Whew! Another rough Monday. I may banish them from our little kingdom. We were all in bed last night at 7:30. Yes, it is unbelievable. We went swimming yesterday afternoon, and I suppose the heat just zapped our will to live. Or at least to stay awake. I managed to concoct a semblance of supper and read a few books with DD before I passed out.
Today was aftereffect day; we were cranky and irritable from our riproaring weekend. Maybe I should banish riproaring weekends instead.
We did manage to play a bit with our Boggle Jr. set. She had fun mixing the letters around and making words. Although the majority of were nonsense, sensible words aren't the point of this game. However, she is back to pretending that she doesn't know how to read words like dig, dog, dug, etc. It makes me want to pull my hair out by each individual strand, but I try to remain calm. How am I ever going to homeschool if I lose my cool at each minor setback? Btw, this is not a rhetorical question. Please send answers!!!
5 comments:
Mondays are always the toughest around here too. I try really hard to remember this and toss some stuff in the workboxes that he really likes in an attempt to help the transition. (We don't do workboxes on Sat/Sun & we don't do them on days that we have big outing to Main NPL, etc.)
I have completely dropped trying to make him read--just because he "can" doesn't mean he's emotionally ready to. They will let us know when they're ready. That's what I try to focus on when we play reading games--he's cognitively ready, but he must not be emotionally ready. If I can remember that it helps me not get so frustrated which could in turn make him more frustrated--which of course is not what anyone wants. RELAX, BREATHE, RELAX, BREATHE,...I'm telling myself this, but if you'd like to join in and say it along with me go right ahead. ;)
Just wanted to say hi. I've enjoyed checking out your blog and especially LOVE the title! Sounds like you and your daughter are having lots of fun together. Looking forward to reading more,
Penny
He-Man LOVES Boggle Jr. He loves to spell in general.
Hi, I've been reading through your blog today since you turned up in my "Followers" list. Can I be presumptious and offer some unsolicited advice? I saw that you mentioned John Holt in another post. Have you read his book "Learning All the Time"? It is very inspiring and should help you worry less and trust more that your daughter will read when she is ready to. Even Charlotte Mason thought it was an open question whether children should be formally instructed in reading before age 6 or 7 or whether they should just be allowed to "acquire the art [of reading] unconsciously."
For me, one of the joys of homeschooling is to get away from the testing and quizzing culture that dominates schools. If your daughter is "pretending" she doesn't know words, she might be reacting to the pressure of having to produce evidence of her knowledge for you, of being quizzed. You'll know she's reading when she's reading real books (not BOB). Until then, why not simply enjoy books together (as you wrote in another post) to continue fostering her love of stories?
We want to see our kids reading because it seems to prove that we are homeschooling successfully. But I think the measure of homeschool success is the child's joy in the process, joy in learning together.
I don't mean to be critical in this comment but supportive and encouraging -- I hope that is coming across the ether!
best wishes!
Thanks for all the great comments! This is me relaxing, this is me relaxing...
Post a Comment