Week 2 - Monday, 8/13

I woke up at seven this morning.  Not because I needed to, but my neighbor's pool filter chose that time to loudly start up and I knew I wasn't going to get back to sleep.  By the time I got out of the shower, both Boo and Bug had come in and were snuggling with Daddy.  He had a rare morning where he could sleep in and they were taking full advantage of it!  I decided to make a blessed and blissful child-free trip to Target.

I came back around 9, lunch and dinner in hand, along with some treats from the "School Fairy" for their great work last week.  I hid some Rapunzel Squinkies in Bear's pencil bag, a mini basketball game in Boo's backpack, and some crazy multi-colored crayons in Bug's backpack.  Then I went upstairs, pulled all three from the bed, and got Bug and Bear started on breakfast while Boo jumped in the tub.

After her breakfast, Bear and I got going on her schoolwork. She completed two assignments and needed to sticker them off in her lesson plan book. (For more information on my lesson plans and sticker system see this post.) Bears's stickers are kept in her pencil bag and she was delighted to find the Squinkies in there.

I let her play with them for a bit while I went to see what was taking Boo so long.  Bug was sitting on the counter chatting with her.  I should have known.  When those two start talking all forward movement ceases.  I got Boo out of the tub, told Bug to get in, and returned to Bear.

Bear had some math, a story, and a workbook page to complete.  This week's story was Fix-It Duck, by Jez Alborough.  I am a fan of Alborough's work, and thought this would be a fun story.  It turned out to be a bit painful.  I can't stand watching people/characters make fools of themselves.  (Three's Company is certifiable torture for me.)  Fix-It Duck runs around ruining everything he tries to fix and I just want to yell, "Stop!  Sheep, don't let him near your house!" Anyway, after surviving the book, Bear went on to her workbook page.  It involved circling the correct letter in each row.  I wanted to make it a little fun, and pulled out her Dot Art set.  This worked wonderfully!  The dots were the perfect size, and Bear enjoyed picking different colors for the different letters.

 

Finally, Boo came downstairs and got to work, noting Bear's new toy.  She asked if the School Fairy had left Squinkies for her and I told her, "No, but there is probably something in your pack since you did work so hard last week."  She went and checked out her pack and found a table top basketball game.  Boo loves basketball.  She dribbles a ball around the house which I hate and Daddy loves. My husband made the rule that she can only use her left hand when she's inside which cuts down the noise somewhat, but a basketball on stone tile is LOUD!  I thought she would love this game.  She thought she would love some Squinkies.  School Fairy Fail.  Big time.  She cried, said it wasn't real basketball, and then ran out of the room and cocooned herself in her bed (a move she has been doing since she could crawl).  While tempted to go out and get her some Squinkies, I decided to let her learn how to deal with disappointment.  Harsh?  Maybe.  However, it is a good life skill to learn and I'm always impressed by how emotionally strong my girls can be.  When I explained that she really had no reason to feel entitled to Squinkies since she didn't even know that there was a possibility of getting them until she saw her sister with some, and the gift was a random gesture of love so she should feel the love and move on, it seemed to click.  She did come down from her loft bed and get back to work, but the game was not touched and will most likely morph into a set of Squinkies down the road.  The School Fairy is magical, after all.  :o)

By11:00 Bear was done with school and Bug had yet to begin.  (I'm seriously wondering how I'm going to get Bug through this school year if she doesn't develop some personal motivation to get school work done.) I sent Bear off to take her bath, made sure Bug had some independent work going, and worked on math with Boo.  This took some time as she has lost confidence in herself.  She began to cry, telling me that she couldn't do it.  The problem she couldn't do?  43 + 30.  She clenched her hands and shook, telling me that it was just too hard!  I reminded her that she was able to do a problem of this caliber in first grade and then gave her a quick lesson in how the brain functions.  When we panic, blood is siphoned off from higher functioning areas (such as those that can add four and three) and sent to areas that control our muscles and nerves so that we can fight or run away quickly.  By freaking out, she was making it impossible for her brain to find the answer.  She needed relax and then the answers would flow.  She seemed skeptical and I told her that she really was creating the problem.  I knew she could do it, but her belief that she couldn't was making it harder than necessary.  Then it hit me.  It was like she was driving at night wearing sunglasses.  And then I told her this story:

