It is ok!

New routines. Sometimes, one small change throws a kink in the chain of a smooth running homeschool routine!  ;-)

The small change for us this semester has been adding classes at one of the local coops.

Good classes, only 2.5 hours every Friday. Who knew they would throw the week off so much!  Now, don't start thinking that school is not getting done, because it is.

It is just that tons of other things have gotten put on the back burner...

For instance, dusting.  Oh come on don't act like that pretty trinket or picture frame in the room where you are currently sitting isn't covered with dust!  But, on the off chance that there is no dust to be found then come on over because I need ya!

And don't forget laundry.   Yes I know laundry must be done, but why do we have to wear a new set of clothes everyday?  How 'bout we change clothes every couple of days instead?  Ok your right, because we would start to stink that's why!  So maybe that idea is only good in theory!

The real point is that life changes and you have to adjust your not only your actions, but your thinking.  It is ok to put off dusting that pretty angel figurine to make Irish Soda Bread with your kids on the day you study Northern Ireland.  

It is ok, that your son had to get clean underwear off the top of the dryer this morning or from the pile of clean clothes in your bedroom floor, not that I have a pile of clothes in my bedroom floor but I just wanted to throw that out there in case you do - either way... it's ok that instead of getting laundry put away yesterday you went on a field trip to the Historic house downtown where the state constitution was written.

It is ok!  Dusting and laundry there will always be, but little people who want to make homemade sidewalk chalk with you will soon enough be hard to find! 


April - who is going to go put away some laundry that may or may not be in the bedroom floor! ;-) 

January 28

Wow!  I have gotten way out of the habit of blogging in the past few months. When things get busy I guess this is the first thing that gets moved to the bottom of my to do list - oh who am I kidding, it's laundry, laundry is always at the bottom of my list. Just ask my family!

We had a great Holiday season.  We were actually at home this year. It has been a long time since we were at our house on Christmas so that was a treat for us.  The time flew by at warp speed like all breaks do and we hit the books again the first week of January.

We did a little curriculum change for math with my "not a math" guy.  We switched over to Saxon, and it seems to be working ok for the moment. It is a little more parent involved/prep workish for me, than Teaching Textbooks was, but I am seeing understanding creep into the eyes of my best guy so it fine with me.

Around The World In 80 Days 




We have also found a new book to listen to:
Around The World In 80 days by Jules Verne.
Phileaus Fogg and Passepartout have already pulled us into their story. This week we are going to trace their planned route out on our map.  - yep, gonna throw some geography learning in with our listening this time.  Surely, I get extra "good mom" points for that! 




I guess since I have spent some time on the task that is second from the bottom of my to-do list I should go and do the thing right below it. -dumb laundry!  Come on, clean socks are overrated people!  That is why I think I'll just have another cup of coffee instead. 
 April

Harry Potter, the end of an era...

  
     After 6 months of listening, we reached the end of our journey through Harry Potter.

     It's definitely the end of an era for us.  It is a little sad to leave friends behind, but sometimes the story is over, finished and all that is left is goodbye...

    I realize that only those who truly love books will understand the little sadness that comes with moving on from a favorite character's story.  That is ok. Call me crazy.  I will admit that I can become attached to characters, especially when 6 months of my time was spent in their world. 

    What a great 6 months it was though.  I will always be grateful to the Harry Potter books for the conversations and questions they inspired in my kids. 

    When I decided to check out the first Harry Potter book on Cd from the library, I never imagined that it would begin a journey through learning about the Civil War and Slavery, WWII and the Holocaust and Civil Rights.  Funny how a modern day story about a magical boy can spark conversations about prejudice and racism.  Nothing beats being able to teach your children about the underground railroad, Anne Frank and Hitler, and a lady riding a bus in Alabama all because of questions they have from a story. 

So here's to you Harry Potter, Hermione and Ron.  Thanks for the adventure!  

Now I'm off to find the next great story for us.  :-)

April

Chugging Along

Another week has come to a close on the homeschooling home front.  Shew!! (yes I am doing the happy dance)

It was not a terribly eventful week.  We are just chugging along, I guess. 

The boy is getting a little more confident in math.  Thanks to the "Mean Math Mom" having him do a little math everyday.  Well, it probably has more to do with the fact that we finished the lessons on word problems and have moved on to fractions.  Those darn word problems will be the end of both of us!  If anyone has any helpful tips for mastering word problems feel free to share them. 

Graphic novels have grabbed the attention of my sweet girl.  We have made several library trips to pick out more because she is devouring them quickly. 

We picked a late September harvest from the garden. 

I am so thankful to have such a successful little garden this year.

We ended the week with a "Bounce Into Fall" party at a local bounce place.  It was a great time for the moms to chat and catch up while the kids ran and jumped and climbed a rock wall.  I just love relaxing times to catch up with friends!  It was really a great way to end the week. 

