I've not posted here in a while, but that is because many things have changed. First, we are no longer homeschooling all our children. Only our oldest continues to learn at home because of her learning difficulties, and we are NOT using a virtual academy. She is doing 8th grade this year, and will be doing a second year of 8th grade in the fall. We are about a year from pre-algebra and still working on basic English concepts to prepare for high school level material, so she is not ready for the status of high school officially at this point. That may change at some point during next school year while we do that second year of 8th grade, but she's completely good with the decision to not proceed into high school at this point. Second change, we had a seventh child in December 2015. Turned out he has Down Syndrome. If you follow me on social media, you have seen me post about Billy and his progress. We have been very blessed with him even if he wasn't even close to planned, and his DS was missed at further testing after initial screening came back with elevated odds of it. He is our delight and joy, and our little boy. That is all that matters. Now on to the point of this post.
I've gotten deeply involved in social media the last few years, and have found that it has taken quite a toll on me in many ways. I've been spending less time doing the things I love, and I've met a lot of amazing people. However, I've also been immersed in a lot of information at the same time. You get conflicting reports on everything, from politics to parenting to even whether the Earth is round, flat, or a dome. If you want to know about essential oils, you can get a million views on social media and lots of memes and links to articles supporting every view. If you are looking for supplements and diet ideas, look no further than social media. There are even groups dedicated to any topic you can imagine. It can really suck the life from a person if they allow it.
I have allowed that to happen, at the expense of my family and my sanity.
Politically, this has been quite possibly the most controversial election in US history. I've let my emotions and my family be affected by things that are happening. I've watched as the nation has chosen leadership that is destroying the middle class and trampling on the lower class, all while claiming they are going to make America great again. I've had to sit and read about legislation that is going to strip health insurance from part of my family, possibly cut WIC benefits that we receive, and cause only goodness knows what other damage will come from it. I've watched people singing the praises of our leaders as they move to slowly dismantle the department of education and wonder myself how it will change the education my special education students get at school. Will I have health insurance in a year to cover my medications that total about $300 a month without the Medicaid that we get from the ACA expansion? Will Billy be able to get the therapies he has and will need in the future, and be able to continue to see his doctors? Will Nathaniel and Preston get the speech and sensory support services they need at school as written in their IEPs? Will Lydia be able to continue with her counseling and all her allergy medications that she needs to function safely? The questions continue, and the fear builds every time I log on social media and see new articles ans posts from my friends about things. Then I read and research these things, and the fear continues to grow as conflicting information emerges and there is no clear answer to what is going to happen. I bottle that fear up as long as I can, and then it lets loose and takes over for a while.
That takeover happened again today. I'm angry and disgusted at the current administration and new legislation that is being pushed through, and angry because people are supporting it and singing the praises of the administration. I'm watching my family slowly be destroyed a little at a time, and there is nothing I can do about it. If all these things happen as legislated, over the next couple years I don't know what is to happen to my family as we slowly lose every safeguard and buffer we have. We depend on that assistance we get while Scott works full time and is in college full time. He has 2 more semesters of classes after this one to get his 2 year degree, and is currently looking at 4 year colleges to transfer to. He will be the only one of his siblings to have a college degree (I think, he is the youngest of 10 and I have trouble keeping track of them all sometimes) and he's worked so hard for so long to try and put us into a better place. He even changed jobs to better support us, working third shift on an odd schedule that fits with therapy schedules and doctor appointments and all that I have to do daily. He is slowly breaking his body down to nothing at this new job because it better fits the needs of our family's schedule at this point. It pays less than his old job, but we are making it work. There are so many unknowns about the future, especially when we add Billy to things. I don't know whether to laugh, scream, cry, be happy, be angry, or just say heck with it all and just give up.
Social media has brought an ugly future to my home, one that I would be happily oblivious to if I wasn't on these sites. I didn't regularly watch the news or read news sources until I got into Facebook. Then I started watching and following things more and more. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ridiculous all over. I can't keep living with that. I already am on two anxiety medications just to function without the added stress of seeing the things that I read and research thanks to social media. I need to step away from it all, and I'm doing just that.
I have deleted all social media apps on my phone. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all gone. Facebook messenger is gone as well. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to be deactivating my accounts, but we will see. My heart and soul are hurting so much at the things I see and the path that things are going down. Knowing how powerless I am to stop it, it angers me. I need to step away. This isn't because I've hurt others with my words, because I don't really care if I hurt people. If the shoe fits when I say something, then maybe you need to step back and evaluate things and decide for yourself. If you are hurt by my statements on something, you need to look at why it hurt you and if you need to fix something. However, if there is nothing to fix then you can be assured that my words are most likely not directed at you.
Now, I need to get back to what used to motivate me and fuel my life. My family. I need to return my focus on them first and foremost. If I do keep my Facebook account open, it will be purely to post updates on Billy's page. I have not decided on that yet, and quite honestly if I do close my account I can still get on Scott's account to update Billy's page since he is also an admin on it.
Consider this my farewell to social media, outside of blogging here once in a while. I may pick this blog up again and post once in a while, especially as I build my portfolio as a writer. I may abandon things completely and just focus on my home and family. I have enough therapies and doctor appointments and outside commitments (such as Lydia in 4H band this year) to keep me busy enough anyway.
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Thursday, September 03, 2015
so I don't lose this recipe yet again lol
I am constantly losing my favorite recipes. I print them out and put in a folder in the kitchen, and every time a kid gets hold of the folder and a few disappear. So, I don't want to lose this egg-free, dairy-free muffin recipe again. It was given to me by a lovely homeschool mom I know, and is one of our favorite breakfast things because it is easy and fast to make.
Updated Basic No-Egg Muffins – makes 24
•4 c. flour or a mix of flour, cornmeal, oatmeal. We use whole wheat flour with a handful of whatever other flours/grains sound yummy that day.
•½ tsp salt
•½ tsp cinnamon
•1 ½ c. sugar
•2 T. baking powder
•1 3/4 c. water
•½ c. oil
•1 cup mashed fruit
•1 tsp vanilla or other flavoring (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 F. and spray your muffin pan with nonstick spray. In a bowl stir together all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir well. Spoon batter into 24 muffin cups – 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remember, ovens vary and the type of pan you use matters. I find that metal pans cook quicker than silicone. Adjust your time to fit your oven!
Variations We Enjoy:
We like to add 1 c. chocolate chips to the batter for just about any flavor. For the fruit we use any of the following with appropriate spices we enjoy:
•1 can of pumpkin with extra cinnamon
•1 cup mashed sweet potatoes a lot like pumpkin and gets a veggie in!
•1 cup mashed banana with Maple flavoring
•1 cup unsweetened applesauce
•1 cup frozen blueberries, slightly thawed and drained.
Updated Basic No-Egg Muffins – makes 24
•4 c. flour or a mix of flour, cornmeal, oatmeal. We use whole wheat flour with a handful of whatever other flours/grains sound yummy that day.
•½ tsp salt
•½ tsp cinnamon
•1 ½ c. sugar
•2 T. baking powder
•1 3/4 c. water
•½ c. oil
•1 cup mashed fruit
•1 tsp vanilla or other flavoring (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 F. and spray your muffin pan with nonstick spray. In a bowl stir together all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir well. Spoon batter into 24 muffin cups – 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remember, ovens vary and the type of pan you use matters. I find that metal pans cook quicker than silicone. Adjust your time to fit your oven!
Variations We Enjoy:
We like to add 1 c. chocolate chips to the batter for just about any flavor. For the fruit we use any of the following with appropriate spices we enjoy:
•1 can of pumpkin with extra cinnamon
•1 cup mashed sweet potatoes a lot like pumpkin and gets a veggie in!
•1 cup mashed banana with Maple flavoring
•1 cup unsweetened applesauce
•1 cup frozen blueberries, slightly thawed and drained.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
New curriculum
Earlier I shared that Jordan is repeating second grade with a switch in curriculum. Yesterday her new curriculum arrived.
As you can tell, I don't have it too organized yet beyond just separating her student textbooks and workbooks from the rest of it. However, I have had a chance to look through the materials a bit and begin to get familiar with the layout.
I like it. A lot.
When we enrolled with QDA, they suggested we use Calvert from the start with Lydia, Kim, and Jo. I chose their other options though, thinking a little more independence would be a good thing for all of us. That had Lydia and Kim doing their online curriculum, OdysseyWare, and Jo doing Little Lincoln. Lydia has pretty decent grades in OdysseyWare and isn't doing too bad with it, despite the fact that she isn't a fan. The other girls are a different story, however.
Kim is almost finished with the third grade curriculum, she just has a little language arts left to finish for the school year. She rushes through the work and doesn't like my reminders to read the material, and her grades reflect that. She is going to barely pass 3rd grade as a result. The format of the online classes annoy her, and she's too young to be annoyed by curriculum and forced to do it anyway. She needs something more interactive, and more interaction with me directly.
Jo just flat out wasn't ready for second grade curriculum, and I had a LOT of issues with her maturity matching up with her academic abilities. Add in a curriculum that wasn't dependable about sending materials in a timely manner and all the materials at a time, and you have a disaster just waiting to happen. Now that I know what I know about the shipping practices of Lincoln Interactive, they will never be used by my family. Each quarter, I had to request materials at least once after the initial shipment. Second quarter I had to request the teacher book and student workbooks, then once I got those I had to request a couple literature books and the cursive student book. Yes, that was three separate shipments for just a single quarter (nine weeks) of lessons. It took us close to 3 weeks to get all her materials, which didn't make things any easier with the maturity struggles we were already having.
So, both girls are switched and I'm still debating if I want to switch Lydia as well once she finishes her fifth grade curriculum.
Calvert sent everything for the year in one big box, and I didn't have to worry about it. I just grabbed a pen and marked items off the packing list for each of the three smaller boxes within the big box. It took me 10 minutes to unpack and check off everything I needed for the year with Jordan.
