We Survived The First Month of School - Barely!

MY SON INSIST ON DRESSING NICE FOR COLLEGE DAYS

Here's a long awaited update of our homeschooling journey which includes Community College courses, homeschool classes, and online University courses.

Madness I know, yet my highly active, high energy kid keeps rising to the challenge (with some nagging and oversight for accountability by mom).

OVERVIEW OF HIS SCHEDULE

Parental Support: Review and validate homework before he turns it in. Gives him accountability measures and boundaries.

Monday: Read Physics chapter, create notes in Quizlet for studying, review notes on Quizlet with a practice test. Do reading for his four online college classes. He usually ask me to review his discussion post before he submits them. Mom gets home from work, I read his discussion post, give him the okay to turn it in. Then he plays video games or watch movies until really late at night.

Activity: Martial Arts

Tuesday: He sleeps til 11am. Goes to Community College Physics Lab class, then the homework help center and to tutoring. Physics online class he does the discussion and the homework problems at the homework help lab. He takes the bus to his friends high school and hangs out there while his friend finishes practice, then catches a ride home with his buddy. My husband scoops him up from his friend's house.

Activity: Go to the Gym with Dad and Sister

Wednesday: He finishes the discussion post (usually 2 to 3 paragraphs with 2 references) for each of his online University classes (Project Management, Telecommunications, Systems Analysis and Design, and American Society Sociology). Quizlet study of Physics terms and problems. Dad checks his progress, if he isn't progressing, his weekend plans are usually on the line. No fun on the weekend until work is done. Also, dad takes his cellphone until progress is made. This doesn't happen much but it is the rule in our house.

Activity: Go to Youth Service and Bible Study

Thursday: Draft papers or do projects for University classes. Quizlet study of Physics terms and problems. If he is having problems with papers, he sends email to professor or post on the online board. Then ask mom or dad to help.

Activity: Go to the Gym with Dad and Sister

Friday: Finish papers and all assignments for course. If he isn't finished but has something he wants to do, he has to explain why and it has to be at least 80% done. We check to make sure, then he will do the work on Saturday morning. All his online University work has to be done by Saturday night - the school requires its turned in by Sunday.

Activity: Martial Arts or BreakDance practice

Activity: Hang out with friends

Saturday: All work done and turned into online courses (mom or dad reviews his work and the quality, give him the okay to turn it in, if it's not good, he has to fix it).

Activity: Go to flying lessons or social justice group. Hang out with friends

Sunday: No work, just church and relax

WORK and HOME BALANCE

Working and Homeschooling 

MEAL PREP: I've had to change up what I cook. No pastas, no potato, no starch. Oh my! I've basically have delegated dinner to the other kids for 2 days and I am prepping 3 days. Crock pot and oven meals are where it's at for us. We've been doing well - this month.

HOUSE CLEANING: My son who now has tons of activities with his friend has been doing a great job of doing his chores (so he can go hang out with his friends). My youngest daughter cleans on the weekend. However, my room is still unkempt, our clothes need to be washed, so we actually had to go to the laundry mat to catch up on washing clothes. Yes, it's been one of those weeks. Overall, the house is okay, not spotless, but you can find a place to sleep and it smells good (lots of air fresh and essential oils)

LESSON PLANNING: My son request that I give him a weekly schedule and I still have had to send daily reminders (kids!).

MARRIAGE CHECKUP: Well I've basically overrun our date night and my husband and I left the kids home to go out to dinner and a movie. He kidnapped me I think, ha!

SELF CARE: I have been getting my nap time in you know. Thirty minutes to two hours, whatever I need and when I need it. I just tell my son to wake me up in an hour.

The Groove Has Broken

NOTHING EVER GOES AS PLANNED

My husband and I reserved a beautiful 3 bedroom condo for us and the kids for Memorial Day Weekend ~ and none of them wanted to go. You read that right. So, we ended up having a quiet, relaxing weekend on the beach together.

SPEED RACER (age 11yrs) my Middle Schooler
Homeschooled at 4th grade on.

This week was not a good one for him. Can we say, "lazy"? Also, our schedule was run amok because of my work schedule change and the addition of some extra-curricular activities.

He didn't watch the Classroom DVDs with the Abeka curriculum for English, Grammar and Spelling (an all in one class for Abeka), Biology, History, Economics and American Government he just did the 'homework' and seatwork for each class. I am giving him his quizzes and test on Saturday. Saxon Math 7/8 was hurriedly done, but I didn't make him correct it. I figured I will see the gaps when he has his test this Saturday. With CTCMath he is working on 6th grade Algebra prep and finished the section with a score of 80%. I made him take the Standard and the Quantitative test on the section. Membean is working out well and he is getting 25 minutes a day for training. In Techrocket he is finishing up the 3rd module on Python Programming.

