oh I sure hope I'm wrong!

So friday night I got a used Sonlight LA 1 and their I Can Read It! books (the expensive part of the readers lol) to do with Melissa this fall. Well, I was looking through it last night and today, getting familiar with it before we start in 3 weeks, and I think I may have gotten her the wrong level. As in, too easy. At the beginning of January, she wasn't able to sound out "cat" and she struggled like heck in LA K and later in public K class with her reading and writing. Well, she took off like mad this last couple months since we bought P3/4, in both reading and writing. I am at the point where I'm thinking right now that LA 1 may be too easy for her, although I haven't looked past the first few weeks yet in the schedule. I'm going to do that here in a few minutes, and then I'll be deciding if I want to try and get my hands on a used LA 2 and readers or not. This is definitely a change from how it was for her just a few short months ago, its amazing what happens when a little time passes sometimes!

And to think I was worried that she would struggle for a few more years with reading................. lol Guess I was wrong!

For everyone at Sonlight!

I have to dedicate a post just to the Sonlight crew, they are this wonderful.

Luke, your comments on my blog this past month or two have been inspiring and encouraging for my dh and me. When I started this blog originally, neither of us ever imagined that someone at Sonlight would find it and comment. You've seen my recent indecision, and have been so kind in your comments when I'm sure that others are thinking "just make up your mind already woman!" You have given little insights here and there that have helped me to better understand my oldest daughter, particularly in the reading area. Your blog has also helped me, it has given me things to chew on a regular basis, turning them over in my head and thinking about them until I have gotten everything I can from them. I thank you for this.

Sarita, your blog is simply wonderful and inspirational for me. I don't read it as much as I want to sometimes, but your wisdom and experience really shines through in all your blog posts. Whenever I don't know what to think about something that comes up here in my home, I know that I can probably get some ideas from your blog.

Amy and the others who work on the Beam. I always look forward to my issue showing up in my e-mail inbox, to see what great discussions have come up since the last Beam in the forums that I may want or need to read. There is almost always at least one discussion linked in the Beam that has an answer to a problem that we are working out, an answer that I may not have found. Thank you for taking the time to put together each issue so that I don't live on the forums LOL

For the catalog crew. I have always enjoyed my catalog when it arrives at our home, especially the articles. I also wanted to personally thank you for quoting me in an article (mine is the quote with the crazy kids that wanted their Sonlight before Christmas presents lol) Thank you for taking the time to put together such a wonderful catalog that my entire family enjoys. My girls love to look at all the pictures of families with their Sonlight materials, and seeing what cores are in store for them. DH loves to read the little quotes sprinkled through the catalog, seeing how much other families love their materials. And I love the whole thing, although I'd love to see one of the pictures I submitted in a future catalog.

Thank you all for the wonderful jobs you all do to provide us with a wonderful curriculum, a wonderful online community, and all the other great things we get. I wish all companies thought about their customers as much as you all obviously do, taking the time to ask our opinions on the forums and taking our comments and suggestions into consideration. I am so happy that I found Sonlight first when we began researching materials when Melissa was just 4 months old. I can't imagine going with any other company for materials, and I can't imagine a different style of curriculum being truly as well thought out and complete as your program is. Thank you all so much for everything you do!

Ahhhh the used curriculum sale!!!!!

I went to my first-ever used curriculum sale last night. I have been doing my homework for a few weeks now, as Scott and I have been getting a nagging feeling that ohva just isn't the right fit for our family even with all the benefits it has for us (free materials, computer, partial reimbursement for internet costs, no reporting, and just about anyone could pick up and teach if I'm sick and unable to) Well, I sent in my notification yesterday to the district, and on Monday I'm calling ohva to withdraw our enrollment. So, last night I went with a friend of mine to the sale to see if I could score a few things I knew I wanted to get for this upcoming school year. Well, I spent $36 there, and this is what I managed to pull off:

Sonlight language arts 1 (2007 edition)
Sonlight I Can Read It! set (2007 also, was packaged with the LA for a total of $10)
Miquon math lab annotations book
full set cuisinaire rods (for the math we'll use)
Explode The Code 2, 3, and 4
a book for our president unit study (its about the White House)
a magnetic picture/ word board

Now, our plan originally was for us to use Miquon math and ETC for LA, I wanted to do SL's LA with Melissa but I can't afford it new and didn't think I'd get an awesome deal on it used like this. Well, I was holding out for the PERFECT deal on a used set of LA 1 and ICRI books, and I got my deal. That's almost a $90 set, those two together, and I paid $10 for it. I was hoping to find ANYTHING for ETC that we could use (we were planning on workbooks 1, 2, and 3 this fall with Melissa) and I only have to buy book 1 now. Same with my math books, I was hoping I could get at least the lab annotations used so that I could save a little and I did. There were a few people there selling sets, but none of the sets had the workbooks I need this fall so I only got the lab book and the manipulatives.

