Alternative Sports My Kids Love!

Lots of people ask me what do you do with your kids as far as 'socialization' and sports if they are homeschooled?

See that kid up there? That's my Speed Racer. The high energy -Generation X- newbie xgamer kid who loves being active, is brave and doesn't mind mom signing him up 'just to try something new out'.

My Speed Racer is competing in a Break Dance Competition. He's only been doing this for 1 year. But if he wasn't homeschooled, it's something I don't think we ever would've considered due to lack of time.

Now that he and Tiger Lilly are homeschooling, I am hard pressed to find a sport they love and can do well into their teens.

My young lady that was never much of a sports addict, now loves cheering, martial arts, and lacrosse. Coming up on her high school years, we are exploring some of the other sports below and even an All Star Cheer team that isn't associated with a school.

THE LINE UP OF SPORTS I HAVE PLANNED FOR MY ADVENTURERS TO EXPLORE

These are non-traditional sports that aren't limited to a local school system. But they can be fun, earn scholarships and give your kid some awesome things to do with friends.

Archery
Bowling
BMX Racing
Snowboarding
Tennis
Fencing
Martial Arts
Swimming
Boating
Racing
Dogdeball
Jump Roping

WEEKLY WRAP UP

The routine keeps changing! Gosh, maybe because mom keeps tweaking things. This week went rather smooth.

Tiger Lilly has taken it upon herself to spend extra time drawing.

My lady little artist drew this on our computer with just her keyboard. So I ordered her a computer drawing pad to make her creation of art easier.

Her other subjects are well under way and she did 3 - one day courses on Currclick that she really enjoyed. American Indians, Colonial Times and Redcoats. It made for a busy week but she said she loved it. However, with Algebra 2 it's been a tug of war. She does good in Abeka quizzes but is failing the Teaching Textbook quizzes. Therefore, the tutor with Abeka is working with her this coming week as well as her sister Rose to keep her on track.

Speed Racer is doing well with his new math Saxon Math and Word Up! Also, I've been doing some 'speed reading' drills with him this week. He likes it and we decided to keep it up. This week for him had some really high points with him enjoying his tennis lessons, pushing several days work to 'homework' on the weekends, and him acing his math test with both Saxon and Abeka.

WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. Let's see, I did manage to get a home cooked meal on the table three times this week. Tuesday was a take off day since I was off work and slept way too late to do anything. I couldn't have pulled this off without my George Foreman grill, pre-made marinade and Goya rice.

Cleaning. Eh? I've finally wrestled the clothes washing issue  -except for folding the pile of clothes on my basement couch (I'm tackling that this Saturday - I promise). The rest of the house is in serious need of dusting and moping. The cleaning lady I've been looking for hasn't showed up yet. Just can't find anyone in my price range or area yet.

Work & Life Balance. It's working out great since this week I had Tuesday off! The job I have now is very flexible and allows me to work all my hours anyway I want during the week as long as I get in the alloted hours by the end of the month. It's been working out well for my family. Although next summer this may change since I have to find another contract position then.

Lesson Planning. I was able to get it out on Sunday and am late working on next week's schedule. The kids had some subject changes since we are doing a block schedule.

Rest. I have been on schedule with it this week. However, on Tuesday I slept til noon (which is unheard of for me). I must've needed it. Then I went out to lunch with a work buddy. After that, it was to work with the kids and a late night since I was over-rested. Wednesday, I was dog tired and had to take a power nap to get back on track. By Thursday I was back on schedule and getting 6 hours sleep a night.



Learning to Prioritize-Shortening Homeschool Days

I have been conditioned. Yep, used to a long Traditional School day of 8 hrs of school + transportation time. In addition to 2 hours of After-schooling with homework.

SHORT HOMESCHOOL DAY

So being fairly new to the homeschooling arena, I was in disbelief when parents complained about how long it took them to teach their kids in a day.

I mean I considered 4-5 hours for an Elementary / Middle Schooler to be a breeze. Even with both my husband and I being working parents we could easily pull that off.

In addition, my kids considered the day short and more directed. Even enjoyable compared to the alternative of traditional school.

However, my homeschooling peers were balking at me when I told them that my kids were spending upwards to 5 hours 'doing school' and sometimes 7 hours if I added in their chosen extra curricular subjects.

IS PROPER INSTRUCTION BEING DONE?

