Friday, November 13, 2009

Weekly Wrap-up!

Our week was pretty mellow, it was actually very nice. Hunter and Dakota are really working well with the schedules that I create for them. They were just overwhelmed having to order their week themselves, I guess we'll just have to work up to them taking over responsibility for them. But for now, I'll continue writing them because I'm enjoying the peaceful, work-filled days. LOL.

We are still struggling with Algebra, Hunter especially. I now remember why I hated tutoring math in High School, I just don't "get" what it is exactly he doesn't understand. He is able to work his way to the right answer but it in no way resembles the correct way. I think it is really important for him to use the equations and methods, everything builds on these, he thinks if he gets the right answer, all is well. You can bet that I'm going to win this argument. I am requiring him to show his work and demonstrate proper usage of equations and methods.

Dakota on the other hand has had a bit of a breakthrough, in the past when I require a paper or even a paragraph about a topic, I would be lucky to get a few sentences. He finally asked if he could type his work, I couldn't see any reason why not, so I said, "Yes!" What a difference!!! He handed in a two page, well written paper on the advancements of Chinese culture. I couldn't have been more proud of him and he just glowed. I've always thought that he was dysgraphic, he struggles with pencil grip, letter formation, using lowercase and capitals together and he even uses texting shorthand. I saw none of this in his paper, he wasn't frustrated and his hands didn't hurt after only a few lines. I will continue to work with him on his handwriting, but I definitely see potential in him typing his reports. Did I mention he touch types, he never took a class or anything.

I have just finally received all of the materials for the Little Hearts for His Glory and Little Hands to Heaven today, so we'll be getting started with all of that next week. Ry is really excited to have a plan for his school, Mom has been disappointing him to say the least.

One of my favorite things in the world, new books.

Well, that's it for our week. Visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see how other families spent their week.

2 comments:

Cheryl@SomewhatCrunchy said...

I'm so glad you had an enjoyable week. I found that my eldest does much better when he can type out his work...I don't know why. I'm the type of person who would rather write out a rough draft then type out the finished product. But if that's what works for him then so be it. :)

Ritsumei said...

Hurray for typing! I see no reason why not to use it. It's unlikely that he'll be doing tons of written work in the workplace, though not impossible: I had a job that ended up including quite a bit of writing a few years back. But as long as it was legible, nobody cared if it was pretty.