This week was a stay at home week. This doesn't happen very often, so it was kind of nice. The car was broken down the first half of the week and all of our activities were having the week off, so it worked out well. By Friday we were ready to get out, so we did go to park day at the mall, which was really fun.
We did all of our regular school things - math, practicing instruments, writing (print and cursive copywork and freewriting), typing, reading. Our topic this week was the Middle Ages. we are finally to the part in SOTW2 that covers what you typically think of when you think of the Middle Ages - knights and such...
I finally came up with a plan for spelling. On Wednesday I went through the older girl's freewriting with them and found 10 words that they had misspelled and those were ther words for the week. Then I added "study your spelling words" to their list of morning school work. Sierra ended up making up a game and of course, Kali wanted to play it with her words, too. I haven't figured out what the game is , but they seem to enjoy it. I tested them the following Wednesday and Sierra got all of her words correct and Kali only missed 2 or 3. Then we added new words until they had ten more to study the next week. So far so good.
I am wanting to add Foreign Language back into our routine. We used to do Rosetta Stone when we got it free through our one day a week homeschool program through the public school. I was hoping to be able to continue this year using the online library version of Rosetta Stone, but they pulled it from the library a few months ago - ugh! I found a new program called Tell Me More that you can get through the Arlington Library, but I need to get motivated to set it up...
I did pick up a bunch of Cd's from the library the other day. We are trying French this year. I wanted to do Spanish because I think it would be more useful, but the girls prefer French, so... They are enjoying the Cd's so far.
And so we keep plugging along.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
1/26 - 1/30
New schedule is still work in great. It was a short week because the girls had choir on Thursday and Sierra was sick on Friday. Of course, when Sierra is sick she likes to lay on the couch and watch Magic School Bus for hours, so I guess we did science:) We learned about Vikings on M, T and W. I haven't figured out what we are going to do for spelling. We did fit grammar back in for Sierra and Kali during our one on one time. It was very nice to have individual time with each of the girls without interruptions.
We had our Medieval Dinner on Saturday. It turned out really well.
We had our Medieval Dinner on Saturday. It turned out really well.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
First week, new schedule
My husband and I left on the 10th for our trip to Hawaii where he interviewed at BYU Hawaii. We had a wonderful time and feeling pretty good about the idea of moving to Hawaii next year :) We got back on the 15th from a red eye flight, so the rest of that week was pretty shot as far as any organized school work went. The girls did do some reading and math at the homeschool family's house that they were staying at. And once we got back they spent a lot of time over the weekend playing with their snap curcuit set.
Although I was not feeling totally ready and organized after the trip, I started school again on Monday. We started using our new schedule and it worked really well. The older girls worked on their independent work in the mornings while I exercised, showered , etc. and then we did our group school stuff, then after lunch I spent about a half an hour with each girl for their private mommy school time.
1/19
Morning school for big girls
Math
Instruments
Typing
Writing - cursive copywork
Reading on their own - K - Magic Treehouse book, S - Harry Potter bk1
Group school - we are working on a poetry curriculum that I was asked to Beta test.
Mommy school time
Kali - grammar, went over math problems that she had trouble with
Arwen - Math, Phonics/reading
Sierra - grammar, went over math problems that she had trouble with
1/20
Pretty much the same as Monday, print copywork instead of cursive
1/21
Also, like Monday except that we went to a performance at the library at 1:30, so we skipped Mommy school time. I had Arwen do math and read with Sierra and Kali. Freewriting instead of copywork
1/22 - Choir. I still need to get caught back up from being gone, so the girls played in the afternoon while I worked on getting caught up.
1/23
same as M, T, W
Although I was not feeling totally ready and organized after the trip, I started school again on Monday. We started using our new schedule and it worked really well. The older girls worked on their independent work in the mornings while I exercised, showered , etc. and then we did our group school stuff, then after lunch I spent about a half an hour with each girl for their private mommy school time.
1/19
Morning school for big girls
Math
Instruments
Typing
Writing - cursive copywork
Reading on their own - K - Magic Treehouse book, S - Harry Potter bk1
Group school - we are working on a poetry curriculum that I was asked to Beta test.
