teaching writing

I'm not talking about penmanship here, but the actual process of writing and all the technical stuff in grammar, usage, and mechanics (or GUM to make it easier on me). Missa is in 2nd grade, going to 3rd this fall at home, and Liddy is in 1st, going on 2nd at home, so it is time I start thinking about how to teach some of that stuff.

I have NO knowledge of the technical stuff. I was out of high school before I understood what a verb was, and I have no use for that stuff really. Even in my college classes so far, I've not had to do a great deal of stuff involving the technical aspects of writing (and I've taken English classes already, I have my last one starting up here on Tuesday in fact).. I am an intuitive writer; meaning, I know what I want to write and instinctively how to say it so that I can do well. I attribute that to my early start with reading (I believe my mom said she had me reading before I was 3 years old, but then I was an only child with a stay-at-home mom who had nothing but time to teach me that stuff so young) because I have had the opportunity to read a wide variety of literature in many genres and time periods, so I've had the natural exposure to how to write well. But if you ask me to diagram a sentence, I will laugh in your face because I cannot do it. Period.

I do not wish for my girls to suffer the same fate I have with writing. I want them to be beautiful writers, but I also want them to know WHY something is correctly written. I don't want them to depend on instincts to write, and grammar check in Microsoft Word. I want them to be able to write anything at any time without fear of having fragments and run-ons, without fear of being laughed at for their poor style of writing. I want them to have the foundation I never got. So, the search is on for materials I can use to start them with this process. And until I find that one program I'm looking for to teach it, I will teach them what little I know about the subject myself.

If you have a suggestion for me on this, I'm totally open to it, post away and know that I do read all comments and look into anything that is recommended to me.

new math, good response so far

One of my goals for this month was to switch Missa's math from Miquon to Math-U-See. Well, Friday I ordered Alpha for her and it arrived this morning while I was still rubbing my eyes and trying to wake up (UPS in this area likes to deliver EARLY for some reason, they were here around 9am). Missa appeared totally disinterested in it, and then tried to argue with me this afternoon when I went to sit her down for her first lesson in the book. But after we got going and she was more willing to give it a shot (with reminders that she can either do her math or she can go to bed for the night at 2pm becuase I wasn't going to deal with a defiant attitude today) she decided that it isn't so bad. She watched the DVD lesson with me and then took a brief break while I set up the dining table for 3 kids to do their math at once. I had Kimi and Missa doing their levels of Math-U-See (lesson 1 in Alpha for Missa, lesson 3 in Primer for Kimi) and Lydia doing her Horizons math 1 workbook. Kimi did 3 pages of math, Missa did 2 pages, and Liddy did 1 1/2 pages. Halfway through her first page of math, Missa said she loves her new math book and wanted to do more than just that page so I let her move faster.

what perfect timing

So, we are approaching convention season here. I have *plans* tentatively to attend the Midwest convention in Cincinatti on April 1 and 2 if I can sweet-talk Scott into letting me go down alone on Friday and then he meet me there that night while a friend of mine babysits for us for those 2 days. She already said she would watch them, so now I just have to convince Scott that I won't get mugged there and it will be OK for part of a day. If I can't convince him, then I'll go just Saturday with him. Or maybe I'll go to the convention in Indianapolis.

But anyway, I saw over at the Sonlight forums this morning a teaser about the new catalog. The new catalog is always a big to-do over there, and last year I got sucked in when I found out that they had chosen one of the pictures I submitted to them to print in the current catalog, along with taking 2 quotes from the forums about how Sonlight works in our family. I was quite honored by that little gesture, and felt it was just amazing to be recognized in such a way. I didn't submit any pictures for the upcoming catalog, so I haven't been too excited about the upcoming release. Until I saw that teaser.

Sonlight is going to be carrying All About Spelling when the new catalog goes live on April 1st. I planned to purchase this program for the upcoming school year, to help the girls with spelling. I have a dyslexic child in this house, so it is especially important to me that we build a solid foundation in spelling and phonics with her when it is coming so naturally for her sisters. I've tried a few other methods for spelling, including k12 phonics as written, giving spelling lists each week and testing on Fridays (like in public school), and using the k12 phonic tiles and creating my own hands-on method for teaching the subject. Nothing has worked too well for her, so we had decided to bite the bullet and just buy a program that is supposed to work really well with dyslexic kids along with "typical" learners. Since Sonlight will be carrying this program come April, I'll be able to buy the first 2 levels and the stuff to go with it (including a second set of the cards just so that the two kids in each group don't feel like they are competing, and at this point I think only the 2 oldest will be doing this program when we get started anyway unless Kimi shows a real interest in it since she's just beginning to learn to read now).

But this really excites me, because I was hoping that I'd be able to get it with free shipping and I was seriously considering buying some stuff at Rainbow Resource that we don't really *need* but would like (Five In A Row to supplement P4/5 for the youngest kids) so that I could get the price needed for free shipping. But now, Sonlight carries it so I can buy it without any worries about not having the minimum for free shipping thanks to my club membership perks. Now I just wonder if All About Spelling will be eligible for their 10% discount that I also get on most products......... I'm already planning to purchase Rosetta Stone Spanish from them for me to learn the language (hey if I'm going to spend that much money I may as well get free shipping, you know what I mean?) and several other things that do actually qualify for my discount (the Rosetta Stone isn't eligible) so it won't add much to my order even if it doesn't get the discount, but man I can't wait for this particular order to be placed and then shipped next month.

I'm almost as excited about being able to make this order as I am at the fact that we've almost gotten rotavirus out of this house after picking it up at Classical Conversations last week when we went to check it out as a possibility for fall. The fact that we brought home *that* particular bug didn't help me sell it to Scott, so I need to do some serious overtime work on convincing him before we drop $1600-ish on a once weekly co-op to supplement our Sonlight, and praying if its the right choice for us. A big part of why we homeschool is because of Kimi's immune system being so weak, any bug that comes through here she gets worse than anyone else and takes longer to get over it. Her sisters and I are all over this virus already but she is still running regularly to the bathroom and has an upset tummy so she isn't eating so much. And Kimi was one of the first ones to get it, she came down with it just a couple hours after Jojo did on Saturday night and then the other 2 came down with it on Sunday night, then me on Monday morning and Scott yesterday. I'm thinking I may see if I can give her something to help with the bathroom trips.

March- new month, new goals

So, I've discovered that by not setting clear goals and plans for the month, lessons don't happen too easily in this house. Now granted, I never actually accomplish all our academic goals that I set at the start of a month, but they do help motivate me to be more consistent in our daily work. So, I'm going to set some goals for this month in hopes that I will actually accomplish some of it.

finish 3 weeks of core 1 with the older girls
finish that first History Pocket with the older girls
do 4 weeks of P4/5 with the little girls
do 2 lapbooks with the little girls
do 10 days of math with Kimi
order and start Missa in Math-U-See Alpha
math daily with Missa and Liddy
have Liddy master place value
start cursive with Missa
Liddy finish her handwriting book
all kids read aloud to me 15 times each (not counting Jojo in this one)
finish our dinosaurs unit

OK those are actually fairly realistic goals, and I am pretty confident that we can do it now that the weather is becoming more appropriate for us to get outside so I can get more sun and fresh air. I also have a math final that's due on March 7th, so I am working hard to finish up that class and get on with life already.

I am wearing a skirt today

Shocking, isn't it? If you know me, I love my jeans and t-shirts. Skirts and dresses just aren't something that I enjoy. However, when Jojo was just a couple months old I did start a year and a half journey of only wearing skirts and dresses, complete with headcovering. I felt pretty, feminine, and noticed a major difference in how I carried myself. I wasn't as quick to lose my temper with my daughters when I dressed this way, and I spoke quieter, was more productive, and overall was happier in general. Then life happened, along with a move to a new home, and I transitioned back into my former jeans and t-shirts.

Well, today I dug out a skirt and nice shirt and put them on. I then dug out one of my old coverings, just to see how I looked. As soon as I put it on, I felt this calm sweep over me. I haven't felt this in a long time, and I like it.

I think I may need to do some serious sewing this weekend for me, on top of making those skirts I have planned for my children. And no, I will *not* post a picture of me in a skirt, if you want to see it then give me a call and then stop by.

frustrations in college

Yes, I'm dedicating a post just to my college complaining right now. But let me start by saying that I am truly loving the journey of getting my degree, it has really helped me to see things in a different light as far as how to effectively teach my girls. That is *always* a good thing right?

