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10 Bright Stars
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| Posted: Jan 10 2008 at 6:28am | IP Logged
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I was wondering about whether or not it is possible to do a packaged type curriculum "well" in a large family? I currently use one and am very happy with the school, like the books, like having lessons plans that I can download for the kids to use on their own. I like everything about it EXCEPT that it is hard to do it all and live life!
My oldest seems to do very well with this school and he goes off by himself early in the morning ( I am talking 6 o'clock here!!!) and gets most of his work done by 11 and spends the rest of the day in imaginative play and nature type stuff, draws maps like in Tolkien's books, makes wax seals to seal stuff and other little adventures like that.) So for him, this school has been great. In the past, he would always get annoyed if school was hanging over his head while he waited for me to "plan" it out for him. He has this thing about time and it has really helped having him have some control over his own work. (He is probably more self-disciplined than I am, which is sad, I know, but he is an intteresting lad.) All the other kids are "normal" in that they like to do school some days, hate school other days, and generally have to have me RIGHT THERE to help them through their work. THe problem comes in with the baby, which isn't too big of a deal since I just hold her, but then the twins who are 2 and potty training!!!!!!!!!!!, and then the 3 year old who doesn't ask for much out of life, so you may go the whole day and realize you haven't spent any time with her. (This realization occurs when she asks you for a drink of water and you say, WHAT???" in a stressed tone and realize that she hasn't asked you for ANYTHING all day and you feel horribly guilty and hug her!!!  )
Sometimes I notice "school" goes well when I "next page it" or, "get off tangent on a nature study or spontaneously read them a book" etc. I don't know if these days go well just because I get bogged down in all the business of school and it is just refreshing for ME personally, or if school really goes better this way.  I would think with so many, it would be hard to have a more relaxed approach and make sure I was covering the bases. I don't know. It just seems as if SOMETHING has to give around here since I could spend all day being Mom and tending to everyone. I could spend all day schooling, or all day cleaning, or really it seems these days, all day cooking since I am trying to not rely on cereal for breakfast and things like that anymore and trying to cut down on the grocery bill etc. etc. So, I realize many of you all on this particular forum use a more classical or CMason approach. Did you make a switch after you had more children, and if so, why?
Perhaps it just needs to be a more relaxed mental outlook? I tend to always stress myself to a level that will help me get everything "accomplished". Do you all do this at all, or do you try to keep things "fun"? I find myself saying a lot, "Get doing your school!" which is what I always heard my MIL say when she was homeschooling HER kids with this particular school. Anyway, many questions I guess, but I would be interested in how to LIVE as a homeschool Mom and not get so stressed about it.
Also, another question is, in a larger family, how do any of you manage to keep track as to where your kids are in their lesson plans for each class with little effort? The lesson plans I can print out for the kids are great since I can just check those off, but I am realizing that printing out 5 pages per kid each week on a ink jet printer is NOT free!!! Anyway, I have the teacher planner, but for some reason, I tend to keep up with "where" we all are for the first few months, and then I get lost which causes me to have to rummage through all of their books, go through every single subject in the TM and figure it out for another week! Again, not a problem with a few, but a lot, well that's another story. (I have all of my kids "enrolled" that are of school age.) Obviously this has to be done anyway with grading etc so it is not as if I am not in the TM or grading their work, but sometimes that kind of stuff, grading, can get behind etc and that can cause the probem. (That is another good question: How to keep up with all the grading and deal with little kids/life etc. )
I just think if I could work out a few of the "kinks" mentioned above, it would really help. I am trying to do that in other areas around the house, such as getting rid of EVERYTHING I don't need!!!! Even good kids clothes. I am going for the barren look.
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Kim married to Bob (22y)
Mom of 11 blessings:
Bobby 19, David 17, Noah 14,
Mary 12, Gracie 10,
Isabelle and Sophia 8,
Gabrielle 6,
William Anthony 4, Joseph 3 and Luisa Marie - born in M
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Helen
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Great question Kim -- I can't wait to read the responses.
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Ave Maria!
