A Change Of Pace....

The week before last, the children started resisting our typical homeschool day, with groans and feet dragging. This year has been going so well, that it took me slightly by surprise that they would suddenly begin to debate the usefulness of Fractions and Vocabulary and Bible Study. By the end of that particular week, I was frustrated and so were they, so I , in my infinite wisdom, decided without any forewarning, to "do something different". I thought about it all weekend, talked about it with several people and came up with a plan to make the little twirps "grateful" for all those worksheets and spelling tests. Little did I know,  by the end of this school week,  "I" would be even more grateful then they were.

The week started out typical enough, with our usual Bible study time, and after that,  there was little resemblance to worksheets or your normal school type of work. Monday we did "Property Management and Design" this is a fancy  name for splitting wood and stacking it. Talk about hard work! I must be really out of shape because by the time we were done I was ready to take a nap...I suddenly had a little bit more compassion for my kids who have to stack wood and my husband who has to split it. I'm typically wandering around talking about how much I do, however its not near as physically draining as carrying and stacking wood. Good thing I have teenage boys to help out. 

On Tuesday we learned about " Wild Game Processing and packaging" that stands for cutting up the elk and putting it in the fridge. It can also be Home Economics, but for my purposes I wanted a more professional term. We only process wild game once a year, unless I can talk my husband into taking it to the Banderobs, and usually it is a deer, so its really hard to remember how to cut them up. After many many hours of cutting, wrapping, hand cramps, back aches, and tears we FINALLY finished. That was the LONGEST school day ever, and not one I would like to repeat anytime soon. 

The rest of the week was a little more mellow, we learned "organizational skills"(that means we cleaned the house), they learned the art of "Laving" ( that means laundry), and then on test day, which is usually a Friday , we continued practicing what we had learned that week.

The whole week I was hoping I would make the kids more grateful for our typical homeschool day and I don't know if I accomplished that, but  I DO know that I am more grateful for it and will do alot less whining about it in the future, hopefully they will to. By the end of the week I was totally exhausted and absolutely thrilled to have just gotten through it. Im not so sure we will do that again for a while, even though I know it was very good for us to be able to accomplish what we did. For now though, if you know of any big extravagant terms for things you would call chores, let me know, Im always on the lookout for suggestions

Homeschooling for the hopeless..The adventure continues....

Thank goodness for one of my FAVORITE home school groups on Facebook! Without them I would be relegated to actually WRITING everything down that the kids are doing this year. Don't get me wrong, writing, with a pencil/pen and paper, is a skill everyone should learn, but lets face it, in this day and age of technology its so much faster to simply type it into a software program, set it to print and Viola! instant report cards or whatever your mind can imagine. If I had to write down everything we are doing this year, Im certain nothing would get done. In the past month, since we started our school year, I have managed to keep better track of lessons and grades and assignments then ever before, all thanks to a  free computer program called "Homeschool Tracker".
One of my biggest failings as a homeschooler is not keeping accurate records and with this little piece of awesomeness, its easy. Just pick a subject add a description, put in the score and time and your good to go! My next biggest failing is not being consistent, it seems no matter what, life happens, and with our family it almost always manages to derail us from our ultimate goal of finishing out the year with a good record of learning, or in the very least, something to show for it. This program also helps me to be consistant because its always there and I can see the schedule and say "wow, forgot about that one, glad I entered that in last week". If your interest is piqued, take a look, it will definitely  be worth your while.
 Our first month has been rife with small setbacks and I am thankful that they aren't big ones. I scheduled everything so tight it actually squeaks if you listen close. Fortunately, we have managed to follow my schedule without to many issues, and although we have dropped Spanish,  for lack of interest,  I'm pretty sure we will try again at some other time or maybe try French. The only other thing I have done differently this year is the heavy reliance on Netflix streaming videos and rentals for educational material. If you have never looked at Netflix as a source for educational videos, you should try it some time. Occasionally  the information will be biased toward a world view that is different than mine, however those are few as I am very selective about what we watch. An example of our VRS (that's short for "Video Reliance Syndrome"),  we recently watched The Last of the Mohicans. Now I guess you are wondering, what possible educational purpose could that have. Well let me tell you, first off,  its a classic written by James Fenimore Cooper. Now as much as I appreciate the classics, sometimes they are darn near impossible to read because of all the humongous words. All you have to do is read the first chapter to realize the authors back then have something we don't seem to have now, a large vocabulary. Even though the movie is more recent then the novel, you can actually follow along without having to have a Masters in english literature. This is very appealing to me and alot more understandable to my young audience. One of the biggest reasons we watched it is we are currently studying that time period in history and I want them to enjoy learning about it. I know its mainly entertainment, but you can get a real sense of what it may have been like back then in a very graphic way.
As you can see, even entertaining movies can be educational.......at least that's what I keep telling myself and my kids, and anyone who asks me "so what are you doing this year to educate your children?".