Five year old Danielle has done another day in the 100 EZ lessons book. She wanted to do more. I said No. Ü
So -- I guess we have a plan for her too. She will do 100 EZ lessons, with me, when ever my schedule allows. I promise you -- I said my kids play with rocks and sticks until they are 6... but she's ready.
Here We Go!!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
NEW PLAN For MILO
Now Milo:
Literature (reading) Keep on plugging along with 100 EZ lessons. He's doing great. He now can "read it the fast way" through most of a story. Still confusing d's and g's. Isn't that odd? Never had a kid do that before. But he's getting it. It's exciting to see. I'm glad I stuck with it.
English -- we'll start in 2nd grade, once his reading skills are solid. I'm not in a hurry with this.
Math - he'll start LFBC 1st grade math. We are currently working through a workbook that MFW recommends. Today he was measuring everything with a ruler. It's very hodge podge. I like how LFBC does things decently and in order.
He'll just keep doing 1 lesson of 100 EZ lessons a day with me, and then 1 lesson of math a day with me. Not much more than that.
Literature (reading) Keep on plugging along with 100 EZ lessons. He's doing great. He now can "read it the fast way" through most of a story. Still confusing d's and g's. Isn't that odd? Never had a kid do that before. But he's getting it. It's exciting to see. I'm glad I stuck with it.
English -- we'll start in 2nd grade, once his reading skills are solid. I'm not in a hurry with this.
Math - he'll start LFBC 1st grade math. We are currently working through a workbook that MFW recommends. Today he was measuring everything with a ruler. It's very hodge podge. I like how LFBC does things decently and in order.
He'll just keep doing 1 lesson of 100 EZ lessons a day with me, and then 1 lesson of math a day with me. Not much more than that.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
NEW PLAN For Mansel
Now Mansel:
English. LFFC says; students will develop their ability to think and express their thoughts correctly. Kinds of sentences, punctuation and capitalization rules, recognition of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions, contractions, antonyms, homonyms, alphabetizing of words, dictionary skills, and writing compositions are all covered throughout the course of the year. Spelling 3 contains 36 weeks of spelling lists with activities. I sold his Primary English Lessons already. So he's coasting right now. He will be playing catch up this year. LFBC will be tough for him, but he'll catch on... eventually.
Literature. THIS I'm excited about. He's devouring everything I find for him to read. LFBC uses the McGuffey readers for 1-6th grade literature. Vocabulary words and definitions; comprehension activities are all found in this course. McGuffey’s Third Eclectic Reader is used for reading comprehension and oral reading. I hope these old books will challenge him.
Math. He had been using LFBC for 1st and 2nd grades. Then I decided to go ALL MFW. So he took the placement test on a bad day. Placed really low... he has flown through his Singapore math. He finished 1B (easy peasy), now is in 2A and almost done with them both in 44 days. LOL So this 3rd grade LFBC math will be GREAT for him. I'm looking forward to it. All basic concepts and skills learned in third grade are reviewed. Place value to millions; English and metric measures; perimeter and area; factoring; adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions; multiplying three-digit factors; reducing fractions; time lapse; multiples; basic geometric shapes; divisibility rules; five steps in division; reading a thermometer; writing decimals; and word problems are all taught and reviewed. Tori did LFBC math through 4th grade, then I started Saxon. She took a placement test and it said start in the 7/6 book. WOAH... I didn't. LOL she LFBC has good math, if you ask me. I'll probably stick with this through 12th grade. For only $40 a year... how can you beat that? Well -- free would beat it... but the QUALITY is great!
Then for Science, History and all the extras. There is the library. I'm going to get a scope and sequence from LFBC. I'll be checking out from week to week what the 3rd graders would be doing that week in science and history. Then we'll make our library book list from that S&S. I really like the idea of a book basket. Dan suggested I concentrate on the 3r's for the boys for now. So Literature (reading) English (writing) and Math (arithmetic). There ya have it. No art, no music. OK -- so we do those things in our day... just not "formal" class.
Mansel will be able to do most of the workbooks himself, but will really need to be monitored to not day dream. He'll stay in the same room as I while doing his school work. Now -- I think I'll use a timer with him and he'll work for 20 minutes at a time, taking a break in between each subject. I'll let him decide if he wants to work on each subject several times a day... or 1 subject per day... several times a day. We'll see... he can feel like he has choices as well.. but he'll be doing math and spelling every day. No choice there.
English. LFFC says; students will develop their ability to think and express their thoughts correctly. Kinds of sentences, punctuation and capitalization rules, recognition of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions, contractions, antonyms, homonyms, alphabetizing of words, dictionary skills, and writing compositions are all covered throughout the course of the year. Spelling 3 contains 36 weeks of spelling lists with activities. I sold his Primary English Lessons already. So he's coasting right now. He will be playing catch up this year. LFBC will be tough for him, but he'll catch on... eventually.
Literature. THIS I'm excited about. He's devouring everything I find for him to read. LFBC uses the McGuffey readers for 1-6th grade literature. Vocabulary words and definitions; comprehension activities are all found in this course. McGuffey’s Third Eclectic Reader is used for reading comprehension and oral reading. I hope these old books will challenge him.
Math. He had been using LFBC for 1st and 2nd grades. Then I decided to go ALL MFW. So he took the placement test on a bad day. Placed really low... he has flown through his Singapore math. He finished 1B (easy peasy), now is in 2A and almost done with them both in 44 days. LOL So this 3rd grade LFBC math will be GREAT for him. I'm looking forward to it. All basic concepts and skills learned in third grade are reviewed. Place value to millions; English and metric measures; perimeter and area; factoring; adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions; multiplying three-digit factors; reducing fractions; time lapse; multiples; basic geometric shapes; divisibility rules; five steps in division; reading a thermometer; writing decimals; and word problems are all taught and reviewed. Tori did LFBC math through 4th grade, then I started Saxon. She took a placement test and it said start in the 7/6 book. WOAH... I didn't. LOL she LFBC has good math, if you ask me. I'll probably stick with this through 12th grade. For only $40 a year... how can you beat that? Well -- free would beat it... but the QUALITY is great!
Then for Science, History and all the extras. There is the library. I'm going to get a scope and sequence from LFBC. I'll be checking out from week to week what the 3rd graders would be doing that week in science and history. Then we'll make our library book list from that S&S. I really like the idea of a book basket. Dan suggested I concentrate on the 3r's for the boys for now. So Literature (reading) English (writing) and Math (arithmetic). There ya have it. No art, no music. OK -- so we do those things in our day... just not "formal" class.
Mansel will be able to do most of the workbooks himself, but will really need to be monitored to not day dream. He'll stay in the same room as I while doing his school work. Now -- I think I'll use a timer with him and he'll work for 20 minutes at a time, taking a break in between each subject. I'll let him decide if he wants to work on each subject several times a day... or 1 subject per day... several times a day. We'll see... he can feel like he has choices as well.. but he'll be doing math and spelling every day. No choice there.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
NEW PLAN For TORI
I'm a woman.
Isn't there a saying about a woman changing her mind? It's my prerogative?
Well -- I'm not comfortable with how school is going. I want to go back to the basics. So I've ordered Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum.
Here is the new plan for school... as soon as the books get here.
Tori is sticking with Saxon Math 8/7. She says she's doing OK with it. We could buy LFBC math for $40 next time around. We'll probably do that. We'll finish this for now.
I ordered 7th grade Bible, which is about the book of Proverbs. We will be doing that in family devotions. Tori has a workbook to do each day for Sunday School. She also has a workbook to do each day for Proteens. So I'm not going to give her one more Bible thing to do on her own for school. I don't want to miss this information -- it sounds like a great Bible class, and once Dan suggested we do bible as a family... I can't pass up that opportunity. MFW wasn't that easy for me to explain to Dan how to do. This LFBC workbook will be self explanatory, I feel, and we can do it each night after supper. One thing I love... LFBC is all KJV. YEAH!! I like memorizing from the KJV... using LFBC helps me with that. Proverbs Bible class deals with many principles concerning young people. Each week has vocabulary, reinforcement activities, a Bible memorization assignment appropriate to the text, and ends with a report on a topic relevant to that week’s material. I'll let Dan figure out how much he'll have the kiddos do.
Science. She will be letting go of the Apologia science -- which she still struggling with and start doing the LFBC 7th grade science. Biological Science... This course covers The Plant Kingdom, The Animal Kingdom, and The Human Kingdom. Revised for the 2007/2008 school year, the course now includes more detailed material on each kingdom, and has many new pictures to supplement the lessons. Special projects are required in several of the weeks, reinforcing concepts taught.
For English she will cover sentence structure, kinds of sentences, punctuation and capitalization rules, recognizing and diagramming all eight parts of speech, contractions, antonyms, homonyms, using troublesome words correctly, and writing compositions are all covered throughout the course of the year. Spelling 7 contains 36 weeks of spelling lists with activities and glossary. So -- we are going to be dumping Spelling Power and her Primary Language Lessons.
Instead of History she will do 7th grade Geography. This course is a study of the World and its physical features including mountains, rivers, boundaries of countries, cities, and the effect of location on climate, resources, population and products. A variety of illustrations and maps are used to help the student to understand the continents and nations of the world. I notice that this lines up with what the 7th graders in Knoxville are doing.
LFBC has a separate Literature class from the English class. I like that... so 7th grade Literature is on Character Building Stories and Legends. Many of the selections have historical significance, embodying information of immediate usefulness or serving as stepping stones for future history study. Other selections illuminate certain phases of living or enlarge the sympathies toward other ways of living. Still others introduce the reader to characters who are eminently worth meeting. These selections are not all necessarily Christian in their philosophy, but the impact they make is positive, and many of them reflect or apply Christian principles. Each week contains vocabulary words; comprehension activities, and Bible memorization of a verse pertinent to the moral or practical lesson presented in the reading selection.
That wraps it up for her.
One thing they recommend is being flexible with your school schedule. They set up the workbooks to have 1 lesson a day for 4 days... then 1 test day. So -- really you could go M-TH, and test on Friday with each subject. Then Fridays would be light... once testing was done you'd be free. OR... you could do one SUBJECT a day + math and spelling. That would work great for literature. just do 5 days of lit in one day + 1 day of math and spelling. For English? That might work... but you'd have to do spelling every day. Science it would work... Geography it would work. So I'm going to be flexible and give Tori the choice. She can do 1 lesson a day and test on Friday OR she can set it up like this for instance; M: geography, math, spelling T: Science, math, spelling W: Literature, math, spelling TH: English, math, spelling test F: math, spelling, free... hmmm... that sounds like fun. I wonder what she will choose.
How much will I have to do with this? LFBC has the kiddos working independently a lot. She will sit in the kitchen with me while I make bread, or sit on the couch while I'm doing what ever it is that I do all day long. I'll correct her tests. I'll give spelling tests each day.
Lord willing... our days will become more productive.
Isn't there a saying about a woman changing her mind? It's my prerogative?
Well -- I'm not comfortable with how school is going. I want to go back to the basics. So I've ordered Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum.
Here is the new plan for school... as soon as the books get here.
Tori is sticking with Saxon Math 8/7. She says she's doing OK with it. We could buy LFBC math for $40 next time around. We'll probably do that. We'll finish this for now.
I ordered 7th grade Bible, which is about the book of Proverbs. We will be doing that in family devotions. Tori has a workbook to do each day for Sunday School. She also has a workbook to do each day for Proteens. So I'm not going to give her one more Bible thing to do on her own for school. I don't want to miss this information -- it sounds like a great Bible class, and once Dan suggested we do bible as a family... I can't pass up that opportunity. MFW wasn't that easy for me to explain to Dan how to do. This LFBC workbook will be self explanatory, I feel, and we can do it each night after supper. One thing I love... LFBC is all KJV. YEAH!! I like memorizing from the KJV... using LFBC helps me with that. Proverbs Bible class deals with many principles concerning young people. Each week has vocabulary, reinforcement activities, a Bible memorization assignment appropriate to the text, and ends with a report on a topic relevant to that week’s material. I'll let Dan figure out how much he'll have the kiddos do.
