New Beginnings: Rough start... good day

What a wonderful day! Tommy and I had so much fun. It started off with a little melt down though. Tommy (so motivated about his assignments) set his alarm to get up early so he could start a lesson before I got up. I got up surprised to find that he was up before me and already dressed. I had to tend to Connor and found it unusual that Tommy wasn't right on my heals nagging me to start our day. After changing Connor's diaper I sat down to nurse him and called Tommy into Connor's room. Much to my surprise his face was full of tears and he was terribly upset! After much probing to find out what was wrong he told me he wanted to get a head start on one of his lessons, but he couldn't get the computer to work right.... awww poor thing! I felt terrible for him. I quickly assured him that it was OK and that we would get through our lessons together, but I appreciated his effort to get a head start. I also quickly turned the experience into a time management lesson. I discussed with Tommy what he could have done to be productive since he couldn't get the computer to work... such as, eat breakfast, make his bead, study spelling words, read his story for the day ect. I explained to him how all of these things would have made me super proud of him. After the conversation he felt much better and was ready to dive into our material.

Over this past week I have realized that time management with home schooling is critical, but it is something you have to learn. Its almost the same as having a new born in the house. You have to learn to manage the new baby while keeping up with your normal everyday responsibilities. With homeschooling I have started to let Tommy manage his own schedule. He decides the order of the subjects for the day and when and how long his breaks should be. So ultimately he is deciding how long his day is and I have to say he loves having control over this. I, on the other hand, am learning to manage laundry, schooling, house work, wife work and new baby work all in the same day. I feel very accomplished today as I was able to check many things off of my many list... now if I can just somehow figure out how to work back in my knitting.... hmmm.

Another great thing I've figured out that I love about home schooling is I can let Tommy just be... well... Tommy. I find that he often needs to talk himself through his lessons... he just works better this way. I've even listened to him sing while doing math and he actually scores better when he does this. He also has the need to wiggle a lot. If he is made to sit still he just simple doesn't think as well. In public school Tommy wouldn't be allowed to release his energy this way. I'm convinced that it is helping him learn. It is helping him be more relaxed and enjoy education.

Today I saw Tommy connect several subjects together as well. He used some of the facts we learned in history about the scientific revolution in his spelling sentences. He also use some of the punctuation rules we learned about titles, capitalization and punctuation in his spelling sentences. Every time he would connect the subject he would tell me that he achieved this accomplishment in a very matter of fact way. He is very proud of his new found knowledge. I even find myself giggling to myself at the dinner table when Tommy ask his Daddy "Do you know how many capitols South Africa has? And what there names are?" or "Do you know what the deadliest disease was during the Revolutionary period?" He loves stumping his Dad and he loves learning about these things every day. You just simply see it in his eyes and that warms my heart.

We wrapped up today with art.... Tommy's all time favorite subject. Today he learned about the color wheel and all the different color types. He learned the difference between shades and tints and how to properly mix paint. There was so much in this lesson that even I didn't know and Tommy thinks he is going to be the next big thing.... lol.... I hope he is or at the very least this joy stays in his heart.