Our homeschool year is beginning to wind down. Although we won't officially be done with our 2012-2013 year until mid June. We will take a break for Heritage Camp and then we will start our summer schedule.
Sticking with a Schedule
I have found that we do much better with some sort of schedule. Not too much but not too little, otherwise all "you know what" seems to break loose. My goal is to make our mornings, three days a week, be busy and productive with our school work. From 9:00-11:30 we will hit the books.
The older kids have worked hard in math this year, and the younger kids have made great progress with their pre-reading and reading skills. I really don't want all their hard work to go to waste and have to start all over when we begin again in the late summer or early fall.
That being said we all do need a bit of a break! The afternoons of our work days will be free as will all of Thursdays and Fridays. We will enjoy a week off for Heritage Camp, a week off during the 4th of July and a week off when cousins arrive from Vermont in August. We will have a final week off around Labor Day and before the official start of our 2013-2014 school year.
I think it will be just enough to keep the skills fresh, yet give us all a bit of down time from our school schedule. I know I'm looking forward to the down time as much as the kids!
Goals for the summer:
- Continue with Math
- Continue Religion Studies
- Continue All About Reading
- Read, Read, Read!
Stay tuned, next week I'm posting our summer bucket list, with a cute printable to use to make your own bucket list!
*post does contain affiliate links, see my disclosure page
For years I have joked that our family should be product testers, if something lasts in our family it will last anywhere!
I really can't believe I actually came up with 10 items that have lasted. With six kids and three of them boys - it's amazing. Thankfully I don't have to list all the things we have broken, like tv's, computers, etc. my list would be days long.
1. Gator - I realize this is a big ticket item, but this survived for 8 years in our house. 8 years of constant use in the summer, with multiple children. We just sold it this spring, it was actually still in pretty good condition.
2. Bean Bag Chairs - I purchased bean bag chairs several years ago and these things have lasted! These are not the plastic bean bags that crack and are uncomfortable to sit in because your skin sticks to them. A great investment for your family.
3. Blocks - you can't go wrong with a big set of blocks!
4. Thomas the Tank Engine - Another toy that we have had since our oldest was little. Thomas trains
5. Legos - aside from stepping on them in the dark, or sucking them up in the vacuum, this has been one of my favorite toys for my family. Countless hours have been spent playing with Legos!
6. Woody - Woody has been with us since our oldest turned two years old. Toy Story was his favorite movie. While Buzz seemed to be the most popular, he and I loved Woody. We looked all over for Woody, drove around to multiple stores in multiple towns. Well worth our search. Woody has been well loved, been on vacation with us, dragged around on countless stroller excursions, we even took Woody with us on our adoption trip to the Caribbean!
7. Doug & Melissa Puzzles - Great choices for all ages and stages. Sturdy pieces that will last and last.
8. Lands' End Hat - I'm a big fan of Land's End clothing, especially for kids. Their clothing lasts and wears well. This particular hat, which they don't carry anymore, has been around for about 10 years. It has been worn by somebody each winter. Now that's quality!
9. Pencil Sharperner - I realize this isn't a toy, but if you homeschool, and you homeschool boys, you know what a valuable tool this is!! We went through several pencil sharpeners before we found this workhorse. Worth its weight in gold I tell you!
10. Kitchen Toys - Several years ago I did the whole kitchen theme for the girls. We gave them cute aprons, a play kitchen, and all sorts of kitchen play food. The play kitchen is long gone, but ALL of the kids still play with the aprons and food. They play restaurant, store, ice cream parlor, they truly have had tons of imaginative play with these items.
Be sure to see the rest of the 10 in 10 series with iHomeschool Network.
It's no surprise that I love to read. I have always loved reading to my kids, and it's an important part of our homeschooling day. My oldest was a breeze to teach to read, he learned before starting Kindergarten. I thought this homeschooling stuff was pretty easy!
Reading Struggles
Then it came time for my second oldest son to learn to read. It didn't go quite as smoothly as I hoped.