My friend that I went with, she spent $20 and walked out with sooooo much more than I did, but she got a lot of workbooks and freebies. She also haggled a few deals for stuff, unlike me (I felt the prices were good enough without having to haggle)

ohva

You probably know by now that I'm one of the most INDECISIVE people on the planet lol I felt really good at first about our choice to go with ohva for the girls so that we could have the transition and all that for Melissa, and because its free (big plus when your on a budget!) Well, yesterday I came unglued to 3 people: my wonderful husband and 2 friends of mine. One friend took me to the homeschool group's curriculum share on Monday night (she drove and I made supper for her and her kids, then Scott watched all 6 kids by himself so we could go, he deserves sainted for that! lol) and she discovered a program that she LOVED from the moment she first started leafing through the books. She discovered Konos, and talked to the lady who brought it to share and fell even more in love with it as she talked more to her about it. She finally found something that fits her I hope. Me, on the other hand, I wasn't excited by Konos at all, it just looked like it would require way too much tweaking to make it work for my family with our beliefs and what we want to teach. Soooo, I started looking at other things there. Nothing even came close to comparing to my Sonlight, but that's ok. I still enjoyed looking. Then I found it. Someone brought a copy of Story of the World vol. 3. I had purchased vols. 1 and 2 on clearance from the WTM site (its the old edition, that's why it was clearanced) and they are sitting on my shelf, just waiting on me to get them out and do them with the girls. Then, I saw Explode the Code books over at the lang. arts table, and I knew instantly that Melissa would LOVE it just from leafing through it. Mth table, I found someone had brought her child's Miquon math workbook and the lab annotations book. Again, I had that ah-HA moment when I leafed through it. (if you don't know already, I have a fond history with Miquon. I went to a private school for pre-k and K and at 3yo had already finished all their K materials so they got me started with Miquon math and some LA workbooks that I can't remember, I did all 6 Miquon books during my time at that school and I'm a total math geek, I love math)

So since Monday night, I have been praying about it, thinking, and discussing it with Scott. I came totally unglued on my other friend in an e-mail yesterday and she sent me a reply with the most useful thing of all: a breakdown of the pros and cons of going with ohva and not going with ohva. So I thought more about it all day, prayed a few more times yesterday (as well as a couple times overnight and this morning) and Scott told me this morning to get my intent ready. So, I e-mailed my friend again, and she helped me with my notification letter this morning after I took Melissa to school. It felt so good to get it done, I just have to type up my list of materials and brief outline of what we're covering this school year (she helped me write them out for me to type up at home after helping me with her little standardized *form letter* for notification) I am officially NOT going with ohva now after how things have worked with me and Scott the last few days. I think it has been a process though, I started doubting myself a few days after I got the approval notice from ohva. And apparently its been weighing on Scott too, as he seemed a bit relieved when I first brought it up with him.

So instead of ohva, we'll be doing Story of the World vol. 1, Explode the Code, Sonlight LA K (for Lydia), miquon math, Horizons math K, HWT print and cursive, and Sonlight science K (and we'll add in a bit of astronomy for Melissa since she asked to study the solar system) I still don't know exactly how I'll pull it off with a 3yo and 2yo in the mix as well, but I'll figure it out later LOL

Jordan's latest new skills and more

So, I don't consider any child under the age of 4yo to be doing lessons of any sort, however I do work with them casually through games and such. Lately, I've been working with Jordan on naming some of her body parts through fun little games, and left/right discrimination. Yes, they will learn to tell left from right at 2yo if you make it a part of daily language. Well, today I was playing piggies with Jordan (you know, that fun little toes game, "this little piggy went to market......." that always ends in a tickle and the little dear squealing with laughter) and when we finished she stuck her left foot in my hand and said "fee! mo!" (translation: Feet! More!) so I quizzed her a little bit. She can identify her feet, nose, and hands when asked. Well, not so consistent on HER nose, when I ask her where JoJo's nose is she sticks her finger up mine instead LOL and she says the body part when we ask her where it is. So now we are working on belly, hair, and mouth. She is so cute, there's definitely no speech delays with her thank goodness!