Test will be done this weekend.

TIGER LILLY (age 14 yrs) the Dual enrolled High Schooler
Homeschooled at 7th grade on.

 Tiger Lilly is a budding Artist and Game Designer. She drew the cat.

Her class had some drama. In C Programming a rogue student was using some bad language and acting up during the chat and the teacher had to send out an email to all the parents about cutting off the 'chat' feature for the duration of class. I emailed the teacher and requested that she give the students another chance to communicate online. In PC Pro she just listened to lectures, but also did simulated work using the Testout.com software recommended by the teacher. Japanese was fun for her, especially during the 'office hours'. Her teacher actually lives in Japan and shares tidbits of the place to the students.

The Community College courses are on a roll. Her Software Application's class is a bit more work than she anticipated with a simulated environment that checks her work. Her US History 1 course is her least favorite because she has to write a 1 page discussion for each chapter and a paper regarding the events noted. In Psychology, her teacher is requiring a lot of quizzes but gives a lot of time per chapter. She's been on Chapter 1 for 3 weeks now. For College Math, she has a FREE tutor through the college on Wed and then has her class on Friday's. She's a few weeks ahead with her homework.

Tiger Lilly loves Techrocket, learning Unity 3d and practicing Java. She didn't do her Art DVDs this week. She is downloading software to prepare for the Animation Course she is taking this September.

The other two young adults in the house...

Are living back at home after a year on campus.

RAZOR RAY our college student is also a bit of an artist.

Although, he's moved back home, we rarely see him because he crashes at his friend's house.

ROSE (age 18yrs) senior in College
Homeschooled in the Middle of 10th grade on.

Coming out of her shell and meeting tons of people this semester. She's joined clubs like BreakDancing, Baptist Students, Latin Dancing and is the VP for the MB3 science club.

WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. My kids bailed on their cooking days! So I cooked and it didn't get done until 9pm some nights because I got off work later than usual.

Cleaning. It's wrecked since I haven't been able to keep on top of our schedule, but we will get it together this weekend.

Work & Life Balance. This week I had a technical training course for work. I lOVED IT! It was fun to get out of the routine. And get this - the class started at 10am til 6pm so I got to sleep in all week long - til Friday. Boy did going back to work at 6am throw me off. However, I got to go out to lunch with a work buddy and she and I caught up on some mommy gossip.

Lesson Planning. Didn't do it til late and it's not done for this week.

Rest. I loved this schedule - for the most part. I did get lots of sleep, just everything else went crazy.

Marriage Check Up. We were ships passing in the night this week. However, I did text him an 'I love you Boo' and gave him a kiss goodnight. Also, several calls during the lunch time in my class. So, he forgives me for letting our little Speed Racer sleep in his spot 2 nights in a row.

First week of School Warm Up

 Getting Into a Groove

Slow going but Productive! The kids have settled into a 'light' school review week where they had about 2 hours of work each day. This is a much easier going start to school and I can tell my kids have matured quite a bit.

College kids moving back in!  The mayhem of having your college aged kids move their junk - uh, stuff back in after a year away at Collge takes some getting used to. I'm happy they are back though.



Mishaps this week - the oldest son, Razor Ray, sprung an ankle at his full time internship job, which effects his ability to work at his part-time job at the hospital. Getting him home from his hour and 20 minute train commute from work was interesting this week. Rose, my 'absent minded professor' in training, broke or lost her cellphone - again - this school year. So that is another fun thing we have to replace this week.

This Week in Rewind

Speed Racer, blended Middle Schooler

Speed Racer did most of his work unsupervised. Although, I had to review it and make him redo some of the work he got wrong.

He didn't start til the afternoon - independently, he worked on IXL (Comma's). He also did his C# Programming [Homeschool Programming], Python Programming [Tech Rocket] Teaching Textbooks - [Math 7 for review] he's not liking too much and which he had to redo some of his questions. Spanish with [Middlebury Interactive] TypingWeb.com and Xtramath.org were finished up daily.


