I read somewhere that it takes several years, 3 I believe, for the newly homeschooling mom to get a feel of their "groove". so, the first 3 years of homeschooling is a lot of trial and error, and movie days, and outside days, and field trips to fill up the time when you are just at a loss for what to do. That, however, is the beauty of homeschooling; you don't have to stick to the plan that is mapped out for you if it is obvious it is not working.
I'm still getting into my groove. Obviously. So far, my excuses have been "we are all new at this, and dont really know what to expect", "we are still at the beginning "review" part of the year, it will get better", and what I keep telling myself "I'm trying to ad lib the science and history before I get into the program I bought". which is probably what is screwing me up the most. I know what I want to do, and I know what order I want to do it in; I just never found one thing that had everything, so the first 4-6 weeks was going to be me piecing stuff together before I got to the point where my bought curriculum started and I could use it. and it is WAY more organized than I am.
I am also having the learning curve of understanding what it is I can reasonably expect from my kids. I'm also learning a bit more about their personalities and the way they learn. Mr. Scarecrow literally shuts down every time he is corrected. I don't really know what to do about this, other than to continue to encourage him and to give him frequent breaks, but I feel like I talk and talk and explain and explain, and then he tries and gets it "wrong" and that its. He's done. And its only been 5 minutes.
Also, I don't know how blogging moms do it. Seriously, either I have the most. boring. life. ever. Or I just don't know how to jazz up the mundane. Seriously, the coolest thing we've done all week is dissolve the shell off an egg. That's our science experiment for this week; I'm hoping to pull out the microscope next week. I spent all weekend dissolving the shell off an egg, so it resembles a cell, and then today we put one in water and one in Karo syrup. I had them guess, or hypothesize, what they thought was going to happen to the eggs. We had a nice little discussion about it, and it was interesting to see their wheels turning and their thought processes. Mr. Scarecrow really is an incredibly bright child. Unfortunately, he's a boy. 8-)
Then, of course, all hell broke loose and they were hungry, and fighting over something, and so I told them to go over their timeline on their own. :P I'm hoping to get through the mesozoic period this week, so we can watch a cool discovery science video on Friday about dinosaurs. Then next week will be the "after dinosaur" period, and we can check out early man.
2014-2015
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Socializing....
So, thinking on the whole "cutsey names" thing, I think I've come up with a few! I'll likely have to think longer and harder about the older kids; I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate the names I've given them. HA. N is still very young, so his personality is still shining through, but for now, he can be "chatterbox" cause he loves to talk. L can be "the dancing queen", cause, well, she's the queen and she loves to dance. So far, for J, I have "scarecrow" for several reasons, only one of which being how skinny he is. I'm a bit too ashamed to fess up to the remainder of the nickname, hence the reason for rethinking it (hint: his theme song is easily seen on "The Wizard of Oz"). and K, well, I thought of "miss artsyfartsy" right away, cause she likes art a LOT, and, well, I'll let you guess the rest. As I said, not sure those 2 will stick for now ;)
Yesterday was interesting. It was potentially a disaster, but I think it worked out okay. I've been looking around trying to figure something out for K (Miss ArtsyFartsy) to do with photography; the child is ALWAYS stealing my camera to take pics of stuff!! Pretty soon, its going to get to where she doesn't even ask before she snags it, and then I'll be uploading pics to Facebook, going "where the hell did that come from?!"
Anyway, I was pointed in the direction of the 4-H club to get her into the photography thing, and so I looked it up and asked around; I was basically given the run around, and Jon said that was a sign of things to come, and maybe we shouldn't bother. I still wanted to check it out first before writing it off. I was given the E-mail to one person who was the head secretary or something; she told me "the best way to find out anything is to go to a meeting". Great. The meetings are on the third Thursday of every month; and of course this was the third FRIDAY of the month, so I had to wait a whole freaking month to find out anything!!
