I'm so ready for summer break and so are my kids. I feel more so when the temps are in the 80's. Today you'd think that waking up to the 30's would put me back into school gear, but it really doesn't. My husband warned me not to take a spring break because he knew that we'd all feel this way, but did we listen? Noooooo. Just a few more weeks. Just a few more weeks. I think I can. I think I can.
Well our book work can be done more quickly than this, but it should be done in 3 weeks. We did start earlier than other schools in the area and did half days last summer. I start counting school in June with baseball and softball as PE.
This homeschool mom is a little strange, because I love new curriculum and paper and planners and school supplies. I could get lost in the school supply aisle in August! Actually, I've heard that this is a common weakness of homeschool moms. I am not alone! This year, as most other years, the curriculum that I use is on sale right now. YAY! So, I ordered our curriculum last week and I got my first shipment yesterday. I am so excited about that and I am ready to start planning for next year and I haven't even finished this year.
I use the Homeschool Helper app on my iPad to keep attendance and grades, but I like to start with a paper planner. This year, I have moved so much around because I like to plan way ahead and then we ended up with doctor's appointments, unexpected travel, and braces which require a whole day off of school for the 1 1/2 hour travel each direction. Thankfully there are historical sites and museums we can do for field trips those days. Soooo, I found this planner that is perfect for me. It is the Term planner "class schedule" at donnayoung.org and I'm so glad I found it!
I was so against printable planners because of the ink they use compared to the price of a good planner. I really like the Well Planned Day planner from Home Educating Family Association, but I'm really not organized enough to use it. By the end of the year I paper-clipped all the stuff between the weekly planning pages and skipped it all. There are inspiring things and menu planning things and grocery shopping lists to tear out. I thought it was great, but I don't utilize everything. I want to do something that I will use. This year, I'm only printing what I know I will use. All I will need is a little cheap planner from Walmart to make notes in and acclimate myself to what day it is.
There are plenty of other planning pages on DonnaYoung. SchoolhouseTeachers.com also has printable planners, but I believe you have to have a membership to use them. I have a lot of organizing things pinned on Pinterest as well. So there are many ways to plan and organized. I would like to think I'm finally settling on one, but time will tell.
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Is it really Monday?
I can't say this often because Mondays are usually the worst days ever in our home and school. We have had a great day! The changes we made to our school day are phenomenal. I think Dad being home this weekend and knowing that corn harvest is over has helped tremendously as well. I have a lot more prep work for this new format, but if the result will be more days like this and less of me screaming half the day, I'll take it!
Maybe what my kids needed was more of me! More of Dad, too! I am giving my kids more independence in extracurricular activities as they get older, but it is really important still that their entire days are not self-directed. They need some order and direction or they truly cannot function. I think this is why even as a homeschool parent, I still yearn for the school year to begin. Some parents are anxious to get the kids out of their hair and into the schools, but maybe ... maybe the kids want/need to have some order. Even as an adult, when I have nothing to occupy my time or nothing to do, I am chaos. That wasn't a typo, I feel like I am the definition of chaos in those moments. My husband was off work from Friday until Sunday - a rare thing - and he was very ready to go back to work. He had to run errands on Friday and we met friends Friday evening and Church Saturday evening, and Sunday morning and Fellowship group Sunday evening, but there was a lot of idle time in there. For certain, we need the Sabbath rest that God ordained for us, but idleness becomes mental chaos.
I think that was happening to an extent in our homeschool. Yes, my kids had assignments, but all they were given was a list of tasks, a time to start, a time to have breaks and an expected end time. For me, that would be great! I'm an adult who's efficient with my time and has had to learn it over the years. I might as well have been giving them a manual and some parts and asked them to build a car. Face to face learning is where I wanted to be with our school, but felt incompetent or unable to do it. I didn't know how to effectively educate my kids with my voice, my hands, my face... Today has been a good day!
I think every family will have their curriculum choices, but beyond that choice, I feel that engaging my children with my voice, face and my own style in the midst of our curriculum for at least 15 minutes of every hour has been effective for the whole week last week and today. They are responding well and today in an angry moment, I was looking at my son's face and saw the expression and we both melted and it ended in understanding of one another. I still had time for personal Bible Study and lesson planning. It was just mixed in with the encounter moments. Hmmmm. Why does it take so long to figure everything out?
