Love'n homeschool!

Have I ever typed out loud that I love homeschooling JD? Well I do. We think he's learning so much more than in his old classroom. Of course it's at a much more accelerate rate so this may be what's keeping his attention. The dosage of Concerta is also still "acceptable" in my eyes and I have considered (watch out now) trying zero medication. (Ok, Cheryl's losing it.)

Today was another long day. It started with our devotion. Did you know today is “opposite day?” It is and the devotion went on to say for us Christians to do the opposite of the rest of the world.

I have misplaced my Purpose Driven Life book so I let JD read for 25 minutes. He finished his Christmas in Camelot book last week and did a verbal book report already. He’ll have a book report project due by the end of this week. So he’s into another book. It’s one of the Flat Stanley books.

I was about to freak out today when the Internet was still down from last night. I called Jeff and said, “What do I do? Do I call Charter or just unplug and restart.” He recommended calling. I spoke completely to a female computer. She fixed my problem and the school day was saved.

Then we accidentally did a language arts lesson. (Accidentally? Really? Yes I looked at the wrong day.) Fortunately, he has mastered finding the “plot” in stories. I still need to work more on “topic sentences” and “supporting sentences.”

Then he did keyboarding. He was doing well on Level 2, stage 1, but then I looked over from doing the dishes and he was staring at the keyboard. I mentioned that he was looking at the keyboard and that was not the correct way. He became frustrated, but pressed on. This was yet another teaching moment because seconds later he was looking at the keyboard when he thought I wasn’t looking. I said, “You need to have integrity. That means doing what’s right when no one is looking.” This produced a mad young typist. Oh well, there are some things I will overlook but typing is in his immediate future and a skill he will need for the rest of his life.

By now it was 11:00 am and we hadn’t really started journal bucket yet. He picked the topic “If animal could talk what would you ask them? His journal entry was cute. He would ask her three questions: Do you like your name? (Yes) Are you glad you’re my pet? (Yes) What’s your favorite part of the day? (Nap time) This of course turned out to be homework because he took so long to get focused and buckled down enough to even get started. The homework took less than ½ hour to complete. (Funny how “His” time is important.)

He finally completed painting the snowman. Now I can finally pack up the last Christmas box that still resides in my living room. He wanted to paint something else but never found anything to paint. (Thank goodness Tater was not in sight.)

The next topic of the day was math. He learned “which decimal is greater” and “rounding decimals to the nearest half.” He scored perfectly on both quizzes. I had to stop him on only one question.

The next set of spelling words on are the table. It’s a tough set. All of them have silent letters like: align, design, and wrestle. This time I had him write crazy sentences for each word. Ex: wrestle = We Rotate Endlessly So Tom Launched Everyone. Then he drew a picture of Tom launching other wrestlers. He seems to remember the sentences better than just pictures alone.

We were recently talking to JD about the Sunday Funnies we read for entertainment when we were kids. I miss reading them, but they're not as funny to me today as they were then. So ok, I have a pictureless Sunday Funny for you. In case you didn’t know I am the AWANA commander at First Baptist Church. I am responsible for many tasks to include “council time.” I draft children’s council messages and speak in front of all the 3rd-6th grade kids. So the lesson I taught Sunday 24 Jan was about the fruits of the Spirit. I was struggling through the lesson because the kids were kind of talkative. I stopped and squatted in front of two boys talking and invited myself into their conversation. I jokingly said, “Hey guys what are you talking about? Want to share it with the class?” One boy said, “Um this is an A, B conversation and you need to C your way out of it.” (WHAT!? Oh no he didn’t! Breathe Cheryl.) I didn’t skip a beat and I quickly retaliated with, “Um, you need to “C” your way out into the hallway to speak to another teacher. Talk about a real object lesson for illustrating the fruit of the Spirit. I believe I exemplified the ENTIRE fruit isle with this little guy. I showed love (wait, what just happened?) joy (don't laugh in front of the other kids) peace (don‘t jerk him up by his collar) patience (breathe) kindness (he’s a gift from God) goodness (it's a good thing he's not your Cheryl) faithfulness (people are watching) gentleness (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) and self-control (run for your life little man.)

So while it was a tad bit disrespectful...it was like a parent who hides his/her smile when their own child does something wrong. What's that saying? Out of the mouth of babes...