Life on Mars - Another Hectic Week

Sometimes it feels like I have my own private full moon that follows me wherever I go. You see the moon is always full, it just depends on how the Earth blocks the sun from getting to it. Apparently the shadow of the Earth has no effect in tempering the effects of the full moon in our neighborhood. Everyone is crazy all of the time.

Last week was worse than the week before. Seems like I'm coaching the spawn of Satin. The 9 year old swears and spits and torments me. He hates reading. Really hates it. Turns out he might just be dyslexic though. I have a serious bone to pick with his former school if he is. And I do not think that I am equipped to teach him if he is.

Then there is the neighbor who offered me a ride on the weekend and said that she'd have the car after 12. So I discussed it with my daughter about how we would arrange it. Then I find out she'd have the car TOMORROW after 12. When I said I didn't understand that she meant tomorrow, because she didn't say tomorrow, she screamed at me and accused me of calling her a liar. I love crazy people, no really.

They all drink coffee like it's water. Three adults in the house and they go through one 34 oz can of coffee a week. Ours lasts 2 of us about 2 months. How do they sleep? Well you just take the thorazine when you need to go to bed.

I am so looking forward to the next few weeks. My horoscope says this is one of the best months I had or will have in years. Things will culminate into very bad on the 29th. If this is good, I just can't wait for bad. I'm supposed to stay home on that day, but I think I have dinner with my cousins, and I see them so rarely that I don't really want to miss, but I don't really want the roof of the restaurant to fall in on us either.

Have a good week. I'll see you back next one (I hope)

Life on Mars - Online School and Exhaustion

So you're thinking about online school for your kids. I guess if you have as bad of a school system as we do you might consider it: if your kids are not doing as well as you like, you might consider it: if you kids are bullied: you might consider it. 

My grandsons weren't living up to expectations, and in the really rotten school they went to, they were getting yelled at constantly. Imagine your kids teachers pointing out your child specifically and saying...there's so and so again, daydreaming. I mean they did that to me, but that was a LONG time ago. 

First, registration is NOT easy. We thought we had almost everything 2 weeks before school. Then we needed this, and that, and another thing. Immunization records, last report cards, a 2 hour long online form for EACH of the kids, computer waiver forms,  birth certificates, progress reports, the list seemed never ending. This school was not like any other, we had to get everything, there was no transfer of information from the other school.

The registration process took us so long that the boys missed close to 3 weeks of school, because the online school started earlier and had less vacation days than our local school. We are a bit lost and behind right now. And the tough part is that I have to work WAY more than I imagined, because I am the boys coach. 

The boys  need to work about 5 hours a day, and I have to sit by the third grader and help him understand everything he's working on. And I don't get a lot right now. I had to take an online coaching course that was several hours (I haven't even finished it yet). 

Here is the plus. The students get all of their books, and study materials free. The 3rd grader even got a nice art kit and paper (no, I don't have to go out and buy crayons and pencils and erasers enough to last everyone in the class for a year). Most of their work is done in their provided workbooks, wow, no paper either. They also each get a loaner computer for the school year. YAY!

And the other nice thing? Their grades are already improving. The 9th grader works well independently and he's working very hard. The third grader is going to be a LOT of work, but he likes the way he's learning. Some of the classes are fun, he can go back when he doesn't understand, and they have cute videos too. I'm hoping he will eventually be a bit more independent. 

So that's what Life on Mars was like this week. Coaching, learning, unpacking and setting up computers, and designing and finishing my new purse.