Just to let y'all know, we've officially started homeschooling. Tay's materials came at 9 pm Friday night (as mentioned in previous post). I didn't get to start Monday morning, but started yesterday. Two days in and I'm thinking my prediction that one of us won't survive the year was pretty accurately made. The child is driving me nuts!!! She argues with me over EVERYTHING! Telling her one of her vocabulary words, and she starts out mis-spelling it, before I've even gotten the word out completely (much less spelled it for her). And when I corrected her as to the FIRST letter, she accused ME of telling her the wrong thing. (Word was "Gristmill" she said I told her to start with an "r", before I'd even gotten to start spelling it for her.)
She's pissy as hell about the book she's got to read. It's "Shiloh" by Phyllis Naylor Reynolds. She's seen the movie and evidently the dog dies in the end, so she's all pissy that now she's got to read the book. Even though it's only one chapter a day, and that one chapter took her maybe 15 minutes (not counting that she stopped in the middle to eat breakfast) to read. Then trying to talk her through some of the themes in the first chapter, and writing notes as to the first chapter...... She's playing INCREDIBLY dumb, then gets pissy with me when I call her on it.
And I'm cracking down on her as far as her hand-writing goes, which I've been telling her ALL SUMMER that I would. I'm discusted with the school that year after year after year, teachers made excuses for how bad her handwriting was, and rather than making her RE-write a damned thing, because her handwriting was illegible, they allowed it and excused it away. I'm having to PROPERLY instruct her as to the simple making of a lower-case "a" for example. And "u" and "r" and "y" and "g"...... The previous teachers have never even made her carry the tails from those "y's" and "g's" and "p's" and "q's" below the line. Now she thinks it's ok that they all sit above the lines on the page. And it's ME being "mean" because I'm finally a "teacher" (and MOM!) willing to push her to higher limits!
History was hard, because as much as I love it and would like to try to make it fun for her. I brought home books on paleo-Indians and Mammoths and Cave art, since those are the things being studied in History and Art, so that she could read some extra stuff. Esp. considering she claims to be very interested in all that. Instead she yelled at me for "making" her do extra work. It's not extra work, it's extra materials to browse as she feels. So that she can learn more about subjects she claims to have an interest in. Scott's evidently going to do the geography side of things, along with math. Tay asked that he do her Geography lessons.
Ok. Anyway, off to finish up today with Art, and she'll do Math and Geography with Scott tonight.
Just wanted to let y'all know that we HAVE started, thus cutting in on my computer time.
Have a Blessed Day!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I'm not sure if Tay was the one who wanted to homeschool? Or was it a decision y'all made together? It may take some time to transistion from seeing you not just as MOM but as a teacher too. Some kids think they can get away with stuff when homeschooling and just do whatever they want. Then they get started and reality hits. They actually have to do work! I think she's testing you to see how far she can get by being so disagreeable with you and how far she can push you. My opinion is that you need to show her that it does not bother you and just ignore her behavior. When she does behave, then compliment on her. Just try to relax and have fun. Go out and do a field trip once a week or every other week. Are there any homeschool groups in your area? They may be helpful. Ok I've blabbed on enough but I did homeschool for 5 years. Good luck to you!
I'm not sure what to say.
Once my oldest ask me why I don't home school and my answer was "Do you want to live long enough to see your next birthday"
Coffee is on over at my place sounds like you need a strong cup.
hopefully she will settle in after a little while....it is only the first week
I had problems with Joy when she was that age and I would not have been able to homeschool her! Hang in there, bite your tongue and keep on 'chucking on' .... if you hold to your guns, she will have to give in or start failing school.
Good luck!
It sounds like no one is having much fun.
I'm sorry to hear that.
I'm assuming that the book came with the curriculum. If I may ask, did you opt for the "cover school" option (that is, Tay completes assignments and sends them in for evaluation) or did you pick the curriculum and then decide that you would be the facilitator? I forget.
If it's the latter, maybe you could let her pick a different book with a similar theme. Jack London's White Fang is similar.
Did you know that Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has a blog on Amazon? Tay might be interested.
I hope you guys can find your rhythm. It's tough to transition from "school" to homeschool. My oldest daughter and I butt heads a lot, but finally figured it out. In our case, the problem was me. I had a vision in my head of how I thought our 'homeschool' should be. I spent a week or so developing a "curriculum" for her, and had all of these images in my head of how excited she would be to start working on all of the great projects. When she wasn't as enthusiastic about the "plan" as I was, it was very frustrating to me, and when I tried to force her, we had a lot of problems. After a couple of months, I took her to the Hospice bookstore, where books are less than a dollar each, and I told her she could pick ten books, and for every two books she chose, she agreed to read one of my choosing. She read those fifteen books, and then, six more - in about eight weeks. She also studied a little about the Civil War and cooked a dinner using recipes from that era. We didn't do so well on math, but when she "graduated" she took a college placement test for math and had enough knowledge to go straight into college algebra. So, we didn't do too bad :).
Hang in there. If I could suggest, you might want to do a google search for "deschooling." Tay might need a little time to decompress.
Good luck!
Can I just say that I'm not surprised things started off this way. It's going to take a bit of time for the two of you to get used to working together. Tey especially needs to learn to accept you in your new role as teacher as well as "Mom"... All this attitude is about is Tey testing you to see how far she can push you before you snap. I'm sure she'll get over it in time.
Post a Comment