1/28/16 Little Helpers and Heavenly Help

      Today I experienced no small amount of Heavenly and earthly help. I started the day early, about 4:30 am. I was worried about how well my students would do on the first exam. The exams aren't graded yet but so far the feedback from the students has all been positive. 

       This morning was day 2 in the computer lab for my seventh graders. These kids all failed the entrance exam and summer school. If they fail again they'll have to repeat the seventh grade. I keep learning new things that they should know by now but don't. Khan Academy is great for letting the kids learn at their own pace. Still, I need to figure out how to get them up to grade level by May. It will take Heavens help to do but I believe we will have it. 

       My pre calc kids were so quiet today it almost makes me want to give an exam every day. We did a short review and then the exam. The Popsicle sticks with names has been effective so far at getting kids who usually don't volunteer up to the board. It's really doing the work that helps you to learn. Maybe if they know they could get called up it will encourage them to come prepared. 

     This evening Heidi went to Roundtable right after dinner. The kids helped me clean up and take care of Peter. The picture above is of Rebecca blowing on Peter's tummy. He loved it. Sarah washed the dishes! David wiped the table and island. TJ helped move the chairs so we could sweep. He even started learning how to sweep. He also put silverware away. It was a team effort all around. I am grateful to Heavenly Father that we seem to be learning this drill. This has been very hard for us in the past and it's just now getting easier. One helpful change has been setting a ten minute timer for who gets to take care of Peter. The three oldest see this as more game than chore and before the timer all three would disappear and claim that they were watching Peter. Now that we have the timer there is much less of that. It also helps us realize how long we're taking. Right now it takes us 2 and a half turns with the timer. That feels a lot faster than the "forever" that it used to take. Where was Joseph in all of this? As far as I can tell, not spreading peanut butter all over anything. Last night he helped move chairs. At least tonight he wasn't slowing things down. He makes slow improvement over time and we try to praise him when he does.