Chores

Chores. Allowance. Commission. Salary.


Lots of ideas out there when it comes to imparting responsibility to your children. We've tried several routes with varying degrees of success. We don't give allowance - that implies that you get money simply because you exist and that's not a belief that I care to foster in my children. You don't get something for nothing. We respect hard work and it is rewarded so any chore/money set up we've tried here has been more of a "commission" than anything else. I drank the Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid a long time ago and I wholeheartedly agree with his take on chores/money.


For the most part, and with minimal reminders, The Boy and The Girl are very good about keeping their rooms tidy, clearing their plates after dinner, cleaning up after themselves, etc. But finding a way/method to motivate them to shoulder a little more responsibility around the house has been challenging. And then I saw this: Fisher Kids. While it's great to have them help around the house, the responsibility for keeping track of their work and their pay usually fell to me and that didn't always work well. The biggest draw (for me) of this system is that the responsibility for keeping track of what they've done and what they've earned is THEIR responsibility. Not mine.


Just as an employee is responsible for clocking in and clocking out, The Boy and The Girl are responsible for keeping track of what chores they do, writing down how much they earned by doing said chores, etc. The only thing I have to be responsible for is having cash on hand (often an issue...I don't usually carry cash).


We just started this recently and so far, it's going well. In addition to their responsibilities as a part of this household (personal care, putting dirty laundry in the laundry room, putting away their clean laundry, clearing their plates after meals, tidying their rooms, etc.) they are expected to read for 20-30 minutes each day (above and beyond what is necessary for school) and do 2 chores. Most of the chores are pretty easy and only take 5-10 minutes. So they are quite do-able for a 7 and 10 year old.


The other thing I like about this system is that it teaches kids how to manage their money in that a percentage should go for 'giving', a percentage should go for 'saving', and the rest goes into 'spending'. We had a great talk about giving - why we give, to whom do we give, etc. They asked if they were able to choose to whom their money was given and the answer is most definitely. If you decide you want to give your money to Save The Whales, great. If you decide you want to give it all to a Salvation Army bell-ringer, wonderful. If you want to tithe at church, go right ahead. If you want to change things up, that's fine too. I had them each make a small list of places/organizations/entities to which they'd be interested in giving their money and we talked about each one.


Then we talked about saving and what kinds of things we save for: college, cars, trips to Hawaii, etc. We talked about the difference between long-term savings goals and short-term savings goals. We made lists of items that go in each. And then we talked about the fact that we don't take our money (the 'save' or the 'spend') and go looking for places to spend it. We don't walk into Target or Toys R Us with our money in our pocket and not have a specific item we plan to purchase. We tell our money where it goes, not the other way around. (this is good advice for me too...)


And there is math involved. I did my best to keep things to dollar and half-dollar amounts so that calculating percentages ('give', 'save', and 'spend') is relatively easy. The Girl is not quite done with division so we've not yet touched on percentages but calculating 10% ('give') is pretty easy and then doubling that for 20% ('save') isn't hard from there.


They love it thus far. They've always wanted to help around the house but never really knew what needed to be done and I failed at coming up with a way to set it up for them. And, after running a few numbers, I find that they are cheaper than a cleaning service! They are paid well for their work (I have high standards) and, while some parents might balk at what I pay them, the deal is that I will no longer buy toys for them upon request (I will still buy them birthday and Christmas presents as well as the occasional "I love you" gift but I will not bow to the "Can I just get one small toy?" when we're at a store). My answer now will be, "Of course you may get a small toy. How much money do you have? Figure out what toy you want and when we come back, you may bring your money and buy it."


The final thing that I like about this is that they WANT to help. I explained to them all of the things that Mommy and Daddy are responsible for in the course of a day and how much it helps for them to do these chores and earn their pay. I also explained to them that, while the money is great, their assistance around the house is something to take pride in. I like helping them tidy up their rooms from time to time and I tell them this. They like helping me around the house and it's nice to see it go both ways.


I am working to make sure this sticks!




- hfs

Aloha to the Sunflower State

Just a quick note to let everyone (all 3 of you!) know that we are still alive and kicking. Even though it's almost the end of September, we've not yet started our school year. The Army decided it was time for us to leave the Rock and move to the absolute center of the continental United States. The Sunflower state. About as far away from the ocean as is humanly possible while still being in the U.S. After 30+ days of visiting, traveling, and house-hunting, we are about settled in. Well, we have a house. No stuff to go IN it just yet but we have a house.


