A great article with a challenge for homeschooling parents

A very good article leading to some major self-examination. I think I am guilty of pride and arrogance in my homeschooling. I need to learn to be more humble to others' suggestions and criticisms. On the other hand, I am also pressurized by a controlling partner and one who is prone to measure our parenting success by the success of our children.

A must read...

http://www.familyministries.com/HS_Crisis.htm

Dear Father, please help me love my children as they are, and not for what they can do FOR me. Please help me be more supportive to my children in whatever they do, as well as develop a strong relationship with them. Help me to remember that You have loved me unconditionally, and you have not depended on my 'performance' to bring You glory. May I reflect Your love in my relationship with my children as well. In Jesus' precious name, AMEN.

A medal

On a happier note, Sarah did well at the Singapore Gymnastics Nationals 2011 held on Sept 11. She passed her grading for Level 1, was placed 8th in a field of 15, and won a silver on the uneven bars. A nice surprise for all of us.

Next week, we have a one week term break for gym. So we'll take a homeschool break as well so we can do things that take all day :).

Oh, and we have not been late for gym for the past 4 weeks. Hurray! The kids have gotten into the groove of things. We have not been late for Chinese class either. Thank God that we've become more motivated to do things on time.

Personal Struggle

My boys are so ill-disciplined, and I blame myself for being too lax. I also see myself as being very conceited, and not considering others before myself. Why? I believe I've been too influenced by my own thoughts and distractions. Perhaps a bit of a proud, complaining person has rubbed off on me too, such that I also think that the world must revolve around me.

Well, I've sought the Lord's forgiveness for this, and I'm now working on these sins, by God's grace.

The boys kept running onto the gym mat at the end of Sarah's gym session, until the coach had to tell them off. They did not obey me. They got a caning from me. I forgot to apologize to the coach. Must remember this next time. Thank others for helping me with my kids. Apologize on their behalf, and get them to apologize too. Then, they noisily interrupted her discussion with another parent. Over, and over again. Dealt with the kids at home. Need to apologize again next time. Hope it doesn't happen again.

I need to learn to respect other people and consider them better than myself. Lord please teach me this lesson and help me to learn well.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4

Gym again

Sarah's floor routine is finally coming together. Although she hopes for a medal, realistically, she is still not up to the standard for one. Perhaps in bars, if she doesn't foul that up, there might be some hope. Sunday's the competition, not ideal, and I wish it were not on Sunday. She's got balance issues on the beam, I have no way of helping her practise this, and her arms and legs are like a hula dancer's.

I've been so tired lately. But homeschooling has still been going on. Just barely. I need sleep without the children bothering me half the time.

I want to spend more time reading books, but again, my eyes can't stay open and my mind goes to sleep anyway. I practically fell asleep teaching Phonics to Ben the other day.

Dear Lord, please give me strength and energy for all that I need to accomplish today.

An article to write

*sigh*... I'm supposed to produce an article for this Music magazine. It is due end of this month. So far, I've only drafted out some points that I'd like to cover. How am I going to churn out the whole piece? It is an opinion piece on Music education for children from a homemaker's perspective. How how how? Help!!!! No time! No ideas! I think I need to stop the homeschool train for a few days just to be able to write.

At times, I think that this homeschooling thing is not going too well. We're always running late, the kids are not attentive, they don't come when called, they dilly-dally over starting school. I also have to clean the house, cook the meals as well as wait around for them to follow instructions. Then there's the problem of the kids messing up the floor as soon as I have finished cleaning it. Also the foolish one who disobeys and plays with a toy at meal time, and subsequently knocks over his whole plate of rice (right after I have cleaned the floor). Is this 'redeeming the time?' Then there is the one who decides to throw a tantrum over the shirt I have put on him to go out. Just as we are trying to get out of the house, he vomits his meal. We were going to be nice and early for the gymnastics class, but now that I have to clean up the puke, we'll be late. Late, late, late. How can we be early for once?

Dear Father,

I'm sorry that I have not redeemed the time. I'm sorry that I am also guilty of wasting time, and leaving things to the last minute. Please forgive me. Forgive the kids too, of not realizing that time does not wait for them. Help them to control their impulses and to be able to be more forward-looking. Help us to get to our next appointment with time to spare. In Jesus' name, Amen.

A Blessing in Disguise

We've been on a brand new schedule (again) for the past 2 weeks.

Just over 2 weeks ago, Sarah's gym coach informed us that she should be transferred to the Intermediate class for training. She had been training 8 hours a week with a China coach in an ultra-competitive group (Development), and making little progress. I had been frustrated watching her, and I think she was also frustrated with the endless drills and the tiring conditioning.

However, when we were told that she should go to the Intermediate class, training 4 hours a week, I was rather disappointed. My baby was not cut out to be a gymnast. I felt like withdrawing her altogether. Why was Sarah not making progress? Why was her work attitude so poor? Why couldn't she do the things that her classmates did?

