More About Mom – HOTM Meme May 8, 2009

For yesterday’s Thankful Thursday meme, I blogged about how great my mom is. But, of course, one blog post can’t do justice to my mom. So, for today’s Heart of the Matter meme, which is also for Mother’s Day, I’ll add to the list of cool things about my mom. You should check out yesterday’s post first, then read on:

1. My mom is insane about having a clean house. She passed this on to me, but I’m almost recovered from it! Three years of constant headache will do that to you. The advantage, though, is that I learned very young how to clean house. Even though my house isn’t actually clean, you should know that it could be.

2. My mom works third shift and loves it. And I think I have inherited her night-owl tendencies. She is an Intensive-Care nurse and really enjoys working the middle of the night shifts. I used to hate working in the middle of the night, but it was always because it was after working a full day (as a Family Physician). As a stay-at-home mom, I have found that I prefer to stay up until 11 or midnight and then sleep in until about 9 or 10am.

3. My mom is not at all a picky eater, but I am an incredibly picky eater (despite Mom’s best efforts to make me an omnivore). Despite this, she does not like cooked spinach, but one of my favorite foods is spinach pie which includes (you guessed it) cooked spinach. HA!

4. My mom graduated from college two weeks before I did (and with a higher grade point average – but who’s comparing?). I drove from Baton Rouge to South Florida for our joint graduation party. There were about 70 people at my parents’ house for the party. My dad designed the cake himself and the decorator did a great job with it. It had a picture of a nurse on one side with “To Work” and (1965-1990) on it for my mom and a picture of a graduate with “To Med School” and (1985-1990) on it for me. It was a great party. (I’m not sure my mom was all that thrilled with everyone knowing that it took her 25 years to get her degree, but considering that she raised two kids, worked several jobs, and managed a home while getting her degree, I don’t think anyone thought a bit less of her for taking a non-traditional route to a degree!)

5. My mom encouraged me in my education. She always said that I could go as far as I wanted in school. So, I got my M.D. – why settle, right? Mom also discouraged me from getting married until I finished my education until Mr. Math Tutor and I decided we wanted to get married when I was in med school and then it was OK. I figure she didn’t want to take any chances on Mr. Math Tutor getting away.

6. My mom is very competitive. This is not always good. She has been known to chase people around our house when they have the audacity to beat her at Trivial Pursuit. (Sorry, Mom!)

7. My mom (and dad) is (are) incredibly supportive of homeschooling. I feel so bad for other homeschoolers who feel like they have to prove to their families that they aren’t ruining their kids by keeping them at home. Our situation is the opposite. I think we’d hear cries of protest if we tried to put our kids in public school! It is very nice to have the grandparents support our choices, to ask the kids what they’re learning, and to be as involved as they can in the kids’ educations.

8. My mom was supportive of my career when I was working as a physician, but she’s just as supportive of my being a stay-at-home mom (even though she’s as unhappy as I am about the migraines that are keeping me completely out of the workforce right now). My sister-in-law and I are both professionals who are now staying at home with our kids. She is doing it completely by choice, while my choice was made by my health issues. In any case, having a supportive mom makes life so much easier than it would otherwise be.

9. My mom is beautiful. Mostly it’s because of her gorgeous smile. I hope I’m still half that pretty at her age.

If I think of any other interesting things about Mom, I’ll add another post tomorrow. And that’s very likely because my mom is quite the character.

Check out Heart of the Matter Online for more great posts!

Heart of the Matter Meme – May 1, 2009

Today’s Heart of the Matter Meme topic is “What’s In Your Garden?”  So far, nothing.

I have not been blessed with a green thumb, as I noted last year on this blog.  But, with some hard work and the grace of God, I did manage to grow some very nice nice flowers and herbs in the front planter.  Actually, the lavender, chive, yarrow, and some other unidentified perennials are coming back up again for another attempt at growing in our yard.  We’ll see what they think.

But, like any good homeschooling family, we have had hopes and plans for a garden.  And this year, we are going to plant one.  After all, we’ve only been homeschooling for eight years.  You’d think we might have done this back when we had a yard larger than an acre.  No, we decided that it was better to have a garden now that we have a yard the size of a postage stamp that is already burdened with a trampoline, a dying tree, a patio set (from when we had a deck at the other house), and a fire pit.  Yes, a challenge is what we need the year we decide to do something which we are completely unprepared to do that we have no idea how to do.