Maybe what my kids needed was more of me! More of Dad, too! I am giving my kids more independence in extracurricular activities as they get older, but it is really important still that their entire days are not self-directed. They need some order and direction or they truly cannot function. I think this is why even as a homeschool parent, I still yearn for the school year to begin. Some parents are anxious to get the kids out of their hair and into the schools, but maybe ... maybe the kids want/need to have some order. Even as an adult, when I have nothing to occupy my time or nothing to do, I am chaos. That wasn't a typo, I feel like I am the definition of chaos in those moments. My husband was off work from Friday until Sunday - a rare thing - and he was very ready to go back to work. He had to run errands on Friday and we met friends Friday evening and Church Saturday evening, and Sunday morning and Fellowship group Sunday evening, but there was a lot of idle time in there. For certain, we need the Sabbath rest that God ordained for us, but idleness becomes mental chaos.
I think that was happening to an extent in our homeschool. Yes, my kids had assignments, but all they were given was a list of tasks, a time to start, a time to have breaks and an expected end time. For me, that would be great! I'm an adult who's efficient with my time and has had to learn it over the years. I might as well have been giving them a manual and some parts and asked them to build a car. Face to face learning is where I wanted to be with our school, but felt incompetent or unable to do it. I didn't know how to effectively educate my kids with my voice, my hands, my face... Today has been a good day!
I think every family will have their curriculum choices, but beyond that choice, I feel that engaging my children with my voice, face and my own style in the midst of our curriculum for at least 15 minutes of every hour has been effective for the whole week last week and today. They are responding well and today in an angry moment, I was looking at my son's face and saw the expression and we both melted and it ended in understanding of one another. I still had time for personal Bible Study and lesson planning. It was just mixed in with the encounter moments. Hmmmm. Why does it take so long to figure everything out?
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Changes
This school year began with changes in our curriculum. We decided certainly that we wanted to continue with Story of the World, Spelling Power, and Apologia Science. We struggled with liking the other subjects, and I had been exploring Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool since last school year and decided to go with it. It is a great program and it is free! We used it for every subject except the 3 I first mentioned. It was the perfect choice for us to begin with. The kids learned about self-motivation and I got a break from planning.
The longer we did Easy Peasy, the more disconnected I began to feel as a parent-teacher. My passion for homeschool is partly a passion to teach my kids. It was turning into the computer teaching my kids. Let me clarify. I think Easy Peasy is awesome and the work that Lee put into it is incredible. I do believe that if you are not called to be a teacher, but called to homeschool, this might be a great option of curriculum for you.
The literature choices that my kids were reading are great pieces, but I did not grow up with literature because our small town didn't have a library. If you have a local library, you are blessed! I had never read Gulliver's Travels or Swiss Family Robinson and the further my kids got into the books, the more disconnected I felt from their work. We were headed into Penrod and The Peterkin Papers which not only had I not read, but I had never heard of these books. At the conclusion of one child's book and in the middle of another, I made the decision to drop Easy Peasy from our curriculum. I still use it as a guide for our daily Bible reading and it helped me organize my education planning. I just purchased a grammar program and a writing program that I can use with both of my children at the same time and I have chosen 4 books at each of their levels to read for the rest of the school year. I'm going to have us read the books and have discussion with them, but we are going to enjoy reading for school.