Also, with Kimmy we've been working on colors and shapes. She's starting to get there, she can identify yellow, blue, and red with a fair amount of accuracy, and she knows circle, square, heart, and star. We also have started working on teaching her to recognize her name when its printed so that I can start putting her name on things for her to find instead of having one of her big sisters get things for her or my getting it for her. We also are working on getting her to talk around other people, she's still not too sure of herself with speaking if we're not at home or if new people are around. But she's getting there, she's come a long way in the past year with her speech delays thanks to the work we've been doing with her (no speech therapist involved for the most part, that's just not in our budget and insurance won't cover it for some reason)

Lydia's making progress too. She's been mastering a few things lately in the motor skills department, especially her ability to maneuver silverware. Yesterday at breakfast, she took on the challenge of trying to cut her pancakes with a plastic knife. She actually managed to cut them up (ok more like tear them up, but its definitely improvement) We're still working on her pencil grip and getting her fingers to work for her to start drawing and writing more, as she gets really tired fast when she tries (I'm talking 30 seconds fast normally) but that will come in time. That's the beauty of being able to homeschool, I can write for her when she gets tired, and she can type instead if she wants (or use my voice-recognition program that I use on my worst days for typing when it hurts too much to really type)

Melissa, well she's doing good in school from what I'm seeing with stuff she brings home every day. I just have to trust that she is doing as well as I think she is, and I'm still working with her daily on her reading. That's the only place she's not quite there yet, except for money recognition. But the money thing will come in time (and I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with her money knowledge, she got $10 from Scott's mom and $5 from my mom and stepdad for her birthday and was able to tell us exactly what they were, and she reads the price labels at the store for me on the lower shelves that I can't bend down to read some days, she also enjoys trying to sort and count all the change in our HUGE jar that we have sometimes if she has nothing else that she wants to do and doesn't want to tell me she's bored because she knows I'll give her a rag and tell her to clean the bathroom floor or some other horrible chore, its amazing how fast they learn to be imaginative when you do that kind of thing in response to "I'm bored mom!" LOL)

its official!

OK it is official, we are now enrolled in OHVA for the 2009-2010 school year. I got the confirmations in my e-mail about an hour ago, we are now members of the OHVA school and in the world of public schooling at home (face it, that's pretty much what OHVA and other virtual academies are, but I'm allowed to say that as a parent of OHVA kids) Anyway, all I will need to do is mail in a copy of Melissa's last report card when we get it, and then she'll be set to go.

Now we just wait for placement testing and to get our materials. I wonder how long that will take to be done..........................

call from OHVA

They are definitely on the ball, that's for sure. After Melissa got out of school today, I was getting the little kids out of their seats when I got a call fro OHVA. It was my person that is handling our registration process. She was calling to touch base with us and to remind me about the documents they need us to send in. I told her about the letter we got AGAIN saying that they are recommending that Melissa repeat K (yes we got another one today, despite the teacher saying that she may pass assessment if she keeps making progress at the current pace) and she told me that it would be no problem, if she's held back and we agree that she'll just change her grade and if not, then she'll leave it at 1st grade. Anyway, we had a nice little chat about the school and how things are done and what I can expect as the primary "instructional parent", and about the testing the girls will have to do. No problem at all, we're in process so far and all is well. I'm feeling better about this decision every day, and I know that its the perfect choice for us right now. The contact that has been made so far by OHVA is really helping me to feel more comfortable with this decision. I mean, I felt good about it when we first made the decision, but today's call really helped to cement that great feeling I'm having.

things are moving forward for fall

Well, yesterday I did the enrollment application for Melissa and Lydia to OHVA for fall, and I printed up all the paperwork that I had to fill out by hand and mail in with the documentation they need/want. So, all the paperwork was filled out and documents were copied. Except one. I could NOT find Lydia's immunization record from the health department. I searched all day, everywheer that I could think of that it may be. Then last night I went to bed without finding it.

This morning I got up at 5:15 with Scott, and after he left I logged on the laptop and started reading my e-mail and a few other things online. Then it hit me. The day after Lydia got her booster shots, I had to take her to the doctor for a bad ear infection. I had taken her shot record to the doctor to give them the information on her shots the day before, and it was in my diaper backpack! lol That was easy enough................... So the paperwork all went into an envelope and to the mailbox for pickup. The papers are now on their way to Maumee, Ohio for the registration to continue.

