Is the homeschooling classes. I want my son to get out and be with other kids and take these classes. But the classes being on Monday's really set the tone for the week. And so far today its been horrible.
As in it took my son from about 9:30-12:45 to do math! This is because he's been fiddling around and just goofing off. And he knows this gets on my nerves. So I'm sure he thinks he'll do it long enough and I'll get frustrated and send him on his way.
Not today though. We will do the work we normally do, he'll still do his chores. And as an added bonus for him he gets to clean his room up. The thing is a sty in there! And I'm just tired of him thinking he doesn't have to do things or take care of stuff.
Doesn't help that today is DH's day off work. So that really makes DS think he can mess around more. But DH isn't here right now, he took garbage in, had to drop something off and is going to see if he can get a haircut. He needs one b4 being in the wedding on the 27th. That was *me* telling him that not anyone else.....lol.
But really days like this make it tough, as I'm a quick to yell person. Grew up listening to one parent yell most of the time. Not at me persay just in general about whatever. So of course *I* took that. UGH. I work daily to do no yelling, but there are days like today when I swear my DS does things intentionally.
He dropped something ont he floor and insisted he find it right away. Thus putting off work. He took forever to blow his nose. He's used the bathroom a lot, been drinking a lot. Granted he has a stuffed up nose and his throat was bothering him the other day. But my goodness.
I guess I might have to really set up a schedule, and include potty breaks and all that if he's going to continue. We'll see if its just because yesterday we were out of the house all day and didn't get much school work done, as it was tough in the van and too chilly outside to sit at the picnic tables in the park.
I'm rambling now but I figured maybe if I get this all typed up I'll be less frustrated with my slow poke child whose very fidgety today. Sheesh.
Friday my DS and I decided to work on my van since my DH doesn't ever seem to have time. I need to know if the dang thing is going to work without issues so I can actually have a vehicle to drive.
So anyway we needed to change spark plugs, drain the oil and it needs the thermostat put in it. I bought all the stuff last Wed. And my DH just hasn't had time.
So I called DH's cell phone to ask him a question on the spark plugs before starting. Got it all figured out and off we went. We got the old nasty oil drained and filter off. Put the new filter back on and oil pan plug back in. My DS did most of this.
We got the 3 front spark plugs out, DS pulled the old ones out and I put the new ones in DH still needs to tighten them as I wasn't about to do it wrong....lol.
We get to the back 3 and they are super tight, so tight that when I was taking the spark plug socket off I managed to break the tip of the plug off into it. DH is hoping he can still get it out, not saying that I broke it so it won't. Just hoping they are seized in there, if so we can't go further with the van since the end that goes into the wires broke off. So I sprayed the plugs with stuff that DH uses and hoping he can get them out. I didn't want to try the other 2 because I was afraid it would happen again.
Anyway here's a photo of my 11 year old DS after he took the second spark plug out.
I have to say that since Wed was a short school day for us, its a pain to try and get back into the groove. I'm hoping things work out. Weds each week will be fine as we don't have to be in that early, except every other one when I have to take care of dh's paycheck. But not as early as we did this past one. Shew.
Course monday starts the HSing classes, and we are only in 2 but they are 3 hours apart so we'll have that time to do work in the vehicle I guess....lol.
We also need to get better at working on his Awana's, I sometimes forget to go over his verses to memorize until its too late in the day, like after he's in bed. So i need to add it to the list for the day. It doesn't really take long to put that in there. 10-20 minutes is generally best. Problem is DS can know it well at home, then struggles a bit when he gets there, I think its because of his anxiety. I think he struggles going up to a leader to say his stuff. I think it might be easier if they asked him. But I'm sure its not easy for them to do that. With the other boys in the groups. He wants to finish his book this time, and he should if we can afford to go. And if he works hard. I think he only had 3 sections left. Each one has 7 parts. So we can get them done fairly quickly since not everyone is memorizing. Poor kid its his 3rd year in T&T and he's still on the first book. All because of us either not having a vehicle to get there or no money for the gas. Sheesh.
My History stuff has been shipped, says it will be here the 16th from UPS. The other things from RR I don't think are out yet. Today should have been a week so anytime now they hopefully can get it out. I know they are probably busy and things take longer to ship out. Just looking forward to the new stuff to try and see if we can make better headway.
