Just a quick thought or two

Have I told you just how much I enjoy teaching my children?
No one told me (or maybe I just didn't listen) that the first few years would be full of trials. I was not prepared to come to the end of the year and worry over the curriculum choices, the content covered, the retention of the subjects taught...
I did not expect to have so many moments of sheer chaos, of babies climbing on the kitchen table, and raiding the fridge, in the middle of a lesson.
I would have run away screaming.

A discussion about researching accurate information 

Me- "No matter what the topic, there will always be groups that disagree with each other."

Courtney- "A dog is a mammal."

Me- "I disagree."

-silence-

Courtney- "You're a great teacher."

Every year we learn from our mistakes, we explore new curriculum, we discover out of necessity a new teaching technique. By the time Joshua is a Senior, I'll be an expert.

We are completing our 6th year. This has been the best year yet. We have a schedule that works great for us. I have focused on patience and self control (for myself) to maintain a more peaceful home and a better environment for learning. And things outside of my control like the little ones getting bigger have all helped to make this year successful and enjoyable.

Science review question

Me- "State the law of reflection."

Paige- "Don't break the mirror."

Though it may be difficult to try to teach a big family, and there are times that I think on how nice it would be to be able to devote all my attention to one child, moments like these...

make me appreciate being blessed with six. When I see Courtney helping Grace with her "schoolwork", laughing, giggling. Here she is learning colors. They are looking around the room for something green then, drawing it in her book. And pausing, of course, to pose for me.

Focus

It's getting to be that time of year again. The newness of the textbooks has worn off. The excitment of a new subject is gone. It's about time to start losing our enthusiasm. The girls are old enough now(mature enough now) where they have learned to concentrate, but the boys are smack dab in the middle of this wonderful phase where they are more often than not, "no longer with us." You know what I'm talking about. I don't think there is a child out there that doesn't go through it. The moments where you are in the middle of a lesson, and ask a very simple question about what you just said, and get the blank stare. "Hellooo. Are you in there?"

Or the assignment that lingers on for hours. They stare at the blank page, fully capable of completing the task, but no modavation to begin. The girls will say, "This isn't hard. Just focus and get it done. You could have been done by now." Which is so funny to me because I used those words with them not too long ago.

That's what it comes down to . Focus. But where does it come from? I know how to buckle down and set my mind to something. But how do you force/modivate/inspire/teach someone else to? 

                        Breaks are sometimes a great way to recharge, expecially for a young, energetic boy. But giving too many breaks can also be taken as a reward if given out too easily.

                      Sometimes I will stand over their shoulder and point to each problem. Somehow, just my finger placed there helps them to focus, maybe because it breaks up an overwhealming page into bite sized sections. The minute I step away from the table, they are staring at the ceiling again.

                      Sometimes a simple time limit snaps them out of it. There is no reward or punishment given along with the time. I will say, "You have 5 minutes to finish this row." but never fallow it with, "and if you don't, I'm, um... grounding you from Super Mario Brothers Galaxy." Ouch! That would hurt. But I find, nothing more is needed than to just give them a time limit. A goal.

I want to know what has worked the best for you. If you're a commenter. (I'm not latley, I've gotten too lasy) But if you have a minute, and an opinion, I'd love to hear your "head in the clouds" remedies.

Spelling

The boys don't need any help with their spelling (unlike their mother) but we had a great idea for a little project to help study our words.
You start with craft close pins,


Paint them black,




Wash up while the paint dries,




Glue some googly eyes on and tape a paper cutout of your spelling words to your close pins and you have something that looks like a caterpillar.


Put them in a jar of your choice, (you don't want them crawling all over the house, do you?)


And when a word is mastered, slip on it's wings,



And hang up for everyone to enjoy.

More work than it's worth? Yeah, maybe, but it was fun.

A day in the life of...

Structure and sticking to a schedule is important to successful homeschooling. Having a plan and sticking to it is crucial.

In case you were wondering what one of our days was like, I thought I'd share a typical daily schedule.

8:00 rise and shine
8:30 chores
9:00 English
9:30 Social Studies
10:00 Science
10:30 Word Building
11:00 Math
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Afternoon tidy up
1:00 Break
2:00 Art lessons

(What really happened)
8:00 I open my eyes to a very sticky and stinky one year old, jumping up on my bed to give me a good morning kiss and share her banana with me.

8:30 Half the kids still eating breakfast, washing my banana smeared sheets

9:00 "You have 5 minutes to pick up your Lego's or I'm vacuuming them up!"

9:30 Tried to vacuum up the Lego's but the vacuum's belt broke, spent the rest of the half hour looking for a new belt, cleaned out the cupboard that the belt should be in, finally found it, broke it trying to put it in.
Girls begin their English.
Boys frantically pick up their Lego's.

10:00 Sweep the living room rug.
Girls still working on English.
Boys finally brushing their teeth.
Grace dumps the legos.

10:30 Step in the other half of the banana, smear it across the kitchen floor, mop while learning about Squanto (we're finally onto Social Studies),
Boys are wrestling in the Living room over who gets the big pencil.

11:00 I'm still cleaning, Kids are still working, babies are still distracting.

11:30 Courtney gets her things out for me to read her spelling words. But first, I have to change a couple diapers, go upstairs for a new onsie, put a little laundry away while I'm up there, remember there's a naked baby downstairs waiting for a onsie...

12:00 ...read Courtney her spelling words

12:30 Lunch

1:00 "Take Grace outside and I'll clean up the kitchen."
Kids rush out the door, Joshua cries...

2:00 Kids come back in,
time for Math,
kitchen still not clean.

3:00 Schoolwork is done,
forget art class - I'm taking a nap.


But when the day is done,
the kids learned something new,
the house was clean (sorry you missed it)
we made some pretty cool things with legos,
I snuck in a few meaningful conversations with my girls,
and best of all...

I got banana kisses.