WWII and Mean Math Mom

Another busy week has come to a close here in East Tennessee.

The last time I had a chance to post anything we were coming up on my sweet girl's 9th birthday  sleepover. The girls had a great time, and I survived...Well, only after making the ultimate mom faux pas of sitting in the room with the girls so they would be quiet and finally go to sleep.  Oops bad mommy!  She has forgiven me though, I think...

Our weather is definitely getting a "Fall" feel, with cooler evening and morning tempuratures.  Which makes for excellent morning and evening porch time.  It actually makes for great outdoor school work days too.  (which I will take any day over being cooped up inside)

We are trucking right along in all of our studies.  We are actually bouncing around in History this year.  Which has been kind of fun.  #1 son seems to really like studying about wars so we are learning about WWII at the moment.  We are learning about Anne Frank and the Holocaust and will watch the Anne Frank movie next week.

A few weeks ago I ordered Reading books and workbooks from Christian Light to use this year.  I have been so pleased with them.  The kids seem to enjoy the stories and I love the questions and vocabulary stuff in the workbooks.  The boy even read a poem titled Rebellion In September that he really liked!  It was fun having him come up and say "Mom, you have to hear this!"

I think I have turned into the Mean Math Mom.  I am having the boy do a math lesson everyday for a while. (even weekends - I know, I know Mean Math Mom).  Hopefully, the everyday practice will increase his confidence.  He has improved so much in the last few months, but constantly questions himself - even the things that he knows how to do.  We'll see in a couple weeks if it has helped.

April

First week of school 2012

We survived!  Survived what? You may ask.  Or maybe you won't, but I'm gonna tell ya anyway. 

We conquered the first week of school!  There were only a few hiccups along the way.  For instance, the mom did a different lesson than was on the lesson plan. (by total accident, I started reading on the wrong page and did not realize it until I finished.  But hey, no harm no foul, right?)  

This year I'm working to create more personal accountability with assignments and in general more independence. Each kid has a binder and each week they have their own assignment sheets that list all their assignments for the week.

The boy did fairly well with the new organizational system of a weekly assignment list and a binder. The girl did surprising well with it too. She is not a list maker kind of girl, but really seemed to enjoy placing cute tiny stickers on the assignment list to show she had completed a task.    

For Science we talked about potential and kinetic energy.  A Civil War review was the History discussion for the week. English/grammar was all about prepositions and prepositional phrases.

In Math, the girl and I, started our journey together through a 4th grade textbook and the boy started his new year of Teaching Textbooks.  Along with Life Of Fred and some math fact review we had a good math week.  At least I think we did! I guess we will see this week if what they did last week really stuck in their heads.

The girl started All About Spelling this week.  I will write more about it as the weeks pass by and I have a better idea of how she's doing with it.

By the end of the week, my brain was mush.  Which was probably a good thing, because Saturday the house was full of squealing girls to celebrate my girl's 9th birthday.  She had a blast and  honestly I did too.  My brain already being mush probably helped with that!  Little girls are so funny!

All in all, a good first week to have in the books, and now we are ready for a second great week.

April
Bienvenido a Mi vida loca

Squash tomatoes and book reports oh my...

Need any squash?  Anyone? Anyone?

The squash is growing like crazy here in East Tennessee!  I've made squash casserole and steamed squash.  I have even added it to spaghetti sauce and made a sandwich out of it in a pita bread with some hummus.  Definitely a good year for squash!

Oh and tomatoes too.  They have finally started coming in and man do I have plenty.  I knew when I planted them that I was going overboard, but man I can't believe how many tomatoes are all over my counter and in the kitchen window.




I tried my hand at canning some of the tomatoes.  It was actually quite easy, thanks to the little beginner's kit I bought for super cheap at Kroger.  I am thinking I will be doing more canning before the summer is over.  Well, I mean "we".  I didn't let the kids be involved in the first session of canning because I thought I should at least have some idea of what I'm doing before I involved the kids in hot boiling water and hot glass jars and all that.  But now that I have done a batch I think I can safely let them help next time.  

It will make my son sooooo happy to be doing anything with tomatoes.  He loves them soooo much! That, of course, being said in my best sarcastic voice because he despises tomatoes and anything that is made with tomatoes!  But, alas, I will still have him help with the preserving of the tomatoes for everyone else's food enjoyment!


As far as schooling goes for the summer, we have my son set up to meet with a math tutor. (the math tutor is a really sweet 14 year boy who met with us at the library and jumped right in with worksheets and manipulatives and a huge amount of encouragement.).

We also have been doing summer reading and book reports.  The kids have been reading a book a week and then giving us a oral report about what they read.  It has been quite fun.  We have completed two and we are working on the third right now.  The last two weeks have been totally busy and so the latest report fell to back burner.  It is all good though because, that is one of the flexible things about doing school work during the summer.

April
Bienvenido a Mi vida loca