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BrendaPeter
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Well, Helen already knows my story , so sorry to bore her , but for Kim's sake I'll just quickly jump in and say that I recently read "A Thomas Jefferson Education" and it was like the "last nail in the coffin" - the coffin of prepackaged curriculums and "in the box" philosophies about education that is. Although I recommend the book, I believe it's much more complicated than just one book. It's been a long search (9 years) and a spiritual journey as well. It was also very much timing as my dh and I had just finished a novena to St. John Bosco right before I read the book.
Kim, I've had the same questions you have had for years. This forum and several of the blogs associated with the forum have been extremely helpful. We've been enrolled in MODG, Kolbe and various courses in Seton. It was always a struggle & I found that we often threw out the "best" for the "good" to keep to the schedule. That always left me with a feel of dissatisfaction. Also, we were always slaves to the schedule and jumping through someone else's hoops. Personally, I never saw any great retention with my children -it was mostly "bucket-filling", i.e. get it over with so that they could get on with the good stuff in life. Shouldn't education be the good stuff in life?! BUT it does take alot of confidence to not use a program and that takes awhile to gain. Reading and praying help alot. Unfortunately our culture has convinced us that we are not capable and do not know enough to help our children achieve academic success and it's a challenge to break out of that.
One of my close friends said something that really resonated with me. She said "The problem with homeschooling is that we try to bring SCHOOL into the home." (I pray no one takes that the wrong way!) What I got from that is that I'm a mom with a calling to homeschool my children. I must cook, clean my home, wash clothes, go foodshopping, etc. It's basically impossible to be like a school and should I even strive for that? Instead we now try to live in a environment that emphasizes learning.
So, do I keep track of where everyone is at? Not super technically but in a very loose way mostly by having lots of conversations. Plus we focus on much less so I have a better sense of things. In our house, we have what I call "big rocks" - Religion, Reading, Writing, Math & Latin - and these are not necessarily school subjects as much as they are life subjects. (Yours may be very different). These are really my interests and I'm incorporating my kids into them.
Hope I made some sense & that I was able to help. Can't wait to read what everyone else has to say.
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Brenda (mom to 6)
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ladybugs
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| Posted: Jan 10 2008 at 11:49am | IP Logged
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I want to chime in here but a trip to the grocery store and 2 sickies beckon.
Looks like a great thread!
Thanks for sharing your experiences - I'm right there with you!
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Maria P
My etsy store - all proceeds go to help my fencing daughters!
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Willa
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How old are your children and how many are you schooling? It sounds like you must have at least four of school age and they are all pretty young, from the sound of it.
It sounds like everything is going fine for your oldest. I wouldn't change what's working; at least that would not be my highest priority!
As to the others -- do you think you are dealing with a temporary frustration or is this a longterm discontent, that the structured schooling takes too much out of your life?
A lot of people get restless from December to February, no matter what type of curriculum they are using. Even if they are unschooling they might start wonder if this is really working, if they should try something else, if their kids are getting the best education possible...etc.
You mentioned simplifying and I do that with homeschooling as well as other things. Less is More, they say. Several times a year I re-evaluate and see what my priorities are and then figure out ways to make those things move into first place.
I think it is worth considering what is meant by "covering the bases". That seems to be an ongoing concern for so many people. What do kids really need to get a sufficient education? I would say they need their faith over all, literacy and math and writing fluency. If they love good books and have a motivation and some tools to live out a good Catholic life as adults, they are already further than many young adults these days.
Do you think you could streamline the schooling for your littler people -- 2nd grade and down? They don't need that much, really. They need to know how to read, and write a bit, and do math, and they need time with Mom. They might be the ones to focus on "relaxing" with. Most things they learn in a month at that age they can learn in a week a year or two later.
I next-page and get off tangent all the time with the younger set -- with the older ones, I find they seem to do better with increasing structure.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Leonie
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Willa wrote:
You mentioned simplifying and I do that with homeschooling as well as other things. Less is More, they say. Several times a year I re-evaluate and see what my priorities are and then figure out ways to make those things move into first place.
