a new approach for next year

Well, I've done a LOT of thinking and praying, and feel confident with this decision I think. We are indeed continuing to homeschool, but our homeschool will look much different from how it has ever looked before in our home. We had plans to use Sonlight for our curriculum this year (in fact I have all the stuff for core K, science K, LA K, and LA 1) but as I started preparing all my instructor guides for this I felt like it was just wrong for us at this time. At least, wrong in a FORMAL sense. So, I'm mixing it up a lot. Yes we are going to use Sonlight for core and some science, however we are doing it much differently than anyone would have seen. We are going to fall more toward the category of unschoolers for a while. Melissa's reading is just starting to take off, and Lydia's starting to get there as well, so we will have them do Explode The Code workbooks at their pace along with having a TON of readers handy for them. For math I'm planning on just going with the flow and letting them do Miquon at their own pace, we'll work together one on one as they are interested but I'm not going to stress over it. We're going to get involved in a garden, and study the night sky. We'll read the books in core K casually, as the kids are interested in them.

Now here's the thing. I really REALLY dislike the term "unschoolers". To me, it implies that I'm not teaching my kids anything and that I'm not allowing them to learn and develop skills they have and want to learn and develop. In my opinion, a MUCH better term would be "lifeschoolers". We are using our everyday life to learn and grow, and taking opportunities to learn in ways that many other kids wouldn't get to because they are at school. The kids will have a couple of workbooks that I'd like them to use, but I'm not going to force the matter. If they don't want to do a page of Explode The Code one day, that's fine. I know that eventually they will decide to do a dozen or more pages because they think its fun at that particular moment. Same with Miquon math and Handwriting Without Tears, if they want to do it then they can but if not then no biggie.

Talk about the total polar opposite of OHVA and the k12 curriculum............. lol And yes, I still plan on us doing art projects and such, just that I plan to let THEM choose what and when on stuff. Hopefully this doesn't completely backfire. And if they want to do a lapbook or two (we've done some in the past) then I'll go through the work so they can do it as long as there is a lapbook unit available free at homeschool share. I refuse to pay for materials so they can do a lapbook.

my smart little cookie

I have a 2 year old. Her name is Jordan, and I have literally ZERO expectations from her on schoolwork. I don't even really do anything but read with her and play dolls on occassion and stuff like that. We don't spend much time going over shapes or colors, or trying to teach her to do anything except keep her clothes on.

But despite this lack of working with her, Jordan has managed to learn her colors, shapes, can tell left from right, sings her ABC's, and can recognize a few of her letters by sight. And she can count to 10 on occassion if she's in the right mood.

So, you don't actually need to spend time daily dedicated to teaching skills to preschoolers. I have spent a few minutes a couple times checking to see what she knows, but really we've not done anything. I think Melissa has been teaching her this stuff instead, when they "play school" once in a while.

Isn't it amazing what a child can learn through osmosis?

Sonlight, FedEx, and my hormones

So, I love Sonlight. Its pretty obvious I think. LOL However, I do *not* like their shipping through FedEx.

Our homeschool group is doing their yearly curriculum share tonight. I offered to bring my Sonlight preschool cores, as well as lang. arts K and the Fun Tales readers that go with it. There are a lot of families who have kids starting preschool and I find Sonlight to be a fun way to do preschool. So, I volunteered almost 2 weeks ago for this, and then the same day ordered a new copy of my instructor guide for core P 4/5 since mine is all marked up and well-used (and its a couple years old and missing a few books that are in the core now) I get a 50% repurchase discount since I originally bought a new P 4/5 instructor guide through them (a cool little perk of theirs for people who buy a program new) so instead of costing me $25 the guide cost me $12.50. Then, I did some quick calculations on how long it would take to arrive by media mail from Colorado to Ohio, and opted to pay $10 for 3-5 day FedEx shipping instead of risking the $5 media shipping since I wanted it by a certain date. Cool, when my order shipped the tracking said that FedEx would deliver it to me on Saturday (giving me a couple days to go through it before I take it to the curriculum share so I'm semi-familiar with it) Well, Saturday we were all sick, so I chose to keep us home from soccer (just colds, the big kids could have gone to their games but still, you know what I mean) and figured that I'd be able to get my guide that way straight from the delivery truck. Deliveries in my part of town happen by 10am normally, so when it was 2:30PM and still no truck showed up I decided to track my order online and see what was up. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it was still in Cambridge for some reason, and that it would be here on Tuesday.

YES I called FedEx and pitched a fit. I've been dealing with 4 sick kids all week so I'm a bit grouchy myself lately. The lady I spoke with on Saturday said that she couldn't do anything because that distribution center wasn't answering (she called 3 times) and that I'd have to call on Monday to find out what's up. So I seethed through all of Sunday, and as soon as I was awake enough to see straight this morning I called back. I yelled LOUDLY into the phone about it, to two different support reps. Then I pitched a fit at the distribution center's top guy. They have no clue why it got routed as it did (its marked as a home delivery but somehow got routed through the business deliveries *sigh*) So, as a result of my pitching a fit over this and going off on all the bad service I've gotten from FedEx the past 3 years that I've been ordering from Sonlight (out of 10 deliveries I've gotten ONE on time and not damaged, usually I have a damaged order or it is 3-4 days late and it was always delivered to the wrong house before we moved, but that one I understood because of our address being a 1/2 one) they are having one of their business delivery trucks that is going to Columbus swing through Newark today to specifically drop off my order.

