Ocali Days

We went on a really fun field trip today to the Silver River State Park for Ocali Days. The first thing we did was make candles. The kids started with a wick and went through about a dozen stations where they dipped the wick into melted wax and then water and repeated that 2 more times then on to the next station to do the same thing. In the end they had a candle! Hannah and Grace loved this and later went back and made another candle.



Next stop a one room schoolhouse built in 1930. All the kids got to sit in desks and a man talked to them about school back in 1930.

This man was amazing. His job "back in the day" was a telegrapher and he was so good with showing the kids morse code and explaining how it works. Hard to believe he could so easily make sense of what sounded like just a bunch of tapping. Below is a man and his wife who talked about the Civil War and the role that black people played.

All of the kids got a chance to try out the various tasks that people were working on. In the picture above, the kids are turning a sugar cane press and actually expelling juice from sugar cane. And, below, Grace is grinding corn.

Joe and KK are doing a little laundry and then later Joe and Jake visited the 1890 schoolhouse.

The big kids spent a lot of time playing checkers and all of the kids especially loved the little shops. Joe tried on this coonskin cap and really wanted to buy it but he had already spent his money on a crossbow.

Boys and their weapons....Joe is totally thrilled with this crossbow and arrows that he bought. I haven't seen him this happy over a toy in a long time. The man below used a magnifying glass and the sun to burn Joe's name into his crossbow. It was fascinating to watch.

Joe especially enjoyed this field trip and said that it was the best field trip he had ever been on. :0)

Science..

I am so frustrated by Science this year. Not for Hannah, she's using Apologia General Science and is doing all the experiments and all of the reading on Mondays in a class. The rest of the week she is pretty much on autopilot answering study guide questions. But, I just can't find anything that I'm happy with for Grace and Joe. I was going to use Lesson Pathways (free online lesson plans) but 3 lessons into it I didn't like it. Then I bought 3 Evan Moor books for grades 4 to 6. I have used their science workbooks extensively in the past and loved them. I had only used the K to 1st grade and the 1st to 3rd grade ones though. Well, there is a big jump and they get boring, a little difficult and the experiments (at least in the chemistry one) require supplies that only a chemistry lab would have. I've got some science kits and I figure we'll do some experiments from the kits but I want more of a comprehensive curriculum. I've thought about using the elementary Apologia but I had that last year on loan from a friend and never got past Lesson 2. Any advice would be much appreciated. What I'm looking for would have the following characteristics--not a lot of reading (we are doing a TON of reading aloud with Sonlight and Joe can only listen for just so long), some worksheets or other sort of activity sheets, simple experiments with household supplies, preferably topical approach--like weather, plants, the body, space, etc. Also, I can't spend much money.

Some Random Thoughts on a Tuesday about Homeschooling

I'm sitting in a local coffee shop listening to some people play folk music--2 guitars and a violin. It's kind of nice...I've had a great, but long day. We had a super productive school day and I love that. I am still working on finding the balance between productive school days where we get everything done and still having some freedom in our little homeschool. On the days where each child gets through every subject and every assignment it takes us until about 3 to finish. The thing with that is that at about 3 every day of the week we have something going on. On Mondays, it's Landon being dropped off and the kids picked up to go to theatre, on Tuesdays I tutor at 2:45, on Wednesdays I pick up a friend's daughter from school at 3 then it's home for a quick snack and I take my kids and her to theatre, on Thursdays I tutor 2 kids starting at 2:45, and on Fridays Landon gets to my house at about 3 and is there until about 7. So, whether we are done or not we have to wrap things up by 3ish. Everything we're doing this year kind of has a "you need to do it every day" style otherwise you get behind. On a week like this week when we only have 3 days actually at home it makes for long, jam-packed school days. I am trying to be a little more relaxed about getting behind or even just skipping some things and I'm doing better than I ever have. I am also thinking about doing something like going to the park in the morning and putting down a quilt and doing our morning reading there instead of at home. This could be a nice change and yet we'd still be getting work done. I think it'd be an even nicer change if it involved donuts and coffee. :0) I'd also like to add in some midday bike rides, nature walks, a rousing game of yahtzee, an art project, stuff like that. I want to enjoy this school year and I want my kids to also. I want to fully experience the blessing of homeschooling my kids and sharing their lives. I don't want to be the stressed out grumpy momma. Joe said today that he's noticed that most homeschool moms are stressed out. Thanks Joe. But, it's sometimes true. As homeschoolers we are carrying a big responsibility and this life choice is certainly not without it's stresses. Back to the balance--I'm really working on having all of Joe's school done by noon. He is a child that really, really needs plenty of downtime at home each day. When he has this time he very often chooses educational activities and that's the closest I feel like I can get to unschooling him....making sure he has the time to follow his interests. I was all set to do a Chemistry unit with him and Grace but I've changed my mind. I'd rather do a simpler (faster) science program with him. I think I'll be back to the Lesson Pathways for him and keep it simple. He really does work best being schooled alone which makes my day longer but more pleasant overall. These are just some thoughts I've had lately. A few ideas to tweak our year to make it better for us all. I wonder if any homeschooling mom has it all figured out at the beginning of the school year and then sticks to it. That's a nice idea.

Science Anyone? Art?

