I Got a Job!

Teaching, that is. Though I know it's a good thing,(to homeschool) it's been a frustrating day. We have immersed ourselves into homeschool! Officially, we started on Tuesday. We have been doing a lot of unit testingi n Math and English to see what Felecia knows and where is a good place for us to start. Today, we worked way too long on Math. I was trying to accomplish the goal of getting past the "assessment". (test). You have to get 80% or higher to be considered having mastered the Unit. We now know where we need to be for Math, we are still testing for English. Today, though, I wanted to do a lesson for each, plus do Science, Music, Art and Phonics. Yea. We had a 7 hour day today! AHHHH! We did just over 2 hours in Math. I should have just stopped after 1 hour (which is the state-recommended amount per day) and finished the next day. Its just so hard! I'm learning to realize the difference between a 28 year old accomplishing a goal (like, adults work until "x" is done, regardless of things like thirst, hunger, boredom, etc) and a 6 year old accomplishing a goal. I also learned that getting an assessment "done" doesn't mean squat if I can't walk away and Felecia know what to do. I don't think its test anxiety. I don't know what happened today. We'll just have to see. It wasn't even that she choked, she just really never grasped the concept that we had spent an hour and a half studying and I didn't realize that she wasn't grasping it!!! UGH! I have realized that this is my new "j-o-b". Except, the dividends by which I get paid take longer to show, and an even longer time for me to appreciate all my hard work. I now realize it doesn't matter if she per se progresses on to 2nd grade next year. That is generally what is drilled into the general population's heads regarding public school. Going to 2nd grade won't help if she can't master the 1st grade skills. I feel very behind for 2 reasons: 1) I'm not sure (obveously) exactly what she learned/how far she got in school. Plus, what they did teach her, does she really have a good grasp on? 2) Starting in the middle of the year with a whole new program is probably not the best idea, but given our situation, we really had no choice. So I feel compelled to rush to "catch up". Which I know is not overall a good thing for Felecia. But today, after we had a lunch break, we did Music, then some Art, then English and that was alot smoother and more fun. Right now, I cannot see how we would ever finish in time for June, but oh well. That's hard for me to state being the "type A" personality that I am. I have figured out how to better organize the school stuff but it is tough living in a small place. We are managing. Each day I feel more and more familiar with the school in general. And Felecia loves it! Believe it or not, she is starving for knowledge! And I love feeding it to her! She is like the plant from "Little Shop of Horrors" saying "FEED ME! FEED ME!" She was sad that we had to stop today. I love doing it too, but there has so far been about an hour of prep time per night (since I have to keep everything in boxes and read up/familiarize myself with each of the lessons) and I don't want to make homeschool all that I live and breathe. Surprisingly, housework isn't falling too much by the wayside, but we shall see what the weeks and months to come bring. I think my inlaws may have imposed themselves on us for Christmas, but oh well. C'est la vie, right? More to come as I have the time. I've decided to try to post like at least once a week about homeschool, because I want to be able to look back on it. Yea. We'll see how that goes. I'm by far not the world's most consistent blogger.

The boys are doing well. Somewhat put out about mommy not just being at their every beck and call as before, but they like to do school with us. I don't let them do English or Math, but they seem to like the other stuff.