Video games and more!

I was speaking to my son about this post over the weekend. He said he is sure playing games has helped his hand-eye coordination, which of course has helped him in his welding. :)

Another thing. We were watching a show on TV about military weapons. The commander said they have designed the control of their "remote control" weapons after the Xbox control. He said that the new guys joining can pick that control up and use it with almost no training- because thay are all gamers in that age range! Said the older men take weeks of training to be able to use it. The control can direct several different things in different locations at once. We were stunned.So if your kids have military in mind......

In fact another lady wrote me and said playing F16 helped her husband! He now flies REAL F16's! She said playing the game made it very easy for him to learn the real thing!! Hugs, Barbara

More on video games!

A lady posted this:

SHHHH.....Barbara.....I can't believe you would admit this in a homeschool group, of all places!!!! HA!!!!!!!

And here is my response:

HAHAHA! You signed your name so we gotcha!! Yes, dad's are welcome too. :) I don't play many computer games but the kids STILL talk about the first time my son Colin talked me into playing Halo with him. ( At least 4 years ago). They sat stunned....I was good! LOL!!It is funny all the ticks my kids have discovered playing even silly games. Joshua was around 6 when we got a game called varmit hunter ( you shoot animated animals :p ). We had only had it a day or two. The kids were scoring just a few hundred points. He called me in and there was a score of over a thousand! I thought the older ones were playing a trick on me. I called them all in and they were stunned. Show us how you did it we demanded. The little stink did! Know what he figured out? If you shoot the frog- even if it does not show any more- as fast as you can -each shot racks up points like crazy! His little finger was clicking that mouse a mile a minute! LOL!Sure makes them proud to beat mom and dad at these games. HAHA! Hugs, BarbaraPS-We will all have to wear dark glasses when we go out now...like spies!

ONLY for mom's who let their kids play computer games...:)

So, YOU are one OF THOSE Mom's?? Me too. LOL! Just had to pass this on.

My 17 year old son started college this fall. He is going to the tech community college and taking welding. He has made all A's on every assignment, quiz, and test so far. He did not have to take the required math classes because his entrance exams were so high. :) But this is the best part....

He is a big "gamer" and "wasted" a lot of time on that and also on paint making stupid pictures. He always did his school work first. :)

Well,.......that has been a big help for him in college. LOL! They have to design blueprints and he is the best in the class. Why? Because they use the same kind of program as paint, and because he designed his own armour in those crazy games! He is used to "making" what is in his mind come out on a computer! He can also type fast from playing online.

So make 'em do their school work mom, but don't stress over the fact they love to play computer games. Halo anyone?? LOL! Hugs, Barbara

Workboxes in a nutshell

Hello! please feel free to come join our workbox group On The Homeschool Lounge! You can come over and read and ask questions- even if you do not actually use the workboxes. :)

The workbox method is really a method of getting the work done. You can use any curriculum with it. Each subject goes into its own "box" or drawer. Everything the child needs to do that box goes in with it. Your children work from box to box until they are all empty. This way they do not have to ask/be told what to do next all day. They know to complete the box and move to the next one.

Some boxes will be "work with mom" and some will be things they can do alone. Some boxes will have fun activities- all those art things you never seem to get to!! You will save time and they will love it!That is it in a nutshell. Please feel free to ask questions! Hugs, Barbara

Bedtimes!

We have staggered bedtimes. The youngest two who are 6 & 7 go to bed at 7:15 to7:30. I go with them and lie about 15-20 min with them just talking. That is our "little girl" time. :)

At 8 years old you get to stay up in the livingroom till 8:30- then you can read till 9 in your room. If you are not reading it is lights out at 8:30.(Sneaky way to get kids to read more huh??)


At 9-11 years old you get to stay up till 9 in the livingroom. Then up till 9:30 in your room reading.

At 12-13 they get to stay up till 10 in the livingroom most nights. The exception is if the kids 14 and up have a special movie to watch that is too adult for the 12-13 set. That happens maybe once or twice a month. The older kids are pretty good about not wanting to do it too much- so the younger ones give way. They know their day is coming! HAHA!

