Look what I got in the mail today.  Assured!

So, back in 2014 I decided to join Motor Club of America (MCA) as club member. 

One evening I had a frightening incident while making an errand to get some items to complete my husband's work lunch (dinner, whatever you want to call it!  He worked the overnight shift).  As I was pulling into the parking lot of our local Cumberland Farms, my tiny Lexus made an abrupt stop with a loud noise.  I thought I had hit something but knew nothing was in front of me.  So I tried to back up and that loud noise was there again and my car barely moved.  I get out to see what was happening and my front right tire was completely off the axle!

Just imagine for a moment if I was on the highway!  The danger!  With my kids!

Fortunately, it was just me and not with my child.  Thankfully, I didn't take the highway route to

Main St.

Anywho, the Lex needed to be towed.  I was in one town and my mechanic was in the next town over.  Not too far from each other but enough for me to realize that my current motor club didn't cover the mileage to get there.  That certain motor club has the same special vowel three times.
It frustrated me that even though I paid a premium, I still had to pay extra $$ because it went over 3 miles. 

It's funny that a week later, my brother in law posted a Facebook status about this alternative motor club he had just signed up for.  Of course I looked into and feel for it hard!


This motor club, MCA, offered way more than what I was previously signed up for. 

UNLIMITED 100 mile towing was the major deal for me.  (No more 3 to 4 uses a year for this gal!)
Bail Bonds?!?!  Are you serious?!  Lawyer Fees?!?  Stop!  Just stop.  Where they do that at?

Theses are some of the things that caught my attention.  So I signed up!

Felt safe ever since!  Used them a couple times more after that.  I wish I would have taped my experiences. 

The last experience was when we bought a nicely used Cadillac Escalade from the next state over.  About 60 miles away from our home.  One morning it would not start.  We were still under warranty so it needed to be towed back to the dealer.  Our lovely UNLIMITED 100 MILE TOWING plan came to our home, asked where it needed to go, we signed, and it was off to the dealer 60 MILES away.  NO HASSLE!

Thank The Most High for showing us Motor Club of America.  It has saved us some worry.

Education has always been important to me. 

I knew right away when I learned I was carrying my first child, that he was going to do school at home. 

I remember when I was a teenager, I was homeschooled for a series.  That was the best part of my secondary school years.  I promised myself that when I have children, I will dedicate my time into their education and not leave it up to the system.

Am I against the system?  Maybe.  For my own children I am.  But I don't criticize or have an opinion on those that choose to place their kids in brick and mortar schools.  That is your choice.  My choice has of no factor to what you choose to do.  We are not the same and everyone lives according to what works for them.  No issues there.

Luckily, times have changed since I was in school.  The world wide web and communication via the sources has greatly improved.

I started Diggy's education at birth.  I never did the "baby talk".  I spoke clear words and allowed him to see and hear me use my tongue and sounds to communicate.  He started practicing early with sounds of the tongue.  His coos would have a /g/ and /l/ sound.  He even had some vowel sounds, mainly short a.  He would make sounds like "laga" "I-gl" and said "us" often.  This is at 1-3 months.
He would always watch the mouth and tongue when he was spoken to.

As he developed, his learning got more advanced.  I played classical music often during play and lunch time.  It is said this aids in brain stimulation.  Our house was full of blocks.  I think this contributes to his love of math.  I read to him every night.  He had certain books that were his favorite and became familiar with them.  He would try certain sounds to words he would remember in the books as I read them, like "yum" "boom" "pow" for example.  This was at 5-9 months.  He was practicing two syllable words by his first birthday. 

Because of efforts on his development, I needed to keep going.  I couldn't stop being the main source of his academic achievements.  By 2.5 years old, we started ABCMouse.com.  At this point, he was pretty tech savvy already.  This is their generation, and holding him back from technology was not what his father and I thought we should do.  He did well in the program for a few years.




Severely sick with pregnancy hyperemesis but a mom gotta keep going.

We did try brick and mortar school for him.  We signed him up for preschool.
In our opinion, it was a fail.  He seem to not learn much to advance his education.  Everyday he said they played often, did a craft, and had a couple of stories read.  When he was home with me, I was teaching site words and sounds, practiced his pencil grip for straight lines and circles, introduction to math, and science about different plants, animals, and parts of the world.  We withdrew him and I went back to being his primary learning coach.

I don't blame anyone for what I believe was a lack at the preschool.  They have many students at different levels and but so many educators.  They do what they have to do to get kids along.  It just wasn't the placement we thought for Diggy.  He also was happy to be back home for learning. 

When time came for him to get started for Kindergarten, I didn't want to enroll at a brick and mortar but I was also on the fence of  'freelance' homeschooling.  Freelance homeschooling is when the parents freely decide what they teach for subjects at home.  I needed to have a more structured curriculum like ABCMouse. 

I knew about K12.  I was a learning coach for my nephew when my sister (who works like 70 hours a week at her job) signed him up in the previous year.  What we didn't like was that it was the same district teachers that were in the town's brick and mortar schools.  My nephew had advanced academic development as well and was placed in K12 to match his level.   Conflicts with these teachers caused him to be withdrawn from the school. 

Thankfully, I saw a commercial on TV about Connections Academy.  Oh boy was I excited and eager to learn more about this opportunity.  Connections Academy is a public charter school done at home.  I immediately told my sister in law, who had the same views about our public school system.  We both have been happily assisting our children's academic success through this school.  Our kids are happy, we are happy. 

To learn more on our journey and experiences, follow my TEC Connections Academy (TECCA)  entries or you can see some things we do on our YouTube channel, The KdotCarterHabit.

Until then,

Kdot Out!

So, my son Diggy started with TECCA (our school at home) in Kindergarten.

They start at K-12.  We both were excited to start.

LA lesson on Transportation; Trucks

Our books were sent to us in the mail.  He was only starting Kindergarten so only workbooks and guidebooks for the parents were sent.  We received a load of reading books that go with the reading lessons for Language Arts.  We also received a math, science and art kit. 

The math kit came with what they call "counters", a clock, some play money and coins, and stack cubes.  His science kit came with beakers, magnets, a dropper and a ruler.  His art kit came with construction paper, modeling clay, paint and some paint brushes.  He also received letter tiles for practice spelling for Language Arts.  (Note: This entry was created during first grade so a few items may have been forgotten)

We had a virtual classroom and a teacher named Miss Hunter.  She lived in the Boston area.  Oh was she the greatest!  Very great at interacting with the class and assisting students in following along with lessons.  Every morning we had livelesson with her and our classmates.  Each day we focused on a different subject. 

In Kindergarten, majority of the lesson assistance comes from you or a family member you assigned to be the Learning Coach.  The Learning Coach is the one that goes through each lesson assigned. 
Because they are little and possible can't read through the lessons, it's the Learning Coach that guides them to complete each lesson.  It can be a full time position, but I find it well worth it.  I was able to be involved with my child's progress and discover his learning abilities. 

End of Year Field Day 2016

We discovered weaknesses and how we can strengthen them as well as his strengths and how we can improve them.  Our teacher was very involved in the progress as well.  She had the opportunity to speak with us one on one every two weeks to see where he was in his progress, as the school has this policy for every student.

Our first year was a success!  He finished with a 100% overall.  Straight A's down the line.
We were able to attend about seven field trips including one at MIT in Boston and the End of The Year Field Day.

Overall, it does take time to get adjusted to this type of lifestyle.  I know many have struggled to start.  You just have to realize that these lessons are not cookie cut and you have to find what works best for your child to complete them.  The school setting is very flexible and you have to make sure you ask many questions and USE ALL OF YOUR RESOURCES AVAILABLE.  There are plenty.

Until next year,

Kdot Out