I have a ham in the roaster, it smells yummy in here. Was looking forward to my Cheesy, Creamy, Potato & Ham soup. THat will probably be tomorrow, tonight we'll just have ham with potatos and gravy. I think DH needs to run into town after work. His nephews bacherlor party is tomorrow, they are just shooting clay pigeons. DH is the best man so he was suppose to plan it all. I'm like we never did fancy things like that, just got married....lol. There was no need for the extra *parties* ah well. I'll be glad when its over though. We have the tux yet to pay for. And I plan to take pics of my DH because its the only time I'll have seen him in a tux and probably the only time I ever will. We did get all fancy for our wedding, he got to wear jeans and a dress shirt. That was good enough for us.
I so didn't want to get up this morning. We were in town from about 2:30 until 8:30 yesterday. UGH. Had a blast when we met up with another HSing mom that wanted to buy my MUS stuff I had, that we were no longer using. Talked for like 2 hours. It was great. Got home little after 9pm which isn't a big deal but I couldn't get to sleep until like midnight or something. Then dh's alarm goes off at 4:30am. He gets up, turns it off then crawls back into bed. I so dislike it when he does this, because then I'm half awake until he finally gets out of bed so I don't worry he's late for work. UGH. I'm like if you are going to set the alarm that early then get outta bed....lol
So anyway I got everything done yesterday that needed, and I don't think I forgot anything.....lol. I had my list and every place I needed to stop written down just so I wouldn't forget.
Stopped at the book store and picked up a childrens dictionary for my son, as we don't have one at all around here. But this thing is awesome. There was another book there I want to get that will go with our History but didn't feel like spending $40 in one drop....lol. Its a book on Exploreres/Exploration I saw some stuff in there that is in the beginning of our History. It had a CD-Rom with it as well. I can't remember what its called though.
Today is a short school day for us. I was up early and did things I needed to do. My DS on the other hand slept until 9am, which is totally weird becaue he's normally up before me....lol. But anyway he ate, breakfast then we did Math. So now he's going to take a bath, then we'll see how much time we have leftover to maybe do some more work.
I have to go into town to deposit DH's paycheck, get some stuff, get to the post office, meet another homeschooling mom whose going to buy some stuff we are done with. Then we have Awana's at 6:55. So we'll spend most of the afternoon/evening in town because we don't drive back home between things. As we live 25 miles one way from town. I try to cram many things into one day in town.
Hopefully this won't mess things up too much for me. I could probably take some work with us. We'll see about that though. I'll just have to reschedule stuff in homeschool tracker that's all.
Next week will start the homeschooling classes of Art and Music, those classes are on Monday's. I hope that doesn't set a tone for the week. If I get too side tracked its tough to get back on. Monday's most work will be taken with us to do in the 3 hours we have between classes. So we'll find someplace to do it. That should be fun to do.
I know that might seem odd to some. But I have come to realize that my child is just this, the literal child. I'm sure he has an imagination, we don't get to see much of it because he's so literal on just about everything. I have no idea if its part of ADHD, or what it is from. He struggles with writing sentences, you know some kids that whip them out and they could be outlandish with creativity. Mine sits there and seems to be searching his brain for the *perfect* answer. I don't know how to change this or give him the boost that its alright to be creative.
Even when he's played with toys all these years its always more in the literal sense. If he seems something being done then he plays that way. If you say something like "Go to the car to get _____." He will correct you to say "Its the truck." or "Its the van." Depending on what you are actually driving.
I've been trying to think of some creative things to do with him, writing wise. I'm not sure where to start. I'm sure there are several things online that are free for maybe writing prompts, things like that. If anyone has any suggestions that would be great. I'm sure he has a great imagination, I'm just not sure if he fears using it since he thinks it will be *wrong*. I've tried hard to explain that not everything has to be 100% right all of the time, that its alright to make mistakes, things like that. I don't know. Maybe I'm doing everything wrong.
I knew it had to happen. Generally at least *one* day during the week I can expect my ds to suddenly be difficult.
