Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
Includes both books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner (used in Core K). This book has beautiful full-color illustrations, making it even more fun to read aloud. I know a lot of people have difficulty reading this rolling type writing aloud, but I find it fun and interesting. It helps to at least try to do the voices, with a Pooh type voice for Pooh, a regular for C. R., breathlessly fast voice for Piglet, a strict voice for rabbit, and so forth. I actually find reading it fun, after I get the hang of the voices.
Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife: A Giant of a Tale from Ireland by Robert Byrd
A giant from Ireland builds a bride to Scotand, and finds a larger giant waiting for him at the other side. He flees home, and tries to hide, but the giant comes searching after him. With the help of his wife, he is able to outsmart the other giant.
***warning: this book contains giants, faeries, magic, deception, lies, and trickery. On the other hand, it is a better-known myth from the area.
***warning: this book contains giants, faeries, magic, deception, lies, and trickery. On the other hand, it is a better-known myth from the area.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Nanta's Lion By Suse MacDonald
In a Maasai village in Africa the men in the girl's village set out to hunt a lion. The girl follows them because she wants to see the lion. She travels around, seeing various sights of the African wilds, and finally sits down without seeing the lion. However, the lion is there in the picture. A fun book for children, although I'm kind of skeptical about the realism in a little girl going out looking for a lion on her own, but it's a children's book, so I'm trying to let that slide. I think I am a bit picky, sometimes. But, overall a fun book when they spot the lion and a nice look at the African landscape.
Close Your Eyes by Kate Banks
A little tiger doesn't want to close his eyes and go to sleep. He wants to be able to see all the world around him. His mother tells him all the things he can see in his dreams. Finally, knowing his mother is right there to catch him, he falls asleep.
Henry's Amazing Imagination by Nancy Carlson
Henry the Mouse likes to tell fibs during show and tell. However, his classmates get upset when they discover his stories are lies. Henry's teacher shows Henry how to make stories instead. But, his show and tell stories become boring to his classmates. Henry shows off his stories at show and tell for a fun balance.
5
5
Canoe Days by Gary Paulson
A man goes out in his canoe, and sees the wildlife around him. Beautiful artwork shows various animals around the lake and the beauty of nature. Very little text with detailed paintings demonstrate the peace and tranquility while bringing out the beauty.
Horace the Horrible: A Knight Meets His Match by Jackie French Koller
The princess is sent to visit her uncle, Horace the Horrible, because her father the king is sick. She misses her daddy terribly, but Horace the Horrible dismisses that and takes the child off to slay a dragon, vanquish an army, and rescue a damsel in distress (provided they can find one). See how the little princess helps her uncle realize that being a big, brave knight isn't everything.
Warning, there is a dragon in this book, for those who are more cautious about those kinds of things, although the knight does make an effort to slay him (although he is deterred). Also, note that at one point in the story, the Uncle says "Oh, daddy faddy" when dismissing his neice's concerns. Take caution, because some children might go around and have a sensitive father (we read this with some of my nephews), and go home and say to their father "Oh, daddy fatty" and the father might not appreciate it, beings as he is on the heavier side.
Warning, there is a dragon in this book, for those who are more cautious about those kinds of things, although the knight does make an effort to slay him (although he is deterred). Also, note that at one point in the story, the Uncle says "Oh, daddy faddy" when dismissing his neice's concerns. Take caution, because some children might go around and have a sensitive father (we read this with some of my nephews), and go home and say to their father "Oh, daddy fatty" and the father might not appreciate it, beings as he is on the heavier side.
How Do You Know What Time it Is? By Robert E. Wells
A discussion of time, how days and months and years are measured, sundials, water clocks, and more. How pendulums work and how the earth rotates and the moon rotates around the earth. Small discussion of time zones and other things pertaining to the passage of time.
More Parts by Tedd Arnold
A boy is struggling to hold himself together as he learns that his heart is breaking, he can give someone his hand, he can crack up, hold his tongue (and possibly drop it) and more. Finally, his parents help calm him down and explain things. And everything is find until he finds out he can lose his mind.