So, I was all set and ready to go to check out the September meeting. A few weeks ago, I got an E-mail stating that the location of the meeting had changed to the Noonday Community Center… I responded directly to the E-mail, asking for directions. she responded with "the physical address is… the directions are … " and I left it at that. I didn't bother to READ the directions, I would NEED them for a few more weeks; totally my fault.
So, I forwarded the directions to Jon yesterday morning, since he was driving, and this way 2 people knew the way. I read them, and they ended with "and Flint Baptist Church is right there". Um, okay? I just took it for what it was. Of course, we get to the church, and NOBODY is there. Why? Because the meeting was at the Noonday Community Center!! Ugh. I admit it, I had a breakdown. this is just so typical of my luck, ya know? I'm going WAY out of my comfort zone here, allowing myself to enter into an unknown environment, and I can't even call, because I don't have a phone, and I can't double check anything, because, well, I don't have a phone but I especially don't have one of those cool internet-linked phones. GAH! I remembered the original E-mail said "noonday Community Center", and, well, I knew where noonday was, so we headed that way. Now approximately 20 minutes late.
We stopped at the "blue store" on the corner of the US Hwy that goes towards lake Palestine (the one in Noonday, and Noonday is one of those "blink and you miss it" towns) so we stopped and asked where the community center was. and of course, it was Right Behind the Gas Station LOL.
So, alls well that ends well, I suppose. It seems like a lot of interesting people, and of Mr. Scarecrow is showing an interest in photography now, but it wasn't his original idea, it was Ms. Artsy Fartsy's, so I'm not 100% on his true commitment/excitement level, but we will see. Next month, for the October meeting, they are having a "photo contest" (very informal) for the professional photographer that is coming in to talk during the meeting. They came home wanting to start taking pics; I told them they had an entire month to think about it, and they needed to finish their math. LOL.
Yesterday was interesting. It was potentially a disaster, but I think it worked out okay. I've been looking around trying to figure something out for K (Miss ArtsyFartsy) to do with photography; the child is ALWAYS stealing my camera to take pics of stuff!! Pretty soon, its going to get to where she doesn't even ask before she snags it, and then I'll be uploading pics to Facebook, going "where the hell did that come from?!"
Anyway, I was pointed in the direction of the 4-H club to get her into the photography thing, and so I looked it up and asked around; I was basically given the run around, and Jon said that was a sign of things to come, and maybe we shouldn't bother. I still wanted to check it out first before writing it off. I was given the E-mail to one person who was the head secretary or something; she told me "the best way to find out anything is to go to a meeting". Great. The meetings are on the third Thursday of every month; and of course this was the third FRIDAY of the month, so I had to wait a whole freaking month to find out anything!!
So, I was all set and ready to go to check out the September meeting. A few weeks ago, I got an E-mail stating that the location of the meeting had changed to the Noonday Community Center… I responded directly to the E-mail, asking for directions. she responded with "the physical address is… the directions are … " and I left it at that. I didn't bother to READ the directions, I would NEED them for a few more weeks; totally my fault.
So, I forwarded the directions to Jon yesterday morning, since he was driving, and this way 2 people knew the way. I read them, and they ended with "and Flint Baptist Church is right there". Um, okay? I just took it for what it was. Of course, we get to the church, and NOBODY is there. Why? Because the meeting was at the Noonday Community Center!! Ugh. I admit it, I had a breakdown. this is just so typical of my luck, ya know? I'm going WAY out of my comfort zone here, allowing myself to enter into an unknown environment, and I can't even call, because I don't have a phone, and I can't double check anything, because, well, I don't have a phone but I especially don't have one of those cool internet-linked phones. GAH! I remembered the original E-mail said "noonday Community Center", and, well, I knew where noonday was, so we headed that way. Now approximately 20 minutes late.
We stopped at the "blue store" on the corner of the US Hwy that goes towards lake Palestine (the one in Noonday, and Noonday is one of those "blink and you miss it" towns) so we stopped and asked where the community center was. and of course, it was Right Behind the Gas Station LOL.
