Dog days & leaf joy...& Back to reality...A 2 for 1 post.

Dog days & leaf joy:

Yesterday Jake told me he needed a mental health day and asked if he could just play outside with the dogs all day long.  He told me he would work extra hard at his school work tomorrow (which is today) to make up for it.  I told him he could and he was so excited.  Little did he know that I had only planned on us doing one day of school this week (since it is Thanksgiving week).  I let him think I was the best mom in the world by letting him take the day off. :)  I could only narrow it down to 38 pictures...

I was about to take a picture when Sadie decided to jump on my lap...This is the picture that came out of that moment...

 I love this action shot of all three of them playing together....

 Pure doggy happiness...

 Penny winking at me...

 Sadie is not photogenic...she moves too much and too fast so I was happy to actually get a few shots of her!

And now back to realty:

Now it is the next day and he has accomplished a minimal amount of work...Any other homeschooling mom out there have a child who thinks you are being mean when you force them to do what they are supposed to do, since you have given them all the opportunities in the world to chose to do it on there own but haven't?  Yes that is a run on sentence.  We even came to the library to help him "focus".  It is hard to yell at have a serious discussion with your child in public...I sent him away because beating your child is frowned upon in the library...just kidding I don't beat Jake but the stink eye, speaking quietly while staring him down, and explaining that it isn't being mean to tell him he has to do something he doesn't want to do wasn't working.  The "whole give them an inch & they take a mile" fully fits Jake at this moment...I am making him go find a chemistry book (since he wants to do chemistry so badly) and I am going to have him find a book he really wants to read and thinks looks interesting.  Then I am going to punish him by not letting him read it!!!!  Withholding books and reading seems like a great punishment!..(not really but sending him a way was the best I could do in the library and him standing a little ways a way and staring at me was not far enough a way...) And I am going to make him do school tomorrow too.  And I am going to make him scrub the toilets, and sleep outside and wait here he comes with a book....

Ahhh...he feels bad and after looking for a chemistry book with no avail he stumbled upon a "Bear" book.  Have you ever read any of these books?  They are by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jane Chapman.  They are so sweet and bear is adorable.  It is a peace offering for not listening and having an attitude.  How sweet.  I had him pose with the book to mark the occasion of him understanding the error of his ways...Now he is back looking for a chemistry book because right after taking the picture and me saying "thanks for the book now lets get some work done", I look up and he is starting to read it!!!!  NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Focus!






It is now time to do your work not distract me with a cute little book so you can get out of math!!!!!...Wait he is back.  He is excited because he used the computer to look up where said chemistry books may be (I had to tell him how to spell chemistry that is apparently why he could not find it before..) and he is excited that he found 3 books in Juvenile and 1 in teen that look promising.  He is excited to finally check out some chemistry books!!!

Hehehe...My plan (it just became one...) is working perfectly.  I am making him excited to learn!  I made him look up the books on the computer by himself (he needed help for a minute because he didn't notice that some of the books were adult-which would be above his reading level), then he had to ask the librarian where to begin to find them (I wasn't about to pack up all our spread out stuff on our table...and he needs to know how to do it.).  And then he found them!  He came back excited to show me and ready to read them!!!!

I then told him my "plan".  I told him I taught him to be excited to gain new information and to look up books at the library on his own. I told him he couldn't read the books now because he had to take responsibility, to be patience, and prioritize.  He looked at me and said: "I don't get it".  He was just joking so know he is doing his math happily:

I turned a negative into a positive teaching experience!  Go me!...Wait a second.  He won't stop wiggling his tooth...I have to tell him 72 times to stop wiggling  his tooth and focus!!!  AWWWW!

Back to reality....