I also have been pitching a fit about this at the Sonlight forums, and got a personal call from one of their people about the matter. Karla personally looked into the matter while I was dealing with it also, to see if she could get it cleared up as well. I was also told that while they do ship through FedEx, if I refuse to ever use FedEx again after this to just request UPS in the comments box on future orders and they will take care of it for me. They do truly care about the satisfaction of their customers, and they've proven this to me a few times in the past (missing item in one purchase, they automatically sent me the item as soon as I mentioned it, and then there is this today along with being very fast to answer questions when I have them about their products and service) I've said it before in my blog, and I'm going to say it again. This company knows how to take care of their customers, and they have definitely secured a permanent customer in my family with their service for as long as we homeschool. I love Sonlight so much, and the curriculum they carry is top-notch as well.

But I pity the people at FedEx that had to deal with me the last couple days while I yelled at them repeatedly over this matter, and I wonder if their driver that they tracked the mix-up down to will still have a job after this..............

icky sickies!

Allergy season is in full swing here. I've been to the doctor already for my allergies, and am now loaded up with my annual allergy prescription along with a long-lasting inhaler and a fast-acting inhaler both for my breathing problems (the long-acting is just a temporary measure that we do every spring when allergy season starts because that's the only time I get really bad off, normally just the fast-acting is all I need and it is rarely used) In the morning (oh wait it IS morning lol I just can't sleep) I need to call the kids' doctor to see if I can get three of them in for allergy meds, the stuff we were told to use last year just isn't working this year and those 3 are absolutely MISERABLE now. I have crying, whining, sniffling children ages 7, 4, and 2 right now who have snotty faces, watery eyes, low-grade fevers, and sore throats from coughing and sneezing and the sniffling. I am going through at least 2 boxes of Kleenex a day (well there's a company that loves me right now) and we're hoping that it doesn't get *too* much worse for them because the oldest one has a soccer game at 9am on Saturday, complete with team pictures being taken just before the game. *sigh*

I am going to need a LOT of Lysol and Clorox wipes to get rid of all the germs in this house when we finally get over the hay fever part of our allergies (usually at least one of the 4 of us with allergies will get seriously ill from all the allergy issues, and that's NORMALLY me with my breathing problems which is why I'm on the 2 different inhalers and a stronger dose of my allergy pills than usual). Dang I hope this part of the year goes by fast so that we can just relax and enjoy the dust allergies that summer brings before the corn pollen of fall and harvesting. LOL Its going to be a long allergy season for us I think.................. lol

But on a positive note, Melissa read an entire chapter of a Magic Treehouse book to me Thursday afternoon with only a little help with some of the trickier words. She really has progressed a lot with her reading, since I figured out how to best teach the child and help her with it. Phonics and sight words as a combination along with magnetic letter tiles that she can move around really are just what she needed to get grounded in her reading. Oh, and she can now officially ride a bike without training wheels, as long as she doesn't have to turn LOL Turning still gives her a bit of trouble, but she'll get it in time.

so not everyone likes us, big deal

Well, my girls learned a valuable lesson today that not everyone is kind, and in the most obvious way possible.

We have lived here almost 2 years now. We are literally the ONLY family that is under 65 years old. As you can imagine, that makes life rather difficult at times for us as a homeschooling family. There are no other kids for my girls to play with on our street, and we don't have much in common with our neighbors in general.

However, there is one couple in particular that we don't get along with. I have maybe spoken two words with them in the time we've lived here, and my husband has had maybe two briefs chats with them. The majority of our contact has been in the form of letters from the city to notify us that we are in violation of codes for this or that and to fix these things within 30 days or be fined. At least, that was the extent of our contact until today.

This afternoon, I decided while we were out walking to stop and ask them if they had any objections to us putting up a fence out back (merely a formality since we don't really CARE what they think) Well, first off he was fairly hostile to me and kept glaring at my girls (who were standing quietly behind me, except Jordan who was sitting on my hip smiling cutely) The conversation was fairly brief and VERY uncomfortable for me. I said to him "We're hoping to get to it this year, but if not then definitely next year, but would you have an issue with us putting up a fence...." which he promptly interrupted with "we're ROOTING for one, preferably the privacy variety."

OK first off, I don't disrespect my elders. It is NOT something that I do normally. Secondly, my children were there and I pride myself on setting a good example for them on how to interact with all kinds of people of all ages in a respectful manner. So I pretended to not notice the blatent RUDENESS and disrespectful manner in which he spoke down at me, along with his body language and how he presented himself (as we approached his home, he stepped outside and to the edge of the poch so that I couldn't take the step up, placing him higher above me than he already was because he's tall and I'm a little on the short side) I chose to use this as a perfect example of teaching by example when confronted by disrespectful and rude people.

So I gave him a sweet smile and replied, "oh yes, we have been looking at this lovely white 6ft privacy fence that has a sort of trellis style at the top. We were thinking that a white fence would be a perfect backdrop for the roses we would like to plant on the street side of the fence. I hope my children haven't been wandering into your yard at all, we have spent a lot of time trying to teach them to respect other peoples' property." To which he replied "oh if they were you'd know in a New York minute" in a condescending tone.

Then he proceeded to question my parenting by allowing my children to ride their bikes on the dead-end side street that rund by my home (the little road they live on). Now, granted we do live on a busy main road in a small city, however the road I lived on as a child had more traffic than this little dead-end side street with 4 houses on it. In the hour and a half that my girls were riding their bikes on the street, we saw a total of ONE vehicle that they had to get in the grass for. They are well aware of the dangers of riding the street, and we have gone over the rules of safe street riding very carefully and I have checked to be sure they had them memorized before I allowed ANYONE to set a bike on the street. So, yes, I am comfortable with letting them ride on a small portion of this side street (from the end of the tree line in my yard to the driveway of the neighbors behind us to be more precise) as long as there is a responsible adult supervising them.