Chicken Little by Steven Kellogg
A newer version of the traditional sky is falling story, Foxy Loxy watches Chicken Little and friends gather to see that the sky is falling. With each new creature, Foxy Loxy is plotting to capture them while they are busy worrying about calling the police but sees another one coming and decides to wait for them. Finally, he pretends to be a police officer and gathers them all up in the back of hs truck to take them home for supper. However, the same piece of sky that is falling helped defeat him.
Not the best retelling of this story I have found. I personally didn't like it, and the children had minimal interest in it.
5
Not the best retelling of this story I have found. I personally didn't like it, and the children had minimal interest in it.
5
Some Kids are Blind by Lola M. Schaefer
A grade 1 reader that can also be read to younger children to give a brief introduction to blindness and how children can adapt. Very short and 20 pages of text with a couple sentences per page.
Farfallina & Marcel by Holly Keller
A caterpillar and a baby gosling become fast friends. But, one day, Farfallina the caterpillars climbs up a tree and doesn't come back down. Marcel waits and waits for her to come back, and finally gives up. When Farfallina finally does come back, she looks and looks for her friend Marcel, but only finds a grown up Goose, who also says he is missing his old friend. They become friends, and finally realize they were missing each other.
Animal Babies in Rain Forests by Jennifer Schofield
A large text book showing animal babies. Each one has the child guessing who the mother is of the baby pictured. Then, turn the page to show the baby with its mother. Mothers include jaguar, gorilla, tapir, lemur, orangutan, sloth and tarsier.
My Little Sister Ate One Hare by Bill Grossman
A little girl eats 1 hare, 2 snakes, 3 ants with underpants. She gets all the way up to 10 peas, which don't sit so well in her stomach.
Two words of caution. First, almost every page has a reference to throwing up, and in the end, the 10 peas do make her sick enough to actually have an emesis. Second, the little sister is dressed up like she is doing a magic show.
Two words of caution. First, almost every page has a reference to throwing up, and in the end, the 10 peas do make her sick enough to actually have an emesis. Second, the little sister is dressed up like she is doing a magic show.
The Book of Jonah by Peter Spier
Based on the Bible story, with Peter Spier's Illustrations, this one has more text than his Noah's Ark Book. A visual journey through the time of Jonah for little ones.
The Blizzard by Betty Ren Wright
A boy's birthday party is cancelled due to the possibility of a storm blocking the roads. During school a blizzard starts in full force, and the many of the children are stranded. The birthday boy's house is the closest one. He winds up getting his birthday wish in an unexpected way.
Small Bear Lost by Martin Waddell and Virginia Austin
A teddy bear gets left behind on a trip. He gets worried that he will be lost forever, and tries to find his own way home, which leads him on an interesting adventure.
2
2
Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners
A book full of subtle puns, a group of otters move next door to rabbit, whose last neighbor was rather, well, unneighborly. His friend Owl gives Rabbit advice on how to treat his new neighbors. Do unto otters as you would have otters do unto you. Rabbit explores how he would want otters to be polite, friendly, use good manners, be honest, play fair, and more.
There are a couple of things I had *minor* issues with, such as in the sharing section, the otters share the book "Harry Otter." And in the being forgiving section, rabbit apologizes for calling his neighbor a "snotter." But, overall, a fun book, although with a bit over-the-top illustrations, it really helps bring home the message.
I still find myself telling the two littlest ones to "do unto otters" when they start trying to take things away from each other or forget to apologize. They know exactly what I mean. It is a more fun look at manners for little ones.
There are a couple of things I had *minor* issues with, such as in the sharing section, the otters share the book "Harry Otter." And in the being forgiving section, rabbit apologizes for calling his neighbor a "snotter." But, overall, a fun book, although with a bit over-the-top illustrations, it really helps bring home the message.
I still find myself telling the two littlest ones to "do unto otters" when they start trying to take things away from each other or forget to apologize. They know exactly what I mean. It is a more fun look at manners for little ones.
Help: A Story of Friendship by Holly Keller
A mouse become afraid that his friend snake will eat him, and doesn't pay attention and falls into hole. Friends rabbit, hedgehog, and rabbit are unable to help him. Mouse is afraid to ask snake for help.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Oh, Were They Ever happy! by Peter Spier
A group of children set out to pain the house for the parents while they are out, in full anticipation of how happy they will be when they get back.
