Homeschool Headaches

We are about 5 weeks into the school year and have already started having fights about schoolwork.  Last year SM loved math and resisted reading.  This year we have done a flip-flop.  She loves reading and argues over math.  Right now its just with subtraction.  But we spend more time arguing about doing the math then it takes her to actually do it.  Some days we just give up and work on Khan Academy instead.  Other days I just stick to it and we fight the whole time.  This usually results in tears and threats of no privileges or even the dreaded public school.  We have had heart to heart talks and more tears.  Yesterday I asked her what she needed to help her not feel so overwhelmed by subtraction.  We remembered that she had blocks to we used as a manipulative last year.  We pulled those out and immediately the tears and arguing ended.  She finished her page of subtraction in record time today.  Sometimes we just need to change things up a bit and be creative.

Magic School Bus series

A great resource we have found for studying science is the Magic School Bus series.  There are different levels of books as well as videos.  You can even purchase science kits.  Scholastic also has a page that has games and activities.  SM and LM both love the series.  They pick out these books from the library on their own.  We also use them to supplement our science topics for CC.  This week we read In Search of the Missing Bones.  I highly recommend this series.  The girls think they are listening to a fun book, but they are also learning at the same time.  It's great!