2nd Week of School

The rest of our first week of school went much more smoothly than the first day. On the second day of school, Milly sounded out three letters and put them together to officially read her first words (hen, peg, bat, etc.) Needless to say, I was such a proud mommy! It only occurred to me later that she actually read her first words even earlier than Rachael did...maybe I'll have a second bookworm? I can only hope!

Wednesday was Rachael's half-birthday. She was up with the birds and knocked out her science assignment before breakfast. She is really enjoying having a class that's done primarily on the computer, and usually wants to do that one first. Given that I haven't been a great science teacher, Switched-On Schoolhouse was a great investment for our family. We didn't do much school that day - just her favorites (science, art, Latin) - since they don't take long and she had a friend over to play for most of the day. Hooray for flexibility!

Only...flexibility can go wrong in a hurry.

On Monday, I babysat for a dear friend for a little while, then visited my mother-in-law in the hospital, took the girls out for lunch, and went to the grocery store. It was a little after 2 by the time we got home, so our school day was practically non-existent. I think we got through spelling that day.

On Tuesday, I babysat for a little longer, and Rachael got a few subjects knocked out while we were there - even though I was a mean, mean mommy for making her do schoolwork at her friend's house. We got home in time to eat lunch, and then did another couple of short subjects...but really, once it's past lunchtime, the school day just feels like it should be over.

On Wednesday, we played catch-up. Sort of. I mean, we were pretty far behind what had been written in my lesson plan book by this time, and we just kind of got lazy and enjoyed spending the day at home.

On Thursday, we went out for a playdate that lasted from 10 till 2. Rachael did English and vocabulary during the first part of the playdate, because I'm an ogre and made her suffer the consequences of not getting her room cleaned. I probably don't even need to confess that we didn't do any more schoolwork once we got home.

And by the time Friday rolled around...eh, we're this far behind anyway. What's one more day? We'll catch up next week.

Oh dear. Being flexible last week has certainly created a larger work load for us this week.

I have actually come to realize, over the course of four years and two weeks of homeschooling, that anytime we leave the house - for whatever reason, for however small an amount of time - I can toss at least half of that day's lesson plan right out the window.

We're not exactly morning people around here. I know some homeschooling families who are up at dawn and can knock out a day's worth of homeschooling before a 10 a.m. playdate. That's awesome and I envy them, but it just ain't us. My girls will sleep until at least 8, sometimes 8:30, and far be it from me to wake them up earlier. No, being an utter night owl myself, I enjoy every minute of sleep they give me in the mornings. So by the time you roll out of bed at 8 or 8:30, eat breakfast, and get three females ready to leave the house, you're looking at it being 9 or 9:30...and we live in the middle of nowhere. It takes me 20-30 minutes to get anywhere. So if we have somewhere to go at, say, 10:00...well, no schoolwork is getting done before we leave the house.

Of course, by the time we get home, everyone is either ready for lunch, or tired, or crabby, or something that prevents us from being very productive. So schoolwork gets shoved to the side again.

And the day is a wash.

Now, I'm not suggesting for an instant that we should never leave the house, never want to leave the house, or anything else that's going to offend anyone. Some things are absolutely worth rearranging our schedule for. Even playdates - goodness knows I need face time with my mommy friends as much as the girls need play time with their friends.

However, knowing and understanding my own limitations (and tendencies to call the whole week off when we get "too far behind"), I simply must start being more prudent about our daytime activities. Except for extenuating circumstances (and those have been popping up in spades recently), we'll have to do our best to limit outings to once per week - and anything we fall behind on that day, we'll be able to catch up on Saturday morning while Gene is at work.

Preschool, kindergarten, and first grades were so easy - we could knock out our schoolwork in an hour or two and have the rest of the day free to spend however we wanted. Even second grade wasn't too bad. Third grade, though, has picked up the pace a bit already. Maybe it's just that we're still learning our way through the new curriculums, and maybe this too will slow down with time. We can always hope.  :)

1st Day of School

Now that the first two weeks of school are behind us...I'm finally finding time to blog about the first day! Yes, it has been that hectic...but next week promises to be more calm. Good thing too, since we're already a little behind where I'd planned to be.

Anywho. First day. The girls were up bright and early and ready to start their new school year. Waiting for them on the kitchen table, as always on the first day of school, was a sign waiting to be colored. Crayons on the left for my little preschooler...

...and on the right for my big (holy cow, how is she in THIRD GRADE?!) girl.

