Grandparents Raising Teenagers / Update

It has been months since I gave an update on raising our 2 oldest granddaughters.  

I will start with a quick recap of how we got to this point in life.  About 8 years ago, our oldest daughter started her fight with addiction and she brought her girls to live with their Papa and I.  If you would like to know the beginning of that story, I have put a link to that blog post here

It seems as though my  home is full of hormones and teenage drama.  I love having the girls here, but wow!  Teenage girls can really test your patience!  read more


UPDATE: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

Natalie, 13 yrs old & Angela, 14 yrs old

It has been months since I wrote a heartfelt blog post.  I find myself feeling all kinds of crazy emotions lately, so I figured now was a great time to start getting back to what I originally created this blog around. I am a grandparent raising grandchildren.   The crazy part of that statement is that I am only one of 2.7 million grandparents that are currently raising grandchildren!

Just to give a quick update.  I am married to an incredible husband and we are getting ready to celebrate 25 years of marriage in a couple of months.  About 6 years ago our 2 oldest granddaughters came to live with us.  Our oldest daughter, their mom, has addiction issues in addition to some mental health things going on.  She has always been a great mom and so when she felt herself making some bad choices and running from some things that had happened in her adult life, she brought the girls to her dad and I.  I have always respected her for that choice, as she never drug her kids through the ugliness. read more


Grandparent Types

I wonder how many types of grandparents are out there? What category do you fit into?

I figured I’d take a few minutes today and write about some of the different types of grandparents, my husband and I are.   I really think we’re run the full gamut of grandparent types. We are “parents” again to our oldest 2 granddaughters, we’re “weekend grandparents”  to the twins, “full time get to see them every day” grandparents to our middle daughter’s children, and across the country “don’t really know us” grandparents to husbands grandchildren from 1st marriage.    read more


PUBLIC SCHOOL OR HOME SCHOOL??  

PUBLIC SCHOOL OR HOME SCHOOL??  That is the question of the week!!

I have 2 granddaughters that I pulled from the public school system last year, They were headed into 4th and 6th grade.  I am going to be bold faced honest here, I was scared to death to home-school them!! Yet, I was just as scared to leave them in the public school system.  So I did a TON of research and decided to pull them. I wasn’t confident enough to feel as though I could do a good job with them by doing what is referred to as “traditional home-school”, so I enrolled them in a program that is Nationwide, called K12.   They still followed all the educational teaching as if they were in public school, but they were taught at home, via a computer.  The wonderful thing about K12, is that they will supply basically everything you need.  They send a computer, printer, books, rulers, microscope, art supplies, music supplies, etc for FREE!!   

Each day they  had a class for all the  major subject: Math, English Language , Science and Social Studies (history). In addition to that, they had additional time that was allotted each week for Art and Music.  Every morning they were up , had breakfast and signed onto a virtual classroom with a live teacher and they participated in a classroom with other kids.  I have to admit, 99% of the time we were doing “school” in their pajamas.  This program is a wonderful tool for those that don’t want their children in public schools , for whatever reason, and yet don’t feel as though traditional home-school is within their realm of possibilities.  Each state has what is called Virtual school and for my state that was Tennessee Virtual Academy (TNVA)

The girls still were required to do 6.5 hours a day of either live classes or live classes combined with assignments that were assigned through their teachers.  The majority of that work was done on the computer for my oldest granddaughter, the one in 6th grade. We did some assignments that were offline, yet we still had to “turn in the work” via her classroom sign in.  The 4th grader did a lot online as well, yet she had more offline work that I helped her with individually. We did things such as spelling , studying sentence structure, vocabulary, etc. Once she had completed her off line work, she would have to go online and take a test based on what we had studied.   The wonderful thing is you don’t have to have a large area for this type of schooling, I literally used my kitchen table.  We hung a whiteboard in the diking room area that kept our daily schedules and little words of encouragement or wisdom for the day.  

Both the girls still had weekly tests they had to take, they received a grade for that work in addition to any classroom assignments for the week.   At the end of the year, we also did the state mandated TCAP testing. That was the only testing that we had to go to a designated site and they were tested in a live one on one testing site.  Of course, they received a quarterly report card with their grades each semester, just as they would in public schools. Several times during the year TNVA scheduled what they called “outings” where we were able to gather with other kids and teachers from TNVA and we had a fun day.   In addition to that, my girls were enrolled in a local YMCA program for home-school kids on Friday afternoons, where they were able to get together with kids their ages and had some organized play,they went swimming and basically just had some time away from “school” on Fridays. We also had PE daily at home, basically consisted of jumping and doing tricks on trampoline or riding bikes outside

As they year came to an end, they both had told me they wanted to go back to public school for the following school year.  Their mom and I had a lot of debates about that, yet we decided in the end that we would give it a try. We had originally pulled them due to several reasons, one of the main reasons though was we didn’t feel as though their individual educational needs were being met.  In addition to that , we were concerned about some of the friend choices being made. So here we are , on Fall Break, nine weeks into their school year.

