Tutoring

I am thankful for my tutoring job for several reasons--the main reason being that it is yet another thing that God uses to provide for our family.

I am also thankful for it because I enjoy it.  I miss being in the classroom so much.  I am so thankful that I get to be at home with Ada and John, so thankful, but I miss teaching A LOT.  And I am thankful that I get to do something education related a few times a week. 

Tutoring is so great, too, because I get to know the families so well.  And the students just bless my life in so many ways.

I am currently tutoring this one little guy, a first grader, and he is a struggling reader.  He absolutely can read--can sound out almost any word--but it just isn't flowing for him.  He sounds out every letter in a word, and we are just struggling along.  He is a smart kid, though, so smart.  And funny.  His teacher suggested that he repeat first grade because of his slow reading skills.  His mom really didn't want to do that because he really is so smart, and it didn't seem to make sense for him to repeat a grade.  Well we have been busting our tails trying to get him approved to move onto second grade.

Congrats to him because he is moving on.  He did GREAT on all of the end of the year tests, and he will be in second grade next year. 

Well, as I was leaving his house earlier this week, I turned around to say good-bye, and his sweet little six year old voice said to me from the top of his stairs, "Thank you.  Thank you for helping me pass."  He said it with such sincerity.  I melted. 

On the other end of the spectrum, I am also tutoring a guy who is a junior in high school.  I started tutoring him when he was freshman, and he is a fun guy with a really great family.  Well, his mom is great about giving me really fun "teacher gifts," and look at what I got tonight (we are done with tutoring for the summer)

So fun, right?  I am going to make it my water cup so that the only way I can use it is if I am drinking water.  It's true, I have to trick myself into drinking water.

As much as I love teaching and students and education, I am SO VERY THANKFUL that my mornings start out with these stinkers crowded in my lap, rather than a classroom full of students.

More Preschool

making an apple tree.

Eating apples and peanut butter and watching an orchestra play Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" and then, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm."

stove popped popcorn (which has nothing to do with the letter A, it's just what we wanted to snack on) and learning to use scissors.

concentrate...

Things turned around after our initial "slow" start.  I quickly learned that this little girl needs one art project after another.  So...as we read stories and talked about the Letter A and Adam and Eve and eating the fruit in the garden, Ada drew and cut and glued and colored, and the stories seemed to stick. 

Quick Post

So...as I have mentioned here and there, we do plan to homeschool our children, which I hesistate to even mention because it always produces a raised eyebrow or two.  And I can never gather my thoughts to stutter my way through an explanation as to why we plan to do this.  I know all the reasons in my head, and the more I read and pray the more I am sure that for now this is how the Lord is leading our family, but I can't articulate all these reasons very well.  Which makes sense considering that my oldest child in only three, and I haven't actually done any true homeschooling yet (though I like to think that is what we are doing every single day). 

Anyway...I just stumbled upon this post, and I immediately wished I could print it and always have it with me if the question comes up, why do you plan to homeschool?  I especially love how she addresses the very real concern of homeschool children being too "sheltered."

Anyway...if you are considering homeschooling, or are even strongly against it, I think this post is a great read to show you the reasons why I am crazy enough to think that I should teach my children at home. As  I read the post all I could think was, yes!!!  yes!!!  and more, YES!!!

p.s. I loved teaching in the public school system, and I had a great public school experience growing up.  My decision to homeschool isn't a decision made "against" public schooling, instead it's a decision made "for" home schooling.  Does that make sense?

A Crazy Few Days

it's been a whirlwind around here.

The tutoring just keeps coming as students frantically try to pass classes at the last minute. I get these "emergency" phone calls from parents whose children are in impossible situations, and I try to step in and work some magic. We'll see how all of that goes. I do enjoy the challenge, though. I have one student who has a 65 right now, and he needs a 70 to pass. For the record, he had a 35 when I arrived for the first tutoring session, so things are looking up. We have added and calculated and worked the numbers every way possible, and all we have come up with is that it is going to be close, and we won't know until all the grades are in. He has worked his tail off here at the end, though, so I am hoping he pulls it off.

I was over at this same student's house yesterday, and his mom mentioned that his school is hiring a high school English teacher, and then she started trying to talk me into applying for the job. To be honest with you all, it is my dream job, really. He attends a private Christian school that seems to be the real deal. It is a very new school, and there are only 18 students in each class (a tiny number compared to my overflowing classroom back at Pebblebrook. I had so many students in one class, that we would have to go next door to borrow desks everyday and then take them back at the end of the class period. It was quite chaotic.) I left his house with thoughts of the job weighing heavy on my heart and mind, and then I spent too much time today daydreaming about what it would be like. Fact of the matter is, nothing replaces being at home to raise my little Ada, so I need to replace all this daydreaming with some constructive thinking, like how to keep her from throwing things across the room when she gets frustrated;).

