this is FALL??

today was finish up things for the week and hit the beach day. it was so nice. the leaves are starting to fall, but the air was so warm we went swimming!!

back to our comfortable way of doing things

and man I love it. It is such a relief to be done with iq. I am sure that program would work for someone but it sure didnt work for us! Maybe because we had already established a way of doing things around here and not being creatures of change we didnt like the change. The kids both just wrote a paper for me. I have not yet read Cody's but Chrysta's turned out pretty well I believe! She wrote about getting a new kitten and all the things one must do to take care of it. Cody wrote about dogs and training them. I let them choose the topics. We have been focusing mainly on writing this last week or two, working on taking notes and organising notes into a paper and then making changes to the rough draft and writing a final draft.

I have been looking for a date book or assignment book or lesson plan book but have yet to find one. I can find date books that start Jan 1. But how do I record the 4 months before that!!!?

I returned the computers today via USPS. As Ethan says thanksbetogoditsover!

I did it

We are done. And I for one am relieved. They will send us a letter how to return the laptops. From here on out our homeschool adventures will not include IQAcademy.

still sucky

I am so over this program. Not sure why everyone thinks we should stick with it. I am torn. Every day she tells me she hates it and wants to go back to doing it the other way. I keep waiting for us to get our life back. I hate feeling like that. They might as well go off to PS if its going to be that way. How do I tell E who thinks they ought to stick with it? I need to get a bcakbone and just do it and say look this is what we are doing. I cant deal with this anymore. I have to do it the other way.But hey! I am a people pleaser! Oh sounds like he is home now.

one week down

they still hate it. but they finished everything for the week. I still want to send it all back. they want me to send it all back. Eric doesnt want us to. He thinks they should stick it out. I think I am more and more leaning towards unschool/homeschool. I just dont know.

more tears today. and an assignement we just absolutely can not do as described. We have no track at our home, not at the school in our town. there is no track for her to run on. She was SO exscited to do this course but now she hates it. and it is only the second day. I am less and less happy overall. At the end of the day I will look at their grades and see how it is so far.

so far this is needing a lot of parental involvement and guidance. Chrysta has decided she will give it a shot for a week but I think she is just doing that to pacify E and will say at the end of the week I still hate it. Maybe I will be wrong and she will change her mind. Cody did his math but nothing else so far. I had to change their classes because they had them each in one wrong class. Thursday is chrystas first live class for one of her classes. 830am. ugh. Thursday is supposed to be our day to sleep in! I really hate that I started this. I wish I would have bought a book curriculum. But now I have to deal with it for a bit. Maybe it will get easier as the week goes. I sure hope so. I need to chill a bit about the whole thing. But it is frustrating that they are expected to do things and then are not given the tools to do them. then they come to me wanting help and I cant give it to them because it hasnt been provided. ie bad links, broken movies, or just a note that says start with ______ but there is no section labeled_______ so you have to guess if x____ is the one they wanted.

Already the tears. day one. and NOT from the child we expected it from. Chrysta is in a puddle of tears after two hours of school. THAT"S not good. Cody has barely begun his day so he may be in a puddle as well shortly. She is panicing because there is a test in 5 hours. I dont know if she means after 5 hours of work or what. but she is all sorts of confuzled at the program. and they put her in the wrong math class. they put cody in the wrong social studies class. They want us to approve or deny our schedules by the end of today but the site they say to go to doesnt work, you cant link to it from the email, you cant copy it from the email(I tried) so you have to type it by memory and even though I have the address correct I still can't access it. You can call to tell them its wrong but first it was busy and then no one answered. I am ready already to be done. Ready to pack up the computers and send it all back. call the school and get the homeschool paperwork and find a book curriculum I can teach them myself. But for now I have to take E and M to preschool sign up, Chrysta to get her glassess adjusted and to sign up for soccer. She wants to just go to PS. I am not doin that though. I remember now all the reasons we pulled them out.

tomorrow is the first day of scho!ol

at IQACADEMY. I had high hopes for it but as it gets closer I dont think its so great anymore. Will give it a chance and see how it goes. but it definitely makes spontenaity a thing of the past. No more hey lets go _______ today! trips are no longer easy and/or possible. I guess if it gets too rigid or too "not us" or too "public school agenda" or whatever we can always stop and go back to regular homeschool. In a way I am wondering why I even enrolled them. I have evolved from homeschool teacher to mom who homeschools. they are not the same. I used to fret about them learning this or that and working x many hours. Now, not so much. I am more of a mind that they will learn and are learning and who cares what the ps does or says? Husband is more "they arent learning enough!AGH! The sky is falling!!" I wish I could just unenroll them and do something else. but I am committed now. So I will try it awhile and see how it goes. if they dont do well we can stop. I havent told them that is an option so they will not just say I quit at the first bump they come to.