I went out of town for 2 days with my SIL'S to visit the newest edition of our family. My dh took the day off of work and for the first time got to experience a day of homeschooling with the kids! I was nervous, but excited at the same time. I had all their work ready for them. I told him I wanted his feedback on how he feels things are going. When I got back, he said it went really well and the kids seem to be doing great in their schoolwork. He was surprised by how quickly they got their work done....they only work about 2 hours a day...and thought maybe I need to start giving them more in each subject. He gave them their spelling tests and had them hanging on the fridge for me to see how well they did. Then when they were all done, he took them to the mall for pizza and let them pick their favorite candy at their favorite candy store (I NEVER do that!)
Am glad it went so well!!! They must be well-trained in deed to be willing to work so hard for the "sub"! And the pizza and candy were nice additions. Bet they can't wait to have THAT sub back in their classroom!
Leslie, I was wondering if you sub would do a couple of days for me, I am sure my dd's would love him.
THAT IS SO COOL! How great is that. I love when my husband gets involved too. I don't think he's ever actually done a whole days worth of school - but every now and then when he comes home in the evening he plays teacher and picks something to teach them. And of course, he's always the audience for oral presentations. I think that's so neat that hubby did that. BUT I would not worry about adding stuff to their day, 2 hours for sit down work is really good. I do about 3 with my 2nd grader and 1 with my kindergartener... If you think about how a "real" school day would be broken down, they truly get the same aount of learning time... Krista
Leslie, that's neat! Glad he got the chance to experience a day of homeschooling his children, that's cool! My kids don't get their stuff done in 2 hours anymore. It's more like 4 or 5, not sure why we seem to have so much to get done! Maybe we're playing catch-up from when we were doing shorter days? But it depends on the programs you're using also!
That great. My hubby has also thought we get done to fast and that I needed to add more work. I hope you had a good time at your SIL's. And I'm glad everything went smooth for you dh.
I have a question. In Missouri where we live, it is required to have 1000 hours of school logged per year. 600 of them have to be in the core subjects and 400 of them have to be actually in the home. They say no one ever actually checks up on you but there is the chance they can come to your door and ask to see your log books. Most HS moms I have talked to have said that their kids finish up in 2-4 hours per day. How do you count the "hour credit" and how at 2-4 hours a day can you get in the 1000 hours? I want to make sure when I actually start this in Jan I do it right. With my experience I will be the one who gets audited. :lol: I am one of those people that just has that kind of radar or a big sign on my house that says "CHECK MY LOG BOOK" :lol:
I don't know about in Missouri, but here I would consider a lot that might not be considered otherwise. For example, cooking with the kids can be lableled "math" and "home ec" or "life skills". My children take piano lessons. I consider that, as well as their practice as MUSIC. Sunday Mornings at church and Sunday School and Wednesday nights at AWANAS are marked down under BIBLE. Soccer games and practice goes under PHYSCIAL EDUCATION. Trips to the library are READING. Going camping for the weekend? That fits under NATURE STUDIES.
We do that, too. I have even let them watch a movie of their choice and had them write a "movie review" that includes characters, setting, plot, and what they like and dislike about the movie. In Indiana, we are just required to "school" 180 days...I don't think they require a certain number of hours.
We do this too. If Emma reads a book, I have her write a summary and this covers as language, reading, and cursive. We do what Jackie does with cooking. When they take out the trash you can use it as caring for the environment, recycling, life skills. The option I am under requires me to cover 180 days also. If we are completely done with work for the week and have an extra day then I add these as for that day. Have your child run around the yard and do jumping jacks and count it as health and PE. Patty
And don't forget summer vacations!!! This summer we're taking our trip to Philadelphia to see King Tut's Treasures. Plus we will see Independence Hall and Valley Forge, possibly Gettysburg. That all counts as history field trips. Plus geography, and the two state parks we are in have orienteering courses. When we took three weeks in New England, I listed everywhere we visited as part of a "field trip"!