I think it is worth considering what is meant by "covering the bases". That seems to be an ongoing concern for so many people. What do kids really need to get a sufficient education? I would say they need their faith over all, literacy and math and writing fluency. If they love good books and have a motivation and some tools to live out a good Catholic life as adults, they are already further than many young adults these days. |
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I think this simplifying of the curriculum was my solution to homeschooling a larger family (seven sons), amidst health problems and many, many moves. For us, a simplified CM curriculum and lots of books and real life learning ( aka unschooling) and living the liturgical year worked best. Still works best.
Willa and I mentioned this a bit in the thread here.
And I wrote a blog post on our Less is More philosophy.
Keeping track when all the kids were homeschooling ( I have older sons who have graduated now) - well, I tried different methods. I settled on post it notes - for the day or week, and kids tick off or refer to the post it.
I keep post its in production - use them for everthing!
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Leonie in Sydney
Living Without School
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Rachel May
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This is further confirmation of what I've been thinking about since I watched Elizabeth's talk on the Real Learning Philosophy earlier this week. Now, I love my curriculum (MODG) because it gives me a framework to follow, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel. But...I still feel like there are too many subjects, a lot of time spent fracturing an education which would better served be approaching learning and knowledge as an integrated whole. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how that will look at our house.
This,from the thread Leonie quoted:
willa wrote:
First, motivated learning works better. If you look back on what really stayed in your mind from your young years, it was probably from situations where you were really interested, or the teacher was inspiring, or the situation was a comfortable one -- like family, for some people, and friends, for other people.
....
Fun isn't exactly what I want from education for my kids either, but lively and meaningful is something else. |
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is also something I muddle over. How to avoid making subjects artificially fun instead of letting the motivation to learn something specific come from genuine or infused or shared interest.
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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KathrynTherese
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Kim, I am with you in the struggle to find the right balance; there are not enough hours in the day to do everything we'd like to do as fully as we'd like to do it. As a former teacher who was told she would only have ONE child (can anyone imagine me with one child?!), the homeschool I envisioned over a decade ago is not the homeschool I am immersed in and continually re-thinking right now.
With a lot of little ones (we had 5 babies in 4 years - 5 in diapers at once!), LESS IS MORE! As they get older, of course, more structure is often necessary or they tend to dissipate their time.
What has worked for us:
We have always studied certain subjects together as a family, but had individual math and reading books. So, we are all studying the same religion, history, and science topics, with a little individualizing of projects. This allows us to converse about the topics during meals, go on the same field trips, enjoy the same library books, etc. It gives us a lot of time looking at picture books together, listening to stories over tea (or cocoa!), creating art projects or listening to appropriate music together. It's very family-oriented for us. So we are all studying the Middle Ages together and listening to the same stories and music, going to the museum to see the same things, but the older kids will then have additional reading and maybe a report, the youngers will have little narrations and pictures to color, etc.
But my high schoolers (2 so far) have both needed both the structure and accountability of being enrolled in some program. We like St. Thomas Aquinas Academy for cost, flexibility, and curriculum. The kids know they have to keep to the schedule and do a certain amount of work each week, and that they will receive a diploma - they keep track of what they accomplish each week and see the schedule so they can work on their own. The accountability is good for me too - I tend to relax too much and feel great if they are reading a lot, and when things get crazy around here I lose track of what's been done. Or. Not.
So now that we've got someone enrolled in STAA, our science and history and religion topics are determined by whatever his h.s. curriculum dictates. If the high schooler is studying botany, we are all studying botany - but the 10yo girls are reading about plant fairies, the little boys are drawing plant specimens, and the older boys are classifying plants.
Too much caffeine today has me typing too many words  I don't know if any of this is helpful, although I am always grateful for a peek into someone else's planner. Even if that "planner" is their head!
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KathrynTherese
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BrendaPeter
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KathrynTherese wrote:
| So now that we've got someone enrolled in STAA, our science and history and religion topics are determined by whatever his h.s. curriculum dictates. If the high schooler is studying botany, we are all studying botany - but the 10yo girls are reading about plant fairies, the little boys are drawing plant specimens, and the older boys are classifying plants. |
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Thank you, Katherine. That was very helpful to me as our days sound alot like yours.
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Brenda (mom to 6)
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wwandsprmn
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| Posted: Jan 11 2008 at 11:11am | IP Logged
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Hi,
This is my first post, I finally registered after being a longtime lurker.
