Worked!!

Andrew was up at 6:30 and so was Dad because he had to be at a training by 8 AM so I got out of bed too and then all of a sudden there were 2 girls awake all before 7 AM.  I reminded them that we were trying to make it to park day by noon and then asked them what their plan was?  Cairn got right to work. Skylar said she was going too and then went off to play.  I left Cairn working and Andrew and I went off to practice the piano and then get dressed.  Skylar still played.  I did do one reminder to both Cairn and Skylar and then I remembered I didn't want to do that.  Cairn was working again so I sat next to her and we went through her math lesson together.  I was able to fill a couple holes of missing information and then it all clicked.  She was working on area of unusual shapes (not perfect rectangles and such).  They also introduced formulas and she didn't quite understood where the letters came in all of a sudden.

Cairn had all of her schoolwork finished by 10:30.  While I was talking to Cairn about what she would be able to do now that her schoolwork was finished Skylar decided she might need to get hers finished too.  Off she went to work.

I got Andrew back on Reading Eggs today to work on the first map (Skylar is on map 9).  He loves it when he can do REAL schoolwork.  I am not sure what he thinks my work is but anything that the girls do is REAL.

Everyone had their schoolwork finished by noon and we headed out to the park.  We got there by 12:15 and no one from our homeschool group was there.  After about 30 minutes I decided I better find out if I was at the wrong park.  NOPE, I was at the park on the wrong DAY!!  Geez.  I told the kids that their friends weren't coming, they were sad but forgave me.  We went to a friends house to pick up a couple handmade Christmas gifts.  Then we headed to Cairn's Ameritowne class.  We were also supposed to hit the Girl Scout shop but I ran out of energy.

Tonight we went to a library event that ended up being a total bust but the kids were great sports about it.  The presenter didn't show up and the library still tried to piece it together but it flopped.  Oh well, we got home and the kids were ready for bed.

Tomorrow I will not do any reminding again.  It actually seems to be working.  I am not getting frustrated with my constant reminding and the kids are learning from the natural consequences or receiving the benefits. Tomorrow Andrew also has a playdate with a 3 year old boy.  He is so excited I thought he wouldn't fall asleep.  He just kept talking and talking about his new friend.  I hope they hit it off.

Try again

Today, the kids sat down and got right to work on their schoolwork.  It was an amazing thing but I screwed up and when they walked away I called them back, I got upset when they wouldn't stay on task.  I should have kept my mouth quiet and let the consequences do the teaching again.

Cairn worked hard for about an hour before I started reminding her. She worked on area of a rectangle, reading Gulliver's Travels, new spelling words and Spanish.  She had to do yesterday's work and today's.

I got several books from the library called "we both read".  I read one side of the book and Skylar reads the other side. She is feeling very successful so today she wanted to try the reading comprehension side of Reading Eggs.  She actually did very well.  She read 3 books on her own with me only telling her a couple sight words that she hadn't seen yet.  She liked being a person instead of an egg (the characters for the program)  She also worked on length, and spelling the digraphs.

Andrew had piano this afternoon and had his first solo.  He did a pretty good job.  He doesn't quite have the same dexterity as the other kids in class but no one said anything.  You could tell his song didn't sound as good as the other kids but he got all the notes right.  I may add in some extra practice for him to see if that helps.  I certainly don't want to frustrate him because he loves it so much.

After piano we ran to Sam's to get a few things and some gummy bears for a science project.  The kids of course asked for pretzels but because they had argued and complained throughout the store I said I didn't have the energy to buy something extra.  No arguing, no pleading - they just got it that my words were gold and that was it.

The kids all finished their schoolwork but I wasted a lot of energy getting them back on task.  Tomorrow, I will work on me not getting them on task but letting the consequences do the teaching.  I am making myself some post it notes so I don't forget.  I may have to bring a book down to keep myself occupied.

Back to work

We took all of last week off of online school off.  We did other lessons around Thanksgiving but not the sit down and work type of schoolwork.  So as always it bites me a little when I return to the regular schedule.  This is why I don't take the entire summer off.  I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to get the kids back on the routine after 3 months of nothing.  Don't even want to think about it.

So today, there was a lot of playing, ignoring of the schoolwork.  I sat in the TV room which is where we do school waiting to do my job of teaching.  I didn't bribe, remind, beg for schoolwork to get done.  I knew that in a few hours some consequences would come down and then we would start the real learning.

We went to the mall for Girl Scouts to do a badge workshop at Microsoft from 10:30 to 2:30.  Way to long.  We got home and still no return to schoolwork even though we had taken most of it with us.  Cairn got a lot of hers done but not Skylar.

So here comes dinner - no dessert, no TV, no fun time after dinner.  Lots of crying, whining and complaining - I kept saying, "tomorrow you get to try again."