After last week this week was entirely different. S was far more positive... until Friday. He worked so hard on Monday and Tuesday which was great. Unfortunately Wednesday went a bit pear shape with other appointments scuppering the day which I didn't know about much in advance - but then that is an occupational hazard of home schooling.
Friday was a negative day and I had no energy to battle with him so other than a bit of maths we didn't really do much. I wanted to see how he would feel after a particularly unproductive day and was pleased that even he realised that it is pretty dull not working for a whole day when everyone else in the family is busy.
I'm going to watch over the next couple of weeks to see if there is a pattern. I think S IS productive Monday-Wednesday and then I think Thurs/Frid seem to tail off - probably for both of us to be honest. So, I'm thinking of replanning a bit and doing ALL our maths and english for the week in the first 3 days of the week and then trying to go out and about for the last 2 days - like PE (might even brave swimming!!!), map work (orienteering), SaLT out about and that sort of thing.
On a personal level I'm feeling particularly caged this week. I don't know if it's partly to do with the fact that Christmas is over, the move is done and for the first time in weeks I don't actually have very much to do while S is working. I'm also so aware that when all 4 were at school I really could please myself and nip off somewhere in the car and do whatever. I can't do that now and that takes a long time to get used to obviously!
All in all though a positive week I think. We have various trips lined up so once the snow and ice die down a bit we have plenty on the horizon to keep us busy.
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Monday, 23 January 2012
Back online!
It feels like a long time since I have updated the blog so am so happy to be back!
So the move has happened and we are very settled into our temporary new abode - while work is done to our house. The move has gone incredibly smoothly which has been a big relief. The fact that S has been involved from the very beginning with the new house has certainly helped the whole family and has meant nobody has really been unsettled. Last time we moved the twins were just 2 and a half so what a difference to move 4 school aged children!
So how's the schooling been. Well - being totally honest it has been a bit of a battle! S has peaked in his unco-operation which I have found very draining on top of the physical exhaustion that accompanies any house move. On top of that one of the twins was off school for 2 days full of the cold. Whilst she was desperate to be "home schooled" I was struggling to share her enthusiasm to come up with 2 children's lesson plans! I relented for the second day and she worked so hard all day it was quite incredible! S on the other hand complained his way through just about every task that we did leaving me feeling like I'd been through the wringer every day! I have noticed that whatever happens in the morning (or frequently the afternoons with everything that has gone on this past while) S very quickly forgets all about it and moves on. I on the other hand feel quite traumatised after a session of battles and take hours to recover, by which time normally the other 3 children are home with their own traumas to deal with!
The psychologist came at the end of the week and I had a really good session with him. (He's S's psychologist really!!!). He pointed out that where S is obviously really benefitting from home schooling the offshoot of that is that his self confidence is improving to the extent that he is far more able to express himself when he is not really wanting to co-operate. I think in a funny sort of way I should be pleased then!
Because of all the difficulties of last week we have started a new system. I am now going to record all his complaints and his positives. Whilst I really strongly disapprove of "keeping a record of wrongs" (1 Cor 13) S responded immediately to the thought of having a record of his moaning and groaning and rather than me lose my patience with him I simply write it down which helps my sanity too. Having spoken about it with the psych I am going to write them down and then S's challenge is too either make sure there are more positives than complaints (complaints will be in red and positives in blue) or that he sees he's had a good moan so then can let that be the end of it for the day! So we'll see!
From a learning point of view we've done a lot! We've tackled symmetry, sentence writing, read a book, looked at magnets and magnetism, studied -ing words, learnt how to draw circles with a set of compasses, looked at scale on maps, learnt how to round numbers, looked at "qu" words, done some dictionary work, and done a little bit of history. We've done other random things too but they would be the main things for the week.
After the struggle of last week today was a really good morning. I have to continually remind myself to think beyond what is obvious and not to jump in with assumptions when teaching S. When he fully understands a task, is totally secure and happy with the environment and the task he works fantastically well and is a real pleasure to teach. My challenge is to reach that point with him faster and faster and for him to complain less! I feel that he is learning a lot. His reading is beginning to get more fluent and as my confidence grows to be more and more flexible with my lesson plans we are covering many things which is great.
This week we are hoping to look into Burns and hopefully incorporate it into a wee visit to a museum in New Lanark to tie it into our history which he has come across in his reading. At the same time as that I'm hoping we can use some of our map reading skills too. Finally I am hoping we can do something that really does exploit the benefits of home schooling!
