{"id":419,"date":"2009-07-23T09:14:59","date_gmt":"2009-07-23T16:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=419"},"modified":"2025-11-08T09:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T16:09:08","slug":"three-times-the-elementary-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=419","title":{"rendered":"Three Times the Elementary School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many young girls I dreamed of how wonderful it would be to have kids.\u00a0 Yes, yes, you can stop laughing now.\u00a0 I fantasized (I call it that because let\u2019s face it there wasn\u2019t a shred of reality to it) of sitting on steps watching my children romp, quietly,<\/em> no less, and then sit at my feet so I could shed my knowledge on them.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u00a0SAID you can stop laughing now!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, I knew all about the messy aspect of babies and the torture of teens.\u00a0 And I was okay with the baby part.\u00a0 (Still waiting on the teen part!)\u00a0 Then they went to school and I was so happy they were gone for a few hours. \u00a0Ahhhh, less noise\/work\/etc.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0But then they came home and they came home with homework.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

At first the homework wasn\u2019t difficult; it was getting the kids to do it that was difficult. \u00a0Then my oldest hit fifth grade and he was assigned a new \u201cproject\u201d, written and visual EVERY TWO WEEKS.\u00a0 That year I did my share of repeating the fifth grade.\u00a0\u00a0 While at the same time repeating the third grade for the second time in two years; AND kindergarten for the fourth time in five years!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Half way through that year it fully dawned on me.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to have to repeat all 12 grades \u2026 THREE TIMES!\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now the weeping didn\u2019t begin immediately, because I had taken some steps to try and make this easier on the kids and therefore easier on me.\u00a0 This is the real reason for Parent\/ Teacher conferences.\u00a0 My oldest is special needs and I always seem to have to tell the teacher to make sure these projects are worked on at school or the tools come home because I was getting \u201cI don\u2019t remember\u201d as the answer to all my queries of \u201cwhat\u2019s this for?\u201d between my son and I.\u00a0 By the end of 5th grade I’d pulled him out and now homeschool him.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But I still make it a point to meet with all three of my kids\u2019 new teachers\u00a0 and prepare these poor individuals for what they are going to get.\u00a0 I\u2019m never sure it helps, but sometimes if I don\u2019t get to it, they\u2019re flagging me down themselves to schedule it!\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I tell all the teachers of my middle son that he is a minimalist and firmly believes that one sentence or word should be enough answer for YOU.\u00a0 He also gets easily distracted by noise around him so rarely finishes work because he cannot multi-task listening and working.\u00a0 Memorization baffles him.\u00a0 In other words, a normal boy.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I tell all teachers of my third son that while he looks like an exact copy of his father, \u00a0inside\u2026 he\u2019s all me, complete with attitude.\u00a0 He will do the work, when he wants to and will only get angry if you try to dictate his timetable. \u00a0And watch that over-reactive temper of his.\u00a0 \u00a0I pat them on the shoulder and wish them much luck in their teaching endeavor with a smile.\u00a0 Yes, I\u2019m evil.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But helping my kids\u2019 in school has brought out my own creativity. \u00a0As self absorbed as I am, I remember having trouble with times tables and even addition facts and used tricks to help myself.\u00a0 My middle son has this problem also and I do find myself passing on to him my strategies for getting through school.\u00a0 Some days he accepts and\/or gets it and some days not so much.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And I get lots of one-on-one time with each child when “the work is too hard!” \u00a0\u00a0 Once again I have to get creative to help their closed little minds open up to solving their homework problems themselves with minimal suggestions.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

They of course, just want me to give them the answers and frankly\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 sometimes, so do I.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many young girls I dreamed of how wonderful it would be to have kids.\u00a0 Yes, yes, you can stop laughing now.\u00a0 I fantasized (I call it that because let\u2019s face it there wasn\u2019t a shred of reality to it) … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-joy-of-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}