Grade 4, Lesson 2, Day 5 ~ Minimum Day and a Bit of Relief

Ah, finally it is slightly cooler and the air quality isn't quite so unhealthful.

Fridays are a tough day for us. We have housecleaners that arrive at some point in the afternoon and so everything must be tidy so that they can actually clean the house. We try to put everything in its place by Thursday evening, but let's get real here ~ we have two boys living in this house!

I decided that Friday can be a minimum day for me (in terms of hands-on teaching time) and an easy day for the boys. This week we didn't have anything that needed to be caught up on, so we worked 4 boxes ~ journals, math practice, reading, and spelling (+the test). The boys then moved on to playing Timez Attack on the computer, and are now messing around with Garage Band. I need to get them a good typing program and move that into rotation.

I am pleased to have gotten through another week of structured homeschooling. It wasn't quite as easy as last week, but I think we accomplished more. I reflect on each day to get a sense of what is working and what isn't. We had tears over a misspelled word on the spelling test this morning ~ not good. I really think what is happening is that having to spell from memory and having to write the words down is a little hard for now. I think we'll do an oral exam next week, and once we get that down we'll move to spelling orally and then writing it down.

J-Baby doesn't like things to be too instructional; lots of questions frustrate him. He wants to relate to things and come up with connections, but he doesn't want to be forced into it. What I need to do for him is check out more library books relating to whatever we are learning about.

Anyway, TGIF! It's a long weekend too. We're all sniffling and coughing around here so we'll probably take it easy again this weekend, or at least stay close to home and perhaps tackle a few projects. We can't drive to see my grandmother at the nursing home when we are ill; getting sick would cause her setbacks and we also have to think of the rest of the patients. We did make cards this morning (art, I guess) and put those in the mail. It's a small way to stay connected with her so far away.