I think it is safe to say this neighbor hates us, particularly because we are young and have children. Of course, I'm certain that it didn't help any when my father told the wife that if they ever spoke to us or caused us any more trouble that he'd burn their house down. *smacking forehead* I'm thinking that it may be time for the girls to have a short cooking lesson to make some cookies to take the neighbors this week, and perhaps we'll invite them over for a cookout this summer. I am going to make an attempt to be neighborly and show them that we have good kids and are good people. If they decide to not give us an opportunity, then that is their choice. We will have made a fair attempt, and that is all that matters. To hell with them if they decide to judge us by my father and how he was, and the fact that we are young and have children.

first day of co-op

You know its a big day when you send your child off for the first time to their first class without you there. Well, that day for Lydia was today.

Recently, a lady in our homeschool group posted about a montessori-style co-op. It is 1 1/2 hours every Monday for 7 weeks, and kids as young as Kindy age can take the class. So, I signed up my girls for the co-op, just Melissa and Lydia. The lady teaching has a rule of parents can help but not if they have younger children to care for at the same time (those parents, which I fall in that group, drop their kids off for the class) It is an outdoor survival-type co-op, and today was the first class.

We signed up to do the 12:30-2:00pm classes because it just works better with my schedule. We had a list of things we needed for them: a water bottle, notebook, pencil, sweatshirt, hat, and hair tied back with supplies in a backpack for easy carrying. So I prepared two backpacks this morning with the big kids' help to be sure they had everything (they searched for their item that I said to go get and then they put it in their individual backpack) and right after our lunch we headed out. This is the first time we've ever participated in a co-op, so this is a totally new experience for us. I signed them up because I'm not too good at this kind of stuff, and I knew that they would enjoy it.

When we got there, Lydia hesitated at first, but once we got her to sit down on the blanket with the other 6 kids (big class huh? lol) and she started participating, I knew she was sucked in and would do great. So, I took the little kids with me to run a couple errands that we needed to do (library trip, gas for van, just piddly stuff I never get to with all 4 kids normally) while they were in co-op. The little girls both fell asleep while we were running errands, so I was really limited to just doing the errands that I didn't have to get anyone out for (yes, our library is awesome and has a drive-up window to check out reserved books with drop slots for returning books and movies right next to it so that makes library runs AMAZINGLY simple if I remember to log on and reserve books a few days ahead of time) But I got everything done before we had to be back to pick up the kids, so I even had a chance to call my mom and chat for about 20 minutes.

When I went to pick the big girls up, I got there about 10 minutes early like I always do for stuff (I'm either 10 minutes early or 20 minutes late for everything LOL) I chatted with the host mom for this week (first week only is being done at her home, the other 6 weeks will be at the nature preserve) and the little kids wandered off to play with her 3 1/2 year old girl. When the kids were done with class (about 20 minutes AFTER she said it would be over lol but I don't mind) they were just chattering up a storm about all the neat stuff they learned in co-op.

This is a full list of what they talked about in co-op this afternoon:

first aid in the woods without a traditional kit (using a safety pin and bandana)
edible flowers
ticks and Lyme Disease
venomous spiders in our area (black widow and brown recluse)

Yep, major topics for kids their ages, but man they got a KICK out of it. They can't wait to go back to class next week, and they've already done today's part of their homework (spend 20min daily outside observing nature, taking notes or drawing pictures or gluing plants and such into their notebook, also they need to create a small basic first-aid kit that is the right size for their backpacks for the next class and we're supposed to talk about different ways we can use a bandana and/or safety pin for emergency first aid) They truly LOVED co-op today, and I feel great about choosing to sign them up for it.

Future topics that I'm aware of right this moment for the co-op (I have a very basic syllabus the teacher e-mailed me, she said she'll add more in class and see where it leads but will for sure cover these topics) include building a shelter, starting a fire without matches (emphasizing the need for an adult at ALL times when trying to do a fire), further instruction on first aid, basic knots (Lydia won't do too well at that one with her motor delays), and animal tracking and behavior. Hopefully, this co-op series will give the girls a love of nature and maybe I'll get little girls who want to spend their free weekends camping and hiking as they get older.

And to top it all off, I'm getting some badly-needed recharging time each week while they get the chance to learn to interact with authority figures other than their parents, and they are getting around other kids as well. Oh, and they are telling and showing me all the stuff they are learning, and I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a LOT from them over the course of this class as they tell me all about what they are learning.

should homeschooling be considered a "real job"?

I was reading at the Sonlight forums this morning, and a mom posted about this very topic trying to work it out in her own mind (I think, I didn't really read all the replies) She compared her homeschooling to her husband giong to work every day. A lot of things she said really made me stop and think, and I thought it may be an interesting thing to discuss here.

My husband works 10-15 hours a day, depending on the time of year. Some weeks he even works on Saturdays. He's been at his job for 15 years, and he's not entirely thrilled with it. He likes the work itself, but HATES the people he works for. However, he started at the ground level and worked himself up into a position that normally requires an engineering degree, so getting a job elsewhere is not an option at this point in time for him. He spends all week looking forward to friday night when he clocks out, and then Sunday he spends moping around because he has to go back Monday morning. When he has a vacation week coming up, he starts counting down 4 weeks beforehand and is in heaven the last week before his week off. Then the last 2 days of his vacation he starts moping because he has to go back.

His work record is pretty good. He doesn't call off normally unless he is seriously ill, and he has a strong work record at his job for low breakage and high quality output (he cuts eyeglass lenses) He is good at what he does, and everyone there knows it. Management also knows that he is the sole source of income for our family with 4 children, and they use that to their advantage. Mandatory overtime, treating him badly, and holding him to different rules from other employees are just a few things he goes through.

If he were to call off every time he didn't want to go to work, he'd have been unemployed YEARS ago. If he didn't do as much as he was supposed to at work daily, he would be fired. So why is it that when I don't feel like sitting down and doing lessons with the girls, I just take the day off?