Within it, there is a lovely folder that says "READ ME FIRST" with information on where to start with it all. Step one was to unpack and check the packing lists as I go. In that folder was also a page with a list of basic school supplies I'll need for the school year, which will come in very handy when I go August 7th during "tax free day" to buy school supplies. It actually has a list for each individual grade on it, so I'm going to use one list to cover all the kids who will be doing Calvert this school year to make shopping that much easier for me.
The guides are very well laid out, which is important for a busy mom with a bunch of kids. I can see doing multiple levels on a daily basis going very well with how it is laid out. There is even a suggested daily schedule with times and everything in the front of the book, which I may or may not use. But having that visual really helped me to know how to expect the days to look since I do have several years of experience with doing this schooling at home thing.
The lessons to start are going to be pretty easy though, which will work to our benefit right now since Jordan's arm is still healing and hurting a lot. I feel really positive about this switch in curriculum, and am sure that just restarting second grade with her was the right choice.
I wish I had just gone with the Calvert option for the girls from the start. Live and learn, at least now we know a little more about what the kids need in a virtual academy program. Now we just have to get the school year finished up for Kim so we can order her new materials, and I have to decide what we're doing about Lydia since she's doing pretty well but passionately hating the online curriculum. I think that will be our next discussion with the school when she's closer to finished with the current grade.
As you can tell, I don't have it too organized yet beyond just separating her student textbooks and workbooks from the rest of it. However, I have had a chance to look through the materials a bit and begin to get familiar with the layout.
I like it. A lot.
When we enrolled with QDA, they suggested we use Calvert from the start with Lydia, Kim, and Jo. I chose their other options though, thinking a little more independence would be a good thing for all of us. That had Lydia and Kim doing their online curriculum, OdysseyWare, and Jo doing Little Lincoln. Lydia has pretty decent grades in OdysseyWare and isn't doing too bad with it, despite the fact that she isn't a fan. The other girls are a different story, however.
Kim is almost finished with the third grade curriculum, she just has a little language arts left to finish for the school year. She rushes through the work and doesn't like my reminders to read the material, and her grades reflect that. She is going to barely pass 3rd grade as a result. The format of the online classes annoy her, and she's too young to be annoyed by curriculum and forced to do it anyway. She needs something more interactive, and more interaction with me directly.
Jo just flat out wasn't ready for second grade curriculum, and I had a LOT of issues with her maturity matching up with her academic abilities. Add in a curriculum that wasn't dependable about sending materials in a timely manner and all the materials at a time, and you have a disaster just waiting to happen. Now that I know what I know about the shipping practices of Lincoln Interactive, they will never be used by my family. Each quarter, I had to request materials at least once after the initial shipment. Second quarter I had to request the teacher book and student workbooks, then once I got those I had to request a couple literature books and the cursive student book. Yes, that was three separate shipments for just a single quarter (nine weeks) of lessons. It took us close to 3 weeks to get all her materials, which didn't make things any easier with the maturity struggles we were already having.
So, both girls are switched and I'm still debating if I want to switch Lydia as well once she finishes her fifth grade curriculum.
Calvert sent everything for the year in one big box, and I didn't have to worry about it. I just grabbed a pen and marked items off the packing list for each of the three smaller boxes within the big box. It took me 10 minutes to unpack and check off everything I needed for the year with Jordan.
Within it, there is a lovely folder that says "READ ME FIRST" with information on where to start with it all. Step one was to unpack and check the packing lists as I go. In that folder was also a page with a list of basic school supplies I'll need for the school year, which will come in very handy when I go August 7th during "tax free day" to buy school supplies. It actually has a list for each individual grade on it, so I'm going to use one list to cover all the kids who will be doing Calvert this school year to make shopping that much easier for me.
The guides are very well laid out, which is important for a busy mom with a bunch of kids. I can see doing multiple levels on a daily basis going very well with how it is laid out. There is even a suggested daily schedule with times and everything in the front of the book, which I may or may not use. But having that visual really helped me to know how to expect the days to look since I do have several years of experience with doing this schooling at home thing.
The lessons to start are going to be pretty easy though, which will work to our benefit right now since Jordan's arm is still healing and hurting a lot. I feel really positive about this switch in curriculum, and am sure that just restarting second grade with her was the right choice.
I wish I had just gone with the Calvert option for the girls from the start. Live and learn, at least now we know a little more about what the kids need in a virtual academy program. Now we just have to get the school year finished up for Kim so we can order her new materials, and I have to decide what we're doing about Lydia since she's doing pretty well but passionately hating the online curriculum. I think that will be our next discussion with the school when she's closer to finished with the current grade.
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Summer break stinks
I gotta say, summer vacation 2015 is not going so well for us here. I mean, look at what all we had happen since we finished the "official" school year at the end of May.
Scott's car threw a rod in the engine
we replaced Scott's car and took on a payment that we didn't plan
Scott's hours at work got cut 3 times in 2 weeks right after we took on that car payment
our main computer quit working after someone spilled something that leaked into the tower
we replaced that computer
our kids' medical insurance got cancelled due to a computer glitch that took me a month to fix
I'm pregnant unexpectedly
my medical insurance got cancelled by that same computer glitch and after 6 weeks I'm still trying to get it fixed
Jordan found out she's repeating 2nd grade
Kim fell out of a tree and ended up with several bruised ribs and a concussion
Jordan went flying off a swing backwards and broke her arm just below the shoulder
our sweet puppy has a knee condition that will eventually require surgery
I'm ready for this summer to end now. But first, here's Jordan showing off her newest fashion accessory with a huge grin because she knew she was going to get ice cream and she didn't have to share with anyone. She sees the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow afternoon so we can get a better idea of what to expect with healing it and find out if it needs surgically repaired because of the location (hopefully not!)
Scott's car threw a rod in the engine
we replaced Scott's car and took on a payment that we didn't plan
Scott's hours at work got cut 3 times in 2 weeks right after we took on that car payment
our main computer quit working after someone spilled something that leaked into the tower
we replaced that computer
our kids' medical insurance got cancelled due to a computer glitch that took me a month to fix
I'm pregnant unexpectedly
my medical insurance got cancelled by that same computer glitch and after 6 weeks I'm still trying to get it fixed
Jordan found out she's repeating 2nd grade
Kim fell out of a tree and ended up with several bruised ribs and a concussion
Jordan went flying off a swing backwards and broke her arm just below the shoulder
our sweet puppy has a knee condition that will eventually require surgery
I'm ready for this summer to end now. But first, here's Jordan showing off her newest fashion accessory with a huge grin because she knew she was going to get ice cream and she didn't have to share with anyone. She sees the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow afternoon so we can get a better idea of what to expect with healing it and find out if it needs surgically repaired because of the location (hopefully not!)
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
Well that answered my "now what do I do?" question
Today is Wednesday, which means that Lydia has math tutoring. This is one of my favorite parts of the cyber school. I don't have to pay for the extra help she (or any of her siblings) needs in math. She has really come a long way with the tutoring, and is regaining confidence in her skills after a really bad time with the math curriculum our local public school used when she was in 4th grade.
Today also meant that I spoke to QDA about a couple things. We've been discussing switching the kids' curriculum from the online options to Calvert (for all but Melissa, she isn't eligible to do offline curriculum because of her IEP) and I sent the e-mail to our supervising teacher on Monday about doing that with Kim along with an issue I was noticing in a big way with Jordan. Kim's all set to start 4th grade with the Calvert curriculum this fall, which makes her very happy. Jordan, well let me dig into that now.
Jordan has a September birthday, and Ohio states that the cutoff date for school is September 30th. That makes her the youngest in her class/grade each year. She's always done pretty well with her schoolwork, but we've struggled sometimes with lessons that take longer than she is capable of sitting and focusing for. We chose Little Lincoln 2nd grade when we enrolled her in QDA after they did placement testing to see where her skills were at. They felt she'd be ok with 2nd grade this past school year based on her scores, but I was concerned about her maturity. The maturity issues started about 5-6 weeks into the curriculum, and only got worse from there. She started slowing down and struggling more each day, until we reached the 2nd nine weeks when the curriculum started cursive. At that point, she screeched to a halt and it was taking us 4-6 weeks just to finish 1 week of assignments. Her maturity had completely caught up with us at that point.
Academically, she absolutely is ready for more difficult work. Emotionally, she's very much not at that place. So, we discussed the issue at hand. This has been something I've been in close contact with the school about, as we tried to find ways to keep her engaged and moving forward in her lessons with the hope of finishing within the 12 months. We've watched her struggle with her inability to really sit still and complete longer assignments that are more complex, tiring with writing more each week. She simply just wasn't ready for the level of work.
We made the decision together that she will repeat second grade this fall. They also determined that we need to switch her curriculum (which I agree completely with this). She no longer is using Little Lincoln as of right now, that order has been cancelled. They are now processing an order for Calvert second grade materials, and as soon as we get her materials and I've become familiar with it she will begin.
So far, she seems totally fine with the fact that she's repeating second grade. Scott had to repeat third grade when he was in school, and she knows this. He will be able to give her the encouragement that she needs to keep going instead of getting mad and giving up because she feels defeated. He'll be able to help me combat any thoughts that she must be dumb for having to repeat a grade. Scott is going to take her out for an ice cream cone this weekend to talk to her alone and make sure she's doing ok with this information.
So, looks like I get to spend time getting familiar with a new curriculum very soon. That will eat up a good amount of my free time.
Today also meant that I spoke to QDA about a couple things. We've been discussing switching the kids' curriculum from the online options to Calvert (for all but Melissa, she isn't eligible to do offline curriculum because of her IEP) and I sent the e-mail to our supervising teacher on Monday about doing that with Kim along with an issue I was noticing in a big way with Jordan. Kim's all set to start 4th grade with the Calvert curriculum this fall, which makes her very happy. Jordan, well let me dig into that now.
