The Bartlett Adventure: ramblings from a home school mom

Showing posts with label ramblings from a home school mom. Show all posts

Friday, September 28, 2012

School daze

Here are some new pictures from a school day at our house.

James does school work on the floor or the table or anywhere I can get him to do school.

Damian is so good (most of the time) at following directions and being self driven. I am so proud of him.

I love his hands

James and I struggle with school the most.

He is four and wants to be busy.

He does not like an audience. He likes quiet one on one time when he is learning.

With a big brother who likes to be with other people while he works.

This is hard work for both of us.

Sometimes Damian and I will do our own school work together at the table.

I hope your day is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Home school adventures

Today everything was all quiet and what did I see?

Two little boys reading on the couch.

To be honest James has memorized this book and loves to read it.

So far he can recognize 15 letters on sight and the other 11 he either knows the sound once we tell him the letter, knows the letter but not the sound, or completely draws a blank. He gets a little better everyday. Because he wants to read so badly he is trying harder.

Damian trying to read the kid version of The Last of The Mohicans in 1 hour. He will probably make it and move on to The Red Badge of Honor and finish that one today as well. He wants to read his new Birthday books but he has a stack of books from the library he needs to finish first.

That is what home school looks like today in our house. In a little while there will be some crying and begging and general chaos but now it is beautiful.

I hope your day is filled with sunshine and rainbows, lots of love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Dreams. . .

I recently read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. After I finished the book I started to evaluate the idea of dreams, dreams for myself, dreams for my children, and dreams of the future. When I had children I knew I would support their dreams and do everything that I could to help them to come true. The book made me ask the question (to me) is my dreams big enough for them? Should I be doing more to help them succeed in life? In the book Amy Chua has her children practice piano up to five hours a day, plus learning Mandarin, and doing extra work to stay ahead of their peers at school. I cannot afford to give the boys private lessons in various things, this is the down fall of staying home with the kids there is never extra money. Seriously I could push Damian to do more work to at home we could get through the curriculum faster, should he be practicing piano more than thirty minutes a day? Should I want him to be the best at piano and aim to get him to a stage instead of thinking of it as a beautiful hobby? I wanted the kids to have a teacher outside of me that they could impress with their practicing. Now I have added to my guilt pile because I needed more guilt.

James is still working on learning the alphabet and I am sure that I should be pushing him more. Damian could read when he was four. Then they are different kids and I am a different mother than I was with Damian. Should we push our children to excel? How do you choose what they are going to excel in? This parenting gig is stressful!

In retrospect I knew when I was Damian's age what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to write for a living. I knew it then and I know it now. Sometimes when I see successful people who are younger than I am I struggle with myself (the inner demons only I can hear mocking me). I am working on an English Degree which allows me to read things I haven't read, and more importantly it allows me to write and improve. I gain confidence in myself and I know one very important thing about life: It Is Never Too Late. People start late all the time the important thing is that we start. My major question is "Are my dreams big enough?" My answer as all ways is, "I do not know?"

How about some songs about big dreams