I really do read the comments. I don’t always respond to them and that makes me a bad blogger. Sometimes comments don’t really need response – it can become rather circular, you know with the blogger saying something and someone commenting with, “Great idea! I think I’ll try that!” And the blogger commenting with, “So glad to hear you are going to give it a shot!” And the commenter saying, “Yep – I’m glad too. Thanks again!” And the blogger saying, “Sure thing, thanks thanks thanks!” And the commenter… okay, I’m becoming stupid now.

But anyway, the whole point of this was to say that sometimes I actually do get some comments here. And sometimes those comments are questions. Questions that need answers. Answers I may or may not be able to provide. I’m either going to or not going to provide those answers right now.

The post in question is the very long boring homeschool post I wrote the other day in which a few of you came out and claimed it wasn’t. That was kind of you. After writing that post, Craig said, “That’s the kind you write best.” And I said, “What, long and boring homeschool posts?” I don’t think that’s what he meant, so I’ll take it for the compliment he meant it to be. I’m so good at word twisting, don’t you see?

Anyway, will I get to the point?

The first question came from Catherine in Australia (Hi, Catherine!):

So how DO you get your chores done as well as homeschool? I really want to know that, because I can’t even imagine how that can happen. I can’t get mine done even without homeschooling!
I thought I’d answer this one with pictures to show how far I’ve come in this area. One of my daily chores is to clear off the dining room table AND the adjoining round table next to it twice each day. Here it is now, 10:26pm. Check my progress:

Oh, guess what I’ve been doing for the past 45 minutes? Clipping coupons, making a Walgreens list for tomorrow, paying a bill to our own personal electrician, writing a blog post, all those really important list shattering activities.

Another one of my daily chores is to clear off the kitchen counters (remember, I have trouble with flat surfaces):

And here we see I went to Penzey’s today. And spoon fed Craig some Nyquil yesterday. And never unpacked the remains of a picnic lunch, still in that Whole Foods bag. That’s what that bag means, you know – you keep whole foods in there for days at a time. Plastic plates too.

And the point of all that is to say this – nothing is perfect. The trick for me is to come up with an effective system and keep trying with it. My new system is mostly working, but we have my parents in town this week which has changed the schedule completely. We’re glad they are here. It also just means the routine is off. I’m still convinced the routine I set last week will work for us, though, so next week we will jump back in where we left off. And if all else fails, try the FlyLady. I hear she works for some people. I know she doesn’t work for me. *sheepish grin*
Next, from Jennifer:

We are gone middle of the day on Tuesday and Thursday this year for classes the girls take and so far aren’t getting much other schooling done those days and it’s killing me.

So tell me, in the individual work time, how are you doing the teaching of math, spelling, and English? How do you work those? I am really struggling with the independent school times…

This is actually one of the very reasons we really scaled back what we’re doing outside our home this year. The exceptions to this include our Classical Conversations Foundations class which meets on Monday mornings and the Classical Conversations Essentials class which meets on Wednesday afternoons. My temptation for days like that has always been to let those other events stand alone as school on those days, but I simply can’t do that this year. I mapped out the things I considered to be the daily non-negotiables for those days and make sure we get them done. On Mondays, it is one hour of Sonlight reading and one hour of grammar and writing. On Wednesdays it is pretty much a full school day compacted into the morning before the Essentials class meets. If I let it slide, we get too far behind.

For math we’re using Math-U-See again. I never thought I’d be a mom who let a video teach her kids, but I’m doing that for math. Steve Demme gives the lessons, and I follow up after they’ve started their work to see if they understand it or have any questions. This is working well for us this year.

For spelling we’re using Spelling Workout books. This is partly on their own, partly with me – I give them the pretests and post tests and guide them through the instructions of the daily exercises. But they do the exercises on their own.

English grammar is being handled two ways – for Maddie and Chloe, they are both in the Classical Conversations Essentials class this year. This isn’t something they do on their own, but something I spend a dedicated hour each day with them on. As we’re still at the beginning of the year on that (third class meets tomorrow), and I don’t know that program very well yet, I’m also doing First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease with them. I love, love, love the new First Language Lessons level 3 and am very sad that level 4 has been delayed in the shipping. Writing With Ease is wonderful too, but again, I’m sad that the workbooks for levels 2-4 have not been released yet. It is possible to do these without the student workbooks, but having used the student workbook for level 1, I really want the other workbooks! Now!!

So, in a nutshell, here’s the grammar story for each kid:
Millie, 4- Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington, Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code!

Katie, 6 – Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading (review when E4 does her lesson), Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Getty & Dubay Handwriting B, Spelling Workout A, First Language Lessons Level 1, Writing With Ease Level 1

Chloe, 8 – Explode the Code 8, Spelling Workout C, Getty & Dubay Handwriting, First Language Lessons Level 3, Writing With Ease Level 2 (sometimes – really want that workbook!), CC Essentials

Maddie, 9 – Spelling Workout D, Getty & Dubay Handwriting, First Language Lessons Level 4 (using the sample pages right now, really want that workbook to arrive!), Writing With Ease Level 4 (sometimes – still really want that workbook!), CC Essentials

Okay, so that’s really the what. Here’s the how. There are certain things we simply have to do all together. Sonlight reading and CC review, science and art. Everything I’m having them do on an individual level is what I call individual work. They know the things they can do with very minimal instruction from me and they begin doing those things during the times I’ve slated for individual work time, but it doesn’t mean they are entirely on their own for that hour. Individual time also means time for me to work with each girl individually.