Mommy school time
Kali - grammar, went over math problems that she had trouble with
Arwen - Math, Phonics/reading
Sierra - grammar, went over math problems that she had trouble with
1/20
Pretty much the same as Monday, print copywork instead of cursive
1/21
Also, like Monday except that we went to a performance at the library at 1:30, so we skipped Mommy school time. I had Arwen do math and read with Sierra and Kali. Freewriting instead of copywork
1/22 - Choir. I still need to get caught back up from being gone, so the girls played in the afternoon while I worked on getting caught up.
1/23
same as M, T, W
Friday, January 9, 2009
1/8 - 1/9
1/8
The new schedule worked well today. We are still not at "full school mode." DH and I are leaving to go out of town tomorrow, so I had some packing and stuff to do this week. Sierra did her math and practiced the piano and Kali practiced her piano and violin, did her math and read a chapter in the book she is working on before I was ready for read aloud time. We finished the book we had been reading about John Muir. DH is planning to hike the John Muir Trail this summer, so I couldn't resist pick up this picture book when I saw it on display at the library. Then I had the older girls help me address the thank you note envelopes. It was so nice to be able to teach the girls and do something useful at the same time. It seems so pointless to make the kids do workbook pages for things that they can just do for real...
After lunch Sierra read a chapter from the book she is working on. And I did reading and math with Arwen. We didn't get done until 2:30pm, but I did take a long break before lunch. I came downstairs to change the laundry and ended up on the computer - oops...
1/9
We went to the University's life science museum for a presentation on reptiles. The presentation was OK, but the museum is really cool. We went there for the first time at the beginning of December with my parents. The girls wanted to do one of the museum's scavenger hunts before we left and I just couldn't say no.
Then we had to do some errands to get ready for our trip. A good day overall.
The new schedule worked well today. We are still not at "full school mode." DH and I are leaving to go out of town tomorrow, so I had some packing and stuff to do this week. Sierra did her math and practiced the piano and Kali practiced her piano and violin, did her math and read a chapter in the book she is working on before I was ready for read aloud time. We finished the book we had been reading about John Muir. DH is planning to hike the John Muir Trail this summer, so I couldn't resist pick up this picture book when I saw it on display at the library. Then I had the older girls help me address the thank you note envelopes. It was so nice to be able to teach the girls and do something useful at the same time. It seems so pointless to make the kids do workbook pages for things that they can just do for real...
After lunch Sierra read a chapter from the book she is working on. And I did reading and math with Arwen. We didn't get done until 2:30pm, but I did take a long break before lunch. I came downstairs to change the laundry and ended up on the computer - oops...
1/9
We went to the University's life science museum for a presentation on reptiles. The presentation was OK, but the museum is really cool. We went there for the first time at the beginning of December with my parents. The girls wanted to do one of the museum's scavenger hunts before we left and I just couldn't say no.
Then we had to do some errands to get ready for our trip. A good day overall.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
1/6 - 1/7
1/6
Read Aloud
Writing - Thank You Notes
Math
Practice Instruments
Individual Reading
1/7
A Great Day! I think I have finally come up with a plan to solve our daily schedule problem. Here was the problem: I am not a morning person. Ideally, I'd like to get out of bed at 8am, but that doesn't always happen.. Then I need some checking email/drowsy, waking up time. Then I exercise, shower, eat breakfast and just get ready for the day in general. I'd like to be done with all of this and ready to start school by 10 am, but... During all of this morning stuff my kids are waking up , eating breakfast, watching TV, playing on the computer, and playing with each other. I have been feeling like they should be doing school stuff in the morning, but our routine has always been to do our readalouds and/or group activities first and then move on their individual with me or independent stuff. If we get started late, then we drag into the afternoon with the individual/independent stuff. This causes a problem if we have an afternoon activity to go to and leaves me with out any time in the afternoon to do my own stuff on the other days
So... today we had an afternoon activity, so I asked the older 2 to do their independent stuff this morning starting at 10am. Then when I was ready we would do our read aloud. If they had any problems or questions they could ask me and if I was unavailable (like in the shower) they could move on to something else and I would help them later.
