Addendum to school days

Ok, I feel really stupid now. I was getting so caught up in describing what I teach Alex, that I forgot half of what he is doing. Oh well, at least I caught it. I was making up a sheet to cover the next month of school work, because I need to have some method of tracking classes that he is taking without me and I realized that I had forgotten so much. So here it is:

World History - Alex said early on that he liked History, so we started with the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. I would just read him a page or two every day. We also listened to a lot of the Jim Weiss CD’s and saw a lot of historical documentaries and movies. There was a lot of western history that wasn’t taught and even the Russian history he had known was wildly skewed. We have tried to do living history as well with things like the Ren Faire etc. Nothing brings history alive like costumes and walking around pretending!

But now that Alex is more competent in English, he is taking a World History course taught for our homeschool group. There are 8 other kids in it and it is a year long course that is prep for the AP exam, but obviously, he will not be taking it. They meet for a couple of hours twice a week and it is taught more a college style seminar. So far, he seems to respond really well to that type of learning - there is no busy work, only essays that need to be written every few weeks analyzing things they have learned.

World Geography - Alex said he wanted to learn geography so I purchased the Kingfisher Guide to World Geography and we do a page every day. We started with basic things like latitude/longitude, and maps etc. Very basic middle school stuff, but now we are into studying the individual countries and have been making more progress. Amanda is doing it with him and is enjoying it as well.

Critical Thinking - I worry a lot about critical thinking obviously! I got some analogy workbooks and other puzzler type workbooks from critical thinking press and every once in a while (once a week or so) Alex will do one of the workbook pages. We started with a second grade workbook which really ticked him off but as his English has progressed, we have been able to do more. We are now in a high school work book much to his happiness.

Unit Studies - Occasionally the kids express an interest in certain subjects, so we will do short unit studies. One that was popular this summer was Greek and Roman mythology. We are currently starting one on the Pacific front of WW2. 

Ok - I think this covers it!

School Evaluations

As you all know, I chose to homeschool Alex (more out of laziness than anything else). After all, the other kids had been homeschooled, and that is the life I know best. Well, in Utah, there are no requirements for homeschooling but here in Washington there is the requirement of a yearly evaluation for progress. It can take the form of a standardized test or it can be an individualized eval, but nonetheless, it must get done.

When we moved here last year, in October, I contacted a tester and had a baseline evaluation done on Alex. She herself was an ESL student as a teen (Spanish though) and she had given me some good ideas on what to do schoolwork wise with him. So we have been plugging along and finally last week, we had our yearly evaluation. Alex was scared as I think he still feels if he doesn’t perform up to snuff, that he is out of here. Ridiculous, but there you go. I was assuaging him that everything was going to be ok, when the doorbell rang. It was the same lady and you could tell he was so anxious to please her.

So the eval got under way. She asked him to read a passage out of a middle school earth science book, she looked at some samples of his writing in English and then asked him a bunch of questions. Then she had him do a couple of random Algebra problems. Finally, when I thought he would explode, she stopped and said, “Let’s talk.” I must confess, I felt a little worried also!

She told us then that she had never seen anyone learn so much English so fast. She was amazed at his math - she said she had given those same problems to native speaking kids that couldn’t get them right. She also said that his reading was almost on grade level of native speakers as well. His writing is coming along more slowly, but his dictated essays and the such were on grade level she felt as well. I think Alex was astounded! He really didn’t expect that. I think he compares himself against Amanda all the time and comes up lacking which I keep telling him not to do.

She gave him the happy news that he was on track for the 10th grade this year and if he continued to progress would be graduating with Amanda in 2016 and on track for college. He was ecstatic - it was so cute to see.

So, at the risk of boring everyone - I wanted to just catalogue what I have been doing with Alex at home this past year. I have been so fortunate to receive so much good advice from people that I want to pass it along. Hopefully you all will find some useful things in it for you all.

English - I don’t teach spelling, grammar, or word usage. I have been concentrating on vocabulary. I have a SAT book that lists the 500 most common SAT words - so every week he gets a new word or two. These are taped on the fridge and are memorized by the whole family and then used by everyone, including Alex. It is so cute to hear him use them! The other day I told a little fib and he yelled, “Mom is fabricating a story!” Every week he has to write the words in a list but I don’t test him on them. Once we get twenty or so words, then we start a new list. He uses a HOT DOTS set of reading comprehension questions (grade 4-6) to read and answer on his own (a couple of cards a week). He also is required to write one English sentence a week using an idiom. I have a deck of cards with an idiom on each card with a cute picture (like you can count on me and shows a picture of a person with numbers all over them). He has to write a sentence using the idiom. Grammar or spelling is not corrected but the overall meaning is if necessary. I think now he will be doing two idioms a week and I will ask for two sentences going forward. We also have been using the reading comprehension worksheets from www.englishforeveryone.com - they are wonderful and complete. We have worked our way through almost all of them.

Literature - For reading, Alex has to read a “classic” book every 2-3 months of my choice in Russian. For example, the last one was A Midsummers Nights Dream by Shakespeare. Then we discuss it - eventually I would like to see an essay - but for now talking about it is enough. If there is a movie or play of it - then we go see it. This is getting hard for me as there are limited books in our library - but thankfully I think enough for a while. I am up for suggestions on his next couple of books if anyone has any ideas. I was thinking some Mark Twain maybe.

English reading - Alex is required to read one fun book every week in English - these I choose below grade level - right now he is reading Magic Tree House books for example. I want them to be easy and fun and enjoyable. He fusses a little and wants to move it along - he is asking for Harry Potter in English - but for now - I want it slow. I want him to get a good appreciation for the language in a non-threatening way. I also read out loud to Alex every chance I get. Almost every day I read to him about 20-30 minutes a day of any book of his choice. Currently we are reading the Zombie Survival Guide.