And then, an hour or so ago I logged into the OHVA admissions portal to check something else, and I found that they had already assigned us a person to handle the registration and testing until we are assigned our teacher. Cool beans, its definitely moving forward now!

Now I just have to wait for the next step, which is placement testing I think. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what the site said is next after the peperwork is recieved and processed. That won't be too bad for Lydia, but I have a feeling Melissa won't do too well with it when its her turn for testing................................ But I'll have to wait and see how she does when its time for her to be tested.

I just hope I got all the documentation they asked for, I don't want to have to mail more paperwork to them next week LOL

Ohio Virtual Academy

Remember how I posted about praying for the knowledge to know exactly what we need to do this upcoming fall? Well, I got the answer and its NOTHING like what I was thinking about.

For the last several days, every day a flier for the Ohio Virtual Academy or another virtual school for our area would be in the mailbox. I would glance at the fliers just long enough to see which one it was from, and then drop them in our recycling bin. I'm not a fan of the virtual academies, they feel too much like public school to me (oh wait, they ARE public school, just at home instead of in a building) Anyway, last night I had a dream, and the ONLY thing I can remember was that it was involving me schooling Melissa and Lydia this upcoming fall.

When I woke up this morning, I thought about that little I remembered from the dream, and I knew it was His way of telling me something but I didn't get what it was. Then I thought to myself "hmmmmm OHVA, I wonder............" and decided that after I got Melissa to school I'd look at their site a little just for kicks. So I got Melissa up and into the shower, then she got dressed and I got her Cheerios at the table. She ate, got shoes on, finished her homework, and then sat and colored with her little sisters for a couple minutes before time to leave.

I walked her across the street like usual so she could walk the 200 or so yards to the school (this is a new thing for us) and then I went back inside once I was sure she was in the school (I can watch kids go inside from my porch) I got on my laptop, and the internet wasn't working. So I went and fiddled with the main computer and the wireless hub and the modem, and ended up having to reboot the whole thing for it to work again. (we have to do this every few months for some reason) By the time I got back to the laptop and online, I forgot about checking out OHVA. I checked my e-mail, then read a few chat boards I go to regularly. On one, a lady was talking about unschooling, asking who was unschooling their kids and such. Now, Scott and I were discussing taking a more unschooling type of approach for the next several years to make it easier on ourselves, and so I responded to her with that. The next discussion I read was talking about a virtual academy in FL, and wanting to know what people thought about doing virtual schooling. Then I remembered that I was going to check out OHVA lol

So I checked out OHVA, and instantly it hit me like a load of bricks. THIS is what we're supposed to do in the fall. I need the rigid structure that it gives us for assignments, the materials are excellent (OHVA uses the K12 curriculum), and it gives us things that we can't get ourselves right now (we are out of hs budget money for math and LA materials, and we wanted the girls to start learning typing and gaining more computer skills) Melissa is a very worksheet-oriented child, and needs structure also. There is a ton of accountability involved since it is technically a public school, but it gives me the ability to be 100% involved in their education right now when they need that the most. If I don't have that strict accountability, then I won't do it usually. I'm really bad about that kind of thing. And best of all, my father approves of it since its public education and I have to answer to a teacher and do all the standardized testing and all that stuff. His biggest thing about my homeschooling is the fact that I have a hard time sticking with stuff unless I absolutely have to, and that I have health problems that require me to have stuff set up so that anyone can pick up right where I leave off without a problem. With our Sonlight stuff, we can't just pick up and go right now, handing over everything to my father or Scott's mom if needed because I'm in the hospital. By using OHVA for the time being, starting this fall, it will meet all our needs and still give the girls a great education and the one on one time that they need. And best of all, I won't have to coordinate times for bus pickups and dropoffs with the two oldest going to K and 1st grade in the fall while Kimmy is going to Head Start a couple days a week at the same time.

I'm still going to use the Sonlight materials we have though, as supplement to our OHVA education. One can NEVER have too many great books!

I love this time of year

Have you ever looked out the window and felt truly ALIVE? I'm having one of those days right now, in fact this is the second day in a row I've had this particular feeling. The sun is shining, there are no clouds that I can see, and I turned off my furnace yesterday and it STILL is off (those big windows are really good at heating this house when its this time of year, overnight it only got down to 65 in here except the bedrooms where we had the electic heaters running) The kids are happier, things are blooming, and allergies are flaring big time. So why do I feel so peaceful and great today? Well, its an interesting story..................

