Weekly Summary & Progress
Number one task is the Home Education Exemption that is a requirement in New Zealand. I have a bunch of excuses which are entirely uninteresting and the end result is that we should have had this submitted back in January. And we’re heading into April!
So by the time I write the followup blogpost in a week’s time, I will have our exemption sealed up tight in an envelope to be able to slip into the Mailbox on the Monday morning.
This past week has been a time to clear our heads and get back onto the correct page so-to-speak, and I’m looking forward to jumping into this coming week with a vengeance!
I recently caught up with some local homeschooler’s and I’ve come away thinking that my educational expectations are higher than the average homeschooler and this on top of Sam’s particular needs/considerations is probably why I’ve been feeling more than a little overwhelmed at the fact we appear to be falling behind with all the non-education-related stuff that’s been chewing up our time recently.
What I need to remind myself is that Sam often exceeds my expectations on the short term level and that we often surpass a 15 minute lesson which is outstanding considering her Autism.
I get that I need to make some adjustments in terms of the workload but I also need to cut us both some slack in that we’ve been trying to achieve so much more than what I suspect someone with her needs would normally be expected to achieve.
Getting down to specifics, I’m impressed with her recent requests for words to copy and her ability to then do so. I can just tell that when she finally unlocks the mystery of reading that she’ll be off and away and that makes me want to Squee! with delight. She’s also getting back into drawing and she’s turning into a motor-mouth, although her personal style of grammar is still extremely evident.
In the past month she discovered she could do more with a computer than simply watch movies and was having a great time navigating sites like Starfall.com which I’ve heard no end of raves about. Unfortunately, it had a disappointing affect for us, in that Sam started connecting particular words to sounds instead of simply recognising they were examples and that made our homeschool language/phonics lessons more difficult. The american style of word pronounciation became overwhelming evident as well and was also not helping with our efforts in the language department. So sadly, Starfall is no longer welcome in our day.
Luckily, the software we ordered several weeks ago has finally arrived. The application is called Clicker, and it’s a wonderful tool that I know we will use often. In comparison to the oral part of Starfall.com, Clicker comes with a British accent and is able to interpret the pronounciation of words as they are presented to it. And as a bonus, if it get’s it wrong, or if we simply pronounce it differently down under, you can correct it!
In a completely different part of my life. The domestic goddess *cough* part, that is. I made Sultana Biscuits on Monday, Gingerbread Biscuits and Burger Buns on Thursday, and today Triple Chocolate Muffins (from a box admittedly), and also Apple Pie! That’s an extraordinary feat for someone who aims to bake one thing a week and fails most weeks! :D I guess you could say I cheated with the Gingerbread Biscuits a bit as we made the dough back in early December(!), but I thawed, rolled and cuttered thank you very much!
From my goals for the past week, I’ve met quite a few of them which include:
So my plans for the coming week are:
This probably won’t surprise you but this isn’t all I’m working on but just the ones I’d show some insight into or that a bit of public accountability wouldn’t hurt with. Some of the tasks are more defined on my personal Weekly Review page in my planner.
Wish me luck, and I hope you all have a wonderfully productive week too! :)