So what could be so frustrating about college for me? I mean, I just said that I'm loving it. Well, it happens to be one small thing really, and related to an upcoming class.

Next week on Tuesday, I start a new class. This class puts me into the new semester and back into my original group, but I'll have a 3 week juggle with starting a new semester and finishing the old one at the same time. It isn't a big deal, as the class I'm in now is just a basic math class and I currently am a week ahead in the material AND carrying a 100% grade. But the issue lies within the material for the upcoming class.

Now, if you've read my one and only post where I spoke in detail about my college classes, you know that I am attending a Christian college and studying ministry. WOW big stuff there right? Anyway, the problem is with the textbook I have for my next class that is coming up for this 2 course juggle that I'll have for 3 weeks. Are you ready for this?

The class is Earth Science. The textbook is evolution-based.

I'll leave it to you to figure out what it is that I have a problem with for that class. LOL As if it isn't *quite* obvious enough..........

One, I do not believe that evolution happened on the large-scale that theorists speak of. I don't care if they say the planet is around 4.5 billion years old, if you look at skeletons from ancient Egypt and ones from today you will see that 6,000 years produced very little evolution of our structure. Yes, people look different now from then, but structurally we are pretty much unchanged. Evolutionary theorists want us to believe that over the course of about 4 billion years, life evolved from an amoeba to a fish to early reptiles to dinosaurs and everything else, to eventually the animals we have here today (yes, people are animals too, I don't care if you are civilized and socialized and all that jazz, some of the people I know are more animal than person when it comes to certain desires). Obviously, I believe what we are told in Genesis, that God made everything on a 6 day plan and then rested the 7th day. However, I don't know if I lean more to the thinkings of young-earth or old-earth creationism. I am still sorting that one out on my own terms, and I don't need any help with it (I'm starting to have my lean, and when I decide officially I will let you know).

I had told myself that I was going to keep my college textbooks for my own personal reasons, but honestly I think that this earth science book will be hitting the used curriculum sale that our homeschool group does every year, if I can find a friend willing to put it on her table marked FREE TO A GOOD HOME because I find it that wrong to me. And I just got the book on Friday.......... It certainly won't be lasting long around here, that's for sure.

Math-U-See Primer

I decided to go ahead and start Kimi today with Primer. I spent a good amount of time yesterday once the program arrived looking it over and playing with the manipulatives and doing the lessons myself to get familiar with it, so I had a rough idea what I'm doing. Well, we did lesson 1 today. Kimi and I sat together and watched the DVD lesson on my laptop, then we pulled that worksheet out of her book and got some of the green blocks to do it. We're just having fun with it right now, she did 2 pages of the lesson today and I anticipate that tomorrow and Friday she'll finish the lesson.

Now, this child is one that I sat and seriously debated on what level to buy her. At first, I thought I should get her Alpha until I discussed it with a couple people over at the Sonlight forums. Their input led me to get Primer instead, and once it arrived and I got a good look at the materials I started doubting that it was the right choice for her. But, we're going to do it anyway with her, and I'm having her actually use the workbook instead of my original plan to have her do the work in a notebook. She will likely finish it before Missa's birthday in April, but that's all right. I'm actually planning to purchase Alpha here I think next month for Missa to do, so I'll be ready when Kimi is ready for Alpha. I just hope that starting in Alpha we can treat the student workbook like a non-consumable textbook, and have the girls do the work in notebooks instead.

If you've done Math-U-See Alpha, do you think it will be possible to do the program the way I want to? The cheapskate in me just doesn't like the idea of spending that much on math workbooks if I can reuse them and have them write in notebooks instead. Notebooks I can get 10/$1 during the back-to-school sales so it is a much more economical choice for us to do this instead.

wow they are fast!

As usual, I had trouble sleeping tonight. So, I grabbed my laptop off the kids' school desks and am curled up in bed with it while Scott and Kimi sleep (now when did she come join us? oh well it didn't wake me when she did) and decided to check out where our Math-U-See is at in its shipment. According to UPS, it will arrive on Tuesday, January 25th during their normal delivery hours. It is right now currently January 25th, 4:47am Eastern. So, that means that supposedly sometime in the next 3-15 hours or so it should arrive. And THIS is why we like UPS over FedEx, besides the obvious history we have with them delivering damaged packages, the packages being late, and/or them delivering our package at the other end of town requiring me to start making phone calls and yelling at them until they find my package. Maybe it is just me having issues with FedEx, but whenever possible I go with UPS. My college sends my textbooks UPS every time (thankfully that is their default so I don't need to contact the bookstore and get that changed), and since Sonlight started offering the option of requesting UPS for delivery I take the extra day or two of my order being processed to get it (my requesting the different delivery option means that my orders go from the automatic processing to being manually processed, which is a bit slower at the warehouse I guess since a person has to put it in the system for packing and create the shipping order and notify UPS and all that instead of the computers there doing it all). I avoid FedEx for shipping whenever possible after having my Sonlight core P3/4 arrive late, across town, and when it DID show up the box was damaged and some of the corners on my brand new hardback books were dinged up and bent. Back in the spring I ordered a new guide for my core P4/5 and paid the extra for ground shipping instead of Media Mail since I needed it by a certain date, and they managed to lose my order at the local FedEx building where it was supposed to go on the truck for delivery. They claimed they attempted to deliver it Friday but that my business was closed so they couldn't. Last I checked, this was a residence, not a business. That one, Sonlight personally got involved in finding out where the heck my delivery was while I also was making calls, and then when we finally tracked down my package I threw a FIT on the phone (which if you've ever heard/seen one of my little hissy fits you know it is not something small and it can get loud and very nasty, I've had customer service people in tears before when I throw a fit). Needless to say, by the time Sonlight and I got it tracked down and then I threw that fit, they had a guy who wasn't a delivery person personally bring me my package (he was taking personal time mid-day for a few hours to drive in to Columbus to pick his son up at the airport for a visit and since I live on the way and right off the freeway they had him personally deliver it to me). FedEx and I have a looooong history of not getting along. I much prefer to work with UPS or even the USPS for getting my materials.

And the girls always get super excited when I tell them that UPS is coming that day. They know that even if it is one of my college books, a UPS delivery means that there is something new to look at and it puts a little change in our daily flow and it gives me a little boost to have that small change. This delivery today though, that one should be a BIG deal for Kimi since it is supposedly her first official schoolbooks and they all know that we're switching programs so they are all anticipating this delivery so they can check out the manipulatives and see what this new math looks like before they get their own levels to do.

Math-U-See

I've mentioned it before in past blog posts. I've considered switching to Math-U-See for a long time now, close to 2 years in fact. However, the cost of it has kept us from doing just that.

And then Scott got his paycheck this past Friday. Now, if you know my family we have a VERY tight budget, and every penny counts. On his most recent paycheck, however, we were pleased to find that we had been reimbursed a bit of insurance money. His employer switched health insurance companies for the 2011 calendar year. The old insurance company, they required pre-payment by the employer for the insurance premiums. This means that the money they took out in January was for February's coverage. Well, the new company takes the money the month it is due, meaning that January's withholdings is for January's coverage. So, we got the money that was deducted from his paycheck back in December back. That means that we had a little extra money that we didn't anticipate.

So, we decided to take the plunge. Kimi is 5 now, and bugging us for math lessons of her own. So, on Saturday morning we ordered Math-U-See Primer for her. I've always been spoiled by my experiences with Sonlight for quick shipping, but I don't know anything about how Math-U-See ships. All I knew was from when I ordered and had to pay shipping and that they only offer UPS shipping (cool beans, I don't like FedEx). No clue how long it would take them to ship my order.

Well, I got a tracking number in my e-mail inbox less than an hour ago........ I'm anticipating that we'll have it here by Thursday at the latest. Kimi is really looking forward to it, and Missa is also looking forward to it after I explained that I wanted her to try Kimi's level and see if she wanted to do this math instead of Miquon (since it is rather expensive, I'd like her to get into it and work on some of the material that she struggles with that is in Kimi's level so that she has a real feel for the program before I take the leap and buy her Alpha and Beta both to work at her pace). I have a feeling that by fall all my girls will be doing this math program at their levels and pace.

