The kids are learning about metals this week in science. We use Ellen McHenrys Chemistry and Usbornes Encyclopedia. It talked about an experiment with electricity today and we just happen to have a kit so the kids made a little light. 
We are planning a rockets unit study in July. We are going to pick up a, hopefully inexpensive, rocket from Hobby Lobby. My hubby and the boys are really looking forward to this. Now I just gotta figure out how to plan their lessons. What books to get, what activities, etc. Planning all their lessons is hard sometimes. But I enjoy it.
We are trudging along with our lessons. Even through the summer. Our medieval times unit is coming along slowly. I had to make changes to it already. We haven’t even assembled anything in our lapbook and I’m already making changes. Lol. We started reading Adam of the Road together but we all found it extremely boring, despite the activities that went along with it. So, we put that aside for A door in the wall. Which is working well for my oldest. My youngest will start reading A tale of castles & battles soon as the book arrives from paperbackswap. It’s an I can read level book so it’s perfect for him. He will also read Knights of the Round Table for Literature. My oldest will also be reading an Eye witness book Arms & Armor and Swords: An artist’s devotion starting next week. I have also ordered a couple medieval coloring books for the boys that I think they will really enjoy! For Science I have ordered George's Secret Key to the Universe from Amazon for my oldest. My youngest will be reading The planets in our solar system for his Astronomy and Dolphins for his Oceans unit. For Language Arts my oldest will be continuing with A door in the wall and my youngest will start his new language lessons, next week hopefully. He will be doing Learning Language Arts through Literature, The Red book since he’s a bit behind on his language skills.
I have to figure out when I can work in a William Shakespeare unit study sometime before February. In case I haven’t mentioned this before, our “school” year is from February to February. We do it this way because we usually get our income taxes back in February and that’s when we purchase any items we need for the year. We can’t really purchase much during the year. I know its different but it’s what works for us.
Today has been especially challenging with my 8 year old. Let me start by explaining about him, his personality and such. For anyone who follows Astrology you will totally understand when I say he’s 100% LEO! He thinks the world revolves around him, he is always right, but at the same time a very bright child and stubborn as hell. Anyways, since we pulled him out of public in 1st grade at the age of 6 it has been a struggle with him. He is very much a hands on learner, the type of kid who doesn’t like to be read too and once he’s got it he’s done and ready to move on. Well, we have been trying to find what works for him, learning wise, for 2 ½ years now. It hasn’t been easy. We have good days and not so good days. It didn’t help that I was having issues at the time as well and him and I would just butt heads. He has really struggled with his reading and writing. I tried sooo hard to get him to sound out the letters to read. He was having NO part of that. He knew his letters, sounds, etc but refused to sound anything out. I tried everything I could think of, read books to help, asked a ton of people for suggestions but no such luck. He would read sight words but nothing more. He wanted to read but he would choose hard books and when he would guess at a word and get it wrong I would correct him and he would get mad. With the help of a friend I found a book he would read. “Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons” by Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, and Elaine Bruner. We breezed through that book. Then we tried to read regular books again. He choose a Scooby doo book. Didn’t work. He was frustrated and I was frustrated.
Finally I think we’ve nailed it. For one he lacks confidence when it comes to reading and second he is lazy. We decided to start back at the beginning with him with “I can read books”. He loves to read the Henry and Mudge books. So, we are letting him check those out at the library. They have less than 50 of them. Once he has read all of them we are gonna push him to start reading chapter books. Hopefully by then his vocabulary will have improved and he will have more confidence. Another thing we struggle with though is his spelling and writing. Because he refused to read for so long we are doing a 1st grade spelling with him. Which he is handling just fine and enjoys. Once we’re done with this book we are going to push 2nd grade and keep going until he reaches around his potential. Because he refused to read, and we are behind on his spelling, he can’t write yet. He does minimal writing now. Mostly in his spelling book but, even then he gets lazy and asks me to write it for him. I of course tell him no. It’s like pulling teeth to get him to write anything though. We barely get through his Latin and Language cause it has more writing than all his other subjects. I try to simplify it as much as possible when it comes to his writing otherwise it turns into a huge fight. It’s not worth it. Now to today. We we’re doing his spelling and we had a huge fight. He was giving 50% effort. He was writing his words and started writing really sloppy and big and I got upset. I stopped him and we had a long, serious talk. (He frustrates me so bad sometimes). I explained to him that spelling is very important to life. Without reading, spelling and writing you can’t get very far in life. (I want my kids to have more opportunities and not have to struggle like I have) I explained that without that you can’t get a good job, and without a job you have no money for food, clothes, a house, etc etc etc. (I’m up front and honest with my kids.) I tried to make him understand that without a good education it’s hard. (That doesn’t mean you have to have a degree, just a good education). I also talked about how some things might be boring and there might be some things he doesn’t want to do in life. But, sometimes he has to suck it up and do it anyways for the greater good. There are just something’s I won’t bend on. And reading, spelling and writing are some of those things. He was crying by the time I was done of course I felt like total crap, but he finished his work without anymore issues and we hugged and talk it over afterwards. It’s just do hard to get through to him sometimes. He’s sooo stubborn. That’s one of things I love about him and don’t love about him at the same time. LOL.
This week is going well so far with the new schedule. My oldest has completed his work daily without it taking ALL DAY! And yesterday my husband had a half day. So, even with him being home, us running errands and doing stuff around the house we still managed to complete all the lessons. Woo Hoo!