What it boils down to is not the TIME but the instruction. Every parent schools differently and if they can merge play and learning - then great. That means 'formal' instruction isn't being done, but the child is still learning the tools needed to be educated.

My approach was to keep my kids in line with traditional school routines, structured studies with a flexible schedule that is allowed us by homeshooling. Therefore if my kids had to make a transition back to traditional school, they would be conditioned to do so. Not only that, but I like the order and format of a structured day.

ANYTHING CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED IF DONE SO CREATIVELY

I've considered ways to get learning in during the summer, and in doing so, I stripped their curriculum down to the bare bones. Math, Writing and Science. If a parent makes those three subjects their main focus and add in other subjects in a semester, quarterly year or block schedule, condensing school down to 2-3 hours is doable as long as the core subjects are maintained. I selected Math, Writing and Science because those are subjects that need constant care and feeding and to neglect those would show some degradation of learning.

My Weekly Wrapup:

This week had some highs and lows but it all met up in the end.

Speed Racer has been sneaking downstairs and watching TV until 4am in the morning. Yep, he was busted two times. Even with the reprimand - TV wins.

The effects? Well he was cranky when it was time to start school work and highly unmotivated.

He is one of those kids that loves to stay up late but hates waking up. This was a major problem when he went to traditional school because it put him in a bad disposition.

He doesn't have TV or video game access in his bedroom so he waits until we are all sleep and sneaks down to the living room to watch til he falls out.

I'm considering putting a TV in his room just to appease this issue, but I don't think it would be productive.

Mom is still trying to figure out a way to circumvent this behaviour - so stay tuned.

Instruction Completed.

Speed Racer's Mid-Morning Work
He attacked his Teaching Textbooks (supplemental Math), Xtramath.org, ArtTango.com, Tynker.com and IXL (Language) in the mornings with his home helper watching.

Afternoon with Mom and Evening Studies with Dad
When I got home we did Art History (a book we are reading), DiscoveryK12.com (their language program), Sequential Spelling, MangoLanguages.com (Spanish), and his Abeka DVD subjects he does with his Dad are (Bible (only 2 days), Math6, Reading, Writing, Language Arts, History, and Science). School ended around 9:30pm but one night at 10:30pm when Speed Racer decided to make paper planes during math (side effect of lack of sleep from late night watching TV)

Tiger Lilly has been rockin' it out this week. Even though last week I noticed there were some quizzes she didn't finish. So guess what she was doing for 'homework' over the weekend? Yep, makeup Quizzes. Oh, and she decided to skip all the word problems in Teaching Textbooks for the last 10 lessons - so those 10 problems will be part of her 'homework' this weekend.

Tiger Lilly's Mid-Morning Work
She finished her Teaching Textooks (supplemental Math practice for Alg 2), Landry Programming course (Wed only w/ homework done on weekend), Critical Thinking Course with Currclick.com (Thu only with homework done on weekend), Youthdigital.com MOD Design (Java), Writeguide (8 week course done every other day) and Time4Writing.com (Grammar - done daily for 8 weeks).

Afternoon with Mom and Evenings with Dad
She's studying for her Composition and Analyzing Literature CLEPs so she's doing the InstantCert Flashcards review and a sample exam weekly. After she completes that she does her Abeka DVD courses (daily courses: Algebra 2, US History, Spanish, Chemistry), these are done 2 times a week (Physics, American Gov't, Economics) and on Friday's we do Art (See the Light DVDs).

Working Parent's Recap

Home Helper is now working with kids two times a week. It's working out and giving us an earlier time of work completion. So on 2 days the kids are finished school work by 4pm. They don't like the fact they have to wake up earlier on those days.

Lawn Care. I ended up not having to hire anyone. Once my husband and son realized I was firing them from the job, they jumped in and did the lawn. Hummm.

Meal Planning. Since I prepped everything this past Sunday, dinners were ready and on the table every night.

Cleaning. Still can't find a cleaning lady, so Saturday we all did a deep cleaning and tidy up. During the week I washed clothes while doing school with the kids. So the house stayed tidy. Speed Racer does the dishes and Tiger Lilly cleans the bathrooms.

Rest. I had an average of 5.5hrs sleep nightly. Mainly because I have been staying up to watch television, read or be time-sucked into Facebook. I will try to do better. I am also working on a business and my writing gig where I have some deadlines to finish, so that's also kept me up later. But I will do better next week!