Old Time Summer

Category: General

  • Reluctant Readers

    My youngest is the title. He can read, he’s gotten much better with it, and can read well enough, if only he would actually read books. It’s a matter of him being the youngest and he doesn’t understand why he can’t do something the same amount of time of another sibling. He basically holds us all hostage until he gets his way, we let him do something, or give up on it and he assumes he can do it. This makes all the more trouble…

    He likes digital. Games, we all do. He does all the more. Websites on PC, Tablet, he loves them. I don’t use the web as much as he does. Everyone in this family have tablets, and access to PC’s and game consoles, Smart TV’s.

    My biggest problem with him is he’s an extrovert and I am not. He wears me out. He’s a mini version of his father. Need I say how worn out I can get is?

    Boredom, and nowness are big with them. Thankfully I can see the future and know he’ll, my kid, be OK, but the now is just difficult. I know he can read and learn anything he wants to later … just want him to calm down and read EVERY-SO-OFTEN just not as least as it’s historically been.

  • Summary of the year and forthcoming

    My 2015 post. This is it. Just keeping on this year, and this marks the end of 2015 … onto a new year soon, and continued education for all, big and small, old or young, no matter who it is, learning is a lifelong endeavor.

  • Overwhelming – What Can Be Done

    When someone has things to learn it can be overwhelming.

    What can one do then?

    Stop thinking about ALL OF IT

    Focus on the little things, one at a time.

    Just start, in other words.

    Just give it ago, give it a try.

    A good example of this as a comparison (that might not make sense to consider to everyone, but is the same thing) – this scenario:

    Teenager says: “I’m Hungry”
    Mother says: “You can have ‘this’”
    Teenager says “That’s not enough food!”
    Mother says “Just eat it, and then we’ll see what else you can have if you still want more food.”

    Teenager stomps away, unable to see any of it as valuable. They are hungry and want a ton of something to eat, aren’t willing to start because of the overwhelming-ness of their hunger.

    Getting a project going can be daunting, but it’s worth the elbow grease it takes to make the first step into starting. Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t. One thing is sure, if you don’t try, you will not accomplish anything at all.

  • September 2013

    A new educational year has begun. We are trying to get things re-organized in house and book form.

    My four: Little one is now 6. Next one is nearly 13. Next one will be 15 soon enough. Other one is just getting older faster and he’s got to put that peddle down!

    I got a few things from Audibles today that should help the eldest two. (Something for hubby too!)

    Other than that I have to encourage them all to WRITE either on paper by hand or via a keyboard … that’s the best way for them to express their understanding and see how much they grow, for themselves, over time.

    This is the biggest hurdle with them since they are purely embarrassed to write anything down pretty much, and no amount of verb-age will budge them.

  • 2013

    2013 has begun, and been around for awhile already! The educational year is fresh, though not to a lot of others. For us though, it is. We have to get back on track and thinking of it as “fresh” and “just starting” is one way to do that. Latin has been forgotten. Time to re-invigorate that.

    Math is being worked on. It’s the ONE thing I can get them to do of late, most days.

    Writing/Reading/Creative Writing/Spelling … not working out very well. I need to get some other things set up that will make it work better.

    I have fallen off of the Art cart. I had a program and never did anything much with it. Started it in 2010 or 2011 I guess and that is that. Never pushed myself.

    As all that goes, I finally have my desktop computer built. It’s a fantastic machine and will help me multi-task better than ever, or for the first time really (since I have been using some kind of laptop for a long time. Those are NOT meant for what I want to do. Process video and photos, burn discs, plus run other content and research and creation and, uh, play games too.

    i7 Ivy Bridge Nvidia SLI Win 8 Pro Blu-ray Writer –> I need some blu-ray discs, and some games.

    I have to get my eldest to look at more stuff too. He’s behind but not totally. Just off track and needs to put the foot on the peddle, and then I have to find the right science stuff for him. Ugh.

    One other thing is history/social for the state we live in. Need to just get that out of the way.

    We also have the youngest one starting to read some. Early, early, early, but I am helping him get closer to really being an early reader and it seems he’s really ready. He’s 5.

    Motivation is always something to be worked on, but my two middle children need to work on it more than anyone I know of. They have to find something in themselves. It’s different for everyone. So mysterious.

  • August 2012 Educational Preview

    A new “school year” is beginning. We have a new family computer to use for education. It’s a nice HP TouchSmart AIO Core i5 23″ beauty, though it doesn’t have any of the features I wanted to add on, in store we had no options, only this one. HDMI input, Bluetooth, Blu-ray … none of them exist on this model. It wasn’t super important, but I did want at least a Blu-ray player. Really want a Blu-ray burner and have thought for awhile that maybe I should just get a stand-alone version, so … the other thing is a Bluetooth module … I can get a dongle, but that’s not as nice as built-in on an AIO.