So, if I changed math to this program, does this mean that next I'll be changing up all my other subjects too? The only one left that I want to change is spelling. I've already changed handwrinting this month, and now math is starting to transition of a new program as well.

eating habits

Yep, we all have issues with this one don't we? Well, since it is the start of a new year, I'm re-evaluating some things. My goal to exercise at least a bit 3 days a week is great, but it isn't terribly effective if I don't have the energy to do it because of inadequate nutrition. So, I sit here contemplating a drastic change.

While I was pregnant with Jojo, I was pretty good with a vegan diet that was at least 50% raw produce. I had energy, I felt great, and just overall I was doing better than I'd ever done. I'm thinking it may be about time to start incorporating more of this into my life. I love veggies, I could live on a veggie and nut diet I think with a daily fruit tossed in for that morning burst of energy (I'm particularly fond of apples with peanut butter)

Now here comes the interesting thing. I'm married to a man who will hang me by my toes if I try to make him give up his "meat and potatoes for every meal" style diet. I need to incorporate this slowly for his benefit. I would love to see him eating the stuff I want to, but he is so picky when it comes to food that I'm going to end up cooking one meal for him and the kids and then preparing something else entirely for me each meal. Oh well, I can handle that I think.

At this point I don't have any money left in my grocery budget to go shopping for produce, so I will use the canned and frozen food items that I have on hand now until we have money again here in about 2 1/2 weeks. I'm going to be doing a lot of recipe hunting and experimenting this next couple of weeks while we switch to vegetarian breakfasts and lunches then go vegan with 50% or more being raw on my birthday.

Who wants to bet my kids try to throw a fit at me for this at first?

Making Math Easy

At yesterday's library trip I decided to check and see what kind of math resources were available that I could use for Kimi to last until I am ready to make my next curriculum purchase from Sonlight. Well, I found a couple things I can use with her, and Jordan at the same time, as filler but the big thing I discovered is a book series called "Making Math Easy."

This series is a set of six books by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson. The six books each cover one topic in depth from basic skills to more advanced concepts. All the titles in this series are:

Addition Made Easy
Subtraction Made Easy
Multiplication Made Easy
Division Made Easy
Fractions and Decimals Made Easy
Word Problems Made Easy

I got Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication for us to check out and review/learn with (multiplication is a subject we've not started yet, and the other two need more practice to solidify skills). The publisher's site also offers free worksheets to download and print for use with the books, so I did just that (however, I only printed the even-numbered pages off since the odd-numbered ones are the title page and answer keys for each worksheet, I can use a calculator to check her work if needed). Now, I have these books for four weeks, plus a renewal for another 4 weeks that I intend to utilize, so I am planning to use these in place of Miquon for a bit to see how Missa does with grasping the concepts.

I also plan to purchase the entire six book series as soon as I have the money to do so. A friend of mine has access to purchasing the set from her local public school district for a slightly discounted price. So I am going to take advantage of this and let her know as soon as I have the money for them, and she is going to check to see if the school has any available to buy. If they do, I'm sending her the money for the books and shipping from Kentucky up here in Ohio. If not, then I'll pay a little more to purchase them online.

If you want to check out this series, here's a link to the publisher's page for the series. I think this is a valuable resource for any homeschooling family, especially if they have a child who struggles with math.

ENSLOW PUBLISHERS, INC.

Dinosaurs!!!!!

I'm creating my first unit study ever. I've done unit studies before, but only the pre-created kind that I can get from sites like Homeschool Share. But, this time I don't have ready access to all the books for the unit we want to do at Homeschool Share, so I'm creating my own for the first time.

They want to study dinosaurs. Lord help me, I still haven't decided if I am in the young earth or old earth camp on this, so I don't know how to approach the times and such. I'm thinking that for now, I'll just go with the mainstream opinion of the Earth being billions of years old and sidestep the dates as much as possible, replacing the "billions of years ago" references with "a long time ago" type stuff and PRAY that Missa doesn't decide to ask me how long ago that "a long time ago" is.

So, for the month of February and maybe a little bit of March I will be doing a unit study for science on dinosaurs. I have a dozen or so books that I got yesterday at the library, and this weekend I plan to go back and get more.

If you've ever created a unit study, do you have any advice for me on this? Missa is VERY interested in dinosaurs and right now is reading one of the books I got yesterday as a first wave of books to consider for the unit, and I know she's going to want to really dig in while at the same time I have a 3 year old who just likes dinosaurs. (and one of the books I got will really appeal to Lydia and her strange fascination with gross things, it is called "Jurassic Poop" of all things LOL) I'm a little nervous about this, since I've only done a handful of unit studies before and NEVER created my own pretty much from scratch like this.

buy a blank book or do a couple dozen lapbooks?

So, as I get ready for tomorrow's lessons, and the start of our newest venture in history with being VERY hands-on, I wonder. I have History Pockets to go with our core, as well as the Handle On The Arts Hands-On History year 1 book and numerous resources for free lapbooking pieces to go with our studies in the rest of core 1. So, do I hunt down some blank books that are going to be big enough for us to put all this in through the year, or do I get a couple more 1" binders and more cardstock to hole-punch for a big notebook we can add to all year, or do I just make a couple dozen or more lapbooks? I have an almost full box of file folders (one of the boxes of 100) so I'm not hurting for folders. I'm just trying to figure out the most practical method of putting this all together for the kids. Scott gets paid on Friday, so if I do something that isn't using a couple dozen lapbooks we can't begin assembling for a whole week (well with the binder option we can begin assembling right away pretty much, as I have some cardstock already on hand and we can punch it for them to use in assembly and then carefully store those pages until we get the binders).

If you have insights or input, comment box is open for it.

A Reason For Handwriting- Transition book

In my last post, I said that we were switching Missa's handwriting program. Well, here's what I think so far.

I've looked through the transition workbook and the "teaching guide" that covers all levels. I like it, a lot. In fact, I like it enough that I've decided to switch all my girls over to this program starting next school year. The only exception will be with Jojo, next school year she will do the preschool level of Handwriting Without Tears before she starts the K book in our new program.

Now, for what Missa thinks of it....... (and I quote her on this one)

"I don't like it. Its too much writing."

LOL Yep, she'll do just fine with it I think. If she sits down and gets to it, she does a great job with it. It is more writing than what she had to do with Handwriting Without Tears, but she'll adjust to it I think. And now for a picture from this morning's practice, it was her first day in it.



Yes, she was up at 6am doing her handwriting practice....... But she did a wonderful job, and I'm very proud of her for it. She's doing the practice lesson pages this week and next to get used to the new style of the paper and such, and then will go into the real stuff. I have a feeling that this will be a good time with her, once we get things going with her and she's ready to move on into the cursive pages (that alone will be what gets her really excited I think, she's been asking for cursive a couple years now)

small changes

You know I'm all about changing things as needed or desired. Well, I am making one small change in our curriculum at this point in the year.

Missa has been asking me to teach her to write cursive, but I've put it off because she has TERRIBLE printing and a lot of issues still with reversals in her writing. I had decided that this school year we'd spend one more year working on her printing before we introduce cursive. Then she finally wore me down after watching me make crazy fast notes on paper regarding my college work for a paper I had to do.

Being the always researching person I am, I started looking at different programs for handwriting. We've always used Handwriting Without Tears here, and it has been a great experience for us. It helped a lot to undo the majority of the damage that was caused by half a year that Missa was in our local public schools. Being a lefty in the schools is not a good thing if you don't go into the school already knowing how to write properly. Trust me on this one, I speak from experience as a lefty who went to public school and had a 1st grade teacher try to correct me by rapping my knuckles with a ruler every time I was writing properly (like I had been taught at home) instead of using that incorrect lefty hook to print. Missa came out of school her K year with the hook, and I spent all of 1st grade undoing that and teaching her to properly position herself and the paper for writing before we started tackling the bigger issues of these reversals and incorrect formations over the summer before we started this year, her 2nd grade school year. We've got her printing proper formation about 95% of the time, and have fixed about 75% of her reversal issues in this year and a half that she's been home. Yes, I think she may be almost ready for cursive.

