Week 1 down...35 more to go...

So we completed our first week. It mostly went well. There was the usual whining about this or that, but they settled down and got to work.

Little Man hates handwriting, yet he needs it the most. His writing is atrocious! I am constantly making him rewrite things because no one else, much less himself, can read it. I am always reminding him to: space your letters and words properly, please stay on and between the lines of the paper, please don't doodle on your letters, no they don't need alligator teeth...no they don't need to look spooky today because Halloween is coming...no they don't need to look all curly because it's windy outside...the list goes on and on! In his journal he can prety much do with them as he pleases, as long as it is legible atleast with word spacing. He is a head in the clouds kind of kid, but I love the kid! He loves Science and Art though! I am going to start posting stuff he does. He can draw a Garfield that I was very surprised to see had great proportions to it. Nothing was overly large (except maybe his gut, lol). He drew a comic strip for his karate teacher. I will have to take a picture of it when we go this week. It was quite cute. They are allowed quite a bit of time for art class-an hour or more if needed-of course their core subjects have to be completed first...I like them to really get into it. Science is another one that he'll spend all day doing if I let him. We use some books called TOPS. Great resources on all sorts of things, but involved. That's how they learn and they love it. Right now we are studying electricity so they are using batteries, wire, foil, flashlight bulbs, etc, to find out about how it all works. It was funny to watch them try and figure out how to make the lightbulb work using a strip of foil and a D cell battery.

Tall Girl is excited about this year. She is in 6th grade, respectively...some of you know her and the kid just excells at some things for her age level. She can spell quite well, loves to write stories-constantly and is quite good at it...they are fun to read and keep Little Man's attention span. She loves to read and she's quick at it. She is doing so well at Piano-having been asked to move her lessons to longer sessions...she loves history too.

This year we have started actually 'grading' their work. I give grades just like at a normal school and they will be recorded for their transcripts. I did this for a few reasons, but I can see that it's making them work harder for that better grade (which is what I wanted-I wanted them to be 'rewarded' for their hard effort and to see what happens when they rushed through or wouldn't ask for help instead trying to hurry and get done, but then having to correct so much later---that's Tall Girl right there!). They are always on the lookout for that 100! I grade using the 94-100 =A, 84-93 =B, 83-74 =C, etc. It's the way Steve and I were graded in school and we prefer it. Holds them to a higher standard. They were told by Dad that they will be rewarded for good grades and will be 'punished' for bad ones when report card time rolls around. They want that movie or special treat for the good ones so they've been trying hard...they are learning though. I remind Tall Girl that she needs to look over her work before turning it in to make sure there are no simple mistakes made and for Little Man to make sure I can read it or it will be marked wrong. I had to mark four wrong on a lesson that didn't have but 10 problems (so the grade wasn't nice) and he was unhappy because he did get the right answer, but because it was so sloppy, I couldn't read it. The next days work was much neater! Lesson learned in a way that benefits him in the long run without me having to keep reminding him to write neatly.

We learned of South America this week, Jan Matzeliger -the man who made it possible for ordinary citizens to buy good shoes, the California Gold Rush and Native American's. There is always something new to learn for all three of us.