2010-11 homeschool pictures

We went yesterday to Sears to get some homeschool pictures done. We had to keep it short, as I'm still not feeling that great from the mono, but we got some great shots in. I have a lot of cutely edited ones, but I'm just going to share the basic shots for now of my girls.

Missa's 2nd grade picture

Liddy's 1st grade picture


Kimi's K4 picture


JoJo's 3-year-old preschool picture


our official class picture for this school year



I also got a great outtake shot that we are considering for our Christmas card picture this year, but I am keeping it under wraps for now until we print the cards. Although if you are on my FaceBook friends list you have already seen that picture.

changing things up

Yep, I know I do this a lot. I do this in a lot of areas of my life, and if you've known me any length of time you know I change my mind like some people change hair colors. Anyway, things just aren't working for us educationally. I am sure you have read my frustrations within my posts about this school year with Missa, particularly when it comes to her and math. We have spent the school year fighting and struggling to get lessons done at a decent pace with her, spending three or four times as long as our curriculum "says" we should be spending to teach a concept only to have her not retain it. All this extra time we spent with her on her lessons had to come from somewhere, and unfortunately that time was taken away from Liddy. As a result, I have 2 children who are very behind in hours and not making the progress in their materials that they should be making. Something had to change.

So I spent some time typing and filling out a couple forms, and on Friday I mailed these papers to my local school district's attendance and homeschool department to get approval to homeschool independently the remainder of the school year. Then as soon as I put that into the mail, I started the process of withdrawing the girls from Ohio Virtual Academy. This was a very hard decision for me to make, as I don't feel quite confident enough to have the discipline that I'm going to need to do this on my own without having to answer to OHVA and their teachers. However, with the needs of all the girls and of the work involved with my college, I need to find a way to make this all easier on us. Part of doing that is simplifying things in our lives. I have decided that now is the time for our family to return to Sonlight for our history and science, and to use a more individual approach for math with the girls. Our current plan is to do Miquon math with Missa for the first two workbooks, and then we will move into Math-U-See beta (I believe that she'll be at that level after finishing Miquon orange and red). Lydia will finish the k12 math program that she is working in currently, and then will most likely move into Horizons math. Two completely different programs and approaches, which is appropriate with the girls having such different learning styles. Missa learns and thinks like Scott, needing to just DO it and experiment with it to figure out how to do things, while Liddy thinks like me, just needing instruction on how to do what she's working on and then someone available to assist when she needs help.

Am I nervous about leaving OHVA? You bet I am. Am I confident in my plans to finish up Sonlight core K with my girls and then go into core 1 with them? Not entirely just quite yet. I am taking on a LOT of responsibility with this decision. With OHVA I at least had the fallback of the teachers and the curriculum not being right, whereas on my own the blame falls entirely on me. I hope that I am making the right decision for us, but I also know that it will be all right if I just get into a groove and go for it. I am going to rely more on my compuslive scheduling than ever I believe, making doubly sure that I allow myself enough time daily for everything to get done.

The only thing that is holding us up now with the official withdrawal from OHVA is the approval of my notification to our school district. I hope it gets here this week so that I can get it all finished. Since I've been sick all week like this, I'm not able to get up and do a lot of my regular household stuff and I've run out of paperwork and other things to do. I am BORED and out of things to do while lying down in bed.

Another month, new goals

Here we are, at the start of another month. I am going to try this month with setting a monthly goal for each girl in their academics, and see what happens. I start my next class on October 26th after taking the past few weeks off because of paperwork issues with my enrollment, so I need to try and get ahead. So here are my goals for each girl in schooling.

MELISSA SECOND GRADE

4 units phonics 1
28 lessons lang. arts 1
2 units math
3 units science
3 units history
8 lessons one on one with music theory and piano
4 hours structured PE

LYDIA FIRST GRADE

finish phonics K
4 units math (would prefer 6 though)
3 units science
3 units history
8 lessons one on one with piano
4 hours structured PE

KIMBERLY JUNIOR KINDERGARDEN

4 weeks of core P4/5 and Sonlight lang. art K
learn to print her first name without a model reference

JORDAN PRE-SCHOOL

learn to use scissors
keep her from destroying the house

ME COLLEGE

read syllabus for first course
get as much of this course's work done before the course starts
turn in high-quality papers and assignments

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Yep, lots of big goals. Now, I don't anticipate us having too much trouble meeting these goals if I can just get us to focus and stay on track with things, but if we end up falling short in a couple areas that is ok. I am not going to stress over it, we are going to work daily on things and just see where it takes us in the end. Working daily is more important for us than making a specific amount of progress. If we do math daily and Missa doesn't reach the goal of 2 units this month, at least I know that we worked daily on it and that is what matters most. If Lydia does phonics daily but doesn't finish her phonics level like I'm wanting, it is ok because she will get there. I am not going to stress. The science and history units are fairly short, with the first of each of those 3 in my goals being halfway completed already. If we hit those goals that is great, but if we only get 2 units finished then I'm fine with that as well.