Homeschooling is just as demanding as most jobs out there. I'm juggling multiple tasks, managing others to be sure they stay on task, training people in skills they don't know, and trying to maintain high standards with what we do all on top of keeping things fairly neat and tidy at the same time. I am officially teaching 2 children, while casually working with 2 little ones at the same time. I don't WANT to do lessons at this time of year, it is so beautiful outside and we want to spend that time in the yard, playing and doing yardwork. I find myself giving in to this desire too much lately, playing instead of working. We spend our time playing in the yard and tearing out old nasty garden stuff and cleaning up debris from the people who owned this house before us (yes I'm STILL finding broken pieces of clay pots all over the yard) but we neglect history and science on occassion.

What kind of example am I giving my children by doing this? I have no excuse for allowing this, other than a lack of self-control. Its that simple. I like doing what I LIKE instead of what I need to do. This is one area that I've always struggled with. I lack motivation when it is something that I'm not in the mood to do right then. If I don't feel like getting up when the kids do, I turn on the tv and go back to sleep. If I don't want to clean up the living room when its messy (which is a constant) then I don't. I find other stuff to do instead of the tasks that I need to do. This includes sitting down and doing lessons with my girls. If I am frustrated and not feeling like continuing to try and explain 2 digit addition to Melissa (the current struggle for her) then I will find other stuff to do instead so I can avoid the frustration.

I admit it. I am a lazy person. I don't like doing some things, and I do whatever possible to avoid doing them. Here I am, a homeschooling mom, and I don't want to do lessons at some times of the year. When it gets too hot for me (June-ish most likely) then I'll be more motivated to do lessons because I don't like to sweat. I like sitting in air conditioning in the summer, looking out the window and seeing the pretty world around me. This is one of the times that I'm most likely to read to my girls and spend time doing activities and experiments with them. Then in late September when it cools off again we spend time outside until late October or so instead of doing schoolwork. I'm a seasonal schooler, which allows me the chance to enjoy the beautiful temperatures that I like without worrying about formal lessons. I don't know if that's really FAIR for the kids, but it works for us.

If I am to consider homeschooling to be my JOB though, just as Scott goes off to the optical lab every day, then I need to suck it up and do lessons with the girls even during those times that we would rather be out in the world. We need to do our math and science instead of being on the swingset in the mornings, and doing phonics and history in the afternoons instead of digging in the gardens. Every bit of my being fights that though, and when we attempt to do this kind of schooling we don't learn anything and we are miserable. So while homeschooling is my JOB, I still get vacation times like everyone else. Teachers get the summer off, so I take an equivilant time off at different times of the year that tend to work better for us. We don't take off inservice days and any holidays where Scott is at work anyway, so it allows us more flexibility than traditional schooling. If I want to take from Thanksgiving until a week after Christmas off lessons, I can do that because we don't take the smaller holidays (like the day before thanksgiving, the second week after christmas for break, spring break, etc) But I don't follow a formal schedule.

This may buck the system as far as what others think a homeschool family schedule should look like, but then I don't keep a daily schedule either. LOL I only insist that lunch be around noon and that bedtime is around 8-9pm depending on how the kids are acting and if there's something on tv that they want to watch and have earned the priviledge of watching by good behavior, attitudes, and getting chores and any schoolwork done. I don't have anything set in stone, although I do have a schedule posted on the wall in my home for anyone who is watching the kids so they can take over if needed (the kids do well with schedules if I'm not the one caring for them)

I consider my homeschooling to be my real job, even if it doesn't even REMOTELY resemble what others would consider a job. And I do darn well with it too I think, even if there are times that we take off that others think we should be doing lessons LOL So I guess I have my own particularly interesting view of what a "real job" entails. And if you ask Scott, I have a feeling he'd agree with how I do our schooling because he has seen how much the kids have grown over this school year.

finishing up with OHVA

Well, I have figured out what to do when we finish OHVA, thank goodness. Now I just have to actually FINISH with OHVA so that we can get started. This week I'm working with the girls on their writing samples that we need to submit to our teacher for their portfolios, and I'll mail them out as soon as we get them finished. Since we took last week off for Spring Break, I have to spend a day or two reviewing 2 digit addition and subtraction with Melissa before we can keep going forward in that unit. She's been really struggling with this particular math unit, so I figure that a few days of extra practicing before we move forward again won't hurt her any.

As we finish a subject in k12, I'm going to pick it up in our materials that we'll be using this upcoming school year. So, here in a couple weeks when Melissa finishes k12 phonics K, we'll start Sonlight LA 1. When they both finish their k12 history we'll start core K. I'm getting all our materials ready now since we are so close to starting our new materials (which I already have on hand thankfully for the most part) and I can tell the girls are starting to get excited by the change as well.

This year with OHVA has been great, and it has taught me a lot about how each kid learns best so that I can accomodate their individual learning needs better. But I'm ready to move on now.

next school year- SOLVED

Well, I think we have decided officially what to do for schooling finally. I told Scott to man up and TELL me what he thinks, to have a freaking opinion already on the schooling. I started with the simple question of public school or homeschool. He didn't hesitate. He said homeschooling, so that was set. Then I said to weigh his opinion on curriculum, and he and I spent a couple hours discussing the programs I'm considering and looking at them on their web sites. He said to stick with Sonlight, it is a better program from what he's able to see and we have experience with it. THEN he threw me for a big loop. He said that he's prefer that we do core K before we go into world history. Now, I already have a used core K, minus a couple books (part of why I got it for only $50, besides it being a 2002 edition) so that gives me a while to figure out how to afford history. So, we're looking at doing core K with the girls for 2nd grade and 1st grade.

