Hello all! I'm back reporting that I am now homeschooling Z2 and my only preschooler this year is Z4. My other Z's are at public school and are doing well... and I am resolved to reserve the right to homeschool at any point as needed. So far, Z1 is making wonderful progress in the fifth grade at school and I find that I was wrong in my assumption that because I homeschooled her that she would want me to look over her shoulder and help her with every little thing and do her thinking for her. I am so glad I was wrong. She has actually grown into the fortitude to finding answers on her own and only if she really is stuck on a problem does she ask for help. Z3 is in Kindergarten and adores her teacher so much, has a boyfriend, and always makes good grades. She loves school more than any kid I have ever met. She is always excited when she gets there and is so funny about getting to go that getting up early doesn't bother her for a second. I wish all the kids could learn that from her. She is legendary and wants to get to do homework. She loves being big and is reading her sight words, sounding out other words, writing so well and drawing like an artist, counting to 100, knows her phone number and address and birthday and makes her Christmas list all year long. Z2 is learning so much since he is the main student here at XYZ's Elementary. He tells his dad that I am kicking his butt with homework but I told him he is in the third grade and I only do that so he will be smarter than me. This promotion to "smarter than mom" seems to give him incredible strength and motivation and he just loves throwing that in my face. But if it works, it works. We have been brain busting with multiplication and multiplication with regrouping and keep his brain warmed up with word problems and large scale addition and subtraction. He reads these Animal Fact File volumes that are encyclopedias of the animals extinct and present on this earth. In fact, the little man memorizes them! That is what he likes to do for fun! I recently took the Z's on a trip to East Tennessee and while there we visited Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokey's and Z2 was leading us around telling us what each fish was and its diet and where they could be found in the wild. It was like having a personal tour guide! He is reading chapter books now and is using his creative writing time to create plays and stories and songs. He illustrates absolutely everything and I have pictures of all the wonderful things he sees and dreams up. When he gets done with worksheets he always asks if he can color the pictures on them. I am happy to oblige because he thinks he's just getting a break but I know that he doesn't employ his left brain for certain activities and right brain for others. I have decided that his brain doesn't separate tasks in this way but instead both sides work together all the time. For example, when he finishes math he makes art out of it and draws his numbers and letters into these really elaborate pictures and colors them. He will work on something for a long time fully concentrating and when he completes a project shows it to me and it ends up being this incredibly detailed step-by-step guide and illustrations to how to do mantis style kung fu. He truly is a wonder. I would like to take credit and I am sure that I have helped some but only God could create such a wonder!
Well, I am trying to fulfill my blog resolution and keep up and share how much we are learning together. Until next time we'll be busy learning our X-Y-Z's!
