How's the homeschooling going?

It's nice to have friends who are curious about and interested in how things are going at home. We get asked this question regularly. And although B and I can answer them, the hubs cannot. He asks B what he learned/did that day and B is NOT forthcoming with any information. He says "nothing" or "I don't know". That is frustrating the hubs. He not only feels on the outside but he, understandably, worries that B is either not retaining anything and can't share with him or is choosing to withhold info from him. Neither one is good, so we have been working on our communication skills.

In January, I blogged that B would not take the time to sound out new words and would only read a book on his own after it had been read to him. That way, he already knows all the words. The 1st issue is laziness. The 2nd one, though, had to do with not being about to pay attention to the plot while he was concentrating on pronouncing the words. But that has changed! He can now pick up a new book or magazine and read it himself while understanding and enjoying the plot. Yeah!

There is a series of biographies called Childhood of Famous Americans and we are currently reading about Harry Houdini. So now I am the mother of The Great B-dini. hehe He levitated a small piece of metal yesterday and I searched him to make sure he was not holding a magnet anywhere. I love his creativity. This is funny - B freaked out when he found out that Harry's (real name Ehrich Weiss) father was 25 years older than his mother. B - "WHAT?! I never HEARD of anyone being THAT much older than their spouse before!" Me - What about Jay and Gloria on Modern Family? Gloria is probably the same age as Jay's daughter, Claire, so that means Jay is probably 25 or more years older than Gloria." B - "It does NOT." Me - "Whatever." I won't harp on that life lesson right now.

We are at a slow point with our Math-U-See program. B is learning his math facts and we won't move on until he does. As adults, most of us know our math facts so if you have to add 4+5 or 9+7, you know the answer immediately; you don't have to count it out in your head or on your fingers. And that is where B will be after learning his math facts. We are doing addition facts right now. B doesn't mind b/c he can play with the MUS blocks (like LEGOS) and he's learning.

We're going over sentence structure and he is picking that up fast, as well. He retains the names and definitions of things. The only problem is, he doesn't like to work alone and takes forever when he does. We can do 1 page in 5 minutes together but if he does it on his own, he can take up to 90 minutes! And not just on new material; he'll take that long on review, too. He sings, he doodles, he taps his forehead with his pencil, he sucks on his pencil (even the lead end, ew!). *sigh* But we'll get there.

I am going to order the 2nd grade test for B this week. The results do not have to be turned into the county until August 1st. But I thought I'd look over it and see if there are things he needs to know that we have not covered yet. That will give me some time to go over them.