Day Fifty

Ah, a snoring husband is a double edged sword.  Sure I'm up at 5am but I get a couple of silent, me, hours so I'm not in a snit about it at all. 


Banker is snoring with Walter stretched out across the middle of his bed.  It's shocking how much room a Pug on a bed can actually use up.


School yesterday was another great success, nothing like 5 hours of math to fry your brain.  Bankers brain and my brain.  Although the day has felt as though it's moved slower, all math, all day, I think he's completed more work than for a week as well as I think it's sinking in deeper.  


We sat and reviewed the lesson practice, systematic practice and honors work for 3 chapters in pre-Algebra when he'd completed it all.  He also did 4 full chapters on his Time For Learning and scored 100 on all those quizzes. I think that's pretty fantastic for amount of work.  He got 1 wrong on a couple of the worksheets, not bad at all.  He went from 12/20 to 100% on one of the lessons he'd blown the other day, that's a rather impressive increase if you ask me.  He says he 'gets it' now.  Oh that's MOST excellent.


He worked until well past 2, the longest day yet, BUT he didn't start until after 9, took a walking around the neighborhood break, a lay on the hammock break, 2 food breaks and emptied the dishwasher for me while he waited for popcorn break.  I don't weep too hard for his "crazy long day" just yet.  He also sang and sang and sang.  He's joyful and we giggle, freely, often.


I think the one subject thing worked fine for math.  The next one day subject is social studies and Texas history, it'll be a breeze day for him.  He will be tested on the math he did on Thursday, I don't want him to have too many days between math so it's the only subject that gets an additional 'hit' through the week. 


We have had yet another day of singing, humming, skipping and dancing to get a new pen or to go on the hammock, happiness is worth all of this.  I think he's learning too.  Learning a lot.


He didn't finish everything on the schedule, namely the second part of his physics and the Sudoku puzzle that gives him such fits.  He is moving them to today, social studies and Texas history day.  It'll be an easy day for him, not too stressful and I think he'll finish much earlier today which is good because he's going to help me get ready (sweep/set table) for the Ladies who Lunch with Cocktails tomorrow.  


Today for me? Oh it's bread day, I'm making soup and sandwiches for the lunch tomorrow, I have the gazpacho made and 4 sandwich fillings but there still needs to be bread and I'm making 3 kinds today.


He is very, VERY, happy and this is all very VERY good.


/Tracy

Day Forty Nine

WOW, what a success! 

Day one of one subject day was brilliant.  Banker didn't watch the clock, he didn't try to hurry through ANYthing and spent the last part of his school day laid out on the hammock in the backyard, Nook in hand, reading Lord of The Flies for English Literature.  This is not a kid watching the clock to see when his 45 minutes is up to move onto the next subject. He set up with the dogs, the gentle breeze although the hammock is directly under a ceiling fan out there.  We bought the hammock for husband last year but he doesn't use it because he said he can't see his iPad at the right angle.  Luckily, kiddo is the perfect fit, perfect size and perfect angle.

I'm brilliant!  *at stealing ideas from everyone I know and making them fit in my personal little universe then taking complete and total credit.

He took a couple of breaks, took Walter for a nice walk and didn't meet any crazy people (yay) and has been generally happy with this new schedule, he's mentioned it a few times that this is how he thought home school would be. *YAY*

He did way more work, more chapters, and more levels than I'd asked for on his schedule. He really seemed to enjoy staying in one stream.  DELIGHT for day one success.  He lept about and told me how much he "just loves loves" the one subject stream a day.

Today is math day, we'll see how much he loves all math, all the time.

I discovered a joy of my current position as grand poobah of Casa W Private School.  I ripped up all of the paperwork, test score and work from Bankers last chapter of pre-algebra.  We had a long discussion and I said I thought he'd rushed it because he "knew this stuff" and didn't take the time to actually read the questions, the instructions or determine what it was he should have written on the page.  He agreed wholeheartedly with my assumption.  So, instead of having it linger in some 'permanent' record somewhere, we merely back up, restart our engines and do it again.  Delightful!  He is happy, I am happy, no international rules of academia are shredded and no grade cops are coming to get us.  ALL good.

