Our Matthew bookmarks! The kids had fun trying out the Greek letters. We did have fun today with the color the states challenge from Week4 and we decided to make the bean necklaces for our second craft from the US. I'm *thinking* of doing some extra science projects this week that relate to forests. I'll see how that goes and share later! Does anyone else have weeks like this? Also, if anyone else has tips on what to do with your younger children while doing all the school required for your older children, I would LOVE some tips! Thanks!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Giving Up!
Sometimes I just feel like GIVING UP! And sometimes, I just CAN'T DO IT! I wish I had something encouraging to follow this up with, like a great verse I read about trusting in the Lord, He will make you strong...etc, etc. But I don't. We skipped school on Friday because the younger two had been sick the whole week and I was just done. So, we went to McD's for lunch, then to our art class, and Steve and I had a date scheduled...then we got a call that one of our good friends had had a stroke!!!! I think I've just been a little shut down since then. I'm not exactly sure. I had a great time at the Hearts at Home conference on Saturday, I should be refreshed and encouraged...but I'm not. This week it seems that the kids' character issues are taking most of the day to deal with and I can't say that I'm all too excited to deal with them! But isn't that why I homeschool? Because we believe that character matters...more than academics...UGH. Taking Friday off also made me a little stressed thinking of how I would catch up with everything this week. At least that has turned out OK... Here is one highlight from the bits and pieces of school we did last week:
Our Matthew bookmarks! The kids had fun trying out the Greek letters. We did have fun today with the color the states challenge from Week4 and we decided to make the bean necklaces for our second craft from the US. I'm *thinking* of doing some extra science projects this week that relate to forests. I'll see how that goes and share later! Does anyone else have weeks like this? Also, if anyone else has tips on what to do with your younger children while doing all the school required for your older children, I would LOVE some tips! Thanks!
Our Matthew bookmarks! The kids had fun trying out the Greek letters. We did have fun today with the color the states challenge from Week4 and we decided to make the bean necklaces for our second craft from the US. I'm *thinking* of doing some extra science projects this week that relate to forests. I'll see how that goes and share later! Does anyone else have weeks like this? Also, if anyone else has tips on what to do with your younger children while doing all the school required for your older children, I would LOVE some tips! Thanks!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yes, we have weeks like this! Weeks when I feel defeated, discouraged, and like you said "giving up." But we persevere to run the race God has called us to. No one said it would be easy or that we would never struggle. What we can do, as parents and teachers, is to continue to encourage our children and let them know that it's ok to rest, to take a break. But to also not let that break continue longer than it should. I've been known to call it a day just because we're having issues in one subject. Now, we take a short break and then move on to another subject. If I feel it's safe to return to the problem area, we do so that day. If not, I let it go and pick up where we left off the next day. We still have many struggles but we're trying to get to the root of those instead of ignoring them, hoping they'll go away. (And sometimes, we still just call it a day!!)
ReplyDeleteECC is more of a challenge for me this year because there's so much more material. We did Adventures last year and I remember feeling overwhelmed in the beginning but it got better as we became accustomed to the schedule. I'm hoping ECC will be the same, but we just started week 5 and I haven't seen any signs yet. I find it difficult to fit everything into one day in a reasonable amount of time. Some of the subjects take us longer to complete than the curriculum suggests. We adjust our schedule accordingly, but I wonder why it takes us longer. Is it something I'm not doing right? Is it laziness? What is it? These are the roots that I'm trying to identify so that we can deal with them and move on. Like a weed in the garden, if you don't get the entire root out, the weed will return and will become stronger.
Keeping youngsters occupied while working with older ones is a challenge. One thing I've done is to keep educational videos on hand. I know, I know. TV, right? Well, sometimes it's ok! Other times, I might get out some play dough or clay, coloring books, sticker activities, or try to prepare a craft or something pertaining to your older child's subject matter so that they don't feel excluded.
I hope that something I wrote helps in some way. Keep us updated!
I'm sorry you're feeling this way. But if you feel that it's too much somedays, do the geography game, math and reading. That way they get the basics of this year. Or you could do a subject a day. Art-Monday, Geography-Tuesday, Science-Wednesday, Math, reading and bible everyday. And remember, you DON'T have to do everything they list. They can look at books on the countries we're studying and still get the basic idea of where it is.
ReplyDeleteAs with younger ones, check out Annimated hero classics, Annimated bible stories, or annimated stories of the new testament. We can get them from our libraries over here. My kids still love them. They are a half hour long, which is just enough time to teach a subject or two. Then Bible can be done at night.
Hope today is better for you.
Thanks for the encouragement! My younger ones do love to play with play dough...I just have to remember to get it out once in awhile for them! We just started week 3 and the first couple days actually seemed...light? I'm just in a better space this week, I think! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDelete