I made a few revelations this week.

1) I need to spend more time teaching Kyle how to write a simple summary. He has trouble with run-on sentences, sentence fragments, and organizing his thoughts on paper. He actually has trouble doing those thing through oral narration as well. I realized what he was doing with narration and subsequently in his writing, is trying to remember obscure details and facts, but not actually summarizing what he read. I found some You Tube videos that I'm going to use this week to teach him. We're going to having a writing intensive this week, and maybe next.

2) The twins are progressing through reading, but are still stagnant in Math. For the most part numbers are very abstract to them. Even though we use Math-U-See which is manipulative based, they don't get addition and we haven't formally attempted subtraction. With concrete items, they can understand the principles of adding and even taking-away, but adding actual digits just throws them off. So I spent all day yesterday developing a custom-math program just for them. I'm super excited!!!! It is based on a book that I read many years ago, titled "How to Build a Super Power Memory". It uses the peg-memory system to associate letter or numbers to pictures. Thanks to my best-friend sending me lots of information on finding my child's learning style, I am actively changing what needs to be changed in our homeschool to accommodate the learning differences that I have in the school-room. I learned in "The Learning Disabilities Trap"; "The tragedy of some public-school education for children with learning differences is that the majority of teachers and administrators are convinced conditions in their schools are ideal for learning. And because such conditions make teaching easier, they have no inclination to change their current approach to teaching." p90
This affects me. I can't get caught in the trap that "this" is a really good curriculum or book or whatever, and not change it for convenience sake or fear of the unknown. I am thankful for the homeschool. I know for a fact that my twins would fail in the school system, because they are different learners, and they can't be catered to in a classroom of 20+ students.

3) I weaned Kendal this week!!!! He is 14 months old. I really didn't want to, but I knew I needed to for his sake. Feeding him on demand every 3 hours for 14 months created a picky, fussy, tyrant. I am happy to report that it is now day 5 and he is a MUCH happier baby. He is finally sleeping through the night (nothing to wake up for now), he actually stayed in nursery today for the first time ever, he doesn't hang on my legs and cry and whine, he doesn't take every opportunity to cry every time I sit down. He has learned to self-sooth, play, be cheerfully occupied, and he is gaining self-control.

4) Kyle is doing excellent in Saxon! He dreads doing math, but Saxon is working for him.

5) I'm encouraged by all the childrens' character growth. I have seen all of them grow in respect and service. They are joyfully serving around the house without being asked. They are taking on more responsibility voluntarily. They are improving in spending their morning hours with God without being asked. They are encouraging each other with their words. They are sharing voluntarily with each other. They are sacrificing their wants for each other. They are humbly coming to me or dad when they are wrong and asking for forgiveness without prompting. Rolling of eyes has all but ceased (with the threat of writing 100 sentences ea. offense. 1 offense so far), they are ultra content. They are alert and attentive to others' needs. They love singing praises to God and make-up songs for him. I am a happy, contented, blessed, wife and mother. Character isn't taught in school, it's taught at home. I look back at this list and I am so thankful, to be with my children during their waking hours. I have to look at this list when I am tempted to believe that the school could do a better job with my different learners, than I am doing. I'm not homeschooling for academics alone, I'm homeschooling because I want to form and shape my childs' character into the image of God-the school can't do that. The fact that they all get individual education plans is a bonus!