*** Homeschool List ***

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I've tried flylady--organizing books--everything. I have come to the conclusion that I am just a pitiful housekeeper.

No DH doesn't have a clone, LOL! He actually thought a maid service was a dumb idea when I brought it up a month ago that I never wanted to clean again, LOL!

I wasn't actually trying to score a maid in our conversations this week--but the daily urge to cry b/c my home is a disaster--a bit too much.

I am to get boxes this week and he will help me with a "clean sweep" declutter process this week. Boxes of Keep, Maybe (for later sorting in the spring), Toss, and Sell. We need ot reduce the amount of stuff we have.

Luckily DD is only in Kindergarten--we don't have much yet in way of school stuff.

Though--she would love to spend her days painting..I am paralyzed at the notion and just can't do it when I got stuff to do and nowhere to put her artwork.

The "neatest" homes of homeschooling families that I have seen--have large dedicated rooms to the endeavor. It helps minimize what is going on around the rest of the house.

 

[disneymom3]

The "neatest" homes of homeschooling families that I have seen--have large dedicated rooms to the endeavor. It helps minimize what is going on around the rest of the house.

EXACTLY! That is my dream for our next home. Though, actually, if we get our basement finished, we could basically spend all day down there and do school in the area I have already planned in my head.

 

[TNKBELL]

I think that housekeeping is part of the sacrifice of hs. I've got books and papers everywhere and now my DS2 is wanting to paint and color like his big DD4 and he doesn't use paper as his medium!! His artwork has made appearances in every room and on many surfaces of our house. Like Lisa, we occasionaly take a box and fill it with clutter stuff and the way I figure is if we can get along without it for a year then it gets sold in a garage sale. I have been trying to simplify like reducing the amount of dishes in the kitchen, I notice that when there are fewer dishes, we just have to do them more often, but when there are more, we just use everything we possibly can and then have one gigantic pile of dishes that require mutiple dishwashing loads! AND oh the toys!! I never had this many toys growing up, I had a drawer where I kept my stuff! We have rooms dedicated to them now! Lately I have been fantacizing about selling it all and moving into neat tidy little beach house where life is simple! Come to think of though, when we were in a smaller house, I fantacized about living in a bigger house with room for all our stuff!! I guess the grass is always greener! Ladies I feel your pain!!

 

[Belle0101]

I'm embarrased and sick that I have to admit this but ...

we fell off the wagon so to speak. In all honesty I could just about cry.

I'm sorry but this is going to be a bit long.

When we decided to homeschool DH was all for it, he was going to help blah blah blah. That help was very short lived. I've told him over and over that I can't do this alone. Then he helps for a day or two and then can't anymore for this reason or that reason.

I talked with our oldest son today, 10 yrs. old and doing 5th and 6th grade work, about going back to school. He only wants to so he can see his friends more often and have lunch at a set time everyday. At least he's honest. Other than that he is not interested in public school. He feels good about what he's learning, when I get around to teaching, and how he learns it.

DS5 is doing 1st and 2nd grade work but if he went into public school he'd be in K since his birthday was late. He wants to go to school.

I really feel like I've failed my children. I want them to learn from me but I don't have it in me to stay dedicated and teach them everyday. In my DH defense, he works an average of 60 hours a week. He gets home around 4pm and is in bed every night by 8pm. He usually leaves for work between 3 and 3:30am. You can imagine, that leaves everything to me - errands, grocery shopping, appointments, house cleaning, laundry ...

The closest support group to us is an hour and 45 minutes from here so that's not really an option either.

I'm sorry to sound like a whiner but seriously, I'm just sick over having failed my children. If you have any suggestions for me I'd really appreciate it. Right now I really don't know what to do. I could enroll them back in school but it's not what I want to do. DH thinks I should. Also, maybe this is normal? We started homeschooling DS10 last March and then both this September.

Sorry, to have rambled and I hope you can understand it.

 

[disneymom3]

! AND oh the toys!! I never had this many toys growing up, I had a drawer where I kept my stuff! We have rooms dedicated to them now!

