# we're falling behind!



## UUmom2many (Apr 21, 2009)

We were doing great staying on task until the first of october. Hubby came home from IRAQ and was home for 2 weeks, then halloween, we had a three day army thing across the state, took a week to go to Disney (a once in a lifetime thing we got discounted bc of the year deployment hubby just came back from), then the other holidays and now we're in the first of the new year and we're behind by about a month. 

I use homeschool tracker software to keep track of what we do. It seems we're playing catch up and I'm worried we wont' get caught up! 

The kids have been helping me cook and we're getting bunnies so we've been talking about care, how their bodies work, what we're going to do with them etc. Alex helped his dad fix a vintage gas camp stove. We've gotten some things done, finished out some workbooks etc. but the girls (both are K graded but my 6yo HAS to go to first, reading took her longer to conquer and she's still working at it, the 5yo is doing well) have been getting a little neglected just doing the very basics, handwriting, math and phonics. My 7yo 3rd grader is doing more mainly because he's a better independet worker. 

I guess I'm just worried I'm doing my kids a disservice homeschooling since we've been so busy with things lately. I'm thinking maybe next year I shoudln't but none of my kids have ever been to school and my eldest is so advanced I really don't think it would be a good idea. 

I do still equate book work with schooling.


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## foaly (Jan 14, 2008)

UUMom--

I too am a "book work equals education" mom. However, I try to keep my schedule flexible. Instead of being a slave to the public school calendar, we homeschool year round, taking a week off here, a week off there. Yes, we're a little behind on math and my youngest still refuses to try to do well in his handwriting. But those are things that will come with time.

It sounds like from what you have written, things are actually pretty good at your house. Learning life skills is very much a part of homeschooling. 

My biggest goal in homeschool isn't keeping up with a schedule. I enjoy the time I have with my youngest kids and I remember all the difficulties that we DON'T have to deal with since we are hs'ers and not in a school setting (and we did deal with them when I had the brilliant idea of sending my oldest to school).

If I may suggest this......take it one day at a time and do your best each day. Is your homeschool tracker really helping or is it the master of your life? I certainly mean no disrespect to you. I've been homeschooling a long time and I've seen every scheduler and curriculum and gadget that has come along in the last 20 years. They aren't all helpful or necessary.

Take it easy on yourself. It sounds like to me your kids are fine. Are they happy? Do you really want to put them in school? You already answered your own question.


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## Elffriend (Mar 2, 2003)

My kids are now 11 and 16 and, honestly, the book work they did at 5, 6 or 7 has very little to do with what they are able to do now. We fell behind many times, but we were living life and they were learning practical skills. There were also a couple of years that they were so far behind that I didn't think they would ever finish the schoolwork that had been planned for the year, but they did.

Even now, I only really worry about the 16 yr old, and only because we are working on putting together a transcript of sorts that she will use when she applies to colleges.

At such young ages I would look for a general trend of improvement and not the number of workbook pages completed.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

We are also very behind this year! Last school year ended in the early part of May due to a broken thumb. June we were in the US getting ready for an international move that took over July, Aug and Sept (and Oct). Books arrived here in early Oct, but we were still unpacking. Add in the holidays and well, you know. We have been doing Math and Phonics faithfully (sort of) since Oct. Everything else has been on the back burner and gets pulled out when there is time....including my DD's reading (which is NOT second nature to her like it was her brother). 

I, too, use HST+. I use it to record what we did, verses what needs to happen today. I do use the LP section, but only submit the plan when we are ready to do it.....never ahead of time. I hate to look at list of "to do", but love the list of "done". Make sure you are counting all the things they do outside the book. The days we can't get going and my kids watch Magic School Bus (they are 7 & newly 11) they get science credit (in fact some of them have lined up perfectly with something we are studying). Kids help sort and put away boxes of stuff...logic skills/life skills, sledding = PE, listening to books on tape in the car going from point A to point B = literature (unless it fits better into history or science or similar). Baking cookies = math, decorating cookies = art, etc. 

It's hard to think "outside the book" but in years like this one....you have to! You're only looking at 2 months out of the 156 "months of learning" for k-12th grade. I bet you can make up for anything that fell behind in those two months over the next 130! I am working very hard at taking my own advice.


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## UUmom2many (Apr 21, 2009)

Jen - outside the book is sooo hard for me! I'm a worksheet and bookworm kinda gal. I did GREAT in PS bc there was sooo much busy work. 

We made pies the other day and talked about the different types of limes, tasted them and such. I was pretty hands on with the kids. We measured, talked about yolks vs. whites what happens when something bakes etc. its just hard for me to count that as schooling because it's something I'd do with the kids anyway. 

We're not reading my 6yo's phonics readers as much as I would like but she's reading other things, boxes, directions, signs etc. 