Grandpa Gazillion's Number Yard
An odd sort of book about all the uses a number could have. For example, a number one can be turned into a trapeze to sail over a volcano of exploding macaroni and cheese. A bit too odd for my own tastes.
When Cows Come Home by David L. Harrison
A book in rhyme about cows who are coming home, but as soon as the farmer isn't looking, they run off to play. Fun, catchy, and interesting.
Sanji's Seed by B. J. Reinhard
A beautiful story we have read before, but I can't remember where, in a slightly different format. A little boy is in front of the king, and is given a seed to raise. He must bring it back in a month with all the other boys to judge who has done the best job and become the next king. He takes it home, but despite everything he tries, he is unable to make his seed grow. Yet, his honesty is rewarded.
Also offers a side view into the many chores required in his culture, such as bringing water from the well and washing clothes in the river.
Also offers a side view into the many chores required in his culture, such as bringing water from the well and washing clothes in the river.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Can You Count to a Google by Robert E. Wells
Wow, that's EXPENSIVE on Amazon today. Best Price is $112.50. I would NOT recommend spending that much on a book. It's really good but not that good.
OK, well, this one can go along well with How Big is a Million. Expanding on the million idea, it takes you a bit further and explores a google. Its written in the same style as How Do You Lift a Lion and Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?
OK, well, this one can go along well with How Big is a Million. Expanding on the million idea, it takes you a bit further and explores a google. Its written in the same style as How Do You Lift a Lion and Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?
Imagine: Being Blind by Linda O'Neil
This book gives a brief overview of some things blind people do to adapt, and concludes with two interviews of children with visual impairments, to stress that all children want to be treated as children, not as disabilities first, and children second.
5
5
Monday, January 10, 2011
Hawaii is a Rainbow by Stephanie Feeney
The main part of this book has six words. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet. Each word is followed by several pages of photographs of things from Hawaii that have this color. At the end of the book, there is some information about various aspects of Hawaii to further explore.
5
5
Emeka's Gift: An African Counting Story by Ifeoma Onyefulu
A young African boy travels to his grandmother's house, and sees different numbers of items from 1-10 of things he would like to bring to his grandmother for a gift. But, since he has no money, he winds up bringing her the best gift, himself.
5
5
100th Day Worries by Margery Cuyler
Jessica is asked to bring in 100 items for the 100th day of school. But, as the week goes on, she can't think of anything. Finally, on the 100th day, she asks her family for 100 things, but she is only give a few of these and some of those and winds up with odd and ends. Yet, she manages to wind up bringing 100 bits of love.
5
5
Super Duck by Jez Alborough
Sheep, Frog and Goat want to fly a kite. Super duck tries again and again to help, and he and frog wind up flying through the air. Duck manages to save the day by saving frog. Story in rhyme.
Large pictures per page.
Large pictures per page.
How High is the Sky by Anna Milbourne
Pipkin the penguin wants to know how high the sky is. He has a bird and a hot air balloon take him up, but can't find the end of the sky. Fold-out poster illustrates how high various parts in the sky are, all the way up to the moon, but the sky is still bigger.
How Big is a Million by Anna Milbourne
Pipkin the penguin wants to know how much a million is. So, he searches to find things that are big. He finds, 1, 10, 100, 1000 and more, but he has trouble finding a million. Finally, in a fold-out poster at the end, his mother shows him a million of something. Great for illustrating how huge a million really is.
Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson
Subtitle: Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains.
A family sets out across the plains to a new home, bringing with them a wagon full of fruit trees. On the way, they forged a river, got caught in a storm, crossed a desert, and traversed mountains, all the while protecting their plants and securing their future.
A family sets out across the plains to a new home, bringing with them a wagon full of fruit trees. On the way, they forged a river, got caught in a storm, crossed a desert, and traversed mountains, all the while protecting their plants and securing their future.
Jack Quack by Lucy Nolan
A distracted duck has trouble with his lessons, but falls in love with another duck. After embarrassing himself, he runs off to hide in the forest for the winter. After the lonely months pass, he comes back out to save various lives, calling himself "Jack Quack, renegade drake, prince of the forest, king of the lake." Only Violet, his love is not fooled, and after saving her life, she tells him she knew it was him, and they fall in love and live happily ever after.