Now next school year is a different story. Thanks to a wonderful friend who reads my blog, I got the opportunity to get the instructor guide for core 1+2 PLUS the guides to languages arts 2 regular and 2 intermediate. I'm going to be purchasing them from her this weekend, and then I'm going to spend the upcoming school year picking up the books for the core and lang. arts levels to do the following year. I plan to go into 1+2 as soon as we finish core K, and will stretch it as needed to last the next school year (and possibly the next school year as well)

figuring out some things

Well, its officially getting close to the end of the school year, so we're planning for next school year officially. We are leaving OHVA once the school year is up, which is the biggest change for us. I posted all about our decision before, so if you don't know why then try reading my earlier posts from this month. Now, here is what we're *considering* for next school year.

Melissa will be in 2nd grade, Lydia in 1st grade, and Kimmy and Jordan in preschool. Melissa is still struggling with her reading, but is coming along nicely. Lydia is taking off as well with reading, and is above grade-level in math. Lydia will do k12 math 1 until its finished, then move into Miquon with Melissa. For language arts, I plan on doing Sonlight lang. arts 1 with Melissa and going through lang. arts K with Lydia for the writing portion. So, that covers the basics of math nd reading.

History is a completely different matter. This year, Melissa studied ancient world history and has really enjoyed it. So, Scott and I are considering studying world history next school year. I've narrowed it down to either Sonlight or Winter Promise for world history.

Sonlight has cores 1 and 2, or core 1+2. Cores 1 and 2 are a 2 year world history program, with 1+2 being the condensed one-year version. It is a literature-based program with all kinds of goodies such as mapreading and working on a timeline. There isn't much hands-on material for crafts and such, so I'll have to come up with that on my own. I have experience with Sonlight after doing P3/4, P4/5, core K, science K, and lang. arts K. We went with k12 originally to give us another year to allow Melissa to really catch up with us for core 1, based on my experience with the program. You can learn more about it at http://www.sonlight.com if you want to.

Winter Promise is also a literature-based program. Its early world history program, Hideaways In History, is designed for K and 1st grades. It is a one-year run from the beginning of written history to pretty near current day. There are hands-on activities incorporated into the program, which makes it easier for me since I don't need to come up with ideas myself. I have never used this program, but it is appealing to me. You can see more about it at http://www.winterpromise.com if you want.

Now, both programs appeal to me for a lot of reasons. They both are literature-based, which means they use real books instead of stupid boring textbooks (sorry, remnants of my hatred for my own substandard public school education coming through) Instead of reading a passage in a textbook about lower and upper Egypt becoming one nation after years of war, they can listen to me reading a book about the war and its resolve from a child's point of view (ok really bad example, I highly doubt such a book exists, but you get the general idea) Both come with well laid-out instructor guides, complete with schedules on what to read and when, comprehension questions, timeline assignments (this stuff is really cool too), and other goodies.

Winter Promise is about half the price of Sonlight (that's assuming ONE core by the way, its approximately 20% the cost when you look at the 2 year program for comparison) and is scheduled as a 4 day program. Sonlight, however, goes deeper into history by spending 2 years on the subject if I don't choose the 1 year condensed core. Sonlight also includes both the 4 day and 5 day schedules for their program, so I can buy the 5 day and do the 4 day program instead if the 5 day is too much (which in reality I would just take longer to complete the material)

FInancially speaking, Winter Promise is the better option for our family immediately. However, Sonlight has much more potential for us in the long-term. It is more expensive, so it will hurt our budget a bit to purchase their program, however there is so much more material with Sonlight that I could more than easily stretch out each part of the program to last 12-18 months instead of just 9 months. But on the flip side, with Sonlight I would have to find hands-on activities to help make the literature come alive more, especially with Melissa, while Winter Promise has the hands-on already added in. With Winter Promise I would have to heavily supplement to make it stretch out to 2 to 2 1/2 years, while Sonlight I can easily do that with little to no work at all.

I can NOT decide which route to go. There are so many pros and cons for both programs. They are running pretty equal to me. Please feel free to comment on this situation if you want, I'm more than willing to consider all views on this decision. Scott has pretty much NO input, just "whatever you want dear" whenever I ask his opinion.

Science, well I'm thinking that if we go with Sonlight for history, then I'll use their science 1 program. If not, then we'll study astronomy and plants (Sonlight science 1 covers these subjects as well as a couple others, and yes I do feel that it is worth the money to not have to put together my own program LOL) The only reason I will not purchase Sonlight science 1 if we go with Winter Promise is because buying a complete core package with Sonlight gives me the perk of having a 10% discount and free shipping for 12 months. I have received this discount twice now with the purchase of their preschool-leveled cores in the past few years, and it has come in very handy as we needed more materials that Sonlight carries. Hmmmmmmmm another perk to choosing the Sonlight history program over Winter Promise......... ACK!!!!!!

looking ahead to next school year

Well, it has come to be that time of year. Scott and I are discussing next school year in detail, trying to decide if we want to remain with OHVA or if we want to break loose and go off on our own. This year has been REALLY good for us, the kids are really learning a lot of great stuff and they have definitely grown with k12. I also have experienced a great amount of growth this year, my confidence has skyrocketed by having the accountability to a school for our lessons. I have done amazing things with my time management and ability to actually do something by pretty much being forced to all school year.

When we first chose to use OHVA to teach this school year, we saw it as a transition for us from traditional public school to homeschool. We needed the support for our own lack of confidence in this area, although we knew flat out that this was the right choice for our family. I can't imagine having my girls in public school now after 3/4 of a school year with OHVA, and I'm seeing myself learning more about their learning styles and needs and my own teaching needs every day that goes by. We weren't sure a few months ago what we would end up doing, specifically because we were doing so well with ohva up to that point.

