Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday marked the beginning of a new week- a fresh start on our homeschooling, a chance to make a plan and get "caught up" with school, make sure we're still on target and still having fun. It's working! I don't mind getting behind a little bit sometimes- it just means refocusing on our goals and making some little adjustments. (For example, we're way behind on italic but we were just doing 3 pages a week. This week she is doing 2 pages a day every day and on Friday she'll be back to where she was scheduled to be.) Now if we never kept track and just were winging it and hoping for the best by graduation, that I'd have a problem with. Well, that just wouldn't fly in my house. If we're going to learn at home, we're going to have to have a plan to somehow tackle our many varied interests. There's just not enough time in the day to learn everything we want to know and everything we need to know....unless we plan it in.



We rented a great beginning French video from the library and watched that while I was sick. (aah yes, did you catch that? After my griping I deservingly caught the same horrid week long virus the girls had and yes, even a degree or two off and ibuprofen didn't help it from feeling miserable. Poor kids. Bad mommy! Bad mommy! lesson learned.)
(French for Kids: Learn French with Penelope and Pezi Beg. Level 1 Vol. 1 ) Et voila, we're back on target with our French. It was a great review for Grace and introduced our next section on table manners and food. We watched Pride and Predjudice on the public broadcasting station- it's so good! My older daughter's favorite. It was fun to see Grace introduced to it. Of course she thought it was boring and actually left....I think she went and got a book to read instead. She's reading Dragon Rider for the third time. We all got out our knitting or embroidery, too. These girls amaze me. I can't knit anything. I'm still trying to learn to crochet. (I've made a doll scarf, a pillow, and a doll blankie/dishcloth/swatch.) Last night my oldest (who has never attempted crochet as she is perfectly content with knitting) got into the crochet box, dug out a hook and the how-to directions, and whipped up a double-crocheted hat....I might as well throw in the towel and just let her teach me when she's completely fluent in crochet next week. I've been struggling with that book for years and just don't get it. Mary Frances's Book of Crochet and Knitting (or something like that?) was very helpful but we do not own a copy of it yet and the library needed it back. I think my problem is that I'm left handed and I forget which way I'm doing it. Sometimes I can do it right-handed, so I try to do it that way so the pictures will make sense. But other times my brain just doesn't cooperate and I'm too befuddled to understand the pictures until I switch to my left hand and try to think backwards...It's very strange. This is why I stick with sewing and embroidery. I hope to one day be as good as my children at needlework.....It'd be nice to make something special for them or for their children.

Anyway- we basically filled in a lot of time last week with reading and electives I guess, and the bare minimum for math, because you know I was the next one to catch the flu and it's only recently left our house for good I think.



Today I made a 7x table poster for the wall, with a review box on it of Grace's other problem multiplication facts. We did the multiplication to classical music cd for just the 7x table, did a fast facts sheet I pulled out of an old Saxon test book (all those warm up quizzes Elli refused to cooperate on). She completed her Singapore math lesson and exercise, two pages of Italic handwriting, completed a Latin lesson, reviewed grammar and parts of speech through Latin and later via a word problem I had her write down. She worked on her Colonial history unit study, which was reading and researching Great Men of the Faith to make a little flipbook....we read 3 chapters of the horse unit study book last night......only thing we didn't do was spelling or science. That was supposed to be done this afternoon but we got side tracked. It was kind of science though....gardening science.



Grace wants to start her own weeding business. She'll pull, for 25 cents per weed. I said I'd be her first customer if she worked on this front flower bed. I showed her where, reminded her which ones were the weeds, and she went to town. I pulled, too, since I had a feeling her price would end up pretty steep. I needed to prune the rosebush anyway. Yep, there were 46 weeds altogether. She multiplied 46 x .25, thanks to her awesome Parent Partnership math/science teacher. I've been focused on just the tables, I didn't even imagine teaching her double digit by double digit multiplication yet. But awesome, it helped her with this real life story problem! That's when she wrote it out as a "workbook story problem". I kept having her revise it so it wouldn't sound like she was selling weeds for 25 cents. (We came up with 25 cents because in Sunday School they're collecting quarters for a missions project....) She's brainstorming business names, advertising slogans, and thinking about how to make her weed identification booklet. I suggested it would be smart to show potential customers she knows the difference between a weed and a flower/herb/seedling by photographing and labeling various weeds and seedlings and putting them into a booklet to include in her presentation. She identified a couple weeds by name today but nothing impressive- dandelion and clover. We also talked about how much she's charging- 25 cents a weed might be too steep for some gardens. (Mine was $11.50 in case you didn't do the math.) Maybe come up with an hourly rate or a square foot charge? At least try it out and compare. She's going to experiment with these things the next sunny day in the garden. She's excited! She loves to garden. Also thinking about raising plants to sell, maybe as an aspect to the services she can provide through her business.



