Homeschool from the couch

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately, having contracted the cold my kids had last week that kept them home from co-op. Yesterday it kept me home from co-op, and today it's keeping me on the couch.

No matter - thankfully the kids can do a lot of their schooling with a measure of independence, and when I can't be fully engaged, we pare it down. (Pare - that was one of their spelling words a few weeks ago. Good to see mom learned it too). So while I lay here, they peek in the door to the living room and say, "What next mom?"

It's not the education I'd like them to have for the long haul, but it gets the three R's done for today.

There's no crying in homeschool!

I just started teaching a friend's daughter to play piano. She's highly motivated and eager to please, so she's progressing quickly and our lessons are pleasant. One of the biggest reasons is because there is no crying. When I teach my own children, inevitably there is crying because they are frustrated that they cannot immediately play a new song well. It is, in fact, one of the most difficult parts of homeschool and the one I am most likely to farm out to someone else.

The other time we're likely to see tears is the spelling test. Our kids both have perfectionistic streaks (hmm, I don't have to think long to figure out where that came from) and are competitive with each other. Add to that the fact that they are in the same level for spelling, and it means that if one of them gets one wrong (and the other doesn't), there are tears. Like right now. Ethan is in his room crying because he got 4 wrong out of 40 today - all careless mistakes he would not have made if he weren't trying to best his sister. He started the test before her, so I was giving them different words, and of course Megan was trying to catch up and Ethan was trying to finish first. Ok, so my bad and we won't ever do that again, but the crying is a little much.

Whenever there are tears, I think of that line from League of Their Own, "There's no crying in baseball. There's no crying in baseball!!" And I think the same of homeschool.

But the reality is, there is crying, and I think it's probably good. It reminds me that what I get from having my kids at home with me is them being real. If they were in school, I doubt they'd cry. But they'd probably want to, and instead take that hurt and not be able to express it. It might come out later (probably in some other way that would make me think, "What on earth happened at school today?") or it might not. Whether it's tears, rudeness, anger, frustration - I'm glad it comes out at home, because I can actually address it (though the fact that I'm typing this instead of talking to Ethan shows I don't always want to address it right now). Yet another benefit of homeschool.

Psst . . . your personality is showing

Our kids are currently hard at work drawing pictures of Native American housing, and the difference in their personalities couldn't be more clear. Ethan is busy replicating a Cahokian temple with his ruler, measuring the pictures and then drawing it carefully. Megan is drawing teepee after teepee so that she can continue decorating them in creative ways. It's fun to see their personalities come out in their work!

It's that time again

Being away from the States this time of year makes it hard to feel like I should be starting up school again. There are no constant reminders in the stores to buy back to school supplies, though there was one "back to school" sale wall at Carrefour yesterday. It included things like a 10 pack of chopsticks for 2 kuai, two microfiber cloths for 15 kuai, and garbage bags for 1 kuai. What do Chinese kids do at school?

The only thing driving me to start up again basically is the calendar. We will be traveling back to the States again this year for a few months, and I know the chances of us maintaining school time while we are there are slight, I thought we should get an early start so we don't have to do "year round school" come next summer.

We are schooling in a new location this year - new country, new apartment, new school room. This one has a rounded wall of windows that looks out over our little plot of backyard and across to a beautiful park. It's really quite a lovely view! We've filled our room with bookshelves, a table that folds flat on both sides, a tall IKEA desk, and two oversized bean bag chairs. Oh, and a hamster. I think she's going to go in Megan's room though because she's not contributing. After only two days she is the pint size equivalent of the ADD kid in the class - run on the wheel, chew on the bars, climb up the side of the cage, fall down, repeat. A bit distracting.

We're back to using Sonlight this year for history. We'll see how it goes, because so far it doesn't take much time at all. That leaves room for creativity in adding other projects and reading which is fun. We're going to supplement with the Homeschool in the Woods Colonial Life lapbook so there's a start.

In a few weeks our co-op will start and I'm very excited! We haven't been part of a regular, structured co-op before. Since I'm new I don't have to teach - just assist - but I'm already thinking ahead to what I will teach in the spring. I think we're off to a good start!

So this is what it would be like . . .

I just heard Megan's sweet voice on her way out the door, "Bye mom!" It's 8:06 a.m., and truth be told it's a late start for her. Usually she and Ethan and their friends are outside playing by 7 these days. Partly it's because they're all early risers, partly it's because the daytime highs here are in the upper 90's so they have to make the most of the cooler part of the day.

Yesterday the kids were out the door at 7:30. I saw them again at 4:30. They ate lunch at a friend's house and then she took them to the mall nearby for some play place and ice cream action. I was feeling a bit under the weather and I have to be around to check on the progress of our apartment painting, so I'm grateful for her ministry to me.

I've been reflecting that this is what it would feel like if they were in school. Out the door at 7 or 8, back home at 3 or 4. To be honest, I don't like it. Certainly I am thankful that they have loads of time with good friends, but I can see the impact of less time with me. In fact, one of the other moms and I made an agreement that the kids would have "quiet home time" every afternoon after lunch so that we actually get to see them! But also to have quality time with them. So we spend it reading good books and playing games (usually "Ticket to Ride" which is our favorite).

It's funny - I always have had a curiosity about what it would be like if my kids were in school. I thought I'd love the freedom, the alone time. I do of course, but I never realized how much I'd miss my kids!

The Home Stretch

When I ran that 10K in March, the torturous part of it was that in the end, we ran past the finish line half a block away on our right, but then had to continue running around a giant city block in order to reach it. The block was an open field, so we could see the finish line the whole time, but still weren't there. When I finally got to that last 1/2 block, I had intended to give a last burst of energy to knock off a few seconds. But, whether it was the fact that I saw I had run much faster than anticipated, or the fact that I just had nothing left, I slugged my way to the end.

That's about how I feel right now with homeschool. We have just three weeks left (technically we should have four if we're trying to do a 36 week year) before the movers come and take us to another country. I decided that trying to do anything that week or thereafter would be akin to trying to swim upstream.

What's making it difficult to continue is that a) the kids are well ahead of where they "should" be for their grade levels in most subjects, and b) I'm just kind of tired of this, and so are they. We are basically finished with our history book except that we kept out the chapters on China so we could have a China unit before we move there. We've come to the point in our Bible reading where the Acts of the Apostles are just a little boring for a 7 and 9 year old. I just decided that I don't like the language arts we've been doing and picked up a new curriculum (I know - three weeks out, what am I thinking?!?) but don't want to dive in yet. Piano needs some time to simmer. Can you see why I'm slowing down?

It's probably a good thing, given that the next few weeks will be crazy with doing last minute things, but I had hoped to finish well, not just stumble over the finish line. But so it goes.

You just never know . . .

When it comes to curriculum, most of the time it feels like a shot in the dark. I'm always surprised by what connects for my kids and what doesn't. But when I come across something that does, it's such a joy to watch them light up and take off.

This week, it was Megan. I found this story starters page on Scholastic, and showed it to the kids. Ethan basically shrugged and walked away, but Megan sat down and had me type out a two page story about hamsters who climb Mount Everest. Then she wrote a letter to a friend about a stinky cowboy who sings. Today, she couldn't wait for homeschool to get over so she could do more. She wrote four stories on her own!

I've been trying to get the kids to write stories all year. They're ok with it, but never has one of them jumped on it like this. You just never know what's going to catch their interest.