The Banker and I made some plans for container gardens in the back, herbs and small veggies.  There is a narrow garden against a fence with a fence and a huge gate that husband dug, built, filled and loaded with pipes to water and plants he wanted.  I guess it's his garden.  I don't like the industrial pvc auto look of it all, pipes sticking up through gardens and lawns.  I like to tend to, water and weed little gardens so Banker and I will do some containers on the other side of the porch and hand water, well, if I can figure out how to access the hoses, there's 9 attached right now going all over to buried, mud covered pvc pipes all over the yard, and the water is pouring out of the spigot making a mud slime pit across the porch. If I can't, I have a very simple plan B, the one I used last year, I just fill my can inside the house ;)

Here's to another successful day of it.

Another bonus is that once he is organized, I'm going to pop to the (very empty at 9:30am) grocery store to get the last things I need for my Ladies Who Lunch with Cocktails, lunch I'm having here on Thursday.  I am going to make all the bread today, then I just need to make sandwich fillings, egg, salmon, chicken, beef and cheese/tomato but I'm also making gazpacho and need some fresh veg, oh and the cream for the pavlova ;)

You'll notice, nobody here is broken today.

/Tracy

Day Forty Three

There is more than math and science. 


My Pug, Walter, is grossly overweight.  Husband doesn't think Pugs should be on the ground, walk anywhere and has no willpower whatsoever against that adorable, pathetic, "I'm starving and am going to die because that woman won't feed me constantly" face.  He sneak feeds Walter even when I ask specifically that he not, I'm worried for Walter's health and husband thinks it's cute. It isn't. 


The Banker used to play soccer, play ball, run, jump, leap and play with friends at recess, lunch, PE class and on a team.  He doesn't do any of those things at the moment and is going to start to thicken out in preparation for his prepubescent growth spurt.  He's not happy with his "jiggle" although I assure him he has to get wide to grow enough skin to get taller, he doesn't buy it. I'm worried for Banker's physical stamina, he has none, and think he needs to get way more exercise. 


BINGO! 


Welcome to CasaW School PE Class...  The Banker is walking Walter around our very very large block daily.  As they both build stamina, the walk will include a wander around the neighborhood pond then across into another neighborhood then over to FriendC's neighborhood and walking further and further every day. 


I have solid faith that both of them will shrink ever so slightly around the middle.  Sure, this beckons the question why aren't *I* involved in the new exercise regime?  *My* middle has grown to cataclysmic proportions lately with my peri-menopause belly bloat,  stress eating and over exuberant cocktailing in a sad attempt to enhance my own universe.  Well, the Banker needs time without me, the dog needs time without me, I need to be able to make a private phone call and it's almost getting too hot for me to be happy outside in Texas so I'll just stay "juicy" for a while and pull a Scarlet O'Hara and think about it tomorra'.


BRILLIANT.  I'm going to bake a pie.


FriendZ shot me a list of books she was looking into for her 8th grade son.  I wasn't going to think about 8th grade yet.  I'm still in a whirlwind of 7th grade.  Although, seriously, it feels like we've done more in the last month than his public school could have ever hoped to accomplish so I really wonder why we are still in 7th at at?!  Anyway, I caved, I checked the books, reviewed the knowledge base he has to have at the end of 8th grade in Texas and loved them.  I ordered them!  So, history, grammar and literature courses next year are set! 


BINGO!  (you gotta love a 2 bingo day!)


The Banker scored 100 on his 6 review pages, honors questions and subsequent testing of Lesson 1 of his new math program.  I had to run him through it all, he sort of expected it.  We will just do the first practice and first systematic review for each lesson from now on.  He is doing the honor level so he'll also have those to complete.  He did all the work in his head so we had the 'show your work' talk.  He confirmed he's done this type of questions for years and can do the simple =/- addition and subtraction of fractions very quickly.  I sort of knew he could already do this but I like the fact he will have a more solid review and base and much much success which leads to greater confidence for my Banker. 


The student book came with a summary sheet where you can log completion and/or grades for each lesson, review and tests.  The Banker was simply delighted when I sat with red pen and input 100 in each little box and 100% under "test results". I think he misses grades, I need to grade more things for him, a check on the corner doesn't cut it and if needs a little stroking by the addition of a number in the corner of a piece of paper then who am I to deny him. 


I still need to play with a spreadsheet for his scheduling and it's only March, even *I* can get a spreadsheet done for him by August!  :)   *I hate spreadsheets... do I really have to input the dates?  *blech*


/Tracy