So, alls well that ends well, I suppose. It seems like a lot of interesting people, and of Mr. Scarecrow is showing an interest in photography now, but it wasn't his original idea, it was Ms. Artsy Fartsy's, so I'm not 100% on his true commitment/excitement level, but we will see. Next month, for the October meeting, they are having a "photo contest" (very informal) for the professional photographer that is coming in to talk during the meeting. They came home wanting to start taking pics; I told them they had an entire month to think about it, and they needed to finish their math. LOL.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
My to do list...
Sometime this week...
- Come up with cutsey "internet" names for my kids (other than their initials)
- Take school pics
- Learn how to freeze time...
- Come up with cutsey "internet" names for my kids (other than their initials)
- Take school pics
- Learn how to freeze time...
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Moved
To here. I was on wordpress, but I could NOT figure it out, so I came back to blogger. should have stayed here, quite honestly.
I'm going to try to be more consistent with this blog. I want to be like the blogs that I LIKE to read; I want to be something I would read LOL. Which means that I have to post more than once a month. and I can't post long rambling paragraphs without bright shiny pictures to keep people distracted long enough to complete the blog lol. and hopefully, this hobby won't take up more time than I already don't have!!
I'm going to try to be more consistent with this blog. I want to be like the blogs that I LIKE to read; I want to be something I would read LOL. Which means that I have to post more than once a month. and I can't post long rambling paragraphs without bright shiny pictures to keep people distracted long enough to complete the blog lol. and hopefully, this hobby won't take up more time than I already don't have!!
Friday, September 10, 2010
My First week..
Did NOT go as planned. at all. in any way.
First of all, I don't have everything in. But I'm feeling pressure to get started from all sides... the kids, the husband, my dad, the calendar...
So, I thought we'd get started and just have a "light" week, easing into it.
At the "last minute", I decided I wanted to do a little bit of prehistory before getting into the SOTW/HO I have laid out. and I thought I did good when I had it all mapped out; we ran by the library on Sunday because the "prehistoric life" book was checked out on wednesday when we went. guess what? Library was closed on Sunday. :P why? cause monday was labor day (a holiday) :(
So, that threw everything out of kilter.... So monday we pretty much just sat and talked about what we were going to do this week, this year, we put together our notebooks, labeled our dividers, and notebooks, and I let them set it all up; we moved a bookshelf into the kitchen to keep everything on so we didn't have stuff strung out all over the house...
That was about it. I didn't even get to do pics, cause nobody got dressed
So, Tuesday morning, my son had a dentist appt at 8 am to pull some teeth (baby teeth that never loosened and his adult teeth are already growing in), and then I was planning on going to the library afterwards... unfortunately, my 19 month old decided that she didn't want to go to bed when we all went to bed at 10... so she was up, screaming and crying and fighting sleep till about 1. Through all of that, I was trying to keep her in her bed and work at the same time... so I didn't go to bed until around 2. She woke up at 4 am bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for the day :yawn:. so, we camped out in the living room, watching dora until about 6 when daddy came home from work, and he was able to get her to sleep and then I crawled back into bed... He took DS to the dentist, came home, and went to sleep! He didn't wake me up to go to the library!! So when I woke up, about an hour after he went to bed, I woke him up and made him take me to the library because I couldn't do anything without that book.
That was the start of our Tuesday. Not very good, obviously. I think we did ok, but I had a screaming toddler that I had to keep picking up and moving to a different part of the house, only to come back to the kitchen and forget the last thing I said, and have to take time stumbling and fumbling through what I was trying to get at.
Wednesday, we got a bit started on biology; this is where DS has a meltdown. about 5 times that day, if I remember correctly. He writes slow, I talk fast, and he is a perfectionist, so he kept asking me "is this right? did I do it right? does it look like this?" everytime he got frustrated and started crying, I would send him to his room to cool down, and we would take a break (I"m not sure if this was the correct approach, I just felt that we should take a step back instead of trying to plow through).
