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?".

Its that time of year ... School Time!

And of course I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do this year...again. I am so glad I am a homeschooler though, as the options and choices are wide open. I have several stacks of school books in my living room (you know how I love to stack) that need to be gone through and either discarded, passed on or used this year. Unfortunately, because I am so unorganized, this task may take several days, days which I wont be able to do anything else I have on my never ending list of projects. School is supposed to start in a couple weeks though, so it needs to be done.

I am not a very good homeschooler, but I do have a pretty good idea what I will be doing, so that is a big plus, however I do not have a set curriculum that I use all the time, so it is up to me how to put it all together. I have several Bible study books to choose from so that is an easy fix, and a video Math curriculum I can use. I'm still debating on what to do with English, but I am leaning toward some type of Literature with books I already have on hand. I have a list of reading material I received from a friend, so will probably pick a couple books from it.

Okay, so that leaves Art, Music, Science, Writing,  Home Economics, Physical Ed.and the list goes on. Okay one at a time, Art, I know a lady here in town that does pottery, that might be an option, but I also just talked to a nice lady who wants to maybe do watercolor painting, so will have to check with that. Next is Music, the 2 youngest are already taking piano lessons, and the next oldest girl wants to learn flute. She might have to pick something else, as the Lady who was going to teach her is pregnant and busy with several children of her own.
Alrighty then, the next item on the list is Science. This also may be an easy fix, as I wont teach anything except Creation Science and I have a Large book complete with cutouts and quizzes and reading ect. that the kids liked before, but Im not sure where it is, one of those things that I will have to try and find in the next couple weeks. I'm absolutely positive it is in some stack somewhere.

Okay onto the next item, Writing, and I am wondering if that could include blogging, and or  forums, notepad on the computer, or only handwriting with a pencil and paper. I think I will incorporate the writing in with the English Lit. this year and make it Creative writing in any format they choose. I don't want them to be on the computer alot  though, so the majority of it will be with good old paper and pencil, this should be fun.

Home Economics, Definition: Don't burn the house down. Oh I know it can mean other things also, like don't cut off your fingers with the extremely sharp rotary cutter, don't use the 40$ Gingers on paper, make sure to clean up the large spill on the kitchen floor before someone breaks their neck, the list goes on and on. This is the funnest class to have as far as Im concerned. I have a really nice curriculum set for it and I think we will be definitely be using it this year at some point.

Im down to the wire, my last thing to decide on, Physical Education. I did not do well with this class when I was growing up in public school, you would think it would be easy, but it wasn't for me. I was never very athletic and always picked last, ect. Im not sure what to do with this one other than trampoline time, or something along those lines. I think there may be some type of curriculum to go along with it, but I have no idea what it is. So looks like they will be spending alot of time riding bikes up and down the driveway and jumping on the trampoline, at least until the snow starts flying. Maybe an exercise video or something during the Winter months.

Well, this is my plan, hopefully I will be able to stick to it. I seem to get really lazy right around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and sometimes it takes a real effort to get started again after all the vacation time. Im not a really good homeschooler like some of my friends are, as I have a tendency to be lazy and the un-organized bit doesn't help either. Sometimes it just seems like to much and I dont want to be bothered, but I usually start out doing okay. I keep hoping to find some kind of Coop, where people with special talents are willing to share with the rest of us. As for me, I will give our Homeschool year to the Lord, in the hope that he will help us get through it as Philippians 4:13 says, with this is mind we will continue striving toward the goal, alternately standing and falling as we go, hopefully standing more than falling. Now that I write that though maybe I should include falling as a good thing, as in falling on my knees and begging God for mercy when it seems to hard to go on, or maybe first thing in the morning I should start begging!