Yesterday we went to a play in Orlando and as I was watching the play, "Sideways Stories from Wayside School," I was hit with inspiration. Not so much from the play, although the play was awesome, one of my favorites! It was the set that totally inspired me. And, actually, just one corner of the set. They had these shelves with all sorts of science things, like a science center. Well, we have a playroom that no one has been playing in lately. Mostly they go in there and make a huge mess (like the fort that I had to clean up last night) and then don't go back in for weeks and weeks. So, I turned the room into a playroom (still has an xbox, legos, and puzzles), and a science room, and an art room. The idea is that if all of this stuff is out and readily available then the kids will engage in educational, creative activities in their free time. Not so sure that will happen but at least with all of it out it we may do more science and more art. I was really surprised at just how much stuff we have! Somebody needs to be using it.

Homeschool...Another Year Begins

On Monday we officially start our 8th year of homeschooling. You would think that after 8 years I would have it all together. Well, here's a big news flash--I don't. Never have, and never will but we still manage somehow. We are trying something brand new this year and I'm excited about it but also a little anxious. Our school days will be very full and I'm wondering how in the world it's all going to get done each day. For a while now I've wanted to be better about school coming first and letting other things fall by the wayside instead of often rushing through school in order to do or get to something. I am thinking that our curriculum will force that priority this year. The kids are going to be doing a co-op for the first time ever. Hannah will be taking Sonlight Core 100--American History, Joe and Grace will be taking Sonlight Core 3+4--American History. They will each be responsible for reading about 30 books this year. Of course some will be read alouds but still, it's a lot of reading each day. They will go to class on Mondays from 9 to 11:30 and while they are in class I'll be teaching a younger class. We will be doing My Father's World, "Adventures in American History." I did this curriculum with Hannah about 5 years ago and really liked it. I have a great class with 7 sweet little girls. I'm planning for lots of coloring, crafts, and glitter with a side of American History as well as some Bible and Science. After co-op on Mondays Hannah will go to a Science class and Grace, Joe, and I will come home and do more school. Then the rest of the week we will do each day's assignments for the History as well as our other subjects. Here's what everyone is doing, starting with Hannah.

Hannah--

• Sonlight Core 100 American History
• Teaching Textbooks 7 for Math
• Daily Language Review 7
• Wordly Wise 7
• Apologia General Science
• IEW for writing
• Spanish (just a workbook--not conversational yet, she'll retake FLVS Spanish starting next year)

Grace--

• Sonlight Core 3+4 American History
• Math Mammoth--Multiplication/Divison 2, fractions, decimals, place value--we'll make our way through every worktext we can in hopes of getting her ready for TT 6 for next school year.
• Daily Language Review 5
• Wordly Wise 5
• IEW for writing
• Lesson Pathways for Science
• French

Joe--

• Sonlight Core 3+4 American History
• Math Mammoth--every 3rd grade worktext
• Daily Language Review 3
• Wordly Wise 3
• Lesson Pathways for Science
• Evan Moor Spelling 3rd grade

Those are our plans for now. I have never found a language arts program I was happy with so I am trying something new. Each child will be doing Evan Moor's Daily Language Review and I will teach things as they come up. If this isn't working well then I will look into a different curriculum but I think between Daily Lang. Review, Wordly Wise, IEW, and Spelling we should be fine.
I wish I could say that I was all set and ready for school but there is still much to do in order for Monday morning to run smoothly. I spent no less than 3 hours at Office Depot this past week photocopying stuff and all those copies need to be filed. Binders need to be put together for each kid, supplies organized to take to co-op, my plan book to organize, etc. I have been struggling with the motivation to get all this organized but I am definitely at the point that motivated or not, it has to be done! So, that's why I'm blogging. Y'know, because I've got time to waste. :0)
I forgot to mention a few other things we'll be doing--we read for an hour every morning and we will be reading through the Bible either using the New Living Translation or a story Bible--still trying to decide along with Victor's Journey Through the Bible. Victor's is kind of like a commentary, it provides background historical and cultural info and other stuff. I'm not sure how this is going to go and I might replace it with a life application sort of devotional, who knows but for now this is what we are doing. We will also be continuing reading through William Bennett's Book of Virtues. We are about 2/3 of the way through that so I am assuming we'll finish that this year. And, finally, we are reading a chapter a day in Story of the World's Early Modern Times. I love SOTW and reading a chapter a day will give the kids some of the world history going on at the same time as the American History they are really focusing on.
I can't wait to get started on Monday, I need some structure in my life--goodbye summer!!

Just Stuff...With Pictures

The kids had Camp Rock dress rehearsal today. I love Grace's costume and hair--she's a super cute Camp Rocker doncha' think??

The kids (mostly Joe) have been playing real live "Civilization" outside. In case you aren't familiar with it--"Civilization" is a video game that involves building cities, finding resources, importing, exporting, etc., etc. Ollie tried to teach me a while back and I never could get it but Joe gets it and loves it. Last night he started creating his own Civilization in the backyard. He is China and has discovered a plant that is like silk that is his silk resource. He also has wood, rock, and other stuff. Above he is writing with a piece of wood dipped in ink made from blackberries. The girls have gotten into the game too and Hannah has created many "remedies." Grace said they were going to have a Crusade and I had to remind her that there were no Crusades in China. The good thing is that today we read about what was happening in China during the Crusades in the Middle East. China was being attacked and taken over by the Mongols lead by Genghis Kahn and later his son, Kublai Kahn. So, maybe they'll add that to their story line. History coming alive right in the backyard!

