Homeschool: Problem Solving

The pictures above are from a pajama day we had last week. All those parties wore me out, and I did 8 loads of laundry last week. No wonder we needed a pajama day so badly! On to the problem solving...

Problem #1: Genna could not and would not hold her pencil correctly. The minute I turned my head she slid her fingers back into the wrong position again. She is slow and I just can't stand over her the whole time.

Our Solution: Pencil grippers, or whatever they are called! I forgot all about these inventions until one day it just hit me. My mom bought her some and once she got used to it the problem was solved.

Problem #2: The kids were getting off track when they had to wait on me to help them with something. Suddenly, I had kids bouncing off the walls just because Isaac needed me to help him with something.

Our Solution: A list of independent work to complete everyday for each of the girls. Hannah still has trouble switching gears when I need her to stop her independent work to do our group lessons once I get Isaac busy with something. She likes to finish all of her stuff before going onto the group lessons. She especially doesn't like to stop midway through a particular assignment.

Problem #3: Complaining, no explanation needed. Hannah struggled with this last year at the beginning of the year, and Genna is currently struggling with it.

Our Solution: A reward awaiting them at the end of the day that they lose if they complain. I give one reminder/warning about the reward when complaining starts and beyond that there is a zero tolerance policy. This is not a quick fix. It takes some longer than others to figure out what they are missing out on. Even the quickest child will still lose the reward multiple times before correcting their behavior, and all will backslide occasionally. Our reward is 30 minutes of TV. The children that earn it watch their TV in my bedroom while the child who does not stays with me downstairs.

Problem #4: Interrupting me when I am teaching or talking to someone else. Interrupting is becoming a real problem in our house right now.

Our Solution: Our solution, in general, is to have the children put their hand on my arm/leg and wait until I can stop and talk to them. This solution came from my cousin, Melinda, who has 4 of her own children. Genna is the only one that remembers to do it right now and so I need to crack down on enforcing it again. A solution specifically for the schooling that we haven't tried yet to this problem, but want to, is on this blog. I just have to find time to set the system up.

I am happy to say that baby Drew has been a champ and so far not added any new problems to our homeschool other than making me tired by getting up to nurse in the middle of the night. Time will fix that one, I hope. Even when he is awake, he hangs out on the floor happily most of the time while we work.

I am having to step up the teaching for Isaac because he is less likely these days to work on his activities on his own. So we are continuing on with his Five in a Row book and starting to move ahead in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. It still is only about 30 minutes of work for him on the days that we can fit it in, but it seems to keep him happy if he gets that one-on-one time with me.