Changes

To say this week was a bad week would be an understatement.  This was the first week that I was very seriously contemplating enrolling Kristen in school and wiping my hands clean of homeschooling.  Yep, I just wanted to quit and never look back. Wouldn't it be nice to go to work and have adult conversations and only be responsible for me?  Not to mention the extra income would be awesome!

I know you probably get sick of my moaning and groaning about it, but it is a lot tougher than I thought it would be when we started.  I know she is not going to catch on to everything easily and I am fully prepared to go the extra step and incorporate some new ideas to help her.  What I can't stand is the constant whining, crying, complaining and pouting about school....and the fact that it took her an hour and twenty-seven minutes to do one side of a spelling worksheet! Talk about reaching the end of my rope. 

I hand picked the curriculum that she is using this year because I wanted to make sure I got things that were challenging and fun...well, as fun as school can be.  If I'm honest, when she complains about school (which she does to everyone), it hurts my feelings.  It makes me feel like a failure.  I want school to be fun for her and for me, so I knew some changes needed to be made (not sure what those are, but I am praying and asking for guidance).  I decided...again...that instead of focusing on the negative things I will be positive and focus on the good things.  So this week we are going to have the best week EVER....we are going to do fun things....and we are going to learn.  Okay...I'll stop before I get carried away.  One thing we are going to do this week is wipe away the last eight weeks of spelling and start over at the beginning...now that's the joy of homeschooling.  See, I am focusing on the positives...and there were some from this past week.

Kristen did try to make my week better by writing both sentences down in her writing...and she surprised me with it. This was after it took her so long to do her spelling worksheet.  I was still glad she was trying.

We packed our boxes for the Operation Christmas Child for church.  These boxes are sent to children around the world to show them God's love through a shoebox filled with gifts.

Kristen really enjoyed filling her box and understood the meaning behind it.  She very carefully picked out each thing she wanted to buy and meticulously placed all of her things in the box.  Lauren...well....she threw it all in in no particular order.  I had to fix her box.  It is hard for my kids to imagine other kids not having things.  We are surrounded by toys and anything they ask for they usually eventually get.  It really makes me sad, so my goal for this year is to bring the meaning back to Christ and not so much on the gifts.  Now, if I can just get Meme on board with me.

Since we have been discussing Mercury (which we still have our final unit project to do this week....we are a little behind), we did an experiment of sorts with a bowl of flour and some different sized rocks....on one the coldest day of the week.

Mercury is a terrestrial planet, but it has no atmosphere so asteroids fall and crash into it's surface therefore making it very bumpy.  We were recreating what happens when asteroids slam into planets.  Makes me very thankful for our atmosphere.

We ended up taking Thursday and Friday off from school, which was a HUGE positive.  We needed the break and on Thursday enjoyed running some errands and eating lunch with my mom.  It was nice to get the grocery store shopping over with.  By the end of this week I probably looked a little like Lauren....who was in matching clothes when I dressed her that morning.

And felt a lot like Dallas.