Hs'ing 9 yrs, kids 17, 12, 7 hs'ing them all.
I was concerned about keeping to the CM principles for my son in HS, now 11th grade, but I forged ahead. I am using America: The Last Best Hope by Bill Bennett for his US History and supplementing with several books 1776, 1812, and a Civil War packet. Lots of Classic Lit, Music appreciation, and Art appreciation. We use Videtext Interactive for Alg2 and Apologia for science.
I totally understand needing something more "canned" when you have little ones. I don't have any little ones right now (hoping for some though) and I still feel that way!
I pull their vocab, copy work, narration everything from the books we read as well as science. I often feel as if it is overwhelming. It took 3 weeks of planning prior to starting this year to get their lesson plans ready. I will need to take a solid week off from teaching in February to plan the rest of the year.
It took time and was not easy but I still absolutely love this method all the way through high school.
The upside is once the lessons are created I don't have to do it again as the kids come up!
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Heliodora
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| Posted: Jan 11 2008 at 11:59am | IP Logged
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BrendaPeter wrote:
KathrynTherese wrote:
| So now that we've got someone enrolled in STAA, our science and history and religion topics are determined by whatever his h.s. curriculum dictates. If the high schooler is studying botany, we are all studying botany - but the 10yo girls are reading about plant fairies, the little boys are drawing plant specimens, and the older boys are classifying plants. |
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Thank you, Katherine. That was very helpful to me as our days sound alot like yours. |
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Yes, this is helpful to me as well. I have gradually been realizing that this is the route to go, but I still obsess about having graded curriculum. I worry that I am dragging my older ones down or making it too hard on the younger ones. I would like to hear some more ideas for how to include the younger ones in the older ones' studies, and what to expect from each. Maybe I should start a new thread?
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Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. -1 Thessalonians 5:21
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LLMom
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Kim,
I found it very difficult to plan my own thing when my 7th was born and my 6th was only 19 months along with a 4 year old, 6 year old, 8,11 and 14. I finally bought a "canned" curriculum and used it for 2 years. It was a life saver for me, and I have always been very relaxed. However, I knew nothing would get accomplished if I had to plan. Moms with many littles can't always do it all, so don't feel bad if you need to use it for a while. You can always add those fun, living books to the history and science and combine the kids for those things. If you are using, Seton (you didn't say), that is what I used and can give you some tips if you need. Feel free to PM me.
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Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
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ALmom
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| Posted: Jan 11 2008 at 1:23pm | IP Logged
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Ok, I'm homeschooling my own 16,13,10,8,5 and also work with my nephew (13 yo special needs). I find it hard to remember what I just thought 5 minutes ago, yet alone figuring out what all of mine are working on. I purchase lesson plans and have signed up with Kolbe - but I don't hand in anything to them. I'm not sure if you would call me canned curriculum or not and we are still tweaking the method to make it work.
Here are a few strategies:
Our children seem to be 1 track passion people - so with a really loose structure or more unschoolish, we found that one child only did lit and history, another child only did science, most avoided math (except the science whiz) and only one ever put anything in writing. I and the children always felt a little hair brained and basically it wasn't working. Strewing books - well they'd read tons in their passion and expand only slightly beyond that. We needed balance and accountability. We tried the canned route but it didn't fit us and our children - but boy did everyone like having things all spelled out so that when we were in the heat of the school year, no one had to figure anything out about where we were going next. So we tried to merge the best of both worlds so to speak.
This is a work in progress but what we came to, was using the provider that gives me total free reign. Using plans as a loose guide, planning to spend my whole summer working out plans for each child, we modified canned plans in areas of avoidance and kept our looser structure in areas of passion.
As everyone above mentioned, we do try to have our oldest's science, history topics drive our focus with the youngers in that area. This saves because I am not a planner of projects and my project oriented older children create their own projects and everyone just kind of jumps on the bandwagon. Also we end up having very natural discussions all together so though I don't plan any lessons together, we do end up helping each other. Also we have found one person's passion beginning to help pull the rest of us along.