So a mixed week but overall I think a positive week! I'm so glad to be back online and to be able to use the computer programmes with S again which will bring the computing dimension back into what we do which has to be a good thing.
Right - off to try to Tesco shop!
So the move has happened and we are very settled into our temporary new abode - while work is done to our house. The move has gone incredibly smoothly which has been a big relief. The fact that S has been involved from the very beginning with the new house has certainly helped the whole family and has meant nobody has really been unsettled. Last time we moved the twins were just 2 and a half so what a difference to move 4 school aged children!
So how's the schooling been. Well - being totally honest it has been a bit of a battle! S has peaked in his unco-operation which I have found very draining on top of the physical exhaustion that accompanies any house move. On top of that one of the twins was off school for 2 days full of the cold. Whilst she was desperate to be "home schooled" I was struggling to share her enthusiasm to come up with 2 children's lesson plans! I relented for the second day and she worked so hard all day it was quite incredible! S on the other hand complained his way through just about every task that we did leaving me feeling like I'd been through the wringer every day! I have noticed that whatever happens in the morning (or frequently the afternoons with everything that has gone on this past while) S very quickly forgets all about it and moves on. I on the other hand feel quite traumatised after a session of battles and take hours to recover, by which time normally the other 3 children are home with their own traumas to deal with!
The psychologist came at the end of the week and I had a really good session with him. (He's S's psychologist really!!!). He pointed out that where S is obviously really benefitting from home schooling the offshoot of that is that his self confidence is improving to the extent that he is far more able to express himself when he is not really wanting to co-operate. I think in a funny sort of way I should be pleased then!
Because of all the difficulties of last week we have started a new system. I am now going to record all his complaints and his positives. Whilst I really strongly disapprove of "keeping a record of wrongs" (1 Cor 13) S responded immediately to the thought of having a record of his moaning and groaning and rather than me lose my patience with him I simply write it down which helps my sanity too. Having spoken about it with the psych I am going to write them down and then S's challenge is too either make sure there are more positives than complaints (complaints will be in red and positives in blue) or that he sees he's had a good moan so then can let that be the end of it for the day! So we'll see!
From a learning point of view we've done a lot! We've tackled symmetry, sentence writing, read a book, looked at magnets and magnetism, studied -ing words, learnt how to draw circles with a set of compasses, looked at scale on maps, learnt how to round numbers, looked at "qu" words, done some dictionary work, and done a little bit of history. We've done other random things too but they would be the main things for the week.
After the struggle of last week today was a really good morning. I have to continually remind myself to think beyond what is obvious and not to jump in with assumptions when teaching S. When he fully understands a task, is totally secure and happy with the environment and the task he works fantastically well and is a real pleasure to teach. My challenge is to reach that point with him faster and faster and for him to complain less! I feel that he is learning a lot. His reading is beginning to get more fluent and as my confidence grows to be more and more flexible with my lesson plans we are covering many things which is great.
This week we are hoping to look into Burns and hopefully incorporate it into a wee visit to a museum in New Lanark to tie it into our history which he has come across in his reading. At the same time as that I'm hoping we can use some of our map reading skills too. Finally I am hoping we can do something that really does exploit the benefits of home schooling!
So a mixed week but overall I think a positive week! I'm so glad to be back online and to be able to use the computer programmes with S again which will bring the computing dimension back into what we do which has to be a good thing.
Right - off to try to Tesco shop!
Thursday, 12 January 2012
You Really Can Never Second Guess Kids!
After thankfully a good night's sleep I was all geared up for a productive day. S on the other hand was not! Every single step of the way was a real struggle today! I really didn't think he took much in at all and today was needing to stand my ground to get him to get through any of the work that I had planned for him to do. This morning saw the confiscation of a wii game and the postponement of snack time until he had completed tasks that I considered to be quite straight forward. Quite honestly it was painfully slow and hard to get him to do anything!!
However, I persevered and eventually he got through the maths, english and geography work that he needed to get through. Today we looked at right angles and parallel lines and then did a puzzle and Education City game on polygons which he got full marks on which was great. Then, in reading I left him to read alone and then answer 10 true/false questions on what he'd read. As suspected he read really quickly and then guessed all the answers. After 3 attempts at the questions he gave in and sat and read the pages I'd given to help him to answer the questions and - guess what - he got full marks! He did a page on spelling words too which again he tried to rush and had to repeat by reading properly! After this I did a bit of work with the road atlas. Yesterday's maths sheet involved grid references. He actually quite enjoyed this so today I got him to find 10 towns across the British Isles using the grid references and page numbers. He LOVED this! That was the easiest piece of work he had to do!
