It's Friday morning and I wake up feeling overwhelmed.
I've been working at the restaurant for days and I intend to take advantage of my break; to write, clean, organize and round out my school time with the boys. The laundry needs to be folded and sorted and the clutter is really starting to get to me.
On top of this, there is a possibility that my friend Sara and her boys are coming over today for a much needed play date and I would really like things a little more put together. Thank God I went to the grocery store yesterday...
I've put the house on hold because I've been working more to help pay down our credit card bills. Mostly unnecessary retail therapy, but $400 should be paid down fairly easy. I gave my credit cards over to Scott so that I wouldn't be tempted again. It's hard to turn down spending, what appears to be, free money. Sometimes you're bored and you want to get a pretty new thing or buy someone a present on the strange months when it seems like everyone is having a birthday and you just don't have the money to buy even ONE present. No more. I'll pay them off and and keep them open for credit purposes only. If I have birthdays on the way I'll set aside money before hand. No brain-er right?
Right now, I'm relying on my school books to set a standard of curricula. On my work days, I've given Josh assignments to complete and he's been quite responsible but I still want to be part of the learning process. I feel out of touch and time constrained when I have to plan work in the mix.
It's not totally bad but i know it IS boring for Josh.
What I really want to do is explore Joshua's interests and have him learn semi-untethered to any specific curricula. Math and Writing being the concrete subjects, I think there is a wide margin of exploration when it comes to everything else. I'm not the smartest person in the world but I know my interests and I know how to research and teach myself and I'd like to encourage those basic skills in Joshua and Levi, that way they can be life long learners. I think Reading and writing will have to be the key while I can't be there to monitor their progression.
Thus far their interests and abilities are making themselves known.
Josh is nine years old now, going on ten in April.
He has a greater grasp of whats important. He 's learning to be considerate, responsible, and to set priorities and he also understands that Momma needs help too at times. Our relationship is getting closer and the lines of genuine effective communication are open. I use to get irritated and just say, "Because I said so" won't work with smart boys like mine. I explained to him today that I get impatient with him sometimes because I see all the work we have to do for the school year and I get overwhelmed when he takes entirely too long getting his work done or when he tries to get out of it altogether.
I showed him his math book and all the work pages in it to re-emphasize how much material must be covered for his fourth grade year. I told him that the necessity of the repetitive exercises, are to keep the information fresh in his mind so that he doesn't lose it. He says he won't lose it and already knows how to do everything on the current page. I told him that if he can get 100% on his work page, I will skip all pages with the same type of problems and we'll move on to something new, with only a little review now and then of the previous material.
He liked that idea but it turns out he needed a refresher and I reiterated the importance of doing your work carefully and knowing the material.
My Little Engineer:
Lately Josh is making it more certain in my mind that he has a gift for engineering, just like my Dad. My Dad is an electrical engineer and testifies that Joshua is definitely mechanically inclined.
Later in the day we were talking about Bush Gardens and the Swings that spin in a circle high over the roof tops. He was imagining a big screw going through the middle of the swing machine that allowed it to wind up and down and spin at the same time.
Lately, my Ma in Law told me that at the boy's last sleep over with her, Josh set up a metal frame for the air mattress they were to sleep on, in 5 minutes flat. She just handed him the parts and instructions. Lego's, one of Josh's favorite toys, has more than brought out his aptitude for reading diagrams and following directions. He also has an interest in warfare tactics and cooking. We recently looked up soldier rankings so he could understand the different levels of command. The Internet is so great for answering spur of the moment questions, and aren't most that way? It's the answering of them that we can't be lazy about. I encourage Josh to get up and go to the computer when these golden opportunities for learning pop up.
Levi is also very detail oriented, tactile, smart and hilarious. He's turning into a little man and sometimes I can tell that he shirks responsibility but I'm encouraging him to make the transition now. He has to. Josh was getting irritated by the fact that Levi wasn't held accountable to reasonable expectations. Josh has been a big clue as to Levi's big boy potential. Josh was starting to get resentful of Levi and I, because I wouldn't expect my baby to do much more. Now they have equal share in the cleaning and it's solved a lot of discord as well as brought a lot of Levi's new development to light.
Levi still has some baby like cuddly features though. He'll take his "night night " and rub the satin corners between his toes and I have to discourage him from sucking his thumb every now and then but all in all he's proving to do well in school and has a desire to read. He's picked up on the phonics curricula I have through A Becka, very easily.
So here's my day with a lot of flexibility for exploration and discussion. I usually wait for the kids to kick it off, who, are always on the search for some kind of amusement:
After breakfast, Levi, (my 5 year old) starts some knock knock jokes that don't make any sense:
"Knock Knock" who's there?
"Banana" banana who?
"Bananas aren't you glad say banana?" actual quote
(Note to self: I've been checked out so long, I need to correct this sloppy speaking.)
I ask my oldest to say the whole joke so that Levi can repeat it correctly.
Josh does well, maybe a little to many banana scenarios but he nails it. He's getting so much better verbalizing his thoughts. I had to tell him to take it slow and use as many words as possible.
We'll have to practice some more but I think Levi understood how the joke was supposed to go and I gave him a quick version and let him know the punch line: "Orange you glad I didn't say banana?"
Levi: Big Smile
This is an easy joke to start memorization skills in young ones, besides using poetry and song. A funny joke book for kids will make memorization fun. Many provide limericks and tongue twisters as well. :)
The furnace in the hallway cuts on and the boys run to it to get toasty.
10:00 am
Josh sits down at the kitchen table and starts his Math page:
Subtracting Fractions with Common Denominators, Word Problems, Long Division, and Writing Remainders as Fractions. (A part of the 4Th grade A Becka work text)
He needed a little review on writing remainders as fractions, and he needed a little help with the word problems but he did very well over all. Math is one of his strong suits. The Abeka Arithmetic Curriculum make it very easy to teach.
Levi and I were sitting on the couch and cuddle ready. We have "night night" his little teddy bear blanket with the blue satin trim. Lately I've been using night night as a teaching tool. A puppet if you will, with his very own voice and personality. Sometimes he can be hilarious but other times he can be all business, but he's a soft teacher and knows that Levi is a very smart little boy. Levi seems to be more relaxed and willing to play school time with night night instead of me, but with night night, we found that Levi can not only count to 30 but he can count to 70 on the number chart, with no help from night night and me. He seems to want to impress night night and considers him a companion. I've used him to keep Levi company while he does his school papers and it can be really fun. I don't let night night "wake up" until we start school, so it really is a treat when it's school time.
0 comments:
Post a Comment