This picture above is completely out of order but oh well, it's a card Joe made me for Teacher Appreciation Day. :0) By the way, that 2nd equation is correct even though the 8 looks a lot like a 6.
Ollie helped Joe make a bow out of some bamboo.


Hannah is displaying a spear that she and Gracie worked together to carve using Grace's pocketknife. Now Hannah wants a pocketknife too.

Reflecting on Our School Year

What worked...what didn't. This has been an interesting school year if nothing else. I had some big plans at the beginning of the year, I started some new curriculum that I just knew would be amazing, and I stuck with some old curriculum because it was tried and true. As I sit here a month and a half away from the end of our school year I see that almost everything has changed including many of my own ideas about what home education should look like. Just for fun let's take this subject by subject.
Language Arts--I started all three kids in Rod and Staff English this year and really loved it up until about 2 months ago when I abruptly quit using it. The girls did more than half of their books and I am sure they learned quite a bit but as it got into the second half of the book it became very tedious and had me questioning why anyone would ever have to know this much grammar. Joe didn't make it very far in his book at all...no surprise there. He does know what a noun, verb, and adjective are though as well as basic punctuation so I'd say he's okay. Hannah and Grace have done Daily Paragraph Editing all year and have learned way more from that daily exercise than they ever learned in the English book. I just recently bought Daily Language Review for Grace and Joe and they both enjoy it and it's reinforcing many things they already know. Both of those books by the way are from Evan Moor (my fave). One area that I've totally failed at this year (again) is writing. I was so sure I was going to get a handle on writing this year and I haven't. Towards that end though the girls did most of a workbook called, "Outlining, Notetaking, and Report Writing." We never quite got to Report Writing unfortunately. I am testing out IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) during this last month of school. The girls did the first lesson today and so far so good. I can see us sticking with this and finally getting a handle on writing. Next year is the year, I can feel it. In addition to all of this we have also started the Evan Moor (my fave) unit study on Nonfiction. We are moving significantly slower than I had hoped to move but that's okay. I had planned to do some of it this year and some of it next year anyway. Trying not to stress about that. Next year for Language Arts we will be doing Daily Paragraph Editing, the Nonfiction unit study, IEW, and possibly a literature study, not sure about that yet.
Math--we started the year with everyone doing what we've been doing since Hannah was in 1st grade--Horizons math. I have always loved Horizons math....until this year. Actually, I still love it but my children do not. Specifically, Grace and Joe. They both became very anxious about math (that's an understatement--crying everyday) and so I finally just did away with the Horizons workbook and started having them do worktexts from Math Mammoth. It has been a lifesaver!!! I can't say enough good about Math Mammoth--it's cheap, simple, and solid. I will continue using it for Grace and Joe for next year and Hannah will also be doing a few of the worktexts reviewing fractions and decimals as we end our school year and into the summer. We've decided that everyone will continue math this summer. Grace and Joe both struggle with math and have made great strides in the last few months, I do not want them to forget anything! Hannah was doing fine with Horizons math but as she approached the end of the first of two workbooks for 6th grade I decided to give Teaching Textbooks a try and fell in love. She is currently in the middle of 7th grade TT and will stop for now and resume next year. When she finishes that she will start Pre-Algebra, probably mid-year.
History--We started off the school year with Story of the World Volume 2--The Middle Ages and we are still pushing our way through. We have taken our sweet time and are only on about Ch. 17 but we are now reading a chapter a day in order to finish this as soon as possible. We have plans for the kids to study American History next year so I have to wrap up The Middle Ages. I have done no extra projects but we have read a few books to go along with this--Red Sails to Capri, The Bronze Bow, and we are reading The Door in the Wall. We've done a more consistent history program in years past but I am still happy with what we have done and what we will finish before school is out.
Science--Do I have to talk about Science? It's my blog so I guess that answer is no but in the spirit of "keeping it real," here goes--Again, I had big plans. I had borrowed Apologia's "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day," from a friend and had heard such great things about it. I even bought the lapbook component and was super excited about science. Well, after almost an entire school year we are only on Lesson 3. I surrendered today and packed up the copies I had made of the lapbook along with the book and have it waiting by the door to give back to Amy. It just wasn't meant to be. One of my goals this year was to focus on Math and Language Arts and Writing and to relax about everything else. I relaxed so much that our science curriculum just didn't happen. Oops. That doesn't mean we didn't do science though--we've watched countless episodes of Nova as well as other science documentaries, read Ranger Rick every month, and done some experiments from our science kits. I would venture to say that my kids know more about science than many of their public school counterparts--at least Grace and Joe do. When Grace took the CAT5 last year she scored 100% on the science portion. With that said...I have no intention to neglect science next year. In fact, I have big plans (I've heard that before)--Grace and Joe will do lessons from my new favorite website--Lesson Pathways. They have some great science units and I'm looking forward to doing a lot of them. Hannah will likely be doing Science with some other kids--Apologia General Science.
Other Stuff--Joe is almost done with his Caldecott Winners Pocket Book, the girls did an Easter lapbook, Joe has read almost all of the A to Z Mysteries--he's on Y, Hannah has learned to cook, Grace has learned to do laundry, and much more. I guess it's been a pretty good school year after all.