The wonderful thing about this move (well, there are MANY wonderful things about this move...and many not-so-wonderful things about this move but that's a different post for a different blog) is that, because we homeschool, we are not under the same time-constraints as public-schooled families. There was no rush to find a house in a "good school district" because we ARE the school district. And, if our house-hunting had gone on for months like it did when we moved to Hawaii in 2005, it would have been ok because we have our school books with us and could have started whenever we needed to. There was also little pressure to begin because both The Boy and The Girl are ahead in just about every subject.


So we will begin on October 3. The state we are living in requires that we register as a "non-accredited private school" and that we also name said "non-accredited private school" (or N.A.P.S., if you prefer). After much debate and some funny suggestions, we settled on the name "La'iki Puka Pa Academy". "La'iki Puka Pa" means "narrow gate" in Hawaiian. You can read Matthew 4:17 for the Biblical reference. I love that it combines both the biblical reference as well as Hawaiian words. And I love that no one at the DOE for this state will get what it means. I'm ok with that!


Once we get settled in our house and get internet set up, I'll post about our choices of curricula and how I see our upcoming year going.




Pau.




- hfs

Pictures

I promised pictures. So here they are. Hopefully this will get me relatively caught up with things! See what we've been up to!

We hit the North Shore at 4am to watch what may have turned into the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddit Aikau surf competition. The waves weren't quite what the event organizers were hoping for so it wound up being just a great day to watch some surfing.



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We went with our Cub Scout den to a local botanical garden and learned about the incredible varieties of plants that are native to Hawaii (and some that are not).



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We said "see you later" to some incredible friends (we refuse to say goodbye because we are hoping to catch up with them soon!).


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We celebrated birthdays!


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We played with friends.




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We made Spice Bread and learned about fractions and measurements and some kitchen chemistry (mixtures versus solutions). The results were so good that we gobbled them up before I had a chance to take a picture of the final product!


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We raced in the Pinewood Derby (The Boy's car is the castle...2nd from the right).

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We learned about linking verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been), nouns, and adjectives and how to build sentences using each, in addition to enjoying healthy snacks!



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We hiked Diamond Head with some great friends!


Diamond Head lighthouse (below). The Admiral of the Coast Guard lives there. Can you imagine?


My camera was absconded with and The Boy and The Girl took several great shots. I think it's about time to get them their own point-and-shoot cameras and start working with them on composition, lighting, etc. They have good eyes!


And Flat Stanley came along for the ride as well. He'll be making a trip back to SoCal here soon. The Boy wishes he could go with Stanley in order to eat In-N-Out!


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And we rode BMX. The Girl has slowly been making progress in her age group and is coming close to placing first (8 first-place finishes are necessary in order to move from the Novice category to the Intermediate category. She's currently racing against a girl who has been doing this for 2 years and a boy that is bigger and stronger than she.) on several occasions and The Boy just aged up but is holding his own, even against boys much bigger than he! And I am even considering racing in an upcoming special event race!




So that's a sample of what all we've been up to as of late. Rarely do I take photos of our day-to-day stuff because, really, who wants to see us buried in language, math worksheets, and reading history? But I do my best to document the more exciting aspects of our days!

Hope you enjoyed!




Pau.




- hfs

Where did time go?

I guess it's a good thing that I have been entirely too wrapped up in schooling to blog much! But I also realize that I have been lax in keeping everyone up to date on our progress. Let's see if I can recap the past 5 months without getting distracted (SQUIRREL!).


THE BOY


The Boy is doing quite well. He exceeded my expectations in every subject and most days pushes for more than I am willing to give him. He finished up 1st grade language (First Language Lessons), spelling, and math at the end of the first semester. His writing (Writing With Ease) and handwriting are coming along at a reasonable pace and his penmanship is getting better, primarily when he slows down and concentrates on what he's doing, as is the case with most of us! Instead of starting him on 2nd grade spelling, I added in Explode the Code as a way to reinforce the concepts he learned in spelling. And, although he isn't all that fond of it (the curriculum is a bit dry and repetitive), it does what I wanted it to do - reinforce things he learned in his spelling.


