Exposure and energy
I let my kids watch a bit of the news today, off and on, to follow the developments in the Boston story. My oldest son was really fired up about the hunt for justice and said he wanted to be one of those guys who does that kind of a job. Oh, great, just what every mom wants to hear. Watching the news prompted some good discussions such as the validity of the news reports and what drives a person to commit a terrorist act. We spent most of the day in academics followed by our FLL meeting and a birthday party. I’m so fortunate to be around a group of moms at our club meeting who work tirelessly to see that their children’s education takes a high priority. So inspiring..
Spring is here, and I have a laundry list of activities that I want to do with my kids. Will blog that later. I also have business ideas running through my brain. For now, it’s in the wee hours of the morning, and I need to regroup for tomorrow and converse with my husband.
A side note-check out the math site, IXL. They have lots of tutorials and games for free that are really good. Calvert incorporates many of their videos with the Math in Focus books. Don’t sign up for IXL’s program as it’s not worth spending the money.
More tomorrow..
Being prepared
I’m a big fan of being prepared. Along with preparedness is staying organized. Maybe that’s partly what keeps me on the sanity side in this homeschooling world.
It’s close to one in the morning, and I’m up prepping for all of the activities that will occur later today. It’s somewhat like directing a play. There are many moving parts that have to come together to make the show run smoothly. We’ll see once the curtain goes up..
Discovering your child’s personality type
I’m up late (2:00 a.m. with green tea and tostitos) reading on the 8 types of personalities according to Jen Lilienstein of KidzMet. I downloaded her book tonight, The Parent’s Playbook for Learning and am going through the types that I think my oldest 2 kids are. Her book gives insight into choosing appropriate extracurricular activities based on their specific personality characteristics. This is an area where I’m struggling. I’d like to help them find areas that interest them, and that complement their traits. I think doing so would really enhance the experience for them and may lead to other areas of interests and expertise development down the road.
Lilientstein’s book is a manual of sorts. I’d recommend reading it and consider purchasing based on what I’ve seen so far. Her insight is giving me a sense of direction for future choices. Of course, check your local library first to see if they have a copy. But, what a great concept to think about as you are teaching your child and trying to get them plugged into areas of value.
https://www.kidzmet.com/content_pages/view/about-us
www.amazon.com/Parents-Playbook-Learning-Jen-Lilienstein
Need more time
There’s just not enough hours in the day for me and cloning myself would really help in that area. We had a few activities tonight along with a crazy good gym class that I took, but still I didn’t finish academics today where I wanted to.
I spent the entire morning on math with the 3 oldest kids! Math for us, at least right now, requires complete supervision and one-on-one teaching. I’m just not comfortable letting a video teach them their basic skills. Maybe as they get older I can gravitate that way, but right now I have to work hard to keep them engaged and focused even for just short bursts of time. I can only imagine where their minds might wander if I didn’t stay zoned in with them. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on what math programs are available in the middle school years and am still trying to decide which program(s) to purchase as our oldest progresses. I guess I want to learn along with them even though that process requires a huge amount of time and energy. I’ve learned recently that “ThinkWell” offered through Hopkin’s prestigious CTY program can be obtained independently for a fraction of the cost, so I’d like to investigate their curriculum.
It’s now 11:00 p.m., and I’m making leaded coffee. I just finished a few pages of Latin with the oldest son. I’m behind on where I want to be with this study. Nighttime seems about the only place to fit the language in with everything else going on. I’ll be up for a while prepping for the math class that I’m teaching along with going over a research paper. We are covering the 4’s times tables this week, so I’m working on a couple of games for those students that will hopefully make it more interesting for them. Don’t want to hear zzzzzz in the classroom.
I did cook tonight-fried chicken strips and macaroni shells. My daughter said the chicken was too hard to eat! The strips did look good but were bland in taste-ugh..
Ivy League Homeschooling 