Prep Schedule For Mom

Right now it should be spelling, but here we go!  Seize the moment! Here you go, Marni. How much prep time do I take per class...approximately.

I prepare almost all the devotionals to go along with our monthly theme, which starting in March has to do with Civility, in the context of "What makes a good society/government?"  (Hey, just watched "The Giver" as an example of false civility...hmmmmmm.)

I try to pick out books that are either classics themselves or as classic as they can get (first-hand sources, etc.)  I try to pick something for the whole year to study out of gradually, sometimes finishing it before the end of the year or not finishing it at all. I try to consider what age group might want to join me on my personal journey of learning and accommodate the assignments accordingly.

As I prepare, I keep in my mind that this is about my education as well as theirs and I need to treat it as such. I cover this in my second video segment of "you, not them".

I generally don't do any curriculum that spells out assignments, Saxon math and Wile's biology books are the closest I get.  I do a lot of reflection time and discussion, hand's on, treats and supplemental quick videos.  The more ways of learning something, the better they learn it!  I also sometimes cut things short or make them longer, depending upon the need.

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Monday: Leadership Academy
6 am "Aspire" Class: (from Kevin Hall's book) only my 13 year old has been coming, but it has been fantastic one-on-one time and good for both of us.
Prep: Read "Aspire" chapter (15-30 minutes) and try to think of video, story or small activity to reinforce it.
Donuts/breakfast food and hot chocolate/juice

Leadership Moment: most everyone 14 and under
-Sometimes I just do this as part of the devotional.  This morning we finished up "Service-Oriented Leadership and watched an "Encouragement" video on Values.com and read the story about Maximillian Kolbe ("The Angel of Auschwitz"?) from the Book of Virtues.  Powerful stuff.
-Sometimes we do a group word study (I try to do this at least once a month)
-Spelling encouragement, poem review, penmanship, leadership games...these are all ideas!

Thinking About Thinking: my 17 and 19 year old have been doing this with me
Prep: Read the article for the week out of "Thinking about Thinking" (a textbook of articles from BYU-Idaho)--30 min prep-- or on the fourth week be prepared to do the "Great Books Discussion"
We are working our way through the 10 year reading plan.

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Tuesday: Geo-conquest
I try to do a "Geo-Safari" or seterra.org map on these days...just one.  The kids are out-doing me on this one.  

State Spotlight: 13 and under (14 y.o. wanders in and out)
Prep: none, unless I am the one in charge of the state presentation for the week.  Normally I just have one child who has volunteered to do a presentation or a prezi.  I will roll out the map, help them sing the "Fifty Nifty" song while they try and follow along or we will put mini-marshmallows on each state and let them take turns picking and naming them to get them familiar with where they are at.

Time Machine: 13 and under
Prep: read the stuff for history and pick one or more chapters to do a quick activity on, something interactive, artistic and memorable.  Sometimes, when we are on the road for some kind of trip, I will just pick a chapter to read, like the one on "Gettysburg."  "History of US" by Joy Hakim.  Powerful stuff.

World Summit: 13 and older
Prep: Everyone who comes has to have gathered at least one news article from the area of the world (or the topic--last week's was "presidential candidates" and we each took one or two).  Normally we each have two and sit and present and discuss while looking at our world map laid out on the table.

History: 11-17, depending upon who comes prepared
Prep: Read the section and do either a graphic summary, come prepared to teach one or more of the chapters, or do a project. (My project is normally to get the "Time Machine" ready, find one or more videos to supplement the material and then help take turns teaching the chapters.)
This is the most reading prep I do for any other class except for the Great Books discussion.

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Wednesday: Eureka! 
I am normally completely burned out by this point and the rest of the week is a walk in the park...or (if I plan ahead) I work on the reading for next week.  Never happens until Saturday...maybe.

Anatomy: 13 and under
Prep: Glance through chapter to determine topic. (We are using Apologia's "Anatomy" book but also like Wile's "Science in the Beginning" book.)  Make sure I have materials I need for experiments (or find out which ones I cannot do because I don't have the materials :), lol.)  Pick out a couple "supplementary" videos online.