Jackie, Have you been to Gettysburg before? Parts of it are almost kind of boring (things start looking the same after the 10th field you look at, etc.), and there are a million and one monuments up for the different troups that fought there, so, for us, it kind of took away from the "solemnity" of the whole thing. BUT, since our boys had been sooo into the battles there, and knew the names of the generals and groups and places, we spent time especially at those places, such as Devil's Den. That made it so much more real to them! So my suggestion if you go there would be to read up on it before-hand, and see what things expecially interest the kids, and make sure to see those things and places!
I've been to Gettysburg twice. The first time I was a kid, and I remember Dad telling me all about Big Round Top and Little Round Top. I enjoyed it back then. Then I went again as a young 20-something on a trip with my best friend. It wasn't quite as exciting then. Like you say, after so long all the hills look the same. Though I doubt we'll do much reading up on it. It doesn't fit well into our MOH, lol! Next year I'll be concentrating on American History. I'm curious when she expects to have Vol. III out! BTW, We saw the "From Abraham to Jesus" exhibit on Wednesday. VERY nice!!! I was amazed with how welll Phillip did. He listened very carefully to each display. They give you a headphone set, and you key in the number on the display. It was like a game to him to see each one IN ORDER. (Sometimes the display was set up to where it skipped around a bit!)
That's exactly how the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit is! My kids were very good at going through also. This exhibit had a child version and an adult version, and had both numbers displayed, which was good for my 9yo!
I remember going to Gettysburgh when I was 11. My parents and my next oldest brother took a "Bicentenial vacation" in 1976. We went to everthing that had to do with History in Virginia, West Virginia, Pensylvania, and then ended up in Washington DC. I have so many memories about that trip I dream one day of taking it again to take my kids. I am waiting till Kelsey is a little older (she is 9 now) and until she has studied a few more things. The thing I hate the most is that I made this huge scrapbook in the 5th grade about all our experiences for a history and language project. It had all the history from 2 or three years of history books. All about the presidents, our flag, the mayflower, all the battles, all the wars, a section on the clothing back then, about the pilgrims, the indians, and the first settlers, our founding fathers....I could go on and on. I got an A on it and I was really proud of it. Well after many years of packing this thing around I decided just a short 2 years ago that I didn't need it anymore. I kept it thinking my kids could use it for school for reference on almost any subject. Well the school never required anything that was in it so I threw it away. now that I have decided to homeschool I wish I had it back. I told my DH when I threw it away that "one day I am gonna be sorry I threw this away" and I was right. ARGH! Oh well I know what was in it and we have the internet to look up all the information and now I can print it out and not have to hand write everything. I definately plan on taking that trip again. I think it would be fun to see all the things in Washington DC that we saw back then. The monuments, the US mint, the White House, The Capitol, The Smithsonian. Gonna have to be a few years first. Save up some money. Hubby is starting to get a little nervous about the money being spent out for books. I keep telling him "isn't her education worth it" He understands but he is a money freak. If we don't HAVE to have it then we don't NEED it.
My dh gets a real kick out of subbing for me. I am not sure the kids feel the same way. lol. He is much more difficult. lol. His dad was a teacher and a very strict one at that.
We are only required to log days and not hours so I haven't ever broken down how many hours of what. HOnestly hours seems silly to me. Sami, for example, MADE one of her subjects last 4 hours today because she didn't want to do it... something that usually takes 20 minutes. So I wonder if I logged if I'd log 4 hours for my own suffering or if I'd log 20 mins. Because that's how much "learning" she did. My Step-dad "Substituted" for me the other day so I could job hunt. He used to teach High-school english. It was really funny when I got home, He and Sami had gotten stuck on a phonics worksheet. It had her say the picture name and circle the letter of the sound in the word. THey couldn't for the life of them figure out what the pictures were supposed to be of. LOL. He is also waymore strict with her than I am. He's always correcting her enunciation.
One thing I learned student teaching Kindergarten is to ALWAYS go over the phonics worksheets with the whole class. That way, they all "name" them the same thing! And even now, if a kid were to get one "wrong", I'll ask them what they called it before marking it wrong. They might have a mule starting with "H" if they consider it a HORSE! I'd go crazy just marking off days! I mean, if I were to give them a math assignment on Friday and something comes up so they don't get to it on Saturday when they normally don't have school, should I count Saturday as a school day? Or what about going on a field trip on a holiday (so Daddy can come)?
