homeschool

All posts tagged homeschool

I Don’t Know Why I Was Even Surprised…

Published October 2, 2014 by Angela

…when I looked in the refrigerator this morning, seeing if someone got into the cookie dough, and it was gone. I had meant to put the package of Nestle Toll House pumpkin spice and white chip cookie dough in my mini refrigerator in my bedroom once I baked the Halloween chocolate chip package and Erin realized there was cookie dough in the refrigerator. I forgot when I left for work yesterday morning. This morning; the whole package had disappeared.

This is why I have a mini refrigerator in my bedroom, as well as the bottom of my entertainment center in my bedroom full of cereal, chips, snacks, etc. When the mood strikes Erin, and she fancies something to eat, she will eat it. She will eat it all. Even though she knows she shouldn’t, and that it upsets me, and it is unhealthy for her; she does it anyway. Such as 24 cookie dough squares. Or 6 cans of slim-fast in one night. Or 8 yogurts in a day. She has randomly cooked full loaves of garlic bread in the middle of the night, so when I go to cook the pasta meal I had planned for dinner; no garlic bread. If she finds chocolate anywhere, she will eat it all. I have had whole bags of chocolate chips disappear, entire cans of Pringles, and a dozen eggs at one time.

If I had a bigger bedroom, I would have a bigger refrigerator. Honestly, if I could get away with putting a lock on my refrigerator and pantry, I would. I am sure someone would consider that child endangerment or cruelty or something else along those lines. Even though she is causing herself issues by binge eating like she does.

Have you had a child, sibling, spouse, partner, friend, or roommate do this? How did you deal with it?

Online Schooling…

Published October 2, 2014 by Angela

…is definitely a big improvement for me than last year when I was setting all of the lesson plans, schedules, checking all of the homework, and then helping her with all of it. Now I just have to help her with all of it. And remind her to stay on task. And answer questions she should probably know the answers to. And remind her to stay on task. And explain to her why it is important to at least move her books from the exact location they were in that morning, so it at least looks like she opened them. And remind her to stay on task. And sit with her through her entire Algebra lessons to help her understand. And remind her to stay on task.

Okay, I think you got my point. I am liking this online environment for Erin (I am working on my 3rd college degree online, so it is definitely familiar territory). The one thing I do not like is the assessments are 4 or 5 questions. If she even gets one wrong, her grade drops by a large amount.

We are still working through the bugs, but she is improving from where she was the first week. Hopefully she is finding her rhythm, and we can keep her caught up. She has one huge writing project that gets shared with the social studies assignments as well, and it does get a bit confusing as to what is due when, and which class they want it submitted to.

I am still hoping she will be ready for public high school next year; she is working towards that goal as much as I am. If she is not, I will definitely go this route next year as well.

We made it past Hump Day, on to the weekend!

Enough Of That Fiasco!

Published September 30, 2014 by Angela

I (hopefully) moved all of my blog information back to wordpress.com, and am hoping for a fairly quick reply from Bluehost to refund me my money from my 3 year hosting plan that I paid, minus of course the 5 days of stress when I attempted, unsuccessfully, to use it.
For those of you that have managed to migrate your blog to a self-hosted website, I am beyond impressed. This experience was so stressful to me that I do not know that I would ever attempt it again. And that is really too bad because my control over my blog is again limited.
If you have self-hosted and found an amazing hosting site that did not find it necessary to charge $19.99 just to talk you through the process of moving your domain name, let me know. And no, I did not pay them anything to help me; it did not appear very user friendly right from the get-go.
So, after today, hopefully I can get back on track with my daily blogs, and I apologize for all the errors and non-existent webpages you were likely directed do.
Have a Happy Tuesday!

Smooth Moves and Switching Over

Published September 25, 2014 by Angela

I Hope This Goes Better Than I Am Expecting! Probably not what you expected either, from the title!

I am moving my blogs to a self-hosted website, so I can have more control over how my pages look, as well as what add-ins are displayed. I am hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. So, I will be absolutely devastated if my followers don’t get redirected to my new website as it states it will do.

I know several of you are following two of my blogs, and one of you is following all 3 ( J ). I do not know how long this transition may take, but I will definitely keep them open where they are at until I know I can export everything over.

So, if I disappear for a while, I apologize, I will just be sitting in front of my laptop, crying because I messed something up!

2013’s To Do List – Update

Published September 24, 2014 by Angela

I have been giving an update about every three months for how I am doing with my little to-do list I made for myself of things I wanted to work on in 2014.

1)      Go to church more – was doing very well, but my summer attendance is never good. That will likely be a focus for me next year; figure out why I have such a hard time getting to church in the summer months

2)      Tithing – all good here

3)      Swearing – swearing has become pretty much non-existent for me; except when I am really, REALLY angry about something. I am at the point of when I hear others swearing, the worse the word is, the more I cringe

4)      Yelling – much better here as well, except, again, when I am REALLY angry

5)      Me Time – yeah, it seems I have been doing everything possible to make sure my schedule is as full as possible, at all times. Me, Myself, and I need to have a little chat about this

6)      Patience – much better, except when? Yep. When I am REALLY angry

7)      Exercise – I have been on exercise equipment a couple times in the last month. It certainly is not enough, but it is definitely better than what I was doing. Which was nothing

8)      Read the Bible – I did get this done. I read the entire Bible, front to back. Even the confusing parts in the Old Testament that I would normally skip over. Now I re-read different parts usually on a daily basis

9)      Improve my photography skills – Well I have definitely been taking more pictures, and getting some good results that I am looking for. I certainly am not utilizing the full capabilities of my camera yet

10)   Be Happy – I have been much happier for this past year than I likely ever was in the previous 20 years. I still get down, and upset, and all that other stuff that happens on occasion. But I have truly allowed myself to be happy. To not question if I should be/deserve to be/earned the right to be truly happy

Next years list is what I need to start thinking about now 🙂

Does Anyone Ever Like Algebra? Do You Ever Use It?

Published September 18, 2014 by Angela

These are two of the many questions Erin is asking me as we are going through her algebra every day. I have to laugh, because I used to absolutely hate math. But I have had to take so many progressively difficult math classes in college that I actually now enjoy the challenge of working out a math problem.

But no, I did not tell her that she may never use algebra outside of school 🙂

It will all make sense at some point, I am just not sure yet what that point is for her.

Slowly but Surely…

Published September 17, 2014 by Angela

…she is beginning to find her focus, her groove, her motivation to stay on task for her homeschooling. Maybe it was the threat of the laptop disappearing (I can guarantee it was), but she definitely did what she needed to yesterday, and her grade improved 19%. Which makes her a very happy teenager, and me a happy mom.

I am crossing my fingers that it was not a fluke, and we can keep to a reasonable schedule from here on out.

What do you do if you find things getting off task?

Who is Homeschooling Whom?

Published September 16, 2014 by Angela

I am seeing a pattern. And I am not liking it. I seem to be spending more time going through my 8th grader’s homeschooling work, checking her calendar, making sure she has her schedule for the day, etc. etc. You probably know the drill.

But I am not seeing her put forth the same amount of effort as I am. I do not know what else to do to motivate her, but I am fast running out of ideas.

I either need better bribes, or better punishments 🙂

and how is your week going?

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Published September 14, 2014 by Angela

Having 3 children each 3 years apart will probably be a blessing in the years to come, but they are certainly spaced out at the ages right now (16, 13, 10) to ensure that they will not ever get along, on any given day.

I have been listening to arguing for the past 3 days over rubber bands. Bracelet loom rubber bands. You know the ones I mean,  right? I have rubber-band bracelets laying around in every room of my house. The girls have 3 large containers (large!) full of these tiny little rubber bands. Not to mention the ones I am picking up all over my floors.

Said 10 year old got a new loom for her birthday on Friday (yes, I knew better than to buy another one, but I did anyhow). Somehow, the rubber bands that they have all been sharing now have separate owners, and one will not share with the other.

I know, I know! Just take them away. I seem to be buying rubber bands on a bi-weekly basis, and I do not recall ever buying these and handing them to one child and saying “Here. These are your rubber bands. You don’t need to share them.” I am pretty sure that I have always encouraged my girls to share, yet I seem to have daily battles over the most ridiculous things. I am trying to not get to the point where I point out the true fact that “All of those rubber bands, and looms, belong to me. I bought them. I went to work to earn the money to pay for them.” Because then I would be acting just like they are 🙂

So today I choose to pick my battles, and this is not going to be one of them. They can fight this one out themselves.