Horrid Monday...or What We've Accomplished Today...05/03/10

Well, what a day! I must say this is one of the ugliest so far...although we have had a few.

Warning: this is a whiny post!

Late start, most likely because it is Monday. It seems that the weekend bed times mess up our routine or something. We get up a little later on the weekends, and go to bed about 30 minutes later, but it just sends us for a loop, I guess.

Attitudes are very poor today. I am trying to remain calm and serene...but oh, it's been a day!

Kids started with math and completed what they should have. I then had Fox finish his (first draft) report. Since this is the first I have seen of it, I wanted to edit it and have him do corrections then turn in his final report. Any of my marks he took as "you hate the whole thing". I thought his report was very good. Some words were out of place and some sentences didn't make sense but otherwise he gathered good information and presented it in a logical sequence. He was to work on FL and do his other 'computer' stuff. He may have done some but honestly he barely did anything. After which he would be allowed some time on Pop Tropica. He 'did' his stuff and then spent the majority of his time on the computer on Pop Tropica. Bad me, I did not check to make sure he was doing what he was to be doing. It would be so wonderful if they could be accountable and responsible for what they are supposed to do. It just ends up badly for them when they do not... How to teach that??

For CBOM I found some notebook pages with wonderful photos of the places we are reading about in the book. I printed them all off and told Fox we would do our usual reading/narrating (perhaps a little less narrating) and then he would write what he felt was interesting or important to know about the place. What a hassle!! And his handwriting is barely legible. He says now he no longer enjoys CBOM.

For copywork they were to write their Bible verses for reciting. Fox has Psalm 23:1-5 (I said he could just do 1-3 today) and Lee has Proverbs 6:16-19. I am tired of the mediocrity that they seem to think is okay. Have I been too lenient? If you were to ask dh, I think the answer would be yes! I know that they are capable of so much more than they give! When we started copywork their work was beautiful, slowly executed work. Now it is as if they don't care if their letters are formed oddly or the words blend in with the next. I think, sadly, that by my not making them rewrite their poorly written work they have begun to think of it as okay.

Lee and I did BoB but she would not focus. I told her to go ahead and take notes to help her if she was having trouble concentrating. Perhaps that was a poor choice for me as well; she drew pictures and doodles! For FWM she did a little better but did not narrate much.

The GOOD from today: Fox and I did TCOO in a different way. He read and I narrated. Interesting and fun. We won't do it that way all the time but I did realize how difficult it must be sometimes to narrate; it requires attention.

So that was our day. I quit for the day. Everything else from today will have to be put into the TBC file and that's final.

Wonderful way to start out Teacher Appreciation Week...and the week of my birthday.