Well that's just language arts, what about other important subjects? Because this is my children's 3rd math program, they quickly got overwhelmed by math. They started in Everyday Mathematics and as I went to homeschooling from Private school, I chose not to continue it because the teacher's manuals were too expensive. I didn't care for the fact that they don't teach long division at all and really lack in math facts. I just about went into a rant about Common Core, but I will stop with that. I took my kids to Horizons Math with a false presumption that they were advanced in math because of the previous curriculum and didn't want to dumb it down. Horizons may have been perfect if we had started with it, but it assumes that you've had a foundation in that style of math so there were areas that my children felt lost in. Easy Peasy math came with many games which they liked, but there were concepts that frustrated or confused them. BUT she, the author of Easy Peasy, recommends Xtramath to those struggling with math facts. WE DO THIS every day. I've seen so much growth and we haven't even gotten past addition facts yet. For middle school, she recommends a few programs including Khan Academy. I had heard of this before, and played with it a bit last school year as well. I completely put my 6th grader on Khan academy about a month ago and assigned 6th grade math to him. He works on it for 30 minutes a day and at the end of the year, he should have complete mastery of 6th grade concepts. Currently he's mastered about 40%. Last week I did the same for my 4th grader and she is already flying through mastering 4th grade concepts. This is at their pace and if they cannot understand something, there are a series of videos to help. When they are really stuck, I go through things with them. Another fun thing with Khan is that I am doing it too so that I can know what they are working with. I have currently mastered 100% of Early Math and about 80% of 3rd grade math. I have chosen to start at the beginning so that there will be nothing that I can't help my kids with when they're stuck. Yes, I love to learn as much as I love to teach.
Computer skills. I know that these are imperative to teach and I know enough about computers to be dangerous. I have computer common sense, and a little more, but I want my kids to know more. It just so happens that Khan Academy has a computer programing tract as well, so I have them do a lesson and practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Easy Peasy also recommended a free typing program called Good Typing that we began to use early on. They have to practice typing every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. How are they going to be good at computers if they can't type?
Finally, because of the author of Easy Peasy's fantastic organization, I have decided to do music on Mondays, PE/Health on Wednesdays and Art on Fridays. We get a little of those things mixed in with other curricula, but I wanted to have a specific pattern of these things with intentional time dedicated to these subjects. I am teaching my daughter to play the piano with some books I got on Amazon.com and my son is learning guitar through tutorials and I am learning it with him because I was hoping to do so anyhow.
It was recommended to me not to keep changing things, but I am seeing my children thrive with each step of change that we do. I appreciate the perspective of other seasoned homeschool moms, too, so I'm praying about each step. This week as I wait for my new language curriculum to arrive, I've cut out Language arts except that I'm doing a read-aloud every day for them and we read the Bible together every day now. Our classroom schooling has been done in record time this week. My kids are happier and I'm happier. They are excited as they are going to start A Wrinkle In Time and Meet Addy this weekend to prepare for next week's lessons. And I'm excited because I have a great excuse to use Pinterest now!
The literature choices that my kids were reading are great pieces, but I did not grow up with literature because our small town didn't have a library. If you have a local library, you are blessed! I had never read Gulliver's Travels or Swiss Family Robinson and the further my kids got into the books, the more disconnected I felt from their work. We were headed into Penrod and The Peterkin Papers which not only had I not read, but I had never heard of these books. At the conclusion of one child's book and in the middle of another, I made the decision to drop Easy Peasy from our curriculum. I still use it as a guide for our daily Bible reading and it helped me organize my education planning. I just purchased a grammar program and a writing program that I can use with both of my children at the same time and I have chosen 4 books at each of their levels to read for the rest of the school year. I'm going to have us read the books and have discussion with them, but we are going to enjoy reading for school.
Well that's just language arts, what about other important subjects? Because this is my children's 3rd math program, they quickly got overwhelmed by math. They started in Everyday Mathematics and as I went to homeschooling from Private school, I chose not to continue it because the teacher's manuals were too expensive. I didn't care for the fact that they don't teach long division at all and really lack in math facts. I just about went into a rant about Common Core, but I will stop with that. I took my kids to Horizons Math with a false presumption that they were advanced in math because of the previous curriculum and didn't want to dumb it down. Horizons may have been perfect if we had started with it, but it assumes that you've had a foundation in that style of math so there were areas that my children felt lost in. Easy Peasy math came with many games which they liked, but there were concepts that frustrated or confused them. BUT she, the author of Easy Peasy, recommends Xtramath to those struggling with math facts. WE DO THIS every day. I've seen so much growth and we haven't even gotten past addition facts yet. For middle school, she recommends a few programs including Khan Academy. I had heard of this before, and played with it a bit last school year as well. I completely put my 6th grader on Khan academy about a month ago and assigned 6th grade math to him. He works on it for 30 minutes a day and at the end of the year, he should have complete mastery of 6th grade concepts. Currently he's mastered about 40%. Last week I did the same for my 4th grader and she is already flying through mastering 4th grade concepts. This is at their pace and if they cannot understand something, there are a series of videos to help. When they are really stuck, I go through things with them. Another fun thing with Khan is that I am doing it too so that I can know what they are working with. I have currently mastered 100% of Early Math and about 80% of 3rd grade math. I have chosen to start at the beginning so that there will be nothing that I can't help my kids with when they're stuck. Yes, I love to learn as much as I love to teach.
