Another wee reality check!

The end of term is racing towards us! I am amazed at how quickly this term has gone passed and am amazed at how much learning we have actually done! This week alone we have tackled "equivalent fractions", "fractions of groups" and introduced decimals. That might sound like pretty mundane stuff but from someone who was told throughout secondary school that I "struggled to grasp the basics" I feel not only a sense of acheivement that S has grasped the topics but that I have been able to teach them! Actually, dare I admit it I am really enjoying teaching maths! For probably the first time in my life I am seeing how much all the topics in maths link together and how much it all makes sense! In the midst of all this though there has definitely been a build up which led to a reality check today. I have become slightly complacent over the past couple of weeks with the new calmness at home and the change of temperature. With S cooperating so much more it has been a bit too easy to drift through the day working. S has actually been doing more work than he was before and has learnt a lot but I have inadvertantly allowed him to take the reins a bit too much in deciding when we do things! I realised this today when he point blank refused to do his independent learning at the time I requested. It was a stark reminder all of a sudden of the attitude that I battled with for a lot of last year and one that I don't want us to slip back into! This has been my fault though and not S's. I had to put my foot down and instead of a more lazy afternoon that we normally have we worked all afternoon! This might sound very control freakish of me but it is so important for S. His behaviour was getting to the silly loopy stage which for S is the start of a spiral when he starts to get himself into a lot of trouble and we reach meltdown! He so much needs to have structure and I have to remember that if given an inch he takes a mile and we were heading down that road. I do think I got him back on track. Tomorrow will be another new experience for S. We are getting together with the other home ed families for "Roald Dahl book day". All the kids are to dress up as characters from Dahl's books and we are selling baking to raise funds for children with brain injuries (I think!). This will all be well and truly out of S's comfort zone. It is in a different hall from normal (although thankfully S knows the hall we are going to very well), the activities will be totally different from what we normally do together, and it's another day out of routine! I think that after tomorrow I need to be careful in the following two weeks to try to return to a fairly "safe" routine and limit the extra things that I've been doing. Whilst I have so much enjoyed getting out and about more and doing other things I need to have a balance!