Home

It seems like we have been super busy the last month and a half or so. We've had two rounds of company, a show, dentist appointments, and just stuff that takes us away from home on almost a daily basis. It feels like I am always rushing through school so we can leave. We finally had a full day at home today and even with a late start we got a whole lot done and felt relaxed while doing it. Hannah babysat two different toddlers--one in the morning and one in the afternoon and did all of her school and practiced her lines for Camp Rock. Grace got through all of her school, did laundry, and helped Hannah babysit. Joe did school and wrote a book. His little friend, Jake, is creating a library in his room and Joe is eager for his book to be in the "Friends of the Librarian" section. Noone can read it until it is in the library and they check it out. I got to read it because I typed it up for him. He did a great job and my favorite line is, "he brushed his teeth because they were yellow." School is going well with Joe these days--I'm not pushing him to do much and he is using his free time productively and even educationally. He reads a lot and also creates little projects for himself that he ends up learning from. He usually needs my help and that's another good reason to be home all day. Today I had the time to type up his book right then and there and hand him a "published" book that he is incredibly proud of. I have cancelled a field trip that we were supposed to go to tomorrow so that we can have another full day at home (at least until theatre at 4). And, we should have another full day at home on Friday. I'm going to really protect next week as well and make it a habit to protect at least 3 days a week so that we can get into a groove again. I'm planning to school right through the middle of June and there are a lot of things I'd like to do between now and then to round out our school year. This time of year is always hard for me but I really want to finish strong this year.

The Dewey Decimal System

We did something really fun today that I think everyone should go and do. :0) As part of our Evan Moor "Nonfiction" study we had to go to the library and use the above worksheet to explore the nonfiction section. I say "we" but really after a brief explanation I sent the girls to do it on their own while I read my book and did some math with Joe. They started in the 100s and perused the shelves making note of what topics were represented by the books in that section. It took them about an hour and they really had fun. Of course, as they were looking they found a lot of books to check out. We left the library with 5 bags of books. I actually got a little bit of attitude from the check out lady. That annoyed me--here I am, using the library, checking out educational books. Just because it was a lot of books should be of little concern to her. Anyway, the girls found some great books--lots of cookbooks, some books about different kinds of writing (ancient egyptian, chinese, hebrew, etc.), a book about hermit crabs, box turtles, cats, ballet, the Titanic, and more. More importantly, they saw how the nonfiction books are organized and saw that there are books about just about everything!
After their exploration, they had to pick a topic, decide on a question they wanted to answer, and use the card catalog to find a book that could answer their question. Hannah is fascinated by the story of the Titanic right now so that was her topic. Grace's original topic was cuttlefish (sp?) but we could find nothing about cuttlefish. Really, where does she get this stuff? Did you know that cuttlefish are like squid and octopus? I didn't but Grace did. Anyway, she had to change her topic to Beavers and managed to find the answer to her question. These were the first two activities in our unit study. The first pocket is about Finding Information in the Library.
The picture above is not very good but I was trying to get a picture of all the books they checked out. This is most of them but some are still in the Publix bag. I don't know if they will take the time to look through and read all of the books they checked out but I hope they will. One of the new ideas I have is to go to the library once a week or so and have the kids pick at least one book from each of the sections of the nonfiction books and read it over the course of the week (or two). There are plenty of short, picture books in every section. I would assume that some weeks they would get interested enough in one of the books that they get that they would want more information and then we can pursue that. Right now for example, Hannah is interested in the Titanic and she has a big stack of various types of books about the Titanic. Some are fiction and some are non-fiction and she plans to read them all.

School Today

So, today was our first day back to school after Spring Break. I had planned to ease our way back into our normal routine and it's a good thing I did. Today was anything but normal. First of all, the weather was crazy--stormy and rainy--and the weather radio was going off every few minutes. Grace had spent the night at a friend's house (normally a no-no on weeknights but I caved) and didn't get home until after 10. So, we got a very late start but we did start. We did our reading time--read the Bible, Book of Virtues, Young Person's Guide to Knowing God, and started a biography of Walt Disney. Then the kids did chores. We are trying something new. Joe is in charge of all living areas, Hannah is in charge of the kitchen and dining area, and Grace is in charge of bathrooms, foyer, and laundry. So far, so good. The laundry was piled up so Grace got to practice using the washer and dryer and folding a lot today. After chores we started school--this was interesting because I have all these new ideas and philosophies that I'm eager to test out but yet unsure how I want our school time to look still. This is most definitely a work in progress and I am assuming that every day will be different and I will bore you with seemingly endless blog posts because not only do I write for your enjoyment (ha!) but this is my journal as well. Hannah had an easy first half of the day because much of what she needed to do was on the computer and we had everything unplugged to protect it against all the lightning. She wrote an article for the Bunk Room, read for half an hour (she is reading Homesick by Jean Fritz), and did Wordly Wise. Later she did Math and attempted her virtual school Spanish. I finally convinced her to just quit that class today. I'm not crazy about the style of teaching and she wasn't retaining much. She had an assignment and a big test and she had hit a wall and just didn't think she could do either and I couldn't help her. I think part of her problem is that I helped her too much during the first semester. Because of that I've been completely hands off for this second segment and consequently cannot help her. Anyway, I have a great Spanish workbook and that will suffice for now. Grace did Math, Wordly Wise, read for half an hour, and wrote an article for The Bunk Room. Joe did Math, helped me make a cake, finished up a project for his Caldecott Winners pocket book, and read for a while. I had hoped to do a couple of the experiments in his science kit that he got for his birthday but he wasn't into it so I didn't push it (one of my new ideas). It was a good start for the first day back after almost two weeks off. I'm hoping with each new day I'll have a better idea for how I want to do things and what that looks like day to day. I keep reminding myself that these last couple of months of school are one big experiment. Surely by next fall I'll know what I'm doing, at least until I change things again. :0)

