Tomorrow(Monday 4/21) will be our second full week back to school.

It has been such a trying time. You may recall that on Easter Sunday, my husband broke his ankle in 2 places. It has been a LOOOONG journey. I guess we all have our struggles and heartaches that we deal with.

The neighbor who joins us for school seems to have a new lease on school. I am pleased the break suited him so well. I had already decided that I would not press him to answer (or make his answer better) when he has to type out a response. Also, I feel that he has gotten as much as he can from reviewing addition, subtraction, and phonics on the second grade level. He has not completely mastered those subjects as you would imagine a “normal” 12 year old would, but I don’t know that he will ever completely master them, so I figure just let him move up w/ the mastery he has achieved so I don’t frustrate him.

He seems happier and more relaxed so do I.

What do you like most?

ds13: It’s fun, not boring, usually funny.

my “extra” student a boy, age 12: math

ds10: doesn’t get boring

dd9: It’s on the computer, it’s easy

dd7: not so hard

What do you like least?

ds13: I don’t hate anything about it.

12yo boy: Peddy Parrot

ds10: When it freezes during a lesson and you have to restart the lesson over.

dd9: some lessons are boring, like science and Social studies

dd7: math

Favorite character:

ds13: Mr. Nesterton

12yob: Jack Riley

ds10: Jack Riley, Vern

dd9: Bongo

dd7: the puppets

Favorite T4L subject: 

ds13: LA

12yob: Science

ds10: LA

dd9: math

dd7: LA

We have done very little school for 2 weeks now. My husband had surgery Thursday. It has been a LONG journey and it has been a very painful recovery time for him. My kids have spent alot of time at my mother’s house while I tend to my husband.

Now that he has finally had the surgery, I feel like I can start scheduling more of our days.

I decided today that we must do something over the weekend. I do not have the energy to oversee each one do his/her time4learning on the computer, so I printed up worksheets (from t4l)for each child to work on as a review.

I was very frustrated when I first started t4l. As you may recall, my plan to do Sonlight for all of my children, plus the neighbor quickly soured.

So I was really seeking (immediate!)support and relief when I signed up for t4l. Thank GOODNESS someone on the forums mentioned that it takes about 2 weeks to feel comfortable.

I wanted to just give up and quit so many times while I was adjusting educational levels, figuring out how to exit the lesson correctly so that the lesson gets marked completed,etc.

I am so glad I stayed. Even though, I am still pretty far from “stress free”, using t4l is a huge improvement. Even if a lesson is hard one day, it does get easier.And because of the excellent explanations, I have learned to be a better teacher when I supplement t4l w/ something else.

As I go along, I realize that every lesson doesn’t have to be completed, that every question doesn’t have to have the “perfect” answer typed out.

Last Sunday morning, my husband slipped and fell, breaking his ankle in 2 places. He was sent home from the ER to follow up w/ a surgeon and we have been making preparations for him to have foot surgery.

We have been staying at his parents’ house due to the fact that their house is more wheelchair accessible than ours. He is getting around a little bit better now.

Friday, I had my 4 kids each do a little of their t4l on my inlaws’ computer. I assigned my other student(the neighbor’s grandson) to do a few lessons on his own (at his Grandpa’s house)as best he could. And based on the great info I got from the unschooling post, I told him to begin working on a project(lapbook probably) about Transformers. I made a spelling list for him to work on over at spellingcity.com. He seemed pleased and I was grateful for that.

Learning how to find information and present it is valuable no matter what the topic, I think! I may even have my kids do something similiar. We’ll see.

 For awhile, I would imagine that the math and LA that we do in addition to/instead of t4l will be dropped for awhile and we will just depend on t4l to help get us through this stressful time.