Day 82--What my kids think of homeschool

I asked the kids how they felt about how we homeschool, and the first thing they said was that we’re relaxed. So I asked them what that meant, and they gave me quite a list. Sam said, “Not having to do school when we don’t want to.” I’m not sure exactly what he meant, but I know they don’t mind doing school. Well, sometimes they mind doing math, but I accept that as the family hardship. Maybe he meant what Sarah said, “We don’t worry if we can’t do school.” You know there are plenty of days like that with my migraines, fatigue, projects at the old house (we finished painting the stairs today), and Jeff’s schedule.

Rachel likes the not worrying aspect too. She’s glad we aren’t worried about requirements (too much anyway). She said that we could do a lot of good school-type things from some list, but if we don’t do them, we’re still ok. I love that. She also said that she’s glad I don’t worry about grades as much as she does. It’s kind of funny that the girls think about what grades they get, because they really don’t get any. I only give a percentage grade on science tests so they have some idea about it, but for some reason it matters to them what they get. I haven’t figured out why.

They said they like that we don’t separate living from learning. I just put the learning of any subject in the same category. It’s been my job to teach them to get dressed, use the bathroom, cook, clean the house, read, write, multiply, understand government, manage money, be respectful, and serve others. What’s the difference? Why would I decide any of those things shouldn’t be done by me? Sarah was thinking that other people probably don’t do a lot of academic learning at home. They don’t have science experiments in the freezer or Egypt in the basement or China in the den. Sounds boring to her.

Then we talked about how we’re together all the time, having conversations. We talk all day every day. Sometimes we don’t get much else done. This is one of our favorite things about homeschooling. We know each other so well, we can tell what each other is thinking. It’s like we don’t need to talk because we talk so much! Sometimes they just say one word and it means this whole big thing, which totally cracks them up. We’re going to have to do one of our comedy sketches about it. Something they appreciate about my knowing them so well is that I can figure out ways to explain things to them so they get it. I admit that sometimes it takes a few times or a few dozen, but we get there eventually. Also, they get to help each other understand things.

They like how we sometimes have a great idea and start planning and get excited, but then we don’t do it. If we lose interest or momentum, it’s ok. Like when we read Murder on the Orient Express, we thought it would be fun to have a party with the teens at church and act it out. Rachel started writing parts and we talked about who would be good for each part, but we never did it. It still sounds like fun, but we’re not worried about not doing it. Sometimes it’s good to be able to quit something you don’t want to finish. That’s just real life.

Rachel said how she likes that they are influenced by our family culture and not the high school culture. This is the biggest reason we started homeschooling all those years ago, and it has worked out wonderfully for us. Sure, sometimes they’ve felt like they don’t know anything other kids know. But I tell them other kids don’t know all the things they know. Everyone is that way. All the kids that go to school don’t know all the same things either. Adults sure don’t. I tell them that nobody ever wants to compare what I know with what they know. As adults, we just talk and learn from each other. Everyone’s so different, and that’s what makes the world interesting.

See you tomorrow!

Day 81

I was listening to Julie Bogart's Facebook live this morning about literature, and I loved it! She talked for a while about reading a variety of genres and authors so we can find out about all kinds of people and places. I'm not sure how much variety we have in our reading around here. Maybe that's something I should think about more deliberately.

Last night, we were talking about reading in schools. When Jeff and I were in school, they didn't really have us read many books. I can't say for sure what schools do now, but I don't imagine it's too different. I do know kids that have had to read several books over the summer as homework before the year began. I don't know if they're supposed to be able to remember everything and participate in analyzing them when school starts or what. I would never be able to remember that much from that many books if I had to cram them all in during one summer break.

When I was a teenager, sometimes we would just get the Cliff's Notes version and never read the book. What a terrible way to experience literature. It's was sad, but I had one teacher that read aloud to us a couple times a week. She read whole books to the class, and we loved it. I thought she was just amazing. Hey, do you think that's why my kids think I'm amazing? I don't remember any analyzing of literature that I surely did in high school, but I remember being read to. Did you have any teachers read to you in high school?

Rachel finally finished her application for college Saturday night. It's a church school, so she has to get an ecclesiastical endorsement, and she's having an interview for that tomorrow night. Then she has to wait until February to see if she's been accepted. Torture. I think colleges do all that to see if you can endure the application process; and if you're really serious and make it through, then they'll take you. That probably gets you ready for life more than any class you'll take.

