The Lesgaux School

At long last, our supplies are ready for T to start learning with Visualizing and Verbalizing. During the next few weeks, I won’t require much, if any narration from T, only reading. He will be practicing narration and imaging skills using Visualizing and Verbalizing. Also, the only required tablework will be math and italics. I probably won’t tell him this, though. I can judge by his mood whether or not to push him to do more. Starting tomorrow, I would like to do this for an hour with T. We may only get 30 minutes or so of VV done at first, but I’d like to work towards 1 hour.

I’m not sure how the schedule will work out. My thought is to send D & R out of the room, perhaps upstairs, to play while I work intensively with T. Then, we would do Group Time together. We’re reading Robin Hood together right now. One chapter takes about 30 – 45 minutes. Following that, I’d like to do tablework, focusing on D, while T reads AO silently or does independent table work. R will do puzzles or play quietly for about this amount of time, usually another 30-45 minutes. When Duncan has finished all of his work, we’ll do our spelling. Then, depending on how T is doing, he’ll finish his work or we’ll end the day.

We’ve also begun using Sequential Spelling, by  AVKO. Both T and D are doing well after two days. We’ll continue with this at the end of the school day. I think that should be quite enough!

I have a headache today. Despite this, we still did our tablework. I’ll do readings this afternoon IF I feel better. Bed linens are being washed, but most other chores will have to wait until my head feels better.  We’re waiting at home today for the phone repair guy, or I’d hop out for a movie for the kids. As it is, our priorities are 1) Get rid of the headache, 2) lunch, 3) wait for phone guy. The pasta water is on the stove and the boys are happily watching Johnny Quest and being quiet. Dinner is spiced up leftovers. We have days and days and days of chicken leftover. Tonight, It’s Barbeque chicken (from a bottle), salad, and a veggie or two.

On a brighter note, dh traded in our old, non-working stereo for a new-to-us turntable, receiver, and tape deck. What a good provider! I’ve been listening to David Bowie for the first time in years over and over again. Now what is good for headaches?

Also, we started Sequential Spelling for both T, 9, and D, 6. I think it will be a good fit for them both. Dictation was not enough for T. Due to his issues with frustration, he was not learning to spell well enough with dictation alone. He would crumple up his paper or tear up at every misspelling. He always had plenty of time to study. We even tried me spelling the words for him during dictation. But he wasn’t learning to spell independently. There was too much hand holding.  I believe that Sequential Spelling is a more balanced approach. and will be an easy way to fill this gap. We will continue to practice dictation, though at least once a week. It’s scheduled for twice a week. Like a fuzz-brain, though, I only ordered one Student Response Book for Sequential Spelling. D is working from photo copied pages until I can get him a book of his very own. I know, I could just make my own response sheets, but my time is valuable. Time, paper, and ink add up to more than the small cost of another book.

T announced that R has been "reading" The Lorax on his own. He said "He’s even reading the right words on the right pages!" Only 3 and a genius! That, and he’s read the book and seen the movie about 100 times each.

It’s so easy to plan something, to write it down. It’s quite another to do it. On my 10 things, I’ve been quite the slacker.  Here’s my progress:

1. Exercise daily Haven’t done this at all!!!!!
2. Write daily for at least 5 minutes Nor this.
3. Wake up early – no later than 7:30 Nor this. But I have been going to bed by 10:30 or earlier.
4. Do housework on it’s assigned day I’ve done this, but sporadically.
5. Fold laundry before 5PM NOT!!!
6. Make menus and eat only from the menus – no take out 70% successful.
7. Floss Nope.
8. Read daily Yup.
9. Drink water daily – a tough one as I’m very addicted to cokes Actually, I’ve done pretty well here. I’ve added at least 2 glasses per day. 
10. Take my vitamin daily Doing well here also.

On to more news…We had a family issue last week, so we didn’t get much done school-wise. My Mom was in town to help and the status quo was almost maintained. At least the meals and laundry and very light housekeeping was done. Oh, yeah, the beds were made every day and all were clothed and bathed. Thanks, Mom!

 Today it rains. School will start in about 10 minutes. A good day to you all!

Summer is creeping up on us. This week is the first with temperature highs in the low 90′s. It’s only going to get hotter from here on out.  T refuses to wash his shorts and is wearing jeans today. He didn’t actually refuse, but he didn’t jump up to sort a load. I did make him do 5 laps around the yard when he was too hyper for indoors and told him he had to stay outside for at least 1 hour, even if that hour was spent reading in the shade. He lasted 30 minutes in jeans. I don’t have the fight in me today. He went inside. As long as his behavior holds out, I’ll let him stay in. Maybe he’ll go out later.

T was having trouble with Howard Pyle’s Robin Hood, so I decided to use it as a family read-aloud. I’ve been planning to completely stop narrations for the summer while I start T on the Visualizing and Verbalizing program. This is a reading comprehension program geared to help children recall and process what they read better. You can read more about it here. 

I know I need to write more. I haven’t been blogging as much as I want to. That’s OK. Life gets in the way. But, I haven’t been writing in any other format either. That’s not OK. I do believe writing is one of the most beneficial activities one can do on a regular basis. I am a hypocrite, though. I am not disciplined enough to fold writing into my daily routine. In fact, discipline is lacking in many areas of my life.

Rather than say I’m going to do something and never follow through, I need to, in the words of the famous shoe manufacturer, "Just Do It". I made a list of ten things I need more discipline in. Of course, I could choose more than ten, but let’s not jump in to fast. In the next few months, I want to fold these habits into my daily life. It is my hope that once I begin doing these things on a daily basis, my kids will follow suit. I read somewhere that it takes 30 days to set a new habit into place, so I plan to work on one or two at a time, maybe with some overlap so I won’t feel as if I’m not making any progress. Here goes:

1. Exercise daily
2. Write daily for at least 5 minutes
3. Wake up early – no later than 7:30
4. Do housework on it’s assigned day
5. Fold laundry before 5PM
6. Make menus and eat only from the menus – no take out
7. Floss
8. Read daily
9. Drink water daily – a tough one as I’m very addicted to cokes
10. Take my vitamin daily

So far today, I’ve only done #2. I’m off to try to do more.