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Please help me! School is such a drag!


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I want to be that cool homeschooler with kids who love learning and spend hours of their own time inspired following rabbit trails and researching/learning about personal interests.  Instead, once they are done with the day's assignments, the kids wander off to their rooms to sing along with the radio, torment the pug, and construct Lego cities. Or they are begging to go to a friend's house to hang out.  How do I get from where we are to where I'd like to be? Or can we?

 

I know part of the issue is our schedule. I teach 3 days and DH supervises for 2...  On his days, he is often working from home and doesn't even check the kids' work, much less encourage anything outside of getting "Mom's list" done. My days are crammed with checking their work, catching them up on whatever they missed, getting through our day's work (including all of the science, history, art, music, and whatever other hands on things will get done for the week), and then general life items like errands, bills, cleaning, etc.

 

So...  Please help. How can I make school less of a drag for everyone and still get everything done? 

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We need more information. :-)

 

Where do you live? (Some states have requirements that necessitate more Official School Work than others).

 

What are you using to teach?

 

If you aren't constrained by your state's laws to require your dc to produce paperwork that you must correct, that would be one place to start: do something that involves the children, rather than doing something that consists of handing out assignments.

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I agree with Ellie - we need more info.

 

One thing that's always helped here is to cut out ANY redundancy, repeats, and unnecessary work. I have very high expectations for what's done. We do it well. We just don't repeat anything. I do one math, one LA, engaging history (for my kids SL is a perfect fit), etc. when we cut out junk, and limit screen time, my kids fill their time with books, projects, and fun stuff.

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Have you read Project-Based Homeschooling by Lori Pickert? (She also has a blog.) She has a lot of advice for supporting kids in developing and carrying out their own projects.

Is it possible to get schoolwork checked after dinner on Dad Days? That would leave more open time on Mom Days.

 

Building your own Lego cities is a perfectly good activity in pursuit of archictecture and urban design. =) Maybe when the kids want to play with friends, you can offer something that would involve learning also?

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I was also feeling the drag too! Things that have helped:

 

Extremely little screen time

In th beginning I had to come up with project ideas to get him started

You have to put up with a certain amount of mess. Projects and rabbit trails can be longer term. It helped to have a designated area where I can shut the door.

 

 

The biggest for me was dropping the 4 year history/science cycle. Now we do five in a row. We were bored with the same subject all the time

 

I also added specific art classes to help us get more used to using different materials. This helped a lot! Really opened his eyes to ideas!

 

Over all it was a severe cut in actual school work, limiting screen time, and being willing to have big messes.

It's been a great change for us, school is flowing so well, and he is excited and happy again!

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I want to be that cool homeschooler with kids who love learning and spend hours of their own time inspired following rabbit trails and researching/learning about personal interests.  Instead, once they are done with the day's assignments, the kids wander off to their rooms to sing along with the radio, torment the pug, and construct Lego cities. Or they are begging to go to a friend's house to hang out.

 

Hmmm... This sounds like very normal behavior to me, and not at all somehow a lack in your homeschooling...  At the end of each day of our homeschooling, neither of my DSs continued with bunny trails, or school-like research, or writing novels, or... They ran around outside and built forts, made Lego contructions, read Calvin & Hobbes comic collections, played with the neighbor kids... Very normal activities for most kids. I think it is really the rare child who has such a high love of learning that their choice of free time activity is research, bunny trails, and going deeper on a topic they were exposed to during the school day... ;)

 

Sounds like your DC's needs for learning ARE being met during your more formal schooling hours, and that they ARE pursuing their personal interests! They are singing, playing with the dog, building with Legos, socializing with friends -- they aren't standing around saying, "I'm bored", expecting you to entertain them.

 

Gently, it sounds like you are wanting them to want more "school" -- perhaps because you are not getting to do the fun parts of school with them, but are having to do more administrative/formal aspects? If that is the case maybe readjust what materials you are using so it requires less grading of worksheets and more hands-on learning projects -- science experiments, history hands-on, field trips, salt-dough maps for geography. Maybe start a couple of your students learning the recorder with a self-teaching book, and do it along with them to be able to play duets and trios.

 

Make sure your summer includes time to do some cool family projects -- engineering a treehouse together, a learn to solder kit, backyard ballistics, camping with nature walks for a leaf collection and fishing (and dissect the fish when you gut it) and take a bird or tree identification book...

 

Or, school year-round, so you get the "required" things out of the way, along with the household chores, BUT have more freedom each week to take one of your 3 days to include the "fun" stuff and the rabbit trails WITH your DC...

 

And what are your personal interests? Be sure to schedule time each week so YOU get to pursue those passions that you have! Follow those rabbit trails on your own! Read the classics or research. Take music or art classes. Develop a hobby. Etc. As you do so, you may suddenly turn around one day and find one or more of your DC tagging along with you. ;)

 

BEST of luck in transforming your homeschooling into a more enjoyable TOGETHER journey! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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I agree with Ellie - we need more info.

