Goal

Stop being boring.

The End.

 

Unschooling

I have been wasting my time here and here.  Both sites focus on alternative education and unschooling.  AERO (Alternative Education Resource Organization) has a conference in June, and I am seriously considering going.  It would be fabulous to network with other educators that want to see an “education revolution” and meet parents that unschool.  

Workshops will cover topics including:

• Issues of Power, Authority, and Control in Democratic Education
• How Do Children Learn Mathematics?
• North Star: Learning is Natural, School is Optional!
• Standing in the Tragic Gap: What Moves You To Courage?
• Transformational Learning for School Leaders and Teachers: A Framework for Use in Democratic Schools

• Educating for Human Greatness: A Higher Vision of Teaching, Thinking and Learning
• Peace Curriculum: Cultivating Informed and Active Global Citizens For Change and Justice

• Helping Everyday Teachers Create a More Democratic Classroom

AMAZING!  This is a topic I am increasingly passionate about.  I feel like if I go to Albany and network with other educators, maybe I will find my path.  

I feel so lost in the classroom lately.  My mainstream kids are fine; they will take whatever assignment I give them.  They will gladly read the selections in the lit book and answer the questions at the end every day for the rest of the year.  But oh, my intermediate students…They are considered lower level students because they failed the WASL.  But what I see are students that do not fit the traditional school model.  We have failed them by sticking them in remedial classes and structuring their learning for them instead of forcing them to own their education.  I try to give them more ownership, but they have been so inundated with the system of education that they want worksheets.  They want me to tell them what to learn and when and how.  It is painful: painful to see human beings so unsure of their own worth, so lacking in basic thinking skills, and also painful to try to get them to change.   

I want to go to the conference so I can learn about methods to apply in school (if I continue to teach), to learn how to help unschool Gavin (and eventually Gwen), and to learn how to start my own school eventually.  Who knows, it may be sooner than later.

I’ve had fun thinking up summer activities.  I have a reading list a mile long (Twilight!!! Harry Potter! Education books!).  I’m excited to help Gavin learn, too.  I figure we can go to the library and pool a lot.  It will be fabulous.  I’m curious to see how much he could possibly learn about trucks and trains.  I think we’ll go to construction sites and out to the train station to watch.  We’ll also read books from the library.  He will listen to the most boring books that describe all of the different types of trains.

 

Dropped

I have seemingly dropped off the face of the planet.  I don’t think I exist if I don’t exist in cyberspace–am I right?  I seem to be in some alternate reality right now, one that consists of teaching American Lit at the high school and chasing after sproutlets and shuffling piles of clean and dirty laundry from room to room.  Is this real life????

In my absense from “el blogosphere,” I’ve…

• fallen in and out of love with Jay Gatsby
• swam in a sea of tulips with my family (alright, not many were in bloom, so it was more like a small pond of tulips)
• changed career paths from Air Force to nurse to hermit to graphic designer to linguist to …sigh…
• changed 471 diapers

But! The absolute BEST thing that’s happened…

I got a king size bed.  KING. For free.  I’m super excited, because we are still doing the family bed thing, and Gwenna now likes to sleep at a 90 degree angle to me.  With the king, I can wke up not even realizing I’m sharing my bed with two squirmy kids and a husband that usually doesn’t get in till after 2. 

And now a message from Gavin, my little blogger in training…

             ggGggGaygYAYAAAggqa

 

Workout Review

I’ve been consistently working out for the past four or five weeks: running three times a week and lifting weights three times a week.  I’m going to push myself harder these next three weeks before my birthday, because that has been the most motivating thing during workouts: I’m turning 25.

I feel too old and too young all at the same time, and working out gives me the space in my day to just exist and connect with myself.  My love handles are much smaller than they were to start and the separation in my abs is gone after having two kids.