So, in my searching I knew I wanted something different from the program we've always used. Yes, HWT is a wonderful program and saved us with her (and with Liddy's motor delays, she is doing HWT now very slowly and learning to form her lowercase letters now). However, I do not like the style of cursive that this program teaches. So, we change now. I spent a lot of time looking at different programs before finally settling on "A Reason For Handwriting" and purchasing the transition book set from Sonlight. (I have mentioned how much I love sonlight in the past right?) It arrives in the mail tomorrow, and that is when we will get started on it after I take a bit to get familiar with the program.

I chose this program (and Scott just said ok and handed me the debit card to pay) for a couple reasons. One, they use scripture for the handwriting practice lessons. Now, normally I avoid using Scriptures for anything related to schooling my girls so that I do not influence them to only believe one specific thing without giving them an opportunity to question it. However, when it comes to Missa I do not have this worry. She is one of God's little children, and has already decided that when she grows up that she is going to be a missionary and wants to go to different countries and teach people about God and Jesus. So I do not need to worry as much with her on the influence of scriptures in some of her lessons, she already has made her choice obviously. Also, this particular program has "pretty" pages for the final day of the weekly lessons to write the entire verse on, which is supposed to make the child work harder to do their best because it is paper worthy of being displayed. Yes, I will have regular displays of her handwriting pieces in our home I think. But the main reason we chose this program is because of the transition book itself.

The transition book starts with printing, going through the first half of the book only with printing practice before the students begin cursive midway through the book. This is exactly the type of material I needed for Missa, to use as a motivator for her to do well with the print work beforehand. Since we switched programs for cursive, I would have likely purchased a print workbook before the cursive book to go through with her in any other program so that she has the time to adapt to the different program. The transition book has that built in for me already, so I just have to sit with her each day and do the lesson with her and help her adjust to the differences while we work on improving her printing at the same time.

But the book hasn't actually arrived yet, it is scheduled for UPS delivery tomorrow. And knowing how wonderful UPS is in my area, it will be here right around 8am (usually just before that actually) so I will have more than enough time to look it over before we start lessons in the afternoon. I will update how I feel about it when it arrives, and again after a bit of time with the program.

Welcome to 2011

Yes, it is a new year. A fresh start to things, an opportunity to build memories and make changes for the better. I like to call Mondays the ultimate in the do-over because you are starting fresh for a week. Well, the start of a new year is also one of those ultimate do-overs. Its a new year, who cares if you totally screwed up 2010? You got a fresh start now in 2011, so grab it and run wild.

Often, people make resolutions for the new year. Usually those are things like "lose 20lbs" or "quit smoking." Those are BIG goals, and all people do is stare at the end and then get discouraged when it isn't easy and happen quickly, so they give up. Well, not this year for me. I decided that I need to set a few goals for my own betterment in a few areas. One for my physical/mental health, one for our home environment, one for the kids' homeschool, one for my college, and one for my relationships in general. So, here goes, my list of goals.

1: exercise 3 times a week at a minimum
2: develop a consistent routine for housework
3: be consistent in homeschooling at least 4 days a week
4: get my GPA to a 3.0 by the end of next Semester and maintain it
5: say at least one positive thing about each person I love daily

Now, do you notice that the central theme around my goals for this year involve me doing things on a regular basis? Looks like I am working on becoming more consistent with the things i need to do. Right now, I work out uhhhhhhhhh never. Housework happens when I'm forced to, homeschool may happen a couple days a week randomly, and my grades in college are hovering near that 2.0 line just high enough to keep my financial aid eligibility.

So, I need to come up with a course of action in this matter. I happen to know that I am capable of being consistent with things, as I managed to teach myself to take my meds every morning (it only took me 3 months of having an alarm go off at 6:30am every single day before I was able to shut that off because I take my pills when I get up each day). So, I just need to set myself up for success with this. I am going to start small. I have no clue what I'll do exactly, but I know that I am going to do this. I will find a way to remember to do the things I need to do every day to improve my home, my relationships, my education, and my health.

talk about a sign.......

So, I know from my own experience that this is the start of the difficult period of homeschooling for us. The weather makes me not leave the house unless I absolutely HAVE to, and that means the kids don't go out much either. They get stir-crazy and drive me crazy. The lack of direct outdoor sunlight starts messing with me (sorry but those full-height windows we have just don't make up for it, they filter the vit. D right out of the sunlight before it gets to me I think) and I start cycling more than usual. Overall, it just makes for a hard time here and we don't get as much schooling done because I'm just trying to keep a grip on myself so that I can function enough to do the chores and take care of meals and snacks. And this year, I have the added responsibility of attempting to also keep a grip to keep my grades up in college. Yes, it is a difficult period for us (and the reason why we call it winter vacation instead of summer vacation).

In fact, it has been so difficult here this week for me on a psychological level that, over the weekend, I had decided that on Monday morning I was going to go to the elementary school that we are zoned in to enroll the oldest girls in grades 1 and 2. But, when I made this decision I decided to pray about it. I asked God to give me a sign if I wasn't supposed to enroll them, and went to bed.

Then when I got up I looked out the window at my road. We had snow fall last night, and the road is pretty much untouched. Surprising too, since we live on a main road that is one of the main access routes to the freeway ramp here AND we have the branch campus of Ohio State and the technical college both about a block away. So I looked at the local radio station for school closings and delays, and then laughed. Yep, God gave me that sign all right............. There won't be anyone there to enroll the girls if I managed to get my van out of the driveway (I don't drive so well in snow, it messes with my depth perception real bad, that's part of why we don't go out so much in wintertime). Looks like we're just going to announce our winter vacation now and do whatever we get done between now and when things start thawing out. Our focus during this particular season will be retaining math and reading, making a little progress if we want to, and Missa wants to learn to knit so she and I will knit some hats and scarves for her and her sisters (since I'm pretty talanted in this area I will do her sisters' hats and scarves while she does her own hat and scarf, then she can make some for their bears). Other than that, it is survival mode for chores, meals, and my main focus will be trying to keep up in my college classes to at least maintain a C average so I continue to qualify for financial aid.

I do not like admitting that this time of year is upon us, and I know it will be difficult for us for a while, but it is necessary to take the time off. Scott will likely pick up science lessons on weekends if he wants to, and will pick read alouds from our previous cores to continue reading once he finishes Charlotte's Web (which he was planning to finish over the weekend but life has a way of happening like that so he didn't get to it)

homeschool roller skating

The local roller skating rink has a homeschool skate on the 2nd and 4th Friday of every month from Sept-May. I'd heard about it but didn't know when or how much it was, and was too lazy to call and ask. Well, this week I saw a message on our homeschool group's e-mail list about the homeschool skate, and when I saw that it it only $7 a family I thought "hmmmmm maybe we can afford that." Well, today was payday for Scott, and I asked him about it. He left the debit card with me so that I could pull cash to take them, and we went. I even got on skates and tried not to fall on my face, and we all had fun. I think we found something to do twice a month to give us PE for a while........ since they didn't like karate and we can't afford much else right now (hey, skate rentals for everyone is included in the price of homeschool skate, that makes it a VERY affordable $14 a month for us to get some exercise). Enjoy!

science thoughts for my girls

So, I'm sure you've gathered that we don't have a set curriculum for science this year for the girls. There is a reason for that too. See, I ran out of money before I had decided on science materials for our homeschool (thanks to an old house, broke-down pickup truck, and me getting mono and spending a month depending on Scott to bring home takeout almost every night for supper). So I decided that I was going to wing it, more or less, this year and see what comes of it.

Enter my grand idea. I own 4 different Sonlight cores, 1 Sonlight science level, and 4 different levels of Sonlight language arts. Yes, you can safely say that we are a Sonlight family with that stuff on my shelf. Of course, all that is on top of the books we've gathered over the years that we've been parents so far, and the misc. college textbooks I have from my attempts to go to school for a degree. I should have enough to do my own thing with science until we get the tax refund and can buy Sonlight science 1, right?

Now here's my idea. In cores P3/4 and P4/5, Sonlight included science as part of the packages. That gives me uhhhhh 10 books I think that we can really dig into. Now, my girls have read some of these books already with our past runs through those cores, but we didn't really dig in with them at all. So, I'm going to do one book at a time and we're going to read through it, digging deeper in the subject and material it covers as they have an interest. I have the internet (obviously) so we can easily dig in with some searching online without much trouble.

