Posts I’ve written about the kids
The Big Update
I dropped out of my master’s program! (we’ll get to that) It has been about six months since my last update on this blog. There were many days when I thought I should write something but never got around to it. A lot has changed and I have needed to adapt in response. It honestly hasn’t left much room for any discretionary activities like blogging. We went back to homeschooling the teenagers. They were excited to go back to school and were going to one of the best public schools in our area. They made friends right away and were…
School and More School
Today was the first day of the second semester of my grad school program. That’s a heck of a sentence. I’m taking two masters-level classes, working part time for one of my professors, homeschooling all four of my kids, and trying not to fall apart. With dentist, doctors, and various therapy appointments… I have described this situation like this: “my calendar looks like I tried to sweep confetti out of the carpet with a fork.” Again, I find myself endlessly thankful that my partner has a pretty flexible work schedule and a can-do attitude. However, even if he takes someone…
Opinion: Parenting ADHD
Full disclosure: If you’re one of those “ADHD doesn’t exist” people and you’re comfortable in that space, this blog (the whole thing, not just this post) is probably not for you. With my house full of people at all hours of the day since the pandemic struck, I’ve been thinking a lot about my parenting toolbox. I recently read an article on the subject of parenting with ADHD on the ADDitude magazine website because I was feeling pretty inadequate. I forget things. I get impatient and lose my temper. Sometimes I lose track of time and end up in a…
But Why?
I want to do a bit of a deep dive into why I’m doing all of this. I want you to know, and I also want to be able to look back on this when I’m really questioning myself. I wrote those first two sentences in March, then I tucked this draft away into the dusty recesses of the internet and probably didn’t even look at it again until today… Friday, December 18. It probably would have been a great exercise. I certainly had good, productive, self-aware intentions. Self-care is hard. Remember March? People in the US were already getting…
Please Give Me More Responsibilities
Remote schooling isn’t working for us. I’m sure it’s not working for a lot of you. The schedules change, we’re not sure which zoom sessions our kids are supposed to show up for and which are optional, and sometimes the teachers are asking our kids to do things they can’t even do because it doesn’t work on a chromebook. Neither of the remote-schoolers are handling the time spent staring at a screen well at all. Not to mention, it’s incredibly stressful (when it’s even possible) to manage two different remote-learning schedules while also trying to homeschool my teenagers and keep…
Homeschooling Teenagers
For the first time that I know of, homeschooling feels popular. Parents are realizing that they were doing a lot of work at the end of the spring semester and they are seeing that they can probably handle all of the work. While I wouldn’t want to discredit teachers for the education they have and the work they do, because they do provide an important service that I would hate to see disappear, I actually think that many parents are going to be just fine striking out on their own. They just needed a push (and some uncomfortably forced free…
Opinion: Parenting Autism
My daughter is nearly eleven years old. I often call her Miss. Miss was diagnosed with autism a year ago, and her school just performed the battery of tests required to build her an IEP. I’m sure it is a frustrating process, even in the best of times, but the remote administration due to COVID was a special kind of miserable for Miss. Plus, Miss belongs to a bilingual Montessori charter school and several staff members are not able to come back and must be replaced because of work visa troubles caused by the pandemic. So things are a little…
Summer Dreams
Juno is better. It wasn’t cancer or poison… it was immune-mediated hemolytic anemia. She’s destroying her own blood cells for no discernible reason. So she’s been on a bunch of medications and on a pretty tight schedule of vet visits, and her red blood cell count is back up to normal. Which means she’s back to obsessively whining and barking at other dogs when we go on walks, stealing chicken nuggets when she thinks no one is looking, and chasing squirrels. Which means we have to get back to pushing plates to the middle of the table when we walk…
All is Well… Too Well
As I sit on the couch, putting my thoughts into a blog, my 7-year-old is watching Magic School Bus across the room. In their respective rooms, my other kids are programming, writing stories, and doing math. Today, everyone seems happy to do their work. Yesterday, however, the youngest was literally yelling about wanting “just ONE day off!” as though I’m some kind of tyrant when in reality, they’re getting weekends off and every day is a half day as long as they do their work when they’re asked to. In spite of the fact that the older kids have avoided…
Everything Keeps Changing
Exploring why I’m not currently making my kids do their school work, and I don’t plan to. I’m not making my kids do their school work. My best friend is following her kids’ school’s quarantine education plans. I think everyone I personally know who has kids is checking all the boxes their respective schools lay out for them. So, I feel a little bit like a bad parent for saying I’m not going to do it. But I won’t. This whole new virtual schooling system came crashing down on us like The Iron Giant: both because some well-meaning, innocent, but…
Homeschooling Again
It’s hard to be an adult right now; it might be even harder to be a kid. Being an adult trying to raise kids is a tricky game I’m not even sure I know how to play, but I’m trying. We are living in strange times. I wasn’t expecting to be writing about something like this when I made this blog. Many aisles at the grocery store are empty, many businesses are closed, others are shifting operations to help produce personal protective equipment for doctors and nurses or hand sanitizer to help us recover from a panic-induced shortage. We were…
Acceptance
Today, I sent a letter to a university to indicate my acceptance of their acceptance of me. It sounds ridiculous when I put it that way. What I’m really saying is I applied to a master’s program and was accepted! Today, I confirmed my interest in the program, and I start in the fall! I just finished my bachelor’s degree in biology and am starting my master’s in environmental science. I hope to eventually get my PhD in urban ecology, but maybe I’ll have a career in there somewhere since a PhD will probably land me squarely in professor-zone. I…
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