Week 6 and 7

I have sinus infection.

I was told to "call it in". I don't feel comfortable trying to call in a prescription. I just am not. I once saw a nurse carrying a bunch of files down the hall... she said, "These are the call ins... they'll have to wait, won't they... that's what they get for calling in." So I know nurses don't really like call ins... I usually wait until I get bad enough to go in, then go in.

3 weeks with a sinus infection -- then I went to to the Dr. on Friday, the 17th. Sure'nuf... I've got a sinus infection. Now I've got a double dose of anti-biotic and an allergy pill to take once a day. We are just guessing on the allergy pill. My sister takes one once a day and I talked to the dr. about that and he said, "well -- it can't hurt." LOL So -- I had this sinus infection with no runny or stuffy nose... now I'm on an anti-biotic and allergy pill, and my nose is running. That's really want we want -- to get the stuff out of there. I guess in Knoxville there is sinus going around that is resistant to the normal does of anti-biotic. So I get a double dose. I pray it works.

Anyway... needless to say. I wasn't feeling very good for 3 weeks. I really shouldn't wait so long to go to the dr. It messes up my school schedule. We "did school"... bare bones school. Math mostly. I don't have a lot else to report.

Milo is still plugging along with his 100 EZ lessons. I'll say it's starting to click now. He will read a story now with only sounding out the new words. I'm so glad we kept plugging along. It took 50 lessons, and 1 year for it to click... but it finally has. He's thrilled!! I had him read a story to Dad on Friday. He was finally confident enough to share his new skill.

I was putting off starting Danielle on the 100 EZ lessons, because I didn't want her passing up Milo. I know... probably not the best for Danielle -- but I seriously didn't want anything to damage Milo's desire to want to read. I want my kiddos to love reading more than anything. If they know how to read well -- and learn to love it... then they can teach themselves anything. if they grow up and say, "I hate reading" or "I never read." Then I'll consider myself a failure. So far -- 2 for 2... Tori and Mansel both love reading. (whew). I just think the human ego is such a frail thing, I didn't want to slow Milo down in anyway. That being said I didn't start Danielle on the path to reading until Milo had it down. Make any sense?

Well -- I was waiting -- Danielle wasn't.

She would often peek over my shoulder while Milo and I were sitting on the couch doing 100 EZ lessons. She she heard me say often, "Sound it out," "Now say it fast." She was in the kitchen with me other other day -- pointing to letters on the fridge and saying the SOUND (not the name) of the letter. I said, "Bring me 3 letters." She did... I made sure one was a vowel. I lined them up on the counter. K E X... I said, "Sound these out." She did... K short e x. I said, "say it fast." She said, "Kex." Hmmm... was it a fluke? I did it 5 more times... sometimes sending her back to get a vowel instead of 3 consanents. Every time she would sound out the letter sounds and then "read" it. Even if it were a nonsense word like KEX. She would mess up "d" and "b"... normal. She would say, "long i" "short i" sounds... so I would choose one sound for her to say...

See... we've got this leap frog game on the fridge. You put in one letter and it says, "N says nnnnn, N says nnnnnn, every letter makes a sound and N says nnnn." For every letter -- vowels it says "i says iiiii and i says iiii" (short and long sound).

Danielle has taught herself to read.

So -- we are starting 100 EZ lessons with her today (Monday, October 20). Sigh... I doubt Milo will finish the book before she does. Pray we get through this OK.

I bought them both handwriting books. We use Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting around here. Milo zoomed through it... Danielle is still working on it. So -- she has normal 5yo fine motor skills... but her mind is zinging along a 5yo girl speed. This will be a new learning curve for me. How to handle a younger passing an older gracefully. It may not happen -- now that reading has clicked for Milo -- he may just zoom along at the same speed and she will never pass him in the workbook... but.. well -- we'll see. Ü

We didn't do any history or Bible this week. I would get the Math done in the morning then need to take a nap in the afternoon. I really haven't been feeling very perky lately. I didn't even feel like exercising at all. I did once last week. I did sit down with Tori and start her new week of Science. She just doesn't get how to do this on her own. She told me, "I'm done." No notes taken. No experiements done. So -- we started the week over... and we read it together -- listened to the CD -- took notes in her notebook -- did the experiment and she wrote down the results. I said, "Here -- this is what I expect every day." Now she knows... we'll see how she does today.

I've got to go wake her up... she is supposed to be up by 6:00. It's 6:45 and she's still in bed. :sigh: It may be a long day today. Ü

We cleaned the house one Friday -- so no school done that day. 9 more days under our belt. 32 total. Before we get into November... I need to figure out how far we need to be in certian subjects in order to take all of December off. I know we are behind in some subjects.


I'm praying for a more productive week this week!

Week 5

Well, well, well... another week under our belt. Did you read my last post? I was lazy on Monday -- so I made us get behind. Tori, Mansel and Milo did their own school work on Monday and Tuesday.

We got caught up on Wednesday. We are about to start week 32 in My Father's World which, if you remember, is where we all read together in Bible, History, and Science. We are getting so close to be done with that. We are reading Esther for Bible this week. Interesting. I discovered Purim is pronounced Poor-im. Who knew? Probably everyone but me. LOL

Tori took her first test for Apologia Science. We discovered that she doesn't know how to study on her own. :sigh: I read a thread on a message board this week about kids her age and this very class. Most moms were saying, "My kids is taking way too many notes." Oh nice... now I feel really BAD about my mothering/teaching skills. My kid takes NO notes and when she doesn't feel like answering a question -- she writes, "I don't know." She doesn't even TRY to guess. So we reviewed how to do her science. She has retaken the test and I've yet to check it. I'm really not looking forward to it.

I didn't get on the computer much on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday... so we got more school done then normal. But I also double checked that the kids had their school books before we left the house on Wednesday and Thursday. Both days we went to the library in between appointments and practice and we got more school done that way. I need to quit assuming that my kiddos are going to bring their school work with them if they are not done for the day... I know I learned that in public school... A teacher wrote ASSUME on the board and then divided it like this ASS/U/ME with chalk... when you assume... you make an ASS out of U and ME. Nice... but it's true. LOL One should never assume... even when they are my own cute kids!

So - another week down... several to go.

Let's see... we really did school 4 days. We didn't do school on Friday -- we cleaned the house instead. Then Tori was in a government school Homecoming Parade with her Cross Country team. So... I'll have to go check... brb. 23 days done.