Walnuts on My Windshield, #23

Friday, January 21, 2005

I need to celebrate, and I have several options. I could take the kids out to eat, but we'd all prefer to stay home. We could light the top of the Christmas tree (that we cut off and shoved into the fireplace on the advice of a friend who says it makes the house smell great), but we've never done a fire without Scott, and he won't be home for a couple more days. I already ate a large handful of chips and salsa - one of my weaknesses, so I guess all that's left is to write!

A celebration is in order because just a very few minutes ago, I CAUGHT UP ON HOMESCHOOL HOURS!!! Unless you are a homeschooling mom in Missouri, you probably cannot relate to my jubilation, so I will explain. In Missouri, we are free to homeschool our children without any interference from the government. That is an enormous blessing, and I frequently thank God, the many pioneering homeschoolers who have gone before us, and our lobbyists in Jefferson City for securing and maintaining that right for us. However, we are required to keep some records, and the keeping of them is tedious, to say the least. Of further note is the fact that, unless there is some major problem, no one will ever see these records. We don't turn them in to anyone, but if some state official ever asked for them, we would have to be able to produce them.

The law says that for each child between the ages of 7 and 16 (of which we now have three), we must maintain a log of the hours spent in educational activities. Each child must receive 1000 hours of instruction per year, 600 of which must be in the core subjects of reading, math, language arts, science, and social studies. 400 of those "core" hours must occur at the home location.

Some people add these hours on paper, but for the sake of my sanity, Scott created a nifty little program in Excel that keeps up with the hours. I just enter what the kid did in which subject area and for how long, and the program tells me how many hours s/he has completed for the month and for the year. Of course, there is only one little problem. If I don't enter the hours, then the program is pretty useless.

Our children each have a daily checklist that hangs on the outside of Jessica's bedroom door. They hang there because her room is at the bottom of the stairs, and it's hard to miss her door. I print out the lists each night for the next day and hang them up. They include that day's daily and weekly chores for the child, any special activities going on, and the academics that should be done that day. A mechanical pencil also hangs there on a string, so that each child can check off what s/he does and make notes about any specifics. I file the lists at bedtime and once a week, I pull them all out and spend about an hour converting all the activities of life into educationese and hours on the nifty Excel spreadsheet.

That's how it's supposed to work. I have set Monday afternoon as the time to record homeschool hours, but somehow, when Monday afternoon rolls around, there are many other things that should or could be done. Ironing calls, as does cooking, keeping kids going, making phone calls, writing emails, etc. Tuesday is a really full day. Wednesday is errands in Branson, then church in Springfield. Major cleaning happens on Thursday. Friday is off day, and I'm sure it would upset God greatly for me to record homeschool hours then. Scott's always got a project or two for us all to share on Saturday, and then we're back to Sunday. I don't know why driving to church and back puts me to sleep on Sunday afternoon, but it often does, and every other Sunday we go back to Springfield Sunday night for cell group.

Some Monday afternoons, I am therefore forced to stare at not 14, but 28 sheets of homeschool hours waiting to be entered. (Katie enters her own, so I only have to do Jessica's and Josiah's.) Here is a little-known factoid about me: if I know that I cannot possibly complete a task, I have been known to put off starting it until I can. Of course, the following week, I then have 42 sheets of paper staring me down, and maybe you can see how this problem could escalate rapidly.

Back in October, I had managed to get (ahem, this is truly embarrassing) three months behind in recording homeschool hours! I decided at the first of December that I would work feverishly and get them all entered by Christmas. That did not happen, but I was sure I could do it by the first of the year. Of course, that was a stupid thought; no one in his right mind would work on homeschool hours between Christmas and New Year's. However, surely I would be able to finish before Scott left for China on January 8. I don't know where that insane thought came from; the two weeks before he leaves are always a zoo! BUT - and I know it's not correct to start a sentence with "but," but I don't care - I have spent a portion of almost every day he's been gone plugging away, and I AM NOW ALL CAUGHT UP!!! Rejoice with those who rejoice!

I have been here before, and I always promise myself I will never let this happen again. It always happens again. However, this time may truly be different - because of the trampoline.

We have talked for a number of years about getting a trampoline. We held off because of cost, the risk of injury, and a few other things; but this year, we finally decided to go for it, and we bought the kids a trampoline for Christmas. Now, our family loves snow, and we have been pretty upset that we haven't had any yet this year. In fact, the daffodil and tulip bulbs we planted are already up three inches, and it's the middle of January! The only good thing about this warm weather is that the kids have been trampoline-ing like crazy. This is a good thing. In the past, we have had a hard time getting our computer-addicted children to go out and play and/or exercise. Now, they are out bouncing for substantial periods of time.

Katie and Jessica (like their dad) are passionate about their contemporary Christian music, and on our frequent car rides to Springfield, as soon as the key turns in the ignition, the earphones are applied and the CD players are turned on. Jessica decided that tramping was a great way to exercise, but that it would be even more fun if she could listen to music at the same time. Both our girls are quite thrifty. They DO NOT spend much money on themselves. However, Jessica went and bought herself a CD boombox for use with the trampoline! You can probably guess what the next step was for a kid who loves drama. Yes, you're right; choreographed tramping has arrived in Walnut Shade!

Of course, the only thing better than one person bouncing to the music is two, or three, or even four people bouncing to the music, so the latest craze is to invent elaborate routines to the accompaniment of Christian music with a good beat. They performed their first major creation for me yesterday, and I have to say that it was really good! Jumps, twists, flips, and all kinds of ballet-ish things were happening, and I was truly impressed. They even wore matching clothes, and the girls fixed their hair in matching braids. The boys would have done likewise, but they don't have enough hair for braids. The bouncers are now actively working to expand their repertoire, so as to have a full range of productions to perform for Dad when he arrives. Today, being off day, they would normally have slept in. However, Katie, Queen of the Late Sleepers, voluntarily got up at the unheard-of hour of 10:30 AM in order for the team to get an early start tramping. You see, today was cloudy and 50, but tomorrow the weather is expected to change from April back to January. With that kind of pressure, they spent four hours out there bouncing today.

Never before have our children been so deeply involved in anything (outdoors) of their own choosing, and never before have I had such long stretches of uninterrupted time to do things alone. I hasten to add that the girls will always give me time alone. It's the boys that are more demanding of my attention; especially the older one and the younger one. In any case, those four hours were just what I needed to finish my dreaded task, and "I'm never going to let those homeschool hours pile up again."

Until Next Time,
Patty

From My Bookshelf:

The Autobiography of Ephraim Tutt by Arthur Train, rank 8. I listened to almost all of this book and enjoyed it greatly. It is fiction, but written as if it were a real autobiography of a Yankee lawyer around the turn of the century - the early 1900s, that is. It is quite involved and full of interesting legal matters. This book is to the legal profession what James Herriot's books are to veterinary medicine. Quite enjoyable.

Quotation of the Week:

"Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind." ~ Samuel Johnson

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