Individualized Attention

I think most kids with problems in school just need individual attention, which is understandibly in short supply at any large school.

We started out by doing different exercises. The Bearwalk, the Inchworm, the Crabwalk, the Wheelbarrow, the Russian Hop (OMG I thought I was going to die), the Frog Sit -make sure you put a pillow on the floor in case you fall on your face, you have to balance on just your hands while resting your knees on your elbows( Not for those of us with boobs.)

Next we sat down and learned about the evolution of human teeth, brains, and eyes. They wrote and defined the words stereoscopic, canine, cerebellum, cerebrum, and cortex. Both of them were excited to try writing the words and definitions without my help. Jake did surprisingly well on his spelling. One thing they have a hard time with is spacing their words, so I had them go over each others work and critique it with a red pen. I know, not very "unschooly" but we were having fun with it and they were having a great time showing off for me.

Jake tried to write some of his definitions in cursive, and he got out the dry erase practice board that has all of the cursive letters on it so that he could copy off of that.

Josie had to stop at one point and check to make sure she didn't have a papercut on her nose, which sould have been a disruption in school I'm sure. "Mrs. Teacher! I have a papercut on my nose!!! I have to get some ICE!" Then she would have gotten some kind of mark for disrupting the class, and it would have been written in a little folder for me to sign, then it would have been discussed at an m-team meeting. These little "outbursts" as they liked to call them would happen quite often in a day, so it was very disruptive to the class. We just got her a little ice, then she decided she didn't have a cut after all. After that she sat down and wrote her definitions.

They both decided that they wanted to use their notebooks as diaries. I explained to Jake that a diary was like a private blog on paper. Funny. I had to learn that a blog was like an online diary. So now we will keep our definitions on regular notebook paper and store them in folders.

Handwriting, Science, Journaling, Physical Education