He had another melt down with our attempt at spelling (which I now question my sanity when I picked up the WRTR and thought, "I can do that!") and also with the timeline I was trying to have them draw (for fun! it was supposed to be for fun! and he had a meltdown because what was supposed to go under the 4 went a bit over into the 3.5 and he didn't know what to do!!) so after that I just stopped. I felt like a complete failure.
Yesterday didn't happen. We ended up gone ALL DAY with running around and everything. (I forgot to mention, to top it all off, we were broke all week, so I couldn't buy a new ink cartridge, and I was out of ink, so there were several things I couldn't print off, like logic puzzles, or math worksheets. and speaking of math, we bought into the math mammoth coop, so we didn't even have it until yesterday!!)
So, today I think I'm going to just finish the week off easily, since it was pretty much a lost cause anyway. We watched "Galapagos" to introduce evolution and they are now reading over "eyewitness" books or something on evolution, and I was going to have them do a bit of writing. but I'm done for the week. Completely wiped. and I didn't even do anything :P
Oh, and we'll be in the middle of doing something, and they will stop me and say "is this all we are doing in homeschooling?"
First of all, I don't have everything in. But I'm feeling pressure to get started from all sides... the kids, the husband, my dad, the calendar...
So, I thought we'd get started and just have a "light" week, easing into it.
At the "last minute", I decided I wanted to do a little bit of prehistory before getting into the SOTW/HO I have laid out. and I thought I did good when I had it all mapped out; we ran by the library on Sunday because the "prehistoric life" book was checked out on wednesday when we went. guess what? Library was closed on Sunday. :P why? cause monday was labor day (a holiday) :(
So, that threw everything out of kilter.... So monday we pretty much just sat and talked about what we were going to do this week, this year, we put together our notebooks, labeled our dividers, and notebooks, and I let them set it all up; we moved a bookshelf into the kitchen to keep everything on so we didn't have stuff strung out all over the house...
That was about it. I didn't even get to do pics, cause nobody got dressed
So, Tuesday morning, my son had a dentist appt at 8 am to pull some teeth (baby teeth that never loosened and his adult teeth are already growing in), and then I was planning on going to the library afterwards... unfortunately, my 19 month old decided that she didn't want to go to bed when we all went to bed at 10... so she was up, screaming and crying and fighting sleep till about 1. Through all of that, I was trying to keep her in her bed and work at the same time... so I didn't go to bed until around 2. She woke up at 4 am bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for the day :yawn:. so, we camped out in the living room, watching dora until about 6 when daddy came home from work, and he was able to get her to sleep and then I crawled back into bed... He took DS to the dentist, came home, and went to sleep! He didn't wake me up to go to the library!! So when I woke up, about an hour after he went to bed, I woke him up and made him take me to the library because I couldn't do anything without that book.
That was the start of our Tuesday. Not very good, obviously. I think we did ok, but I had a screaming toddler that I had to keep picking up and moving to a different part of the house, only to come back to the kitchen and forget the last thing I said, and have to take time stumbling and fumbling through what I was trying to get at.
Wednesday, we got a bit started on biology; this is where DS has a meltdown. about 5 times that day, if I remember correctly. He writes slow, I talk fast, and he is a perfectionist, so he kept asking me "is this right? did I do it right? does it look like this?" everytime he got frustrated and started crying, I would send him to his room to cool down, and we would take a break (I"m not sure if this was the correct approach, I just felt that we should take a step back instead of trying to plow through).
He had another melt down with our attempt at spelling (which I now question my sanity when I picked up the WRTR and thought, "I can do that!") and also with the timeline I was trying to have them draw (for fun! it was supposed to be for fun! and he had a meltdown because what was supposed to go under the 4 went a bit over into the 3.5 and he didn't know what to do!!) so after that I just stopped. I felt like a complete failure.
Yesterday didn't happen. We ended up gone ALL DAY with running around and everything. (I forgot to mention, to top it all off, we were broke all week, so I couldn't buy a new ink cartridge, and I was out of ink, so there were several things I couldn't print off, like logic puzzles, or math worksheets. and speaking of math, we bought into the math mammoth coop, so we didn't even have it until yesterday!!)