As the school year progressed, I started getting antsy about how ohva requires us to teach all subjects a certain amount. I understand why they dictate this, and fully agree that the girls need history and science; however, Scott and I both feel that at this stage in their learning, we need to be focusing more on laying a solid foundation in reading and math. Melissa is dyslexic, and struggles every day with her reading still. She's made amazing strides in her reading this school year, and I know that continuing to work with her daily we will continue to see these improvements. We aren't at all concerned about her not learning to read well; we know that this will come in time. We also know that for her to suceed at reading, she needs the freedom to be able to explore it more than she can right now because our curriculum dictates that she does x, y, and z for each subject and these things take valuable hours from our day. These hours we could spend sitting together and reading books together, building her fluency, confidence, and improving her skills. I want to be able to focus on this area with her, and provide her with a wide variety of materials in multiple areas that she can sit and read to us. Same with Lydia, her own reading has stalled because I am unable to really sit and spend time working with her on it just like I am unable to do with Melissa. OHVA won't allow me to combine the girls into the same history, science, and art programs even though they are only a grade level apart, and I can't teach 2 full day programs completely separately like that. It is hard enough for me to teach a full day and a half day program within the time that I have outside of doing chores, soccer practices and games, cooking, and all the other aspects of my life. I am stretched at my limit with the program as it is currently, and I am failing to provide the girls with all the time they should be given as it is with their lesson materials.

All these things have led us to make a very difficult decision. We do truly love the k12 materials, they are wonderful. We enjoy working with ohva also. The school has been a wonderful experience for us, and our teacher for the girls is amazing as well. We have truly enjoyed this school year, and have learned a lot. It has given us something that we never thought we'd get either: our happy little girl back in Melissa. The public school here in our city completely killed that light in her eyes last school year. She went from an active happy child to a scared, withdrawn, shy child who was rude, mean, and disrespectful to everyone she came in contact with. This in itself was reward enough for us, and has sealed our fate to homeschooling for the rest of our girls' schooling until they enter college (if they choose to go)

So, we decided that we just can not continue to work with k12 and the program as written to make it work for our family at this time. We need to go more independent in our lessons to provide the kids each with the individual time they each deserve for reading and math. So, come June I will be figuring out my notification letter for our district to homeschool the girls next fall independently. We will continue to work on reading and math at their individual paces, and will "lifeschool" for history, science, art, and other subjects. We are planning to get the garden up here soon to provide us with opportunities for science and health lessons, and will read great literature and go on field trips to areas around the state for history/ geography. I don't know how it will work out for us, but I have faith that it will work beautifully in the end.

As the girls get older and their needs change, our homeschool will also change. But at this point, this is what we need to be doing for our family.

bike riding and spring yardwork

Yes I know, its technically still too early to start on the gardening. HOWEVER, it is NOT too early to start clearing out the stuff I don't want any more and start making plans for how we're going to change it up. So, I started doing just that today. We're removing a BUNCH of shrubs, some are prickley and some are just ugly and those two types are being thrown away while the ones we ARE keeping will be transplanted out front. I also am removing one garden, tearing out my current concrete walkway, putting down a new brick front walkway, changing the layout of one garden completely, and putting in 2 new front gardens. LOL Yes, I am doing all that this year, along with having to reseed at least 2/3 of my property because of that water main break and a few other little issues with some shrubs that we tore out last year (they blocked the sun perfectly so that grass didn't grow at all in half my back yard) Oh, and we're removing 2 old trees from our front yard (one is diseased and the other is a climbing hazard because it isn't sturdy enough and the kids won't stay out of it) and we'll be planting some new trees in their place (I'm thinking cherry trees) All this will be part of our science lessons for next school year, so it will work out perfectly for us.

And on a TOTALLY kid-related note, today we dusted off the bikes and bike helmets for the kids, and Melissa decided that it is finally time to take off the training wheels. She's been at it for aobut an hour now (I love having a laptop and wireless home network) and has *almost* figured out how to ride without falling on her face. I am grateful of the bike helmet though, she's landed on her head a few times already. I have a feeling that if the weather holds out, by the end of this weekend she'll be zipping up and down the side street by our home. And YES, I was smart enough to take pictures of her attempts.



As you can see, it went pretty well with grandpa giving her pointers. If you are on my FaceBook list, I'll have all the pictures from her riding lessons available there, and will try to remember to add another post here when she's mastered the two-wheeler to share some more pictures.

science 1 joys

Well, since I totally missed a BIG thing in our science unit on plants, I decided to skip that unit and move on to the next one for now. So, we are going to be studying habitats while we wait on our grass to grow LOL Chances are, Lydia will be joining in with us for the science unit like she always does since OHVA doesn't do science in K. K for them is a half-day program so we only do math, phonics, lang. arts, and history. We are encouraged, but not required, to do health and technology in K yet we get a lot of hours with those subjects since my 1st grader has to do them.

When I finish the unit on habitats, we'll go back to plant life. I seriously doubt the kids will be damaged by my moving around a unit like that to allow time for a total stupid slip on my part.

watching grass grow and Girl Scouts

No, I am NOT kidding. LOL We are about to start a new unit in science for Melissa, one on plants. One of the labs involves me having to grow a patch of grass in a container so that we can examine the root structure. Soooooo, we will be literally watching grass grow this week. I just thought that was funny.

But on a more serious note, we are planning on starting Girl Scouts this week. I tried to get them signed up at the start of the school year, but due to some major changes with the local office combining with 2 other regional offices, our paperwork got lost and it didn't happen. So, on Monday Lydia has her first Daisy meeting, and Tuesday Melissa has her first Brownie meeting. Yes, I know. They could both be Daisies, but if you have EVER spent time with those two in a group setting you understand why I am not going to go there. They are terrible together in a group with other kids, they band together and gang up on the others and just torment people. However, get one without the other and you have a child that is dedicated, serious, and a joy to have in a group setting. The troop leaders will thank me if I can pull off keeping those two split up for a couple more years....................

randomness

I was looking through pictures on my computer, and thought I'd share a few that I found.

