Adventures in Home Learning: Episode 26

 

One of the bright spots in the stress and confusion of having kids learning at home, or even full on home schooling, is the flexibility.

My daughter got up this morning and was in a foul mood. She came down, dressed, but with her pillow and blanket, and declared that she wanted to do her school work from the couch today.

You know what? That’s okay. Is it great for her posture? No, but for today, we’ll roll with it.

As I worked in the other room, I heard a bit of an argument between her and my husband. “I’m not doing it!” she declared. I could imagine my husband shaking his head but heard no more.

When I finished my task I went out and asked what was going on. Apparently, the kerfuffle was over the new Phys Ed. requirement.

“How about we save that for this afternoon?” I suggested. “Or it can wait until after dinner, and Mommy can do it with you?”

She grabbed my hand. “Yes!”

I may not be able to do everything she can, but I’m willing to try and if it makes it easier on her, why not?

There’s nothing that says at what time we have to do something during the day, just that the requirement should be met on certain days.

A friend posted that her son wanted to do one of his assignments out near his favorite goat. Awesome. (As long as the goat doesn’t eat the assignment. We all know goats eat anything.)

My biggest challenge right now is getting my daughter to write neatly. I’m reminding her, but she doesn’t seem to be taking that to heart. There may come a time when I require her to redo something because it isn’t legible.

Yesterday, I came home and checked over her work to make sure it had all been completed. Unfortunately, she had missed part of a question. It wasn’t due until this morning so I asked her to go back and finish it then I would resubmit it.

It was one question, but you would have thought I asked her to roll Sisyphus’s boulder uphill in the hot sun. There were some sniffles and tears, much angry writing and erasing, opening and closing of computer, and blowing of nose.

I asked her if she needed more explanation. No, she understood. It took at least 15 minutes to write one answer. To be honest, I wasn’t watching the clock, it could have been closer to 25 minutes.

My husband thinks it would have been faster and easier if he had caught it, and she didn’t have to go back in long after she thought she was done. Perhaps, I don’t know. It’s all part of the give and take.

I’m just remembering not to get drawn into the drama, it will get done one way or another.

On the other end of the spectrum, she had a great time washing tomatoes for me as I chopped over the weekend and we made a couple big batches of tomato sauce from the tomatoes my husband grew. Then she helped my husband destem high bush cranberries. “Good times!” she declared.

Kids are funny.