Homeschooling Changes...

Okay, these are the kinds of posts that are very hard for me to write because it means taking the jumbled thoughts out of my head and trying to make them into words and sentences and paragraphs that you, the reader can understand. So, bear with me if this gets a little confusing. In past years of homeschooling I have done a lot of lapbooks, small unit studies, science experiments, and more history. After feeling like I was too task oriented about accomplishing these hands on things and rushing through them to check them off a list I decided to just quit doing them this year. I felt like my kids weren't getting that much out of them because in my haste to finish I was taking the fun out of the project and not allowing for much depth. So, consequently, this year has been day after day of Math, English, Wordly Wise, and a few other workbook style language arts practice. No wonder it's been our worst year ever. The kids have definitely learned and progressed but the spark is gone. I had already decided to scrap the English book in favor of this--Nonfiction by Evan Moor for the girls. I am also doing an Easter lapbook from In the Hands of a Child. So, I've added a little fun back into school and that's a start.
I would also like to start following the kids' interests more and "living a life of learning" as opposed to "doing school." I read the book, Homeschooing: A Family's Journey by Gregory and Martine Millman and it really inspired me. They take more of an unschooling approach but yet do a lot. I am not much of an unschooler, I have always felt too undisciplined to just wake up every day without a plan but I found some ideas in this book that I could use in my own homeschool. For one thing, I want to have less specific curriculum that just becomes rote learning. When I think of the workbooks I do with Joseph, outside of his Math and Wordly Wise I think the others are really a waste of time. I bought one Comprehensive 2nd grade book back around Christmas and thought that if we finished that I would feel like he had done 2nd grade. He does the pages in the book but they are so disjointed and shallow that I don't think it's even worth the time we spend on it. It would be much more valuable to take a walk and point out nouns, act out verbs, and use adjectives to describe what we are seeing for example. Joe hates writing in the workbook but will happily write a sentence out of a book he is reading so we could do that more as handwriting. I still have a few science kits with plenty of supplies and experiments to keep us having fun with science for a long time. I have a bookshelf full of science and history picture books, biographies, art books, etc. We could spend a day reading about volcanoes, Pompeii, and even build a volcano, or paint a volcano, and watch an instant play video on Netflix about volcanoes. That would be interesting and informative and I know the kids would remember it. So, I am going to "practice" learning through living in these last couple of months of school and see if it's something I want to continue long term next year. I am planning to get out of the house more and either go on field trips or nature walks, or take the book that we're reading aloud for history and go sit by the lake for read aloud time. So, in a nutshell--I am going to do less bookwork (of course, math is still a daily subject) but hopefully more learning. In the next couple of days I am going to make a list of the things I want to do, and want the kids to work on and learn for the rest of the school year and then set about making that happen. More than anything I want to find joy in homeschooling again. So, we'll see. Of course, I'll document much of what we do here on my blog. Stay tuned...

My Kids

I have some cool kids. I love my kids. I love their unique personalities. I have chosen to spend my days and nights with them. They are in close proximity to me 99 percent of the time. I am so thankful that I am able to stay home with them and homeschool them. With all of that said...I often feel so guilty because I let life get busy, I let to do lists take precedence and I don't enjoy them the way I want to. I don't have fun with them. Instead I order them around, nag, complain, or shush them so I can think to do whatever it is I am distracted by in the moment. I think part of the problem is that there is no delineation between "my time" and time with them. They are just always around and often trying to talk to and interact with me. I feel so guilty because I so seldom stop what I'm doing, and look at them when they are talking to me. This is something I really want to change. If I don't there will come a day when I look back and realize that their childhood is gone and there are no do-overs. My life is likely not going to get any less busy, my to do list will likely not get any shorter, I won't get any better about trying to do too much, but my attitude can certainly change. I can quit the grumbling and complaining and choose joy. The other night at a theatre event I was feeling very impatient with my kids. It didn't help that they were trying to steal my fries. I relish each and every fry and do not like to share. And, because I generally say what I am thinking I sort of launched into a diatribe about how my kids are making me crazy b/c they are THERE all the time. It didn't help that I had this little meltdown conversation with two ladies that don't homeschool and therefore probably don't "get" it. They were probably thinking that I should put my kids in school since I am so obviously unhappy with having them at home. I have found myself wanting to write those two ladies an e-mail or just talk to them explaining myself and letting them know that I am happy but that seems lame. I was being "real" in the moment and I can't just explain it away. I am just hoping that I have also shown the side of me that is enjoying my kids and happy with my kids. Because this is the thing--I do have great kids. I seldom say that and certainly don't rave about my kids in my FB statuses or even on this blog like some moms do. I've jokingly said that I am just not that enamored by my kids, we spend too much time together. :0)
One thing that I am not good at is taking time to "stop and smell the roses." I want to do that more and do that with my kids. Maybe incorporate more walks and bike rides into our day while the weather is nice. Or take school to the park or to the lake as one of my FB friends did today. My kids deserve more of me and more of a happy, calm me. Not the me who is forever running amok doing this, that, and the other. This is my new goal--not to get loads of school done every day, not to finish the science book, not to be the perfect homeschooler--but instead to enjoy my days as I live life with my kids. Much easier said than done!!

