Home School Week 13

We had another great week of homeschooling. My daughter is very responsible with her work and I really appreciate the effort she is making. To have success really takes both of working together and being on the same page. We are on the same page and I am really happy about this.

However, my enthusiasm and excitement about learning with my daughter is not infectious. I do struggle with trying to get her to be interested in any of the topics we study. This week we studied Charles Darwin and I had no idea his contribution to science. Charles Darwin studied life on an isolated island and noticed the changes to the animals to adapt to the changing environment. His theory centered on “natural selection” and how organisms pass on the good genes to be the survival of the fittest. I thought the reading was cool. The science reading gave an example of the gypsy moth and the evolution of the gypsy moth around the Industrial Revolution. We had read about the Industrial Revolution in history weeks back. I told my daughter it’s pretty cool to have our learning of subject material tied into multiple subjects. She does not see the coolness about that.

I encourage my daughter to answer questions either scientifically or using historical terms. My daughter does struggle with the terminology because she does think it’s hard but I will continue to nudge her along. She shows improvement as the weeks go by so I can’t complain. This is a work in progress.

I struggle with trying to get my daughter to retain some of what I am teaching her. I don’t expect her to remember it all, but I would like it if she did not forget what I said as soon as she gets up from the table.  I always tell her to try to think about what we learned, but I know she does not.

She did her science experiment with the potato and osmosis and it worked! Fascinating! I should have taken pictures but I threw the potatoes away. I hate mess! We can do it again. My daughter used a sweet potato so next time she can use a regular potato.

My daughter continues to amaze me because she brings ideas to the table on how she can learn. I love that I allow her to have some say in her educational journey. I know having a say makes her more open to learning.

As always, looking forward to next week!

Over and out 🙂

Home School Wk 7

Week seven proved more challenging for my daughter. She struggled with math. This week she solved inequalities, one step and two steps. After seeing her level of understanding I primarily focused on one step. I also only focused on division. I get frustrated as does my daughter because to my 39 year old mind the math is simple. I believe my daughter sees the division sign with the greater than/less than sign and solving for X and she is thinking to herself, what the fuck! My daughter cries when she does not understand and it’s not my intention to make my daughter cry. My daughter gets embarrassed to cry so I am working with breaking the problem down for her to understand and telling her it’s ok to cry!

We read about the industrial revolution and that is fascinating. We read how labor unions started and how children worked in factories and the normal work day was 14 hours a day, six days a week. Again, the immigrants were addressed in the reading because they were willing to work for low wages the Americans did not want to work for. America has come a long way but we still have some work to do. The world has come a long way but there is much more work to be done.

My shower handle was broken and my daughter learned how to fix it. She has her own screw driver. I love fixing things so we went to Home Depot to by the necessary part to fix the shower. My daughter helped me find the part and when we got home she went right upstairs to fix the shower. She had a little trouble getting the screw in the right spot so I finished the job, but she did great! I told my daughter so. Praise goes a long way in my opinion.

My daughter also made chocolate chip cookies this week from scratch. I did not get to have even one; some greedy person in the house ate them all. I guess they were good!

I took my daughter to the Waffle House for breakfast and we had a great time. The car ride is 45 minutes coming and going and my daughter told me all these facts she learned from Amazing Facts. I love when my daughter talks to me. I hope we will always have open communication. My daughter asked me what ejaculate means! I explained it to her as scientifically as I could. It’s better for her to learn from her mom I suppose.

So life is about challenges and it’s not always going to be rosy. I still love home schooling and my daughter is doing great. As always, looking forward to next week!

Over and out 🙂