I read through it with the kids as we discuss it, supplementing with any awesome knowledge I have picked up over the years.  Or just enthusiasm.  I have them "stop and teach" each other frequently, encourage them to take notes in their books and use my white board to draw pictures.

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Thursday: Imaginative Arts

Authors in the Attic: Everyone except 17 year old.
Prep: write my own "thing," whether a blog post from earlier that week or a poem. (Check out "poemswoems" for our blog of awesomeness :).)

Art project?  Sometimes I just get out paper and art supplies.  Sometimes I actually sit and do it more with them. I have natural artists who don't need a lot of encouragement.  Sometimes I even come up with a cool project before hand (4 times since the beginning of the school year).

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Friday: Catch up day!!
All those classes we didn't get to the rest of the week because of sickness, arguing, doctor's appointments, etc, we have this day.  Generally, I will just shift days if we have major interruptions to keep our "flow."

Latin: we do this twice a week, but we use the "Getting Started With Latin" which involves absolutely no prep for me.

Mom's Reading: only prep for this is finding a winner!   We have stopped reading books mid-read because they "feel wrong."  Just finished "Heidi" and "Tuck Everlasting"...next one will be...hmmm.  So many options. So little time. We do this pretty much every day but Saturday and everyone except my college student and husband listen in, although I think my oldest son (17) will be stopping soon.

Follow-up ideas on "You not Them" in answer to some questions I got from people:

(I was nursing my baby at the time and had just exercised, but I had to seize the day!...here are my answers.  As people have ideas, I hope they will comment below!)

The Imperfect Spelling Bee Works Perfectly

The smells of a quick lentil/spinach dal sauce with rice wafts through the air as the house rumbles with the murmur of 8 people quizzing each other in preparation for the spelling bee tonight.  What a cozy combination!  Super easy meal, quick and yummy!

I just finished a grueling day of trying to finish up our "Great Conversations" reading for our 3 pm discussion and it is time to unwind...and plan out menus for the rest of the month.   Sigh.  Maybe not.  Ideas for this blog post are competing with a darling seven year old daughter who wants me to quiz her on spelling.  I love the passion and enthusiasm shown as they quiz each other. It normally only surfaces 30 minutes before the bee itself, but I have seen the effects of the spelling bee spill over into their writing and vocabulary so it is worth it!

Read "Laddie" and their spelling bee.  We have adapted that to our home.  We host a grueling once to twice a month showdown: boys vs. girls (with Pipalicious--age 9--graciously helping out to even up the numbers since my Isaak in heaven isn't helping beef up the numbers right now :S).  Dad has the different "levels" take turns and alternates words between spellers, with a missed one available for the other team to match.  Here is a sample:

Piper and Hava:

stem

hem

gem

amen

men

brain

shape

cape

tape

paper

Drew, Lily, Hyrum:

speech

language

memories

lobe

position

logic

image

figure

castle

mountain

leadership

kindness

responsibility

service 

sacrament

beautiful

sign language

tranquilizer

unicorn

cymbals

picture

geography

machine

circus

elephant

Kel, Tova, Mary, Quinn:

occipital

parietal

metallurgy

aggregate

mnemonically

fetishes

repository

matrilineal

animist

syphilis

hypothalamus

amygdala

hippocampus

vitreous humor

sclera

corpuscle

Chernobyl

mustache

Don Quixote

theoretician

There are many sites to choose from for words but normally I just pull them from ones I have spelled for the kids, ones I have missed recently or things we are studying.  The kids can also gain extra points for their team by "spelling up" and successfully spelling words on the list older than themselves. (In the case of the oldest ones, Quinn pulls some out of the hat.)

Shoot.  Spent too long doing things outside of the kitchen.  The three year old boy is raiding the sugar cookies we are icing and eating after the bee.  Darn.

