I thought it would be interesting to share my pre-homeschool schedule that I created last August. As you can see, I really worked hard to schedule every conceivable subject. I was also extremely naive optimistic.

8:00 Get Dressed/AM Chores
8:15 Breakfast
8:30 English
9:00 Handwriting
9:15 Math
9:45 Dinner Prep
10:00 Take Dog for Walk
10:30 Violin
11:00 Social Studies
11:30 Unit Study
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Free Time
2:00 Art
2:30 Science
3:00 Spelling
3:15 Computer Time
3:45 Rosetta Stone
4:00 Play Outside/Friends
5:30 Dinner
6:00 Dinner Cleanup
6:30 Straighten Up Rooms
7:00 PJs/Teeth/Outloud Stories
7:30 Reading on Own
8:00 Lights Out
In reality, a day in our life went more like:

Wake up sometime between 7:00 and 8:00
Breakfast/Get Dressed/Hair and Teeth Brushed between 8:00 and 9:00
Start Math at 9:00 and work until done with lesson–time depends on child’s willingness to learn and focus.
Read a social studies chapter out loud and discuss/read a science chapter out loud and discuss 10:30-11:30
Practice violin at some point in the afternoon (30 minutes)
Do some sort of Art of choice (5 minutes to 2 hours, depending on interest)
Read(anywhere from 1 hour to 1.5 hours)

Pretty loosey goosey. A bit more than I like, but it was a semester of adjustment and I am still trying to find my “voice”, as well as looking for a social network (and finding a great one. I love NICHE!). I think I have been more realistic this semester–I have things schedule for AM or PM instead of planning in half hour increments. Hopefully this will help keep us on track.

Why worry? You ask. In reality we did school more than the required 4 hours a day. So why try and fit in more?

Well, my husband and I discussed her progress over break. Was she happier? Yes. Was her learning adequate? Yes. We know she did more than she would’ve covered in school. Could she have learned more? Absolutely. Did she want to learn more? Yes. She is the kind of kid (right now) who needs direction and for you to put the learning in front of her. She’s more than happy to do it. But she doesn’t go in search of knowledge. Perhaps this is because of her 2 years in public school—she definitely had more of an inner desire to learn before Kindergarten.

I’ll let you know how these first 5 planned weeks go.

I have been reading several articles and studies on the affects of gaming/violence on children.  I think I am going to limit her gaming time even further to an hour at a time a few times a week, instead of every day.

Yup.  You are viewing the worst mistake Santa ever made.  The Nintendo DS Lite.  You know all those people who say that playing video games or watching violent media has nothing to do with the rise of teen violence?  Well, after personally experiencing the drastic behavioral changes of my child after she has access to this thing, I think they are all full of shit.

The games are all rated E for everyone, but I swear the interaction between the game and her brain causes behavioral changes when she is done playing.

This is what I have noticed:

1. Surly to everyone
2. Disrespectful
3. Can’t follow simple instruction
4. Needs things repeated several times
5. Cannot interact nicely with her sister
6. Grouchy Grouchy Grouchy
7. Actually pushed her sister(!)  This NEVER happens in my family.  NEVER.
8. Did I mention Grouchy and Disrespectful?

She has even noticed that she gets “grouchy” after she plays the game, and we have come up with a plan–she cannot play the game until late afternoon, when ALL of her schoolwork is done/violin practice is done/she has spent time interacting with her sister.  She can play during the hour in the late afternoon her sister watches TV, when I am getting dinner ready.  When school starts again, she needs to finish her 1st semester math workbook(which has patiently been calling to her for the month of break but she has been ignoring) before she gets ANY nintendo time.

Ugh.  If I had known it would cause so many behavioral issues, I wouldn’t have let Santa in the house with it.

Anyone out there noticed these kind of behavioral differences after their kids are exposed to video games?

We are getting ready to get back in the homeschool groove.  I have planned the first 5 weeks’ lesson plans and we are officially beginning classes on January 8th, the day after her once a week options program(out of the house) begins again.

I am assuming at this point she is officially bored enough, seeing as how she has been picking fights with her sister pretty frequently.

I don’t think I am likely to let this kind of lapse in routine happen again…I think its been hard on everyone.  It’ll definately be much easier when Camille is home full time and we aren’t working around her schedule too.

We’ve been seeing this Santa Claus (the REAL Santa!) since Emily was a screaming 1 year old sitting on his lap.

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

“Sissy, you know, your skunk is old.  And old means special!”

—-If only society felt the same way—-

If you live in the Denver area, make sure you visit zoo lights at the Denver Zoo.  It is a great family tradition and if you bundle the kids up well enough, they won’t complain about being cold!  Oh, and make sure you bring your camera with CHARGED batteries, or else you’ll end up with one crappy picture, like the one I took.We made the mistake of going on a Saturday night(what was I thinking?  I homeschool!  We could go ANY night!).  It was really cold and I thought it wouldn’t be busy.  It. was. packed.   But beautiful.  We paid $24 dollars for our family of 4.  Yes, is a lot, but much less than a movie and we actually interacted and got to see some animals!

Emily immediately  noticed the zoo had changed a ton of their lights over to LEDs.  According to their website, 90% of the lights are LED and the rest are wind powered.  Mike and i were discussing how much more profit they are getting this year because their power bills must have been *MASSIVE*.  We made the switch this year from our 13 year old lights that we bought(and seemed like we paid a fortune for)in college to LEDs from Costco(cheapest place to get them)when my husband had spent over an hour trying to figure out which bulb was burnt out.  After much swearing, he agreed “it was time”.  On the outside of the house, we put up 3-4 strands of energy hogging C7 bulbs that twinkle.  I have a soft spot for twinkle bulbs as they are the ones we had on our tree during my childhood.  Don’t mistake “twinkle” for “blinking” either.  On my twinkle bulbs, each bulb is controlled by an individual twinkle controller which makes it turn on and off independantly of the others.  It is really very pretty.  But I do shutter to think of the electric bill this month.  I turned down the heater at night a couple more degrees in order to try and offset the cost of running the lights.

Don’t forget to add your answer when visiting the beatnik lounge in the Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum.  You are helping create a perpetually changing work of art.

I didn’t participate because I thought it was too contrived ;-)  But the kids loved doing it.  Bring your own pen; their’s were out of ink. 

Going to the next floor of the Hamilton Building, the new addition designed by Daniel Libeskind.  Standing at the bottom looking up, or peering down from the upper floors, gives many a weird sense of vertigo.

I am working on a list of fun and educational things to do in the area with your children.  It is ongoing, but instead of hiding it in the “draft” portion of my blog, I decided to post it and work on it on an ongoing basis.  You can find the list here, or see the tab above.