They worked on their signs while I made breakfast - cinnamon rolls, which are a special treat. Special treats also being customary on the first day of school.  :)

After breakfast, the girls were finally allowed to dig through the drawers of their "workboxes." Ours might not be the exact workbox system (especially since they're not boxes at all, but drawers), but they work for us - and Rachael had specifically asked to use them this year. If you're not familiar with the concept of workboxes, it's essentially dividing your subjects into separate boxes (or drawers) and letting the child have some autonomy, as well as decision-making powers concerning the order in which subjects are done. For us, we always start the morning with our Bible lesson. After that, the girls are free to head for whichever drawer they choose. Not all subjects appear in the drawers every day. Sometimes there are special treats or games inside. And some of the subjects include a note or page marker so that Rachael can work independently, while other times, she needs my supervision. Here are Rachael's drawers:

The numbers on the right are attached to the drawers by velcro dots. When she finishes with that drawer, she removes the number and sticks it onto a laminated card...when she finishes four subjects, she gets to choose a "special" activity from a stack on the piano. It could be watching a TV show, playing on the computer, etc. She looks forward to her "earned" break time and being able to choose how to spend it...especially when mommy-imposed breaks usually mean chores to be done.  ;)

Rachael actually got a new set of drawers this year, and Milly inherited her old four-drawer set. Yes, I'm aware that the numbers are off. Actually, we're not at all sure where the number three is, and I've yet to work up the gumption to make a new one. So Milly just puts the number two where she wants it. She doesn't remove numbers as she finishes drawers anyway...nor does she have as much to do in her drawers. There's an Explode the Code workbook, math (counting, patterns, etc.) worksheets and Cuisenaire rods, coloring books about numbers and letters, that sort of thing. But it's SCHOOL, and she actually gets angry with me when she runs out of work to do before her sister does.

Here's Rachael working in her Bible study workbook...still in her pajamas, of course. They didn't bother getting dressed at all, actually, until it was time to go outside and take pictures with their signs. Yes, another first-day custom. In breaking with tradition, though, we did not take the pictures in front of the tree in our yard - which was busy being overrun by hornets. We headed up the hill to the side of the house instead.

Rachael ran out of steam on the last line of her sign, penciling in a conversation that the letters were having with each other instead of actually coloring them. So hers is pretty much impossible to read in pictures. You know what it says, though...and didn't Milly do a nice job?

Our first day actually went much longer than usual - we had started at around 9 a.m. and, after breaks for lunch, pictures, and her "earned" break, we didn't finish up until a little after 4. We wanted to explore every single subject that first day, and it took much longer than we'd imagined...thankfully, other days are much shorter.

Their first day of school ended with their last swim lesson. (Last in this series; I'm hoping to get them into another session soon.) Both girls did great with their lessons - Milly is especially fearless about jumping into the pool. Going under the water doesn't bother her a bit, whereas Rachael was always careful to point her chin skyward in an effort to keep the water out of her face. Both girls are swimming with floats and supervision, and I can't wait to see what they'll learn next.

The very last thing they did in their class was to move out of the small-ish therapy pool, and over to the big pool. There, they were led to the diver's blocks at the end of the pool (seven-foot water!) and told to jump in - with an instructor waiting to catch them, of course. This is where Rachael had a panic attack. Not only does she not like jumping in, but now she was jumping from much higher than just the side of the pool. After much reassuring, though, and holding the hand of one of her instructors until she actually jumped...she jumped. I was so proud of her.  :)

Unfortunately - having been standing right behind her sister and hearing the theatrics, Milly was not inclined to jump when her turn came. It took even more reassuring and persuasion to get her up on the diving block, and I had to stand beside her and hold her hand while she jumped - and she DID jump! But I didn't get a picture of it, and I hate that.

Next time, we'll let Milly go first and I'll have the camera ready.  :)

Coming soon: We Got Practically Nothing Done During Our Second Week of School, But That's Okay.

'Twas the Night Before Homeschool

'Twas the night before homeschool's first day of the year;

All of the boxes of books had appeared,

Exciting the children so they hardly could sleep -

They would have gladly began school last week!

Dad is oblivious - he hasn't a clue

How many things I have yet left to do -

To make sure the day's special, the best it can be,

For a girl starting preschool and one in grade three.

Tradition mandates that I must create

A coloring page to be placed by each plate,

Announcing the new grade each child is beginning

(Later to be held for a picture while grinning.)

There's the kitchen to straighten and table to clear,

Crayons and markers to be gathered near.

Paper and pencils and scissors and glue

Notebooks and binders to be brought out too.

Workboxes are numbered and carefully filled -

Assignments for every subject they'll yield.

Even Milly has boxes, since she has to be

Just like her sister, although just three.

(And a HALF. You must not forget the HALF.)

Now the rest of the family are snug in their beds,

And me? I must be out of my head

For still sitting and blogging when clearly I know

The tasks that require me to get up and go.

Once they are done, only then may I sleep

Until two little children into my room creep -

Earlier than need be, I haven't a doubt,

Ready to get all of their new books out!

-yeah, I wrote this one.

Because I'm feeling all poetic tonight, here's one more that I just found on another homeschooling blog. It made me all weepy, but then, most things do. See you tomorrow with an update on our first day back to school!

The Teacher

Lord, who am I to teach the way

To little children day by day,

So prone myself to go astray?

I teach them knowledge but I know

How faint they flicker and how low

The candles of my knowledge glow.

I teach them power to will and do,

But only now to learn anew

My own great weakness, through and through.

I teach them love for all mankind
And all God's creatures, but I find

My love comes lagging far behind.

Lord, if their guide I still must be,

Oh let my little children see

The teacher leaning hard on Thee.

- Leslie Pinckney Hill

BOX DAY!!

