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Friday, January 21, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up ... and How It Went

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Well, on our last episode of "Will the homeschool mom survive the week?" we were left on a bad day and a mom taking the day off on Thursday. 

How did it go?  Well ... um ... I'm really not sure.  I sent an email to my husband saying I was D.O.N.E. and that the girls were on their own.  They were still in bed when I took the little one to school.  They were still in bed when I left to run an errand.  They were awake and looking a little shell-shocked (and quite well-rested) when I came back home.  They were kind of half-heartedly doing some schoolwork.

I found out later that their father called and recommended very strongly that they get out of bed.  Go dad.  ;) 

I did not say a word when the middle one left the milk out (thankfully it was mostly empty anyway) and chose to let the natural consequences of no cereal the next morning due to spoiled milk play out.  I did no laundry and no dishes.  I told them that I would be leaving at 1:45 to take them to dance.  If they were in the car, they could go with me, otherwise I would drive over there without them to tell their teacher that they wouldn't be there.  They were both ready.  They did not, however, get much schoolwork done.  The oldest got about 75% of hers done, the middle one about half.  I told them it was no problem, that I had no issue sending friends home and turning electronic devices off until the work was done.  There were a few tears, but also a pretty good conversation about taking mom for granted, and about making good choices with our time.  :)

Honestly, I think they were shocked.  When one said she didn't want to do her work and I said "okay, that's your choice," and there are consequences to that choice, and when I said if THIS is done, you may go with me to get something for lunch (I had already decided that I wasn't going to prepare meals) and then I left to get lunch without them (and for myself only) there were quite a few "THAT'S UNFAIR"'s being thrown around. 

To be honest, I felt terribly guilty.  The point was made though, so maybe it was worth it.  Today went very smoothly.  Girls got up at a reasonable time (I suspect that their father helped with that, but I'm not sure.)  They *asked* me to help with their schoolwork, and one of them left me a note to tell me thank you for helping.  When one wanted to go visit a friend, she accepted hearing "you absolutely can as long as these things are done" and did them happily. 

All in all, it ended up being a very good day today, after an awful day yesterday.  :)

So ... this week.

I just have to share two of our projects.  First, in history, we're talking about Greece.  One of their projects was to draw a Greek soldier.  I thought they did a fabulous job:




This is from the book Draw and Write Through History.

I've mentioned before that we do a painting project every week to go along with a poem by Robert Frost.  This week's poem was The Birthplace, and here are the paintings that went along with it:



Giggle ... you might suspect that we don't actually live anywhere near mountains.  ;)  They did a pretty good job though.  I really am loving the painting portion of our curriculum!

In science, we're talking about plant life.  The oldest did a lot of study on this topic in co-op, so I'm happy that it's review for her.  Our big project for this is to try (AGAIN) to grow some herbs.  Soon we'll go buy some and get started on that. 

So, that's it for our week.  I'll be linking up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers today, so hop on over and see what everyone else is doing!

5 comments:

Natasha said...

Go, Melanie! Wonder how long before the shock wears off! Just remember: A mom's got to do what a mom's got to do!

Unknown said...

LOVE it! There are days when I have thought about going on a Mommy Strike and see how the kids do with those consequences like getting to activities they love or eating meals they enjoy or playing with friends. Go, Melanie!

Jessy
http://oursideofthemtn.blogspot.com

Jamie {See Jamie blog} said...

Glad it went better after a bad day. Sometimes we do have to think "out of the box" in parenting!

Sarah said...

I hope your day off continues to help the girls get their stuff done. I've been trying to think of consequences for similar things my son is doing. Not getting his work done and never having everything ready to go when we need to leave. Maybe I'll try this.

wdworkman said...

We all need a day off once in a while. I'm glad everything ended up so well.
Janet W
http://homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/