Homeschool Mother’s Journal- February 10, 2012

In my life this week…

I have been a busy little bee! My sweet little Harmony turned 8 years old last Saturday! She wanted a Barbie Princess Surprise Party, so I arranged for her to spend the night with her aunt (and my uber-awesome chicka) so that she could be ‘surprised’ when she showed up for her party. And she was!

All in all, almost 30 people came to celebrate her 8th birthday… including her grandparents from Georgia! It was a ton of fun, she got lots of presents… but the clean-up was murder! 🙂

In our homeschool this week…

I finally gave in and bought that little Miss up there something she’s been pestering me about for almost a year: school work she can do on the computer. It’s a huge change going from strictly AO to Switched-On-Schoolhouse (and I made her cross her heart that she would still be willing to do her weekly readings from there) but I had to face two facts: 1- She didn’t give her best effort because she is very easily distracted and hyper so sitting still to listen or read the selections is like pulling teeth to her. (And no, she can’t occupy herself with doodles or quiet toys- her head focuses in on what she’s doing and she doesn’t hear a word I’m reading.) 2-Within a year, I”ll have five kids being homeschooled.  Besides, she tested about mid-fourth grade level (and she’s supposed to be in 2nd grade) so that kind of tickled me a little bit. (And no, I”m not bragging! Okay… that’s a lie… I totally had to brag a little bit! On HER though, not on me!!!! I was completely blown away when she took the placement test! ) That doesn’t give me very much time to work through all the readings when I’m 99% sure that 3 of those kids will still be beginning or non-readers. So we are killing two birds with one stone, giving Harmony something more active to do and, hopefully,  freeing up some of my time to work with the littles. Also, my  studious little Regan has decided that her goal is to try SOS by this fall and has dedicated her every spare moment to picking up her reading speed and fluency so she’ll be able to.

My favorite thing this week was…

I’ve already talked about the switch to SOS. With the move to it from AO, and the move to Kentucky, I’ve been working on re-evaluating our entire homeschooling approach. KY does a wonderful thing, that I think will be a huge boon for Forrest (Regan’s twin). They don’t require grade levels. You have no idea what a relief that is for me in relation to him! Forrest is smart as a whip but not at ALL endowed with the “veni, vedi, veci” type drive the girls have towards their school work. I was able to sit down with him and say “Forrest, it’s about time to order some new school books for you. Will you help me by telling me what YOU would like to accomplish this year?”

And if my mind wasn’t blown, I’m not typing this blog! He was very thoughtful and articulate as he told me what he wanted to learn. And his ideas were almost exactly opposite of what I thought I would hear.

“Mom, I’d like to learn to write really pretty, like you do” (Cursive, is what he means. He has beautiful handwriting but hates to write, so I thought!) 

“I have a story in my head about this boy who fights a t-rex with the help of a friendly shark, but I don’t know how to spell well enough to write it down. Can I do something that will teach me to spell all the words I need for it?” (Why no, son. I’d never want you to do something as completely freaking awesome as that!  “And when I finish, can we get it made into a book? I don’t think it will fit on a regular piece of paper, cause it’s really awesome.” (ah be still my beating heart! My son wants to write a book!) 

“And I need to learn a bunch about sharks, fish, and oceans so my story will be right.” 

“I’d also like to learn to do my multiplication tables really well so I can help Daddy when he’s doing his figuring. He said that when I can do math really good, he’ll help me myself build a playhouse!” 

“And really Mom, I think I will like whatever you pick. But can you please just make sure we learn about that stuff?” 

All this time I’m sitting there thinking ‘WHO IS THIS CHILD AND WHERE HAS HE BEEN FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS?!?” Not that i’m complaining or anything, but I was completely blown away by his answers. Last year I got ‘I don’t want to do school! School is for girls!” 🙂

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

I had to share one of the birthday princess all decked out in her birthday loot and ready ready for bed- tiara and all!