Tag Archives: homeschool

Update

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For the first time in a long time, I find myself actually able to sit in front of my computer with a purpose other than schoolwork. Homeschooling has been a trying and sometimes painful endeavor, but we are definitely growing and learning.

For Christmas, I had asked for some things to supplement our learning. My in-laws got the kids a subscription to something called Little Passports. We have enjoyed three months so far. Our first month arrived with a blue suitcase to hold out goodies. Each month a passport and suitcase sticker come along with wonderful, age appropriate information on a foreign country, a souvenir, and a craft. Brazil offered a a lesson about the four layers of the rainforest. Japan taught us how to write haikus. France had directions to help learn to critique art. Each month we learned how to say hello, goodbye, and thank you in a new language. So far, I am amazingly impressed and would gladly recommend it to others.

Well, it appears my time is already at an end. More nights like this coming soon, I hope, as we settle in and move forward.

Update

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So, summer obviously became crazily busy with seven little ones in the house. Now that three are back doing their own thing, it’s calmed down a bit.

Now that I typed it, I don’t really think “calm” is the right word. My children have settled-ish into their new schedule, but there’s still plenty of push-back. I am struggling to find a good balance between their school and my other responsibilities. I try to grade right away, but I tend to wait until the last minute to lesson plan for the following week. I know we’ll get the hang of it though. The kids still seem into this whole homeschool thing. I pray it ends up being as good for them as I hope.

SC, as the only one not of school age, still prefers to hang out with us during school hours. She has her own little desk where she colors or plays with the counting tools while we have lessons. Even just being in the same room as us, I see her making these amazing connections. She has already begun counting. She uses complete sentences and her vocabulary is expanding exponentially. Did I mention she’s not even two yet? Now if I could only get her smart, but very stubborn behind to sit on the potty.

ABCs and OCD

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Today, everyone but baby and me had a video call at the same time. The three older children were spread out between two rooms and my husband was at the dining room table.

I know it may be hard to accommodate, but are we really taking into consideration the people with multiple children when scheduling these things?

I normally have Q attend the afternoon session her teacher offers as to lessen the overlap, but the teacher is making the kids do presentations and asking all children to attend both sessions.

First, let’s address this problem. You are asking a large group of kindergarteners to attend two meetings per day – at least an hour long – where they have to listen to their friends stumble and mumble on a subject they may not care about. This event is difficult enough to accomplish when they are in the classroom. But to be doing it online? Q cries and begs not to log on, and I don’t blame her.

Second, don’t get us used to a schedule, just to upset it whenever. Between Q and EM this morning, I thought I was going to lose my mind. Both my girls were on silent, but their classmates WERE NOT. There were blaring TVs and barking dogs. It was sensory overload. And through the din, they were supposed to be listening to the presenter and teacher, respectively. Yeah, right.

Third, does anyone think about the mom in my situation? CJ was having a video call because he is still working. He may be physically present in the home, but it’s not like I can constantly bother him for help with this school stuff because he is WORKING. This means, not only do I have to keep the baby occupied and quiet, I have to bounce around three children, on three different devices, making sure everyone is logged on, doing their work, and just paying attention. It is mentally exhausting, and if the baby is having a rough day, physically exhausting as well.

At the best of times, I’m a pretty anxious person. I have had to schedule therapy sessions for myself once every two weeks throughout this and sometimes that doesn’t even feel like enough. (Thank goodness for the telemedicine though, right?) Although my therapist is AMAZING, she is not a miracle worker. There have been days when my OCD symptoms have reared their ugly head and I just don’t have the will to fight against them. I know I’m not taking good enough care of myself and I’ve put on weight.

Well, thanks for sticking with me and any tips for survival at the moment would be appreciated.

Heck No, We Won’t Go!

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So, it’s official. There will be no more school this year. Well, in the school building that is. We are still going to have to suffer through remote learning. I had a difficult enough time trying to do remote learning in college and now I have to do it for even longer with my kids.

Q, my kindergartner, spends her whole lessons with her teacher claiming she’s too tired to participate, yet running around the dining room table where I have her set up. You already know the issues I was having with MJ. As much as I want to say, “forget it,” I don’t want anyone to be behind next school year.

Honestly, I’m not too worried about MJ and Q. They both have solid foundations and I think anything we don’t cover while they are learning with me will easily be caught up on once school resumes. I am worried about EM though. She’s supposed to be entering kindergarten come the fall. I feel like maybe she got enough preschool under her belt that she should be okay, but then again, you never really know.

I haven’t been sleeping very well lately as my anxiety and depression seem to be at war with each other over control of me. I have been trying to accomplish little tasks around the house that I have been putting off, but shelter-in-place affords me even less time for myself than the regular school year. However, I did just finish a project for the kids. I re-vamped two old end tables to make an oven and a grocery store counter. I put them in the playroom last night so they would wake up to find them this morning. They were a big hit!

CJ also just finished building a whole new play set in the backyard. He worked on it over one weekend and a few lunch breaks. The kids have been on it almost non-stop whenever we are outside. Even SC, my little 17 month old, is in love with it. It didn’t take long at all until she was brave enough to climb the steps by herself to go down the slide. And who doesn’t love a baby plopping off the slide onto their diapered bottom?

 

 

Too School for Cool?

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Today, we entered the world of homeschooling using materials and resources CJ picked up from school yesterday. This morning, we had a conference call with a teacher and quite a few classmates, we’ve used online learning sites as directed, and did many worksheets. I hate it.

As you’ve seen in my unfinished summer posts, I always make sure we are doing some kid of learning on extended time off. In preparation for the weeks ahead when they closed school, I made up schedules and lesson plans for us, to make sure the kids were still learning something; to keep their brains active.

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I would like to point out, the movie is a Disney movie and was chosen ironically. Also, they love it. And maybe I do too.  🙂

This schedule was super easy to follow and had a format my kids were used to. We were already doing really well with it. Today has been a mess though. Like, seriously.

We did science and math on Monday and Tuesday in the form of a hand washing experiment and spine demonstration (using cut straws and pipe cleaners) and did some baking and measuring.

We didn’t do anything I had planned for today, opting instead to just go all in with what the teachers had provided. This method, unfortunately, leaves the younger two out. I cannot fully devote myself to either faction that has been created. The two younger ones distract the older ones, as they just want to touch the devices that were sent home, and I can’t focus on keeping them otherwise occupied since the older two require instruction to get their work done.

I plan on finishing out the week, to see if things get any better. If they don’t start to go more smoothly, I may back out from what the teachers are asking (sorry!) and just stick to my own planning. My kids may end up a touch behind in lessons once school resumes, but how much can they really be absorbing with such frequent interruptions? Also, it’s not like they weren’t learning anything. They just didn’t realized they were learning.

This experience has once again made it clear to me that I made the right choice studying adolescent versus elementary education. God bless our teachers!