My children still go around saying "Jack Quack, renegade drake. . . "
My children still go around saying "Jack Quack, renegade drake. . . "
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Favorite Littles Post (Core P 3/4/5)
Copied from the Sonlight forums: (Originally written when my youngest were 2 and 1 years old)
As for the little ones running around, I have plenty of experience with that, but have yet to find the perfect solution. When I do, I'll let you all know that I've found it and charge 10,000 dollars each just to hear the secret and retire to a little spot in north central Mexico in a rural community. So, until then. . .
Sometimes we school in short bursts, just because that is about how long it takes before we get seriously interrupted. Other times we just charge right through. Since I work, my husband works, we don't do daycare, and I go to college, and we homeschool, we have no set schedule or routine. We just sort of hit it whenever we can. Which is not always so easy.
Some of the best things I have found for children this age include:
High chairs with seat belts in the schoolroom with plenty of non-messy fingerfood, especially if your child is underweight. Or, make homemade fingerpaints out of pudding or applesauce.
Locking all doors and windows all the time, so at least you know that no matter what else he did, your two year old didn't throw himself headfirst out the window. Again. Or push his baby sister out. Again.
Play with the little ones before even beginning school, so they know that you didn't forget about them.
Have special "school-time" toys that they can play with only during school time, so they don't get bored.
Give them only one special toy at a time. Each toy buys about 10 minutes worth of uninterrupted time.
Puzzles with huge pieces or other games they can do alone at that age, such as stacking blocks of different shapes and playing with (large) magnets on the magnet board.
A piece of paper and colors (if they don't eat so much that you are convinced that even if they weren't toxic, it couldn't have been good for them to eat THAT much), twist up color crayons (which also buy time as they figure out how to get more color out), washable paints, in said high chair with seat belt away from carpet with just a diaper or undies on and take off all the fabric from the high chair, or washable markers (which do temporarily stain skin, no matter how "washable" they claim to be, so don't make any plans to take them all to the grocery store unless you don't mind people staring at your kid's green mouth), or play-doh (homemade, the kind you cook in a pan with oil and cream of tartar comes out of clothing and carpet best, in case you were wondering), pencil (if you don't mind sharpening it every time they bite the lead off and don't mind that you can never find a pencil with an eraser on it) or pens (see comment about not being washable) or other craft supplies (a two-year-old or so can use a children's scissors and glue stick, if you give them a stick with just a little bit in it, so they don't eat it all, see comment about toxicity or not in products labeled nontoxic when they are overconsumed).
Make sure they are well-fed. Nothing like being hungry to make a little one twice as bothersome.
Use the library for books on tape and other resources, so the kids don't always have to have you there. Schedule any songs (Bible verses, books on tape, geography songs, etc) for about 1/3 of the way through and encourage the littles to dance and sing along, and schedule the videos (mathtacular, discover and do, movie of the book you are reading) the next 1/3 of the way through, so you have at least one interruption per day that can help to entertain the littles.
If at all possible, keep them in the same room as you, or at least nearby and check on them frequently. There is nothing like feeling good about finishing the day's worth of homework only to discover that not only did your youngest two figure out that if you unroll the toilet paper, more of it fits in the toilet, but also worked on the other toilet, and bathtub as well, and that your one year old has some of it in her mouth, but it is green, and her shirt is all wet. And they found your hidden stash of markers and decorated not only themselves, but the walls as well, which leaves you only hoping the green was from the marker. Plus managed to dump two open boxes of cereal on the floor because you forgot to put them up off the table. And now you have to run to the store for more toilet paper, markers, and cereal, and see above comment about taking kids out in public after they colored on themselves.
Save some of the more "fun" stories for bedtime, Lion Storyteller is a good one here.
Remember that most people, pushing themselves, never work more than three jobs at a time. So if you are being teacher, babysitter, and chief chef, not to mention mother, art director, principal, fight manager, task master, timekeeper, school nurse, guidance counselor and psychologist all at the same time, you probably aren't going to have much time left over to play housekeeper as well. That's OK. Save school time for school time and cleaning time for cleaning time. If you haven't finished yet, and dh (dear husband) comes home and looks strange, you could just smile and say "well, at least you don't have to go get the snake to unclog the toilets again" or "well, you can either cook something for supper, or help the kids clean up the living room, I'll leave it up to you to decide which if you want the meal to be on time tonight."
