Glad It's Over

That's pretty much how I feel about this past week.  I am glad it is over!  For once I was actually happy it was Friday and there would be two days off from school.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the worst week we have had, it just wasn't the greatest.

We had the "I don't want to do school" blues this week...myself included.  When Kristen doesn't want to do school it affects us all.  Lauren never wants to do school, but she isn't dramatic about it and will do it even if she doesn't want to.  But when Kristen doesn't want to do school it comes with A LOT of crying.  Sometimes I think things are going great....then the tears appear....for no reason at all.  That's when I do A LOT of mental eye rolling because it makes me feel better.  At one point I thought...Is this how men see women. Are we this emotional for no reason at all.  Surely not. Anyways, it is really frustrating, but we work through it with a lot of breaks, because that's just what we need to do to stay sane.  As a result of her lack of motivation this week, she didn't do good on her math test or spelling test, but we are going to retest when she is ready.  Which brings me to another frustrating topic...the English language.

If I could have I would have thrown our spelling book out of the window, just to make myself feel better.  Of course, I would have went and gotten it and resumed our spelling lesson, but that is how frustrated I was with the words this week and the English language in general.  Kristen has spent a year learning how to sound out words and now they are going to throw in words with letters that take on the sound of other letters, and just to make it more confusing, they are going to also throw in some letters that are just there, but you don't sound them out.  WHAT? I mean, how am I supposed to explain what to do when it doesn't even make sense to me!?!  For instance...gentle.  Kristen spelled it jentl.  Okay, this is actually really how you should spell gentle because it actually makes sense, but nooooo that is not how it's spelled.  City. Kristen spelled it site.  If you sound it out this is what is should be, but again we don't spell it like that.  Said.  Kristen spelled it sed.  Correct...but noooo we don't spell it like that.  I did a lot of non-mental eye rolling when it came to spelling this week because I was just so frustrated.  How could I tell her it was wrong when it actually was done right. Anyways, we are going to approach spelling a little different next week.  I googled (what in the world did I do without the internet?) some fun ways to learn spelling words, and we are going to try that approach this week.  I basically told Kristen she would have to memorize it because the person who came up with the English language obviously didn't know their letter sounds. She responded that they must have not done Kindergarten.  I told her I would have to agree and I am pretty sure they didn't have kindergarten way back then.

Okay, so enough about our crazy language.  I am sure it will come back up in future posts, so you have been forewarned.

Lauren did learn all of her letter sounds this week!  Well, not all in one week because that would be genius, but you get the point. So, YAY...for now...until she starts first grade spelling.

 

We also did a couple science "experiments" this week.  They didn't work.  For the first "experiment" I didn't have a magnifying glass.  Paul told me I could just use my glasses.  Not sure what he's trying to say about my eye sight.  Anyways, we are learning about the sun (I have learned some pretty interesting facts that I must have forgotten from school because Paul already knew them), and one activity had us using a magnifying glass to melt a chocolate bar.

 

 

 

This is as melted as it got.  It felt like I held my glasses for a good ten minutes trying to melt this chocolate bar, but it was probably more like four.  The kids were much more interested in cleaning the leaves off of the deck (can't complain about that) and eating the chocolate bar.  Maybe we will try it again with an actual magnifying glass.

 

 

We also did an "experiment" with a coffee filter and black marker. 

 

 

 

It was supposed to show that the color black contains all the colors of the rainbow, but our black just had black.  The only color it made was black that looked like it had been soaked in water.

 

 

 





Dallas was also feeling a little under the weather this week. 

He is feeling better, but I think he must have a little cold...without the cough. 

I will leave you with this picture of Kristen.  She reminded me so much of myself at her age.  She is cuddling with the pooh bear stuffed animal that I slept with up until I got married.  Well, I actually still slept with it after I got married, but not for long.  I used to tell Paul, "But he just fits so perfectly in my arms while I sleep." I love that bear.