Day 5&6 - The sock hunt

Special memory for special activities

Ever wonder why your kid starts searching for the basketball socks one whole day before the first day of practice, but has no recollection of instructions about homework given just five minutes ago? If so, welcome to my life! Ben loves sports, so anything to do with his team or practice, he has his stuff organized and ready to go a whole day in advance, including water bottles in the fridge, and putting a reminder in his dad's phone...

Break it down (no, that is not a song)

One of the first things I look for when some task is given, is to break it into manageable pieces, rearrange and jumble the pieces, so I can multitask if possible, and then finish it. I do not like work hanging over my head... case in point, the dishes. Don't want to go over that again, but you get my drift.

I think this is an important skill to be learned, and I waste no time teaching and showing this to my kids. With the homework getting more and more complicated, it takes skill to manage time and resources, and get all the moving parts together. One project that we had done last month, was tracking the moon for 30 days. He needed to get at least 14 moon observations in, answer questions about his experience, get 10 facts about the moon, and prepare the whole thing as a booklet. It was a long project. But as you can imagine, we ended up finishing most of the other questions on the day before the project was due! Not a pleasant experience at all.

The homework coming up for ELA is the fracking (hydraulic fracturing) one. The other more interesting one is Social studies to come up with the front page of a 1900s newspaper, when a particular law(solution) is passed for a social/economic issue (problem). He has to pick a reformer (muckraker) for the issue. At first I let him have the first go at the job, reminding him to break up the job, prioritize and then start work. Some five hours later, he said he was still researching the issue. Had lots of notes and articles, but no direction and no subheadings, and certainly no paper. And some simple homework from other subjects which should take no more than 10 minutes each were all not attended to. *rolling eyes again*, trying not to lose temper. I had Ben make a list of things to do, and had him order them. He had completed all the little homework and the introduction to the paper in about 45 minutes. *sigh* He could have had at least 2 hours of playing Xbox if he had planned his work!

Report for the weekend

The ELA draft is complete on fracking, a whole essay. The muckraker project is mostly complete. Needs some more polishing over the week.
As for me, I walked 3 miles on the treadmill yesterday, could not do more at all. I reached my limits. Today I have been on my feet setting up and running the concession stand and backup cafeteria duties for the meet. Worked from about 6 am to 2.30 pm, including some serious cleanup. I am counting that as 3 miles, and will walk another 2 before I call it a day today.

Day 5 Mantra: Sat Chit Ananda {Existence, Consciousness, Bliss}
Centering thought: Today, I embrace my potential to be, do and have, whatever I can dream
Day 6 Mantra: Ram Ram Ram {Everything I desire is within me}
Centering Thought: Everything I desire is within me

Bliss, now!