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Monday, March 19, 2007

Marriage: A Gem of a Spelling Word

Spelling this week concentrates around everything associated with weddings (only 13 sleeps to go): Saturday, wedding, congratulations, thirty-first, March, bucks, best man, present, vow, marriage. Boy amazed me by getting eight out of ten on first testing. Being the original doubting Thomas, I went and checked the words against our states suggested spelling words for years three to seven. Week days, months and numbers were all there and I assessed that the types of words I today presented to Boy were equal matches for other words on the state public school list. While Boy did exceedingly well (he is definitely improving in this area), I also think I need a merit sticker because boy tested me for “marriage” and I finally got it right. What a gem I am. Do you think I can usually get the “i” and “a” around the right way!!! Marriage is one of those words that I have perpetual difficulty remembering the order of letters. Boy made a rude comment about it being no wonder my previous marriage went wrong. I chose to ignore him and we moved onto…..

English. Boy completed another three low level Kinetic units. Once again, he got 100% correctness but he sought constant approval from me. This need for approval encouraged me to relook at applying Blooms taxonomy of cognitive processes in relation to the instructive words that I give to Boy. Whereas I tend to use words that fall under the classification of Application or Analysis, Boy is still operating at Knowledge with the occasional foray into Comprehension. I have to learn that for English, I must present the learning to Boy as though he is seven, not eleven.

Math: I made the mistake of doing English before Math. Boy was on edge, cranky and horrible to sit beside. His strong subject, he would only entertain completing one unit of Kinetic Math because he had “done more than enough” (his words) and school sux. Note to self: NEVER do English first up.

Worry Survey: The extended family have been sending their worries in. Boy and I printed, and sorted them this morning. Unfortunately, our worry tree became too weighed down with the worries of our family upon it, and we have had to move to container based sorting. This in itself was advantageous because I was able to explain the worth of having a data collection and methodology that remains standard so that bits of information do not become lost, distorted or influenced by other factors. I talked a bit about the research I have done and how his attendance at a day care centre led toward me researching parental views and then publishing some educational material to help parents teach their children about protective behaviours. It is this very real application of learning that Boy relates well to. If he thought that surveys were something that he would never use then he may be reluctant to embrace the activity.

Health and Physical Education: Monday is youth group day (self esteem and anger management). While Boy was otherwise engaged, I was looking forward to having a couple of hours to myself to make hair and waxing appointments but alas, my family is revolting. The cupboards are bare, children are starving and I have to go grocery shopping. I am resigned to looking like myself on my wedding day!

Extra Curricula Activity becomes Inter Curricula: Boy and stepfather hung out at our local lapidary club over the weekend. We are joining as a family and Boy is going to attend two hour classes every Tuesday morning – starting tomorrow. Boy’s first project is to carve soft stone. Excited by this, he is going to be ecstatic when he sees the wedding present we have him: a box of gemstones. And to my family who I know are reading these entries to become familiar with our home school program for when they are staying here with Boy while we’re on our honeymoon – tell him and you’ll wish you hadn’t!


Photo (Heart of glass) courtesy of noohoo at stock.xchng

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This blog is no longer kept. I am instead blogging only to Imaginif Child Protection became Serious Business