Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Homeschool Mother's Journal from The Homeschool Chick

Hello!! :) I'm joining in the Homeschooling Mom's Journal again this week!! :) Come check out the other Homeschool Mama's @ The Homeschool Chick. They have it way more together than I do!! HA!! :) They're so inspirational!! :)

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week... I’ve had a weird week, really I haven’t been feeling the greatest, but am feeling a bit better, now. And, things just have to get done, regardless, sometimes, ya know? So, beyond that, it’s been pretty good! I bought the kiddos St. Patrick’s Day T-shirts at Target, they were marked down already!! LOL That’s always a good thing!!

In our homeschool this week... We’ve really just been focusing on the basics. I’ve come to realize that I might have been a bit high-strung about how Abbey gets her schoolwork finished (as in, “DO YOUR WORK OR YOU CAN’T [fill in the blank]!!!!). Not fun for me, definitely not fun for her. I realized that since she was being wiggly, there wasn’t anything to do but let her have a mini break after she got something done
I believe it’s called incentive! LOL For instance, on Tuesdays & Thursdays we do school at the Library while Eli’s in Toddler Group (Speech class). The Library has a pet hamster. No matter how far away we sit from Bob (the hamster), it’s like he’s saying, “Pssst. Abbey! Come watch me run on the wheel!” So, instead of me saying, “No, Abbey, no Bob time til after all your work is done,” I’ve revised it a bit. “Abbey, get your reading workbook done, and you can visit with Bob for a mini break!” I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me until now to do it this way That was just a simple answer to my problem. It feels good! And, she’s been WAY more productive with the mini breaks than the “do it all then you break” way. I know, seems like a small thing, but what I learned is that the change started with MY attitude

Places we're going and people we're seeing... We’ve been here & there & everywhere. Eli’s loving his Toddler Group!! And, Abbey & I enjoy our breakfast & Library girl-time together.

My favorite thing this week was... I’ve been reading Tedd Tripp’s “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” and I LOVE it. This is not a review, it is just my thoughts about it, but honestly, if you’re finding that you feel yourself beating your head against a wall because you see your child’s behavior change, but not their attitude? This book is great
Again, it all starts with MY attitude

What's working/not working for us... The best resource I’ve bought lately is the Explode the Code workbooks! I love them! Abbey loves them! She will sit down & usually do more than one lesson at a time. Now, she is done with Book 1 & is almost done with Book 1 1/2 but she is flying through it! I’m thinking she’ll be more challenged by Books 3 & 4, but this has been great review of the vowel sounds!! It’s amazing to me how well she’s reading!! I love it!!

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have... Has anyone been to a Homeschool Convention? We’re going to our first, the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati, OH the first weekend of April. Any advice?

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...



4 comments:

Mrs. O said...

I loved Shepherding a Child's Heart, I love how he gets to the real issue, the child's heart. It's not about behavior modification, an eye-opener for me.

Sam said...

We were going to go to that convention (same one) but I already bought all of my curriculum!
It is harder to change our attitude's than the kids I think!

DSLA said...

Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Glad my post helped someone! Have fun thinking "outside the box"!

Mary said...

We LOVE Explode the Code - they are fabulous!