Category Archives: Homeschool Happenings

Homeschool Happenings

Well, I’ll be honest right from the start.

I have been ~~a wee bit~~ totally unmotivated in the schooling department.

Perhaps burn-out is a better word here.

I on one hand don’t want to post that, because then I might hear things like “well put them in school” just as an example. And I don’t mean from comments here on the blog. KWIM?

On the other hand, I know I’m not the only teacher who experiences this. I have a good friend who teaches in a local high school. She gets burn-out too. We have talked about it. She has challenging students as well. Just sayin’

When I take stock though, we have seen some major accomplishments as of late.

I thought a little list is in order:

1). Li’l Miss is reading C-V-C words easily. She is also BLENDING!!! Her ST has commented on her reading abilities as well. I am so proud of her efforts. She is VERY motivated, which makes teaching her fun!

2). Li’l Dude can count to ten!!! And sometimes he can count to 12. Even more, he can identify the numerals 11-20 when he sees them. YEAH!

3). Larry is reading on a 2nd grade level with great comprehension. He is also reading above that grade level, but his comprehension is not there for many things at levels above grade 2 words. Still he asks questions when he doesn’t understand a word meaning, which to me is success on the comprehension aspect.

4). Mo is doing well in many areas, but perhaps the area he has really made me most proud is taking part in our church’s Christmas Musical and trying out for a speaking role for the first time. He told them the part he hoped to get when he tried out and he got it! He finally took the leap and tried out this year, and he has memorized his lines so well and is excited and ready for the big day. It is this coming Sunday and they will perform in all 3 morning services. My stomach is already doing flip-flops, but he is very confident and I am so proud of his taking ownership of this and working so hard to do his best!

5). Curly excels in many areas, but perhaps the area where he is doing the best right now is growing into a young man. Seriously, he has matured so much and he is SO HELPFUL with his younger siblings. Li’l Dude has taken a particular liking to him because of their mutual love for LEGO building, and it is incredibly wonderful to watch Curly encourage Li’l Dude in his own LEGO pursuits. It truly warms my heart! They are 7 years apart in age, but I see them as kindred spirits on many levels. Who knew? BUT God. 🙂

So without further ado, a few photos I have managed to snap in recent weeks. Like I said, I’ve been burned out and we have not logged in as many school days in November as I would have liked, but we will be schooling more days in December than we normally do. And this year, I am fully committed to schooling through the summer. I’m not sure what form that will take and it will be modified to be sure our afternoons are FREE for swimming, but we have lost ground in math and I’m not willing to take that risk again. So I know our summer school will include daily math drills and perhaps some creative writing tasks that I haven’t ironed out yet, but anyway we will get it all in!

I recently read a post on the yahoo group I’m a member of for families who homeschool and have adopted (PM me for an invite if this applies to your family no matter where your child was adopted from!). The post really blessed and encouraged me because this Mom, who has homeschooled for 26 YEARS! straight, shared how some of the most important things we’ll teach our children DO NOT come out of textbooks. HOW TRUE that is! As I watch literally it seems God growing our children’s love for their waiting little sister, I credit that as learning. Oh how we’ve been on the other side of that difficult transitional time when God is grafting another child into our home, and I do pray everyday not a moment is wasted as He prepares us yet again for that grafting.

OK, I rambled. Some photos and brief descriptions of recent events in our school days!

This is one of our favorite games to play lately! Yes, this is mine from childhood. Don’t you love the hairstyles LOL!

Speaking of games, I love a suggestion I learned from MOTL (Math on the Level; our math curriculum). We will play a game but add in some math questions along with it. As each person has their turn, they choose a card from their stack of math questions. The beauty is everyone can play a game together, but their math questions can be individualized. In the photos above, Li’l Dude, Li’l Miss and me are playing Candy*land and they are answering questions about shapes and the numbers 1-20. I have on my to-do list making cards with the tens facts 20-100. I was VERY PLEASED with how well they identified the numbers 10-20. Li’l Miss can count to 20 now and Li’l Dude can get past 10, but the best part is they can both identify them all by sight. Major accomplishments here let me just tell you! Number ID has NOT come easy around here! 🙂

We participated in an International Festival with a local homeschool group in late October. The children all worked together and chose the country of Norway to study. I was so proud of their work and their efforts in putting it all together. We were able to walk around and learn from other students about many countries around the world! It was a fun event that we hope to participate in again next year.

We love, love, love this game we printed for FREE from this site (look under the math tab for “Add-It”). I have a tub of various counters (by the way, don’t ever throw out pieces to games when you get rid of the games b/c the board has disintegrated; keep the counters!!!). Li’l Dude and Li’l Miss are adding now. My only wish is that the creator of this ingenious idea would make a subtraction set! A girl can dream!