Yet, we are undaunted.  Armed with our copy of Square Foot Gardening and knowledge of the nearest lumber store and nursery, we are going to put in our square foot garden this upcoming week.  (Remember, we live up North, so no one has done a lot of planting yet.  I know you Floridians are ready for your first harvest, but we’re still eating last year’s deer meat and potatoes.)  The funny thing is that since we decided to make a square foot garden last fall, I have read about this kind of gardening all over the web, and our town has even started a community square foot garden.

Our plan (right now – we reserve the right to change our minds at any time) is this: two 4x4 beds in which we will plant some or all of the following: asparagus, broccoli, parsley, spinach, leaf lettuce, onions, corn, summer squash, and peppers; and a taller 1x1 foot bed for carrots (yes, I know the punctuation in that sentence was abysmal – sorry).  We also have to make chicken-wire covers for the 4x4 beds to protect them from rabbits.  We know there are rabbits because one took cover from the winter cold next to our basement window during several days in January and I’m betting he/she doesn’t have any qualms about eating our veggies.  We will also be growing tomatoes and cucumbers upside down in plastic pails.  (My dad wants to know the feasibility of doing this, so he’s paying my kids to grow them for him and report on how well it works for them.  Rosie Girl loves tomatoes and Wild Man loves cucumbers so it’s win-win all the way around.)

I’m sure I’ll post more next week about our progress (or lack thereof).  Pray for us.  We’ll need it.  There are plants all around us growing without any help from humans at all.  Why should it be so difficult to get plants to grow where we want them to?  Hmmm.  I’m not sure there’s a good answer for that question.

Rosie Girl has several incentives to make this successful.  She would like to grow some berries either in the garden or somewhere else in the yard and then can berries in the fall (a skill I can’t teach her).  I told her that I’ll give her some high school credit if she keeps gardening records during her high school years and writes a summary or report at the end of the growing season.  I’ll also give her credit for freezing and canning if she does that  each year and writes a summary.  She’s thrilled about being able to have fun, play in the kitchen, and get credit.  Works for everyone.

Check our Heart of the Matter Online to see what others are saying!

Easter Traditions – HOTM Meme

I really love Easter, but it doesn’t have as much deep tradition associated with it as Christmas.  Frankly, this is OK with me.  I think it allows more time for reflection without the craziness that so often characterizes Christmas.

I remember very clearly one Easter when I was young (maybe 7 or 8) when my mom and I both had Strep Throat and had to stay home from church.  We were completely miserable.

Growing up, we always had new clothes for Easter Sunday morning and got Easter baskets on Easter morning.  Often, the Easter bunny would hide candy eggs around our house that we would go around and find before church.  We often participated in Easter egg hunts at church or other community events during the week before Easter.

As an adult, I’m less concerned about new clothes for Easter, especially nowadays with our current financial situation.  In addition, I have a terrible time knowing what kind of clothes to wear for Easter here in the Great White North.  Tomorrow will be pleasant with temperatures in the 50s, but we have had everything from snow to very warm Easters in the years we’ve lived here.

My parents have been in close contact with the Easter bunny and make sure that my children (and my husband and I) get chocolate bunnies from Hoffman’s Chocolates every year.  The last few years, it’s been easier for the Easter bunny to bring our baskets on the day before Easter because Mr. Math Tutor is usually at all of the Easter services on Sunday.

Growing up, we always had a big lunch on Easter Sunday, often with company.  We haven’t done a big company lunch here in a few years because of my headaches.  Last year, Ga’hoole Girl and I cooked a leg of lamb with garlic – delicious!  This year, we’ve decided on simplicity.  We’re making bacon, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, and fruit for Easter lunch.  It’s easy to make, everyone loves it, and it doesn’t take much preparation.

The best thing, though, about Easter is what it means.  As much as I love the chocolate bunnies, I love even more that this is the time of year that we celebrate even more than usual the resurrection of our Savior that means that we can have abundant life here on Earth and eternal life in Heaven with God.  Totally amazing!!

Check our Heart of the Matter Online to see what others are saying about their Easter Traditions.

