unconscious
vacation
wander
yellow
aboard
baking
cafeteria
dairy
economy
familiar
gauge
identical
jewelry
knew
laboratory
magazine
natural naturally
obey
paid
questionnaire
un-con-scious
va-ca-tion
wan-der
yel-low
a-board
bak-ing
caf-e-te-ria
dair-y
econ-o-my
fa-mil-iar
gauge
i-den-ti-cal
jew-el-ry
knew
lab-o-ra-to-ry
mag-a-zine
nat-u-ral
nat-u-ral-ly
o-bey
paid
ques-tion-naire
Saturday, September 06, 2008
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.
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.
Good Morning!
The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and it's a beautiful day. Everyone is fresh from a good night's sleep: EXCEPT ME. I was up all night.
Second night in a row. The night previous, the last time I looked at the clock it was 4am.
What's keeping me up?
Sarah Palin.
I've got myself all worked up over politics. I'm married to a republican. My best friend is a democrat. I'm a moderate. I seem to always be caught in the middle of things. I've already expressed by my views, so I won't go there.
I will mention this. Sarah Palin's youngest daughter was as cute as a bug's ear while her mother gave her speech. The licking of her hand and smoothing of baby brother's hair was precious. I've read that in quite a few places on the web, everyone thinking that was cute.
I haven't read this: Was there anyone out there, besides me, thinking: TWO HANDS, hold that baby with two hands??? That made me nervous seeing that little girl holding her baby brother with one hand.
I know that I am an anxious person. I know that I need to let go of the politics. I need my sleep. When I get anxious, I don't sleep. So no more reading about politics. Let's see how long that lasts!
I'm going to try to take a nap now. Before I do, I'm going to gather several things that Thomas can do without mom's instruction. I'll get up with him, probably do math, and then I'll take a morning nap, because I cannot function with little to no sleep, I just can't. I will not nap in the afternoon, though. He can work on independent stuff while I take an hour snooze, and then I'll get up and finish the stuff I need to with him.
Not optimal, but it will do.
This is why I don't watch or read a lot of news, because I get too worked up over stuff. While that means I'm not keeping current, which isn't good, it means that I don't get worked up about stuff. Sometimes it stinks being a highly emotional person.
Second night in a row. The night previous, the last time I looked at the clock it was 4am.
What's keeping me up?
Sarah Palin.
I've got myself all worked up over politics. I'm married to a republican. My best friend is a democrat. I'm a moderate. I seem to always be caught in the middle of things. I've already expressed by my views, so I won't go there.
I will mention this. Sarah Palin's youngest daughter was as cute as a bug's ear while her mother gave her speech. The licking of her hand and smoothing of baby brother's hair was precious. I've read that in quite a few places on the web, everyone thinking that was cute.
I haven't read this: Was there anyone out there, besides me, thinking: TWO HANDS, hold that baby with two hands??? That made me nervous seeing that little girl holding her baby brother with one hand.
I know that I am an anxious person. I know that I need to let go of the politics. I need my sleep. When I get anxious, I don't sleep. So no more reading about politics. Let's see how long that lasts!
I'm going to try to take a nap now. Before I do, I'm going to gather several things that Thomas can do without mom's instruction. I'll get up with him, probably do math, and then I'll take a morning nap, because I cannot function with little to no sleep, I just can't. I will not nap in the afternoon, though. He can work on independent stuff while I take an hour snooze, and then I'll get up and finish the stuff I need to with him.
Not optimal, but it will do.
This is why I don't watch or read a lot of news, because I get too worked up over stuff. While that means I'm not keeping current, which isn't good, it means that I don't get worked up about stuff. Sometimes it stinks being a highly emotional person.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Spelling, Week 1
In addition to our spelling program this year, we are going to work on a list of 20 words each week. Thomas is weak in spelling, and we are going to work really hard at it this year. I decided to scour the internet for lists of most commonly misspelled words. I made lots of lists, and from that, a master list. From that, I'm picking 20 words each week, in no particular order.
I am printing the lists for him, and it is his job to study them on his own. He'll have a test on Friday. I have chosen to chunk the words for him, so he visualize them better.
Hopefully we'll see great improvement this year! I'm planning on sharing the lists here, as this IS my homeschool journal, even though I go way off into left field so many times.
Week 1
abbreviate
baggage
cabbage
daily
eager
facilities
gadget
hammer
icicle
jealous
kitchen
label
machinery
naive
obedience
package
quarter
raise
safety
tariff
ab-bre-vi-ate
bag-gage
cab-bage
dai-ly
ea-ger
fa-cil-i-ties
gad-get
ham-mer
i-ci-cle
jeal-ous
kitch-en
la-bel
ma-chin-er-y
na-ive
o-be-di-ence
pack-age
quar-ter
raise
safe-ty
tar-iff
I am printing the lists for him, and it is his job to study them on his own. He'll have a test on Friday. I have chosen to chunk the words for him, so he visualize them better.
Hopefully we'll see great improvement this year! I'm planning on sharing the lists here, as this IS my homeschool journal, even though I go way off into left field so many times.
Week 1
abbreviate
baggage
cabbage
daily
eager
facilities
gadget
hammer
icicle
jealous
kitchen
label
machinery
naive
obedience
package
quarter
raise
safety
tariff
ab-bre-vi-ate
bag-gage
cab-bage
dai-ly
ea-ger
fa-cil-i-ties
gad-get
ham-mer
i-ci-cle
jeal-ous
kitch-en
la-bel
ma-chin-er-y
na-ive
o-be-di-ence
pack-age
quar-ter
raise
safe-ty
tar-iff
This and That
Monday. Nice to have a day off. For Bob, that is, somehow moms never get a day off.
