Trying To Keep The Peace

September 29, 2008


I think most homeschooling families can empathize with a parent’s complaints about homework. It’s hard enough to get a kid to do “school” work when they are fresh early in the day; tackling it at the end of the day when everyone is tired and cranky must be especially tough.

So, knowing that most kids will naturally chose to do just about anything than a workbook page or book report, I came up with some ways to help parents make homework less of a daily battle. I hope this list of steps that published today on Alpha Mom helps some frustrated parents out. Believe me, I’ve been there.

But, when you homeschool, you can’t really implement the last step, which sometimes really sucks.

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Filed Under: Blog Love, Fairly Odd Me, Homeschooling 4 Comments

You Can Lead a Horse to Water. . .

September 18, 2008


One of the most frustrating things I’m finding about homeschooling is that I cannot force my daughter to learn a fucking thing if she isn’t interested in learning it. Not one thing.

The other day, as we pushed on through a disastrous math class, she cried, “I’m not learning this, I’m memorizing this” and a little warning bell went off in my head.

Before we started homeschooling, I read John Holt who cautioned against this. I then eagerly signed up for a bunch of “unschooling” message boards, but quit when I was afraid I’d get flamed if I brought up the “t” word one more time (that words would be “teach”). I took into account my oldest daughter’s feisty/stubborn/”I know it all so you don’t have to teach me it” personality when planning our approach.

Regardless, I bought stuff. Fancy books and manipulatives and flashcards and workbooks and DVD’s and CD’s and. . .you get the picture.

None of it matters.

The child who sits happily as I read the story of Beowulf, who grows wistful when speaking about our time learning about Ancient Greece, who excitedly asks when we can do science again: that same child gets sullen and defiant when the math books come out. She claims she cannot add the simplest numbers almost daring me to force them out of her. We slog on until one of us is yelling or in tears.

Clearly, I need to find a better way.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids, Homeschooling 23 Comments

Back-To-School Means Something Different Here

August 11, 2008

In only four Mondays, summer vacation as we know it will end for the kids in our town. And, while I should just be enjoying the summer, I am starting to sweat the start of our school days.

Why? Let me count the ways:

1. The “start of school” means I go back to some sort of schedule of teaching my precocious, stubborn, lovely, moody seven-year-old.

2. I meant to do “School Lite” all summer so that she wouldn’t forget everything she learned last year (especially math, blah). “Meant to” are the operative words.

3. This fall marks the start of Kindergarten for #2. And, while Kindergarten is not mandatory in our state (meaning I do not have to report her work to the school district), I would like to do some basic math and reading with her. This means juggling two kids around our kitchen table.

4. Oh, and I have a third to keep occupied during these hours. A third child who wants mommy to drop everything to “build a road and a house” out of blocks. Now.

5. Our homeschool coop will start up in September. As will Sunday School (I teach), Brownies & Daisy Scouts (resisting the call to lead a troop), dance class, gymnastics, swimming (thankfully, I do not teach any of those) and some social activity for D if he will ever allow himself to be potty trained and dropped off somewhere for a few hours.

6. All the while, I’d like to get washboard abs, cook homemade dinners nightly, enjoy my new job, write here and here, and hopefully see my husband from time to time as he juggles his crazy life.

The nicest thing? No more mad dashes for the school bus. Now, excuse me while I go to rouse everyone for Camp Week Two. We have a bus to catch.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Me, Homeschooling 15 Comments
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