**Photos below taken on my phone so not great quality but the leaves were beautiful!**

We went on a leaf hunt one day around our yard and a few neighbors’ yards in October, and we were absolutely in awe of the beauty of the leaves. How can anyone deny a Creator? We decided to make a garland out of the leaves. We just took it down, and it was even beautiful still even with the leaves drying out. It still had color. Hard to explain but it did!

And finally, some fun with phonics! I pulled out our Scrabble Slam game and used it for a fun phonics lesson with the littles. I could put together the word endings that I knew they could read and then they were instructed to choose consonants to form new words. They did great and it really encouraged them in their reading!

I also did a similar activity with some phonics tiles Grammy gave us. They liked using these too.

Speaking of reading, I highly recommend Reading Eggs for anyone who needs a bit of reinforcement in this area. Yes, it is computer-based, but they love it and we use it in moderation and it does help me out too by freeing me up to do things with the older boys while they work on this. We have two very old MACS (one in the schoolroom, one in the kitchen), so I can put them on simultaneously and then have 20 minutes to work with someone else individually. I got our subscription through Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op at a DEEP discount. Highly recommend that site as well for huge savings; it is FREE to join the co-op!

Well that is about all I have photos of I think from the last 6 weeks or so. I am ready for a new month and hopefully will stick to our plans a bit more this month. Maybe LOL!

Math@Our House: Games, Games and More Games!

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I *try* to incorporate active learning into every single day. Note the word *try.* It is hands-down (no pun intended) the best way for all of mine to learn. I never hear any complaining (not that any of my students would do that … ahem) when we are on our feet or seated at the table playing a game.

I am going to highlight some things we’ve done recently for school, and some of them had no idea it was even a lesson!

We have had this game since Curly was 5 years old. I distinctly remember him receiving it at his 5th birthday party from a friend. I know, I remember odd things. Anyway, it has been on our game cabinet untouched for more than a year I would say. On this day, I decided to try it while Mo and Larry were at their Junior Achievement class. Curly decided to play along for old time’s sake. This used to be his favorite game!

Well, it is going to be a favorite again I think! They are already asking to play it again. It took them a bit to get the hang of it, but I was so encouraged by the thinking going on with this game. After we finished, they like their older brother decided to extend the learning by trying to put together more of the sets using the instruction cards.

We will be pulling this one off the shelf again soon! (And upon seeing the selling price on Amazon, on second thought, this game may be leaving our cabinet. $274??? Really???)

Moving on to our next math lesson … I mean, game time! Curly and I played a competitive game of Equate. I mentioned finding this gem at the used curriculum sale I attended. This game does not disappoint. If you have a Scrabble lover in the family who happens to deplore math, you NEED this game.

I was very impressed with the equation-making going on. We were able to review and put to use exponents, negative numbers, fractions, mixed numbers and all 4 operations of arithmetic using those numbers as well as whole numbers. I was winning when we quit … just saying … though we declared it a draw because official Scrabble rules say all tiles must be used before a winner is declared … and dinner was ready. There WILL be a rematch! 🙂

Yesterday, Mo asked to play Grocery Store with me for part of his math lesson. It was easy to say yes. There is so much you can do with this concept. I decided to work on percents (and fractions and decimals) since he has shown a natural interest in figuring this all out. I sent him shopping for 5 items using our evolving list, and he came back and totaled the items.

Just as he was counting his money to pay the salesperson (ME!), I made an announcement, “SHOPPERS, today is your lucky day! Every purchase will be discounted 25% off today!” He giggled and said, “Mom, that is 1/4 off.” BINGO! But how to figure out the new total? He says, “A calculator.” Um … no. As we walked through the steps, he told me we needed to divide, but what how was he going to do that with dollar signs and decimals? I reminded him those things *could* be removed for the sake of calculation. He then made the $14.76 into 1,476 and divided by 4.

The only part he struggled with was going from the original total to the new total. After some hints, he said, “Oh, I just need to subtract the 1/4 off of the total.” EUREKA, I think he has it! I briefly explained to him that obviously in a store one would not do long division and that in our next lesson we would talk about how estimating and rounding could be very handy if one is in a store where a calculator is not handy and you are paying cash (and need to be sure you have enough $$).

I am certain Grocery Store math is one of the BEST ways to teach children. In this 15-minute lesson, we discussed and put into practice fractions, percents, decimals being removed and put back in proper placement, subtraction and addition of 4-digit plus 4-digit numbers with and without decimals and dollar signs, long division and counting money! Not bad!!!

Of course, the littles saw the Grocery gaming going on and wanted their time with Mom and the Grocery basket. I decided we’d play around and really try to learn about the 4 main coins and of course the dollar! I think they get the dollar as they received $1 for allowance on the weekend if they complete chores during the week. They are not solid in the 4 main coins though after our Grocery lesson, they understand them more.

I even threw in some things like “4 quarters equals 1 dollar because 25 is 1/4 of 100.” I figure hearing it now will only prime their brains for learning it later! They didn’t want to quit shopping! As they gathered 3 items at a time, I would have them count out the money they owed. I used only items for their evolving list that contained dollars and cents by tens.

