A TV School (Auditions)

This story starts here.

Saturday was crazy. Two hundred children had been notified to come the this audition. Penny felt uncomfortable in the clothes her mother had chosen. If she'd kept her mouth shut about Childrise being Sonrise they might not be here, but here they were. All the children were sorted by age and photographed. Ms. Michelle made a special effort to get group shots of siblings.
To Penny's surprise the audition process was fun. First, they put you in front of the camera and recorded your answers to interesting questions. Then they put you in groups with the other kids and filmed while you worked together to solve problems. Periodically, children would be reorganized and some children would be sent to wait with their parents. Penny and Quade were the first Thistles sent to wait. Dolores came next. She put her head in Helia's lap and went to sleep. Penny leaned against Alistaire wishing she were young enough to follow Dolores' example. Finally all the children returned to the large auditorium and Ms. Michelle's assistants passed out sealed envelopes. Ms. Michelle congratulated all the children and told them they were all stars. She reminded that that lots of other kids hadn't even been invited to audition. Then everyone was dismissed.
Alistaire collected everyone's envelopes unopened. When the children protested, he announced that he would not open them until they were all at home. The atmosphere in the car on the way home was tense. The children's emotions swung from exhileration to disappointment, and everyone kept asking about the envelopes.
The children packed themselves onto the couch. It felt good to be close together while they awaited the verdict. Alistaire and Helia went into their bedroom to open the envelopes. Demetra reached for Penny's hand. Penny reached for Niko's. Dolores and Quade grabbed each other. Everyone was very quiet.
"You're all in." Helia said, finally emerging from the bedroom. The couch erupted with cheers.
"I knew we'd get in!" Niko shouted.
Penny smiled and gave him a high five. "It was kind of fun" she said.
"Ha! I told you so, this going to be the best year ever!"
There was a knock at the door. Hera had heard the commotion and brought up a cake. The cake was decorated with five director's chair with each child's namely carefully displayed on the back.
"Mother, what would you have done with all this if the children hadn't been accepted?" Helia asked.
"Reject my grandbabies? They would have to be crazy!"
Alistaire put his arms around both women. "You're right, Hera. They would have to be crazy."

Early Reviews of Homeschool Drills

We're just getting happily settled into our new school routine. We begin with a Bible story and some fun review games, then we settle into Quiet School. Quiet School isn't very quiet this year as Iris (4) is doing kindergarten material. I have to do something to keep her busy or she causes trouble, and the harder it is the better. However, this means that I'm once again helping a beginning reader through their work. So much for my quiet time. Everyone else is doing brilliantly on their independant studies and I'm proud to say they often finish their work early. We then have recess which is quite lively because they are so tired of being quiet. Lunch is sped through and then it's time for drills. This is a new feature to our curriculum, and one I was uncertain about. I knew we had to do something to strengthen the girl's grasp of the routine things like math facts and handwriting, but I hate routine and rote anything. I bit the bullet and bought materials, and I hate to say it, but drill time is everybody's favorite.
There are six stations the three oldest work their way through. Spelling Power's pre-test, 10-step study sheet, and reinforcing activity are three of them. A daily sheet of math fact drills is another, and then we have handwriting and journaling. Spelling Power is amazing. Everybody is much more print aware. The girls are striving for perfect pre-tests. The 10-step review is fun and effective. As a side note, I purchased a set of alphabet cards that have a rough surface and the directions for correctly forming the letters for the trace and say portion of the review. I highly recommend them. Handwriting is reinforced and my kinesthetic children tend to lock the word using them. For review, I've found all sorts of games and activities that the girls enjoy. One of our favorites is a handwriting machine that teaches both manuscript and cursive as well as playing numerous other games.
The math drills are my competitive daughter's daily highlight. She is always trying to go further faster than her sisters. They are going more slowly than I'd like, but the facts are becoming so entrenched and their systems for attacking math problems are measurably improved and streamlined. Handwriting is getting there. We struggle with reversals across the board. I don't have a single child who doesn't seem to feel that it's the shape and not the direction that matters when writing numbers and letters. They like the practice and the time limit makes it more tolerable. Journaling is improved because the spelling and handwriting are so improved. I have to admit it, boring routine isn't so boring, and it gets things done.
The rest of our day is given to history, langauge arts and science--the fun stuff. Physics is a blast. I thought I'd picked something that was maybe over our heads--not so. It's fascinating and we are looking at ordinary things in new ways. Plus, Kurt enjoys teaching it, so I have every other Friday off. Bonus. Hope your year is going well, and that our experience might be useful.

