The year is winding down

It's hard to keep the kids in work mode. I have to make sure I stand firm, though, even if it is a matter of them changing the style of their work. I'd love to have us go outside and work, but the days that aren't cloudy and rainy tend to be quite windy. It doesn't work very well. It would be nice if we had a sort of gazebo or something. Maybe I should see if there's some public place nearby that would fit the bill.

The 11yo has really given up on almost all initiative, but then he has days where he sits down with his work and just goes to town. It's good to see him sort of on the upswing. I've been trying to work more on descriptive praise with him, as well as nipping in the bud other things, and it seems to be helping too.

BUT...

I've made a decision. He is dependent on me for his learning as long as he can't read and write as well as he ought to. He and I will need to sit down and talk about the things he can do in reading, writing and math and the kinds of things he needs to work on. I'm then going to do part of The Writing Road to Reading with him, and probably the 9yo, for the rest of the year. My focus will be on the phonics aspects, plus the composition ideas they have. I think it will work well. We have our year-end review in a few weeks and I would like to have him show progress in his writing. I also need to bring in some tactile work, though, and perhaps have him work again with Phonics Pathways as he's not reading through words. I think his auditory processing skills may have gone down a bit, so that's another thing to work on.

I have been HUGELY neglecting cultural subjects. I think I need to set up a science week--either start the day off with a science topic/experiment or do something just before lunch. Something to bring some life back to our schooling. I had considered waiting until after the year-end review was done as they will pretty much have all required work done by then, but I think it would be better to start something now.

So many decisions to make!