Funny you shoudl say this--This morning while the kids were outside, I went through and packed up two boxes of toys. Haven't decided if I am going to Goodwill them (that is a verb, you know ) or garage sale them in the spring, but for now they are out of my family room. Especially with Christmas coming. Oh, right now there is not even room for a Christmas tree in my family room. It really is ridiculuous!

Belle--don't give up dear!! I remember when we pm'd when you were thinking of homeschooling and have been wondering about how things were going for you. It's OKAY!! Really! You have been through a lot in the last year and your kids are ahead of their grades academically. Some suggestions I have for you--if you celebrate Christmas, take December off. REally, I mean it. Bake cookies, print out some fun stuff from dltk-kids.com to decorate, if you must do some lessons, make them holiday related--again dltk-kids or many many other websites will have holiday based math and word searches, crosswords, story starters etc. Your kids can learn a lot just left to their own devices and will be fine. You have already improved so much in their lives.

I have to tell you, that the social reason is not a good reason to go back to school. We tried it though and that was the best thing we could do! DD strongly disliked being back in school and is thrilled to be back at home now--she should be! She has spent the last two days painting!! Can't do that in school. Make sure you are not trying to do too much too. YOu do not need to fill the day with 6 hours of schooling. A LOT of time is wasted in public school and not on learning. I have also personally decided that a lot of that learning is a huge waste of time anyway. Does my 4th grader really need to know what the predicate of a sentence is? Yeah, someday, but for right now, she just needs to know to capitalize the beginning and what makes a complete sentence.

Another thing I use to solve those down days, weeks, etc is we go to the library. Have each child pick a topic to look up, get all the books you can on it and a video or two thrown in for good measure, curl up on the couch and read read read. There are days I am sure my kids could learn all they need from books. Don't be afraid to use the computer too! DS5 was way anti reading and phonics. It just was not happening. In the last week or so, we have put away all worksheets and workbooks and are playing games and doing Starfall.com. He LOVES it AND he is learning to blend letters together into words. Get one of the "What your xxx Grader Needs To Know books and read the history and Language arts sections to your kids. Woohoo! A whole year in a few days of reading!

And, don't be afraid to come here and express your discouragement. Every year, this is a hard time to actually buckle down and do academics for us. In fact this is the first year we have not just taken all of Dec off and that is just because DD was so busy with play rehearsals etc last month that I felt like we already have had such a break.

Oh, and put up some signs at the library and local churches--I bet you will be surprised at the homeschoolers that come out of the woodwork!

 

[Belle0101]

disneymom3,
Thanks for the encouragement. I'm in the middle of chasing the dogs - we have 3 now - and trying to get supper going but I wanted to let you know that I appreciate your post.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I think that housekeeping is part of the sacrifice of hs.

I'm a few steps beyond sacrifice.

 

[hsmamato2]

belle0101- don't give up! if this is something you want to try, give yourself a break! Look online for any yahoo groups dedicated to homeschooling near you- go to the Home Education magazine website and read their articles...get a subscription- You may be feeling like a failure b/c you don't have enough contact with plain old homeschoolers-not the perfect kind(?!?) but the type who are very school at home, or are very relaxed,and sometimes do bookwork,or the type who never,EVER pick up a textbook- all of those families who are successful, b/c they're doing homeschooling in a way that feels right to them! I myself don't do textbooks,,and rarely do typical"school" I've become educated on various ways- tried various things, talked to a million homeschoolers, and found a path that works for us- **You will too!*** I love a site called BestHomeschooloing.org(orcom?) also a mag site called Life Learning and remember- school type or not-if you find a path that suits your family, you're not a failure, you're successful parent!

 

[hsmamato2]

The "neatest" homes of homeschooling families that I have seen--have large dedicated rooms to the endeavor. It helps minimize what is going on around the rest of the house.

my neighbor does school at home, has 3 kids, and their house is always PERFECT...I'm not kidding, and when I say school at home I mean 7 hours daily. No Joke. We are unschoolers, our life is our learning, and our house usually looks like a hurricane rolled through, then a tornado, then an earthquake finished it off
I have a few guidelines now, b/c I hate cleaning for hours before people come over, on Mondays, they have to have their bedroom vacuum-able and all toys throughout the house put away, and on fridays, the rec/toy area downstairs has to be cleaned and vacuumed, usually, that's about as good as it gets- Life is about way more important things than being Martha stewart...
Like making a huge mess quadrupling a gingerbread recipe and figuring out how to make powdered sugar frosting with granulated sugar....but we now have an awesome gingerbread house covered in neon gummy worms!

