Comments on: Homeschooling: Friends are Important

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:45:29 +0000

I’d be fine with a plain ole Skor bar! Lol

By: Geri

Geri — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:58:31 +0000

LOL I know what you mean! Although talking about the skor blizzards kinda got me craving one now.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:25:01 +0000

Mmm, sounds de-lish! I love Peanut Buster Parfaits and Moolattes. Cappuccino Moolattes. Good thing ice cream doesn’t tempt me when it’s cold outside. And it’s snowing like crazy out there right now!

By: Geri

Geri — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:59:11 +0000

Jack & Jill sundaes have the marshmallow topping and hot fudge together…ohhh YUMMY!

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:56:44 +0000

Jack & Jill Sundaes? That’s a new one on me! I love anything with Skor bar in it! That’s been my favorite candy bar since childhood…mmm.

By: Geri

Geri — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:02:02 +0000

That’s a great idea!! I know that definitely would have motivated me when I was homeschooling-I’m a sucker for cappuccino skor blizzards! And Jack & Jill Sundaes…and pretty much everything else on the DQ menu!

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 03:07:23 +0000

That’s amazing about your brother, and I can just feel your mom’s relief at the teacher’s pronouncement! I appreciate you sharing that. I know 7 yo is very active and more people-dependent than my oldest. So it could be that reading just isn’t her cup of tea. However, I told her yesterday that I was going to begin pushing her to read aloud more unless I saw her making more efforts to read to 3 yo, etc. She used to do that a lot more than she does now. So this morning, on her own, she got down a basket of books and read 7 of them to our youngest!

Sometimes I think we mommies get too worried about these things. I have a feeling that 7 yo will be an avid reader by the time she’s 10. She really enjoys books on tape and being read to. I’ve read before about how some children are just slow bloomers. Have you ever heard the story about the farmer in Alaska who spent all winter preparing the hard ground for spring planting? The frozen ground was awful to work, backbreaking labor. He noticed in March that his neighboring friend, also a farmer, was just getting started plowing his fields over and with the spring thaw having softened the ground, his job was so much easier. This story was for the benefit of moms like me who sweat it when all of their kiddos don’t learn at the same speed. I can fight and struggle with her lack of reading skills, and push her at it till she really hates it, or back off (as dh told me to do!) and when she’s ready, she’ll probably skip right to the thick books. Especially if I can find one that really sparks her interest. Thankfully, she can read, we just have to be really patient as she does so. She has a great memory, and can spell at her age level. So it’s not that she’s behind all other 7 yos, it’s just that my oldest was beyond this at age 6, so I’ve been wondering if it was my fault, what I could do better, etc. Make sense?

Have to tell you that today the girls and I decided to make an incentive chart. For every special thing they do that I don’t “tell them to do”, they’ll get a paper “pepperoni” of their own to put on a big paper pizza. When the pizza is full, we’ll celebrate by going out to Pizza Hut with their Book-It’s, and then follow lunch up with an ice cream treat at Dairy Queen. They love the idea. I told 7 yo, that one way for her to get her pepperonis would be to keep a positive attitude during schooltime and really apply herself! Thanks for giving me the idea of rewarding her. The girls are really excited.

By: Geri

Geri — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:26:23 +0000

That’s great! Reading is really hard for alot of kids, especially with dyslexia. That would make alot of sense if she’s got it; it would make it very hard to want to learn. I had some friends who had it and they would get so frustrated and not want to do the work because reading was such a challenge. But at least (sometimes) it can be overcome, expecially since she is still so young, it may be something she can outgrow. I was shocked; my little brother (8 now) was always having such a hard time learning to read and my Mom thought she was going to have to send him to a learning class-he was doing really badly and when he would read out loud to her could not sound out the words and was distracted with every little thing. This Christmas when I was there my other brother (19) gave him a Harry Potter (one of the huge ones!) and he was already well into it, plus he had also gotten another huge novel from the same brother. I looked at my Mom and asked “can he really read that?” because the book is probably at least 500 pages and I wasn’t reading that thick of books till I was at least in high school and I have always been an avid reader. My Mom laughed and said “yup!”. I guess she went into his class to discuss his reading with his teacher and the teacher kinda gave my Mom a funny look when she expressed her concern. Turns out when the whole class had been tested the previous year in school he was a grade ahead of everyone in reading. My Mom was in utter disbelief. I guess since there is 7 people (and a dog) in my family and there was so much going on (since me and my sister don’t live there anymore, people are always coming and going, and that house is such a busy place that my little brother just wanted to be doing what everyone else was doing and so was easily distracted. So hopefully your daughter is just distracted with your busy household and that’s why she’s having a tough time. I found homeschooling especially tough for the fact that me and my sister would want to play more than do school and since my Mom was working it was alot easier for us to do that. LOL-we’d go out on “picnics” and spend an hour just preparing these extravagant lunches to prepare then spend a half hour walking through the forest to find the “right spot”, then take forever eating…by the time the picnic was done we would have done no school and it was time to go home!

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:26:14 +0000

I think you have a great idea, Geri…I may end up doing that or a variation, whatever I can think of that will appeal to this particular daughter of mine!

She tried hard today, and did pretty well. Baby steps, right? Her older sis came to her aid and they took off on reading together (reading is my 7 yo’s least favorite subject, I think she has a bit of dyslexia) which gave me a breather and still got the job done. I’m so glad they work together so well…

By: Geri

Geri — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:12:32 +0000

Have you tried some sort of reward system? I know it’s awful to bribe your kids but sometimes if you set up a system where (say the work is set in chapters) if she does one chapter a week then she can have a movie night on Friday. But involve all your daughters so then it’s fair. If they each accomplish the amount they are supposed to in a week then they can have a movie night with popcorn and treats. But if anyone works over the set-upon amount then they get to choose the movie (otherwise you can choose it). LOL I can’t wait for my time to come because if LO takes after me at all I have my work cut out for me! Let me know what ends up working for you…I would love some insight!