Meeting New Friends From School

So school is going better! We still have our moments but nothing serious. So, Katie has made a new friend through school. Her name is Libby and she is 14. They've been chatting it up quite a lot during school. Katie was wanting Libby to come spend the night with us and come to church with us but of course her parents needed to meet us first.
I had just received an e-mail from Jodie Gee saying anyone who wanted free tickets for The Palace on Thursday to see Le Grande Cirque should let her know. Of course we wanted to go. We don't get out much and wouldn't be able to afford those tickets anyway. When Katie found out about the free tickets she wanted to know if we could get extra tickets for her new friend's family so we could all meet. Well I thought that would be impolite to ask but she had already e-mailed Jodie back asking her for the extra tickets. Jodie replied that she had already e-mailed a list of everyone who wanted tickets to Pam Peterson who was giving out the free tickets to start with. Jodie was just helping her get the word out. So Katie called Pam and told her the story and she said yes. How blessed we are to know such wonderfully kind and loving people!
Well needless to say, we not only enjoyed an exciting show Thursday night, we met an incredibly nice family. There was Libby, her mom, her dad and her 4 sisters. That's right, 5 girls ages 14, 11, 4, 2 and 16 weeks! We enjoyed meeting them and I believe we're all going to be great friends.

School at Home

Wow, we are having school at home this year. I know that we've made the right choice even though it's really tough some days. I didn't realize how tough it would be with Shad who is 17 and a half months old. He was used to having all my time and now he has to share me. As a result he is more mischievous than normal. Katie(15) and Steven(14) would definitely rather be back in public school with their friends where they could get into more mischief themselves. As I work with them and observe their work habits and abilities I know that I've made the right decision pulling them out of public school. They are so used to just getting by and not having to answer for their lack of efforts. Steven really monopolizes a ton of time just trying to get him to follow simple instructions and actually read material. He wants to just do the exercises and go on to the assessments without first reading the material. When he does the exercises he doesn't follow the instructions completely because he doesn't want to read them. He thinks reading is a waste of time. I get so frustrated with him because I explain things to him over and over and over again to no avail. We discuss answers to problems and then he puts something completely different down on his paper. I've prayed and asked for patience and the ability to get through to him. What does he need? How can I help him have a desire to learn rather than this attitude that he knows more than I do? If anyone has any suggestions that may help, I'm open and willing to learn myself. Please pray for us and I'll definitely keep praying for the success of my children.

Sorry for ranting. I had to get that off my chest. It's been a difficult week.

Thanks, Tori