Cameron's schooling is eating away huge quantities of my time, but he's getting steadily better at being independent and figuring out how to work the online system. It won't be long before I won't have to be nearly as involved as I am now. And I keep reminding myself that it doesn't matter how difficult or time consuming it is, this online school is exactly what Cameron needs, so it's worth losing control of my laundry again. The laundry can wait. Who needs clean underwear anyway? Not us. My kids think going commando is hilarious fun.
People ask me all the time why we decided to do online school with Cameron, and I could answer with lots of reasons. The most blatant would be because he didn't get into the stupid magnet school that he applied to, but another important reason is because in traditional schools he spends half his time daydreaming about natural disasters and how many ways a tornado might kill a person, and the other half of the time he's listening to the teacher but isn't learning anything because the teacher usually only teaches to the majority of the class that think alike and learn alike. That doesn't work for Cameron.
For example, the other day Cam was taking a math test online and he started yelling at the computer for being stupid. He was getting a little carried away in his annoyance, so I asked what was wrong.
It turns out that the computer had asked him which is the better deal: six hot dogs for $4 or two hot dogs for $3? Cameron answered two hot dogs for three dollars and was told he had the wrong answer. I asked him why he chose that answer and he said, "Because I can't eat six hot dogs, so that would be a waste of a dollar!"
So in the real world Cameron is absolutely correct - nothing is a deal if it's not something you can use. But that doesn't matter in the standard school setting. Here at home we can talk about that and learn that there are sometimes lots of right answers. Then I can tell him the answer his teachers are looking for and we can move on with our day feeling all kinds of superior.
So we'll keep chipping away at his curriculum and eventually this will feel normal instead of feeling like a colossal black hole sucking up all my time and shredding it to bits. (Incidentally, Cameron learned about black holes today. Pretty cool stuff.)
Isn't that weird how online school feels like it's hardera and more time consuming than just doing it your dang self? Btw, Natalie has been the cool kid of the week for like 40 weeks, which I do not think is fair.
ReplyDeleteOk, that might have sounded rude...I was in no way implying that you should just do it your dang self. I just meant that it often feels like that when you are a parent of a kid in online school, not that I think you should feel like that...or do that...You just end up thinking, "if I have this nifty program that's supposed to be self-sufficient, why am I doing so much work?" You know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteI do know exactly what you mean, Erin. Been there, done that, it was easier to do it myself.
ReplyDeleteI admire you so much for taking charge of Cameron's education. If only more people would do that, our public schools would probably be in much better shape. And I think Cameron's answer to the hot dog question was perfectly logical.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed that I've been cool kid of the week forever. But, I'm okay with that. ;)
Great story! And I love his reason why! Hang in there, you are doing just what your son needs.
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