 

[TNKBELL]

Belle...So impressed your DKS are soo ahead!! I agree with some of the other posters, take some time off, enjoy your DKS and have fun!! My most successful years have been the years I didn't stress out and try to squeeze everything in! It's amazing how much kids learn just by reading or by being read to and talked to. If it's in your heart to homeschool it will work out for you. Try not to question yourself, none of us are perfect(especially not me!!!!!!). Let your kids decide for awhile what they want to learn about and explore. I agree that school doesn't need to take 6 hours!! We do about 2 hours of written work a day(1st & 3rd grades) and then they do reading on thier own and Dh reads them history at bedtime. Thats about all I can muster right now. Don't forget to count extra curricular activities as part of school, for example, baseball is P.E., Children's Adoration is religion, listening to classical music tapes or dvds is music appreciation, computer time playing educational games is whatever subject they are learning. Surround them with lots of fun games and resources. The point of hs is learning and teaching our children to teach themselves, once they know how to use resources they can really learn anything!! For instance we just learned that the flabby thing hanging from a turkey's chin is called a "wattle" Talk about higher education!!! lol God Bless you and don't be too hard on yourself you are not a failure!!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Life is about way more important things than being Martha stewart...

I agree....

I'm just striving to not be the home that they show on the 11:00 news. Am emergency at this home--and this is what they found. Those poor kids living in this squalor. NOT--"we just timed the emergency before we had a chance to clean up--no really we did." This was LLP's last statement before being hauled off to jail.

 

[TNKBELL]

Lisa... your DDs' are at a hard age for helping yet, but that day will come, I'm sure not soon enough for you though !! I think it would be great to have a cleaning service, I would also love a cook! I hate to cook and feel like a failure because I know I don't use enough veggies day to day. Someone told me that all mothers at one time or another feel like failures. You are not a failure! It would be hard not to have Dh here all the time, when he works overtime the house gets horrible! I have had to call ems before when DS2 was choking and I'm sure my house was a mess and I was wearing my "home" clothes which usually consist of sweat pants and a badly stained or mamed shirt of some kind and they were not shocked or disgusted, I think probably just frustrated because he wasn't choking anymore by the time they arrived.
Don't feel bad for needing help, we all do!! Hang in there!

 

[bear74]

Hi!
I went to a borders outlet store yesterday and found the following books curious what you think about them.
1) A to Z early childhood curriculum covering art, science, math, social studies manupliatives, language arts, games and music. Macgraw-hill childrens publishing copyright 2001
2) NAture discovery cards with winnie the pooh and friends
3) Time for kids world atlas copyright 2004
4) Grade K learn at Home a total curriculum guide mcgraw-hill publishing

 

[disneymom3]

bear74, I tend to like most stuff by MacGraw Hill. I like the Learn at Home series--what I have heard of them--and like to pick and choose from any kind of preschool planning book. And my new philosophy after selling some stuff on ebay that I had barely used is that if I get a good deal on it, I can always sell it if I don't like it after all!

 

[Belle0101]

Thanks everybody for your words of encouragement after my last post.

I read over some older posts, did lots of thinking, more looking around at different websites and I decided that I'm not giving up!

What I've learned is that's okay if the house has a lived in look

That even though I don't use a specific curriculum they are still learning. What I use is pieced together. I have a book from a homeschool bookstore for history, McGraw Hill and similar type workbooks for spelling, math, time, money, comprehension and 2 science textbooks I picked up second hand. I've always been a reader so our house is near overflowing with books to read for everybody - picture only books, chapter books, classics ...

I guess my style is more unschooling in that I prefer hands on teaching and learning. I was having problems telling myself that was okay but I learned that if that's what works best then that's what you need to do.

