Homeschool Mother's Journal::May 4, 2012


In my life this week... 

Life has been somewhat normal. Paul has settled in to a routine of working with his dad 12 hours a week. The younger two boys enjoy that time to do their thing (mostly playing Legos). Not that having Paul home means no playtime- the dynamic is just different. And Frank (dad) is happy to have the help. We celebrated Erin earning a scholarship from Redkin that will help her pay a bit of the cost of her school. Plus it was just really nice for her to get that pat on the back. 

In our homeschool this week...

We have been mostly focusing on the basics, which is not unusual for us, but Mark and James loved their art class! 


Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share... 

Don't take it personally. Kids will complain and will occasionally try to push mom's (or dad's) buttons. I find that when I stay the course, it gives my children that sense of security and boundaries that they are looking for. When I let myself get wrapped up in their moodiness, it gets ugly fast! 

I am inspired by...

"A Treasured Spot" (blog post) at Wildflowers and Marbles  reflecting on "choosing wise and purposeful letting alone." I needed  this reminder today! 

"We ought to do so much for our children, and are able to do so much for them, that we begin to think everything rests with us and that we should never intermit for a moment our conscious action on the young minds and hearts about us.  Our endeavours become fussy and restless.  We are too much with our children, 'late and soon.'  We try to dominate them too much, even when we fail to govern, and we are unable to perceive that wise and purposeful letting alone is the best part of education."  Charlotte Mason, Vol 3, p. 27, 28

Places we're going and people we're seeing... 


Volleyball! That is Paul's favorite place anyway. He is the one with his feet in the air and arms up. I have no idea where the ball is! 

My favorite thing this week was... 


Super Uncle! Able to push two nephews on the swings in a single motion! 

What's working/not working for us... 

No screen time! Okay, almost no screen time. We have watched a few DVDs. I keep saying that I will evaluate the situation and come up with a formula (screen time vs. not), but I am just so relieved to not have the competition for other more worthwhile activities. We went from a family with virtually no video games or gadgets  to having them readily available, and let's just say "on a scale of one to ten, it is not good". 

(just 8 seconds long)

Questions/thoughts I have...

We are taking the plunge and ordering Susan's Bartons Reading program. We have loved All About Spelling. It is painful to let go. We may be back depending on how this works. There is lot behind this decision- I keep thinking I am going to write a post, but I have been too busy doing to write! 

Things I'm working on...

Working on getting everyone to work together. I want more free time to have some adventures! And that cannot happen if we don't take care of first things first. I am going back to something I have done many times over the years- check lists for each room and one for pet care. That way, when I say "clean ____" the expectation is clear. 


Not that we often have dishes and trash in the living room, but it happens! And vacuuming is daily- weekly under the sofas (how does all that stuff get under there anyway?). 

I'm reading...

Growing Up Amish and The Shunning (actually finished both this week). I was able to order "Growing Up" on sale for my kindle after seeing it on Jen's reading list.  I have to say that I did not love it. Although, I found it interesting enough to finish reading it. I guess I was waiting for a big reconciliation or redemption at the end that did not really come through. Coincidentally, both books are about the Amish community (the first on non-fiction, the second fiction). I saw a preview for the movie of The Shunning, but thought I'd like to read the book first. It was a nice read. 

I am also reading Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz and Overcoming Dyslexia for Dummies. The "dummies" book is more accessible, but the book by Sally Shaywitz is the more comprehensive and useful (to me) of the two. 

I'm cooking...

Not much! I did a post about our fried rice, but we have been eating on the fly too often this week. We plan to remedy that situation next week! Although we did have our first corn on the cob of the year on Monday and it was magical!! 

I'm praying for...

Does anyone else feel that everywhere they turn, so many are in need of prayer. We started including "all those who have asked for prayer" in our intentions each day a while back. We still include specific requests, but I am afraid of forgetting someone! 

A photo, video, or link to share... 


I do still have an 18 yo daughter. And I have proof- she leaves me these lovely collages on my phone! I guess that sort of makes up for never seeing her. (actually, she does try really hard to be around when she is able to) 




Comments

  1. UnknownMay 4, 2012 at 2:47 AM

    Congrats to your daughter on earning a scholarship! I would love to hear more about your new reading program when you have the time. I'm contemplating one I just heard about, but need to do a bit more research. Growing up Amish was the same for me. It was interesting, the Amish interest me very much, but it didn't really end like I thought it should! Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JenMay 4, 2012 at 4:37 AM

    Super Uncle is pretty awesome! Love the pics and I totally hear you on the screen time. It is difficult to disconnect totally but it's my goal to limit it ;) Have a great weekend!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. PattyMay 4, 2012 at 5:35 AM

    Wow! What a week and I love how you touched on most of your children...those at home at least. Tell Erin congrats on her scholarship. Way to go and everyone deserves that pat on the back!! Good for Paul for working. We love seeing other children working for their parents. What a great work ethic you are instilling in Paul. And I think it is great that you are sticking with the no t.v. thing. Just last week, there had been too much squabbling in our household and it seemed to be turning to a darker side. David and I took away all electronics and for the past week, it has grown back into a happier household. I could not agree with you more about schedules. Children need routine and sometimes parents can set them up for failure when we take away that routine. I liked that quote...there have been many times I felt that as a parent, I may be dominating them, controling them too much. Good food for thought indeed!

