Sweet Potato's Very Bad Day.

We had family time this weekend and we ate Lebanese food, watched Cultural dances and experienced an "Eastern" form of Christian worship. Not bad for a weekend.  Last week I was just having a rough week and my heart wasn't in my job as teacher. Processing medical stuff, and Life (with a capital L) was too hard. So I let my children off from school for 2 whole days... Why do I do this to myself? It's like setting myself up for failure...

Last night I didn't set up the workboxes, I was tired! So I set my alarm for early this morning and with the help of a thunder storm I dragged my anemic body out of bed. While I'm prepping school Sweet Potato comes in and informs me I'm wrong... You see I bought her leopard print "duct" tape as a treat this weekend, but its actually "wall" tape the fact that it's really a long vinyl sticker which I think would be easier to use, uh darling you can cut it with scissors and it doesn't stick to them... was irrelevant... it wasn't "duct" tape and I was wrong to buy it for her.  Cause I'm always wrong... right... I'm mom... I also secretly know where everyone shoes are too right??? 

Not the way I wanted to start my day, since she was !devastated! that it wasn't duct tape, (oh the horror)  I gave her 2 options:
1. I could put it on the craft shelf and anyone can use it, since she didn't like it.
OR
2. She could try again, but this time say something like "Mom I don't know how to use this tape, can you help me?"

Funny she opted for option 2.
Happily I only had to prod her to eat breakfast. She was 15 minutes late to school... alas this was a foretaste of what was to come.  As I worked through her note book I noticed missing work. As I checked her narrations I discovered a need for more guidance.  As I set up her favorite subject I noticed a distinct lack of answered questions. *sigh*  they were all character issues she struggles with, At her age I would have left them blank as well.

So after reviewing all the incomplete work that needed to be completed in the homework box... she was now a good 45 minutes behind. Yet I still had hope, dictation went quick, then we had a disciplinary issue. *sigh* Time in's take so long!  Moving on to grammar she bombed the oral drill.  I was forced to add review and literature to the homework pile.  That did not bode well for her attitude.  Upon reaching Algebra (with a capital A) and having to find the Least Common Multiple using Prime Optimization, she fell back on to the dumb game and could not tell me what a prime number is, or how to do it... I had a suspicion she was a bit lost as to the "why" tho she had the "how to" down last week.  I was planning on stopping here till she can do it without help.  Following a LSG style I'm having her ask herself a series of questions to prompt herself though the work.  She can now do long division this way so why not LCM? and Prime Factorization??

I called her on  the dumb game and basically she was mad the homework pile is growing (so lets take extra long with math and see if mom gets mad! woohoo!)  This behavior mystifies me
I have lots of work .... ergo
I will not do my work ....ergo
I have more work to do.

This was repeated 3 more times, each time I called her on her behavior, each time she knew the answer but gave the wrong one to see how I would respond. Child give your poor long suffering Mom a break already!  Can you see me banging my head against the wall? She received lunch courtesy of my loving husband, as well as a trip to the principals office for a chat.

Many hugs later I sent her up to do her independent work, and I focused on Little Miss Sunshines teacher led work. One discussion about trusting God, a read aloud on Mozart's family, flash cards and grammar and boom we we're done. I hid in my bed room for 20 more minutes, really it's the teachers lounge.

So I hear lots of foot steps up stairs and I think I better go check. I want to trust but should I? It's not been a good day so far.  I walk up the stairs and get a glimpse of her getting herself back in her seat.  I discover she has yet to complete one of her assignments.  At least she was honest and admitted she was talking out loud to herself about her future.  *sigh*  So were back to trust but verify... setting my timer for every 25 minutes, and walking up the stairs to check on her,  managed to keep her on track. My Knight in Shining Armor helped her with Newtons principal while I made dinner. Her friend with bright eyes visited at 6:30 in hopes she would be done, but alas she was not.  It's 9pm she's actually done and tucked in her bed.

Here's to a better tomorrow. :-) I can still hope right?

And yes I have Sweet Potato's permission to blog about her day. :-) she likes fame and fortune.

Holding Firm

Today I asked Sweet Potato to do a character study on her reading book. I really can't do Dithor (Drawn Into the Heart of Reading) with her at her level of comprehension. Recently I found a book of folk tales from India, she has actually been interested in these. So knowing repetition is the key to her success, I decided to have her read these for her interest study and reading comprehension.

Yesterday she did a fantastic job of giving me an over view of the story in a written narration. Today I wanted her to pay attention to detail hence the character study assignment.  Over all she found plenty of details on the main character. Since we covered paragraph creation in grammar yesterday, I asked for a paragraph.  I'm always looking to kill 2 birds with one stone, not to mention repeat, repeat, repeat is so critical to her learning. I feel may be emphasizing the repeat thing a bit to much? 

Do you think she gave me a paragraph??? do you huh huh huh? Of course not!

In fact there were 5 incarnations of the words on the page but not in paragraph form.  I know part of my problem was I was tired. School went fairly well today, only a 45 minute hiccup over math. I thought she could  Do This With Out Me Being Present. (un-clench the teeth mama)  She did take it up to her bunk bed and close the door, I really felt I was free to have some Facebook free time.

