WFMW Backwards Edition
After a summer-long hiatus from WFMW, I am soooo glad to see that my re-entry is a backwards edition. My current state of mind is What Does Not Work for Me. (Can you tell we began our homeschool adventure last week? ) I have a whole list of things that are currently NOT working. 
I may be breaking/tweaking the rules a bit, but I have two bits I would love some bloggy advice for.
First one is easy. I have been looking for a good, a really good oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. The ones I have are not it.
In fact, I recently tossed a good portion of my recipe box and currently have no recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies at all.
Bring on the recipes, I am ready to mix up some cookies!
Second one, not so straight forward.
We are now in our second week of homeschooling. This will be the first year we are truly homeschooling. (Not to say we have not done something that could be called homeschooling, but previous years were sort of like those “Magic Eye” pictures. Squint your eyes and look cross-eyed long enough and any picture will appear, even adequately educated children.)
So even though sending kids to school really does work for me, it is not where we are right now. Since the kids are now too old to let any school years slide by, we need some help.
I am looking for some really good paper organizational ideas. How do you keep track of the work each child does and how to prep it a week in advance for them to access without me having to hand them each sheet of paper each day.
What do you decide to keep and what do you toss? How long do you keep it?
Also, what are some ways you motivate your kids to do more than ‘just enough’. Motivation that does not involve candy or trips to places that do not exist in Thailand, like a dollar store.
(kids are 8th, 6th, and 5th grades)
How about filler activities, when one has to wait while I am working with the other, perhaps for as long as 30 minutes?
Glad to be back and eager to check out what you are asking. Thanks to Shannon for hosting WFMW each week, see you there.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:50 am
Can’t help ya with the cookies, but when you get a good recipe will you share??
As far as the papers go, a lot of it depends on your curriculum. Is it well laid out? Does it spell out what to do for each lesson. I use Abeka for everything except Math and it is well laid out so there is not a lot of planning ahead of time. As far as what to keep, I have a box with each child’s name on it, and I keep their tests, and major review work in these boxes. That way if Big Brother comes knockin I have proof we’re working. There are several on line organizers where you can type your lessons out ahead of time and then each week just print out there schedules and hand them out. As far as encouraging them to do more than the basics, find something they love. Ask them what they like most about school and them them explore in that area.
Hope this helps, I’m no pro.
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:38 am
Ooh, I will be back to see if someone posts the best oatmeal raisin cookie recipe! I’ve been looking for a basic recipe for some time.
Here is my favorite Fall cookie. You know, if you need a recipe to keep you occupied until that oatmeal raisin one comes in.
Chewy Oatmeal Cranberry Toffee Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
dash salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup toffee baking bits
Preheat oven to 350. Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking soda and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir in the oats, dried cranberries, mini chocolate chips, and toffee baking bits.
Using a cookie scoop, place dough balls on a parchmant lined-pan. (They spread, so don’t place the cookies too close together.) Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for about 5 minutes on the pan and then move to cooling racks.
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:17 am
Well I’m glad I picked your site to come to out of all of the others lol. I just posted a book review on 2 homeschool books that really got me going and totally changed the way we did school. I put that link in the website box so it should take you right to it. As far as the motivation. Since we started this new approach they are turning into self motivated learners. It’s been awesome and I highly recommend the two books that I had posted.
Now as far as the cookie goes. I do have an awesome recipe but I don’t have it posted anywhere. I’d have to go find it and post it. Maybe when I get some time.
Good luck with your question. I hope I was able to help. I also posted a few organizing ideas under homeschooling on my side bar.
Blessings to you.
Kim
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:47 pm
As to organizing paper, can you get one of those portable file boxes, the ones with the lids that ‘buckle’ on and have handles so you can carry them around? You could use one of those for your kids’ turn-in papers.
My sister-in-law is a 4th grade teacher and she creates ‘packets’ of worksheets that last all week. She copies them, collates them, staples them, and makes a cover sheet with spaces for the students’ names, their student numbers (she has 15 students and numbering helps keep all her paperwork straight), and a checklist for each worksheet. The packets are due on the end of the day Friday.
For keeping/tossing (and for this I’m accessing my days as a middle school English teacher)…make some papers part of the student’s portfolio. You might teach writing all year long, for example, and have them keep one piece every week/fortnight to show a progression of their ability over the year. But do not keep every thing they ever did. That would be mountains and mountains of worksheets! Keep them till you grade them, and then toss/recycle them.
Motivation is a hard question. The ideal is intrinsic motivation, so the students want to do the work for it’s own sake; for Christian teachers, the goal is to teach them the desire to do all work as well as possible for the glory of God. Prayer! Lots of prayer. I prayed for my students, both behind closed doors and right smack in front of them. I prayed for myself, too, and (especially with middle school students, who need the guidance of teachers who are also teaching social/life skills), I was honest about (a few of) my shortcomings and asked them to keep me accountable (respectfully, of course). For example, I’m a cluttermonster, so if I went a whole week without clearing out my ‘to file’ box, I’d have seventy students reminding me!
September 4th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Here’s a good oatmeal raisin cookie recipe that we like, and it works great even here in Tanzania where we live:
Mix together:
1 c. butter/margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 t. vanilla
Add:
1 cup flour
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
Mix well. Add:
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup raisins
If the dough is too soft, put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes to firm up.
Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.
Enjoy!
September 5th, 2008 at 1:21 am
Motivation is a hard one. Our son has what we call a “low boredom threshold”. If he was interested in something, he’d spend hours on it. If he wasn’t, you could hang it up.
We tried a lot of things over the years. What finally worked with him was to give him Friday “off” if he did his school work in totality and well by Thursday. About the same time someone gave us a huge box of used computer parts. He spent many happy Fridays going through that box, figuring out how to test whether each part worked or not, and then eventually building his first computer.
But gotta admit, this was FIVE YEARS into homeschooling. Before that I came close to pulling all my hair out
So I’ll be praying that you’ll find what works with each child (our daughter was a whole different ballgame) and SOON!
P.S. We survived homeschooling both kids all the way through high school. The son graduated from Hillsdale College in ‘04 and the daughter will graduate from Grace College in ‘09. We joke that they did fine IN SPITE of us!
September 8th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I came back today to check and see if anyone answered you. I wanted you to have a good answer - but I don’t know it. You remember me and homeschooling.
It was all I could do to keep myself motivated. LOL
I will pray for you in this area however, and especially that your obedience to do what you need to do will be greatly blessed.
October 26th, 2008 at 3:39 am
I LOVE “Giraffe and a Half” by Shel Silverstein. I got it for my neice a couple of years ago for Christmas and she loved it. It was great, because the words were easy and it repeats alot. Dr. Suess is always a great go-to for kiddos his age too. I will keep looking…..I LOVE kids books!
I always liked having pretzels in my lunch……with a little container of spicy mustard. Anything to “dip” was fun for me.