I read several books before we signed up for the homeschooling, I did NOT go into this unprepared or not knowing there would be difficult days. The last book I read was Catholic home schooling by Mary Kay Clark. She is the director of Seton Home Study, the curriculum we use. In there she says you need to be some what flexible. She also says "Do not have to long of a school day. Homeschooling is far more intensive learning than in a classroom, so do not go past five or six hours total." I very much agree with this, it seems what would normally take 45 minutes or longer in a traditional class room setting, takes us about 20 minutes max. She also says "After a certain amount of formal class time, children simply cannot absorb any more, so continuing becomes pointless." Which again I have witnessed and agree with.
My point in all of this is, this first quarter has been a learning and adjusting experience for both Brian and I, and also the kids. All in all, we have far more GREAT days vs the not so good days. On those GREAT days we push through, and even work a head a bit, if time allows. On the days we struggle, we make sure to get the core subjects done, and afterwords we call it a day. It doesn't take much to "catch up" the other stuff. Just as an example, Justin is over a week ahead in his English book. The only reason it's only a week ahead, was because I made him stop...LOL.
As it is, at this point, we are scheduled to finish school up by the end of April, that INCLUDES a few days off for Thanksgiving, Christmas break, and Easter break. I am scheduling a few field trips as we can, and allowing for a few random days off here, and there just like there would be in a traditional school (with teachers in service and such). We also only work a half day on Friday's because that is the day we do all our grocery shopping and errands.
The thing that I think I like most is, the kids are working and learning at their pace, and seem to be doing rather well. I was looking at my grade book, and for instance Libby's lowest grade so far is a solid "C". Which compared to last year is a HUGE improvement. She has a "B" in Spelling which is major for her, because spelling just isn't her thing.
We are making some more changes in the next week. One of the things the books suggests is to let children who are trustworthy to grade some of their own daily work. "....encourage your children to grade their own papers immediately after they have done their assignment. The advantage to this is that children can recall their thought processes when they answered their questions or problems, and thus can learn from their grading." " In addition, self grading develops honesty and usually accuracy." The other thing we are going to change (of course I'm not sure how long this one will last, but it's worth a try), will be getting up when Brian gets up to get ready for work. This will allow us to have breakfast together as a family, and we will start school right after. This means getting the kids up at 6 am, and we will be starting school around 7 am. The reason I want to try this is, Brian gets up at 4:30 most mornings. With the long hours he has been working, most nights the kids are in bed (bed time is at 9pm) before he gets home from work. Granted right now is a extremely busy time of the year for him at his job, and it should only last a few more weeks. This would allow me to get the kids in bed by say 8pm, and Brian and I can head off to bed by 9:30 at the latest. I really LOVE the flexibility of home schooling! Another thing I love, when Patrick is in our classroom with us, if he gets fussy and I am working with someone, Libby or Justin will pick him up, and continue on with their school work while holding him on their lap. What a wonderful bonding and learning experience for all of our kids!
Well there you have it, that's what has been going on in our world.....hope you have a great rest of the week.
(Please excuse any typos, or misspellings, Patrick is on my lap "helping" me type)
