Mission statement in progress

We have been working together as a family on a mission statement for our School of One Pupil. It's not a simple matter, and you can't just go copy a good one out there. It needs to reflect the values you have as a family, each one of you.

We've been working on five foci: mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual (they was suggested in an article I read.) I kind of look at the spiritual askance. I don't quite know how to deal with it yet, as our family is not religious. We'll think of something though--religious tolerance, respect for religious beliefs, ability to make up your own mind, knowledge of the world's major religions... Something.

We've already made some ideological adjustments. It's definitely nice to have a guideline. Husband's biggest concerns were around the social focus. Why anybody thinks that being in school will help your social skills is beyond me, but he's thinking along those lines. I think I will be able to meet his concerns around social skills without sending her to school, but we'll see.

The mental focus was an interesting one. We are still working on that one, but the two areas that we have decided upon as being of utmost importance were math and writing. Math for him. He has decided that he wants Mi'ita to finish Calculus by the time she finishes high school. I didn't meet that goal myself and it has left a whole series of brick walls in my life, so I stand behind it. It is a good goal to strive or, even if she doesn't eventually meet it. Not everyone is up for Calculus, but Mi'ita has a good mind and is good at math, so it I think it's good to put it out there.

Writing was my emphasis. Her reading is plenty adequate basically forever. That doesn't mean that you can put anything in front of her and she will understand it. It does mean that she is not learning to read anymore; she's reading to learn. It is a tool she has mastered.

Not so for writing. She is writing plenty adequately for a fourth grader. That is not adequate for life, though. I have not been focusing a lot on the writing skills and that has bothered me as it is important. In light of this new mission statement in progress, though, I've added a little to the plate. She has to keep a daily journal. Husband added an interesting element. He wants her to read an article out of the New York Times World Section, twice a week, and write a summary of it. Mi'ita's quite good at geography and world history, but her modern political history is as bad as most kids'. It's as bad as mine, I'm ashamed say. We'll both be learning.

It's good to have mission statement, even one that's in progress.

Talented and Gifted

Mi'ita was identified as TAG, talented and gifted, last year in 3rd grade. I always thought she was precocious, learned everything quickly, talked very young and constantly, etc. I was in a hurry to get her identified, feather in my cap to have a smart kid and all that.

Isn't it amazing how parents get all wrapped up in their children's achievements? I mean, having a TAG kid doesn't mean that I'm smart.

I haven't studied TAG kids much. I know they have a set of social problems that are pretty standard for them. They gravitate towards older kids and have low tolerance for kid who take a while to get things. You would think they would make good tutors for lower academic kids, but the opposite tends to be true.

That sure is evident at the homeschool group. The group has a bigger number of younger kids and they have divided the kids into two groups for instruction: 4th grade and lower are the younger and 6th grade on up are the olders. There are no 5th graders.

Mi'ita does fine with the other 4th graders and there is a bunch of girls her age that she likes well enough. She has no patience for the younger kids. Since homeschooling includes the whole family, there are a number of toddlers, preschoolers, and babies that are included, too, and those just about drive her nuts. (I like them.)

An example. The first day of homeschool they divided up the two groups to play dodge ball. Mi'ita was in the younger group that included tiny tots so the teen aged teachers had the youngers roll the ball to play so the little ones wouldn't get hurt. Mi'ita just about blew a gasket.

Another example. Mi'ita's cousin came to visit and we were playing M&M geography. Mi'ita was getting things like Macedonia and Tunisia. If she didn't know where these things were, I was giving her clues like, "It's in North Africa on the Mediteranean Sea." It would take her two seconds and she would slap her hand down on the country. Her cousin, granted in 2nd grade, was getting things like the United States and Mexico. She would find the United States on her previous turn. Then she would get Mexico and I would say, "It's right next to the United States, down lower." And she would look and look, off in a completely different part of the map. Mi'ita had no patience for this.

Perhaps I should be more focused on getting her to be more tolerant of younger kids. I admit, though, that I'm not particularly worried about it. Just being in the homeschool group is giving her way more exposure to working with multi-age kids than being in a class with kids all one age. She wants the kids to be split three ways and get those tiny kids into another group. That's not going to happen. I've suggested that she choose to work with the older kids. She does have the option and I'm sure she will try it, but I doubt it will help. She doesn't particularly want to be with the older kids, she just wants to be away from the kindergartners on down.