My mother worked as the director of religious education for our church during much of my childhood.  Our church was located in a very rural setting, out along a road that ran past cow pastures and corn fields, with one small (25 houses) township between the church and our city.  On the night of my story my mother had an evening meeting.  While driving to the meeting at 6:00 the setting sun was in her eyes and she put on her prescription sunglasses.  The meeting ran long, as they often did, and it was late by the time she was able to head home.  She became increasingly worried as she drove along because the night was so dark and she was having a hard time seeing the road.  There weren't street lights as this was a rural road.  She began to pray for the Lord to help her get safely home.  "It's so dark, God.  It's so dark and I can barely see the road.  Please help me see better!"  She reached the township and it's one stop sign and single street light illuminating the intersection.  Suddenly my mother realized that she was still wearing her sunglasses!  She had never switched them out with her regular glasses when she reached the meeting.  Within seconds the night wasn't so dark and she could see the road.  She laughed most of the way home and told us this story to remind us that we often make our own way harder without even realizing it.

Boo loved this story and could see the correlation between her panic fits and putting on sunglasses while driving at night.  The laughter eased the tension and she sailed through the rest of her math.  Thanks, Mom!  :o)


After Boo finished her math we did her history, reading a chapter from Boorstin's The Landmark History of the American People.  I bought a sketch book and her job is to draw a picture that reflects what the chapter was about.  Once again I find myself grateful that Sonlight doesn't underestimate a child's ability.  I would have never picked this book off a shelf for a child, and used it with some trepidation with Bug when she did Core 4, prepared for her to complain that it was boring and hard to understand.  It turned out that Bug loved the book, and Boo is no different.  She loves all the quotes and interesting facts and her drawings capture important details from the chapters.

 

This chapter was about slavery and Boo had been angered by a 

poster offering both a horse and a girl as prizes in a raffle.

All that remained for Boo's school work was half a chapter of  Across Five Aprils, by Irene Hunt, along with three vocabulary words from the chapter.  Sonlight provides lists of words to learn from each chapter, putting them into context and giving definitions.  We discuss the words and Boo gives her own definition, referring to the Sonlight instructor's guide when in doubt.  She then writes the definition and draws a picture demonstrating the meaning.  I found that limiting myself to three words per chapter makes this enjoyable, not overwhelming, and Boo lights up when she hears one of the words then used in the chapter.

By 1:00, time for lunch, I had two kids down and one to go!  *Pat on the back.*  The one to go had not been focusing and there was a pile or work to get through.  *Sigh.*

At 2:00 I returned to the trenches school room and Bug and I tackled math.  Bug is actually quite good at math, understanding quickly and usually enjoying herself.  The problem we find with math is that it often requires more than five problems and her attention wanders somewhere between 6 and 7.  Then I need to pull her back and get her started again.  This was done by poking my head in while I changed loads of laundry, put away the dishes, got dinner started in the Crock-Pot, and got on the computer to renew library books that were due the next day but we still needed to use.  By 3:00 she had completed the math assignment and it was time to get ready for ballet class.

Ballet was from 3:30 to 4:30 and it was exam day.  That meant that the teacher pulled each student aside for a quick evaluation to see if she was ready to go up to the next level.  This is Bug's first year with this studio and her tension mounted as the class went on and one kid after another was pulled aside.  She became sure that she wouldn't pass and came into the hall crying to tell me so.  I gave her a hug, a quick pep talk, and sent her right back in.  I have found that Bug is like me in this regard.  The more someone sympathizes with me, the harder it is for me to not give in to the anxiety and cry.  When told that I can handle something and I had better get to it, I buck up and push through.  So I reminded Bug her keep her head high and smile and sure enough she did great!  Her teacher was so sweet and was very encouraging.  Bug was still worried that she hadn't passed after class, and ignored my assurances that she did well because I don't dance, what do I know?  She didn't say that, but I could see her thinking it.  :)

