Planning English class (7th and 11th grade combined)

With Bee home next semester, and Bug no longer taking English at his co-op. I am coming up with a plan to teach them both myself.  The truth is that I really don't like teaching writing.  It's the subject I am most qualified to teach and also the one I actually have professional experience teaching (college writing lab).  It comes very easily to me, however, and I find it frustrating and tedious to try and teach it.  When I write something, I often start at the beginning and end at the end, with minimal planning and revision.  I have a process for writing research papers which involves a bit of writing notes and quotes, but it is mostly internal and difficult to explain to an overwhelmed young writer.  

The most enjoyable curriculum I have used has been WriteShop.  It breaks the process of writing down in ways that I honestly can't.  So, I will continue with Bee where we left off in the program a couple of years ago and start Bug in WriteShop I.  

I will also be working with them both on some basic skills with writing research papers.  I ordered a book of citation exercises to use with Bug, and a book of help for writing a research paper for Bee, but I may just use both for both.  We will see.  I've learned that too much advance planning tends to backfire.  It's best to be loosely prepared and go with the flow.  

But the part of their English classes that I'm truly excited about is POETRY.  This is the perfect thing for us to study because poems are short.  I can choose a poem, we can read it together, discuss it, do some analysis, and be done.  Very little preparation is required.  And poetry is so important and so understudied in high school and college.  I hope to have them take turns choosing poems at some point.  I'm excited about this new adventure!  

And we come full circle

Some time ago, I posted about how Bee's homeschool journey had come to an end.  Well, 3 semesters later, we think we're going to pull him out again.  The school system's pandemic learning plan has been a disaster, especially for someone like him who is twice exceptional.  I will not violate my child's privacy by discussing all of the particulars, but there are other problems as well.  Traditional school is not a good way for him to learn.  I'm not sure it is good for anyone, including the teenage girls in his advanced classes who cry regularly over the workload and the pressure.  

There has been discouragement and disillusionment among all of us, especially my husband and Bee.  The system pretends to be something that it is not.  Mastery of material or profound engagement with subject matter aren't the focus--assignment completion and following instructions are.  Helps for kids with ADHD is abysmal, so we've found.  Advocating is pretty much a waste of time.  It's not the people (administrators and teacher); the system is deeply flawed.  

Bug has been taking outside classes.  They are good, but I'm coming to realize that I do just as good a job if not better with helping my children learn than any teacher.  And signing my kids up for classes often causes me more stress than just doing it myself.  (Except for science, where my interest and ability is very low).  So, Bug will be taking fewer classes too.  

I am in a hybrid-distance seminary program, receiving A+'s.  This has done a massive amount for my confidence level.  Homeschooling is so thankless, with no outside gratification.  It's nice to feel competent and knowledgeable at something.  

So, I will be back to homeschooling my boys.  Bee has three more semesters until graduation! I am truly thankful to have the option to homeschool my children.  It is so hard sometimes, but after much prayer, I believe we are making the right choice for our family.  

Shiller Math: After 27 Lessons

Dot and I have completed 27 lessons on Shiller Math, and we are loving it so far.  She begs to do it most days.  I'm thrilled because it is such a nice program.  It seems thorough, gentle, and, just like in a Montessori class, it's learning through exploration. 

As a trained Montessori teacher, I find the materials a little different, and sometimes things are scripted in a way that aren't quite the way I was trained.  That's okay, and I just make adjustments. 

The Shiller material, like Montessori material, is diagnostic.  Because it isolates concepts so effectively, it is easy to tell what a child has mastered and also to see what concepts she might need more work on.  I quickly learned that Dot needs to practice counting a little more and gain a little confidence in counting numbers over 5 (which she finds slightly overwhelming). 

I am love with the Montessori "bank" material.  Of course, I love the golden beads used in the Montessori classroom, and the blue plastic units are growing on me too.  It gives me a thrill that she can now identify which ones are the tens, hundreds, and thousands.  Such a fun thing for a 4-year-old to be exposed to.  I enjoyed watching the kids with these materials when I was a student teacher.  They love playing with the large quantities.  Dot likes to play with them outside of our lessons, which I think is great. 

All About Reading: Pre Reading: After 15 lessons

Dot and I have been working through All About Reading: Pre Reading, both due to her interest in letters and due to not having much else to do with so much shut down for Covid-19. 