However, I wasn't too concerned. He puts the Boy in BOY! He is active and would much rather move than sit, he loves animals and he loves to be outside. Plus, as active as he has always been, he loves books and his reading comprehension is incredible. I wasn't worried, I was pretty positive that it would all come together for him if he just had a little more time.
Soon his younger sister was reading, and reading very well. In fact, she would read things to him. His lack of reading fluency started to bother him just a bit. Then he started cub scouts and he started noticing that most of the boys could read better than he could. At that point we all thought it was time to get to the root of the issue, to see if there really was a problem.
Reading Help with Lexercise
That's when Lexercise entered the picture.
When I first learned about the services that Lexericse offered, I had Jonah take the free on-line Dyslexia test. He didn't do so great. We knew we needed to pursue this further.
I loved the concept of working with Lexercise. It was music to this busy mom's ears! A thorough reading evaluation without even leaving our home.
The Lexercise Process
The evaluator, Morgan, and I set up a time to work with Jonah. The evaluation took about 90 minutes via Skype. Morgan was very engaging and Jonah felt comfortable with her right away. I felt that she got a very accurate picture of his abilities and his personality. She stated on her evaluation that Jonah "was eager and cooperative. He seemed at ease for most of the testing and even made jokes while working." That's Jonah!
After the evaluation, Jonah was free to leave the room and she spent a few minutes chatting with me. She seemed to have a very good grasp of what was going on with him right away. She knew that vocabulary is not an issue with him and it wasn't necessary to test him in that area.
The following week, Morgan and I met again via Skype to go over the results. It was a relief to hear that Jonah did not have Dyslexia and that she felt this was an issue that he could overcome with some extra assistance.
Morgan spent about an hour going over the results of the previous weeks testing. We had ample time to discuss her findings. A few days later she e-mailed me a complete six page report and then followed up with a phone call.
Although Morgan's day job is a public school administrator, she is positive toward homeschooling. That component was important to me in order to have a good working relationship.
The plan is for Jonah and Morgan to meet once per week via Skype, and then for Jonah and I to work daily on our "homework". I'm looking forward to working with Lexercise and getting the extra help we need to make sure Jonah becomes a fluent and confident reader!
*I was given the review free of charge, however I was not required to give a positive review. The thoughts are my honest opinion of Lexercise!
Homeschool blogs are not only sharing ideas and encouragement, but they are trying to "sell" homeschooling as well. When you are passionate about something it overflows into wanting people to have or do what you do.
I hope I paint a fairly realistic view of homeschooling in our home. I'm not a perfect mom and make plenty of mistakes each day.
Here are some Homeschooling - Keepin' it Real TRUTHS!
I'm craft challenged and my kids are craft deprived. We don't generally do terribly creative things. However, I do work hard to provide my kids with a good education.
I have an almost constant worry about doing enough, doing enough of the right things, and just generally worried that I'm going to screw my kids up for the rest of their lives. What if all six kids are fighting over space in our basement when they are in their 30's and 40's??
I don't always feel like spending every minute of every second with my children. Some days I just want a full five minutes of peace and quiet.
Many days I feel like a total slacker and that I don't measure up as a "good" mom, let alone an adequate homeschooling mom.
I have days when I feel totally discouraged, and I wonder if anything I'm doing really matters. If I hear one more complaint about school work, about having to help with chores, about what's for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack - I just might go stark raving mad.
My favorite part of the day is often when my husband comes home, and not always because I missed him that day. It's just a relief to know that backup has arrived for the evening chaos routine.
Realistic Expectations for Homeschooling Days
We all have these kinds of days. I guess having the less than stellar homeschool days makes me appreciate the good days even more. And thankfully we do have plenty of good days.
We all have seasons when life in general just feels hard. Usually it's because we have taken our eyes off our goals or when we have been lax with prayer time and perhaps not as thankful to God for all the good that we do have. Been there, done that!
Thankfully, God, in his mercy, picks us up to do the whole thing over again the next day.
Be sure to read more Imperfect Homeschool day stories