That was our days work today. If he worked without moaning he would have got through all of that fairly quickly - however, it seemed to take an age. I was not convinced much had gone in at all. How wrong I could be! Later on in the day he came and presented me with a map he had drawn of the area. I looked at it and then turned the page to find a whole page on polygons and parallel lines that he had taught his imaginary class with! I was gobsmacked!!! After all his protests he had taken EVERYTHING in that I had said and regurgitated it to these imaginary classmates.
What I've not included until now is that S was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum just a few months ago. This was huge news for us and continues to be a big time learning curve for us and particularly me as I work with him. I've not mentioned it on the blog up until now as that is not the reason why we are home schooling S and I want to try to keep certain things private. However, today was a day that all that happened was very "autistic" and not really explicable in any other way! The more I find out about what is going on in his head the more that days like today make sense and not make me want to throw the towel in! Today was one of those days that it was a big reminder that you can never second guess kids and particularly not kids with autism! S is so happy at home and although he complains constantly at home school time and can make teaching him so infuriating it is such a precious thing to be able to see the gems come in amidst all the hard times and to be able to help him.
Moving day is Saturday and as yet we have no internet or phone connection in the house!! We will be getting access to the internet for S everyday but not at the house so my blogging from here on in may be a little sketchy! It will be good for me though not to lose every night to surfing, facebooking and blogging!
However, I persevered and eventually he got through the maths, english and geography work that he needed to get through. Today we looked at right angles and parallel lines and then did a puzzle and Education City game on polygons which he got full marks on which was great. Then, in reading I left him to read alone and then answer 10 true/false questions on what he'd read. As suspected he read really quickly and then guessed all the answers. After 3 attempts at the questions he gave in and sat and read the pages I'd given to help him to answer the questions and - guess what - he got full marks! He did a page on spelling words too which again he tried to rush and had to repeat by reading properly! After this I did a bit of work with the road atlas. Yesterday's maths sheet involved grid references. He actually quite enjoyed this so today I got him to find 10 towns across the British Isles using the grid references and page numbers. He LOVED this! That was the easiest piece of work he had to do!
That was our days work today. If he worked without moaning he would have got through all of that fairly quickly - however, it seemed to take an age. I was not convinced much had gone in at all. How wrong I could be! Later on in the day he came and presented me with a map he had drawn of the area. I looked at it and then turned the page to find a whole page on polygons and parallel lines that he had taught his imaginary class with! I was gobsmacked!!! After all his protests he had taken EVERYTHING in that I had said and regurgitated it to these imaginary classmates.
What I've not included until now is that S was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum just a few months ago. This was huge news for us and continues to be a big time learning curve for us and particularly me as I work with him. I've not mentioned it on the blog up until now as that is not the reason why we are home schooling S and I want to try to keep certain things private. However, today was a day that all that happened was very "autistic" and not really explicable in any other way! The more I find out about what is going on in his head the more that days like today make sense and not make me want to throw the towel in! Today was one of those days that it was a big reminder that you can never second guess kids and particularly not kids with autism! S is so happy at home and although he complains constantly at home school time and can make teaching him so infuriating it is such a precious thing to be able to see the gems come in amidst all the hard times and to be able to help him.
Moving day is Saturday and as yet we have no internet or phone connection in the house!! We will be getting access to the internet for S everyday but not at the house so my blogging from here on in may be a little sketchy! It will be good for me though not to lose every night to surfing, facebooking and blogging!
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
So so tired!
Is it not meant to be the case that when your children get older you are meant to get more sleep? To be fair to my lot sleep has been pretty good for the last 4 years but last night was a howler as one of the twins decided to put her music on full blast TWICE in the middle of the night! While she drifted off peacefully to sleep both times it woke me and took me forever to get back to sleep - just in time for the next rendition of songs! Needless to say I have been shattered all day today!