So yesterday I did just that. We started the Flip-Flap Body Book from core P3/4 and I only read the first 2 pages of it to the girls, and they were really interested in it. Missa begged me to read more, then cried when I said no and that we'd read more tomorrow, and then we moved on to history and she got interested in that. Today I'll read the next two pages of that book to them, and again field begging and crying for more before I go on into history and they get sucked into it and want more more more of history. I am NOT stressing over it at all right now, if they ask for more about science once we are done with our schooling this afternoon then we'll hop onto the laptop and do a little digging.

But yeah, that's my thoughts on science. We're going to just start with the books I have and go through them while we wait for the money to buy the curriculum I have picked (which, when I buy SL science 1 I'm also buying core 2 and science 2, plus at least one additional level of readers, which all that should cover me for a couple school years on top of my core 1 stuff we have now)

college for me

Yes, I know I don't post much at all about my college classes, except with the occassional reference to the busy schedule it creates for me. So I thought I would give a blip about that since this *is* our family's blog and my college journey is a big part of our life here.

I'm taking classes online through Ohio Christian University. I love it, I'm almost done with my first semester of classes. The classes run 3-6 weeks, just depending on what it is, and they send me actual textbooks via UPS about 2 weeks before the start of each class so I'm not trying to keep track of a hundred different books at one time with taking 5 or 6 classes at the same time. I currently have a C average because I had a rough time with my first English composition class, but it will be going back up again with this class that starts tomorrow and the one after that.

Anyway, my class that starts tomorrow is called "Bible Study Methods" and I'm really looking forward to it. There was a glitch with the bookstore not sending me the books for my class, so on Friday morning I had to contact them to find out if I was getting books or not. They had my books on the UPS truck that afternoon, and now they are sitting beside me just arrived and taken out of the mailer bag. I have two books in this class, "How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth" and "Bible Study That Works." Hey its a Christian college, of course I have bible classes like this. Of course, I'm also pursuing a degree in Christian Ministry so it is definitely part of the territory to have bible classes.

Anyway, I've looked forward to courses so far that I've taken, even that English composition 1 course I just finished and got a C- in. But this course, I'm actually excited about it. I'm looking at these texts sitting here (I haven't had a chance yet to skim them) and am feeling slightly giddy about starting my coursework. I have the syllabus, student guides, Word document activity pages, and all other materials downloaded and saved in a desktop folder for my college classes (and if you have to know how OCD I am about it, within that folder I have a folder for finished classes and then one for each class this semester, and within the course specified folder I have a folder for each week of the course which is where the individual week student guides and documents are at, and where I'll save all completed work before submitting it). I've read the syllabus and all the week 1 materials, and I've typed up my devotional response for this week to submit tomorrow morning first thing. Now, today when I'm not doing chores or homeschooling the girls I can get going on the rest of my assignments for this week.

I can't stress enough the value of college classes for a stay-at-home parent. Even if I never actually USE the degree I'm working on, just knowing that I'm capable of obtaining a college degree 10 years after graduating high school (ok in June it will be 11 years since I graudated in 2000) helps to boost my own confidence and that is reflected in how I homeschool the girls, do housework, and just live in general. I love being a stay-at-home mom, but it does get boring after a while to be constantly doing things for everyone else and putting yourself on the back burner. My college classes are that thing I'm doing for ME. Some moms may get manicures or go to an expensive salon for highlights and a haircut regularly, but for me the best way to treat myself and give myself what I need to feel good about myself is to be constantly learning and growing. When I finish my Associate's degree in 4 semesters (after this one is finished, I have one more class after the one starting tomorrow to finish the semester), I may or may not go on to the Bachelor's program online. Actually, after this semester and 3 more, I can choose to transfer into the Bachelor's program instead of finishing my AA first. Then, when I finish my BA at OCU, I may decide to work using my degree or maybe I'll enroll at Ohio State as a part time student and take a class here and there online for fun to keep learning and growing. Continuing my education is how I take care of myself and pamper myself. I'm not one for fancy clothes or expensive haircuts, I want to learn. I want to keep going in my own education and never be finished learning.

I also hope that by continuing my own education like I am with college, my daughters will see that learning is difficult sometimes and that you don't give up, that you keep pushing and trying anyway and just do the best you can and keep trying until you get it. I am hoping that watching their mom go through college while they are working on elementary school at home will give them an example to follow about sticking to it and hopefully inspire them to have the drive that I do to keep learning no matter what. I've already had a few talks with Missa about college and learning because she is the oldest of my crew (at 7 1/2 years old). She's the one of my girls who was in the Newark public schools for half of a school year, and the only one so far who has absolutely NO desire to ever go back to public school (yes, our second year at home is almost halfway done and she still flat out refuses to ever go to school again, she loves homeschooling that much). She asked me a while back why I wanted to go to school because I'm a grownup and don't have to do it, and was surprised that I like learning and think that its fun to do schoolwork. I spent some time showing her about what online college looks like. We sat down with my laptop and I logged into my online classroom and showed her how we do discussions in class, how I get my homework from the teacher, and how I turn it in when its finished. She thought it was just the coolest thing to be able to do college at home on the computer like I am, and asked me if she'd be able to do that when she's old enough to go to college instead of going to one of the big colleges and sitting in classrooms. I told her that when she's done with homeschool that if she wants to go to college that she certainly can do it that way for a lot of degree programs.

Obviously that talk with her about it (which SHE was the one to start) led to us discussing a lot more than just that I'm in college and do schoolwork too. We talked about what kind of jobs need a college degree and what ones don't, why some people go to college even if they don't plan to use the degree to work (like me at this point, I'm not sure yet if I'll use it), and a lot of other things about why it is important to work hard in school and learn as much as you can. I don't know that it had too much of a long-term impact on her with learning, but since we had that particular talk I have noticed that she appears to be more focused and willing when it comes to math and language arts lessons, even to the point where she is getting her math workbook and cuisinaire rods out on her own and doing a page or two when we're not doing schoolwork. She is starting to see the long-term value of working hard in school and learning, through my going to college and pursuing a degree with the snippets of free time that I have. I couldn't ask for a better return of the investment in a college education for me, if I inspire my girls to become lifelong learners and always work hard to do their best in all parts of their life then it is worth the student loans we're taking out right now for me to go to school.

"we're excavating, mommy!"

Yes, one of my kids said that to me a couple nights ago. We had decided to go ahead and skip the first two Usborne books in core 1 for now, and just incorporate a bit from those books as we go through the rest of the core. So, that puts us in week 7, and we've been learning about archaeology this week. This is super cute, so bear with me on it. I really wish I had taken pictures to share, but I didn't so you'll just have to imagine it happening. :-)

We had just finished reading "Archaeologists Dig For Clues" in history, and I was chatting on Yahoo with a friend of mine while the girls were playing in the schoolroom area. Kimi and Jojo had recruited their big sisters to help them set up an imaginative play, and I wasn't watching too closely to see what was up. Before too long, they had gotten Missa to draw them up a grid map just like in the book we had read, and they had gotten out paintbrushes and some other things. The little two each picked a square tile to work at, and when I started watching what on earth they were doing (before I asked) they were carefully using popsicle sticks to scrape a layer of dirt carefully and put it into a pretend container, and then use a paintbrush to clear away the loose dirt from what they were digging up. (ok before I go any further, they were PRETENDING here, there is no actual dirt on my floor, maybe a few crushed tortilla chips right now but no actual dirt) Now, I had no clue what they were doing, as I was not paying attention earlier to their talking with their big sister and getting out the book we had just read to show her what they wanted and all that stuff, so I had to ask them what they were up to. Jojo, bless her little 3 year old heart, looked at me with a big grin and said, "we're excavating, mommy!" and then Kimi told me that she had found a kitty buried over here just like they found a doggy in the book we read. Jojo ran over to her, and they carefully dug around it and built the box around it and all the other stuff just like in the book to preserve the skeleton until it was back at the lab to be properly removed. Then Kimi drew it on the grid that they got Missa to make for them, and she "wrote" it down on the log. Oh they had so much fun that night!

I really wish I had gotten pictures of them during their "excavation" so I could share them too, it was just too adorable and I had to watch it as it was happening because it just amazed me at how much they learned from simply listening to me reading to their oldest 2 sisters for history. I didn't think they actually WERE listening, but apparently they were.

