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Hi.

 

This is my first year homeschooling. We are using Classical Conversations as our spine and are out of the house one day a week at the CC program. I am struggling with staying home everyday. It seems that in order to accomplish what I need to, I either need to stay home all day or give up my favorite time of day, nap time. My eldest is four and can either rest or not.

 

What do you all do?

Edited by Goosehollow
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We do school 4 days per week, which allows free time for outtings, deep cleaning, etc. I also find, when I'm out of the house, nothing, or very little, gets done. So I try to make appts, grocery shop, etc,,,on day 5.

 

Also, on Monday,if all kids chores and a little extra, along with all school done, then Tues afternoon~we go down to the park. Then Wed, same thing, house super clean, school done, etc,,,,the Thurs afternoon, park time.

 

That's a motivator for the kids as we usually stop and get a snack as well. But, park days,,,the chores and schooling done as well. We just do a little extra on the house on Mon and Wed.

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too much. I wish I could stay home more for our leisurely afternoon rests and long afternoon study sessions.

 

We are out of the house daily Mon-Fri for a part time job I have. We school at home, then pack up and go for a few hours each day.

Once a week we spend our school hours at co-op, then go to work. One evening after work we have girl scouts. We spend Sun. at church and church activities. So that leaves Sat. at home as our full day of rest (sometimes) Sometimes we have obligations then too.

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Hi.

 

This is my first year homeschooling. We are using Classical Conversations as our spine and are out of the house one day a week at the CC program. I am struggling with staying home everyday. It seems that in order to accomplish what I need to, I either need to stay home all day or give up my favorite time of day, nap time. My eldest is four and can either rest or not.

 

What do you all do?

 

First of all, welcome to the forum! :001_smile:

 

Secondly, how much time are you spending on school each day? I can't imagine that you'd need to spend more than an hour at the most with a 4 year old. :confused:

 

We get out of the house every day, whether it's for breakfast, lunch, dinner, shopping, or just for coffee. I couldn't stand the thought of being in the house all day for more than a day or so!

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First of all, welcome to the forum! :001_smile:

 

Secondly, how much time are you spending on school each day? I can't imagine that you'd need to spend more than an hour at the most with a 4 year old. :confused:

 

!

:iagree:

 

Seriously. He will be fine if you just do a little bit. There will be plenty of time for academic rigor in the years to come.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Catwoman viewpost.gif

First of all, welcome to the forum! :001_smile:

 

Secondly, how much time are you spending on school each day? I can't imagine that you'd need to spend more than an hour at the most with a 4 year old. :confused:

 

!

 

:iagree:

 

Seriously. He will be fine if you just do a little bit. There will be plenty of time for academic rigor in the years to come.

 

:iagree: Go to the park. Every day.

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We have somewhere to go almost every day.

 

Mondays are choir practice and dance class for my son and zumba for my daughter.

 

Tuesdays, I drop my daughter at work, then either go to the library or shop with my son. Each of them has a dance class in the evening.

 

Wednesdays are lighter. I drop my daughter at work in the afternoon, then come back to get her after her dance class that evening.

 

Thursdays, my daughter has a voice lesson in the early afternoon.

 

Fridays are pretty much like Wednesdays, except that my son and I do the grocery shopping and, if we didn't go to the library on Tuesday, do that.

 

Saturdays, my son has show rehearsals, and my daughter has an acting class.

 

Sundays are church/youth group, and my son volunteers once a month at the science museum.

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We are out of the house 4 days a week. One of those days we are out for most of the day. But, my kids are considerably older than yours. When my eldest was 4, she had dance class once a week and part-day preschool twice a week. We played outside every day the weather was nice enough (we lived in Germany). She did her homeschool work for less than an hour a day. We did lots of science-y activities outside.

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The only thing I did on a regular basis with other homeschoolers was a once-a-month park day. Any dance, sports, etc, activities we did in the late afternoon/early evening, with children in the community rather than homeschooled children.