The house move is going quite well I think. I'm at the stage of wanting to hire a skip for all our clutter and am loving the new house as it is so clear! The kids are loving playing in the new house which is lovely and they hate coming back! S and I worked in the new house this morning as we waited for a delivery. This was obviously a little bit too much "outside the box" for S today and it wasn't the easiest work session that we've had but we covered our maths and english topics for the day so I was happy with that.
Yesterday was fab! The day for various reasons was very topsy turvey but S handled this really well. We did lots of domestic moving chores in the morning and then sat down just after 1 to do his school work. I explained to him that he had a list of "jobs" to do and that if he worked really hard he'd manage them all before his siblings got home from school. Boy did he work hard! It was great! He did mental arithmetic, jotter work, a worksheet and some direct teaching from me on maths and then he did his reading, a listening comprehension and then 2 computer programmes on verbs on tenses and appropriate use of verbs! It was interesting to see what he was like in the afternoon as normally we work up until lunch time. He was so much better. It doesn't really give us very long though! This week is a bit abnormal with the move taking a lot of time and so as long as we are covering maths and english, anything else is a bonus!
One thing I am very aware of already this term is how suddenly I no longer feel a pressure to keep him up with all his peers. I am beginning to feel more confident that he is learning and will be keeping up with his peers but that we will be doing things at a different pace and in a different way. I am definitely covering ground often that he is bound to have done before but had just not fully understood and also we are going into more depth in some things than I think he would need to go into at the level he should at school but I am beginning to really appreciate the freedom I have as a home educator to go as far as I think is appropriate and not what some paper says I should do.
The house move is going quite well I think. I'm at the stage of wanting to hire a skip for all our clutter and am loving the new house as it is so clear! The kids are loving playing in the new house which is lovely and they hate coming back! S and I worked in the new house this morning as we waited for a delivery. This was obviously a little bit too much "outside the box" for S today and it wasn't the easiest work session that we've had but we covered our maths and english topics for the day so I was happy with that.
Yesterday was fab! The day for various reasons was very topsy turvey but S handled this really well. We did lots of domestic moving chores in the morning and then sat down just after 1 to do his school work. I explained to him that he had a list of "jobs" to do and that if he worked really hard he'd manage them all before his siblings got home from school. Boy did he work hard! It was great! He did mental arithmetic, jotter work, a worksheet and some direct teaching from me on maths and then he did his reading, a listening comprehension and then 2 computer programmes on verbs on tenses and appropriate use of verbs! It was interesting to see what he was like in the afternoon as normally we work up until lunch time. He was so much better. It doesn't really give us very long though! This week is a bit abnormal with the move taking a lot of time and so as long as we are covering maths and english, anything else is a bonus!
One thing I am very aware of already this term is how suddenly I no longer feel a pressure to keep him up with all his peers. I am beginning to feel more confident that he is learning and will be keeping up with his peers but that we will be doing things at a different pace and in a different way. I am definitely covering ground often that he is bound to have done before but had just not fully understood and also we are going into more depth in some things than I think he would need to go into at the level he should at school but I am beginning to really appreciate the freedom I have as a home educator to go as far as I think is appropriate and not what some paper says I should do.
Monday, 9 January 2012
Here We Go Again...
After what seemed like a long holiday it was back to work today! I hate starting back after Christmas holidays! After all the fun, cosyness, chilling out and family time of Christmas it's always a thought to get back into the routine. I feel so so sorry for the kids going back to school! I don't know if that says more about how I used to feel going back to school or how they feel! Anyway, whatever the feelings were we all had to face up to the new term today!
On Saturday I spent a couple of hours looking to the week ahead and was amazed at how quickly I'd forgotten just how much time it takes me to plan the lessons for S! I felt quite daunted at the prospect and the responsibility once again of teaching him and how to ensure I was covering everything I should! At the same time though I feel quite motivated this term to get into a routine and quite excited to see S progress. It has been fantastic to hear folks comments on S (family mainly) on the change they see in S since taking him out of school! I'm quite amazed that in such a short space of time there are noticeable improvements and changes! I so quickly get caught up with the daily challenges and difficulties that I lose perspective of the bigger picture and the reasons for doing what we are doing.
So today started. To add a bit excitement into the mix we are moving house this week! Normally to have all the kids starting back at school would have been great timing for us to get moved. This time however is definitely a different experience - to try to move house (which we are doing ourselves), home school one child and get the other 3 to school all equipped - is quite a challenge! I will be so relieved to get to this time next week with my eyes still open and my legs still able to support me!!! It's hopefully just a temporary move and we will be back "home" in a few months but we still have to move pretty much everything! With all that in mind I am hoping that S will work in the mornings and that in the afternoons we will make the most of the time and ferry things up to the new house.