I know someone is going to think this is wrong, but Mathtacular on TV, or any movie starring a vegetable, along with a few other select TV shows and movies is fair game when I don't want to be interrupted. For anyone who holds the personal opinion that TV does rot the mind (which it more than likely does) can see above comments about windows, toilets, eating green paper like substances, as well as other such dangers that didn't make this list such as a 12 month old jumping on the bed and knocking two teeth out for comparable situations. In my mind, it is better to watch a little TV and risk rotting their mind that to risk having them climb up and knock the dresser over on top of their heads again and perhaps leave them without any mind at all after they dumped both the dresser and large TV on top of them.
Let dad do some. Especially if he is good at a subject. Here it is science. I am horrible at it. Got kicked out chemistry twice in high school while getting A's. Who knew very hot beakers over bunson burners exploded if you filled them up with cold water? And shot across the room, throwing glass everywhere, including cutting the instructor's face. And making him really, really mad. So dad does science. Probably better for all of us that way. And maybe even safer.
Looking back, I think I should have put this in the humor forum, but it didn't seem quite so humorous before I started. And, yes, I am speaking from experience here.
Some other suggestions are to realize ahead of time, that you are going to have to do your schooling in short "periods." With little walking the hall breaks in between. Kind of like public school.
So, you figure out what is the hardest/most difficult and plan to do that during the best/quietest time of day. Realize that the hardest might change from time to time, so keep evaluating. The best time is usually right after breakfast, lunch, or during naptime. Those are usually effective. You can have them do seatwork while you eat, and you can read to them while their bodies are slightly still and their mouths are too full to talk too much and they are eating if you need a bit more time.
Have the older kids go to their room to work on workbooks while you are cooking, cleaning, or doing something with the little ones. These are great for the noisier times of day. Math is a good one. We use Math-U-See, because then they can just watch the 5 minute or less instructions for the day, and go to work without me. If they have questions on how to do it, they watch it a couple more times. If they still have questions, then I help.
We use books on tape for some of the read-alouds, because they can do those when I am busy or at work or at college. Really nice. We also do DVD programs for some of the subjects.
Another thing we do differently from most families is we don't take time off, or if we do, as little as possible. Thanksgiving--Friday and Saturday (Saturday is our day of rest). Christmas? The 25th-27th. Summer? This year it was August 1st-15th. One of the reasons for this is that I find it is soooooooo much easier to get in that routine and keep it going than to take 2 months to get a good routine going, take Christmas break for a couple weeks, get another routine going, do really great, take three months off, get another routine going, etc. Just keeping it going cuts back on a lot of that stress. The kids know what to expect and when to expect it. There is a lot less whining and complaining this way. We do sometimes do less during the summer, because of all the other activities, and take more days off, but we just, for the most part, do some stuff every day, and lots of stuff at least a couple days a week. This is a good time to do all that stuff that you fell behind on during the year or wanted to do but couldnt' find the time.
I also "buddy them up." My daughters a buddies because my oldest is better with the baby, and then my boys are buddies. That means that while I am working with my daughter, my oldest son knows that he needs to try to keep his little brother busy, and sometimes the youngest follows them. But either way, I bought myself more time, and have at least one kid busy. Then my oldest knows she has to watch her sister. So we get breaks.
Do "family" read-alouds. The littles can sit in on stories way over their heads, and it hasn't hurt my four year old to do Core 2 as well as Core P 4/5, even though he's going to do it again in a couple years. The babies like to listen in as well. It makes things easier. And, they know what to expect.
I have found that the single most important thing to keeping my house sane is to have some sort of a routine. We don't do the same things at the same times every day. Our life is way too busy for that. But we do something every day. That cuts way down on outside behaviors that can interfere with everything else.
Last fall, when we had 11 children in our house at one point, all under 10, we found that we really struggled unless we kept our expectations almost the same every day. Telling the children, every day you will clean your room, take a shower, and do some schoolwork made it a 'normal' rather than an abnormal. Even on our day of rest, we did Bible and devotions, and Bible verses. Also, we did handwriting (our weekly verse from Reason for Handwriting written neatly on decorative paper).