My runs are 10-15 minutes plus 5 minutes of warmup/5 minutes of cooldown.  On my first run back in February, I ran for 10 minutes at 5 mph.  Pretty slow, I know, but I never run.  I ran the mile in high school in 15 mintues, which was probably mostly walking anyway.  I have done nothing for the last….well, ever.  I may be skinny, but my cardio system is not in great shape.  Anyway, I started at 10 mintues at 5 mph and on my last run I maintained 5.7 mph for 15 minutes.  About a week ago I did 10 minutes at 6 mph, so an increase of 20% in speed over 4 1/2 weeks.  I’m hoping those gains to be even greater as I do more focused fartlek runs the next three weeks.

Overall, I’m proud of myself for sticking with the schedule and pushing through to the end of each workout, even when I felt like quitting. I never thought I’d be a runner, but I enjoy the satisfaction of pushing myself into an area I thought was unattainable.

On weights, I do three sets of about 8 reps on the Nautilus/Precor machines and then a series of mat work.  I’ve increased the weight slowly each week, and I can tell I have much more muscle tone in my arms and legs.

Here are the exercise I do, in the order I do them:

Bar Dip
Squat
Lat Pull
Heel Press
Seated Row
Leg Press
Incline Press
Lunges
Series of leg lifts and various crunches

I should hear back from the Air Force in a couple weeks, and if I’m in I’ll have to add pushups and full situps to my routine as well.

 

Home!

Gwen was discharged from Seattle Children’s today.  BUT….we still don’t have a diagnosis.  They have ruled out all of the obvious possibilities (not h-pylori, not inflammatory bowel syndrome, not Crohn’s disease, not a milk protein allergy).  She has inflammation from her esophagus through her stomach to her intestines.  It might be bacteria, or it might be her body attacking itself.  Right now Gastroenterology and Immunology are working on her case.  We will be treated in their outpatient clinics, which just means lost of visits and blood draws so they can keep doing lab work to see what is going on.

She’s a much happier baby every day; she’s regaining her muscle tone slowly and is smiling and playing a lot more.  Her vomiting is down to maybe once a day (wait! she hasn’t vomited at all today! That’s a first!).  But she’s still only taking about half of her feeds orally; the rest we get to put in through a feeding tube.  So yes, I learned how to put a feeding tube and learned how to run her feeding pump.  It’s not that difficult, and I actually did a great job putting her feeding tube in last night.  Once she’s eating enough on her own we can take it out.

So hooray for being home; hooray for being able to go back to work; and double hooray for being able to see my husband and little boy everyday!!!

 

Things I Learned From Watching TV Today…

More specifically, these are all things I want for my kids. (And YES I was in a hospital room for a week solid, and YES all I watched were Real Housewives of Orange County reruns. And YES, I know this is Bravo, so it has to be all drama, but still…)

• I want my kids to work for their first car and most all of their extras. (Lynne on Real Housewives gave her daughter a BMW for her birthday and Tamra’s son Ryan is 21 and living at home and partying and dropping hundreds of dollars on jeans and tattoos.)

• I want them to have drive and purpose, which means I cannot give them everything.  I have to encourage them and set the example that if they work hard, they can achieve what they want on their own.  My parents did a great job of this: I saw both of my parents graduate from college, which made it an unspoken expectation that I would not only graduate from college but graduate with honors. (Tamra’s son Ryan was going to apply for the California Highway Patrol but backed out, and Lynne’s daughter dropped out of college and has no aim for her life…what incentive do they have?  They live in a mansion and are given thousands of dollars in spending money each month.)

• I want them to have manners and speak respectfully. (Jeana’s kids on Real Housewives are very rude to their mother and it’s because Jeana’s husband set that example for them.  I know I really need to watch how I talk to Steve and to keep our arguments away from the kids.)

