Friday, August 15, 2008

You might be a homeschooler if...

You LOVE, LOVE the first day of school!!!

In spite of the picture above, my children are not 5,3,2 and 4 months old.

They are actually 13, 10(for a few more weeks), 9 and 7(8 in 3 months).

When I look at old pictures I feel a little sad for all the time gone by. They were so cute! I used to dress them in matching outfits!

Although, when I took this picture, I remember I'd only had about 2 hours sleep. I'd driven 4 hours to meet a fellow homeschooler I'd "met" through the internet.

The baby had terrible colic and for 4 months I nursed her all night long. Then I discovered soy formula and my life took a turn for the better.

Actually I still deal w/ sleep problems, but that is not what I sat down here to write!

Today was our first day of school. Well sort of. Have you ever noticed that when you make pancakes, the first one is often a dud? I set aside this day as a dry run of sorts, to work out any kinks. Thursday, I started organizing paperwork and everyone's backpacks and today we dove in.

This year is going to be our best ever. I got a scheduling idea from Joyce Swann. Now her kids were accelerated and all earned masters degrees at home by age 16 or so.I am not interested in that, but I like the idea of school for 3 solid hours a day(I may have to make it longer, but I like having a set time). No messing around, no goofing off.No talking about anything else, but what we are doing.

Even my spelling/reading/dyslexia materials(avko.org) say to only do activities for 15 min. If it takes longer, it becomes tedious, so we are working up to completing the lessons in under 15 min. We can only get about 1/2 done right now, but I am sure glad to know that we were spending too much time on it before.

And no fits! Fit throwing, whining, complaining, wasting my time and/or the other kids' time is going to result in detention(fancy word for time out) after school.

Another addition this year is homework! Homework builds responsibility and teaches time management. And this year, each child has a backpack w/ all their stuff(another Joyce Swann idea) Last year, we had a school cabinet. It was a big disaster; we were always hunting for our stuff!

Another change on the horizon. I am probably going to quit Sonlight and go over to My Father's World when we get our income tax.Sonlight is a wonderful curriculum. The set up of the schedules and heavy course load are too much for me. This semester I am going to quit using my SL Instructor's guide and just read the books. I am going to see what I have in the way of American History, because when I switch to MFW, they won't get that right away!

So far everything I have planned feels doable, not overwhelming. For about a month, we are going to review math facts, do some reading instruction, things like that. In Sept, the 3 kids that will continue w/ Time4Learning will begin that.

I was thinking today that my littlest didn't have anything to do when I remembered she has time4learning to look forward to!

That is it for now, it's enough!! whew....

2 comments:

Luke Holzmann said...

The first pancake is never quite right. So true!

I am sorry to hear that Sonlight became too much. If you ever want tips or ideas on how to make Sonlight fit you, don't forget about the SCAs and the Forums!

Granted, you are probably well aware of these resources. And whatever you end up doing, may it be the best fit for you and your family!

~Luke

Jennifer Sr. said...

Luke, Thanks so much for the comment!!

Those are good points to make esp. for someone who may be reading along here. Sonlight offers counseling over the phone and the fabulous forums.

Thank you for the well wishes, Jennifer