Computer skills. I know that these are imperative to teach and I know enough about computers to be dangerous. I have computer common sense, and a little more, but I want my kids to know more. It just so happens that Khan Academy has a computer programing tract as well, so I have them do a lesson and practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Easy Peasy also recommended a free typing program called Good Typing that we began to use early on. They have to practice typing every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. How are they going to be good at computers if they can't type?
Finally, because of the author of Easy Peasy's fantastic organization, I have decided to do music on Mondays, PE/Health on Wednesdays and Art on Fridays. We get a little of those things mixed in with other curricula, but I wanted to have a specific pattern of these things with intentional time dedicated to these subjects. I am teaching my daughter to play the piano with some books I got on Amazon.com and my son is learning guitar through tutorials and I am learning it with him because I was hoping to do so anyhow.
It was recommended to me not to keep changing things, but I am seeing my children thrive with each step of change that we do. I appreciate the perspective of other seasoned homeschool moms, too, so I'm praying about each step. This week as I wait for my new language curriculum to arrive, I've cut out Language arts except that I'm doing a read-aloud every day for them and we read the Bible together every day now. Our classroom schooling has been done in record time this week. My kids are happier and I'm happier. They are excited as they are going to start A Wrinkle In Time and Meet Addy this weekend to prepare for next week's lessons. And I'm excited because I have a great excuse to use Pinterest now!
Monday, October 27, 2014
So you had a bad day!
I cannot lie, homeschooling is NOT always a beautiful harmonious one big happy family thing. There are days where at least one or all of you just want to throw in the towel and scream! You give an inch and the kids take a mile. Mom blows up and all the children are crying! Dad gets out the enrollment forms for the area schools ... then you weigh your options.
Is it because we homeschool that we fight? No. We are family and we are comfortable enough around each other that we can be real. Real isn't always pretty! We are humans! Sometimes we are selfish, sometimes we don't feel like doing ANYTHING! Because we don't have a workplace or a school zone where we have to conform and put on our masks for a while, we just let all of our realness show to each other. The days where more than one of us are feeling really real at the same time ......... EXPLOSION!
I'd like to say that I'm the mom who exhibits the fruit of the spirit with excellence every day, but I'm not. I try to live by the Spirit and I even exercised and read my Bible this morning and had a banana and Mini Wheats and coffee - 2 cups now, but my tolerance for goofing off lid blew off.
The fruit of the spirit are ... LOVE ... that's easy especially for my family. Unconditionally my heart strings are pulled even in discipline, I love my husband and kids and even the crazy dog who has an uncontrollable urge to dig in the trash can right now. JOY ... This may not make sense, but I do have joy even in the midst of irritation. PEACE ... well there's a rocky place. I have no worries, but I'm not creating an atmosphere of peace. PATIENCE ... Well, I got an F this morning. Setting timers, giving space ... kids not accomplishing things ... okay suffice to say I failed. KINDNESS ... okay another failure. I did work on it a little. GOODNESS ... I don't even know what to say about that. It is good to be consistent, not good to lose it. FAITHFULNESS ... My expectations have not changed and that is good for the kids. GENTLENESS ... My loud voice may not be considered gentleness. What time is it? How much do you have done? 5 minutes worth of work in an hour and a half? Go get a snack and get down here ready to work!!!! At least I gave us a break from each other and hoped that the possibility of hunger could affect concentration. :/ Maybe! SELF-CONTROL win and lose! Yes, I yelled, no, I didn't smash. I have been known to throw things or slam something onto the table or desk to physically get rid of anger and avoid hurting someone, but I managed to maintain some sense of self-control.