Homeschooling ChitChat

So, we are a little ways past our halfway point for the year and now is a good time to re-evaluate some things and think about what I really want to accomplish with the rest of our school year. This is one of those posts that is really more for my own benefit but I know there are some homeschoolies out there who will enjoy reading this just because most of us like to hear what other people are doing. We've had an interesting homeschool year. We've done very little history and science compared to past years but we are doing some. This has been the year to buckle down with math and writing and language arts.
So, let's talk about Hannah first--She has completed two virtual school classes--art and keyboarding. I've been disappointed int he fact that the keyboarding really hasn't stuck with her. I have to remind her to use the right keys and most of the time I don't remind her. I was given one of those old school keyboarding books, actually I think it was the same one I used in typing class in high school. I keep thinking I'll have her practice typing using that book but haven't gotten to it. She is over halfway through her third virtual school class--Spanish. I'll be honest, I wanted to quit this class after the holidays. I had been having to help her a lot and she did TERRIBLE on her first semester final exam. It really made me wonder if she had learned anything at all. I ended up buying her a workbook to supplement the class and she does a lesson in that everyday. Back to me wanting to quit--I told Hannah that I thought she should quit the online class and just do the workbook but she didn't want to quit. So, since then, she has done it almost completely on her own and is retaining it better (at least I think she is). The jury is still out for me about whether I like FLVS or not and whether she will take any classes next year. She wants to take the career class and there are one or two others that look interesting, all elective classes. We'll see. The think I really don't like is that some of these assignments take a long time and take away from what I consider to be more important subjects. For math Hannah has completed the first book in Horizons 6. Each grade level has two books. As she was finishing the first I realized that I didn't have the next one and while talking to a friend I decided to give Teaching Textbooks a try. So, Hannah started TT 7 a few weeks ago. Well, I'm in love and now really want to do TT with all three kids next year. It's pricey though and so I'm not sure if I can afford it or not. I've really seriously considered not buying any other curriculum and just getting the TT. Truly I have enough books and stuff (curriculum, lapbooks, science kits, etc.) to easily keep them all learning the whole year long. It would be nice to actually use all this stuff that I've collected. Back to Hannah--I don't expect her to finish TT7 by the end of this school year and so we will just pick up where we left off next year and then after that she'll do Pre-Algebra. She is also doing Rod and Staff English 6. I have to say that I really like it as far as English goes but am completely questioning whether they need all this grammar. I've decided to have her complete the book but probably won't do an intensive grammar curriculum every year since it all just repeats anyway. One thing I am loving about R&S though is that every 5th lesson or so is a writing lesson including paragraph writing, taking notes, and outlining, and more. The rest of her school is Wordly Wise 6, Daily Paragraph Editing, a workbook on Outlining and Paragraph and Report Writing, Science and History (more on that later). She also reads for half an hour every day from a book that I have chosen. She reads much more than this every day but the rest of her reading time is from books she has chosen. Occasionally she will be so into her "school" book that she will keep reading even during her free time. If you look on my sidebar you will see a list of books she has read for school. This is the time that I get in the classics as well as some books that go along with our history studies.
Gracie--My main focus with Grace is math this year along with language arts. She was doing Horizons Math 3 and I was pushing her to go through pretty fast since by Horizons' standards she was a year behind. Well, that backfired on me when math became a huge source of anxiety for her. We spent a couple of weeks learning her multiplication tables and then started using them and doing bigger and bigger problems and she just wasn't ready. After a week or two of tears and major anxiety I ditched the book and got her started with the Math Mammoth Multiplication A worktext. The beginning was super easy for her and then it slowly went through all of the multiplication facts. By the end of the unit (she finished today) she was easily filling out the multiplication grid and is getting better and better with her times tables. I bought her the first unit on division today and we will start working on that tomorrow. She is still behind on math but that's life. Math is just something that you can't really rush and I know it's important to take as much time as she needs to lay a strong foundation in arithmetic. I would really love to start her in TT5 next year but we'll see. For now I am loving Math Mammoth--you buy it in individual units and the units are anywhere from 3 to 5 dollars. You download them and then print the pages out. Grace is also doing Rod and Staff English 4 and doing great with it. It's very grammar intensive and I have the same reservations that I have with Hannah. We are definitely finishing out this year but will take a break from sentence diagramming and such next year. Grace is also doing Wordly Wise 4, Daily Paragraph Editing, Cursive Writing, and the Outlining unit that Hannah is doing. She reads for a half hour a day from books that I choose (you can see a list of what she has read for school on my sidebar) and does some reading in her free time but not as much as I'd like. She had a hard time learning to read and still struggles with it a little. Of course she is also doing History and Science but more on that later.
Joe has matured by leaps and bounds this year and we are getting a lot accomplished every day. I am also using Math Mammoth with Joe after he started freaking out with Horizons too. He is doing the Addition and Subtraction unit and doing great. He just gets it the way they explain it and is much more confident. I forgot to mention this in Grace's paragraph but he and Grace are also working through this book of Math Tricks called, Two Plus Two is Not Five. We do a trick every day and they are both getting really fast at simple addition and really memorizing the facts. I make it a game with a stopwatch and there is always a prize for both of them. Usually candy. I hate that I'm giving them candy every day but for now it's working and that's that. In addition to Math, Joe is doing a 2nd grade comprehensive workbook--he does 4 pages a day. He also does Wordly Wise 2, Money Flash cards, reads a page out of his President's book that he got for Christmas and works on his unit study on Caldecott Award Winners. We call that art because it almost always involves an art project. He also does Science and History with the girls.
Now to talk about Science and History--For Science we are doing "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day." We are making our way through this very, very slowly but I love it! I seriously doubt that we will finish it this year but that's okay, we can carry over until next year as long as Amy doesn't need it back. :0) For History we are doing Story of the World Volume 2--The Middle Ages. I'm really enjoying it. We aren't doing a whole lot more than just reading each chapter and doing the map work but that's okay, they are learning. I am having the girls do the tests after each chapter and so far they haven't done so great but it's making them listen better in hopes of doing better on the test. I love learning history and it's fun to do a new time period. I have done the Creation to Greeks time period twice and done a year of American History so it's fun for me to learn something new. Story of the World is awesome and I am thinking we will continue with Volume 3 after we finish Volume 2. I doubt we will finish that this year either though. That's okay, there's no rush and we can just carry that over to next year as well. I miss doing lapbooks and special projects but I needed a break from that sort of thing. I did buy the girls an Evan Moor pocket book type thing like Joe's Caldecott study. Theirs is called, "Nonfiction" and each pocket focuses on each section of the Dewey Decimal System. The first pocket is the 100s, second pocket is the 200s and so on. For each pocket they read books from that section and then do projects or reports and stuff like that. It looks great I just need to get it prepped and get going with it. We'll probably start that after Spring Break.
So--that's where we are at and what we are doing. Sometimes I wish that we lived a less busy and less social life and so had way more time at home and I had a much shorter "to do" list so we could read more books, play more games, do more projects, and so on. But, our life is what it is and I wouldn't be happy having it any other way. My kids get to have a lot of life experiences that can't be measured on a school transcript. They are developing into independent, capable, responsible little people and I'm so proud of them!