At 14 they usually go to their rooms at 10-11 unless we are watching a longer movie. I let my older teens stay up in their rooms basically as long as they want then. We have a STRICT wake-up /chore time. So they know if they stay up too late they are going to be miserable in the morning. It has not been a problem in my house. They are good at self-limiting.

Hubby and I often go to bed at 9:30 or 10. Hubby gets up EARLY for work. Our lights are usually out by 11:00. If he is not working the next day we will stay up and watch a movie with the older teens. Once in awhile they will beg me to stay up later and watch something- daddy goes on to bed. But not often. I like my hubby time too much.

One other thing we do. We have "dates" with our teens. The older two boys will take me to a movie. We have a 30 min drive so a lot of talking can go on. They love to take me to movies that make me jump! If one of them needs to do some private talking they can ask for "just you and me this time" and no one questions it. Sometimes my teens ask to take me "for a drive'' when they need a private talk. I have learned to listen WAY more than talk. Hugs, Barbara

Filling boxes for teens!

Here are a few ideas to get the list started!Digital Photography - pick a still object and take pictures of it from different angles – like from the ground looking up at it, from up above the object, upside down, off center, etc

Drawing -complete with drawing book, pencils, art sketch book, etc- Can do the same as above, having them draw an object from different angles.

Give them different objects and instructions to build something. For example, see how tall you can build a structure with only straws and tape. Or using only paper cups and cardboard, build a platform that will support ## number of books, or how many books will it support? Can you build something that will let you stand on balloons so that they won't pop?

K'nexMotorized k'nexDrawPaintSculpt

Sew/cross stitch
Write storyLego motorized
Map games on pc
PuzzleBoard game
Collect object from nature. Make centerpiece, art or draw
Build fireObstacle course, bike, scooter, skate board, rope and pulley…
Make a family meal
Make a dessert
Brain teaser books: 30 second mysteries, gift child activities, etc..Backyard ballistics, sneaky things.
Plan and prepare.Approved science experiments from books or kits
Garden or yard work
Work on rockets
Train dogs
Wood carving
Build solar oven.
Bake cookies or little cakes
Secret codes. Make or break
Read 1001 things a teen should know
Make a claymation movie
Look at something with a magnifying glass or microscope
Build a sand sculpture
Make a life-sized maze
Design a home
Listen to classical music
Look at family photos- update photo albums
Bury treasure. Make map for brother to follow
Write a short story about your own life.
Bike your age in miles.

Hugs, Barbara

Filling boxes for 8-12 year olds

Here are a few ideas!

Crosswood puzzles
word search puzzles
Minutes on the Wii
Minutes on computer games

Another great thing to do is let them take apart broken things. It is amazing the things they will find inside old broken mixers, radios, computers, etc. My boys love to do this. :)

puzzles- we have done large ones that we then hang on their walls. That is a cheap and creative way to re-do a bedroom. There are amazing puzzles with beautiful art on them. Hugs, Barbara

Filling those workboxes!

I was asked about filling the workboxes:

A lot of ladies fill the boxes the night before. I am doing it first thing in the morning- or sometime in the afternoon once they are finished for the day. You put new things in each box each day. For example:
Box 1- for us this is their math book. I just keep the book in the drawer.
Box 2- This is our reading. Since the book I use is too big to go in the box I have their chart in it. Each time they do a lesson we put a sticker over the number of the lesson.
Box 3-Is our writing. I pull one page of penmanship type writing and place it in there.
Box 4- Is a coloring page. We are coloring that Lady and the Tramp coloring book together. So they get one page of that there.
Boxes 5 & 6 vary for the little girls. Might have an art project- One day we made these cute ginger bread people signs!!!!!!!!! Might be playdough or a puzzle or a game.

For the middle kids they are really doing the same thing in the first five boxes each day.
Box 1 is math
Box 2 is History
Box 3 is geography
Box 4 is reading
Box 5 is writing
Box 6 changes every day with art or games.