We got home at 5:00 and I put the crescent rolls in the oven and made a salad while the little ones ran around outside and Bug worked on her birthday party invitations.  She needed two done within the hour so that she could bring them to her next dance class and pass them out.  By 5:20 dinner was ready and since Daddy is never home that early, we ate dinner in the living room while watching some of Ken Burn's The Civil War.  It was very interesting, but my enjoyment was broken by the girls complaints about the soup.  They managed to choke down their servings and then raided the kitchen for some bread and peanut butter because they were still hungry but not about to take seconds of the soup!  Guess who is not serving that again!  We left at 6:15 to get back to the dance studio for Bug's music theater class, grabbing the portable DVD player on the way.  Bug loves this class, and her teacher is so energetic and knows how to encourage the kids while not putting pressure on them.

When we got there at 6:30, Bear and Boo settled down to watch a movie only to discover that the DVD player's battery was empty and the AC adapter had been left at home.  Problem?  Not really.  I had recently downloaded the Ralph S. Mouse series of books onto my Audible app.  I have a splitter for their head phones and once they were set up with the story they sat quietly and listened to the story.  Yet another reason to love Audible!

 During the class the ballet instructor came in and started to evaluate one of the girls.  Bug was doing push-ups at the time and inexplicably started to struggle.  Her teacher asked her what was wrong and Bug began to say that she can't do them.  Now, her teacher knows better, having seen Bug do many push-ups during warm up time.  She also doesn't allow Bug to say, "I can't," but requires, "This is hard," or "I could use some help."  Bug popped up, shouted, "I can't!" and ran crying from the room.  Second time in the same day she exited the room crying.  I am so thankful that I found a studio that understands that she struggles with anxiety and loves her through it.  I jumped up, met her at the door, and cut her off with a quick, "No!  You don't run out of a room like this."  As I later explained to her teacher, I look harsh and unfeeling, but it's what she needs from me and helps her snap out of her panic attacks faster.  She stopped crying, I gave her a tight squeeze (pressure helps), and her teacher led her back into the room while her ballet teacher explained that there weren't evaluations for music theater, the girl they were evaluating had missed her ballet class, and that Bug had passed the earlier evaluation so she had no need to worry.  Thanks to the "not a big deal" attitude of the adults in the room, Bug and the other kids were able to shake it off and continue with class as normal.  I'm always slightly embarrassed by Bug's out-bursts, but the understanding behavior of the instructors made me feel better too.

We got home at eight and Daddy was still hard at work.  I declared "chore time" and while I cleaned up the kitchen the girls went up to clean their rooms and their bathroom.  I don't know what it is with my kids, but they leave scraps of toilet paper on the floor all the time.  They just pull it off and play with it while going and then leave it on the floor.  I practically see red when I walk by their bathroom and see clothes and toilet paper all over the floor and blue blobs of toothpaste dotting the sink.  I told them to tidy up the bathroom before I flipped out and Bear quizzically asked me how I could do that, "a-cause you can't do a cartwheel, Mama."  The older two understood my meaning, however, and got in there on the double, only to start talking and forgetting the whole reason for entering the room in the first place.  I could hear them talking while working in the kitchen and called up for them to each put away five things and then come down and report what they had put away.  Bug and Boo loved this game, running back and forth with their reports, and the bathroom was quickly cleaned.  If only I could count on the "five things" game working again.  :o)

At 9:00 the rooms were clean, teeth had been brushed, girls were in jammies, and I was reading two chapters of The Boxcar Children.  It had been a good day.  Bug didn't do her history, nor have we touched her read aloud, but I am going to give myself leave to call it a good day. Daddy came home just in time to tuck in the girls at 9:30.  Then he had a very late dinner and we snuggled up and watched the first half of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, because a mind-numbing movie was all we could handle by that point!  :o)  

Thanks to Kris for hosting the Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap-Up.