I think I need to read about unschooling or what's the other one called? life school? or something? since we seem to be closer to that type of learning.


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## ginnie5 (Jul 15, 2003)

relax! it will all work out! At your kids ages I would be concentrating on reading and math....hands on! I've had a really late reader....she didn't read well until 6th grade...she's in college now and doing good. Find things that interest them...read to them...even if it is recipes or about the animals you plan to keep. My 8yo is still struggling some with reading but he wants to learn about animals. I bought him one of those zoo explorer books on amazon and he sits there for hours doing his best to read it. Just take it slow and steady and they will learn it.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

UUmom2many said:


> We made pies the other day and talked about the different types of limes, tasted them and such. I was pretty hands on with the kids. We measured, talked about yolks vs. whites what happens when something bakes etc. its just hard for me to count that as schooling *because it's something I'd do with the kids anyway. *


Yes, you do that anyways....but the kids are learning, so it's "school". Just like when you read about mummy's, do worksheets on mummy's and then you go and get the kid teddy bear rip up sheets and wrap the bear like a mummy. It's hands on learning. Learning can equal play....kids learn most of their first lessons in life through play. I cooked with my mom from the time I could stand on a chair. As a 4th graded fractions came easy to me, I already learned them in the kitchen. Surprised the teachers!

Cooking is an awesome learning tool....math (fractions, measuring, and equivalents), reading (reading), clean up (life skills, orderliness, follow-threw), time management (putting in a load of laundry while batch 1 of the cookies are in, but don't forget them and let them burn), energy management (while bread dough is rising you prep the chicken to bake and whip up a batch of cookies to take advantage of the oven being on - why turn on the oven and use only 1/3 to 1/2 of it), etc.

I don't know too much about "unschooling" as we, too, are text book learners, but I have taught myself to see when other things we do in the day also equal learning and make sure I "calculate" that time in, too.


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## Tobemeghan (Jan 16, 2010)

My family and I were involved in our local homeschool group and when my older sister and I were in our teens we taught different PE type classes (dance, etc.). My family was lax when it came to schedules and we saw more HS parents "fail" and send their kids to PS because they were afraid that their kids weren't learning anything. Believe me, they are. My siblings and I were unschooled for some years and we were fine. Some of the most important things you kids are going to learn aren't going to be in a text book. Most of the kids around here don't even go to school until they are 7 so you are way ahead anyway. If your kids are cooking with you they are learning fractions (double to recipe and have them re-figure the measurements), if they are working with the rabbits they are learning responsibility (which so many are lacking today) and business. For the younger ones they can be "in charge" of counting the rabbits everyday to make sure they are all there, math. In the car have older siblings read to younger ones. Clear up until my teens we didn't go anywhere without a novel which was read aloud (usually about a time or place we were studying). I can't tell you how many summers we spent in the back hard slicing qukes or de-cobbing corn for canning while each of us took turns reading, some of my best memories! I have seen so many people "fail" as HS parents because they try to take PS and put it into their house, it just doesn't work that way.


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## HOTW (Jul 3, 2007)

Teach your child to enjoy reading and they will continue to learn for the rest of their life! Teach them that math is just cooking in different fomrulas and they will understand it.Science is the art of cooking and growing, and what nature just does and they will continue to enjoy it forever. I am still learning because my teachers in Canada taught me to enjoy these thigns.. I am still trying to unschool my kids from PS so they can begin this wonderful journey I only hope I succeed and I hope to teach my GC these thigns from the begoinning so they enjoy education not schooling.


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## Fujisawa Rob (Oct 22, 2009)

HOTW said:


> Teach your child to enjoy reading and they will continue to learn for the rest of their life! Teach them that math is just cooking in different fomrulas and they will understand it.Science is the art of cooking and growing, and what nature just does and they will continue to enjoy it forever. I am still learning because my teachers in Canada taught me to enjoy these thigns.. I am still trying to unschool my kids from PS so they can begin this wonderful journey I only hope I succeed and I hope to teach my GC these thigns from the begoinning so they enjoy education not schooling.


Those are my two biggest: Math and Reading. If you're good at those, you can learn anything else.


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## Cara (May 9, 2002)

First of all, you are my hero. Thank you so much for the service you and your family are doing for this country....the men are NOT the only ones who serve. Second....relax. Your littles are going to have a better education than any PS children. You are teaching them to livein the real world, not the academic one. They are smalla nd they will be well adjusted productive adults becasue they have skills that they will actually use. Do reading, do math and keep on doing what you are doing! THANK YOU again.


