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.

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.

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.

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

• 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!
  

Science

• 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.

Read Aloud

• 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.

Art and Music

• 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.

She may be instrumental in these 2 classes, gathering supplies and making the class run more smoothly. I haven't discussed that with her yet. I would like her to start taking a more active role in helping to teach the youngers. I think this would really benefit her in the long run.

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.