The Beginning of a New School Year

 To bring in the new school year, I brought in a little organization centrally located in the dining room area.  Sure, I could have used the built in wall unit, but I would prefer to use that to house my dining room linens.  

So, I purchased a small shelf with four large baskets, but the baskets were too large for the shelving unit, so those were returned.  The books will simply have to sit on the shelf.  The smaller baskets I purchased were to contain their personal supplies like crayons, pencils, rulers, etc..  

Caleb started his new Language Arts and Math books this past week.  By new, I mean 3rd grade level.  The math lessons seem to be much longer than the previous year, so with his concentration level, he hasn't been able to keep his eye on the target.  He also has had a huge attitude this past week as well. I believe it has a lot to do with his sleep, which I will discuss in a bit.

By Thursday, Hannah had completed her Language Arts program and moved into level 4.  Her math still has several lessons to go, but that's okay.  

Abigail and Alexandra are still working through their current books, but they have the next books already in line for when they finish.  

Meanwhile, I bought a chalk board and mounted it on the wall so I could write a school schedule.  The plan is to use timed sessions rather than completed lessons.  After the session is up, I will determine if they need to do "homework" when the day is over.  It will be up to the individual child to figure out how much energy they want to put into their work for the day.  

If you want to know what subject study the kids are doing this year, you can find the page at the top of the blog.  Just click where it says Espino Family Homeschool. 

So why was Caleb not sleeping well? 

Because I discovered he was staying up late to play games on a phone.  Yes, you heard me right. Before you jump on me about what he was doing with a phone, let me explain.  A week or so ago, I asked Al if there was an old phone we could put music on for Caleb to listen to while he falls asleep.  Al fixed it all up, turned off wi-fi, disabled internet, and so on.  

Well, earlier this week, I was in bed at nearly 11:30 and heard that the girls were downstairs playing, rather loudly.  I went down, told them to get in bed, and came back up.  I went in to get a drink and in passing Caleb's room, I saw he was still awake and had the phone in front of him.  He immediately said, "It quit playing the songs."  I knew there had been issues with it, but he said he fixed it.  I told him to put the phone down and go to sleep.  

The next day, he was super obnoxious again, wouldn't do his work and was absolutely disrespectful and rude to me.  He was arguing about wanting to watch a video on YouTube and I said he couldn't.  He then said, "Fine, I'll just watch it on the phone!"  To this I said, "Um, no you won't."  I walked into the room where he had the phone charging under the pillow (which, by the way was super hot) and I grabbed it.  I started looking at the phone and discovered a few things.  One, the internet was on.  Two, Google Chrome had been opened on the phone.  Three, he had somehow managed to find an online gaming page in which he was playing video games.  The history showed he had been doing this for the last four days!  No wonder he was okay with me only reading one chapter in his book at night!  

Needless to say, I confiscated the phone, told him he could no longer listen to music, and I put a password on the phone should he find it after I put it away.  He was NOT happy. Tough love. 

That actually made me look on the phone the girls use for music.  Alexandra was reprimanded for attempting to play an online game, but there was no evidence that she was successful since the game was only on Facebook or Instagram.  The internet history didn't show any other attempts to access.  

I get it, the world of social media and internet seem so enticing to the teen, but it isn't a necessity and they don't need it.  While they might hate me for it now, I am okay with that.  As I have said before to them, "I am not here to be your friend, I am here to be your mother."

Well, Caleb is waiting to play some card games with me.  So I better get off this Chromebook and play.