Man, today sparked some very big *SIGH* moments. Nothing terrible, but just times where I need to take a deep breath and compose myself. Sometimes I wonder why someone with as many faults as I would have kids. There's this immense pressure that if you say the wrong thing, you will scar this young person's life forever... and I tend to say the wrong thing under pressure.
So I spent a couple hours cleaning and organizing a pile on a side table and some other things... I made it my priority to get thing in a "home" yet the apartment doesn't look any cleaner than it did before! Ah! I used to have a pretty neat and tidy apartment, before I acquired so much stuff.
So where should the time go? To my volunteer responsibilities? Homeschool organization? Cleaning? Catching up on the online class I'm terribly behind on? Make the phones calls I have piling up? (Ortho, a return of a product, update other volunteers, follow up with customer care calls for Pampered Chef...)
*sigh* The life of a SAHM. I wouldn't trade it for the working life, or not having kids (though getting away for an hour every once in a while would be great), but the fact that I don't earn a paycheck means my time has been spread across a lot of little things! What to do first? I guess each day is different. Maybe tomorrow I'll spend time on things other people would notice and appreciate too.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Review of Time4Learning.com
DD1 and I completed our 30 day trial of time4learning.com. Overall, we really enjoy the website and I think it is a great tool! Some things we enjoyed most:
- The interactive lessons. They kept DD interested, and I never had to force her to work on time4learning.com because she found it fun and interesting.
- Science was interesting and covered a wide range of subject matter. We have typically been pretty spotty about executing science experiments, and DD has grown a dislike of science. For DD to say she thinks the science lessons are great is a big plus!!
- The parent involvement can be very minimal, so I can just direct DD to do a lesson in a particular course, and off she goes!
Dislikes:
- Some of the lessons seemed a bit to kid-like for a 5th grader. DD didn't seemed put off by it, but I thought it could have slightly less cartoon-like animation.
- Grammar lessons were very few, and not easy to find right away.
We plan on using this over the summer, but once the "school year" starts, we will be using a homeschool coop for Science class, and we have the resources available for the other courses we will be working on. One of the reasons I wanted to homeschool is to be more involved in the learning process with my daughter, so the convenience of having most of her lessons done independently conflicts with the wish for more time together while she is learning. We are doing some work over the summer, but it is going to be more informal, so just saying "spend some time on time4learning" is sufficient, and I know she is going to be doing something productive!
It would be nice if there was a "lite" option where we could just get 20 hours a month or something for a lower price. It would also be really beneficial if the courses lined up with each other a bit more, so you could work more like in a Unit Study (another thing we are trying to achieve in homeschooling) and have the things you are learning in one course relate to other courses.
Overall, I would recommend any parent to try Time4Learning.com and see if it fits a need or want in their family. It definitely fits some goals we are working towards during the summer and I'm excited to have DD explore on there on her own!
- The interactive lessons. They kept DD interested, and I never had to force her to work on time4learning.com because she found it fun and interesting.
- Science was interesting and covered a wide range of subject matter. We have typically been pretty spotty about executing science experiments, and DD has grown a dislike of science. For DD to say she thinks the science lessons are great is a big plus!!
- The parent involvement can be very minimal, so I can just direct DD to do a lesson in a particular course, and off she goes!
Dislikes:
- Some of the lessons seemed a bit to kid-like for a 5th grader. DD didn't seemed put off by it, but I thought it could have slightly less cartoon-like animation.
- Grammar lessons were very few, and not easy to find right away.
We plan on using this over the summer, but once the "school year" starts, we will be using a homeschool coop for Science class, and we have the resources available for the other courses we will be working on. One of the reasons I wanted to homeschool is to be more involved in the learning process with my daughter, so the convenience of having most of her lessons done independently conflicts with the wish for more time together while she is learning. We are doing some work over the summer, but it is going to be more informal, so just saying "spend some time on time4learning" is sufficient, and I know she is going to be doing something productive!
It would be nice if there was a "lite" option where we could just get 20 hours a month or something for a lower price. It would also be really beneficial if the courses lined up with each other a bit more, so you could work more like in a Unit Study (another thing we are trying to achieve in homeschooling) and have the things you are learning in one course relate to other courses.
Overall, I would recommend any parent to try Time4Learning.com and see if it fits a need or want in their family. It definitely fits some goals we are working towards during the summer and I'm excited to have DD explore on there on her own!
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