The last couple weeks of homeschooling have been hard. It's been so upsetting because the first week-ish went so well! He doesn't want to do school, he claims he's "sick for school", he messes around and goofs off the entire time, he just doesn't want to listen!
Monday and Tuesday were rough, so we went ahead an implemented the new three-day week I've been considering (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday). I took an entirely new approach yesterday (Thursday) and it went really well. I am so hopeful that we are on track now!
We were veeeery laid back. We got out of bed and dressed and ate and all those things. He got on the computer and played his Word World game for a bit, and I didn't push him to finish. Then we went ahead and started a new math lesson (I'm having a hard time believing he is going through the math so fast, but I think he genuinely gets bored with the material after the first time he goes through it...I'm sure that will change...right??), and stopped that as soon as he wanted. He then went back and played some more Word World. We basically went back and forth between the computer, snacks, lunch, and lessons until about 1:30 (during the first week we were done by 10!). Yesterday was the first day he asked "Can we do more letters?" Letters are his least favorite thing, so that was a big deal! I considered it, but I wanted to stop while he was still enjoying himself; I worried that continuing would take the fun he was experiencing out and I definitely do NOT want that. If he asks to do more letters today, we will, even though today is technically our science/library/off day.
One thing I have learned without a doubt: absolutely NO TV before school. None. Ever. Bad idea. I've noticed for a long time that the TV tends to turn him into a different kid, but sometimes the temptation for a few minutes of quiet is too great. It's not worth it; the 30 minutes of peaceful Dora time turns into an entire day of cranky "I wanna watch my shows! School is stupid!". Lesson learned! He was allowed to watch Despicable Me once we finished school, but the TV went right off afterwards. It seemed to work well.
I did add "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" to our rotation. We've only done one lesson so far, but he seemed to have fun with it. So I'm hopeful that will be a good supplement for us.
Yeah... we've kind of taken a break. I still do our reading lesson almost every day--it takes all of 15 minutes, if that. Then the rest of it is more "unschooling" than anything. Mostly, I think I've just gotten lazy...already...ugh. I hope I can get into a better routine before baby comes, or it will be all over.
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