The problem is that I have always been schooling many (before it was more than 2, we were doing extensive therapy along with school) and now working with 6. The last few years it was either 5 or 6. I don't have any time to waste trying to remember what child x is working on in....
We established binders for each child (color coded per child). The binders have an outside full plastic pocket (the place where business folks put their fancy cover). For each child, I spend a LOT of time over the summer working/discussing interests, etc. and coming up with a mutually agreeable general plan (often looking at about 4 or 5 plans and some of my own stuff). Then I sit down and break things down day by day. One day is written on one sheet of 3 ring binder paper. I have an entire semester finished before school starts. The child gets one week at a time, tucked into that outside pocket so it never gets lost in their piles of paper airplanes or whatever. I discuss the week briefly (and freely modify here if child has better ideas), they use this for their guide for the week and check off as they do the item. I meet with each child at least once per week, at which time, I correct work I haven't looked at yet and that is complete, discuss items, etc. then put that childs completed plans in my 3 ring binder for the child (each child has their own parent book, too). When I wrote the plans, I intentionally put a date on top - so that I have a daily record needed by my state. I tuck in any sample work, etc. at the same time and fill out the required state attendance sheet. I have been amazed this year. All of my children for whom I have plans, have accomplished so much and we all feel good about it. Those that I thought, oh, they are old enough to just read the canned plans, they are behind and frustrated (I am frantically trying to get plans for this highschooler done now for the rest of the year, the rest of my children have done more in one semsester than we have ever accomplised in a year - and like it better. The hard part is getting all the plans done over the summer. Last summer we never quite settled on things and didn't start early enough.
However my plans do not look like canned curriculum plans in everything. For my science fan, I invested in lots of hands on material, etc. and his plans just say, do science. He is learning science really well and no need for me to bog him down with a textbook that does nothing more than give vocabulary to memorize and questions to hunt for answers in the book. I have him write me a description of his experiments - on the plan about once every 2 weeks. These count towards his literature as one of my goals was to get this child to write. It is working. History, he has a text which I read aloud to him at the beginning and then he picks real books off a list included on that day of the plan (no more me forgetting which books covered which time periods, etc.) Everything is dovetailed together. Since I'm not planning on handing anything in to Kolbe, I'm not bound by my schedule and really was ready to get only about halfway through the text for the year and just do it over several years. We are flying, learning, enjoying. This child requested projects so we intentionally purchased some pre-planned ones and put them in his plans right at the proper sequential moment. We also wove in Holling C. Holling books for history (interspersing them where they historically seemed to fit) and he did the mapwork with them and some of the science. If I'm counting something for more than one subject, I simply write it in all the categories.
Now for my science avoider (a highschooler who has managed to avoid science most of her life), a textbook is better than nothing at all. We follow plans and it looks more canned and is very, very specific on the plans - what to read, vocabulary words to learn, study sheets, but we skip the answer the dumb questions and I note in writing some of the connections and she has to fill out the study sheet herself so she HAS to engage her brain and the subject some. I have Kolbe's plans as a great guide and use their tests but I modify plans as I see fit. We are putting deadlines on it for accountability. For her, history and literature are very freewheeling. Even if she graduated now, she would be in great shape in these subjects. I require a few primary sources, or literary works that I don't think she'd just tackle on her own but other than that, we pretty much go with her interests.
Anyways, in a nutshell, this is our current strategy. Oh and one other thing that keeps me sane. Everyone under 10, school is very much about just the basics. We are in a large family with lots of passions and if I don't push the subject for these youngers, they generally absorb something from the olders passions. I do spend time reading aloud, trying to do more art and other fun stuff with them. Montessori has been a blessing for us in that we have a lot of fun things children choose when I am not working with them directly and they are not doing seat work (the ones with most time here are the 10 and under crowd). It helps everyone be engaged in something quiet. I do spend about 20 min. per day with the 8 year old on reading and religion. We try to do a lot of liturgical year celebrations as a family - and I write a lot of this into my older children's lesson plans in the theology category. The highschooler sometimes chooses to do hers privately at a more convenient time - and that is fine. I figure living the faith is as important as learning the facts, so this tries to keep a balance.
