04 February 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up: Snap

 

This week hardly seems to be blog-worthy. We had sickness in the house again (my son this time), and it felt like we barely accomplished anything. The rhythm of our school week felt more like the swift moves of a boxing match. I swung, and they swung back. Yeah. It wasn't our best week.
My greatest accomplishment for this week was washing a gazillion loads of laundry. We were without a machine for over two weeks, and I'm still not caught up. Prior to that, we knew the machine was on the fritz for quite a while, so we had somewhat of a back-log as it was. Doing the laundry is my favorite household chore, so, if I must do an excessive amount of any chore, let it be laundry. Yesterday, I ran out of detergent. I make it myself, and I LOVE it! It is super easy and extremely thrifty. To see the post where I wrote out the recipe, CLICK HERE.

The big announcement of the week came  yesterday when my son announced that he didn't like history. Crash! Bang! Floomp! (All the noises made as his history loving mother passed out in shock and horror). We've been using My Father's World for 2 1/2 years now, and I've been thinking about making a change for many reasons since about a year ago.This was kind of the last straw. I'm looking for great, chronological history that is engaging, not like a text book, utilizes living books and works well with Charlotte Mason's philosophies. Any ideas? I have other plans for the rest of what MFW supplies us, ideas that I think are better than what MFW offers for our family, which is why the change is in the air. I'm not dedicated to making a change for sure yet, but we're definitely leaning that way and devoting time to prayer.

Ava has been using Pathway Readers this year. She loved, loved, loved the Dick and Jane books in kindergarten, and this was the closest match to those. Unfortunately, she hates them because they aren't "chapter books."  She so desperately wants to read chapter books that she has been trying to read her Kit Kittredge American Girl book on her own, and, while I am impressed with her sudden passion, she just isn't ready to read about Kit yet. 

This week, I got tired of the fight and decided to return to my Sonlight reading list routes (which is what I used for Lukas for grades 1 and 2). Today, she willingly read the first "chapter" of Little Bear. I don't know where that puts her as far as grade level goes, but I have decided that I don't care. I reserved most of the 1st grade Sonlight readers, and, what I have pleasantly discovered is that she is doing just fine. Other than one word that caused a full-blown meltdown (for me...ugh, not my greatest moment), she read that "chapter" like a pro. Maybe she'll  fly through these readers in the next couple weeks. I don't know what's next. Sonlight 2nd grade readers? Ava getting ahead of the game in reading would be mind-boggling at this point, not because she isn't capable, but because she has had a pretty hard anti-reading stance. 

Having Baby Z in the house has continued to be more manageable than I could have imagined. Of course, I'm busier than I was before, but she has become a part of our daily routine with ease. We even took her to a doctor's appointment that I had this week, and she was an angel. An ice storm kept her away from us for two days, and we actually kind of missed having her here.

So the title of this post must be addressed. Snap! I'm pretty sure that's what I did today. The past week hasn't been the most encouraging week of school, and I may or may not have snapped today. Okay, so I completely snapped. There's no maybe to it. I am imperfect, and my children are forgiving. Praise God that he fills in the gaps for us. Monday will be better. It has to be. Today I am thankful for the grace shown to me by my children. They're amazing. Thank Jesus for that!

To see other weekly wrap-ups, visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

2 comments:

  1. I've had weeks like that--many times. As you said though, thank the Lord for grace!

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  2. "The rhythm of our school week felt more like the swift moves of a boxing match." Some weeks are like that! My daughter decided she didn't like history about age 10. I modified Sonlight with hands-on projects and it made all the difference to her!

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