Two days ago I e-mailed a friend of mine. See, this week is K registration at the public schools, and I haven't gone to register Lydia since we are planning on homeschooling in the fall (including bringing Melissa back home) Well, I've had so many doubts about my ability to just do this, I was considering going up to register her for this fall. So anyway, I e-mailed her to get a little boost that I can do this, and then I went to read the Homeschool Share forums. My friend posts over there, and I read a post about how she'd prayed about next school year and how she felt led to doing something completely different for the upcoming year instead of creating her own unit studies and lapbooking them. It made me stop and think a moment, and I realized that I hadn't PRAYED about this fall at all really. So I stopped right then and prayed, at 5:30 or something in the morning. I asked God what His plan was for their education at this point, and I asked him to give me total peace about whatever decision is the right one and to help me remain convicted and strong in the decision, no matter what it may be. Well, the rest of that day I started feeling calmer, and then yesterday morning I felt this odd peace as I read stuff on the homeschool forums I go to and I filled my shopping cart at amazon and Sonlight with the last couple things I need for the school year so that when its time I can just order it without thinking. I haven't felt this confident and peaceful about a decision in a long time, except for the decision that Scott and I made to not have any more children right now. It is a very refreshing feeling.

I know part of this feeling is because I know God wants us to do this, and part of it is because we have me on meds that work. I'm no longer in *constant* pain (although I have pleanty of that still but it is liveable), I don't get the cycles of depressions and angry periods, I can sleep at night, and I'm actually feeling like there is a reason to get out of bed and try to shower and get dressed every day. It is truly amazing, I've been slowly handing more over to His control and I'm seeing the benefits of it in many MANY areas of my life. Its not just the homeschooling part, His fingerprints are in all areas of my life right now. I am so happy right now to have this ability to put my trust and life in His hands, and know that I will be taken care of and led the right way. In fact, on Wednesday when I was doubting myself so much, I told myself that I just need to FROG more. (if you don't know, FROG is "fully rely on God" and its something I was taught as a kid and that silly saying still follws me as an adult) I am starting to really see the fruits of that FROGing, and I wish I had done it sooner.

OK so I went waaaaaay off on a tangent here today. But I really felt like I needed to post this, so I did. And now I will leave you to chew on my post, if you so desire.

more reading success

Melissa is required to be able to read books at a certain level to pass K in school. Well, this has been a struggle for her. A few times last month, her teacher would send home a book that level as her baggy book for the evening, and it would literally have her in tears because its too hard. Well, today's baggy book is that level again. I sat her down on a stool in the kitchen to read to me in private, and she immediately went into meltdown mode. Started crying and covering her face and slumping down, saying she can't do it. I managed to calm her down, took a couple minutes though. I talked to her about it. I told her that I'll never think she's dumb if she can't do it, that its ok to not be able to read it if she tries to, and that I'll help her with the words if she needs it. She finally stopped, and started to read it. She only needed help with ONE WORD! She missed the word "tie", which is totally understandable since we never really did much with double vowels and other goodies (we were still struggling on cvc words) She even managed to nail the words "special" and "basketball" without any trouble, just a slight pause before she said them. It appears that my girl may be passing the reading part of the K assessment after all......................... Now we just have to get her counting solidly without any help so that she can pass that area, then we'll be set for the year.

Reading!!!!! she's really reading!

This week is Spring Break for ps. So I've had the joy of working with Melissa the last few days one on one for much more time than I could with her in school. Today, I decided to break out our K12 readers (obtained from a friend) and I handed her one. She just read 2 stories from the 3rd book to me. We obviously still have a LONG way to go in reading, but its proof that she's getting there. Every word she didn't kno by sight, she said the individual sounds for the letters and then blended them to make the right word (we're still on words like nap and mat) She even recognized words like "the", "and", and "on" without hesitating.

She has definitely come a long way in reading recently, the readers that she was bringing home I thought she probably memorized the stories at school that day but she's never read this book before around me, so now I know for sure that she's really reading it and not just reciting from her memory. I am so proud of my little girl for the progress she's making.