I do believe that for now, one core for all 4 of my kids to do history is going to be a very workable option. I'm amazed at how much my littlest girls are picking up regularly from the reading we do together, and I can't wait to start getting into history with them next week.

Which, last night I peeked ahead in the core to see what we're doing with history so I could be ready for it. I got "A Child's History of the World" (we'll call this CHOW to make life easier on me) and "Usborne Book of World History" (aka UBWH here from now on) to look over. Now, initially I did NOT like CHOW at all, I had read the first 3 chapters and thought it was terrible. But then someone at the Sonlight forums told me that the first 3 chapters aren't used at all, it starts in chapter 4. So, I decided to give it a chance and see how it worked before I tossed it aside and replaced it with Story of the World. Last night was my first time looking at it beyond chapter 3, and I skimmed chapter 4 and the pages in UBWH that we would be doing with it. Then I went forward a bit more in the guide and skimmed CHOW chapters and UBWH pages, then added in Time Traveler for skimming when we got to it. I ended up stopping around week 23 or so I think with my skimming. I had so much fun looking over what we were going to be covering that I couldn't stop. I do believe the girls are going to have a blast with the hostory coming up, I can't wait to get started on it. (and I honestly do believe that a parent can not successfully homeschool their children with materials if they aren't excited about them as well, I mean they can teach the material effectively but if the parent isn't excited about it as well then the kids won't get even close to as much out of the material because they will pick up on their parent's boredom or dislike of the material no matter how well mom or dad tries to hide it)

Happy December! new month, new goals

I love this time of year. Honestly, I really do love December. It is that perfect time of year for my breathing, where its cold enough that we must bundle up to go outside but not so cold that even checking the mail is painfully cold. It is December 1st, 2010 and we have our first snowfall of the season today as well! It is a truly beautiful thing, there is just something magical about the first snowfall of the season that takes me back to when I would go sledding on the hill at my grandmother's house with the twins, Amy and Liz (they lived down the street). Of course, I can't remember only the good things about sledding down the hill with them, I have to also remember that one time I slammed straight into the apple tree and almost broke my leg (the upper one on my left leg, OUCH that flipping HURT when it happened too!). Yes, I do love this time of year, when we start putting fires in the fireplace regularly (read: almost daily to keep the gas bill down) and hot cocoa becomes a regular thing at the breakfast table. Hot home-cooked meals almost all the time, the beauty of snow falling, all that great stuff. The only thing I don't like about this time of year is that people seem to forget how to drive.

But anyway, it is a new month, and as you may have noticed already I try to set some goals at the start of each month for our homeschooling. Well, this month is no different. So here's what I'm thinking may happen here.

We've had a major "what on EARTH" time here since October when I withdrew the girls from OHVA. It totally turned things upside down in schooling, but in a very good way. We just finished the book "Archeologists Dig For Clues" today from Sonlight core 1, and the girls are fascinated, as usual, by this subject. Now mind you, a couple days ago I had posted about deciding to drop the first two books in the core history and moving on in history, and not really sure what to do about those two books because there is just so stinking much information in them. Well, I think I figured it out. This month, for December, we are going to add those two books back in and go through them. We are going to spend time learning about archeology and the science behind it, as an integrated history and science unit. This just came to me about a half hour ago, so its still just a beginning idea that I have. I'm going to do some digging at the library's online catalog, in my core 1 guide, and on the world history forum at the Sonlight forums to get some ideas on books and activities and such to add to this. We live less than 10 minutes (maybe about 5 minutes I think) from the Newark Earthworks Great Circle Museum, aka the Newark Indian mounds. I am seeing a field trip in our very near future here........... lol

For math, I am just aiming to work on it with the girls each 4 days a week. Nothing too ambitious, just do some work regularly on it.

With lang. arts and reading, Kimi and Jordan have started Sonlight lang. arts K (see my post yesterday about Kimi's first copywork) while Missa and Liddy are doing the lang. arts 1 program at their individual speeds. I want to continue that momentum, and keep plugging away a minimum of 4 days a week. I also would like to begin working with Missa on cursive I think, she's been asking about it a while so maybe we'll give it a shot and see what happens. For Liddy, we're goign to work on printing lowercase letters and using them in everyday writing instead of using just capitals like she insists on right now. Kimi is going to work on lowercase letters too, but more from the approach of getting it right the first time so we don't have the issues with her that we do with Liddy as far as flat out refusing to use lowercase letters. Jordan will do whatever she does in this area, as we aren't really doing much with her except exposing her to it all right now. The only parts of lang arts K that she is really doing would be the weekly letter sheet, looking at the picture dictionary, and doing some of the activities.

OK what am I missing? Oh yes, arts and crafts! This month I am *hoping* that we can make homemade ornaments for our Christmas tree this year since they managed to destroy all of our ornaments that we had every year prior to this one. I'll make some salt dough and color it with food coloring, then turn them loose on making ornaments to hang. I will also do some of those cinnamon scented ornaments if I can find the recipe for that dough, and we'll do paper ring chains to put on the tree instead of tinsel. At least, that's my plan, and we all know how my plans go sometimes................... *wink*

And for music, I think we'll learn a couple Christmas carols. I'm not thinking of trying to take my 4 kids and teach them to do a flawless "Carol of the Bells" quartet, I'm thinking more like an out of tune Jingle Bells or something. Keep it simple!

For read aloud time, Scott is going to finish Charlotte's Web and move into, and hopefully finish, Homer Price. But that depends on how much he reads to them each night more than anything else.

Of course, all these grand plans depend on the cooperation of my girls and them staying healthy long enough to do even half of it. lol Right now Kimi is sick and on antibiotics, so schooling is much more relaxed than it sounds. But we're still getting things done around here for the most part, when I'm not working on my college homework, keeping up with chores, or handwashing clothes because our washer died over the weekend and we're saving for a new one (it died sooner than we thought, we were already saving).

handwriting 101 for pre-k'ers

So, if you haven't already gathered, I am fairly relaxed about homeschooling with kids under a certain age. I don't actually "do" a formal preschool here with them, they just kind of pick the stuff up somehow (most likely from television, educational computer games, and having big sisters teaching them this stuff). So, a few weeks ago My sweet little Kimi asked me to teach her how to write her name. I started with just a simple "KIMI" for her on the dry erase board, and in about 2 minutes she had mastered that (as we can all tell by looking at certain doors and walls in my home now LOL she likes to practice and doesn't always use paper for that). So, today when we did our core and such with the older two girls, I though to myself that maybe she'd be ready to take on the writing in Sonlight's lang. arts K program. Now remember, she is only 4 1/2 with a January birthday, so she isn't expected really at this point to be able to write her name or much of anything else. I remembered from doing this lang. arts level with my oldest girls that the first week starts off with writing their first name, so I decided to just go for it and see how it went. I got out a sheet of the Handwriting Without Tears paper (its the ONLY handwriting program I will ever use, it is WONDERFUL and I've had a lot of success with it and myoldest 2 girls) and carefully printed out "Kimberly" for her, just like I typed it. She has NEVER written a lowercase letter in her life, so I didn't expect her to do very well with it. I'm more interested in the exposure at this point with her, and getting her started on using lowercase letters.

So how did her copywork for today go? Well, here is a picture that I took of her paper (used my laptop's webcam, pardon if it is grainy or fuzzy or whatever) and you tell me how she did.



How do YOU think my 4 year old did printing her full first name for the first time, along with using some lowercase letters for the first time ever? I count a total of 5 lowercase letters in her name that she wrote, well the M could be a capital but I do think she was attempting a lowercase with it. I just simply told her to do her best with it, and that tomorrow we'd work together on the letters she had trouble with. I don't have much to work with her on as far as those letters go.......... :-)

changes to my core 1 schedule

Well I posted a couple hours ago about the girls spending all of last week on the first 2 pages of Usborne's Peoples of the World. After that post, my brain started cranking and I started thinking about this a little bit. I grabbed that book and Usborne's Houses and Homes (the next book we'll be doing after Peoples of the World) and my core 1 guide, and sat down to do a little thinking and looking.