    My laptop doesn’t have Bluetooth nor Blu-ray. I hated that back when I got it. Guess what I feel now? I really hate that I STILL don’t have those features on a machine. I have a dongle on my laptop for bluetooth. It doesn’t work right unless I put it on the e-Sata port. It’s a special combo port, anyhow, it provides better power, and it’s the only port on my laptop that will run it correctly, troublesome, since my keyboard and mouse use it and I have an external sata device …

    So I have a job I need to finish and that is archiving all my photos and making something out of all my video footage. I need Blu-ray disc burning for that. I refuse to use DVD’s nowadays, so I do nothing at all. I have a lot of video that I need to process and this new computer can handle it better. Which means I need to put my Sony video programs on here (the machine I’m typing on is the HP AIO.)

    As for the educational things: I have LEGO We Do software which will work with this desktop, finally a desktop! Our other things never worked with it, only my laptop. I am actually missing one of the discs, I hope I can figure out which one and find it. I have Artes Latinae installed. I’m having them ‘start over’ again, for the 2nd or 3rd time. It’s been that long since I bought it and we’ve had so many computer issues … augh! Hopefully that ends here.

    I need to get them all started on more stuff, so the main topic is how to REALLY use a computer, use programs, and create things. Also they need to learn to use their cameras better, and how to really make the photos nicer, delete when necessary, organize like crazy.

    They will have a better time on this computer writing blog posts and other documents. We have OFfice 2010 Home and Student. I’ll upgrade this computer to Win 8 and have plans to upgrade to the new Office programs.

    Years ago I had Office 95 (actually still have it, just isn’t installed). I loved it, I loved Access. I really wish they had that in H & S … but they don’t. It’s just not possible for us to buy 2 or 3 licenses for Office Pro, but I wish I could. In the old days it was easier to deal with these things, You could put it on a laptop and a desktop both. No real life restrictions. So we have H & S since it’s affordable for family use, even though it’s a lesser product, but not so bad.

    I need to get more things going than ever, and it’s hard with limited funds. I’m hoping I can get some packages of somethings for my oldest two to rip through soon … it’s a high possibility. So we need to get on point and finish the Math-U-See levels they are on and go through more than one more before the end of the year.

    Well, that’s just starting peek into what we are planning and getting done, or need to.

  • August 1 Start-up

    Re-starting Homeschool Agenda today. August 1st, falling on a Monday, early re-start of the season for us. I feel we’ve much to do, so starting up with a limited schedule, more “scheduled” than usual though, want to cover lots of material, make great forward movement. That’s the goal.

    Plus the goal is to have more to put towards the educational things I need to get.

  • Summer H-School

    Summer is fast approaching. It’s been a tough Spring around here. Our HVAC is out of order, no A/C all year, we’ve needed it since March. We are getting a new system installed in a couple of days, and that will unleash a new lease on life in homeschooling endeavors. 🙂

    I suffer in heat and heat/humidity combinations. I can do very little without losing most motivation, and even desire to move at all, let alone cook dinner … schooling suffereth.

    What goes on is still educational, just nothing terribly official. So the Summer is make-up time, which is always is, there is always something that makes it necessary around here. I’m a year-rounder anyhow, take time off here and there happily. There is education in every part of life, so it’s not really that there is any time off.

    I’m hoping for more $ to put towards some things for my eldest, programs that he can go fully into himself. Then I can put more of myself towards my younger 3, especially the two younger boys (10 and nearly 4) My 12 yr. old daughter needs a little help, push here and there, but she’s pretty self-motivating as long as she has something to do.

    We have house issues to conquer as well. Drywall projects, and finish flooring, then PAINT, PAINT, PAINT! Then hopefully it’ll be clear where my educational stuff is, and we can use it and flourish.

     

  • The year progresses with less progress

    I’ve been working with my two oldest to get them using blogs to write things about their schooling. It’s not always easy to get them doing things, and I figured this would help them. Well, it did and didn’t.

    One thing it did that is BAD is makes them think they can be on the computer all the time, or whenever they want. We have two older laptops that aren’t “owned” by an adult, so in the a.m. they open them up and search for stuff, look on their kid’s forum I let them go to sometimes before, and for my daughter, 12, she’s claiming the computer that is a tablet laptop, and draws most of the time anymore. My 14 year old loves to search for all sorts of information, but doesn’t write much of anything. He has written several things about LBP2 though. What is that? Oh, a game, Little Big Planet 2.

    My daughter will write something if I get on her case, she’s not so bad, but given her own way, she rarely writes much of anything, may write a post, give it a title but no body, and save it. Or write such a nothing summary of something, that’s it.

    My daughter used to be the one ahead in Math-U-See, but my son is now quite a few chapters ahead. They gave themselves a haiatus on it for a few months, for some reason, but I’ve gotten the whip out lately about it. So they are both forging ahead again. My other son, the 10 year old, is reticent to do any Math-U-See, he’s on the older level all by himself and just isn’t wanting much of anything to do with it, or with reading or writing or anything that isn’t a cartoon, video game, outdoor something or other. He can read now, but it’s so difficult to get him to do it “I already read that” is his answer when I ask him to read something aloud, or to read it by himself and tell me about it afterward. “Yes, but I want you to read it again, it’s not a bad thing to re-read something.” is my response sometimes. Of course there are a myriad of responses I could give him. He’s different, I know. He’s not into books as much as electronic usage. Thankfully he’s not into the computer much yet.