Heritage – HOTM Meme – March 14, 2009

  Heritage: Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.

When I think about family heritage I know that I am very blessed to have great-grandparents (mostly deceased) that all came to America in their lifetimes. The traditions have not faded from my family yet. I was raised with a very rich knowledge of where I came from and am able to tell my children the first and second hand accounts of where our traditions came from. I am a third generation American and being raised in Texas there aren’t many people I know that can say this. My husband, in fact, can trace his family almost all the way back to the beginning of this country, while I know where to find the Ellis Island records for mine. What is your heritage? Where did your family begin? Did they spread like the wind or stay fairly close to one another? Do you have unique traditions that each generation has upheld? What is the legacy you leave to future generations?

This week’s Heart of the Matter Meme is supposed to be a video meme, but since making a video requires multiple steps for me, I’m just going to do a regular post.

My family’s heritage is Irish, English, and American Indian.  My father’s family can trace it’s roots back to Ireland, and my cousin has visited family there.  Our ancestor came to the US and settled in Alabama in the early to mid 1800s.  The rest of the family is centered in the Louisiana-East Texas area.  I remember that my family was originally Catholic when they arrived, but converted at some point to Protestantism.  Now, one of the regular activities at family reunions is singing hymns around the piano.

My mother’s family heritage is less easily traced.  I do know that my grandfather was a hobo for a while before he got married.  That’s pretty cool.  My grandmother’s family was American Indian from eastern Louisiana.  I grew up in Florida while my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc were all in Mississippi and Louisiana, so I didn’t know many of them well.  In addition, one set of grandparents had died before I was born, and the other set died before my teen years, so I didn’t know them well.  I visit my extended family regularly but am still closest to my parents and brother.

A few years ago, I started doing an oral history of my family, but got distracted and let it drop.  I need to restart that.  My mother had 11 siblings, so we had a lot of ground to cover!!

The heritage that I want to pass on to my children is the love for the Lord that their grandparents have.  I grew up in a home where I knew that God was real and that He loved me.  I want my kids to know that.  Of course, I also want them to know the books of the Bible, lots of Bible verses, Bible stories, and lots of theology, but I mostly want them to know Jesus.  A big part of the reason for my faith is the home in which I was raised.  I want to pass that on to my children.

What is your heritage?  What legacy do you want to leave your children?  Check out Heart of the Matter Online to see what others have said!

Our Morning Routine

Heart Of The Matter Online is having an eight week blog carnival – Eight Weeks to a More Organized Homeschool.  Wow.  I could certainly be more organized around here!!!  I used to pride myself on my organizational skills.  Then life happened.  When I left the workplace, I found that I no longer had an assistant to keep track of the details, and that children are far more needy than patients.  Top that off with chronic pain and unpredictable flare-ups and you have a recipe for disaster!

But, being naturally rather organized has helped me manage with a little more grace.  One of the big things that we do is keep some routines, particularly for our mornings.  Now, if you were to visit one morning, you might have a hard time discerning the routine, but it is there.  We don’t have a specified time to awaken each day (although this may change next fall if the children take classes at the public school).  Mr. Math Tutor is an early riser, usually followed by Wild Man, then me, then Ga’hoole Girl (typical teenager).

Each child has a list of chores that they have to do each morning before they can have breakfast.  Wild Man has to shovel or sweep the back walkway, sweep the kitchen and dining room, clean his room, and get dressed as well as do his weekly chore.  Ga’hoole Girl’s list includes shoveling or sweeping the front steps, vacuuming the living room, cleaning her room, and getting dressed along with her weekly chore.  After breakfast, they are expected to put away their dishes then brush their teeth.  Each day they have a “weekly chore” that varies by day of the week.  In this way, almost the whole house gets vacuumed and dusted and the bathroom gets cleaned in the course of the week. Their lists are posted in plastic page protectors and taped to a bookshelf in the dining room.  Wild Man likes to mark off his chores every day with a dry-erase marker.

Since I don’t have a time frame on our morning routines, the kids can take a few minutes if they need to wake up in the morning.  They have an incentive, though, to get their work done quickly since they can’t have breakfast until their chores are done.  I try to have their school lists printed the night before so they can start their schoolwork as soon as they are done with breakfast, even if I don’t feel well.