We try to reevaluate each semester, and anytime things seem out of balance.
Housework, I got from my husband what he wanted done and he is very, very not picky. His comment was meals on time, clutter straightened before he comes home and for us not all to be slaving away at books when he walks in the door. Since it is our family we're trying to please as far as household tasks, we stick to the essentials to maintain health, safety and meet my husbands very minimum requests. Now, I'm not always grand about even that but I'm doing it.
One of the things I've discovered is that the computer has become a huge problem for me - so I'm trying to cut back and may give myself only once per week to review/post. (No one panic if my number of posts go down dramatically - prayers for discipline in this regard much appreciated!)
Already broke my resolve to stay away from the computer except after school hours or before the crew is moving!
Janet
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wwandsprmn
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I found Seton to be too much for us. I realize you can be flexible and there is no doubt the program is top notch but for us, this became nothing more than school at home. There is nothing wrong with school at home of course it just isn't what I want to do.
This is a much more difficult year having the 3 kids all working at very different levels and having little overlap.
A major impact on our school day is the management of the house. I must always have a handle on it at all times. I have to guard the school time and not spend it on the phone or doing my work. I get up at 5 am, (I do before and after school daycare) so I can get the work done early and focus on school work when it's school time.
I think it's important the kids learn to help one another if I am occupied. They can put the work they need help with on my desk with a post -it note and move on to another subject. They also know if I am not available that doesn't mean it's FREE time. They always have an assigned book to read until I can help and most of all they need to be sure not distract their siblings. Then it all unravels!
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KathrynTherese
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| Posted: Jan 11 2008 at 3:38pm | IP Logged
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Heliodora wrote:
Yes, this is helpful to me as well. I have gradually been realizing that this is the route to go, but I still obsess about having graded curriculum. I worry that I am dragging my older ones down or making it too hard on the younger ones. I would like to hear some more ideas for how to include the younger ones in the older ones' studies, and what to expect from each. Maybe I should start a new thread? |
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I think we are never done thinking and re-thinking, planning and unplanning and preplanning and replanning. Because our family dynamics are always changing and we are always trying something better or learning something new. Our constant questioning of what we are doing is a sign that we are serious about this and sensitive to what is working and what is not.
The only danger is that we become chronically dissatisfied with what we are doing. Dissatisfaction definitely drains the wind from our sails. And it's difficult enough to keep sailing. Especially in February. So.
This is a great conversation to continue, and this is a great place to continue it. CCM Cyber-Cafe, where the most musing mom-minds meet!
Ok. I'm giddy.
I just want to say that how you choose to balance many dc and still cover what is necessary depends very much on how you view education in general, and how your family operates. I have found I needed to compromise some of what I had hoped for because of the temperaments of my children and the energy in this house. That's the funny thing about kids - they are born with their own personalities, not the personalities we project for them! So, flexibility is not just a nice thing, it's the MOST NECESSARY thing for helping each child learn. We can't just keep forcing our football player to learn ballet or our violinist to love chemistry. Whatever vision we had for our homeschool before we started (and we have all read plenty of books to help us formulate some kind of vision!) has undoubtedly been adjusted by the realities of the souls before us. For better or for worse.
So, we keep re-thinking.
Whenever I am re-thinking, I come here to think out loud. So, when I'm posting it's because I'm re-thinking. If you don't hear from me for awhile, it's because I'm busy doing what I've re-thunk
I'm eager to hear more.
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KathrynTherese
my books
exhaling
opus gloriae
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Helen
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ALmom wrote:
| One of the things I've discovered is that the computer has become a huge problem for me - so I'm trying to cut back and may give myself only once per week to review/post. (No one panic if my number of posts go down dramatically - prayers for discipline in this regard much appreciated!) |
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I've always enjoyed your posts Janet.
Thank you Janet and all for chiming in here.
(Brenda, you are one of my favorite people with whom to discuss homeschooling. Don't worry about repeating anything with me!)
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Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
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Willa
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Helen wrote:
I've always enjoyed your posts Janet.
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Me too!
But you still have my prayers for self-discipline.
I have tried to cut back on internet time too but you wouldn't know it from the last couple of days.
