I wanted Emperor to do math with Elf when we first started homeschooling. I figured he is already skipping two years of school to do math with Elf. No point pushing him further still, yes?
But Elf kept his habit of daydreaming. I'd have him work about five feet away from me so that every three minutes I could say, "Do your math, Elf... Do your math, Elf... Do your math, Elf..."
After a good long while, I reluctantly realized that I was really being unfair to Emperor. He'd have all his schoolwork done for the day in an hour and a half and would be waiting for Elf to come play. Often Elf would be "working" until well into the afternoon.
With Elf, you can never do an extra lesson today so you have a free day tomorrow. Elf is one of those people who is so stinkin' cute and friendly that you just love him, but driven to succeed or get ahead? He is not. Too many daydreams to dream.
Emperor is now the only homeschooler. We had a bit of a scene today. Emperor got some problems wrong and he absolutely broke down emotionally. You would think that some local engineering school called and said, "We're sorry. We know you're about five years ahead in your mathematics, but we just can't have you attend our institution later if you missed six math problems in lesson number 78. You got a 72 percent on that lesson! We have better standards than that."
Crying out loud, kid, it's ok. I swear.
So now. We have finished all the year's history, science, and English. Of course I will assign some other work to do in these subjects before the end of the school year in JUNE, but suffice to say that with this kid, you can really frontload the work and the pressure is off around Christmas.
Now I've got the art supplies out. Emperor seems to think this is dreadful. It took him half an hour to cut out a few simple shapes. He couldn't seem to follow the directions. Emperor is frustrated and would like to microwave the project to see if it would look better. I keep telling him it is supposed to be fun. This is supposed to be the fun class. Get in that kitchen and have some fun. :/
Someday when the project is done, I will post a picture.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Look Out, Dad!!
My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone. Well! My brother and I jus...
I love that he wants to microwave it
ReplyDeleteI remember I used to cry when recess came around, I wanted to keep reading
Yeah, I told him it's not going to happen. He is making a little clay police car.
DeleteThere are so many worlds in books, Dianne! Imagine if we had kindles and stuff back then. Ok, or maybe we would be illiterate and play Angry Birds. I have never played it... I don't "get" the draw. And then the birds go into space? Why?
But I have a Nook that I love. No bells or whistles. No internet (except to order more books). So I can hand that over in the doctor's office (or other "waiting" places) to Emperor and know he is really READING. No pictures on the basic Nook, even.