Definately a Monday

Today was one of those days that both JD and I should have crawled back in the bed and just called it a three day weekend.

We did the devotion and moved onto math. It really was designed to be an easy lesson. But today JD wanted to debate, argue, sulk, and procrastinate. So instead of me teaching him the basics of multiplication it was him talking over me and telling me the answer I did not ask for.

Let’s say I show him 25 x 2. Ok looking at it we all know it’s 50, but I showed him 2 x 5. I asked, "What is 2 x 5?" He said, "The answer is 50." I asked again, “What is 2 x 5?” Again, he said, “The answer is 50.” I said, “I didn’t ask for 25 x 2, I said 2 x 5." I did this to emphasise the steps. I remained as calm as I could through THAT process because along with the wrong answers was a negative attitude. Then I showed him division again. This went more smoothly than did multiplication. So once he agreed he understood both I handed him a worksheet with four out of the 25 problems circled. I told him it would take approximately 3 minutes to solve each one. I told him to show me his work because they were hard problems anyone would need to write out. I actually gave him 20 minutes to complete what should have taken no longer than 12 (even for JD.) I noticed he found everything he could to distract himself and I think he even worked in a daydream. I asked him about half way through the time how he was doing and he started banging his head and stomping his feet. (He recognized that he was not on track.) I then informed him that was now homework.

I gave him a short break and then we got started on a different math lesson. This one was really a repeat from last year but they renamed some terms for the sixth grade. It was one of those string of math problems where he had to recall which step to do first. Steps: 1. Parentheses 2. Exponents 3. Multiply 4. Divide 5. Add 6. Subtract. JD knew how to do it but added his own rules after watching the 20 minute lesson on the web independently. So I had to watch the video myself because of one rule I didn’t remember from last year. The whole time I sat with JD telling him to solve the first step and then rewrite the rest of the problem in order to do the problem correctly. Did he? NO! ( I was absolutely ready to loose it on him,) but recognized my mood and called it quits on the quiz. I finally just printed three quiz problems and had him solve them while I showered to get ready for a part time cleaning job in the neighborhood.

I had JD go get his backpack and pack up the math, reading and literature book to bring to the house I was cleaning. He read for 30 minutes, did his three math problems, and started his literature worksheets.

A couple of weeks ago I took a cat sitting job for a couple in the neighborhood. She liked my pet care and knows I'm a home school mom looking for work-at-home jobs. She offered me a position as a house keeper. I thought about and told her I was interested. So now I will be cleaning her house twice a week. Jonathan and her son are about the same age and hit it off right away. She allows me to bring JD there too so it works out for all involved. She’s a really nice client and easy going so I think this will work out. I plan to save my pet sitting money and my cleaning money for our trip to Europe in the spring.