Spinoff Lower Standards

[Impish]

Ok. What do you do when YOU feel like you're not doing squat?

 

Give you an idea.

 

Diva is using TOG for the first time. I've been warned time and again that YOU CAN'T DO IT ALL. However...:o I love the vocab lists, the writing...pretty much all of it :lol: We're taking two weeks to do one week! Her science is a bit on hold, I need a dang kit. (Corks? Who the heck has corks? I'd need to buy wine, expensive wine, and then find someone to drink the dang stuff...blech!) We're just now getting into Ancient Egypt, which will take even LONGER than the other weeks, because Diva and I are both fiends for Ancient Egypt...and Greece, and Rome.

 

The only thing I can say we're absolutely finishing every day is her math.

 

So what do you do when you fear YOU are one of those lagging home school people? :o

[Daisy]

I'm not sure I'm following you. It sounds like you are doing school everyday. You are teaching. You are learning. You just are taking your time so you can fit in every assignment. How is that "lower standards" than the person who skips half the assignments just so they can say they are "on schedule?"

 

Lower standards to me equal the person who isn't getting through their material because they don't make learning a priority. They are using the "freedoms of home education" as an excuse to be total slackers.

[msjones]

I make a daily and weekly plan and stick to it unless someone is ill. We start on time each day and work until we finish. That prevents the worrying for me.

[Greta]

First let me say that I volunteer to drink that wine for you. :cheers2:

 

Second, I've been there. I'm doing pretty well this year, but at times in the past, I've been the "slacker mom" believe me. And that's not a judgment on you or anyone else, I'm just saying that *I* was honestly lazy, knew I could and should be doing better, but letting myself be placated by all the people saying "just let her be a kid, there's plenty of time, she's better off than she would be in ps, she's learning naturally", etc.

 

For me, the kick in the butt came when I realized how far behind she was compared to some ps friends. Um, that's NOT why I chose to homeschool! I chose to homeschool because I thought I could do *better* than the schools would. So if I wasn't doing better, then what the heck was I doing?!?

 

So I kind of went back to square one. I re-read TWTM, LCC, and Homeschooling for Excellence (but read whatever books inspire you). I thought about my hopes for where she would go to college, and what kind of high school education she would need in order to accomplish that, and therefore what I needed to be doing now to get her ready for that. "Begin with the end in mind."

 

Also, what works well for me, I have learned through trial and error, is planning, planning, planning. I planned out a rough outline of our year, more specifically what I wanted to accomplish each term, and then every Sunday afternoon I plan out the week. If it's there in black and white with a little empty box waiting to be checked off, I am *far* more likely to actually get it done. Those unchecked boxes drive me insane!!! :D

 

Well, that's "my story" and I hope something in there helps. I'm sure you'll get lots of great replies.

[dangermom]

Turns out you can get corks at a big hardware store--our Lowe's carries them.

[Tidbits of Learning]

Turns out you can get corks at a big hardware store--our Lowe's carries them.

 

Nice! I too had been contemplating the wine purchase. Now we can make our homemade compass with a magnetized needle, a cork, and a bowl of water.

[Cedarmom]

Are you not doing stuff, or are you just delving deeper and so it takes longer to finish? From your description it sounds more like you are using your curriculim as a tool to fit your needs. That is not lagging. My son is a senior in high school. We often went slower. Something would spark an interest, and we would follow a bunny trail. Or we would do all the activities, because we couldn't pick. Looking back, those days enriched us and taught my son to follow his passions and installed a love of learning. Now if your watching the Simpson's all day...then maybe you should reasses your school.

[Murphy101]

I make a daily and weekly plan and stick to it unless someone is ill. We start on time each day and work until we finish. That prevents the worrying for me.

 

yep.

 

oh and I have a 1 gallon ziplock bag of wine corks - sure I coudl lend you one.

 

and no, I'm not in need of an AA meeting.

 

it's taken me YEARS of adding a cork once a month or so either from myself or friends or parties to that bag. Why? Because of needing a cork for science experiments! I also have a pickle jar of those twist tie thingies like you get from bread. a boy discovered he coudl make teeny canons for his pond boat out of those and scrap paper mache:D

 

To the OP in particuliar...

 

You can't do it all. Forcus on the main subject, then set the rest aside for her/you to do for fun either when the rest is done, or in

non-schooling" time.

 

For us that is added motivation and it makes the extra stuff more enjoyable to not have it be tied to school "work".

 

I'm a list person.

When I don't feel I'm meeting a goal - I make a list and work on crossing one thing off at a time.

[AuntPol]

When I start getting slack, I read some good homeschooling books to get reinspired.

[tex-mex]

Shoot, I knew I should have saved those corks... LOL :D

 

Sounds like you are doing just fine, Impish. Don't let the guideline of the book overwhelm you. Use it as a springboard to allow learning. Sounds like it is happening. Taaaa-daaaah! :grouphug:

[Impish]

The problem I have is Diva herself. Some days, she whips through things. Other days, she drags her math out all.freaking.morning. This tends to come from boredom, so I *think* I've figured out how to combat that.