Right now box 3 is geography but once they are finished with the book they are using it will become science. :) The books they are using just stay in the drawer. We pull out one or two pages a day. Then once finished they go into a folder that is also kept in the drawer.

The older ones have the same things in each drawer each day. Their books are not disposible. So they read the assignment, then write in a spiral notebook kept in that drawer. For the things they do on the computer- they just have a spiral notebook to write each lesson # down and the grade they received. it is all on the computer, but this saves me havng to transcribe those grades later. They do have an art drawer and can do anything they chose for that. They can draw or do projects as they wish- as long as they do SOMETHING every day. We are really loving this system! hugs, Barbara

Getting through the blahs.

September 12th, 2009
This was in response to a homeschooling mom who was feeling like laying on the couch with her head covered all day. She felt blue and blah about teaching.

(((Hugs))). I have been a SAHM and Homeschooling mom for a long time now. I speak to a lot of ladies who are homeschooling mom’s, so if you don’t mind I will you what I have learned.
Being a SAHM and a homeschooling mom is the best job in the world! Each of us loves doing it and seeing our kids grow and learn! We would not give it up for the world! BUT…….
That is not ALL you are. I know it is popular to teach that everything must come before mom. That our needs are to be last on the list and we are to live a selfless life, pouring all into our kids. While I think teaching and raising my kids is one of the best things on earth- it can not be #1.
To reap a harvest in a field, you don’t just run out and start picking crops. Crops have to be planted first! To plant crops you need seed, you need soil that has been tilled and built up with nutrients.
Mothering is a lot like farming. If you don’t take care of mom, you have nothing to give. Does that mean to be selfish and look out for yourself as #1, a queen bee? No. Not at all. But you do need to be filling yourself with good things, so you have good things to give the kids!
You need to be finding joy. When you are feeling sad and blue, having a deep Bible study thrust at you can be another slap in the face. So I am not going to do that, but I am going to suggest this. Get yourself a Bible concordance and each day just look up one entry under the word JOY. You will be amazed how many Joy verses there are in the Bible! I wrote a whole book about just that! Mark them in pink, so you can find them the next time you feel down!
Next, mom what have YOU learned lately? We are made to learn! If you are teaching, teaching, teaching, and not learning yourself- you will begin to feel empty. You need to be flexing your own brain! Learn to sew, paint, decorate cakes, knit, anything you like- but something fun that you have wanted to do! Read books that stretch your thinking! You can learn almost anything at home!
Also, be sure you get dressed ( not in sloppy, stained clothes) and brush your hair every morning. A mom in PJ’s and a robe is going to want to lay down and hide. This is your JOB. Dress for it- right down to putting on your shoes! Wear sneakers you can stand/walk/play all day in. If you wear make-up, put it on. Just because you are staying home does not mean how you look is not important! Give yourself and your kids the respect you would give strangers!
At the end of each day, write down your successes in a notebook! When my kids were small I kept a book called “My over and above ” book. It was a running list of ANYTHING I got done that day. Really. I had 4 in diapers at one point. Two were nursing twins. If laundry got all done- i wrote it down! If we read books outloud for fun I wrote it down! Anything “over and above just staying alive” LOL! It helped.
Blessings to you, Barbara

Chin up! you can do this! part 3

September 10th, 2009
One more thing to give you confidence. When I was in K …I COULD NOT learn my ABC’s. ALL the other kids could say them. My teacher kept me in at recess to try to help. She pinned a note to my shirt telling my mom to work with me. I could recite poems and the pledge…I COULD READ, but could not name those darn letters in order. Things that are random are hard for me. I need things to make sense. Those names in that ABC order had no REASON to be in that order. It is random. To this day I have a HARD time learning a phone # because it is a random pattern.
I have written a book, but was a kid who could not learn her ABC’s. I turned out all right. To this day my mom says it was just silly the trouble I had. SHE remembers because my older brothers learned it so quickly and it made all the teachers and her friends think I was stupid! Now she knows I was the smartest kid she had. LOL!! Hugs, Barbara

