Sometimes our days are origanized, sometimes they are just plain crazy, and some days I feel like I don't get anything else around the house. But thats okay if the kids learned something new. This week I don't think I've blow dried my hair once, and hairspray, what is that? lol. I have one still in public school (12 year old daughter she will be homeschooled next year) so after a full day of teaching my other two, we have 3-4 hours of homework to do with her. I pretty much reteach everything on her homework since the teacher assigns it and tells the students to "just get it done." It makes me so angry because the poor child is tired after 7 hours in school. She also is in chorus and horseback riding lessons and those nights she's up even later! How can kids learn when they are that tired? I bet that teacher isn't working that late! But anyway, just curious if other homeschool moms are more origanized or just wing it? and if you too, feel guilty if you start late or just don't get everything done?
No, we all have those days or weeks. Those are the time to call a teachers day and relax or get caught up around the house. Thats the joy of homeschooling you can pick your days or not. Hang in there. It will get better.
I wish I was one of those moms who wakes up at 6am and gets a shower, makes the bed and looks great by 7am. I go to bed late and don't get up until about 7am or later. Then, since I have gotten older, it takes me about thirty min. to an hr. to wake up and start getting myself ready. If I wake up really late then I don't have time to get ready until 10am or so. I get the kids started on school work and then later get my shower. I have always been forced to get to school or work by an early time so when I started homeschooling I decided to have a later schedule. I figured as long as we get our work completed what is the big deal? Also, my dh is not the kind of husband that gets home from work at 5pm everyday. We eat late and therefore are up later. I try to stay on my schedule during the day, but most days I'm just happy if I feel we get a lot accomplished regardless of the other or time we did it. Whatever works I guess!
IF your child's teacher is a good teacher she/he could very well be working that much! At least when I was teaching I worked late into the night after teaching all day, and often worked weekends also. So I do know that some teachers do work hard to help make things run more smoothly and get things done and ready for the kids. That said, I know a lot of teachers who don't do that also! (I just wanted to defend my honor! :lol: ) This is our 8th year of homeschooling. I am not that organized with it, but things have worked out well, despite me! I think the one-on-one attention received by your children when they're homeschooled, and the obvious fact that their teacher loves them more than anyone else in the world, goes a long way to their capacity for learning and retaining! As Kris said, there are certainly days that we all have where things just flow and you're so excited, then the very next day could be the worst day of your life---or at least it seems that way at that moment! But the overall advantages supercede the days we just can't seem to pull it together! I feel that homeschoolers get much more accomplished in a shorter period of time (less students, no waiting in lines, etc., so they're still ahead of where they would be anyway. And as Missy said, different schedules work for different people. Go with the hours that work best for you. THis school year is drawing to a close. Once your older dd is home, you can start figuring out what will work best for all of you. THen as time goes by, tweak it as you need to to get the best fit. Hang in there!!!
I pretty much wing it. My dd knows what she has to do each day and that it needs to be done before dinnertime. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And yes I feel guilty when I let things slide too often. ( I am hating correcting papers right now so I have a stack on the counter staring at me.) I get up at 6:30 each morning in order to get my younger dd to PS but, I drive her to school in my PJs. I get in the shower when my dd gets to something she can work on by herself. Sometimes that is 8:30 and sometimes it's 8:30pm. I too wish I were the type to get up 30 minutes before the kids and get myself ready but I am not and never will be. Sigh
Just yesterday, I was at the library with my kiddos and ran into one of the ladies I use to teach with. A wonderful gal that I see every once in a while at Dinner Group. Well, she said that I was naturally more organized at teaching my kids, because of my classroom experience. (You can sure tell she has never been to my house, LOL!) I tried to explain that it really had nothing to do with having "been a teacher", and that some "non-teachers" are so much more organized than me, but she simply didn't want to hear that! So I just gave up, and smiled nicely!
Wow! You just described most of my mornings lately. Before I had my baby I was a 6am kind of gal. Now I am a 7 or 8am kind of gal. I enjoy being up late. It is my only time without my kids. anyway, I sometimes have a schedule and I sometimes don't. I do perfer getting up early and getting things done. When I don't I feel out of sorts. If my house is clean and laundry is managable, I can take on the world. If not, I get stressed out. Sometimes you just have to take a few hours and divide the chores up among the kids and get the house taken care of. Even if you take one day off a week and take care of the house and errands, phone calls, whatever. Just to feel caught up and in control. At least for me, (control freak that I am) I need to feel I am in control of my domain.
