So, when I vow to make a change, I do not set what anyone would call manageable goals. I tend to go big, which means that now that the deficiencies in Sam’s education have been drawn more emphatically to my attention (Thanks Mom!) and with the possiblility (probablility) of his heading to Crossroads (local independent school) in the near future, where they have standards and expect the kids to know actual things (like what mummies are and how the circulatory system works) (man, this is a long sentence)…ok, I can’t remember where I was going with that.

Well, anyway, the goal is thirty minutes a day of homework, homeschool, whatever you want to call it. His reading is behind, his math good but not well supported, history nonexistent and he’s just not getting in the practice time he needs. Enter me.

I should probably say about here that we–I–have tried this before and it lasted, well, a day. Lily and Wyatt do not LIKE Sam getting my exclusive attention. But they will just have to lump it.

So instead of just decreeing an hr a day, I came up with a plan. If I can create weekly menus I can do weekly lesson plans, right? Because if I don’t know what we’re gonna do and how long we’re gonna do it for, it isn’t gonna happen. Today’s plan was for 10 minutes of sight reading flashcards, one set of sightreading worksheets and fifteen minutes of reading together for a total of 30 minutes. We spent a little longer on flash cards because they were so fun. First, I flashed them–20, front and back, and if he didn’t get it right away it went back into the pile. Then we pulled out ten and tried to make the longest, silliest sentence we could–and in doing that, wound up reading them over and over. It worked out perfectly. So we probably lost a little reading together time but I think that’s ok.

What did Lily and Wy do? Whined, to start with. Tried to do the flashcards, in Lily’s case, begged for nursing in Wy’s…but eventually mostly gave up, and Lily cried while Wyatt pulled her hair. DUring the worksheet I got Lily her worksheet book too, and Wyatt some stickers, and everyone got a special good job sticker after they’d done a good job (Sam needed a little correction). During the reading Wyatt crawled on us while Lily did another worksheet–but it had settled down by then, and I think if it’s a regular thing, it will settle down even more.

And I already have “lesson plans” through Saturday!