Chin up! You can do this! Part 2

September 8th, 2009
Homeschooling is not something you “Do right”. It is parenting. How you do it will be different from anyone else. Your style and your childrens styles will make your school unique. You decide what you want her to learn ( you have 13 years to teach these things remember) and her talents, abilities, and personality will decide how those things are learned. You are mommy. Mommy has the love and ability to make the learning wonderful! No teacher could do it as well- no matter how smart, prepared, or dedicated they are, because YOU are mom. You care more than anyone, you love more than anyone, you will do what-ever it takes to teach her. Believe in yourself. Inside you is all she needs to be able to learn. Trust in yourself and those “I told you so” voices can just shut up! When she got her first fever- did you “give her away” to a hospital to raise? No, you cared for her and kept trying things until the fever was gone and she was happy again. This is the same thing. So school is not what you thought it was going to be. Are you going to “give her away” to a school to raise? Of course not. You are going to try different things until she is happy learning!
Ok, now to the brass tacks. A 5 year old needs to be playing. They learn by playing. Forget strict sit down lessons. Play instead. Decide what you want to teach and play! Take counting: Let’s count the washclothes as we fold! One, two, three, four… How many colors do we have? One , two, three, four…. How many fingers do we have altogether. Count mine and sissy’s too!
These years will go so fast honey. Make them fun. Enjoy your kids. Being the mom of small children is mostly a memory to me. It went too darn fast. Enjoy it. I am SOOOOOOO glad I did. We laughed and played the days away.We strung memories on strings like pearls. My adult kids love how they were raised now, and plan to do the same with their kids. You can do this. I have faith in you. Make it a loving time. Hugs, Barbara

Chin up! You can do this! Part 1

September 8th, 2009
This was a reply to a woman who has feeling really discouraged. She was a new homeschooler and just felt like she was already failing:
Hello. My name is Barbara and I thought about you all night. LOL! I read this post yesterday, but had a few things going on and did not have time to post. I sure wish you lived down the road from me. I would invite you over for a glass of tea and a chat! As it is, the written word will have to do.
I have 14 children. The oldest is 30, the youngest just turned 6 last week. 9 still live at home, one of those is in college. I have homeschooled a LONG time. HAHA! Let me tell you a secret, promise not to share it?? ( Just kidding ) The secret to being a really great mom and homeschooler is………..
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Relax and enjoy the ride.
I’m not kidding honeybun. You have homeschooled THREE WEEKS and feel like a failure. You question your ability to do this. I looked at your profile. You have three small kids- the oldest is 5. Think back with me for a minute. When that first child was born. Did you look at her sweet little face and think, “I don’t know how to be a mom! I might mess her up!”. The first night she cried all night and you were so tired you thought you might drop, did you again think, “I can’t do this. I don’t know what I am doing!”
The first time she got a fever and threw up all night, did you think, “I am not fit to do this” ?Yet here you are. She is 5 and you have gotten here safe and sound!
Homeschooling is like that. Of course you don’t know what you are doing- you haven’t done it yet. That does not mean you are unfit to do it, or are doing it wrong. You will learn as you go along. You learned enough with that first baby to risk having two more!! LOL!
This is getting long- let me post it and finish in the next box- so I don’t lose what I have so far!(My computer hates me LOL)

