Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

A couple of days ago, I tried writing an entry that would explain all the changes we’ve made in the last month – new books, new schedule, new co-op, new friends – but those kinds of posts are excruciatingly boring, both to write and to read. So instead I’ll just say that things are working much better now. It’s like everything just suddenly fell in to place. Only they didn’t of course because there are still a lot of things I’d like to see change, but we’re making slow and steady progress, and that is enough to celebrate.

We were really rockin’ last week. Seriously, you wouldn’t believe it. D was up every morning and at her work by 8:30. She was finished by 10:30 and experienced that rush of relief and freedom that comes when you have crossed off all the things on your to do list and your time is your own. We read poetry and current events, she discovered that math can be fun (!) and that she is capable of figuring a lot of it out on her own, we planned a field trip, went to Excel and to the unschool park day… it was decidedly our most rewarding week so far all year. And all of this while I’m on a sugar fast.

Then everything went to hell with daylight savings. I HATE daylight savings. I sometimes think it must be an evil plot against families with small children, devised by some bitter, barren monster. As if getting kids on a regular sleeping schedule isn’t hard enough without throwing a bi-annual time change into the mix. Without fail, no matter if we’re springing forward or falling back, our kids can’t fall asleep at night, are up throughout the night (even more than usual) and awake at some ungodly our. Except for D who now wants to sleep until noon.

I’m playing with the idea of switching of nights and mornings with P but that idea is pretty impractical right now. My magic thinking now revolves around finding the perfect schedule and sticking to it. If we were all up at the same time, eating breakfast at around the same time, stretching, doing morning chores together and then sitting down to work at the kitchen table, then life would suddenly be perfect. We would get twice as much work done, and we would all whistle while we did our chores, or listen to audio books, our sleep would be regulated and the children wouldn’t fight anymore, and everyone including P will be so impressed with us and come to me for advice… all if I could just make myself wake up at the same every morning. Regardless of how late I was up the night before with the baby or how many times she woke to nurse. Realizing the impracticality of that right now, my magical thinking shifts to the future. “When the baby is weaned,” I tell myself, then we’ll be able to do this homeschooling thing properly. My God, why is it so incredibly difficult for me to just stay in today and to work with what I have?

Comin’ to Jesus

D and I sat down yesterday and had a frank talk about what’s working for us and what isn’t. This is what we came up with.

Things D doesn’t like:

That we’re not doing algebra

Being forced to read

Calculadder

Current Events

History – esp. slavery

Filling out schedule

“teaching”

memorization

Things she does like:

Reading what she likes, when she likes

Math text book

Art project

Reading short snipets about artist

science projects

When I’m involved and helping

Cuisenaire rods

Having a schedule to look at (not to fill out)

taking things apart

exploring/figuring things out on her own

What I don’t like:

Being a nag (D agrees she doesn’t like that, either)

That she doesn’t do work without being nagged

Not getting enough alone/quiet time

Science projects (I don’t like the idea of them – once I’m actually involved I enjoy them)

What I like:

Reading aloud

Doing math together

Calculadder challenges

Cuisenaire rods

and, as evidenced by this post, ranDom capitAlizaTioN

Some of our goals:

Consolidate errands to one day (possibly two days) a week

Consolidate computer time to first morning e-mail check and afternoon quiet time

Start having weekly family meeting on Sundays, to be followed by board game

Plan meals weekly

Make it to the library every other week

Our agreements:

We’ll both stay off of the computer in the morning (though we may check e-mail when we first get up.)

Morning time and early afternoon will be for getting work done, both school work and house work.

Late afternoons (while Scout is napping) will be quiet time.

Calculadder stays. Memorizing poetry goes.

The schedule stays. but she doesn’t have to fill it out.

