Teacher Notes

This week we continue to keep busy.  I continue to be disappointed in myself, and I continue to be astonished how much my kids are learning in spite of my deficiencies. 

The thing that has continued to save our school has been our now weekly library trips.  That’s at least one thing I’m doing right.  Silje has been burying herself in reading and telling me all about it.  We’ve really done well with math as well as some other subjects.   I haven’t done so well in the history department.  I’m determined to catch up in that department next week.

This last Tuesday, I took Silje and David to the eye doctor.  I gave Silje and David a screening test that I printed from online.  Silje seemed fine, but one of her eyes was stronger than the other.  I was pretty certain that was normal, and her “bad eye” wasn’t even that bad.  She was complaining of bluriness, though, and how she really thinks she needed glasses.  I was pretty sure she just wanted glasses because some friend of hers got them.

I gave the test to David too, and there were a few more red flags.  So I went online to see what typical signs (besides having one eye not managing the screening test very well) a child who needs glasses displays.  Going down the list on some parenting site, I was thinking to myself: “David does that…that too…and that.”  Pretty much everything on the list was a description of how he responds to different school activities.

So I made an eye appointment for each of the kids: the one who claims she need them, because who knows, I could be wrong, and the one who had some big red flags during my assessment.

Silje passed her eye exam with flying colors, much to her disappointment.

David had his exam next and did just fine with reading the letters on the wall, at which point I was pretty sure I was a fool to bring these 2 kids in.  Then the doctor had him read some letters close up, and I could see the doctor quickly change methods.  All of a sudden, the glass lenses on his contraption started clicking, and I could tell this exam was quickly going a different direction.

It turns out that David is far-sighted, which the doctor said he’ll likely grow out of by middle school, at which point he’ll likely start getting more and more near sighted.  He didn’t think David needed to wear glasses all day: just during schoolwork and reading.  He did say if David wanted to wear them all day, I should let him, but only make him wear them when he’s reading, etc.  He said there was no reason for him to wear them outside or during sports.

What surprised me, was when the doctor explained to me what David has likely been going through during school.  He’s likely been getting lots of headaches.  He has to concentrate so hard to see words on a page that it was literally exhausting him and took all his energy.  He told me to talk to his teacher about it until his new glasses got in, to make sure he was getting enough breaks.  I said I was his teacher, and that would be no problem.

I bring this up on this homeschooling post, because it’s such a turning point for me.  In case you couldn’t tell, this year has been difficult for me so far.  The main reason for that is I went from having Silje full time, and David doing school things for maybe 30 minutes a day during his kindergarten year, to having both Silje and David “full time” for a few hours a day.  While Silje works and follows directions just fine, David has been needing me by his side every inch of the way.  I feel guilty when I can’t help Silje as quickly as she sometimes needs it, and I feel annoyed and exhausted by David not being able to do his work without me pointing to every word for him and sitting by his side for every second of every assignment or project.

David’s glasses are due to arrive in about a week and a half at the latest.  His doctor said he’ll no longer constantly loose his place when reading, he’ll no longer need me to point at each word.  He’ll be able to concentrate on things longer than 10 minutes without starting to whine.  He actually said David currently has to move while reading in order to constantly refocus on the words.  Maybe he’ll still move while reading, but at least I’ll know it’s because he’s energetic, and not because he’s dancing around trying to find a distance at which he can see the page!  Do you have any idea how these predictions excite me and breathe new hope into this mama’s heart?

School won’t exhaust me, and I may not dread it.  I know those words are blunt, but I like to be honest.  I love teaching my kids, but this year has been hard.  Now I feel I know why, and it’s being fixed.  Will we still have bad days?  They’re glasses, not a magic-remove-all-sin-from-the-house wand.  I understand that.  I’m getting so excited for them to come in, and I’m planning all sorts of fun activities and crafts that Silje’s been dying to do, but we haven’t been able to because I can’t tear myself from David for 3 seconds without him needing my help.

David may enjoy these activities now.  He’s not a crafty sort of guy, but maybe that’s because he couldn’t see the crafts!  Who knows how many things this will change and how far it will reach?

Let me just say, I’m excited to find out.