 

One thing that's always helped here is to cut out ANY redundancy, repeats, and unnecessary work. I have very high expectations for what's done. We do it well. We just don't repeat anything. I do one math, one LA, engaging history (for my kids SL is a perfect fit), etc. when we cut out junk, and limit screen time, my kids fill their time with books, projects, and fun stuff.

 

LOL I found myself liking this but then thought I was a huge hypocrite because we do use multiple resources for almost everything. :lol: BUT!!! LOL We do put things together in a way that either cuts out redundancy or makes the redundancy a reinforcement of some skill or content learned.

 

What I think makes my kids like school the most is starting with content and honoring interests during school hours. When I allow them to pick and follow bunny trails of their own choosing, they more often than not choose to continue following those trails outside of school. I make a loose plan that follows a main highway, but we don't actually spend much time on it. We spend most of our time hopping off, on side trips to explore the scenery just off the highway. Our school seems like one big detour sometimes, but somehow we manage to reach my intended destination at the end of the year anyway.

 

I also need more details. :D What are you using? What do they like? What do they dislike? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Etc.

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Thanks for the input thus far.

 

More details:

 

My son is 11 (almost 12)...  6th grade-ish...and daughter is 7 (almost 8)... 2nd grade-ish. We live in WA and are required to do annual testing but do not have to turn in anything beyond a letter of intent. There are 11 required areas of study (reading, writing, spelling, language, math, science, social studies, history, health, occupational education, and art and music appreciation) but no specific requirements of how these areas are taught.

 

Curriculum:

Math: CLE and occasionally LoF

LA: DS uses LLATL, DD uses WWE, FLL, and Spelling Workout.

History: SOTW but very little hands on activities

Science: Currently they are reading through age appropriate levels of Sciencesaurus as assigned. We also use a Harcourt science for group time reading, instruction, and activities

Thinking skills: Building Thinking Skills for DS, Childcraft books for DD

I also assign daily reading (non-fiction as well as literature) depending on the kids' interests.

 

We also have subjects that get touched on only sporadically...

Music: I have CLE curriculum, we listen to music, and have used things like Beethovan's Wig and The Story of the Orchestra.

Art: I have tried ArtPac but don't like it. I've tried Artistic Pursuits but can't seem to stick with it. We've done drawing using things like Draw-Write-Now. We go to some sort of museum about once/month...

Latin: We've done Song School Latin in the past. We started GSWL and it fell to the wayside.

Spanish: I have a few different curriculums (Speedy Spanish for one) but have never even cracked it.

Typing: We have used BBC's Dance Mat typing in the past.

Geography: We've done the Complete Book of Maps and Geography (DS) as well as EvanMoor's Beginning Geography (DD) but haven't done much this year.

Health: Abeka

 

Surely I am forgetting things...

 

Honestly, I know some of my issues stem from the fact that I cannot count on DH to oversee anything that it not a workbook-style assignment with the kids. That has pushed me to choose curriculums that are not teacher-intensive or hands on.

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... We live in WA and are required to do annual testing but do not have to turn in anything beyond a letter of intent. There are 11 required areas of study (reading, writing, spelling, language, math, science, social studies, history, health, occupational education, and art and music appreciation) but no specific requirements of how these areas are taught...

 

Honestly, I know some of my issues stem from the fact that I cannot count on DH to oversee anything that it not a workbook-style assignment with the kids. That has pushed me to choose curriculums that are not teacher-intensive or hands on.

 

How about just doing workbook stuff on DH's 2 days, and the other stuff on your 3 days?

 

Example: for DH's 2 days, assign math, a solo reading book, and the workbooks of topics that can be mostly done 2x/week (Health, Typing, Geography, Spelling, Grammar) BUT, also schedule an hour for DH and stress the need for him to use the teacher key/answer book for him to GRADE, with a grading sheet for him to enter the grades. Surely he could manage that... OR, if DH can't do the grading/entering grades, then how about DH can be responsible for dinner or other household chores, so you are not always trying to play "catch-up" on your 3 days...

 

That would free you up on the other 3 days to continue with math and anything else that needs more than 2x/week, but use non-workbook material to go more deeply into writing or other subject (sort of "block-scheduling" style), AND you could do the more interesting things, rather than just catching up admin. stuff... Just a thought! :)

 

BEST of luck in finding a good compromise that meets all your family needs and desires, and state requirements! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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I use to care about whether or not they liked school, and I did all I could to make school more fun.  But it didn't matter.  They liked a few things but mostly they wanted to get through it so they could do what they wanted to do.  They couldn't care less if say grammar was hands-on or we did lapbooks, they just wanted to be done with anything "schooly" in their minds so they could play.  I finally accepted that because they did some neat things on their own like baking, writing, building.  Maybe it would be different with your kids, but I finally learned after trying to jump through the find-the-best-curriculum hoop, to just pick something I like and be done with it.
 

