Maybe it's the change in weather, maybe it's all the holiday activity and stress, but we just don't feel much like doing SCHOOL!  We did a whopping 1/2 hour per kid yesterday (one subject per kid), and I'm trying to get up the gumption to start again today.  I got the dishes done, got the two younger ones bathed... I'm about to send my oldest off to take a shower.  Then maybe I can start working with the younger one? 

Anyone else feeling blah about school work??

On a high note, they did get to go out and play in the snow yesterday before it melted!

Edie

I had that problem before I had to revamp our homeschool approach.  We went from traditional workbooks (for the most part) to  primarily lapbooks.  Now I get excited because my kids are excited and beg me to work on their books. 

We took all of last week off for my daughter's birthday and Thanksgiving, so we're well-rested. Here's my concern:::::::

My husband is leaving for Iraq this weekend. HOW AM I GOING TO DO SCHOOL NEXT WEEK? I feel like we should, you know, keep our schedule the same, but I dunno. I mean, we are on a deadline of sorts. We can't take last week off, next week off, and then time off for Christmas, and then time off for our vacation in January. If we do, it will throw us completely off track.

I know that, as a homeschooler, we allegedly have freedom from schedules, but here at our house, we thrive on schedules.

That has to be hard for you and the kids. Maybe you could work school around doing something for your husband and the troops for Christmas. You could make a vidio for Dad, or maybe a make a picture album you could send him of all the neat things you are doing in school. Let him know you miss him but being able to carry on with your life.

Please know your husband and family are in my familys prayers.

For the most part, anticipating deployment is worse than the deployment itself.

This is our third deployment...which is why I know to worry about our schedule. LOL We can either mope about, or we can get back to work. Getting back to work is the better option.

We don't have a departure time yet, but I am hoping it's Saturday, and not Sunday. That gives us two days to get used to it.

At this point, I am just ready for the deployment to begin. Waiting is the hard part. Well, the waiting AND the last few weeks. Those last few weeks are torture.

I'm trying to avoid the slump that Edie is talking about, because it could EASILY take over at this house next week.

Michelle,

God bless you and your husband for serving our country.

As to the question - every time december rolls around I have a slump.  I gave in today basically with the excuse that because we had to go out for an orthodontist appt. that we may as well giv eup the whole day!  Bad Mommy!  The little one did do Math and the older a science quiz but that was it.  I really need to do better tomorrow and next week - I want to take 2 weeks for the Holidays.  ugghh - it's tough ... whoever said homeschooling was easy is nuts!  :)

Ange

Roni, I am doing notebooking, but looked into lapbooking.  Well we have done one so far :) I also bought some books that would be used up in a few weeks. I figured by the time we get our tax return I can order things for the second half of the year to get us over the hump.

I've ran into the slump too.........Ran outta money and trying to get Christmas up and running here.   I guess I am the worst on here cause we haven't done a whole lot...and FORGET cracking book!  But this may be the best for us, because he seems more relaxed now and goes and picks up books he wants to read, is doing science experiments all on his own in the kitchen, and we discussed geography today...so maybe I didn't do so bad??

I have, by the way, quit putting so much pressure on myself once I saw (and talked to a friend of mine) that it doesn't take weeks and weeks and weeks to teach one concept of math...Actually, if you can catch the mood right and jump on it....he learns it in just a few minutes!  Then just practice on it til it's downpat and move on.....And for goodness sake Mommy (talking to myself here) stay OFF his back!!! He's just seven for goodness sake!  As a matter of fact, when we were doing the water cycle, we only discussed how it rained.  After that he had time to himself to reflect on it, then came back later that day and told me Hey I didn't realize that I was drinking water that was once in the ocean!  Doesn't the sewer run into that???? LOL I about fell up from surprise!

I second the lapbooks. We were the same way right before Halloween and have done nothing but lapbooks and worksheets since. It really gets the kids into learning. There are a lot of nice free lapbooks on-line a few Yahoo groups. It easy and fun. the info really seems to stick with the kids more.  My kids are 14, 11, 10, 3 and 8 months and the only one that doesn't do them is the 8 month old.

Good luck!