We don't do every subject every day. We don't do every assignment every day. We have a hard time following a schedule. But as long as we know that every day we have to do something, it helps us move along just fine.
As for the little ones running around, I have plenty of experience with that, but have yet to find the perfect solution. When I do, I'll let you all know that I've found it and charge 10,000 dollars each just to hear the secret and retire to a little spot in north central Mexico in a rural community. So, until then. . .
Sometimes we school in short bursts, just because that is about how long it takes before we get seriously interrupted. Other times we just charge right through. Since I work, my husband works, we don't do daycare, and I go to college, and we homeschool, we have no set schedule or routine. We just sort of hit it whenever we can. Which is not always so easy.
Some of the best things I have found for children this age include:
High chairs with seat belts in the schoolroom with plenty of non-messy fingerfood, especially if your child is underweight. Or, make homemade fingerpaints out of pudding or applesauce.
Locking all doors and windows all the time, so at least you know that no matter what else he did, your two year old didn't throw himself headfirst out the window. Again. Or push his baby sister out. Again.
Play with the little ones before even beginning school, so they know that you didn't forget about them.
Have special "school-time" toys that they can play with only during school time, so they don't get bored.
Give them only one special toy at a time. Each toy buys about 10 minutes worth of uninterrupted time.
Puzzles with huge pieces or other games they can do alone at that age, such as stacking blocks of different shapes and playing with (large) magnets on the magnet board.
A piece of paper and colors (if they don't eat so much that you are convinced that even if they weren't toxic, it couldn't have been good for them to eat THAT much), twist up color crayons (which also buy time as they figure out how to get more color out), washable paints, in said high chair with seat belt away from carpet with just a diaper or undies on and take off all the fabric from the high chair, or washable markers (which do temporarily stain skin, no matter how "washable" they claim to be, so don't make any plans to take them all to the grocery store unless you don't mind people staring at your kid's green mouth), or play-doh (homemade, the kind you cook in a pan with oil and cream of tartar comes out of clothing and carpet best, in case you were wondering), pencil (if you don't mind sharpening it every time they bite the lead off and don't mind that you can never find a pencil with an eraser on it) or pens (see comment about not being washable) or other craft supplies (a two-year-old or so can use a children's scissors and glue stick, if you give them a stick with just a little bit in it, so they don't eat it all, see comment about toxicity or not in products labeled nontoxic when they are overconsumed).
Make sure they are well-fed. Nothing like being hungry to make a little one twice as bothersome.
Use the library for books on tape and other resources, so the kids don't always have to have you there. Schedule any songs (Bible verses, books on tape, geography songs, etc) for about 1/3 of the way through and encourage the littles to dance and sing along, and schedule the videos (mathtacular, discover and do, movie of the book you are reading) the next 1/3 of the way through, so you have at least one interruption per day that can help to entertain the littles.
If at all possible, keep them in the same room as you, or at least nearby and check on them frequently. There is nothing like feeling good about finishing the day's worth of homework only to discover that not only did your youngest two figure out that if you unroll the toilet paper, more of it fits in the toilet, but also worked on the other toilet, and bathtub as well, and that your one year old has some of it in her mouth, but it is green, and her shirt is all wet. And they found your hidden stash of markers and decorated not only themselves, but the walls as well, which leaves you only hoping the green was from the marker. Plus managed to dump two open boxes of cereal on the floor because you forgot to put them up off the table. And now you have to run to the store for more toilet paper, markers, and cereal, and see above comment about taking kids out in public after they colored on themselves.
Save some of the more "fun" stories for bedtime, Lion Storyteller is a good one here.
Remember that most people, pushing themselves, never work more than three jobs at a time. So if you are being teacher, babysitter, and chief chef, not to mention mother, art director, principal, fight manager, task master, timekeeper, school nurse, guidance counselor and psychologist all at the same time, you probably aren't going to have much time left over to play housekeeper as well. That's OK. Save school time for school time and cleaning time for cleaning time. If you haven't finished yet, and dh (dear husband) comes home and looks strange, you could just smile and say "well, at least you don't have to go get the snake to unclog the toilets again" or "well, you can either cook something for supper, or help the kids clean up the living room, I'll leave it up to you to decide which if you want the meal to be on time tonight."
