On my reading list for today

So, keeping with what's on my mind right now, homeschooling, I just have to remember to read a few things. My family growing up has a history of ADD and Dyslexia. This is not a bad thing, it's just different, so we have to find ways to work with M's attention span. As far as I can tell, I think most children do have a little of both ADD and Dyslexia, some overcome it easier than others. Me, growing up, I had some SERIOUS attention span problems. Sitting down in a school setting was rather hard for me. I'm figuring out, that M has had the same difficulties.

My mother recommended the book, "The Gift of Dyslexia" to me. Not only does it tell you signs to look for, but how to learn around/with these differences. So There is book no. 1 for me to read.

I have another issue that I've been worried about. I know they used to teach classes to several different aged children at a time...but I have found very little on how to deal with more than 3 kids at a time. I will have 3 in school, and 3 younger than school age. Technically O can be considered preschool age. But still. I have a 1 year old and I'm due in June with our 6th. That means dealing with a toddler and a newborn during school time. I have run across a website that I am in the middle of reading. Though they only address having 2 in school and a baby, it has thus far been helpful.

I will have a Kindergartner, First Grader, and Second Grader to work with. Teaching that close of grades, I'm not sure if it will be easier, or much more challenging. So far, my plan is to do a summer school pilot program. That way, if I fail, I can easily just keep my kids enrolled in the public school. They wont have missed any time off. But, I really am getting excited about this and I know, with support, I will NOT fail.

So far I have googled "What do kindergartens learn" and "what skills do kindergartens have" I have come up with a list of things that a Kindergartner will learn during their first year of school. Then I went per subject. "What math skills are learned in Kindergarten" then proceeded with writing, and reading. I'm sure I'll be adding to my list later. Next I'll be looking up 1st grade, then 2nd. Hopefully we can gather some ideas on what my homeschooling curriculum will be. We really don't have the money to buy classes at $20 a kid per month. So I'm going to start with what I know. If we need to add some curriculum that I will have to buy, we will save up for it.

The internet and Library are wonderful tools and I have found SCADS of information. It's just time to start getting it all down on paper. Time to take some more notes!

The Rising Generation

I was staring at my oldest today while I was pondering random thoughts. On that entered into my head was that, we have been told that our children will have to withstand some of the worst evil this world has seen. I looked at my son, and I wasn't discouraged, I found hope. With all this thinking of home school, I found that even though I know it will be challenging, It means I can give my kids that extra spiritual leg up to help them be a light to others.

The missionary age has been lowered, which means I have less time to prepare them. But when I take out all of the fluff and waiting around for others to be finished with their work at school. Or waiting for the time to tick away for the next task to start, I have more hours to spend molding my children into people who want to contribute to society. Not only contribute, but to make the world a brighter place all around. I see that potential in my kids, and it is so heartening. There is always hope for the rising generation.

Things my boys need to know before leaving the nest.

1. The Lord can help you with any problem
2. How to study their scriptures
3. Daily prayer is essential for a happy life
4. A love of the Gospel & their savior
5. Respect
6. Manners
7. How to do laundry
8. How to handle money
9. Thinking outside of the box
10. Treating all people kindly
11. Knowing that they are an example
12. Happiness is a choice
13. Music heals the soul
14. Understand the responsibility of the Priesthood
15. Their brothers are, and will always be, their best friends
16. American history
17. Math up to algebra
18. Geography, what the world is around them
19. You can find kind people, or bad people, if you're looking for them
20. Good friends will help you do good things.
21. A promise should be taken seriously. Trust is hard to gain and easy to loose.
22. Proper Driving skills
23. How to take care of their bicycle
24. Not to covet what others have, but to enjoy life with what you have
25. Getting things is not important
26. Living within your means
27. When you are idle is when you get into trouble
28. Dating is fun, but until after your mission group dates are best
29. Rules are for protection, if you want to be protected, follow the rules
30. Service to others brings great satisfaction
31. Love of the outdoors
32. Respect for nature
33. Singing a hymn will invite the spirit
34. The best things in life don't cost money
35. People are always worth your time
36. texting is NOT a conversation
37. How to show small gestures (opening a door for someone)
38. It is respectful to take your hat off
39. tv is not essential, nor is any electronic device
40. Tithing and fast offerings is your way of thanking the lord
41. always be grateful
42. How to fill out a resume, and find a job
43. Determination
44. ingenuity
45. don't loose your temper
46. how to trade for goods
47. Taxes are on EVERYTHING
48. The holy ghost is your constant companion but you can offend the holy ghost
49. women are important
50. clean is best
51. compassion

Adventures are Coming

So, for the past several months I have tossed around the idea of homeschooling. I know this would be challenging to say the least. We have 5 boys most of which are slightly over a year apart. But recently, my drive to know the answer to the question, "should we home school" has become overwhelming.

My eldest son, M, is in the first grade in a public school. Last week, when I went to pick him up, his teacher told me he was in the classroom finishing some work. I figured, "okay maybe 5 minutes." We were at the school waiting for an entire hour. He had 1 worksheet to finish, and it took an hour. I thought, "okay, I know he hated staying after school that long. For sure, he won't do that again." WRONG.