This morning we did the basics and during lunch we watched a documentary on Pearl Harbor (we stumbled onto that by accident, at times it was over their head but they both want to go to Hawaii now and see the memorial) and then after lunch we worked on a 1000 piece puzzle of Epcot and listened to a BB King CD.

So it was a good day for us.

Thanks for everybody's support.

 

[TanaL]

.....

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

This morning we did the basics and during lunch we watched a documentary on Pearl Harbor (we stumbled onto that by accident, at times it was over their head but they both want to go to Hawaii now and see the memorial) and then after lunch we worked on a 1000 piece puzzle of Epcot and listened to a BB King CD.

So it was a good day for us.

Thanks for everybody's support.

WE are going to Hawaii next October. I went a year ago for my sisters wedding with my youngest. My oldest saw all the pictures. She had her choice of a Disney Cruise or Hawaii and my blasphemous little Disney girl picked Hawaii.

I got some unit study suggestions from my homeschool group and this is probably what we will spend our summer doing.

She wants to see the boat that the bad Japanese (bad then, not now ) sunk into the water.

Of course she will be entering first grade by then.

We get DirectTV and TIVO tomorrow. I hate the idea of having it--but hubby thought TIVO would be a good idea. And I'm looking forward to having access to The History Channel and all those other channels and such.

 

[disneymom3]

Hey guys, good to hear updates from so many. Lisa--how is the purging going? I cleaned out our upper pantry this morning in prep for doing some holiday baking. Found out I had more jello than one family really would need in a year and cleaned out some old ingredients. Now, I actually know what is up there and it feels so great! One step at a time, I am working to get more organized because as so many have said, it feels so much better to have a clean house that if people pop in you are not totally ashamed of.

Belle--glad you are feeling better about this. Your kids really can thrive doing this. Have I mentioned on this thread the book I was reading recently? It is called Homeschooling our Kids, Unschooling Ourselves. While I am not totally comfortable with unschooling for every thing--I have not let go of the idea that I really do need to teach them math and spelling and how to write a decent sentence--I really could relate to a big part of her theme which is basically that the majority of us are coming at homeschooling from a preconceived notion of what school SHOULD be--the model we see in the public schools. And, here I am, personally thinking the school system is severly broken and still trying to emulate it. Really helped to open my eyes. I mean, I don't even believe in academic kindergarten--AT ALL--and I have been going along working on phonics with DS when he does NOT like it. Ugh. So, this last week we have been doing a lot of games and reading and we are both a whole lot happier. I am going to borrow my friend's Five in A Row and think I will do that with my boys at least for awhile.

I have really discovered that I am not a packaged curriculum kind of a girl in any extent. We started out the year doing My Fathers World Rome to the Reformation and while I am still using it for some ideas, we don't follow their lesson plans at all. I dropped the first science unit as it was way too much paper related stuff, but do plan to use the book they include for Astronomy. We also use Story of the World and use that in our co-op too. We had been using Singapore Math for both older kids, but we are all just SO bored with it. For DS I have dropped all math curriculum and are playing games--counting spaces, rolling dice, store where he has to count out money for me, etc--and DD has been working on the Key To series. We have book one for each topic and she just chooses the one she wants to work on that day. That is going well and she is being exposed to stuff I would nt' have thought to do on my own. She is mainly working on the fractions book and really likes it.

 

[crazymomof4]

We get DirectTV and TIVO tomorrow. I hate the idea of having it--but hubby thought TIVO would be a good idea. And I'm looking forward to having access to The History Channel and all those other channels and such.

I love the Discovery Channel, History Channel and A&E!
Check out the classroom materials available online for teachers:
http://school.discovery.com/
http://www.historychannel.com/classroom/classroom.html
http://www.aetv.com/class/classcal/root.cgi?year=2005&month=12


crazymom

 

[jaycns]

I would be very interested! We have been homeschooling for the past 4 and 1/2 years. I would love to learn more about what everyone else is doing, share some of what I have been doing and maybe hear how others have brought time at Disney in with their homeschool days!