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by kellybell » Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:53 pm
Yes, great replies!
When I had a second grader and a kindergartner, I also had two little ones (toddler and preschooler). The older two were at a private school full time which means no bus service. I was very busy with carpools, volunteering at school (everyone was expected to help a little), drilling spelling words, etc. Add on top of this I was packing lunches, cleaning out backpacks and lunch boxes (yes, they "cleaned" their own, but often I would have to redo their efforts), filling out forms, signing report cards, driving for field trips, etc. Yikes, I was busy! And, I was one of the LEAST involved moms around. And, since they went to school, they tended to lose gloves, catch colds, learn bad words (yes, at a Christian school), and beg for the latest toys and such.
The next year, we homeschooled (and I had a 4 year old, a 2 year old, a second grader and a fourth grader) and must say that homeschooling via MFW (we did ECC that year) was actually easier than dealing with kids going to school.
CTG is a little more demanding than ECC, but just a little! If you can do ECC, you can do CTG. It's really an easy to teach (but meaty) program.
On those rough days, remember that God didn't create you to be Superwoman, nor is He surprised by your circumstances. Just lean on Him and if you don't get the day's work done or if you find you are skipping some of the work, well, that's fine. Do your best and then rest!
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:53 pm
Yes, I like the deluxe packages BUT not if they induce guilt (ie "Oh, I bought these deluxe books and CDs but am not using them -- I'm a bad mom."). We don't get to all of it.
The music study is pretty easy to do "independently" (or while mom nurses or folds laundry, etc.) as a lot of it is listening to a bioraphical CD. You can challenge the kids to find 10 facts about Bach that they didn't know before. Just have them take a few notes while the CD plays.
And, the art book is neat, but for our family it "falls off the end" when we get busy with our orchestra practice or Science Olympiad studies. So, we do it when we get to it, skip it when we don't. My plan is to have the kids finish up the art books (okay, two volumes if you bought it recently and one if you bought it a few years back!) in "high school." I'm going to call it "art history" and keep track of the hours that they spend on it and we'll do the tests in the book for each section.
Do what you can; do what you want. Yes, you can catch up later!
Kelly, wife to Jim since 1988, mom to Jamie (a girl, 1994), Mary (1996), Brian (1998) and Stephanie (2001).