The Joys of the Unitasker

I have made it a practice in my life to prefer the multitasker to the unitasker. If a product was going to impress me it had to do at least two different things. I should have known that that point of view was beginning to crumble when I held onto the toastmaster pancake maker instead of donating it to Goodwill. It was a throw in with the mega-sized George Foreman grill. There was a toaster too and the whole thing was on sale for a shockingly low price. The toaster is long gone. The George Foreman is well-used. The pancake maker has become one of my favorite appliances. The pancakes cook on both sides at once--no flipping, and they are all lovely, little, uniform circles--no arguing about who got the biggest, strangest, etc... pancake. It also cleans up so easily it doesn't even feel like work. For the first time I was a devotee of a single purpose appliance.
In my defense I made the pancakes out of Bisquick which is the ultimate multi-tasker. You can make almost any bread out of Bisquick. It has gotten me out of numerous jams and like my mother before me I always have it on hand. Bisquick makes adequate pancakes. I've been eating them all my life. They aren't particularly sweet, in fact I've always secretely found them a little salty for a pancake. But they were easy and always on hand.
I've mentioned in the past that we are Sam's Club shoppers, and at Sam's they stock the Bisquick right next to Krusteaz Pancake Mix. Pancake mix is a unitasker. Allright, they do tell you how to make up waffle batter with it, but that's it. Pancakes is all they do. But week after week, Bisquick box after Bisquick box, I remained intrigued by the Krusteaz. This Saturday I gave in. The perfect pancake machine deserved better than Bisquick, no offense my long-loved brand. I bought that gigantic bag of pancake mix and brought it home to a skeptical husband. "That's a lot of pancake mix" he said. "I know" was the best I could do in reply. He left to attend a wedding and the kids and I broke out the pancake maker. The neat thing about not having recipes for wonder pie and cofee cake is that all that back matter can be devoted to new and delightful versions of pancake recipes. This is Michigan and the apples are at their peak, so we made Apple Spice pancakes. God forgive me I ate four myself and I do not regret it. They were sweet, no extraneous leavenings or salt. The apples and cinnamon elevated this humble dinner to cuisine. We made them again today. Well, Kurt had try it. Anybody want to come over for pancakes. It really is a big bag, and we ought to use it up. Just drop in. It only takes a few minutes to whip up a batch.

Mom

Lately I've been acquiring that "mom" patina--practical clothes, practical solutions, practical life. My friends have been bemoaning all the normal changes and such of growing older, but to be honest I like my age and all the accompanying "patina." There is something nice about the way children take me on faith, and the way that people assume I'm quite competent at a variety of things. I love actually being competent at most of those things. I like knowing how to get a child to stop screaming in a grocery store, and how to ignore them with grace if they won't. I like being able to simply shift to a different tone of voice and getting results. I like knowing when something is serious and needs attention and when it's just one of those ordinary little colds or scrapes. I like having children piled all over me on the sofa while I watch Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. There is some kind of magic in motherhood that is transforming.
I prefer me today to me "back in the day." Back in the day I didn't know how to make things better, and I was too self-involved to try. Back in the day the world had to make way for my agenda and my interests. Now, I've learned that it's more interesting and more rewarding to help others with their agendas when I can. That making time to enjoy a child's homemade fairy wings and dance routines and fashion shows is more rewarding and important than almost any of the other opportunities that crowd my day.
I look like a mom, act like a mom, dress like a mom and smell like a mom, and I'm pretty sure that I've never been better.

Checklists

I'm finishing up my preparations for tomorrow's school and the last thing I do each night is print up the next day's check lists. Each child, with the exception of our two-year old, has a half-sheet clipboard that hangs on a nail next to the kid bathroom. Every night I reload the clipboard with five half-sheet checklists that specify the jobs they must accomplish at certain times of the day. The first sheet is basically, get out of bed, make the bed, get dressed, and do your basic grooming. The next sheet is their first family chore of the day, which is different for each child and keyed to their age and abilities. One child sorts laundry, another cleans the breakfast dishes, etc. I did decide to move their Quiet School time to the morning, and it does work much better. Each child has a checklist with the different subjects and the amounts of work they are to do in each subject. Next to last is the after-dinner checklist which is more family chores. Everyone must clean their room and tackle another support chore--the other bathroom, tidying the living room, etc. Finally there is a checklist for all those bedtime basics, pjs, tooth brushing, washing up.
The checklists save a lot of time because I no longer have to explain what done looks like. What needs to be done is right there in black and white. I used to waste endless time arguing through the rather skillful defenses my children had for half done work, but now I simply point to the portion of the checklist that is incomplete. The children seem to like it as well. They are certain that they are done and that I'll be satisfied with what they've accomplished. All they have to do is very clearly laid out for them as well as the amount of time they have to accomplish it.
All in all, this has been an excellent improvement in our family's quality of life. If you are in need of something to smooth out the pressure of chores and individual responsibilities you might consider adopting out ideas to your own needs.