In other crazy news, I am headed home this weekend because I have to have a root canal done. I am quite attached to my Scottsboro dentist, and last weekend I went to a new dentist for the first time in my life. When they told me that I needed to have a root canal done, I immediately knew that I wanted the opinion of my old dentist. So, yikes, that is happening next week. I hate having dental work done, and I have quite the history of dental work, but I have certainly never had a root canal. I trust my childhood dentist, though, unlike the random guy who was looking at my teeth last week, so hopefully things will soon be back to normal. All you pregnant gals out there, be warned, pregnancy can do some strange things to your mouth, (did you know about all of this? I certainly did not.) so don't procrastinate about going to the dentist like I did. I have turned into a mouth cleaning nazi, and I even bought a whole host of products at Kroger tonight to make sure that I will never be facing a root canal again if I can at all help it. I had no idea how many flossing options are out there--I think I bought one of each.

I apologize for this insanely boring post. If you are still reading, thank you, and I will try to provide something a bit more interesting next time.

Like, information about the most efficient and effective work out I have ever done. Stay tuned.

Thoughs on Public school from a teacher turned tutor/mom

As you know if you are a regular reader, I am a mom by day and a tutor by night. The majority of my students attend various private schools around the county, and it has been interesting to compare the curriculum that they study versus the curriculum used at the school where I taught in my pre-motherhood days.

I taught American and British Literature while at Pebblebrook, and the American Literature semester always started with the Puritans. Well, more specifically, we started with Native Americans, but we flew through that in about two days because the students hated it. For the Puritan unit, however, we read The Crucible, though it was actually written decades later. The students loved reading the Crucible for obvious reasons--scandal, witchcraft--I don't know, maybe they could relate. (Totally kidding. Sort of.) Anyway...being a first year teacher, I received a lot of advice from the other American Lit. teachers, and for the most part I did what they had always done, and they had always read the Crucible because to them it was a great representation of the Puritans. Hmmmm...here is where I differ in belief. Again, being a first year teacher, I was grateful for any notes, tests, projects ideas, etc. that might be passed to me, and I was given a power point presentation to use at the beginning of the Puritan Unit. One of the vocabulary words included in that power point presentation was fanatic. As in, religious fanatic. As in, the Puritans were nothing but religious fanatics, and there is not much good we can say about them. And Jonathan Edwards. Oh dear, the things I was supposed to teach about Jonathan Edwards. Did you hear? He was nothing but fire and brimstone that only served to increase that fanaticism among the Puritans. Crazy man. Interesting, I thought, since I had always heard that he was a great theologian of the Great Awakening. Hmmmm...

So, fast forward to tonight, and I am helping my history student prepare for finals. It's one of those impossible situations where she has to study 13 chapters worth of information by Thursday of next week, so we were scrambling to make note cards out of old tests borrowed from a student who actually thought to save her tests. (The girl I tutor, her mom thinks she probably threw them away. I have to agree with her mom. She always tells us that the teacher never gave it back. Funny, since the teacher says he does give them back. You be the judge--who's telling the truth?) Anyway, I digress. So there we sat, quickly making note cards, and I was making a note card about Jonathan Edwards, and sure enough, this test for this history class at a Private Christian School defined Jonathan Edwards as a well known theologian from the Great Awakening. Nothing about fanaticism. Nothing about crazy.

You tell me if certain world views don't creep into the curriculum. One curriculum accepts as fact that Jonathan Edwards and the puritans were crazy fanatics, and another claims he was a great theologian. It gives this mom a lot to consider when it comes to the education of her children.

Latest Ada Stories

just a few funny happenings from our day to day.

Yesterday Ada and I were headed to CVS to buy my weekly bargains, and I gave her a sippy cup of water to drink on the way. It was one of those "take and toss" from Wal-Mart. Hint: I don't toss them, I wash them and reuse them:). Well, it was about halfway full of water when we left the house. Of course I "stopped" by Sonic (which was a good 5 minutes out of our way) for a half-price diet coke, and after I had ordered and I was waiting on my drink, I turned around to talk to Ada. And there she sat with the lid of the sippy cup in one hand and an empty cup in the other. hmmmm....I made an educated guess that she hadn't finished drinking that water before the lid came off. Sure enough, when we got to CVS, and I picked her up, her pants were soaking wet, which meant that my shirt was quickly soaked from holding her. I was not deterred from my deals, however. In to CVS we marched, soaking baby and all. She didn't seem bothered in the least. As soon as we got back to the car, I stripped her down to her diaper, and that was how she rode the rest of the way home. And I repeat my mom motto--you do what you have to do.

p.s. maybe that's why those sippy cups are so cheap. Sometimes it might be worth it to pay the higher price;)

Second Ada tale

I am trying to enforce two naps a day while she is suffering from the cold and ear infection. This morning Ada was fighting that morning nap like a champ. I dug my heels in, though, and she is now asleep! I won!!! Yea. Well, in the falling asleep (screaming at the top of her lungs) process, I went into her bedroom to check on her. There I found her pantsless, with only one arm left in her shirt. The other arm was freely flailing about in anger over nap time. Again, I was not deterred. I calmly took her freed arm and placed it back in her shirt. I left her pants on the floor where she had tossed them, and I lay her back down. And, folks, she is now asleep. And I believe she will be a happier baby for it. And I, a happier mom!