I would like to say that we have it on schedule twice a month.  Well, maybe I wouldn't, then you would realize you can have great spellers if you only have 15 total spelling bees in your home.  Ever.  We have times when we are good to do it, times when we don't, but something about opening up the world of spelling is contagious.  They learn basic patterns from the lists we do end up doing and it is not "do or die" so Mom and Dad don't stress about it if it gets postponed.

The winners out of five "rounds" (spelling bees) get to have the losers make dinner for them, serve them, and clean up...so cool!!

Tears, pressure, cheers, support...it is all a part of the "fun," I just sit there  willing them to get them right, knowing how quickly they feel crushed.  Maybe it is also good to feel "failure" in a safe place?

My kids love it.

Student Accountability

Most common form we use (click on the links in the description of which one you want to use)

Other forms generated by Williamsburg Academy and my friend Marni and reasoning behind it

Real-life glimpse and "scheduling" video

I talk a lot of idealism. I shoot for it. I live in reality.

"One day in 10 is a good homeschooling day."  I heard this when I started homeschooling and believe it...maybe one in 12 for us idealists.

Actually, over the years, my idea of "good" has maybe just changed.  I have seen that my kids can put in the math when they need to and it is enough. I have seen how much they grow from "bad" days full of discussions of "comparative homeschooling technique morality" (or "I don't see why I have to do this!" or "I am so tired of my siblings getting into my stuff!!").

This morning I stepped out of my moment of frustration as I looked at the above table: 10 am and just cleaning up breakfast.  Wait, I told myself. We already went to the gym as a family and watched them not only improve their basketball skills but see them support the little ones, stepping outside of their "peer" and "competitive" mentality to build them up.  I reorganized the girls' clothes drawers and we talked about the joys of organization.  We reminisced about different places we have lived and the relative quantity of clothes we had. We spoke about needing to get rid of the excess to help the poor.

Life's lessons.

I think that every homeschooling home has more lessons happening than they realize.

We watched a few videos and talked about becoming more like Christ while we waited in anticipation for hootenannies (german pancakes) to finish cooking. (They took a lot longer than poor Liliputian (13) hoped they would and she was in tears in the kitchen.)  We watched the films, discussed a bit, ate breakfast with fervor and then did our "closing song and prayer" as people were leaving.

Liliputian and I were able to discuss the hormonal surges that start when a girl is around 13 and how it will affect her her whole life, lucky lady :).  We did this as she did her "mom help" of getting the potatoes cut and put into the pot for dinner. In the meanwhile, Papaya (5) was cutting up carrots and Spooner (3) was unwrapping bouillon cubes and dropping them on the floor and in the soup.  The very tired a little bit sick baby was entertained in his bumbo chair on the counter-top as I stayed right by him so he couldn't lurch off.  Cutting and washing potatoes, supervising dinner prep (I have appointments later to day that make this a must for ease later!).

The older boys are at the gym after picking up a "new" futon couch for an additional bed upstairs. (One less person on the floor!)  Chugger-dude (11) is sitting next to me typing up his journal of the events of yesterday, reminiscing about eating an entire giant burger on his date with his sister and asking me how to spell things. (Organizing thought, learning to spell, reviewing the day...)  Below is one thing he worked on.  For his science "test" he was supposed to have races between boys and girls building card houses (or just time everyone) but ended up just spending a lot of time trying to just build one on his own:

 
I love that we have talked about Thomas Edison this week (or "time machine" cop-out of watching the one on "Daily Motion" from Nest Entertainment).  All these instances of "failure" keep cropping up and we keep plugging away!  My family home evening lesson on Monday was all about not giving up, and that this life is, in fact, a laboratory of time for us to "get it right" after getting it wrong so many times! (Cool video about that here.)

Here is our "wall of books" in the unfinished front room...I needed my books and games!!

Yesterday I did a video about "Scheduling" for youtube for anyone who wants to hear things I have learned over the years that I adopt into our schedule.