I was thinking this morning, as I checked tracking information online for the seventeenth time, about how I could explain the joy of Box Day to a non-homeschooler, or a new one who hasn't experienced it yet. I thought that first I should lead off with a definition.

Box Day (n.) - any day in which a homeschooling family receives new homeschooling supplies via mail, UPS or FedEx. Although typically books, may include software, manipulatives, etc. A homeschooling family may have many box days throughout the school year, but the primary Box Day is the day on which the majority of the coming year's school supplies arrive, usually in a large box.

We actually received a large-ish padded envelope along with our big box today; inside was our geography curriculum for the year, Around the World in 180 Days. I'll admit, it looks very, very dry on in the inside...but the whole point is to investigate everything from other sources, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Anyway...how to describe to you the feelings invoked by the arrival of the box on Box Day? Well, Rachael actually summed it up quite well for me this year. As I was removing the tape from our giant box from ChristianBook.com, she said, "It's just like a birthday or Christmas!" Ah, yes, the gift of education. Love that girl.

As you can see, the girls were quite excited to get past the wads of paper and to the actual contents of the box. I am so glad that they share my love of a brand new book, unopened, unread, fresh and full of possibilities. And then, there they were:

I started pulling out book after book, and each one was met with ooh's and aah's from the peanut gallery. Even the math book was well received, which is a drastic improvement over last year's boo's and groans. Milly was thrilled when a book came out of the box that was just for her. After looking through it for a few minutes, she hastened it away to upstairs locations unknown, where her sister would be sure to not lay one grubby hand upon it. (I finally convinced her to bring it back down and leave it with all of our other school books.)

Rachael was quite happy with all of the selections, but was most enamored (unsurprisingly) with the art book. She was also quite happy to see Volume 2 of her beloved history curriculum, even if it did come with a test booklet (gasp) and an accompanying activity guide roughly the size of the New York telephone directory.

Although I didn't take pictures of what came next, I can assure you that I spent quite some time paging through each book myself, and already have my lesson plan for next week nearly complete. I also took much nerdish delight in the installing of Switched-On Schoolhouse, playing with the background themes and customizing the assignment calendar, and I can't wait to do the tutorial with Rachael on Monday.

The best thing about Box Day, other than seeing the delight on my girls' faces as they looked through their new books? They're begging me to start school tomorrow instead of ghoulishly forcing them wait until Monday. (How many public-school kids do that?! I certainly didn't.)

But wait they shall, for Mrs. Mommy needs to finish with the lesson plans. Besides, the first day of school is always a special day, and I have to plan for that too.

And now, I'll be in the kitchen poring over our new math curriculum if anyone needs me.

Getting ready...

The books are all ordered and should be here soon. I've stocked up on more notebook paper, pencils, glue and crayons than should be allowed. I've assessed the inventory of homeschool detritus hiding in the cellar and only have a few more small items to pick up before school starts on Monday.

I haven't cleaned off the full-to-overflowing bookcase in the kitchen yet, but hey, I have time.

I did pick up the last "big" homeschool item today - a seven-drawer thingamajiggy that will henceforth serve as Rachael's new workboxes (an upgrade over last year's five-drawer system.)

Milly made friends with it immediately. Why she felt compelled to dress it in apron, shoes, and Burger King crown is still a mystery.

As you can see, the shelving unit is pretty tall - as Milly is a bit of a giant herself, compared to most 3-1/2-year-olds.

I had actually gone into Big Lots to look for a plastic milk crate or two - the better to store the junk I have yet to clean off of the overflowing homeschool shelf. I quickly realized that I would be better off at Dollar Tree for plastic storage and was just heading toward the exit when I spotted the monster drawers. It was the only one left that had seven shelves, and it practically demanded to come home with us. Since we have more subjects this year than we have in years past, it really will be helpful to have around this year.

Haven't heard of workboxes? Well, here's a blog that explains it fairly well so I don't have to. I'll admit, I haven't bought the ebook that fully explains the creator's vision for workboxes ($21 for an ebook? I don't think so) but I've grasped the concept from what others have shared, and Rachael and I loved using them last year. However, last year they were upstairs in what I considered our school room - out of sight, inconvenient, and ultimately abandoned mid-year. This year, they're more centrally located...in the kitchen. Maybe not the ultimate in kitchen decor, but hey, we're a homeschooling family. There are going to be books everywhere until my last baby is off to college, and I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts - not hide it all away for the benefit of no one, since no one that I invite into my home minds looking at our homeschool stuff anyway.

I numbered the drawers this evening, but need to pick up some more velcro dots before my vision will be fulfilled...I'll share more about our system when it's ready to roll. At any rate, I decided that the BK crown was a nice touch, so I let it stay. ;)

Now that we've set a date for our official "first day", I'll admit that I can't wait to get back into our school routine. There's something about a pile of fresh, new, never-read and never-written-in books that I just can't resist. According to my tracking info from ChristianBook.com, tomorrow should be Box Day...I'll be feverishly filling in my lesson plan book for the next couple of weeks once everything arrives, and trying to resist the urge to start before Monday!

It's that time of year again!

My girls have had a pretty great summer. It started with a week at the beach, where Milly discovered a passion for swimming. Rachael spent a week at a Girl Scout day camp at a nearby ranch, where she rode (and painted) horses, walked alpacas, hiked, fished, played with birds and sugar gliders and a coatimundi, and made a great new friend. Then she spent four whole days (over night!) at church camp, where she worshiped and swam and ziplined over a lake, and was ultimately chosen by counselors as one of the eleven "best campers" (out of hundreds of kids) and got to ride in a real race car. After that came the week-long Junior Naturalist day camp, where she learned about all things environmental - to include spending a day catching crawdads (crawfish, crayfish - depending on where you're from) in the river. She's still taking piano lessons, and loves to play. And two weeks ago, both girls started taking swim lessons - prompted by Milly's aforementioned love of swimming, and a little by Rachael's fear of it. Add playdates and overnights into the mix, and it's been a very busy summer - I feel like I haven't seen much of Rachael at all!

With activities winding down - and my longing for an end to the running and a return to a more peaceful routine - it's definitely time to start thinking about back-to-school.

We wrapped up second grade back in May with Rachael's first standardized test. She took Seton's CAT-E test, which includes only English and math - the only two subjects that must be reported to the county school board. (There are longer, more thorough standardized tests to be had, but I'm not a fan of providing them with any more information than they require.) Since she is registered with the school board according to where she "should" be, age-wise, instead of where she actually is, capability-wise, she took the first-grade test - so it was no surprise to anyone when it returned from being graded with a perfect score.

I mailed her test scores off to the school board along with our Notice of Intent to Homeschool (NOI), and we're all "legal" for the 2011-12 school year. She is technically of age to be in second grade this year, but we'll be doing third grade work, with some higher level subjects thrown into the mix.

It took me a while to piece together this year's curriculum, since she requested one change (math) and I knew that we need to make others (Bible, science.) I finally made all of the decisions and ordered our books this morning. They're scheduled to arrive on August 4, and our first day of school will be August 8.

Here's what Rachael will be using this year:

• Bible Study Guide for All Ages. This is described online as a comprehensive Bible curriculum for ages three to adult, which admittedly made me a little wary at first. The more I read, though, the more I fell in love with it. One teacher's guide includes everything you need to teach children of different ages, but student pages can be ordered for beginner, intermediate or advanced - so both of my girls will be able to use the same Bible curriculum this year. It doesn't just teach Bible stories (which Rachael has heard so many times that she can recite verbatim, and is a little tired of re-learning each year.) Instead, this guide is made up of 416 lessons, which will last for four years if you study two lessons per week. It's broken up so that some Old Testament and some New Testament is studied each year - and it's much more in-depth than just Bible stories. For instance, the first questions for Rachael's level is: "Name the four parts of the New Testament." Huh? Four parts? I had no idea about that one myself! There are the Gospels, of course, but then...? The answer, in case you're wondering, is Gospels (Matthew-Mark-Luke-John), History (Acts), Letters (everything else until), Prophecy (Revelation.) I'm honestly not sure how Milly will do with it, although she's always an attentive student in Sunday School. Her questions are more simple, of course, and her student pages filled with more pictures to color - so maybe she'll enjoy it too.
  
  
• Learning Language Arts Through Literature. We've used this curriculum for the past two years and absolutely love it. It's an all-inclusive English curriculum - reading, spelling, vocabulary, handwriting, grammar, etc. We'll be working through the orange (4th grade) book this year. Because LLATL focuses less heavily on spelling than on the other topics, we'll supplement with...
  
  
• Spelling Workout. We used this for the first time last year and, although the sports theme wouldn't be Rachael's first choice, we both really liked the layout of this workbook. She'll start on book E (5th grade) this fall - a few spelling words on the ChristianBook.com sample page include questions, mechanic, inquire, and character. Rachael is, thankfully, very much like me in that reading and spelling come quite naturally to her - it frightens and amazes me that I'm ordering a 5th grade book for my 7-year-old, but she's up to the challenge!
  
  
• Wordly Wise 3000. I actually ordered this completely on a whim when I was shopping for our other curriculum. According to the product description, "three thousand carefully selected words taken from literature, textbooks, and SAT-prep books are the basis of this exciting vocabulary series that teaches new words through reading, writing, and a variety of exercises. Each lesson's alphabetized word list gives pronunciations, parts of speech, and concise definitions, and uses each word in a sentence." So yeah, vocabulary. Rachael loves trying new books, so this should be an interesting addition for her. Not having seen it in person, I ordered the 3rd grade book.
  
  
• Miquon. Although I liked Math-U-See, Rachael never enjoyed it and practically begged for a different math curriculum this year. I had decided on Math Mammoth, after we printed and enjoyed several free worksheet samples back in May. After a lengthy discussion with her pediatrician (and a fellow homeschooling mom) at a museum visit on Memorial Day, though, I've decided to give Miquon a try instead. Miquon has six workbooks to work through, and I've ordered the first three, even though that will mean backing up for a bit of review at first. I was impressed with Miquon's more holistic approach to teaching math - all four arithmetic operations plus fractions in the first book, which (according to their website) "gives children the basic tools early so that they can be independent problem solvers from the first day of school. Miquon encourages children to explore a variety of learning styles without freezing them with rigid rules or algorithms. Many children develop unconventional ways of arriving at correct results through their own investigations." Well, amen to that! I'm looking forward to the new curriculum, and will supplement with more worksheets from Math Mammoth if need be.
  