Jordan has a September birthday, and Ohio states that the cutoff date for school is September 30th. That makes her the youngest in her class/grade each year. She's always done pretty well with her schoolwork, but we've struggled sometimes with lessons that take longer than she is capable of sitting and focusing for. We chose Little Lincoln 2nd grade when we enrolled her in QDA after they did placement testing to see where her skills were at. They felt she'd be ok with 2nd grade this past school year based on her scores, but I was concerned about her maturity. The maturity issues started about 5-6 weeks into the curriculum, and only got worse from there. She started slowing down and struggling more each day, until we reached the 2nd nine weeks when the curriculum started cursive. At that point, she screeched to a halt and it was taking us 4-6 weeks just to finish 1 week of assignments. Her maturity had completely caught up with us at that point.
Academically, she absolutely is ready for more difficult work. Emotionally, she's very much not at that place. So, we discussed the issue at hand. This has been something I've been in close contact with the school about, as we tried to find ways to keep her engaged and moving forward in her lessons with the hope of finishing within the 12 months. We've watched her struggle with her inability to really sit still and complete longer assignments that are more complex, tiring with writing more each week. She simply just wasn't ready for the level of work.
We made the decision together that she will repeat second grade this fall. They also determined that we need to switch her curriculum (which I agree completely with this). She no longer is using Little Lincoln as of right now, that order has been cancelled. They are now processing an order for Calvert second grade materials, and as soon as we get her materials and I've become familiar with it she will begin.
So far, she seems totally fine with the fact that she's repeating second grade. Scott had to repeat third grade when he was in school, and she knows this. He will be able to give her the encouragement that she needs to keep going instead of getting mad and giving up because she feels defeated. He'll be able to help me combat any thoughts that she must be dumb for having to repeat a grade. Scott is going to take her out for an ice cream cone this weekend to talk to her alone and make sure she's doing ok with this information.
So, looks like I get to spend time getting familiar with a new curriculum very soon. That will eat up a good amount of my free time.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Summer prep
It's summer! No more formal schoolwork until August, no outside activities really, no stress. Right? RIGHT?????
Yeah, right.
We had a lot of stuff happen, mostly just normal family stuff. Lydia wanted to learn to play the clarinet, so for her birthday in May we got her a clarinet and signed her up for weekly private lessons. She's doing really well, and enjoys playing. Lucky for her, I also enjoy listening to her play so she can pretty much practice all she wants in her free time.
Other than that, the girls are finishing up their curriculum for the school year with the virtual academy. Since we did a mid-year enrollment, they are working some through the summer in hopes of finishing up close to the start of the school year. Kim is totally finished with two subjects, and should be finishing up with the other 2 subjects over this next couple weeks. The other girls, well they are less enthusiastic about working during the summer so they will be finishing up after the school year starts most likely.
Friday I went to the used curriculum sale to look for a couple things. Not for the girls, since they are in the cyber school. I was looking for some simple things to do with Preston this fall for preschool. He has been bugging me so much for his own schoolwork lately. It felt odd though, being there and seeing all these great materials I want for the girls that I just KNOW would be great for them. I finally, after several years of trying unsuccessfully, got my hands on a print copy of the Tapestry Of Grace curriculum to actually look at it. I'm in love, and so wish I was able to buy it at the sale Friday. It was exactly what I was hoping it would be, and a perfect fit for our needs as our family grows and the kids get older. I also got to see Teaching Textbooks in action, not just the online demo at their site. I had a feeling it would be a good choice for a couple of the girls just from what I did know beforehand, and seeing it Friday and getting to really get in there with it for a couple minutes confirmed that thought. Yes, it was a good night for exploring curriculum. I also snagged a couple of things that I did need, like a copy of Writers Inc. for FREE and a $2 copy of Before Five In A Row for Preston.
But with the curriculum sale came this odd feeling I'd not experienced before. I realized that I really don't have any planning to do other than putting together a few fun little things for Preston to do each week this school year. I'm so used to sitting at the computer during the summer, printing off lesson plan forms and putting together my lesson plan binder for the year with the 4 girls and all the curriculum that entails. I've spent countless hours searching for great deals on new and gently used materials for our family, scouring the internet for free resources, looking through thrift and discount stores for things I can use, and even talking to a few people I know to borrow this or that item so that I can stay in budget. I spend almost as many hours during the summers putting all those resources together into a comprehensive lesson plan for me to use, mainly just topic overviews and lists of things I want to cover and activities to do in the order I anticipate so that weekly I just throw an actual lesson plan together, and then creating my notification letter to submit to our district. I spend several hours in summer administering standardized testing to the girls for our reporting portion of the notification I submit annually.
None of that stuff is happening this year.
The girls are in a virtual academy. The school provides the curriculum, does all the planning and scheduling, and tells me where and when the kids need to be for standardized testing. I've saved probably a hundred hours or more not having to do any of that stuff this summer.
So now what do I do?
I feel useless now, like this huge let-down has occurred. Every school year I look forward to the summer planning. I love doing it; the planning is my absolute favorite part of this journey of teaching my children at home. That is gone now. All I can do now is try not to over-plan preschool for a three-year-old boy who has determined that his favorite toy is in his underpants. It is mildly depressing, to be honest.
My summer no longer has much meaning.
Yeah, right.
We had a lot of stuff happen, mostly just normal family stuff. Lydia wanted to learn to play the clarinet, so for her birthday in May we got her a clarinet and signed her up for weekly private lessons. She's doing really well, and enjoys playing. Lucky for her, I also enjoy listening to her play so she can pretty much practice all she wants in her free time.
Other than that, the girls are finishing up their curriculum for the school year with the virtual academy. Since we did a mid-year enrollment, they are working some through the summer in hopes of finishing up close to the start of the school year. Kim is totally finished with two subjects, and should be finishing up with the other 2 subjects over this next couple weeks. The other girls, well they are less enthusiastic about working during the summer so they will be finishing up after the school year starts most likely.
Friday I went to the used curriculum sale to look for a couple things. Not for the girls, since they are in the cyber school. I was looking for some simple things to do with Preston this fall for preschool. He has been bugging me so much for his own schoolwork lately. It felt odd though, being there and seeing all these great materials I want for the girls that I just KNOW would be great for them. I finally, after several years of trying unsuccessfully, got my hands on a print copy of the Tapestry Of Grace curriculum to actually look at it. I'm in love, and so wish I was able to buy it at the sale Friday. It was exactly what I was hoping it would be, and a perfect fit for our needs as our family grows and the kids get older. I also got to see Teaching Textbooks in action, not just the online demo at their site. I had a feeling it would be a good choice for a couple of the girls just from what I did know beforehand, and seeing it Friday and getting to really get in there with it for a couple minutes confirmed that thought. Yes, it was a good night for exploring curriculum. I also snagged a couple of things that I did need, like a copy of Writers Inc. for FREE and a $2 copy of Before Five In A Row for Preston.
But with the curriculum sale came this odd feeling I'd not experienced before. I realized that I really don't have any planning to do other than putting together a few fun little things for Preston to do each week this school year. I'm so used to sitting at the computer during the summer, printing off lesson plan forms and putting together my lesson plan binder for the year with the 4 girls and all the curriculum that entails. I've spent countless hours searching for great deals on new and gently used materials for our family, scouring the internet for free resources, looking through thrift and discount stores for things I can use, and even talking to a few people I know to borrow this or that item so that I can stay in budget. I spend almost as many hours during the summers putting all those resources together into a comprehensive lesson plan for me to use, mainly just topic overviews and lists of things I want to cover and activities to do in the order I anticipate so that weekly I just throw an actual lesson plan together, and then creating my notification letter to submit to our district. I spend several hours in summer administering standardized testing to the girls for our reporting portion of the notification I submit annually.
None of that stuff is happening this year.
The girls are in a virtual academy. The school provides the curriculum, does all the planning and scheduling, and tells me where and when the kids need to be for standardized testing. I've saved probably a hundred hours or more not having to do any of that stuff this summer.
So now what do I do?
I feel useless now, like this huge let-down has occurred. Every school year I look forward to the summer planning. I love doing it; the planning is my absolute favorite part of this journey of teaching my children at home. That is gone now. All I can do now is try not to over-plan preschool for a three-year-old boy who has determined that his favorite toy is in his underpants. It is mildly depressing, to be honest.
My summer no longer has much meaning.
Monday, May 04, 2015
knocking the dust off the blog
Life has been pretty busy here, so I've just let things go here for a while. Sorry!
Last time I posted was in October. Lots of things happened then, and now we have some updates on a few of those things. Lydia's broken foot has healed up nicely, but she will always have issues with it because it IS an extra bone that was broken. We were able to replace Nathaniel's infant seat with a Cosco APT40 a week after the crash, and then when we got our tax refund we purchased a Graco Defender for both boys to share in Scott's car. No more moving car seats around! YAY!
As for enrollment in Quaker Digital Academy. Yes, we did it. Melissa started school with them in December, and her sisters all in November. It took Melissa longer to enroll because we had to transfer an IEP for her. We had initially chosen the online curriculum options for them all (Odysseyware for the 3 oldest and Little Lincoln for Jordan) and it is going well. We have discovered that we don't care for the online curriculum, so the non-IEP kids will be switching to the Calvert option as soon as they finish their current grade materials. I won't be able to switch Melissa because school policy requires online curriculum for IEP students so they can keep closer tabs on them. She's doing well with it though, so it won't be much of an issue.
Today we actually finished up the last day of standardized testing for QDA in fact, which is about the only real issue I have with the school. They did PARCC testing, and Kim had to do the 3rd grade reading OAA as well because of the 3rd grade reading guarantee. The only test that actually matters on moving to the next grade is the reading OAA, Kim has to pass it to go to 4th grade. Thankfully, the PARCC testing and the diagnostics that the girls did don't count this year thanks to a law that twit Governor Kasich passed. One of the few really good things he's done. (ok enough political talk, this blog is not for political talk)
Other things.....