See you tomorrow!

Day 80

Do you have pie for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving? Pumpkin, of course. We love love love pumpkin pie at our house. I wonder if that's because we make it with sour cream. It's so good; you should try it.We had a nice Thanksgiving with my parents and half of my siblings yesterday. After eating, we put up their Christmas tree. I say we, but I mean my kids and my brother. Jeff and I watched. And laughed. I don't know how many strands of lights my mom has for her tree, but it's a LOT. She always says she likes to be able to read by the light of it ("from across the street," my brother adds). I don't think I've ever actually seen her read by it, but her tree looks way better than mine.

Today, after eating pie, we went over to the other house to put another coat of finish on the floor. It was just beautiful when we walked in. We had left before it dried last time, so when we didn't see it until today. I just love it. I think we're done. Jeff says two coats are enough. I hope he's right. We're going back tomorrow to see, and to paint the stairs.

The kids were doing schoolwork in the den while Jeff and I were coating the floor. He also replaced some insulation in the attic while we were there. It was a disgusting mess. He looked like he had been sitting in a mud puddle. He forgot to take clean clothes, and I didn't want that junk in my car. So he took off his outer shirt, pants, shoes and socks. Then he buttoned his coat around his waist so he'd be covered, and ran out to the car! I'm glad it was dark. I suggested having Sam give him his pants until he got to the car and I'd bring them inside and give them back, but Sam didn't want to do it. Jeff looked like he had on a skirt with arms. It was pretty funny.

See you next week!

Day 79

I am so sick of being on the couch! I can't get over this headache. It's not as bad now, but I'll have to go to sleep again--just like last night. We found a few Studio C sketches on youtube today that we haven't seen. I think that's probably all we'll find though. Sad. We didn't make the pies for tomorrow like we were supposed to. What a tired day, rainy too.

We always have Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. My dad has made the meal every year for as long as I can remember. My mom was in charge of pies until a few years ago. Then I started doing them. We're taking two pumpkin and one apple. I love that the kids can totally do pies without me, because I'm making the delicious, soft, warm dinner rolls. They have a stick of butter in them and then you dip them in another stick of melted butter before baking them. Crazy good. We're also taking sweet potatoes--just baked, and sautéed green beans.

Rachel was still working on essays today. Seems like there's an endless supply. She said there are nine of them to do. Well, I'm not sure you'd call them all essays. Technically, I guess only three of them are. But there are nine things to write like noteworthy accomplishments, why she wants to go there, experiences with leadership, skills and talents. It's exhausting. She's closing in though. I just think she'll have to double up on math lessons to finish her credits for the year!

Sarah started reading Whatever Happened to Penny Candy today and Sam is reading Whatever Happened to Justice, that Sarah thought was so boring. He's much more interested in it than she was. Wilson was always more interested in that sort of thing than Rachel too. But nobody around here wants to watch the news. We don't have a TV, so we have to look up any news we watch. I think I need to find some kind of student news though. Maybe that would be more fun for them than regular news.

See you soon!

Day 78

I've had an extreme migraine since Sunday, so I missed posting yesterday. I'm wishing I didn't have to go to sleep soon, because it's always worse when I wake up. We'll see.

Rachel's still working on those essays for her college application. She's trying to come up with "noteworthy accomplishments" that she can tell them about. We aren't much for extra stuff here. Sarah was saying she wouldn't have anything to put when it's her turn, so we thought it would be good for her and Sam to look at the application and see what kind of things they should consider doing during high school. I never thought of that, because that's not really how I roll. You know, no "teaching to the test" around here. But I guess it's an ok idea to energize or motivate some adventurous things that they might not think of otherwise.

Rachel has written about her experiences with making youtube videos for our channel and recording video auditions to try out for videos our church produces. She also told about writing her book that we're getting ready to self-publish. She spent time setting up an Etsy shop a while ago too, so we thought we might open it now and she can put that on the application. Now she has to tell them all about her skills and talents. She hates that kind of thing.

Sam and Sarah worked on science and math this afternoon, after I was able to sit up a little and talk. The math is still kicking Sarah's behind. There are just so many things to think of that aren't included in every problem. Oh, how she longs for a definite way of doing every problem. Every time.