The first 6 weeks of core 1 cover 2 pages of those two books each day. That equals 30 guide days at pace since we're doing the 5 day schedule. If we do 2 pages a week instead of 2 pages a day as scheduled, that means it would give me 30 weeks in those books. So the way I see it, I have 2 options ahead of me.

option 1: do the 2 pages a week, then go into the rest of the core as scheduled and not worry about taking longer than scheduled or planned. That would put us finishing up core 1 at around uhhhhhhhhhh mu birthday of next school year I think.

option 2: do 2 pages a week from these 2 books, and also go ahead in the guide starting in week 7 at the same time. This would give me exactly 30 weeks of material if I go at pace in the guide with the remaining material, so we'd finish the core right around the start of next school year.

The OCD part of me is screaming to do option 2, so that I can stay "on schedule" and not "get behind". But at the same time, the super relaxed part of me says to do option 1 and just see what happens. But then, I also have that nagging little part of my brain reminding me that on my notification, I said we were doing core 1 and I should try to actually do core 1 to where I'm at least 2/3 done with it when I do portfolio review (we won't be doing standardized testing prior to 5th grade by our own preferences, I refuse to teach to the test like they do in schools, and the standardized testing may or may not be used as reporting starting in 5th grade just based on the scores and how accurately we feel they reflect our girls' abilities and knowledge if we choose to do testing then). It just doesn't feel quite right to say I'm going to do core 1 and then when its time for review have to say that we did all the read alouds and poetry but only the first 6 weeks of the history, know what I mean? So, I'm kind of flip-flopping on this one.

If you have insight, input, or an option I've not tought of yet with this, please comment and tell me! I'm totally open on this, and I have a feeling Scott doesn't have much of an opinion beyond "as long as they are learning dear, whatever you choose is fine with me."

Well, I said I wanted to stretch out our core.......

So, last week I wrote about how we started core 1 finally. Well, we did day 1 of week 1 last week. Yes, that's IT. I did the reading to the girls for that day, and the 2 pages of that Usborne book had so much in it that they wanted to spend more time on that I just said OK fine and we spent Tuesday and Wednesday looking deeper at it, then took Thursday and Friday off since Scott was home on a mini-vactaion thanks to Thanksgiving holiday. So, today I am *hoping* to pick up with day 2 and move a little faster than we did day 1. But then, we have spent the day cleaning up the schoolroom and getting other little things not school-related done, so I don't know if we will get to lessons at all today.

I never expected the kids to want to spend 3 days on the material of 1 day of history, but it was certainly a fun time for us. I can't wait to see where this core takes us, and I'm really hoping that I can find a good pace that will allow us to finish it by the end of next school year. Yes, I said NEXT school year.

But the girls certainly did appear to enjoy spending all that extra time on the material from that first day. I just hope they don't expect to spend a week on one day all the time, I don't mind doing it through these two Usborne books we're reading first in the core but I really don't think I have the patience to do it through the entire core. Heck, 180 days of core scheduled doing one day a week would be 180 weeks or uhhhhhhhh, around 3 1/2 years. Nope, that is NOT happening.

we have OFFICIALLY started core 1 today

Yes I know, we put that off long enough didn't we? I've had a very hard time trying to get us organized to do lessons, so I called it just good enough at getting a little math and language arts done each day for the most part. Well, tonight Scott decided that he was ready to start his evening read-aloud time with the girls again for bedtime, and he pulled the first read aloud book in our Sonlight core 1 schedule. He is reading 1 or 2 chapters each night to the girls until it is done, and then will pick up a book from our bookshelf to read before he moves on to the next read aloud in the core (therefore allowing me to kind of keep up with the history so that it flows a little bit on the same schedule, he won't get too far ahead of us hopefully). In the morning I plan to ask the girls to tell me about what he read tonight, then maybe we'll do the map assignment in the guide (I say maybe as a major maybe thing, we are trying to let the girls take the lead on this stuff) and hopefully I'll keep the momentum going by starting our history materials. I would LOVE to see the girls getting through their schoolwork in the mornings to free up our afternoons, especially since the little 2 kids are normally at their easiest in the mornings. We'll see how it goes though, I've been really flakey for a long time so it is going to take some serious discipline on my part to get this implemented.

our journey to becoming homeschoolers, and a plea from me

I've been thinking about this one a lot the last few days, and decided it was time to put exactly why we chose this route in one post instead of giving hints about it in many posts like I have been up until now. It is a very long story, so please have patience with me as I have 4 children to keep up with and have severe ADHD and the meds that I take make me functional but aren't really enough to keep me fully in check so this could be hard to follow and slightly random.

First I need to give a little background on educational histories for myself and my husband. Scott went to the same public school his entire career, starting at the preschool that everyone sent their children to in town at 4 and moving through the local public school to graduation. He was held back in 3rd grade because of maturity, he has an August birthday and was one of the youngest kids in his class before repeating 3rd grade. That repeat year was a good thing for him, and he went from struggling and acting out in class to getting good grades and being a good kid in class.

My school experience is completely different. I started out with private school for preschool at 3 years old and went through K there. In 1st grade I moved to the local public school and did well. I was reading with comprehension at a high school level, and capable of doing 6th grade math easily. The school bored me, but I did the best I could to jump their hoops. I moved before second grade to a new city, then mid-year again to a new city, only to end up back in the first new city for third grade. Yes, in grades 1-3 I was the new kids 4 different times in 3 different schools. Third grade was when I started having trouble in school. My grandmother had custody of me, and was abusive on top of it, and there was another new kid at my school that year. He moved there from New York City, I think his name was Chad or something like that. He wore a leather jacket and was one of those "bad boy" looking kids. The first day of school, he sized me up and decided that he was going to take me down a few pegs. See, despite my moving out of the school mid-year in 2nd grade and then back again for 3rd, I was one of the popular kids. I started out as one of the popular kids in 2nd grade, everyone wanted to hang out with me and I just had that personality that drew others to me. I was super smart, but acted like a normal kid at the same time, so nobody thought of me as that geeky kid. The other kids would ask me for homework help sometimes, but mainly they wanted to hang out with me and be my friend. I was the one to know, and I didn't take it for granted. I thought it was kind of cool to have so many people like me, and I used that to keep my standards high for my grades and actions even back then. I was one who wanted to set an example for others, and nobody was excluded because they dressed funny, didn't talk like the rest of us, or anything like that. Third grade started the same way for me, until that new kid decided he didn't like me. He started teasing me, telling me I was ugly and fat and dumb. I would ignore it, but soon enough he got everyone else in on it. When I got good grades, they canged it from saying I was dumb to teasing me for being so smart and calling me "teacher's pet." After a few months of nobody at school doing anything (I made sure to tell my teachers, the principal, my grandmother, anyone who would listen) I fought back. My grades dropped, I spent a lot of time in trouble for yelling in class (usually something obscene), and was suspended several times. In 5th grade, the principal sentenced me to Saturday school every week for the school year because I was such a disruption. The torment got worse over time too. The school did nothing, my grandmother did nothing but tell me to ignore it. She used to tell me "every time they start talking and saying nasty things, just pretend you have an eraser and erase their mouths, and if that doesn't stop it erase their entire body from your mind, pretend they aren't even there." I got straight F's in 5th grade despite being as smart as I was. I was in the gifted program in 3rd and 4th grade, until I asked to leave it because the kids there were harrassing me as well. I quit trying, and just shut down. For me, school was an escape from the abuse I endured at home, but at the same time I dreaded it because I was tormented there as well. I couldn't escape the torment and abuse, and in sixth grade I snapped and tried to swallow an entire bottle of buffered aspirin. After getting my stomach pumped and all the physical damage from it repaired, I started extensive therapy to try and repair the damage that had been done to me in public school. I also was moved to a private school an hour from home. There were only 5 kids in my classes at any given time when I was in that school. I was able to work completely at my pace in this school, and over the course of 6th and 7th grade I moved into high school advanced applied math classes (trig and pre-calculus) and I did high school biology. I remember 6th grade with biology, my lab partner was a 10th grade boy with Tourette's. I was the only one who wasn't bothered by his tics, and we worked well together. I did dissections and such, and he did all the lab sheet writing to record the information in labs. It was a great time for me, and I was devastated when my father got custody of me again right before I started 8th grade and learned that I would be attending a public school again. Thankfully, it was a district I had never been in before and they had a wonderful gifted program and pull-out services for anyone who needs them for any reason. My tutor in school the last 5 years of my education was wonderful, and she helped me to gain a lot of confidence with being back in a public school environment. I didn't apply myself as much as I could have, but still graduated in the top half of my class. I didn't have many friends either, as my previous experience in public school had led me to protect myself by withdrawing completely. I shied away from everyone, opting to just focus on my schoolwork and immersing myself in my music. I did it for my own protection, as I was not about to let anyone else close enough to me to cause me the tormet I went through in elementary school.

