Homeschooling Week 2

Recap of Week 2 of Independent Homeschooling.

Not as good as last week.  I think I over booked our days.  Last week felt like we flew through the subjects very quickly so I thought I could add a few other subjects.  Grammar and vocabulary.  But this week turned out to be much more stressful than last week.

It started on Wednesday when Bug for some reason had issues sleeping the night before.  He was up most of the night and because of that got very tired when we started to try doing a few lessons on Wednesday morning.  He was actually falling a sleep on me as I reading the story of Hansel and Gretel.  We were reading it to introduce FairyTales and I guess he thought we were going to bed.  Anyway, because he took a 2 hour nap that morning, we ended up moving several lessons to Thursday. 

Thursday we had already scheduled ourselves to attend the County Fair with a Homeschooling group.  My son asked if he could postpone the lessons to Saturday.  I was reluctant to do this, as he complains already when it is a normal school day (M-F) and I could only imagine how he would act if it was Saturday.  But he reassured me he would be positive, and not complain.  So I agreed.

We did have a great time at the Fair.

On Friday was out weekly Meet Up with the Homeschooling group we are in.  It was ART day for the older kids (8-18), and story time for the littles (3-8).  It was held at our local library really close to our home.  Bug was nervous about it and kept thinking he was a horrible artist.  I am tired of hearing him say this, and it is getting really old.  But he is worried, and can't help himself.  I kept my cool and reassured him several times that morning that all he needed to do was to try his best and he would pass.  And he just might have a lot of fun in the process.  

Here is a few pictures of the event.  

 Both groups were meeting in the same room and it made it very loud, and difficult to hear the the Art Teacher, but she did an awesome job.  We had a bunch of families show up.  These pictures were taken at the very beginning and by 20 mins into the hour it was doubled.

 Bug working hard on his Pencil Drawing.  He didn't enjoy it as much as the water color work they did after.  I was not able to take any pictures of those because I was helping refill water cups with clean water.

Saturday morning we went out as a family to ride all our bikes. My new bike arrived this past week. A cool post about that is in the works.  

Not the greatest picture but here is all our new bikes.  We rode to a park to let the kids play.  It was FUN!  I really enjoy my new bike!

That afternoon it was time to work on our lessons we put off doing on Thursday.  And I was not surprised when Bug got all whinny and grumpy that he had to do this work on a Saturday.  But I am really proud of myself. I keep my cool and I reminded him point blank that he promised me he would not complain.  I think the light bulb kind of went off.  I was firm with him.  I did have to close my eyes while he was working on his math as it was Painful to watch him.  I have had some deep thoughts about why watching him struggle with things is so painful to me.  I might feel comfortable to share and make it a post down the road.  When he started his science reading about Boreal Forests, I just gave him the book, told him how much to read and that he needed to start filling what he could on the work sheet.  Then I walked away.  He actually did this assignment all on his own.  I have to remember to do this more.  Make him take responsibility in his lessons.  It is hard, because in the past he has wasted all his time; drawing pictures, or trying to turn on the TV...you name it, he has tried.  So sometimes I have to just sit there to make sure he stays put.  Not fun for me when I have chores and household things needing to get done.

So that is week two.  It was not as fun and rewarding as last week, but I am not going to let it hold me back. I am going to learn from it and try and make next week better. I ended up changing some subjects that I had as 3 times a week to 1 time a week.  I think the main problem was I over booked us.  If we have extra time, I can still grab these subjects and add them to the day.  I have been entering our lessons in each night into a database to keep track of what worked and what didn't work.  This way I also have a record of what we did if anyone ever questions what we are doing.  I know he is only in 4th grade, but I want to keep track of what he has been working on.

~BreeAnn