Sunday, December 30, 2012

Looking forward to 2013

Well, the Mayans were wrong (or did someone just interpret the calendar wrong? only time will tell) and we are still here.  So, that means looking ahead to a new year coming up and making plans for it.

This school year has gone really well so far amazingly.  The oldest 3 girls have made great strides and learned a lot of things attending a public charter school this school year while Jojo did schoolwork at home with me.  It has given us all a chance to grow as individuals and explore things that we never would have otherwise.  The girls have a new appreciation for our life as a homeschool family, and I've discovered the joy of being a domestic housewife with only having to teach 1 child and care for a baby during the day.  I have learned many things about myself in the process, and what I feel strongly about.  It has been a good opportunity, but I am ready for 2013 to come.

This first half of the new year, I am going to be working on my own personal shortcomings.  I am going to develop healthy habits for myself, including exercise, healthier eating, and getting the right meds and dosage for my anxiety issues.  This is a very important step, and one I must complete before school lets out for summer vacation at the end of May.

Starting in June, we will have a very different life.  I plan to take June and let the kids enjoy life and decompress before we pick up and start homeschooling in July.  Yes, I said homeschooling.  They will NOT be returning to the charter school next year, and I am looking forward to it.  I am working now slowly on creating an idea of what we will do in lessons and a schedule for our days.  It is going to be an adjustment, but I am looking forward to getting back to our real life and learning as a family.  I've had a few people who don't agree with our decision, but Scott and I know that this is the right decision for our family and we will do what we need to do for this to happen.  I realize that I have a child with severe dyslexia and a child with ADD and motor delays, and am prepared for this.  I have tutoring lined up to assist with my dyslexic, new curriculum chosen based on their needs, and my husband's support.

This is what God has led us to, and any naysayers can kiss my backside.  Society and popular practices do not choose what we do with our family, God has the say in things.  For those who feel that we should not let God dictate our lives, well now this is why it is OUR family and OUR life.  I am not forcing everyone to do as we do because God wants it, I am simply making choices for my own family with the support and backing of my husband.  Don't try to force your lack of religion on my family because my family having such faith scares you, let it be.

And that ends my last post of 2012 unless something major comes up tomorrow.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Isn't illness fun?

I really hoped that we would be spared this year from the annual rounds of illness that usually happen here.  Unfortunately, that did not happen as all 5 children have the flu and I believe I may be coming down with it as well.  The one being hit hardest would happen to be my sweet Kimmy, who will be 7 next month.





Obviously this virus is causing her some issues with her asthma.  But that's why we have a nebulizer, she's always had these troubles when she gets sick.  I also have a second nebulizer and tubing with a mask for PJ, as he has the same trouble Kimmy has with breathing while sick.  Hopefully we can keep it all under control and the girls can all recover over the weekend so they don't have to miss school again on Monday (they all came down with this one between getting off the bus yesterday and waking up this morning, with me and PJ starting it this afternoon).  Scott is pumping himself full of vitamin C to try and keep from getting it, and I'm forcing myself to keep going with life until he gets home from work tonight so I can go to bed and die.

Monday, December 10, 2012

4 weeks left of the semester

Over the weekend, I took a few minutes to figure out where we are in Jojo's lessons and to see how many days are left in the semester.  Well, there are 19 days left of the first semester (this is including today) and we aren't too far off course in lessons for her.  I wrote out how many lessons we have left in each subject to get to 50%, so I have a goal but I'm not going to get upset if I fall short in any subject.  Here's the list so I can keep accountable, then I'll give a few notes on this so you can see what the big picture is.

Phonics- 25 lessons
Language Skills- 29 lessons
Literature & Comprehension- 54 lessons
History- 24 lessons

And then there is 10 lessons left in social studies to reach 100% completion.

At first I kind of freaked over the number of lessons compared to days, but I'm not worried for a reason.  Phonics, the next 15 lessons we're doing are all reviewing and mastering short vowel sounds, so I should be able to condense those into 5-8 days instead of taking 15 to do it.  Lit. & comp. is scheduled to spend 3 days at a time reading a story and doing activities, but typically we read the story and then pick from the 3 days of activities to do the ones we are most interested in and do some review questions from all 3 days because Jojo will NOT stand for me re-reading a story 3 days in a row.  So we do 3 or 4 lessons a day in this subject typically (there are "your choice" days included randomly that allow you to play catch-up if you need it on a story).  History, even if we don't hit all 24 lessons left to make 50% it is only 2 days a week so I can just pick up a third day weekly if we want or need to (or even more days, for that matter).  Language skills is similar to Li. & comp. where we will do multiple lessons at a time because it just annoys the two of us too much to spend more than 1 day at a time right now on a poem or the stuff it covers (who needs to spend 3 days working on a page in the "All About Me" book anyway? honestly!)

We're doing pretty good on logged attendance hours too, only about 4 hours "behind" at this point with all the sickness I've had to deal with last month (before it started she was a good bit ahead, with having done almost all of her math K)

Math is the one subject you probably noticed that I didn't mention at all yet.  Well, there is a reason for that.  Jojo has FINISHED math+ blue (that's the grade K math) and her math+ green (1st grade mat) will be delivered this morning.  In fact it will likely be here in the next 1-2 hours with how UPS runs deliveries to me (I get a lot of UPS stuff sometimes with a big family and my taking college classes online here and there).  I plan to get her doing Study Island or Reading Eggs this morning once UPS comes so that I can spend an hour or two snuggling this adorable sleeping baby boy and looking through the new curriculum to get familiar with it.  She will then start it this afternoon once I've gotten a good feel for it.  Nope, not worried about her math progress, as she had already hit 100% in her math and is now working on the next grade level up.

Oh, and later if I get a chance and I remember, I'll have to put up the pictures I took of the girls ice skating on Friday.  OHVA sponsored a skating event at the local ice arena so I decided to pick them up early from school so they could join us.  Missa discovered that she loves to ice skate and her sisters decided they aren't too keen on it.  I'm hoping that we can swing paying for Missa to take lessons as her Christmas gift, but I have to see what we have left after we buy the other kids' 2 gifts each and the rest of the big group gift.