Monday, January 08, 2007

My day...and an Apology?

I’d like to start out by apologizing for my recent complaining about being sick. When I’m sick it seems like that’s all I want to talk about! But just like I told a friend recently: It’s my blog and I’ll whine if I want to. :)

As an update, I mercifully did get back to sleep the other night. Thanks for the drug recommendations. I took a couple of Dayquil. I felt terrible when I woke up this morning but am feeling a bit better now, although, I'm still quite weak.

Back to Homeschooling...

Today was supposed to be our first day back to homeschooling. I had plans to get some good math review down, and then start reading “Charlotte’s Web” to the kids. Or “The Secret Garden”. I was going to do this first thing in the morning but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. The new plan is: have some coffee and my new healthy yoghurt smoothie and try to wake up fully. We’ll tackle the other stuff after lunch. The kids are playing quite nicely. They’re cooperating and inventing stories and games. I love hearing them play like that; it’s a shame to interrupt them with something as incidental as school!

Reading Aloud...

As for reading to the kids: They’ve always loved listening to stories, of course, but my son doesn’t have much patience for a book without pictures to look at. He never has. I’ve tried to read traditional chapter books several times before, but I get frustrated when he starts flipping around or playing on the floor with his cars. I have since learned that this is how he learns. Both of the kids enjoy audio books. They love listening to them in the vehicle, but also when they’re colouring or playing with play dough at the table. This works well, I think, because they’re listening to an inanimate object. The radio. When I’m the reader, I get indignant if I don’t get the full attention. Whew. I don’t like admitting that, but I’ve said before that the homeschooling experience seems to be teaching me just as much as the kids. This time I’m going to explain to the kids that they’re allowed to move around. They can play with their cars or dolls, but I will insist that they’re quiet. I think that it is important that they show respect to whoever is reading to them. This is my thought now – we’ll see how that works out.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

you kill me,lol

sc

Anonymous said...

You should create a room in your house that represents the Principals office.
Then when the kids don't pay attention you could go there with them and yell at them..

Anonymous said...

Dawn always reads to the kids as part of their home schooling. They have been reading a lot of history. The kids do what your kids are doing and we have found that they are listening.

Glad to hear you are feeling a little better.

Jane said...

My secret to the reading aloud thing is to print off colouring pages linked to the book - we just did Alice in Wonderland and I found PLENTY of links to Alice in Wonderland colouring pages (just use 'color' to search) - the children will spend ages colouring while listening to the story and if I ask them questions they always recall the story so they ARE listening....

It works for me anyway ;)

We did The Secret Garden a year or so ago and then watched the movie...its one of my favourites from childhood :) Enjoy!

Debbie said...

What a brilliant idea, Jane! Thanks!