Science. She will be letting go of the Apologia science -- which she still struggling with and start doing the LFBC 7th grade science. Biological Science... This course covers The Plant Kingdom, The Animal Kingdom, and The Human Kingdom. Revised for the 2007/2008 school year, the course now includes more detailed material on each kingdom, and has many new pictures to supplement the lessons. Special projects are required in several of the weeks, reinforcing concepts taught.
For English she will cover sentence structure, kinds of sentences, punctuation and capitalization rules, recognizing and diagramming all eight parts of speech, contractions, antonyms, homonyms, using troublesome words correctly, and writing compositions are all covered throughout the course of the year. Spelling 7 contains 36 weeks of spelling lists with activities and glossary. So -- we are going to be dumping Spelling Power and her Primary Language Lessons.
Instead of History she will do 7th grade Geography. This course is a study of the World and its physical features including mountains, rivers, boundaries of countries, cities, and the effect of location on climate, resources, population and products. A variety of illustrations and maps are used to help the student to understand the continents and nations of the world. I notice that this lines up with what the 7th graders in Knoxville are doing.
LFBC has a separate Literature class from the English class. I like that... so 7th grade Literature is on Character Building Stories and Legends. Many of the selections have historical significance, embodying information of immediate usefulness or serving as stepping stones for future history study. Other selections illuminate certain phases of living or enlarge the sympathies toward other ways of living. Still others introduce the reader to characters who are eminently worth meeting. These selections are not all necessarily Christian in their philosophy, but the impact they make is positive, and many of them reflect or apply Christian principles. Each week contains vocabulary words; comprehension activities, and Bible memorization of a verse pertinent to the moral or practical lesson presented in the reading selection.
That wraps it up for her.
One thing they recommend is being flexible with your school schedule. They set up the workbooks to have 1 lesson a day for 4 days... then 1 test day. So -- really you could go M-TH, and test on Friday with each subject. Then Fridays would be light... once testing was done you'd be free. OR... you could do one SUBJECT a day + math and spelling. That would work great for literature. just do 5 days of lit in one day + 1 day of math and spelling. For English? That might work... but you'd have to do spelling every day. Science it would work... Geography it would work. So I'm going to be flexible and give Tori the choice. She can do 1 lesson a day and test on Friday OR she can set it up like this for instance; M: geography, math, spelling T: Science, math, spelling W: Literature, math, spelling TH: English, math, spelling test F: math, spelling, free... hmmm... that sounds like fun. I wonder what she will choose.
How much will I have to do with this? LFBC has the kiddos working independently a lot. She will sit in the kitchen with me while I make bread, or sit on the couch while I'm doing what ever it is that I do all day long. I'll correct her tests. I'll give spelling tests each day.
Lord willing... our days will become more productive.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Week 8, 9 and 10
3 weeks since I've blogged.
I really should go back and re-read what I wrote last.
I hope I don't leave too much out. I'm changing my plans. I'm just NOT getting My Father's World to click this year.
I ordered Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum today. We started our home school journey with Victoria using LFBC. I was impressed with her progress... then the grass started looking greener on the other side. I stumbled across Ambleside Online --- where you do school all day long just by reading books. Oh... I was in heaven. I had to do all the planning. YUCK... then I found My Father's World. Oh JOY! No more planning... but now I have 5 kids. I just ACK!! I just can't do it. Too much. I need workbook school. I need to be able to say. "Here is what you have to do - now do it." Ü We are a reading family... they will read... they will read great literature... but they will also be using workbooks to get the information that they need to get.
I posted our My Father's World curriculum on a yahoo message board that is set up for only selling MFW stuff. I have sold most of the used stuff... I must have the NEW stuff priced too high. I think my next option will be e-bay. Scary route, because you are guaranteed to get what you want out of it. I've heard set you price as what you NEED to get out of it. Well -- that would be a pretty high starting price. So -- I'm waiting on e-bay... waiting...
So -- LFBC... it's the route I need to go right now, and I've promised Dan that I will stick with this for the next several years. Through then end actually... until I only have 1 kid left... then I'll have all the time in the world to do planning... maybe we'll go back to Ambleside Online. OH! I'm just kidding. I'm sticking wtih LFBC!! I'm liking the fact that they have an academy program deal and you can pay extra when they kids are in highschool and get a transcript that you can hand to a college when they are done. That's always an option.
We have been doing Math and library books for the last 3 weeks. Handwriting thrown in every once in a while. Who knew I'd had to air my dirty laundry this way. I stink at home school sometimes.
The week of Oct 20th, we did 4 days of school. That was the week of Tori's 1st ortho visit and a dentist appointment in Des Moines on 2 different days.
The week of Oct 27th, we did 3 days of school. That week Tori got braces, and we also had a basketball sign up meeting in the middle of the day on Friday.
The week of Nov 3rd, we did 5 days of school. Amazing. I'm feeling better now and we are trying to finish the day early so we can take Tori to basketball practice.
I think I'll start a new post of the new plan!
Let me get my calculator... brb...44 days so far. Oh... that means only 104 days left. Woo Hoo... We'll be doing school through December now. Once the new books come... I'll recalculate what we have to do. We may just do it year round and only take breaks for when Dan takes vacation. Push, push, push. There's always Thanksgiving and Christmas. LOL
I really should go back and re-read what I wrote last.
I hope I don't leave too much out. I'm changing my plans. I'm just NOT getting My Father's World to click this year.
I ordered Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum today. We started our home school journey with Victoria using LFBC. I was impressed with her progress... then the grass started looking greener on the other side. I stumbled across Ambleside Online --- where you do school all day long just by reading books. Oh... I was in heaven. I had to do all the planning. YUCK... then I found My Father's World. Oh JOY! No more planning... but now I have 5 kids. I just ACK!! I just can't do it. Too much. I need workbook school. I need to be able to say. "Here is what you have to do - now do it." Ü We are a reading family... they will read... they will read great literature... but they will also be using workbooks to get the information that they need to get.
I posted our My Father's World curriculum on a yahoo message board that is set up for only selling MFW stuff. I have sold most of the used stuff... I must have the NEW stuff priced too high. I think my next option will be e-bay. Scary route, because you are guaranteed to get what you want out of it. I've heard set you price as what you NEED to get out of it. Well -- that would be a pretty high starting price. So -- I'm waiting on e-bay... waiting...
So -- LFBC... it's the route I need to go right now, and I've promised Dan that I will stick with this for the next several years. Through then end actually... until I only have 1 kid left... then I'll have all the time in the world to do planning... maybe we'll go back to Ambleside Online. OH! I'm just kidding. I'm sticking wtih LFBC!! I'm liking the fact that they have an academy program deal and you can pay extra when they kids are in highschool and get a transcript that you can hand to a college when they are done. That's always an option.
We have been doing Math and library books for the last 3 weeks. Handwriting thrown in every once in a while. Who knew I'd had to air my dirty laundry this way. I stink at home school sometimes.
The week of Oct 20th, we did 4 days of school. That was the week of Tori's 1st ortho visit and a dentist appointment in Des Moines on 2 different days.
The week of Oct 27th, we did 3 days of school. That week Tori got braces, and we also had a basketball sign up meeting in the middle of the day on Friday.
The week of Nov 3rd, we did 5 days of school. Amazing. I'm feeling better now and we are trying to finish the day early so we can take Tori to basketball practice.
I think I'll start a new post of the new plan!
Let me get my calculator... brb...44 days so far. Oh... that means only 104 days left. Woo Hoo... We'll be doing school through December now. Once the new books come... I'll recalculate what we have to do. We may just do it year round and only take breaks for when Dan takes vacation. Push, push, push. There's always Thanksgiving and Christmas. LOL
Monday, October 20, 2008
Week 6 and 7
I have sinus infection.
I was told to "call it in". I don't feel comfortable trying to call in a prescription. I just am not. I once saw a nurse carrying a bunch of files down the hall... she said, "These are the call ins... they'll have to wait, won't they... that's what they get for calling in." So I know nurses don't really like call ins... I usually wait until I get bad enough to go in, then go in.
3 weeks with a sinus infection -- then I went to to the Dr. on Friday, the 17th. Sure'nuf... I've got a sinus infection. Now I've got a double dose of anti-biotic and an allergy pill to take once a day. We are just guessing on the allergy pill. My sister takes one once a day and I talked to the dr. about that and he said, "well -- it can't hurt." LOL So -- I had this sinus infection with no runny or stuffy nose... now I'm on an anti-biotic and allergy pill, and my nose is running. That's really want we want -- to get the stuff out of there. I guess in Knoxville there is sinus going around that is resistant to the normal does of anti-biotic. So I get a double dose. I pray it works.
Anyway... needless to say. I wasn't feeling very good for 3 weeks. I really shouldn't wait so long to go to the dr. It messes up my school schedule. We "did school"... bare bones school. Math mostly. I don't have a lot else to report.
Milo is still plugging along with his 100 EZ lessons. I'll say it's starting to click now. He will read a story now with only sounding out the new words. I'm so glad we kept plugging along. It took 50 lessons, and 1 year for it to click... but it finally has. He's thrilled!! I had him read a story to Dad on Friday. He was finally confident enough to share his new skill.
I was putting off starting Danielle on the 100 EZ lessons, because I didn't want her passing up Milo. I know... probably not the best for Danielle -- but I seriously didn't want anything to damage Milo's desire to want to read. I want my kiddos to love reading more than anything. If they know how to read well -- and learn to love it... then they can teach themselves anything. if they grow up and say, "I hate reading" or "I never read." Then I'll consider myself a failure. So far -- 2 for 2... Tori and Mansel both love reading. (whew). I just think the human ego is such a frail thing, I didn't want to slow Milo down in anyway. That being said I didn't start Danielle on the path to reading until Milo had it down. Make any sense?
Well -- I was waiting -- Danielle wasn't.
She would often peek over my shoulder while Milo and I were sitting on the couch doing 100 EZ lessons. She she heard me say often, "Sound it out," "Now say it fast." She was in the kitchen with me other other day -- pointing to letters on the fridge and saying the SOUND (not the name) of the letter. I said, "Bring me 3 letters." She did... I made sure one was a vowel. I lined them up on the counter. K E X... I said, "Sound these out." She did... K short e x. I said, "say it fast." She said, "Kex." Hmmm... was it a fluke? I did it 5 more times... sometimes sending her back to get a vowel instead of 3 consanents. Every time she would sound out the letter sounds and then "read" it. Even if it were a nonsense word like KEX. She would mess up "d" and "b"... normal. She would say, "long i" "short i" sounds... so I would choose one sound for her to say...
See... we've got this leap frog game on the fridge. You put in one letter and it says, "N says nnnnn, N says nnnnnn, every letter makes a sound and N says nnnn." For every letter -- vowels it says "i says iiiii and i says iiii" (short and long sound).
Danielle has taught herself to read.
So -- we are starting 100 EZ lessons with her today (Monday, October 20). Sigh... I doubt Milo will finish the book before she does. Pray we get through this OK.