 

She loses focus. Will daydream while supposed to be doing vocabulary. "Its boring!" *sigh* While I know looking up words isn't the most exciting things on the planet, it needs to be done, and not something I'm negotiable on. I've explained to her, break it down to 5 words a day...but nooooooooooooooooo. She puts it off so she's doing the entire list on Friday...which ends up extending to Saturday, even Sunday!

 

I put up a weekly schedule for her. Thinking that if she *saw* the week, it would help. It has, a little bit. I just feel like we're not getting things accomplished the way we ought to be. Its not that we do *nothing*...but some days it feels that way.

 

She loves 'teaching' the Littles...reading, counting, etc. Its teaching HER that seems to be slow going, and she's not struggling with the material, quite the opposite.

 

We've talked about how important her studies are. Some days she gets inspired, and wow does she get things done! More often though, it feels like water torture...drip...drip...drip. On ME.

[Peela]

I think you just learn as you go what your priorities are. Is it more important ot you to finish your history in a year so you can move on, or is it more important to indulge in the enjoyment and learning of a part that really takes your fancy?

I have always spent a year on each year. I cut stuff out if we are lagging. Thats what important to me...because as much as we LOVE our hsitory, and we do....I personally get tired of Ancients etc and want to move on! But I don't think thats any more correct than your approach, honestly.

The thing is not to feel guilty because there are others doing it differently. You are learning.

If it makes you feel too bad that you are "behind" (behind what or who?), then maybe you realise you really want to keep a tighter schedule, and you either speed up or cut something out.

We all go through it- the discernment, the sifting as to what to include and what to leave out...because, I am sure you realise, its jsut not possible to fit everything into a 12 year education, even a classical one.

[Reya]

Taking 3 days off to organize can save a month of pain--or more! :-)

 

Lessons learned the hard way...

[swellmomma]

I go online and talk to the unschoolers in my support group lol then I suddenly feel like we have been doing so much. lol

 

Then I go back over my long term plans for the year and see if we are on track, if we are actually behind and it is not just a mommy panic moment, I see what we can ramp up to catch up, or what we can change to make more efficient(or even get to someting to begin with). Last year I was a complete lazy slacker mom imo, turns out my facilitator did not agree. I had done more with my kids than most of her other families, which made me feel much better(and actually pretty sad for those other kids). SOmetimes I need to have things put back into perspective. What I consider being lazy and behind in our homeschool many others don't and it is because I am reaching for too much kwim.

 

This year I have been evaluating myself at the end of each week to avoid falling into the same trap I did last year and getting lazy about the kids schooling, and it keeps me thinking realistically about what we can actually accomplish and not just what I dream of us doing. This year I also gave our homeschool a complete make over. My kids know ancient mesopotamia inside and out because for 2 years we started SOTW got to mesopotamia and ancient egypt and sat there all year never getting further. While we learned a lot and had a lot of fun exploring it, I regret not pushing forward to the next topic. Now I feel perpetually behind in history. That is something I am working on remedying right now.

 

Hint when looking for weird things like corks hit the reuse center downtown. I have a bag of them because I got some for a painting project(I do not think there is much I don't have from the reuse center)

[Danestress]

and do that first thing in the morning. Or I break it into small pieces and make the kids responsible for it first thing, though my children are older than yours so they can handle this better. But basically, if I know we have neglected writing, we do that first thing in the morning for a few days to get the momentum back. If I know that violin practice is getting squeezed out, I have the boys start that first. It gives me more "steam" to know I attacked the thing that I have procrastinated on. Typically, if something is getting shorted and I think it's important, I will spend an evening planning lessons for it. If I know what the next 10 or 12 lessons should look like, it's easier to get it done every day.

 

It doesn't sound like you aren't doing work though - it sounds like you feel like you don't "finish" it - but if you are spending time on TOG and doing it with more detail than others might, you are probably doing more school - just not having the satisfaction of checking off boxes and moving on since you want to dig deep.

 

Don't you have a good wine store that you can go to and ask for corks? I'm sure they have some to spare. If you lived here, I would be a good friend and drink all your wine for you:)

[Irene Lynn]

I just want to talk about corks! (I don't have any good advice for the rest of the post.) I couldn't find a cork when I needed one either. Now I see that our local craft store has some for sale, but they didn't when I needed them. I finally found a free cork at the grocery store late one night. I was desperate for a cork, because I hadn't thought it would be so hard to find and had waited until the last day to get one. We needed it the next day for a small group activity. Hmmph! Anyway, some nice man at the store told me that they usually have some broken wine bottles in the back and they have to send the neck of the bottle back for credit, but they didn't need the cork. It got pretty funny. He couldn't get the cork out so he ended up pulling a kitchen tool off the rack and bent it by accident in his effort to give me the cork. He wasn't busy and this became a challenge that he couldn't let go. He did finally get it out, but he cost the store more money in the effort. LOL I really appreciated it though. Anyway, you might want to check your grocery store to see if they have any for free. :)

[Impish]

Thanks for the responses!

 

I worry about being a 'slacker', and not doing right by my kids. It would help tremendously if Diva would *focus* and do as she's told :lol:

 

Its funny, cause the Littles will 'do school' no problems, and love it.