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In order for children to spend hours researching and rabbit trailing and whatnot, they have to have plenty of free time. All children love to learn, but many parents seem to think that "love to learn" means "can't wait to dive right into that workbook there that someone else chose on a subject that isn't the least bit interesting." Turns out that it doesn't mean that at all. :-)

 

Personally, I wouldn't worry about WA's requirements. They're things most people will teach at some time, anyway.

 

On the days Mr. m0mmaBuck is home, do history and science, or even alternate between history and science. On the days you are home, do math and English-related things. Pick one day to do errands. Correct any assignments then. Don't correct history and science; that's Mr. m0mmaBuck's job, and if it doesn't get corrected, it doesn't get corrected. Such is life.

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Our days go better when we use fewer resources, start a bit later, take longer lunches, and don't worry about what time we end at. I know that makes it sound like we are actually doing less school, but we are not. We are focusing more on what we are doing, not jumping around, not pressing on when the kids show signs of fatigue. The kids feel more relaxed, so they enjoy school more, and it bleeds into the rest of their life somewhat. Somewhat. We are certainly not the type of people who will have our own profitable, kid-run business by the time the kids are in high school. We aren't the type of people who take a 6-month sabbatical to live in the outback. We aren't the type of people whose kids do the sorts of extraordinary things I read about in Growing Without Schooling magazine. My son's passion is hockey. My daughter's passions are multiple: drawing dragons, reading the Warriors series 77 times in a row, conducting small science experiments. And that's ok. For a while all my son did was play with Transformers. And that's ok, too. I homeschool not so that I will produce nerdy geniuses whose idea of fun is to see who can create the best periodic table out of recycled materials (although that wold be cool) but so that my kids can have an enjoyable childhood pursuing the things that interest them. If Legos and Transformers and hockey and Warriors are what interest them, then that's what I try to facilitate.

 

Actually, both of them are getting into programming now, and that's cool. They plan to try out for travel hockey teams next year (my son is already on one this year), and that will require even more time and effort than it currently does. I'm glad I can give them the time to do the things they want to do, even if those things don't necessarily look super-impressive from the outside.

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Thank you for all of the ideas! Truly! DH and I had a long talk last night. We know we need to ramp up DS's work level but we also need to keep things fun and interesting to save our sanity. And we want the kids to enjoy at least parts of their days. I am going to spend some time this weekend trying to reorganize our schedule using your advice. Here are a few of my thoughts:

 

DH's days (Tuesdays and Fridays):

-Math (DH will teach the lessons, DS can check DD's, DS will check his own, DH will go over any problems they got wrong)

-DS will do LLATL (I will go over the instructions with DS the night before, DS will try to do assignments independently but DH will review his work)

-Logic workbooks will be used on DH's days

-DS will do history workbook lesson

-Art (I will plan an open-ended project and have the supplies ready for the kids so they can work independently)

-Science/History: I will have videos available and the kids can choose what to watch.

-Reading: I will assign a non-fiction and a lit selection for each child. 30 mins of reading of choice will also be required.

 

My days (Monday, Weds, Thurs):

-Math (I will teach, kids will check, I will review)

-DS will do LLATL

-DD will do LA on my days only (WWE, FLL, spelling), 4 Lessons/wk

-Puzzles and logic games will be played

-Reading: I will assign a non-fiction and a lit selection for each child. 30 mins of reading of choice will also be required.

-Music: I NEED to start spending a little time teaching them an instrument. We have a piano, an acoustic guitar, and a bass guitar. I also like the idea of a recorder choir, lol. I will also continue teaching music theory.

-Science experiments

-History: Read SOTW and discuss. Kids can do projects if they are interested.

-Writing: DS will start writing a weekly report on a topic of choice.

 

 

Outside activities:

-Monday:  DD has AHG 4:30-5:30 and DS has BSA 6:30-8:00.

-Tuesday: nothing

-Wednesday: Skating 3:30-5:30. Not required, but we enjoy it.

-Thursday:  1st Thursday of each month is Free museum day.

-Friday: Nothing right now. Spring and Fall are baseball and football respectively from 10 a.m. - noon.

 

I want to add in some rock climbing at the local gym because we all enjoy it and it's good exercise.

 

 

So....  Does this sound any better than what we had going on before?

 

 

 

 

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My kids do the rabbit trail thing, so here's what I've noticed what happens with us. My oldest has autism, so he gets very interested in things. We just go with that. I really limit "school" to the bare essentials. I never "require" output for their rabbit trails. Not that I don't know, I just don't point out that the twenty minutes my girl spent telling me about her book was oral narration or a book report. I don't grade the stories my son writes. I tell him what I like, and he may point out a new writing technique he used, or how good his spelling was. I don't "require" things they do spontaneously. If my kids spend every free hour on their bird obsession, that's science done for the week or month. If someone reads two novels in three days, I may let something else go until they are done. I don't ever point out that a voluntary activity is educational. We just call it fun. And, truthfully, there are times when all they do is play. And that's learning too! I guess we try where possible, to get out of the way while making sure the basics are covered. I'm sure this approach isn't for everyone. Sometimes I'm not even sure it's for us. :-)

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