I was pleased with how they counted by tens, contemplated which coins to use, and counted out dollars up to 5 dollars. Li’l Miss was even concerned when she quickly realized her total was $5 and she had only $3, so we talked about how important it is to be sure we don’t buy more than we can pay for in a trip!

We love to play this game I got for FREE from Confessions of a Homeschooler. It is called Add It and is the first game listed on her math printables page.

My Li’l Dude needed some extra encouragement, so he *drove* his beans to add them up. He LOVED it. We used the 1s and 2s cards and beans (Li’l Dude) and colored macaroni (Li’l Miss) for our counting.

I also found this wonderful little gem thanks to a link at love2learn2day’s math blog hop a few weeks ago. You can download it at the link above.

Li’l Dude helped me build the numbers with LEGO bricks. He liked that too as he is a building machine! I decided to write some two-digit numbers on the board because Li’l Miss is interested, and then they made the numbers using the LEGO numbers, which we are keeping in our math box for future learning.

We love to use our Education Cubes and this little game did not disappoint.

We are still working on the numbers 1–20, so I decided to use the Dot Counting Set from the Members Only Site at Education Cubes.

But I added a twist. I got out our Pattern Blocks and we counted out the same number of pattern blocks as the dots on each die. They loved this, and it got them counting!

After 5 rolls, I then told them to make something out the Pattern Blocks they had counted out. Li’l Miss made some beautiful flowers with some amazing patterns and symmetry. I didn’t get any great photos b/c she was creating them and starting over faster than I could snap. Li’l Dude made a “monster truck” that was quite creative as well. We will do this game again I think!

Finally, if anyone is still reading, I thought I would give a snapshot of our 3 big guys’ 5-A-Day pages from one day this week. I know it sounds crazy to give them only 5 problems a day but it really is great. I can often add in multiple skills to one problem, and can also add in a problem every now and then with a skill I’m fairly sure they don’t know. To my surprise, more than once, they either know it or have figured it out. These pages do challenge them, and I can virtually put any type of problem I want. Why test them with 20 of the same type of problem if they know the skill? I think this idea will also prepare them more for the type of test they will see such as the ACT and SAT where math problems will be random and not 20 of the same kind. It does TAKE TIME and I have to do them at night or quite frankly, they don’t get done. But once I get going, I can do all 3 in 15 minutes.

Well that is math that has been going on at our house in the last few weeks. Mind you, this does not take place every day but I do try to do something hands-on with the littles each day even if just giving them the pattern blocks and seeing what they build with no guidance. We will count them as we clean up or something like that! I’m linking up with the Math Blog Hop at love2learn2day and Education Cubes Show & Tell.

A Post A Day: Math at Our House

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I have discovered since I began teaching our children 2 years ago that I actually *like* math.

I always thought I *strongly disliked* math.

I may have used the *H a _ _* word in place of strongly dislike above. On more than one occasion. Maybe.

But as we’ve taken an approach to math that to some might be a bit too relaxed, I have discovered math is actually fun!

Fun?! Yes.

I bought this curriculum at the homeschool expo two years ago. We shelved it mostly last year after using it exclusively the first year of homeschooling. It can be a bit intimidating to a former math hater like me.

But. Big but. It is an amazing resource. And the more I use it, the more I love it.

Besides, I now know what a prime number is. And a composite number for that matter.
And after a lesson one night with Daddy, the big boys all have a solid grasp of this as well.

For Curly, it was total review which was great because he sometimes struggles with retaining math concepts. Larry had a really hard time with it, but I had to wonder if language was not a big factor in that.

I spent quite a bit of time the past few weeks figuring out exactly where everyone is in terms of math mastery … or not.

Our three oldest are all at different places, thus they all have notebooks with our teaching goals typed out separately: what concepts to review, which ones they have mastered, etc.

Mo and Larry can be taught a lot of concepts together, but Mo has more experience in some concepts while Larry in others.

Curly needs more than either of them can handle at this point. I do keep all of the teaching times for new concepts to 30 minutes tops, and 15 minutes being the goal.

After that, eyes begin to glaze over anyway.

One of the neatest components to Math on the Level is the 5-A-Day papers. I have created my own template, which was inspired by several other ladies’ templates they shared on a MOTL yahoo group.

It is working out quite well. Instead of 10,000 multi-digit multiplication problems, I can give them a few a day or one a week or whatever I feel is warranted. If they are consistently answering a type of problem correctly, I can be assured they have mastered that concept. No need for 10,000 multiplication problems.

I also gleaned another idea from the ladies at the MOTL yahoo group: a math notebook which travels with the student from year to year. The beauty behind it is it becomes a sort of reference tool. Not only that, as I teach a new concept, I encourage the older boys to take notes. This helps them not only hear the message, but they are writing it out as well. They can also refer back if they forget or get confused.