We truly enjoy it, and she asks to do her letters most days.  Sometimes we get tired of decorating the letter pictures, and I tell her that we have to finish our picture before doing another lesson.  We tend to spread out the lessons over two days, one for the oral parts of the lesson and the other for the coloring page.  I really like all the word games that we play, as I can see how it helps her to think about the smaller sounds that words are made up of. 

She knows most of her capital letters, but several are still being solidified in her head.  She has started writing words a lot, asking how to spell them.  She often remembers how to write "hi" on her own. 

It is lovely to have this third child and to not be in a rush.  (Except sometimes I long for the day when she'll lose herself in a book). 

Simon Bloom Series: Living Books for Middle School Science

I am thrilled to have discovered the Simon Bloom series by Michael Reisman.  They are exciting stories for middle schoolers that weave in scientific concepts.  

I wrote in my last post that I am working to beef up Bug's science learning for the semester.  He is the biggest bookworm ever to talk the planet, making living books the best way for him to learn almost any topic.  He prefers audio books.  He loves fantasy and science fiction.  When he runs out of new books, he will re-read his favorite books (Artemis Fowl, Magnus Chase), but he becomes increasingly bored and restless and then has to be convinced to try new ones.  Bug lives on interesting and exciting books.  

In my googling, I came upon Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper.  I read the description to Bug, and he frowned and said it sounded too dramatic, but he did reluctantly agree to try it.  This was yesterday afternoon.  As of this morning, he has finished the 7-hour book and asked to download the next one in the series, Simon Bloom: The Octopus Effect.  The three books together take around 25 hours to listen to.  So three days for Bug.  Yes, he's quite the bookworm, and I'm very proud of him.  

There is one more book in the series (Simon Bloom: The Order of Chaos), and I'm hoping he'll retain his excitement and read that one as well.  I'm delighted at this addition to Bug's 6th grade science learning.  

Pandemic Learning: Trying Outschool

I wrote recently about how I wanted to fit in more science for Bug this semester, as we wrap up the school year.  Last semester, he took an engineering class, but it didn't make for the spring, and he took some homeschool classes at the zoo. 

We started the spring semester well, with him working through a chemistry kit, but then he needed more materials, not included with the kit, and that got put on pause.  It was too cold to go to the zoo for the homeschool classes at the beginning of the semester, and then the lockdown came. 

I made the suggestion to him that we do a "science camp" at the end of the semester, after his co-op classes end.  "With YOU?" he asked, horrified.  Considering that I don't actually want to create a week-long science camp for him, I decided that it's best to find an alternative.  I thought he might like learning about pandemics, something I am actually interested in.  No, not interested in pandemics.  Not interested in anatomy either.  I like plant science, but he doesn't.  He is not interested in anything I like, only in physics and chemistry.  

Today, I got him started back on his chemistry set, because I had acquired some of the missing materials.  I will encourage him to continue that over the next weeks, until he has worked in all the experiments.  I'd also like to find him a book to read that relates to physics or chemistry.  I'm looking at the Simon Bloom series for him to try.  

I have signed him up for 12 hours of classes in Outschool during the month of May on the themes of physics and chemistry.   These will be online videoconferencing classes.  I had seen ads for Outschool in the past, but Bug enjoys in-person classes so much that I didn't ever seriously consider signing up for one.  Enter Covid-19, and videoconferencing seems like a better idea.  

So, we'll see what happens with these, and if Outschool turns out to be something our family continues to use.  

Magic School Bus Chemistry: A Review

Dot and I have been doing a Magic School Bus Chemistry kit every now and then for the past several months.  We are about halfway through the kit.  She loves it.  We got it because I got a different chemistry kit for Bug, and I thought correctly that she would enjoy doing experiments at the same time as her big brother. 

A little background:  I'm not a science mom.  I am not fascinated by how the material world works, although I've tried to be.  I do not love doing science demonstrations with children, but I wanted to love it.  I try to follow instructions, and the experiments/demonstrations flop, or I can't find the materials, and it's all very frustrating.

I've had the most successes with Magic School Bus kits.  Sometimes the materials are a bit cheap, and sometimes the experiments don't seem to work for me.  Most of the time, however, the materials are adequate to very nice, and 99% of everything needed is inside the kits.  And they are affordable. 

