Enforced Idleness or masterly inactivity??

Have you ever heard of this? It's a first for me too. "Enforced Idleness or Masterly Inactivity", it's all the talk in the homeschool world, it's making your kids do things like play outside, read a book, make a craft, chop wood, garden, play board games, play with dolls, or play with Legos.

LOL.......ok, I thought all those things were just about being a kid? I am so excited now and I can even relax over the fact that we now have a technical name for it, I fretted for years wondering what on earth to call it........LOL.

Though idleness is a topic that does need some looking into to make sure we know what our kids are doing during these idle times, because being idle or having inactivity can cause serious issues in the middle school and teen years  :) Three Bible verses come to mind when I think of Idleness.

1. Proverbs 31:27
   She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
2. Ecclesiastes 10:18
   By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.
    
3. Ezekiel 16:49
   Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

I think Enforced Idleness is not a good term, it should be called "Kids Playing."

BORED KIDS? Give them this list to play with!

                         

Learning is not only done with textbook, paper and pencil...

Sick Mommy? Schedule just not working today? Stomach flu bug hits your home. A family emergency keeping you from having school. Place these links into a computer folder for your kids to use when times arise such as those listed above. Let them have a day of online learning. (Please examine these resources to make sure they fit your families morals and values). Trust me there will come a day when you just say, "Please go do online schooling today."

                            ✅The San Diego Zoo has a website just for kids with amazing videos, activities, and games.                            Enjoy the tour! https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/

✅Tour Yellowstone National Park!

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtours.htm

✅Explore the surface of Mars on the Curiosity Rover.

https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/

✅This Canadian site FarmFood 360 offers 11 Virtual Tours of farms from minks, pigs, and cows, to apples and eggs. https://www.farmfood360.ca/

✅Indoor Activities for busy toddlers

https://busytoddler.com/2020/03/indoor-activities/?fbclid=IwAR3tYXAqw7tJRAzLExpPcJo4rApLsKtgL0AwghzxgnhwOajc4auX6o12_xw

✅Phonics skills https://www.starfall.com/h/

✅This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/

✅ Read, play games, and hang out with Dr. Seuss https://www.seussville.com/

✅300,000+ FREE printable worksheets from toddlers to teens https://www.123homeschool4me.com/home-school-free-printables/

✅Geography and animals

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

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B1G1 FREE Coupon Code for the SchoolhouseTeachers.com + FREE cute Tote bag & FREE print issue of the Old Schoolhouse Magazine!

If you're planning to homeschool this year, make sure you have a family membership to Schoolhouse Teachers where you can join 9,000 other families taking online, self-paced, HIGH-QUALITY courses. Homeschool the entire family for only $89.50 per year when you get in on this sale!

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Schoolhouse Teachers all-in-one Homeschool Buy 1 Get 1 year free sale!!

Looking for something quick and easy to get your school year started? 

SchoolhouseTeachers (The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, owner) has a great inexpensive option that is good for the entire family to use (one membership for all to use). Yet another useful home education tool provided by SchoolhouseTeachers is that it is set up by graded sections, pre/K & elementary, middle school and high school with drop down menus for all. You will find everything for homeschooling with topics such as logic, math, science, history, fine arts, Bible and many more electives as well as helps for the homeschool mom. 

Get in on the BUY 1 YEAR GET 1 YEAR FREE Sale!! Click here for more details and use PROMO CODE: SHARK20. The ENTIRE family can use 1 membership for 2 years!!! WHHHOOOO!!!!!!! You can get transcripts too.

Courses from SchoolhouseTeachers are a must for all homeschoolers, whether you are a boxed curriculum homeschooler, eclectic or unschooler this site has something for your student with 400+ classses. Our homeschool has tended towards the boxed curriculum (we have started branching out in recent years though) but it was always missing something. I’ve found what was missing and it was SchoolhouseTeachers.com, there are all sort of goodies to find on this site. 

It just so happens that my son was given an acoustic guitar as a gift and he has been getting library books on how to play the guitar, but they have been either way over his head or contained music that does not fit our family values. As we looked over the site we came across the guitar lessons.

Our son has only been using the guitar lessons from Schoolhouseteachers for about a week and a half and by no means is he jammin’ out on the guitar, but he is making music and not just noise anymore. LOL! 

A great feature of SchoolhouseTeachers site has unit for parents, it has a monthly menu feature and more.

Another area that I liked was the logic section. We have always struggled with teaching logic in our homeschool, so I was thrilled to see Logic on the drop down menu under middle school. I like how the lessons are set up so that my son can just go right in and get started. It has helped foster independence on his part. I know that we have a few years to go before college, but when I look at the SchoolhouseTeachers website, I’m thinking about how using this site will help our son out in the long run. Online college classes are the future for many of our children and what better way for them to be prepared than by teaching them in pre/k & elementary, middle school and high school with methods that they will continue to use down the road.

We plan to continue searching through all the goodies over the next year that SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers. Post and let me know what you think of the site and how it's enhanced your homeschool.

Get in on the BUY 1 YEAR GET 1 YEAR FREE Sale!! Click here for more details and use PROMO CODE: SHARK20. The ENTIRE family can use 1 membership for 2 years!!! WHHHOOOO!!!!!!! You can get transcripts too. Schoolhouse Teachers Sale!!

Will It Be The Big Yellow Bus or Homeschooling this year??