Of course my kindergartners wanted their own math notebooks, so I obliged. I decided to give them a lesson in math the other day using the unifix cubes.

We were counting and comparing and talking about more than and less than.

Li’l Miss compares two towers and says, “These are the same!”
And I thought to myself, yes they are, and in math we call that equal. I wrote the word on the board and then showed them the = symbol.

They both wrote that in their notebooks.

It got better though. Li’l Miss picks up a stack of 3 cubes and 7 cubes and clicks them together. Then she stands the stack next to a stack of 10 cubes. And says, “Look, Mom, these are EQUAL!”

I was very proud of her! I asked her to count them and she did. 1-2-3. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7. Then I showed her how to use the = sign to say this.

3+7=10

She was so excited. She then started making towers from 1 cube to 10 cubes and putting them in order.

Li’l Dude was quite happy to be done with math after the = sign and begin building airplanes from the unifix cubes, which was cool too!

Another day we used our Education Cubes with the 1–20 inserts and rolled the dice.

I asked them to say the number and then put the 4 dice in order from least to greatest.

They both had fun with this, but I’m not sure why Li’l Dude isn’t in the photos. I think he really didn’t want me to take his picture that day.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they did with this, and they wanted to write out the numbers they put in order in their math notebooks!

Like I said, math is more fun than I thought!

I’m linking up with Mama Jenn’s Education Cubes Show & Tell and Love2Learn2Day’s Monday Math blog hop as well!

A Post A Day: Numbers 1–20

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Why is eleven not “oneteen” and twelve not “twoteen” and thirteen not “threeteen”?

If you know the answer, please do tell because Li’l Miss is seriously questioning me on this.

And I quote the Li’l Miss: “Why this not “three-teen” if that is “four-teen”?

{spoken with just a little bit of an attitude and maybe even with a hand or two on the hips}

I say I don’t honestly know, which honestly does not appease her.

Alas, we keep plugging away at “three-teen” … I mean, thirteen … and fourteen … and so on through twenty.

To keep it all in good fun, I of course pulled out our Education Cubes and number insert cards 1–20. I love that Mama Jenn included the number 0 as well.

Li’l Dude has that zero down. Li’l Miss has them all almost. She is so close.

Li’l Dude can identify through number 6 consistently and numbers 9 and 10 as well.

Don’t ask. He is just not fond of the numbers 7 and 8.

On another day, I pulled out our magnetic numbers. Like the letters except numbers.

I would call out the number and they would place them on the magnetic board.

I did this with them individually, which worked out well for a change-up.

I was quite proud of Li’l Dude for getting numbers 1–10 correct.

I’m not sure why, but he insisted number 9 needed to be put where he put it.

And Li’l Miss figured out quickly that 11–19 means putting a 1 and then adding the next number in sequence: 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and so on.

We need some more number 1s; this is why hers looks incomplete because she had to keep “borrowing” the 1s.

And she was still not hearing why 11 could not be called “oneteen.” 🙂

A Post A Day: Nature Walks

S.T.U.F.F.

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I had planned to take this whole week of school OFF thinking Li’l Miss would possibly be in the hospital until Monday. What was I thinking? She always blows away the doctor’s predictions and she was home by Friday at 1 p.m. And I was going to FINALLY finish our school plans. I am the type who likes to have it ALL mapped out. I did come up with a system last year that worked well. Plans are numbered to create order for the older boys to follow, but they are NOT dated. We add the date as we complete it. Done. I have finished science plans, history plans, worked on language and math plans. I also need to map out the littles’ plans very generally.

Did I mention that the littles are BEGGING to do school EVERY.SINGLE.MORNING by 7:30 a.m. 🙂 While this is good, I need a plan. I have things in my brain; just need to get it on paper. I think today I finally have a handle on it. I don’t want to overdo and at the same time, I want something that makes filling their workboxes each evening for the next day EASY-PEASY. I think I have it figured out.

In the meantime, I have made some fun things. Have you ever heard of math copywork?

I had not until I saw it mentioned on the Math on the Level yahoo group. I was very intrigued because our two littles are always wanting to do math. I do have a few things we’ve done that have gone well, but mostly I just want them to learn 1-20 at this point. We are getting close with one; the other I am thinking repetition is the key.

Enter math copywork. HE LOVES IT!!!

And she likes it. And it is so SIMPLE.

I looked through my basket of stuff-I-don’t-get-rid-of-because-I-will-think-of-a-use-day-after-I-toss-it. I found an old photo brag book. You know the kind with 20 or so pages ready to be filled with 4×6 photos.

I had a light-bulb moment. The last one was several weeks ago when the Prez took all the kids camping overnight. Anyway, I didn’t do such a great job in the alignment department, but I made a math copywork book for the littles.

I’m pleased with it and it cost very little: printing 10 b/w pages of numbers and 1+? math problems.

I did go ahead and laminate it so we can use it other ways like placing in order on the floor or playing go fish with a twist.