This morning I woke up late ( 9am... I am still reading the last Twilight book before bed and it is hard to put down). At 10am the girls started their work - Math, Independent reading, and Practicing instruments. At 11:15, I was ready for reading aloud. While I read the girls had a late breakfast/early lunch. Then we worked on Thank you notes. At this point it was about 12:15 and I hadn't eaten lunch and I needed to shovel the snow off the car before we could leave for our activity at 1:15, so I asked Sierra and Kali to help with Arwen's school. She read a easy reader to each of them and did a page of math with each of them. It was great. We got school done for the day and were on time for our activity (our Middle ages group, the mom whose turn it was set up a Medeival Fair - fun, fun).
It worked out so well that I told the kids that we would be doing this from now on. At 10 am every morning they will start their independent stuff and then when I am ready we will do our read alouds. My kids are not morning people (especially Sierra), so a 10 am start time gives them time to lounge around and wake up and do their morning chores and be ready to face their school work. I still want to add in grammar and spelling for Kali and Sierra. I will continue to work with Arwen on her reading and math even though it was lovely to have Sierra and Kali help with Arwen today. I still need to work out the fine details of this new schedule, but I really think this will help us to get school done in a timely manner and for it not to drag on into the afternoon.
Read Aloud
Writing - Thank You Notes
Math
Practice Instruments
Individual Reading
1/7
A Great Day! I think I have finally come up with a plan to solve our daily schedule problem. Here was the problem: I am not a morning person. Ideally, I'd like to get out of bed at 8am, but that doesn't always happen.. Then I need some checking email/drowsy, waking up time. Then I exercise, shower, eat breakfast and just get ready for the day in general. I'd like to be done with all of this and ready to start school by 10 am, but... During all of this morning stuff my kids are waking up , eating breakfast, watching TV, playing on the computer, and playing with each other. I have been feeling like they should be doing school stuff in the morning, but our routine has always been to do our readalouds and/or group activities first and then move on their individual with me or independent stuff. If we get started late, then we drag into the afternoon with the individual/independent stuff. This causes a problem if we have an afternoon activity to go to and leaves me with out any time in the afternoon to do my own stuff on the other days
So... today we had an afternoon activity, so I asked the older 2 to do their independent stuff this morning starting at 10am. Then when I was ready we would do our read aloud. If they had any problems or questions they could ask me and if I was unavailable (like in the shower) they could move on to something else and I would help them later.
This morning I woke up late ( 9am... I am still reading the last Twilight book before bed and it is hard to put down). At 10am the girls started their work - Math, Independent reading, and Practicing instruments. At 11:15, I was ready for reading aloud. While I read the girls had a late breakfast/early lunch. Then we worked on Thank you notes. At this point it was about 12:15 and I hadn't eaten lunch and I needed to shovel the snow off the car before we could leave for our activity at 1:15, so I asked Sierra and Kali to help with Arwen's school. She read a easy reader to each of them and did a page of math with each of them. It was great. We got school done for the day and were on time for our activity (our Middle ages group, the mom whose turn it was set up a Medeival Fair - fun, fun).
It worked out so well that I told the kids that we would be doing this from now on. At 10 am every morning they will start their independent stuff and then when I am ready we will do our read alouds. My kids are not morning people (especially Sierra), so a 10 am start time gives them time to lounge around and wake up and do their morning chores and be ready to face their school work. I still want to add in grammar and spelling for Kali and Sierra. I will continue to work with Arwen on her reading and math even though it was lovely to have Sierra and Kali help with Arwen today. I still need to work out the fine details of this new schedule, but I really think this will help us to get school done in a timely manner and for it not to drag on into the afternoon.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Back to School
Christmas Break just flew by. I feel like I should have bunches of learning moments to share, but I can't think of them right now. Hum, let me rack my brain (and check my calender...). Sierra and Kali and I (Arwen was sick) went to a Birds of Prey presentation at a local museum on December 30th. We got a bunch of educational toys for Christmas. A frog habitat (need to figure out when to order the tadpole), a star theater (we've played around with it, but need to figure out how it really works), paper dolls from around the world (a big hit), various games (clue, frog juice, quiddler, sequence, Yahtzee, Penguin Match, Chomp). Sierra got a new fairy book that has her writing bunches of stuff in her new notebook (another gift). Mostly the girls played while I tried to get a bunch of sutff done that I never have time to do when we are in doing school mode. I got some done, but not as much as I would have liked...
