Homeschooling thoughts...

Well, we have lived through one week of school... and I am struggling with a few things. First of all, I get bored. :) Rebekah does too at some points, it seems like so far (especially in Bible) the teacher repeats herself a lot. She will review and review the same point. I'm sure that they have their reasons for this, but it gets old. Also, they are very strict about what fingers you are supposed to use to write with. I have never held my pencil the "correct" way... I rest it on my ring finger. Mrs. Bere says to use "pointer finger and tommy thumb", and to "let the rest of your fingers sleep!". Ugh. I remember when I was in kindergarten and Mrs. Roberts tried to change my evil ways. I informed her that "This is the way I hold my pencil!" Unfortunately, Rebekah does the same thing her mommy does (only with her left hand instead of her right). She has gotten comfortable with writing that way, and has neat penmanship for her age, and now Mrs. Bere is constantly saying to do it a different way!!! It has been a frustration! Not only is Rebekah trying to do it the "right" way and getting frustrated by how sloppy her penmanship is doing it that way, but I am getting frustrated trying to encourage her to do it the "right" way when I don't see why it's such a big deal to write the other way! If anyone out there has any good reasons for writing the "right" way, please fill me in!!!

Another frustration is what to do with the other kiddos while Bekah is trying to do school! I stay in the room for pretty much the whole time Bekah is doing school. Philip does pretty good about being quiet... he watches a lot of the video. However, Abby continues to be a distraction. The other day I laid her down for a nap because she was being fussy. I put her in the pack-n-play in Philip's room. Five minutes later, I hear the bouncy horse making "bouncy horse noises". I look in, and there is Abby with a huge grin on her face. I said, "What are you doing?"... (dumb question, mom!) She smiled great big and said, "Ri orsey!"...So, if anyone has any good ideas for ways to keep her occupied for 3 1/2 hours, I would welcome those too.

I would also welcome "incentive" ideas for keeping Bekah "happily motivated"... I decided to make Friday's "popcorn days", I put popcorn into a brown lunch sack for each of them. It will give Bekah something to look forward to on Friday. Also, I got some special pencils for her to use when she is working hard and doing her best. I plan on getting some stickers to award good work, and a bulletin board for special papers. Any more ideas? Mom, I know you are good at this sort of thing, so I expect some answers! :)

I guess all in all school is going pretty well... aside from the issues I mentioned before, Bekah is enjoying it. She's learning, and it's stretching her brain, so that's good. :) I am enjoying it for the most part, but it does eat up a lot of time. My mornings are gone, so I'm trying to use my other time wisely. There aren't enough hours in the day! I really should go... :) Talk to you all later!