What do you think? I highly recommend this for your little ones. I just bought several notebooks for 50 cents apiece at Staples last week. I wrote “Math Copywork Book” on the front; Li’l Dude’s has a red cover and Li’l Miss’s has a purple cover of course. *By the way, Li’l Bit’s color will be yellow Aunt C :)*

While we’re talking school, I am excited that we will again be using Math on the Level *mostly* exclusively this year. In anticipation, I cleaned out our game cabinet. Games always sell well at our garage sales, so this served a dual purpose.

Do you see that game called EQUATE? Think SCRABBLE with numbers and operation symbols. Yes, it is that good (or bad) depending on one’s like/dislike of math. I will say my oldest who does NOT love math but does love scrabble … he likes this game. The best part is that I had never bought it because it is expensive, BUT I found it at a nearby curriculum consignment sale for … drumroll … $10!!! AND it had the advanced tile set INCLUDED. Sometimes you just score. 🙂

This is just another view of our bottom shelves, which house the games our littles love to play most.

Perfection is a recent favorite; I highly recommend it if your child needs some fine motor training. It is fun but purposeful.

We also talk about the major shapes when they are placed. I would NOT however pay $20 for it; I bought it at ToysRGiant when they had the BOGOF games sale between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is worth $10 I think.

And this neat game, Summology. I bought it at our homeschool curriculum fair. I do like it and can see many uses for it.

If I had known I would find Equate, I’m not sure I would have bought it. But I do like it and plan to use it with all of our students in various ways.

Hope y’all are having fun getting started this school year!

Sunday Snapshot: {Who Needs the Zoo?}

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All of these creatures have been sighted/handled in and around our home, campsite or the Prez’s office.

I could not make this up if I tried.

The Prez found this lovely creature in our backyard while mowing one Saturday afternoon. You can hear the lovely cicadas in the background.

[vodpod id=Video.10071876&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

Speaking of cicadas …

Yes, he filled the recycled aluminum can up …

… and then dumped them out on this planting-bench-turned-outdoor-sideboard to see if “they could get away.”

I kid you not … this rooster …

… showed up at The Prez’s office in town one day

And he seemed to like it there. When these photos were taken, we had stopped by to check on him and found his *foot* bleeding. I told the Prez he had to do something.

So he did what any responsible business owner would do. He retrieved his first aid kit, applied some ointment and gauze and first aid tape.

Next I show you the … ahem … illegally captured (and I might add LEGALLY RELEASED) baby alligator snapping turtle.

Mo came home giddily one day after he and Larry rode their bikes down to the creek. “Look what I found, Mommy!”

“There was a big one nearby. I tried to get it, but it was too heavy. I found this little one though.”

In the following photo, you’ll see my solution for us finding the creature MISSING from its temporary home.

I do not know why I can’t find the pic I took of Mo HOLDING the creature.

Perhaps because I was running quickly away.

These turtles grow very large and can snap one’s finger O-F-F.

Is it a dragonfly or damselfly???

A lizard who happened to be at the right place at the right time … at least according to Mo.

And finally I leave you with the Eastern Click Beetle.

Let me just say the boys thought it funny that I jumped out of my skin when they conned me into “just touching it” and it CLICKED at me. For more inside information about the Click Beetle or any other 6 or 8-legged creature, try out this cool site Mo and I found the other night to identify a Luna Moth he spotted outside the boys’ bathroom window.

**Please note no animals were harmed during the making of this blog post.**

First Week of School Year 2011-1012: {July 11-15}

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It went well.

Everyone worked efficiently.

No one protested any work.

You all did not even believe that, did you? 😉

The one pictured below protested on his handwriting … but in the end, the teacher prevailed. 🙂

They did work hard. I was quite pleased with their efforts for our first week back. And in the middle of the summer.

Everyone took taekwondo class on Tuesday and Thursday, but a certain Li’l Miss thinks she is going to stick with dancing. YIPPEE! It was her decision, but I love the one she made.

Li’l Dude LOVES taekwondo and has been asking for MONTHS to take it with his older brothers. He is doing GREAT!

I didn’t get the group shot in front of our white board on our first day. I forgot it until late in the day.

Someone was tired and grumpy when I tried to stage the first day shot, many hours after this photo was taken.

A lot of it was review, but seeing the bees and beekeepers was really cool.

And I might have been slightly too proud of my children for answering a LOT of questions. 🙂

We even had an impromptu field trip on Tuesday night to the local fire hall after eating some ice cream nearby.

All in all, it was a great first week of school!

A Post A Day: {2011/12: Curly, Larry, Mo }

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I have a plan.

Now that is monumental.

To some readers, this post is boring. So please feel free to skip unless you, like me, swoon over other HS Mama’s *plans for next year-type* posts.

I have labored over the next school year enough I think. I have tons of work yet to do, but I think we have a good plan in place in terms of curriculum and spines for each subject.

Now, I need to just sit and create our year-long plan. I will use the same system as last year with some tweaking individually here and there, particularly in math. But I am thrilled to say thanks to an above-mentioned HS Mama and her sharing on a math group I’m on, I definitely have a plan. One that I can actually implement for our 3 older boys.

I will start with the questions I get all.the.time. I can say without a doubt that I did NOT get asked this next question when my kids were in PS. I’m not sure why people feel the need (or think it appropriate) to ask this of those who homeschool. But here goes.

Will you homeschool your children all the way through high school?

Answer: I do not know. (Incidentally, if one’s child is in PS, I think the answer would be the same to a similar question that is never asked: Will you always send your children to this public school district?

What about prom and attending football games? (recently asked at our neighborhood pool)

Answer: Well, actually, we DO attend high school football games with our children. We are not phobic of public schools; the Prez and I are both products of a local public high school. IF our children (or any # of them) desire to attend a public high school, we are hopeful they would be able to go to our alma mater. And they would probably attend football games I’m guessing. 🙂

As for Prom, it is way over-rated if you ask me. I attended two with the Prez, and these are not my fondest memories. If our children DON’T have to attend a prom, I won’t be sad. The kids do however get big laughs from seeing our prom photos in our bedroom. Think shiny material (what was it called Mom?) and matching bowties. 🙂 I’ll leave it at that.

What about socialization?

Answer: Hmmm. Well, I think we are doing OK. I have some who are out-going, some who are shy, some who are more natural at being around other children their age, and some who are just as happy playing quietly with one other person rather than in a large group, and everything in-between. The thing is that our children are not lacking in interactions with other same-age children. Larry and Mo just got back from church camp, and the Prez worked as a counselor. I asked him if they stood out as *homeschoolers*. He just looked at me like I had asked the strangest question. Of course they didn’t stand out!

As for next year, we have quite a few bases covered: taekwondo for all 4 boys 2 days a week on T/Th for one hour each; 4H for the three olders officially but the homeschool group has activities for the younger crowd as well, even a potluck meal before the actual meeting; dance for DD once a week with other little girls; a possible American Heritage Girl group for DD (undecided); Boy Scouts for Curly and probably Larry next year (Mo in another year); Sunday morning church and Sunday night choir and Bible Drill at church for Larry and Mo (and choir and play time for younger two) and Youth Bible study for Curly; Science Center classes monthly Sept.–Nov. and Mar.–May; JA BizTown for Larry and Mo; Community Bible Study Class on Fridays with age/graded classes for all of us; participating in a local HS group for for a science fair, history fair, field trips, etc.

PHEW! I’m tired just thinking of it all. So … I think we have socialization covered. This also does not include tennis camps/lessons we may do this fall on Friday mornings if we can fit it in for 2 of them, and any other things that may come along. 🙂

And there is one more.

How do you do it all? I could never do it; you must be SuperMom.

Answer: No, I’m not SuperMom. Only God. With Him leading all the way. Seriously, when I don’t follow His lead by spending time in His word and seeking Him first … things always go awry. But oh my, when I do follow His lead, the days can be spectacular. Sure, my kids bicker and even *gasp* backtalk. Sure, we have a lot of time together, but we are a family after all and spending time together is natural. I also have a great husband, who is very supportive and also works hard while he is away during the day and after he comes home at night.

Enough with the questions and the extra-curricular.

The Plan: Curly, 12, 7th grade

He loves to read and build amazing models with LEGO bricks. He would do this all day if he had the choice. He hopes to actually be paid by LEGO someday to build models, and I’m certain he would be a great candidate for the job of Lego Designer. In the meantime, he loves to write as well. This next year, I am going to take it up a notch or three in the language department. It is time.

I definitely believe in waiting on the structures of the language. Let them write and gain confidence. Help them edit and self-correct. Now though it is time to get down to the nitty-gritty. His language load will NOT be light this year, so we’ll start with that. Truthfully, his load will not be light in any subject, but he is ready to be challenged more. I told him to not expect to finish before lunch as he did most days this year. 🙂

Language:

Rod and Staff English 7 (R&S does not have an official website; sold by Mennonites)

Story Starters (once-a-week creative writing assignment)

Spelling Power (finish Level I/ Level J)

Word Roots CD-Rom (Latin; once a week)

The Write Stuff Adventure (once-a-week writing assignment)

Copywork using this product which I made into a book with the help of Fed*EX*Kinko’s (yes copywork b/c his cursive is NOT GOOD and he can do it neatly when he really puts forth the effort)

Math:

Life of Fred Pre-Algebra with Biology and here

Math on the Level (Thrice Weekly Lessons with Mom/Dad+5-A-Days Daily)

Saxon 1st Edition Math 76 (a neighbor just gave it to us! much of it he will skip b/c he knows it, but it will be a good review to start the year off and see where we need to go in MOTL)

Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra (we already own v. 1; just not sure he’ll use it this year).

