Do you remember when you learned to type?  I think I started in 9th grade; I’m dating myself by telling you this, but when I began typing it was on a manual typewriter. For some reason, I could never get the knack of the long reaches, i.e., the “a” key to the “1″ key with the right pinky finger or the “;” key to the “-” key with the left pinky finger. I wasn’t a good typist on that dinosaur manual typewriter.

However, a few years after high school, I went to secretarial school. They had electric typewriters, and I practiced each day. By the time I graduated (in one year), I could type 60 words per minute–not bad for a student who couldn’t type 30 minutes in high school. From years of experience, I eventually reached close to 80 words per minute.

School students nowadays start learning to keyboard long before 9th grade; some start learning before they reach their teens. My 10-year-old son, David, started using the BBC’s Dance Mat typing; I thought it might help him with his homeschool work, because he likes writing stories and journaling. I thought learning to keyboard, as they call it nowadays, would help him to get some of his work done faster. He likes fun keyboard games a lot, because it makes learning to type exciting.

I’ve been searching for other sites that will help my son to become a better keyboardist. (I think typist sounds better). There are a lot of keyboarding games that will help your child learn to type. Typing games are a great way to get your child used to the feel of the keyboard and on her way to becoming an adequate typist–and maybe even a speed typist.

I’d love to know if your kids have any favorite, typing games. Leave a comment and let me know.

When I tell other moms that I homeschool my son, they sometimes give me a strange look. I’m an African American single (divorced) mother, and I just don’t fit their idea of who a homeschooler should be. I only have one child, and they think that’s another odd thing about me homeschooling. The first question I  often get is, “Why don’t you want him to be at school with other children?” Then I’ll patiently explain that he goes to a group meeting with other children on Mondays, classes on Wednesdays, and a homeschool co-op on Fridays. When I assure the mom that I don’t have my boy on lock down in the house, she looks relieved.

Then, she’ll ask me about the co-op, and I’ll tell her that the kids who go to homeschool co-op, including my son, take classes there once a week. Sometimes the mom (or dad) will ask what kind of classes, and I tell them, “Oh, different kinds of classes, like Spanish, Science, Art, Photography, English, History, and other stuff.” I add that this semester, my son is taking “Exploratory Art” and “Digital Photography.” This leads to more discussion about his academic classes and where I get my teaching materials. I tell her about the Great Literature and books we read, about the “What Your __ Grader Needs to Know” books, workbooks, field trips, and about the online curriculum we use, Time4Learning.

Usually, the mom asks a question about standardized tests and how I’ll know if my child is at grade level if he has to take the ISAT (Illinois Standards Achievement Test). I’ll then mention that although I don’t have to get my child tested, I may start doing this. But I also mention that the online program we use let’s me know if he’s at “grade level,” although for me, it’s more important that he master the material than be at a particular grade level  by a certain date.

These impromptu talks usually go well, and when I’m done I’ll often feel like I’ve given someone, who may have never met a homeschooler, especially one who doesn’t fit the prototype, a positive impression about homeschooling.

Other homeschooling moms probably get a lot of questions too. Do you?

Wednesday I had my 3rd grader and 4th grader work from their Sonlight language arts and then do the other subjects on t4l. The newly revamped Sonlight LA program focuses on being a good writer. My special needs son prefers t4l learning LA because he doesn’t have to come up w/ the answer on his own, he gets to choose the answer. And he doesn’t have to write! He feels the same way about math!

I would like to have them do some Sonlight LA more regularly, but I love though that if things get hectic, I can depend again on t4l LA.

Also, I signed up for a free month of Pokemon learning league for my neighbor’s grandson(age 11, almost 12). My kids never watched the show, but this kid loves it. Everyday I let him do one lesson of t4l and then the other subjects on the Pokemon site. Anything to help the medicine go down, I say. He has some learning differences, too. I just love hearing the Pokemon characters teach what he has already been taught on t4l w/ a “Pokemon” spin to it. I hope it really reinforces the lessons for him.

My daughter who is a first grader is doing awesome. I tended to let her just listen in to lessons as she wanted to, many times skipping activities I had planned just for her. Sometimes she would just play in her room or maybe watch a movie or play on the computer while I tended to the other kids. Now she gets on t4l and does the most lessons and the most subjects of all my kids!  We were all telling my husband Wednesday night what a hard worker she is. I am so glad; and she is very proud of herself.

So this question was posed to me tonight by Tracy: “Are you letting Bailey take next week off from school?”

Can you believe that I had not thought about it? Not even once! I was shocked. I know I have mentioned time and time again that T4L has saved our family from summer schooling because in the past, we took from Thanksgiving to New Year’s off because I just didn’t have time to prepare lesson plans and such. Then we would have to work well into the summer to make up for it.

Well we have been doing our T4L without stopping so far this school year. I mean…sure, we take an extra day or two off here and there, but it’s been wonderful not having that stress of “how far behind have we gotten this season?

I’m still floored that I have not thought about a holiday break. What shocks me even more, is the fact that my son is not counting down the days until he has a break! )

Since we are doing our traveling this weekend, instead of after Christmas, I think we will play next week by ear. I mean, we know Monday and Tuesday are out of the picture, but if I ask Bailey if he wants to log on later in the week and he does, there’s no harm in that, right?

How is everyone else handling their holiday breaks? For the moms with public schoolers, are you going to let your children take a break from their supplemental T4L while they are on school break?

Well we are back from Vacation.  What was sort of a small vacation even though it was a great deal of work it was nice to be away from home and in the warmth for a week.  The boys managed a couple days of school work but the dial-up was not always friendly and I did not really push it because we were laying a floor.

I did notice a couple things though I thought was interesting.  The first was with my youngest son.  By the end of the week of being out of his routine of school work his mind was going a million miles a minute.  He was not at all relaxed and his hyper-ness was strong.  It occurred to me about the 4th day and when I asked both boys to do their work I noticed that he jumped right in and wanted to do his and extra; that night he was calmer and more in control.  Not that he is overly hyper, don’t get me wrong but for a 6 year old he tends to repeat himself and not able to sit for more than a little bit when he has not been able to “think” hard.. If you know what I mean…..

The next pleasant surprise came yesterday when we were back at home and they both jumped right on line to do some lessons.  I was surprised that there was no griping when I asked them to do extra because of the few days they missed and this morning even before breakfast my 6 year old was on line doing lessons.  In the past it has taken us days to get back into the swing of things and my two just did their work, did extra and never said a word about it.

We miss Florida but are happy to be home and I am thrilled that the transition back to full time school has gone so smoothly.  They both are doing well and still call out when they finish a test or a quiz how many they got right.  Someone asked me today how this year is going and I was thrilled that I was able to brag about T4L and how great the program is.