Nov. 4, 2009 - Getting it All Done
Ever since MIssy joined our learning time, I have had the darnedest time to get everything done academically. Unfortunately, it seems to always be Missy that gets left in the dust. Due to reasons that I won't get into right now, Mia always goes first with doing school with me. Then it is Rocky's turn. By the time I get Rocky finished, it is lunch time and Missy's work hasn't even been touched. I like to keep the afternoons for the content subjects as I consider these the 'fun' subjects and we all need a bit of fun in our days. I always think "Well, we'll get to Missy tomorrow. We'll have more time tomorrow." Tomorrow has never arrived.
We have started doing more school this week. I decided it is time to address this issue. I can't keep sloughing Missy off. The girl needs to learn. I just don't know how to cram it all in. Every element of our morning is important and I don't want to give any of it up.
Our Morning Time usually takes an hour. Part of the problem is that we have been starting at 9:00 as I can't get the kitchen clean before that time (I like to have at least a clean kitchen before school starts.) By the time I get to Mia it is 10:00. Another problem is that I have chosen curriculums that are teacher-intensive. I can't just give my kid the book and say 'Go at it." I have to teach the lesson first. This was done on purpose. My feeling here is that this is why I homeschool; to teach. I do not want to give up these programs as they are working for us and I think they are excellent programs, but they take up a lot of time when you are teaching more than one child.
Getting back to our day: so I get Mia started on her math (if I don't have to walk her through the lesson then I, at least, have to stay close if she has any problems) now I might be able to do math with Rocky but I have to stay at the kitchen table close to Mia. After math, I do all of Mia's subjects (spelling and writing) then move on to Rocky's. While I am working with Rocky, Mia does her independent work. By the time I get finished with Rocky, it is time to get lunch started. I might have time to read to Missy but that doesn't even happen most days.
I have been giving this alot of thought. Here is what I have come up with so that MIssy can spend some learning time with her Mama. Even if it means starting school with a messy, jam-sticky kitchen, we will start our Morning Time at 8:30. Also, MIa will not always be going first when working with me. We will do this through cycling. Each day, one of them will take turns going first so that it won't always be Missy getting short changed. If it happens that Mia or Rocky do not get their work done in the morning, then we will have to carry on where we left off right after lunch. I don't like this as it makes our school day that much longer (we are already doing 5 1/2 hours) but I can't see any way out of this.
We tried this new plan yesterday and things worked out very well. We started as close as we could to 8:30. Missy went first in learning with her Mom. We were able to get every one done, but we havent' been doing Grammar this week. Once we add that in, we might topple over into the afternoon. Oh, well, a price you pay for having more than one child.
Nov. 3, 2009 - Knights and Castles
During the last few months, we have not done much with History or Science. We have done bits and pieces here and there but not anything of any consistent value. With the beginning of a new month, I decided that I wanted to start back with our original plans. In a perfect world, we would be starting Knights and Castles for the first two weeks then would be moving on to Shakespeare. So I decided to pretend that we were, indeed, in that perfect world and start with my original plans. We may not get very far or as deep as I had originally intended but at least we are doing something productive.
Yesterday was our first day on this subject. We read The Sword in the Circle by Rosemary Sutcliff. This book is about Merlin and King Arthur. The kids have been making King Arthur's castle out of lego the past few days so this book will give them a great jumping off point for their play.
We did alot of reading yesterday about knights and just exactly who they were and what they did. I have a few Usborne books as well as a Kaleidoscope book on knights and castles that give us our information. I really like using Story of the World as our spine for these units but it doesn't have very much info on this part of history so I have needed to look elsehwere. Elsewhere isn't as well-written to garner outlines or narrations from. But we plod on.
Each child then did a narration about what we had read. This is where things went south. Missy's narration was fine because I write hers out but Rocky had great difficulty with his writing. He left out a few sentences so I made him do it over again. This did not sit well with him and a hissy fit followed. I gave him a break (aka sent him to his room) and we started again but it was very difficult for him to get those few sentences out. It hit me, yet again, that this boy needs consistency with his school work and he just hasn't been getting it the past little while. He needs to be writing every day for whatever reason. So this is my goal for the next few months: do copywork or writing narrations daily.
