Mud & Mischief

Just our way of home educating our three girls; assisted by an allotment, a Land Rover and a heap of ingenuity.

My Photo
Name:
Location: South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Friday, September 23, 2005

Banging head on desk...

In frustration. Irritation. Exasperation. And a whole load other 'ations' that have escaped me for now.

Dropped the two small ones off at playgroup and have come home to spend some quality educational time with Myf. Except it's like getting blood out of a stone. She keeps telling me she wants to write, so I say, ok, here's a poem, let's read it, now copy the first 3 lines.

3, note. Three. Not the whole damned thing. I go to put the kettle on to make some hot chocolate, and look down at what she's doing at the table. She's written the first two, and has doodled all over the rest of the page.

And written "I do not love Mom" in the margin.

Am I such a miserable ogre? Maybe I've been wrong all these months, thinking we'd take it easy, nice and steady, let her 'deschool', find her feet, give her a bit of autonomous leeway. Maybe I should have pulled her out of that school, sat her down at the dining table the next day and said 'here's the maths workbook, do me 30 minutes', followed by 'here's your English workbook, do me 45 minutes'. I know we've accomplished something, as she can now read. But her writing is appalling, she won't sit and do anything for any length of time, even though she moans and complains that she can't write, her letters/numbers are wonky, and basically does the whole 'I'm so stupid' whinge.

She's not - she's bright. Not quite as bright as the other two, but she's by no means dumb. I thought Sonlight didn't work for us for a number of reasons - mainly the strict regime and the religious content. Am I hoping too much that Steiner-Waldorf is going to fill that gap?

Yeah, yeah, I know, we're just having a bad day. Once the extension is finished, yadda yadda yadda.

Doesn't help that it's starting to rain either.

4 Comments:

Blogger Hazel said...

(((Hugs))) Roo hates writing too. I know how frustrating it is but then again I suppose they can't see the point of copying things out/are scared of their writing looking less than perfect. I know that's Roo's 'problem'. She hates making mistakes. I bet if Myf was in school she would feel just as much frustration towards the teacher. I suppose you should be glad she feels safe enough to express it to you ;o)

Maybe you could ask her some quiz questions on her fave tv prog or something and she can write down the answer and get a little something for each one?

12:06 pm  
Blogger dawniy. said...

awww sending hugs, she'll get there :)


to let you know

http://stefndawniy.wordpress.com/ is our blog address now (yes i know another change, but this time you won't struggle to get in!)

hope to be back on the ring soon, but pop in to see us before that happens if you can anyway :)

Dawniy x

12:39 pm  
Blogger dottyspots said...

"I don't love mom" (snigger)

I'm sorry Kris but it could be much worse - atleast she can write that!

Really she's only young even by Steiner standards so I wouldn't be too concerned on the S/W front. Maybe she'd like to come and do something with R. - well known law of sod might mean that she'd be more enthusiastic.

Hey, we could swap - you have R. and I'll have Myf, sounds like a fair deal to me :0D

Now why are you running away screaming?????

5:27 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Swap you for Dino?? He won't even pick up a pen!!

*Gazes after rapidly dwindling figure screaming over the horizon*

Seriously tho - you are doing a great job with all of yours. Myf is lovely and a credit to you. Have a ((hug)) and have a better day tomorrow.

7:49 am  

Post a Comment

<< Home