Tiger Lilly, blended 9th grader

Tiger Lilly is warming up for her college classes, Landry Courses and online Animation course starting at the end of August.She is doing Psychology (Crash Course Youtube Videos), American History (Crashcourse Youtube Video), Java Programming with [Homeschool Programming and Bucky's Youtube tutorial], Algebra 2 review by doing just the test and going back and reviewing sections in [Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2]. Art Class [Art Class DVD curriculum].And on her own she started doing Unity 3d class using [TechRocket]





She gets her work done without a problem. However, do to a video game challenge with her friends she is making up work over the weekend.


WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. I cooked fish and chicken. Hoping to have leftovers each day but the kids didn't want the leftovers. So we went to Chick-fil-A

Cleaning. The house is a wreck I got part of the kids new school area completed. Hoping to get more done with college students come back.

Work & Life Balance. Great flow, but we aren't at our full schedule yet.

Lesson Planning. Easy to do since they are only warming up.

Rest. I now get great sleep since my husband purchased this device for me to help me stop snoring. It also makes my sleep more complete. I'm getting 7 hours of sleep and I feel great.

Marriage Check Up. Our date night got switched out since I went with friends to Happy Hour 2 days this week. However, Hubba didn't mind and we plan to do something this weekend together while our older kids are cleaning up their dumping areas in the house.

Close Yet Far

Weekly Wrap Up

I am Spring Cleaning, closing down our basement homeschool room, moving what's left to the dinning room Media Center while getting ready for our end of year Party!

With just 3 Weeks til the end of the school year, there is lot's to do!


Speed Racer, 6th grader

Has finished most of his computer based learning for the school year. His work with Time4Learning.com is done (Biology, Language Arts , US History and Language Extensions).

Math, he is finishing up Teaching Textbooks and Saxon. Still he is having a challenge with remembering the 'rules' for doing fractions, so we are spending extra time on this while he's finishing up the curriculums above.

Writing we are working through the Spectrum 6 grade writing workbook which is a good way to keep him writing by hand and working on his skill. Also, it gives me a better view on what his challenges are.

Vocabulary (Wordsmart) is getting frustrating. This tool is very unforgiving and we haven't made the progress I would've liked. My only issue is that he is getting the games 90% correct but the tool won't let me progress him. It's 100% or nothing.

Language Practice (IXL) Love this tool, we are working through 5th grade Language practice for review.

Reading Speed Reading Comprehension Workbook (Spectrum books). I have him read outloud to me and answer the questions to the story.

Spelling (Sequential Spelling and Spelling You See). We finished Sequential Spelling and are finishing up Spelling You See.

Technology he is finishing Underground RailRoad (Minecraft Homeschool) which he enjoyed.

Sports daily (is killing me! ), but it keeps him busy. Also, with our shortened schedule, he gets to play outside with the neighborhood kids after they get out of school and before he leaves for practice.

Tiger Lilly, blended 9th grader
Tiger Lilly is swamped with work to finish before Final Exams start. Her Dual Enrolled courses at the Community College in Interpersonal Communication and Art Appreciation are picking up.

She is behind in finishing her projects with Web Design with Currclick.com and Python (with Landry Academy), but she hopes to finish and catch up by the weekend.

Her Digipen-Animation with 3D Maya has her doing an animation project, but she won't be able to share it with the class, which disappointed her. HerYouthDigital.com has produced a great animation Blender Animation.

The Psychology class with Currclick on Monday is coming to an end early next month. She is almost finished her US History to 1877 using Instantcert cards study. But her CLEP practice exam scores aren't as high as I'd like them to be.

Teaching Textbooks Pre-Calc is working out well and we are using IXL for extra practice. 

She is working on her book for the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum.

Girls Code and Cyberjutsu Girls is non-profit organization has weekly classes, I was able to enroll Tiger Lilly and she is getting used to it. She said it's a challenge to jump in after the course has been going on a year because most of the kids already have their friend 'click'. So, I told her I would stay with her and volunteer to work with her on her project. We are adding these programs to her list for next school year.

Her Independent endeavors now includes: Creating a comic, Finishing her book, Creating a Game Application with her sister.

As for exercise (mom fail) we aren't getting much. She does Martial Arts for 2 days a week and Dance. I have to find something to get and keep her moving next school year. It gets harder once kids turn 14yrs old and High School sports get absorbed into the school.

WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. Another Monday that I didn't take out food to prep. So on the way home, I stopped at the grocery store. The rest of the week was a crockpot, baking, and sandwhich dinner week.

Cleaning. The house is a mess, but I plan to get the troops in gear to whip things back in shape on Saturday.

