Thursday, September 04, 2008

At the End of the Day...

I'm glad to report we got everything done in my plan for the day. Whew! Thomas let me sleep a little this morning, and he did his independent work. Then when I got up, still feeling groggy, I loaded up with coffee and we put nose to grindstone and got 'er done.

I have noticed a big jump in maturity this year. I still get lots of whines, especially over math, but...

The big thing I've noticed may seem silly to others. Typically with math, I cut up the math book and let Thomas write directly into the book. We use Rod and Staff. I hadn't cut it up beforehand this year, and Thomas suggested that we not ruin the book and use a spiral instead. In years gone by, he never could have copied all the problems to the paper. It would have just been overload to him. (One of the pesky parts of his learning disabilities.) This year, he's been able to handle that task beautifully!

He's upset with me that I want each problem on a separate line, with a line in between the last answer and the new problem. He would rather save space and do work from left to right, smushed up, making it illegible. So he caved when I, um, demanded he do things my way. The result is his work is much neater than last year.

He's been kicking butt with his logic! Wow, can that kid think. He's been working hard at spelling, struggling with the list I made him, but learning a few each day. His spelling program so far is a big hit. I'll wait until we've gone halfway through the book and I see how he's doing before I give a formal review.

He has been able to write and write and write without complaint. He's had to do a lot of sentence writing for our grammar program, and his work has been neat and his hand isn't getting tired.

Ahhhh.

I have a feeling seventh grade is going to be a fantastic year for us! And we are ready for a fantastic year.

2 comments:

Garden State Kate said...

Awesome!!

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

Hello! Thank you for letting Thomas post a comment on G's blog. He is very excited to receive them and wanted to let you know that he thinks the photo with the train on top of your blog is super-awesome. G is in eighth grade and is going to public school. I homeschool my two middle children. :]