Monday Evening

Don't feel like blogging, yet I feel the need to get rid of some of the negativity here with something actually homeschool related.

This year is continuing to go well. I have had streses over math, but when I relaxed and realized we were in no race (thanks, Carole) things became much more clear.

We will continue with Lial's. And we'll take our sweet time. Today Thomas worked on exponents and order of operations. He just told me that even though he hates math, he loved order of operations. It's a good thing, because there are two more pages in the book I will have him complete.

Life is much easier when one takes a breath, relaxes, and lets it flow. The answers are there, we just get too worked up to see them. I think this will work.

Thomas continues to have a fantastic attitude. (Mostly, he is human, so I don't expect perfection. lol) He's working hard, learning and getting his tasks done in good time. Still. Knock on wood.

This year we bought Write! Write! Write!. It's a format writing book. The kind of book that gets lots of negative reviews because it's fill in the blank, has story starters and does not tap into one's creativity. Well, it is just the ticket for my reluctant writer.

The book starts of gently. The first few lessons were fill in the blanks, similar to AdLibs. Thomas loved them, and of course wrote the stories with gross, boy-loving, mom-disapproving humor. Okay, so he writes about poop. Whatever. He's writing!

Today he had to write sentences that started with the same letter. We had lots of giggles, evil mother looks, mother shaking her Head, and mother saying NO -- but he laughed and had fun. And he wrote some funny sentences. And that was the point.

As we move on in the book, it will get more into writing that most of us are familiar with. I like the fun approach because he's not hating it already, not complaining that it's boring. He actually asks to start with writing. What more could I want?

We finally added spelling in today. That goofy child started mocking me. Every time I gave him a word and used it in a sentence, he was a half a second behind me repeating everything I said. I said stop it and he said it almost in unison with me. This went on during all 25 words. At the end I laughed and told him that it was fun, ONCE. I explained how spelling is serious business and he needs to have a serious attitude. Right as I said that, Bob walked in the door. I told Bob what Thomas did, had him tell me how his morning went and I did to him what Thomas did to me. Bob won't win the father of the year award today. He laughed. And laughed and laughed. Yeah, Bob, way to encourage your son.

Tomorrow we will start school with a roll of duct tape sitting on the table. When Thomas asks what it's for, I'll tell him it is to zip his lip.

This is a JOKE. I would never do that to my child. But it is my evil revenge.

While on the topic of writing, I had Thomas look at some of the books at History Scribe. He's looked at these before and balked. Today he saw that they might be fun, because he could draw a picture and write about the topic. He asked me to buy one. So I bought three. Colonial Times, Geo-Terms, and....don't gasp, but The Life of Jesus.

Yes, I know this is mostly a secular blog. But I'm not a secular person. I keep my religion close to my chest. We are Christians, but we don't go to Church. Thomas has been begging to go to church. I tried, we picked one out, talked to the pastor, he told us he'd come to our house and meet with us -- and he never showed. I took that as a sign. So instead I bought him a junior bible at our brand-spanking new Walmart. Who knew they sold bibles? And we've been reading that. (Did you know there was polygamy in the beginning of Genesis? I was shocked, because I didn't know that! Me, a fan of HBO's Big Love, didn't know that. I thought it was later in the book.) I thought about getting some curriculum. We do have Rod and Staff bible, but it's rather dull. When I saw the History Scribe, I figured I could handle that because it is basically bible verses--no preaching, no one sharing their version of what those passages mean.

So that will be our religious studies. Nice, easy, reading, sharing, discussing, coloring and writing.

And with that shocking revelation, I think it's time to close this entry and start printing.

p.s. because it's my blog, I get to talk about my poor old doggie ad naseaum. Jerry only threw up once very early this morning, and has kept the rest of his food down. He's perkier, feeling better, and has a bounce in his step. We'll probably take him in Friday (unless he gets worse) for blood work. If those enzymes have lowered, we'll have surgery. We think. It will cost $500. That's a LOT of money. He's a special dog, though. There are no guarantees about surgery, but I love him so much, and as long as he's not in pain now, it may be worth a shot. What would you do???