 

We went to the library every Wednesday, and on a field trip every Thursday, but those were by ourselves, on our own time schedule.

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I have to go out nearly every dang day.

 

I try to keep Friday and Sunday home days, although Friday is the Farmers' Market, and that's a pleasure.

 

I am glad I stayed home so much when the kids were younger. I can't get out of having to get my youngest somewhere these days. I also pick my nephew up from school a couple of days a week.

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Personally, we try to stay home until the afternoon four days a week. Once the weather cools off, I'm adding morning walks; I am more productive and feel better if I do my exercise in the morning. One day a week is used for appointments, field trips, and longer excursions outside the home. The kids activities are in the afternoon, after school is completed.

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We don't get out very often. The kids play outside every day (unless it is raining) either by themselves or with the neighbor kids. We don't do scheduled activities, though, except for music/dance lessons once a week. I would like to do more so that we have some social time, too (for me, too!) I would like to do something every other week, probably.

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too much. I wish I could stay home more for our leisurely afternoon rests and long afternoon study sessions.

 

.

 

:iagree:

 

but my daughter does ballet 5 flippin' days a week. FIVE. it will be 6 in january. I am thinking of putting an end to it and just stay home, but I won't. she loves it, and I love her. but I HATE ballet. it's too far to come home. and too out of the way for my husband to get her. and besides, it is right next door to this flippin' place:

 

http://www.saharasams.com/Default.aspx

 

so i take my younger daughter here and suffer. I want to be a hermit when I grow up.

 

robin in nj

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Every day. I get twitchy if we stay in all the time. My kids are very young, too (4 and 5) so we meet friends at the park, go to the library, run to Target, whatever. Usually in the late morning, after we've done our 90min or so of structured school stuff, and then we have rest and play time in the afternoons.

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Right now, not very often. But that is all about to change since extra curricular activities are about to start.

 

Monday- 2 dance lessons

Tuesday - tai chi

Wednesday - 2 more dance lessons

Thursday - guitar lesson

Friday - swimming

Saturday - drama club

Sunday - church.

 

I will be free between drop off and pick up of dance lessons.

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DS8 and DS5 have some activity every day of the week except Tuesday, and even then DS8 has a piano lesson which he goes to on his own (the teacher lives just a few doors away). DH takes them to activities on Saturday and Sunday, when I'm busy catching up with cleaning, cooking and ironing.

 

I would be very content to be a complete hermit, but for the moment I feel that it's important to get the boys out and about as much as possible to various activities.

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Monday-Thursday we do not leave the house until afternoon when all school is done. On Friday's we have a light school day and then leave the house around 11 for nature study/science outing. We have swimming 5 days a week in the later afternoon, and I schedule all appointments for after 2:30 when my dh is home.

Edited by twoxcell
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We don't go out all that much and I am happy with that. We get our fix of fresh air playing in the garden or maybe in the street. Some weeks we might have a couple of walks. I've always hated having to get places at a certain time and that still applies, I prefer to go with the flow, I also don't really like people so am happy not to go out much. The kids don't seem to care either way right now. My dd's music class starts up this friday, not sure if we are going to do it again, but that will be the only proper planned activity if we do it. I did go out a bit more when we had a car but in practice there isn't a huge amount to do here other than walks. I've given up worrying about outside classes they are all so expensive and too far away/at stupid times. I can't remember anything I did as an activity pre-teens other than music either so I am dubious as to whether they really matter in the grand scheme of things. My kids can do more outside activity stuff when they show some interest in something specific rather than just making me broke doing something because everyone does it.

Edited by lailasmum
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If your eldest is FOUR and it's taking you all day to get schoolwork done, you're doing far, far too much, IMO.

 

My oldest is 9 1/2 and we get out of the house at least every other day. Two days a week we have extracurriculars in the afternoons. And we usually do just math and makeup on Fridays, so that often becomes the day that I run errands.