She brought down a page of bullet points, all starting with the word Gopal.  I did remember to sandwich my criticism of not a paragraph and use pronouns, in between praise of handwriting and detail work. but man this child would not write it into a paragraph form. After the 2nd odd form of paragraph writing and reviewing how to write a paragraph.  It dawned on me... Shes playing me!!! Shaking off the afternoon lethargy I cleared my head and realized this is just more of the same.  Ohh she is good Miss Manipulation is poking her head out again.

Gratefully I didn't lose my temper or get mean (and say something stupid), I just realized she is not doing as I requested "on purpose." So I played along. I mean what is the fun of parenting if you can't turn the tables on em every so often.

I  kept sending her back to rewrite it from the beginning, in a paragraph form.  It took 6 tries before she decided she didn't want to do it again and chose to do it correctly.  After she handed in a acceptable paper I had her sit down next to me.  I praised it, corrected one mistake and said Good Job! and asked "Now tell me what made you choose to do it right this time?"  after some hemming an hawing she replied "because I didn't want to do it again."  Score!!!! one Mom child um well er never mind... lets not go there.  Wow Great choice ok now you have piano practice and chores then you can have free time.. Oh look Daddy is now home dinner in 20 minutes.

We have prayer meeting tonight and we try to go early so the kids have time to chat and play four square. She was 10 minutes late to dinner, 10 minutes late to doing her vest time, and 10 minutes late to prayer meeting.  It was so Awesome that she did this to herself.  Like Kevin Leman says, sometimes you just have to pull the rug out from underneath them and let them fall.  What you had no free time today? Oh well. What you missed chatting with your friends??? Sorry not my fault, you got to look in the mirror for that one.

Was I frustrated yes, but only because I hate to watch it. No one likes their child to fail. Although Sweet Potato seems to have turned it into a art form? hobby? lifestyle? I'm glad I stuck it out I'm hoping that standing firm, and letting her make poor choices and dealing with the consequences now. Will help her make better choices in the future.

Thanks so much for the positive feed back on the water color tutorials. I'm so glad you are all stepping out into new territory with your kiddos. I find this the fun-ist part of school!

My Campaign over at GFA is a bit neglected so if you want to enrich the lives of women who can't read you can donate here https://www.mygfa.org/gardenforsara/ 

CTC First Day

Yet again it's August and the heat is on! We have heat advisories for the next few days, 106 in the shade!  My box day (HODies way of saying my books are here!) was last week and the living room is finished, painted and re-shelved. I have shelves of books for school in there now. Yippie! I'm going back to schooling around the kitchen table.

If the clutter gets out of control we'll go back to schooling in the kids bedroom. As it is, I love how I have homes for all the books. Mise en place works for school as well as the kitchen :-)

Little Miss Sunshine and Sweet Potato are able to share a curriculum this year. I love how I can combine them, they are very much in the same place in math, science, history, and reading.  Sad for Sweet potato that she is not progressing as rapidly as her sister but she is progressing! Little Miss Sunshine thinks math is fun and interesting.  While I wonder what is wrong with her I do rejoice that she likes math... 

I've chosen the history read aloud's as Sweet Potatoes extensions to push this curriculum in to "6th" grade for her.  Last year Sweet Potato did just the history and the quiet time from CTC, along with piles of Nuro-therapy work.  I do not recommend this path of repetition for an average student.  Since my eldest is in no way average and I know she needs input, input, input, and she likes Romans and Greeks. I feel this is a good call for her as an individual. 

As we were working through some math (review) on how to say big numbers, I was yet again reminded of my childhood. Ever have flashbacks to events when you were a kid? It was just like being back in my 3rd grade class room. Terrified of Mrs. Beecher the creature and that I had to say 10,506 in front of everybody. I failed miserably, Instead of saying ten thousand five hundred and six I gabbled out ten, five, six.  Zeros were a mystery to me.  It's as if they have some mystical power. Really how can you have 5 divide it by nothing and end up with nothing... what happened to the 5????  

It was hard to watch her struggle while her sister (who totally grasps how zeros work) just flies through the assignment. Sweet Potato says 5006 is 500 and 6.  I had to take her back to the number street. By the way teaching the number street from Math U See was like opening a window for me into the darkness that was place value... Once we revisited The number street she would give me the wrong answer then go "nooooooo" and say it right. I could see her tongue wiggling to force out the correct answer, while not saying the wrong one. I finally talked to her about letting it process.  "You need a bit more time. Take a deep breath and then think, Then take another deep breath, then answer."  All that deep breathing helps oxygenate her brain too :-) Bingo! she started getting them right. I jumped up and down and hooted and hollered for each one she got right. Big fist bumps and all that jazz. She started to blossom and smile doing MATH!  I love to see that, even tho I feel like a complete faker making a big deal out of accurate place value. Then I think "oh wait you were how old when you understood it???  um 37."  Yes this is hard!  Oooo and I'm supposed to be working on being more approachable, so humble thyself and be goofy.

We took two days to do Unit1 Day 1, I'm fine with taking extra time. Getting back into the swing of things is always difficult. As I see it any "one day" we get done in the heat. Is a day off we can have during the great fall weather of November.