Why am I sharing about a bad moment and risking the wrong people reading this and declaring me unfit to ... fill in the blank, I'm sure there are many things I'm unfit for. But I feel guilty at times when people say I'm doing a good job or being a good mom or good anything. Honestly as I reviewed the Fruit of the Spirit just now, I was actually calming down and my sweet child was on the phone with Daddy to sort out what Mommy didn't have patience to deal with. Bad days happen. Getting through them happens too, one way or another. I have a feeling that this one is getting better already.
Several years ago, I discovered that children bring out the rawest and worst part of me. Even when my children were infants, sometimes I wondered how to make them stop crying. I actually did leave my toddler in the living room while shutting myself in my bedroom for 10 minutes to collect my nerves. I couldn't believe that I'd prayed for so long to have children and after having them, they were sucking the life out of me ... not really, I just thought it a time or six. I prayed and asked God how in the world I was going to learn how to parent. Where is the manual? The thing that leapt at me from what seemed to be the depths of me was Galatians 5:22-23. But the fruit of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law. I am not sure what translation because that was a quote from my heart and it could have errors. The fruit of the Spirit as a parenting manual? Why yes! I don't know if it will help me through the teen years, but seriously when I go through a situation mindful of these beautiful fruit, I know better how to respond.
I just took a sip of coffee and looked at the wall behind my computer where sits a certificate made by my kids. "World's best teacher" I almost choked. That's funny! I might just be the world's best teacher for them, though. In good times or bad times. Yes, maybe Mommy learned the bigger lesson today. Maybe I just need to have a "fruit" break every time I sense the bad day thing coming on. As I don't get to sit and type a whole blog at once, since starting this post, things are running beautifully here at LSA. Kids are on task and self-motivated. Ahhhhhh! Monday, you do not have the victory this week!
Is it because we homeschool that we fight? No. We are family and we are comfortable enough around each other that we can be real. Real isn't always pretty! We are humans! Sometimes we are selfish, sometimes we don't feel like doing ANYTHING! Because we don't have a workplace or a school zone where we have to conform and put on our masks for a while, we just let all of our realness show to each other. The days where more than one of us are feeling really real at the same time ......... EXPLOSION!
I'd like to say that I'm the mom who exhibits the fruit of the spirit with excellence every day, but I'm not. I try to live by the Spirit and I even exercised and read my Bible this morning and had a banana and Mini Wheats and coffee - 2 cups now, but my tolerance for goofing off lid blew off.
The fruit of the spirit are ... LOVE ... that's easy especially for my family. Unconditionally my heart strings are pulled even in discipline, I love my husband and kids and even the crazy dog who has an uncontrollable urge to dig in the trash can right now. JOY ... This may not make sense, but I do have joy even in the midst of irritation. PEACE ... well there's a rocky place. I have no worries, but I'm not creating an atmosphere of peace. PATIENCE ... Well, I got an F this morning. Setting timers, giving space ... kids not accomplishing things ... okay suffice to say I failed. KINDNESS ... okay another failure. I did work on it a little. GOODNESS ... I don't even know what to say about that. It is good to be consistent, not good to lose it. FAITHFULNESS ... My expectations have not changed and that is good for the kids. GENTLENESS ... My loud voice may not be considered gentleness. What time is it? How much do you have done? 5 minutes worth of work in an hour and a half? Go get a snack and get down here ready to work!!!! At least I gave us a break from each other and hoped that the possibility of hunger could affect concentration. :/ Maybe! SELF-CONTROL win and lose! Yes, I yelled, no, I didn't smash. I have been known to throw things or slam something onto the table or desk to physically get rid of anger and avoid hurting someone, but I managed to maintain some sense of self-control.
Why am I sharing about a bad moment and risking the wrong people reading this and declaring me unfit to ... fill in the blank, I'm sure there are many things I'm unfit for. But I feel guilty at times when people say I'm doing a good job or being a good mom or good anything. Honestly as I reviewed the Fruit of the Spirit just now, I was actually calming down and my sweet child was on the phone with Daddy to sort out what Mommy didn't have patience to deal with. Bad days happen. Getting through them happens too, one way or another. I have a feeling that this one is getting better already.
