Homeschool update

Just a little bit of advice-if you are gonna have 1 full week to get school started before you have to take one full week off (for surgery or otherwise).....DON'T START YET!
We were all getting antsy because we had not started school so we started the week before Kalysa's surgery. We had a full week of really good school. We were expecting to have about a month of rehab and were planning to do school in the hospital but, Praise The Lord, we did not have the therapy so ended up just taking a 1 week "fall break". This week we have been trying to get back into the school schedule with much resistance.
Monday was Keslee's day. She does not learn the same way that Kenyon and Kalysa do. They both learned to read seemingly instantly with little to no instruction. After they learned the letters and the sounds they each make, it was just natural for them to put them together and blend sounds into words. For example, Kenyon could read just about anything you put in front of him after he finished Kindergarten. He read the entire big Dick and Jane book in a day and decided to read through the Bible around second grade. He did not DO it but he started and read several chapters in Genesis without help. Kalysa can read about 1/2 of an SRA card that is listed as 7th grade reading. The problem that she has is that most words are no problem for her but she will have no idea what she just read. You can ask her questions about the story and she will not know the answers. With Kalysa, we really have to work on reading comprehension. Keslee, on the other hand, struggles and has to sound out each word except for basic words and most common sight words. She constantly has to say to herself or be reminded of rules such as silent e or y can say "e" or "i" but when she reads something she usually remembers what she just read. It has been a constant struggle trying to be sure that Keslee does not feel like she is "behind" or that Kalysa is "smarter" than her. Well Monday she spent the day in her own little pity party. Kalysa finished her entire reading assignment before Keslee had finished her 1st page and the tears started. We had to take time out and get lasts years work out and show her just how far she has come. Concrete evidence that she HAS learned a lot and come a long way on her reading brought a few smiles to her face but each word she did not know instantly brought the water works back. This made for a long and exhausting first day back from fall break!!
Our week progressed from there and Jacinta had to take her turn as well. Several times she had to prove to us all that she really is a pre-teen 12 year old girl with raging hormones and the mood swings and attitude to go with it! Not that any of us ever doubted that fact but she proved it none the less. It doesn't help anything that I am just her big sister and therefore obviously more fit for bouts of sibling rivalry than respect of those who have rule over you.
Not to be outdone-Kenyon had to have his turn. He has convinced himself that he HATES writing and was committed to the cause of convincing me of the same thing. He ended up taking about 2 hours to complete a paragraph explaining who Adam and Eve were and why they were kicked out of the garden. I told him that he would have to get used to writing because we will be having at least 1 writing assignment a week. It did not help matters any that I said that without looking at my lesson plan and realizing that we had another one the very next day! I am convinced and committed to the cause of convincing HIM that he will learn to LOVE forming his thoughts and then putting them down on paper!
So if you were wondering why I have been quiet on the old blog for a while, there ya have it. Not an easy week on the homeschool front but we made it through and actually got most lessons done and even are a little ahead in math. Next week will be better! It has to be....right??!!