Nathaniel is a year old as of yesterday. Lydia got a clarinet over the weekend, and this Saturday is her first private lesson. My old flute is in the repair shop to be fixed up for Melissa to play, once it is back I'll be doing her lessons myself again. In February we got a Yorkie puppy and named him Spike. I spent a day in the ER back in January hooked to heart monitors, and after over $4000 of testing (yes that is after insurance OUCH!) we have determined that I have COPD. Yup, lots of things have happened here. I'll have pictures later, as we are getting ready to go get lunch to celebrate the end of testing.
Last time I posted was in October. Lots of things happened then, and now we have some updates on a few of those things. Lydia's broken foot has healed up nicely, but she will always have issues with it because it IS an extra bone that was broken. We were able to replace Nathaniel's infant seat with a Cosco APT40 a week after the crash, and then when we got our tax refund we purchased a Graco Defender for both boys to share in Scott's car. No more moving car seats around! YAY!
As for enrollment in Quaker Digital Academy. Yes, we did it. Melissa started school with them in December, and her sisters all in November. It took Melissa longer to enroll because we had to transfer an IEP for her. We had initially chosen the online curriculum options for them all (Odysseyware for the 3 oldest and Little Lincoln for Jordan) and it is going well. We have discovered that we don't care for the online curriculum, so the non-IEP kids will be switching to the Calvert option as soon as they finish their current grade materials. I won't be able to switch Melissa because school policy requires online curriculum for IEP students so they can keep closer tabs on them. She's doing well with it though, so it won't be much of an issue.
Today we actually finished up the last day of standardized testing for QDA in fact, which is about the only real issue I have with the school. They did PARCC testing, and Kim had to do the 3rd grade reading OAA as well because of the 3rd grade reading guarantee. The only test that actually matters on moving to the next grade is the reading OAA, Kim has to pass it to go to 4th grade. Thankfully, the PARCC testing and the diagnostics that the girls did don't count this year thanks to a law that twit Governor Kasich passed. One of the few really good things he's done. (ok enough political talk, this blog is not for political talk)
Other things.....
Nathaniel is a year old as of yesterday. Lydia got a clarinet over the weekend, and this Saturday is her first private lesson. My old flute is in the repair shop to be fixed up for Melissa to play, once it is back I'll be doing her lessons myself again. In February we got a Yorkie puppy and named him Spike. I spent a day in the ER back in January hooked to heart monitors, and after over $4000 of testing (yes that is after insurance OUCH!) we have determined that I have COPD. Yup, lots of things have happened here. I'll have pictures later, as we are getting ready to go get lunch to celebrate the end of testing.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
lots of things
Things have been kind of strange here for us lately. Lots of spiritual attacks have been aimed at our family, and things haven't gone so well with that. First, Lydia broke her foot on top of all the illness and other stuff she had going on. This kid has been cursed it seems like. Since July, she had mono, then a sprained ankle, then the flu, then broke her foot, and finished it up with what we thought was the mumps but it turned out a cold with her seasonal allergies flaring up horribly. *sigh* This year is not being kind to her at all. For the broken foot, we discovered that she has an extra bone in each ankle/foot and that extra bone was what broke. This extra bone means that she can't go into a traditional walking cast too, we had to have an AFO made for her to wear instead as a walking cast. I should be getting the call sometime this week to schedule to bring her in to get it, as we've already done the casting for the mold and it has been sent out and all that.
Which brings us part 2 of spiritual assault. The day I took Lydia in for the casting to make the mold for her AFO, the back brakes on my SUV locked up completely. I was meeting Scott at the orthotics place so we could swap vehicles and he could take the other kids home, so I had to limp it there with all 6 kids and then he babied it back home (all of 5 minutes drive thankfully). That repair cost us just shy of $600 that we didn't really have, but we made it happen.
The SUV repair meant that I pulled the boys' car seats out of my SUV and put them in his car until it was repaired. No issue, the brakes locked on a Thursday and the truck was fixed on Monday. However, I forgot to get the car seats out of his car again and 2 days later (this would be last week) he was rear-ended on his way home from work. It gets even better, the other driver had no car insurance. There was no major damage to his car, just a dent and a couple creases along with paint transfer, so he didn't even bother and sent the guy off on his way after yelling at him for several minutes. Yes, that means we get to pay out of pocket for new car seats.
Which brings us to now. I'm selling stuff to try and get up some money so that we can cover that repair on my SUV and fix our seriously damaged budget and to replace 2 car seats that were in his car when he got hit. I've almost got enough money to replace the car seats, which is great because I'm not comfortable using the seats at all right now (it was a very minor incident but I've done way too much research to be comfortable using them unless I absolutely must). I'm making it easy on myself and buying this two pack of Evenflo Titan 65 seats for the boys, and I've already gotten most of the money I need to buy them just from selling off some of the curriculum I have that we won't be using. (stay tuned for a detailed post in the next few days of all the things that I'll be selling on here!).
And to top it off, Scott has been watching my lesson plan book and is concerned with a few things he's seen. He requested that I consider enrolling the kids in a virtual academy because of what he's seen. We discussed it, I've prayed about it, and I sent in enrollment paperwork this week to Quaker Digital Academy for all four girls. I have a feeling that this is a long term solution to the issues that he brought to my attention, and we are going to do it period. I'm done trying to figure out how to teach my kids, what to use for curriculum, and how we will afford the curriculum. QDA offers the Calvert curriculum as an option for students along with online options, so I'm going to be using Calvert with a couple kids and online options with a couple. We're going to just jump in and do it. Hopefully enrollment happens quickly with no major bumps. This allows me the ability to sell off all our curriculum that I can to get our budget on track again, and whatever doesn't sell I am donating to The Book Samaritan for them to pass to families in need.
It has just been a crazy busy time here, and I'm beyond ready to get back to life as usual. But before I get back to it, here's a little Nathaniel cuteness just for your pleasure.
Yes, my 5 month old is starting to figure out how to get on his hands and knees. Looking at him now, you would NOT guess that he was born 3 weeks early with a medical induction and was my smallest baby. He is just eager to get moving so that he can keep up with his 4 big sisters and 1 big brother.
Which brings us part 2 of spiritual assault. The day I took Lydia in for the casting to make the mold for her AFO, the back brakes on my SUV locked up completely. I was meeting Scott at the orthotics place so we could swap vehicles and he could take the other kids home, so I had to limp it there with all 6 kids and then he babied it back home (all of 5 minutes drive thankfully). That repair cost us just shy of $600 that we didn't really have, but we made it happen.
The SUV repair meant that I pulled the boys' car seats out of my SUV and put them in his car until it was repaired. No issue, the brakes locked on a Thursday and the truck was fixed on Monday. However, I forgot to get the car seats out of his car again and 2 days later (this would be last week) he was rear-ended on his way home from work. It gets even better, the other driver had no car insurance. There was no major damage to his car, just a dent and a couple creases along with paint transfer, so he didn't even bother and sent the guy off on his way after yelling at him for several minutes. Yes, that means we get to pay out of pocket for new car seats.
Which brings us to now. I'm selling stuff to try and get up some money so that we can cover that repair on my SUV and fix our seriously damaged budget and to replace 2 car seats that were in his car when he got hit. I've almost got enough money to replace the car seats, which is great because I'm not comfortable using the seats at all right now (it was a very minor incident but I've done way too much research to be comfortable using them unless I absolutely must). I'm making it easy on myself and buying this two pack of Evenflo Titan 65 seats for the boys, and I've already gotten most of the money I need to buy them just from selling off some of the curriculum I have that we won't be using. (stay tuned for a detailed post in the next few days of all the things that I'll be selling on here!).
And to top it off, Scott has been watching my lesson plan book and is concerned with a few things he's seen. He requested that I consider enrolling the kids in a virtual academy because of what he's seen. We discussed it, I've prayed about it, and I sent in enrollment paperwork this week to Quaker Digital Academy for all four girls. I have a feeling that this is a long term solution to the issues that he brought to my attention, and we are going to do it period. I'm done trying to figure out how to teach my kids, what to use for curriculum, and how we will afford the curriculum. QDA offers the Calvert curriculum as an option for students along with online options, so I'm going to be using Calvert with a couple kids and online options with a couple. We're going to just jump in and do it. Hopefully enrollment happens quickly with no major bumps. This allows me the ability to sell off all our curriculum that I can to get our budget on track again, and whatever doesn't sell I am donating to The Book Samaritan for them to pass to families in need.
It has just been a crazy busy time here, and I'm beyond ready to get back to life as usual. But before I get back to it, here's a little Nathaniel cuteness just for your pleasure.
Yes, my 5 month old is starting to figure out how to get on his hands and knees. Looking at him now, you would NOT guess that he was born 3 weeks early with a medical induction and was my smallest baby. He is just eager to get moving so that he can keep up with his 4 big sisters and 1 big brother.
Friday, September 12, 2014
I love impromptu science stuff
Yesterday I called this week a wash for academics. Well, that changed this morning.
When I logged onto my Facebook this morning, the first thing I saw on my feed was a post by local channel 10 meteorologist Chris Bradley. He said that the aurora borealis (also known as the Northern Lights) will be visible as far south as the Ohio River tonight. Of course, the forecast for here in central Ohio is a lot of cloud coverage so chances of seeing it are low. I took the opportunity to tell the kids about it and we looked up pictures of the lights online, learned about the science of it happening, and we are planning to stay up late tonight to try and catch a glimpse through all the clouds.
Then I saw on my feed further down that a friend made a "naked egg" with her kids. I looked it up online and thought it sounds fun so we have an egg turning naked now. Tomorrow we'll take the naked egg and put it in colored water to show how the water flows through the egg's membrane, and then we'll put it in corn syrup if I have any to shrink it and discuss what happened with that. Lots of science fun on a whim, I love doing science like this.
