The Reading Saga

It's working!
Today Luke impressed me even more than yesterday. Yesterday and the day before he was retelling what he read to me in a fluent manner. Without me asking him to do this.
Today, is the first time the lessons have asked him to read each word in one sentence "the fast way" without me reading it first. Or without me showing him the last two words in a sentence and me reading all the other words, and him only reading the last two. So after him sounding out each word in the story, answering questions about the story, and making predictions about the story and picture; he was to read one sentence word for word without pausing. Not only did he read the first sentence, he read all three sentences without messing up once. Not once! And he read it in a fluent manner! And he understood what he read!
What reading teacher could ask for any more than that from a 5 year old who isn't even in his second semester of Kindergarten? Not me!!! I let him know how proud I am and told him that this is what good readers do!
My heart is full!!!!
<3

The Zoo Fiasco

So I spent a lot of money and planned for a fun time with Luke at his first Zoo Homeschool Workshop. Within the first 10 minutes of arriving at the zoo (waiting for the door to the classroom to open), Luke called me a name. He got a spanking for this. After we made it into the classroom, all the students were sitting around the tables coloring a bee. Luke doesn't like to color and refused to do anything with the sheet. Then he wanted to sit with me. I explained that he needed to sit in his own chair at the table with the others ( I was within his reach.) He did not like my answer and hit me. So I took him to the bathroom and spanked him again.
We traveled to and from the classroom twice, and both times Luke hung back from the group. I had to either grab his hand and power walk back to the group or put my hand on his shoulder and push him along as we walked with the group.
Things improved somewhat until about the last 15 minutes in class. The kids were coloring butterflies and stringing them into a mobile to take home. He was through with his project and I was helping other kids with theirs. I don't even remember what brought on his next actions, but he spit at me in my face. I grabbed him up and took him to the bathroom and spanked him once again. Three times in four hours! And this was supposed to be a fun outing for me and him!
His behavior is like this on most days. Our new set of rules is No Spitting, No Hitting, and No Calling Names! I'm not saying that he is a little devil, but his behavior is unacceptable! He can be just as sweet as he is mean. And we've tried timeouts and spankings. The only thing he seems to care about is watching tv. So starting tomorrow he will have to act well  and complete his school work in order to earn tv time. I'm at a loss as to what else to do. I never imagined I'd be raising a child who acted like this. I feel like such a failure when we have a day like this. He gets away with almost nothing! Yet continues to act like this. I've considered seeking out the help of a therapist.
The End

The Boy…. again

Oh he is just so hard to deal with when it comes to school. He turns away from me when he needs to be looking at the book I'm showing him. He closes his eyes. He won't repeat what I ask him to repeat. I have to put him in timeout or spank him when he refuses to do what he needs to do. I yell at him. Get frustrated with him. This homeschool thing is so difficult to try to accomplish with this son of mine. I'm not sure it's even worth all the fussing and frustration that it causes between me and him, and me and Summer. I get angry at her when she does something because I'm already so angry with him. I know he's learning things. But I'm just not sure that I was meant to do this with my own child. At least not this child.
Signed,
Confused and frustrated

The Boy

I was talking with Phillip tonight about how defiant Luke is. Luke is mean, angry, loud, hateful, hurtful, and just plain disagreeable sometimes. And other times he is a little angel. I just don't understand why he is so defiant, and then Phillip put it in perspective. He said "He gets all that from your family! The other night I was going to post on Facebook 'If I had known my son was going to be so difficult, I would have chosen a different mate.'" Wow!

WELCOME

I've been told many times that I should have a blog, so here it is. I'm not sure how often I will update it and I'm not sure what I might talk about on here. But if you are interested in traveling this journey with me, then join me.
Jedi Master Kellye …. Out.