Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is place in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into it's soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller

Sunday, April 25, 2010

My plans

Ok so in all honesty homeschooling is not going as well as I used to imagine it would, my 8 yo dd is not reading yet (though I don't see this in itself as a problem as I do believe in better late than early), I seem to spend my days trying to force them to do some work while finding activities to keep toddlers entertained at the same time - I think I've come to realise that my main problem is planning - or lack of it. It's not that I don't want to plan it's just I tried it all when they were very young and it didn't work so I decided to leave it until they were older - suddenly they are older and I'm not in the kind of routine I was hoping for.
Having a self employed hubby doesn't help much as his days are never the same, sometimes he is out early in the morning other days he is in all day or out at about 10am, but it always throws me. I think we actually do best when he is out early and not back until teatime - we seem to be able to get on better then!
I also have friends and family who live nearby who sometimes call in to see us, which I love but again is another distraction that doesn't help keep our days into routine.

Also I quite like the idea of "unschooling" or at least following the childrens interests and letting learning be child led but the problem I have is that if I did let them choose they would spend all day either on ds, watching tele, playing in garden - not actually learning much and when I do see them interested in something and try to encourage learning from it - it seems to all go wrong with my involvement lol. So I decided after prayerful consideration what I need is to get them to see how much fun learning is! As well as make sure we get maths and reading done.

We have a great maths program but really they should have completed the book by now and be on the next level so I need to be firmer in making sure they do some every day, we also have explode the code for phonics and my new motivation technique is a trip to McDonalds once the book is completed (desperate times call for desperate measures lol) in fact I might make it a special trip for the child who has completed book to go on their own with Daddy, therefore encouraging that relationship and they do love to spend time with him.

I've also recently found my KONOS curriculum which I bought second hand a few years ago before the children were really ready, but looking at it now I think it could work so I am putting aside my history and science curriculums which I've recently bought (as it's a struggle to get them to do it anyway) and concentrating on Konos for the next few months to hopefully bring back that joy and love for learning. Plus it does bible and character too and now I understand how to use curriculum as a tool - e.g don't do all of it, supplement with what I feel more appropriate etc.

So, now I have plans and tools - and I've blogged about it which will help keep me accountable ;-) so I will let you know how it goes!

2 comments:

Luce said...

Hey Sarah...looking forward to hearing how you get on with the new plans...we often have days where it all just runs away with us.....just incase it works for you (as it REALLY works for us) one of my top tips is tot trays for your little ones...I think the blog about them is on 'tot school' or the frog academy one...I get Ben and Tilly a few trays ready for each day and it keeps them busy...also another recent discovery after trying numbers phonics and language arts programmes that just didnt work for us, I have discovered a book called 'an ordinary parents guide to learnign to read' and it ROCKS..no frill bells or whistles and it has really worked for my boys. HTH xx

Sarah D said...

Thanks Lucy, I spent last night looking at tot trays (in between cleaning up after poorly children lol) and think that will work well, I just need to find the time the night before to get them ready! And spend some time going round the house to find activities so I'm not spending money - is the ordinary parents guide anything like teach your child in 100 easy lessons? I got that thinking it would be great but dd hated it - we managed for about a week then we were just battling over it so I gave up. She really is the hardest one to teach - it has to be activities that are not too hard or she won't do them she gets too frustrated but once she gets something she'll do it really well - every new maths concept is a bit of a struggle- she also needs it quiet which is a bit of a challenge with little ones and a house with space limitations!
I do feel a bit better about it all at the mo - feel purposeful if that makes sense - and the promise of a maccies with Daddy is working wonders - they even want to do their books today while not feeling gr8 yippee! xx