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We have 3 1/2 weeks left and yesterday , being Monday too, was awful! DS did not want to do any school work. Today we read 3 chapters of the Wright Brother's and he narrated some and then he did part of a page of cursive, we're taking the rest of the day off. I think maybe he just needs a few days off.

I don't really care if we finish in the middle of June, we are taking is slower and I would like to be done by the end of June, so we can take all of July off.

What do you do on the days your children do not want to do school?

I'm too hard on myself and don't take many days off unless we have guests or for an occasional field trip and even on field trip says I have him do one thing for school.

Help, give me encouragment!

Katherine
ds 8 Bigger
dd 5
dd 2 3/4

I am familiar with the kind of days you are having.
Be encouraged that you are not alone! Sometimes a "mental health" day off is good for everyone. (of course as long as they don't happen too often )
On those off days when doing formal school is too much for either you or your ds maybe just require that he do something that has a product. (ie, create something with Legos, or cook, or draw a map or comic strip)
Maybe he could design an obstacle course and lead the rest of the family through it. There are a million things you can do that are "educational" but don't sound like school to an 8 year old boy! (My ds is almost 8 too).
We tend to go to the library and a park on our "off" days.
If hard days continue, just remind yourself of the reasons why you are homeschooling and ask the Lord to refresh your family's spirit.
Blessings to you!
Andrea

We have 3 1/2 weeks to go, but in LHFHG.

1) Sometimes we all need a break.
2) Sometimes my son just needs to run around more.
3) Sometimes he is just being defiant and we have to discipline.
4) Sometimes a half day is good or breaking it up into parts thru out the day for a change.
5) Sometimes we even do a little school on , yes, Saturday.
6) We are not public or private school and can do it whenever it suits us best.

These are just things popping into my head. WE all have great days and then there are the not so great days. It will pass

Jenn D

Thank you for your kind words of encouragment. It's so easy to think it's time for public school on bad days but I really do not feel led to do that. Recently when I looked at the Preparing curriculum on line I was getting so excited.

I'm thinking he needs several days off , not just one. I just realized I don't know why I worry about taking a few days or a week off and getting him back into doing school, we do it every Monday after having two days off.

I need to be more creative too, I like the ideas you gave. Today he just wanted to play Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii, but he did play an imagination game with his sisters for a long time too. That's creative play and some type of socilaizing, right?

Katherine

What if you try moving school to the late afternoon or evening and go swimming or to the park during the morning? When it is hot outside we try to go play during the morning when the weather is nice. This helps get energy out and then you can come inside when it gets too hot and get some school work done.

You have 3.5 weeks left and want to be finished by the end of June... so you have basically 17 days left to do in 35 days... Why don't you just do 3 days, take one or two days off, 3 more days, 1 or 2 off, etc.? You'll get done easily by the end of June...

and like I said elsewhere, show him what's left, let him mark on the calendar when you want to be finished by and let him mark off days you do school so he'll know how much left you have... if you do school an average of 5 days a week you'll get finished EARLY (compared to when you want to be done)

and public school here isn't done until the 10th of June anyway

and isn't that one of the joys of homeschooling?? That you don't have to worry about finishing by a certain date? Just plan on doing 3 days of school each week until you are done.... and if you get more then GREAT...

RELAX!!! He'll learn!

I can totally relate as I get spring fever...maybe even more than my kids. As the weather warmed this year though, it seemed to light a fire under my oldest who can be quite the dawdler at times. He LOVES to be outside, and realized that if he buckled down and worked hard all morning he had time to go fishing, to go climb in the barns at the farm, to find bird's nests, to have fun at the park with friends, to play in the sprinkler with his brother & sister, to hang out in his tree house, etc. I don't know if it would be motivating for your son or not, but if you showed him what needed to be done and the time it "should" take and then he could come up with ideas of ways he could enjoy the warm weather outside for a LONG time - like ALL afternoon - maybe it would light a fire under him, too.

I have too many outside chores that I need to do here at home & on the farm or I seriously would have considered doing school during the summer. I'm pretty sure I would not have the dawdling issues if the swimming pool was at stake! My kids LOVE to head to town to the pool in the summer so that they can play, play, play and go off the diving boards & go down the slide.

You are totally free to take a break if that's what you're needing, too. But, I thought I'd share what I observed here in case it might help you out!

Kathleen

You have gotten such great ideas here already! I wanted to share that my dc enjoy school very much, but they also like to know the "end date" of it - the deadline for finishing, if you will. We have an end of the year celebration that we put on the calendar, and they are checking it like crazy as we are closing down a year. So, why not mark on the calendar the 17 days (or whatever you have left) you have to finish and show the break your dc will then have by marking it on the calendar? This is highly motivating. I feel like it's encouraging my dc to be hard workers and show them the finish line, as opposed to giving them days off because they've shown less than stellar attitudes lately. School is wonderful with HOD, but everyone needs a break - moms included. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie