The GRRR Factor

This morning, after a few days off of school, Turbo struggled getting back on task...as if I didn't expect it. We started out pretty good using our BOB books, and handwriting practice. When he chose to either do spelling or math, he chose math. When I opened the page, he immediately was turned off. Screaming, "I CAN'T DO THIS!!! I HATE IT!!!" Expected. "I don't feel good". Expected. "I'm hungry." Expected. "I don't like school!" Expected. Everything that was said and done was expected.

I sent him to his room to figure out how long he was going to argue about doing school. When he figured out that it would take longer to argue then to actually do the work, he gave in and came out to do his school work.

The cycle started over.

And over.

And over....

The proceeded for 8 cycles of this. GRRRRRRRRR!

Finally, in frustration, I sent him to his room. He was SUPER ANGRY at this point. I sat at the table and prayed...."LORD, TIE MY HANDS AND HOLD MY TONGUE CAUSE THIS BOY IS GONNA GET IT!!!!!!!" Then I heard the most peculiar sound. He was jumping on his bed. But not in fun, but in frustration and in anger! He was jumping HARD! After 30 seconds it stopped.

He exited from his room breathing hard and was visibly out of breath. He sat down and said, "May I please have a snack while I do my math?" I quietly got up, peeled him an orange and put it in a bowl while he went to work on using the number line for addition and subtracton facts. He completed 19 problems in 4 minutes flat; without a peep.

When questioned about him jumping on the bed, he said, "I knew it would make me feel better." (Proprioceptive impact)

Now, he playing on the kitchen floor with his new Lightning McQueen car in a happy mood. Disater averted. The Grrr Factor eliminated. Ideas on how to reinforce his bed frame commencing.

A Day in the Life...

It is difficult to post EVERYTHING we do EVERYDAY for our schooling. It is really quite boring. We use games, windows, computer, pencil & paper work, and crafts.



Practicing handwriting in a book that Tank must have thought was a coloring book.



Using the window for our math problems of the day (of note: this is out of a book for 1st/2nd graders). Turbo could not sit still and asked if he could write on the windows instead to help him keep focused....THANK YOU THERAPY!!!



Spelling is not his favorite thing. The workbook we have offers super small lines for him to write on. Instead, we take it to the window. I copy a bigger version of his lesson onto the window for him to work on. Here, he is focusing on ending sounds. It is funny how the maintenance people who are working outside will often wave to him through the window. He gets a kick out of that!


When we first started using Boggle Jr., he wasn't at all happy about it. He didn't like it. Mostly because he struggled doing it. We walked away from it for awhile and worked more on his letters and their sounds. He began using Hooked on Spelling and found that he COULD do spelling. When we came back to the game just yesterday, he did fantastic and mostly without any help!


This is his workbook that he has been working out of for math. Turbo has a brain for math. He just "gets" it. He gets the patterns, the numbers, the grouping, the spacial aspect...oi...I'm gonna have to learn some higher math here shortly just so I can teach him!!

1st Grade Math

Turbo has always had a mind for numbers. Unfortunately for him, his mother does not.

In each workbook and beginning math books he has whizzed through. Yesterday, I timidly bought a workbook for 1st and 2nd grade math. Today we worked a bit on it, and of course, no problems there.

Is this a sign that I should be searching out tutors for him in math past...oh I don't know...4th grade??????? (you can see my confidence level here!)

BREAK THROUGH!

Friday last week was an amazing time-schoolwise! Turbo, although begged and pleaded to play computer games first before school, "caved in" and did some table work with me. At first, he was reluctant, but really got into the groove.

We have completed the entire alphabet for capital letters, and are progressing on to the lower case letters. Today's letter was "v". After finishing "v", he decided to continue on to the letter "w". One completed, and practice work was completed, we took to the window with window crayons. We worked on reviewing of letters and numbers and I even through in some number words (two, ten, etc.), each met with no fit or defiance!

Back to the table and it was review of our vocab words. Although his up to like 50 now, we don't review them all, I choose some he knows and then some he struggles with. After that, we read, "Where's Spot?". I am completely aware that he is probably "reading" from rote memory and definitely using picture clues, but he believes that he is "reading" a book. When he asked to read, "Spot Sleeps Over", I was hesitant, but he wanted to so badly. We introduced more words, and he sounded each word out. A lot of sight words were there, so I will probably begin using the 100 word sight list shortly. He did great!

Because he was self-regulated, he didn't bat an eye when I asked him to do some math. Giving him 10 problems of simple addition facts (all under 5 - 4+4, 5+1, 5+4) and using his fingers and nose to count he completed 10 facts in under 2 minutes! Not bad for a young 5-year-old! He completed the math session with practicing writing numbers, then it was off to the computer for some JumpStart games.

I took a long, hot shower while Tank slept.