So, that’s it.  It’s pretty simple.  There are some kinks in the system at times.  I’ve been known to have to re-teach sweeping skills or find that a child has “forgotten” to do something – for several days running.  But, usually a small reminder fixes the problem.  We may not have the most productive days possible, but this routine gets us up and moving most days.  It’s a few minutes of organizational light in a day of chaos!

Make Your Next Vacation A Quest!!

Check out Heart of the Matter Online for my article on how to make your next vacation a quest!!

New Article at Heart of the Matter . . .

Go check out my recent article at Heart of the Matter Online called “Working With My Kids’ Learning Styles”.  While you’re there, check out the rest of the great content for homeschooling families! 

Heart of the Matter Online – January 16, 2009

Today’s Heart of the Matter topic is Video Meme: Thoughts on Inauguration Day & President.  I’m going to break a little rule here, though, and not do a video.  Making video with our current set-up is possible, but definitely not easy.  The main computer doesn’t have a webcam, so we have to film with the video camera, transfer to the computer, edit, then save.  Far too much work in my world.

I do, though have some thoughts on Inauguration Day and homeschooling.  A good bit of our day on Tuesday is going to involve watching the Inauguration ceremony and reading online about the history of the Presidential Inauguration.  We are also going to spend some time praying for our new president.

During the election, we watched the speeches during the conventions.  We also saw lots of commercials and even part of the debates.  We started working through an election unit study, but it ended up being overwhelming to me.  That being said, the kids did learn a good bit about how elections work from our myriad discussions over those several months.  On election night, we planned to stay up until the winner was announced.  Well, since the results were apparent pretty early, we got to bed on time!

I did not vote for Obama, nor did my hubby.  In fact, we vehemently opposed his election because of his policies.  But, now, the fact is that he is our president and we need to pray for him and support him in whatever ways we can.  To that end, I’m trying to be very positive about the Inauguration and Mr. Obama himself.  We’ll talk about the trivial things, like his family’s trying to choose a new dog, as well as the more serious things, like what he’ll do about the war in Iraq.

I’ve become very concerned about how many Evangelicals have demonized politicians with whom they disagree.  I have read, in more than one place on the internet, all kinds of terrible and downright evil things about the incoming administration.  I want my kids to start to learn that we can disagree with someone and still be respectful.  We may think that they are leading to world to Hell in a handbasket, but if they are in authority over us, we are to be submissive (as long as submission to their authority does not contradict God’s express commands). 

This can be tough.  We spent the entire election season working to keep the Democrats out of the White House, and our kids heard our conversations and our concerns.  Now we need to stand firm on our convictions, but pray for our leaders (even if we don’t like what they stand for).  I don’t know Mr. and Mrs. Obama or Mr. and Mrs. Biden personally.  I have no reason to dislike them.  But, I don’t agree with them.  And I want my kids to learn how to respectfully disagree with others.

Check out Heart of the Matter Online to see what others said about the Inauguration and the new president!

 

Heart of the Matter Meme – 1/9/2009

 

Here’s the prompt for today’s Heart of the Matter meme:

2008 is behind us and we are two weeks into the New Year! In considering your resolutions, or simply your hopes and goals for 2009, how do you plan on accomplishing them? What is some great advice you can give someone about homeschooling?..or maybe you simply have some encouragement for parents of your own! Can’t wait to read the posts…remember that many people struggle with the after-Christmas let down. What keeps you positive?

One of the things about our schooling that has really been bothering me is inconsistency.  Granted, a good bit of it is due to my headaches, but I would like to get a little better about getting our formal schoolwork done.  I still plan to keep the stuff on the list to a reasonable level to let the kids pursue their own interests.

This week, I started planning each day with schoolwork at the top of my mind.  The most important thing for me at any given moment during the day is the kids’ schoolwork.  This simple act of prioritizing has really helped us this week.  I made sure Wild Man was up by 9am so he and I could start working together at 10am.  I made sure Ga’hoole Girl was up by 10am and then checked in with her as she was starting her schoolwork at 11am.  When both kids were doing independent work, I could spend time on the computer or doing housework, but I didn’t put off their schoolwork while I was busy doing something else.

This week really was a great week in the school department.  Check out my Week in Review post later for details!  Now, go to Heart of the Matter Online to see how others are answering this meme.