Today was a great day though. It was sunny, we worked outside, we had school in the morning, got Elli to ballet class, dropped off clothes for consigning, set up a field trip for the Hope Chest Society to go to the local embroidery/fabric shop.... I'm in love with the projects at this store! I just love them all....It was fun just looking at them, but even better we bought a few supplies to start a couple. There were definately a few panic moments during my day but they had nothing to do with homeschooling and everything to do with personal finances.



I love homeschooling and being home with the children. I hate the idea of going back to work. I may have to though, at least part-time, so I'm looking for ideas to creatively work around this without actually leaving my kids and homeschooling. Maybe we'll be able to make things work until next fall when I can hopefully get a preschool teaching position. The hours for that just work out perfectly and it's fun. But not very financially rewarding. So...we'll keep our eyes and hearts open and I'll be praying about it.

Sick of being SICK

I don't think I do well with long term illness. (My months on bedrest and recovery from surgery were the longest months of my life.) Elli's been sick since Saturday night with a fever, and now Grace just came up to me and she, too, now has a fever over 100 degrees. We're talking fever, headache, achey feeling, coughing, cold-like symptoms, no stomach flu. So it could be worse. But in some ways this frusterates me more because it's almost like they're not sick. Just a fever?? Get over it! Take your tylenol or junior strength Advil as the case may be, and get better. Yesterday I was the good mommy making homemade soup and stocking up on soup and kleenex, etc. Today I started out making snickerdoodles and with a secret plan for surprises for Valentine's day. But tis all thwarted now! No one will be feeling well enough to enjoy the cookies or the secret surprises I had planned! And I have to cancel tonight's plans to teach at church since Martin's working late and chances are Karson has it, too, and will just be passing it on to the kids in the nursery..... The girls might be fine by themselves going to bed early, but not to babysit Karson of course.



I only have 3 kids and this is not a serious illness- I really am thankful for that, because I could have a half dozen or more with the stomach flu..... I just feel so out of my element. No lessons to teach. The kids are sleeping long stretches of the day, or are cuddled up with their quilts while I read aloud to them. Minus Karson of course. He's having a hay-day with the markers, hot wheels, and stepstool. I'm still running after him a lot. But I'm getting lots of laundry done and the house is really clean. I finished this week's lessons and have gone back to ones I've missed in my Bible study. So I guess I'll take advantage of my next little window of time by organizing a drawer or a box, and getting caught up on my quilting homework.

So now is when we look for how to bless them instead of focusing on how I'm feeling a little bored with this. This doesn't say much for my attention span I guess. And you can probably guess that mercy and words of encouragement are not the highest ranking on my gifts/talents/abilities profile?? Looking for what can get checked off a list.....when this is probably not the time for that. Still..this is what homeschoolingmama does. I make favorite foods, I put on fresh sheets, I vacuum and make things pretty to try to make my little pumpkins comfortable. I pray for them.... What was wrong with Martha doing stuff? Was it the doing or was it the attitude? Mary sat there and just was..... I'm here. I'll sit with them. But I just can't sit still and do nothing. ???

Sick Days

Today we have a sick day.....and when one is sick, it seems to affect everyone else because our routine is disrupted. We went to the dr at 10, which meant leaving the house by 9:30, which meant school at 9 didn't really happen. I was too busy taking everyone's temperatures and getting ready to leave the house. At least this time I remembered the diaper bag AND food/snacks etc for Karson AND an extra outfit. (Last time I ventured out of my routine, I remembered the bag w/diapers, but forgot the food and had a hungry and tired toddler on my hands.)

