How have your DC shown they're learning-even in Feb??

[Dmmetler]

DD has been dragging her heels and getting frustrated a lot lately. It's almost like she's scared to finish her books for the year. And I've been banging my head against that figurative wall, and seriously eying that school across the street.

 

But, at the same time, in the last week she's completed two pretty detailed pieces of creative writing, without prompting, and without even the fuss she gives over having to write single words normally.

 

She also spent 3 HOURS yesterday on a scratch project, making her little sprite go through a maze, pick up coins and gems, figuring out how to make the score increase when the sprite picked up a coin or gem, and figuring out how to make lives go down when you hit a monster or an obstacle. It looks like a 6 yr old drew it, and it's certainly not Super Mario yet (among other things, she hasn't put in a reset, so by last night, the sprite had over 1,000,000 points and -850 lives), but what was more amazing was hearing the child who is in tears over almost every math problem these days figuring out how to make the script work, trying it, and trying again.

 

She's learning. Maybe she's learning more in spite of me than because of me, but she's learning!

[Mommyfaithe]

February is usually a tough month for most, but for us...it means cuddle time on the couch...read alouds...art projects...letters to the editor....all those things we don't wish to be doing when the weather is beautiful. We look forward to February here because we play games, listen to music, read huge books make snow sculptures, and I get to plan for next year.

 

Faithe

[asta]

I'm finding myself having to re-evaluate my methods.

 

Yesterday I did a search of the high school board to learn how to deal with an unmotivated teen. I am so glad I did! Everything I'd been doing, everything I was *planning* on doing - someone older and wiser had already done, and was warning against doing.

 

So... I think we need to sleep more and focus on fewer subjects. We have been doing a LOT (junior year). Things have simply gotten frantic. Kid is shutting down. I've decided to fall back to little kid mode: what absolutely needs to happen? Math. Reading. Writing. Finish the Chem labs. (ok, so that isn't little kid, but it has to happen...). History is ahead - I'm going to stop worrying about it. If kid doesn't stop freaking, nothing will happen!

 

More hot chocolate, less computer, more couch, more walks, more "out loud" reading. Yeah.

 

 

asta

[lisamarie]

I'm not sure how much is being learned, but I require DS to read 30 minutes a day from a classic book. At first it was like pulling teeth, but lately he is starting to really enjoy it and I love to hear him laughing over something he read. Right now he's reading Swiss Family Robinson and he's already asked me if he can have a pet monkey or buffalo. Um, no?:tongue_smilie:

 

I'm waiting for him to ask me if we can build a tree house--we don't have the trees for it, but if we did I would let him.

[Mrs Mungo]

Ha! My animal fact loving middle dd hated Swiss Family Robinson with its impossible menagerie, lol.

 

We are getting the basics done in our forest of boxes. What more can we do right now?

[Jennifer in NH]

At the moment I know they are learning because the two older kids where explaining to the 4 year old all about how his machine wouldn't work because he hadn't completed the circuit. Then they helped him make it work.

[snickelfritz]

Well, we had 2 weeks of unusual snow. Schools were cancelled. dh's work actually closed for 2 days (they are in manufacturing, so they NEVER close.) Activities were all cancelled. We did some school, but also played out in the snow and did crafts. Then we had some BEAUTIFUL warm (near 80) weather and got some great park/farm time with my parents. As weird as Oklahoma weather can be, it's nice that winter for us is not one long cold spell.

 

It's been like an early, extended spring break for us and it gave our schoolwork new life. Last week was actually one of those awesome weeks where we got school AND violin done AND the house isn't wrecked.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Ds13 was so excited by his history reading on WWII that he reinacted Operation Overlord with his legos.

 

Dd9 is plugging away - the slow and steady way.

[2_girls_mommy]

We got back out Adventures with Atoms this week, and dd8 was back in her element.

 

We did the yeast and sugar fermentation activity, and she loved it. The next day she made our bread in the breadmaker. She wrote a nice lab sheet for her science notebook complete with her final thought that if no one had discovered the fermentation process we wouldn't have bread nor peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a little picture of a smiling sandwich!

 

For creative writing she pulled out a Scholastic book of writing activities and on her own completed one this past week. She also wrote both a Valentine poem and story completely on her own in a new little journal I gave her. I can't complain about her writing!

 

And to top it off she has been reading the Girls of the World series (I think that is what they are-- The American Girls ones about girls around the world. ) She was ahead of us in history on the one in the Turkish Empire, and she was so excited when we got to that chapter in SOTW this week, because she could tell us all about the Tulip festival.

 

Now, don't get me started on her (bad) attitude during math time this month. But she is learning as shown above~!