Unschooling Anyone?

Sometimes I wish I believed more in unschooling. Sometimes I wish my kids went to school. I'd love to wake up each day with the freedom I used to feel to do whatever I wanted for the day. Now I wake up with a major agenda every day. When life gets busy and I have to take a day off of school to catch up on other stuff I feel guilty. Most of the time I just stay terribly behind on just about everything--including homeschooling. There is so much that I want to teach my kids and so much to do in a day that I never feel like we are where we should be or caught up. I don't like that feeling but it seems the harder I try to catch up the further behind I get, not just with school--with everything. If we were unschoolers or less tied to a curriculum then we could play all these educational games and science kits I've invested in. We could finally do that nature study and nature notebook that I have planned to do every year for the last 7 years. We could watch some of those educational movies and read more good books. When it comes down to it though I'm afraid that without a specific curriculum I would end up doing a whole lot of nothing. I'm not disciplined enough. We've had two days off of school this week already--I had a ridiculously busy weekend so I needed one more weekend day to get some things done and then today we went to a play (Anne Frank and Me--very educational). So, tomorrow morning I will wake up knowing that we need to work and work and work and get it ALL done. Pressure's on, no fun 'til we're done.
Sorry for the rant...just feeling overwhelmed and underpaid. This homeschooling business is hard! But oh so worth it. I love my kids and love teaching them. I'm living my dream. I'm living my dream. I'm living my dream. :0)

School and Life With Joe

We've successfully finished two full days of school...only 178 or so to go...I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...I really can't complain, our days have gone very well. Just long! It takes a long time to school three kids and do it right. I am hoping to get more efficient with our days but I think this is just how it will be. Today was especially long because I schooled until about 3:30, then spent some time with Joe overseeing a shower and chores, then made dinner, and then went to the library and tutored for two hours, then to Office Depot to make copies, and then back home. Once I got home I realized that I hadn't exercised today or yesterday (I'm trying for every other day for now) and so I went on a half hour bike ride. Yes, I'm ready to collapse now!! I'll go to bed here shortly and get up and do it all again--minus the tutoring. I am happy to be back to normal life even if it is busy. I just feel settled for the first time in a long time and that feels good.
Remember how I mentioned in my last post that Joe is obsessed with the Little Miss and Mr. Men books? Well, today he was acting like various characters. Little Miss Chatterbox nearly made me crazy but Little Miss Magic was pretty funny. Mr. Nosy can take a hike but Little Miss Daredevil was interesting. Schooling Joe is one of the hardest things I've ever done and I am just so thankful that he is so darn smart. He definitely thinks out of the box though as was evidenced by one of his assignments today. He is doing Wordly Wise 2 and he had an exercise where there were groups of 4 words and he had to circle the word that was different. One of the groups had the following four words--pair, two, couple, and crowd. Of course, the word that didn't belong was crowd, everything else meant "two." Well, Joe insisted that the word that didn't belong was "two" because the others all had to do with groups of people. At that point he was definitely being Mr. Stubborn and Mr. Know it All. It's hard to teach him anything because he insists that he's right about everything. By God's grace he is learning though.

