'Tis the season for idyllic thoughts with no base in reality. Ah, summer. I'll go out in the mornings to playgroup/pool/grocery and do a little homeschool and reading in the afternoon... Just to keep up...
Right. The famous digital conversion caught us flat-footed. Not that it's our fault. Bright House cable told us -- TOLD US -- that if we have cable TV, no ill would befall us. They lied. Apparently, our PBS station was sending a "digital format signal", rather than a "digital signal". Naturally, that means we have to shell out another $1 (plus taxes) every month to get Clifford the Big Red Dog. I feel cheated. But after the screaming we endured this weekend from the lack of PBS Kids, I am SO paying them whatever blackmail money they demand. I give up.
The Boy is alternating between defiant and whiny. I have a choice between, "NO!" and "Noooo". Oh joy. I actually think I prefer, "But Mooooooom, I'm toooooo tired to make my bed. Can't I make it later?" The alternative is, "No. It doesn't need to be done. I'm not doing it." If The Girl would let me sleep at night, maybe I could come back with something more sophisticated than, "No way, buddy. Get moving." Then, for good measure, I throw in a threat. I think Dr. Ray calls it an addenda. "Or I'll charge you $.50 to do it myself." Bad mom. Or at least ineffective.
The weeds continue to grow, and the weather continues to be oppressive. I'm looking at weeds about three feet high in my perennial bed. I should cut them down and put down weed barrier cloth and mulch. But that would require a trip to Lowe's and an evening of bug spray, dirt, sweat, and weeds. Did I mention that dirt, sweat, and bug spray mix to make mud?
On the bright side, I've almost finished the kids' portfolios for the year. I have two long essays, outlining what we actually did, but I still have to pull pages of work to support the essay. Then I have to bribe my girlfriend to review it. The review form is deceptively simple -- it's just a paper that says, "Yup, they made progress commensurate with their abilities." It's kind of funny, actually.
Yeah, the reason I'm so tired today is that I was up late working on an essay-summary of the school year for The Girl. Turns out, I have a Spectrum Language Arts 2 workbook that The Girl barely started. It began with parts of speech, and we got sidetracked to Shurley-Grammar-like diagramming of sentences. I also have half of the A Beka Arithmetic 2 book that we didn't finish. It had too many number-play activities and stuff that The Girl didn't understand, but half way through, it gets to more math-y stuff that she can handle. The Spectrum Writing 2 still won't work with her.
But it made me think -- if year-long workbooks don't work for Lora, maybe the Verticity curriculum won't work for her either.
If we get the full Calvert for Patrick, maybe Lora can just scam his history and science work, while we do our own thing for reading/writing/arithmetic. Must think.
Meanwhile, Mr. Passive-Aggressive is pestering me to use the computer a little early today. VBS starts at 5:30. Lord have mercy.
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