Math-U-See

I've looked at this particular math program for several months but never really was too interested until recently. Monday I got the DVD demo that I requested in the mail, but didn't really have a chance to watch it until now. It kinda hit the back burner, if you know what I mean. So anyway, I decided this morning to watch it on my laptop (hey the little girls were watching Disney, the tv was taken lol) It took a few tries for my laptop to read it (had to get the dust off the disc first) but then I got to watch. Well, I'm very impressed with what I saw on the DVD, it appears that this may be a good fit for Melissa. I like how the concepts are presented from what I saw in the demo, and it was instantly engaging for me the math genius. I am going to have Scott watch it tonight if possible so we can discuss it together and decide if we want to stick with Horizons and Singapore for the 2 school-agers or go with Math-U-See instead. I really like how the levels aren't numbered like grades, but use greek letters instead for labelling each level. This is SUPER important for Melissa so she doesn't get upset about doing a math level that is lower than grade level, and so she doesn't get into quite as big a tizzy as her little sister passes by her in math for a while. I also really like the way lessons are presented, if the instructional DVD is done the same as how the demo was done then I'm SOLD. I feel like we may be making a change to our plans for next school year, if Scott agrees that the price is ok since I'd be buying Primer and Alpla both with the rods (including the completer set) in one purchase to try and slow down Lydia in math a bit (she'll begin with Primer while Melissa and I work her way through Alpha, plus Melissa will start alpha a full 3 or 4 months before Lydia starts primer so that should help a bit too)

I just nervous about the price tag, although a lady whose youngest daughter is in Lydia's gymnastics class offered me her primer manual and dvd since her youngest is now starting alpha, so that will cut the cost a little bit.

tentative plans for 2009-2010 school year

We're set to start in June with the 3 R's (reading, writing, and math) about a week after she finishes the public school year, and then in July we'll slowly add in the rest. But here's what I'm thinking at this point (note all my materials that I have to order are available at the same company)

for Melissa:

Sonlight cores P3/4 and P4/5
Sonlight science K
Sonlight LA 1 and readers
Horizons math (will do placement on first day of summer vecation)
Explode the Code 1-3
lapbooking to supplement core and science
violin lessons I think

for Lydia:

Sonlight core K (she'll also sit in on P3/4 and P4/5 if she wants)
Sonlight science K
Sonlight LA K and readers
Singapore Primary math 1A and 1B (she's a math whiz)
Ready, Set, Go For the Code
lapbooking to supplement core, science, and LA

for Kimmy:

Sonlight core P3/4 (and the others if she's interested)
lapbooking with her big sisters


Now, you may ask why on EARTH I'm doing Sonlight's preschool cores with a 1st grader in the fall, while my K'er in the fall will do core and science K. Well, that is because Melissa's not too big on listening to me read. I'm planning to start in June with the 3 R's and will add in P3/4 to do, and in September I'm hoping to start core K and science K. I'm hoping that starting off gently like this will get her wanting to do core K with Lydia, but if she doesn't then I'm not going to get upset by it. The local public schools have pretty much given up on her already, which is really sad. She needs more time to do things, and I know that when she does get ready that she'll take off and fly to where she needs to be. Unfortunately, I'm going to have a hard time with this at first because she is definitely one of those kids who do best with the "better late than early" approach and her sister is definitely not one of those kids. lol But it will work out eventually.

Sonlight again

I've used Sonlight in the past, and we really enjoyed it. I have cores P4/5 and core K, science K, and LA K. We always enjoyed reading to the girls, and for the most part they love being read to. Well, except Melissa. She's not one to actually like books, she's more of a "give me a worksheet and tell me what I need to do" kind of kid. She struggles a lot with learning to read, and despises almost all books. So, we made a desperate purchase. We bought Sonlight core P3/4 specifically for her. Lots of great picture books and fairy tales, she likes these kinds of stories. Anyway, I realize it was a long shot, we knew this before we shelled out the $280 for the package. I will tell you though, we figured that even if it didn't get here even a little bit interested in reading or books, we have 3 other kids that will enjoy it. Well, last week our box arrived (I ordered on a Friday and it came on Tuesday, they are VERY prompt with shipping) while Melissa was at school. When she got home, her entire body lit up at the books. All the colorful covers sitting on the table sparked her interest, she has to nose into EVERYTHING new around here. So, she leafed through a few and looked at the covers, trying not to act interested (we all know how 5 year olds are LOL) Then she came across the Flip Flap Body Book, and she decided after leafing through it a moment that she was going to park herself on the sofa and look at it. After about 20 minutes, I took the book from her and told her to go ride her bike in the driveway for a bit. She grumped a LOT and then went outside. I checked on her after a little bit to see how her outdoor time was going and this is what I saw.