Real Life....

Well, this week we are returning to real life. After a summer filled with trips, summer camp, play dates, theatre,...it's time to get back to real life. We don't start school for another week but I knew that I should get a head start on getting back into a routine with chores and a little structure. To say that it has been a rough week is a huge understatement. For one thing, change is never easy for Joe and he will fight it like there's no tomorrow. He has had lots of screaming fits this week and honestly, I've been less than patient. Maybe I should have waited until my PMS had passed before taking this on, but what's done is done and the worst is behind us. There were actually no fits today from Joe when it came time to do chores. He still wasn't happy and wanted me to walk him through what he needed to do and complained the whole time but I'll take complaining over screaming any day of the week. The girls have adjusted much more smoothly, I can't complain. The other area though that all three kids have struggled with this week is entertaining themselves and getting along with each other. When my kids spend too much time away from home being entertained by others they seem to forget what to do with free time. Hannah and Grace have both told me this week that reading is boring--that's about the worst thing you can say to someone like me who is never without a book nearby. Yeah, it's been a rough week. But, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Already, I am seeing improvement and a settling in of sorts. We aren't "there" yet but getting there. I am hoping for a smoother week next week--kids will be more used to routine and settled back in to life at home I hope and momma will hopefully be more hormonally balanced.
Back to chores--I am very happy with our chore system. I am using the same thing I did last year--there is a paper in every room and there are daily chores to be done in each room and then each day there is one or two added chores. I need to update the bedroom list and make a playroom list and add a couple of things to the other lists but all the thinking I put into this system last summer is paying off--it still works! I made a few changes--Joe has more chores this year. He had it easy last year, he was only responsible for cleaning up under the table and the foyer. I've added the little bathroom (much to his dismay) and the playroom to his list. The girls have swapped bathroom and kitchen. Hannah now does the bathroom and Grace has taken over the kitchen. All in all I am happy with it. My house is happy too--it's staying mostly picked up and clean again.
Well, I must go and make some lunch...
Peace out my friends!

Virtual School

I signed Hannah up for three virtual school classes all starting July 1st. We have had a busy week and so today was the day we were going to figure this thing out! We had already talked with two of her teachers, I just need to make an appointment to call the spanish teacher so she can start that class. With each of these classes you have to read a lot of boring course information and then take a quiz about it. That part took the longest. Hannah and I went to a local coffee shop so she could work uninterrupted and after 2 and a half hours she had succeeded in getting through the intro for two classes and getting one assignment done for the keyboarding class. She has to try to do three assignments per week in each class. This is going to be a challenge for the next two weeks as she already has a lot going on. Hopefully the work won't be too hard. I think she can manage though! Especially if I take her to the coffee shop and feed her frozen lemonades. Notice the bright smile at the beginning and look how tired she looks after two and a half hours!! Poor kid with the mean slave driver momma! :0)

Homeschool BikeFest!

We had a fabulous day!  We went on a big bike ride with lots of friends.  I think there were 25 of us total including 5 moms.

First, the kids and I rode our bikes over to Maria's house, I think it was maybe 2 miles maybe less.  I'm no good with distance. There we met up with the rest of the crew and got ready to go.  Everyone was given a number and the kids got lined up by number and mostly stayed this way for the whole bike ride. 

And, we were off to our first destination!  Our first destination wasn't far but it was on a kind of busy, narrow road.  The kids did great though and we all made it safely to the Mermaid House where most of the kids took a dip in the pool and we all ate an ice cream sandwich!  One of my favorite things is an ice cream sandwich and on a hot day with friends, even better! 

After getting everyone together for a group shot we headed out again.  Our next stop--Granny's Cottage by the lake.   Here we snacked on mini sticky buns and most of the kids jumped in the lake.  Are you starting to notice the trend with food--particularly sugary food?  Yep, every stop included food! 

From here we had a pretty long stretch to our next destination--the park and a picnic lunch. 

The mommas rested up here but the kids really only slowed down long enough to eat.  Then they played at the park until time to go again.  Our next stop wasn't far at all and included air conditioning and ice cream at a local ice cream shop. 

After getting all sugared up we were on our way once again--back to Maria's and the pool.  We did some off roading through the woods on a bike path to get there and it was beautiful and the shade felt great!  Once we got to Maria's the kids swam and the mommas sat and drank margaritas and talked and laughed and all that fun stuff. 

We had a wonderful day and can't wait to do it again!  Even the heat wasn't too bad, besides we needed to sweat off all those extra calories we consumed today!!