Where did January go?

It seemed like yesterday that we were back into our first week of homeschooling of the year and that it was going sooooo slowly. Now, we're at the end of the month and technically the end of the first semester. Doing an assessment of the previous year is something we tend to do as New Year's approaches; I feel the impulse to do an assessment of how this school year is going so far.

Learning to manage stress and move forward with school work has been a big issue this year. Nothing that was supposed to be finished by the end of the semester is done. But that doesn't mean that I, at least, haven't learned some good lessons. I've learned to be compassionate without getting too caught up in trying to fix the situation. And, at least for the time being, there has been a determination on my high schooler's part to take somewhat charge of things. Although her stress management skills, her willingness/ability to change her thoughts about situations still need work, her level of persistence/perserverance is completely admirable.

With my jr. higher, have we got anywhere near the amount done that I had planned? (Part of my mind has broken out in laughter.) Uh, no. But we've explored some great things together and his willingness to do some work is so much better than it was. My issue is that I enjoy the subjects so much, I have been doing all of the reading (except his silent reading); I need to get him reading more for sure.

Things that need work over the next semester:
*finding balance

Well, huh. That seems to cover everything. lol. This covers the approach to subjects to cover and the time to spend on things, and the time to work vs the time to have fun and get together with others.

How about you? How has your school year been going so far? What things are you happy about? What changes, even small ones, would you like to work on making happen for the rest of the year?

Missed Montessori Lesson

It would appear that I should have given a practical life lesson in how to open cereal bags:

The bag is cut, not ripped, at least. I asked my son--my 13-year old son--if he had trouble opening the bag. He looked at it and laughed the way he laughed when I asked him about the utensils and placemat and said, yes, he had. And didn't elaborate.

I sometimes feel like there are all kinds of basic Montessori lessons I didn't do enough with him (or at all). He is like the disheveled, clumsy, absent-minded professor, constantly in another world when he's not in the middle of reading, playing guitar or on electronics.This leads to opening the cereal bag like above, and his room constantly being a disaster, and his not knowing how long it's been since he had a shower and still making a mess with the milk most of the time when pouring milk into his cereal. He still stomps up and down the stairs, even though we have tried how many times to train him not to? I lovingly laugh as I think about all of this, he is just... so him. lol.

Think it's too late to have him do the Walking On the Line lesson and have it have an effect? lol

Homeschooling Snapshot

This would be far more effective if I had taken a picture, but there was something about the moment that seemed like a "homeschooling snapshot moment" and I have decided to write about it since it's now too late to get the picture.

What is today's moment?

It is about 10:30 a.m. Snow is coming down fairly steadily, fluffy and white outside. Other than my niece who is with us for the day, and my husband who is at work, none of us have been outside.

My 16-year old is in her pj's still, I believe (she just wears random t-shirts and stretch shorts to bed most of the time) with her hair pulled back and pinned down, sitting at the kitchen table working on a math test that she decided she would do this morning. She has been up since about 9.

My 13-year old, up since about 8:30, is in a t-shirt and tattered shorts I'm pretty sure he wore to bed. I made sure he had at least changed his underwear. He has a freer rein when cousins are here for the day, so he is sitting at the electronic piano with earbuds in his ears, his 6yo cousin on a chair next to him, she wearing his headphones, and they are playing who knows what but they are enjoying themselves. He's gotten a little more serious with playing the piano lately.

On the flip side of this is that my daughter is very tired and a bit stressed, so all kinds of noise is bugging her as she tries to make her way through the test. I am very tired and bothered by the thumping of the piano keys and the occasional high-pitched sounds that come out of the earbuds. I send the two pianists away to find something else to do. They go to my son's room where he pulls out his acoustic guitar and my niece starts on this:

 

(This toy has been one of the best my son ever got if not the best!) 

His bedroom wall is just on the other side of our kitchen wall. And sound carries through our house very well. I can not think/focus, so I go ask them to find something quiet to do. I come back downstairs and the dog wants out (the door is right next to the kitchen table), the fridge is making loud humming noises and I'm painfully aware of the clickety-clack of my typing. Then I make some tea with the Keurig, which makes "un bruit du diable" (literal translation would be "a noise from the devil", but I suppose we'd say, "God-awful noise" in English, which doesn't seem like a good expression, does it?), the dog wants back in, the one cat is meowing to get my daughter's attention and the other cat has stolen my spot and meows loudly when I come back to claim it. As I type this, the first cat is lapping water in the pet bowl next to the table. It seems ridiculously loud.

As I finish writing this, I find myself chuckling, despite my tiredness and irritation. :)

The pictures I said I would post!

Okay, here's a picture of some of the science we did yesterday:

And here's a picture of how my utensil drawer looked after my son put away the dishes:

 It was very reminiscent of the way he was putting his placemat away after supper last year:

The best part about both the utensils and the placemat is that when it was brought to his attention, he actually let out a "That's ridiculous!" kind of laugh! lol.