I think I didn't write because I did not know what the problem was - I couldn't decide if the work was too easy and he was bored or if it was too hard and I was being too pushy. Maybe the routine was bad? Maybe the room was set up poorly? Maybe we weren't eating enough whole grains? What? What? What?
I searched online for blogs or books about moms who struggled with homeschooling and I could find none - so I realized - as I stared at my own empty blog that moms who are struggling to homeschool just don't want to talk about it.
I talked to several friends who all had varying degrees of advice for me. No, no, you are not asking too much - just plug ahead and he'll catch on! Or, he is too young to be such concentrated work, you should ease up! And everything in between! Not that it wasn't tremendously helpful - every single friend encouraged me to keep my head up! What a blessing!
We took a week off to go to Austin for a few days to help out my sister in law (who homeschools her four children) and what I noticed at her house is that boredom breeds learning and play.
When we came back, I changed some things up. We keep all electronics off in the morning - all the way until after lunch. I do not do any of the "sitting at the table" school work until Cooper is asleep. As soon as Cooper is down - the house is clean and quiet and we are ready to work. And work we do! We are using Saxon Kindergarten Math right now - there are no worksheets - its all hands on and we have never finished a lesson without him asking to repeat it a few times. I love this! Once we wrap this up we do handwriting - still Handwriting Without Tears. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this curriculum! I had no idea how tricky it was to teach someone to write! He's good at it - but we have corrected a few letters here and there - like he used ot write a capital B with a big line and two circles that may or may not touch. We've got it now!
After handwriting we take a reading break and curl up on the couch and read 5-10 books. He is reading on his own better now so he has to read one. We are hitting the library every few days to keep up a new flow of books. He is really into Bearenstein Bears and the Magic Tree House series (these are a great blend of scary/educational chapter books that I read to him at night).
After reading, we break out phonics. I'm still working to get a good routine going with this because I want to teach both phonics AND sight words. I'm using Explode the Code still and I like this. He alternates doing two pages or one page each day.
Once phonics is complete - we do something messy and sciency. I have a great kinder/1st grade science book that keeps us focused on a topic during week. We are doing plants this week.
The last week and a half have been AWESOME! No tears! No complaining! No arguing or bribing! Just fun and learning!
I would love to post some pictures here - but my phone crashed this morning so they are gone....
Hopefully soon!
Oh and Cooper is doing great!
No comments:
Post a Comment