Week Four

Our homeschool is still going well. We had a good week.

I think it's good that we do math on Mondays because Monday morning we're always really motivated to start our week out right and math is the most structured thing we do. Our work this week was on patterns. I can see my boys developing good thinking skills.

Tuesday we had a field trip to a science museum that has an exhibit about prairie life, including live prairie dogs and a real tornado. The kids loved it and I had to drag them away kicking and screaming when it was time to go home.

Wednesday we did some work on rhythm and beat. Bean is learning to read notes pretty well, but he has a hard time with rhythm, so I wanted to give him some extra practice. I made some cards with notes on them and had him make up rhythms that we could clap together (thanks for the idea, Julie!) After awhile we got plastic containers and spoons out of the kitchen and started a drum line. This was pretty popular with Roo.

Thursday we went to the library. I don't yet feel ready to get back into our structured reading lessons. I love our reading book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, but I don't want to push Bean too hard to do take on more than his brain is ready for. For many months now every time I think about getting back into our reading lessons I just don't feel good about it and when I have tried anyway I see that Bean still has a mental block and he gets all squirmy and it turns into a fight. The whole point in homeschooling him is to let him develop at his own pace, so I'm just trying to keep reinforcing things he's already learned and read aloud a lot to develop his imagination and vocabulary.

Friday for "Making Day" I wanted to reinforce what we did on Monday with patterns, so I had the boys string bead necklaces and I asked Bean to make different patterns with his string of beads. He enjoyed that. Roo and Fish really enjoy stringing beads too.

The more I get into homeschooling, the more things I think of that I want to do with the kids and I realize I don't even have enough hours in the day to teach them everything I want to. I get excited about all the different things we could do, but then I get exhausted trying to work with them and also take care of all my other responsibilities. I am trying to learn to pace myself. A lot of my challenge is mental-- adjusting my expectations and attitudes-- but I'm making progress.

Progress is good.