Slimey The Fish

Nick and Wyatt wen fishing a couple weeks ago. Pretty late into the year since we have been blessed with mild weather. Wyatt caught three fish all by himself! He was so proud. He brought one of his prize catches home.

He brings it inside and wants to put it right on the dinning room table. I told him to please hang onto it until daddy comes in to "deal" with it. He tells me his name is Slimey.

Nick grabs the cutting board and fillet knife and Wyatt comes about unglued! "Nooooo! Don't kill him! His name is Slimey!"

Evidently he forgot Slimey was already dead. We got a good laugh out of it.

Making Progress!

Things have changed some since I've last posted about our homeschooling experience. We are doing much better focusing and handling frustration. And I do mean "we". I have noticed my frustration has nearly diminished. He has even started looking forward to starting school on Mondays.

Cursive is our toughest lesson so far, but I have figured out our problem: If he doesn't see near perfect results he writes it off as impossible.

I notice this when we are just coloring or painting together. If my drawing is better. He feels he inadequate. That he won't ever measure up to what I can do. Not understanding I have years experience in the coloring/painting world. Not that I am trying to create some kind of masterpiece. I know I don't have to do much to impress, but for some reason he feels he has to be perfect to compare with me. After looking at my "picture" he more or less says, "Why bother?"

Makes me sad when he feels that way. So I give an abundance of praise when he does a good job, even if it isn't perfect I want him to know that just trying his best is worth noticing. I don't want to inflate his ego, but I don't think he has enough confidence yet that too much praise will be a problem.

But look! He is learning to write words in cursive!

I can't even begin to describe the feeling of satisfaction I get watching him work and improve. It is truly rewarding. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be such an important role in his learning!

Surviving Home-School

We are now five weeks into our home-school adventure and haven't quit yet! {I really won't quit, I'm not a quitter, but you get the point.} People ask me how it's going. I say, "We have our good days and we have our bad days." And that is true. I think it is about half and half so far...

Our good days are really good. He is excited, eager to learn, it goes quickly and smoothly. He does a great job, he makes an effort, and does his best.

Our bad days, are really bad. He is frustrated {not seeing results fast enough}, he throws fits {sometimes things are thrown}, threats of quitting {by him} and usually includes a time-out or loss of his chair.

I love the good days. It is so rewarding to see him learn and to see his progress. The bad days even for me are frustrating. I feel ill equipped and a bit overwhelmed. I have tweaked the order of the lessons to make it feel less like work and more fun, but I am still struggling with how to deal with his frustration. When he starts feeling frustrated we quit that lesson. We can work on it the next day. I do love having that flexibility.

So far he has learned:

• vowels
• to write short vowels and know their sounds  
• to write consonants l, t, b, and n and know their sounds
• can blend the consonants above with a short vowel
• to recognize and count numbers 1-20
• write numbers 1-4
• write cursive vowels and consonants l, t, b, and n
• pennies/cents
• five senses
• to begin reading some short vowel words

Despite the bad days. I am surprised how easy it has been to just sit down and do "school." I thought that would be the hard part. The flexibility has been nice. Yesterday we tried out the Community Playgroup and went to the Library. We rented a science video and watched it after lunch. If daddy is home in the morning we will do school in the afternoon. {Having daddy around is a big distraction.} We spend about two hours a day doing "school." Sure beats an hour and a half bus ride each way and six and a half hours at school each day. I love being able to spend that time with him rather than away from him. 

Fireplace Bookcase Insert

We listed our house a couple weeks ago. After the first week we had an offer, we countered, they walked. Then the next we we had another offer, after accepting it, the buyers changed their minds. Things have since slowed down, but we remain hopeful. Gods timing is always right, so we wait patiently.

Since we may be here through the winter, and will be heating with electric baseboards,we thought we should figure out ways to cope with heat loss to help save some money on the cost of heat. The fireplace, though it works, we have never used it and is probably the source of a lot of our loss of heat through out the cold months.

What to do? How about build a bookcase and insert it into the hole of the fireplace! My handy hubby also attached insulation to the backside with furring strips. He added trim and...ta daaa! We have a creative solution for storage and heat loss! I find it kind of ironic too having a bookcase inside a fireplace. But, it works nonetheless.

I hope it makes a difference this winter. If not, it did free up some space in the other bookcase for Wyatt's home-school material. So either way, I am one happy mama!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Today marks the first day of school for all the schools around us. Since we are homeschooling we have some flexibility, but after some thought I decided it would be best if we started with the rest. Therefore, today was Wyatts first day of Kindergarten!

We started our lesson after putting Josie down for her first nap and finished just before she woke up! Our whole lesson was short, and worked out to be about an hour. The first couple lessons were basically review of what he has already learned and focused on our first letter sound. By the end of the year he will be reading, writing, adding, and subtracting! He was very excited and did really well listening. Hopefully, he will maintain his interest and focus for the remainder of the year!


Happy Back to School Day!