I know someone is going to think this is wrong, but Mathtacular on TV, or any movie starring a vegetable, along with a few other select TV shows and movies is fair game when I don't want to be interrupted. For anyone who holds the personal opinion that TV does rot the mind (which it more than likely does) can see above comments about windows, toilets, eating green paper like substances, as well as other such dangers that didn't make this list such as a 12 month old jumping on the bed and knocking two teeth out for comparable situations. In my mind, it is better to watch a little TV and risk rotting their mind that to risk having them climb up and knock the dresser over on top of their heads again and perhaps leave them without any mind at all after they dumped both the dresser and large TV on top of them.
Let dad do some. Especially if he is good at a subject. Here it is science. I am horrible at it. Got kicked out chemistry twice in high school while getting A's. Who knew very hot beakers over bunson burners exploded if you filled them up with cold water? And shot across the room, throwing glass everywhere, including cutting the instructor's face. And making him really, really mad. So dad does science. Probably better for all of us that way. And maybe even safer.
Looking back, I think I should have put this in the humor forum, but it didn't seem quite so humorous before I started. And, yes, I am speaking from experience here.
Some other suggestions are to realize ahead of time, that you are going to have to do your schooling in short "periods." With little walking the hall breaks in between. Kind of like public school.
So, you figure out what is the hardest/most difficult and plan to do that during the best/quietest time of day. Realize that the hardest might change from time to time, so keep evaluating. The best time is usually right after breakfast, lunch, or during naptime. Those are usually effective. You can have them do seatwork while you eat, and you can read to them while their bodies are slightly still and their mouths are too full to talk too much and they are eating if you need a bit more time.
Have the older kids go to their room to work on workbooks while you are cooking, cleaning, or doing something with the little ones. These are great for the noisier times of day. Math is a good one. We use Math-U-See, because then they can just watch the 5 minute or less instructions for the day, and go to work without me. If they have questions on how to do it, they watch it a couple more times. If they still have questions, then I help.
We use books on tape for some of the read-alouds, because they can do those when I am busy or at work or at college. Really nice. We also do DVD programs for some of the subjects.
Another thing we do differently from most families is we don't take time off, or if we do, as little as possible. Thanksgiving--Friday and Saturday (Saturday is our day of rest). Christmas? The 25th-27th. Summer? This year it was August 1st-15th. One of the reasons for this is that I find it is soooooooo much easier to get in that routine and keep it going than to take 2 months to get a good routine going, take Christmas break for a couple weeks, get another routine going, do really great, take three months off, get another routine going, etc. Just keeping it going cuts back on a lot of that stress. The kids know what to expect and when to expect it. There is a lot less whining and complaining this way. We do sometimes do less during the summer, because of all the other activities, and take more days off, but we just, for the most part, do some stuff every day, and lots of stuff at least a couple days a week. This is a good time to do all that stuff that you fell behind on during the year or wanted to do but couldnt' find the time.
I also "buddy them up." My daughters a buddies because my oldest is better with the baby, and then my boys are buddies. That means that while I am working with my daughter, my oldest son knows that he needs to try to keep his little brother busy, and sometimes the youngest follows them. But either way, I bought myself more time, and have at least one kid busy. Then my oldest knows she has to watch her sister. So we get breaks.
Do "family" read-alouds. The littles can sit in on stories way over their heads, and it hasn't hurt my four year old to do Core 2 as well as Core P 4/5, even though he's going to do it again in a couple years. The babies like to listen in as well. It makes things easier. And, they know what to expect.
I have found that the single most important thing to keeping my house sane is to have some sort of a routine. We don't do the same things at the same times every day. Our life is way too busy for that. But we do something every day. That cuts way down on outside behaviors that can interfere with everything else.
Last fall, when we had 11 children in our house at one point, all under 10, we found that we really struggled unless we kept our expectations almost the same every day. Telling the children, every day you will clean your room, take a shower, and do some schoolwork made it a 'normal' rather than an abnormal. Even on our day of rest, we did Bible and devotions, and Bible verses. Also, we did handwriting (our weekly verse from Reason for Handwriting written neatly on decorative paper).
We don't do every subject every day. We don't do every assignment every day. We have a hard time following a schedule. But as long as we know that every day we have to do something, it helps us move along just fine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)