Classes and Debating

HIGH GEAR AND STEPPING OUT

of our comfort zone

Part of me wondered why I put my son in all these social justice and debating programs this year. It only makes his ability to 'debate' his point against what I want him to do much easier.

Hard to be the only kid homeschooling now, that's what my son complains about lately. He is looking forward to working this summer and hoping to keep doing so when the new school year starts. I am concerned about the distractions, but will let him try it this summer.

He misses the days he got to hang around with his sister who is now working. Now his schedule is to sleep all day, and work on stuff in the evening, then stay up all night playing video games.

Not Working, but fell asleep playing online Games

He was supposed to be doing Computer homework

KIDS PROGRESS

SPEED RACER has a mildly packed schedule
He literally hardly gets anything done while I am at work and his dad or sibling that works from home is there.

Basically, I get home, I tell him to get off the video games and lets get to work. We work for about 3 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Monday and Wednesday only an hour or so. Most work is getting done on Sundays afternoons where it's our finish everything for the week. He will do the work, I check it, give it to him to revise, he fixes it, then turns it in.

Homeschool Classes 
Bible Study (online) with discussion with mom or dad
Pilot Training (online) mom reviews his test and quiz success and helps
Java Programming (online) sister reviews his projects and CompuScholar checks his test and quizzes


College Classes

C Programming
In week 1 of 8
-Finished Lab Project
-Finished 3 paragraph discussion
-Finished 1 page paper

Information Technology Ethics
In week 1 of 8
-Finished Ethical Analysis 5 page Paper
-Finished 3 paragraph discussion
-Finished Current Event Review paper

Foundations in Information Systems
In week 1 of 8
-Finished 3 paragraph discussion
-Finished 1 page paper

WORK and HOME BALANCE Working and Homeschooling 

MEAL PREP: This is on schedule. Thank goodness. My kids help with meal prep and planning for the week, then we do actual prep on Sunday for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This has been working well the last two weeks.

HOUSE CLEANING: Chore chart is being used for a reference and if they aren't done, they don't get to do their fun stuff...most times. I'm a softy so I have to work on this.

LESSON PLANNING: I now do it on google docs and share it with him. We get through it for the most part, now less then when both kids were homeschooling. 

MARRIAGE CHECKUP: We've been setting up a weekly game night with friends and family, not much alone time, but we are having some fun since the kids spend time playing with the other kids.

SELF CARE: My coworker bought her neck massager to work and gosh, I love it! Every morning I massage my neck for a good 10 minutes. Best way to start my day!

A full week with overtime at work ~ Oh My!

Yes, It's been one of those weeks!

You know the kind where you question your sanity?

Why oh why did I choose this week to try to do the following...

Work overtime 12 hours.
Host a Homeschool High School Cup Games and Event Planning Party.
Volunteer to pick up and drop off husband and daughters at the airport.
And too much more...(above is what I looked like after it all)

KIDS PROGRESS

SPEED RACER's been bored.Since paddling is winding down and he doesn't have his sister as his homeschool companion much anymore, he complains about boredom.

This is a huge transition for him, learning to entertain himself. He is a bit lonely, so I'm going to have to creatively find activities for him. Thinking of letting him go to aftercare at one of the local boys and girls clubs.

Homeschool Classes:
Investing: We've only watched 1 Youtube video in the series and haven't started the Cashflow game yet.

-After watching the Stock Market Crash and Market Bubbles video we played the Cover Your Assets Game. We needed four players so we gathered his siblings to play.

Recreational Pilot License Training: He wants to get this next summer so we are adding it into his curriculum. We got through 2 videos from the Sporty Pilot License lessons.

-He finished two videos with one quiz. He actually did pretty good.

Black History: This week we watched a documentary on African Jews and The Moors. The highlight was watching the movie The Tuskegee Airmen.

-  We had a discussion on all, but the most interesting was his perspective on The Tuskegee Airmen movie.

Astronomy: Something he wants to explore.

- Didn't get to these. I know, it's been three weeks and we haven't touched these yet.

Bible Review: We are doing this together with videos. The Truth Unveiled Video playlist has been good for him. He asked several deep questions and we did some deep diving on topics.

- Watched two videos from the Bible video series we found on Youtube.

Cooking and Car Repair: The cooking I am letting him build his own recipes and prep dinner. Car Repair, he is helping his father and brother fix our cars. Oil Changes, Brake Pad changes, etc.

- This week he prepped dinner three times.
- Car Repair - he refused to watch more videos until he gets some hands on experience.

PE: Distance Canoe Team, Martial Arts and Breakdancing.

- Martial Arts - practiced two times each week.
- Breakdancing - back to practice on Friday.

JavaScript and Unity 3D Programming: A Saturday small class with a teacher that meets from 8am til 1:30pm. All other kids are public school kids.

- He went to class all day Saturday and wanted to sign up for the Hackathon coming next month.