I bought them both handwriting books. We use Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting around here. Milo zoomed through it... Danielle is still working on it. So -- she has normal 5yo fine motor skills... but her mind is zinging along a 5yo girl speed. This will be a new learning curve for me. How to handle a younger passing an older gracefully. It may not happen -- now that reading has clicked for Milo -- he may just zoom along at the same speed and she will never pass him in the workbook... but.. well -- we'll see. Ü
We didn't do any history or Bible this week. I would get the Math done in the morning then need to take a nap in the afternoon. I really haven't been feeling very perky lately. I didn't even feel like exercising at all. I did once last week. I did sit down with Tori and start her new week of Science. She just doesn't get how to do this on her own. She told me, "I'm done." No notes taken. No experiements done. So -- we started the week over... and we read it together -- listened to the CD -- took notes in her notebook -- did the experiment and she wrote down the results. I said, "Here -- this is what I expect every day." Now she knows... we'll see how she does today.
I've got to go wake her up... she is supposed to be up by 6:00. It's 6:45 and she's still in bed. :sigh: It may be a long day today. Ü
We cleaned the house one Friday -- so no school done that day. 9 more days under our belt. 32 total. Before we get into November... I need to figure out how far we need to be in certian subjects in order to take all of December off. I know we are behind in some subjects.
I'm praying for a more productive week this week!
I was told to "call it in". I don't feel comfortable trying to call in a prescription. I just am not. I once saw a nurse carrying a bunch of files down the hall... she said, "These are the call ins... they'll have to wait, won't they... that's what they get for calling in." So I know nurses don't really like call ins... I usually wait until I get bad enough to go in, then go in.
3 weeks with a sinus infection -- then I went to to the Dr. on Friday, the 17th. Sure'nuf... I've got a sinus infection. Now I've got a double dose of anti-biotic and an allergy pill to take once a day. We are just guessing on the allergy pill. My sister takes one once a day and I talked to the dr. about that and he said, "well -- it can't hurt." LOL So -- I had this sinus infection with no runny or stuffy nose... now I'm on an anti-biotic and allergy pill, and my nose is running. That's really want we want -- to get the stuff out of there. I guess in Knoxville there is sinus going around that is resistant to the normal does of anti-biotic. So I get a double dose. I pray it works.
Anyway... needless to say. I wasn't feeling very good for 3 weeks. I really shouldn't wait so long to go to the dr. It messes up my school schedule. We "did school"... bare bones school. Math mostly. I don't have a lot else to report.
Milo is still plugging along with his 100 EZ lessons. I'll say it's starting to click now. He will read a story now with only sounding out the new words. I'm so glad we kept plugging along. It took 50 lessons, and 1 year for it to click... but it finally has. He's thrilled!! I had him read a story to Dad on Friday. He was finally confident enough to share his new skill.
I was putting off starting Danielle on the 100 EZ lessons, because I didn't want her passing up Milo. I know... probably not the best for Danielle -- but I seriously didn't want anything to damage Milo's desire to want to read. I want my kiddos to love reading more than anything. If they know how to read well -- and learn to love it... then they can teach themselves anything. if they grow up and say, "I hate reading" or "I never read." Then I'll consider myself a failure. So far -- 2 for 2... Tori and Mansel both love reading. (whew). I just think the human ego is such a frail thing, I didn't want to slow Milo down in anyway. That being said I didn't start Danielle on the path to reading until Milo had it down. Make any sense?
Well -- I was waiting -- Danielle wasn't.
She would often peek over my shoulder while Milo and I were sitting on the couch doing 100 EZ lessons. She she heard me say often, "Sound it out," "Now say it fast." She was in the kitchen with me other other day -- pointing to letters on the fridge and saying the SOUND (not the name) of the letter. I said, "Bring me 3 letters." She did... I made sure one was a vowel. I lined them up on the counter. K E X... I said, "Sound these out." She did... K short e x. I said, "say it fast." She said, "Kex." Hmmm... was it a fluke? I did it 5 more times... sometimes sending her back to get a vowel instead of 3 consanents. Every time she would sound out the letter sounds and then "read" it. Even if it were a nonsense word like KEX. She would mess up "d" and "b"... normal. She would say, "long i" "short i" sounds... so I would choose one sound for her to say...
See... we've got this leap frog game on the fridge. You put in one letter and it says, "N says nnnnn, N says nnnnnn, every letter makes a sound and N says nnnn." For every letter -- vowels it says "i says iiiii and i says iiii" (short and long sound).
Danielle has taught herself to read.
So -- we are starting 100 EZ lessons with her today (Monday, October 20). Sigh... I doubt Milo will finish the book before she does. Pray we get through this OK.
I bought them both handwriting books. We use Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting around here. Milo zoomed through it... Danielle is still working on it. So -- she has normal 5yo fine motor skills... but her mind is zinging along a 5yo girl speed. This will be a new learning curve for me. How to handle a younger passing an older gracefully. It may not happen -- now that reading has clicked for Milo -- he may just zoom along at the same speed and she will never pass him in the workbook... but.. well -- we'll see. Ü
We didn't do any history or Bible this week. I would get the Math done in the morning then need to take a nap in the afternoon. I really haven't been feeling very perky lately. I didn't even feel like exercising at all. I did once last week. I did sit down with Tori and start her new week of Science. She just doesn't get how to do this on her own. She told me, "I'm done." No notes taken. No experiements done. So -- we started the week over... and we read it together -- listened to the CD -- took notes in her notebook -- did the experiment and she wrote down the results. I said, "Here -- this is what I expect every day." Now she knows... we'll see how she does today.
I've got to go wake her up... she is supposed to be up by 6:00. It's 6:45 and she's still in bed. :sigh: It may be a long day today. Ü
We cleaned the house one Friday -- so no school done that day. 9 more days under our belt. 32 total. Before we get into November... I need to figure out how far we need to be in certian subjects in order to take all of December off. I know we are behind in some subjects.
I'm praying for a more productive week this week!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Week 5
Well, well, well... another week under our belt. Did you read my last post? I was lazy on Monday -- so I made us get behind. Tori, Mansel and Milo did their own school work on Monday and Tuesday.
We got caught up on Wednesday. We are about to start week 32 in My Father's World which, if you remember, is where we all read together in Bible, History, and Science. We are getting so close to be done with that. We are reading Esther for Bible this week. Interesting. I discovered Purim is pronounced Poor-im. Who knew? Probably everyone but me. LOL
Tori took her first test for Apologia Science. We discovered that she doesn't know how to study on her own. :sigh: I read a thread on a message board this week about kids her age and this very class. Most moms were saying, "My kids is taking way too many notes." Oh nice... now I feel really BAD about my mothering/teaching skills. My kid takes NO notes and when she doesn't feel like answering a question -- she writes, "I don't know." She doesn't even TRY to guess. So we reviewed how to do her science. She has retaken the test and I've yet to check it. I'm really not looking forward to it.
I didn't get on the computer much on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday... so we got more school done then normal. But I also double checked that the kids had their school books before we left the house on Wednesday and Thursday. Both days we went to the library in between appointments and practice and we got more school done that way. I need to quit assuming that my kiddos are going to bring their school work with them if they are not done for the day... I know I learned that in public school... A teacher wrote ASSUME on the board and then divided it like this ASS/U/ME with chalk... when you assume... you make an ASS out of U and ME. Nice... but it's true. LOL One should never assume... even when they are my own cute kids!
So - another week down... several to go.
Let's see... we really did school 4 days. We didn't do school on Friday -- we cleaned the house instead. Then Tori was in a government school Homecoming Parade with her Cross Country team. So... I'll have to go check... brb. 23 days done.
We got caught up on Wednesday. We are about to start week 32 in My Father's World which, if you remember, is where we all read together in Bible, History, and Science. We are getting so close to be done with that. We are reading Esther for Bible this week. Interesting. I discovered Purim is pronounced Poor-im. Who knew? Probably everyone but me. LOL
Tori took her first test for Apologia Science. We discovered that she doesn't know how to study on her own. :sigh: I read a thread on a message board this week about kids her age and this very class. Most moms were saying, "My kids is taking way too many notes." Oh nice... now I feel really BAD about my mothering/teaching skills. My kid takes NO notes and when she doesn't feel like answering a question -- she writes, "I don't know." She doesn't even TRY to guess. So we reviewed how to do her science. She has retaken the test and I've yet to check it. I'm really not looking forward to it.
I didn't get on the computer much on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday... so we got more school done then normal. But I also double checked that the kids had their school books before we left the house on Wednesday and Thursday. Both days we went to the library in between appointments and practice and we got more school done that way. I need to quit assuming that my kiddos are going to bring their school work with them if they are not done for the day... I know I learned that in public school... A teacher wrote ASSUME on the board and then divided it like this ASS/U/ME with chalk... when you assume... you make an ASS out of U and ME. Nice... but it's true. LOL One should never assume... even when they are my own cute kids!
So - another week down... several to go.
Let's see... we really did school 4 days. We didn't do school on Friday -- we cleaned the house instead. Then Tori was in a government school Homecoming Parade with her Cross Country team. So... I'll have to go check... brb. 23 days done.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
I got scolded
Dan scolded me for not doing any school yesterday. I need to remember this feeling... don't be skipping school for no reason.
Was I sick?
No -- thanks for asking. LOL
Was I sick?
No -- thanks for asking. LOL
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Week 4
I forgot about using this place as a place to keep track of the number of days we've done.
So -- through week four -- we've done 19 days out of 148. I think one week we didn't do any school on a Friday. Appointments or something.
Starting in October -- we'll be headed to Ankeny once a month for Tori to get braces. I'm really glad I made the decision to step back out of some activities this year... we have so many more activities that we are involved in right now. Wow... what a school year.
This week was hectic for me. Someone gave us some apples. I felt like I needed to work them up before they went bad -- knowing my personality. So we didn't do any "one room school house school," but instead they did individual tasks while I was making apple sauce and apple butter.
Tori worked on her math, science, handwriting, and some reading. She is reading the Magicians Nephew for PROTEENS, a youth program at church.
Mansel worked on Math, and handwriting on his own too.
VERY basic day on Monday.
Tuesday -- I gathered up the clothes from the past and got them ready to take to Plush Pony before 4:00. Tori also had a cross country meet on Tuesday.
Wednesday -- I did 3 days worth of reading in History, Bible, and Science. LOL We did school in the hall way upstairs while I was folding laundry, because not only did I not do group school -- I didn't do laundry as well. Well -- I washed and dried clothes, but didn't fold or put away.
By Thursday -- I was so far behind I didn't do much group school again. Tori had another cross country meet. They did individual classes on their own.
Friday -- Dan comes home early from work, and I had an appointment to get a hair cut at 1:00. :sigh: another SLOW school day.
I had Mansel do some math in the morning on Friday while I folded all the laundry I could. I fixed a quick lunch, that I skipped eating and Tori, Danielle and I headed for Knoxville. Tori took her math along and did it while I got my hair cut, then we went and sat in the library for and hour until her cross country photo session. So -- we did limited school again... but got behind in our "group" classes.
Won't Monday be exciting?
I decided from now on to make my appointments as late in the afternoon as I could to try, if they were IN Knoxville, to try to correspond with any practices that may be occurring, in the future. If they are in Des Moines... in the afternoon, but give myself enough time to get to Knoxville still for practices. In the past I've always tried to make appointments as early in the day as possible, but then I find myself coming home and collapsing and not getting any school done that day. I hope to be getting more school done this year. I really want to be able to take those 3 months off -- free and clear from any school. So missing as few as days as possible this year. Now that I've said it -- I'd better stick to it... right?
We'll need to finish up week 31 and start week 32 next week of MFW Creation to the Greeks.
