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
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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.
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