Keeping up with all kids

[choirfarm]

I've asked this before, probably around this time last year, but I just can't seem to get an answer I like, which is probably you cannot. But I mean how do you make sure you do what is best for each kid and stay sane and give them the best possible education? I mean I have boy who will be 10th grade next year, who thankfully pretty much teaches himself. He taught himself Logic and Geometry last year with minimal help from me. I've signed him up for AP STatistics next year so thankfully I don't have to do that. But rhetoric level TOG I need to study to discuss. He really needs to work on his writing skills. I really need to spend daily time with him to get them where I think they need to be for honors level.

 

Then there is my 7th grade, bright, but normal 13yo boy. He loves history and loves to read and has gotten better. He is extremely distractable. I've tried schedules with him and he refuses to follow them and has no tolerance for anything resembling busy work or that doesn't have a serious point. He can write, but only spends time writing on what he finds worthwhile. He is like so many gifted kids I was in class with who wait until the last possible moment and until the deadline is there. He is still trying to finish General Science. Next year for 8th I am marking science tests on the calendar and he is taking them whether he has studied or is ready or not. (He will be. He has to have a deadline.) So I have scheduled time to conference with him twice : once in the morning to go over the schedule and once in the afternoon to make sure he has actually done it and not his own thing. I must MAKE myself do that. He has requested to go up to rhetoric level for TOG next year with his brother because dialectic was just too easy, but I will have to modify literature some...the advanced analysis will be harder for him, but the actual reading will not. It will take me discussing, discussing, discussin. And he has to have help with math. It is just not his best subject.

 

And then there is my 8yo that you can read about in how long does a 3rd grader work post. Honestly, I could spend my entire time trying to interest her, answer questions, etc. She has such wide and varied interest and I remember taking rabbit trails with the boys and just spending time on their interest, but the plain fact is I just don't have time to do that and take care of our home, finances and 50 acres!! It just doesn't work. Some of it has to be workbooks. I don't like it either, but how else will it get done? I don't have time to be with her alone all day.

 

How in the world does this happen??

 

Christine

[choirfarm]

bump

[MerryAtHope]

My pastor once told me to pursue excellence instead of perfection. He told me that perfectionists are negative thinkers. They focus on the 5% not well done instead of the 95% done well. That's not to say don't learn, grow etc... But you are giving your all to your kids, and they are doing well. Rejoice in what you can do with homeschooling and in the 95% well done, and let go of some of the imperfections. Life is like that.

 

Merry :-)

[AngieW in Texas]

You do the best you can.

 

I'm very happy that next year my oldest will be able to do almost everything at the cc. It means that I only have to keep track of government for her and she's going to be using Thinkwell for that, so I won't have to do much of anything there.

 

Keeping track of two in high school and one in middle school is very difficult. My two older girls have always been quite independent, but I still have to check what they've been doing and it's hard to keep up. I don't know how the folks on this board with more kids manage to do it.

[M&M]

I don't know, but I am in the same boat as you. I have spent this whole month wrestling out how I will make this next school year work schooling 4 and keeping a 4 yo happy. I still have nothing on paper. I think my brain is starting to ooze out of my ears!

 

Thank God for TOG or I would really be looney!!

[Irishmommy]

I am by no means an expert (as I will only have two next year), but I think you plan as much as you can before the year starts. When I was a classroom teacher, if I got 85% of what I planned done, then I felt like I was doing good. I would always over plan and also add other things once the year got going. So, I felt like overall, I was doing enough of everything. We had one writing assignment every six weeks (a major paper) at least 5 quizzes, at least 2 tests and a slew of daily assignments.

[rose_king]

Wondering the same... I haven't even made any plans for the year yet. Mine are k, 7, and 10th. I am bumping this to see what I can learn. :D Feeling very overwhelmed. :bigear:

[Lori in MS]

I'm in the same boat. Teaching 4 8th grade through 3rd grade and a 4 year old. Listening to SWB's Teaching children to work independantly helped some.

[nova mama]

My pastor once told me to pursue excellence instead of perfection. He told me that perfectionists are negative thinkers. They focus on the 5% not well done instead of the 95% done well. That's not to say don't learn, grow etc... But you are giving your all to your kids, and they are doing well. Rejoice in what you can do with homeschooling and in the 95% well done, and let go of some of the imperfections. Life is like that.

 

Merry :-)

 

I'm going to have to remember this. :001_smile:

[LanaTron]

I've asked this before, probably around this time last year, but I just can't seem to get an answer I like, which is probably you cannot. But I mean how do you make sure you do what is best for each kid and stay sane and give them the best possible education?

 

Christine

 

It's about trust, IMO. Trusting in the overall forward motion of life, and of the inevitability of growing and learning. I can't always do what is best for each individual kid all of the time, but if I can make sure each kid's needs are being met as much as possible, and trust that there are others in their lives who can meet the needs that I can't, including them meeting their own needs.

 

And, if you are Christian, or have another belief in a higher power, it's about placing a lot of that trust there. Trusting that we cannot teach everything, but grace will cover what we cannot do.

 

Or, as my mom always said to me, "If you did the best you could do, that's all you could do." In other words, do what you can do and let the rest take care of itself.

 

And, for the record, I'm just as overwhelmed as anyone else, so I'm still working on learning these things, too. :D

 

I'm sure you were looking for more practical advice...and hopefully someone else will respond with that...because I could use it, too.

[Rosie_0801]

My pastor once told me to pursue excellence instead of perfection. He told me that perfectionists are negative thinkers. They focus on the 5% not well done instead of the 95% done well. That's not to say don't learn, grow etc... But you are giving your all to your kids, and they are doing well. Rejoice in what you can do with homeschooling and in the 95% well done, and let go of some of the imperfections. Life is like that.

 

Merry :-)

 

 

:iagree: Your kids deserve perfection from you when they start delivering it to you. That won't be any time soon, so you can relax. :D You're talking as though you have three completely separate dynamics working. You and eldest, you and middle, you and youngest. It's not that clear cut though. It's you, eldest, middle, youngest, and as you said, housework and finances. No one can have even close to 100%. Not the kids, not you and definitely not the housework :tongue_smilie:There are times when one or another will have desperate needs and will require more attention, but mostly you just have to try and keep things in balance, making sure everyone and everything gets enough of what they need that they don't go nuts. Not going nuts is the minimum requirement :)

 

Suppose you try workboxes for your middle and schedule half an hour into your oldest's day to play the rabbit trail game with your youngest?

Rosie