When I logged onto my Facebook this morning, the first thing I saw on my feed was a post by local channel 10 meteorologist Chris Bradley. He said that the aurora borealis (also known as the Northern Lights) will be visible as far south as the Ohio River tonight. Of course, the forecast for here in central Ohio is a lot of cloud coverage so chances of seeing it are low. I took the opportunity to tell the kids about it and we looked up pictures of the lights online, learned about the science of it happening, and we are planning to stay up late tonight to try and catch a glimpse through all the clouds.
Then I saw on my feed further down that a friend made a "naked egg" with her kids. I looked it up online and thought it sounds fun so we have an egg turning naked now. Tomorrow we'll take the naked egg and put it in colored water to show how the water flows through the egg's membrane, and then we'll put it in corn syrup if I have any to shrink it and discuss what happened with that. Lots of science fun on a whim, I love doing science like this.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Week in Review
Yes, I'm doing a week in review post on Thursday. That should tell you what this week has been like for us. First, we had it 100% confirmed that Lydia has mono and even which specific strain it is (yay for modern medical technology!). That was on Monday morning. Wednesday we had Nathaniel's 4 month checkup and shots, which shot our afternoon in the foot. Plus, this week Scott started a new schedule at work so he's now working 5:30am-4pm every day so we are adjusting to that as well. Did I mention also that Scott and Preston both are sick as well? We are pretty sure Scott has bronchitis and suspect that Preston either has mono as well or he caught that respiratory virus that is going through the midwest and putting kids in the hospital. Either way, he's recovering slowly, sleeping a lot, and just a little beast to deal with between the grumpy attitude, horribly gross runny nose, and the fact that when he's awake he isn't slowing down much at all.
Needless to say, this week has been a bust for us academically. We did manage a couple days of math,bible, and English but that's about it really. I give up, we'll try again next week. I started our school year 3 weeks before the local school started specifically so we could be flexible like this, but dang I didn't expect to need it this soon.
I'm also getting really tired of 3 different math things going at once. So I'm taking the scope and sequence of the 2 formal curricula we're using to create an outline for me to follow, and then using the third thing (Khan Academy) as a supplemental thing for "math games day" that we'll do once in a while. My plan is to push forward with the outline until each kid is ready for algebra, then we'll pick up formal curriculum at that level. This should give us what we need there as far as meeting needs for my math whiz kid while also working for my average kids and giving the extra support my struggling learner needs. I'm hoping to work on my outline tonight after the kids go to bed, when it is quiet so I can focus and think.
Needless to say, this week has been a bust for us academically. We did manage a couple days of math,bible, and English but that's about it really. I give up, we'll try again next week. I started our school year 3 weeks before the local school started specifically so we could be flexible like this, but dang I didn't expect to need it this soon.
I'm also getting really tired of 3 different math things going at once. So I'm taking the scope and sequence of the 2 formal curricula we're using to create an outline for me to follow, and then using the third thing (Khan Academy) as a supplemental thing for "math games day" that we'll do once in a while. My plan is to push forward with the outline until each kid is ready for algebra, then we'll pick up formal curriculum at that level. This should give us what we need there as far as meeting needs for my math whiz kid while also working for my average kids and giving the extra support my struggling learner needs. I'm hoping to work on my outline tonight after the kids go to bed, when it is quiet so I can focus and think.
Sunday, September 07, 2014
Week preview 9/8 to 9/12
We've been pretty busy here the last few weeks. Jordan turned 7 last week, Nathaniel hit 4 months old the same day, and Lydia has been sick for the last month. Several doctor appointments to figure out what is going on with Lydia has been the name of our game here, and tomorrow at some point I'll be getting a call with lab results from our latest appointment to rule out mono. Lovely, isn't it? *sigh*
So, I'm going to try and look ahead and be positive. We do have appointments on Monday and Wednesday plus a picnic and club meetings on Friday (thank goodness all are the same location and host otherwise I would be frantic trying to pull THAT one off) so things are going to be a little different for us I think.
In history, we're going to start our explorers unit study. I got this lapbook from Hands Of A Child to do this month with the girls, and am going to be reading some good books to go with it. We're just easing our way through it and enjoying where it takes us, as is my goal for history this year. I have some library books to go with it just for a little bit of fun, and we'll probably hit up Pinterest for some ideas of fun projects to do with it if we feel a desire.
Science, we're going to keep going in our God's Design book. This term we're studying the human body, so we've got a lot going with that alone. I'm also adding in some experiments from the Apologia elementary anatomy and physiology book as we desire to do some hands-on, so we're pretty heavy in science for now.
In art, we are going to learn a bit about DaVinci and his art and inventions. There is actually a bit in our science book about him, which is what we're going to read Monday, so this is going to be a bit of a crossover lesson for us. I'm going to have to spend some time searching for a site to view some of his art, inventions, etc. with the kids because I got overwhelmed trying to pick a book at the library for this purpose.
In math, that is just going to keep on going. Melissa is almost done reviewing skills that we've needed to brush up on, Lydia is going to continue drilling her multiplication facts, Kim is getting ready to graduate to multiple digit multiplication, and Jordan is drilling basic addition and subtraction facts plus working on measurement and telling time. All is working perfectly in the math department, and I am very happy with where we are at there.
In English and language arts, Lydia is working on writing a book just because she wants to. Melissa is learning the parts of speech, and the other girls are working on reading a passage and retelling what the passage was about. We are also doing cursive lessons with the 3 oldest while Jordan fine-tunes her manuscript writing and we correct some reversals that occur regularly.
For music, I have no clue yet. I'll figure it out later. Melissa is working on learning to read music, which is going about as well as trying to teach me how to be patient. In other words, we may just kill each other before she finally gets the hang of reading music. We'll keep plugging along though, and maybe I'll see if there are any YouTube videos that I can use to try and help with this. She so wants to learn to play piano and several other instruments, so she needs to learn to read music so she can develop that skill for real. She can pick up music by ear, but reading music is going to really get her moving if she's serious about playing something (even if it is just for fun, like with me and piano)
That is about all I can think of right now for our look ahead to this week. After all, it is close to midnight here and I'm starting to get tired. Being sick recently, taking care of sick kids and husband both, and taking care of everything while Scott works 70+ hours a week the last few weeks has drained me pretty good. Hopefully this week's new work schedule for him brings him home before the kids go to bed each night like management says it will.
Have a great week folks!
So, I'm going to try and look ahead and be positive. We do have appointments on Monday and Wednesday plus a picnic and club meetings on Friday (thank goodness all are the same location and host otherwise I would be frantic trying to pull THAT one off) so things are going to be a little different for us I think.
In history, we're going to start our explorers unit study. I got this lapbook from Hands Of A Child to do this month with the girls, and am going to be reading some good books to go with it. We're just easing our way through it and enjoying where it takes us, as is my goal for history this year. I have some library books to go with it just for a little bit of fun, and we'll probably hit up Pinterest for some ideas of fun projects to do with it if we feel a desire.
Science, we're going to keep going in our God's Design book. This term we're studying the human body, so we've got a lot going with that alone. I'm also adding in some experiments from the Apologia elementary anatomy and physiology book as we desire to do some hands-on, so we're pretty heavy in science for now.
In art, we are going to learn a bit about DaVinci and his art and inventions. There is actually a bit in our science book about him, which is what we're going to read Monday, so this is going to be a bit of a crossover lesson for us. I'm going to have to spend some time searching for a site to view some of his art, inventions, etc. with the kids because I got overwhelmed trying to pick a book at the library for this purpose.
In math, that is just going to keep on going. Melissa is almost done reviewing skills that we've needed to brush up on, Lydia is going to continue drilling her multiplication facts, Kim is getting ready to graduate to multiple digit multiplication, and Jordan is drilling basic addition and subtraction facts plus working on measurement and telling time. All is working perfectly in the math department, and I am very happy with where we are at there.
In English and language arts, Lydia is working on writing a book just because she wants to. Melissa is learning the parts of speech, and the other girls are working on reading a passage and retelling what the passage was about. We are also doing cursive lessons with the 3 oldest while Jordan fine-tunes her manuscript writing and we correct some reversals that occur regularly.
For music, I have no clue yet. I'll figure it out later. Melissa is working on learning to read music, which is going about as well as trying to teach me how to be patient. In other words, we may just kill each other before she finally gets the hang of reading music. We'll keep plugging along though, and maybe I'll see if there are any YouTube videos that I can use to try and help with this. She so wants to learn to play piano and several other instruments, so she needs to learn to read music so she can develop that skill for real. She can pick up music by ear, but reading music is going to really get her moving if she's serious about playing something (even if it is just for fun, like with me and piano)
That is about all I can think of right now for our look ahead to this week. After all, it is close to midnight here and I'm starting to get tired. Being sick recently, taking care of sick kids and husband both, and taking care of everything while Scott works 70+ hours a week the last few weeks has drained me pretty good. Hopefully this week's new work schedule for him brings him home before the kids go to bed each night like management says it will.
Have a great week folks!
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Week in review
We started schooling this week. OK more like we attempted to start this week. I managed to get in a full day of schoolwork on Monday, go me, but then on Tuesday I declared "fine arts day" and we watched Robin Williams movies in his memory and just couldn't get back to it again. Oh well there's always next week.
Scott also started working some crazy hours on the job. A person in his department just up and quit on them Monday, so with no warning at all we got thrown into 14-16 hour shifts. He got more than 30 hours of overtime just this week alone, and it will continue for a few more weeks while he trains a new person in his department. I admit that the extra income is rather nice, but it is frustrating to have it only for a couple weeks and then gone again.
In other news, we started renovating here. We are replacing all the carpet with linoleum tiles, and repairing the subfloor at the same time. We've gotten the entry done so far, and this weekend are going to take on the hallway. It has been an experience, fixing up this place. We also had to replace the kitchen sink and faucet, which turned into a major plumbing job as we replaced half the drain pipes so that it was done correctly. Nothing in this house was done properly, so we are repairing it all as we go. Good thing Scott and I are pretty handy, otherwise we'd be in trouble. We should have the flooring all completed shortly after we get the tax refund next year so that we can move on to the next project.