Today was the day I hope the rest of the week goes well. But you never know. Math and reading went well. After reading I try to give him a break from sitting at the desk, to move around do at least one chore then we get back to it. Well today he did 3 chores(not from me telling him) and when it was time to sit down to get to science, things started. He was doing what he would normally do when he really doesn't want to do anything. Its his way of trying to just grasp control of the whole day and get out of work. And I'm just not going to fall for it this time. So we talked and I told him that it just isn't going to happen and we managed to get through it without much major issues.
This isn't much different then when he was in public school and after he had, had a break he tried tantrums, course in PS he managed to get away with it. He tries here. So I've decided that I'm going to give a time limit on chores, this way its not too much time to be running around or whatever. Then maybe it will limit the issues. Either that or we're going to end up doing school straight through without breaks if he can't do it. But I'd rather him get at least one break.
I'm sure I seem so mean, but I know his little *tricks* to try to get out of things. And this is the year I'm cracking down on him with not getting away with it. So it might be a bit bumpy before it gets better.
DS ate breakfast then we did Math & Reading,then DS did the dishes. Then we got back to school, did science. And we figured out what to have for lunch, I started making it, we figured out what to take out for supper, did that. Then ds went to the bathroom, next thing I know I bring him his lunch and he says he doesn't feel well. His tummy didn't. I told him he should feel better after eating.
Well after an hour of him slowly eating food he LOVES. He ended up in the bathroom and got sick. Poor kid. So he's either going to stay in the bathroom and rest or rest in his bed. The rest of the day is done school wise.
I have to be careful with him as in the past he's tried to pull the *I don't feel well* and shortly after deciding to NOT do any more school work he's fine and trying to go play and such. So I wasn't sure if this one was like that. But he did end up sick. So hopefully he'll feel better later. He picked what was for lunch and supper. We'll see if he gets to enjoy supper since he didn't enjoy his lunch.
We didn't do a lot this weekend. Saturday dh and I had to take his paycheck to town and get a few things. DS stayed home with my mom since I was buying his birthday presants. I really didn't know what we were going to get him beyond tools. DS is always outside working on something and using DH's tools, then leaving them wherever in the weather and/or losing them. He's not even suppose to use DH's tools unless he's around. So we figured it was time to get him his own then if they get lost DH won't be the one with missing tools.
So we picked up a decent set. Along with it while in the store I saw they had bow hunting stuff out. And last year I had wanted to get him an archery set but we didn't have the money and when we did there wasn't any in the store. So we picked one up with extra arrows and we are set for his birthday. I know its not much but DS has a room full of books/toys/legos and I just wanted to avoid toys. Unless of course my mom buys him something....lol.
We also picked up a decent sized tool box on clearence for like $7, told DH to grab it and we'd put it away for Christmas. We plan to buy here and there and just put them in the tool box. Sort of fill it so to speak and give it to him. Along with whatever else we find for Christmas.
Saturday evening dh finally got moving towards seeing if the van we have can be saved. The tabs on it are good until Nov. I'm like man if it will run and just a minor fix that'd be great. He traded my old Bronco II that needed a lot more work then we could afford to put into it for this van. In turn the guy that got my Bronco was trading it for a tractor or something to a guy that needed parts.....lol. If its not a minor fix we have another van that we could get parts off of. But so far DH said it wasn't leaking like it was b4 he put the stuff in the motor. Course I have to buy a battery and get gas for it to really check things further. I need a battery anyway, I have a car that can be fixed if the van can't. SO either way I need a battery.
Sunday we had plans to go to the Mud Blast in a local small town. We try to go every year as its Labor Day Weekend and usually close to DS's birthday. So its partly his B-day gift as well. He loves it and we do to. We never get there early enough to actually sit down. So we end up standing by the gate near the starting line. Its great, kind of loud and indeed muddy. But the one thing that disappointed me this year was the fact that halfway through it was more like watching the trucks go through just moist dirt. I mean come on, I paid to watch a mud run. No idea what the deal was with why the didn't re-water the pit but I was a bit disappointed to say the least. DS loved it. He got his usual hat. I always buy DH & DS a hat when we go if we have the money.