A while back, I was with the Homeschooled Young Man at a Civil War Re-Enactment that he was re-enacting in and my cell phone rang. It was one of my doctors calling me with a report. Of course, it was VERY loud on my end with all excitement and cannons being fired that goes on with a re-enactment. The doctor asked me where I was and I explained we had taken the day off from homeschool to participate in the re-enactment. My doctor looked out his office window and he could see the general area that we were in and he said "Wow, your son gets to do the coolest things!"

As parents, we can all offer up cool opportunities for our children to experience, but it's so much easier to just put them on that big yellow bus and let someone else handle it all for 8+ hours a day. No worries and no responsibility for our kids. Sometimes the Easy Button is not the right button to push.

Are you considering home education for your child this coming school year? It is not too late, even if you have already registered them for the big yellow school bus to take them away each day. You can do it!! Let me know how I can help you.

What School Supply Item Are You Addicted To?

STICKY NOTES!!!

I must have them in all shapes and sizes, 

not to mention all colors...lol.

LOL...this is just my secret stash in my school supplies, I've got sticky note pads in my car, date book, living room, media room, kitchen and dining room...lol.

I asked the child what school supplies we need for the school year, he says "NONE." I say "I think we need some sticky notes." (they are my weakness!!!). He yells out "With all the sticky notes we have, I think we are preparing for Sticky Note Y2K!" lol...Maybe we can just bypass my sticky note obsession and move on to the question at hand? "How on earth does the child know about Y2K?"

 

 

A Homeschoolers Experience with the Public School

I’ve had an interesting time with the Homeschooled Young Man during a volunteering opportunity. We spent 2 days with around 140 kids ages 8 ½-11 years old. These public schooled kids took part in engaging and hands on activities over the course of two school days. The presenters were upbeat and kid friendly. The kids were well behaved and quiet...too quiet actually for my liking.

Over the course of 8+ hours I spent with these adorable 8 ½-11 year olds, I did not hear the usual giggles from the girls that I am use to hearing, nor small talk amongst boys that I am use to hearing. I saw emotionless faces, frowns and blank stares from these children. But, I saw a hunger in the children for attention from the presenters, when those men and women engaged one on one with these children. Each boy and girl was eager to talk with and spend time with these adults. But after each session they became like little robots. Back to frowns and staring at the floor while being told to line up against the wall, "1-2-3 eyes on me" by their public school teacher. I know that public school teachers will say that this is a must to keep order. But it makes me think of when we had 4,000 adults and children for a homeschool meeting at the state capitol a few years ago. There had to be order and quiet voices with almost 2,000+ kids involved, there were no robot children in the group nor forced lining up against the wall, yet there was no chaos.

At 14 years old The Homeschooled Young Man was a group leader of about 25 children and 2 public school teachers. He held the door open for the group on 11 different occasions and was told “Thank you.” only 3 times over the course of 2 days each lasting 8+ hours.

I was pushed and shoved numerous times throughout the days without so much as an excuse me, sorry or anything by these students.

Then after awhile I had opportunity to sit back in a chair in the back of the room and sort of take it all in. It was then that I noticed the clothes that the teachers were wearing. Skin tight workout pants that stop at the calf, that showed panty lines and a bold written word across their backside, another one wore a similar pair of pants that were way too small and every time she bent over her pants came down and her shirt went up to expose her bare backside (she looked like a plumber, KWIM?). Yes, these were public school teachers of 8 ½-11 year olds.

I guess I could look past that, but the thing that really struck me was the manners that the teachers displayed, yes these are the people that are entrusted with most American children for 7+ hours each day, 30+ hours each week, 5 days per week, 180 days per year and nearly 1,300 hours per school year. I saw teachers not sitting properly in chairs (ya know one of the things that drives us parents crazy at the dinner table is when our kids don’t sit properly, slouching down in the chair with the rear on the edge of the seat and their neck on the back of the chair), teachers talking to each other during the presentations (ya, know it drives us crazy when our kids do this), teachers yawning like roaring lions (ya know how many times you have been trying to teach your child to yawn with their hand over their mouths?). I saw so many kids being grabbed by the arm and yanked around like dogs on a leash and teachers yelling in the face of the kids and the blank looks on the children’s faces while they have an adult standing over them yelling. This must go on often because the other teachers never even looked over to see what was going on. Think about where your kids bad habits are coming from, those things that drive you crazy when your kids do them.

The icing on the cake was the way that the teachers spoke to the children. Every time there was an instruction of “Throw your trash away, PLEASE & THANK YOU!” I thought to my self that “PLEASE & THANK YOU!” really comes out sounding snide and rude no matter how you say it. That phrase seems to be up and coming. We were eating out about a month ago and the waitress said that to us when she gave us our check. The Homeschooled Young Man commented how rude that sounded, even though he knew she was not meaning for it to be rude. 

Now mind you this is NOT a representation of all public school teachers, I happen to know some fine teachers. But this was a peek into the system and I do think this was a typical day in many school systems.

As we drove home I was thinking about all this and here was my take away. Hey Homeschool Momma, are there things that you are doing during your homeschool day that might be negatively effecting your children? Are there things that you are unknowingly passing on to your children?

This brought to light a few things I need to work on in my homeschool. Take some time to assess things that you think of and then improve your homeschool for you and your children.