A Little Experiment this Week

Did anyone see Supernanny this week? I don't normally watch it but the family this week had seven kids so I was curious. I ended up crying. Their son Daniel has ADHD. It was like I was watching Alex and Nathan. I could not believe. Carl was watching with me and he just kept saying "That is Alex." Their daughter is our William. HE is my helper, the one I always ask to do things. So I have been convicted of some things. First of all I need to give William a break. Second, our schooling. It breaks my heart to have to fight with Alex everyday. He yells "I hate school." It is pure torture for him to sit still or read. He loves to move and take things apart and draw. Oh, how that kid loves to draw. So I have decided to give up on my idea of school. I guess having a teaching background I have been trying to do homeschooling like a school. It is not a fit for Alex. I love the My Father's World curriulum but it is designed for kids like William and like, well, me. It is not designed for kids like Nathan and Alex who HAVE to move. I am tired of having Nathan and Alex on top of the table all the time. So I am giving up and trying something new. I have been coming back to this curriculum many times but everyone has told me that it is too much work. I found a cheap copy of Volume 1 of the KONOS curriculum at our homeschool store. I figured I would try it for a week and see how it goes. I only paid $20 for it so it is not much of a loss if it does not work. I also bought the tapes of Jessica and Carol explaining the curriculum. Listening to the tapes and looking at the curriculum I could kick myself. This is exactly what Alex and Nathan need. A good character curriculum that allows them to learn by moving and doing. Planning this week has gotten me excited about schooling for the first time in a while and the kids are excited. The first character quality is attentiveness. One of the games they suggest playing is called "In grandma's trunk." You go through each letter of the alphabet and name something that is in grandmas trunk. When it is your turn you have to name everything that the people ahead of you put in the trunk and then add the next letter. We were at a restaruant waiting for our food and the kids were getting impatient. I started this game and it was a riot. We had the whole place laughing as we had elephants, zebras, jingle bells and lots of silly stuff in the trunk. The kids had fun and did not want to stop even when their food came. We ended up on z at the car when we were leaving. Each kid remembered everything we listed. I then explained to them the idea of attentiveness and told them that we had just done a school activity. You should have seen Alex's eyes light up. He just looked at me and said "COOL." I could have cried. I will have to let you all know how it goes this week. I am excited and nervous as it is a lot more planning as I can't just sit and let them do a worksheet. It is good for me though as this is going to be good for my movers in the bunch. Math and English are not a problem as the kids love the Saxon Matha and the First Language lessons. Even Alex has memorized every poem in the book so far and that is really saying something. I'll keep everyone posted on my little experiment.