Hardest week yet... (whine)

[Hoot]

Uggh! I'm so over this week.

 

DS13 spent the first part of the week completely botching every. single. grammar lesson. He's given me good reason to change what we're using, but I don't know WHAT to change it to.

 

DS suddenly remembers that he hasn't done his IEW writing homework for the week so he's rushing and emotional over that.

 

And then he realizes that he never did his current events research and speech. At that point I'm so frustrated with him that I decide to give him a 0 be done.

 

Then, I got a ton of emails from co-op about how they're changing DS's memory verses for Bible AGAIN. This will be the third time, now. I've entered them into Scholaric twice and I'm FUMING that I have to do it a third time. I swear, if they change it again I'm pulling him from the class.

 

Wednesday, I notice that male cat is running back and forth to the litter box a lot but only peeing a little each time. Not like him at all. Then, late that night he pees in an empty litter box and I see blood.

 

CARP!

 

I know what this could mean, especially in males, so I'm up with him all night to make sure he's still able to eliminate at least a little bit every time he goes. The next morning I have to be at work at 6:30. I run to work for the 2 hrs. I typically work and then rush home to check on male cat. In the meantime, I've called the vet and they want to see him Right. This. Minute.

 

And, it's co-op day.

All day.

From 8:30 - 5:30.

Any other day would have been no big deal.

 

An hour and a half at the vet, a shot, a cath., 3 meds., and $250 later I'm finally at co-op. On the bright side, his diagnosis (FLUTD) is probably the best we could have hoped for and it was caught VERY early.

 

Today, I figure it's been a long week so I'll take DS to the zoo as a treat when I get home from work. He's finished all but math and history while I was at work, so he can just do that when we get home. We're home by 1pm and he's still doing JUST. MATH. at 4pm. And, this is the second time doing this lesson since he got a 64% on it Wednesday. :banghead: Seriously, I get that he will have days (or weeks) where he just doesn't understand things, but he just gets SO overwhelmed and emotional when he does ANYTHING poorly.

 

History never happened, and I don't care.

 

I want to go read the last chapter of "The Giver," curl up on the couch and watch a movie. Instead, I'll dole out meds to the male cat, do the same for the two rats I'm sitting for, clean cages, feed the rest of the herd, and fall into bed with my clothes half on and half off.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

:grouphug:

[Jean in Newcastle]

12 subjects in 8th grade? That is an awful lot. No wonder, he is not getting done. My brain is fried right now (I hear you on the exhaustion thing) but perhaps some of us could help you pare this down a bit.

 

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: on the exhaustion and the pet problems.

[BlessedMom]

:grouphug:

[Hoot]

12 subjects in 8th grade? That is an awful lot. No wonder, he is not getting done. My brain is fried right now (I hear you on the exhaustion thing) but perhaps some of us could help you pare this down a bit.

 

I'm assuming you're going by my sig. line, right? It really only looks like a lot.

 

Alg. 1 - 1 lesson a day. About an hour.

History - 2 days a week (DS wanted 2 long sessions of about 2 hrs. each but it's not working out so we're switching this to 4 shorter days so he won't have such heavy loads)

Science - 2 days + 1 co-op day for labs. Sometimes he finishes in 1 day though if he's feeling motivated. 1 - 2 hrs. over the course of the two days.

WWS - We actually haven't been doing this. I started it over the summer but we've kind of bagged it. We may do a bit here and there as we have time but I'm not stressing about it.

Easy Grammar - Usually only takes about 15 min. but he's struggling with some grammar right now so we're spending a little more time going over each concept.

Total Language Plus - 4 days a week. This might take 30 - 45 min. a day tops, which includes reading and questions.

Getting Started With Latin - 3 days a week orally, about 10 - 15 min. each day.

Word Roots - 1 day a week; 15 min.

Killgallon - 2 days a week. As much as I LOVE this, it tends to be the first thing to get shelved on a rough day because it's kind of time-consuming. About 30 - 45 min. but we do lots of talking about it and it seems to take forEVER to come up with those sentences.

Fallacy Detective - 1 day a week; 20 min. all orally.

Bible - All he has to do is read for this, and it's a total of 1 day for about 20 min. + 1 co-op day each week. He usually finishes the following week's reading during one of his study halls on co-op day.

 

Typing - He's not doing this anymore. Instead, he's practicing by typing his science work every week.

Black Belt Tang Soo Do - We don't count this as part of the school day since he goes in the evening two days a week (or one weekday and one weekend day).

Baseball - This is seasonal and one or two evenings a week. It is his passion though and I only list it because I count it as PE.

Photography - 1 co-op class per week, plus he carries his camera with him to take pictures for that class throughout the week. He might spend a total of 30 min. over the course of the week actually taking said pictures and transferring them to the USB for class. No other work is required.

Drama - 1 co-op class per week, currently. He will start running lines a little throughout the week once they get more into the mechanics of the play. No other work is required.

 

He absolutely has days where he's done with his work by 10am or noon if he's been working hard. Other days, it doesn't go so smoothly or he's put off certain things until the last minute.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Ahh, I see. That is definitely doable. I would hold his hand more on scheduling. I had to do it with my son when he was in 8th grade. It was a little bit less in 9th and even less in 10th, but there is still a lot of checking up done by me to keep him on task.