I don't know what I was thinking!
Well, I do. I was thinking, "Gee, this might be fun." Evidently, I was thinking the sort of fun you get by pulling splinters from your eyelid and trying to move a waterbed by yourself. BUT, whatever my reasoning, I changed our daily lessons schedule around today. (Can you tell it went well?)
The brainstorm I had seemed simple: install the educational software we own onto the computer (novel already, isn't it?) and then (perhaps) allow the boys to use it for set periods of time during lessons (thus allowing one-on-one time for Mom to study with each child). It sounded like such a great idea! Why didn't it go well, then?
Well, let's recap, shall we? Child one is six and needs more advanced software than we currently have available. OK. We can fix that. Child two is four. 'Nuff said. Change? Bad. Within Reason? Evil phrase. Limits? All about the total imersion factor. I cannot even begin to touch the Toddler Effect on this whole process, but if you have a vivid imagination and read plenty of Erma Bombeck, I'm sure you can fill in the blanks.
So, we stepped back ~ a little too late in the day to salvage it, but early enough to prevent it from bleeding over into tomorrow. (I hope.) We talked about the changes to our schedule and the ideas Mommy had. Potential benefits, the newness of a change in routine, etc. I asked the boys to work with me on this new schedule for one week. At the end of the week we will all sit down and talk about it. I asked them to think about what they like, what they don't (keeping in mind that I'm not going to give them each eight hours a day of computer time and all the ice cream they can stand- house rules will still apply for the health and general sanity of all involved), and whether they would like to make changes at the end of that week, or if they would like to keep the current schedule.
We shall see what tomorrow holds.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
3 comments:
I understand the need. I am there myself.
I think I can help. First, you need an optical mouse, it makes things easier.
The four year old can use Starfall. It's an online reading program with printable worksheets. A uses it and he's only 3 and a half.
You can also download Study Dog for both kids. M is 6 and doing level 2. A is playing around on level 1.
don't forget about Nick Jr online.
All FREE!
Whever the schedule gets changed around here, I am the one who has trouble. I am sure things will work themselves out!
Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I know it takes little guys a while to adjust to change sometimes. That's why I thought we'd try it for a week and then recap. Probably do a two-week total trial, with tweakings and see how it goes.
Sheila, what is this Study Dog? I haven't heard of it, but would love to hear more. I have the Starfall stuff- duh, just forget to take it off the shelf. Will do that. And I have to say I hate any website (like Nick Jr.) that uses pop up windows for the little guys stuff. ARGH. I haven't been there in two years b/c of that.
Today was much improved. They're such little troopers.
Dy
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