  
• Switched-On Schoolhouse Science, Grade 3. I'll admit, as far as teaching goes, science has been my very worst subject. I don't know if it's because I was never a big fan of science or because our old curriculum (Apologia) just wasn't a good fit for it. (I tried to like Apologia. I did. I love it in theory, but in practice...not so much.) And it's because I recognize my own lack of motivation in this particular subject that I looked more closely at Switched-On Schoolhouse. This is a primarily computer-based course, although a) it will be supervised by me (not required of the program, just my own intent) and b) there are plenty of non-computer based assignments and experiments as well. The 3rd grade software covers plants, animals, energy, body systems, matter, time, sounds, seasons, rocks, and more, complete with quizzes and tests. I love that I can do so much customizing to the program before she starts using it too. This curriculum is definitely our biggest risk this year - at $81, it's much pricier than anything else I've purchased. I'm fairly certain that it will prove worthwhile, though, since SOS will teach her better than I likely would - and I know she'll love it since it means using the computer to do her schoolwork.
  
  
• Story of the World, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages. Although I debated a new history curriculum for this year too, Rachael was admant about sticking with SOTW. She adored the first book, even though we didn't do many of the activities and mostly read together. (It still surprises me that she doesn't mind sitting and listening to me read, even two or three chapters at a time. Even though she's capable of reading these books on her own, by the way, I read to her so we can discuss as we go.) I think I'll enjoy it more this year since we'll be learning about the middle ages - the fall of Rome, the Byzantine Empire, great kings of France, Vikings, the Crusades, Martin Luther, the rise of the Renaissance. The history nerd in me is loving this already! I did order the accompanying activity book, as well as the quiz/test book - something we've never used before, but third grade seems like a good time to start.
  
  
• Around the World in 180 Days. Another new addition to our curriculum that I'm looking forward to! ATW is a geography curriculum that teaches on a continent-by-continent basis - a little about the continent's history, plus major countries, geography, and culture. More than being a textbook, it's described as "a series of questions that the student must research in order to answer." I can already see the dusting-off of the encyclopedias on her bookshelf, learning how to more effectively search online, and the checking out of lots and lots of country-specific library books!
  
  
• Draw Write Now. Another book purchased on a whim, Draw Write Now is an art/handwriting collaborative effort. The first book is farm themed, and teaches children step-by-step how to draw chickens, pigs, etc. There are handwriting assignments to go with each story - and I don't think Rachael will mind the extra practice, as long as she gets to draw too. Just a fun little add-on for this year.
  
  
• Latin's Not So Tough. I struggled with this decision before ultimately deciding to go for it. We've toyed around with languages in the past - a few words in sign language, some Spanish basics, salutations in French - but this will be our first actual foreign language curriculum. Why Latin? Because Latin is the basis for five romance languages, so learning Latin first will make it easier for her to learn other languages later on. At least half of our English words come from Latin as well - studies suggest that knowing Latin improves verbal SAT scores later on since the student is better able to make educated guesses. Also, Latin grammar has very few exceptions in phonics or syntax, so it's supposedly easier to learn than English - yet makes English easier to understand once you know Latin. Learning Latin also helps develop the mental ability to sort and analyze logically - and that's pretty important. So, I went with the most user-friendly Latin program I could find - to include workbook, quizzes/tests, answer keys, flash cards and pronunciation CD. This may be our biggest challenge this year, but I think it'll be a lot of fun too.

The only "traditional" subject that I've left out is health - and that's because I can't find a single health curriculum that I really love the look of. So I've decided to teach health on my own, with the help of online resources and library books. I'm fairly confident that I can handle it. :)

In addition to her "book work," Rachael will continue piano lessons through the school year, Girl Scouts will start again in early September, and so will dance class. Yes, I finally put her back in dance! We're both very excited about this - she loved gymnastics, but her build is much better for dance. And since she twirls everywhere she goes anyway, it seems like a natural choice for her. She's enrolled in a different (more reputable) dance studio than the one she attended at ages 3 and 4, where she'll learn ballet and tap (no jazz, no tumbling, no baton - I think her old studio just tried to incorporate too much!) I've so missed leotards and tutus and can't wait to shop for her new dance gear!

Side note: dance is being funded solely by Scentsy this year. Need any? :)

What about Milly, you ask? Well, I'm not completely sure. We're going to attempt to do preschool this year, since (according to her and Rachael) she was in pre-preschool last year. However, I fully recognize the differences in my girls, and know that Milly may not be ready for preschool at 3 1/2 the way that Rachael was. She is less mature and less cooperative, but very smart - she can do preschool "work" now; it's just a matter of whether she will. So we'll take it day by day - if she wants to "do school", fine. We'll do school. And if she doesn't - well, that's fine too.

