Homeschool Friday

Silje has been reading a lot this week.  There have been a lot of “Can I read just one more chapter?” asked to me when I’ve been swamped and I nod and send her off to read one more chapter.  I don’t know why I feel guilty about that, but I do.  As I review the week I’m trying to figure out if Silje did “enough” because I have this guilty feeling.

In my review I see that she did plenty of school work.  My guilt lies in that she did not do as much with me as I like her to.  She’s an excellent independent worker, and I never want to give her the short end of my stick because she’s smart enough to make up for it.  O, why do motherhood and guilt always seem to go together?

She’s whipping through Chinese.  I make her do 2 of the “lessons” on the computer, but she is allowed to do them as many times as needed to pass.  Last year it would take her 3-4 tries (a few days) to pass a lesson.  This year she doesn’t just do 2 lessons a day, she passes 2 lessons a day.

We’ve been on top of reading, math, Latin, Bible, and history.  I’ve not been on top of grammar, science, arts and crafts, and handwriting.  Wow.  Seeing that written out doesn’t seem so bad.  She’s reading Understood Betsy which was a read aloud last year that we didn’t get to, and I saved for an independent reader for her this year.  It’s a tough book for her, but she’s determined.  I’ve been checking her comprehension and she’s been getting it.

David really likes Stink: Solar System Superhero, the book I got at the library to help get him into reading.  The book is full of fart jokes and general silliness.  I hate it.  He loves it, and actually asks me to read it to him every day.  There’s no more fight over read-aloud time.

There must be a better compromise. 

I’m going to finish it.  There’s actually some decent knowledge in there about the debate on whether or not Pluto can be considered a planet.  I’m sure that I can slowly move him to books of higher quality, but for now, we’re getting a reading rhythm established.

I saw another victory for David this week.  We went to homeschool group on Tuesday and David is in the same group as Silje this year.  The kids got to sit in a sanctuary and listen to Bach be played live on an organ, and studied the life of Bach as well.  I was in the nursery with Solveig and it was my first time not walking David through homeschool group as he tends to reject getting involved in sitting type activities.

I asked him if he wanted to go to do the music lesson with Silje or come to the nursery with me, and he picked the music lesson.  Victory.  Not only that, but I peeked in on him several times and he was sitting with other boys and was raising his hand and was involved. Well, he wasn’t always sitting with the other boys.  He moved around a lot, which is typical for him.  Sometimes he got up and walked around and then sat down in a different spot alone if he was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  Fortunately that type of behavior is very okay in this setting.  By the end of the homeschool group time, he was actively engaged in Bach Jeopardy.

It’s not that David’s antisocial.  It’s that he wants to do what he wants to do and doesn’t want to follow the crowd or speak in a group setting.  To see him sit with boys he didn’t know well, raise his hand and say a few words in front of the group, and go along with the lesson when he’d rather be in the gym was a really neat thing for me to see.  It is so neat to see his growing maturity in action.

Not only that, but before homeschool group, we were invited out to a restaurant with some cousins of my mom’s (3 guys) who were driving through town on their way back from my Great-Aunt’s funeral.   David sat next to one of them, ordered from the menu and spoke to the waitress himself, and held a conversation with these men without issue, whining, or hiding behind me.  When he finished his food first, he did not pester me to get up and leave because he wanted to go.  He and Silje sat and chatted with us 4 adults.  (Solveig was with us too.  Elias was taking a nap at Grandma’s.  Thanks Linda!)

Talking to adults is not usually an issue for Silje, but it is for David, and I was so much fun to sit and enjoy a time at the restaurant together.