Now I need to wake up a sick kid and an infant so that I can get both ready to go to the pediatric clinic at their doctor's office.
Scott also started working some crazy hours on the job. A person in his department just up and quit on them Monday, so with no warning at all we got thrown into 14-16 hour shifts. He got more than 30 hours of overtime just this week alone, and it will continue for a few more weeks while he trains a new person in his department. I admit that the extra income is rather nice, but it is frustrating to have it only for a couple weeks and then gone again.
In other news, we started renovating here. We are replacing all the carpet with linoleum tiles, and repairing the subfloor at the same time. We've gotten the entry done so far, and this weekend are going to take on the hallway. It has been an experience, fixing up this place. We also had to replace the kitchen sink and faucet, which turned into a major plumbing job as we replaced half the drain pipes so that it was done correctly. Nothing in this house was done properly, so we are repairing it all as we go. Good thing Scott and I are pretty handy, otherwise we'd be in trouble. We should have the flooring all completed shortly after we get the tax refund next year so that we can move on to the next project.
Now I need to wake up a sick kid and an infant so that I can get both ready to go to the pediatric clinic at their doctor's office.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
preparing for fall
I know I've posted recently-ish about what we are covering this fall in our homeschool. That pretty much hasn't changed, except for science and math mostly. I'm making life easier on me and the girls will all do Khan Academy for math this next couple years while Scott is in college full time (Lord help me, this is going to make life insanely busy for me) and for science I am doing Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology and then Apologia Botany. We are taking a science-centered focus for a while, learning and experimenting as a family this year to try and make up for my serious neglect of the subject. I don't like science and have never been very good at it, with the exception of human anatomy and physiology. Preston even gets some simple lessons, using the free lesson plans from ABC Jesus Loves Me. I'm going to pick and choose, based on his interest and how much time we have. No pressure, just some fun and games with a little coloring and simple activities.
That leads me to the place I'm at now. I'm pre-reading my first science book for the year now, and enjoying it. I'm trying to be mindful to make notes in a Word document so that I know where I feel good stopping points are in the chapters to break it up into shorter lessons, as well as noting when there is an experiment or when I want to add in a notebooking page from the free extras that I can access at the Apologia site (they have a code in the introduction to each book that I've used so far). Once I finish this stage, I plan to do a little looking online to see if I can find some coloring pages to pass out while I'm reading the text to the kids. I have a couple girls who listen much better when they have a quiet activity like coloring to keep their hands occupied.
Nathaniel, well he will just remain cute and cuddly and spend a lot of time hanging out on my chest in my beloved Action Baby Carrier on a daily basis.
That leads me to the place I'm at now. I'm pre-reading my first science book for the year now, and enjoying it. I'm trying to be mindful to make notes in a Word document so that I know where I feel good stopping points are in the chapters to break it up into shorter lessons, as well as noting when there is an experiment or when I want to add in a notebooking page from the free extras that I can access at the Apologia site (they have a code in the introduction to each book that I've used so far). Once I finish this stage, I plan to do a little looking online to see if I can find some coloring pages to pass out while I'm reading the text to the kids. I have a couple girls who listen much better when they have a quiet activity like coloring to keep their hands occupied.
Nathaniel, well he will just remain cute and cuddly and spend a lot of time hanging out on my chest in my beloved Action Baby Carrier on a daily basis.
Friday, July 04, 2014
Happy Independence Day
Or should I say, "Happy go to a parade to see politicians and businesses give out flyers and candy to win customers/votes day." That sums up the parade we went to this morning, although we did get coupons for some free tumbling classes and karate lessons. I'll take advantage of those when we have the extra room for gas to do them.
And just for fun, here's a picture of me holding Nathaniel last night as he got to see his first fireworks on his month-day. :)
How on earth did he grow this quickly into a 2 month old? It is going so fast.
Sorry no pictures of the kids were taken today, we opted to spend the majority of today without technology and ended up out back all day after the parade, grilling hot dogs and burgers and just having fun as a family.
And just for fun, here's a picture of me holding Nathaniel last night as he got to see his first fireworks on his month-day. :)
How on earth did he grow this quickly into a 2 month old? It is going so fast.
Sorry no pictures of the kids were taken today, we opted to spend the majority of today without technology and ended up out back all day after the parade, grilling hot dogs and burgers and just having fun as a family.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Overwhelming week
This has been a really rough week for me emotionally, and I've just been failing at the mom gig totally. In a nutshell, my husband's family was struck by tragedy yesterday when two of my kids' cousins were in a car accident. Three passengers in back (also related) were killed and the two kids up front are both in the hospital. On top of it, my father is back in our lives and playing games already with us to where I'm ready to cut contact permanently.
Of course, it didn't help that we also have been tight financially the last couple months and now on top of it my Kindle Fire is no longer functional. I need chocolate, large amounts of chocolate and maybe a glass of wine.
Hopefully next week is better for us.
Of course, it didn't help that we also have been tight financially the last couple months and now on top of it my Kindle Fire is no longer functional. I need chocolate, large amounts of chocolate and maybe a glass of wine.
Hopefully next week is better for us.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Curriculum plan 2014-15 school year
A lovely lady I know is doing a "let's share our 2014-15 curriculum" link up and I decided to try joining in on this one. I was working just last week on my notification for the school year, so I do actually have some clue what I'm going to be doing this year (for once!).
A little background if you are coming here from the link up. I have 6 kids and this is our 7th year homeschooling. This fall I will have 4 that I'm teaching (ages 11, 10, 8, and almost 7) along with a two-year-old tornado and our newest who is just 6 weeks old right now. In the past, we've pretty much always used Sonlight because I like having everything laid out for me so I can just open and go with things, no thinking required. However, the last 2 years we've used other materials and ventured away from pre-packaged stuff. I've started to embrace and enjoy doing our own thing that isn't dictated at all by someone else's opinion of what should be taught and when.
***** WARNING: this could get a little bit long, I ramble at times. I'll try to control this though. *****
As a group, we have plans to study American and Native American history. This means we will be definitely studying the less pleasant parts of our nation's history, and I don't sugar-coat things so they are going to learn a lot of things that likely are no longer taught in public schools. I don't have an actual curriculum for this. Instead, I will be heavily depending on the local public library, purchasing books on my Kindle Fire, and using online resources as the majority of our curriculum. I do have a few unit studies that I'll incorporate into history, and we'll be putting a timeline up on the wall for important dates. I plan to incorporate our music and art into this year's history. We'll do projects such as weaving, making pottery, building models of different things, sewing costumes, etc. along with learning songs about our nation and learning traditional dances and such. I have a lot knocking around in my mind with this, and it will likely take a couple years to really finish up all of it.
We also have science planned as a family study. If I have the financial excess, my plan is to purchase Winter Promise's equine science curriculum for the girls. They are all horse-crazy and would LOVE this. It also will go well with our history studies since horses were a primary means of transportation in early America. If we cannot purchase this curriculum for science, my backup plan is to do Apologia elementary astronomy. I already have that textbook on my shelf, so it won't cost us anything. Apologia isn't my favorite though, as I am not a young-earth believer. I have a child who is, but I am most definitely NOT. (not looking to open a debate here, so just leave it be as it is).
Individually the girls will read good books, write stories, learn cursive, and all sorts of little things. Then there is math.
In math, I have 3 different curricula going on based on individual needs.
Melissa is doing Math-U-See. It works very well for her and I have no plans to change it. She's been working slowly through Gamma this last year and a half, and should be finishing it sometime this fall. FINALLY. I didn't expect Gamma to be such a struggle for her; this book caused us both a lot of headaches as she slowly worked to master the material. I have Delta waiting for her already so the plan is that she'll finish the current level and then go straight into the next one.
Lydia is doing Saxon math. She's not too terribly math-minded, but she learns fast and independently for the most part. I'm guessing we have about a year and a half left before she hits algebra 1 with the pace that she's currently going in math. She'll be starting 6/5 this fall at some point.
Kimberly and Jordan are doing Horizons math. This is a no-brainer for me, we just work in the book and buy the next one when they are almost finished. Right now Kim is in book 2.2 and Jo is in book 1.1 and they both are progressing nicely. This is one of those more accelerated math curricula, so I'm not too concerned about them being a bit "behind" in math right now.
For English/Language Arts we are going to focus on grammar. I have made some mini-posters already for the parts of speech (this is where we are starting) and then we'll go into punctuation and capitalization rules and eventually by the end of the year we'll dabble a little into diagramming sentences. This subject is obviously aimed at the oldest kids, I don't expect Jordan to actually pick it all up with mastery (nor any of them really, I plan to do a couple sentences daily with them together as a group for a LONG time to help them master all that I'm introducing this year).
Miscellaneous resources I'm *planning* to use with these kids are:
Handwriting Without Tears to teach cursive
The Writer's Jungle to help guide me through teaching them writing
a couple units from the 3 volumes of KONOS curriculum sitting on my shelf
crap-tons of art and craft supplie
Oh, and I almost forgot. The dreaded OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES. This year we are looking at Upward cheer for the girls during basketball season. That's going to be the big thing. I also am going to take advantage of where I live to plan a few field trips, as we live within an hour of a lot of great places to visit. The only limit to where all we can go for field trips would be the fact that I drive the biggest SUV in the universe and it gets like 6mpg right now (I have to rebuild the rear passenger brake system, it is locked up engaged slightly, good thing I am really handy with vehicles so I'm going to save some money right there)
A little background if you are coming here from the link up. I have 6 kids and this is our 7th year homeschooling. This fall I will have 4 that I'm teaching (ages 11, 10, 8, and almost 7) along with a two-year-old tornado and our newest who is just 6 weeks old right now. In the past, we've pretty much always used Sonlight because I like having everything laid out for me so I can just open and go with things, no thinking required. However, the last 2 years we've used other materials and ventured away from pre-packaged stuff. I've started to embrace and enjoy doing our own thing that isn't dictated at all by someone else's opinion of what should be taught and when.
