Speaking from the Heart

Can you believe Monday will be the second day of February? Returning from a Christmas vacation, were you able to return to your homeschooling routine? Because we were off for more than a month, we had a hard time of getting back into the groove. I can't say that the kids were the only one who didn't have a good attitude about school. I am just as guilty. My heart wasn't in it. It obviously showed through my actions, and what I allowed my kids to get away with in their assignments. I purposely spent less time blogging this week, and focused my time on teaching. It has made a big difference in my attitude.

Besides helping The Inquisitor with his homework, this will be the last semester that I will be teaching him. He has been accepted to International Baccalaureate (IB) program. He will start 9th grade at the high school. Meanwhile, he will be finishing up his biology and algebra 2 at home. Hopefully, he'll get the high school credit for algebra 2. Because he will get college credit for biology, he will repeat the course in the tenth grade. Over the summer, he will have a list of literature that he has to read, before schools starts in August. As a mom and a teacher, I am preparing him to be more accountable for his assignments. For the next few months, I am more stringent to his assignment deadline. If he doesn't get it done by that time, there will a penalty (i.e. no Playstation 3 time, no fun church activities, etc.).

After my attitude adjustment, I am more prepared to teach Minnie. She still wants to do work on her own and move on. I allow her to do that to certain extent, but I am also requiring her to go over history, science, and reading with me. We will be concentrating on writing this semester. We used Pudewa's Writing Intensive Program last year. We will resume where we left off. Minnie is also reading The Fairy Chronicles series. I am so happy that she, someone who doesn't like to read, is devouring these books.