I have always battled with Girl8 in completing writing assignments.  Part of the problem is her(and maybe my) perfectionistic attitude toward writing - thinking that it has to have good handwriting, everything must be spelled right and grammatically correct as well as communicate the idea.  I have had the pleasure of participating in the Konos Online Co-Op this school year and benefitted from getting input from a veteran homeschool mom, Jessica Hulcy.  Jessica has really been stressing (especially in the younger grades) PROCESS over PRODUCT in writing all year.  And you know what?  I finally got it! 

Here's what we did.  This week, the writing assignment was to write a paragraph on one of the biographies we read this week(Corrie Ten Boom, Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King, Jr).  I received the normal resistance.  Until I told her that she could dictate all that she could remember to me!  I wrote down the sentences as quickly as I could - I could hardly keep up with her!  Then I asked her if she could narrow down what she had written into three parts.  Once she did, I gave her 3 highlighters of different colors.  She grouped together by color what happened first, middle and last.  Then we went through each color and she ordered the sentances further.  The end result was several paragraphs and a very cohesive report on Corrie Ten Boom!!  We copied the whole thing on "good paper" and then she drew a picture at the top.  Wow!  Writing without tears!

Boy7 didn't have much to report on Martin Luther King, Jr. but did draw a touching picture of some white boys playing while a little Martin(with some tears) and some friends looked on.   He explained to me that the white boys weren't allowed to play with the black boys, but that Martin taught people when he grew up that blacks and whites are the same and can do things together! 

Some of you may get a picture from my blog that my kids are always doing really well and I'm this really great teacher -  Well, I don't really write about all of our struggles at schooltime(like the fact that right after the writing assignment went so well we had actual tears over Math!) and I often have the homeschool mom plague of self doubt .  So when my kids show me that they are actually learning something and I'm not messing them up forever it is such a blessing!   

We have also been studying kindess and manners this week.  I am so thankful for the dedicated time to focus on this subject.  There have been numerous training opportunities to re-do conversations so that they are said with Honor(kindness and respect).  Today we will be focusing on how to properly set a table and practice good table manners - very timely now that we are the "new pastor's family".  I guess the test will be at the next meal we are invited to:)  Tomorrow afternoon we will be making some goodies to share with our new neighbors. 

Blessings!

-J