Yes. I am aware of how I look.  One of the most humbling experiences of my life doing these videos. Hope they help at least one person!

Using My Second Best Friend: The White Board

My first inanimate best friend is a red rubber "licker" or spatula.  Best thing for getting every possible miniscule portion of brownie batter out of the bowl. Love it.

My white boards are a close second. I never have enough.

Right now, I have one that is an ongoing month calendar, one for all of our spelling words, one for our daily schedule and my and the family's weekly goals and one for the master plan (my favorite one)!

Realistically, as you can see our "board" daily schedule has a LOT of wiggle room for the kids to do their own, self-directed activities and play.  I find that I can look at a board like this and still feel stressed and possibly not being able to accomplish everything because I know that lurking in all those "spaces" are agency-driven awesomeness that I have a hard time keeping up with and trying to fit in my own preparation and studies...not to mention just "being mom" stuff!

Here is a glimpse at the rest of our week so the kids can have a chance to get ready.

Family Work

Here is a video covering how we implement and take care of jobs:

FAMILY WORK
By Kathleen Slaugh Bahr and Cheri A. Loveless

I grew up in a little town in northern Utah, the oldest daughter in a family of 13 children.  We lived on a small 2 ½ acre farm with a large garden, fruit trees, and a milk cow. We children loved helping our dad plant the garden, following behind him like little quail as he cut the furrow with his hoe and we dropped in the seeks.  Weeding was less exciting, but it had to be done.  I was never very good at milking the cow.  Fortunately, my brothers shared that task. In the autumn, we all helped with the harvest. I especially loved picking and bottling the fruit. It required the hands of all 13 of us plus Mom and Dad. We children swarmed through the trees picking the fruit. My dad would fire up an old camp stove where we heated the water to scald the fruit. My mother supervised putting the fruit in jars, adding the sugar, putting on the lids…When the harvest was complete, I loved looking at the freezer full of vegetables and all the jars of fruit. They looked like jewels to me.

Caring for our large family kept all of us busy most of the time. Mother was the overseer of the inside work, and Dad the outside, but I also remember seeing my father sweep floors, wash dishes, and cook meals when his help was needed. As children we often worked together, but not all at the same task. While we worked we talked, sang, quarreled, made good memories, and learned what it meant to be family members, good sons or daughters and fathers or mothers, good Americans, good Christians.

As a young child, I didn't know there was anything unusual about this life. My father and mother read us stories about their parents and grandparents, and it was clear that both my father and mother had worked hard as children. Working hard was what families did, what they always had done. Their work was "family work," the everyday, ordinary, hands-on labor of sustaining life that cannot be ignored--feeding one another, clothing one another, cleaning and beautifying ourselves and our surroundings. It included caring for the sick and tending to the tasks of daily life for those who could not do it for themselves. It was through this shared work that we showed our love and respect for each other--and work was also the way we learned to love and respect each other.

When I went to graduate school, I learned that not everyone considered this pattern of family life ideal. At the university, much of what I read and heard belittled family work. Feminist historians reminded us students that men had long been liberated from farm and family work; now women were also to be liberated. One professor taught that assigning the tasks of nurturing children primarily to women was the root of women's oppression. I was told that women must be liberated from these onerous family tasks so that they might be free to work for money…

Some have tried to convince us of the importance of family work by calling attention to its economic value, declaring, as in one recent study, that a stay-at-home mom's work is worth more than half a million dollars.¹ But I believe assigning economic value to household work does not translate into an increase in its status or power. In fact, devaluing family work to its mere market equivalent may even have the opposite effect. People who see the value of family work only in terms of the economic value of processes that yield measurable products--washed dishes, baked bread, swept floors, clothed children--miss what some call the "invisible household production" that occurs at the same time, but which is, in fact, more important to family-building and character development than the economic products. Here lies the real power of family work--its potential to transform lives, to forge strong families, to build strong communities. It is the power to quietly, effectively urge hearts and minds toward oneness…