Preparing For Our Children's Future

After Lunch Routine

Our after lunch routine is 1.5 hours of quiet, individual, independent time. 

Quiet:  Quiet time has a two pronged purpose.  One is rest and the other is focus.  I find children get overstimulated with noise, busyness and choices.  A time of quiet helps to calm things down.  Unfortunately in this busy world we are not comfortable with quiet and yet it is in the quiet of the morning that our soul is restored – if we are busy busy busy we so often miss the still quiet voice of God.  Helping a child get use to quiet is a good thing.  (The ability to be quiet is also an issue of respect towards other people) 

Individual:  Our children need time where they can look after and develop their inner self and their unique self.    They too may need to rest or they may take the time to develop and work on the things that are a reflection of the unique them. 

Independent:  Our children need to be able to do things themselves.  They need to be able to entertain and teach themselves.  It is important that our children are happy with themselves and their own company.  This cannot be developed in a crowd - they need time alone.

So the purpose of this time is for the children to learn to rest, to focus, to process things, to learn things and to entertain themselves.

The flip side is that this is a time where I have 1.5hours of uninterrupted time for the things that I need.  (The rule is the children can come and get me if there is blood and no breathing!)  I may need rest or I may need to work on projects it is really up to me to determine how best to use this time.  The challenge is not to waste it!

Of course our children have had to be trained towards this and they haven’t always achieved 1.5 hours.  It started off with toddlers still having a day sleep, then it moved to nap time, then rest time, then reading on the bed time, and it grew from there.

Sometimes we seem to lose the skill altogether and we start a season of retraining.  Daniel was at this place at the beginning of the year.  He could just do 20min of focus by himself – just and it wasn’t all that consistent!  So we started stretching always keeping our eyes on our purposes.  I split the 20minutes he could do into two 10min blocks and taught him how to use the timer.  10 minutes of reading on his bed (he wasn’t reading reading so it is just looking at books), 10 minutes of playing with a toy he choose (this toy was taken into the bedroom at the beginning of this 20minutes.)

Once he could do 20minutes, moving from reading to playing by himself successfully, we stretched him to 30 minutes – two lots of 15 minutes.  Once he could do this well we moved him to 20 minute blocks, and so forth.  Now he has 3 blocks of 30minutes and he can transition from each block without me.  Next year I may bump this up to 4 blocks.  He is not ready to focus on one thing for longer than 30minutes. 

Thursday Talkin' About Teenagers ~ Decemer 19 ,2009

Funny dd story

We taught dd from the start that Santa wasn't real.  We still let her go sit on his lap at the mall, and we still had Santa decorations around the house, but she always knew that he wasn't real. 

One time, when she was only 2 or 3 years old, a store clerk asked her what Santa was bringing her for Christmas. DD gave her a look like she was an idiot and said, "He's not real!"       (Since kids can be bluntly honest, you can probably "hear" what kind of tone she used with the woman.) 

The clerk gave me a rather dirty look.    To which, I simply replied, "We don't do Santa because we have taught her that Jesus is the real reason for Christmas." 

If you have funny Christmas stories of your own, please post them!  I would love to read them! 

Megan and Dusti Smith

Cuddles.

Weekly wrap-up

Wow, the year is almost over. We are officially on break until 2010. I had to think for a minute to write that.

This past week did not hold much schooling of course. We finishd up what I intended to for our First Language Lessons and that is about it, aside from violin and some occasional spelling.

This week was baking week for me with soe help from the boys. I am still not done, tomorow is going to be another baking day.  You can see more  of it here, and get some recipes at my othe blog The Recipe Box.

We had a playdate yesterday as well as a time at the science Center as Joho had been bugging me to go for a month or so.

I was able to deliver a few gifts this week. My cards are still on hold since we still have nothad a family picture taken yet. My husband has been working on the newsletter and hopefully I'll be e-mailing and mailing these out early next week.

We also had the priviledge of singing at a nursing home with our homeschool group this week. It was a real blessing to see the folks enjoying the kids' singing. You can see pictues of it here.

Next week will be busy of course with all the cooking and all but we are looking forward to it. 

For more weekly wrap-up you can go over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Have a great day,

My First Christmas in Heaven

I saw this poem and thought it was very touching.  I thought I would share it here in case it ministers to those of you who may be missing a loved this time of year.

My First Christmas in Heaven

I see the countless Christmas trees
Around the world below
With tiny lights, like Heaven's stars
Reflecting in the snow.

The sight is so spectacular
Please wipe away the tear
For I am spending Christmas with
Jesus Christ this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs
That people hold so dear
But the sounds of music can't compare
With the Christmas choir up here.

I have no words to tell you
The joy their voices bring
For it is beyond description
To hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me
I see the pain inside your heart
But I am not so far away
We really aren't apart.

So be happy for me, dear ones
You know I hold you dear
And be glad I'm spending Christmas
With Jesus Christ this year.

I sent you each a special gift
From my heavenly home above
I sent you each a memory
Of my undying love.

After all love is a gift
More precious than pure gold
It was always most important
In the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other
As my Father said to do
For I can't count the blessing or love
He has for each of you.

So have a Merry Christmas and
Wipe away that tear
Remember, I am spending Christmas
With Jesus Christ this year.

Homeschooling 2010 (WOW!!!)

We are 4 months into our homeschooling year. Seems like yesterday was our first day.

I thought I would write a post on what we are keeping, dropping and adding.

With Joshua, we are dropping Phonics Tutor. Josh, is not a computer person. He doesn't like to do school on the computer. We are replacing it with Spell to Write & Read.  We will continue to use CQLA (minus the spelling portion), Christian Light science, reading and social studies and he will continue with Math Mammoth.

