I don't know what I'm going to do today. It's weird not having to do school. We've been having a lot of homeschool group activities this week and I've been asked quite a few questions by other homeschool moms about how we do school around here, how many hours a day, whether the kids work on their own or whether I have to sit right with them. It's made me think and evaluate what we do. Because I don't have a current book going (waiting on a library hold!) I was finally able to open the massive Rainbow Resource catalog and circle my first item. I usually circle about 100 things I'd like to have and then narrow it down to the 3-4 I can actually afford. This takes a long time and is best done outside, by the pool in the summer. We don't have our pool up yet this year. This may be yet another year without a pool, which is unfortunate. The kids really benefit from all that summer exercise and I benefit from sitting outside, talking to them while they swim and enjoying summer. There's just something about the smell of chlorine ...
Speaking of how many hours we do school, the kids and I were talking about that last night. I once heard (and have no idea if this is even remotely true) that in a regular school classroom, because of waiting in line, eating lunch, going to the bathroom, disruptive students, coloring, etc. that kids were likely to get only about 15 minutes of actual instruction each day. Anyway, true or not, every now and then I think about it and it comforts me. The kids and I were talking about public school last night, they decided that anytime we are waiting in line that should count as school time, since that's what they remember doing a lot of in school. Maybe I should also make them go to the bathroom when they don't need to go and then not let them go later when they do need to go. (This is what my oldest son remembers.)
Anyway, back to what we'll do today, we'll probably continue our spring cleaning, scrape off some more wallpaper and finish listening to Dragon Rider, then go to the library (to get another good audio book, of course!) and then go skating. (It's really a shame we don't get out more!)
Lastly, this has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm talking about today, but the quote of the day that I got in email this morning was cute, so I'll share it.
I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. -Noel Coward
1 comment:
Seems to me I've heard that about the actual time spent learning too. If you really get down to it, I bet our HS kids spend ALOT more time actually learning than kids in school. That's my plan over the summer....to sit down & kind of write a year in review of ALL the learning stuff they've done this past year & then put that in their folders.
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