Science:

Apologia’s General Science 2nd Edition

Galen and the Gateway to Medicine (assigned reading)

A Piece of the Mountain: The Story of Blaise Pascal (assigned reading)

History:

Simply Charlotte Mason Module 4: Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation & the Epistles*

Famous Men of the Middle Ages*

Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation*

Around the World in 100 Years*

The Discovery of New Worlds* (kindle book)

*These books will all be read-alouds we’ll do together.

The Shining Company

The White Stag

William Greenfell: Fisher of Men

The Deerslayer (available free on kindle but we have paperback)

The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights (kindle book)

The Prince and the Pauper (kindle book)

Treasure Island (kindle book)

The ones above are just the ones I’ve assigned. He is free to read more at his leisure, and I know he will. 🙂

Bible/Character Development:

The Book of Acts (in CBS)

Memorization of a whole chapter (not sure which one yet)

Boyhood and Beyond (discuss with Daddy)

ETC:

The Fallacy Detective

Taekwondo

Boy Scouts (he just got his 2nd Class Rank!)

Field trips

Work Days with Daddy (hopefully every 3rd month alternating with other older brothers)

Volunteering (not sure what yet, but hopefully more of it and more often).

The Plan: Larry, 11, 5th grade

He is reading now, though he still lacks confidence. He is going to take off one day sooner than later. He loves to be active and is quite the funny guy too! He wants to work as a fisherman on a boat or take over Daddy’s business someday or maybe go back to China and work for an American Company! Yes, he has dreams too!

Language:

Primary Language Lessons

Spelling Power Level A/B (finish Level A)

Handwriting by George Vol. 1

???Critical Thinking CD-Rom???

Copywork in English and Chinese characters using this product which I made into a book with the help of Fed*EX*Kinko’s

Math:

Teaching Textbooks 4 (finish this)

Math on the Level (Thrice Weekly Lessons with Mom/Dad+5-A-Days Daily)

Science:

Christian Liberty Press God’s Wonderful Work (he can read this himself with me close by and I found it for $2! at a used sale)

Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader Book 1 (to read on his own and/or aloud with me)

Galileo and the Leaning Tower Experiment (assigned reading)

Along Came Galileo (read-aloud with Mommy)

Giants of Science: Leonardo da Vinci (read-aloud with Mommy)

History:

Simply Charlotte Mason Module 4: Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation & the Epistles*

Famous Men of the Middle Ages*

Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation*

Around the World in 100 Years*

The Discovery of New Worlds* (kindle book)

*These books will all be read-alouds we’ll do together.

The Making of a Knight

Leif the Lucky

Who Was … ? Book Series (we are reading the Walt Disney one now together; he can read these now!)

The ones above are just the ones I’ve assigned. He is free to read more at his leisure from the library. 🙂 I need to order him some more Chinese leisure books/classics and/or keep trying to find used ones (so wish we could have gotten out more in China with him and so does he). Lesson learned!

Bible/Character Development:

The Book of Acts (in CBS)

Memorization of a whole chapter (not sure which one yet)

Young Peacemaker Activity Booklets (discuss with Daddy)

ETC:

Taekwondo

Junior Achievement’s BizTown Class (taught by a friend at a local church!)

Science Center Homeschool Classes

Boy Scouts (possibly start this year)

Work Days with Daddy (hopefully every 3rd month alternating with other older brothers

Field trips

The Plan: Mo, 9 in July, 4th grade

He is a voracious reader. He is still the Critter Whisperer, and will pick up ANYTHING. Scary I know. He would rather be knee deep in the creek looking for animals than anywhere else in the world. He also is planning to be a Navy Seal one day or be an Animal Scientist of some kind. Neither of these would surprise me a bit!

Language:

Intermediate Language Lessons

Spelling Power Level D/E (finish Level D)

Word Roots CD-Rom (Latin)

Handwriting by George Vol. 2 (one a week)

GrammarLand (read-aloud to Li’l Miss and Li’l Dude)

A to Z Crawly Critters Cursive (once a week)

Copywork using this product which I made into a book with the help of Fed*EX*Kinko’s (yes copywork b/c his cursive is NOT GOOD and he can do it neatly when he really puts forth the effort)

*This is just a photo of our classic reading books (some of them). Mo uses these the most, though depending on content he reads alone or we read it together. I love to sort books by color!*

Math:

Teaching Textbooks 4 (finish this)

Math on the Level (Thrice Weekly Lessons with Mom/Dad+5-A-Days Daily)

Science:

Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Botany

Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader 4

The Shark Lady (assigned reading)

Giant of Faith and Science: Johannes Kepler (assigned reading)

History:

Simply Charlotte Mason Module 4: Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation & the Epistles*

Famous Men of the Middle Ages*

Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation*

Around the World in 100 Years*

The Discovery of New Worlds* (kindle book)

*These books will all be read-alouds we’ll do together.