The NEXT day when I went to pick him up his teacher said, "He has some extra school work and he's not leaving until it's finished." My first reaction was to look the teacher straight in the face and say, "EXCUSE ME! He's my child, you've had him for 6 hours. We're leaving now." But I held my tongue out of respect for the teacher. We still have 2 months of school and I didn't want to burn any bridges with her. Instead I looked at my child and encouraged him to finish his work quickly so we could go home and ride bikes. This time it took him half an hour to finish his work.

As I relayed this information to a friend of mine she said, "Your first grader got detention?!" I told her it wasn't really detention he just had to finish his work. She looked at me and said, "He had to stay after school doing schoolwork. I don't care who you are, that's detention." So there you have it. My first grader, in detention.

This among other things has made me decide to do home school at least with my oldest child for next year. The more I talk about it with him, the more excited he is about it. Each day I'm finding new curriculum and new ideas on teaching. A friend told me once, "to start home school, all you need is a library card and the internet." I thought for sure she was crazy. But the more I look into home school, the more I realize this is a very viable way of teaching. I am apprehensive about becoming the teacher, but excited to spend more time getting to know my child.

Seriously?

It happens with every baby I suppose. But WHY! It's so GROSS! Rodney had just taken a nap and was playing quietly in his crib. Quietly is never a good thing. Next thing I know Gavin came in and said Owen had taken Rodney's diaper off. YAY. Usually he's just wet right after a nap. NOT SO TODAY! I get in there, and there is poo all over the baby, all over the crib, and all over the walls. Blarg.

And just like other boys before him, he had poop all over his fingers and his mouth. Cringe. Why must babies taste everything? Well, I was going to catch up on my kitchen, but now it's time to clean up something a little nastier.

Public School vs. Homeschool

I keep thinking about this. OVER and OVER. It's a question constantly on my mind. I know my kids enjoy public school, and I enjoy the hours when I have a break. But I'm not entirely convinced this is the best route to go. I'm thinking maybe public school for a few years then home school? I just don't know.

The teachers at our school are great. They're really kind and genuinely want to be there to help these kids. But each class consists of no less than 25 kids. And I know they do a LOT of coloring. Not that coloring is a bad thing, but I'm wondering if the saying, "you can teach kids in 2 hours what they learn in 1 day at school" is true. There are things that concern me about the world we live in. It's getting harder and harder to not let the world have an influence on my children. It's not always really horrible, but not really welcome either.

For example...my children gave an unprompted Christmas video to my little brother away on a mission. I didn't tell them what to say, I just started the camera and told them it was for Uncle Joseph. The first thing they said was Happy Holidays. Now I know that's a perfectly acceptable greeting. But I couldn't help but roll my eyes. That was all they heard at school. No one said Merry Christmas. I know some may say I'm being totally unreasonable...but I ALWAYS say Merry Christmas to everyone. Yet the first thing out of my kids mouth is Happy Holidays. I've never used that as a greeting. It's not the fact that they said happy hoildays. I happen to like the song "Happy Holidays" quite a bit. It's the fact that the first thing they think of was not something their mom said, but what they heard at school. What else will that translate into?

Then there are other things that scare the tar out of me. I've even had times when a child has come home from school with a new word in his vocabulary. I'm not talking curse words, but words that have to do with adult subject matter that NO kindergartner should EVER be talking about. There was no way to know what context he heard the word in, no clue at who told it to him. I told the teacher about it and all they could do was keep an open ear...in a class of 25+ kids. It is crazy how much innocence is stripped away from our younger generations.

There are times when I decide, ok the school is good. My kids are doing well at school. As well as anyone else in their class is doing. They enjoy being at school, and they like their friends. Then other times I think, I know they could be learning a lot more if I decided to spend the time with them. Then I think, maybe I need to do some homeschooling, but keep them in school. Just to see how well I do at it.

Though we have decided to do public school, it still nags at the back of my mind constantly. Maybe we should home school. For those of you who home school, when do you prepare your lessons? Do you do a traditional sit down class time, or just teach them the subject matter throughout the day? Do you take them out every day to go be with other kids for a "recess" time? Maybe do you switch classes with another parent. How much money do you spend on homeschooling a month?

I feel like I know quite a bit about public school, but I pretty much know squat about homeschooling. And I want to know more so I can make the best decision concerning our family. If I do eventually switch to homeschooling, I want to have friends with kids that I can share "class time" with. Also I want to have several materials on hand. Which I would like to have on hand anyway if for some reason we had an emergency and I had to teach my kids at home. So what are some of the things you always have? Games that teach history? Favorite movies that teach math or science. Best online resources. Your class schedule.

Merry Christmas Uncle Joseph!

I couldn't get our video to upload to my email so this is our "christmas letter" to Uncle Dobuf. If I can get one of Rodney I'll add it as well. He's still sick and sleeping all the time. This is our first snow that we've gotten to play in. The first one was a few flurries then it melted. So I figured we'd better go play in it while we could.

This one is from today (a few days later). We got a lot more snow this morning and mikey made a snowman.

This is Gavin eating snow off the van. BLECH!