College Classes
5 Week of 8 -  into Biol 101 and Biol 102 (lab)
2 Week of 8 - Info Sys in Org - Started 1 class this week
1 Week of 8 - Introduction to In-depth Research

Biology with Lab (Aug to Oct)
-Finished class discussions
-Finished Week 5 of 8 class Labs
-Finished Week 5 of 8 quiz

Information Systems in Organizations (Sept to Nov)
-Finished Two discussions
-Finished Assigned Reading
-Reviewed interactive Learning Activity
-Completed Quiz 2
-Case Stud Paper

Introduction to In-depth Research (Sept to Oct)
-Finished discussion
-Quiz 1
-Quiz 2
-Research Log Project
Advanced Business Writing (Oct to Dec)
College Algebra (Oct to Dec)


TIGER LILLY the Homeschool Graduate with a BS Degree, now Working on MS Degree

After many challenges with her new company's lack of communication, she has started her new job. They just didn't know what to do with a 17 year old Software Developer, they'd assumed she was much older due to her maturity.

She starts her GRAD-SCHOOL class in one week. 

WORK and HOME BALANCE Working and Homeschooling 

MEAL PREP: Speed Racer did most of the cooking of  meals this week and one by Tiger Lilly.

HOUSE CLEANING: We had to clean the house for company on Tuesday. After that it was downhill. 

LESSON PLANNING: I did better this week, even though I wonder how much of it he follows nowadays. He still requests it as though its a contract of what he has to do before he can go out with his friends. 

MARRIAGE CHECKUP: Hubs has lots of patience as I signed him up to take his daughters to San Diego at the last minute.

SELF CARE: Did nothing for myself this week .

Life After HighSchool, College, Military or Work

WHICH WAY SHOULD YOUR KID GO?

Here's how we guided our kids through this decision.

1) Ask them the type of lifestyle they want to have when they 'grow up'. (Select a house, Location to live, Car they want, kids, marriage)

2) Tell them to select 3 careers they'd like to explore.

3) Have them research the following about the careers and put on a Project Board (a) Map out the road to the career, like college, tech school, trianing, etc (2) Job seek in those fields using Indeed.com, Monsterboard.com and other job search boards (3) Map out starting salary, mid-career salary (4) Research work life balance in the career choices

4) Create Monthly Bills to include living expenses, cars, student loan debt.

5) Compare their prospective careers, monthly salaries against their Monthly Bills (a) Note that to keep above water in some cases they will have to work 2 jobs (b) get a roomate (c) give up the style car or home they want (d) not have as many kids

Selection of College

Every kid has a fantasy about going to college. But a lot of obstacles and cost/benefits should be considered.

It concerns me when students take our HUGE COLLEGE DEBT and have college majors that don't return the level of income commensurate with the amount of debt.

1) Community College should be first - The trick with going to Community College is that you get a 2 yr degree as fast as possible IN AN AREA THAT YOU CAN BE EMPLOYED IN RIGHT AFTER YOU FINISH

The Benefits of doing an AA degree is:

a) Better Internships

b) If it's a local Community College that transfers to state university they give 'completer' or 'transfer' scholarships

c) Allows student to work and complete 4 year degree with AS LITTLE DEBT as possible

d) Gives the student the opportunity to WIDEN career and job reach by selecting a major in Community College that is different than their 4 yr college major. Giving them 2 career fields instead of just 1.

2) Go to a Local University [OR] a cheap online College  - unless there is some specialized major your kid wants, go with the cheaper option. MOST COMPANIES DON'T CARE WHERE YOUR DEGREE IS FROM-only that it is from an accredited institution.

The Benefits of Staying Local

a) Saves you money and lowers college debt

b) Saves cost on living on campus - but if student does want a few years on campus, it is a great tradeoff IF the student finished an AA degree first

c) Gives student more options and deeper networking opportunities

d) Opens the financial possibility of doing a STUDY  ABROAD since they have saved money in other cost of their education

e) Local scholarships are usually more plentiful

WORK or MILITARY or TRADE SCHOOL or VOLUNTEER

Not every student wants to go to college. However, I told them if they weren't going to pursue college they had to do one of the following:

1) WORK: the deal here was, TRY TO FIND A JOB THAT LEADS TO A CAREER. And MAP out your road to growth. So being a receptionist can lead to being and Administrative Assistant, to Secretary to Office Manager

2) MILITARY: Ultimately, I would prefer that the student was in a program like ROTC or the CAP program prior. And that they DID THIS AFTER THEIR DEGREE, but if that isn't an option, the parent should do their research on JOBS within the military and HELP THEIR STUDENT enlist with the best and highest level possible.

3) TRADE SCHOOL: This is where the student should do their research on the job probability after the trade school. Some of these schools are expensive, offer very little financial aide and don't necessarily guarantee a job.

4) VOLUNTEER: The FEMACORPS, AMERICORPS, Help Exchange (https://www.helpx.net/) and other like programs are great ways for young people to explore the world

MUST DO for ALL OPTIONS?

Research! Research! and PLAN their way forward for 3 years.

With doing the above, at least they would have a well thought out plan for the next 3 years. And if PLANS CHANGE? Then RESEARCH and RE-PLAN again.