It's the little things

We're coming to the end of the first week of Homeschooling and to say I love it would be an understatement but to say that there have been no hiccups and that my 7 year old really got into it and gave me no problems, would just be a fat lie.

Who am I kidding?

It's been amazing, funny, stressful, exciting, overwhelming and downright tough folks.  This boy keeps me on my toes and I don't know why he does it other than the fact that he is 7 years old and at that age where the attention span is going to be a huge thorn in our sides.  But I'm determined to make it work and I'm sure within a few days we'll be well on our way to a good schedule.

Watching first hand how they learn, how they process what they're seeing and hearing, how they apply it, has taught me a lot, mainly that they're super smart, smarter than I actually gave them credit for, but secondly, it's a whole new learning process for me too.

Here I thought I was so smart but throw some parallelograms in my way and start asking me how many vertices they have and what's a face and what's a plane and I draw a complete blank.

So I'm learning and I'm teaching and I'm being a mom too, which means I get to do 3 extraordinary things in just one day, every day, every week, every month and so on.  I think it's pretty neat.

And of course I get rewarded with smiles and hugs and "You're the best mom in the world". 

I got up early this morning and found this on the desk, in all it's second grader handwritten glory, and I got a lump in my throat and pulled said little boy out of bed and hugged him and kissed him.



Then I got to watch him conquer his math work, dazzling me with his smarts and his ability to quickly state what a hexagon is and what shapes he can use to make one, totally putting me to shame HA!

Here is part of our Science experiment, all about the Water Cycle and Condensation and Evaporation. 

I'm sorry but I don't remember doing any of this until much later in school, do you???

I mean, did I sleep through all this stuff????  Are kids more advanced than kids in our generation?  It makes me wonder if they thought we weren't smart enough for these things and then it makes me irritated to think that LOL

I don't even know what to say about Jasmine.  She is a smart cookie with a capital C and loaded with chocolate chips. 

This child of mine amazes me, she breezes through her work and she makes me smile.  She doesn't need my help with much of her school work but do you know that she waits on some of it because she WANTS me to teach her like I teach Nicholas?  :)

She said I'm the best teacher she's ever had, I'm funny and I let her be.  That's it....simple statement....I let her be. 

So there you go, that's what my last few days have been about, nurturing my children's brain and nurturing my home with things like keeping this Basil alive, which if you've been reading my blog for a while you will KNOW is no easy feat for this "Thumb of Death".

Now before I leave, I need to ask for advice from the long time homeschooling mama's.  The pros, the ones who've been doing this for years and may be able to give me some much needed help.

I need advice on keeping a 7 year old on track.  He's brilliant once he gets into it but to GET him into it is the thing and to KEEP him interested is another.  He constantly asks when he can take a break and I find myself having to keep bringing him back to the task on hand.

So help me, I know this is just an age thing and it's harder for them to concentrate for long periods of time, so I need ideas.  Pretty please?