How to get a 10 year old boy to settle down Part 2

September 2nd, 2009
After that last post the mom asked a few more questions. Below is my response:
As an out-sider looking in may I make another suggestion? I have 14 kids. I am no expert, and sure made my fair share of mistakes when my now grown kids were little, but I have a few ideas.
Your son is the oldest- with a pretty good gap between him and the next one down in age. Know what I learned with my own kids? It is hard to compete with cute and little. Really hard. Hard for any age, but a 10 year old boy is really in a bad spot. He is no longer cute and huggable, but he is not old enough to gain any real respect either. I can assure you he feels dull and awkward. A kndergartener needs a lot of help. They have cute boldly colored books. They giggle and play. Then there is the toddler who is cuter still and truly needs attention.
So your son is bored with being 10. No real rewards at 10- can’t exactly drive. No longer the baby. No longer cute. Not interesting in the least. Being boring makes you BORED, and a bit angry. Being angry makes you rude and silly. Maybe being funny will get mom’s attention? Maybe being slow will get her in here with me? Even yelling at me is something. More than that though. If she is mad and yelling and off kilter….I HAVE POWER. More power than any other 10 year old. More power than the cute babies. More power than mom even I AM SOMEONE.
So what to do? I have found punishment is really counter productive. I am a spanker for small children- to teach and train. But once they are that big- forget it. All you do is add bricks to the wall that they are building. Instead- mom- become fun. Start moving from mom the order giver, to mom the friend. No equal buddy buddy friend, but friend.
Make time. Play video games ( my eyes are rolling- I am BAD at this, but it gives the kids a good laugh). Make sure the younger ones go to bed earlier than he does. You need to watch movies, tv, read, play games, take a walk, what-ever with just this son. He needs time that he is not competing with the younger two. If bedtime is not staggered- change it. it will make a world of difference. Then make dates with this boy. He needs to have a bond of not just love, but friendship with you. Going to play miniture golf, a movie, to get a coke- anything. He needs that special ” Mom loves me in a way she does not love you” feeling. Not more than the others, but special.
No one wants to fight and be rude to a loving friend. He will obey better if he has a happy base of attatchment to you. The love you poured into him as a baby/toddler is not enough. It has to change and grow as he does. One day the strings of obedience will be cut completely, and it is the strings of love that will keep him calling you when he is grown.
He is a boy wanting to be a man, but too childish still to make that hurdle. Help him over. make being a grown-up even more fun than being a kid. Find ways to stoke the fire of adulthood. Not in forcing chores, but rewarding each step he takes toward it. Ask his help when you can. A boy that fixes things for mom is proud! Not chores- everyone can do that- and he should be doing his fair share. But extra things. My boys can fix a broken door knob- I don’t have a clue how to do it. They can get that mower to run. They lift and carry. They love being men-in-the -making! Stop leading so much mom! You are raising a man! Stop and realize how grand that is mom!! And make strong memories with him. Blessings of joy to you! Hugs, Barbara

How to get a 10 year old boy to settle down

September 1st, 2009
This is in response to a question about homeschooling with a 10 year old boy who goofs around a lot. The mom was at the end of her rope. She also had 5 and 3 year old girls at home:
If I may make a suggestion. Stop thinking of sending him to school as an option. If you do that you will never put in the thought and effort it will take to make homeschooling work. Honey, if he is having trouble at home with just two other kids…how will he do in a roomfull??? I AM NOT fussing at you. I have graduated four already- so have just walked that part of the path already! You can do this AND make it a wonderful time!
I have 7 boys. Boys ARE different to homeschool. A 10 year old needs a lot of time to move. Trust me. So break up the work with LOTS of movement time. Have him do math first. The maybe time doing something physical ( We use the Wii Fit and Wii sports a lot!) Then another lesson, then movement. Use a timer. It helps. Make it a fun race- not a yelling session of pushing to get work done.( Not that you do, but once upon a time I did that. Blush)
Make school more fun. Reading can be anything, does not have to be dry school books. Also does not have to be done sitting. Throw in some baking. That is reading and math and movement and fun all in one.
Stop thinking like a school teacher, and start thinking like the wonderful mom you are who is teaching the great kid you have in his special way that only you can know! ( How is that for a run-on sentence??)
Rain days are just made for baking and curling up together on the couch to read to each other while munching cookies. May your day end with smiles and joy! You are a wonderful homeschooling mom who can turn the day around! Before you know it he will be 6 ft tall! Enjoy these days. ( I have 5 taller than me already) Hugs, Barbara