So I prayed and spent time thinking it over, as well as comforting her (she was upset at the change and at the prospect of leaving her friends), and I read in Paul Tripp's Instructing a Child's Heart, that we must never make an idol of our children's talents, or even idolize ours or their dreams. It seemed that I had been doing this. So I was comforted by God's word, and then spent the weekend re-organising the homeschool schedule to fit in the new classes.

Hence, now, on Mondays and Thursdays, we're off by 8.30am for her 9 am class. 4 hours a week is half of what she used to spend on gym. But I still have to bring Ben for his 1 hour class where it used to coincide with Sarah's class. But after 2 sessions in this new class, Sarah is loving it all over again. And guess what, on her third class yesterday, she learnt new skills!!!!! Coach Nicole is from Perth, Australia. She's much more hands-on, and tells the girls what they can do to improve their form. It's not just drill, drill, drill, do a skill over and over again until your arms and legs can't carry you anymore. Sarah's progressing much more happily here. I'm happy. The stress of competition is not there. She gets proper coaching in a quieter environment (who does gymnastics at 9am in the morning but the Pri 1 and Pri 2 girls in the afternoon session?), and Thursday's class started with 2 of them last week, but will have an additional girl from this week.

Thank God that He knows best. Sometimes we think we know what we want for the kids. We're disappointed when it doesn't turn out the way we'd hoped. But the LORD will always take care of us and give us what is best. PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Fluey Bluey

The tummy bug, stomach flu, gastroenteritis has hit our family. The kids and I were affected, to various degrees. Sarah has just been feeling under the weather and without too much appetite. Gabriel has loose stools once to twice a day. On Thursday, Ben and I were down, really down. It was then that I realised how much energy it takes to run the family during the daytime. I had a fever, though I didn't feel warm on the surface, so I did not think of taking a panadol til much later in the afternoon. It started at 4 am, Thursday morning, when Ben came into our room, whining. He had vomited in his bed. He proceeded to climb onto our bed and vomited there too. So we began the big clean up, new bed sheets. Ben, meanwhile had been bathed and changed, and sat in the bathroom near the toilet. I made him a Ribena drink, which he drank all but 2 mouthfulls. Then soon, he vomited onto the toilet floor, on the mat. So that went to the wash too, the floor had to be cleaned up as well. In the meantime, I myself had not been feeling too well. Nauseous from the night before, and very groggy all the while I was cleaning up. I started a load of laundry in the machine (the bedsheets), and went back to our newly made bed.

The sun rose, and I couldn't quite get up. The rest of the day passed in a blur. I had no strength to make breakfast. All I wanted to do was sleep. I gave Ben a dry cracker and some water. Ben had some of the dry cracker, Gabriel had some too with his milk. Sarah wanted soft boiled eggs *horror! I had no energy to do that for her!*. I managed to make an egg for Sarah, sleeping for 7 minutes while it 'cooked'. She did the rest herself (toast, butter etc). Ben vomited his cracker. I cleaned up. Slept again. Soon the kids came and slept on my bed with me. Then the runs hit me. From late morning, I was more or less living in the toilet. Sleeping between toilet visits. Sometimes the visits might be 5 minutes apart. I rehydrated when possible, but mostly I slept.

Soon, I felt I needed to fix lunch for Sarah and Gabriel, if not for Ben and myself. So I dragged myself out of bed and cooked a small amount of rice porridge with 'mui choy' (preserved silverbeet stewed with duck and pork). No, I didn't make that mui choy. It was providential that I had bought some from the market on Wednesday. So I just mixed it into the porridge.

Lunch time came, nobody ate. I forced myself to eat two tablespoons. Too tired to eat, I gave Ben and Gabriel instructions to finish their own meal and went back to bed. Sarah said she didn't want any.

When I next woke, Sarah had come to my bed, Ben had gone to his own bed and was fast asleep, and Gabriel had laid his head on the table and was fast asleep too. All their porridge had not been eaten.

Well, to cut a long story short, it was a day of more vomits.... sofa cushions, floor, clothes and finally at night, another bedsheet and pillowcase and lots of cloth diapers supposed to line said bedsheet and pillow. Some underwear. A new set of PJs. I just didn't have the energy to do anything at all. After I had taken the Panadol, I started sweating and feeling a tad better. Then i realised that I had had a fever all along. *duh*. Dinner was not much different. Gary bought fish porridge, which nobody really ate.

Today, it's Saturday, appetites are improving slightly. Friday's breakfast was good though. Kids demanded pancakes, and ate them. But today, everyone has been really tired. Me included, so off to bed I go now. Good night.

All Aboard!

Getting Ben on board our homeschooling journey has not been easy. He's a very contrary boy. When I'm busy with Sarah, he will keep badgering me to school him. When I've finished with Sarah, and it's finally his turn, he'll turn away and says he doesn't want to do school.