So, today I think I'm going to just finish the week off easily, since it was pretty much a lost cause anyway. We watched "Galapagos" to introduce evolution and they are now reading over "eyewitness" books or something on evolution, and I was going to have them do a bit of writing. but I'm done for the week. Completely wiped. and I didn't even do anything :P
Oh, and we'll be in the middle of doing something, and they will stop me and say "is this all we are doing in homeschooling?"
Sunday, August 8, 2010
My plan...
Hoping this will help me to write this down.
I have a 4th grader and a 5th grader; for the most part, we are going to be combining (history and science, with grade specific assignments):
Science - (Sort of wrote my own life science curriculum that starts with the microscope moves to the cell and then goes to animals for approx 20 weeks, human body for 10 weeks, and plants for 6 weeks)
History - Ancients I have SOTW, and History Odyssey, so will be doing a mis-mesh of this
Math - Teaching Textbooks 5 and 6; also LOF for my 5th grader
Latin - I have the Bridge to the latin road, though Im skeptical that there's actually any latin in this, it looks more like english grammar to me, so i'm wondering if I'm mistaken as to what this program is, I'm thinking of using lively latin
Spelling - I have the WRTR to come up with a spelling notebook for the kids; I'm not sure how necessary this is for their age, but I'm planning on doing it as a "go over" in the beginning just because I'm not sure how much of a boost they need, this is our first year HSing out of PS
Writing - I got the IEW Ancients, but we will see lol
Logic - I'm still looking for some workbooks, but just planning on doing this about 3x a week
For music we'll be working with a recorder (i figure that's a good jumping off point into a "real" instrument)
For art, I'm still waiting to hear from our art teacher from last year
DD will be in soccer, and DS will be in baseball.
I have a 4th grader and a 5th grader; for the most part, we are going to be combining (history and science, with grade specific assignments):
Science - (Sort of wrote my own life science curriculum that starts with the microscope moves to the cell and then goes to animals for approx 20 weeks, human body for 10 weeks, and plants for 6 weeks)
History - Ancients I have SOTW, and History Odyssey, so will be doing a mis-mesh of this
Math - Teaching Textbooks 5 and 6; also LOF for my 5th grader
Latin - I have the Bridge to the latin road, though Im skeptical that there's actually any latin in this, it looks more like english grammar to me, so i'm wondering if I'm mistaken as to what this program is, I'm thinking of using lively latin
Spelling - I have the WRTR to come up with a spelling notebook for the kids; I'm not sure how necessary this is for their age, but I'm planning on doing it as a "go over" in the beginning just because I'm not sure how much of a boost they need, this is our first year HSing out of PS
Writing - I got the IEW Ancients, but we will see lol
Logic - I'm still looking for some workbooks, but just planning on doing this about 3x a week
For music we'll be working with a recorder (i figure that's a good jumping off point into a "real" instrument)
For art, I'm still waiting to hear from our art teacher from last year
DD will be in soccer, and DS will be in baseball.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Library Today...
I had made a list of books I wanted to get from the library, about 2 weeks ago. Boy, was I sorely disappointed at the books that were crossed off my list, not to be found at the library. I didn't get a lot of time to search; with 4 kids, 1 being a toddler and 1 being a newborn, I really just didn't have the ability to get lost in the stacks like I would love to do.
I found the "catalog" online, and that gave me the ability to do the search from home; so everytime I came across a book suggestion in The Well Trained Mind, or anywhere else I've been doing my research, then I could just immediately go to the library site and look it up. I think I found maybe 1 out of every 10 to 15 books I looked up. That was very disheartening, for sure. I began to feel like the only way I could do this was to order all these books off of Amazon, and as much as I would love to have an extensive library, I simply don't have that kind of money to spend on books.
