This Week…Working Alone

Independent Work

Seeing your child learning to show independent work in homeschool is both priceless and bittersweet. I remember when we were doing “2nd & 3rd grades” that I would think ‘Shouldn’t he be working alone by now?’ (The answer is a little but mostly no.)

I would get overwhelmed and frustrated because I had housework to do and phone calls to make, laundry to fold, etc. Yet, my very intelligent son still needed me to hold his hand and approve each step of his lessons. That was tiring.

 Now as he has finally reached a stage of mostly independence I miss those days when he needed me more. He’s growing so fast and I don’t’ want to miss it.

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So for the last few weeks I’ve been talking about using the Digital Online Planner from Applecore Systems. This was the first week that I’ve gotten to use it completely the way it is intended. The first week I was getting  a feel for it and last week we were travelling. By printing the week’s lessons and then placing them in easy access for Little Man he was able to work almost entirely independent of me. I was able to work on other projects.

Bible:

We finished the book of Ruth using Bible Study Guide for All Ages. From this lesson he was able to learn: Widow, Bitterness, Winnow, Threshing Floor, Mantle, Kinsman Redeemer, Redeemer, Vow, Witness, Genealogy of Christ. Isn’t it amazing how much detail is in this little book about a woman in only 4 chapters.

Math:

Lines and planes and rays, oh my. Can I just say how very confused I get with geometry! Little Man on the other hand seems to just breeze through it. We were talking about rays and he pointed out a sun ray and explained it’s geometric features. Beloved joined in the conversation too. It’s amazing to me how often we have conversations in our family surrounding math when it is no where near school time.
If you haven’t seen this Math Dictionary from Prufrock Press, you should hop over there and take a look. Don’t let the fact that Prufrock Press is a publisher of gifted materials, this book is great for any student of math (middle school to high school). 
 

Science:

He continued on in learning about Herps. Mostly this week was about reading the chapter. He did do a “Try This” where we had to mark off the size of a Leather Back Turtle. Amazing! That thing can grow to be 9ft long by 6 ft. wide. Think about that size for a minute! A TURTLE!
 

Language Arts:

Writing:

So we’ve been working hard at creative writing for so many years. For anyone who has followed me for any length of time you know what a struggle it has been. This week… The struggle ended! I told him to ‘write’ his story using Microsoft Word. You would have thought I had told him we were going to Disney. He was so excited.
Rather than explain what he wrote I’m going to show you.

SQUILT Music Appreciation:

Socialization:

We went to LEGO club this week. It has been a while since we have engaged in any outside activity because we are down a car. We should have had homeschool group as well on Friday but then an ice storm hit and we chose to cancel it rather than brave the elements. 

Hope all of you are safe and warm this week. How was your school week? Did you do anything special or exciting? week? Stop in at my Facebook page and join in the “Share Your Homeschool Week Highlights” conversation.

If you are a blogger join the conversation by linking up your Homeschool Week in Review post below.

Don’t forget to check out these Free Printables from my posts this week.