The chemistry has been a lot of fun for Dot and I to do.  She is too young to understand much about any concepts illustrated, but she definitely likes the idea of doing science experiments. 

I would recommend this kit for mature 4-to-7-year-olds for a fun time with parents, with the understanding that the concepts illustrated by the experiment cards are going to be too abstract for them.  Young children will need a lot of assistance with every experiment.  Second or third graders may understand a little more of the science but may still need a lot of help.  Fourth to Fifth graders can probably do these on their own. 

For the elementary school mom who wants her kids to do some hands-on science with a minimum of frustration, the Magic School Bus chemistry is a solid choice. 

Finding my Homeschool Mojo Again

My motivation and excitement around homeschooling got lost a few years ago.  It became this thing that I did because I was already doing it, because at one time I had really felt it was the best thing for my kids, because I didn't want to deal with the public schools, and so on.  Not because I thought it was fun anymore, just more of an obligation. 

And so I really started to explore and consider other options, and the weird thing is that homeschooling is starting to be fun again.  I love doing letters and math with Dot.  Homeschooling the elementary ages is wonderful.  I love our math and reading kits.  I love picture books and reading chapter books.  I love that it's easy and fun to give children a solid foundation of phonics and conceptual math.  I love nature walks and learning through real books and community activities.  I love park days with other homeschoolers.  No regrets at all about home education in the elementary years.  It's a wonderful lifestyle. 

Homeschooling the middle school years has been really challenging for me, in very different ways with both of my boys.  Children want more time away from their parents at this age.  More driving is needed.  There is a lot of selecting outside classes and trying to find enough social opportunities.  It's really hard to do this while having other children of different ages. 

Bug spends vast amounts of time listening to audiobooks, which is wonderful, because he is constantly learning no matter what I do.  My struggle with him is that he hates for me to tell him verbally what to do.   I think if I input assignments into a web-based homeschool planner for Bug in the coming school year, our relationship will work a lot better.  Academically, once again, I'm learning that Bug is completely different from his brother and will likely require an opposite approach.  This took me an entire year to learn.  Sigh.  His brother responded best to constant adaptation, a very fluid approach.  Written checklists never worked for him. 

If I focus on the positive, Bug's doing great, getting his assignments done independently for his outside classes (just doesn't like me to verbally go over his assignments with him).  He is motivated to have that work done on time and accurately.  He really likes his homeschooled friends, and I want to focus next school year on making sure we have more social activities, if the pandemic allows, that is... 

The pandemic has been helpful for me too, in terms of my motivation.  All of a sudden, the world is turned upside down, and the weirdos who ignored conventional advice, who live on one income and educate their children at home, have it the easiest.  During this time of instability, I don't have to worry about what another lockdown will mean.  I don't want it, but we're ready for it. 

It feels good to have that old sense of excitement and joy about homeschooling again.  It just took time and a lot of letting go of the past. 

Still a Stay at home Mom

I've gone through a lot of soul searching over the past year about if I still want to homeschool my kids, and if I still want to be a stay-at-home mom.  It's a complicated decision, like it is for many families.  I feel lucky that we can live comfortably on my husband's salary.

But I have struggled over the past few years with feelings of boredom, inferiority, inadequacy, of being left out of the world of work and income and achievement.  This was complicated recently by a painful experience discerning to be a clergyperson in my denomination, and being told to come back in three years and go through the whole year-long stressful, time-consuming, and expensive process again and see if I get a different answer. 

After that debacle, which left me hurt, confused, and angry, I've given a lot of thought to putting the children in school (or continuing to homeschool) while getting a job, possibly in healthcare.  It would take many years of education and experience to make much money at all.  And it would mean a lot of trade offs.  Less time with my children, less time with my husband.  Less personal time for exercise, reading, personal development and hobbies.  Unlikely that I'd get to run off and do a meditation retreat again, which is what I dream of.  My husband and I would have to juggle sick days when Dot needed us.   My husband has several weeks of vacation a year.  Could I even find a job where I could continue to go on vacation as often as we have enjoyed doing?  Could I like a job enough to give up time with my family, time for myself, and family vacations? 

