Day 8

Was trying to think of a title to sum up today and my brain seems to have stopped functionning!  For the first time since we started I am finished preparing for tomorrow, have been to Tweenagers, have spoken to my sister on the phone and feel like I've had a bit of an evening!  That is mainly thanks to the fact that tomorrow is our first trip with the local home schooling network and so there is not much time to do anything at home! 

The last couple of days have gone quite well I think.  Monday and Tuesday were hard days and S does continue to push the boundaries but I hope is beginning to work out who really pulls the strings!  I got his school work home yesterday which was actually a real encouragement.  It showed me that I'm pretty much doing the right things according to how much and what he was doing at school and that the effort he is giving me is probably the same as at school (although I guarantee the attitude was not so evident at school!).  At nearly the end of another week I think we have achieved a fair bit of learning (and here comes the boring bit!):

In maths he's learnt about "place value" - about units, tens and hundreds.  (He had done this at school but we have revised and extended this learning).
In reading he's learnt that stories have beginning, middles and ends.  We've looked at "wow" words and have looked at the characters.
In spelling we've sussed "ch" and "sh" words.
In science we've learnt that oil and water don't mix.
In language work we've worked on identifying when question marks and full stops are needed.
In topic work we've learnt more about poisonous frogs and how and what a frog eats.
We've started to learn the basics of touch typing, we've started looking at using a compass, we've finished another reading book, we've looked at newspapers and he's done football training!

I think that's this week summed up really.

Going on his reluctance to write I scribed for him at story writing time.  He had a great time coming up with a storyline and frantically drew pictures to go with the story.  It was lovely seeing him so animated and for the first time I had to stop the activity as I needed a break more than him!  He has hated story writing, so hopefully today has been a positive step.

I've adapted the reward system.  Up until now he has been given a smiley face if he completes the activity.  Now however I am rating each activity according to how difficult I think it is.  He can now get the maximum of 3 smiley faces per activity.  This seemed to have an immediate result as his work was neater from the start (he earns a smile for neatness - something I don't think he has bothered about since we started!) and in his competitive spirit didn't want to let any smiles away!  Once he reaches 30 smiles he gets to choose something (very small treats) from the "treasure chest".  We'll see if this lasts...

Socially things are hard just now!  S (for lots of reasons) struggles in this area and since being at home more seems to be struggling even more despite the fact we are still frequently with lots of other children/people and he has 3 siblings at home.  I am finding the intensity of home schooling quite a different pressure from being at home with pre-schoolers all the time.  This weekend I don't feel nearly as caged as I did last weekend but I feel very much that I need a bit of personal space to have adult thinking time.  Thankfully my husband is very aware of the pressures that home schooling is placing on me and understands that I will need a bit of escape time each week.  I hate feeling that I'm needing away from the kids (particularly when I don't see 3 of them for most of the day) but I think I make a much better mum when I get a little bit of space! 

So - hopefully tomorrow will go well and we will meet some folks that S clicks with and is happy to be with!  Hopefully I will too!