Work & Life Balance. I had some out of work errands to run (do the taxes for myself and son) that shortened my work week. I will pay for it later when I have to make those hours up next week.

Lesson Planning. Easy since both kids have a shortened schedule, so I finished it in an hour.

Rest. Another bad sleep week. Why? Because I decided to stay up late and watch TV, read, or do some writing for my side business.

Marriage Check Up. Kicking the kids out of our room so we could eat ice cream in bed while watching a scary movie. I paid for it with lack of sleep the next day, but it was worth it.

So Close Til The Finish Line

Weekly Wrap Up

We are so close to actually finalizing our school year with our core curriculum, Abeka Academy, that I and the kids are jumping for joy! Just two weeks and we are on lessons 155 (which is where we usually end our school year even though Abeka Academy has 170 lessons included).

I'm looking at Time4Learning.com and MinecraftHomeschool.com for Speed Racer. Stay tuned.

On The Road Again - Yep! This is a big field trip for just me and the kids. We are going to Disney world (again) to hang out and relax while doing a 'light' school week. So we packed our gear and are ready to leave this weekend. Rose is coming home to hang out with Hubba so he doesn't get lonely.

Speed Racer, 6th grader

With MOD Design (Java beginner curriculum) by Youth Digital he worked with support to get some things back in order. Also, I'd noticed he didn't do the section reviews and troubleshooting for each Module - so, I told him he'll be backtracking and finishing up the 6 of them he'd missed. Clever Dragons he played in during the morning finishing more Spanish and Literature. WordSmart (vocabulary software program) which is working well to teach him word meaning.

We had some glitches with Time4Writing [Paragraphs] since they are doing updates to their web app.

He's worked independently this week on his Saxon Math, Spelling You See. While his dad worked with him during his Abeka Academy [Bible, Language, Reading, Penmanship, Science & History]. No copywork this week in Anatomy. He is still working on consistency with his Fraction Practice Review Sheets. I videotaped him while he played his 2nd song he learned on the Piano with Simply Music.

Yellow Belt advancement was this week, and he squeezed in two days (4 hours) of dance and acrobatics practice as well as 2 days (2 hours) of martial arts.

Tiger Lilly, blended 9th grader

Tiger Lilly is in the groove. She is working independently on her college courses now in their 3rd week  (Sociology, Interpersonal Communication and Art Appreciation). On Friday, I assigned her the task of making Quizlet.com flashcards for her to use to study with for her coming mid-terms and quizzes.

She is no longer doing her Physics class online with Education-Portal since she finished all the videos and quizzes.

One day of Web Design with Currclick.com (she finished her 2nd project), Python class with Landry she had her class on Wed with a quiz, Psychology with Currclick was a little longer class on Monday. Blender Animation with Youth Digital is almost 70% done. Chemistry with Education-Portal is still fun for her and she watches the videos and does the quizzes that follow each video.

While her brother was snowboarding, she did her Saturday session with Digipen-Animation with 3D Maya. She had to work on her animation project for her next class this coming Saturday.

Pre-Calc with Abeka had her doing 2 quizzes this week - she got 'A's on it. She complained that Pre-Calc is just like geometry - only more of it, lol!

She's studying for her CLEP exam in US History to 1877 Review with Instantcert and has memorized 50 of the 82 facts in her 1st set of instantcert flashcards. CLEP Professor Algebra she finished 4 days of lessons this week of her total 20.

She does two days of martial arts (2 hours) and 1 day (an hour) of Hip Hop dance. I promised her we would do 30 minutes of exercise 2 days a week but momma is lazy about exercising.

WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. This week went by like a breeze. I had all my meats prepped and we had a hot meal every night. Hubba even cooked (put meat in the oven and made the minute rice with veggies). I was a bit miffed when I came home from work after a 12 hour day and cooked dinner - only to have my Hubba take the kiddos to Chick-Fil-A. However, I felt bad afterwards for fussying him out about it since the kids asked him to take them since they got their Yellow Belts in martial arts that day and wanted to celebrate. Sigh. So I ate, then packed that day's dinner up for the next day.

Cleaning. Don't ask. I did put away the clothes I washed last week. But there is another pile on the couch since my Hubba decided to wash clothes but hadn't had a chance to fold them. We hope to prep the living room for painting since we are getting new Dining and Living Room furniture.

Work & Life Balance. A crazy week of 12 hour days and freezing rain. Also throw in some pretty highly visible work product deadlines to present to other engineers - eek! I'm trying to work extra hours to compensate for my plan to be off next week for our trip to Florida and I may end up sleeping to recover, lol!