Now doesn't that just make your heart burst with joy? And just for giggles, here's one of Jordan that I took this morning.

file folder games

Yet another one of my ventures now. Yesterday I stumbled upon some file folder games at Homeschool Share, and I decided to print out a couple to assemble for Kimmy to do this school year with her big sisters. I got those two assembled now, I did an apple match and an animal match game. Anyway, while I was putting together the apple on I got the great idea to put together several, and some for her big sisters too if I can find some. So I went to www.childcareland.com and looked through the free files, and found some more file folder games and other activities that I'm going to do with my girls. I printed up a couple so far, and will get them assembled today and tomorrow. Then I'll start printing up some more there that I want and look at a couple other sites that I was told about on the HSS forums (thanks Tristan!) When I get an opportunity, I'll put up some pictures of the file folder games for anyone who wants to see them. *smile*

lapbooking

I've been considering this for a LONG time as part of doing lessons with the girls, and always dismissed it in the past really. I would look at pictures of other peoples' lapbooks and just get so overwhelmed that I'd chuck the idea. Well, now here I am planning some lapbooking for the upcoming school year. I'm going to do as many as I can with Melissa in as many areas as possible because that really is how she learns best, so right now I'm planning out the different lapbook topics we'll do in each subject. Here's what I have so far.

our solar system
counting to 100
basic addition facts up to 9
basic subtraction facts up to 9
telling time
a "history notebook" world tour of different countries
a "my body notebook"
sight words
phonics rules
several "just for fun" ones on some of their favorite stories

I'm feeling pretty confident in doing this, and I *hope* to have some plans made to share later before the start of the next school year (we'll be starting in July, Monday after the 4th I think but maybe sooner or later, we'll see what happens) We'll also do the alphabet notebook at Homeschool Share with Kimmy.

rough ideas for next school year

As you know, I'm planning for next school year already so that I can relax and enjoy the year without worrying too much, and to tweak as much as I want. Anyway, I am doing some unit studies and lapbooking this year I think instead of what we've done in the past. It will be Melissa's 1st grade year and Lydia's K year, so I'll only need to do reporting for Melissa. Now, we aren't still 100% sure that we're going to homeschool, but we feel a need to be ready just in case we do decide to (we're about 95% sure we will at this point, unless I start back to college like we are also considering) Anyway, I just had this huge ah-HA! moment while looking at the Hands Of A Child lapbooks and a dear friend's homeschool blog. She did a unit study on the movie "Finding Nemo" and turned it into a HUGE lapbooking project, learning about the animals in the movie and about Austrailia and even dissecting some of the sea critters they learned about. What if I take a movie that the girls really enjoy and learn about the area and time period its set, the famous people that may be in the movie, animal life, the culture of people there, and such? For example:

the movie Pocahontas (the girls LOVE this one)
we learn about:
the story of Pocahontas
the Jamestown settlement
exporer life in the New World
the indian tribe (lifestyle, traditions, religous beliefs, etc)
the main wildlife in the movie (raccoon, hummingbird, that obnoxious doggie LOL)
maize and corn (their main crop)

The movie "The Lion King"
we learn about:
African geography
african safari
wildlife
maybe even a couple african tribes if we want to
go visit that area of the Columbus Zoo

Do you understand what I'm thinking about? Its kind of hard to explain really well.................. I have it really solid in my mind and know how it'll work, and I know the kids will have an absolute ball with it. I can do this with all their favorite movies in one way or another, and our big science study for the year will be incorporated into it as we learn about the plant and animal life of different areas that we "visit" in our world tour. I'll probably do the Finding Nemo unit my friend did, but a bit differently than she did it, and instead of traditional lapbooks I'll have each girl do binders for their world tour, using dividers to mark each area we visited.

