School Update

So we aren't quite done with school yet. Jozie has been done since about the first week of May. I have been working with her reading through SRA Reading Laboratory (I have an old edition from 1990 that a fellow home educator gave me) and some extra math too with Saxon Math (again, the same fellow home educator gave these to me - her husband works with the public schools and gets a lot of old curriculum that the schools are getting rid of), grade 2 worksheets that I have. She doesn't seem to mind too much. I also have an art/etiquette called Little Annie's Art Book of Etiquette and Good Manners that she really likes. I'm suprised that she hasn't complained about doing extra work since she knows that she finished her PACES (we are currently using Acclerated Christian Education) so long ago. Thankfully she finished before Luke because if he had finished first than I never would have gotten him to do extra work until she was done.

Luke is a little behind because he finished first grade at the beginning of the year and didn't start second grade until after Thanksgiving. We also took more time off for Christmas than I intended and almost 2 weeks for spring break when we were sick for a week and then had a break for the second week. Plus the here and there days that we did other things like field trips and such. I could just let him finish second grade next year but with us not really sure about next year I want him to be ready to start third grade if we have to put them in public school. He actually seems to understand and hasn't complained or throw any more fits than normal! LOL

Last night Luke asked if he could watch cartoons for a little while before bed when his sister was in the shower and I said no because I hate having to have them watch TV so I told him to find something else to do. There wasn't enough time for him to watch a whole program anyway. So he asked - ASKED - if he could work on school work and get some extra done! I was FLABBERGASTED!!! STUNNED!!! Is this really my son? My child who HATES doing his PACES when he has to, let alone the mention of extra work usually throws him off for AT LEAST a half an hour?! Well, I didn't react at all for a moment then, to cover my true emotions, I said, "Sure, if that's what floats your boat." Just like if he asked me to play with his legos - which he doesn't have to ask to do. I was afraid if I got excited he would change his mind! So he went straight to the table and promptly FINISHED the math PACE that he was working on! Test and all without even asking for help with instructions. I was a pretty proud mom and teacher. This is what it's all about.

Over the last couple of weeks with Jozie working on her reading I have seen great improvement. She has gone from sounding out most of her words - even ones that I know she knows much to my frustration - to sight reading almost everything only to have to sound out new words. She still could use some help with math, it doesn't seem to be her strong point, she must get that from her mother! All in all I am pleased with her progress and am confident she will make a great third grader.

Luke is also a wonderful second grader. There isn't much that gets by him and he really only needs instructions once for most everything. He has gone to reading most of his science quietly to himself and only asking if he needs help with sounding out a word. He hates the repetition of math because once he understands a concept he has it down and doesn't need to or want to waste time doing things over and over again. He's a boy, he has better things to do! LOL I think the only thing that he has problems with is maybe spelling. But again it's the repetition thing. Our Word Building is pretty easy and straight forward but when the introduce a new word they have to write it six times and then usually write several words that have the same ending sound as the one they just wrote. His problem tends to be that he just copies the word as letters and doesn't bother committing it to memory as a word. He found out the hard way that he has to pay more attention to what he is writing because he ended up having to erase and redo a whole PACE - which is 6 school days worth of work - because he only got like a 40% on the spelling test. He is doing better but still needs constant reminding! :)

So, before the end of June, both of my kids will be prepared for third grade. Luke needs to work on his attitude and fits and Jozie still needs work in math. I PLAN on continued reading and flash card work through the summer but those kinds of plans don't usually work out...I guess we'll see!