My eight year old sometimes gets stuck in an anxious thought...no IDEA where he would get that from *sarcastic drip*.

This morning I decided that I didn't really think he was ready to just do an independent research project yet. Instead, I wanted to introduce him to a textbook. What to look for when you are reading, how to identify key terms and concepts...stuff like that. I think that skill comes before trying to find specific information on the wide interwebs, no?

So I opened up a social studies book we had and assigned him to read the first section. Now, mind you, the kids are EXCITED to do work -- they WANT things to do. But at the same time, I saw his face get all grumbly and he was really getting worked up internally.

Long story short, he finally "let it out" that he felt like he needed to get the reading and questions done like right away, like YESTERDAY pretty much. So we were able to talk him down from the anxiety of getting it done too fast.

Confession time...pretty much all my crappy moods come from not thinking I can get everything done that I need to, so that stinks that I passed that on to him, but hopefully we can work through those bad feelings. He did end up working through it and just got done with the goal for the day. He now knows what geography is and he got an introduction to social studies and started learning how to read and answer questions from a textbook!!! So, good day.

Even better was when he brought a game to play with me. I felt like he could have taken my talking to either way, but he still wanted to hang out and play Shut the Box (which is great for mental math haha)...gotta work all this in somehow!!