Let's not forget the fact that all three of my children are special needs.  They are all gifted (with all the intensity that comes with it), and at least two of my children have other special needs that affect their ability to function in a classroom.  Public school isn't ideal for them.  I'm not in love with any of the private schools in the area, and they are terribly expensive.  And I have strong philosophical beliefs about education and child raising.  I don't think it's ideal for children, particularly Dot's age, to be at school for 6-7 hours, and then less ideal to go to an after school program after such a long day.  I understand that many families have to do that, but it's not what I want for my children.

Why do I want to get a job?  Because I want to be valued and acknowledged and receive some sort of tangible reward and recognition for my work.  But do I want that badly enough to give up so many things that make life worth living?  And would a job really provide that, or just suck away my life, leaving me feeling more empty?  I do very much want  new challenges and new experiences.  Would a job provide those?  It would definitely be different and new.  Would it be worth it?  Not sure.  And it's not like I can just easily try it without making massive changes to our lives and our kids' lives. 

We live far away from family.  My husband and I take care of our kids alone.  We do have friends and a church community, but I don't know that I have a family-type relationship with anyone here.  We've lived here a little over 5 years.  I'd love to have the kind of friends that were more like family, where we help to bring up each other's kids, but that just hasn't happened yet here.  It's stressful.  My husband has to travel several times a year, and we already scramble to get our kids to their programs and activities.  We are spread very thin without my having a job.

If I had a job, could I make enough money to cover gas, work clothes, additional child care or tuition?  Would it be worth the stress?  What good would a little bit more cash be to our family if I don't have time to enjoy it?

Sometimes I get frustrated.  Why can't I just be a regular person who is reasonably content with the public education system?  Why am I so weird and intense and complicated?  Why do I overthink everything? 


A few stories:

• A few years ago, I was friends with someone.  We both had toddlers at the time.  She had an impressive, prestigious job that provided a wonderful service to the world.  She said that going to work was a break from her toddler for her, and that the incredible daycare they used provided so much more attention and learning opportunities to her son than she ever could.  I thought about my life, and feeling bored and anxious, and how I didn't provide hours of stimulating programming for my daughter each day, how she watched too much TV.  I was massively jealous of this friend and her prestigious job.  And then one day a couple of years later, I went to pick this friend's child up from this supposedly amazing daycare.  The facility seemed adequate, but it was not what I would have chosen for my own kids, and I definitely did not think it better than our life of playgrounds and outings, and  yes, even boring old mom and the TV in our crazy, messy house.   It turned out that the perfect life that I thought my friend had was just an illusion.  It turned out she wasn't as happy and fulfilled as I thought, and within a couple of years she ended her marriage and left her impressive job.  She and her ex ended up unhappy with the daycare too.  Lesson learned was that I need to stop being jealous of other people to the point that I can't see their pain and humanity. 
• A family member of mine was a SAHM for many years, and as her kids got into middle school, was sharing about the wonderful job she had accepted and about how great it would be to be working.  Again, I was very jealous.  And then a couple of years later, she is home again and feels that the job was too stressful and brought on an autoimmune condition.  She now says that she doesn't understand why any woman works outside the home if she doesn't have to.  Same thing.  Why do I get so jealous?  Everyone has problems, and no one's life is perfect.  
• Final story:  Covid-19 Pandemic comes along.  Dot is pulled out of all of her activities, including mom's morning out.  Does she miss them?  Not really.  She is just happy to be home with her family, watching TV and playing.   

I'm a good mom and a loving wife but a bad housekeeper, and not likely to ever be a great one.  But I also am a laid back mom who doesn't freak out about sand on the floors or marker on the walls or children covered in mud.  And 4-year-olds don't stay 4 forever, and I know that one day our house won't be wrecked so quickly or so completely.  I do worry that I don't provide enough value to our family.  I often feel inadequate, and it's hard to see the things I do well sometimes and easy to focus on my weaknesses and our family's problems.

Personal Goals:

• Grow closer to God through prayer and meditation.  
• Listen to God and stop worrying.  
• Relax and enjoy my children and husband for who they are. 
• Read interesting books, find courses to take in person or online.  
• Learn to write poems.  
• Be selective about what volunteer opportunities I take; find things that feed me and challenge me in ways I need to be fed and challenged.  
• Give myself grace and acceptance.  

Record Keeping for the Relaxed Homeschool (Updated)

So, I have used many systems of record keeping over the past years.  I have gradually ditched most of them.  I do not keep daily, weekly, or monthly records.  For the past several years, I have kept semester written reports of work accomplished, yearly standardized tests, copies of my declaration of intent to homeschool for each year, and immunization records.  All three are in a big binder.