Several years ago, I discovered that children bring out the rawest and worst part of me. Even when my children were infants, sometimes I wondered how to make them stop crying. I actually did leave my toddler in the living room while shutting myself in my bedroom for 10 minutes to collect my nerves. I couldn't believe that I'd prayed for so long to have children and after having them, they were sucking the life out of me ... not really, I just thought it a time or six. I prayed and asked God how in the world I was going to learn how to parent. Where is the manual? The thing that leapt at me from what seemed to be the depths of me was Galatians 5:22-23. But the fruit of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law. I am not sure what translation because that was a quote from my heart and it could have errors. The fruit of the Spirit as a parenting manual? Why yes! I don't know if it will help me through the teen years, but seriously when I go through a situation mindful of these beautiful fruit, I know better how to respond.
I just took a sip of coffee and looked at the wall behind my computer where sits a certificate made by my kids. "World's best teacher" I almost choked. That's funny! I might just be the world's best teacher for them, though. In good times or bad times. Yes, maybe Mommy learned the bigger lesson today. Maybe I just need to have a "fruit" break every time I sense the bad day thing coming on. As I don't get to sit and type a whole blog at once, since starting this post, things are running beautifully here at LSA. Kids are on task and self-motivated. Ahhhhhh! Monday, you do not have the victory this week!
Friday, October 17, 2014
Scholar's Bowl
As we have entered into Junior High or Middle School homeschooling, I am discovering new opportunities. Our local Christian school has invited my son to participate in sports and other exta-curricular activities. The one we are currently doing is Scholar's Bowl. I've never explored it before and it is interesting. The first meet is next Monday and my boy has only gotten to be in on one practice. He came home only getting one answer correct. This was a little surprising to me, because my kids are good students.
This morning, I opened up a webpage of Middle School scholar's bowl type questions and began to read them aloud to see how many things they could answer. I have seen the show, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?, and I am sometimes smarter than a 5th grader, but I'm not a scholar's bowl champ! We are not sports fans and couldn't answer any of the sport questions. We rarely watch television and therefore don't get much NEWS. I prefer to read the NEWS and that makes my kids' knowledge of current events minimal. We've talked about weather and ebola and some other things, but what this politician says about that one, thankfully, is NOT filling our home. I do confess Redbox, Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video are our friends.
We could answer correctly about jet streams, solar panels, the crusades and the capital of Quebec. My kids didn't know who Andy Warhol is and the clue was his prints of Marilyn Monroe. They don't know her either. So am I a failure as a homeschool teacher? I believe, NO! Here is why. IF I were raising my kids to be what's his name that won Jeopardy so many times in a row, then I am failing. I'm not! I'm teaching my children to have good character even though some days no one could tell. I am teaching them how to read and write and do math and know the history of the world and where in the world to find Carman San Diego. (not exactly) I'm not indoctrinating them in theology, but letting them read the Bible for themselves and discuss it with me. They have to try foreign food ... even if I don't cook it right. They have to participate in house work and just suffered through the punishment of no movies or shows until their rooms were clean INCLUDING under their beds. Oh the horror!
The truth is that I have very few adult friends who could win at trivial pursuit if they didn't have a team. Random facts won't determine our eternity and so while it is fun to learn trivia, it really is trivial in the grand scheme of things. We will continue with scholar's bowl as long as they allow us to participate because I don't think its wrong. I just don't want to base my success or failure or that of my children on how many of the questions they got right. Did they learn something? I hope so! That will be a reward.
This morning, I opened up a webpage of Middle School scholar's bowl type questions and began to read them aloud to see how many things they could answer. I have seen the show, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?, and I am sometimes smarter than a 5th grader, but I'm not a scholar's bowl champ! We are not sports fans and couldn't answer any of the sport questions. We rarely watch television and therefore don't get much NEWS. I prefer to read the NEWS and that makes my kids' knowledge of current events minimal. We've talked about weather and ebola and some other things, but what this politician says about that one, thankfully, is NOT filling our home. I do confess Redbox, Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video are our friends.
We could answer correctly about jet streams, solar panels, the crusades and the capital of Quebec. My kids didn't know who Andy Warhol is and the clue was his prints of Marilyn Monroe. They don't know her either. So am I a failure as a homeschool teacher? I believe, NO! Here is why. IF I were raising my kids to be what's his name that won Jeopardy so many times in a row, then I am failing. I'm not! I'm teaching my children to have good character even though some days no one could tell. I am teaching them how to read and write and do math and know the history of the world and where in the world to find Carman San Diego. (not exactly) I'm not indoctrinating them in theology, but letting them read the Bible for themselves and discuss it with me. They have to try foreign food ... even if I don't cook it right. They have to participate in house work and just suffered through the punishment of no movies or shows until their rooms were clean INCLUDING under their beds. Oh the horror!