Russian - A couple of months ago, I went into freakout mode as Alex forgot a word in Russian. So, I hired a tutor that is a native Russian speaker that works at University of Washington in the Slavic languages department. She is wonderful (if a little bit of a tough task master) and has been working with Alex once a week. She gives him poems to memorize in Russian and has him writing one essay a week in Russian. She told him that his Russian is already degrading and is being very strict about keeping him skills up. He also fusses a little about how hard she is, but I think he is happy that he is keeping his Russian up. He also is doing (albeit) very slowly, an online course in Russian so that he can have transcript proof of competency.

Math - I had started Alex in algebra 1 but there were hue gaps in his knowledge (like fractions and decimals for example), so we back tracked a little into pre-algebra. But now we have a pretty good schedule of 3 algebra lessons a week and 1-2 catch up pre-algebra lessons a week. I am considering this year pre-algebra and next year algebra 1 but in reality - it is just algebra 1 spread out over 2 years. At first Alex needed me by his side doing each problem with him, but now - he is happy to do them on his own as long as I am near for help.

Science - I started Real Science 4 Kids middle school Geology with Alex a couple of months ago and he really likes it. The reading is of a level that he can do on his own - he reads the textbook out loud to me. And then he likes the hands on aspect of the labs. We also bought him a rock kit to augment the books. After this is done, we will move onto Physics and Chemistry. For life sciences, I purchased some Bio-Lab software with virtual dissections. We have finished the frog and are now working on the fish one. Next we will go to the cat. The CD format is great because there are labs and extras on the CD and there is no smell!

Sociology - I found a grad student at UW that is young and enthusiastic to teach Amanda and Alex a sociology course. I really wanted to focus on his higher order critical thinking skills (something I find lacking in soviet era culture). I want him to understand the importance of not having any fixed beliefs and the importance of questioning everything even if it is an important tenet of belief to him. In this spirit, we read the book “The Social Animal” by David Brooks. It was a very complicated book and probably only about 50% was truly understood by Alex, but each week, we read a chapter and then he dictated 3 paragraphs back to me about what he understood from the chapter. It was hit or miss sometimes, but after reading the whole book (and spending a year on this) he was really starting to analyze the content and agree or disagree with it as per his thoughts. It was so gratifying to see the change as we went through the book. Each week, I would email what he dictated to the tutor and then they would meet and discuss. This further helped to push him. At the end of the book, Alex dictated a full 5 paragraph essay to me complete with a thesis statement! I was so proud. The whole experiment worked so well that we are starting another book called This Will Change Everything which is a series of short essays by leading world figures talking about which future events (maybe artificial intelligence, or cloning for example) will revolutionize our future. I intend to continue this indefinitely with contemporary books as I think it will help Alex catch up on a lot in modern society that he will have to navigate.

Fine Arts - Not my strong point! Alex has been doing drum lessons (Santa brought a drum set) but I would like a more formal curriculum - any ideas? We go to a lot of plays (at least once a month) and concerts. And at least once a month are at a museum but again - he tends to flit through them pretty fast. Ok - I am sure this is my fault as I would rather be at a science museum than an art museum.

Sorry for my long and lengthy post about school but I am just so proud of Alex and what he has accomplished. The down side for him though is now I know what he is capable of and I am demanding more out of him!

A Look Back and a Look Up

Finally, I am feeling better - I feel almost normal. Who would have thought that the right medicine and R&R would have such miraculous effects! I have been back to cooking, cleaning, and doing my normal things. I think everyone is relieved! However, some of the ancillary benefits of this whole time has been better family relations though. We just hunkered down and spent quality time together this summer. Lots of pajama days, going to movies, and home-cooked meals. It has been lazy days and fun.

I was at dinner last night with some lovely women who have either adopted internationally or are in the process. It was such a walk down memory lane to hear about their experiences and contrast those with my own. Every child is different and every family experience is different but the whole process has many similarities. However, it was hard to relive the last year. It is helpful to realize how far we have come as a family, but also hard to remember all the difficult times we have gone through.

There was a lot of discussion about whether or not it was important for the child to have given a definitive answer yes to the question of whether or not they want to be adopted. I explained that I felt it was impossible to get such an answer out of a child. They are conflicted between ties from home and the new but unknown experiences of adoption internationally. Someone asked me when we knew Alex wanted to come and I had such a hard time answering that question. We never got a definitive yes and never communicated with him at the orphanage while we were doing paperwork, so we were going into Ukraine blind. But somehow when we saw him for the first time, we just knew. And I think, he knew too. Alex once told me that he always knew it was only us for him, but is that the same as a “yes I want to be adopted?” - I am not so sure it is. While I know that Alex loves us and is happy, there is still always the knowledge that this was just one chosen path that we somewhat pressured him into and that there are also many others paths that he could have followed, some good and some bad.

There was a lot of uncertainty brought up by this and I felt myself reliving the feelings that I had back then - not a fun thing to do. I don’t want to scare anyone, but once things have been lived through and laid to rest sometimes you don’t want to hear about them again - I mean now Alex is happy and integrated and some of these are moot points. But there is an emotional connection to the memories.

Unexpectedly, on the way home I found myself crying, alone and ridiculously in the car as I considered everything that had happened to bring Alex into our family. Also, the probability of any one of those things going wrong and Alex never having been able to join us. I was freaking out as I thought of the possibility of never having Alex in our life at all.

But once I got home and was able to hug him and hold him in my arms, it was all ok. He seemed to know I needed some extra TLC, even though I denied it. I kept saying I was ok and finally he just pulled me into his arms and said, “Oh please, I know you.” I had to laugh. And as I was tucking him into bed, it was so great to hear the words, “I love you more than anything mom.”