Music to My Ears.

I love hearing "I will" or "alright" from my kids when I give them an assignment. I hasn't always been this way and still doesn't happen every time when I ask them to do anything. But I really feel like there has been a lot of progress in the past week or so of diligent work. I am trying really hard to be patient as I teach each of the kids how to do each job. They don't do it exactly like I do or as well but they are still doing it and will get better with time and a little more direction.

Tonight when the boys were putting their dirty clothes in the laundry room, Ian made the observation (talking to Henry) "Gee, the laundry pile is really big. It looks like we will be doing wash tomorrow". I smiled when hearing him say that. I love that realized that there was work that needed to be done and that he will be involved in the doing of it.

Work isn't the only thing we have been up to this past week. It was a major focus but we did do a few other things. We did learn about Africa and the end of the Slave Trade with two chapters of our Story of the World book. We are listening to a new Audio book in the car called The White Giraffe. It takes place in South Africa and it is fun to hear the narrator do the voices and accents of the natives, bushmen, and british people.

Without me prompting her (since my focus was on life skills this week and not academics) Sophie did her language arts lessons, which revolved around the book Mrs. Katz and Tush, as well as two exercises of Singapore Math. I told her she didn't have to do them and explained that we were, sort of, taking a little break from them. She told me she wanted to. Either she was bored with playing on her free time or somehow still felt like I wanted her to do them.  She has also been reading and reading this week. She loves to revisit books she/we have already read. At the moment it is the Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

Ian and Henry did a lot of playing. I have slowly been removing toys from their room but they don't seem to mind too much. They seem to find something to play with even if it is just a block that Henry says is his light sabor. Ian has been reading more books on his own too. He isn't just looking at the pictures anymore either. He reads the words. I can tell he feels really good about his new reading skills.

I do plan to finish Story of the World by the end of May so we should read/listen to another two chapters next week.  We also should finish our audio book and the next "Laura and Mary" (Little House) book by the end of the week too. Other than that I think we will stick with our focus on life skills. It feels good to teach them how to do work. One day I hope to earn my promotion.