Of course since we got to the dr's office and missed school for this, we found out it's just a nasty virus which will need to run its course. Well...good news that it isn't strep or walking pneumonia! So we celebrated by getting icecream for the sore throats (and a little early lunch), and I stopped by the grocery store on the way home. By the time we got home it was 12:30 and Karson was due for a nap. He was a basketcase in the grocery store. Tried shoplifting an Almond Joy at the checkout counter. Opened it even. So I bought it and am keeping it up high until I figure out how I can eat it without feeling guilty. I can't give it to him, that'd be rewarding him for misbehavior, wouldn't it? anyway- we were both ready for nap. Elli did take a nap and before Grace went to find her Gameboy, Webkinz, or a book, I decided I should probably address the whole school thing with her. Except we needed to unload groceries and I was going to make a monster batch of spaghetti sauce....So for home economics 101, she helped unload groceries, which does count since she is still learning why I put certain items in their particular places. Then we made the spaghetti sauce together.

When she found an empty box, she asked if she could use it for a craft project. It was going to be a home for her horse webkinz, so I suggested it be a Horse Habitat. What would a horse like and need in a place to live? A real one, not in Webkinz world. So we turned it into a school project: I read aloud a couple chapters of Brighty of the Grand Canyon while she worked.

Then we practiced her spelling. I turned her challenge words into cards for the Spelling Bee game we have, which we then played for a while. That's about all the official school we had today. She read a lot (Dragon Rider) and helped with the spaghetti sauce (for future recipes) and tonight's dinner of Ginger Carrot Soup with homemade bread. She made a checklist for how to clean the bathroom. Not really any math today. No grammar. Exceptin that we wasn't talkin lak theese. So technically, we study grammar every day, by the speech we use in daily conversation! We did read some blogs of friends in Africa and enjoyed some cultural insights. So we had a little social studies today, too. And now, I'm happy to say, school is done and kids are in bed mostly asleep.

Maybe tomorrow will be a more "offically" productive day. I really like the real school stuff we do. The science unit study involves the microscope this week.......if we ever get to it!!! Of course, it would be even more fun if we HAD a microscope, but we have cool books about the microscope and cool websites to visit and we'll be keeping an eye out for them when we're out and about. Someone must have one we could look at....

Celebrate!

Grace finished Singapore Math 3A today! I was so excited she made it through the workbook. The last section was kind of tough (342 divided by 4 for example) but she got through the long division. Now as we celebrate I realize that the next book is not in fact 3B but that 3A was divided into a part 1 and a part 2!! :( Whoops. So does this mean we're a semester behind?? Well so what I guess. She does math in the workbook at home almost every day (minus our 2 parent partnership class days). Some of the work in the new book will be on measurements and fractions and therefore a welcome change to the multiplication and division. So some sections will go fast I think. If not...we'll relax. Better to get all the multiplication and division facts and other math concepts down solid than race through for the sake of finishing a book "on time". Besides, when I went through with Sonlight (online) the curriculum we were intending to order, it cautioned me against 3A and 3B for 3rd grade. I thought it was a mistake at the time since she breezed through 2A and B last year. But now I'll just take that as a little validation for taking a relaxed approach through the program this year.

Today I have a sick big kid (Elli). Grace is such a helper though. This little equestrian lover has made herself a fleece saddle blanket, strapped it on with rope, then fitted herself with a big stuffed horse's bridle, made herself reins out of fingerknitting, and is busying herself as a "delivery horse" for her poor sister. (She made her a jam/bread sandwich and had me fix it to her back on a napkin before heading out of the kitchen.) Well...Gracie did finish her math book (completing 1 1/2 assignments today) so I'm allowing this playtime. After lunch though, it's back to Colonial unit study. If Karson ever goes back to sleep after his 4 hour morning nap....His ear infections are back, too. So maybe this will be a day when we just celebrate math being done and the rest of the day is independent reading and stuff. Not sure how to count Grace's horse stuff. Doesn't exactly fit under my "Horse Unit Study" category.....does it? :) Maybe we'll go with "Horse Unit Study" instead of Colonial after lunch since apparently she's in the mood for horses.

