Teaching Writing and a Date Night! THMJ January 29, 2012

Teaching Writing and a Date Night!

by Rachel, January 29, 2012

Click HERE to find out how you can share your own journal post with me!

In my life this week…

We worked hard at school work this week, taking most of the day off on Wednesday to be with my hubby because it was his first day off in the 12 days since the night that we returned from our vacation.  He and I also went out on a date night on Friday to a cute restaurant that we had not yet tried and we found that they have great food!  It is a blessing that my family is nearby and they can have the kids over occasionally so that we can have some one-on-one time. 

In our homeschool this week…
Classical Conversations semester two has begun!  We were all excited and happy to get up early on Monday and drive the 25 minutes to meet with our CC community!  It was good to see the moms and kids alike.  I also have a new boy in my Journeymen class who adds energy to our class and is eager to share stories about everything.  At home, it was back to a full school schedule and hard work, although I do try to make it fun.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
"Don't withhold assistance!" - Andrew Pudewa

I was working at learning our IEW material myself this week, watching the DVD of Andrew Pudewa demonstrating Unit 6 on Summarizing Notes from Multiple References and heard him say the above quote!  I also listened to his Unit 6 Webinar from 2011. They left me feeling more confident in how I approached our assignment this week and how much we really are learning, even when it feels like we are struggling through some challenging material.  What I took away from his talks is the above message, "Don't withhold assistance!" and "Give as much help as is necessary!"  Don't ever feel that you are giving too much help in the beginning stages of teaching writing. Modeling a type of writing assignment multiple times is necessary for some students before they can really do much of it on their own, and that is OKAY!  He also said to make the checklists for the assignments appropriate for the student.  He tells us to only require the stylistic techniques that have become easy, plus one new one. So, when I get that "deer in the headlights look" this week, I will know that I need to just cross some things off of our checklist, for now.  Click here to find the IEW Webinar Archives. 

My favorite thing this week was…
Date night!  We need to do that more often!

What’s working/not working for us…
I am finding the our English and writing assignments are some of the most challenging, where I "lose" the attention of my kids easily.  So, we are trying a new system where they earn popcorn seeds in a jar for correct answers when we are drilling our English grammar memory work and the charts.  It stopped a lot of silliness right away and they "buckled down" to their work.  I also felt frustration with our writing assignment, so I chose to work on it as a group this week so that most of it was oral participation and giving ideas while I wrote on the board and later I typed up the rough draft as we were discussing it.  I think for our first research paper, I am just simplifying it as much as they need, thanks to the advice I received from Andrew Pudewa above.

Questions/thoughts I have…
Do any fun ideas for activities that preteen boys can do during a birthday party?  J is turning 11 next weekend and he really wants to have friends over for a sleepover party... we may be crazy, but I think we are going to try it!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
"Become a Woman of Power" is a great post at Good Morning Girls about living with the FULL power of Christ within us!  Read it and you will be encouraged!


Have a great week!
Rachel