Melissa hard at schoolwork






Homemade hopscotch in the entry



Scott reading to the girls from Sonlight core P4/5 at bedtime at our old house



There are more, but these are just a few of my favorites from schooling lately...............

revisiting Horizons Health K

I told you that once we got into it a bit that I'd review it based on uage. Well, we are finishing up unit 1 of Horizons Health K and I thought I'd give some insight on how we like it.

We've been talking about how we are all unique and special, feelings, and responding to feelings appropriately in this unit. I added a little to it for them as far as other feelings that are beyond the four they teach, and we did a lot of role playing with it for practice. The activities in the unit were perfect for my K daughter, she had a LOT of fun doing the lessons. Lessons didn't take as long really as the guide suggests they do, although I didn't do everything listed in them either. We've really had fun with it. The lessons are laid out very well for me to teach, and it was really easy for me to go with it even though it wasn't scripted like I'm used to with our k12 materials. We truly are enjoying this program, I am very happy that we decided to add it to our schoolwork.

Our next unit is about living in a family. We'll be starting it next week, if all goes according to plan.

math fun

Well, Lydia finished math K last week, and we have math 1 on order. It is somewhere between the UPS distribution in Columbus and my house. Last time it was logged, my package was on a truck headed to Newark to be put on a delivery truck to come to my house. That was yesterday................ lol So I have to do some filling in until her math gets here.

Since I have to do some fill-in time, I thought it would be fun to do a lapbook on the months of the year. So, I started off by checking out my favorite free site for lapbooking and unit study resources, Homeschool Share. There is a HUGE listing of free lapbooks and unit studies, as well as free forums where you can post to get ideas. I've used this site a few times this school year for various subjects and lessons, and we've always enjoyed the units and lapbooks we did.

So anyway, I went to check and see if they had any lapbooks or unit studies for calendar skills. Well what do you know, they have one for the months of the year, exactly what I was looking for pretty much. I printed off the whole thing tonight, and am just going to create a couple little things to add to it for the days of the week, then Lydia and I are going to spend our math time working on that lapbook and mastering the months and days. I may also get Melissa learning it too, since she's having some issues with calendar concepts. I can't wait to get it all started, this will DEFINITELY help pass the time while we wait on her math to arrive tomorrow or Tuesday (depending on when UPS decides to bring the package to me)

She is very proud of finishing math K, and can't wait to start doing "big kid math" like Melissa does. So cute, one day she'll hate math. Probably right around the time we begin algebra...........................

our Horizons Health arrived this morning!

Well, its here. I didn't actually expect it to get here until early next week, so it was a happy surprise to have the box sitting on my front porch when I checked the mail. The kids are going nuts over the box and packing paper (like they always do when we order supplies if I let them at the boxes LOL) and I just finished looking over the health program for an initial opinion of it.

Overview of my purchase: I got Horizons Health K from Alpha Omega Publications for a K'er and 1st grader to do the remainder of this school year. I ordered the set and an extra student workbook for the two of them.

Student workbooks: my first impression upon opening the box was that the size of the books is PERFECT for my K'er and 1st grader. Its not too thick that they will get frustrated, but it also isn't so thin that I feel we got ripped off. I like that the pages are all perforated so I can pull individual lesson sheets out if we want, and they are only printed on one side as well. The pages are colorful and appear to be engaging, which will be a big plus for my dyslexic 1st grader. Getting her to really engage in a worksheet is sometimes difficult because of her reading problems. I like the parger print on the student pages themselves, and I think my oldest may be able to read most of the directions by herself with minimal help so I can work more with my K'er if needed on each sheet. I'm VERY happy with the workbooks

Teacher's guide: now THIS is the important piece to me. If a guide isn't well-written then I can't use it. I literally need to be told what to do and how to do it. The guide is nicely bound, although I personally would prefer a spiral-bound one I think (I'll probably take it to Staples today or tomorrow and have them do that for me) I like my guides to lay fairly flat since I'm left-handed and tend to make a LOT of notes in the margins when I go over a lesson before teaching it. The sections prior to the actual lessons are wonderful for helping me better understand the program and how it works, as well as seeing the progression of lessons through the scope and sequence. Overall, the print is a good size for me to read easily while teaching (definitely a better size than our k12 mamuals are LOL) Each unit starts with an overview of the lessons in it, telling you what you are going to cover and providing a list of vocabulary in the unit plus a full list of resources for the individual unit. Each individual lesson has a list for preparation and materials you need (with optional ones marked clearly as optional) and gives a basic overview of the lesson before breaking down the lesson for teaching. While it isn't directly guided like our k12 stuff is as far as telling me exactly what to say (our curriculum indents paragraphs that I am to read out loud to the student, it takes literally zero planning or thinking beforehand), it is well laid out with how to present the lesson. Each lesson has at least one activity included, along with a few related activities for further exploration of the lesson if desired. Overall, I'm very happy with my initial look at the guide, although I would make *minor* changes (like color-coding the top corners of the guide like the student workbooks are to make it easier to find your place quickly, and offering the guide as a spiral-bound edition as well as the current binding, but I think ALL programs should offer spiral binding in their guides as an option)

My initial conclusions: Horizons Health K looks to be a good program that was well thought-out and created to work well for a variety of learning styles. I think personally that for my family, a lesson will take 20-45 minutes to complete depending on the girls' attention spans that day and the number of activities we choose to do for the lesson. I feel that it will work well to accomodate our 1st grader's dyslexia and her "get down to business" learning style while also working well with my K'er and her creative, crafty style. Both enjoy coloring, and there appears to be a good balance of coloring pages to actual seatwork pages (like matching and tracing and such) From a teaching standpoint, I feel that it will work well with my need for hand-holding by giving me enough direction that I know what I'm doing while giving me the freedom of deciding how to present the materials at the same time.

