Wednesday, April 25, 2012

distractions

Homeschooling is hard. I have 3 kids that are 3 different ages and have 3 totally different personalities and learning styles. My eldest is very smart, a born learner, and is really "into" certain things like war, history, the military, science, you know...tough boy stuff. My daughter is very bright but it takes her a little longer to get certain concepts. Just when we got over the handwriting-is-making-me-want-to-rip-my-hair-out hurdle, we began the learning-to-read-is-going-to-be-the-death-of-me stage. She is not patient (I have no clue where she gets it...*ahem...*cough...*cough...) and when she doesn't get something right, and have to correct her, she isn't very happy. Constructive criticism is not in her wheelhouse. Just when I thought that we would never see the light, it clicked for her. Her painstaking sounding out each letter turned into blended sounds and is slowly progressing into, like, really reading! Do you hear that? Yes, indeed, there are angels singing. Maybe that is just in my head. Anywho... I pulled out a Dr. Seuss book today, flipped through the pages, and KNEW she would fly through it. However, she wasn't having any of it. She didn't want to read. She was over it. I blame it on lack of sleep. It definitley couldn't be that she is strong-willed. I don't know where she would get that either....mmmmhmmmm. Bless her heart. She's just like her momma. My littlest one is only 4 so we don't really homeschool, but we DO do (sorry, I really tried to avoid the "do do") "school". It is school to him. He is eager, does very well, is very intelligent, but I have to duct tape him to the chair to get him to sit still long enough to do anything. That boy needs to have his DNA bottled up and sold because his energy is off the charts! (I would have said off the chain, but I am 35 and it just didn't sound right...fo' shizzle.)

My biggest challenge is getting them to actually work. We have figured out that the schoolroom (you know, the really cute one that I worked sooooo hard on???) doesn't work for us. Desks don't work for us. We end up homeschooling wherever we land, which is usually at the kitchen table because I am constantly preparing meals, eating meals or cleaning up after meals. It works out best for us (and about 99% of other homeschooling families from what I am hearing).
Getting them to focus is a huge issue. My eldest wants to watch my daughter and cheer her on (or boss her around......whatever...) and my daughter wants to chit chat...again, like someone else I know.

Anyone have any suggestions? Aside from duct taping their mouths shut, shackling them to the chair and putting on horse blinders, I don't have any other plan of attack. Splitting them up doesn't work because their mind's wander and they get distracted by every little thing when I'm not monitoring them. Here are a list of things that they get distracted by: flies, the texture of the wall, light fixtures, the glare of the sun on the glass, their pencil erasers, their pencils, the lead on their pencils, the crumb from this morning's toast that is 12 feet away on the floor, the bunnies outside, our dogs outside, the blades of grass outside, the birds outside, the noise they think they heard outside, the hum of the refrigerator inside, their eyelids, the hair in the brush in the other room, etc. etc. etc....

Comments? Suggestions? Beuller? Beuller?

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