Lesson Planning. Not done for next week since it's going to be a light week and we are going out of town.

Rest. I actually got 6 to 7 hours of sleep out of the way. So I wasn't tired this week, surprisingly.

Marriage Check Up. We stayed up way later than I should've to watch my Hubba's favorite show together while eating candy we 'borrowed' from the kids.

Sibling Rivalry and Quarrel Mediation

How to get kids to get along

Sibling Rivalry is a big issue - especially for homeschooling kids that spend A LOT of time together. I've fought this in several ways:

(1) Have Rules Posted (like: Say it nice. Give Space. Respect Each Other. Apologize.)
(2) If they both bicker, they both pay the price (We have warnings and chores. If they break the Posted Rules - they have to do a chore, spend time facing each other until they laugh and hug)
(3) Don't allow hitting or physical agression (have a stiff punishment for this - like removal of game system
(4) When they break the rules - punish them both. (in some cases this doesn't work but most times it makes them draw closer).

What another crazy week

Another Wonky Week! This has got to stop! Lol! I can't seem to nail down a set schedule to save my life. I think we must have the winter willies.

I had some appointments on Monday, so the kids pretty much did their work independently.

Black History Month Kick-off! We are doing our African American History by watching movies this month.

SELMA was wonderful! The kids loved it and stayed glued to the movie for the duration. It had a lot of great discussion points for us.

A chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965.

Snow Boarding Planned for the weekend! My kids love to snowboard, snowtube and tons of other cold weather stuff. I hate it, but am squeezing in another snowday adventure with all the kids (including my college ones Razor Ray and Rose)

Summer Camp Planning and the ending of our Year Around School. Speed Racer and Tiger Lilly requested a fun summer. You know the kind they had before homeschooling, lol! Well I decided to book them a ton of summer camps. Tiger Lilly will be going to Landry Game Design Camp and will attend Camp Wabanna, River Valley Ranch and Highpoint sleepaway camps with her brother Speed Racer. In addition, in between sleep away camp they will go to a fun day camp that is action packed with trips to amusement parks, museums and tons of fun from June 14th til Aug 8th. It's what I did with them while they were in traditional school. Now it's time to bring it back.

Unexpected drama. My college kids got their car towed and had a dispute with the college apartment complex because of it. Hubba went to check it out, pay for the car to get out of tow. The same day, late that evening, Rose went to a class she is taking at another college, left her car lights on, and killed her battery. She called her dad who walked her through getting a guard to help her at the school (it was 10pm at night and she was scared).

This Week's Scoop
Back to a 5 day schedule

Speed Racer, 6th grader

He worked pretty well independently this week. This month though we'll be finishing his Abeka curriculum O_o so I will have to come up with an easy, independent and fun curriculum for him this Spring. (stay tuned)

He didn't work on his MOD Design (Java beginner curriculum) because he had some technical issues and I didn't have time to walk him through the directions sent from Youth Digital to fix his programming code. Clever Dragons - he did this a few times this week but he doesn't like their math so he's sticking with the Spanish and Literature. WordSmart (vocabulary software program) he actually likes doing independently.

He is making it successfully and independently through Time4Writing [Paragraphs] now and making a high 'B'.

The evenings (we've been starting late this week - around 4pm) I worked with him with Saxon Math, Spelling You See, Abeka Academy [Bible, Language, Reading, Penmanship, Science & History]. We did a few days of copywork for Anatomy, Fraction Practice Review Sheets and he practiced Piano with Simply Music and I had him write down the notes for each key he played in the song for the week.

He did two days (2 hours) of dance and acrobatics practice as well as 2 days of martial arts.

Tiger Lilly, blended 9th grader

Tiger Lilly finally confirmed her 'B' in her college English 121 she took this winter.

Some of her classes ended this week. This was the last week of her Currclick, Money Doesn't Grow on Trees class that ended her Economics course study this year. She finished her Chemistry with Abeka but is now doing it with Education-Portal (yeah, she wanted to since she will be taking Chemistry next year in college).

She basically works on these classes four days a week. Her online college courses are in their 2nd week and she's getting in a rythm (Sociology, Interpersonal Communication and Art Appreciation) although we both agreed she'd need to start on her reading for each class on Sunday's since its so much reading in a week. 

Two days this week she worked on Web Design with Currclick (she just got her book for it and has some projects to make up over the weekend), Python class (she's finishing up her program and it looks good! Her sister reviewed it with her on Thursday), Psychology with Currclick was great this week (she doesn't get much homework from this class - just reading). Blender Animation with Youth Digital.

