PLAN for DANIELLE

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!!

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.

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.

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 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

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!

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.