Tag Archives: what do homeschoolers do all day

You’d think I’d have learned this by now

10/11/2013 Nichole 3 Comments

Some days we get to bedtime and I realize that the kids didn’t finish all of their schoolwork. Then I spend a few days (or weeks) feeling overwhelmed and stressed about it before I realize that the problem is obvious — and it really should be, considering how often this cycle repeats itself — and the solution is simple:

No electronics before school.

Duh, right?

I finally reached that conclusion again yesterday, after a week and a half of pulling my hair out over our lack of progress. I slip into the problem innocently enough. Pete wakes up pretty early, so sure why not he can have his Kindle FreeTime while I get ready & dressed. Except then Poppy wakes up and lolls about with her iPod for good long while because it’s not fair, and Pete has a bad attitude because his time ran out, and then nobody wants to do school. And really, why would they want to practice cursive when their little brains are coming fresh off of that Angry Birds overstimulation?

So today I’m kicking myself for falling into that pattern yet again, and yet again I’m going to try to change things up next week. And I’m hoping this time I’ll learn the lesson for keeps.

Math

Yesterday Poppy called me over while she was working on her Teaching Textbooks lesson and asking for help with a problem.

“It wants me to add fractions,” she said, “and I’ve never done that!”

Turns out she’d somehow skipped two lessons and started straight in on the quiz. Something tells me she’ll be getting an introduction to fractions when she goes back to do Lesson 104 next week.

Extracurricular

It’s a big day for Poppy: She’s going to be testing for her white-yellow belt at tae kwon do! She’s been working really hard toward this, and she’s excited and nervous.

Reading

We finished “Farmer Boy” by Laura Ingalls Wilder yesterday, and the whole time we were reading it I was struck by how much more abundant Almanzo’s childhood was than his future wife’s. And also by how much pie the Wilders consumed.

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

Homeschool

Our school year started a few weeks early

08/09/2013 Nichole

This time last week I wasn’t planning to start our school year until the 19th. Last weekend, though, I reorganized the homeschool-stuff closet so I’d be ready when the time came, and then on Monday one of the kids experienced a moment of Boredom.

And so we started Homeschooling Year 2013-14!

We had a number of pre-planned activities this week — a pool party with Poppy’s AHG friends, an informational park playdate for potential new co-op members and mid-afternoon dentist appointments — so we didn’t get everything on our schedules done every day. The kids did get the majority of their work done, though, and most of it was done cheerfully.

Extracurricular

The kids are doing a weekly LEGO-building challenge based on the LEGO Quest Kids blog. They did the second challenge this week, which was to create a monochromatic design. The both made vehicles, which as it happens was also the first challenge!

Pete’s design “has a button that makes the wheels pop off. It can transform into anything” the LEGO guy “needs. It has a little gun, and that’s it.”

Poppy’s creation “has a driver’s seat and a little place where you can put Lego luggage in the back. And it has 4 extra seats on the side, and it has a little window so if he needs a window when it’s raining he can use his windshield wipers to clean the window. (I didn’t actually put windshield wipers on it. They’re pretend.) The four extra seats can transform into wings. The wheels pop off when he goes to the airport.”

History

This year Pete is a full participant in our “Story of the World” studies. He did a great job remembering details of the story of Indian ruler Akbar, and he seemed to enjoy doing the map work.

In US history we read about John Fremont, about whom Poppy was quite interested because the book said he was handsome. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Reading

We started “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” this week, and the kids are full of ideas about what might happen in the book.

I’ve suggested to Poppy at least 10 times that she might enjoy “Ivy and Bean” by Annie Barrows, but she expressed zero interest until this week, when she “discovered” it at the library. She then proceeded to read the entire book in about 40 minutes. I really need to create something like a notebooking routine for her free reading.

Spelling

Poppy started SpellWell B this week, and she aced the preview with such alacrity that it made me wonder if I might ought to move her straight to SpellWell Bb. If she keeps spelling every single word on her spelling lists correctly on the first try, I’ll probably start skipping them until we get to something more challenging for her.

Pete is doing McRuffy’s Spelling & Word Study. It starts with a simple spelling list — cat, pat, bat, etc. — and I think it’s just exactly challenging enough for him.

Latin

We started “Song School Latin” this week, and so far we’ve learned how to introduce ourselves and engage in a very limited amount of small talk. I only bought one workbook, but I think that’s going to work out fine because the amount of writing required is a little beyond Pete’s patience level at this point. So I’ve been talking over the questions with him while Poppy does the written work.

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

Homeschool

If you’ve a date in Constantinople, she’ll be waiting in Istanbul

05/10/2013 Nichole

Monday is the last day of this session of our homeschool co-op. It seems like it went really quickly this time. Poppy’s been taking a class on Weaving and one about Fairies, and Pete’s taking Puppets and my class, Superheroes 101.

The Superheroes class has gone OK, but the disparity of abilities and attention spans when you’re dealing with the 3- to 5-year-old age group is always a little challenging.

History

Yep, this week we read about the Ottoman Turks conquering Constantinople. Pete’s been singing the song all week. We didn’t do any crafts or activities this week, but I did find a rather cool Ted Ed presentation on “The City Walls of Constantinople” that we watched a time or two.

Reading

We started “Return to Gone-Away” as our family chapter book.

Poppy discovered that we could access ebooks from the library on the Kindle! She’s been reading “Magic Tree House #37: Dragon of the Red Dawn” on it.

I checked out a very-incomplete copy of the first level of Hooked on Phonics to try out with Pete. Most of the cards and all of the little books are missing, so he’s just been working his way through the main book. He’s doing really well with it, though; I think it’s building his confidence on the reading front.

And just so you know: Registration for next year’s Pizza Hut BookIt program is open.

Science

I panicked a little bit yesterday when I read the instructions for the kids’ Ladybug Land kit. They said to take the larvae out immediately, and I’d left the poor things in their envelope for days. They were pretty still when we put them in their biodome. They perked up pretty quickly, though, and now there are about 20 very creepy ladybug larvae creepin’ around in there.

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!