We are REALLY enjoying reading about Archimedes. This week we learned about the lever. Teetor Toters, wheel barrows... being able to move a ship with just one hand. LOL Then reading the story about how Mr. Archimedes was so preoccupied with studying out the problem of the king's crown, that his servants had to carry him to the baths... and as he discovered a solution to his problem after displacing water in the bathtub... he ran through the streets nekid! ha haaa... my kids love that story. So funny -- because we all KNOW that doesn't happen here. LOL
Tori had her first science test this week. I had her take a pre-test. Woah... she did terrible... sometimes writing... "I don't know," as an answer... nice try Tori. I didn't feel responsible for her failing a test with this class, as it is supposed to be self lead, and she is to be self motivated. I did feel a little bad that she didn't know how to do that... but I didn't feel as much responsibiltiy as I would have say last year, in all her classes that I led. (Make any sense?) So -- I sat down with her and her text book and we found all the answers to the questions... I'd write the page number down so she could go back and read the answer and write it down. I showed her how to use the glossary -- showed her how words were bolded if they were important. I showed her which words and definitions she would need to memorize word for word for a test. I explained to her that the "own your own" section was identical to this pre-test... so they were very important to do and not skim over during the week. So she re-did the pre-test. I asked her the next day if she was ready for the test. "Yes," she replied.
Well -- she wasn't. At least not to my standards. She got 4 out of 20 right. That's failing. So -- she will redo the pre-test and take the test again, until she passes. She'll get behind in Science if she keeps up this pace.
Dan and I discussed what would be happening to her if she were in public school. If your grades go below passing... you'll be pulled out of extra-curricular sports. Oh wow...
.
.
.
Really -- I don't want to do that. I feel she is learning a skill in these sports that I can't teach her on my own. I feel like cross country, and maybe some day basketball and even soft ball could be counted as her gym class. I think of these things as a class instead of extra curricular. Fun... I think she should be learning things there same as in a "book learning" class. So we aren't going to pull her out of sports... but we are restricting her in other areas. She often wears her head phones and listens to music while doing school. I'd ask her -- how can you do school and listen to music at the same time? I didn't get to do that in school. Was I just jealous?
Well -- she can't, as she has proven.
So we have taken away her radio and mp3 player priveledges until she improves her grades in Science. She doesn't take a test in Math until after week 5, I beleive... so we'll see how that goes... sames rules apply.
She turned the radio on last night... and I reminded her of the "no music" rule... and she said, "Can I sing in church?" Smart Alek... LOL silly girl. Well -- at least she is thinking.
I really think she is NOT a learner like I am. I read her text book a bit while finding the answears to her pre-test... and could narrate back to Dan last night several things from her text book. I was talking to him about Archimedes and discussing what the kiddos "learned" during the week. I had mentioned some of the stuff out of Tori's science book... he said, "Did THAT hapen during Archimedes time period." I said, "Oh no -- that was from Tori's book." So -- I could remember stuff, just by reading it one time... perhaps it was review for me... since I had probably learned that stuff in 7th grade... but she should have read it at least 2 times, and could have read it 3 times since I had her do her pre-test over again. We'll have to figure out what she needs to do to remember these facts and regurgitate them for a test, and then hopefully retain them for life.
I'm hoping removing the distraction of the music will help. We shall see.
We didn't do any ART this week. We'll just be skipping those lessons instead of trying to make them up. Another slow spelling week. I DID take the spelling books upstairs on Wednesday -- but we didn't get to them before lunch.
I need to make sure I'm getting to bed on time, I really get tired in the afternoon if I don't get a full 8 hours of sleep.
Once I'm done with my on-line weight loss competition, I'm going to limit my computer use to maybe even once a week. I'll have to undo a lot of automatic e-mails that I get each day. But being on the computer late at night... even if it's only until 10:00 throws my day out of whack. So -- 9:00 bed time it needs to be and stick to the plan! Ü 1 more week of Biggest Loser competition and I'm done.
So -- through week four -- we've done 19 days out of 148. I think one week we didn't do any school on a Friday. Appointments or something.
Starting in October -- we'll be headed to Ankeny once a month for Tori to get braces. I'm really glad I made the decision to step back out of some activities this year... we have so many more activities that we are involved in right now. Wow... what a school year.
This week was hectic for me. Someone gave us some apples. I felt like I needed to work them up before they went bad -- knowing my personality. So we didn't do any "one room school house school," but instead they did individual tasks while I was making apple sauce and apple butter.
Tori worked on her math, science, handwriting, and some reading. She is reading the Magicians Nephew for PROTEENS, a youth program at church.
Mansel worked on Math, and handwriting on his own too.
VERY basic day on Monday.
Tuesday -- I gathered up the clothes from the past and got them ready to take to Plush Pony before 4:00. Tori also had a cross country meet on Tuesday.
Wednesday -- I did 3 days worth of reading in History, Bible, and Science. LOL We did school in the hall way upstairs while I was folding laundry, because not only did I not do group school -- I didn't do laundry as well. Well -- I washed and dried clothes, but didn't fold or put away.
By Thursday -- I was so far behind I didn't do much group school again. Tori had another cross country meet. They did individual classes on their own.
Friday -- Dan comes home early from work, and I had an appointment to get a hair cut at 1:00. :sigh: another SLOW school day.
I had Mansel do some math in the morning on Friday while I folded all the laundry I could. I fixed a quick lunch, that I skipped eating and Tori, Danielle and I headed for Knoxville. Tori took her math along and did it while I got my hair cut, then we went and sat in the library for and hour until her cross country photo session. So -- we did limited school again... but got behind in our "group" classes.
Won't Monday be exciting?
I decided from now on to make my appointments as late in the afternoon as I could to try, if they were IN Knoxville, to try to correspond with any practices that may be occurring, in the future. If they are in Des Moines... in the afternoon, but give myself enough time to get to Knoxville still for practices. In the past I've always tried to make appointments as early in the day as possible, but then I find myself coming home and collapsing and not getting any school done that day. I hope to be getting more school done this year. I really want to be able to take those 3 months off -- free and clear from any school. So missing as few as days as possible this year. Now that I've said it -- I'd better stick to it... right?
We'll need to finish up week 31 and start week 32 next week of MFW Creation to the Greeks.
We are REALLY enjoying reading about Archimedes. This week we learned about the lever. Teetor Toters, wheel barrows... being able to move a ship with just one hand. LOL Then reading the story about how Mr. Archimedes was so preoccupied with studying out the problem of the king's crown, that his servants had to carry him to the baths... and as he discovered a solution to his problem after displacing water in the bathtub... he ran through the streets nekid! ha haaa... my kids love that story. So funny -- because we all KNOW that doesn't happen here. LOL
Tori had her first science test this week. I had her take a pre-test. Woah... she did terrible... sometimes writing... "I don't know," as an answer... nice try Tori. I didn't feel responsible for her failing a test with this class, as it is supposed to be self lead, and she is to be self motivated. I did feel a little bad that she didn't know how to do that... but I didn't feel as much responsibiltiy as I would have say last year, in all her classes that I led. (Make any sense?) So -- I sat down with her and her text book and we found all the answers to the questions... I'd write the page number down so she could go back and read the answer and write it down. I showed her how to use the glossary -- showed her how words were bolded if they were important. I showed her which words and definitions she would need to memorize word for word for a test. I explained to her that the "own your own" section was identical to this pre-test... so they were very important to do and not skim over during the week. So she re-did the pre-test. I asked her the next day if she was ready for the test. "Yes," she replied.
Well -- she wasn't. At least not to my standards. She got 4 out of 20 right. That's failing. So -- she will redo the pre-test and take the test again, until she passes. She'll get behind in Science if she keeps up this pace.
Dan and I discussed what would be happening to her if she were in public school. If your grades go below passing... you'll be pulled out of extra-curricular sports. Oh wow...
.
.
.
Really -- I don't want to do that. I feel she is learning a skill in these sports that I can't teach her on my own. I feel like cross country, and maybe some day basketball and even soft ball could be counted as her gym class. I think of these things as a class instead of extra curricular. Fun... I think she should be learning things there same as in a "book learning" class. So we aren't going to pull her out of sports... but we are restricting her in other areas. She often wears her head phones and listens to music while doing school. I'd ask her -- how can you do school and listen to music at the same time? I didn't get to do that in school. Was I just jealous?
Well -- she can't, as she has proven.
So we have taken away her radio and mp3 player priveledges until she improves her grades in Science. She doesn't take a test in Math until after week 5, I beleive... so we'll see how that goes... sames rules apply.
She turned the radio on last night... and I reminded her of the "no music" rule... and she said, "Can I sing in church?" Smart Alek... LOL silly girl. Well -- at least she is thinking.
I really think she is NOT a learner like I am. I read her text book a bit while finding the answears to her pre-test... and could narrate back to Dan last night several things from her text book. I was talking to him about Archimedes and discussing what the kiddos "learned" during the week. I had mentioned some of the stuff out of Tori's science book... he said, "Did THAT hapen during Archimedes time period." I said, "Oh no -- that was from Tori's book." So -- I could remember stuff, just by reading it one time... perhaps it was review for me... since I had probably learned that stuff in 7th grade... but she should have read it at least 2 times, and could have read it 3 times since I had her do her pre-test over again. We'll have to figure out what she needs to do to remember these facts and regurgitate them for a test, and then hopefully retain them for life.
I'm hoping removing the distraction of the music will help. We shall see.
We didn't do any ART this week. We'll just be skipping those lessons instead of trying to make them up. Another slow spelling week. I DID take the spelling books upstairs on Wednesday -- but we didn't get to them before lunch.
I need to make sure I'm getting to bed on time, I really get tired in the afternoon if I don't get a full 8 hours of sleep.
Once I'm done with my on-line weight loss competition, I'm going to limit my computer use to maybe even once a week. I'll have to undo a lot of automatic e-mails that I get each day. But being on the computer late at night... even if it's only until 10:00 throws my day out of whack. So -- 9:00 bed time it needs to be and stick to the plan! Ü 1 more week of Biggest Loser competition and I'm done.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Week 3
I am so excited... we have had three week so school so far -- and we have completed 3 weeks of school. Woo Hoo... if you have no clue what I'm talking about -- well, then good for you. LOL But some weeks... we don't quit get 1 week of work done.
We are still doing Creation to the Greeks. We are in the final weeks of that unit. We just completed week 31. We began to read the book Archimedes and the Door of Science. Chapter 3 is about the Archimedian screw. Our neighbors happen to HAVE an archimedian screw. So I called them up to see if the kiddos could come see it in real life. He was at work, but happened to check his message and he called back right away -- how nice. So Tori, Mansel, Milo and I went and took a look at an AUGER. 5 augers actually. Different sizes. Hooked up to different machines. He uses a tractor to turn some of his augers. Ü Just imagine -- 2000 years later we are still using this great idea. Originally it was designed to pull water from the Nile river, now my kids have some idea how that might have worked.
We are reading Aesops Fables during lunch... well - after I eat and while the kiddos are finishing up. I didn't realize Aesop was a servant...but now I do. Another reason why I love home schooling... I never knew, but now I do. °Ü°
Mansel slowed down with his math this week. Singapore Math 1B. He has finished up day 28 after 21 days of school. One nice thing about home schooling... when we were waiting for Dad on day, on the way to Tori's cross country meet, Mansel sat in the van and completed some math corrections. How convenient! I love home schooling. I see his next few days are days of review. We'll do those orally, and practice some skip counting. Diving, sharing, sets, and groups are coming up.
I was lazy and on the computer too much this week. We didn't do any spelling. So -- one wonders why Tori can't spell. It may be my fault. Maybe... I'm not accepting all the blame. Next week -- no computer until school is done. I promise.
