Some Homeschool Mechanics

We start homeschooling around 6:30 a.m. with reading a short prayer and a chapter or a few paragraphs (depending on where there is a natural "break" in the text) from the Bible. We pretty much work constantly the whole morning until about noon or 12:30. That's six hours of actual WORK. I find that if you sit one child down with his math sheets, you can usually read with the other with only a few interruptions and then switch children. So they get their subjects flipped around constantly, but the number of "core hours" remains the same so I keep one record for both children.

When we finish "early," I usually don't just let the boys go and play. I feel that that just means it's time to pull the same trick the local public school does: Silent reading time!! Sit the kid down for a little bit and let him read and look at the pictures on his own.

One thing I'm finding: my boys read very nicely considering their ages. Even the Elf at barely seven can read words like "whosoever" and "wherefore" without blinking. And generally understand what they mean. I'm not saying that to brag, though I *am* proud of them... I'm saying that to set this little problem up: How can they do that, but not be able to spell "are" or write two coherent sentences together without using phrases like, "really really really??" I've done spelling lists and tried to advise them in their writing, but it doesn't seem to help much. Yes, I have a BA in English that my parents spent a great deal to provide (thanks!!), but I still can't teach two small children how to write? Thankfully my degree is not in Education, or the poor children would be *really really really* messed up LOL! (Really.)

Conversely, the boys are able to do quite a bit in mathmatics I wouldn't have expected. I literally get a headache when I look at numbers or try to even think ABOUT thinking about numbers. I dread it so much that I literally want to go hide and cry. But the boys love math. I have no clue how I'll teach them in later years but as long as we stick with basic addition, multiplication, etc. I'll be ok. I'm sitting here getting upset thinking about how I'll have to learn how to do some of the harder math later... so I'll move on to another thought...

We're finishing up a short unit (one week) on healthy eating and the food pyramid. You know what that means... we are going to have to make a list of healthy foods to make for snacks and go shopping. Field trip!! :]