So what have we started this term. In Maths I have introduced this term "warm up Maths" where S will do 10 minutes of quick mental arithmetic. We then started "Shape". Today we looked at "polygons" (I tell you - I'm learning a lot too!!!) and named the main polygons. We discussed right angles and parallel lines. I'm pretty sure he's done this before but was quite clearly not that clued up about it so we will develop all this during this week. I left him to do a couple of maths tasks on his own which he did which was great. Following this we went on to our reading and then introduced a new idea. Last term I'd hoped he would have done a news report on a Monday morning. This bomb dived though and I don't really think he is quite ready for it. Instead we are now going to look at a match report from the weekend's football. (S is football daft now!). I'd hoped to find all the verbs in the report today but I realised pretty quickly that that was far too hard. Instead today we picked out all the "wow" words. S loved it! He objected to ALL the tasks we did today apart from that! Once we'd done that I got him to look at the short piece of writing I'd asked him to do today and pick out the "wow" words he'd written. He'd not done many at all and it was great to see him immediately realise the difference! Hopefully we can build on this and I fully intend to exploit his football obsession in as many areas as I can!
All in all we didn't work for long today (in length of time) but he actually did achieve a lot! Following today he can definitely spell "favourite" and "present" which he couldn't this morning and hopefully can discuss a bit of shape and "wow" words. His lack of co-operation returned with a vengeance and I will struggle with that big time if I can't get a handle on it soon!
So much to say but I must go (well done if you've persevered this far!!). Sleep is calling.
On Saturday I spent a couple of hours looking to the week ahead and was amazed at how quickly I'd forgotten just how much time it takes me to plan the lessons for S! I felt quite daunted at the prospect and the responsibility once again of teaching him and how to ensure I was covering everything I should! At the same time though I feel quite motivated this term to get into a routine and quite excited to see S progress. It has been fantastic to hear folks comments on S (family mainly) on the change they see in S since taking him out of school! I'm quite amazed that in such a short space of time there are noticeable improvements and changes! I so quickly get caught up with the daily challenges and difficulties that I lose perspective of the bigger picture and the reasons for doing what we are doing.
So today started. To add a bit excitement into the mix we are moving house this week! Normally to have all the kids starting back at school would have been great timing for us to get moved. This time however is definitely a different experience - to try to move house (which we are doing ourselves), home school one child and get the other 3 to school all equipped - is quite a challenge! I will be so relieved to get to this time next week with my eyes still open and my legs still able to support me!!! It's hopefully just a temporary move and we will be back "home" in a few months but we still have to move pretty much everything! With all that in mind I am hoping that S will work in the mornings and that in the afternoons we will make the most of the time and ferry things up to the new house.
So what have we started this term. In Maths I have introduced this term "warm up Maths" where S will do 10 minutes of quick mental arithmetic. We then started "Shape". Today we looked at "polygons" (I tell you - I'm learning a lot too!!!) and named the main polygons. We discussed right angles and parallel lines. I'm pretty sure he's done this before but was quite clearly not that clued up about it so we will develop all this during this week. I left him to do a couple of maths tasks on his own which he did which was great. Following this we went on to our reading and then introduced a new idea. Last term I'd hoped he would have done a news report on a Monday morning. This bomb dived though and I don't really think he is quite ready for it. Instead we are now going to look at a match report from the weekend's football. (S is football daft now!). I'd hoped to find all the verbs in the report today but I realised pretty quickly that that was far too hard. Instead today we picked out all the "wow" words. S loved it! He objected to ALL the tasks we did today apart from that! Once we'd done that I got him to look at the short piece of writing I'd asked him to do today and pick out the "wow" words he'd written. He'd not done many at all and it was great to see him immediately realise the difference! Hopefully we can build on this and I fully intend to exploit his football obsession in as many areas as I can!
All in all we didn't work for long today (in length of time) but he actually did achieve a lot! Following today he can definitely spell "favourite" and "present" which he couldn't this morning and hopefully can discuss a bit of shape and "wow" words. His lack of co-operation returned with a vengeance and I will struggle with that big time if I can't get a handle on it soon!
So much to say but I must go (well done if you've persevered this far!!). Sleep is calling.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)