First Week

Our first week of homeschooling was not what I expected and not in a good or bad way. We had our good times. We had our bad times. But the good wasn't the good I was expecting and the bad wasn't the bad I was expecting. We chose simple curriculum to get started with. I wanted to have a good start full of easy work that would make the transition easy for everyone and would help us to learn exactly what has really been mastered and what hasn't. It also has helped me to learn how exactly might be the best way to go about doing things for both knowing how to teach and for what to teach. It is hard for me to think about using science and devotional time as time used to work on reading and comprehension. Or to use grammar lessons to teach spelling. My mind is very compartmentalized. Spelling is spelling. Reading is reading. Math is math. Science is science. Thinking outside those boxes and thinking about two boxes being mashed together is NOT how I work. This is a learning process for the one who has never taught a single lesson to a single person in my life. So I'm learning, and uncomfortably stretching. For Gabe's side, I'm learning we are both farther along and farther behind than I expected. For the boy that doesn't read well, and can't explain a simple story back to you, he knows a remarkable amount of grammar. And it is also weird that his vocabulary is hit and miss. He didn't know what "soil," "edge," "hobby," or "flap" was but can easily pick out nouns and verbs in full several paragraph stories. He can estimate numbers much better than I can but simple addition still throws him. Some principles in math are mastered while others are completely foreign. Makes me wish I could climb in his head and figure out why the things he has picked up have been easier and others are just plain difficult. I can't find a rhyme or reason for it at all. I've learned that he is visually overwhelmed and distracted by auditory things. I had thought that he was just easily distracted by having a page full of info. And I thought that the way he zones out was just how he entertained himself. And they ARE those things but they are also his hiding place. His safety net. Tony thinks he is just lazy, and aren't we all, but I really think there is more to it. I think I can tell when he is lazy and in some of these cases where we are struggling, I don't think that laziness is a factor. We will see though with more time. I feel that when he sees a whole page of math, his mind shuts down. When he sees a whole worksheet that his must read, the same thing happens. And while it seems like a simple solution to just cover up some of the work, the coverings seem to distract him as much as the words/numbers. He focuses on the coverings and stares at the blank paper. And with the auditory, I can listen to easy music but not Harry Potter books on audio (and no he is not at all interested in Harry and even if he was without showing it, we have heard these books so many times that I've got them close to memorized). I think the hard sounds of consonants and the ebb and flow of speech is more distracting than just plain auditory sounds. So it isn't the auditory as much as the kind of auditory. So we are learning. We've had the joy of learning new things, being together, and finishing a hard day. We've had the "joy" of not wanting to work, losing play time, and refusing to try. I was expecting all those "joys" and was well prepared. Now I'm trying not to get bogged down with trying to find ways to reteach things or to lose heart with how far we have to go. One day at a time and we shall get there....I hope....Lord willing. ;)