Milo and 100 EZ lessons are still on speaking terms. I've decided that he doesn't necessarily NEED to do 1 lesson a day. We will only do 100 EZ lessons for 20 minutes... if he isn't bored after 20 minutes we'll keep going. But several days this week -- we was ready to quit after 20 minutes... so we did. We really did more this week, then last week, while trying to force him to do 1 lesson a day. We are now on lesson 48. ALMOST 1/2 way done. Praise God. He is confusing funny things. He'll look at a sh and way "n". Hopefully we'll figure that out soon. His sense of humor is different than Mansel's. Mansel just thought the stories were silly -- he put up with them. Milo LAUGHS and LAUGHS at the girl who "gave him a sock on his nose." Oh he thought that was so funny. What a joy. I love to hear him laugh. I hope he will learn to love reading -- it really can be fun. Ü
We are skipping the "sounds writing" portion of this book now because he got a Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting book in the mail this week. He is flying through it -- then he has to go back and correct his mistakes. LOL But he really likes it. So I'm letting him do it when ever he wants as much as he wants. He did this is the van as well while we were waiting for Dad the other day.
Tori is ready for a test in Apologia Science. She is 1 week behind on this. I finally sat her down and reminded her that she was in 7th grade now. She MUST get her work done, and she will often times be required to do school totally on her own, and she may have to start with out being told. LOL MAYBE!! Oh man alive. She isn't getting up on time. What a silly goose... she'll apologize every time, but her alarm isn't waking her up. The problem is that I don't want to quit exercising to go wake her... FRIDAY I remembered that I can pause my live TV now... so Monday... if she sleeps in... I'm pushing pause and waking her up. We are skipping things like piano practice and spelling to get her back on schedule. We CAN'T just go longer because of cross country. She isn't getting much free time... but she is using it all up in bed in the mornings.
Her math is progressing slow but sure. I have her check her own work and then RE-DO the ones she misses. I've had friends who tell me their kids cheat when they do that. But so far she hasn't figured that out yet. She gets so mad at herself for missing stuff.. and she sits and re-does each one. I'm so proud of her. So she isn't doing 1 lesson a day, but she's doing math most days. When I sat down with my "rest of the schooling plan", I noticed her math looks advanced. What if she isn't an advanced math kind of gal. She already is on the "hard math" path. The public school kids are either doing pre-algebra or just "math" in 7th grade. How do the public school kids decide what sort of math to do? If they are going to college -- do they choose pre-algebra? I'm sticking with her math that she is doing now... I'm not telling her she is on the "hard" path. But if in the next several years it gets too hard... what are the other home school options? I only know Saxon...
I sat down with a notebook and figured out our school plan until Wayne would graduate. If I stick with My Father's World all the way through high school, I should know how much we will be spending until all my kids are done. Some years we will be buying grade school units AND high school units. I think I have 2 years of that. Maybe 3, I can't remember -- the notebook is in the other room. Oh - it's three because I borrowed one year, the first geography year, so when that rolls around again, I'll have to buy that one for myself. BUT -- as soon as we get done buying the grade school years, then it will drop back down again to only buying high school. It will average out to $350 per year - for the next 16 years. Yeah... some years are quit high. I'm starting to pray now that God will provide. And -- I'm thinking of setting up a database of all the books I need, with the new prices from MFW, and starting to pick them up used. Then when that year rolls around, I can pull them all together and only buy new what I don't have yet. I know that sounds like a good plan, but it takes time. I started buying all new from MFW to save me time. But -- that can be expensive. I'm praying for wisdom.
We have done well with our ART. That's fun -- we drew a quarter, penny, nickel, and a dime, then made up our own coin. We were learning about Greek money. It was fun to see the different children's coins. I should figured out how to scan art work and put that up here. Someday...
All of us are trying to learn Isaiah 40:22-31. We started in the KJV doing this and we really were not getting very far. So Tori has to learn this in the New KJV starting with vs 22 instead of 21. We review it during Bible class, then during lunch, sometimes in the evenings. Tori has to learn it for her ProTeens class at church. Killing 2 birds with one stone. We are getting some of it... certainly not getting it down pat... but we've got a few more weeks to work on it.
We are not doing any music yet. I didn't buy the music for this unit, and regretted it. So when we start up Rome to Reformation we'll add in the music class. I DID buy it for this unit.
Tori has read the book HOLES, and is now starting on her Progeny Press study guide. She read it in 1 day. TORI-- that was supposed to last you 1/2 a year. Maybe the study guide will slow her down a bit. LOL
She is having fun doing Writing Strands. She thinks the author's sense of humor is funny.
Next week: My Goal -- do spelling every day.
We are still doing Creation to the Greeks. We are in the final weeks of that unit. We just completed week 31. We began to read the book Archimedes and the Door of Science. Chapter 3 is about the Archimedian screw. Our neighbors happen to HAVE an archimedian screw. So I called them up to see if the kiddos could come see it in real life. He was at work, but happened to check his message and he called back right away -- how nice. So Tori, Mansel, Milo and I went and took a look at an AUGER. 5 augers actually. Different sizes. Hooked up to different machines. He uses a tractor to turn some of his augers. Ü Just imagine -- 2000 years later we are still using this great idea. Originally it was designed to pull water from the Nile river, now my kids have some idea how that might have worked.
We are reading Aesops Fables during lunch... well - after I eat and while the kiddos are finishing up. I didn't realize Aesop was a servant...but now I do. Another reason why I love home schooling... I never knew, but now I do. °Ü°
Mansel slowed down with his math this week. Singapore Math 1B. He has finished up day 28 after 21 days of school. One nice thing about home schooling... when we were waiting for Dad on day, on the way to Tori's cross country meet, Mansel sat in the van and completed some math corrections. How convenient! I love home schooling. I see his next few days are days of review. We'll do those orally, and practice some skip counting. Diving, sharing, sets, and groups are coming up.
I was lazy and on the computer too much this week. We didn't do any spelling. So -- one wonders why Tori can't spell. It may be my fault. Maybe... I'm not accepting all the blame. Next week -- no computer until school is done. I promise.
Milo and 100 EZ lessons are still on speaking terms. I've decided that he doesn't necessarily NEED to do 1 lesson a day. We will only do 100 EZ lessons for 20 minutes... if he isn't bored after 20 minutes we'll keep going. But several days this week -- we was ready to quit after 20 minutes... so we did. We really did more this week, then last week, while trying to force him to do 1 lesson a day. We are now on lesson 48. ALMOST 1/2 way done. Praise God. He is confusing funny things. He'll look at a sh and way "n". Hopefully we'll figure that out soon. His sense of humor is different than Mansel's. Mansel just thought the stories were silly -- he put up with them. Milo LAUGHS and LAUGHS at the girl who "gave him a sock on his nose." Oh he thought that was so funny. What a joy. I love to hear him laugh. I hope he will learn to love reading -- it really can be fun. Ü
We are skipping the "sounds writing" portion of this book now because he got a Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting book in the mail this week. He is flying through it -- then he has to go back and correct his mistakes. LOL But he really likes it. So I'm letting him do it when ever he wants as much as he wants. He did this is the van as well while we were waiting for Dad the other day.
Tori is ready for a test in Apologia Science. She is 1 week behind on this. I finally sat her down and reminded her that she was in 7th grade now. She MUST get her work done, and she will often times be required to do school totally on her own, and she may have to start with out being told. LOL MAYBE!! Oh man alive. She isn't getting up on time. What a silly goose... she'll apologize every time, but her alarm isn't waking her up. The problem is that I don't want to quit exercising to go wake her... FRIDAY I remembered that I can pause my live TV now... so Monday... if she sleeps in... I'm pushing pause and waking her up. We are skipping things like piano practice and spelling to get her back on schedule. We CAN'T just go longer because of cross country. She isn't getting much free time... but she is using it all up in bed in the mornings.
Her math is progressing slow but sure. I have her check her own work and then RE-DO the ones she misses. I've had friends who tell me their kids cheat when they do that. But so far she hasn't figured that out yet. She gets so mad at herself for missing stuff.. and she sits and re-does each one. I'm so proud of her. So she isn't doing 1 lesson a day, but she's doing math most days. When I sat down with my "rest of the schooling plan", I noticed her math looks advanced. What if she isn't an advanced math kind of gal. She already is on the "hard math" path. The public school kids are either doing pre-algebra or just "math" in 7th grade. How do the public school kids decide what sort of math to do? If they are going to college -- do they choose pre-algebra? I'm sticking with her math that she is doing now... I'm not telling her she is on the "hard" path. But if in the next several years it gets too hard... what are the other home school options? I only know Saxon...
I sat down with a notebook and figured out our school plan until Wayne would graduate. If I stick with My Father's World all the way through high school, I should know how much we will be spending until all my kids are done. Some years we will be buying grade school units AND high school units. I think I have 2 years of that. Maybe 3, I can't remember -- the notebook is in the other room. Oh - it's three because I borrowed one year, the first geography year, so when that rolls around again, I'll have to buy that one for myself. BUT -- as soon as we get done buying the grade school years, then it will drop back down again to only buying high school. It will average out to $350 per year - for the next 16 years. Yeah... some years are quit high. I'm starting to pray now that God will provide. And -- I'm thinking of setting up a database of all the books I need, with the new prices from MFW, and starting to pick them up used. Then when that year rolls around, I can pull them all together and only buy new what I don't have yet. I know that sounds like a good plan, but it takes time. I started buying all new from MFW to save me time. But -- that can be expensive. I'm praying for wisdom.
We have done well with our ART. That's fun -- we drew a quarter, penny, nickel, and a dime, then made up our own coin. We were learning about Greek money. It was fun to see the different children's coins. I should figured out how to scan art work and put that up here. Someday...
All of us are trying to learn Isaiah 40:22-31. We started in the KJV doing this and we really were not getting very far. So Tori has to learn this in the New KJV starting with vs 22 instead of 21. We review it during Bible class, then during lunch, sometimes in the evenings. Tori has to learn it for her ProTeens class at church. Killing 2 birds with one stone. We are getting some of it... certainly not getting it down pat... but we've got a few more weeks to work on it.
We are not doing any music yet. I didn't buy the music for this unit, and regretted it. So when we start up Rome to Reformation we'll add in the music class. I DID buy it for this unit.
Tori has read the book HOLES, and is now starting on her Progeny Press study guide. She read it in 1 day. TORI-- that was supposed to last you 1/2 a year. Maybe the study guide will slow her down a bit. LOL
She is having fun doing Writing Strands. She thinks the author's sense of humor is funny.
Next week: My Goal -- do spelling every day.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Week 1 & 2
Woah... time got away from me. How did that happen?
I know... I put my computer time in the evening... and it keeps getting bumped for other things. For crying out loud... I love my computer time. Oh well -- I'll try to keep good notes and get on here when I can.
So -- we started out with a bang. EVERY DAY of the first week we started on-time and finished every subject.
Week 2?? Funny you should ask. I went to ladies retreat -- slept only 3 hours. So I came home and slept 10.5 hours on Saturday night... then took a 3 hour nap on Sunday. Hmmm... Monday... I really felt like I needed another nap. Whats up with that? Oh... hey... I think I have a UTI. Yikes... went to the doctor Monday afternoon -- YEP... confirmed. Got one. So -- I've been sort of tired this week. We haven't started on time at all this week. I've taken a nap every day... but today's was only 10 mintues. I dozed off at the library too... I asked Tori if I snored... she said I didn't.
But lets review -- shall we?
