A hyper and unfocused day

JD has not swallowed any Concerta or Zertec in 5 days. He was so quiet while we were sick in bed I just didn’t give him any of his medications. So we’ll see how our school day goes today. Because we spent four days in bed recuperating from a bug we only did a half day today.

The devotion today was called A Snake in the Grass. It was a modern day story of the conversation between Eve and Satan. The serpent told the woman in the story “God doesn’t want you eating this fruit because he wants to control you, but I think you’re old enough to make those decisions yourself.” She of course caved in and ate the fruit. The serpent told her at the end of the story “Let me show you some designer fig leaves that I can sell you real cheap.” She not only took a piece of fruit from the serpent, she took something that belonged to God…the power to decide good and evil.

We tackled math next. It was about figuring out rates. The lesson itself wasn’t terribly difficult but it usually takes both of us to figure out the processes/formulas and answers. It gave us a formula of “I = P x R x T” (interest = principal x rate x time). This is real world stuff so I really wanted JD to understand the concept. If he deposits $500 in the bank and they promise him a certain percentage in interest what will be in his account in five years. So some of the questions would have question marks for the missing value and our job was to figure it out. (Grr! Frustrating.) Then add the completely unfocused child sitting next to me. Usually when I get frustrated with JD and his self-distracting methods I want to throw something. Today I wanted to throw the chair through the window next to us. So after our lesson we huddled together and called for a MUCH needed break. We came together after the allotted time and tackled the quiz. We managed a 70% on the quiz. (Hopefully those kinds of questions won’t be on the assessment.)

Speaking of the assessment. I ordered his assessment 28 Jan. His test week will be in May. I can’t remember if it is the 16-20 May or 23-27 May. Anyway it’s on order.

I sent Jeff an email that said something along the lines of “What was I thinking!? Trying to do math without medications…” After the “suck-o-meter” math lesson JD asked for a T4L language arts lesson. I was not even going to try to have him write today. So I allowed him to do a “Think Aloud” fictional story. He likes them and I do too. It asks him questions to consider while reading and asks him to answer question on the screen. This lesson was not officially scored.

According to Fox News today “an estimated 1.5 million children are home schooled and that number's growing. In the span of eight years, home schooling has grown nationally by almost 75 percent.”

- 36 percent of home schooled children stay at home for religious reasons.
- 21 percent don't like the environment in traditional schools.
- 17 percent are home schooled because their parents are dissatisfied with the academic instruction that’s available to them in traditional schools.
We of course pulled JD out because the school system was failing him, not him failing them. He needed the one-on-one interaction and we all three love homeschooling.

**Note to self...before breathing, peeing, or eating...research ADHD medication alternatives!