WOW !!!! Today was the first day back for this school year , and it literally flew by us... MJ is in 4th grade and Joshua is in 1st and we were completely finished by 12:30 .. We started at 9:45 and I was worried it'd take all day starting that late but WOW!!! I said hmmmm , better do some more LOL .. MJ said YEAH OKAY... Joshua said ewwww no I am done and ran away. So MJ and I started as Lapbook on the state of NC and I learned some things as well as him.. Shew so glad for today to be over , but I love every minute of it.. This is our 5th year homeschooling =)
Don't you just love it!? We were done by 12 today which is unusual for us but we were done. We worked very hard this morning and Babyboy was being extra good today. He is older this year, almost two, and with Freddy home 4 days a week he is pretty happy to just check in with us once in a while. I let him watch tv for about 30 minutes in the mornings before we start school but after that he just plays. I love that kid.
I do love it , could'nt and would'nt trade it in for the world.. This is my life. I was born to do this =)
This was our first day too! I made a special breakfast of blueberry pancakes. It was special because I usually don't cook breakfast. The girls began at 8:30. I passed out all their supplies and they got their binders and supplies together, pencils sharpened and names on things so they don't get mixed up. Grace colored an ABC page I made and Samantha did math. Then we went to the library for Grace's story time while Samantha worked on more math. We went to WalMart, picked up lunch and ate it while we watched a National geographics movie on Killer Whales which is what we are doing our first science unit study on. I helped Grace with handwriting and read her a story. Samantha prepared her Mystery of History notebook, did map work and began preparing her timeline. Then I read the first chapter of Moby Dick to both of them while they colored (yes even my oldest likes to color while I read) and then they told back what I read. Last Samantha did typing while Grace did a bit of addition with blocks. Samantha was done by 3:30 but if we wouldn't have gone to the library, bank, store and watched that movie while eating we would have been done much sooner. Samantha also has tumbling class at 5:30 today, acting classes all afternoon Thursday and we go on our first field trip Friday. I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING!!!!!!!
Yay! sounds like you are off to a great start! Entering your 5th year you should consider yourself a pro
Sounds like your day went really well! I hope things continue to go well for you all! We started a little bit yesterday, and about an hour's worth today, just to warm them up. All the neighborhood kids go back to school tomorrow, so that will be our first full day of school. But yesterday, since it was a Holiday, Daddy was home, AND they did the first of their schoolwork, even just a little, I got donuts to celebrate! Dd likes her math (Teaching Textbooks) so far---all two days of it! I DID get to order TT Algebra 1 for ds13, but he's working on a Geometry workbook until it gets here. He needs a little extra work on Geometry, so it's actually working out well for him to have that to work on right now. We're all kind of excited to get going, though the kids are sad to see the summer go! What I can't believe is that this will be our 10th year of homeschooling! And it's different every year! HOPE EVERYBODY HAS A GOOD YEAR!!!
wow that is a quick day! We're the opposite lol- course we have to take LOTS of breaks in between. We usually start around 8:30 and we're done by around 2 and that's with an hour lunch plug 5-10 minute breaks between every subject. We spent almost 2 hours on math today because I bought a new math book from mindware and we were having so much fun with it I didn't make it to anything else!
See when I started hs'ing my oldest 5 years ago , I would watch him do his work and correct him on the spot.. Some people told me this was a HUGE MISTAKE but I did'nt want him doing the work all wrong and then have to go back over it again.So , it was easier for me to lurk over him the entire time. Now , 5 years later we still do this and the teacher who done his EOG testing said he asked every time he finished a questions he would ask if this was right? She said it was a little nerve rattleing but he at the end of 2/3rd grade was testing in 5th and 6th grade levels all but reading which was 12th grade.') So she even said apparantly it did'nt hurt him it helped him.. I think thats why we finish so quickly every year and daily.. And now Joshua my 6 y/o is the same way asking Momma is this right??? So I will stick with it, if it is'nt broke I am not fixing it LOL ....
Lisa, That's great that your first day flew by and went well! At our house it was our first day too. At 8:30 this morning my 6 y.o. got out his reading books and his supply bin with the paper, pencils, markers, scissors, and glue and announced he was ready. That was a pleasant surprise! I have a question for you. In the state that you are in do you have to log a certain number of hours? I ask because in my state I have to log 875 hours per year. I'm worried that I won't ever have enough. I did just shy of two hours with my son today. We took many small breaks in between, so maybe I just need to shorten the breaks. We accomplished a lot today, but I keep thinking that I really need to get a good 4 1/2 hours a day in or I won't be able to get the 875 hours. I hope your 2nd day this year goes just as well as your 1st! Thanks, Becca
Dd does that same thing. But I have to hover over here because she has a hard time staying on task lol. It's all part of her sensory issues. Easily distracted even if there is NOTHING around her. But she's doing better. I correct as we go. So if she does a page of math, when she's done I correct it and have her fix the wrong ones right away while it's still fresh in her head, and then she goes over it all with daddy when he gets home. Still doesn't make us get done any quicker though. The days we do ALL subject it takes us around 4 hours or so.
My son MJ has Tourettes Syndrome an if I were to leave his side he feels like I am isolating him.. Took me all of 2 months to figure out that. About the hours issue I dont think there is becasue 4 years ago he completed the grade he was in , in less than 4 months did everything and passed the test at the end of that school year and I called and asked if it was ok if we did another grade or should we just stop and wait till next year. The man on the phone laughed and said whichever you choice , do it.. He said we could stop for the school year as MJ did pass the test or could continue .. But just to tell ya sometimes school can last up to 8 to 10 hours here LOL... According to what we are learning and doing on them days .