As far as curriculum goes, we'll be using the Bible curriculum that I told you about earlier, as well as Happy Phonics (Rachael and I adored it, and Rachael was reading before she was four because of it.) I also ordered the very first book in the Explode the Code series for her - Get Ready for the Code - which teaches beginning letters, sounds, visual tracking, writing, etc. I'm sure she'll eat this up since she loves workbooks (I have to MAKE her stop, or she'll finish one off in a day.) She already knows the alphabet, so it won't be a huge challenge - just something schooly for her to do during school time. We'll continue to point out math in everyday things - counting, sorting, patterns, etc. And of course, we'll read like it's going of style, which we pretty much do anyway.

Milly is the absolute star of her swim class, so chances are excellent that I'll enroll her in the next class once this one finishes up. Girly is fearless in the water, and does everything the instructor tells her to do, without hesitation. I love seeing this, since she's uncooperative about 75% of the time at home. I'd love to put her in a dance class too - I think she'd enjoy it, and it'd be super stinking cute, but dance isn't cheap. (See above Scentsy link!)

I've gone over a calendar and counted out our required 180 days - we can be finished in mid-May even if we take a whole week of at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas, one week for Spring Break, and a few days for each girl's birthday. Truthfully, we'll take extra days off too, just "I don't feel like doing school" days, so I can likely stretch it through the end of May.

So, there's our 2011-12 homeschool plan. I can't wait for "box day", to see and hold and look through all of our new books - that's definitely one of the highlights of the whole school year!

One other goal for this coming year: to keep up with this blog. That's been my goal for the past couple of years, actually, and one has only to scroll back through my previous posts to see how well that went. But I have newfound motivation in my hopefully-someday-homeschooling dear friend Danielle (not to mention my must-homeschool-because-she'd-be-so-awesome-at-it friend Melanie.) And of course, I'll want the documentation someday for myself - it's so easy to get caught up in the everyday routine that I just don't think to write about it. If I slack off again, girls, please give me a virtual kick.

Here's to a great 2011-12 school year...coming very soon!

Art co-op and some interesting statistics...

This past Thursday was a big day for Rachael - her first day of her new art class!

I found out earlier this year about the Danville School of Arts and Science - a very professionally run co-op for homeschoolers. They meet three Thursdays per month, and Rachael informed me after her first class that she doesn't want to miss a single class, ever!

I thought that she would have been more torn over which class to take - DSAS offers art, science, Latin, drama, and even a personal finance class for high school students. She IS very interested in the drama class as well, and I would love for her to start Latin at a young age, so maybe she'll take an additional class next year. As for this year, her education in art history and technique is being funded by a generous grant from the Gramma Foundation. ;)

With her big box o' art supplies at the ready, we headed into the church that hosts the co-op on Thursday afternoon and headed for her classroom. She was the first one in, so she chose her seat, said hello to the teacher, and spent some time checking out the orange newt living in a terrarium on the table. As other students started pouring in, Milly and I eased toward the door. Of course, Rachael has been in other classroom-y settings with actual teachers other than me - Sunday School, dance, gymnastics, our previous co-op, Girl Scouts, etc. But somehow, this felt more like a "real" school to me, and the mommy part of me was a little reluctant to go...but I should have known that (Rachael being Rachael) she would be perfectly fine, and she was. She made fast friends with a little girl sitting beside her, and had a great time sketching for the next hour.

Meanwhile, Milly and I settled down in the room across the hall, and had fun chatting with some of the other parents. Even Milly was a little more social than usual, after the necessary checking-out of the restroom and water fountain. She was a little upset that there were no cupcakes to be found (they did have some at the open house a few weeks ago, and one of the moms overheard her complaints and promised to bring her some soon!)

Rachael bounded into the room with her sketch pad when the class was over, to show off her drawings before storing her supplies away for next week. She absolutely can't wait to go back, and I can't wait to see what she learns next!

* * * * *

Now, how 'bout those interesting statistics?

We received a flyer from Henry County Public Schools in the mail on Friday afternoon containing the 2009-2010 Annual Report. They were thrilled to report that all of the county schools are fully accredited - which is awesome for our area and the students that attend those schools. I'm a little confused that only "93% of our schools made Adequate Yearly Progress", but okay. They're accredited.

Then they proceeded to show a graph for each school in the county showing percentages of students that made "Adequate Yearly Progress" (I haven't bothered doing the research to find out why that it is capitalized!) in each subject.

There are eleven elementary schools in our area...two middle schools...two high schools. Does this seem a little strange to anyone else? I shudder to think what class sizes are like in middle and high school now - especially since the high schools switched to the block system (four classes per day, as opposed to seven) back when I was in high school, aaaaaall those years ago. On the bright side, it seems as though class sizes may be reasonable in elementary schools, at least.

Anywho...out of all of the elementary schools, the one that Rachael would be attending ranks 9th place in English, 10th in writing and history, and is in dead LAST place in both math and science.

The middle school that she would eventually attend had lower ratings across the board than did the other middle school, and her would-be high school rated higher in science, history, and math - but only by tiny percentages.