Basically, I’m glad I wasn’t raised in an uber-wealthy family, and I’m glad my kids won’t be either.  It’s better to not have everything we want. Oh, but one more thing…

• I want them to know that being a parent takes lots of time and love and money.  When we had our kids, I definitely didn’t realize this.  If I had, I would have waited a few years until I had more fun and a stable career.  There is no “perfect” time to have kids, but it’s good to space the stress of establishing a career and establishing a family out by a few years. (The octuplet’s mother…yeah…I watched the Dateline interview…)

Alright, so back to the Octuplet Mom.  I watched her interview, and I was actually MORE horrified by the end of it.  She has 14 children now.  The first six were all born in less than 5 years; she receives $490 a month in food stamps; she has three special needs children (one with autism, one with a speech delay, and one with ADHD); she collects disability payments for those three children; she has not finished school yet; she has used up all of her student loans; and she has $50,000 in debt.

Wow.  Just wow.  She might be the most irresponsible person I have heard of.  She claims she has unlimited love to give her children, which is more than a lot of children get.  That’s great; kid’s need love.  But they also need food—Mom claims she will be able to support them once she gets a job after graduation.  Well, she’s going to be a counselor, and they just don’t make much money.  They might be a welfare case for a very very long time.  Also, when she’s working those long hours to support her kids, who will be there to spend time with them?  How will she divide up her small amount of time at home amongst 14 children?  (She obviously didn’t watch how hard it is for Jon and Kate to manage just 8 kids with two parents.) Add on the challenge that three are special needs and need much more attention, and I see a recipe for neglect.

In the end though, I think she is a very sick woman that needs psychological help.  Also, those sweet children do not deserve to suffer because of the choices of their mother. Alright, that’s the end of my TV post.  Good night!

 

Health Coverage for All

From CNN.com:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama claimed the second major legislative victory of his young administration Wednesday, signing a bill to provide federally funded health care to an estimated 4 million children.

President Obama says the SCHIP bill is a downpayment on his “commitment to cover every single American.”

The final version of the new law, which expands the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by roughly $35 billion over the next five years, passed a sharply polarized House of Representatives earlier in the day, with almost every Democrat voting in favor of the expansion and most Republicans opposing it.

With the bill, Obama said at a White House ceremony, “We fulfill one of the highest responsibilities that we have — to ensure the health and well-being of our nation’s children.”

I am glad we live in a state where affordable health coverage is available for us through the state.  We qualify for Basic Health, and our coverage currently costs us $22.50 per adult.  The kids are covered at no cost through Basic Health Plus and Medicaid.  Currently SCHIP covers kids in families up to 250% of the federal poverty level, and with the new expansion families up to 300% of the federal poverty level will be covered.

My health plan covers most services with a 20% coinsurance up to $1500 out of pocket per person per year.  The kids however have everything covered at no cost to us.  That means Gwen’s ambulance, myriad of tests, array of specialists, and 10+ day hospital stay are all covered.  If you oppose universal health care (and this could take various forms), I want you to please think about how my situation would be different.  If I had to buy my own health insurance through a private party each month, the premiums would be very high.  Even through employers, the premiums are high.  When Steve worked at REI, he had health coverage available, even when he was just part-time, but the costs would have eaten up most of his paycheck.  As a substitute teacher, I do not have health benefits. 

If I did not have state coverage, I would be worried about the value of every little test, every little expense.  I would be stressed about how soon we could go home.  Every minute would be a mounting health care bill, a situation that has sent many families into bankruptcy.  I am so glad that when the doctors ordered a CT scan or even just Eucerin lotion from the pharmacy, I was okay with that.  If I knew it would go towards my 20% coinsurance, however, I would probably argue about most tests.  (The CT scan seemed unnecessary, but they wanted to do it to rule out any head trauma.)  As a parent, I am glad I can worry about letting the doctors do their job and help my daughter get better instead of worrying about the financial burden that the hospital stay could have on our family’s future.

Our system is broken.  If you don’t see that, then you need to take a better look.  I am lucky to have affordable coverage for my family, and I hope that this basic security is eventually offered to all families on a sliding scale.