Incorporating Extended Family Into Homeschooling

Today's "Heart of the Matter" meme is how we incorporate our extended family into our homeschool.  We live in The Great White North while the grandparents all live in Florida so they don't get to be involved in the day to day workings of our homeschooling.  There are, though, some things that we can do with extended family that are educational.

• The kids send emails to the grandparents.  This gives the kids writing practice as well as letting the grandparents know what is going on around here.
• Grandma teaches the kids to sew when she visits.  She also has taken them on a trip to Door County, which was educational as well as fun.
• Grams and Grandpa have some land in Mississippi that includes a pond, so we go fishing and play in the woods when we visit them there.
• Grams and Grandpa have taken the kids on educational day trips when we visit them in Florida.
• Grams cooks with the kids whenever they get together.
• Last year, we made our trip to Mississippi a quest, and got Grams and Grandpa to set up the end of the quest for us.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the other participants in this meme have to say and maybe getting some new ideas!  Check out Heart of the Matter Online for more responses.

 

Heart of the Matter Meme - December 5, 2008

The Heart of the Matter Meme topic today:

How does your family celebrate? What are your favorite holiday links? Do you teach your kiddos about the other holidays? Do you take December off from schooling? Imagine that this is a unit study–share your past and present holiday ideas with everyone else.

I've already shared about some of our holiday traditions, so I think I'll write today about schooling in December.

When Mr. Math Tutor was doing the schooling, December was a pretty skeletal month as far as school goes.  I was working, and he was doing a lot of stuff at church during the month.  Things are a little different now that I'm the "schoolmarm".  Last year, we did a "Christmas Unit" where we studied traditions from different parts of the world.  Unfortunately, we didn't get done quite as much as I would have liked, but it was fun.

This year, Ga'hoole Girl requested that we suspend Sonlight and do another Christmas unit study, but I didn't have time to put anything together, so I declined.  Instead, we are doing Sonlight, but without some of the "bells and whistles" that I usually like to add.  (Of course, I've had so many headaches this week, that we never actually got to the Sonlight stuff!)  My goal is for them each do to math and some kind of reading each day and then add in science and Sonlight when we can.

We are doing lots of crafts this year, which are educational even if they don't "fit" into the curriculum.  I've been impressed at watching the kids' persistence in making some of their items.  Of course, since some of my family reads this blog, I can't tell you specifics of what they're making till after Christmas, but suffice it to say that they are really cool gifts.  We are planning to do a gingerbread church next week.  Almost 20 years ago, I bought a book with lots of different structures to make from gingerbread, and I have never used it.  This year, though, we are going to tackle the "Victorian Church".  It's a pretty simple pattern, but it does have stained glass windows that we make with hard candy.  I'm planning for that project to take us at least a week.

So, what are you doing with your kids this holiday season?  Check out Heart of the Matter Online to see the December activities of other families!

 

 

How Our Family is Unique!

 

Today's Heart of the Matter Online meme topic is "How Our Family is Unique".  What a great topic!  Every family has their own quirks, foibles, and individual characteristics.  Here are some of ours:

• We love to read aloud as a family.  We read the Sonlight read-alouds plus several other books every year.  Right now, we are reading Brisingr by Christopher Paolini.  When we go on vacation, we always make sure to have books with us for reading aloud in the hotel room as well as audiobooks for the car.
• In the morning, we often do "sofa time" where we cuddle up on the sofa for a half hour or so before we get going with chores and schoolwork.
• We used to be a family with a Doctor Mom and Stay at Home/Homeschooling Dad.  Now we are a family with Disabled/Homeschooling Mom and Tutor Dad.
• We are a geeky family.  We had a blast earlier this year watching the National Spelling Bee on TV.  Some of our favorite TV shows are from the Food Network and Discovery Channel.

So, what about you?  How is your family different from everyone else?  Check out Heart of the Matter Online for more responses!

Published again!

Check out Heart of the Matter Online today where the featured article is by - drumroll please - ME! It's an adaptation of my post called "Simple Schooling". Enjoy!

