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.

Math

Last year we went to a School Aids and purchased a 1st grade math workbook for SM.  I chose 3 that I liked and then let her pick the one that she wanted (I was thinking she might cooperate more if she was the one that picked it).  It turned out that SM absolutely loves math and was done with it by Christmas.  We tried to complete about 30 minutes of math a day - some days that equaled 5 pages others just 1.  I also found lapbooks on time and also money when we came to those areas in the work book.  I decided to go with a 1st grade book because she already knew most of the concepts covered in the Kindergarten books minus time and money (which weren't covered in the books that I looked at).

When we started back after the Christmas break I wasn't sure what to do.  I had read an article about Khan Academy in a Costco magazine and had seen it mentioned by Ron Paul's homeschool website ( https://www.khanacademy.org/about ).  It's a free online program and it tracks progress and sends me weekly reports.  There are badges that SM can earn.  This covers math from basic through college.  We love it.  There are videos and practice problems.  SM has already mastered 36% of the early math mission (which goes through 2nd grade).  There are also other subjects available.  We actually watch some of the other videos on YouTube when they are available for subjects that we are covering in Classical Conversations (CC).

In the fall we will do another math workbook and work on Khan Academy on the side.