OK, today
Read Aloud - a random picture book that Arwen got from the library. I never get around to reading just to her, so I included it today. And a chapter from Family under the Bridge.
Writing - Thank you notes
Reading - Sierra and Kali both started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Kali doesn't seem to be following it... Arwen - ugh! She is giving me such a hard time. I am starting to wonder if she has vision issues or ADD... I am partly kidding and partly not. She just won't sit still and when she does she holds the book at a weird angle and can't seem to focus. I am thinking of starting over in 100 lessons and just going through it quickly. And letting her reread the first level of Bob books to give her confidence and so she can relearn some of the letter sounds that she can't seem to remember.
Math
Practice instruments
Typing
Kali's violin lesson
OK, today
Read Aloud - a random picture book that Arwen got from the library. I never get around to reading just to her, so I included it today. And a chapter from Family under the Bridge.
Writing - Thank you notes
Reading - Sierra and Kali both started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Kali doesn't seem to be following it... Arwen - ugh! She is giving me such a hard time. I am starting to wonder if she has vision issues or ADD... I am partly kidding and partly not. She just won't sit still and when she does she holds the book at a weird angle and can't seem to focus. I am thinking of starting over in 100 lessons and just going through it quickly. And letting her reread the first level of Bob books to give her confidence and so she can relearn some of the letter sounds that she can't seem to remember.
Math
Practice instruments
Typing
Kali's violin lesson
Monday, December 22, 2008
12/12 - 12/19
12/12 - Read aloud - I have had some random books from the library that I have been wanting to read to the kids, so we read those today.
Math - Sierra is working on long division and is getting it easily now. I first introduced it when it showed up in her 3rd grade math book and she was not at all ready for it. One more point for homeschooling, we can wait until our kid is ready for concepts and they come easily instead of forcing them to struggle with ideas earlier.
Instruments
Independent Reading - I am having Sierra read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I read it aloud 2 years ago, but I thought it would be a great December book. Chalk another one up for homeschooling, my kid can read a book with religious ideas for school without the separation of church and state police hunting me down...
12/15 - Read Aloud - We finally got all of our Charlemagne books that I had put on hold at the library, so we did Chapter 13 of SOTW2. We have only been working on SOTW2 for a year and a half...
Math
Instruments
Independent Reading
12/16 - Read aloud - more random stuff
Math
Instruments
Independent Reading
Copywork
12/17 - Read aloud -random
Math
Instruments
Independent Reading
Freewriting
12/18 - first day of Christmas Break!
I love that I can decide when our break starts. I did struggle to keep doing school that last week and a half. It was especially difficult since my parents had been visiting the first week of December, but I pushed myself to get back into (sort of) school mode for 5 more days before finally gave in and proclaimed it "Christmas Break."
A couple of schooly moments to share. My oldest has been begging me to let her write at bedtime. The girls are allowed to read in their beds for 45 minutes at bedtime. For a while I would also let them write, but then my oldest would just end up drawing and she would never read. She doesn't read on her own during the day unless I make her for school, so bedtime is her reading for pleasure time. We ended up having to make the rule that the 45 minutes before lights out had to be used for reading. It is exciting to see her so motivated to write. We don't do a lot of writing for school at least compared to public school, so it is encouraging to see her have a desire to write.