[2_girls_mommy]

Oh, and I can't forget dd6. I heard her in her bed the other night reading aloud from "Green Eggs and Ham." Reading did not come easily for her, and to hear her reading for fun, as opposed to only looking at the pictures was very cool!

[Satori]

We are on a roll here. Both of us can't wait to wake up and dread going to bed. We're learning lots of new things - US states, American History, more geography, more science... She learned how to type so she's blogging with me now.

 

That said, we had a few months around the holidays where we were travelling a lot and not doing much homeschool. So for us, it's like a typical September when everything is fun and new.

[Alenee]

DD12 took 2nd place in a science competition having formerly only placed as high as 6th.

 

DD9 hates reading and has only read one chapter book ever. But last week, she picked up the unabridged version of Anne of Green Gables, loves it, and continues reading.

 

DD6 was slow-going in her phonics and then one day a few weeks ago started sounding out every word around her. Now she's reading her phonics book on her own.

 

February has been icky otherwise....... but these few things remind me that we're doing well and to let go of the bad days and move on.

[Rivka]

I can't keep the book basket filled. She reads a Droon or MTH book in an hour or so.

 

Last night I was excited to start a new bedtime read-aloud, The Starlight Barking - a sequel to 101 Dalmatians. I read one chapter. When I woke her up this morning, she had read three more. She's more than halfway through the book now. It's at a sixth grade reading level. "Isn't that too hard?" "No."

 

Math and handwriting are battles, and she doesn't want to draw anything because it doesn't come out looking like a photograph. But she is reading, reading, reading, reading, reading.

[Onceuponatime]

How do I know they are learning something?

 

Well, I figure they must be learning something if they can get answers right on Jeopardy. ;-)

 

My 11yo has taken to correcting my speech.

 

The 6yo wants to answer questions I ask the 11yo.

 

The 17yo graduates in 3 months. If he hasn't learned anything, we are in trouble.

[jujsky]

We hit our slump between Thanksgiving and all of the winter holidays we celebrate. It was just awful! Late November -- Christmas break was our February.

 

We're actually in a good place right now with homeschooling. DS hasn't been fighting me too much lately, we're about to start learning about Vikings, we just started learning about geology, and spelling (knock on wood!) hasn't been the burden for my son that it once was. Even math is going well because we're doing a unit on geometry right now -- something DS finds easy. We took this week off for Feb. break so the kids and I wouldn't get burned out, and then we'll get back to the grind on Monday & take another break at the end of April.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

It's going well. The boys don't seem as burnt out as I am! They are enjoying some new church friendships and training for a taekwondo tournament, so life is interesting to them right now.

 

Toby, age 6, has learned to do copywork, narration, and dictation every day. He's loving Ann Voskamp's Child's Geography and SL Core K. He's finishing up Horizons math K and looking forward to starting Math Mammoth in a few weeks.

 

Henry, age 10, has conceded that Latin does not stink and is good for dialogue in his medieval knights play. He has begun learning fiddle and mandolin.

 

Jonas, 12, is knocking my socks off right now. He is the dark horse of my homeschool, always struggling or resisting book-learnin' until now. He has leaped ahead to become my most consistent, interested, thorough, and amazing student. We've gone from 'future garbage collector' to 'future scientist or writer' in just a few months. It has been astounding to watch.

 

Nathaniel, 14, has got Algebra licked. He entered a national writing contest for Civil Air Patrol, and I thought his first solo attempt at a formal historical research paper was pretty darn good. He's finishing Traditional Logic II soon, and has been inspired for a lifetime by his study of formal logic. He'll be starting Alg. II and high school Biology in a few weeks.

 

Everybody's healthy, curious, and loving life, so I think we're doing alright in spite of my constant angst over homeschooling.

 

Thanks for this thread.

[elegantlion]

We've had a chaotic year but January and February have been good.

 

This week ds aced two lists on his Megawords. He's a delayed reader and possibly some dyslexic issues so we worked hard through book 1. He blew me away (and himself, I think) with the pre-test of book 2 with reading and spelling well enough to skip the first two lists. It showed me two things 1. our Latin is paying off, the lists had lots of Latin prepositions which have become English prefixes. 2. He has more issues with shorter words. I'm not sure what that means yet, but he CAN sound out long words much easier.

 

We've also deviated from our history schedule and been doing a lot of cultural geography. He's very interested in learning about how people live around the world. It's been great because we're learning a lot together.

 

Usually we take off one week in February so I could get finalize plans for next year and evaluate what we need to finish this year well. This year I opted to take off Monday only because we're so behind in our schedule. I ended up getting sick and we took off most of Thursday and Friday anyway. :lol: Next year I'm taking off a week even if we are behind.