***** WARNING: this could get a little bit long, I ramble at times. I'll try to control this though. *****
As a group, we have plans to study American and Native American history. This means we will be definitely studying the less pleasant parts of our nation's history, and I don't sugar-coat things so they are going to learn a lot of things that likely are no longer taught in public schools. I don't have an actual curriculum for this. Instead, I will be heavily depending on the local public library, purchasing books on my Kindle Fire, and using online resources as the majority of our curriculum. I do have a few unit studies that I'll incorporate into history, and we'll be putting a timeline up on the wall for important dates. I plan to incorporate our music and art into this year's history. We'll do projects such as weaving, making pottery, building models of different things, sewing costumes, etc. along with learning songs about our nation and learning traditional dances and such. I have a lot knocking around in my mind with this, and it will likely take a couple years to really finish up all of it.
We also have science planned as a family study. If I have the financial excess, my plan is to purchase Winter Promise's equine science curriculum for the girls. They are all horse-crazy and would LOVE this. It also will go well with our history studies since horses were a primary means of transportation in early America. If we cannot purchase this curriculum for science, my backup plan is to do Apologia elementary astronomy. I already have that textbook on my shelf, so it won't cost us anything. Apologia isn't my favorite though, as I am not a young-earth believer. I have a child who is, but I am most definitely NOT. (not looking to open a debate here, so just leave it be as it is).
Individually the girls will read good books, write stories, learn cursive, and all sorts of little things. Then there is math.
In math, I have 3 different curricula going on based on individual needs.
Melissa is doing Math-U-See. It works very well for her and I have no plans to change it. She's been working slowly through Gamma this last year and a half, and should be finishing it sometime this fall. FINALLY. I didn't expect Gamma to be such a struggle for her; this book caused us both a lot of headaches as she slowly worked to master the material. I have Delta waiting for her already so the plan is that she'll finish the current level and then go straight into the next one.
Lydia is doing Saxon math. She's not too terribly math-minded, but she learns fast and independently for the most part. I'm guessing we have about a year and a half left before she hits algebra 1 with the pace that she's currently going in math. She'll be starting 6/5 this fall at some point.
Kimberly and Jordan are doing Horizons math. This is a no-brainer for me, we just work in the book and buy the next one when they are almost finished. Right now Kim is in book 2.2 and Jo is in book 1.1 and they both are progressing nicely. This is one of those more accelerated math curricula, so I'm not too concerned about them being a bit "behind" in math right now.
For English/Language Arts we are going to focus on grammar. I have made some mini-posters already for the parts of speech (this is where we are starting) and then we'll go into punctuation and capitalization rules and eventually by the end of the year we'll dabble a little into diagramming sentences. This subject is obviously aimed at the oldest kids, I don't expect Jordan to actually pick it all up with mastery (nor any of them really, I plan to do a couple sentences daily with them together as a group for a LONG time to help them master all that I'm introducing this year).
Miscellaneous resources I'm *planning* to use with these kids are:
Handwriting Without Tears to teach cursive
The Writer's Jungle to help guide me through teaching them writing
a couple units from the 3 volumes of KONOS curriculum sitting on my shelf
crap-tons of art and craft supplie
Oh, and I almost forgot. The dreaded OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES. This year we are looking at Upward cheer for the girls during basketball season. That's going to be the big thing. I also am going to take advantage of where I live to plan a few field trips, as we live within an hour of a lot of great places to visit. The only limit to where all we can go for field trips would be the fact that I drive the biggest SUV in the universe and it gets like 6mpg right now (I have to rebuild the rear passenger brake system, it is locked up engaged slightly, good thing I am really handy with vehicles so I'm going to save some money right there)
Monday, May 12, 2014
What's happening this week
We've been pretty quiet here, I know, and for good reason. We took the last two weeks off completely from everything here. I had a baby on March 3rd.
At 35 weeks I was told that I again had pregnancy-induced hypertension, just like I did with Preston. Fortunately, this time it was much later that it developed, so I didn't spend several weeks doing extra lab tests and bedrest to keep my blood pressure in the "safe" zone. Instead, I watched how I was feeling and had extra labs for 2 weeks. Then at my 37 week appointment my blood pressure was 150/100 so I got sent to labor and delivery for monitoring and testing, and possibly to be induced if things didn't look right. Immediate labs looked ok so they sent me home after a few hours to do the 24 hour labs a third time. However, between my appointment and getting to the hospital for monitoring, I developed a headache and Tylenol did nothing for it.
So I got home and did the 24hr stuff, and that evening noticed a few new things. Mainly, my ability to pee seemed to be almost completely gone. This is kind of important, as the main part of the 24hr labs is collecting urine for 24hrs straight and taking it in to be tested. My urine output over that 24hrs was about 1/4 of what it was when I did the 24hr labs a week earlier. The headache also started getting worse the morning after my appointment, so I put in a call to my midwife and ended up sent back to the hospital.
Anyone who has kids knows that being sent unexpectedly like that can be a bit of trouble to find a sitter on a whim, so I ended up having to wait until Scott was at lunch break to get him on his way home to drop me off at the hospital and watch the kids. I wasn't thinking too clearly at that point, as the headache was getting in the way of that, or I would have called one of a couple people I had lined up for this birth.
I was monitored less than an hour while the midwife on call (my midwife was out sick the last couple days) looked over my chart to see what this pregnancy and the one before had done and she waited on labs. I got 3 high blood pressure readings in a row, 15 minutes apart each, and she decided to induce me. So, Pitocin and antibiotics for me and then 4 hours later the lovely epidural (I knew what Pitocin does to me already and chose to take the wimp route with NO regrets). A total of 8 hours after the induction started, little Nathaniel was born clocking in at 6lb 6oz and 20" long. He was perfectly healthy, though TINY for us after having three 8lb newborns before him.
I had the foresight to take off that week from lessons because I just didn't feel good at all, and I was induced on Friday afternoon (he was born at 12:20am Saturday) so the kids and I had a week of me just feeling yucky and resting. Then we took off on baby break so I could obviously recover, as an epidural is one of those things that just takes a little time to recover from. He is now 9 days old and my back still aches a little once in a while where it was done, but it is much better.
We picked up schoolwork again today. Yes I said today. We needed the routine back in our life, that normal feeling. We started with just math, science, and literature (science and literature is me reading to them and then on weekends they do the experiment with Scott maybe, but he doesn't know that detail yet heehee). Later in the week I'll add in reading some of "A Child's History of the World" to cover history with a little about the middle ages while I pull together a few resources to finish an Ohio unit that we had started just before we went on break. Next week, we'll add in some electives.
And now, enjoy a little bit of tiny new baby cuteness.
At 35 weeks I was told that I again had pregnancy-induced hypertension, just like I did with Preston. Fortunately, this time it was much later that it developed, so I didn't spend several weeks doing extra lab tests and bedrest to keep my blood pressure in the "safe" zone. Instead, I watched how I was feeling and had extra labs for 2 weeks. Then at my 37 week appointment my blood pressure was 150/100 so I got sent to labor and delivery for monitoring and testing, and possibly to be induced if things didn't look right. Immediate labs looked ok so they sent me home after a few hours to do the 24 hour labs a third time. However, between my appointment and getting to the hospital for monitoring, I developed a headache and Tylenol did nothing for it.
So I got home and did the 24hr stuff, and that evening noticed a few new things. Mainly, my ability to pee seemed to be almost completely gone. This is kind of important, as the main part of the 24hr labs is collecting urine for 24hrs straight and taking it in to be tested. My urine output over that 24hrs was about 1/4 of what it was when I did the 24hr labs a week earlier. The headache also started getting worse the morning after my appointment, so I put in a call to my midwife and ended up sent back to the hospital.
Anyone who has kids knows that being sent unexpectedly like that can be a bit of trouble to find a sitter on a whim, so I ended up having to wait until Scott was at lunch break to get him on his way home to drop me off at the hospital and watch the kids. I wasn't thinking too clearly at that point, as the headache was getting in the way of that, or I would have called one of a couple people I had lined up for this birth.
I was monitored less than an hour while the midwife on call (my midwife was out sick the last couple days) looked over my chart to see what this pregnancy and the one before had done and she waited on labs. I got 3 high blood pressure readings in a row, 15 minutes apart each, and she decided to induce me. So, Pitocin and antibiotics for me and then 4 hours later the lovely epidural (I knew what Pitocin does to me already and chose to take the wimp route with NO regrets). A total of 8 hours after the induction started, little Nathaniel was born clocking in at 6lb 6oz and 20" long. He was perfectly healthy, though TINY for us after having three 8lb newborns before him.
I had the foresight to take off that week from lessons because I just didn't feel good at all, and I was induced on Friday afternoon (he was born at 12:20am Saturday) so the kids and I had a week of me just feeling yucky and resting. Then we took off on baby break so I could obviously recover, as an epidural is one of those things that just takes a little time to recover from. He is now 9 days old and my back still aches a little once in a while where it was done, but it is much better.
We picked up schoolwork again today. Yes I said today. We needed the routine back in our life, that normal feeling. We started with just math, science, and literature (science and literature is me reading to them and then on weekends they do the experiment with Scott maybe, but he doesn't know that detail yet heehee). Later in the week I'll add in reading some of "A Child's History of the World" to cover history with a little about the middle ages while I pull together a few resources to finish an Ohio unit that we had started just before we went on break. Next week, we'll add in some electives.
And now, enjoy a little bit of tiny new baby cuteness.
Monday, April 14, 2014
this week
This is a busy week in my home. I only have a few minutes, so bear with me. I'll come back later hopefully to edit and add some pictures since I'm on my laptop and have no pictures on here.
