Welp, if you ever wonder if God is speaking to you, reconsider when the answer He gives you isn’t what you wanted to hear. I’ve been concerned about whether our oldest was being challenged enough, prayed about it and heard, “homeschool.” But, but, God…. this is the FIRST TIME IN MANY YEARS I’VE HAD A BREAK! I had one month of dropping off all three kids at hybrid homeschool on Mondays and Wednesdays. I had from 8a-3p ALL TO MYSELF.
He had bigger plans though. I taught for 9 years, many of which were 2nd grade, so it’s actually perfect timing to reconnect with my eldest. So, that’s exactly what we are doing.
My biggest concern with him are his social skills, so I’m making extra effort to ensure he gets exposed to peers often. I also have him in therapy once a week that I’ve been very impressed with their curriculum. We also plan on enrolling him in a school that offers an enrichment program in the fall.
He told me his brain hurt one day and another day he said he loved learning. Two goals in one week!
My favorite was having him write out what he needed to say at a restaurant. Ther next day, he needed to write these sentences in Spanish. On Wednesday, we went out for Mexican and I had him do all the greetings, ordering, questions about the bathroom, etc in Spanish. Then, he needed to use the menu to determine how much we spent, what 20% tip is, and change from $20.
His favorite was dividing a paper in fourths and deciding who was in the Pokemon competition. He had to grab ten Pokemon cards for each person (also having a discussion about integrity, honesty, and cheating), write their points, and explain how he felt best to add almost 1,000 points. He began by drawing dots. I allowed for about 30 dots and then taught him a trick. After losing, he asked if he could add up two teams. It took about 20 minutes, but he begged to play again after.