I always liked having pretzels in my lunch……with a little container of spicy mustard. Anything to “dip” was fun for me.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.