Today is Melissa's birthday, she's 11 years old now. Crap where did the time go? I have to bake her a cake, she chose a strawberry one with purple icing, so I need to do it soon to have ready for tonight.
Scott is working double shifts all week, yes I mean 16 hour days on top of his 1 hour commute each way. We won't see too much of him until Saturday, and then he'll likely spend the weekend sleeping off this week at work since this is his scheduled full weekend off. We obviously are NOT making plans for the weekend that involve going anywhere major because he'll be too tired.
I'm 35 weeks pregnant as of today, and still baking away happily. I go in Thursday for my regular prenatal appointment, and Scott has specially arranged to have the morning off so that he can take over with the kids instead of me taking them with me. My appointments just go faster if I'm not taking them along, so he does that once in a while. We will likely be starting weekly appointments at this point, as my last baby was born at 37 weeks gestation. I'll also be asking about possibly inducing to make sure I can actually make it to the hospital on time with Scott's commute time. I am concerned that this time will be faster than my last birth (I was in labor a total 1 1/2 hours last time around, we were lucky that I was already at the hospital for hypertension to decide if they were going to induce me right then or wait for the next day to do it when that started) and that my dear daddy-to-be will possibly miss the birth of our last child (and I possibly not get to the hospital and end up with an unplanned unassisted homebirth, I don't want to do that thankyouverymuch).
Kim started Horizons math today. I got her book 2 of second grade math, figuring that it would be about her level. I've heard that Horizons is about a year ahead, and she's ahead in math so right on level would be good for her. Yup, too easy. Oh well, I used the AOP sale they do every April to get it so it was only $15 and free shipping. She can zip through it at her speed and we'll teach whatever she doesn't know already, and I'll call it "adjusting to a new curriculum style and layout with review" before she starts the third grade books I plan to buy this upcoming weekend for her to do next. Problem solved.
Full moon/ blood moon/ lunar eclipse tonight. I'm hoping to stay up and get some pictures of it that I can share with the girls tomorrow and then set up an experiment with a flashlight and some balls to simulate an eclipse so we can talk about why and how it happens. However, if I can't stay awake (which I know is possible at this stage of pregnancy) I know that I'll find a lot of pictures online for this. So that is on my list for science lessons this week.
We started an Ohio study to meet the state history requirements for our state this year. Just covering the basic information on the state at this point, then we'll dig in and learn historical events, people, places, etc. as we go along. This study is going to last until Nathaniel is born, and we're doing a lapbook to go with it. I have no clue how much is going to end up being covered, but it will be enough to meet the state requirements easily.
I think that covers it for now. So now I shall go bake a cake and figure out supper for tonight.
Today is Melissa's birthday, she's 11 years old now. Crap where did the time go? I have to bake her a cake, she chose a strawberry one with purple icing, so I need to do it soon to have ready for tonight.
Scott is working double shifts all week, yes I mean 16 hour days on top of his 1 hour commute each way. We won't see too much of him until Saturday, and then he'll likely spend the weekend sleeping off this week at work since this is his scheduled full weekend off. We obviously are NOT making plans for the weekend that involve going anywhere major because he'll be too tired.
I'm 35 weeks pregnant as of today, and still baking away happily. I go in Thursday for my regular prenatal appointment, and Scott has specially arranged to have the morning off so that he can take over with the kids instead of me taking them with me. My appointments just go faster if I'm not taking them along, so he does that once in a while. We will likely be starting weekly appointments at this point, as my last baby was born at 37 weeks gestation. I'll also be asking about possibly inducing to make sure I can actually make it to the hospital on time with Scott's commute time. I am concerned that this time will be faster than my last birth (I was in labor a total 1 1/2 hours last time around, we were lucky that I was already at the hospital for hypertension to decide if they were going to induce me right then or wait for the next day to do it when that started) and that my dear daddy-to-be will possibly miss the birth of our last child (and I possibly not get to the hospital and end up with an unplanned unassisted homebirth, I don't want to do that thankyouverymuch).
Kim started Horizons math today. I got her book 2 of second grade math, figuring that it would be about her level. I've heard that Horizons is about a year ahead, and she's ahead in math so right on level would be good for her. Yup, too easy. Oh well, I used the AOP sale they do every April to get it so it was only $15 and free shipping. She can zip through it at her speed and we'll teach whatever she doesn't know already, and I'll call it "adjusting to a new curriculum style and layout with review" before she starts the third grade books I plan to buy this upcoming weekend for her to do next. Problem solved.
Full moon/ blood moon/ lunar eclipse tonight. I'm hoping to stay up and get some pictures of it that I can share with the girls tomorrow and then set up an experiment with a flashlight and some balls to simulate an eclipse so we can talk about why and how it happens. However, if I can't stay awake (which I know is possible at this stage of pregnancy) I know that I'll find a lot of pictures online for this. So that is on my list for science lessons this week.
We started an Ohio study to meet the state history requirements for our state this year. Just covering the basic information on the state at this point, then we'll dig in and learn historical events, people, places, etc. as we go along. This study is going to last until Nathaniel is born, and we're doing a lapbook to go with it. I have no clue how much is going to end up being covered, but it will be enough to meet the state requirements easily.
I think that covers it for now. So now I shall go bake a cake and figure out supper for tonight.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
mid-week progress
Well, we are halfway through the week. Literally, it is lunchtime on Wednesday here. It has been one BUSY week here so far.
Missa is plugging away in MUS Gamma as she has been. She's about halfway through the book now, so we are finishing up the basic multiplication facts with her.
Lydia took a Saxon math placement test on Monday and then on Tuesday started 5/4. She only needs part of the book before she can go into 6/5, but we decided to start at the beginning to make sure that she gets used to the different program with good review of things she knows already. Saxon is definitely a different animal from the Everyday Mathematics garbage they teach in the local public school, she's going to need a little time.
Kimberly is just working on her multiplication and division facts, then she too will start Saxon 5/4. I figure she'll start it about the same time her sister moves up to 6/5, so we're taking our time and working on things. I'm also having to re-teach her how to do some things that are basic concepts that the public school totally screwed up teaching her. No big deal really, although I do find it mildly annoying that I have to undo the damage from a poorly written math curriculum.
Jordan this week is working on greater than and less than in Math Mammoth. She is doing really well with this curriculum, and will stay with it until further notice.
Yes, I'm doing 4 completely different things with 4 kids in math. Mildly annoying that I've got so many different curricula going, but it is what works best so I juggle it.
We also started Apologia elementary Astronomy this week. I'm reading 1 or 2 sections out loud daily to the kids, as the youngest girl doesn't seem to have the attention span at this point for more. No biggie, we'll work up to longer time reading out loud as we go.
History is on hold until after Nathaniel is born at this point. I'm trying to be realistic in what our workload is with this pregnancy. Things are 100% textbook perfect for me with it, but I know how fast things can change in this area. I don't want to go from full speed to a dead halt suddenly because of hypertension issues again like we had to do last time, so we're going a slower pace.
The girls are also reading daily for a little bit. They pick the book, but they MUST read daily. It is working really well for us at this point.
Missa is plugging away in MUS Gamma as she has been. She's about halfway through the book now, so we are finishing up the basic multiplication facts with her.
Lydia took a Saxon math placement test on Monday and then on Tuesday started 5/4. She only needs part of the book before she can go into 6/5, but we decided to start at the beginning to make sure that she gets used to the different program with good review of things she knows already. Saxon is definitely a different animal from the Everyday Mathematics garbage they teach in the local public school, she's going to need a little time.
Kimberly is just working on her multiplication and division facts, then she too will start Saxon 5/4. I figure she'll start it about the same time her sister moves up to 6/5, so we're taking our time and working on things. I'm also having to re-teach her how to do some things that are basic concepts that the public school totally screwed up teaching her. No big deal really, although I do find it mildly annoying that I have to undo the damage from a poorly written math curriculum.
Jordan this week is working on greater than and less than in Math Mammoth. She is doing really well with this curriculum, and will stay with it until further notice.
Yes, I'm doing 4 completely different things with 4 kids in math. Mildly annoying that I've got so many different curricula going, but it is what works best so I juggle it.
We also started Apologia elementary Astronomy this week. I'm reading 1 or 2 sections out loud daily to the kids, as the youngest girl doesn't seem to have the attention span at this point for more. No biggie, we'll work up to longer time reading out loud as we go.
History is on hold until after Nathaniel is born at this point. I'm trying to be realistic in what our workload is with this pregnancy. Things are 100% textbook perfect for me with it, but I know how fast things can change in this area. I don't want to go from full speed to a dead halt suddenly because of hypertension issues again like we had to do last time, so we're going a slower pace.
The girls are also reading daily for a little bit. They pick the book, but they MUST read daily. It is working really well for us at this point.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
finally!
I think it is safe to say that we are all 7 well on the road to recovery from this horrible illness we had. Thanks public school..... That was not a fun ride for us, but after a diagnosis of strep for Missa, Jordan, and Preston complete with antibiotics, I'm pretty sure we got it on its way out of here finally.
Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to keep track of antibiotics for 7, prescription antihistamines for 2, cough syrup for 4, fever/pain medication for 6, and breathing medications for 2 with the dosing amounts and times? I was about to borrow a trick for a lovely lady I know who creates a chart to log it all with, by creating one in Word and then printing out a few copies so that I could just get it going on. I think that the next time we have a major run of illness like this one, I will do just that. Maybe I should create a generic chart soon to keep on the computer, one that I can just open up and add medication names/categories to then print off.
Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to keep track of antibiotics for 7, prescription antihistamines for 2, cough syrup for 4, fever/pain medication for 6, and breathing medications for 2 with the dosing amounts and times? I was about to borrow a trick for a lovely lady I know who creates a chart to log it all with, by creating one in Word and then printing out a few copies so that I could just get it going on. I think that the next time we have a major run of illness like this one, I will do just that. Maybe I should create a generic chart soon to keep on the computer, one that I can just open up and add medication names/categories to then print off.
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