What is the purpose of these records:

• A sense of accomplishment for me and the children.  
• In the case of the tests, an objective measure that the children are being educated, should proof be necessary for any reason.  If possible, I have them administered in a community setting by an outside administrator.  
• Information to create middle or high school transcripts or to apply for academic programs.  

My records do go above and beyond what the state requires.  The state requires records of yearly progress reports and standardized testing every three years.  I make semi-annual progress reports and test each year.

The state homeschool association does recommend daily attendance records, which have never really made sense to me to keep, since the children never stop learning.  I have tried to mark attendance in the past for days of more formal academics; perhaps I will again, but I've never kept up with it for an entire school year in 11 years of homeschooling. I'm glad that it's not mandatory.

Each semester, which covers a 6-month period, so that summer activities can be counted, I write out my plans for each child.  I write them in the past tense so that they can be used for the semester progress report.  At the end of the semester, I make changes to the report, based on what we accomplished.  My reports include titles of books and textbooks, major projects and papers finished, outside classes taken, and field trips.  I write them in paragraph form by subject and include qualitative comments about each child's strengths and accomplishments.  At the end of the academic year, I print the reports and store them in the binder.   I did not and do not use grades, as I do not find them useful in a homeschool setting.  I do not make or keep any sort of academic records for preschool or kindergarten, since they are not mandatory, and I can't think of a use our family could have for them.

I always feel good seeing the written reports about my children's academic accomplishments.  That has been their main benefit.  They also proved immensely useful to me when I had to submit middle school transcripts for Bee to his high school.  Vaccine records are useful to keep in one place for summer camps or school admission.

Homeschoolers have very different thoughts about what records should be kept, and states have different requirements.  As a child advances in grade level, the more likely it is that records may be needed for program admissions.  Some parents keep work samples in a portfolio and keep attendance records but may not write reports.  Some parents think grades are very important and keep detailed gradebooks.  Some parents do a good job of keeping qualitative daily records of their children's learning.  Some prefer not to test their children due to learning differences or personal beliefs about testing, and only test the minimum amount required by their state.

If you can answer yes to all three of the following questions, then your record keeping system is working for you:

• Are you able to keep up with it with a minimum of stress and a sense of accomplishment?
• Does it meet your child's needs for admission to programs?  
• Does it satisfy your state requirements? 

Shiller Math: First Impressions

So, for Dot, I decided to give Shiller Math a try.  It's a logical choice for us, since I am very familiar with the Montessori method.  I have Association Montessori International (AMI) diplomas for ages 0-3 and 3-6.  I love Montessori math.

Here are reasons I didn't try Shiller with her brothers:

• The materials are a little plasticky and flimsy looking, compared to the Montessori math materials you might use in a classroom.  
• I had more enthusiasm for planning lessons 10 years ago.  Now, I want to pursue my own hobbies and interests in my free time.  
• It's an investment!  It's economical in the long term (about 5 years of math lessons), but in the short term, it costs a lot.  
• I just didn't think that a whole big program was necessary; I just wanted to adapt as I went.  This worked fine.  All the things that my boys did (games, conversations, Montessori lessons, Life of Fred, homeschool classes) produced good results; they've each always had an excellent conceptual understanding of math, and both are confident in their abilities and have been able to adapt to working in a classroom setting.  

This is why I got Shiller Math for Dot:

• I need the scripted and systematic lessons at this point in my life.  I have books I want to read, crafts I want to create, volunteer work, chores, kid activities to drive to, and I just don't have the headspace and time for a lot of planning.  
• Shiller Math is a solid system of concrete and developmentally appropriate math lessons.  I want Dot to think that math is fun and to understand what she is doing.  At this age (kit is for ages 4-8 or so), children need to explore and touch.  No drilling, and the system is designed to be encouraging rather than corrective.  
• The materials are not a fancy Montessori classroom quality, but they are attractive enough and good enough.  
• I am more willing to spend money on curriculum these days because I have become a better judge of what works for me and our family and what will actually get used.  I'm happy to have a kit that will last several years.  

Review after one day of use:  We got through the first 8 lessons, and Dot and I had a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to going through all the lessons with her over the next few years.  