A word about his spelling curriculum. We use Spelling Workout and he thoroughly enjoys it! He loves the news stories at the beginning of each lesson as well as the proofreading exercise at the end. He is bugging me to get him the next level of this curriculum and I may just give in and do so. He also asked me if he could keep his spelling book to re-read some of the stories in it. Works for me! The Girl likes it too although she's not tearing through it like he did.


We also added in Wordly Wise 3000 as part of our 2nd semester curriculum. I realized about half way through the first semester that we weren't really hitting vocabulary like I wanted. Yes, we reviewed the vocabulary from their science curriculum, our history curriculum, and from our various readings, as well as some in spelling, but not as much as I wanted. So I asked around (yay for homeschooling co-ops and other homeschooling moms!) as well as hitting a bookstore downtown that carries a decent selection of different homeschooling curricula, and settled on Wordly Wise. I've incorporated it into their "Daily Folders" and they can do most of it independently - even The Boy! They enjoy it and, during the last quarter of this school year, I am going to challenge them each week to write me a short story using a given number of their Wordly Wise vocabulary words each week.


Because he tore through math so quickly, I went ahead and ordered the next level of Math U See for him and he tore into it right after Christmas. He's currently about 1/3 of the way through the level and shows no signs of slowing down. He's adding 3 digit numbers (397 + 528), learning about perimeter, measurement (inches, feet, yards)...anything and everything his brain can soak up! He's still reversing some numbers but not as many (variety) as before and with decreased frequency. And, when asked if a number is facing the correct direction, he can see his mistake. So I don't worry too much about that.


Science is coming along well. They both have really enjoyed some of the experiments that they've been able to do with our co-op and I've enjoyed the fact that they get to do them as well because I am not sure I'd be able to find the time and the inclination to do them at home! It's a pretty in-depth curriculum (we're doing Chemistry through Real Science4Kids and it's been challenging! The Girl is overwhelmed and doesn't think she's doing as well as she really is. She gets frustrated because a few of the concepts are a little above her head. But, when questioned on the concepts, she can demonstrate a clear understanding of the basics so I don't think she's doing as poorly as she thinks she's doing. But she's her toughest critic so this is not surprising. The Boy is happy when he gets to blow things up or start fires through chemical reactions!


THE GIRL


The Girl amazes me daily. Not only is she smart (what parent doesn't think this of their child?) but her persistence and drive to improve get stronger each day. She's worrying less and less about "getting it wrong" and focusing more and more on finding the RIGHT answer. Early on this year, she was timid in her responses...always concerned that I'd be mad at her if she gave the wrong answer. Because, in school, the teachers would get frustrated if the students gave the wrong answer. And that usually happened in front of 28 other students. Quite stressful. Slowly, she is getting to the point where she understands that people make mistakes all the time and there is no shame in that. The shame comes when you fail to look for the right answer. She's learning to use the resources around her when appropriate and she's learning how to ferret out the information needed from whatever it is she's working on at the time. Quite the detective she's becoming!


Even though she got a bit of a late start on language due to me changing my mind with regard to curriculum at the last minute, she's ahead and should wrap up her language a few weeks before the end of the school year. With regard to her writing curriculum, we've eliminated the dictation portion of it. It was something she was wholly unfamiliar with and was a source of much stress. Coupled with the fact that her summarization skills were lacking, I chose to eliminate the dictation aspect of the curriculum and focus solely on the summarization aspect. She's getting better at it and needs less coaxing each day. I think, once The Boy starts in on 3rd grade language (where the concept of dictation is introduced) I will have her do it along with The Boy and ease her into it that way. But the 4th grade writing curriculum assumed that it was a skill she had been working on since the year before so it was overwhelming.


Her penmanship is coming along and her cursive (yes, we still do cursive!) is beautiful. We've also added in typing for both of them (we use Typing Instructor) which they see as more fun than instructional. It's one of the few times they get to get on the computer during the school day! She's also doing Wordly Wise 3000 and enjoying it. I'll go into more detail about our "Daily Folders" and their evolution in a later post.


Our one black mark this semester has been history. We are about 10 weeks behind but I am not too concerned. As we wrap up other subjects (writing, handwriting, spelling, etc.) we will be taking more time to add in history. Thankfully, it's one of those subjects that my children enjoy and I can take it into the summer months if necessary!