Snort!

What Type of Homeschooler Are You?

Salvador Dali Melting clocks are not a problem in your reality. You are an unschooler. You will tolerate a textbook, but only as a last resort. Mud is your friend. You prefer hands-on everything. If your school had an anthem, it would be Dont Worry, Be Happy. Visit my blog: http://www.GuiltFreeHomeschooling.blogspot.com
Take this quiz!








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I took this quiz, and it is so off. We are very scheduled and curriculumed. I have endless textbooks. I must admit I would prefer it were not so, but who can afford the breadth of resources necessary to unschool? I must have order or I will get nothing done. I would love to be this kind of teacher, but in order to trust that the kids were getting everything they needed I'd have to hire like three other teachers to keep track of what everybody was doing. We'd also be traveling constantly. I suppose this is honest to my aspirations and preferences, but not to my actual practice. This is nothing like our actual practice.

and just like that, summer's over

It was a good day, all things considered. School was started. New habits were introduced. Old habits were successfully revived. I was feeling great until I realized--no more summer. No more skipping chores because it was just too nice outside. No more letting kids slide because they can sleep in. No more Mrs. Nice Mom. I've got to be the uber parent all over again.
When homeschooling is going well, there is nothing like it. You tally up the progress with an immediacy no school can offer. You watch your children metamorph into great readers and writers. You notice when they are flying through their fact tables instead of checking their fingers every problem. All of that leads to some really positive feelings. When homeschooling is going badly, there is nothing like it. The only person available to push the kids would be the only person there to get the kids to do anything. You find yourself arguing and disciplining all day long when one of the kids goes bad. On the days when they won't clean their room, they won't do their work and they won't say it nicely--well, I don't know of anything worse.
Summer is great because you have so little to be concerned about it. Some swim classes, some light chores, making sure that they at least get to bed before you do. I'm going to miss this summer. It got off to a bad start, but in the end I think it was the best summer we've ever had. Ah well, there's always next year.

Sears Shopper

We spent a good chunk of yesterday shopping for clothes. The girls needed some dresses for church and some casual clothes to wear after school is done for the day. Kurt needed some work pants and some exercise gear. I was hoping to find some casual dresses and skirts for teaching. I was out of luck at most of the major retailers. Clothes at this moment are all flounced and shirred and fashion forward. I blame the television shows where "experts" berate ordinary citizens for their lack luster wardrobes. Everyone wants to make sure they are wearing the impractical "after" look instead of the generally sensible if not inspired "before."
While I adore fashion, am a devotee of Project Runway, and have taken a class in pattern drafting because I so enjoy clothes, I must insist on practicality. I can't be bothered with bias cut crepe de chine that I'll need to throw away the first time my son uses the hem for a Kleenex. Pattern and color may be fashion forward, but they are also time consuming. When I get up I have five children to get motivated to do chores and do school. That doesn't leave a lot of time for coordinating accessories and shoes. This is not to condemn all fashion houses. If we were rich and everyone in the world was getting three squares a day, I'd live in Ralph Lauren. He makes beautiful stuff, and generally practical and long wearing. In reality, I'm limited by a budget, and the retailers within that budget are selling me outfits for the finale of "How Do I Look?". I can't afford to waste my money on those either.
So, where do I end up these days? Surprisingly, Sears is becoming my goto store. Their kid department isn't that great (I did find some lovely clothes at Burlington Coat Factory), but the adult section is filled with simple, practical clothing that can handle my heavy on the unpleasant excretions life. They carry Lands End products and generally nearby they have an in-store line of similar clothing. I put together a great teaching wardrobe for this year and I paid 20 dollars or less for each item. Colors coordinate, so you can mix and match the pieces. If you are in need of practical, washable, quick to co-ordinate clothes, I recommend Sears. They've earned my respect by bucking the trend.

Ready for Action!

I suppose this could be called extreme homeschooling, but it's a huge part of our life. We really needed a dedicated space for everything we are doing. The basement is such a blessing, and we're very thankful.

These are our bulletin boards and our Quick Write Tree. The tree changes with the seasons and has different items (snowflakes, raindrops, etc.) attached with suggestions for journaling.

These are the girl's computers, my chalkboard and our central teaching area.

These are the resource shelves that hold support materials for the curriculum.

These are our craft and curriculum shelves.

This is our preschool corner. Olga da Polga our guinea pig lives here too.