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Wow. Thanks for all the responses! That was really fast.

 

I should say that we really only do school/memory work for about an hour a day. What I struggle more with is getting the housework and cooking done in addition to school. In my mind it doesn't seem that difficult so I don't know why I struggle so.

 

And I agree, going outside is very important for little boys. We make that happen every day!

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My oldest is 5 and we are doing cc, too. I just don't know how anyone can get school done in an hour, it takes us at least two, sometimes three:confused::confused::confused: Granted, a lot of that time is singing and jumping around to do memory work, but we are only doing WRTR (learning 5 phonograms a day, so not an accelerated pace) and math.

 

Anyway, to answer your question, I cut out all of our morning activities except BSF this year. We start school at 8:00 and are done by 10 or 10:30, basically leaving the rest of the day. I take them outside every day, either to walk the trail in our neighborhood or play with the neighborhood kids. We have a hs playgroup on Mon afternoons, cc on Tuesday, small group Wed night, BSF in the morning and meet with another cc family on Thursday afternoon to work on memory work at the park, and church on Sunday. I really like to get out so I use this as my motivation to get school/housework done early in the day. I have had to cut out all computer use until they are in bed, because I get sucked in and lose all track of time :001_smile: I did have to give up my free time at rest time to get my cleaning done and get dinner prep done.

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We are out of the house 6 or 7 days a week for something or another. Now that my kids are a little older, we do try to stick at home until at least 1 pm almost every day (my oldest is taking 1 co-op class in the morning this fall). But that's even fairly new for us.

 

I would definitely not tie myself at home if my oldest was 4. When my kids were preschool age we were out and about all the time. I wouldn't do more than an hour a day with a 4 year old unless he was begging for it (and even then I'd be careful to make sure the kid is getting enough social and outside time).

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Wow. Thanks for all the responses! That was really fast.

 

I should say that we really only do school/memory work for about an hour a day. What I struggle more with is getting the housework and cooking done in addition to school. In my mind it doesn't seem that difficult so I don't know why I struggle so.

 

And I agree, going outside is very important for little boys. We make that happen every day!

 

Getting housework done with a 4 year old and a 2 year old is a Sisyphean labor, ime. You can't take your eyes off them, and they immediately undo anything you're trying to clean in front of them.

 

It sounds like you may have to lower your household standards a bit, if you're finding that they're keeping you cooped up all day. I'm not saying that you need to live in filth, but maybe decide what's a dealbreaker and what you can let go. As much as I love cooking and baking, I've come to recognize that it's out of my life right now (except what I make in the bread machine). We eat a menu that would have horrified me just a few years ago. When my kids are a little older, and can spend a few minutes unsupervised without destroying a room or hurting themselves or others, then I'll go back to cooking a full, delicious dinner every night.

 

I think it's really important for kids the age that your kids are to have lots and lots of outdoors running around time, and I think that you spending all day cooped up with two very young kids is a recipe for a breakdown. I'd try to get out and do something fun with them every day.

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Wow. Thanks for all the responses! That was really fast.

 

I should say that we really only do school/memory work for about an hour a day. What I struggle more with is getting the housework and cooking done in addition to school. In my mind it doesn't seem that difficult so I don't know why I struggle so.

 

And I agree, going outside is very important for little boys. We make that happen every day!

 

Thanks for the clarification -- I was thinking that homeschooling was taking up too much time in your day, but now I realize that you were asking a far more general question! :001_smile:

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Everyday. We have some small group classes 2 days a week, autism related appointments and music lesson 1 day a week and we hit the library and/or park everyday and the Y or a family bike ride just about daily. We stay home for part of the day most days. My son also goes out to ride his bike daily. I do housework in the AM and then more in the late afternoon and then cook dinner and clean the kitchen a bit. We don't have to drive far for our outings so that saves time. The boys help me with chores in the afternoons.

Edited by kijipt
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