I swore that I would never let any children I had go through what I did, and when I met my aunt and uncle at 18 I was introduced to homeschooling. I thought it was interesting, parents teaching their own kids, so I looked into it during my pregnancy with Missa. By the time she was born, I was convinced and knew my kids would be homeschooled. I then started working on Scott about this, as he had an acceptably decent experience in school. I don't know if he knows much of what I went through in school myself, but he agreed to take it a year at a time at first and see where it went. Preschool went fairly well, although I doubted my ability to do it so I enrolled Missa in the school Scott attended when he was in school (that's where we lived, he grew up at the address we lived for the first 6 years we were together). Just 3 weeks before school started, we moved to a different city. The school district we moved to is the one I was in the second half of my 2nd grade year. We opted not to enroll Missa in school, but to homeschool her instead. We felt it would be too much change for her on top of moving to a new city and no longer having her own bedroom.

The first half of her K year went pretty well at home, but it was stressful for me. I was trying to do too much, this I know now. So, in January at the start of 2nd semester she was enrolled in the local school to finish the year. I felt like a failure to her, every day was a struggle to get her to school and I had to deal with tantrums every time. She didn't do well in school, and quickly became withdrawn and lost all confidence in herself. We decided to pull her out at the end of the school year, and go back to teaching her ourselves. In a moment of insecurity, we decided to go with Ohio Virtual Academy to help us build our confidence and develop the consistency we needed for schooling. We had a great year in K and 1st grade with Missa and Liddy with OHVA. It helped us to build our confidence and develop a routine for consistency.

We had only planned to do OHVA for that year, but we felt that since it had gone so well we wanted to try a second year with them. That lasted about 6 weeks before we withdrew from the school to strike out on our own. The pace just was too much with our family dynamic and lifestyle, we needed more flexibility than what the school could offer us. So we bought our curriculum and went for it.

I still have a lot of doubts, and wonder if I can pull this off. But honestly, right now my girls are creating stuff with play dough together, playing nicely and having a great time. They are having no problems sharing or taking turns with certain colors and tools. Even my 3 year old is doing well with that. We are reading books together as a family on a daily basis, and that desire to learn has returned to Missa. Sometimes Liddy says she wants to go to public school, but Missa insists that she never wants to go back there. I have considered sending Liddy and Kimi next school year, since both are ahead of the curriculum in our local schools, so they can see what it is all about, but I know that Missa is perfectly content to never go back to public school.

Our journey to homeschooling has been a complicated one, full of a lot of pain and emotional turmoil. It is not something that we decided on lightly, and I suspect still that Scott is not truly on board with the idea of it. He asked me at lunch today what the girls were doing, and when I told him they were enjoying the play dough he asked me what educational purpose it served so I had to break it down (with the motor delays in our home, the motor development that sculpting gives is a wonderful thing, and it serves double duty by providing them with an artistic outlet and working on the skills of playing together, sharing, and taking turns nicely with limited supplies of certain things). But I can honestly say that at the end of the day, I can't imagine ever sending my girls happily off to the public schools where we live for any reason as long as I am able to teach them myself. The social drawbacks of the local schools are just great for me to willingly do it.

(disclaimer: I know that my personal experience in public school for the 3 1/2 years that I was tormented so much are not typical experiences that children have. I realize that my experience was unusual and that my difficult home life at the same time did not help things any, and that I may have a slightly skewed view of what happened to me growing up. I have many repressed memories that I am working to unlock now, the majority of what I know of my own childhood comes from what I was told by others, and from reading paperwork recoding events. I also know that many children who experience what I tell of my own time in school are the ones who either commit suicide, like I attempted to do, or they take an automatic weapon to school and open fire on everyone in sight. Please take my experience to heart and share it with your children if they are in school, and pass it to everyone you know who has children in school or works with public and private school children. Don't let this continue, I am almost 29 years old. This is NOT a new problem in schools, and will not go away unless we as adults step in and do something drastic by getting the word out there!)

New month, new goals and Halloween fun!

Well, as you may already know, especially if you follow my blog and have been reading lately, we decided to leave OHVA and k12 in October. What you may NOT know, however, is that for the past two weeks I have been fighting mono. Yes, our last week of OHVA and first week of independence I have been down for the count. It isn't much of an issue though, as we had decided as a family to give the girls some time to decompress from the pressure of OHVA academics and just enjoy life and learn to love one another and love learning. So, I was hoping that I'd be able to get up and running with our new curriculum today, but I made the decision to take the kids out Trick Or Treating up in Johnstown on Thursday night with my mother-in-law and Scott. The kids had a blast hitting our old neighborhood (we went down the street we lived on and saw all our old neighbors and friends, it was GREAT) and Scott and I enjoyed catching up for a few minutes with some of our friends and neighbors and seeing some of his family. The only way it could have been better would have been if my aunt, uncle, and cousins were going to be home that night so we could have stopped in to see them as well. But we see them at church when we can get there, so it isn't much of a big issue that we didn't see them that night. The girls got enough candy to make a dozen dentists faint, and they ate almost every bit of it within 3 days. Yes, I allowed total free reign over the candy, we had a full paper grocery sack of it and I just wanted it out before I gained 10lbs. So they gorged.

Now, onto our plans for this month. It will require a little information on what we have decided to do with the kids so that you can get a feel for the dynamic here.

I started my college classes up again last week, which is giving us an interesting feel to evenings. I tend to work on my schoolwork after supper, when my mind is usually sharpest and Scott is home to handle the kids. This works well for me, I dedicate 2-4 hours a night (depending on how busy we've been with chores and other things that need done during the day) and am keeping up pretty well for the most part. I have a draft of an essay due today, so I'll actually be working a good bit today on it during chores time since I've opted to attempt to do laundry today as my big chore. I say ATTEMPT because my washer, as much as I love it, has a sensor that is going bad and the part is on backorder for another week or two, so it won't do spin cycle sometimes and I have to let the machine sit a few hours to reset when that sensor malfunctions (what it does, it senses the water draining from my machine and tells the machine to do that high speed spin at the end of its final rinse, its a real pain when it doesn't work). My big goal for ME this month is to keep up and pass my college class, which will be a challenge because it is ENGLICH COMPOSITION 1 and I do *not* do well with English comp classes. I never got that foundational background in grammar and English despite going to one of the best public schools in the state as a child during the critical years for grammar development. However, I am a natural writer so I can muddle a B in this class pretty easily, I hope. I'll be happy with a C though, since this is one of my weaker areas.

For the girls, well we have a totally different plan. We are thinking of starting lessons up with them on a more official level around Thanksgiving possibly, to allow me to recover from my mono since Trick or Treat night set me back so badly (I was feeling pretty good Thursday, then Friday I felt like I got run over by a Mac truck again and still feel that way here on Monday morning). Here's what I have in mind when we do get started.

UNSCHOOLING.

Now, we're not going all-out radical unschooling here. I don't have the trust in my kids for that. HOWEVER, I will allow them to dictate what and when for academics. If they choose to spend a week or two focusing on math workbooks that I've got for them (Miquon for Missa, Horizons for Liddy) or a month working on lang arts worksheets (I have Explode the Code and Sonlight lang arts for them to do as they want), then that is fine. Since we love reading and books, I chose to purchase Sonlight core 1 to read daily to them. Core 1 is the first part of a 2-year world history program, and I am going to follow the guide mostly for this program as far as reading schedules go for each book. We may or may not use the timeline stuff, mapwork, and the discussion questions and such. I'm going to play it by ear mostly on that. Science, we're going to explore science books i have on hand from my earlier cores (core 1 is the 4th core I own, so we're pulling books from science P3/4, P4/5, and K as our exploration). We plan to learn a lot through living life and exploring, and throughv reading great books.

So, that's my plan. We're going to read books in P3/4 and core 1 this year, encourage the girls to do math and lang. arts at their pace and interest, and sxplore a lot of science books and topics. And we'll start once I'm over fighting this mono.

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.