    A major thing that I’m including in their education is chores (Home Economics for ALL!)  More fun than “chores” is actual helping with cooking, and it’s a great help for me. My daughter can make a few things for dinner by herself, aide me in other things, is learning along the way. Right now she’s learning why drop biscuits are better when I make the exact same recipe as she does.Mine are light and fluffy … good really good, her’s less good, more dense, much less good.

    My 14 year old helps more than cooks. Helps with prep and taking care of some things that I’m cooking, breaking up ground meat as it browns, for example. Also gets pre-cracked spelt or kamut into a dish with the right stuff to soak it overnight for hot cereal in the morning, I pre-crack the grain and keep it in the freezer. He gets it prepped and cooks it the next day.

    The examples above are not all they do, they are becoming very capable about the kitchen, and will both be able to feed themselves and others when they are adults. That’s something that everyone, no matter what their sex is, needs to be able to do. Gender Roles aren’t so great all the time. In my case it’s exactly that. I can cook. I love to cook. I don’t love to cook all the time though. I get weary of it fast when I feel I’ve been cooking a lot. No set amount, it just is part of who I am, I enjoy it to a point, then need some time off. I would LOVE to do Dinner’s in the Freezer, but I haven’t been able to get it planned out and get the help I need to make it work at the right time to do it. It’s exactly the kind of thing I need, but I also do have lower energy than a lot of people and it is OVERWHELMING to do even three meals in a weekend to put away in the freezer.

    Sometimes I get all into it and make double of what I would for just a meal (to put half away for another day) and then it doesn’t work out, like part of it gets ruined, or my bigger guys eat more than usual, or … I’m so tired by the end and don’t get it put into the freezer, then ….

    Then I can’t cook for a couple of days and … it’s just frustrating.

    So, Spring is here. Trees are blooming early, way early, it’s been hot, chilly, warm, chilly, hot, nice, hot, chilly … just not COLD anymore. Hot and warm I could do away with. Our A/C isn’t working (not the first time) and it’s bad on the hot days. I don’t function at all when it’s hot.

    I need to function more to get more educational things done. I’m awaiting building a new desktop computer for me to use, and once that is in place I can sit at a desk with a keyboard and do much more than I can manage to do with my laptop. It’s a matter of many things, my laptop is capable of much, just not as much as my desktop will, and with a desk and desktop I’m more functional. My laptop could be on a desk, but it still doesn’t go as well for me as a desktop computer on a desk.

    I’m guessing this is the same thing as the children. The old desktop is monitorless now. I have it connected to the TV and it’s nowhere near a place to sit with a mouse and keyboard, have to stand and weirdo do stuff, so the laptops … well they need to do their Latin on the desktop, math-u-see videos … and maybe they’d be better with writing more …

     

     

     

     

  • Autumn Session begins

    Today begins a more full start of our home schooling. Having two eldest write a lot on computer. Need to get them at the kitchen table with paper, pencils, pens and have them work on a more artistic rendering of their handwriting, and get them more comfortable with a cursive version of writing.

    My middle child is finally reading. He started to be more interested in it at 9 1/2 but struggled mightily with reading anything. He’s very smart, intelligent, had the tools he needed, just wouldn’t go all the way. I got him a few more books, pointed things out to him, he started being more receptive and before he turned 10 just a week ago he “cracked the code” and is now a bit more than an early reader. He’s fastly growing up. Now he can get into more schooling that’s for him to do (less instruction from me.)

    My two eldest finished their Beta Math U See before summer was over.  They’ll be starting the next level this week. They have a tendancy to race through it, which is fine, just that I want them doing more than just Math U See, there are other subjects, also, they can half-race through as long as I can afford the next pkg when they are done … we aren’t always fluid with fund to buy materials. There are other things I need to buy still as well. I have to go through what I have and what I need with my Simply Charlotte Mason planning materials. I have been toying with the idea of some other things, not sure what to do.

    First off though, I need money. So right now it’s what we have is what we have.

    I have an art program online for them. I need to get them using it. (I started last year but they balked and things from other subjects and family life covered over it. So it languishes.)

    There is Bible, History/Geography, Catechism, Latin, Nature, Technology, etc.

    I need to get some science pkg for my eldest.

    I need to get some books and maps to go with Bible, History, Geography. I can do with what I have for now, but it’ll be better with more stuff.

    My toddler is the monkey wrench in all of this. He’s more mobile and gets into trouble easier than ever now, he’s 3. With 3 older ones that’s tougher than when my eldest was 6 and the other two younger … they’ve grown, and having a baby later is great, but it’s all the toddler stuff all over again. I’m pretty good at getting pre-school at home oriented. But my older children need more than that. I need to divide and conquer.