How appropiate a topic for this morning! Today is the first day that I actually stuck to what I said I wanted to do, and that is to get my fat but, and the kids up by 6:30am. Why? Well, for us it seems to always work out better. With my littleones being soooo little (3 and 5) they are easier to manage when I start the day out before they wake up. I start out "On top" of things, and I am awake before they are. I am also able to sit at my computer, watch the morning news, drink my coffeee and read email or posts, like these, without kiddos.. I would normally do this at night. But without the kids up to need me, I would often let this go on into the night. Then, go to sleep around 4-5am. There is nothing wrong with that in an of itself. If it works for you, good! I know thatfor a while, we stayed on my husbands schedule, which is later. But it never works, with us. Now, I am in control of my day, the children do not wake up befoe me only to turn the tv on themselves. I am less grumpy. We get our schooling done before lunch. We still have enough time to enjoy outside activities before the PS kids crowd the place (The pool). And so on.... OH! and AVAROSE>>> You and I are toooo much a like! I try to do a little each day,a nd yes, even my little ones do help out! crazy jen
Scary, isn't it??? LOL. Since you live in Texas you could easily give me a wake up call since you are an hour earlier. lol. I stayed up late again and didn't wake up until 7:30am. When I got up at 6am, my days went so great. I need to get back into that. I think your "routine" goes naturally the earlier you get up. At least, for me it does. I honestly think that the best thing someone can do for themselves is get up early. I love mornings. Now, if I could only put that into practice and get up at 6am instead of 7:30 or 8am. My kids are waking up before me! I hate that.
The ONLY reason we can be up and moving at 6 is that this is the time DH gets up. I could NOT do it on my own! Before, I would have the alarm set for 7 or so, and then I'd lie there and yell for Rachael (who would already be awake reading). She'd come in, and I'd tell her it was time to get up. I'd yell for the kids to get dressed...yep, while I was lying in my bed, listening to the radio and "supervising"!!! I'm STILL the last one up and downstairs, but my bed is made and I'm dressed. I just pull my hair back without brushing it; I don't mess with it until mid-morning.
Well it is the best a person can do (Getting up early) ONLY if it works for them, of course. Before my twins began PS, last august, we were on, what I called; "Hawaii Time". Haha! this meant that we were about 6 hours behind everyone around us. My kids did not go to sleep till midnight, maybe 1am. And we did not wake up til maybe 10am-12noon. This worked for us, because we did not have to conform to anyone else, but the main reason: It matched Daddy's schedule. And if we did not live on Hawaii time, we would have rarely seen him. And that would have been just stupid to follow some artificial timeline to please the outside world, and tonever see daddy.... Now a days, he is the Director of Opperations. He still has some late nights, but nothing like before and they happen a lot less frequently. With that issue resolved, it NOW works best for us to get up early. Just wanted to mention how and why geting up late used to be the best thing. Even though now it is not. I love mornings! I should call you to get your butt out of bed, but see, if I agree to that, then you will automaticlly know when I sleep in, and then I would have to be totally honest about it! hahahahaha!
I am a getup early person for the most part my brain works best in the am! I have a bad habit of waking at 5 am when I am away from home, but at home I can stick it out till 5:30. Often lately though I have been feeling guilty because I 'slept in' until 6! My youngest two are early rises as well. The youngest always has been the other one has started to be now that she is 12... kind of the opposite of most pre teens... but then so was I as a kid. I find early in the morning gives me my time alone with God, ( TAWG) and then I have time to make sure those snack and water glasses made it to the dishwasher ( and the occassional dinner dishes and pots and pans that were soaking over night) I get my quiet talks with myself lol, and my coffee cup! I can read a devotional book or whatever for about half hour after that before my now going out 9th grader has to get up! The only thing I have no time for is VACUUming! Hubby works nights, sleeps days, ... kids work days sleep nights? We are working at making the house a floored house but $$ wood takes time to get room by room... and so my carpets get a quick going over on days when I figure hubby is SOUND sleeping. My schooling is sporatic on some days and scheduled on others depending on what day of the week it is... but the kids are wise to me and know when I am up on thier games or if they are going to have a longer time of school that day because I am tired of slackers haha. ( me being the biggest one at times) So after almost 10 years of homeshooling does that mean I get a 'tenyear'? hahah, What is that anyway? lol Be blessed, And thanks again for encoruaging me with your wonderful words ladies! Teacher Mom School starts at 830 and I have 27 mins left to shower and shine!
We had such a good day today! I did get up earlier than normal. I planned for 6, got up at 6:30. Enough time to get some coffee before waking the monsters. I did not hesitate to wake them. I got them up about 7. They ate their brakefast and watched some cartoons till 8. From 8 till noon, we did school, with a half hour break in the middle to give hugs and kisses to daddy as he went off to work. Yesterday, we did no written work. It was a reading day. The boys read one book, then read to each other from magazines and newspapers, then searched for their spelling words in their reading books (While keeping a tally with "Tally Marks" of each spelling word they found) (Which means I snuck in some math!) Sasha was read to by the boys and by me, and she "Read" a few books on her own, describing the story she saw in the pictures, recalling what she remembers of a story once read to her and so on.... The cool part is, Sasha is 3.5 years old and she recognizes that words stand for names! WHOO HOOOO! She will mimic us and trace her finger under every word in a book, while pretendin to read... And when she comes across ANY word that starts with an "S", she always says, "SASHA!" Cute! So, not every day is the same, but usually productive. I also keep a journal of the days activities to look back on what we may need to do.
