are just two of the things I'm enjoying about homeschooling. Around 4:30 this afternoon my 11 yr old dd made home-made dog treats for our poochie who will unofficially be 6 tomorrow. She made them on her own with me there if she needed. About an hour later she asked could we take the baby outside before it got dark and she took out a kite she has never had a chance to fly. Not much wind but she got some good excercise running around the yard attempting to! We stayed out until the chill in the air got to be too much. My main point of this is I realized how much fun I was having being out there with the girls and also not having to say "tomorrow is a school day!". I find myself relaxing more in the evening knowing that the next day is dictated by me or how the day is going. We are working hard at getting our days started earlier so we can have more afternoons like today. Jennifer
Jennifer, I enjoy the evenings more now too. I still have two boys in public school but they are both in the 11th grade. They can stay up later and still function the next day if they have to. Actually I like for them to be in bed by 10pm but it is so much nicer to be able to stay late at church on Wed. nights if we need to and not have to worry about getting baths done and all that stuff. Now if the girls wait until morning for their shower I don't care one bit. We still don't get school stuff started very early but that just works for us. I try to start at 10am and then stop at 12 for lunch. After lunch we get back at it for a while but some days we do errands or whatever we need to do and don't get back to school until later in the afternoon. If you had told me in August that I would be able to be so flexible by October I would have laughed my head off. I love being able to do anything we feel like doing on Monday morning or Friday afternoon. I love being able to take them to church with me during the week when I need to work there. I love that they can be here with Babyboy and me during the day. He needs them so much. We can work on sign language easier with them home and they have to learn it to be able to talk to Babyboy. He is finger babbling now and it is so sweet. Okay I am rambling now but when I was reading your post I could just feel the joy in your words. Thanks for sharing it. Beth
I'm like you, Beth, when I first decided to home-school Joyce back in August I had planned on being very strict and stay on a certain schedule. HAHA! I'm learning to step back and enjoy my girls. We still get the school day in but I'm learning to stop and actually listen. With having my dgd here most of the week we realllyy have to be flexible. She is walking very well now and only turned 10 mo yesterday. She is a handful but a very good learning experience for her Aunties! My 16 yr old said she doesn't know how the young girls do it that have babies young and still manage school. As far as rambling, my sis Beth and I call ourselves the Rambling Roses! I'm glad you enjoyed my post as it made me even appreciate the time even more!! Jennifer
I agree with both of you ladies. Its wonderful to homeschool and do whatever you want with the kids anytime and not worry about it. We usually start school no later then 8 and done by noon so we have the afternoons to ourself which we love alot.
Kris, I am so glad you said that. About when you start and finish I mean. I sometimes feel like we don't actually spend that long on school work but it doesn't take us all day. My girls get right to work when I tell them to and they stick with it. I think they have figured out they get more free time if they don't goof around during work time. We have a good time and lately they have asked to do some of their reading in the evenings when Babyboy has gone home. I have really enjoyed that a lot. Especially with Emily who still reads to me a lot. One night we did a science lesson just because we wanted to. I love being able to do that. I think about how much time in public school is wasted and that makes me feel better. Emily can go to the bathroom here in about a minute. At school after lunch it would take a good ten minutes or more for all the kids to line up and go. Do that a few times and you have wasted an hour. I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING! Beth
me too!!!! i love it!! we try to get to bed on time, but usally dont, we sleep untill we are not tired anymore..so no sleed deprived moody kids (and moms!) walking around like zombies!! i love being able to add school to our daily life rather than trying to structure our whole lives around a school day. even on the worst, most stressful days i wouldnt trade homeschooling for the world! oh, and by the way, if we started school at 8 (which NEVER happens) we would be done by noon also, we do about 2 hours before lunch and 2 after of formal lessons... dont feel like your not spending enough time on school work, if you count all the other non school bs that goes on during ps kids days 4 hours is probably WAY more than they end up doing!
Connie and Beth, when both of my dd's went to public school they started at 8 and was out by 2 p.m. every day. They only went 6 hours a day thats counting lunch, and all the other things they did. I went and sat in one time to see how much school they really did and it throw me a loop. By the time they get everyone sitting, books out and pencil sharpen they may do a class for 30 mintues. Here we start at 8 and finish alittle after 12:00 noon with no breaks. So they get four good hours of school, some days like yesterday it took us alittle longer we didn't get done till 3:00 p.m thats with starting at 8 but that depends on what they have to do. It's so much fun homeschooling.
I love fun afternoons with my kids. The time spent is so precious. Ya know, flying kites and making dog treats is school! I am making pumpkin rolls today and I am counting that as home ec! lol. Really, we are teaching every minute. Even when we are having fun we are teaching them the importance of family and about love. I love homeschooling for those reasons.
I am with you ladies too, we use all kinds of things as teachable moments, and not rely on book work because right now I can't make too many coppies with our wacked out printer. It makes it so much easier that AZ has relaxed laws.---- lets face it 3 schools in this county alone are rated as failing and 9 are under preforming. So we can't be doing too bad.
