winter blahs

It is official. We are all suffering from a severe case of the winter blahs. It has been a difficult week here, mostly because we are insanely tired of being stuck inside the house all the time, having runny noses and coughs, a lack of energy, and a severe shortage of vitamin D. But also because this is the time of year when it is easy to find oneself stuck in a rut and feeling tired of the same old lesson plans, the same old curriculum, the same old daily cycles. We are longing for a sunny, soggy spring day to throw on our rain boots and start hiking and gardening again.

It has also been a difficult week because D has been having an extremely difficult time attending to his independent work, sticking with any one thing for a significant ammount of time, and completing his work in a timely manner. We are pretty relaxed around here, and for the most part if he is feeling overwhelmed, we let some things go, or at least take more time to complete things. I try to sit with him and guide him for much of his learning, and make sure he is really thinking and processing things, and not just going through the motions. I rarely feel compelled to stick to any lesson for any prescribed ammount of time. When it's done it's done and if it gets tedious we let it go. But there are some things that I feel are important to one's overall learning - like math. And i do know that as challenging as math might be at times, it should not take an HOUR to do one division problem! That is a focus problem. This has always been D's own personal challenge, and one I try to help him with but it as much as I can, but it was seriously frustrating this week.

On the bright side, he wrote three lovely poems this week that I would like to share. He wrote a cinquain, a diamante, and a limerick.

Shark
Shark
Many teeth
Swims and hunts
School of golden fish
Yummy

Pets
Cat
Soft, friendly
Running, jumping, landing
Kittens run, puppies play,
Running, playing, sleeping
Faithful, friendly
Dog

and the limerick was continued from an example in his language arts book. Here is the example:

There was a young lady, whose nose
Continually prospers and grows
When it grew out of sight
She exclaimed in a fright
"Oh! Farewell to the end of my nose!"

and D's continuation:

The nose it continued to grow
To France, it decided to go
It got a top hat
It grew very fat
And then it started to snow.