The Learning Advantage

For those of you who know me, you will remember that I have gone back to school.  And, can I just say WOW – but that is a ‘ole ‘nother post.

This post is about my new venture…The Learning Advantage…You can check it out at www.thelearningadvantage.com. 

It is quickly becoming my new life…

I Promise…

This morning I needed to borrow some rocks from SmartBee for a lesson with a student.  I knew he had some on his dresser because he had just cleaned his room yesterday and I saw them when I did my “inspection.”  (By the way, I won the clean room contest yesterday and had to bake brownies today – somehow that does not sound right!).

Anyway, back the point.  I went into his room to borrow the rocks and they were not on the dresser.  I am not a “snooper” mom so I really did not want to go digging but I knew there was only one other place he would have put them – in the middle drawers of his dresser.  That’s his “place” for stuff when I think there should be clothes there. 

When I open the door, this is what I found…

Now, I know you think I am talking about the masking tape.  And, to be honest I always wondered what the kid was doing with the rolls of masking tape that keep disappearing. 

But that’s not it at all. 

In case you can’t read what the bottom strip of tape reads, it says “Someday I will writ a book! I promis  B-”

I sat down and wept.  It touched my heart.  It broke my heart.  It took my heart away.  My little (ok, not so little) dyslexic boy who loves to read and write is promising himself to write a book one day.   He is promising to write a book one day. 

I want to take that silly piece of masking tape and have it bronzed.

It’s a good thing…

You all know we hate spelling at our house.  And, no we don’t need any feel good stories of how good a spellers we can be if we just tried this or that.  We have our own feel good stories, thank you very much and they all revolve around candy… M & M’s to be exact. 

I give you BusyBees M & M spelling words…it’s a good thing…

It all comes full circle

Most of you who know me now would not recogonize the me of 20 years ago, well, you might look twice and think you know me.  But truth is, I was very different back then and by back then I mean before kids. 

HoneyBee will be the first in line to raise his hand and say when that first boy popped out there went his wife.  He has been bravely hanging on hoping that she some day returns to him.  In the meantime he has had to cope with this crazed woman trying to figure it all out live, with no commercials. 

But, to be fair HoneyBee and I have both changed and that has been the topic of conversation lately because we think somewhere along the line we might have compromised a few core beliefs.  Oh, don’t worry we didn’t believe in things that were too wacked out.  But we did have some basic things we said we would do and we are not doing them.

Now, don’t get excited you will never get the juicy marriage dirt on this site – and honestly, there’s not too much of it anyway.  However, there has been a blip on our radar of “did we make the right choice?” with regard to SmartBee.  And that’s why you have not seen me too much on here lately.

This is our life…

6am – Rise and  Shine

8am – BusyBee to School

8:40 – SmartBee to School

Then I have the day to get school stuff done so I can start accepting students.

3 pm BusyBee Home & Homework

4:30 SmartBee Home

5pm Start SmartBee’s Homework

9pm – If we are lucky SmartBee is done and we can go to bed.

That’s part of the situation.  The other is that SmartBee seems to be turning off in school, the teachers “never seem to have his attention.” Although, I can’t say I blame him much when all he is doing is school stuff. 

So, we are at a fork in the road.  We have been having lots of heart-to-hearts about what to do.  SmartBee is coming home, frustrated, in tears because “he just can’t get it together.” 

In the past he has been able to have teachers that guided him, that spent more than 45 minutes with him, that go to know him, that got to see him in his all his glory good and bad.  They were more able to see the whole picture.  Now, it’s about a 45 minute first impression that has him wishing he could just have a repeat pass because he is floundering.

To be fair, I don’t expect the teachers to hold his hand, I don’t expect them to stand over him and force him to do his work.  They have other students. I do expect respect and courtesy.  And, I do expect that his accomodations are met. 

There is so much on both side to this whole situation.  To get into the nitty gritty would take forever and would either bore you to death or make you cry.

So, this is where we are at…we are waiting for the first report card.  We are waiting because if SmartBee can’t pull it together we might pull him and homeschool him.  There!  I said it outloud.  I can’t believe I said it but I did.  And, it really is something we are thinking seriously about. 

HoneyBee and I have always been homeschool supporters.  We did not think it was the best for our kids because we wanted them to have a combination of the two.  We knew that they would always need extra help and what better way to do that then to put them in school and then be there at home to help.  The best of both worlds. 

Problem is, the two worlds don’t really play well together…so we are at the crossroad…

I will keep you posted…

See you dysing around!

Rebecca

It’s not good-bye…

We are having a rough time of it lately.  This one of SmartBee’s very best friends.  I would say there are three of these guys that if given half a chance will be life-long friends.  And, this guy is one of those.  He is also SmartBee’s longest held friend.  They met when they were just about three. 

He moved away once before and it was hard, but he came back and it was better.  Now, his family is moving away again and this time it will probably be for good or at least for a good while.  They are heading up north to Indiana, ironically. 

SmartBee and I are having lots of talks about far away friends and how to keep in touch.  He is scared because he does not write well, so he is afraid he won’t write letters or do email.  That leaves talking on the phone.  But guys don’t talk on the phone for hours and trust me these guys can spend hours, days, weeks together they are just that good of friends. 

So, we are sad and busy and SmartBee’s friends family will complete their move in October.  How can you jam school, orchestra, boy scouts, camping, fundraisers, homework and last minute best friend things into just two months?

I am not sure, either but we plan on doing it and if anyone knows how they do those video chats online please let me know….

See you dysing around…

Rebecca