I made it to the library today with my list in hand, and as I was searching for these particular books, I became excited by the choices that were there for me to browse. Unfortunately, I can't just browse the catalog online (or, if I can, I haven't figured out how) but looking for one particular book brought me to that specific subject section, and that one book would be surrounded by several other books on the same subject. I don't feel so disheartened anymore!! There were several in the reference area I wanted to get to look at, but we left after maybe 30 minutes due to baby crisis. I had enough time to gather everything on my list; I did not have time to sit and browse the references.
Here's my stash of finds from the library; I need to go through these and see which will be working for us.
I found the "catalog" online, and that gave me the ability to do the search from home; so everytime I came across a book suggestion in The Well Trained Mind, or anywhere else I've been doing my research, then I could just immediately go to the library site and look it up. I think I found maybe 1 out of every 10 to 15 books I looked up. That was very disheartening, for sure. I began to feel like the only way I could do this was to order all these books off of Amazon, and as much as I would love to have an extensive library, I simply don't have that kind of money to spend on books.
I made it to the library today with my list in hand, and as I was searching for these particular books, I became excited by the choices that were there for me to browse. Unfortunately, I can't just browse the catalog online (or, if I can, I haven't figured out how) but looking for one particular book brought me to that specific subject section, and that one book would be surrounded by several other books on the same subject. I don't feel so disheartened anymore!! There were several in the reference area I wanted to get to look at, but we left after maybe 30 minutes due to baby crisis. I had enough time to gather everything on my list; I did not have time to sit and browse the references.
Here's my stash of finds from the library; I need to go through these and see which will be working for us.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Still a bit overwhelmed...
And I'm trying not to be. This shouldn't be stressful for me; because I can make it really easy by just buying a boxed curriculum. I've already decided that's not what I want, so I just need to revel and enjoy the process as I go through it. I think what stresses me is all the ideas floating in my head; I'll get to looking for something, and get sidetracked onto something else, and 30 minutes later, I totally forgot what I was looking for initially. Or, I'll bookmark the page for future reference, to try to stay on track, and then I've got 100 bookmarks, and have no idea why I bookmarked that page!!
I found this blog a few days ago; this mom posts on a homeschooling board, and she was sharing some ideas for what to do on the first day of school; and I bookmarked her blog, and I also fanned her on Facebook. She made a new post today about her new independent folder, and I got lost in the sheer genius of her organization skills. Honestly, this woman is what I aspire to be; I want to be this organized. I just don't know how to be LOL
http://livelearnandlovetogether.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-improved-independent-notebook.html
I'm hoping to take a few pages out of her book, so to speak, to help me find my center with all of this work I have placed upon my shoulders (willingly, of course!)
I found this blog a few days ago; this mom posts on a homeschooling board, and she was sharing some ideas for what to do on the first day of school; and I bookmarked her blog, and I also fanned her on Facebook. She made a new post today about her new independent folder, and I got lost in the sheer genius of her organization skills. Honestly, this woman is what I aspire to be; I want to be this organized. I just don't know how to be LOL
http://livelearnandlovetogether.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-improved-independent-notebook.html
I'm hoping to take a few pages out of her book, so to speak, to help me find my center with all of this work I have placed upon my shoulders (willingly, of course!)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Starting out...
I made the decision in the middle of last year that I no longer wanted my kids to be in public school. My older kids are 10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. My daughter just finished the 4th grade, and my son just finished the 3rd grade. They have been in public school all their lives. My reasons for wanting to homeschool now are some things that are coming up and that are really bothering me. Last year (third grade), in my daughter's class, we were told "we really don't like the new math books, they are harder to teach from, but we don't have a choice. just to let you know, if your child doesn't understand, we can't stop and explain it beyond the first day. so if they come home not understanding it, then you need to work with them one on one to help them figure it out". Well, god forbid they have to do their job. and the way it was taught; it was stupid, I don't know. Math is math is math, right? I mean, does it matter how it gets done as long as you come up with the right answer? apparently it does; I can't tell you how many of her papers were marked wrong because she didn't "do it the way she was taught" even though she didn't understand it the way they taught her, and we had to show her the way we knew how to do it, and the answer was right.