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## Lizza (Nov 30, 2005)

Elffriend said:


> My kids are now 11 and 16 and, honestly, the book work they did at 5, 6 or 7 has very little to do with what they are able to do now. We fell behind many times, but we were living life and they were learning practical skills. There were also a couple of years that they were so far behind that I didn't think they would ever finish the schoolwork that had been planned for the year, but they did.
> 
> Even now, I only really worry about the 16 yr old, and only because we are working on putting together a transcript of sorts that she will use when she applies to colleges.
> 
> At such young ages I would look for a general trend of improvement and not the number of workbook pages completed.


What she said  

My oldest (16) started college this fall (community college as a dual enrolled high school/college student). What I did as a homeschool parent all these years was just lay a foundation for her to do that. Some years were better then others. One year we did very little "school" work because my grandmother was dying and we had to take care of her, I thought it was a very valuable life lesson and tried not to worry. A teacher once told me that there is really only like 8 years of actual school but they drag it out to 13 years. You just don't need 13 years. I read another study that said that most children in public school get 7 minutes a day of individual attention for school work, I figured I could put in 7 minutes by breakfast, so we were probably good . If you have to take time off, take time off, the kids are learning valuable lessons that they will take into adulthood, not everything has to do with math.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Bookwork is my marker, too. I mean yeah the "life's lessons" stuff is nice, but we'd be doing that whether we were homeschooling or not! To me, it doesn't count. The only thing that actually counts is the honest, academic stuff. The things that are comparable to what they'd be doing at school...


I sub just enough to remind myself what a typical American classroom looks like and how much they actually accomplish in a day.
I always feel so much better when I go home and see how "behind" we _aren't_.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

ErinP said:


> Bookwork is my marker, too. I mean yeah the "life's lessons" stuff is nice, but we'd be doing that whether we were homeschooling or not! To me, it doesn't count. The only thing that actually counts is the honest, academic stuff. The things that are comparable to what they'd be doing at school...
> 
> 
> I sub just enough to remind myself what a typical American classroom looks like and how much they actually accomplish in a day.
> I always feel so much better when I go home and see how "behind" we _aren't_.


yea, me too. I'm pretty conventional that way. I think life skills are really important, but I have seen several homeschoolers graduate without the academic skills that they need to meet their potential in life. Sure, they can function, but they could have done much more. (Seen that in public school too, so it's not about homeschooling - just that we have to be careful that we don't *over* emphasize life skills to the neglect of academic things if we value that.) 

I found that academics could give us a sense of stability in difficult times. Our school time is our school time, and that doesn't change, no matter what else does. My kids thrive on that kind of structure, and that they know what they can expect in a given day. Everything else could be topsy turvy, but that was constant, and it gave them a sense of security. They feel very positively about learning now, too, and I find that they will do things that would be classified as "academic" on their own time because they enjoy it - math competition team, for example, or engineering competitions, or art and music instruction, or writing essays and stories, or researching topics of interest, or reading for pleasure... 

If you have goals that you feel passionate about meeting, don't worry about how long it takes.  

HTH
Cindyc.


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## TractorNut (Feb 22, 2010)

All I can say is to each their own. Some unschool and some very structure types. We have both in our group and I can't say one is better than the other. I'm more of the structure type(as well as my kids) so this is the route we go but I'll say I have been more relaxed lately. Our girls like to know what we are doing for the day(wonder where that comes from) but wife just kinda takes it hour by hour. Don't worry you'll do fine and I wouldn't worry so much about how far along you are but that your kids are learning.


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

Our son started off in gov. school because we didn't know there was any other way. We became dissatisfied, and fortunately met some homeschooler's. We homeschooled him from then on (2nd grade). We refer to him as our "experiment" of sorts, as we really didn't know what we were doing, except that it couldn't be any worse than the public school. He HATED public school. We spent a year doing whatever he wanted to do, educationally speaking. He loved history, so we read every history book the library had. I'm talking about the adult library, not the kiddie library. The next year, we began to do more workbook type stuff, Abeka first. Through the years we tried out Lifepacs, Bob Jones, Rod & Staff, you name it, we tried it. He did ok in all these, though he never really liked any of them. I had two more children, 16 months apart, and the babies "became the lessons" on many days. On those days, my son read what he wanted and did Saxon Math. He read World Book Encyclopedia's, Science books and tons of History books. I didn't have time to focus on all the subjects, so I just made sure he did Math and read. Now that he is grown, he is in an advanced nursing program, and has a 98 average at the mid-term. We've asked him what we did right or wrong, in homeschooling him, that has helped him or hurt him. We wanted to know because we are still homeschooling his younger siblings. He said that we could've spent a little more time on the workbooks and it might have helped him some, but that the thing he believes that we did that has helped him most of all, is to learn how to learn, for himself. He says his public schooled classmates don't know how to find out anything for themselves, and won't read or research on their own. They want info spoon-fed to them. RELAX and enjoy your children. Google the "Learning Lifestyle."


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