I going to talk about Milo first. He is really not liking 100 EZ Lessons at all. I'm trying to decide now it if is a character issue... this is too hard, I don't want to do it. Or if it is too hard and he shouldn't HAVE to do it. Maybe 100 EZ lessons isn't a good fit for him. I've heard moms say their kids don't remember the stuff.. .they have to go back and review. Their kids hate it. It moves too slow. We aren't having any of those issues. If we sit down with little to no distractions -- he gets it. He remembers all the new stuff we do. Even if we skip doing 100 EZ lessons for 4 days or more. (Like Friday, Sat, Sun).... OK that's only 3 days. But he is retaining and learning. I THINK it's a character issue. We are really struggling with his eating. He is MOST particular. I'm an ogre, and make him sit until he eats. Or he doesn't get dessert if he doesn't finish his food. No 2nds of the good stuff until he eats the yucky stuff... etc.
So -- he really pushes us. He won't pray for his food. Dan really gets irritated at Milo for not wanting to pray for his food before he eats.
Milo is the middle child. I'm thinking these are attention getters.
SOOO... is 100 EZ lessons struggle an attention getter? I'm going to keep pushing for a few more weeks. We are on lessons 40 something. He is about to take off with his reading. He just doesn't know it yet.
He likes Math -- until it gets hard. I really think I need to crack down on the character issue... Woe is Me feelings. Poor Milo -- he isn't going to like me much in the next few days. :giggle:
Tori is finding 7th grade to be HARD. Math is hard... the very first lesson with the DIVE CD she balked. This is stupid - do I have to do this every day? Yes... now she never asks... she grabs her notebooks and goes right to the computer. I think she is liking the instruction with the CD more than she thought she would. She still doesn't work unprompted very well. If I stop her math at 1 hour, she never restarts on her own to finish 1 lesson in 1 day. School after lunch really drags. She is not up to speed with her Math. I really want us to not get behind on this. I need to figure out how many lessons she needs to do in 1 trimester in order for her to be on time. If she doesn't stay on schedule I think I'll make her do her math through our scheduled breaks.
Thus Apologia Science... she had done 3 days worth of this in 10 days. I need to figure out those days too.
We are on track with our BIBLE, HISTORY, MFW SCIENCE and... and... that's about it. We skipped all the rest of the stuff in some form or another this week. I'm not good at keeping on task when I feel sick. I'm a wimp.
Mansel is flying through Singapore Math. He is doing 3 days worth of work in 1 day. What happened with that is he didn't do well with his placement test.
We did 1st and 2nd grade math with Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum. Very good math curriculum. Just not what My Father's World recommends... so I thought I'd switch -- be more streamlined. Order all from one place... get teaching ideas from the discussion forums at the My Father's World web-site. Anyway... We did the switch. I made the mistake of giving him a placement test when his dad was home from work one day.
Mansel didn't want to do it -- so he was fussying... saying it was too hard... he didn't know the stuff. He daddy felt sorry for him. "Maybe it's too hard." Oh hooey... So he let him quit. When I checked it he only got up to level 1B. That's 2nd semester of 2nd grade. Well -- that's a 1/2 year behind where he should be. We start 1B last week. It's EASY PEASY!! That's crazy. I should have retested him. Oh well. I'm making him do it. He'll have to do math during our breaks in order to get caught up. I've told him this -- I told him he whined and slacked during that test -- now he has to pay for it by doing extra work.
Spelling is going well. I like Spelling Power. Tori finally knows how to spell the word tomorrow. I wanted to have a running fit when she finally spelled that correctly! Mansel is progressing. Tori is -- ok -- don't mentino this to her... but Mansel is on level 1, group 9. Tori is on level 2, group 13. They started out in the same group - but Tori being only 1 level ahead of Mansel. She just can not spell very well. But interestingly enough -- she is progressing faster than he is.
That plays right into my theory of... let the kids wait sometimes, they'll catch up.
I'm not starting Danielle with school right now -- trying to concentrate on Milo's reading. When she starts 100 EZ lessons next year... she'll be ready (and probably surpass Milo)... sshhh... I think I have friends who thing that is terrible that I'm not starting Danielle this year (she is still only 4... until Monday). I'm pretty sure she'll catch up and do well.
Tori got some verses to memorize for ProTeens at church... one is a passage we are to be working on right now. We really are stumped by it. Isaih 40:21-31. We were tryign the KJV. Her's is in the NEW KJV. So -- we are starting over with her version and I'm working on this every day. So -- we'll kill to birds with one stone. Get it memorized for school and church. Ü When she does this she will get 50 points. Woo Hoo! And she'll have God's work burned into her heart... most important of all.
We had a funny ART story. The first day of ART Tori was going to "teach". I looked at it for her... um... it was on NUDITY! HA HAAA!!! Too funny... I taught the first class. She has taught the 2nd one though, while I was napping. She said it went fine. I sure hope it did.
Man alive -- this is long. I really need to try to do this once a week, if not more.
Some day I'll post some photos of Tori's 1st experiment from her General Science class. All the kiddos had fun watching. She has told me she likes this class. I'm so glad. I really enjoy science classes too.
I know... I put my computer time in the evening... and it keeps getting bumped for other things. For crying out loud... I love my computer time. Oh well -- I'll try to keep good notes and get on here when I can.
So -- we started out with a bang. EVERY DAY of the first week we started on-time and finished every subject.
Week 2?? Funny you should ask. I went to ladies retreat -- slept only 3 hours. So I came home and slept 10.5 hours on Saturday night... then took a 3 hour nap on Sunday. Hmmm... Monday... I really felt like I needed another nap. Whats up with that? Oh... hey... I think I have a UTI. Yikes... went to the doctor Monday afternoon -- YEP... confirmed. Got one. So -- I've been sort of tired this week. We haven't started on time at all this week. I've taken a nap every day... but today's was only 10 mintues. I dozed off at the library too... I asked Tori if I snored... she said I didn't.
But lets review -- shall we?
I going to talk about Milo first. He is really not liking 100 EZ Lessons at all. I'm trying to decide now it if is a character issue... this is too hard, I don't want to do it. Or if it is too hard and he shouldn't HAVE to do it. Maybe 100 EZ lessons isn't a good fit for him. I've heard moms say their kids don't remember the stuff.. .they have to go back and review. Their kids hate it. It moves too slow. We aren't having any of those issues. If we sit down with little to no distractions -- he gets it. He remembers all the new stuff we do. Even if we skip doing 100 EZ lessons for 4 days or more. (Like Friday, Sat, Sun).... OK that's only 3 days. But he is retaining and learning. I THINK it's a character issue. We are really struggling with his eating. He is MOST particular. I'm an ogre, and make him sit until he eats. Or he doesn't get dessert if he doesn't finish his food. No 2nds of the good stuff until he eats the yucky stuff... etc.
So -- he really pushes us. He won't pray for his food. Dan really gets irritated at Milo for not wanting to pray for his food before he eats.
Milo is the middle child. I'm thinking these are attention getters.
SOOO... is 100 EZ lessons struggle an attention getter? I'm going to keep pushing for a few more weeks. We are on lessons 40 something. He is about to take off with his reading. He just doesn't know it yet.
He likes Math -- until it gets hard. I really think I need to crack down on the character issue... Woe is Me feelings. Poor Milo -- he isn't going to like me much in the next few days. :giggle:
Tori is finding 7th grade to be HARD. Math is hard... the very first lesson with the DIVE CD she balked. This is stupid - do I have to do this every day? Yes... now she never asks... she grabs her notebooks and goes right to the computer. I think she is liking the instruction with the CD more than she thought she would. She still doesn't work unprompted very well. If I stop her math at 1 hour, she never restarts on her own to finish 1 lesson in 1 day. School after lunch really drags. She is not up to speed with her Math. I really want us to not get behind on this. I need to figure out how many lessons she needs to do in 1 trimester in order for her to be on time. If she doesn't stay on schedule I think I'll make her do her math through our scheduled breaks.
Thus Apologia Science... she had done 3 days worth of this in 10 days. I need to figure out those days too.
We are on track with our BIBLE, HISTORY, MFW SCIENCE and... and... that's about it. We skipped all the rest of the stuff in some form or another this week. I'm not good at keeping on task when I feel sick. I'm a wimp.
Mansel is flying through Singapore Math. He is doing 3 days worth of work in 1 day. What happened with that is he didn't do well with his placement test.
We did 1st and 2nd grade math with Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum. Very good math curriculum. Just not what My Father's World recommends... so I thought I'd switch -- be more streamlined. Order all from one place... get teaching ideas from the discussion forums at the My Father's World web-site. Anyway... We did the switch. I made the mistake of giving him a placement test when his dad was home from work one day.
Mansel didn't want to do it -- so he was fussying... saying it was too hard... he didn't know the stuff. He daddy felt sorry for him. "Maybe it's too hard." Oh hooey... So he let him quit. When I checked it he only got up to level 1B. That's 2nd semester of 2nd grade. Well -- that's a 1/2 year behind where he should be. We start 1B last week. It's EASY PEASY!! That's crazy. I should have retested him. Oh well. I'm making him do it. He'll have to do math during our breaks in order to get caught up. I've told him this -- I told him he whined and slacked during that test -- now he has to pay for it by doing extra work.
Spelling is going well. I like Spelling Power. Tori finally knows how to spell the word tomorrow. I wanted to have a running fit when she finally spelled that correctly! Mansel is progressing. Tori is -- ok -- don't mentino this to her... but Mansel is on level 1, group 9. Tori is on level 2, group 13. They started out in the same group - but Tori being only 1 level ahead of Mansel. She just can not spell very well. But interestingly enough -- she is progressing faster than he is.
That plays right into my theory of... let the kids wait sometimes, they'll catch up.
I'm not starting Danielle with school right now -- trying to concentrate on Milo's reading. When she starts 100 EZ lessons next year... she'll be ready (and probably surpass Milo)... sshhh... I think I have friends who thing that is terrible that I'm not starting Danielle this year (she is still only 4... until Monday). I'm pretty sure she'll catch up and do well.
Tori got some verses to memorize for ProTeens at church... one is a passage we are to be working on right now. We really are stumped by it. Isaih 40:21-31. We were tryign the KJV. Her's is in the NEW KJV. So -- we are starting over with her version and I'm working on this every day. So -- we'll kill to birds with one stone. Get it memorized for school and church. Ü When she does this she will get 50 points. Woo Hoo! And she'll have God's work burned into her heart... most important of all.
We had a funny ART story. The first day of ART Tori was going to "teach". I looked at it for her... um... it was on NUDITY! HA HAAA!!! Too funny... I taught the first class. She has taught the 2nd one though, while I was napping. She said it went fine. I sure hope it did.
Man alive -- this is long. I really need to try to do this once a week, if not more.
Some day I'll post some photos of Tori's 1st experiment from her General Science class. All the kiddos had fun watching. She has told me she likes this class. I'm so glad. I really enjoy science classes too.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
First Day of School
Wayne -3
Danielle - 4
Milo - 6, First Grade
Mansel - 9, 3rd Grade
Tori - 13, 7th Grade
We made it - first day of school in the books. Whew...
First Day of School
It's 10:57... We are DOING school.
Yippee!! I'm so excited...
I've got to remember to do first day of school photos... that's on my list to do. I hope to be posting them soon.
Yippee!! I'm so excited...
I've got to remember to do first day of school photos... that's on my list to do. I hope to be posting them soon.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
It's Official
I turned in Tori's forms and mailed the boys forms on Wednesday. We have officially declared that they will receive competent private instruction. Oh Lord help us! Ü
We went to the Middle School to turn in Tori's physical and have her sign the Code of Conduct form.
Here we go -- our first ever dual enrollee.
She had a cross country meeting Thursday- then practice begins on Monday. These happen "after school." School lets out at 3:09. :/ My word... I wonder if they are always so exact with their times. Just in case -- we went to Wal-Mart and bought her a watch. LOL I told her to set her watch by the school clock. I think I remember doing that when I was in public school. Plus it will come in handy when she is running -- it has a stop watch on it... only it's not ugly and nerdy like stop watches used to be back in the day. Ü We set the alarm for 6:00 a.m. No excuses for sleeping in now.