I don’t know if that’s helped or just raised more questions. Feel free to ask again. I’ll try to answer before the next school year.

Now then, a post or two before that someone asked for a recipe. I remember seeing that and I will try to remember to post that later this week. It might or might not be buried under that blank map of the United States on my table right now…

Warning: Boring Homeschool Post Ahead!

We’ve been homeschooling for about six years now. Maybe seven, but who’s counting? I’ve jokingly called myself a “Classical Unschooler” for the past couple of years simply because I never can seem to get a scheduling groove down, so our days ended up being a weird hodge-podge of get-something-done-at-some-point-today.

Now that Maddie is a 4th grader and we’re planning to put her in school in three years, I’m feeling this need to tighten up a bit and make sure things get covered and covered consistently.

The girls and I have been working hard every day and still not finishing up until 3 or 3:30. We’re a family who used to finish by 1 at the latest, so it has been both a surprise and defeat this year when, by 3:30, we’re all panting from the day we just put in (this, and the house un-cared for because we’ve been consumed with schooling all day).

Last Thursday, after yet another day like that, I just knew something had to change. Over the weekend I blocked time chunks for everything, only the time chunks aren’t as rigid as they used to be with the MOTH schedules I always tried (and never kept). Instead of saying that one has “Math” from 9-9:30 while another has a reading lesson then and two others play together, I’ve got something like this going on:

8-8:30 Chores – Do what you can off your list for 30 minutes. When 30 minutes are over we’re moving on and we’ll pick up the other chores later.

8:30-9:30 Reading Together – This involves Bible reading, Sonlight history readers, and Classical Conversations review. Once the hour has passed, we move on. This is helpful to me because that reading/review time can sometimes stretch to two hours, no kidding – when we’re reading a book we love, sometimes we don’t stop. This hasn’t necessarily been a bad thing, it’s just that then we don’t get to other also important things.

9:30-10:30 Individual Work – During this time, the girls pick off their assignment lists and I help whoever needs it. I usually give one/one tutoring to Katie during this time while also fielding questions from Chloe and Maddie. I’m giving them two periods like this per day and the understanding now is that if they don’t get all their work done in the time allotted, they will have homework later on that night. If they get it done faster, they have a free hour (or however much time there is left).

10:30 -11:00 Science – We’re going through Discovering the Human Body and Senses this year to sort of go along with some things we’re memorizing with Classical Conversations. I promised Chloe she would love science this year since after her time at the two-day school last year she ended the year hating science with a serious passion. To turn a kid like that into one who loves science is no small feat. I can’t say she LOVES it yet, but she definitely enjoys it more than she did last year. Progress, I tell you!

Anyway, with this science, we’re talking about less breadth and more depth (coverage is the enemy of understanding – I remember!). This has been good, too, because in the past when we’ve done science we’ve let it go for more than an hour. As a result we haven’t done it every day because I don’t usually feel like devoting an hour to it. Now we go for 30 minutes and at 11, we’re done.

11:00-11:30 Art – This is another thing that’s been so easy for me to let slide. I’ve either saved it for the end of the day, or the end of the week, and it’s become an easy “oh, that isn’t really that important, it can wait” thing. Now we’re doing it right at 11. And it’s an easy thing for me to introduce to them and let them work on while I begin making lunch. Thirty minutes into it, we put it away. We can always finish it tomorrow.

11:30 Lunch

11:53 Take Millie to Preschool

12:03 – 1:00 The second hour of Individual Work – Katie is usually finished or finishing by now and she plays.

1:00 – 2:00 Essentials of the English Language and Institute for Excellence in Writing for Maddie and Chloe.

2:00 WE ARE DONE!! A whole 60-90 minutes earlier than we’ve been getting done the past four weeks. Not only that, but we’re getting more done. Wow!
I give them an hour to decompress (we all need it) – we go pick up Millie from Preschool, then come back and hit another 30 minute slot of chores.

It’s not totally perfect, but for this week (all three days of it so far), it’s really working for me. I’m totally exhausted by the end of the day, but I’m happy to know we’ve been getting everything done. For once I’m not feeling that nagging sense that I totally missed something in their education this year.

That feels really good.

Oh, and the chore thing? I printed chore lists for the girls from our Edu-Track software and that is working much better than the MOTC system I tried last year. I thought that system would work for me, but two weeks into it “we” managed to lose half their cards and I never followed through with it. I’m facing facts – we’re a family of list checkers. I even printed a chore list for myself off the Edu-Track system and yes, I get a huge kick out of seeing the smiley faces on days I don’t need to do certain chores, and love checking off the empty boxes on days I do. It’s the little things.

So I maybe needed to write up this long, boring post of what we’ve been doing lately because I’ve had nothing much else to write about that’s write-able. I may need to go freecycling again to spice up our lives a bit.

If you made it this far…wow. That’s about all I can say. Wow. Night!