Tuesday, September 10, 2013

So what do you do when. . .?

Homeschooling can really be hard sometimes.  Sometimes YOU don't feel good.  Sometimes your child is sick.  Sometimes you have WAY too much on your to do list for that day to sit and work on division.  Sometimes your child just plain doesn't want to do anything but play.  What do you do then??  PUNT!!

We've run into most of these problems in the past week.  I had a bad case of the flu one day and pretty much slept the day away.  Unfortunately, Rich had things that he could not put off doing and was gone most of the day.  Mariah still had schoolwork.  I also have an online shop with a couple of friends that is really starting to take off.  www.treasurechestoffriends.com (Just in case you're curious)  We had a FB party a couple of weeks ago and had several orders as well as game prizes that were given away.  Plus, we're still unpacking LOTS of boxes from moving.  So my To Do List is about a mile long.  Top that off with Mariah deciding that she just didn't feel like doing any schoolwork for a couple of days.  Oy vey!!

Thankfully, we have created several options for these kinds of days, since they seem to crop up when we're not looking.  First, we have a box of rainy day stuff.  These are school activities that can be done in one day.  I print up Express lapbooks from AJTL that Mariah can do alone if she needs to.  They're $1 each and she enjoys them.  I have printed worksheets from Education.com that are fun to do.  You can print a certain number free each month.  After that, it's $4.99 a month for a membership.  They have just about any subject you can think of!  There are also books in there that Mariah has found at library and garage sales that she can sit in her reading corner and read in one day.

Another option is the computer.  To begin with, Mariah does part of her schoolwork with websites online.  Grammar is done with www.Grammaropolis.com.  It's a fun way to teach grammar and she can do it alone.  She also uses www.aplustutorsoft.com for math.  It has videos and interactive worksheets as well as printables so she can do it alone most days.

 www.alwaysicecream.com is another fun website she uses.  Its a safe haven for girls to chat and play games, build their own houses & shops, take care of virtual pets.  The games are educational and they earn scoops to 'buy' things for their houses, shops, & pets.  You can also set up a reward system or party favors for friends and nieces.   The chat room is VERY well monitored.  The girls are not allowed to give their city, state, school name, or last name.  If they do, the post is instantly pulled and they get a nice reminder message from the monitor.  There is also a boys version called www.clever-dragons.com.

Mariah loves art so we have the entire set of Mike's Inspiration Station videos.  She can always do an art lesson on her own too!

So, you aren't alone.  We all have days where things just don't gel.  The way to get past that is to have a backup plan.  Some kind of activity that your child can do on their own with some monitoring from you.  Does anyone else have any ideas??  They're always welcome - you can never have too many backup plans!!

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