We went to the Middle School to turn in Tori's physical and have her sign the Code of Conduct form.
Here we go -- our first ever dual enrollee.
She had a cross country meeting Thursday- then practice begins on Monday. These happen "after school." School lets out at 3:09. :/ My word... I wonder if they are always so exact with their times. Just in case -- we went to Wal-Mart and bought her a watch. LOL I told her to set her watch by the school clock. I think I remember doing that when I was in public school. Plus it will come in handy when she is running -- it has a stop watch on it... only it's not ugly and nerdy like stop watches used to be back in the day. Ü We set the alarm for 6:00 a.m. No excuses for sleeping in now.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Milo's Schedule
Last but not least -- Milo's schedule. He gets to watch TV for 30 minutes a day. He is SO excited. I don't make schedules for the babies, ones who aren't in school. I'm done. Whew...
Friday, August 22, 2008
Mansel's Schedule
Mansel's schedule looks similar to Tori's, but he will have more free time if he doesn't dawdle. his classes are near as time consuming as hers are. His math lesson shouldn't take him 1 hour, but I've scheduled it for 1 hour. If he completes all his work in the alloted time, he shouldn't have home work when we go to town. So - should and does... that's the difference.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tori's Schedule
(Remember - click to enlarge)Oh wow... Tori is growing up. She has less and less free time each year. Probably more free time then a government school kid, but less free time then Mansel. She will probably be glad for Fridays this year. More and more of her classes are becoming independent study type classes.
I'm glad for My Father's World curriculum. She will still do our family classes with us; Bible, History, Science, Vocabulary, book basket, Art, Music, and Nature Walk. I just want to HUG her to me for as long as I can.
I spoke with our Pastor this week about the youth program at church. I'm looking forward to her starting her new Sunday School class, and Sunday Evening class with the young adults. (Teen agers, if you must). She is going to be joining us on Wednesday for prayer meeting. She has graduated from the "kids club". She has more responsibility at this season in her life, then ever before, but she is also going to get rewarded more then ever before. Can you say "Summer Trip"? Oh how exciting. You know... I told her about it and she gave me a 1/2 grin. Oh man alive... I so wear my emotions on my sleeve... 1/2 of a grin??? WHATEVER... I wanted to jump up and down... I'm so uncool. LOL
Did anyone read the article by Mr. Pearl this month? The Cloistered Homeschool Syndrome. This is the time when she has to begin to decide if she has her parent's religion or if it is her own. I just want to take baby steps, baby steps... but I feel like we are stretching by leaps and bounds. I guess it depends on who you are asking. LOL
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
My Schedule
So -- this is it. I'd better start enjoying my last week of free time. LOL Except for Fridays I look pretty booked.
And you wondered why I love church so much. HA!
(Remember - if you click on it - it will enlarge to be readable).I'm going to get on the computer to report my weight and food consumption to my friends, then turn the computer off. I have absolutely no time to waste through out the day. I'm already looking forward to December.
I was talking to Dan about this yesterday and he said, "Remember -- we have to cut wood after supper in the fall." So - that shading at the bottom -- it's not really my own free time, it's family time. I sure hope my family decides to relax and put their feet up every once in a while. LOL
I'm looking forward to school. Did I mention I love structure? When I follow a schedule I feel like I get so much done. I can't wait!
p.s. OK -- I've already updated this. As I was doing Tori's schedule I noticed I schedule her Apologia Science twice... but how she was going to do MFW and Apologia science at the same time, I'll never know. LOL So -- I've got a wee bit more free time. MFW Littles science is only on M,W. Whew... I feel better already.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Master Schedule
OK -- I love schedules. I like making them. I love looking at them. I feel so orderly when I complete one. I love going over the schedule with the kiddos...
Yet... then there is real life. LOL
Sometimes life gets in the way of my schedule. But my intentions are always the best.
May alive -- why is that so tiny? I'm pretty sure if you click on it -- it will enlarge. If you care to see what I'm doing at 11:45 a.m., that is.
We'll implement this schedule September 2nd.
Now -- on to making individual schedules and updating kiddos chore packs.
And ordering books.
°Ü°
Yet... then there is real life. LOL
Sometimes life gets in the way of my schedule. But my intentions are always the best.
May alive -- why is that so tiny? I'm pretty sure if you click on it -- it will enlarge. If you care to see what I'm doing at 11:45 a.m., that is.
We'll implement this schedule September 2nd.
Now -- on to making individual schedules and updating kiddos chore packs.
And ordering books.
°Ü°
Friday, August 15, 2008
CPI Forms
My Competent Private Instruction (CPI) forms are all signed, and now need to be mailed into the school districts.
Praise God! What a good feeling.
Necole is going to be my supervising teacher... so if you see a comment from Necole -- she's the boss. What she says goes. LOL Oh... I'mJustKidding!! I love Necole. She is a good friend. A good friend who will tell the truth in a loving way.
So -- the ball is rolling. I feel like I need to sit down and make up a schedule. Why? Oh -- I don't know... so I can look back on this day 3 months from now and shake my head at my wasting of my time. I NEED to be organized... that's why... a schedule makes me feel orderly. Aren't we supposed to do things decently and in order. If things are on the list, they usually get over looked.
I guess making a schedule is the next thing on my to do list.
Praise God! What a good feeling.
Necole is going to be my supervising teacher... so if you see a comment from Necole -- she's the boss. What she says goes. LOL Oh... I'mJustKidding!! I love Necole. She is a good friend. A good friend who will tell the truth in a loving way.
So -- the ball is rolling. I feel like I need to sit down and make up a schedule. Why? Oh -- I don't know... so I can look back on this day 3 months from now and shake my head at my wasting of my time. I NEED to be organized... that's why... a schedule makes me feel orderly. Aren't we supposed to do things decently and in order. If things are on the list, they usually get over looked.
I guess making a schedule is the next thing on my to do list.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Milo's 2008-2009 School Year Plans
Milo will be doing the following. If this looks vaguely familiar -- it's because so much of our school overlaps.
So -- Milo will be starting 1st grade in Sunday School.
He will finish up Creation to the Greeks with us and begin Rome to Reformation unit. This is designed to be taught at a 2nd grade level. So anything he gleans is beneficial, but not required. He will NOT be required to do the worksheets or hands on projects, although sometimes he likes to watch the science experiments and do the hands on projects. This part of his school - hands on, is child driven. I always have him sit and listen to the readings and join in with the verse memorizing.
This includes:
Bible/History
Of course vocabulary lessons focus on Latin roots using English from the Roots Up.
Those things are all things we will be doing as a family. We set up our school like a one room school house. Combining as many things as we can. The rest of the list with be done alone, or one on one with Mom.
MFW suggests that a student begins Singapore math in 2nd grade, starting with book 1A. So - we will follow that suggest for Milo. MFW has a 1st grade program that you can purchase separately, and also teach separately one on one. I am choosing NOT to do that. Since the Math is included in the 1st grade manual, we won't be doing the MFW math for 1st grade. I WILL be getting The Complete Book of Math workbook that they suggest you get if you aren't going to do the 1st grade math. So -- he will be doing math every day from the workbook, as well as all day long as I think about it. Calendar work, days of the week, time - I recently purchased a how to tell time book for him from e-bay. (Thanks Lisa) I'll print off the Singapore placement test for the 1A text book to make sure he will be up to the standard when he will begin that program in 2nd grade. There are also all kinds of free web-sites for math that I will be using to print off worksheets, or have him play math games to keep from having any gaps in his math education.
He will be doing book A of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting series.
Our piano teacher likes to start pianos lessons in 2nd grade. He has one more year of reprieve from this "torture". LOL
He will continue using 100 EZ Lessons until it is complete. This books says the student will be on a 2nd grade reading level when complete. If he can read at a 2nd grade level at the end of 1st grade, I will be happy. Upon completing this book we will start to use the Pathway Readers together. This is one on one with Mom.
We also will be using the Bible Reader with simplified Bible stories that the student reads for himself. This is a MFW product. At the beginning on the year I read and he follows along. Then he eventually will read to me.
The spelling power book recommends we begin using this in 2nd grade. So he will not be doing spelling.
He will also work on his S.S. lesson paper and be memorizing his S.S. verse each week. I write this up on his white board list too each day.
He will not be open enrolled or dual enrolled.
So -- Milo will be starting 1st grade in Sunday School.
He will finish up Creation to the Greeks with us and begin Rome to Reformation unit. This is designed to be taught at a 2nd grade level. So anything he gleans is beneficial, but not required. He will NOT be required to do the worksheets or hands on projects, although sometimes he likes to watch the science experiments and do the hands on projects. This part of his school - hands on, is child driven. I always have him sit and listen to the readings and join in with the verse memorizing.
This includes:
Bible/History
- Rome, the life of Jesus, early church history, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation from a Christian perspective.
- Bible readings and memory verses.
- Hands-on projects: Make a Roman writing tablet and enjoy a Roman feast, construct a Roman arch, sample foods from the Middle Ages, play Medieval games and more.
- Learn to play chess and construct a cardboard castle.
- Map work, history notebook, and timeline.
- Library book. Daily reading out of the book basket! This will not be REQUIRED of him, but he can read if he wants to.
- Human body - participate in simple experiments and demonstrations as well as make simple models of body systems.
- Astronomy - explore the universe from a Christian perspective. Includes hands-on activities.
- Weekly nature walk and nature journal.
- Selected books that are integrated with the study of history to inspire and develop godly character. We will use The Bronze Bow, Twice Freed, Dangerous Journey, and Door in the Wall.
- Enjoy hands-on projects from history.
- Art lessons include drawing as well as Roman, Early Church, and Middle Ages art from a godly perspective, using God and The History of Art .
- Music appreciation lessons focus on Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart.
Of course vocabulary lessons focus on Latin roots using English from the Roots Up.
Those things are all things we will be doing as a family. We set up our school like a one room school house. Combining as many things as we can. The rest of the list with be done alone, or one on one with Mom.
MFW suggests that a student begins Singapore math in 2nd grade, starting with book 1A. So - we will follow that suggest for Milo. MFW has a 1st grade program that you can purchase separately, and also teach separately one on one. I am choosing NOT to do that. Since the Math is included in the 1st grade manual, we won't be doing the MFW math for 1st grade. I WILL be getting The Complete Book of Math workbook that they suggest you get if you aren't going to do the 1st grade math. So -- he will be doing math every day from the workbook, as well as all day long as I think about it. Calendar work, days of the week, time - I recently purchased a how to tell time book for him from e-bay. (Thanks Lisa) I'll print off the Singapore placement test for the 1A text book to make sure he will be up to the standard when he will begin that program in 2nd grade. There are also all kinds of free web-sites for math that I will be using to print off worksheets, or have him play math games to keep from having any gaps in his math education.
He will be doing book A of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting series.
Our piano teacher likes to start pianos lessons in 2nd grade. He has one more year of reprieve from this "torture". LOL
He will continue using 100 EZ Lessons until it is complete. This books says the student will be on a 2nd grade reading level when complete. If he can read at a 2nd grade level at the end of 1st grade, I will be happy. Upon completing this book we will start to use the Pathway Readers together. This is one on one with Mom.
We also will be using the Bible Reader with simplified Bible stories that the student reads for himself. This is a MFW product. At the beginning on the year I read and he follows along. Then he eventually will read to me.
The spelling power book recommends we begin using this in 2nd grade. So he will not be doing spelling.
He will also work on his S.S. lesson paper and be memorizing his S.S. verse each week. I write this up on his white board list too each day.