We also agreed that homeschooling is a privilege, and that we should check in with each other more frequently this semester to see what is working and what isn’t. Today was a disaster because I had to work on freelance design project all morning, and then D went with P up the coconut tree to Commerce for the afternoon, and then there was swim team, all of which left very little time for anything else. So many of our days are like that. At least I’m a little less freaked out. As friends keep reminding me, we are learning something.

Pizza, and applesauce, my little pet fish…

We are totally slacking today. We may, in fact, just totally slack the whole week. I did finally get a schedule printed up, but have my doubts about how much of it will actually get done. It has started to feel kind of silly, anyway. I can’t imagine how things are going to shake down if this freelance design gig I just picked up works out. I’m feeling stretched as it is already. Maybe we both needed a slacker week? I asked D today if she is still planning on going back to school next year and she said yes. I felt disappointed and relieved all at once.

At least things have shifted back to normal (whatever that is) since that one really tough week. I still haven’t figured out what was going on, but it seemed to be one of those snowball things that only gained momentum and size as it careened through our family. Don’t really know what suspended and dispelled it, either, but whatever it was, I’m grateful. Maybe it was as simple as me getting to more meetings. D made applesauce this afternoon and baked a cake in honor of Q’s birthday party that she missed two months ago. She just brought the cake out to me, all lit up with candles, and sang “Happy Birthday” to Q. She’s such an awesome kid! I love her spontaneity and her enthusiasm and even her unwillingness to let a thing go until it is torn to bits and everyone is bleeding. I’ll really miss her company if she goes back to school. How I wish there was something available and affordable between full time public school and full time homeschooling (ha ha! like we’re even doing part time homeschooling! I mean having her home full time. Thank God for COR. Speaking of which she cleaned up on metals at her first real meet.)

We’re supposed to be working on mixed fractions this week. I HATED working with fractions as a kid. I’m thinking that we’ll have pizza night and cut each one up into different sections and then talk about equivalents as the pieces start to be eaten. Maybe that will make it more accessible? All other suggestions are welcome.

Finally!

I get to tag something as a success!

Up until today, I have only been assigning D the chapter review questions in her math book, with a few cumulative reviews thrown in for good measure. That means that in the last two weeks, she has moved through something like six chapters in her math book (this isn’t the success part). We didn’t start at the beginning of the book because it was all review, so we are now on chapter 14. I’m not sure this is the most effective way to go about learning math, but if she understands the concepts it seems silly to make her do a million practice problems. We use the Calculadder drills everyday to improve her ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide quickly and I’m hoping that will make the other math work easier in the long run.

Kelli tipped me off about Calculadder and I am so glad she did! It makes so much sense, at least for where we are at now. Actually, I wish I had been given drills like these as a kid. I still struggle with my multiplication tables and division always seemed like such a chore. D has just recently started complaining that they’re boring, but Calculadder would be the last thing to go in our tiny little arsenal of “curriculum”. They seem like so much fun to me, I think I might start doing them with her. I could sure use the practice and she loves the company and the competition. When she told me that they were getting boring (she’s been working on the same two lessons for two weeks now and can’t get them done under two minutes, which is the time she has to beat to move on the next lesson) I responded that I think that’s the point. They are supposed to get boring, which in turn is supposed to motivate her to get them done faster. When Doug was here he told us that he got so sick of them that he finally memorized the answers and could do each drill in less than 30 seconds.

Today’s chapter was on Units of Measurement. (Meters and liters and grams, oh my!) I hated measuring as a kid. Still have to think a while to remember the difference between mass and volume. I looked at the chapter review and knew we were going to have to take it one lesson at a time. So we sat down on the floor together – me, D, and elle – and we started going through it. She was pretty aloof at first, but when we got to volume I suddenly remembered the cuisenaire rods I had purchased the day we decided to homeschool (every homeschooler needs cuisenaire rods, right?!) and suddenly we were having lots of fun. We put aside the book – I even put aside my agenda! – and we just played. It was awesome. I just knew those little wooden blocks were going to come in handy.