Annette, we added CLE LA. She enjoys T4L but I prefer a more workbook type LA program. She still uses Time4Learning about three times a week. We are also adding in CLE Math. She wants to give it a try. Since she is using CLE for science, social studies, reading and language arts she wanted to include math. We will continue with Meaningful Composition. She is not thrilled with MC but she doesn't like writing period!

Caleb, will continue CLE math and The Phonics Road to Reading. I love the PR. It includes phonics, spelling, writing,grammar, and reading. I'll give it a review once we complete level 1. I can't wait to purchase level 2 so I can look through it. For now I did drop CQLA. Since he is getting grammar and writing with PR.

Brent, will continue using Phonics Road, Math Mammoth/Schoolaid math. He is doing well. Both Brent & Caleb's reading and spelling as improved with PR.

Ethan, is starting SWR & Cursive First.

All the children are adding in Cursive First. Josh, my 6th grader is now using more cursive then manuscript. His cursive has improved too. Brent, is also starting to write more in cursive since we started Cursive First. Annette, can still use some improvement and Caleb's penmanship is looking better too.

I bought all the children a copy of The New England Primer

I am having the four older ones memorize the alphabet. In Adams fall we sinned all. Annette, Caleb & Brent have memorized up to the letter M. Josh memorized up to the letter F. I thought they wouldn't be interested in the book but they all love it. They even carry their own book around and practice on their own. I plan to have them memorize some poems and such this year. We'll see how much of the book they can memorize by the summer.

My Whole Life Diary

I have used many systems to keep myself and all my many roles and responsibilities organised over the years – I’ve used paper and digital systems.  This year I put it all together in one place and I call it “My Whole Life Diary”.

It started with SimpleMom’s daily docket, and has grown into my own system.  Here are the sections in my binder:

• A monthly calendar where I write every commitment that we have as individual’s or family
• My own ‘daily docket’ (I’ve tweaked Simplemom’s so it fits all my roles and responsibilities – things I want to remember ever day)  It has my daily routine on the left (which includes my cleaning routines) and on the right I have space to write reminders or to-do’s for training my children’s hearts, general to-do list, office work, cooking, teaching my children, and blogging.
• Homemaking and Business routines
• Menu planning and Shopping lists
• Homeschool overviews (only overviews and notes to self otherwise the binder gets too heavy!)
• Heart training notes
• Phone numbers
• Birthday / Celebration dates and plans

Keys to keeping myself organised:

• I set aside time each week to organise and plan my week.  I print off a weeks supply of my daily docket (each day of the week is different) and then take my calendar and transfer this week’s commitments to my daily planner.  I look at my homeschool plans and transfer realistic goals for our study times.  I look at our week and plan my menu accordingly (I can’t think of anything worse than planning a roast on a day that has me out and about all afternoon!)
• I try and review where my children are at – spiritually, morally, relationally, academically and with their practical skills and talents each month.  (Ideally this is one child a week)
• I don’t change my daily docket to suit my week.  Some weeks are just so far from the norm but I don’t change my daily dockets on my computer to reflect that.  They are a form or chart that reflects the norm.  On these crazy weeks or days I just write something up by hand.  These daily dockets, are simply a form that serves a purpose – they don’t have to look pretty.  I only change the daily docket when a new season of life happens and the norm changes.
• I do what I can and let the rest go!  As I have trained myself towards being organised I learnt very early on that there would be days (most days to be honest!) that I don’t get everything done that I plan to get done.  This is okay.  I’ve had to learn that it is okay!  I also learnt not to squeeze that undone project into tomorrow but rather find its best time – eg if Friday is dusting day, and it doesn’t get done, we don’t squeeze it in for Saturday, but rather leave it till next Friday but it becomes a priority then.  Of course there are things that we don’t get done that have to be put to tomorrow but not everything.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this system because it keeps all my roles organised – not just homeschooling, not just homemaking, not just parenting, not just business but each and every role I play gets a look in.

Maestro Classics, The Tortoise and the Hare

The best way I can describe Maestro Classics The Tortoise and the Hare is a story mixed with orchestra wrapped up in a unit study.  Let me explain.

First it’s a CD with the London Philharmonic orchestra playing fantastic dramatic music to accompany the classic story of the Tortoise and the Hare.  Anyone using a Charlotte Mason approach or wanting to highlight classical music and composers will appreciate how the story helps to engage younger ones.

Next, it’s a storybook and unit study.  Self contained in the CD sleeve is a booklet that contains the story as well as orchestra information,  a little music theory, information on tortoises and hares and the music and lyrics for a highlighted song, “Pretzel Vendor of Paris.”  Also in the booklet you’ll find “kid interesting” information on the conductor, produce and narrator.  By kid interesting I mean things like the conductor Stephen Simon conducted in New York city at the age of four, “ his first orchestra was a record player!” 

I also appreciated on a section of the CD where they explain the sounds of each animal.  They go through why they chose the instruments or type of music to represent each animal and event.  For instance on the hare, the legs of the animal are uneven so the music respresents that with very "irregular" music.

 We found these to be very well done and a great way to introduce younger kids to the classics.

My daughter Lexie age 9 (almost 10!) enjoyed the Tortoise and the Hare but did find it a bit young for her.  It certainly could be enjoyed by all ages but probably the age that would listen over and over is a bit younger.  We’ve done composer studies and she plays musical instruments so the information on music theory and orchestra’s was not as new to her as it might be for some kids her age that haven’t had as much exposure.

If you’re looking for a way to introduce your younger children to classical music this might be your ticket.  It sells for $16.98 and there are other titles available like Swan Lake, Sorcerers Apprentice, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and more.  The site is also offering a special of 3 CD’s for $45 (see coupon code on their site.)

 *This product was provided to me free as part of the Old Schoolhouse Crew in exchange for my opinions in this review.

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