This past week, I've finally given him a 'big' desk of his own during school time. I've made lots of alphabet and number tracing sheets (from Christ Centered Curriculum) copies. When Sarah is schooling, Ben does tracing (or Chinese writing). That has helped keep him occupied and focused. Once Sarah's is done and perhaps busy with written work, Ben is more cooperative and will continue to sit for his lesson.

Only drawback is that with this new table open, Gabriel has bumped his eye and head into the corner a few times already. He's not used to it being there. I'm thinking of hanging some tassels from the table.

An affirmation of our homeschool programme has been Sarah's good results in her Chinese language tests conducted by her Chinese enrichment class. She even did very well in Oral!!

We're boosting the kids' oral now by giving them Bible verses in Chinese to memorize.

Hiiii! I'm Baaaaaaccck

From where? Nowhere, actually. Just a long (and lazy) hiatus. Heh heh.

I guess it's good to put my thoughts into words, only thing is, sometimes, I'm just too lazy to do so. Hence the hiatus. I really should find a regular time to do this. I thrive on schedules. *snigger*

Homeschooling has been great. We're progressing down the academic alley. Even Benjamin is starting to come on board more regularly.

I've recently started them on Training Hearts Teaching Minds, by Starr Meade (what a name!) a devotional based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. This is supplemented by the WSC in songs which we play in the car. To their credit, the kids now know the first 28 Q and A of the WSC! We're still on Q1 in the devotional, though.

Our other subjects are progressing normally. Sarah's Chinese is improving, though we are still not successfully conversing regularly with her. She has now started to write 笔记 for each chapter, often with great pools of tears and frayed nerves. But then, it's nil sine labore, right?

She just took part in her first gymnastics competition, at IDP1. She's only be training at this level for 2 months. She only participated in the Vault. It was a good experience. Will post photos at a later time. Her team-mates did well enough for all of them to win overall team 1st. So she got a shiny gold medal in addition to her participation medal. Mummy learnt to tie her hair in the 'pineapple' style, and also not to assume that all notifications from the gym for her level are also meant for her, personally.

We've also been quite under the weather for the past month or two. Flu here, skin infections and impetigo, cough, cold, then I've just completed a course of antibiotics for tonsillitis and sinusitis. Feb 8th, I had surgery to excise an enlarged axilliary lymph node for biopsy. Thank God, it went well, and the results were as expected : dermopathic lymphadenitis. That's a good result despite it's long name. Better than Lymphoma or something to that effect. Anyway, there's still the Mondor's cords here to remind me of the surgery. Sarah is now down with a bad throat again. *sigh* when is it going to end?

Right here. Til next time.

Things to do

Need to re-plan social studies/National Education curriculum from scratch.

Need to look into making a list of mini-book ideas for lapbooking.

So that's what I'm currently into.

1st post of the New Year

OK OK.... I promised to blog weekly. So this is my first for 2011. Been too busy otherwise.

We're officially homeschooling this year. So far, the core subjects have been going pretty well. The time table needs some adjustment, but we're getting used to the routine, and learning what can and cannot be done in the time we have. Here's a run down for Sarah's curriculum:

English/Phonics

Rod and Staff is really easy to follow. It seems to be clear in explanation, and has an adequate amount of drill which can be done both orally and as written work.

We still do Christ Centered Curriculum Phonics, once a week. Sarah enjoys that and continues to learn a lot from that programme.

To supplement it all, she does some Cloze Passage exercises every now and then. (Must keep up with the Singapore curriculum, after all).

Maths

We are continuing with Right Start Math B. It's fun for Sarah, with a mix of arithmetic and geometry. She is very serious about Maths, which is great.

She also does some exercises from a local 'Assessment Book' to keep her up to date with the local stuff.

Chinese

She's on Book 1B already because we started 1A last year. She seems to be enjoying her Chinese, especially as she can learn the textbook material online. We're really trying so hard to speak to her in Chinese every night, but sometimes we forget.

I confess that I don't have much time for her to review what she learns at her enrichment classes apart from doing the 听写 (spelling) with her. Her Chinese is improving and she can actually speak in sentences now.

She also does pages from a revision book every week or so.

Science

Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding (BFSU) is really great! Fun, and simple, yet covering the basic concepts.

Apologia is going slower though, because the timeslot alloted to it has been constantly missed. I must re-adjust this, so that she can still read her Apologia Science.

Art

Sarah's art has never been her forte. With our Artistic Pursuits art programme, she has been enjoying doing art, and getting the idea of how to do art. So I would say it's quite successful. She looks forward to her art lessons every Monday afternoon.

Social Studies & Latin

Social Studies has been quite a disappointment. The Primary 1 textbook and workbook are so simplistic, it's a laugh! I think I have to plan my own curriculum when I have the time to.

We're on Lesson 3 for Latin. Sarah has a vocabulary of about 20 words, and has learnt about verbs, vowels, consonants, diphthongs. She can also recite the Sanctus.

Gymnastics

8 hours a week, 3x per week. New competition leotard cost $100. Mummy had to learn how to do her ultra-short hair neatly. Need I say more?

That's all for now.