The question we are facing now is should we continue with public school or go to the next step, which is traditional home-school.  For a variety of reasons, I won’t go back to the K12 system. The main reason though, is the freedom that homeschooling will give us as opposed to public school online, aka K12/TNVA.   We were so locked into a schedule with TNVA, and that works great for some parents, yet for me I want the freedom to be able to teach them in order to LEARN, not just teach them to TEST.   Sadly, I think that is what our public school system has become.

My youngest granddaughter that we had pulled from school last year, so far is doing great.  Her grades are showing A’s and B’s. However, if you look at the actual work she is doing, they haven’t taught her very much that is new this year as opposed to what she was learning last  year. I understand that they do review for the first few weeks, but her ENTIRE 9 weeks has been review with very few new things taught. My older granddaughter who is in 7th grade is FAILING.   She is getting D’s and F’s. THAT is concerning to say the least!! We have tried communicating with her teachers and the end result is she is still failing. Now, I know a lot of that is on her and she just isn’t applying herself.   I know that there has been some bullying and adjustments, but how long do we wait to see if she pulls her grades up? That is the question that we are debating right now!!

When do you make the final choice to pull your child from public school?   I know in my heart, that she will do better being taught at home. She will have the individual attention needed to make sure that she is doing the work and actually applying it.   After having had both girls home last year, I learned a lot and I feel that I could successfully teach her at home, through a traditional home-school curriculum. To be honest, I basically already have it picked out what I would use this year.   As with any parent that home-schools for the first time, of course I am a little nervous and want to be certain that I give her the best education possible!

We are still in the decision making stages of Public School or Home-school question.  There is so much more that goes into why I feel that home school is a better option for them at this point, but I will leave that to be talked about another day! I will update again once we have made a final choice and of course let you know how that is going!!   So until the saga continues….. read more


K12 End of Year Outing

Here is the great thing about being a student within TNVA, several times a year they have what they call Outing days.   This past week , we had one scheduled where we were meeting up at a park about 30 minutes from my house, TNVA does their best to pick locations that will work for people , so that they don’t have to drive a crazy distance to take part in them.  

Two days before the outing, I took a HUGE fall!!  I was getting out of our truck, when I stepped down, my foot slipped on somebody’s nasty Dairy Queen slushie cup, that they had just dumped outside their car.   When I was finally able to get up and walk, I was sooo mad!! Due to my disabilities, for me to take a fall like that is awful. I slammed straight down HARD jarring my entire spine, fell back , hit my neck (RIGHT where all the bars and plates are in my neck) on the runner you use to step in and out of a truck and hit my head on the floorboard of the truck.    I was barely able to drive home. Thank God my daughter was with me and she helped me get up and make it to the house. read more


More on K12 Homeschooling

It feels like forever since I last made a post about our Homeschool adventures!

Maybe that is because it really has been awhile since I was last on here with any updates.  Needless to say, I have been a little busy.

We have just finished up the 3rd quarter, and the girls are taking Benchmark testing this week.  Ugh! Yes, we are still having to do state testing with the program we are using, K12. There is a small part of me that is ok with that, because both girls are wanting to go back to brick and mortar school next year.  So that being the case, I want them used to doing the tests. However, I have to say the testing that public schools do with our kids, is one of the biggest issues I have with them. I have learned this past quarter, more than any other time in my life raising kids , that our public education system is truly teaching our kids to test.   I think I will stop with that, .I don’t want to get started on that subject with this post….because I believe that is a subject I can cover all by itself!! read more


K12 Homeschool , we have began!!

I started homeschooling both my 4th and 6th grade granddaughters this  last week, with the help of their mom.   I figured I would put a short post out there about it , just to update y’all a little bit of what our new classroom looks like. read more


Summer Time Updates! Twins and more!

We have lots of exciting news in our family, so I thought it was time I share with my followers what is going on in the world of Nana and family!!

Sisters pregnant together

Our late Spring/ early Summer started out with BOTH my daughters pregnant at the same time!!   They were only a couple weeks apart on their due dates.   Our oldest daughter, Crystal expecting twins (a boy and a girl)  and Tiffany expecting a girl.

Kenneth, 5 days old
Karra , 5 days old

Crystal’s twins,  Kenneth and Karra were born at 4:02 pm , 7/11/17, weighing in at 4.2 lbs , 17 inches long and 4.1 lbs , 16.5 inches long.   They were premature, as mom was only 34 weeks and 5 days pregnant.  Even though they came 2 weeks earlier than we had hoped, they are doing fantastic!!   They were born breathing on their own, although Karra did have to have a little oxygen to give her a  small kick start and she had a feeding tube the 1st 48  hours as well.    As of today, they are 1 week old and their pediatrician is extremely happy with how they have progressed.   They  have been in an isolette since they were born to assist them in maintaining their body temperatures.   Each day  , they have been weaned down just a little , and today we were told that hopefully by tomorrow Karra will be able to move to a regular crib.  Their little isolette monitors have to be at 28 for a 24 hour period.  We will know more tomorrow on that.   Her brother Kenneth is right behind her, as his monitor is reading 28.5.   read more