Started our homeschooling date a bit late, 10:45, due to a morning meeting at church. This is not unusual. lots of things have made us start late. I had Dorathea watch videos on history facts till while I got some flash cards ready. I then did a flash card game with her that was a total bust. Niether of us liked the game and she didn't learn a thing and then made the cards into a courthouse- a word from listening to the history videos. Oh, well at least she learned something from them.
Onto math. I found a great new adding game here. And she got excited but was mostly guessing at the answers. So I took her aside and told her adding was like dancing. If the smaller number is 3 you add that rhythym to the other number. So 5+2 is 5+_ _ . You then count the next two numbers in your head 6-7. and the last one is your answer. We danced around as we tried it. Then she practiced on the computer,and it stuck -a little.
Then we broke for lunch. I asked if the kids would like to play, "The polite game" at lunch. The object is to be as polite as humanly possible. They walked back in the room both pretending I was not their mommy (their idea). "Would you like to stay for lunch" I invited. It turned out to be a very civilized lunch. I actually used it to train myself in listening to the kids. I treated them like guests and stopped doing dishes to listen to their requests and reply in the politest way possible. They loved that and returned in kind.
During our lunch Dorathea and I decided it would be very polite to write thank you cards for Christmas gifts.
So as with this card I had her connect the dots to practice penmanship. Thank you for....
and then she could fill in the blanks or draw a picture and sign, Love Dorathea
Right now I am having her read to her brother on the couch one of his favorites, "Go Dog Go"by P.D. Eastman She was not happy about this at first, but the familiar book worked like a charm. She started using silly voices by the fourth page with Jonathan laughing along. It boosted her confidence and she read the whole thing without stopping.
I thought about this as I got back to the dishes. I made some mistakes this morning and we certainly didn't do our regular schedule of bible, Math, me reading aloud for other subjects, then Dorathea reading aloud. But the progression we happened upon was better than me demanding my schedule. Certainly there are times to be stern with homeschooling, and even this morning I had to step back into my not-so-polite mommy voice a few times. But I'm finding that learing to love each other while we get the job done is just as if not more important then the end result of educating my child. We both make mistakes, but as long as I don't take myself, or my games or schedules to seriously, we just might love each other more through homeschooling. And isn't that the point?
By the way Dorathea just finished "Go Dog Go" and Jonathan immediately brought her "The Cat in the Hat" to read to him. I love them