We only got a bit of mud on us, normally when standing near the starting line behind the gate you are bound to get really muddy this year wasn't as bad. And it doesn't much bother me. They re-did the pit for when the rails came up it was open class. And let me tell you its LOUD. If you've never been to a mud run when they've had the rails well I have to say you're missing out. Unless you don't like that kind of thing. But they are loud and fast.
Here's a pic of from a few years ago, I didn't take my camera the last 2 times we went. But if we can afford to go next year we'll try to get there earlier and sit down so I can try for some more shots.
Not the greatest pic because of the fence, but that's pretty much what they look like. One rolled over yesterday he came flying down through the pit as normal and something was off at the end, not sure if it slid or what it was but he ended up side over side 3-4 rolls. Quick response time at these things they have the ambulance people at the end ready to go. There was one other roll over yesterday it was a pickup though. No one was hurt! All was well.
really I sit here thinking that. Nothing major, nothing life changing. Just overall I'm thinking, I may have to re-examine things.
FIrst off this will be our 3rd year homeschooling. Also the first year of joining in our homeschooling groups classes. My ds will be taking an Art & Music class. He was going to take a PE class, but they needed each parent to teach at least one class, or find someone to do yours kind of thing, since we didn't have one set person to do them all. And I really wish I could do that. But I can't even deal well with groups of people in general. Dealing with social anxiety is horrible. And I've dealt with is from about age 5, so I'm sure you can imagine how public school was for me. Not pleasant. I loved school but just hated dealing with anxiety. Things can be better but overall I don't do groups well. I don't know many people that I could have help and so I had to decline signing up my ds.
He's a bit bummed about it and I am too. I just wish my poor kid had a mother who was more outgoing. But he's unfortunatly stuck with a mother who is more comfortable at home then any place else.
So he'll be taking Art and Music. Then we'll be signing up for Awana again. He loves that. I just hope that things keep working out for us so we can afford to drive to these things. Because my ds needs to be out and around kids more often then he is now.
The other thing I was looking at was Tae Kwon Do. In our local town where the HSing classes are is where the classes for Tae Kwon Do are. I think this would benifit my son greatly. He also deals with anxiety like myself just not nearly as bad. He's much more outgoing then I am but still has anxiety. I think it would give him much more confidence.
Now here's the major problem. None of these things are really difficult to pay for, the problem is the simple fact is we only have one vehicle. And of course my dh uses that to get to work. With the new job he'll be starting on Monday he doesn't have set hours. Working on a farm is where he will be so of course its more time consuming so to speak. His main job will be learning to operate the feed wagon for feeding the 3,000 cows that are there. The only thing that will cause you more hours of working in the day is if something breaks down. Of course you have to fix it or get someone to then you have to still wait for it to be done so you can feed the cattle. Its not like you can just leave because it broke down. THe cattle can't exactly just wait.
So the days he does that it could be any time for him to be home. And in general its just no set in stone "i'll be home by___" Which doesn't bother me much we are just thankful for a full time job, closer to home then he was driving and decent pay.
So basically I have to borrow my dad's van, and since we live in the same yard I don' t have to go far to get it. But I really dislike having to ask to use a vehicle just so my son can get out with other kids. The only problem I have is hoping that my dad doesn't suddenly start complaining to my poor mother about this.
The rundown for each week would be something like this.
Monday ~ Art & Music class, ones at 10 the other at 2. So we have time between the two to do whatever..lol. Then Tae Kwon Do would be at 6pm. Which is another few hours of finding something to do in town.(We live 25 miles one way from town, so there's no point in wasting gas) Tae Kwon Do class would end at 7pm then we'd head home. And be home at the latest 7:45 depending on the roads and such. Course dad works Monday evenings, so this is the day that worries me the most in dad getting upset.
Wed ~ Awana 6:55pm
Thurs ~ Tae Kwon Do ~ 6pm
Wed and Thurs shouldn't be an issue as its evening only and dad doesn't work those days. Unless of course things get changed in his schedule.
So I told my dh last night he really needs to get one of the 2 vehicles in front of our house fixed so I don't have to depend on someone else. There is my dad's pickup as well, but its a diesel which isn't an issue its just very spendy to drive. ACK.
So I am praying something works out, I'd rather drive one of our vehicles but if my dh doesn't get around to fixing them I'm probably going to have to give up signing up my ds for Tae Kwon Do.
