As we are nearing the end of our first term using Ambleside Online Year One, I have been thinking through writing a post about how much we are liking it, and how wonderfully the new skill of narration has been developing in SA(6).
And then we ran *smack* into today.
Today we were home all day after going out four days in a row. (My general rule tends to be that I never go out more than one day in a row. For reasons that will become obvious.)
I woke up in a bit of pain. Nothing serious, just the usual pregnancy aches and pains that happen after I overdo things a little bit. Just enough to dull my usual optimism into more of a "let's just get through this day" sort of feeling.
Unfortunately, SA seems to have woken up with much the same feeling. He dawdled with his math, and only completed a quarter of a page before it was time for his first narration of the day.
If I had just been thinking, I would have known that I should choose an easy passage for narration, or at least one from a favourite book. But I glanced through "Prince Darling" in the Blue Fairy Book and thought it would be fine.
It was not. When I paused for the first narration after reading the first paragraph, he said, "I don't remember."
"That's too bad," I said. "I thought it was quite interesting. Try to listen very carefully to this next part so you can tell it back to me."
So I read the next paragraph, and he told me again, "I don't remember."
Uh-oh. That line usually works on him. What do I say now? "Do you remember any of it, JJ?"
JJ(4) never narrates, so he was very pleased to tell me what he remembered. "There was a lady with a crown of roses."
"Yes!" I said. "Does that help you remember anything more, SA?"
"No."
On to the next paragraph. Still nothing. And so on for five more paragraphs before I gave up.
What can a mom do in such a situation? I felt like giving up on the day and just going to bed, honestly. I even felt a bit like screaming. Thankfully I held it in.
The day did not get a lot better until after supper, when SA asked me if he could finish his copywork (also not done...) and his second narration. We read two of Aesop's Fables. He did well, because he was willing.
He is a routine-oriented boy, and he would not have been quite happy if the day had ended and he had not at least completed the basics of our homeschooling day.
Tomorrow is a new day.
Filed under "funny stories" because it will be funny some day. Right?
