One-Sixteenth

Working intensively with the kids leaves me drained.

Oh, thank goodness I'm not the *only* mother that's true for.

I so want to homeschool - I so hope I can do it - but I have so many doubts.

I have to say thank you for writing this. My first year is coming to an end, and I find myself wondering what *I* am doing wrong. Obviously everybody else has the trick to how to get all the work in in a day. I feel like I have been run over with a Mack Truck some days after just math and reading aloud, between my three girls running around in different directions.

Amy

My 6yo just started this a few months ago. I was starting to think there was something wrong with me.

This is so timely. I just got my copy of Mungo's book yesterday, and was quite convinced those neat little schedules were taken directly from your family's experince. I guess your schedule is a bit ... looser .. than those in the book, though.

Heck, those neat little schedules aren't even taken directly from *my* family. Cum grano salis!

Ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!!

Yes, we're a bit ... looser. And I can't, cannot, school until 3 pm. I can't do it. One day I might have to do it, and I hope I'll manage. But right now, forget it.

I will write more about being an introvert homeschooler who is drained by the children. Y'all are NOT alone. Not at all. It is normal. This is why the computer is my biggest time-stealer, because I need to "check out" for awhile after teaching them.

It's hard. It's worth it, though.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It is good to know that I am not alone in this.
My son has been working on a simple writing assignment over the past month. "List 5 Magic Spells You Would Like to Know". The first spell on his list- one that does his schoolwork for him, and gives him the knowledge as if he had done it. The second spell- one that " helps me focus because sometimes I have problems paying attetion." Watching my son work , watching one, maybe two words written every five minutes, I have been thinking that I'd pay any amount of money if it would just make those spells work. Now I realize how short sighted I was...I never even thought of the market potential.

Carrie

The really miraculous thing is that schools do as well as they do given the circumstances.

I think everything I have is teacher intensive. Now that my oldest can read on his own, I assign him chapters from Story of the World or Hakim. He was on the phone the other day with a relative accusing me of what amounted to child abuse because he "had to read history all by himself." LOL. Right then and there I wanted to enroll him in PS just so he could see all the things he'd have to read and the worksheets he'd have to fill out without any handholding.

My rationale for dealing with a dawdler is tht I only have X amount of time to be available for lessons. After that,

1) I get through or eliminate the Mom-intensive stuff,

2) pile up the undone workbooks and/or copywork,

3) escort the dawdler to her room,

4) remove temptations from said room,

5) tell her to stay there, except for potty breaks, until she finishes, and

6) fix a hot, aromatic lunch.

It's amazing how often she gets through just as or right after lunch hits the table. Oh, we got screaming fits at first, but now even she grudgingly admits I'm being fair.

Please, PLEASE post more about being an introvert homeschooler.

Carrie, my average time in high school was one paragraph/hour. Your son is not unusual.

This is why I've recently instituted the TIMER method instead of the lesson or page method... That is, for Math and Grammar I set the timer and he works for 30-45 minutes - usually 30 min. for Math. He MUST stay at the table and work during that time (no snacks, no running to his room, no drawing). But I had to give up any idea of how many problems or pages he should do in that time and just let him work... sometimes he does like 2 problems, and spends the rest of the time staring out the window. Sometimes he does the entire page, or 2 pages.
Then we move on... I just can NOT be available to oversee the same amount of work getting done in FOUR HOURS!

Of course, this doesn't work for project-based subjects, but it gets us through the basics...