The Real Lesson

Homeschooling each child is a unique experience.  They each have their strengths, weaknesses, and styles of learning.

Let me give a little insight into what it's like to teach my eldest.  Let me also write down a reminder of what homeschooling was like for him when he was 3 months past his 11th birthday.

"Addison, come here so I can make sure you understood today's math lesson."  (He is working through/reading/self-teaching in math.  His brother comes to me when he is stuck or needs clarification.  Addison, not so much.)

He comes to the table, where I sit with the book.  He does not bring his work.  I don't ask him to get it.  I am checking for mastery, and to make sure he's reading the instruction thoroughly.

"Ok, what about this problem?
Is exponentiation associative?  That is, if a, b, and c are positive integers, must we have
(aᵇ)ᶜ=a⁽ᵇ^ᶜ)  ?"

He explains.

"What about this one?
Express

5¹⁷ + 5¹⁷ + 5¹⁷ + 5¹⁷ + 5¹⁷ 

as a power of 5"

He throws out

5¹⁸ 

without looking at his sheet. I ask him to walk me through, and he does.

He proceeds to tell me the answers to the other problems.  I have no idea if he is remembering what he wrote, has a photographic memory, or is reworking them in his head on the fly.  But, he is correct.  On one problem, he explained what he put, initially, and that he read through and understood what he did wrong, telling me the way he then came up with the correct answer.  I have always been amazed with this skill.  Often, I will yell from the next room, "Addison!  What did you get for that problem with all the 7's?"  He'll look up from whatever Kindle book he's reading and not only yell back the answer, but can also remind me that it was problem 1.56. 

I then get another problem.  

"Express 11^20,000 as a 10,000^th power by finding the positive integer a such that 11^20,000 equals a^10,000

He tells me that he figured this one out.  Before jumping in, he asks me (in a non-threatening, non-critical, completely nice way) "Do you know how to work through this one already?"

And here lies his biggest achievement of the school day.  It was not understanding the math lesson.  It was not his independent learning.  It was the fact that he paused before spouting off a detailed disquisition to ask if I was ready, or if I was on the 'same page' as him.  Most people would have missed this.  I did not.  I sighed, and smiled.  I told him that I knew how to work it, and thanked him  for asking.

He finished his schoolwork and never recognized this as a big deal.  But, I did.

He's got the academics covered.  It's up to me to teach him the rest.

August Quotes

 Ivey: (Growling and snarling) "Can I pleeeease have Sprite? Pretty please with SCARY on top?"

_________________________

Addison: "This might be lame, but I want my wedding cake to be four levels of red velvet cake with buttercream frosting, "dirty iced" but with piping on the edges."

Asa: "What if your wife doesn't like buttercream frosting?"

Addison: "Then I wouldn't be marrying her."

_________________________

Ivey: "I am a night person. That means I read books at night until God magically closes my eyes."

_________________________

All the kids were calling dibs on different brownies... corners, edges, middles...

Olive: "I don't care which one I get. Unless I don't get the biggest one. Then, I'll care."

_________________________

With only a Leapster, a bandaid (placed on the subject's forehead), and a piece of cardboard colored to look like an iPad, Ivey invented a "brain mover" machine today. With it, she could "move things around in your brain". Her assistant, Olive, could even uses her cardboard iPad to receive messages straight from the brain. All in a day's work.

_________________________

Ivey stepped on a rake and cut her food pretty bad. She was sobbing, and hysterical. Here are some things said during her complete pain-induced meltdown...

"I feel like I got bit by a raccoon!!!"

and, after I cleaned her up and was applying a bandage...

"I wish you were a UNICORN!!"

_________________________

Me: "Olive, are those ninja moves easier without any clothes on?"

Olive: "Yeah, cause I'm kinda invisible."

_________________________

The boys are working on a pulley system in science, and Ivey was told she was pulling it too fast.

Crying, she said, "I tried to pull it slow, but I pulled it fast cause it was just so awesome! *sniffle*

_________________________

"Look Mommy. I drew a picture of a kitty walking across the ice, and she fell and broke her neck." -Olive

_________________________

Olive : " 'gran' in the word 'grandaddy' is just another way to say 'old' "

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Olive: "Water is like an invisible ninja drink. It looks just like cups."

Joint-Effort Joint Work

A Day

Whew!  It's Saturday.  A day where, before 10am, the boys had done their farm chores, Jeff helped a goat whose head was stuck in a barrel, I dropped off the boys' spend-the-night friend, dropped boys at a Boy Scout merit badge class, AND had Ivey suited up and at hockey evaluations.

Today was a day where Mim had Olive to ballet at 10:30, and Ivey and I met them there to catch the tail end of class.  We then made it to pick up the boys from their class by 12:00... where they successfully earned the Citizenship in the Nation merit badge that they had been working toward for weeks.

It was a day where Jeff and Randy managed to work in the 96 degree heat, in an army tent, to cut the first girt for our house.  

A day where the boys got home, packed up supplies, and made it out the door by 2:30 for a Scout camping & canoeing trip.

A day where Olive and Ivey danced through Lowe's, pretended to be ninjas, and giggled till they almost peed in their pants.

Me: "Olive, are those ninja moves easier without any clothes on?"
Olive: "Yeah, cause I'm kinda invisible."

Olive: "Water is like an invisible ninja drink. It looks just like cups." 

A day where, at 11pm, I was in the kitchen making chocolate chip cookies (and eating the dough until I was physically ill) while listening to the sounds of Jeff's saw in the tent and the guineas yelling at Jeff's saw from their perches in the trees.

 Tonight, my boys are sleeping in a tent in the woods, my girls are snuggled in a single bed, my husband is catching hard-earned zzz's on the couch... 

...and I will finally call it a day.