I need to get to civilization sometime soon. My boom box is dying. Thomas and Bob bought me a very nice CD player for the kitchen a few years ago. It's a Sony, it's pretty--has a lovely blue neon light--and has great sound. The sad thing is that the CD player is no longer working. It started going on the blitz this past spring, and now I cannot get any CDs to play.
That presents a problem when we want decent quality for our Story of the World CDs. (We're doing SOTW4 this year.) Plus, I like music, and I can't play my CDs.
My past CD player lasted about four years, and the CD player went on it, too. Everything else on both continued to work just fine.
Bob suggested getting a Bose. I laughed and said I don't want to spend that much money. $500? $150 tops for me, thank you very much.
I still haven't got that Abba CD, and Thomas continues to listen to Abba on You Tube.
Cha-ching.
And another thing. The new chairs we bought for our kitchen table don't work well for me. I waited so long for the beautiful new chocolate brown chairs. They look so much better than the chairs we had that we bought right after (or was it before?) we were married. (1989!) The thing is: it hurts my back to sit in these chairs. I've tried adjusting the chairs in all different manners, but it just isn't working. Bob suggested that I buy a nice-quality office chair. He told me not to worry about what it looks like at my kitchen table, because my back is more important. He's right. So I'll have to make a trip to the big city.
Cha-ching. Cha-ching.
The chair is a necessity. The boom box and Abba CD: not so much. We will use Thomas's CD player, but the sound quality stinks.
I've been debating our first day of school. I had originally planned on jumping right in, going full force. I think Thomas and I need a more gentle approach. So, I held back on cleaning the school room like I normally would. I did manage to get all the books off the floor, though. We will jump right in with math and a few other core subjects, but we'll also organize and clean our school room.
We didn't use the school room much last yea. The year before we did. We both prefer the kitchen table. I have come up with a compromise, though. Our kitchen faces east, so we have nasty sun in the mornings. We have large kitchen windows, so we usually keep the windows closed up until 11ish. We've decided we'll do school in the west-facing school room in the mornings and then move to the kitchen table in the afternoons. That way we get open windows, we'll be able to resume our bird watching out the school room, and we'll be able to keep the table less messy. Bob just hates it when he comes home for lunch and all our stuff is spread out on the table.
Of course we'll have our annual first day of school drive-through breakfast tomorrow. Biscuits and Gravy for Thomas from Arby's (we miss Hardee's so!) and an Egg McMuffin from McDonald's for me.
This past week I was nervous about starting school. Today I'm very relaxed about it. I think taking the pressure off to get the room perfect, everything perfectly organized helped me. Plus, if I make Thomas participate in that, he'll take more ownership in it. And the kid has some very good ideas on organization, too. He's much more creative than I am.
The rest of the day today I will be finishing laundry and paying bills, sipping coffee and putzing. Oh, and preparing my annual letter to the school district, can't forget that! And watching news coverage of the hurricane.
I need to get to civilization sometime soon. My boom box is dying. Thomas and Bob bought me a very nice CD player for the kitchen a few years ago. It's a Sony, it's pretty--has a lovely blue neon light--and has great sound. The sad thing is that the CD player is no longer working. It started going on the blitz this past spring, and now I cannot get any CDs to play.
That presents a problem when we want decent quality for our Story of the World CDs. (We're doing SOTW4 this year.) Plus, I like music, and I can't play my CDs.
My past CD player lasted about four years, and the CD player went on it, too. Everything else on both continued to work just fine.
Bob suggested getting a Bose. I laughed and said I don't want to spend that much money. $500? $150 tops for me, thank you very much.
I still haven't got that Abba CD, and Thomas continues to listen to Abba on You Tube.
Cha-ching.
And another thing. The new chairs we bought for our kitchen table don't work well for me. I waited so long for the beautiful new chocolate brown chairs. They look so much better than the chairs we had that we bought right after (or was it before?) we were married. (1989!) The thing is: it hurts my back to sit in these chairs. I've tried adjusting the chairs in all different manners, but it just isn't working. Bob suggested that I buy a nice-quality office chair. He told me not to worry about what it looks like at my kitchen table, because my back is more important. He's right. So I'll have to make a trip to the big city.
Cha-ching. Cha-ching.
The chair is a necessity. The boom box and Abba CD: not so much. We will use Thomas's CD player, but the sound quality stinks.
I've been debating our first day of school. I had originally planned on jumping right in, going full force. I think Thomas and I need a more gentle approach. So, I held back on cleaning the school room like I normally would. I did manage to get all the books off the floor, though. We will jump right in with math and a few other core subjects, but we'll also organize and clean our school room.
We didn't use the school room much last yea. The year before we did. We both prefer the kitchen table. I have come up with a compromise, though. Our kitchen faces east, so we have nasty sun in the mornings. We have large kitchen windows, so we usually keep the windows closed up until 11ish. We've decided we'll do school in the west-facing school room in the mornings and then move to the kitchen table in the afternoons. That way we get open windows, we'll be able to resume our bird watching out the school room, and we'll be able to keep the table less messy. Bob just hates it when he comes home for lunch and all our stuff is spread out on the table.
Of course we'll have our annual first day of school drive-through breakfast tomorrow. Biscuits and Gravy for Thomas from Arby's (we miss Hardee's so!) and an Egg McMuffin from McDonald's for me.
This past week I was nervous about starting school. Today I'm very relaxed about it. I think taking the pressure off to get the room perfect, everything perfectly organized helped me. Plus, if I make Thomas participate in that, he'll take more ownership in it. And the kid has some very good ideas on organization, too. He's much more creative than I am.
The rest of the day today I will be finishing laundry and paying bills, sipping coffee and putzing. Oh, and preparing my annual letter to the school district, can't forget that! And watching news coverage of the hurricane.
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