Wish I'd thought of that!
This was submitted by a homeschool mom on a "loop" I read.
It was meant to advise other homeschool mom's as to how to
schedule their day! I hope you find her advice as helpful as I have!
"As for our family, we have a firm rule that no one is allowed to sleep past noon, except for our 13 year-old, who stays up most of the night working on a project in the basement that involves small amounts of something called plastique. We don't know what he's doing exactly, but he also spends a lot of time on the computer conferring with others about it. (Isn't self-directed learning a marvelous thing? And these sorts of opportunities for our children to be mentored by others is just one of the benefits of home education.) Anyway, I digress. The other exception to our wake-up rule is if I have been up a lot with the baby or if I get sucked into a long session of World of Warcraft online -- then I give myself permission to stay in bed until Rachel Ray comes on at 2:00, cuz you know, I can't be missin' Rache. I just love that girl. Besides, that gives plenty of time for my kids to take turns reading aloud to me while I make some Kraft Easy Mac and heat up some chicken nuggets for dinner. Not one of my school-age kids is younger than 12, but they read Goosebumps like it was King Lear or somethin' -- must get their dramatic ability from all that American Idol we watch. (Occasionally, instead of the nuggets, I make fish sticks instead because I heard seafood is good for your heart, and, ya know, I care about my family's health.)
As far as housework goes, sometimes I throw a load of clothes into the wash and sometimes I don't, but I don't stress about it. I just give one of the kids a little math problem from real life: if each family member wears six pairs of socks per week and we do laundry every seven weeks, how many packs of new socks to do we need to pick up from Walmart? (Their dad and I are big believers in the teachable moment.) We make the kids do chores, too. At least once a week, everybody has to carry their dirty dishes from their bedrooms to the kitchen sink. If the sink is full, they know to stow them in the oven. It has always been my belief that having a routine in place like this helps the household operate smoothly and this method WORKS for us, so we're keeping it no matter how much the kids whine. I tell them, "You'll appreciate all you've learned from me about running a household some day when you have a place of your own. What kind of Mom would I be if I didn't teach you to be responsible?" Oh, yes, and whenever one of the neighbors calls social services on us, every family member knows to drop everything and clean like mad until the doorbell rings. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you know company is coming.
For science and history, we let the kids choose delight directed study. Mostly, they hole up in the bathroom and color each others' hair, which counts as chemistry. The other day when they were in there, Lula yelled at Loretta, "Hey, don't be mixing that Punkhouse Pink with the Cokehead Coral! Remember when you did that last year? Your hair came out lookin' like Spam!" When I heard that, I just smiled to myself and jotted down an entry in my homeschool log: Science, History, and Home Economics. It's a unit study! I have to tell you, it's moments like those that bring joy to a mother's heart.
I guess I ended up telling about more than how we get the day started, but, hey, maybe this little glimpse into life at our house will inspire somebody else. Gotta go -- somebody with a badge is at the door."
It was meant to advise other homeschool mom's as to how to
schedule their day! I hope you find her advice as helpful as I have!
"As for our family, we have a firm rule that no one is allowed to sleep past noon, except for our 13 year-old, who stays up most of the night working on a project in the basement that involves small amounts of something called plastique. We don't know what he's doing exactly, but he also spends a lot of time on the computer conferring with others about it. (Isn't self-directed learning a marvelous thing? And these sorts of opportunities for our children to be mentored by others is just one of the benefits of home education.) Anyway, I digress. The other exception to our wake-up rule is if I have been up a lot with the baby or if I get sucked into a long session of World of Warcraft online -- then I give myself permission to stay in bed until Rachel Ray comes on at 2:00, cuz you know, I can't be missin' Rache. I just love that girl. Besides, that gives plenty of time for my kids to take turns reading aloud to me while I make some Kraft Easy Mac and heat up some chicken nuggets for dinner. Not one of my school-age kids is younger than 12, but they read Goosebumps like it was King Lear or somethin' -- must get their dramatic ability from all that American Idol we watch. (Occasionally, instead of the nuggets, I make fish sticks instead because I heard seafood is good for your heart, and, ya know, I care about my family's health.)
As far as housework goes, sometimes I throw a load of clothes into the wash and sometimes I don't, but I don't stress about it. I just give one of the kids a little math problem from real life: if each family member wears six pairs of socks per week and we do laundry every seven weeks, how many packs of new socks to do we need to pick up from Walmart? (Their dad and I are big believers in the teachable moment.) We make the kids do chores, too. At least once a week, everybody has to carry their dirty dishes from their bedrooms to the kitchen sink. If the sink is full, they know to stow them in the oven. It has always been my belief that having a routine in place like this helps the household operate smoothly and this method WORKS for us, so we're keeping it no matter how much the kids whine. I tell them, "You'll appreciate all you've learned from me about running a household some day when you have a place of your own. What kind of Mom would I be if I didn't teach you to be responsible?" Oh, yes, and whenever one of the neighbors calls social services on us, every family member knows to drop everything and clean like mad until the doorbell rings. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you know company is coming.
For science and history, we let the kids choose delight directed study. Mostly, they hole up in the bathroom and color each others' hair, which counts as chemistry. The other day when they were in there, Lula yelled at Loretta, "Hey, don't be mixing that Punkhouse Pink with the Cokehead Coral! Remember when you did that last year? Your hair came out lookin' like Spam!" When I heard that, I just smiled to myself and jotted down an entry in my homeschool log: Science, History, and Home Economics. It's a unit study! I have to tell you, it's moments like those that bring joy to a mother's heart.
I guess I ended up telling about more than how we get the day started, but, hey, maybe this little glimpse into life at our house will inspire somebody else. Gotta go -- somebody with a badge is at the door."
posted by Funky-Redhead @ 11:25 PM
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