counting to 100

I had a conference with Melissa's teachers on Friday, and got the skinny on how she's been adjusting and where I need to work with her more. She apparently can't count past 12 according to the teachers based on the initial assessment, and she only knows the sight words "a" and "I" and can't pick individual sounds out of words at all past the beginning sound. They gave me ideas on how to work with her in these areas, like using flashcards for her numbers and sight words and having her practice writing words as they sound and stuff like that. Well, I'm using flashcards for sight words, and so far she knows 9 of the 25 I made cards for. Not bad considering we've worked with them just a couple times the last 3 days. For math, I *was* going to use M&Ms and let her eat however many she can count each day (go until she can't get any more correct in a row and then work on the next 5 numbers up together for a minute or two before letting her eat the ones she counted correctly) BUT the little turd snuck into the kitchen and ate the entire big bag of candies I had hidden (well I thought I hid them really well and out of reach LOL) So, instead I'm doing something a bit different. I went to Donna Young's website and printed off some 100 charts, the page with 2 on it. I did filled in ones and blank ones both, and handed her one of each, a pen, and a yellow highlighter. She's sitting at the table with these items, saying each number before she writes it on the blank chart and then highlighting it on the filled in one. When she gets stumped, I tell her the number and she repeats it before writing and highlighting. Its a very dry method of working on her numbers, but I'm sure that after a few weeks of doing this daily she'll be able to count and write her numbers to 100, and recognize each number in isolation. That will completely catch her up with her classmates in math, and then we'll attack the sight words harder with "rainbow writing". That is a thing they do in her class, the teacher hands each kid a page with the sight word in big letters and the kids trace it with 5+ different colors and then read it out loud as a class 5 times before writing it at the bottom of the sheet 5 times. We'll do that along with flash cards daily until she learns the sight words completely, but we'll "rainbow write" only one sight word daily. She needs to know the list of 25 plus 5 from a second list of 50 words for her final assessment to pass K.

I've determined that if I can successfully get her caught up to where she needs to be to pass the assessment in the spring, then I'll be able to tackle homeschooling her again for certain. If I can pull off this, then I can do just about anything when it comes to teaching her.

Now, somebody explain to me why Melissa is giggling nonstop and telling me that this math work I gave her is so much fun. If I were to do this assignment I'd probably be bored to tears................................. lol She just finished it and is asking for MORE schoolwork...................... I guess she likes doing lessons at home again.

rough times

Well, we decided that with all the issues with many things in our home, it would be best to send Melissa to the local public school. Now, I have issues with this anyway, but I went ahead and enrolled her. She's been in school for 3 weeks now, and its just a struggle every day she has school. This morning was especially hard, she had 5 days off because of bad weather then a 4 day weekend for inservice and a holiday, and it just collapsed under me. I had to carry her into the school while I was in my 3" heels and she was kicking my knees repeatedly and screaming in an attempt to get me to put her down. Then when I got her to where she needed to be, she chased after me thinking that if she followed maybe I'd bring her home. I take her back only to have her do it again, then when I took her back again her teacher was in the hall and saw the struggles so she jumped in and pulled her over and helped me get her in the school and stay there. This is a pretty typical day, she waits by dropoff most mornings to give me a hand with getting Melissa into school and staying put while I leave. Rips my heart out, but I'm still doing it for now.

But she won't be staying past this school year. In the fall she'll be coming back home again, no matter how difficult it is. Its just too much for me and her to go through these struggles every day just to get her to school. I can't wait until the end of this school year, and neither can she (yes we already talked about it, I needed to make sure she knows that its just temporary and was hoping that it will help with her getting off to school, I'll find out tomorrow if it did help any with that)

And totally off the topic of our educational adventures, but it will have an impact here in the future. My sweet Kimmy was at the doctor this morning, and the doctor was checking out her dry skin and doing a typical sick kid appointment (barking cough and major runny nose) Well, poor sweet Kimmy has asthma, multiple environmental allergies, and excema. The inhaler that the doctor prescribed for her is the same brand and dosage as the one I use that was prescribed to me by *my* doctor (for the record, I'm 27 and have had an asthma diagnosis for 15 years) We also have prescription allergy medication and a prescription cream that I need to dole out daily for Kimmy. But she is loving her new inhaler, when I asked her if she liked it she grinned and said "I love my new medicine, it makes me not hurt here any more (rubbing chest with both hands)" Ahhhhhhhh the simplicity of a 3 year old. She does think her allergy syrup is yucky though, and said she doesn't want to take it any more. LOL Sweet little thing.

Now why did I say that will impact us in the future? Doctor appointments, tests, and potential hospital visits come to mind right offhand. I can just see it throwing a big kink into our homeschooling starting in the fall, but I'm ok with that. That's the best part of homeschool, we can grab workbooks and take it with us no matter what we're doing. We don't need the dining room table to do our schoolwork, just a flat surface, workbooks, and pencils/crayons.