We got an offer on the house today. They offered what we're asking! And they're totally excited, so hopefully this time it goes through. I'd love to start saving that money every month! We still need to put about three more coats of finish on the floor, though.

For several days, I've been watching a little video Wilson sent of him and Eliza. It's killing me! They're visiting Kamille's parents for Thanksgiving this week--all week! We get a little jealous. I found pictures on Facebook of Eliza with the little children of total strangers! Ok, so they know them, but I don't. I need to hug that baby! Here's the video. It's about 30 seconds long. I'm not sure if anyone but me wants to watch it, but I can't keep this much cuteness to myself!

See you tomorrow!

Day 77--Refinishing the Floor

I'm still having my doubts about reading The Making of America aloud to the kids. Rachel doesn't want to read it herself because she doesn't need any more Social Studies credits--kind of a stinking attitude, but I can't blame her. I told her that she needs to have a more thorough understanding of the Constitution than she has now, though. The others have time to study the book by themselves during high school, so I'm not worried about them. I just think it's too hard to pay attention while listening to it.  Wilson read it alone and wrote about each section; that worked great for him.

I never realized there were so many ways to just solve for X in a very simple problem. Today, Sarah was reading a story problem and she set up the problem 250 - 100 = X. Fine, but she wanted to add 100 to both sides. I guess I never taught her to combine all the like terms before trying to do anything else. She thinks I'm teaching her something new every single day. It all seems like the same thing to me. I've lost the Pre-Algebra DVD from MathUSee. If I could find it, she could listen to Mr. Demme. Not that she loves that, but I'm sure he's more thorough than I am. How did I teach it to Rachel and Wilson?

We've been working on the wood floor at the other house. We decided to just refinish it. It's so much cheaper than carpeting, and I think it's going to look fabulous! We rented a big sander and sanded it a few days ago, then the kids and I went yesterday to put finishing touches on the sanding. We had to do some with an electric hand sander by the walls and it was lighter in color than the rest, so the kids and I just took sand paper in our hands and blended it in. It didn't blend as well as I would have liked, but it was ok. We're going to paint the steps since it would be a ridiculous pain to use the hand sander on them. It was incredibly dusty. I was amazed at the amount of dust everywhere. I hope we got it all cleaned up, but I have my doubts.

Tomorrow, we're going over to start putting on coats of polyurethane. I think we're going to do four coats. We have to use water-based so I can go back into the house. If we used oil-based, I'd get migraines if I even got near it for months. My parents are having theirs redone too, but they're using oil-based. I wonder how long it will be until I can visit them without getting sick from the smell. Here's a fuzzy little video from yesterday.

See you next week!

Day 76--Having Fun

Yesterday, we used the theme of Sam's freewrite to play a game. I said a word and Sam said what that made him think of, then Sarah, then Rachel and back to me. We went around and around, laughing the whole time. Several things made us think of Dad. Cereal, milk, food. Do you see a theme here? I texted Kamille so she could play too. She said laziness made her think of a sloth on the couch in pj's at 2:00am. I think she meant me.

I've been on the couch today with a headache, so we had a Studio C marathon. It's a sketch comedy show on BYUtv. We've been sort of addicted to it since we went to Wilson and Kamille's. It gets funnier and funnier the more we watch it. In fact, it gave us an idea for a project that should be a hoot. We're going to write a sketch and put it on our youtube channel. Maybe we could even do it once a week.

We thought we'd call it Studio T. Clever huh? Our first idea for a sketch came from no one wanting to get out of their chairs to hand someone else something. I think we could make it hilarious. Well, to us anyway. See how much better a writing project can be when there's a real life reason to do it? Rachel's already making a list of ideas!

You know this already, but sometimes homeschoolers loose their books for days at a time. And Mom doesn't always know it. Apparently, Rachel put Sam's science book in a stack of stuff that we would never think it was in, on the day of his birthday party. That was like 12 days ago. He had been saying he couldn't find it off and on, but I guess it never alarmed anyone enough to do a thorough search. So today, I guess we were alarmed enough. He was worried about not getting the book done if he never found it, so I finally realized it was somewhere actually lost. After a LOT of searching, I decided to look in the impossible stack of stuff. And there it was! Yay for me.


See you tomorrow!