In her eyes...

This morning I saw something that scared me. I was making cinnamon muffins and the kids were eating oatmeal for breakfast. I quickly put down what I was doing and came to my room.

I whispered to Hubbins, "Poufy's eyes are normal. Her pupils aren't dilated." You see, for 2 years Poufy has been a nightmare. She used to be the "perfect" child. Poufy was one we never had to worry about but then the stuff hit the fan and it was on from there on out.

This morning she was telling me that she was going to change, that she didn't want to be bad anymore. How many times have we heard that? I started to tell her that instead of telling me with words she should show me because she's said that before. I was telling her that I believe she can do it and that's when I looked up at her and she was looking at me and I saw her eyes. I lost track of my sentence and just put down my stuff and left. I mean I couldn't believe it. I still can't. Poufy...regulated?

I kept trying to look into her eyes at dinner but CDQ kept agitating her and I saw that her pupils were getting bigger and bigger as she got more upset. But she didn't interrupt like she normally does or start whining or crying. She had a very good day. She is also the child who has done the least amount of schoolwork. Today she did a lot of catching up. I'm not too worried about her getting behind because she is a quick learner and applies herself easily. It's just a matter of getting her behavior in check long enough to get her to do the work.

On the homeschooling front. My kids...*shaking my head* They don't realize that they are being taught so they keep telling people they are homeschool but don't really go to school or do school work. yikes, huh?

They are doing work and don't even realize it.

It confuses me because SS is finishing up multiplication and will be working division, CDQ has started multiplication facts, not to mention they work out of language books where they read stories and answer questions for comprehension. We go to the library every other week. They read 4 books that they have chosen and do book reports where they answer 10 questions about main characters, story line, etc... and draw a picture of their favorite part.

They have gratitude journals where they write what they are grateful for and they also have been working on a morals unit. I should take pictures of the books that I am using. I've created this unit myself. I used Judge Judy's book about choices to kick it off and had them write a scenario and four alternative choices good or bad. Then they shared them amongst themselves and discussed why each choice was good or bad. This book and activity helped me to gauge who knows the difference between right and wrong and at what level. Then I used other books that deal specifically with caring, courageousness, responsibility, trustworthiness, honesty, bravery, respect, etc... to reinforce these topics. Then they went back to their gratitude journals and wrote examples of how they already show these qualities and what other things they could do to show these qualities. I was also able to tie in two Veggie Tales videos that I had picked up at the dollar store.

All that work and they don't even realize it. LOL!

I've been working on a science unit dealing with the environment and as a project we will be making recycled paper. I also have a music unit in the works that involves listening to different instruments and identifying them.

But our greatest success so far is the boy. The boy is absolutely terrified about making a mistake. I've learned that he self-punishes when he makes a mistake. Reading is huge because he is so afraid to make a mistake. I thought he might be reacting this way because of me and might relax if it was one of his sisters helping him instead but nope...no difference.

As I've mentioned. They have food issues and the boy can shovel it in fast and in huge bites. To make sure he doesn't choke we would have him count. This was a task because he couldn't count past 10. We have him counting to a hundred now, and by tens. I still don't think he could identify numbers past 10 but we are working on that and addition. At any rate, we would have him count to ten between bites. I switched it up a bit. He now spells. I've realized he is an auditory learner.

He can spell: one, two, six, ten, the, cat, and bat. I tried to get him to read some of the words that he already knows from the book Bears on Wheels, but he freaked out. He was whining that he didn't know the words and was trying to guess by the picture. The word was two and I asked him to say the letters outloud. He said them outloud with a confused look on his face and was about to say he didn't know the word when he shouted "TWO!!" The look on his face was priceless.

I am going to teach him a few more words. I've given him a practice spelling test and he only missed one. I haven't decided whether I am going to write a book with no pictures using the words he knows and have him read it, then illustrate the book. Or have him write the book himself using the words he knows. I want to do both but I need to figure out which will boost his confidence the most and start with that. I think it's funny that I have him learning to spell, read and practicing his handwriting and memorization without him even knowing it. Plus, I got him this math book that has Diego on it for the Kindergarten level and showed him the 1st grade level he's supposed to be working on has the marvel heroes in it. I told him if he does his best work and completes the Diego book he can work on the book that has spiderman and batman on the pages. Funny what motivates them. Word ladders are definitely in his future. lol