We just stop when we complete our work for the day. We don't have to log hours, some days it only takes them 2-2.5 hours to finish their work some days it takes 10. I assign the same amount of work daily. I have to sit right with Austin while he works, so I prefer the days it takes them 2 lol He is highly distractable due to his adhd and his anxiety disorder makes him scaredt o make a mistake so he doesn't want to even attempt the work unless I am there to help in a split second. So I can clean my kitchen, or surf the web while he does school work. BOth of which get monotonious after a while.
Just a couple of comments: If you hover over your children and point out what needs fixed right away, then he may not learn to do it on his own very well. IMHO kids shouldn't ask "Is this right after every question! They need to learn to evaluate things on their own, so as time goes by, I'd hover less and less, so they feel comfortable on their own! The second thing is the hours: If your child is 6 years old, you DON"T need to spend 4 1/2 hours a day on things! He's still a child! Remember, you are homeschooling so you can work with your child how he needs, not double up things to meet some random standard! If he was at school, they'd have a set time for that class, say Math. Let's say they set aside 30 minutes for math. Your child gets his work done in 15 minutes. Do you count 30 or 15? In school they count the 30 minutes, even though your child got done more quickly! You can do that also. In other areas, a lot of what you do while homeschooling is school. If your child was in school for 7 hours a day, they count it as 7 hours, even though 1/2 the time was spent lining up to get drinks, lining up to go to the bathroom, lining up for recess, lining up to sharpen your pencils, etc. When they are home, they don't have all those lining up and other wait times, so, yes, they finish sooner! They get WAY more learning in, in about half (or less) the time! You can count walks (science---explanations of bugs, grass, sunshine, etc.), you can count grocery store visits (math: volume, pricing, amounts), etc.! They ARE learning all day because they aren't forced into a mold of how to do things and what to do, etc. You'll get PLENTY of time in without pushing more hours onto him! Homeschooling, especially at the younger ages, can be fun and exciting with exploring and discovering things! Hope you can keep it that way for your son!
"The second thing is the hours: If your child is 6 years old, you DON"T need to spend 4 1/2 hours a day on things! He's still a child! Remember, you are homeschooling so you can work with your child how he needs, not double up things to meet some random standard! If he was at school, they'd have a set time for that class, say Math. Let's say they set aside 30 minutes for math. Your child gets his work done in 15 minutes. Do you count 30 or 15? In school they count the 30 minutes, even though your child got done more quickly! You can do that also. In other areas, a lot of what you do while homeschooling is school. If your child was in school for 7 hours a day, they count it as 7 hours, even though 1/2 the time was spent lining up to get drinks, lining up to go to the bathroom, lining up for recess, lining up to sharpen your pencils, etc. When they are home, they don't have all those lining up and other wait times, so, yes, they finish sooner! They get WAY more learning in, in about half (or less) the time! You can count walks (science---explanations of bugs, grass, sunshine, etc.), you can count grocery store visits (math: volume, pricing, amounts), etc.! They ARE learning all day because they aren't forced into a mold of how to do things and what to do, etc. You'll get PLENTY of time in without pushing more hours onto him! Homeschooling, especially at the younger ages, can be fun and exciting with exploring and discovering things! Hope you can keep it that way for your son![/QUOTE] Thank you, Deena. I needed to hear that. You make a good point about the 30 minutes set aside for math in school, but the child may only take 15. I guess I've been writing down how long it takes my son to do his work instead of a time I had set aside. Today he's already completed an hour and 15 minutes of work. I think I'm going to have to get creative on logging hours. I will have to log grocery shopping and other experiences. Thanks, Becca
Deena, question. Elijah wants to be re-assured after every math problem. He gets frustrated if I tell him to do them all and then I will check them. He also can't work independently. How do I correct that. As long as I sit with him he stays on task, the minute I leave, he's into whatever gets his attention, looking out the window, drawing on his paper or in his books (which he knows from the past 8 years he is NOT allow to do), getting another drink, and on and on and on. He also worries and tells on Gianna if she is not doing the right thing, dah!!! He just told me that Gianna is not taking a nap. He is suppose to be doing his questions in science. I can just see where this year is going already.
I don't need to check Austin's answers after each one but otherwise you just wrote a post about him. HE also is highly distractable. What I do it make myself busy int he same space. SO I clean the kitchen since he is at the kitcehn table for example(my cupboards are getting really well reorganized) that way he knows I am here to help him, and I can keep an eye that he is doing what he should BUT if he was asking me to check every problem I could say"in aminute bud let me finish this, why don't you do some more until I am done". Then I would check IMMEDIATELY after I finished so he knew I meant it. At first the task might last long enough for him to do 3 extra problems, next time 5 etc until he can complete a page on his own.
okay, Maybe its just me but this sounds like a normal pattern for our boys ages, easily distracted for boys is supposedly norm at the ages I am seeing here, now I don't remember how old Elijah is, but most boys I know that are between 8 and 12 are very easily distracted. they seem to settle a bit after that... anyone else see that pattern?
Before I begin, I will admit I am a school teacher, and I found this site as I was interested in learning more about home schooling. However, in school, if a child finishes in 15 minutes, they do not have 15 minutes dead time waiting for other students to finish in the allocated 30 minute block -- they are given extension work or consolidation work - so they end up completing 30 minutes of maths: not 15 minutes of maths and 15 minutes of dead time.
