Wednesday, September 8, 2010

My First Week Back At School

Monday.
A day of planning and attempting to find the dining room table and floor.
Relieved to eventually rediscover both.

Tuesday.
No morning rush. How wonderful.
Children's responses to Day 1 ranged from delight to apathy to incredulity.
Realized that much of the "I just want to sit in this corner and play my computer games" attitude was less to do with my capabilities as a teacher and more to do with the fact that they had just had 3 months of doing absolutely nothing at all (other than sitting in this corner playing their computer games). A brief period of adjustment would, of course, be necessary.

Wednesday.
I like the stress free mornings ... I really do ...
Child 3 got up with no prompting, had breakfast, emptied the dishwasher for me, fed and cleaned out her rabbits, brushed her teeth and got dressed.
This was obviously too much for her delicate constitution.
She informed me she was incapable of reading her book due to exhaustion. So we settled for attempting a chapter of her writing book. This was not successful either, owing to an attack of some strange hitherto unheard of malady, which manifested itself through the rolling of eyes and the falling off chairs in dramatic fashion (accompanied by unnatural grimacing, general groans and moans and a fierce clutching of the head as though in intense pain).
I eventually resorted to adapting the requirements of the lesson in the book to suit her particular learning style, and the assignment was duly completed with no fuss.
Later in the day the chapter of Anne of Green Gables was started. An hour and thirty minutes later two pages had been read. After a degree of internal struggle, (and to her delight and my relief), I read the rest of the chapter to her.
Child 4 wrote in her journal, and drew a picture to accompany the story. She completed a word search and read a book to me.
Child 2 did everything she was told to do and more.

Thursday was Taekwondo Day. Child 3 and 4's exuberance for the subject was dampened slightly by the lesson's start time of 8.40 am. I was extremely pleased, upon retrieving them, to discover they had enjoyed it immensely.
Children were slightly miffed to learn there would be school upon the return home. Surely a martial arts lesson at that unearthly time in the morning constituted a full days work?

Friday
child 3 familiarized herself with her new math workbook. Her enthusiasm was in no small part due to the knowledge that the work can all be completed using her beloved computer.
Child 4 was introduced to math manipulatives. 1st Grade in school did little to promote an understanding of numbers for her, so maybe she and I can learn from the beginning together.
Child 2 happily got on with all her assignments.

4 comments:

Recovering Sociopath said...

I figured child 2 would take to it well. :)

periwinkle said...

congratulations Lynn, you are my inspiration, on-going prayers for child #2

periwinkle said...

oops, I meant child #3

Kimberly said...

Good job, you. How you gettting on at week three?

About Me

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I have been married to Andy since 1991, we have 4 daughters, 2 dogs, 2 cat, 4 rabbits (and various baby rabbits) and a hamster (not dead). We have lived in the U.S.A since 2000, and are citizens of the U.K. I miss many things about the U.K.(pubs, old buildings, red post boxes, church bells,narrow roads, a good joint of roast lamb with mint sauce, to name but a few) but I have grown to love the U.S.