This year, for my daughter, she was asking for help on one of her Social studies worksheets; it was like a vocabulary match up. The one she said she had a problem with had the same answer as one that she had already answered; for her to pick it right the first time, but the second time not get it, makes me think she was just memorizing a specific definition for that word, and when that definition was reworded, she suddenly didn't know what it meant, makes me think she's not comprehending, she's just memorizing.
My son gets in a lot of trouble at school. A LOT OF TROUBLE. like, every day, he has a note from the teacher. and he makes straight As. What does that tell you? it tells me he's bored out of his mind. This year, for him the biggest thing they were dealing with was the TAKS test (state standardized testing). They did a math practice test 2 months before the test; he made a 100 on it. So guess what they did for the next 2 months before the test? did they teach him something new? No. They continued to practice the test. and then, after he finally took the test (and made a 100 on it, btw), he came home from school and said something about his teacher's were freaking out because there were only 3 weeks of school to teach cursive. Um, how about they've had all year to teach cursive, and they waited till the last minute because of the stupid test?!?!
Yeah, I'm pretty angry and upset about this stuff. LOL, and this was supposed to be a good school district.
I'm hoping the "summer" will be a good deschooling period for them. I'm not planning on starting until September, for many reasons, but mostly because I still consider August to be summer, and way too early to expect kids to sit still and learn.
I want to learn the best way for my kids to learn, and then help them learn that way. I don't think that I expect them both to learn the same way; in fact, I know they wont, just with my experience in helping with homework. For my son, he seems to do better with structure; schedules. If he has a list of chores, he will do it very quickly, and then go about his day. He comes home from school and very quickly does his homework; he gets done what is expected of him, stands by and waits for more, or does his own thing after that. he likes the structure. My daughter, on the other hand, tends to dig her heels in when she's asked to do something. It has to be her idea. I can't tell you how many things I've told her; trying to help her organize her room (she is a packrat and seriously has way too much stuff in her room, every little thing she wants to save for an art project or something) but she gets a book and reads about taking care of your body and cleaning your room and keeping it organized, and all of a sudden its her idea and she's completely gungho about it. LOL, so I think unit studies for her would be good because then she can "choose" what she wants to learn about it, and its not so much that she's told what she is going to learn about. and unit studies really appeal to me; it may turn out to be something that is not quite right for us, and I"m okay with that.
We made the initial decision for the SOS program because it was recommended to us by a trusted friend who has experience homeschooling her kids; she knew I would have a new baby and the toddler underfoot, and because my husband wanted something that was going to be on the internet/electronic. I'm hoping we can do a fusion of what this SOS is and unit studies, or I can learn this year how to incorporate unit studies into the schooling. I want my kids to be knowledgeable about things that interest them; if they want to learn about dinosaurs, I want them to know more about dinosaurs than even I know. I don't really like the idea of giving them a workbook and saying "have at it" because then I don't really know if they are getting out of it the full learning experience. maybe I just need to go through a year of this to know exactly what to expect.
I'm thinking for now, for the younger years, we can have fun. we can go to the zoo, and turn that into a lesson. we can go to the aquarium. we can teach them to cook, and turn all these things into lesson plans. School doesn't have to be so strict and structured so young; all that is for high school. let them have fun now, and then do more classical training as they hit the 13-14 years. After high school, my husband is very interested in them going to college; he didn't get that chance, and so of course, he believes that is just a given that needs to be done for them.
The baby was born 2 days before school got out; so the kids went from having a routine of waking up, eating breakfast, getting ready for school, and going to school, coming home, doing homework, watching the toddler so I could work, having dinner, getting ready for school/bed, and doing it all over again, to being let out of school and having no schedule, no structure. as I've said before, my son seems to thrive on that.
I got my books today, "the Well Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer, and Cathy Duffy's "100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum". I'm still stressing myself out with learning more and more about ways to learn and teach. But I am hopeful I will figure something out before it starts lol, even if its just one or 2 subjects at first until I get more organized.
