Four weeks into school, here’s how we’re doing!

Cade is my independent learner. He learns quickly and easily and doesn’t put up a fight. He wants me to tell him what to do and then get out of his way so he can work on his own. He goes well above and beyond on most things. He wants to finish the whole spelling book as fast as he can, do all the hard math problems and last week he started writing his own “math” book to teach Reagan negative numbers. He revels in difficult things and doesn’t worry too much about his mistakes because he knows he can just keep trying. His lessons go pretty darn quick and his work does too. This week he learned the 11th and 12th Article of Faith. The kid is a master at memorization. In math I started him in Saxon 2 and that lasted for about 2 days and I skipped him up to 3. He still needs more challenge than he’s getting so he’ll be doing lots of Kahn Academy I think! Also this week he taught himself all the songs Reagan has been learning to play in piano.

Reagan is a more dependent learner.
In fact you could just take everything I just said about Cade and plug in the opposite. He would like me to sit with him to do all his work, even work he can do without me. The first words out of his mouth are often, “I can’t!” even though he is perfectly capable of doing most things. But he’s a perfectionist first born, so failure scares him. He looks for ways to do as little work as possible if it involves writing. There’s often some point at which he is scowling during every lesson. But he forgets and forgives pretty easily and within a few minutes bounces back. Everything is drama with Reagan. And nothing is ever easy. He LOVES science and history and would do those all day long if he could. He has fallen in love with reading and books on tape and actually looks forward to quiet time for the first time in his life because it means he gets to do one of those two things (or play with LEGO’s, still his biggest love). He is a mover. If he can move during any lesson, all the better. I still make him sit still for some things (just so he doesn’t forget how!) but for the most part I let him wiggle and squirm and run and jump as long as he can answer my questions. I’m trying to find as many ways as I can to make the lessons physical in nature. It is hard for me to let go of the control factor of having them sit still all the time, but that is left over from my school teacher days and when it’s just him and I in a math lesson, who cares!

Levi is learning his letters and numbers. When the big boys are doing their independent work, I work with Levi. He also likes to learn the poems the big boys are learning and if you ask him to, he’ll recite “Six ‘Wittle’ Fishies” for you. He still adores Libby and runs in to see her when I get her up from sleeping like it’s been weeks since he’s seen her. And she always gets a big smile on her face when he comes in. It warms my heart and their little “reunions” are often my favorite part of the day. He always prefers playing with Liberty to playing by himself, though much of the time now his play causes her to shriek more.

Liberty learned to walk this week. I know I said that a few weeks ago, but it wasn’t until this week that it clicked. Now she gets up and toddles wherever she can. If she falls, she just sticks that bum back in the air and hoists herself back up to standing and keeps going. She loves to put on shoes and coats or clothes of any kind. She even pulls down the dish towel and tries to drape it over herself. She’s very much a girl. And I finally can pull her hair back in a way that she doesn’t pull out constantly! Liberty just yesterday for the first time sat in my lap without moving for a whole reading of “Goodnight Moon”.