-=> Quoting Charity Ayuso-Onore to Regina Finan <=-
 -=> Quoting Regina Finan to Charity Ayuso-onore <=-
 
 CA> Great!  I'm sure you and your children will do well.  You sound like
 CA> you are committed to this and that is the most important facet of
 CA> homeschooling.
 
 This is exactly what I tell other people when we talk about homeschooling.
 You must be dedicated and comitted to follow through.  With Jeremy I hold
 pretty true to getting him together in the morning.  If he hems and haws
 (which is what happens if he lets his ADHD control the morning start) I
 mark him as absent and then he has to make it up.  He is learning this
 is hard to do because it takes away from his play time.  The rule is for
 all of them, but it is only him I have to use it on.  I took this into
 account when I sent up the rules.  I knew that I could not have a seperate
 set of rules just for him or he would use the "your picking on me" thing
 so I developed it for everyone.
 CA> That was the same story for my 23 yr old.  She was labeled as slow. 
 CA> She was not slow; she just could not hand in a sloppy paper.  During
 CA> tests and hand in compostions if she had to erase an error she would
 CA> erase until there was nothing visible etc.  I used this as a tool for
 CA> her and helped her see that she was an individual who paid attention to
 CA> detail. 
 When she was in pub school, there was no problem.  They were a little
 slow for her and there were not many challenges.  In homeschool there
 are alot more challenges put to her.  She has matured more than I
 expected this past school season.  Cooking and cleaning as well as taking
 care of herself (hair, brushing teeth and so forth).  She has labeled most
 kids in the neighborhood as weird.  Mainly because she is not a typical
 9 year old anymore.  She is now stuck between that age and a teenager.
 She wants her friends to be older than her because she can deal with their
 level of maturity better than a typical 9 year old.
 CA> I miss those times with my kids when they were a younger.  :)
 
 It's kinda funny.  When I had my 12 year old I was really into parenting.
 When I had the twins, I was forced to go to work and I just couldn't deal
 very well with it.  When I quit I took the two years they were going to
 school and did nothing.  It took that long for me to get back into sink.
 Finacially we have had it rough.  Alot of people have told me to go back
 to work and put the kids back in pub schools.  I refused and of course
 they don't understand.  We moved into a low income area just to get a
 foot on the ground financially.  Things are going better now with that
 and it won't be too long and I will be looking into more educational
 aids (that cost money).  I even throw a few homeschooling things to
 my grandaughter.  Games on the computer and cutting a pasting (she is
 almost 4).  Her father has been teaching her to write letters too.  Its
 becoming a thing around here to use whatever we can to teach our kids
 something and I'm glad it has spilt over to my older daughter now.  The
 kids who do come over go nuts, because I have maps, erasure boards and
 other things.  They usually end up playing school too.  Which is great
 as they do learn from each other.  
 
 CA> I'll be happy to share any knowledge I have learned in these past
 CA> years. Feel free to write to me anytime.
 
 I may have a question or two when time goes on, but at the moment things
 are doing okay.
 CA> Hang in there Regina.  It gets easier as they get older. :)
 
 Well it would be nice to get a little easier, but I expect it not to be
 too soon.  Thanks for the talk.
 Regina
... All I need is a Wave and a board to surf it on.
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