I will most likely do a second post today with a very funny story of my first in-home tutoring experience. I was quickly reminded of why teenagers make me laugh so hard. Most of the time, their thinking is just a little off. Preview--tacky day during Homecoming Week is certainly important enough to lie to your mom about the due date of a History paper. Clearly tacky day has much more lasting consequences than your FAILING grade in the class. Oh how I love those teenagers and their yet to fully develop brains.

Everywhere I turn there are children buying school supplies

This fall marks the first fall since I was six that I didn't go back to school. Okay, I didn't go back to school last fall, but that doesn't count because I was oblivious to anything but my due date that was staring me in the face. So this is the first fall that counts, and I didn't realize how sad I would feel. I just keep seeing the signs for school supplies, and back to school clothes, and moms with kids checking off lists in Target, and I just keep feeling that small sad feeling in the pit of my stomach. What I wish is that I could pack Ada up with my bag of books and take her right into the classroom with me, just like when I was pregnant, but of course, that's not possible. And, for me, it's not possible for me to go without her, so I just have to live with the sad feeling. I love the start of a new school year--so much possibility. A clean slate. New goals. I loved that I had a job where I always got a second chance. Now fall and back to school will always mark another year of Ada's life. Okay, not really fall, but since back to school now happens in August, it is the same time as Ada's birth. It makes me want to try once more to find a job where I can teach online. Not tutor, teach. I know what I will find, that I don't have enough experience, but hey, it's worth another shot. Anyway, it's just one of those days where I am wishing I could live a double life, have the best of both worlds, and I needed to share with someone.

Updates

I feel like I have been away for so long. In reality I think it has only been a few days, but there are so many things I want to record.

As I type this I am sitting at my desktop, which means, yea, the computer is fixed. Finally I can get back to tutoring. This leads me to my first update. I am in the process of possibly joining a different tutoring company, tutor.com, which I think I will be happier with. My fingerprints for esylvan have still not gone through, and I continue to work maybe two hours a week. Plus, it is not the most convenient job because I have to be in an area where there is no background noise. With tutor.com, there will only be typing, no actual talking, so I could be in the room with Scott and Ada while I work. Plus there are no fingerprints required, so hopefully I will get more hours. And the last reason why I think I will like tutor.com more is because I would be working with students who have questions about literature and writing--my favs. With esylvan, I was working with elementary students helping them with reading and math, not really what I went to school to do, and it was sometimes comical to see me try to help students with math. I have no training in teaching math!! I don't know all the math lingo involved with multiplying triple digit numbers and things of that nature. So that is update number one--a new job may be in the works.

Update number two, Ada is walking all over the place. With the walking comes many falls and, therefore, many bruises. Bless her heart, she is so accident prone these days. She is fearless, and this results in lots of tears after she knocks her head into yet another wall, bed post, floor, etc. But she is really taking off. I have also devised a makeshift playroom in our otherwise empty dining room. I have blocked all entrances with furniture, and thrown all of Ada's toys into the room. I can put her in there, and there is nothing dangerous or breakable that she can get to. It makes it easier for me to do things like clean the kitchen or dry my hair. She doesn't stay in there for very long without me before she gets fussy, but it does buy me some time to get things done. Whatever works, right?

As for her sleeping, we are sort of back at square one. All the traveling and company over the last couple of weeks messed us up, and she has woken up in the middle of the night for the last several nights. Sunday night we let her cry for an hour before we caved and gave her a bottle. Last night was even worse. We were so tired, we gave in immediately. We have got to go to bed earlier so that we can actually stick to the plan and not give her a bottle. The other sleep update is that she is officially down to one nap a day. I have tried to hold on to that morning nap, but it is just not happening, but she is taking a longer more consistent afternoon nap as a result, so the new schedule does have its perks.

As I type this, Ada is in her room crying at the top of her lungs because she doesn't want to go to bed. She is usually fairly easy to put down, but tonight she is putting up quite the fight. It is after eight, though, so there is no giving in to those cries. It's never fun to listen to your child cry, no matter how much you know you're doing what's best!!

And last update--Scott and I have jumped on the Dave Ramsey bandwagon. We are fairly excited about this, though it means the already tight budget just got even tighter. Our first step in the Dave Ramsey plan is to save an emergency fund, so we have begun to save. Our plan is to deposit money in the account any time we want to go out for dinner instead of eat in or buy a new outfit, or whatever situation arises. We are trying to have fun with it, and we know that in the end, we will be so glad we did this. We are kicking ourselves that we didn't do this plan back when we had my paycheck. It would make gathering the emergency fund so much easier. The final step in the plan is paying off the house, so it looks like this is a lifestyle, not a one time thing. I feel like we just started this really strict diet, and I am wanting to lose weight within a week--not going to happen!! So, I will keep you posted on all the fun ways we are saving money.

Finally I will be back tomorrow with fun pictures from the week with Ann and her kids. We had so much fun hanging out, playing at the Atlanta children's museum, and just enjoying the company.