I had Mia write out a paragraph about how the knights and castles came to be. This was difficutl to do as the sources we used are not written very well. She managed, though, with alot of help from me. Her writing is pretty bad as well, so I guess consistency is needed with her, too.
Even with the few little bumps yesterday, it did feel good to be doing something other than math and reading. It felt very good indeed.
Nov. 2, 2009 - Swine Flu!
Ugh! I've had a rough month! My 2 sons came down with the Swine Flu on Oct. 7th and I followed on Oct. 8th. My kids are doing ok. I am still fighting to get well. That is why I haven't written at all for so long. I've been very sick. I've seen the doctor's 4 times and had to get chest X-rays. They say if my cough is not better by the end of the week, I may be getting more X-rays. *sigh* I was having trouble eating and couldn't keep my food down. I lost a total of 12- 14 pounds and I was getting dehydrated. If I hadn't started keeping my food down over the weekend, my husband was suppose to take me to the hospital on Sunday night. Luckily, I started keeping it down!!! I think I am finally on the mend, but I still have a ways to go, so my post may be light for another week or two. Hopefully by then, I'll be doing better.
Nov. 2, 2009 - Those Who Have Gone Before Me
I quickly discovered two months ago that those people who have gone down the same path that I was embarking on were the ones who truly ''got it.' They understood perfectly the emotions, the rollercoaster ride that I was going through. There was a pure sense of empathy there that I was never given anywhere else.
An online friend, who traveled this path last year, understood my thoughts and emotions. She would offer words of encouragement and support that comforted me beyond words. I didn't have to justify what I was going through (as I seemed to have to do with everyone else) she just understood. I consider that a gift.
A gentleman at my church has recently gone down this path as well. He was just told that he does not have to have anymore radiation treatments, so his experiences are still fresh. When I told everybody at church that I had cancer, he made a beeline to me, with tears streaming down his face, gathering me in a very strong hug. Yesterday, he came to me as soon as church was over to see how I had made out at the cancer clinic. When I told of my emotional rollercoaster, he nodded and said he knew all about that ride. He knew all about the draining emotions and the emptiness you feel after it was all over. He got it.
Yesterday, a woman on my e-list asked for prayer for her 40 yr. old friend, a mother of 6, who had just discovered that she had cancer. I stared at the computer screen and started to cry, reliving all of those emotions, but this time it was for a total stranger. I do know now a little bit of what she is feeling right now. My heart hurts so deeply for her.
I guess that I have now been initiated into a strange sort of club, the Cancer Survivor's Club. We, at the club, have a sense of empathy that you cannot attain anywhere else until you go through the journey yourself. I pray that this membership into this club will enable me to help those in the future as those cancer survivors have helped me these past two months. It is also my prayer that God will never let me forget what I have gone through these past two months. I pray that this empathy will be alive and well inside of me for a long time to come.
Nov. 1, 2009 - Book #46 -- Wuthering Heights
I think I may have a penchant for dark and depressing stories. I have heard many people say that they disliked Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights because they are creepy and depressing. I loved both of these books! I got so much out of reading them. They gave me much food for thought for days after I read them. This is, to my way of thinking, a sign of a great book. If it can get you to think long after you have put the book back on the shelf then the author has done its job.
In Wuthering Heights, I have to agree that the darkness was a bit too much in parts. The way Heathcliff treated his son and Cathy was disheartening, to say the least. But there were a few things that this book said to me. 1) No person can derail the human spirit-- Heathcliff treated Cathy and Hareton abominably but after he was dead, they were able to attempt to have a 'normal' life. When Lockwood comes upon them at the end of the story, the two are teasing each other somewhat lightheartedly. This says a great deal about the perseverence of the human spirit.
2) If there is no repentance for a life of sin then that life is lived in torment. Heathcliff had many opportunities to make things right and repent but he chose to keep on his dastardly path. As a result, he lived a tormented life even up to the end.
I am sure there are many more things to say about this book but the above 2 were the things that jumped out at me. Now I need to find another dark book to sink my teeth into.
Oct. 31, 2009 - Going Grocery Shopping - a Training Opportunity
This week’s newsletter talked about training each of our children even though they are all at different levels of skill and understanding. One of the ways that has worked for me is by breaking down a skill or moral truth into bite size pieces. Each step is progressive and therefore each of my children can be working at a different stage and yet I keep my focus knowing that we are working on one thing at this moment in time.