For our reading last semester, we read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo and what a great read it was! Both The Boy and The Girl were sad to see the story end. But we picked up A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and they are loving it! My 3rd grade teacher, Miss Lowe, read it to our class and I remember just being enthralled and not wanting to wait for the next chapter. I remember begging my mom to let me check it out from the library but my mom didn't want to spoil the suspense of listening to it in class so she said no. My children now beg me to read the next chapter to them and I love it!


THE OTHER STUFF (i.e. "SOCIALIZATION")


I have lots of pictures to post - BMX riding, Cub Scouts, hiking Diamond Head with friends, etc. but I am going to save that for another post in the next few days. Anyone who has met my children will know that the one thing they do NOT lack is "socialization". The Girl can hold an intelligent conversation with just about anyone - Charles Manson, the Commanding General of 25ID, the pastor of our church, the kids down the street, the mail lady...you name it. And The Boy can as well - he's just not as outgoing as his sister but once he warms up, he can charm your socks off. But there are a LOT of pictures so I'll wait and post them another time.


I am going to try to stay more up-to-date with the posts here. But no promises - sometimes we are just having too much fun to stop and write about it! For now, have a great week!




Pau.




- hfs

Still alive and kicking in 2011!

We are still here. We are still homeschooling. However, I've been busy WITH the homeschooling and haven't had time to update. It's coming though, I promise. Right now, I'm fighting with my PC and Windows 7 (and PhotoScape but I think it's more of a Windows issue...grr...can't stand Windows) to get pictures edited so I can post. Hopefully I can get it lined out this week.


But we're still here! And school starts TOMORROW! Eek!




Pau.




- hfs

Still homeschooling

No, we have not been washed away by a tsunami. We're still here and still chugging along. I'm having a tough time believing that we're at week NINE of this adventure!


I know I haven't been on the ball with regard to our Week in Review - surprisingly, this homeschooling thing takes up a lot of my free time! I had to laugh - the other day, a friend of mine was lamenting on Facebook about the fact that, out of 84 waking hours in her week, she only had nine (9!) hours to herself. Once I stopped laughing, I had to restrain myself from making a snarky comment on her Facebook page. Her children are younger than mine and she's not been at this parent thing all that long. In addition, she works outside the home and so does her husband. I don't want to get into any kind of a pissing match as to who has it harder - stay-at-home-moms or working moms. I've been on both sides of that fence and whoever says the grass is greener on the otherside is fertilizing it with BS. Both are tough gigs.


But her post got me to thinking...how much "me" time to I have during a regular week? And I was surprised at what I came up with: counting bathroom breaks (assuming that The Boy or The Girl doesn't have a question that JUST.CAN'T.WAIT until I'm done in the bathroom...) it looks like I have a whopping two hours and 45 minutes. Here's what my week looks like, in case anyone is wondering where those 165 minutes come from:

Monday: school, teach sign language at church
Tuesday: school, art class (about 60 minutes on my own!), dinner, family time, etc.
Wednesday: school, BMX practice, Awana
Thursday: school, dinner, family time (soon: Bible study)
Friday: Co-Op, Ohana group at church
Saturday: BMX practice, Saturday Night Service at church
Sunday: church, BMX races, Ohana group


Somewhere in there are 15 minutes of bathroom breaks (my only other "me" time) each day which accounts for the remaining 105 minutes of "me" time each week. Huh. No wonder I find myself craving silence and blank walls on Sunday evenings. Interesting.


Thankfully, I have a husband who truly enjoys his children and is quite happy to hang with them if I need a break. And, over the past nine weeks, he's really stepped that up because he knows that the kids and I are together 24/7 otherwise. Which is fine - I love my children and they really are fun to be around. However, we all benefit with a little bit of time on our own.


If and when we get to our next duty station and he deploys again, I am going to really have to ensure that I have a little bit of "me" time carved out each week because I won't have his tangible support to rely upon for that year. Thankfully, the place it looks like we will be heading has wonderful homsechooling support so I don't think I'll have much trouble finding what I need. If anything, we might be overloaded with options!


I'll try to get a Week in Review post up this week. Last week was a little slow because the public school kids were off so we scaled back on our work. Which makes for a BORING post! So I skipped it.




Pau.




- hfs