Wireless...Literally.

Next week a strange phenomenon will overtake our household. Lives will be forever altered. Okay, it's not the end of the world, but my son is full of angst. We will be without TV and internet for at least four days. Oh! The Horror!

As for me, I'm giggling inside. I little twisted and demented laugh is ready to burst. We have been housebound all winter and have spent way too much time in front of the computer. It's time to do some nature walks and remember why we love Spring. The birds are chirping and the leaves are starting to bud. We feel just like all the animals scurrying around us. You can feel it and smell it in the air.

So go wireless, get unplugged! I dare you! Your family might revolt, but the world will not stop spinning. Walk the neighborhood and pick up trash. Clean out the kids' toys. Have a picnic. Bring out the

Procrastination

Of all the traits I want to pass on to my kids, my gift of procrastination is NOT one them. I swear I work better under pressure, but what if something comes up in the last minute? While I got through college on Big Gulps and M & M's (nothing like a sugar high to get you through an all night cram session), I would like to teach planning and organization as a better way to function.

We all have our different styles of teaching and planning. Even in unstructured schooling, there is a level of organization that must be involved. With different types of learners in the home, we might need several ways to keep them engaged. Many new homeschoolers are so overwhelmed because they think they need to run a tight ship and keep their kids on a plan like a regular school. The whole point of being at home is so that the parent can decide what works best.

For us, we need a schedule and a plan. We need some guidelines and dates to keep us on track. This is because, as I mentioned earlier, I am the Queen of Procrastination. If we followed my natural instinct, we would be up at 3:00 in the morning doing vocabulary.

So my advice to new homeschoolers is this, find out what works for you and your kids. Ask a lot of questions. We like to laugh at ourselves and some mistakes we have made. Make homeschooling an "experience". Relax! Be excited! If you are stressed about it, then your kids will feel like something is wrong. Pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses. Since I know I tend to do things at the last minute, I force myself to use a schedule. This is the only way to get things done on time without panic.

As time goes on, I will posts links to some of my favorite sites and make copies of my organizational materials. That is of course, if I don't procrastinate!

Happy Homeschooling!

Dogs In Elevators

What does that have to do with homeschooling? Well, one question make you think of another. As we are still hotel hopping, I have to walk the dog through the hotel to the appropriate doggie spot in the back. We have a very friendly, but nervous black lab. She is not understanding the concept of traveling on elevators. She enters quite eagerly but has the constant look of confusion when the door closes and then opens to another world. I just haven't figured out how to explain this to her. Anyway, we had to share the elevator with another person and as the magic door closed, my dog shrank away from him with her tail behind her legs. The man in the elevator said, "Your dog's not used to being around people is she?"
Now to my point. I got defensive and found myself explaining that she is socialized. It's just the elevator, and all the strange suitcases, and smells, and noises.

Wait! Am I still talking about my dog? As a homeschooler, how many times to I have to explain that my kids are getting "socialized"? Just because my daughter won't talk to the lady in line at the grocery store, it doesn't mean my kids are stuck in some world where they have no friends or playtime. It means that she's shy and has been told not to talk to strangers. Safety 101. Please don't take it personally, I'm sure you are a nice grandma, you're just not her grandma.
My kids are surrounded my people of all ages, backgrounds, genders, and religions. I do not believe that they need to be surrounded by their own age groups all day long. When they move into society, they will need to deal with all types of people. This is socialization.

So, next time I will not ramble on and defend my dog or my right to homeschool. I will just smile and keep my mouth shut.

More About Us

Please forgive me for this post. I will be adding our information and some pictures as soon as I make sure I can link to this entry. Just blink and put this out of your mind. I am a work in progress.

Comment Policy

This is a family-oriented blog and all comments should be appropriate for children, moms, dads, and grandparents to read. If I think a comment is too risky for my kids to read, then I reserve the right to not have it published. I love comments and suggestions so please post anything that you think would benefit myself or other readers. The goal of this blog is to create a helpful and safe forum for homeschoolers and their families. So join me in a cup of coffee, maybe even two, and enjoy our crazy days!

Have School, Will Travel

We are back from our trip and enjoyed school and fun on the road. Since we haven't had many days above freezing, the kids and I took advantage of a heated pool at the hotel. Naturally, this counts as our exercise class. It was hard to get motivated at first but we made sure to do some school each day. Laptops make life easy. We each have our own laptop and bag. This helps us stay organized and ready for action.

We also had a good laugh trying to come up with our online pseudonyms. I think we have decided on either "The Bear" or "Mr. Grizzly" for my husband. Whenever we are teasing my husband, my son always says "Don't poke the bear!" In this respect, my daughter will be named Goldilocks. The only difference is that she would have chased the bears back into the woods and taken over their house. She's a shy one but has a heck of a stubborn streak. We are still having trouble with my son's name. We'll keep working on his. He is reading the blogs and giving me feedback so I'm sure he'll come up with something suitable.

Eww! School on Sunday.

I am slowly gaining on this blogging site. Since this is a homeschooling blog, I will say that there are not many conventional days in my home when it comes to teaching. We love to be spontaneous. We are planning a trip and even though today is Sunday, my son will be responsible for mapping our trip. We will also plan our fuel cost and all expenses we might incur. We'll start with a projected budget and compare that to what we actually spend. And no, I don't make him do school all of the time. I'm not obsessed. We are actually quite laid back. If we were going to an amusement park, I don't think I would make my son worry about money or school. This is a working vacation, so we will find a balance of work, school, and play.

Scheduling is something that has to be very flexible for us. Opportunities are taken when we find them. We have some daily lessons that are done just about every weekday. These would include, reading, guitar, Spanish, Time4Learning, exercises and writing. The rest will vary with our interests at the time. For example, my son loves an online game that involves horses. To build on that, we are doing a project that will research ten of his favorite horses. He will write and illustrate a book on their strengths, similarities, origin, etc. This will be an ongoing project that will encompass many different skills.