My youngest is a trip. She would be in kindergarten this year. Some days, I feel guilty that I don't do enough school with her and other days I think, "Hey, it's only kindergarten." It's just that the public schools have started doing more and more academic stuff earlier and earlier. It is hard not to feel like she is somehow behind if she is not reading fluently and doing multiplication by the end of kindergarten... Anyway, the other day she was playing with these magnets that she had gotten for her birthday. She was going around the house finding things that were magnetic. I was like, science, check! I mean I have set up that experiment with my older girls and here she is doing it on her own. Also, she got a science kit for her birthday that she and her sisters have been begging me to do with them. Man, homeschooled kids are such nerds :)
Then on another day we were having read aloud time and Arwen gets out her math book and starts working on it. Just for fun. alright I think I will stop feeling guilty about my poor educationally neglected kindergartner.
So now we are on break. I plan to start back with school on January 5th. We'll see though. Who knows? We're homeschoolers we can start back up whenever we want. And we don't really stop learning during the break. We have been making goodies, doubling recipes, and reading aloud a Christmas book (The Family Under the Bridge). The girls are planning Christmas Eve festivities including a play, a parade, and stories. All of the activities are on schedule that is hanging on our wall. And I snuck some educational toys into the Christmas gifts. I will post any exciting educational moment we have during the break or I will post when we start back January 5th or whenever. We can do whatever we want. We're homeschoolers!
Math - Sierra is working on long division and is getting it easily now. I first introduced it when it showed up in her 3rd grade math book and she was not at all ready for it. One more point for homeschooling, we can wait until our kid is ready for concepts and they come easily instead of forcing them to struggle with ideas earlier.
Instruments
Independent Reading - I am having Sierra read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I read it aloud 2 years ago, but I thought it would be a great December book. Chalk another one up for homeschooling, my kid can read a book with religious ideas for school without the separation of church and state police hunting me down...
12/15 - Read Aloud - We finally got all of our Charlemagne books that I had put on hold at the library, so we did Chapter 13 of SOTW2. We have only been working on SOTW2 for a year and a half...
Math
Instruments
Independent Reading
12/16 - Read aloud - more random stuff
Math
Instruments
Independent Reading
Copywork
12/17 - Read aloud -random
Math
Instruments
Independent Reading
Freewriting
12/18 - first day of Christmas Break!
I love that I can decide when our break starts. I did struggle to keep doing school that last week and a half. It was especially difficult since my parents had been visiting the first week of December, but I pushed myself to get back into (sort of) school mode for 5 more days before finally gave in and proclaimed it "Christmas Break."
A couple of schooly moments to share. My oldest has been begging me to let her write at bedtime. The girls are allowed to read in their beds for 45 minutes at bedtime. For a while I would also let them write, but then my oldest would just end up drawing and she would never read. She doesn't read on her own during the day unless I make her for school, so bedtime is her reading for pleasure time. We ended up having to make the rule that the 45 minutes before lights out had to be used for reading. It is exciting to see her so motivated to write. We don't do a lot of writing for school at least compared to public school, so it is encouraging to see her have a desire to write.
My youngest is a trip. She would be in kindergarten this year. Some days, I feel guilty that I don't do enough school with her and other days I think, "Hey, it's only kindergarten." It's just that the public schools have started doing more and more academic stuff earlier and earlier. It is hard not to feel like she is somehow behind if she is not reading fluently and doing multiplication by the end of kindergarten... Anyway, the other day she was playing with these magnets that she had gotten for her birthday. She was going around the house finding things that were magnetic. I was like, science, check! I mean I have set up that experiment with my older girls and here she is doing it on her own. Also, she got a science kit for her birthday that she and her sisters have been begging me to do with them. Man, homeschooled kids are such nerds :)
Then on another day we were having read aloud time and Arwen gets out her math book and starts working on it. Just for fun. alright I think I will stop feeling guilty about my poor educationally neglected kindergartner.
So now we are on break. I plan to start back with school on January 5th. We'll see though. Who knows? We're homeschoolers we can start back up whenever we want. And we don't really stop learning during the break. We have been making goodies, doubling recipes, and reading aloud a Christmas book (The Family Under the Bridge). The girls are planning Christmas Eve festivities including a play, a parade, and stories. All of the activities are on schedule that is hanging on our wall. And I snuck some educational toys into the Christmas gifts. I will post any exciting educational moment we have during the break or I will post when we start back January 5th or whenever. We can do whatever we want. We're homeschoolers!
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