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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mariB
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All I can say is a little of both philosophies? Some Packaged and lots and lots of literature. I always make a daily schedule for our children and here is my confession...I NEVER stick to it. Something always comes up that is just too exciting to pass up. So, at the end of the day I go back to my computer move some things to the next day and add the things in that we didn't plan for.
Like what? Maybe a really good book discussion that the kids didn't want to end...maybe an extra hour outdoors...maybe one of the kids wanted to write about science and not history...maybe somebody is ahead in assignments in a subject and I didn't know about it...maybe somebody we know is in need of prayer and we need to stop whatever we are doing to pray.
With the older kids sometimes I will assign for homework what was not completed that particular day...after all we need to finish Biology!
What do we absolutely accomplish every day? Latin, math, and literature:)
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marib-Mother to 22ds,21ds,18ds,15dd,11dd and wife to an amazing man for 23 years
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10 Bright Stars
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WOW! This is a great thread. I have been intently reading everyone's post and trying to learn from them all. I have learned so much form each of you all, and hope to re-read each post as time allows. I hope we can keep us this discussion. 
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Kim married to Bob (22y)
Mom of 11 blessings:
Bobby 19, David 17, Noah 14,
Mary 12, Gracie 10,
Isabelle and Sophia 8,
Gabrielle 6,
William Anthony 4, Joseph 3 and Luisa Marie - born in M
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10 Bright Stars
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Brenda,
I agree with you that sometimes we throw things out for the sake of getting it all done. I sometimes feel as if I am just wishing they would "hurry up!" and get that specific math page finished or something like that since the laundry is looming and the twins are getting up and squealing etc. I start to feel stressed and the "love of learning" has been thrown out the window for the "check off the lesson plan" so we can get back to "real life". My husband is great that he tends to be very patient with the kids when it comes to goofing off and experimenting with the real world. He doesn't do any "real"school with them, but they know how to do a lot of stuff due to just hanging out with Dad. I often think that I should be doing more of that "real learning" with my girls who are much younger, but it is never too soon to start out with the right attitude and slow down. I think I need to see the school I am enrolled with as a safety net or guide and not a slave master.
Willa,
my children are 5 months, 2-VERY MISCHEAVEOUS 2 year old twins, a 4 year old who doesn't ask for much, a crafty 6 year old, an 8 year old BABY boy, a 10 year old boy and a 13 year old boy. So, my plat is very full. My husband is working a lot these days to help make ends meet on a single income with so many children, so he works his regular job and is also flipping a house etc. SO, that doesn't leave much time for help at home. (ALthough he still does manage.)
All,
Anyway, all so very interesting, and it sounds as if the life/school balance is a struggle for most of us. I think I am realizing that it will never be "perfect" nor how I envisioned it. I totally agree that I should use the school for structure and add in a heavy dose of literature. I have to admit, please don't shoot me, that I do NOT read to the kids as much as a I used to. I know...terrible, huh? But,it is always an intention that seems to get backburned in the wake of the day. I am going to make a commitmment to get the ball rolling with that again. I have also tried to incorporate more "fun" things into their day like my eldest son is experimenting with a french cookbook we recently purchased and that has been cute. My daughter has been using a home-ec book. (From Pearables-non-Catholic, but I have not found anything anti-Catholic in it yet) so that has been cute. So, maybe I have been guilty of a negative assesment? Do you all ever feel like that? As if you are ALWAYS assuming you are doing a terrible job????? I do that all the time, and it was so FUNNY that you all mentioned wanting to change plans in February because I cannot remember one year since I started homeschooling that I haven't done the exact same thing!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you all for being so encouraging. It is sometimes hard to keep things in perspective when you have such high goals and lofty ambitions! It is good to know that we all struggle with the same thoughts and problems. Thank you all so much for being here. 
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Kim married to Bob (22y)
Mom of 11 blessings:
Bobby 19, David 17, Noah 14,
Mary 12, Gracie 10,
Isabelle and Sophia 8,
Gabrielle 6,
William Anthony 4, Joseph 3 and Luisa Marie - born in M
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4Real Forums : Philosophy of Education
Topic: hschool "lifestyle" vs pack curriculum