He will not be open enrolled or dual enrolled.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Mansel's 2008-2009 School Year Plans
Mansel will be doing the following. If this looks vaguely familiar -- it's because so much of our school overlaps. My friend Cathy said this about MFW... it's like all of the students are on the same bus. The bus is taking a tour. My 1st grader, Milo, my 3rd grader, Mansel, and my 7th grader, Tori are all headed along the same route. They all hear the same information. Milo is the youngest, he will get the least amount out of, but we keep teaching to the next level, because Mansel will get even more out of it. But don't stop there because Tori will be challenged too and retain the most. But not to worry -- because in 4 years we do the same Bible/History cycle all over again, and they will be challenged even more in those years. The bonus? My non-schoolers who are supposed to be playing with rocks and sticks... they are learning too.
So -- Mansel will be starting 3rd grade in Sunday School.
He will finish up Creation to the Greeks with us and begin Rome to Reformation unit. This includes:
Bible/History
Of course vocabulary lessons focus on Latin roots using English from the Roots Up.
Those things are all things we will be doing as a family. We set up our school like a one room school house. Combining as many things as we can. The rest of the list with be done alone, or one on one with Mom.
He will be starting Singapore Math this year. We were using Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum for math. It has served us well. But I want to stream line our curriculum as much as possible to line up with My Father's World. I want the ease in ordering and the ease of following the lesson plans as much as possible. So he will begin Singapore Math with textbook 1B. That's where the placement test put him. After he finishes that book he'll begin 2A.
He will be doing book C of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting series.
He will continue to do piano lessons on Monday, which includes 20 minutes of piano practice each day. That will be up from him normal 15 minutes.
He will continue on with the Primary Language Lessons, hopefully finishing that book this year.
Last but not least - he will continue to do spelling using the Spelling Power system that we started this spring. We do this together - one on one.
He will not be open enrolled or dual enrolled. I think we'll wait until they enter 7th grade before we start that. Knoxville has the students in middle school starting in 6th grade, but I think we'll still wait until 7th grade for each of scheduling for MOM! They begin more independent learning at this age, so they can be rewarded in this way. More independent learning required of them, so they get more independent recreation as a bonus.
He will also work on his S.S. lesson paper and be memorizing his S.S. verse each week. I write this up on his white board list too each day.
So -- Mansel will be starting 3rd grade in Sunday School.
He will finish up Creation to the Greeks with us and begin Rome to Reformation unit. This includes:
Bible/History
- Rome, the life of Jesus, early church history, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation from a Christian perspective.
- Bible readings and memory verses.
- Hands-on projects: Make a Roman writing tablet and enjoy a Roman feast, construct a Roman arch, sample foods from the Middle Ages, play Medieval games and more.
- Learn to play chess and construct a cardboard castle.
- Map work, history notebook, and timeline.
- Library book. Daily reading out of the book basket! NOTE: I put all sorts of reading levels in this book basket. From picture books up to adult level reading. I LOVE fining Mansel reading the adult level books. I'm sure a lot of times he's just looking at the pictures, but he has gained an amazing wealth of information from this book basket time. This is one of my favorite features of My Father's World.
- Human body - participate in simple experiments and demonstrations as well as make simple models of body systems.
- Astronomy - explore the universe from a Christian perspective. Includes hands-on activities.
- Weekly nature walk and nature journal.
- Selected books that are integrated with the study of history to inspire and develop godly character. We will use The Bronze Bow, Twice Freed, Dangerous Journey, and Door in the Wall.
- Enjoy hands-on projects from history.
- Art lessons include drawing as well as Roman, Early Church, and Middle Ages art from a godly perspective, using God and The History of Art .
- Music appreciation lessons focus on Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart.
Of course vocabulary lessons focus on Latin roots using English from the Roots Up.
Those things are all things we will be doing as a family. We set up our school like a one room school house. Combining as many things as we can. The rest of the list with be done alone, or one on one with Mom.
He will be starting Singapore Math this year. We were using Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum for math. It has served us well. But I want to stream line our curriculum as much as possible to line up with My Father's World. I want the ease in ordering and the ease of following the lesson plans as much as possible. So he will begin Singapore Math with textbook 1B. That's where the placement test put him. After he finishes that book he'll begin 2A.
He will be doing book C of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting series.
He will continue to do piano lessons on Monday, which includes 20 minutes of piano practice each day. That will be up from him normal 15 minutes.
He will continue on with the Primary Language Lessons, hopefully finishing that book this year.
Last but not least - he will continue to do spelling using the Spelling Power system that we started this spring. We do this together - one on one.
He will not be open enrolled or dual enrolled. I think we'll wait until they enter 7th grade before we start that. Knoxville has the students in middle school starting in 6th grade, but I think we'll still wait until 7th grade for each of scheduling for MOM! They begin more independent learning at this age, so they can be rewarded in this way. More independent learning required of them, so they get more independent recreation as a bonus.
He will also work on his S.S. lesson paper and be memorizing his S.S. verse each week. I write this up on his white board list too each day.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Tori's 2008-2009 School Year Plans
Tori will be doing the following.
Starting 7th grade in Sunday School. LOL We so don't follow "years" here. But for the outside world... she's in 7th grade.
She will finish up Creation to the Greeks with us and begin Rome to Reformation unit. This includes:
Bible/History
Of course vocabulary lessons focus on Latin roots using English from the Roots Up. I don't know about the kids, but I have really enjoyed using this to learn some Greek roots this year.
Those things are all things she will be doing WITH us. We set up our school like a one room school house. Combining as many things as we can. The rest of the list with be done alone, or one on one with Mom.
She will finish up Saxon 7/6 and then begin 8/7. I'm getting the D.I.V.E. CD for her so she can do more of this on her own.
She will do two units of Progeny Press using the books Holes, and Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Writing Strands #3 will be another language arts aspect we will be including in her school year.
She will be doing book G of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting series.
She will continue to do piano lessons on Monday, which includes 30 minutes of piano practice each day.
She will continue on with the Intermediate Language Lessons, hopefully finishing that book this year.
Last but not least - she will continue to do spelling using the Spelling Power system that we started this spring. We do this together - one on one.
That seems like a TON of stuff. What I love about My Father's World??? They have it all scheduled out for me. I've done some switching over this year -- so everything lines up with MFW and it's all planned out for me in daily lessons.
I take the Teacher's Manual and go to the white board and under each student's name I write down what I expect of them that day. If they can do the work and show me the work and it's satisfactory - then their free time begins. I include their chores on the white board too. Sometimes the day seems sort of long - but MFW is designed to be done in a 1/2 day. I try to start them EARLY so they can have some time to be KIDS!
One new thing this year -- we are opening enrolling her into the Knoxville School District. We will be dual enrolling her so she will be able to participate in athletics. Cross Country is our first option. If that goes well -- she gets her school work done as well as practice each day, then we'll decide on the next sport. That would be basket ball. Then in the spring softball and track are available. I LOVED watching her learn how to play softball and I think she would really be a benefit to their team, but we'll see. I don't think she was as excited about softball as I was. LOL
So -- that's Tori's year. I look forward to coming back to this post in June 2009 to see how much of it we accomplish in 9 months time.
Starting 7th grade in Sunday School. LOL We so don't follow "years" here. But for the outside world... she's in 7th grade.
She will finish up Creation to the Greeks with us and begin Rome to Reformation unit. This includes:
Bible/History
- Rome, the life of Jesus, early church history, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation from a Christian perspective.
- Bible readings and memory verses.
- Hands-on projects: Make a Roman writing tablet and enjoy a Roman feast, construct a Roman arch, sample foods from the Middle Ages, play Medieval games and more.
- Learn to play chess and construct a cardboard castle.
- Map work, history notebook, and timeline.
- Library book. Daily reading out of the book basket!
- Human body - participate in simple experiments and demonstrations as well as make simple models of body systems.
- Astronomy - explore the universe from a Christian perspective. Includes hands-on activities.
- Weekly nature walk and nature journal.
- For 7th and 8th graders, enrich science topics with library books or add a grade-appropriate science course such as Apologia. So she will be doing Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science on her own.
- Selected books that are integrated with the study of history to inspire and develop godly character. We will use The Bronze Bow, Twice Freed, Dangerous Journey, and Door in the Wall.
- Enjoy hands-on projects from history.
- Art lessons include drawing as well as Roman, Early Church, and Middle Ages art from a godly perspective, using God and The History of Art .
- Music appreciation lessons focus on Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart.
Of course vocabulary lessons focus on Latin roots using English from the Roots Up. I don't know about the kids, but I have really enjoyed using this to learn some Greek roots this year.
Those things are all things she will be doing WITH us. We set up our school like a one room school house. Combining as many things as we can. The rest of the list with be done alone, or one on one with Mom.
She will finish up Saxon 7/6 and then begin 8/7. I'm getting the D.I.V.E. CD for her so she can do more of this on her own.
She will do two units of Progeny Press using the books Holes, and Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Writing Strands #3 will be another language arts aspect we will be including in her school year.
She will be doing book G of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting series.
She will continue to do piano lessons on Monday, which includes 30 minutes of piano practice each day.
She will continue on with the Intermediate Language Lessons, hopefully finishing that book this year.
Last but not least - she will continue to do spelling using the Spelling Power system that we started this spring. We do this together - one on one.
That seems like a TON of stuff. What I love about My Father's World??? They have it all scheduled out for me. I've done some switching over this year -- so everything lines up with MFW and it's all planned out for me in daily lessons.
I take the Teacher's Manual and go to the white board and under each student's name I write down what I expect of them that day. If they can do the work and show me the work and it's satisfactory - then their free time begins. I include their chores on the white board too. Sometimes the day seems sort of long - but MFW is designed to be done in a 1/2 day. I try to start them EARLY so they can have some time to be KIDS!
One new thing this year -- we are opening enrolling her into the Knoxville School District. We will be dual enrolling her so she will be able to participate in athletics. Cross Country is our first option. If that goes well -- she gets her school work done as well as practice each day, then we'll decide on the next sport. That would be basket ball. Then in the spring softball and track are available. I LOVED watching her learn how to play softball and I think she would really be a benefit to their team, but we'll see. I don't think she was as excited about softball as I was. LOL
So -- that's Tori's year. I look forward to coming back to this post in June 2009 to see how much of it we accomplish in 9 months time.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
New Year
We will begin our new school year after the holiday in September. I promise my kiddos they can have all of August off... so that puts our start date at September 2, 2008.
When we start the new school year -- I'll start a new blog. This Here Blog! This will be where I document all things schoolish!
I got this idea from another ladies blog... so don't go thinking I'm all smart, or something.
I must post here once a week for accountability reasons.
I would REALLY appreciate any feed back you have to offer.
We plan on sticking to the 3 months on, 1 month off routine. Having December, April and August totally off. I really need to try to refrain from scheduleing BIG things in the 3 months on. I'm going to be very jealous of my school time this year. I hate that we didn't finish CTG in the 9 months. Now I feel behind. But I will admit... this is the LEAST behind we've ever been.
I'm now going to write a post for each kids - outlining what their school year should look like. (Lord willing.
When we start the new school year -- I'll start a new blog. This Here Blog! This will be where I document all things schoolish!
I got this idea from another ladies blog... so don't go thinking I'm all smart, or something.
I must post here once a week for accountability reasons.
I would REALLY appreciate any feed back you have to offer.
We plan on sticking to the 3 months on, 1 month off routine. Having December, April and August totally off. I really need to try to refrain from scheduleing BIG things in the 3 months on. I'm going to be very jealous of my school time this year. I hate that we didn't finish CTG in the 9 months. Now I feel behind. But I will admit... this is the LEAST behind we've ever been.
I'm now going to write a post for each kids - outlining what their school year should look like. (Lord willing.
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