Afternoon school? Just say N-O.
One of my best friends has little kids - ages 1 and almost 4. They are unavailable during nap time (1pm to 4pm), and I need to be starting dinner by 4pm, so basically if I want to see her, we have to see her before 1. Today I tried to hang out with them in the morning, then when they went home for naps, we could do school. All was going well, we were cleaned up - all toys put away (Kara did it ALL herself), all dishes done, outside cleaned up, snack for Kara (she's a bottomless pit today), we got started at 1:30.
We did things out of order today because we were starting late and, well, Kara was still finishing her snack. lol! We did subjects she didn't need to write for while her hands were busy munching. This was going well.
We took her first test (4 out of 5 days will soon have a test in one subject or another), which was in Phonics. She did VERY well, but I had to mark her off for writing a "q" instead of a "p". That one made me sad because she spelled it right, she just wrote it wrong. And she spelled "ride", "rid". Two very different words. (It wasn't a spelling test, it was a phonics test, so I was sad for her she was tested on this. But, based on what we've learned in phonics so far, she should have known "ride" would have two vowels, not one.) She did blends correctly, marked vowels correctly, read correctly. It was magical. But those two teeny mistakes cost her 10 points and she got a 90. Unfortunately, the Abeka grading scale looks like this:
95-100 A
85-94 B
77-84 C
70-76 D
0-69 F
Needless to say, she wasn't super happy with a B. And to be honest, she was kinda robbed with that backwards "p". But, this is first grade and I think backwards letters and numbers are unacceptable (especially for a kid who's doing second grade work). Starting TOMORROW, every time she writes a backwards letter or number, she has to write that letter or number 10 times for homework. Today she wrote backwards numbers A LOT. Like, out of 75 numbers she wrote, 10 were backwards. Her smart little brain needs to slow down a second and concentrate on the trivial writing-it-correctly. I'm going to be strict with this.
So, seatwork was going very well - I jumped in the shower and started some laundry. I heard her calling me from the laundry room and I thought "this can't be good." She was crying and saying, "I'm just too tired. I need a break. I'm just too tired." She ate A TON at lunch, like at least twice the normal amount, so I immediately thought she wasn't feeling well. She said she was fine. Okay, then I remembered she got up pretty early today - about an hour earlier than usual. AND we played out in the fresh air/heat/sun this morning with friends in the sprinklers. Okay, she must just be tired. So a break we shall have!
Mamaw called for story time at 3. Today we learned about lighthouses. You can see her chilling, taking the story in via skype. :-) Can I just say, I'm learning a lot! lol! I've always liked being read to (audiobooks are decadent to me), so while I could go do whatever while Kara skypes, I like to sit right with her and listen too!
Kara still needed a break afterwards, so we just chilled out for a while. (Meanwhile, I'm working on bills, laundry, etc.)
Then come those hours that get lost in my house. 3:00 hits, then all of a sudden it's 5:00 and we're all starving and I realize I should have been more on the ball with dinner. Oops.
Fortunately, Kara ate like a person on death row for lunch and snack, so she wasn't hungry yet. We got back into it for a while, until my stomach was just too empty. She worked on her art project while I cooked. Which was a bummer because I worked pretty hard on preparing for it and kinda wanted to do it with her. Oh well.
Dinner took until about 6:45, then we still had to do math and writing! Will this day ever end! Well, it did - at 8pm.
Boo.
My day is shot.
So here I am whining about my own decisions and their consequences. We won't be doing afternoon school for a while. Tomorrow we're doing school, even though it's Saturday, so we can take Thursday off to go to the beach with our best friends (slumber party the night before too!). You better believe we'll be hitting the books first thing in the morning.
We did things out of order today because we were starting late and, well, Kara was still finishing her snack. lol! We did subjects she didn't need to write for while her hands were busy munching. This was going well.
We took her first test (4 out of 5 days will soon have a test in one subject or another), which was in Phonics. She did VERY well, but I had to mark her off for writing a "q" instead of a "p". That one made me sad because she spelled it right, she just wrote it wrong. And she spelled "ride", "rid". Two very different words. (It wasn't a spelling test, it was a phonics test, so I was sad for her she was tested on this. But, based on what we've learned in phonics so far, she should have known "ride" would have two vowels, not one.) She did blends correctly, marked vowels correctly, read correctly. It was magical. But those two teeny mistakes cost her 10 points and she got a 90. Unfortunately, the Abeka grading scale looks like this:
95-100 A
85-94 B
77-84 C
70-76 D
0-69 F
Needless to say, she wasn't super happy with a B. And to be honest, she was kinda robbed with that backwards "p". But, this is first grade and I think backwards letters and numbers are unacceptable (especially for a kid who's doing second grade work). Starting TOMORROW, every time she writes a backwards letter or number, she has to write that letter or number 10 times for homework. Today she wrote backwards numbers A LOT. Like, out of 75 numbers she wrote, 10 were backwards. Her smart little brain needs to slow down a second and concentrate on the trivial writing-it-correctly. I'm going to be strict with this.
Here are some excellent drawings Kara drew during seatwork - she asked me to post them because they were so good. :-) Then she asked me for her own blog. I said no.
So, seatwork was going very well - I jumped in the shower and started some laundry. I heard her calling me from the laundry room and I thought "this can't be good." She was crying and saying, "I'm just too tired. I need a break. I'm just too tired." She ate A TON at lunch, like at least twice the normal amount, so I immediately thought she wasn't feeling well. She said she was fine. Okay, then I remembered she got up pretty early today - about an hour earlier than usual. AND we played out in the fresh air/heat/sun this morning with friends in the sprinklers. Okay, she must just be tired. So a break we shall have!
Mamaw called for story time at 3. Today we learned about lighthouses. You can see her chilling, taking the story in via skype. :-) Can I just say, I'm learning a lot! lol! I've always liked being read to (audiobooks are decadent to me), so while I could go do whatever while Kara skypes, I like to sit right with her and listen too!
Kara still needed a break afterwards, so we just chilled out for a while. (Meanwhile, I'm working on bills, laundry, etc.)
Then come those hours that get lost in my house. 3:00 hits, then all of a sudden it's 5:00 and we're all starving and I realize I should have been more on the ball with dinner. Oops.
Fortunately, Kara ate like a person on death row for lunch and snack, so she wasn't hungry yet. We got back into it for a while, until my stomach was just too empty. She worked on her art project while I cooked. Which was a bummer because I worked pretty hard on preparing for it and kinda wanted to do it with her. Oh well.
Dinner took until about 6:45, then we still had to do math and writing! Will this day ever end! Well, it did - at 8pm.
Boo.
My day is shot.
So here I am whining about my own decisions and their consequences. We won't be doing afternoon school for a while. Tomorrow we're doing school, even though it's Saturday, so we can take Thursday off to go to the beach with our best friends (slumber party the night before too!). You better believe we'll be hitting the books first thing in the morning.
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