The truth is that I have very few adult friends who could win at trivial pursuit if they didn't have a team. Random facts won't determine our eternity and so while it is fun to learn trivia, it really is trivial in the grand scheme of things. We will continue with scholar's bowl as long as they allow us to participate because I don't think its wrong. I just don't want to base my success or failure or that of my children on how many of the questions they got right. Did they learn something? I hope so! That will be a reward.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Normal?? HAHAHA!!! Is there such a thing?
normal
1. conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.
2. serving to establish a standard.
This is part of the entry from dictionary.com and I really don't know that we have a common type or standard to go by here at our school. I don't think we can be defined by others either ... even those who use the exact curriculum mix that we do. I'm not even sure that anyone else is doing exactly what we're doing. That's the beauty of homeschool and the difficulty all wrapped in one. There is no one to consult regarding your specific situation and there is no one like you.
I keep thinking that it would be great to have a normal school day, but the proper term would likely be ideal. This week we are scheduled to have an ideal school day Wednesday and Thursday. I'm sick today and my son is getting sick with head colds. Braces appointment this afternoon. Playing Hymns at the nursing home tomorrow and scholar's bowl practice tomorrow in the middle of the school day. I'm okay with interruptions, but I like things to be orderly and predictable.
Breathe in ...
Breathe out ...
It really is going to be okay. Expect the unexpected. The kids will learn what they need to learn! I think I'm doing better now too. As I began to homeschool, weeks like this would put me in the grumpiest mood before we even start. Now, well, I have bigger fish to fry. Things outside of this little home school, but I don't need to delve into them here.
Homeschooling is not our sole identity. We have other obligations and for me several of them are due by the end of this week, so I need to direct my attention to them and not freak out because we are not normal and we don't have normal days. We occasionally have an ideal day here and there, but I guess today may just be a normal day - scattered and unplanned - while Wednesday has a slim chance of being ideal, but abnormal.
I would not change my normal for someone else's normal. This is the best life for me.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Hump Day
So a lot of people call Wednesday hump day. Well it is in the middle of the week like the hump of a camel is in the middle of it's back. Climbing the hill and after you get to the top, you can roll down the next one. Our school week actually is only 3 days long this week because I'm busting out of here tomorrow to go to a women's conference with my church. I'm so looking forward to time with the girls!!! Yesterday truly did feel like a hump and we are definitely rolling down the hill today! Almost all subjects are done by now and it's just about lunch time.
WOOP WOOP!!
Not only are we moving along, BUT, my darling daughter actually got 100% correct on her multiplication by a double digit worksheet! She has been whining for a week that these problems are too hard. I told her if she gets 100% on line 1 she can skip line 2 and she did it!!! This was the first time she's done 3 digit by 2 digit too.
Next Monday is braces day, so we'll only do 1/2 day of school in the morning and braces for the girl in the afternoon. Then we can have an almost normal rest of the week.
Sukkot starts tonight and yet another year goes by without a Sukkah to begin the feast. Maybe Tuesday? This is one of my kids' favorite Bible holidays and we really want to figure it out and actually try and celebrate it. I need to just buy a tent frame so we can use it annually.
WOOP WOOP!!
Not only are we moving along, BUT, my darling daughter actually got 100% correct on her multiplication by a double digit worksheet! She has been whining for a week that these problems are too hard. I told her if she gets 100% on line 1 she can skip line 2 and she did it!!! This was the first time she's done 3 digit by 2 digit too.
Next Monday is braces day, so we'll only do 1/2 day of school in the morning and braces for the girl in the afternoon. Then we can have an almost normal rest of the week.
Sukkot starts tonight and yet another year goes by without a Sukkah to begin the feast. Maybe Tuesday? This is one of my kids' favorite Bible holidays and we really want to figure it out and actually try and celebrate it. I need to just buy a tent frame so we can use it annually.
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