you can to make it happen. She'll come to understand more fully and will give her some poignant memories after mother in law passes away. Duckie especially liked their talks about mother in law's childhood and her father's hijinks as a child. She also played viola while visiting, which mother in law really enjoyed. (((Hugs))) to you and your family at this difficult time.