Our School Room - Heart of the Matter Online November 7, 2008

Today's Heart of the Matter Online meme is for us to show our school room or area where we do our schoolwork. We do schoolwork pretty much anywhere in the house that we happen to be. The kids are quite interested in cooking, so we do lots of stuff in the kitchen. Wild Man has been enjoying making bread recently while Ga'hoole Girl likes cooking meals and making candy.

We do have a schoolroom, which has desks for both kids as well as a timeline and book shelves.

My absolute favorite part of the schoolroom, though, is these pull-out shelves. They are original to the house, which is about 60 years old, and are part of the reason I wanted to live in this house. We keep board games on the top couple of shelves with art supplies and science supplies in the bottom couple of shelves.

Of course, very little schoolwork actually gets done in the school room. The living room is the most likely place to find us reading individually or out loud. The kids particularly like the beanbag.

We didn't have any room in the school room for our world map, so it ended up in the dining room. For a while, I had it under a vinyl tablecloth on the table, but the tablecloth ripped and the map was getting messed up. We ended up putting it on the wall in the dining room. Since we have all kinds of discussions, including geography, at the dinner table, it's pretty convenient.

Wild Man asked what I was writing about today and I told him it was about where we do our schoolwork. He said, "We do it all over the place!" Indeed.

Check out Heart of the Matter Online to see how other families do their schoolwork.

Homeschool Creativity - Heart of the Matter Online

Today's Heart of the Matter Meme is ideas for non-creative homeschooling moms. The problem is that I'm one of those non-creative types!! What I have learned, though, is that my kids will be incredibly creative if I just give them the time to do so. When we studied Medieval History, I didn't plan any cool creative ideas, but Wild Man made a Lego castle and played knights for weeks. Ga'Hoole Girl has used her own money to purchase prisms and has made up her own optics kit. In our situation, the best idea for creativity is to give the kids lots of time and little media and let their own creativity shine through.

Check out Heart of the Matter Online for lots of other great ideas!!

Educational Freebie Sites - Heart of the Matter Meme October 10, 2008

Now that ya'll have all calmed down about seeing my article on the Homeschool Classroom blog, it's time for the weekly Heart of the Matter Online meme. Today's theme is about our favorite homeschool freebie sites. This one is a little tough for me. My kids are past the ages of reading help sites like Starfall. They do their math online at ALEKS, but it's not free. But, I did come up with several site that I find helpful in our studies.

1. Wikipedia - I don't let the kids cite Wikipedia as a source in papers, but it is a great place to start to find information on a topic.

2. Dictionary.com - When we are reading out loud, this is an invaluable resource.

3. The Met Museum Online Timeline of Art - We use this to look at artworks from various time periods.

4. National Gallery of Art Kids - Ga'hoole Girl just loves this site. Kids get to explore art as well as create their own masterpieces.

5. National Geographic Online - Always a good resource for science stuff.

6. Discovery Channel Online - The home of Mythbusters!! Need I say more?

7. Hyperhistory - A site with lots of timelines. It can be overwhelming and I mostly use it to get myself oriented to what we are studying.

Check out Heart of the Matter Online for more great ideas from other homeschooling families!

Unexpected Education - Heart of the Matter Online 10/3/08

Today's Heart of the Matter meme is asking what I have learned from homeschooling that I didn't expect to learn. My kids have never gone to school, but their dad was the homeschooling parent until 2 1/2 years ago. Now, he's building up a tutoring business and I have taken over the education responsibilities. And, it has been an education on my part!!

1. Wild Man, my auditory learner, can listen to a book while still playing Legos.
2. Ga'hoole Girl, who memorizes everything, can tell you where in the Harry Potter books to find almost anything and is still upset that Hermione wore a pink dress in the "Goblet of Fire" movie instead of the blue dress as described in the book.
3. Wild Man and Mr. Math Tutor are very much alike. They aren't big on details and quite often need a list in order to not forget things. They are both big problem solvers.
4. Spending all day, every day, with the kids is harder than I gave Mr. Math Tutor credit for when he was schooling.
5. I love the relaxed pace of our lives - which is unusual because I thought I would be a highly structured schooling parent (but the headaches pretty well nixed that!).
6. The kids are always learning - from our read-aloud books, to cooking, to learning to roller blade.

Check out Heart of the Matter Online to see what other great homeschool parents are saying about what they have learned in their schooling experience.

