Own Schooling

Another week has come and gone, but at least this one had some significance to it – school started! (See photo of Kaleb's first day.)  I’m not sure yet if that is a good thing or bad. I do like that Kaleb learns stuff, but I hate that he resists the process so much. Homeschooling took its toll on both Kory and I last year, so we were ready to throw in the towel. Kaleb proposed that he “own school” himself to take the pressure off of us telling him what to do all the time. So far, it’s gone pretty well, but it’s only been four days and it wasn’t a normal week.

When I asked Kaleb what “own schooling” would look like, he wrote up a schedule of classes, complete with start and stop times. I thought he would just want to goof off for school, but he got my attention when his class load included piano, honors chemistry, algebra, PE, Bible, writing and speech. I couldn’t have scheduled it better myself, so I entertained the notion. I also made him sign a contract with some guidelines as to how it would work (no electronics or “free reading” during school hours, etc.), and then I told him I’d pay him ten dollars a day if he could pull it off. I figured if he’s ready to be responsible for himself at age 11, it’s worth dolling out some cash.

We don’t pay Kaleb for doing chores, but I told him if he can start school on time, do his best, do all his subjects for that day and put in a full days work, it’s just like having a job and he should be rewarded for that. Of course, he gets his pay docked if he starts late, has a bad attitude or cuts a class, so I have a lot of one dollar bills sitting around each day that find another home if he hasn’t earned them. In four days he’s already made thirty five dollars, so that’s not too shabby. He’s not complaining either, and both Kory and I are whistling Dixie since we just sit around waiting for Kaleb to tell US what do to, rather than the other way around. If he needs a ride somewhere, it’s his job to round us up to take him there. If he needs help with a project, he’s responsible for recognizing that.

Next week we’ll be kicking things up a notch because he starts his on-line science and math classes with Johns Hopkins University and they are real time consumers. This past week he filled those hours with a lot of art and woodworking projects, so it was good for him to ease into his school schedule when most of his work was just plain fun. But he did update his website and started working on another edition of The Weekly Puppy, so that was productive. I didn’t help him as much, like I have in the past, so he wasn’t too happy about having to write out his articles long hand, rather than dictate them to me, but I told him now is the time to do more work himself. I hope this momentum keeps up because I could really see this paying off in the long run as he’s learning all kinds of valuable skills in the process – not just what he learns academically. He’s having to plan things out, negotiate things and be nice! I like it. I love it. I want some more of it!

This week I’ve been experiencing the calm before the storm as well, because next week my schedule gets kicked up a notch too, as I start to teach debate for a group of homeschoolers, as well as lead Destination Imagination (a creative after school program designed for gifted kids), facilitate two home fellowship groups as well as two weekly prayer meetings. I’m also keeping the three-times-a-week work out session with a neighbor, so the feeling of the treadmill won’t just be on my exercise days – it will feel like it’s running from Sunday to Saturday each week as my calendar is packed full of weekly commitments. Unfortunately, it’s the American way. But somewhere in the midst of my days off from helping Kaleb (Kory and I still alternate days), I’m going to be writing. Cleaning closets has moved down on my priority list, as the need to complete my “blog book” takes front and center stage.

I had coffee with an elderly local woman this week who claims to be the biggest fan of my feature column on Norway. She is of Norwegian descent and insanely loves my weekly articles and wanted to ask me all kinds of questions about my life and living in Norway. She is the sweetest thing. It was weird to experience a little hero worship like that and I got the feeling she’d take me home with her if I let her. She showed me her photo album of the trip she took to Norway in 2004 to visit her second cousins, and in the back of the book she’d taped in all my columns. She saves every one to copy them and send them to friends and family. Too sweet. She can’t wait for the book to come out. I promised her the first copy, so now I just need to get it done!

We had a few out of the ordinary things happen this week that are worth a mention. Kory entered his Avanti in a classic car show just for Studebakers up in Bellingham, so he was pumped to meet fellow Avanti owners and to make some connections there. We are dog sitting this weekend and as much as I love that dog, I’m not thrilled with the muddy paw prints and dog hair everywhere. (I wish Kaleb charged enough that we could afford a house cleaner to come in afterwards and clean up the dog mess.) We are also hosting a woman here from England for a week – she trains dogs for the deaf, so she’s working with the people at Summit Assistance Dogs in Anacortes and we are loaning her our car, feeding her and giving her a place to stay. She’s quite the world traveler, even at age 30. She’s staying in America for three months traveling around doing some sightseeing but also working with other assistance dog agencies. We were hoping she’d help a little with the dog currently in our home, and some of his dastardly behaviors, but as we soon found out from her, the root of the problem is more with us, than with the dog. Oops.