 

QUALIFIED!

Gwen’s illness this week has obviously overshadowed everything else we had planned.  When Steve called to tell me she probably needed to go to the ER, I was driving home from Seattle.  I had my MEPS visit on Tuesday, and I AM QUALIFIED! It was really simple; the doc just asked, “Are you still breastfeeeding?” and my (honest) no answer got me a stamp in the “qualified” column. YES.  Finally!

I took my physical report down to McChord immediately, and met with my recruiters to sign some paperwork.  I also got to read the Commander’s comments to the board (based on his interview with me).  He said I am his #1 candidate out of 19 applicants; that the board MUST select me; and that I am charismatic and confident (among a lot of other amazing things that I didn’t even know about myself . 

I’m in; I’ve got to be in.  I’ve got incredible AFOQT scores (95-99), a great GPA (3.85), five stellar letters of rec (from an O6, O5, Superintendent, Program director from college, and a supervising teacher), a solid personal statement, and now very enthusiastic remarks from the Commander.  I’m pumped.  Now I just wait a couple months to hear back officially.

 

Day Four, Seattle Children’s

We’ll probably be here through the weekend.  Her electrolyte levels are coming up, slowly.  She is playing a teeny bit and we’ve gotten some weak laughs yesterday and today.  She’ll get through, but when I am there with her too long, and she’s been crying dry tears for hours because they have to poke her so many times to get an IV, I feel guilty.  Did I do something to bring this on to my baby girl?  Is there something I neglected in her care?  If I did anything to cause even one of those pokes, then I feel horrible.  Don’t worry about talking me out of all this; I know it isn’t my fault, but knowing that fact doesn’t stop the weight of guilt I feel.

 

Seattle Children’s Hospital

We have been at Seattle Children’s Hospital since late late Monday night. It’s funny posting this picture, because I have never actually seen the outside of the building; we rolled up in an ambulance shortly after midnight on Monday night/Tuesday morning. But don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it seems.

Gwennie has had a tummy bug for the last three weeks. She has been vomiting, sometimes once a day sometimes ten times a day. She’s seen her pediatrician four times, and on Monday we too her in again. He agreed with us that she needed an IV for dehydration. We took her straight to Whidbey Gen where they put in an IV and decided that, while much improved, she needed more fluids until she could show she’s eating enough. However, all the beds were full, so we were transferred to Seattle Children’s Hospital. What a blessing though–not many babies go through Whidbey, and they don’t have a dedicated ped’s unit; Gwen’s care will be more aggressive and thorough here.  (Seattle Children’s is also ranked as the 8th best children’s hospital, and the amenities make it easy to be confined to a hospital room.  They have free laundry, free 24 hr coffee, internet access, a library, and a game room for Gavin if he visits his sister.)  The ambulance ride was just to keep her on fluids; there were not flashing lights or siren as we took Hwy 20 down to cross the Clinton/Mukilteo ferry.

We’ve had a bunch of tests done, on urine, stool, and blood, and Gwen even had a CT scan. Everything is coming back normal. We really don’t know what it is. She is still barely eating (7 oz so far today, half by syringe because she doesn’t want the bottle most of the time) and is still vomiting(three times today). She has more color than she did at home, but her spirits our down. Our once bubbly girl is quiet and watchful and apprehensive of anyone with a smock on. She’s so tired of being poked and prodded. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a better idea of what is going on or her body (now that it’s hydrated) will fight off whatever it is on its own.

We’re grateful for your thoughts and prayers. Steve will be tonight, and I’m gonna go see Gavin for a while. We’ll be here until Friday morning at least. Gah—this is so strange for me. I was never admitted to a hospital until I gave birth to Gavin, and here we are with a baby in the hospital for the second time in less than a year (Gavin was in over the fourth of July for pneumonia).

I’m heading back to the room now. I hate leaving her alone (the nurses promised to listen for her cries), but I was going stir crazy and anxious.