The World of Columbus and Sons

Adam of the Road (read-aloud with Mommy)

The Vikings (assigned reading)

Adventurer of Faith and Courage: Christopher Columbus (assigned reading)

The ones above are just the ones I’ve assigned. He is free to read more at his leisure, and I know he will. 🙂

Bible/Character Development:

The Book of Acts (in CBS)

Memorization of a whole chapter (not sure which one yet)

Various Arthur Scott Bailey and Thomas Burgess books (kindle books)

Young Peacemaker Activity Booklets (discuss with Daddy)

ETC:

Taekwondo

Junior Achievement’s BizTown Class (taught by a friend at a local church!)

Science Center Homeschool Classes

Work Days with Daddy (hopefully every 3rd month alternating with other older brothers)

Field trips

***In addition to the above, we will study more art and music composition together. Ideally, I’d like for some to take some music lessons but it is just not in the budget right now. I have been working with a couple of them on playing the trumpet (I used to play it and still can though rusty). I can certainly teach them to read music which I believe is invaluable (we shall see). 🙂

We will be using The Usborne Book of Art Ideas this book again for art this year. We will using The Usborne Book of Famous Paintings (gotta love the Scholastic Warehouse Sale!) to study artists and the Getting to Know Famous … Series of books to study artists and composers.

We are going to try and tackle Tennessee History on a more purposeful level. We will continue our trek around the state visiting the state parks on camping trips and nearby attractions where available, but I’d like to use a couple of resources and this website to flesh out our studies.

I have three who love to do workbook pages here and there, and two who do not LOL. For one of those 2, the workbook pages a couple of times a week are not optional. He is my English Language Learner and is required to at least try. 🙂 The directions are very simple and it is a good way for him to exercise what he knows. He completely finished the 1st Grade one last year, and I have picked up Grades 2 and 3 for him to use.

I do tear out certain pages if they show misspelled words that need to be corrected or if they would not be helpful in my mind, but for the most part I just let them do these when they want. It is not uncommon to find LM and LD at their little table working in their workbooks! I buy these kind very cheaply at Sammy’s Club for $6.95 each.

I think all in all we have a lot to cover and though it sounds daunting, all of our older boys do love to read. Also, most of their work is independent, but we spend about 30-45 minutes together after breakfast doing group time. This includes Bible study, prayer, pledge of allegiance, art/music/geography/Chinese (once a week; on certain days; haven’t figured that out yet), and history read-alouds.

I will be getting more specific this year about assigning certain time blocks for me to work with each one on math, any other subject where they are struggling/just need help that day, and to read aloud/have them read aloud to me.

That is enough for now! I’m exhausted! I will do a separate post to cover Li’l Dude and Li’l Miss’s school plans for this next year. I am still fleshing it out, but mostly have the basic plans in place and a vision!

A Post A Day: {Instrument Petting Zoo@VSA}

3 Replies

This was a first for me and all of us! I play the trumpet or rather I used to. I can still belt out some notes but I am very rusty!

I found out about a free event at the Symphony Hall in the nearest big city in April. It was worth the trip into Downtown to gain FREE entrance into the Hall. Actually, adults had to pay $5 but kids were free. $10 for our family of 7 to sit in the Symphony Hall? Very. Good. Deal. And the activities available far exceeded our expectations.

The event was sponsored by the VSA, which is a national organization with local chapters that helps differently-abled individuals find opportunities to explore the arts. I was HIGHLY impressed with this organization.

Our first stop was the instrument petting zoo. This was SO MUCH FUN!!! All 5 of our blessings loved this. It was actually the highlight of the night, besides eating at a famed downtown restaurant.

All of us loved the string instruments and decided they are much harder to play than those who know how to play them make it look!

Mo loved the cello best.

Larry and Curly the guitar.

And LM and LD loved playing the wind instruments which actually made me tear up a bit. You see, they have a hard time with blowing air through their mouths, so for them to get sounds out of a wind instrument … priceless.

And the people volunteering at the petting zoo are actually Symphony members … how cool is that?! Have I ever mentioned I was a Band Geek?! Well I was and am proud of that fact. 🙂

We ended the night early before all of the performances as our blessings began getting fidgety … or at least some of them did. I was proud they sat there quietly and attentively for more than an hour though. We will be putting this event on our calendar for next school year. If you are local, I HIGHLY recommend it. Our children were blessed to see and hear the local Blind School’s Choir. AMAZING! And also we saw performances by many other differently-abled individuals and groups including a lady sing who was born with cerebral palsy and not expected to walk except she does! And a volcimer group made up of non-verbal autistic individuals. Their music was absolutely beautiful. They had written the music themselves and performed it so well.

*As for my A Post A Day, feel free to join me as I challenge myself to make one post a day and try to document the many photos I have piled up on iPhoto! I have been so negligent of the blog and it is our family journal, so I need to challenge myself to catch up! If you join me, be sure and leave a comment so I can come and check out your post! I don’t know how to do a blog button or I’d add one!*