WOW. Add this to my list of reasons for homeschooling. I can absolutely do better than that!

Week #3

Today began week three of our school year...yes, I was a nice teacher and gave them Labor Day off. :) With the exception of only one subject (science), we've finished our review from last year and are moving onward to new things.

Milly is loving pre-preschool, although she insists that it is, in fact, "pretty pretty school." We're focusing on one letter and one number per week, so she now recognizes A, B and C and the sounds that they make...although she does think that C should say "ssss", and I don't blame her one bit. Coloring pages were an absolute Godsend today, and I tried to reinforce the C sound by teaching her that C is for...

CUPCAKE, of course! (What else?!) A slightly gothic/moldy cupcake, perhaps, but a cupcake nonetheless. And yes, Milly is quite seriously considering being a lefty. This stresses me out just a little since I have no idea how to teach a lefty to write, but then, some of the prettiest handwriting I've seen was produced by a lefty. Good thing it's not up to me to decide, huh?

Rachael had a wonderful morning, even though she was stuck doing copy work in her language arts book while her sister colored. As a general rule, Rachael and copy work do not get along well. She tends to rush through it, insert random capitals, omit capitals that actually should be there, and forego a lot of punctuation. This leads to much nagging on my part to just pay attention to what you're copying, because it's right there in front of you, and really, there's just no excuse for getting it wrong. *ahem* Look at what my girl did today!


I hope you'll notice that big A+ at the top too! I'm not sure exactly why, but she wants a letter grade on everything these days, and is happiest if there's a + or a - to follow it. She doesn't even care if it's a C- (not that she gets many of those), as long as there's a letter grade on her paper. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this - for the most part, I want her to learn to do her best and take pride in her work, not do it solely to be rewarded with a letter. So I'll grade things sometimes - usually written work, so I can explain to her that the grade is based on neatness, attention to detail, creativity, etc. I refuse to assign a grade without an explanation to go along with it.

There are two things that are always graded. The first is her weekly book report. She's done two so far - I let her choose the book for her first report, and she chose Green Eggs and Ham. I learned my lesson and assigned her second book, which was Sarah, Plain and Tall. This being a short week, I just chose a book from her shelf that I liked when I was a kid, and we'll be writing the report together to focus on content.

The second thing that's always graded is her Friday spelling test. I'm so proud of this child and her affinity for language arts. Check out her spelling list for this week:

I was a little nervous when her spelling book first arrived and I found that the weekly lists were written in cursive...but she can read them, even though she can't write in cursive yet. (I won't even be attempting to teach her cursive for a while yet. Refer to the copy work picture for my reasoning. I'd love for her printing to improve first!)

One last picture for tonight...the dreaded math. It boggles my mind that she detests math so much, even though she's really pretty good at it. Here are two pages she did this morning, with no help whatsoever from yours truly.

The color is a little funky, so here's a quick recap...solving for unknown (6+X=8), adding two-digit numbers (13+66), adding two-digit numbers with regrouping (44+46), money/counting by tens (which would you rather have, 95 pennies or 9 dimes?) and adding three-digit numbers (244+234). I absolutely adore this math curriculum...and while she's not a big fan, it's obviously teaching her the concepts.

We are eagerly awaiting Thursday's arrival, when Rachael will attend her very first art class at a homeschool co-op in Danville. The last of her supplies were purchased today (who knew it would be so hard to find a black felt-tip pen?!) and I can't wait to see what she learns first!

Day #1 = Success!

Well, the big day came and went - and we had a fantastic first day of school! The girls were up absurdly early this morning because they were so excited to get started. Each of them found a sign at her place on the kitchen table this morning, and they got right to work coloring them while I made breakfast. Afterward, we went outside for our annual first day of school pictures. I still just can't believe that my Rachael is a second grader now! She's pretty proud of the fact, though:


And then there's my BABY, who somehow has gotten big enough (despite my demands to the contrary) to want to "do school" as well. I'm wondering if it's significant at all that she didn't color the letters on her sign at all, but rather the spaces in the center of the letters. Hmmm.


Of course I got one of the two girls together! I got about a dozen, actually. I like this one best. :)


After pictures, we went inside and got to work. Each girl has an age-appropriate devotional book that we'll begin our mornings with. Rachael's book asked her today to make a list of her family and friends that she wants to remember to pray for. She made a pretty lengthy list and didn't forget many people - immediate family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, even some friends' parents made the list! My thoughtful little girl.

She was a little apprehensive when I took out three books for language arts, but quickly came to the conclusion that this was "eeeeeeeeasy!" Princess Smartypants missed one word out of twenty on her fourth grade spelling list. Not that I'm proud of her or anything.

While Rachael worked on her language arts stuff, I moved over to Milly. We talked about the letter A and the sound it makes, and she took very seriously the task of coloring a big letter A:


We also read books, went on a scavenger hunt for different colors around the house, talked about the number one, and read the Bible story of Adam and Eve. (Her thoughts? "Ewwww, snakes!") And we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" no fewer than ten times, although I'm not even sure now how that even came up.

