Sometimes you just have to stop and find a new direction...

Yes, I know, it's been 13 days since I posted here.  That doesn't mean we're not doing anything structured - it just means that I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how our homeschool needs to look right now.  I would love to sit everyone down at the same time in the same place every day and go down the list of subjects and things to do for school but it's just not the right thing at the moment.  I've thought about unschooling but the kids have some bad habits that I think they seriously would not accomplish anything.  I've also considered trying the school-at-home thing like I said above and just trying to bull my way through but with burnout, I know that's just going to make things worse.

So, right now I'm seriously considering a few months of what I'm calling "life school."  We desperately need to get into a routine to get the house in order and keep it that way, as well as getting a room finished in the basement for Emmy and possibly one for Kjeri (if we can convince her to move down there).  The idea is that we would mostly scrap the academics and focus on learning some of the basic skills needed to care for oneself and one's home.  Mostly cleaning, cooking, personal hygiene, nutrition and exercise, first aid and home remedies for illness, food storage, goal setting, personal finance, and the skills that we will use to finish the basement.  The only formal academic subject we will keep is math.  Everyone is so behind where I think they should be in math (except Miri) that I don't feel like we can ignore it.  I will also watch for opportunities for writing assignments and teachable moments as well as expect plenty of personal reading time.  I'd also like to spend more time playing board games and baking with the kids.

It sounds pretty rigorous written out like this (at least to me it does) but what all of this really means is that we'll work really hard together to live a more orderly life.  I think Flylady can help and I've got to figure out how I want to implement all of it so that I don't just keep talking about it and never get anywhere.  So that's my next plan.  Hopefully, I can find something that will work for us.

What did you learn today?

A Good Day... Finally!

We actually had school today!  Yeah!!!

We got started really late 'cause I was trying to get the house clean first and then we had to have lunch and then we had to clean up lunch and... well, you get the picture.

Anyway, I wrote some topics on the blackboard for the kids to choose from for essays for the week and explained that I am going to have each of them write me an essay every week, with the lengths depending on ages and abilities of each kid.  I told them to make this first one as long as they could (except Kjeri, who could probably go on for pages and pages) and then we would see where we need to set the lengths next week.  Miri is the only one to have started on hers, Josie is going to dictate to a big person, and Eli had a fit about doing it - this is going to be fun.

I also assigned math to everyone except Kjeri - I still haven't found the book I want for her yet at a price I can afford.  I ran out of time to do Emmy's and Josie's math with them so hopefully I can make up for it tomorrow.  So, pretty much, Miri and Eli did their math.

Today was a science day so I worked with Eli, Miri and Josie to catch up on the minibooks for our botany lapbook that we will be putting together when we finish the book.  On Friday, we will get back to reading the book and making the minibooks as we go.

Also, Emmy spent a lot of time practicing piano, Eli, Miri, Josie, Sarah and Will played with wooden blocks and the giant Legos for quite a while, Emmy made brownies for dessert after dinner, Josie and I looked up Big Ben on Google Maps and Wikipedia (no, wait, that was yesterday), everyone took a turn rotating laundry, almost everyone worked on washing dishes, and I listed a couple more things in my Artfire studio this morning (after getting home from grocery shopping with Rock in time for him to go to work).  All in all, a pretty productive day.

What did you learn today?

We Didn't Skip Those Days Entirely...

... honest.  I've been struggling pretty bad with my depression - especially since the move three months ago - and so I decided to go back on my meds last week after being off for about two years.  They always make me loopy for a couple of days so I knew we wouldn't get much done.  We did, however, play some board games (Clue and Monopoly) and read some books and spent time playing with Legos and wood blocks.  Eli and Emmy each made a dinner and Emmy started teaching herself piano.  Oh, and I have been having everyone work on their math.

What did you learn today?

First Day Back After Christmas Break

We are starting off slowly.

I spent some time with each Miri and Eli setting goals for their math programs.  We set a date for each of them to finish their current math books.  If they finish early, they will get a break from math until starting the next goal.

Josie did a bunch of pages in her handwriting book.

Emmy worked on organizing the basement for a little while and did the other chores she is responsible for, as well as getting Will to sleep while I made dinner.

Kjeri is having a rough day and so I didn't ask her to do anything but load the dishwasher.  Hopefully she has gotten some writing done on her novel today.

Eli, Miri, Josie and I thoroughly cleaned the dining room so we could actually use it.

Miri worked on the purse kit Erin bought her, Eli played Legos, and Josie and Sarah played Play-Doh.

I posted a new tutorial on my KaelMijoy blog and promoted it everywhere and learned that those are the kind of blog posts that spread the fastest.

What did you learn today?

Stay Tuned...

School will be starting up again on January 8th.

What did you learn today?