We’re in Calgary this week for last minute appointments, packing and everything else we need to do before leaving on our RV adventure. Since it was going to be so busy, I let homeschooling take a back see for the week. Unfortunately, now plans have changed and we are going to be in Calgary next week too. Ack. Now what?
Thankfully, the first rule I’ve learned of homeschooling is….Roll With It. (A reminder that there may be affiliate links within this post. By clicking through these links, I will make a small percentage of your purchase without it affecting the cost to you.)
- Our Brave Writer Arrow novels arrived from Amazon so we’ve started reading our first one, Esperenza Rising.
- We started the Life of Fred math curriculum earlier this summer. We realized that it assumed multiplication of two digit numbers by two digit numbers had been covered. Evan didn’t know how to do it. Today I went over the process for multiplication of large numbers and now he is practicing that skill.
- He completed a crossword puzzle for Grade 5 that reinforced spelling and vocabulary that I downloaded from the web.
- We went to the thrift store to buy new books for reading time and found a couple of gems for science (Owl Puke book anyone?)
We will be covering other subjects over the next week with resources we can find here and online. I’m not going to let a thing like a lack of curriculum keep us from getting started!
And that is when I know that I have started thinking like a Teacher AND a Mom. Evan would LOVE to convince me that he should just play his iPad all day. Um. No. Over the last few days, we have had many conversations that went something like this…
Evan – “I AM NOT DOING IT! I HATE THIS!”
Me – “Evan, you’ve been working for 5 minutes. This is not all the school you have to do in a day. You went to school all day, we won’t be working all day but we will be working for more than 5 minutes.”
Thankfully, I have been able to (mostly) keep my cool. I know that he is pushing boundaries with me to see what he can get me to agree to. I can’t blame him. Working for only 5 minutes would be WAY more fun that doing a math work sheet. I know that I will be happy that I am sticking to my guns now because it is going to make it much easier in the future.
The best part? When we started reviewing multiplication of large numbers, he really didn’t get it. He was adding from left to right and he was mixing the numbers up. He was so sad and wailing “I don’t understand! I don’t get it!” Instead of letting him give up, I said “You don’t understand because I just taught you how to do it. To completely understand, you need to practice your new knowledge. You can do this! It just takes practice.” He took his paper and went to work on it by himself begrudgingly.
He did the first problem and brought it to me to check. It wasn’t completely right but it was just a minor carrying problem. I said “Way to go! See! I told you that you could do this!” He did a little happy dance and moved to the next problem.
I love being the one who gets to give him that high five. I love seeing what I taught him get put into practice and *click*.
So now, instead of just mom, I get to be Teacher Mom and it feels GREAT. (Though saying no he can’t stop working for the 15th time…not so much.)
Do you homeschool? How do you become Mom when your kids are trying to play you?
Looking for more posts about our homeschooling adventures? Check out this post!
Getting Prepared to Start Homeschooling – Living the Wanderlust Life