So now, I shall get ready to get in my 4WD pickup truck and get out of my driveway with its foot of snow that needs shovelled out, so that I can take the Teacher's Guide to Staples for some spiral binding. It is literally the ONLY flaw that I can find at this particular moment in the program.

Health class

Ahhhhh health. This is one of those few subjects that I'm required to teach but OHVA doesn't provide any curriculum for (the others would be PE and technology) So I spent the first half of the school year trying to do my own thing, and failing miserably. I just flat out lack the discipline to create my own program and actually STICK WITH IT. But this is a shortcoming that I am aware of, and I do whatever I can to overcome it and accomodate whenever possible. For health class, that means buying a curriculum to cover material consistently.

Alpha Omega Publications has a new Horizons Health program for grades K-8. I've looked it over the last several days, and I like what I see from the sample pages online. In the fall we plan to do Horizons Health 1 based on my researching, it looks like a solid program and its fairly affordable at only $20.95 for the set and $7.95 for additional student workbooks. I kept doubting if it is smart to start in health 1 without doing health K first, and I do know that I am overthinking that because its jsut one of those things I do. Well, I discussed it with the husband today, and he was in agreement that we should go ahead and order health K to do the remainder of this school year and over the summer. About 2 hours ago I placed that order with a coupon code that Alpha Omega Publications (AOP) sent me for free standard shipping. Hey, I like free shipping, and in this case especially it was a better deal to take advantage of the free shipping than it would be to wait for a convention or other sale offering up to 20% off. (although when I order health 1 I plan to also order Horizons preschool for Kimmy, so I am waiting for a big 20% off sale that always happens aroun April or so and I hope to get another code for free shipping as well)

My order should arrive here sometime in the next 10-14 days, and I'll give a review after looking it over completely and again after we've done some lessons. I plan to teach health 2 or 3 days a week, just depending on what our schedule looks like each week. I am really looking forward to this simple addition to our homeschool that will hopefully help provide a more solid consistent education in a very important subject, and I really hope that we chose a quality program. The price certainly works for us, that's for sure.

February homeschool goals and other notes for me

OK this is more of a reference for me than anything else, so feel free to just TOTALLY ignore my rambling on this one. Mainly, I'm typing it out specifically so that I have a readable copy later when Jordan decides to sneak a pencil and my notebook and just scribble all over the page I have this written on LOL

OK this month I have some curriculum being finished, and I need to remember to order the next level for those when its time.

Melissa is going to finish phonics K and lang. arts K both hopefully this month so that I can order 1st grade in both of them. They are intertwined so I can't just get one without the other. It might take the first few days of March to actually hit this goal, but I need to have this down because its GOING to be happening soon. Also, I am backing off on history for a while and pushing forward with science to get it finished up as fast as possible. Next school year I will take the approach of doing these two subjects as a semester thing if the teachers we are assigned are down with that plan, we'll do that subject daily for half the year then do the other one daily the second half.

Lydia is going to be finishing math K probably in the next week or two, so as soon as we hit unit 15 I need to send off a message to get math 1 for her. She would have been done with it before now but we took it easy for a bit to work on some motor skills and build up her strength for writing more. I also am going to be pushing her history big time so that next school year I can combine her and Melissa both in history 2 (they will also do science 2 and art 2 together if the school will let it happen, if not then I'm going to figure out a way to make it work for me) She will probably finish history K sometime in March I'm guessing and then we'll do history 1 over the summer. Phonics K is stalled out, this month I'm just focusing on those pesky sight words that she's struggling so much with and getting her to read to us daily a little bit. I'm not too concerned if she doesn't finish phonics K by the end of the school year, I already talked with our teacher about it and she said that it will not be an issue if it takes her until Christmas-ish to move up to phonics 1 and that they won't hold her back grade-wise over just the reading since it is independent of other subjects because I can fully accomodate the reading thing.

I also need to keep an eye out for the big sale that Alpha Omega does every year so that I can order when it is happening. We are going to be getting Horizons preschool for Kimmy to do this fall (I'm too lazy to actually stay consistent with doing my own thing, I need it laid out for me like that) and for Melissa and Lydia we're going to do Horizons Health 1 and Physical Education PreK-2 (Kimmy and Jordan will join in on that one as they wish to) Without that sale I'm looking at spending around $180 before shipping costs, so the sale is a bit important for me. I really do want to get a curriculum for the big kids to do with health, especially as I am adding a bunch of other craziness to our lives and I need to keep it simple and consistent for us.

On the college arena for me, I need to get all that paperwork finished up and faxed in where it needs to go so that I can finish getting re-enrolled for classes and get started. Once I get that done, I will have a better idea of where I stand with starting classes again so that I can then start tweaking my daily schedule to better accomodate all the educational needs that we'll have here.

Oh, and I need to go to the store next weekend and look at laptops, mine is desperately in need of a replacing. It doesn't work half the time, and I'm going to need it for college and homeschooling so that I can get away from my little computer desk. This will be especially important if I can pull off getting Melissa and Lydia in the same science, history, and art so that we can do half our schoolwork at the dining table to provide ample workspace for them. I will also have more flexability with being able to do lessons at a friend's house or relative's, or if we decide to go on a family vacation somewhere at a time that isn't a scheduled school vacation.

OK notes all done, you can now stop ignoring me LOL Hopefully Jordan doesn't figure out how to erase this blog post after she scribbles all over my notebook page.