Jan. 9, 2006 - This is Why I'm a Muck Foot
My foot seems more firmly stuck in the muck than ever.
I got up late, without time for exercise or time alone with the Lord. I really didn't get much planning done over the weekend. I'm tired and dragging today and had some extra scheduling business to take care of this morning.
Now it's almost 10 am and school should be starting only I don't really know what I'm doing today, specifically, and we're not all ready. Trying to do things together is taking us LONGER at this point, and I'm just discouraged by my own failures. I don't know why planning is so very hard for me. I would hope it would get easier as I do it, but it doesn't seem to. And lately, whether it's the up-and-down of caffeine addiction or the consistent lack of sleep, but I just feel beat down and discouraged. The rest of the school year stretches out before me but rather than seeming untainted and fresh it seems unattainable and pre-defeated. Like buying "distressed" denim jeans, only less cute. Not that distressed jeans would look cute on me, given the ever-increasing size of my lower half. And my upper half.
Well, I guess i need to get SOMEthing going.
Comments
Jan. 10, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by OreoSouza
Just curious...what do you think your school days should look like? I mean, if it were all a dream that you could control and there were no such things as caffeine and discouragement, what would you guys be doing during the day, and what kinds of resources would you be using?
Jan. 11, 2006 - Why aren't I signed in?
Posted by Anonymous
Hm, I just went and signed in and it still doesn't remember me. Oh well, it's me, Kim, owner of this (and many other) fine blog(s) ...
that's a GOOD question, Shurleen.
The short answer is ...
I would like to be *proactive* with our school. Delayed academics but without laziness. We would get up around 7:30 and do our chores together quickly and pleasantly. Then we would have Bible time - both reading/learning and memory. We would have read aloud times that covered both history/geography/missionary bio stuff like we've been doing, but we'd be a little more proactive with the history and geography, reading supplemental books to go along with it, integrating it all with a time line and visits to the world map. We'd also do some good fiction reading. We'd regularly do writing projects and I'd somehow magically know how to maybe not grade them but point them towards better writing, correcting errors and pressing on to improve in writing skills. We'd do a little spelling together and work on math like we like to. They'd do their grammar and their pre-logic that they like so much, and I'd stay caught up on checking all that, so that I didn't feel like they were just running way ahead of me. And hey, since we're talking my *ideal* we'll toss learning a language in there, we'd be diligent in learning Spanish together, and we'd have time for arts and crafts as the children desired. All this while our chores stayed more or less under control. We're not talking Martha Stewart at ALL, we're just remembering to pick up what we put away and move the laundry on the next step, and wash the dishes and put them away. That would be my ideal at this stage in life. I see I didn't really mention science. Maybe that's bad. LOL.
Jan. 11, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by OreoSouza
Wow! OK. How about if I print out your last comment, and we email each other about it? I love love love talking about homeschooling. I'll bet if we can work together, we can straighten out some of those kinks. I mean, other than the personal stuff like rising early and being cheerful. LOL I'm not saying I can "fix" things. Just that sometimes when I talk things out with a friend, sometimes, *sometimes*, things come a bit more in focus in one tiny area, and that encourages me to keep hitting at the other issues. What do you think?