An example of working with these progressive steps is going grocery shopping. We do this every week; it is a fantastic training opportunity and yet we miss that opportunity because we want it over and done with real quick! And yet the learning that goes on is huge. Here is a progressive list (it may not be exhaustive) that will move our children through grocery shopping training.
- Stay in the trolley or pram
- Keep voices quiet, inside voices
- Hold onto the trolley, don’t leave mum
- Don’t ask for things!
- Greet people politely, say a big hello to the checkout lady
- Be patient if mummy talks to a friend
- Follow instructions, help mummy by getting things off the shelf (the right things, the things I need!)
- Help unload the groceries into the car, and then into the house and pantry once we get home.
- Go off by yourself and get 2-5 items (initially in the same isle, eventually in a different isle than mum)
- Understand comparing prices, understand quality for money
- Go off by yourself and do ½ the shopping
- Understanding the family budget and nutritional needs
- Go off by yourself and do the whole shopping
When I look at this progressive list I can immediately see what Daniel, my youngest, can achieve and what I can teach him next. I can also see what training needs to happen for each of my children. This means I go into my weekly task of grocery shopping ready to teach and practice and I come out knowing that each of my children have grown in this area of responsibility.
These are some character qualities that we can train towards while grocery shopping
- Obedience – do what I am told with a happy attitude
- Gratefulness – be thankful for the many blessings I have
- Respect – the other person counts
- Thriftiness – being wise with my money
- Responsibility – to be dependable in all that I’m asked to do
Yes, it is true, if we train our children while we do the grocery shop it will take longer, but in the long run you will have trained your children in a very valuable life skill. But grocery shopping is just one situation in our day where we need to be training our children.
Oct. 30, 2009 - Book Talk
Okay, enough cancer talk. Let's move on with life, shall we?
I wanted to start having more literary discussions with Mia this year. I didn't want these discussions to be formal or complicated but I wanted us to start just talking about the books that we were reading. I had visions of introducing literary elements and just getting into the habit of discussing. Discussing is something that I am not good at. I am good at thinking, boy, I can think up a storm but talking about what I am thinking is a whole 'nother ball game. I was hoping that these book talks would help both Mia and myself.
It's hard to tell whether these are helping or not as we haven't been able to have consistency. We have been reading Little Women since the beginning of Sept. It has been slow going and our discussions have been a bit stilted but I have hopes that, in time, the stiltedness will disappear as we both become used to this format.
In a perfect world, Mia is to read her book on her own from Mon. to Thurs. That usually translates to a chapter a day. Then we get together on Fridays for our talk. I use Teaching the Classics as a jumping off point for our discussions. At the back of the syllabus, there are lists of questions for each of the literary elements. For Little Women, I am concentrating more on character as this is an easy book for that.
I am also using the suggestions in The Well Educated Mind (Susan Wise Bauer) to teach Mia how to read a book well. For this year, I am having her write out narrations for each chapter. I am stressing to Mia to just write out the main happening or idea in each chapter as she is notorious for telling each and every detail a la Charlotte Mason. I don't want detail for this exercise, I want main idea.
I have been thinking about what I want her to do at the end of our reading. I want to start having her write out papers for each book. When I say papers I mean a paragraph about the book. I don't want her to write a standard book report (I like this book because....) as I think these are useless but I do want her to write about some element in the story and to be able to back up her words. I am only expecting a paragraph for this year. I think that for LIttle Women I will have her write a paragraph about a character of her choice. I just want her to describe that character and use examples from the book that back up her thoughts.
Even though this book is going slower than I had anticpated, I am happy with how things are going. This is a good test run for both of us. If slow and steady wins the race then I think we are in a good place right now. I think if we continue on with the discussion, it will become easier for both of us. Consistency is key.
We have 3 more chapters to read in LIttle Women, then I think we will move on to The Christmas Carol by Dickens. I don't want every book we read to be up for literary discussion. I want us to be able to enjoy some of those books without analyzing them to death. So our more formal book talks will be for every other book. We will just read The Christmas Carol for enjoyment. I am sure discussion will come up on its own but there will be no formal discussion. I haven't decided what book we will use for our next book talk, though. I am thinking either Prince and the Pauper by Twain or Oliver Twist by Dickens. I have a few weeks (at the rate we are going it might be a few months) before I decide.
