17th August, 2008

Problems, Promises and Remedies

My problems

1. I cannot get to French and Art because I am trying to do to much in a day, to much in a week.

2. My children are not learning from their Language books easily because it is difficult for me to teach all three of them at three different levels, at the same time, in not only Language but Spelling, Math and Handwriting. Religion was in that line up but after just one week, I remedied that with family religion.

3. I am behind on the housework and cooking ( my Mom baked for us this week and on one night Dh brought home restaurant bought pizza) because I do not have enough hours in the day to do chores, cooking and lessons.

My Remedies

1. Set aside a day a week for French and Art and catch up on things not learned or not done.

2. Do Language as a family. Use the Language Lessons already written for you, for 4th through 8th grade in the Into a New Land Unit Study.

3. Do the Into a New Land Unit study for three days a week. Yes, it will take longer to complete. Clean clothes and food made at home matter.

My Promises

1. I will not tell myself, even in my mind, that I am a not a success in home teaching because I cannot keep up with instructing all three of my children using grade level workbooks for most subjects.

2. I will not care that I didn’t do history chronologically, starting at the beginning.

3. I will continue to plan out my days because planning helps keep my garden growing.

4. I will not plan only lessons in that garden, fun, chores and meals have to grow too.

Posted at 1:47 pm |


5 Comments

  1. On August 17, 2008 at 1:54 pm jove said:

    August 17, 2008 at 1:54 pm

    Not that you need anyone to say so, but that plan looks like a very good one. I suspect everyone will learn quite a bit. Fewer meltdowns (yours or the kids) are always better. :-)

  2. On August 17, 2008 at 1:58 pm homeschoolmom said:

    August 17, 2008 at 1:58 pm

    I do need someone to say so. And I appreciate you doing that.
    Susan Marie

  3. On August 17, 2008 at 3:49 pm mrsdawneshelton said:

    August 17, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    Susan,

    I love how you listed the problems and ways to overcome them, I also love your transparency in that you are not a superhomeschoolmom, but rather, a real human homeschoolmom with the same struggles many of us have. :-)

    I hear you on teaching so many levels! We burned out so bad last year. sigh The unfortunate thing is that doing them together in subjects as a family does not work here either. We’ve tried and tried …

    I am going to give 1 other option a fair ‘trial period’ of 3 months. (don’t throw tomatoes at me!) If it works - wonderful!!! If it does not, well then fall back to our beloved Abeka and we’ll figure out a way to MAKE it work, for ‘us’. lol I’ll reveal our final other option in the future…

  4. On August 18, 2008 at 5:44 am tribeofautodidacts said:

    August 18, 2008 at 5:44 am

    Hi Susan! I have started blogging on my HSJ blog a little bit — as I am keeping stuff there that I’ll need to keep track of for portfolios.

    One thing I love about home schooling is that you don’t have to cover all subjects all the time, KWIM? If you’re not getting to art right now, it may be something you’ll immerse yourself in later. I used to try to follow a CM type schedule — lots of short lessons and the like — with time for arts, poetry and everything each day. I got frustrated and quickly started feeling guilty. I just could NOT do it … and who needs the pressure? ;-) On the other hand, Sarah has weeks where it seems she does a whole art history course in one week (like the week she made the art memo game). I hope this helps a little. To everything there is a season …

    And I agree with Jove … you have an excellent plan!

  5. On August 21, 2008 at 5:03 pm jove said:

    August 21, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    Susan, I was reading some of the other blogs in my blogroll and came across a post that you might find helpful (or some of her links within it to previous posts).

    http://gypsycaravan.typepad.com/a_gypsy_caravan/2008/08/clarifyingwaldo.html

    Rebecca has 4 children at different levels and some other stresses in her life that make it hard for her right now. Maybe her plans will give you some ideas the next time you feel like things aren’t quite working and you need a change.

    I do NOT want to suggest that you chuck in your excellent plan and start afresh, but sometimes we need other ideas so we know where to go if things aren’t working. Maybe keep it somewhere just in case.

    Hope that helps.

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