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMay 4, 2012 at 12:47 PM

    I thought it would be hard to limit TV, but after dropping cable and adding Netflix and putting in place the "Screen Time Only After 6:00pm" rule, it's gone quite well. I think "perimeters" help so much! The kids know WHEN they can have that time!

    Super Uncle is doing a Super JOB with the younger ones!

    ReplyDelete
  5. TiffanyMay 4, 2012 at 10:04 PM

    Oh Laurie, I enjoyed this post so much...so many great insights! I have been struggling with patience with the kids and their "moods" as you put it. It was refreshing to hear what you had to say and thank you for sharing. I have also been feeling bogged down trying to finish our year and craving adventures too...Sometimes even Moms have to be disciplined:( Yes, lots of prayers needed all around us. We keep a prayer box and add everyone's name to it...Sometimes I make a list too, if I'm praying a novena or other "big guns." Wishing you a blessed weekend! Oh and I adore that Super Uncle picture...Too, too, precious!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 5, 2012 at 2:35 PM

    How awesome that your daughter earned a scholarship! Congrats to you and her. We have also limited electronics time in our house. My kids are allowed 1.5 hours of TV and 1.5 hours of computer/video game time a day. I'm happy to say that they usually use up their time limits. I really needed to hear Homeschool Advice! My 10 yo DD seems to complain about everything and I find myself shot at the end of the day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Judy @ Contented at HomeMay 6, 2012 at 9:34 PM

    We strictly limit screen time in our home, as well. Each child has 30 minutes of computer time each day, and we don't have a television. I really like the "after 6pm" rule that was mentioned in one of the comments--I may give it a try here.
    It's wonderful when kids can find other (more productive) things to do!
    I believe I started the Growing Up Amish book on my Kindle, but never finished it. I'll have to take a look at it again.

    Wishing you a great week! :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Morning Time

Image
Look at me writing 2 posts so close together!! So... I have loved listening to the podcasts on morning time called "Your Morning Basket". I have listened to all of them. Very inspiring! They are all worthwhile to listen to, but I have to tell you that episode #2 with Andrew Pudewa is a game changer (in the homeschool sense). We have had our own variations on morning time in our house. When my girls were younger (they are now 31, 30, 28 and 22 years old), we had "seat work time" and "couch time". I'd say that couch time was our version of what is now being called morning time. For the most part, we read historical fiction, discussed history (I would either read from or discuss from a text), learned a little geography, read the bible, had prayer time, and had some pretty fun discussions. There was a transition when my now 28 year old became sort of a teachers helper for her younger sister. I remember working on art appreciation with her at the h...
Read more

Week in Review: February 1-5 2016

Image
Lots of baby care around here as the boys' big sister (our second daughter, Jessica) was having her fifth baby. It was a week full of sword fighting, cuddles, disney movies, books, and coloring. It's also been a week full of colds. The 2 year old twins had a cold, which I assume James caught from them (although every one in the world seems to have it, so not necessarily). The problem is that no matter how many times I caution the boys, who can resist cuddling with a sweet little toddler who does not feel well? I guess germs are meant to be shared. In the way of school, we have been in "keep up" mode. Paul's strongest focus is on his Dave Ramsey finance class (which I highly recommend), his Spanish class, and his economics course. http://www.daveramsey.com/store/search.ep?keyWords=homeschool http://www.livinglanguage.com/languagelab/spanish  (I cannot recommend this highly enough. The books and cds make it easy to open and go. Additionally, the...
Read more

Din-spiration Part 6

Image
This is sort of a lighthearted post, but I am going to start by saying that all those in Paris and the World are in my prayers. There are never words when something so unspeakable happens. As it has been pointed out, it happens far more often that we usually hear about in places that are more obscure to most of us. I'm going to continue with this planned post as most of us still have "normal life" to attend to and families to feed amidst this very stressful backdrop. To keep myself accountable, I was going to keep up posting about my crusade to eat at home. I have failed the last few weeks, but the resolve to eat at home has not! The great thing is that on the days when resolve wanes in me, my husband picks it up. He is often the one to encourage me that he can stop by and pick up an ingredient I forgot, or to step in and create a dish himself. He chose make us a Lasagna last week- for me, that is a more involved dinner than I will take on a week day. Rather than...
Read more