Friday, June 11, 2010

Grueling Homeschooling

My husband has had the last 3 days off. He and the boy have been working outside making our "lawn" (read the 3 acres closest to the house) look pretty. It's been nice.

Today, dad is back to work for his 3 day weekend. And we are getting schoolwork done. Why, you ask, are we still doing school in June and on the weekend? Let's start at the beginning.

At the beginning of the 2008 "school year" (August/September) I had a baby. We tried getting a lot of work done in the summer while it was hot and unbearable to be outside BEFORE the baby came. It didn't work really well. Once little Lovey was here, we took a nice long break. My husband also started his current job about a month after Lovey was born. Between adjusting to my husband's new job (and schedule, low man on the totem pole got the night shift for 6 months) our "nice long break" lasted until January.

I figured, "Hey, we'll just school all through summer to make up for all that time off." That didn't happen either. We ended up deciding to sell our house (still for sale BTW) to move closer to my husband's job. We moved in the summer, further putting off "catching up" with school.

We got settled in the new house and finally got around to our work (still from the previous year).......and then we conceived again. I am pretty useless, other than growing a baby, in the first few months of pregnancy. As I have said before, it gets so bad that I am literally surprised that I am still alive once all the sickness is gone. I drop weight. I lie around. Nothing gets done.

And here we are.

I feel better, so we've been really kicking butt with the school work for the past few weeks. We ARE going to finish this math book, and the grammar, and then I am just not going to worry anymore. My boy is a good reader. The last time I checked, he was like 4 grades above whatever grade he was in. And when I had to start pulling his face out of books to get him to do his chores, or go to bed, I pretty much stopped worrying about reading and reading comprehension.

So, on the docket this weekend (daily) is: Math, Grammar, Wordly Wise, Snake Report editing.

I AM going to IGNORE my knitting everyday until the school work is done. I AM. Even though I just started the cutest pair of longies ever and they are almost done. I have the will power to act like they just aren't sitting there, calling to me.

And as far as the school work goes, the boy is going to get this done ASAP. We've been doing about 3 pages (front & back) out of the math book everyday. Same with the grammar, etc. Once we are caught up, we're just going to "skip" the grade we're missing and move along. (Although I should mention we are changing math curriculums, so this works fine there as the "next" math book in the new series covers the grade we're missing and the next one, woo hoo.)

I am already getting homeschooling catalogs in the mail and am getting totally excited to order new books. Does this happen to anyone else? The Catholic Heritage one always gets me. Seton too, even though we use very little of their stuff b/c it's very "worksheet" orientated and that just doesn't work for my boy (he'd go crazy if there was that much "paperwork" everyday).

So I sit and dream of more school books, dream of my yarn, and help him figure out 18/3. Good day.

What's your summer turning into?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is one thing I love about homeschooling - life can keep going and we fit our schooling in around it as it suits us best. Good work Mama! (And ditto on being useless for the first few months of pregnancy. I had people bringing us dinner last time around because I was so sick!)
My summer is also going to include school. We aren't behind, I just have a bunch of kids who beg (!) to do school. Also, it has become such a normal part of our lives, I hate to throw us all into chaos for the sake of summer vacation!

Anonymous said...

WE are still schooling, too, though our weekends are traditional, so we don't do any on Saturday or Sunday. I don't know when we'll be done, but I set up my yearly plans and goals so that we've covered "enough" work by the time they finish 3/4 of the plans. If we finish the whole year (and usually we do) GREAT. If we don't quite make it, I know they've already done more than they would have in our public schools. Plus, you know?? They learn valuable life skills! How to run a household, how to care for the sick, child care skills, cooking..... Life goes on and education (the formal type) is part of it, but not all of it.

I get hyperemesis requiring hydration and drug therapy (which I hated, but I just had to! No, none of the herbals helped.)

Michelle said...

You go girl! Kick some homeschooling BUTT! It is your school and no one can tell you what is right for your schedule or time frame that is the joy of it! Just because it isn't "normal" doesn't mean it isn't right. We are still finishing up on a couple of subjects too, so you aren't alone out there. God bless!