This year, for my daughter, she was asking for help on one of her Social studies worksheets; it was like a vocabulary match up. The one she said she had a problem with had the same answer as one that she had already answered; for her to pick it right the first time, but the second time not get it, makes me think she was just memorizing a specific definition for that word, and when that definition was reworded, she suddenly didn't know what it meant, makes me think she's not comprehending, she's just memorizing.
My son gets in a lot of trouble at school. A LOT OF TROUBLE. like, every day, he has a note from the teacher. and he makes straight As. What does that tell you? it tells me he's bored out of his mind. This year, for him the biggest thing they were dealing with was the TAKS test (state standardized testing). They did a math practice test 2 months before the test; he made a 100 on it. So guess what they did for the next 2 months before the test? did they teach him something new? No. They continued to practice the test. and then, after he finally took the test (and made a 100 on it, btw), he came home from school and said something about his teacher's were freaking out because there were only 3 weeks of school to teach cursive. Um, how about they've had all year to teach cursive, and they waited till the last minute because of the stupid test?!?!
Yeah, I'm pretty angry and upset about this stuff. LOL, and this was supposed to be a good school district.
I'm hoping the "summer" will be a good deschooling period for them. I'm not planning on starting until September, for many reasons, but mostly because I still consider August to be summer, and way too early to expect kids to sit still and learn.
I want to learn the best way for my kids to learn, and then help them learn that way. I don't think that I expect them both to learn the same way; in fact, I know they wont, just with my experience in helping with homework. For my son, he seems to do better with structure; schedules. If he has a list of chores, he will do it very quickly, and then go about his day. He comes home from school and very quickly does his homework; he gets done what is expected of him, stands by and waits for more, or does his own thing after that. he likes the structure. My daughter, on the other hand, tends to dig her heels in when she's asked to do something. It has to be her idea. I can't tell you how many things I've told her; trying to help her organize her room (she is a packrat and seriously has way too much stuff in her room, every little thing she wants to save for an art project or something) but she gets a book and reads about taking care of your body and cleaning your room and keeping it organized, and all of a sudden its her idea and she's completely gungho about it. LOL, so I think unit studies for her would be good because then she can "choose" what she wants to learn about it, and its not so much that she's told what she is going to learn about. and unit studies really appeal to me; it may turn out to be something that is not quite right for us, and I"m okay with that.
We made the initial decision for the SOS program because it was recommended to us by a trusted friend who has experience homeschooling her kids; she knew I would have a new baby and the toddler underfoot, and because my husband wanted something that was going to be on the internet/electronic. I'm hoping we can do a fusion of what this SOS is and unit studies, or I can learn this year how to incorporate unit studies into the schooling. I want my kids to be knowledgeable about things that interest them; if they want to learn about dinosaurs, I want them to know more about dinosaurs than even I know. I don't really like the idea of giving them a workbook and saying "have at it" because then I don't really know if they are getting out of it the full learning experience. maybe I just need to go through a year of this to know exactly what to expect.
I'm thinking for now, for the younger years, we can have fun. we can go to the zoo, and turn that into a lesson. we can go to the aquarium. we can teach them to cook, and turn all these things into lesson plans. School doesn't have to be so strict and structured so young; all that is for high school. let them have fun now, and then do more classical training as they hit the 13-14 years. After high school, my husband is very interested in them going to college; he didn't get that chance, and so of course, he believes that is just a given that needs to be done for them.
The baby was born 2 days before school got out; so the kids went from having a routine of waking up, eating breakfast, getting ready for school, and going to school, coming home, doing homework, watching the toddler so I could work, having dinner, getting ready for school/bed, and doing it all over again, to being let out of school and having no schedule, no structure. as I've said before, my son seems to thrive on that.
I got my books today, "the Well Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer, and Cathy Duffy's "100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum". I'm still stressing myself out with learning more and more about ways to learn and teach. But I am hopeful I will figure something out before it starts lol, even if its just one or 2 subjects at first until I get more organized.
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