One day this week she has Digipen-Animation with 3D Maya (started last Saturday and she LOVES it! There were 7 other students loggin in for all over the world).

Her daily Pre-Calc with Abeka is doing well and she's been making high grades on her test and quizzes. US History to 1877 Review with Instantcert she is doing well on memorizing the facts off the flashcards since she plans to take this CLEP in May. She did a Diagnostic Test with CLEP Professor Algebra and did better than we expected as she works through a lesson a day.

She does two days of martial arts and 1 day (an hour) of Hip Hop dance.

WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. I'm on a roll again! I had a hot dinner on the table every night (even though I worked 2 long days). Thank you crockpot.

Cleaning. Have to find time to paint, but don't know when. Still putting away clothes. The floors have to be mopped, walls washed down and carpets cleaned - but that will not get done this weekend.

Work & Life Balance. Not working this week. I took off Monday for some appointments and had to work 2 - 12 hour days to make up that time. Let's just say - exhausted - this week. Saturday here I come (I sleep in on Saturday's).

Lesson Planning. So much easier now that I don't have to put as much Abeka lessons and homeworks in for Tiger Lilly. I finished next week's.

Rest. Got 5 to 6 hours sleep this week. Also, I didn't get my power naps in because I worked long days. Grrrrrr.

Marriage Check Up. Hoping to get one this Saturday. This week we were ships passing and tagging each other to do homeschool. I did text him to tell him he's great and that I love him.

The Importance Of Playtime In School time

Weekly Wrap Up.

Due to some doctors appointments and unexpected events we had to augment school a bit. For Monday and Tuesday I shortened the kids schedules and workload. I didn't play the DVD/Streaming course for some of their less demanding classes and they just did the classwork and homework. It shaved off 2 hours of instruction.

The rest of the week went off without a hitch! My helper came over on Monday and Wednesday and got a lot done with the kiddos. They finished school early on those days, 6pm and the other days were our typical 9:30pm nights ending with hubba assisting in the lessons.

This week Tiger Lilly, started cheering at games. Also, she began a new online course with Currclick.com on Logic. She likes it since she gets to talk to other kids her age. They have 18 students in this online course!

She also got help from her sister Rose on her Python project with Landry Academy. My two lady programmers at work.

Things I realized I'd like to make this journey easier for me.


I decided to hire a cleaning lady (hey! I work so I should be able to treat myself). And I hired a yard service (because as much as my dear hubby claims he can mow the lawn - he hasn't because of his bum knee and my oldest son doesn't like coming home from college to do it). And my daughter Rose, made the commitment to continue on as my home helper/tutor who will help out with the students on days my husband's and my work schedule goes crazy. We just have to pick her up the night before and drop her off in the morning at her college which is on the way to my husbands day gig. I'll pay her the rate I was going to pay the other student.

Also, for meal planning this month, we are doing Let's Dish (www.letsdish.com) because I don't have much time this month to prep meals or plan them like I did last month.

These are some benefits of being a working parent that I just haven't cashed in on lately. Now with our busy schedules, it can't be helped.

Now if I can just find someone to do the laundry...



The importance of playtime.

Since momma is a highly active, energetic lady. So are my kids. Therefore, I try to incorporate PLAYTIME into our homeschool day. See my Speed Racer in character?

This weekend while finishing up some projects we didn't have time to work on early last week, my son goes upstairs for a quick change.

Racing through the house dressed as his own hodgepodge of a super hero, we chase him around the house or hide for him to capture us.

PLAYING WITH YOUR KIDS...

Yes, we still make time to play with our kids. We have to. It is fun, relaxes US as well as the KIDS and they NEVER FORGET IT.

SOME IDEAS FOR PLAY...

Hide and Go Seek. Yes, my kids and I still love to play this in our tiny townhouse. Even the big kids - yeah, older teens who would shake me if they found out I told this, would join in and play.

Blanket Tent and Campout. This can be done in the living room, dining room under the table or by placing several chairs strategically together. Food of course is served in lunch bags or is make believe.

Sock Out. We all take our socks, all them up into torpedos, and hide. When the sound "Get Um!" is yelled we have sock wars and whoever lands the most socks wins.

Movie Night (Drive in Movie theatre, or during Blanet Tent Campout). This is our all night movie and munchie marathon. Easy, fun, and kids love to do it.


IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU STILL PLAY WITH YOUR KIDS?