Goals for the Week

My primary goal this week is to reduce the amount of time Eleanor and I spend on school. I think its still too long of a day for her. Now that we are up to the right spot in her spelling workbook and that we are adding in spelling/vocabulary from CW Aesop we are going to cut back to one spelling unit per week. I toyed with the idea of eliminating her copywork/penmanship entirely as we are also doing dictation but I've decided against that. Typically her dictation is only 2-4 lines from a poem and her copywork is only a few sentences as well. That's not much for someone just beginning cursive writing.

I think the key is just to tighten up each subject a little bit. Math is taking way too long and the more I ponder it the more I think this is the fault of the teacher. I have expectations that might be reasonable but no matter how reasonable they are that doesn't mean that Eleanor is always going to meet them. I need to instruct when there's a lack of understanding instead of going on about why there should be understanding. New tactic: count ten, inhale, exhale, teach.

There is a continuing goal to do more French. This should be easy as its something she and I enjoy but because it is and will remain low on our priority list it often gets bumped by extracurriculars.

This week I will be adding Susannah into the mix. She will start a "formal" preschool program in January (I'm putting it together now) but tomorrow she will start with some of the early Kumon books and we will continue to reinforce her letters and numbers. She just insists on being at the table with us and we need for her to be doing something other than yelling at us and force feeding us plastic picnic food.

And as always, my personal goal is to keep a lid on my temper.