Record-Keeping, The Essentials - Heart of the Matter Online 9/26/2008

I am fortunate to live in a state that requires a minimal amount of record-keeping for homeschooling. If I had been the stay-at-home parent for the first few years, I probably would have been downright psychotic about records. Yes, that was who I was. It's a good thing I was a doctor where I could put my compulsiveness to a more socially acceptable use. Mr. Math Tutor was, shall we say, not compulsive.

With Ga'hoole Girl being high-school age next year, I have been thinking more about how to record her high school work in order to make a transcript. For the last three years, I have been using Homeschool Tracker Plus to plan out the children's work for the day and/or the week. At the beginning of the Sonlight Core, I make up lesson plans in the lesson planning section. I put the Sonlight assignments in place and then add in movies or other interesting things that we might do. On Saturday or Sunday, I move the lesson plan items onto the daily or weekly assignment list then add in the rest of the assignments.

I make one list for me which lists out the work that I want to do with each child or both children for the week. This list is scheduled on Monday, but contains the work for the week to give me some flexibility. I have another weekly list for Ga'hoole Girl which lists her work that she can schedule herself during the week. Then, I make a daily list for each child with daily assignments and chores. I print the new daily list in the morning and check off the work from the day before.

I keep written work that I want to keep in a file drawer with files labeled by child and subject. This isn't critical right now, but I do need to keep these papers starting next year for Ga'hoole Girl's science work.

I definitely love using the computer to keep records. HST+ is a great program with lots of flexibility. If you're interested in using it, you can try the free version first. Check out Heart of the Matter Online for more great posts about record-keeping!

Balancing "Mom" and "Teacher" - Heart of the Matter Friday Meme

Part of being a parent (I say parent instead of Mom since my husband also does some schooling) is being a teacher. When the kids were little, I helped teach them to talk, walk, and go potty. As they have gotten older, I have taught them manners (well, maybe not enough!), how to do chores, and about Jesus. So, why is there tension between the roles of "Mom" and "Teacher"?

Frankly, I don't think we have a lot of problem with role differentiation in our home. Our kids have never been to school, so they don't think of parents as separate from teachers. In our society, the teachers are held up as the keepers of knowledge, while the parents are marginalized. When the kids spend most of their time at home, they learn that adults have different areas of knowledge specialization, but that most adults can help kids learn almost anything.

We also don't separate out "school" time from "home" time very strictly. The kids' school lists also include their chores. When I record the week's school activities, I also include cooking meals, outside activities, and other interesting things (like star-watching while lying on the trampoline).

I do find that there are some places where there is some role tension, though.

1. As the kids are getting older, we run into subjects where I would prefer to be the cheerleader instead of the coach. I would rather cheer my kids on and be purely encouraging sometimes instead of pointing out where they made mistakes and need to improve. This can be a learning experience, though, where we learn how to communicate, even about difficult subjects.

2. Giving grades is tough as the mom. I don't give grades because I expect the kids to work at something until they have mastered it. When I do a high school transcript, if I have to give grades, they will probably be very high grades. This is because they work at the subject until they understand it. If they don't do the work adequately, the subject won't go on the transcript.

For more on this topic, check out Heart of the Matter - there's lots and lots of good stuff.

What We Are Using This Year - Heart of the Matter

It's been a while since I've participated in a Heart of the Matter Meme, but I'm getting back on track with "school" stuff, so here's this week's post. The theme is "What We Are Using This Year".

Both kids:
Sonlight Core 6 (finishing) then Core 7
ALEKS Math - Wild Man on Elementary 3, Ga'hoole Girl on Middle School Math 3
Power-Glide Spanish
Balancing the Sword Bible
Various audiobooks for music history
Various DVDs for art history
The Food Channel

Wild man
Explode the Code
All About Spelling
Miscellaneous early chapter books
Real Science 4 Kids Physics
Looking at Pictures with Children

Ga'hoole Girl
Easy Grammar Plus
Jump In! writing curriculum
I'm Just Here for the Food
Apologia General Science
Usborne Introduction to Art

Of course, we also add in whatever books look interesting along with activities using the maps and timeline. Check out what other homeschoolers are using this year at Heart of the Matter Online. Also, check out some of my previous posts for reviews of other curriculum that we have used.