May 27

Wow - what a day! I was busy all morning doing prep work for this short week - I hadn’t wanted to think about it over the weekend, thus more work for me today. We ended up having a pretty good day.

J had a good piano lesson. He seems to honestly enjoy piano, which is pretty cool, given how much *I* love piano. He is also quite, quite good. I probably don’t appreciate how good he is, I’ll be honest. I think that I will keep teaching him for another year, maybe two, then if he wants I’ll get him outside lessons. He also worked on handwriting, is preparing (mostly mentally, at this point), for his confirmation, and took a math test (he got an 85.5% - not his best, but not too bad, either).

S had kind of a rough day today. I worked him pretty hard in math - he did 4 worksheets, and I think that isn’t the way to get him learning. I am just at my wits end, though, as he continues to struggle some with his math facts. I’m not even certain he understands the concept of subtraction. And his reading, which was going along so well, is suddenly at a stand-still. He actually asked to go back to 100 EZ lessons today. We did, but he actually struggled a bit with the simple lessons he encountered. I think he just had an “off” day - everyone does. He did well with handwriting, though he was still complaining about the math when we were doing handwriting! Note to self - not too many worksheets for S!

A had a *great* day. He did quite well in his math, I feel confident that he is starting to ‘get’ it. And reading - wow, the kid amazes me. He is SO close to being comfortable and fluent - he can feel it, too, you can tell. He starts to read the story and is completely confident, going rather quickly and actually reading with expression and everything. He is still stuck bit on 4 letter words with double consonents (like “went” or “town”, etc) He’ll “get it” soon, I can tell, and then I think he’ll just take off. I’m so excited for him!! His handwriting is coming along (still need to make that doctor appointment) and I can tell that he is just starting to come into his own, learning-wise, and I’m so happy - for him and me! I am actually starting to look forward to teaching him, rather than dreading it.

All my guys, there just comes a time when they just take off. They just seem to reach a certain maturity, and then they’re reading. Not one minute before, but they get there. With both my guys, it seems to happen at age 8. J was an early 8, A is a late 8, and I’m guessing S will be an early 8 - but 8 seems to be the magic number for my boys, definitely.