New Schedule

The last week or two (or three or four) has been like pulling teeth to get Doodle to do his school work. I think the reason is that he's finally at a point in which his studies actually make him study, instead of just breeze through easy stuff. In both language and math, we're doing third grade work. The boy is six years old, but third grade is where he needs to focus.

A typical math assignment has recently involved a LOT of fussing, being sent to his room, reading until his mind frame becomes more positive, coming back to math, more fussing... you get the idea, until finally over two hours have passed and less than half of one page has been completed- even though he's had the multiplication chart at his disposal the entire time. Then I force him to focus on using the chart, and he completes two pages in less than 10 minutes- not usually looking at the chart, after all!

So this week I tried something new: the alarm clock. Well, the alarm clock phone app, but same diff.

I have alarms set M-F from 9am-2:30pm, every hour, with an extra 1/2 hour thrown in at midday for a lunch break. At the top of each hour, when the alarm sounds, it's time to get into a school subject. (Currently, that's problem solving skills, language, math, history, reading and a variety of "specials" / electives.) The deal is, Doodle has to get his school work for a particular subject done within the hour and then he can go play. If he finishes work in 10 minutes, that means he gets 50 min. of play time. If he finishes in 50 min. (say, if he wastes his time due to fussing), then he only has 10 min. of play time left before he starts his next subject.

I must say, this has been a stroke of genius for me. Either that, or dumb luck born out of excessive frustration. Why? Well, here's the catch: Doodle has only a vague idea of how much work he'll have to do for any given subject. So if he zips through something, I can occasionally double up on an assignment. The result is that he could have a very short school day by the end of the week; or on other occasions, I won't have to stress about having enough time to run errands (take care of the twins, clean around the house, etc.) and still get through his curriculum.

At any rate, I've found this a much more effective way to get across my point that there's a limited amount of time in each day; and Doodle can decide whether he wants to spend it fussing before finally getting his work done, or getting his work done well and quickly so that he has the most possible time to do what he enjoys.

Looking past the scriptures

I'd become a blog-aholic if my household could afford me to get lost in all the cool stuff there is to read online. This was the case before we started home school, and it's only gone downhill since.

What I find EXTREMELY common among HS bloggers is their reliance on Christian faith. That's SO not my family, and yet I can't blame people for believing what they choose to believe. So I've learned to "look past the scriptures" in HS blog posts and gather what insight I can, to apply to our world. Some writers are more verbally faith-based than others (ie: their blogs revolve around references to their faith). But I read them anyway because I like their style and/or what they have to say (regardless of their faith).

So today I joined Pinterest (thanks, Leigh, for this downward spiral!) and started pinning blogs that I'd bookmarked in hopes of reading further. It's not about the obvious religion in those blogs, but about finding commonalities with other home school families, other families with special needs kids, other families with multiples, moms who like to cook - whatever. If we've got something in common and I like what I've read so far, I'll bookmark it - or rather, I'll pin it from now on. Seems like a great way to preserve a reminder for myself without stuffing my bookmarks folders so full that I can't find anything.

So yeah, I'll look past your scripture if you'll look past my secular leanings.

Home schooling so far...

Doodle and I have just finished our third week of home schooling. I think it's going well, but I also have this internal question of whether or not I'm doing him justice. Are the activities I give him enough? Are they the right kind of stuff he should be studying? Is it too basic for him? Should we be spending more time on studies? Am I doing him a disservice by not making home school social gatherings more of a priority?

I'm happy that Doodle's doing some problem solving activities every day. I think that's important to develop higher order thinking and I'm hoping that he'll one day (soon?) make a connection to the fact that- just like in his mind bender school activities- he can think real life problems through on his own and figure out solutions for himself.

We've been reviewing math daily. Double digit addition and subtraction, with a little time telling and coin counting thrown in for good measure. But a voice inside my head keeps nagging at me. Should I have Doodle working from a textbook series like (maybe?) he would do in public school? Is the colorful workbook for 6-8 year olds that I bought at Costco just a cheap "filler" instead of a meaty curriculum tool? I went for color and pictures so it'd keep Doodle more interested. The worksheets have games and riddles to solve through math problems. But there's little to no formal instruction in the book. That's where I come in, right? But since Doodle knows what to do and I'm mostly just assigning pages and correcting his work- am I really teaching? Or have we come back to the question of whether or not the stuff I assign is too easy for him?

As for reading... Doodle finished the first (six book) series I gave him even before we officially started home school. Each chapter book was at least 75 pages. So of course the 60ish page entry level chapter books that we checked out from the library are a breeze for him to blow through in 30 minutes. Daily book reports? Check. Been there, done that, got bored with it. Maybe I need to spend more time on improving the quality of his reports, but part of me says that if I point out too many errors or places to improve, I'll just destroy his desire to learn or work. Maybe I just need to spend more time showing Doodle a bigger variety of book report options. Whew, I got my work cut out for me.

On the up side... Doodle gets a lot more play time. He's much more interested in going outside to play (thanks to Papa and his sisters for that, especially!). I don't have to schedule my day around carpool drop off and pick up. In fact, Doodle prefers to run errands with me and do his school work wherever we are, than to go to a drop off or day care center to play for the day. So I can stay productive for the household and still have time in between for just Doodle and me.

I always wonder what more should I be doing for him, for the house, for the rest of the family. But for now, it's time to check on a not-napping girl.

Here we go!

So often, I want to get my thoughts down in writing but just don't get to it. Hopefully this endeavor will do the trick for me. Why blog? Hmmm... to vent; to remember; to share; to learn; to process; to express myself in more ways than by talking to the kids while we're home all day.

I think I have more inclination to write about the negatives than the positives, so maybe that's my disclaimer for the blog. Life is good, it's grand, I'm happy in general. But we all have bad days, stressful times, and a need to blow off steam. So even if I'm writing this blog only for myself, I'm warning myself not to take all my future rants to be the basic common feel of my life. It's just that I don't need to vent for the good stuff, so I may forget to sit down and journal about it.