desertmum Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I am beginning to wonder if I'm doing something wrong. I home school my 4.5 yo. Every week I take him to an art workshop or some other activity. For the art class we have to be there by 9:30am so we leave home about 40 minutes earlier (which is the time it takes us to get there). The workshop lasts until 11:30am (there is a break in the middle of it for a drink and snack for the little ones). We come home in the middle of the day tired, and hot (we live in the Gulf). The rest of the day is shot. By the time I make lunch and have quiet time it is around 2pm+ and the kid is in no mood to buckle down for lessons. I do workshops like art and others so my son has a chance to socialize and interact with other kids, but it ruins that day's schoolwork and I end up exhausted trying to take him to activities, do home school and keep house. Is this normal? I mean, how do you fit in lessons when other activities take such much of the day? What am I doing wrong? :ack2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I am beginning to wonder if I'm doing something wrong. I home school my 4.5 yo. Every week I take him to an art workshop or some other activity. For the art class we have to be there by 9:30am so we leave home about 40 minutes earlier (which is the time it takes us to get there). The workshop lasts until 11:30am (there is a break in the middle of it for a drink and snack for the little ones). We come home in the middle of the day tired, and hot (we live in the Gulf). The rest of the day is shot. By the time I make lunch and have quiet time it is around 2pm+ and the kid is in no mood to buckle down for lessons. I do workshops like art and others so my son has a chance to socialize and interact with other kids, but it ruins that day's schoolwork and I end up exhausted trying to take him to activities, do home school and keep house. Is this normal? I mean, how do you fit in lessons when other activities take such much of the day? What am I doing wrong? :ack2: Yup, it's normal. You're not doing anything wrong. What you're describing is the main reason that I wouldn't do things like this during the day. For "socializing," we were part of a homeschool support group, and my dc did some community activities (dance, 4-H, band, etc.) which met in the late afternoon/early evening and so didn't interfere with our regular homeschool stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 How many days a week are you out of the house? If it's just one or two days, I'd not worry about it. 3 days or more, and you might want to cut something. Also the wear and tear on mom is more of a concern than lessons at age 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassy Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I think it's perfectly normal for an outside activity to take all morning, then add lunch and by mid-afternoon you're worn out. I also think that if your son is 4.5 yo then this is a far better way to spend the day than sitting at home doing schoolwork. As he gets older your priorities will change, and I'd also venture to say that your motivation and ability to fit more into a day will increase too. Enjoy your activities, enjoy your son being 4.5, and don't worry :001_smile:. Which, if your son is your first child, is probably pointless me saying, because I think we all worry to excess about everything with our first :D. Best wishes Cassy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 For a 4 and a half year old, two hours of lesson(s) is all they can handle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristinaBreece Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I wonder how much "buckling down" you're really wanting to do with a 4 year old? My DS is the same age. (He'll be 5 in October.) We do reading four days a week & Saxon Math K 2-3 days a week, and he does HWOT every day. (If I forget or think we're too busy, he asks for it-- I really don't believe in pushing him.) He'll usually do 15 minutes in our Progressive Phonics, play outside for a while, come back for 15-20 minutes with math, then we do his handwriting in the evening after supper. On library days (we walk to the library, about a mile away-- in 80 degrees with 90% humidity, that makes for a long walk both ways), we generally don't do reading or math. And on park days, we usually do one or the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 When my kids were younger we did daytime activities because we could afford to do so, time-wise. Now that they are older, we mostly do typical after-school activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Perfectly normal, and this is the age when you can get away with it. It's harder when they hit middle school and high school, so enjoy it while you can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 At 4yo socialization is easy. Most 4yos are home at least part of the day and they're easy to find at playgrounds and parks. I'd not worry so much about formal classes for socialization at his age. And they learn so much from play at that age. I'd be doing more playing with him than "school work". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertmum Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 WOW thank you all so much for the :grouphug: Yes, I understand about the 4-5yo being young thing. I guess I have seen so many mums going all over the place with makeup intact and every hair in place I sometimes feel inadequate or slower if I can't keep up with them. In any case now I know I am not doing anything wrong. I'll start looking for after school classes in the afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 How about my one and only suggestion being... come home, plug in an audio book for a read aloud, while ds colors, or plays... and call it "done." I mostly do child-led learning at 4.5 yo (my youngers always have workbooks at that age, because they want to be doing what older bro & sis are doing... and I needed something to keep them quiet.) When my oldest was 4.5, it was audio books, free play, and informal lessons during life skills or free play (find all of the blue cars... how many blue cars do you have? How many red cars? how many blue and red cars?) Just trying to say, there are ways to have learning without it being too formal at this age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristinaBreece Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 WOW thank you all so much for the :grouphug: Yes, I understand about the 4-5yo being young thing. I guess I have seen so many mums going all over the place with makeup intact and every hair in place I sometimes feel inadequate or slower if I can't keep up with them. In any case now I know I am not doing anything wrong. I'll start looking for after school classes in the afternoon. You're not doing ANYTHING wrong. It is quite likely that many of those moms are not trying to do any schooling, which would knock the stress level back a bit. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandamom Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 When my kids were about that age they never worried about time. so, this meant that if they decided they wanted to do math at Saturday pm that counted as school. If we read books together on and off all day that would count as school. Friday night was a fun time to do science experiments. In the end, I realized if I mead dd sit down and do school work on my schedule it would be more of a battle but if I counted all the time she chose to do school work she ended up doing more than I was asking her. All that to say, if you want to attend various activities during the day that's fine; you have plenty of time during the week to get prek-/k work done. Those visits to museums and other field trips are invaluable. As your dc get older it will definitely become harder to be more flexible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margo out of lurking Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Imo, a 2 hour art class for a 4.5 year old is plenty of school for one day. I would not see any need for further "school" work in the afternoon. I'd read a story at bedtime, but I'd do that with my child, hsed or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcurry Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Imo, a 2 hour art class for a 4.5 year old is plenty of school for one day. I would not see any need for further "school" work in the afternoon. I'd read a story at bedtime, but I'd do that with my child, hsed or not. :iagree: For that age, 2 hours/day OR a "field trip" would be plenty. I'd skip formal school on any day you are out for the morning. I didn't do formal school with my 5 year old this year. We read when we had the opportunity, and he sat in on brothers science & history. But I do understand the stress/pressure you feel for your first. Relax & enjoy your time with him at least for another couple of years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertmum Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 What an "aha" moment. I didn't realise the art workshop counted as...well, art! They also do read-aloud and singing at the end of the session so I guess I could really clever and consider the whole thing as a giant art-read-alound-music class. Ha! :D Maybe I AM keeping up with the Joneses... Hey, and thank you all for the words of encouragement. I feel so much better now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpidarkomama Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I wonder how much "buckling down" you're really wanting to do with a 4 year old? :iagree: There's plenty of time to "buckle down" later. In our house that comes around age 6. :) Really, through age 5 I'm most interested that they just learn to read. Of course, they're constantly looking at books, doing art projects, exploring all kinds of subjects, and talking about whatever interests them. I definitely wouldn't worry about taking a day off from the rest of your routine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Personally for a 4.5 year old I think this is fine. Even if you want to get out of the house every day. For us, I prefer afternoon activities. But we had sometimes this year when we were out quite a bit and didn't get so much done at home. We listened to things in the car and the kids did a bunch of independent reading a little writing a little math. Sometimes we'd get up extra early to do it. It's a balancing act. I wouldn't sweat it at all for a pre-schooler. Reading a story at bedtime would be sufficient IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 We did so much out of the house at youngre ages. As they got older we slowly pared back based on how much time we needed for academics. At that age, what you are doing is wonderful :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Totally normal. There comes a point in the day where I feel like I can't pull the girls back to any useful school activity. All of our activities are in the afternoon, and we make a concerted effort to finish before activities. Because afterwards? Forget it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.