Stacy

I have been feeling the same way. totally off track. It started with a delayed start on school because we were taking a fall vacation because we had a really hard summer. then my sister wanted to come visit then she left and my brother came to stay now i just can't get in the groove i haven't even looked at my materials in so long I feel swamped when i do try going through them. Now with christmas fast approaching I'm just feeling like why bother. Now don't get me wrong the kids have things to work on on their own mostly review stuff and reading. but we have had no time to work on lap books, projects , group studies. How do you get remotivated with so many innteruptions??

thanks

angel

We are in a slump too but our fall was got messed up. One thing is that it was 4 weeks ago that my FIL passed on. That threw us all for a loop and was draining and got us off the whole routine.

The way I've addressed the slump is do three main things.

1. We cuddle up for unplanned read-aloud's. One was what I could term a 'unit study' on the solar system which was completely unplanned. THe other is we are reading fiction chapter book for fun.

2. We have been doing more arts and crafts. I pulled out the colored wire and my older son worked on it for hours creating his own things. Antoher time they spent 2 hours making unique polymer clay beads just for the fun of it (have no clue what we will do with them). Another day I was surprised that they did Play Dough for over 3 hours, we had not used that in a long time (my boys are 7 and 10).

3. We are playing board games that we usually neglect. Most are just 'fun' but a couple are 'educational'. And they have pulled out the talking globe and are discovering what games they can play on it.

What we have avoided due to the slump is falling back to watching TV to pass the time.

Now they are begging to do all our Christmas tradition things which still seems too early for me, I'd like one more week before we dive into all of that!

Roni, I am doing notebooking, but looked into lapbooking.  Well we have done one so far :) I also bought some books that would be used up in a few weeks. I figured by the time we get our tax return I can order things for the second half of the year to get us over the hump.

We love lapbooking.  It's so much fun to make the book, especially when they're all finished and the boys can show them off to others.  It's not hard at all to wrap a unit study around a lapbook.  Yesterday, I designed a really basic ants lapbook to go with the unit study we were doing. 

They're also for fun things you wouldn't normally thing could be made to fit into school.  I'm making a Star Wars lapbook for my two little jedis now and it's full of fun stuff that still gets them learning.  I'll probably do the same for Avatar: The Last Airbender (another family favorite) although that one will probably be more geared toward eastern philosophy and spirituality.

My husband left last night :*( so we will be getting back to routine Monday morning. I want to add a few things:

• I have a gazillion learning game links on my favorites list that I fall back on now and then.
• I make file folder games to play instead of regular lessons.
• We play board games, too.
• We write letters to grandma.
• We go to the park, the duck pond, or the zoo.
• We watch TV: Any of the Discovery Channels will do.
• We go outside and explore.

Same here. It seems every year we hit the slump. The past few years we've kind of done a more relaxed homeschooling thing all Dec.

We'll just do a few workbooks, watch Christmas themed movies (that teachs Character and stuff lol), play board games (counting, money managment and so on), cooking, singing songs and so on.

So far this Dec we are cleaning the house more. We took everything out of my 6yr old sons room! EVERYTHING except the bed & dressers. We sorted through toys and trash then he put everything back willingly. My usual messy and lazy 8yr old daughter begged for us to do her room next. lol His room is so clean now! So I am thinking we may do this to the whole house and have a house keeping lesson theme all Dec. lol

I'm glad I am not alone I was feeling gulity and like a bad homeschooling mom for doing this!

Ashley

Today while in the boredom's we escaped on an impromptu museum visit and an afternoon visiting Grandma. A great day.

I haven't felt like doing school lately either.  I am always too tired to do anything and just not very motivated.

Dawn

We slacked this week BIG TIME and it felt great. We read books, went to the zoo, watched TV (yeah, I said it lol), cleaned the house properly (learned the real ways to do things), baked cookies, cooked dinner, extinguished a small kitchen fire (lol, yep), and slept together in my bed. =)

Fabulous bonding time. We did "real" school on Monday. We did a couple things on Tuesday. Lost all drive with the gorgeous weather on Wednesday, and phhhht went today.

We went through our motivational slump getting ready for Thanksgiving and a vacation last week.  Not much "real school" got done, but my son read a ton & researched his current favorite topic.....computer game design.  While it may not seem like he learned much, he could have just decided that he's going to be a software engineer someday.  Who knows?

We started Monday morning with a full course of schoolwork and we were both eager to get back into the swing of things.

Personally, I think the kids and us parents need that time to decompress, so that we're better able to focus the majority of the time.  Think of it as "mental health" time!  :)