Not Selfishness, Self disapline and Self preservation....

For so long I have tried to create an apnosphere for my children to be able to learn and grown in. To no "unschool," but to allow them to learn at their own pace. However after 11 years of homeschooling I don't have it all together yet. This last week I was trying to figure out why I hated homeschooling so much. I was so burned out. I realized I had allowed the children to gradually take control over the schooling time! YIKES! I had forgotten that it is very important for me to take care of me so that I can take of them. I figured that they didn't want to get their school done then they don't get to play. If all they want to do it sit at the table and stare into space till the work is finally complete then fine....the problem with this is my job as teacher NEVER ended and my other duties as wife and mother never began. So I prayed, talked to another homeschooling mom (who by the way had no suggestions, but just listened - this was great because it allowed me to process aloud and not feel like a lunitic) and came up with this discovery. I had allowed my children to control and manipulate my time. Thus I was always finding ways to escape them!
Here is the solution I have come up with and so far it is working. Each child (depending on their load) is given a very reasonable time to be done with school by. During their personal school hours they are welcome to ask me for all the help they need. HOWEVER, when their school hours are done for the day, I am no longer available. They now will have to get their dad or someone else to help them. Also, if this is not something they can do and they do not complete their work they will either sit at the table with their hands folded with nothing to do or do extra chores for me. They do not get free time. Also the work that was incomplete from the day before carries onto the next day and they are required to complete it as well as the current day's work. Last, if this continues to carry on they will have to work on the weekend to complete their school. All activities will be off limits until work is complete. So far, everyone is done by their specified time. Funny how all fun removed can be such a motivator for them as well as a help for me to get things done!

There's No Place Like Home...

So here I sit. Mandating a quiet time of 90 minutes from all my children (14 yr old down to the 7 yr.old). I have realized that I have allowed our lives to be too full of "activities" and not enough together time. This week we took a break from our regularly scheduled activities to do more enjoyable fun things. Instead of just reading about history we took this week to learn about what we have read through video documentaries, movies and the like. This has been fun. We made "Silly Putty" in preparation for our studies in the next couple weeks on WWII (what does Silly Putty have to do with WWII you ask? Well just google it and you shall see). We visited friends (this hasn't happened in such a very long time) and we took quiet times again! Oh, how I miss these moments when I can just sit in a quiet house or when I can clean and not look behind me only to find that it has been undone faster than I could do it up. I miss the sound of a quiet house with no demands on me other than those that I place upon myself. If you are homeschooler and you have not learned about quiet times then I highly recommend that you do. It is a wonderful time to teach our children how to be alone. How to refresh themselves and regenerate their energy for the afternoon. Mind you my children to do nap (although I must confess that sometimes I do when I really need one) but they simply are confinded to their beds or room (our three boys share a room so they must stay on their beds). They are required to read something (a magazine of interest, a book, a joke book, the back of cereal boxes, what ever) for the first 30 minutes of quiet time. After that they are required to stay on their beds, not talk to one another or play with one another, but to simply play something quiet and alone. My boys like things like Legos and Knex but these small toys get caught up in the bed sheets and blankets and are hard to recover with out tearing apart their bed so I have them use the cardboard lid from paper boxes to keep all the parts contained in on their beds. This way they have a flatter surface and sides to keep anything from rolling and getting lost in the sea of sheets and blankets. My daughter LOVES to color and "write." So that is the quiet activity of choice for her. She also has a room to herself so she will often pull out her polly pockets and play with those on her bedroom floor as well. In the midst of it all I just enjoy having the fireplace warming me and the time to read that book, do the dishes or laundry, or pick up the house. Ninety minutes often doesn't feel like it is quite enough time, but oh how refreshed I feel in the aftermath of it all.

A Fresh New Start

School is nearly in full swing for us. I have our "area" (no longer in a school room) all set up and we have been in school since August 17th. This week we are only doing half a week, Mon. thru Wed. as we leave Thursday for a little family get away. We will be back on track on Tues. of next week. I am looking forward to our little break and then getting back into the FULL swing of it all by the 21st (as I should have the rest of my curriculum by then...HA!)
I am using our own version of the workbox system and WOW what a difference it has made! I only have to stay on the younger two now for getting their school work done.
Instead of sticky notes I laminated 5X7 index cards and use visa~vis markers on them (these are the ones teachers use for overhead projectors in the classroom....do they still use those? hum...). I keep a container of baby wipes near my work area so that in the evening I can just wipe them off and write the new directions. This has definately kept the paper waste down significantly!
Each student has completed so much more in less time than I ever could have imagined. My older two (boys of 14 and 12 years) do not have as much "fun" stuff as they were skipping over those boxes to just get their work done. Thus I took it out and have left it out and just try to put the subjects in an order where they do one they aren't so thrilled with that is then followed by one that they really like. This has worked and they like it better.
I have been able to pull out some things and dust off the cob webs and actually use them! Some for the first time ever! These are items that I bought for the oldest that I just couldn't figure out how I would use it, forgot how I would use it once I got it home or just couldn't find the time to use it! I am sure I am not alone in this.
I will be posting pictures sometime soon is my hope. I will start with posting pictures of our workboxes and then will continue with our curriculum and fun things we have done to impliment it. I will also post about our Tapestry of Grace (TOG) curriculum with pictures of some of the fun projects we do with another family we get together with once a month for our hands on stuff.
I hope that this blog will either inspire or entertain you in some fashion or another during your year.

Baskets Galore!

Earlier this week I went to IKEA to find things for my "home makeover" (you can read about this at http://taylordbygod.blogspot.com/ ). We bought 11 really great "picnic" type baskets that we thought might fit above the cupboards to store some of the seasonal items in and keep it looking neat and clean. I got them home only to find out that I will have to now use them for my school shelves! What a bummer (snicker, snicker). Now what to put in them. It may be a few weeks before I will be posting again, however at this time we are preparing to work on the Kitchen, dining and living room area (yes they are all one large room). The dining room will hold the school shelves and all of our school supplies and curriculum and computers. Once this is in place I will be able to put together the children's workboxes and start the laminating of schedule strips and then plan out their workboxes and centers. At this time I will post so much more. Right now we are working on enjoying the bit of summer we get here in Western WA. Hopefully you are enjoying your summer as well.

Wahoo! And yet another blog for me to keep up with....

Okay, as promised I am starting a new homeschooling blog.
Here I will blog about our 9 years of homeschooling, how we do it, what we use, workboxes, why we homeschool and all that kind of stuff!
Right now I have no homeschool room. If you have followed my other blog, Taylor'd By God, then you know that the house is in transition to create an office for Man of My Dreams! That would be my hubby. Go over and take a "look-see" and watch the amazing Marvalous Elf doing her amazing magical tricks to help me get it all put together.
Once all the curriculum is put back together then I will take pictures and post here how we work a school day out.