New Semester routines

Second semester....I love it! We usually mellow out about this time of year. The Academy program for my oldest daughter went great. Meanwhile, I let Grace start the day inspired from her dream last night- she drew pictures of her invention and then wrote about it. Then we had read aloud time (Johnny Tremain and Then What Happened, Paul Revere?), read and practiced reciting Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow. Grace worked on her Colonial cross-stitch sampler while I read. Then she made macaroni and cheese, worked on her sampler some more, practiced her spelling...worked on her sampler, helped me start some bread and cinnamon treats, worked on her sampler....After Elli got home we just talked and played S'math.

Today was a pretty easy going day. I will bring out the Singapore Math books tomorrow and try to downplay the sampler a little bit. But it is cool. Maybe we'll just have more read aloud time at night and let her work on the sampler only during read alouds. Only trouble with that has been baby is not cooperative during read aloud. It's pretty much an after he goes to bed kind of thing.

If we didn't homeschool I'd miss going through history with Grace, helping her find all those connections between different books, and projects. I'd miss knowing right where she is in spelling- I love seeing her struggle through a word, erase it, close her eyes and rewrite the word, smile and know she has it right. Or the funny "huh?? This does not look right. What's the answer??" Seeing the results immediately instead of getting a spelling test from school is so much more rewarding. I was a little surprised she memorized the first stanza so quickly today and is working on the second stanza of Paul Revere's Ride. I just don't want to send them to a school that does different stuff.....When she went to public school, it was just so much of the basics- I missed seeing her learn about history, geography and science in a connected way.

Which reminds me- tomorrow we study science instead of spending so much time on the colonial unit study. We're entering the Modern Era in Beautiful Feet's History of Science curriculum.

Homeschooling 2007-2008 Year

I have to laugh at myself as I read back on what curriculums we like and considered over the past few years. I've recently come to the conclusion that I no longer care- they all seem to have their own benefits or disadvantages. The best learning that takes place aren't even contained in our "schoolbooks."

It seems like everywhere around us, friends are adopting! This has been a great opportunity to learn about other countries, watch their travels through blogs, pics and video. As we consider adoption in our future (although I must admit, it seems to be far off in our future), we are learning about countries that I hadn't ever heard about when I was in school. Kazahkstan, for example. So for school, we should probably be recording this and make a unit study out of it, record it all pretty.....But we're not! We just check the blogs, emails, maps, talk, and look for connections in every day life.

Instead we've been a little obsessed with sewing/handcrafts lately with Christmas and forming a new chapter of the Hope Chest Society. Now I'm thinking we'll have to make a quilt! Embroider 12x12 or 18x18 muslin squares with a map and the flag of a country, and then the names of new friends adopted from that country. Ooooh, how can we do this.... I think I'm on to something. Maybe it could just be the country of origin of a person, not limited to adoption. This could encorporate our international students....Our "homestay" daughters from Japan, for example. Ellie's friends from Korea. That actually sounds like a lot of work. I like the idea of lining the table with maps from around the world and covering it with a clear vinyl tablecloth. We could put a sticker or a flag or a dot where our friends are from or have visited.....that sounds a lot easier.

Math is not as fun this year with Singapore 3A....we don't have those base 10 blocks this time, and I think that really helped last year. We're trying to transition from relying so much on those manipulatives. So instead we are incorporating a small drill and practice session into each lesson, and have been trying to find a music cd that is nice to listen to. Found one! Classical Math to Classical Music definately gets the facts drilled without an annoying "rock" or "rap" version. It's still a little annoying getting 3x3 is 9.... 3 x4 is 12.... stuck in your head when you already know the facts but just have the tune playing over an over again.... But I think it's working!

Since Grace is enjoying embroidery and sewing, I'm tempted to have her embroider her multiplication facts or conversion tables (quarts to gallons, ounces to cups...) on a cute apron or potholder. But she just started an alphabet sampler that seems to be wearing her out already. It looks like the beginning of embroider overload, especially if we start an international birth quilt.

We're cooking, measuring, estimating.....before long it'll be gardening season and she'll get to measure and plot out her own raised bed. We're playing games, she's shopping with her own money....I think that's enough math enrichment. I don't really love Singapore this year, but it's fine. I'm not changing curriculum mid-year. Next year we're going Montessori I think.

Happy homeschooling today! 5:30 am and time for me to start the day....