Monday, October 24, 2011

Baby Steps

Jackson has really been struggling with ELA.  He hates grammar. He hates reading. He hates writing.  Now that he is in the third grade the curriculum expects him to be doing much more of ALL of these things.  Today we started out the day struggling.  We took a break at the bowling alley!  When we got home it was time to start up again.  He saved Friends and Heroes for the end today.  He had to write a mini-report.  He was able to choose from 3 different things and today he chose Nile Crocodiles.  We researched and then it was time to write.  He was upset.  But I decided to be merciful (something I couldn't do earlier) and told him as long as they were complete sentences written correctly he only had to write 3.  I figure since we are still getting used to all of this this would be a reasonable amount of work.  He was still a little discouraged until I told him I would not grade his spelling.  Amazingly out of 3 sentences only 3 words were misspelled! He was so proud of his report when he was done.

baby steps...

For reading today I told him he could pick any book.  He chose The Snake Dictionary. He has not been able to put it down. He is reading on his own without help.  This is monumental people!

It just goes to show that when you let go of what YOU want to do and allow what really needs to, happen.  Your day gets a whole lot better!!!!!!  I am so glad our day ended this way! :)

3 comments:

Tote-ally Blessed Ellen said...

We are having some of the same struggles here. Thanks for posting, it's nice to know we're not the only ones!

Jen said...

Good job, mama! Whatever works ...freedom and joy of homeschooling!

Christi Brown said...

Thanks ladies!