The long view:  My plans (always subject to change) include Shiller Math through about age 8, followed by Life of Fred elementary series and perhaps computer games, followed by math classes at a homeschool co-op in middle and high school.  All of this is mixed in with a lot of conversations and answering questions about math in daily life.  I never have to try to "work in" math concepts; they seem to come up all the time on their own.  It helps to be married to a mathematician who is capable of answering anything I can't.  

I'll update on Shiller when we've used it for a few months, but I'm hopeful that it is a good choice for us.  

All About Reading: Pre Reading: An Initial Review

Like many parents who have homeschooled for many years, I have become increasingly wary of early academics, but I do believe in following a child's interests.  I would have been content to hold off on letter learning until age 6 or 7, but Dot has already picked up a lot on letter names and sounds, asks about the names of letters, and seems highly motivated to learn about them. 

What we tried already:  Sandpaper letter cards, learning the sound names for the lowercase letters, playing sound games.  I did this in my Montessori-trained way, but she really didn't take to it, especially the sandpaper letter cards.  I think it's more exciting to learn this way in a classroom with a teacher.  We have always read to her; she gets at least 3 books every night at bedtime. 

We are about 9 lessons into All About Reading so far, and Dot has really taken to it.  She asks to do it every day.  She likes both the activities and the special time with mommy. 

What I like so far: 

• It is scripted with no prep from the parent (other than punching out the notecards.)  
• I am already comfortable with the method, since I did several years of All About Spelling with my boys.  
• The materials are attractive.  I like the letter posters that we have put on the wall.  
• It is systematic and logical and based in research on how children learn.  It is a good phonetic foundation.  
• It's gentle and encouraging and short, just a few minutes a day.  
• We have been having fun with the rhyme games and letter coloring.  
• I'm enjoying reading Dot the included poems.  

Possible Disadvantages:

• Not sure the coloring sheets would have ever held my boys' attention.  But there are supplemental activity suggestions (like making the letters out of clay or pipe cleaners) that could be even be a substitute.  

It seems a perfect program for children ages 4-7 (or even older) to introduce pre reading skills.  Again, I would not rush it and would not use this or any program with a 4 or 5 year old who wasn't showing interest.  I would just stick to reading them picture books, maybe playing some fun sound games, and wait a bit on letters.  If your child is interested and developmentally ready for pre-reading skills, I think All About Reading Pre Reading is an ideal program!  

An update: Homeschooling through Pandemic

I'm surprised I hadn't posted in so long!  Last year was the only the year I didn't write an end-of-year update about what worked and what didn't.  I only officially homeschool one child now. 

Bee now attends public high school, which has its advantages and disadvantages.  Ironically, of course, he's home right now due to the pandemic.  My husband is working from home and trying to help him get his work done.  Bee has diagnosed attention issues, and I've always been hesitant to write about those in this blog, out of respect for his privacy.  I will say that when school starts up, we will resume getting his 504 plan in order.  Bee is a brilliant and creative person, and it's hard to fit him into any sort of system.  Overall, public high school is probably the best environment for him right now, since he so adamantly wishes to attend a traditional school.  But not badly done distance public school at home in a time of pandemic. 

Bug is in the 6th grade.  He takes a few outside classes (math, writing, art, PE) and reads a ton of audiobooks.  He has learned a lot this year, both academically and about keeping up with assignments.  His teachers have been able to transition to online pandemic learning easily and well.  He even has karate on zoom.  I feel like he needs more history and science than what I've done this semester, and I'm thinking about doing a couple of "camp" weeks after his classes end (but before the public school system ends).  I am thinking documentaries, cooking, and outdoor activities of some sort.  And it would need to include Dot. 

And Dot is almost 5 years old and an amazing little person!  A very talkative and happy little person.  The laws in my state do not require she attend school for a whole other year, so while she's technically about to be kindergarten age, she won't be officially homeschooled until the 2021-22 year.  However, she is so interested in letters and math that we have started some kits in this pandemic time, since we are home so much and a little bored.  We have All About Reading pre-reading, and we just started Shiller Math.  I'll write about those in separate posts.  I tried very hard to hold off on any sort of formal learning, as I really think kids don't need early academics, and can even be harmed by them sometimes, but she is ready and excited to do these things.  And they are hands on, gentle, and fun for her.  She is really helping me to get my homeschool mojo back.