Back in the kitchen, Rachael and I did some math review...she had been dreading math all morning, but was relieved to find that she hadn't forgotten place values or how to add after all. Read some from her history book, and read the first lesson in her health book, about how people are unique. One of the activities was to talk about the student's wishes for the future...so I grabbed the video camera. Whew, this kid is a wildcard - I never in a million years would have guessed that first answer! (Never mind the Milly background noise...)

As soon as her book work was done, Rachael rushed upstairs with a piece of paper and her new pink sparkly pencil to tackle her first ever book report. I had explained the concept to her this morning, and even jotted down a sample (title, tell about the plot, did you like it and why) to make it easier for her. And I told her that she had to do one book report per week, in her own free time and without being reminded, to be turned in on Friday. This, rather than reading a particular number of books (because the girl always has her nose in a book) is how she'll earn her Book It! rewards this year, and she wasn't taking chances on forgetting about it this week! Granted, it was a less than thorough review of Green Eggs and Ham, but I'll let it slide this week. It was a wonderful first attempt. Next week, I'll request that she review something a little more meaty. ;)

I also need to take a closer look at BookAdventure.com, which offers quizzes on lots and lots of children's books and allows them to "earn points and prizes for their literary successes." Sounds like something she'd love!

Finally, after her newly-mandated daily piano practice (not too much, mind you - she doesn't have but so many pages to practice), school was over for the day. We cleaned up and the girls went outside to play while I started on supper. I thought something special and fun was in order for two little girls who had done so very well on their first day of school, so I made pizza and...

...strawberry milkshakes. :)

One last special thing wrapped up our day - the iCarly doll that Rachael had ordered online with the gift card she won from the library finally came today. I picked her up at Walmart on my way home from a Girl Scout leader's meeting, and the girls got to play with her just before bed.

Inexplicably, Rachael insisted that Carly sleep with me tonight. I'm still not sure why. She said it was because I got it for her, and I reminded her that she had actually bought it. She said it was because she wanted me to be happy, and I told her that the smile on her face made me happier than anything else. But still...she insisted. So now Carly and I are going to bed, so we'll be ready for another beautiful day tomorrow at Regalia Academy. <3

'Twas the night before homeschool...

...and all through the house, not a creature was stirring...except for the mommy, who was printing coloring pages, browsing preschool curriculum sites and mentally gearing up to get back to work first thing in the morning. :)

My girls are both crazy excited to "go back to school" tomorrow. Milly thinks she's grown since she'll be "doing school" too - even if it is only pre-pre-school. She's mostly looking forward to playing with her new pink V-Tech laptop from Gramma! She already has a great handle on basic shapes and colors, so we'll be going over those this year, as well as learning letters and letter sounds, numbers, etc. Lots of books and songs and rhymes and art projects. I'll be piecing together a very loose "curriculum" for her from ideas on two websites - Letter of the Week (which focuses mostly on letters and numbers) and Hubbard's Cupboard (which focuses primarily on the Bible.) Both of these sites are just amazing - they have fully planned out, year-long preschool curriculums for several age groups, and there are a ton of fun ideas. If you have a little one at home, check them out!

Rachael was a little more apprehensive about the first day of school. She had it in her mind that she'd forgotten everything we'd done last year, and that she would have a test and not know any of the answers. I have no idea where she got that idea, but I assured her that there would be no tests on the first day of school! In fact, most of our first week will be spent on refresher material. But then, she's a lot like me - just having new books, even if they're school books, automatically equals fun. :)

One big change may occur at Regalia Academy this year...I'm contemplating a switch from the traditional August/September through May/June schedule to a more year-round schedule. Six weeks or so on, one week off, repeat repeat repeat. The regular breaks would keep us from getting burnt out on schoolwork, and the lack of a huge break during the summer would help us maintain a sense of normalcy. All three of us girls went a little crazy this summer with no sense of routine at all. The only big problem I have with a year-round schedule is my own little touch of OCD that requires clear-cut beginnings and endings! More about that when I reach a hard and fast decision...

For now, I'm finishing up my plans for tomorrow morning and looking forward to a fresh new school year!

Way to go, Erica!

While I'm taking my time typing up the curriculum post...a little food for thought via YouTube. This speech was delivered by Erica Goldson, valedictorian of her class at Coxsackie-Athens High School, on June 25, 2010.

Valedictorian Speaks Out Against (Public) Schooling

It's a little long, and she's (justifiably) a little nervous, but it's worth a listen. I especially enjoyed the part where she admitted, "I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told."

She also reminds her classmates that "we are anything we want to be - but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation."

This young lady has wonderful insight - from someone so young and so much a part of the system - as to what's wrong with the public education system. And I don't mean to imply that every public school out there is inadequate. But even the best schools aren't without their problems.

Anyway. Just loved Ms. Goldson's speech and wanted to a) share and b) preserve it for future reference.

Thanks to my fellow homeschooler Amanda for sharing the link! :)

Here's what RACHAEL has to look forward to!

Things are coming together for the 2010-11 school year and, as usual, I thought I'd share our curriculum choices...in case anyone is interested. :)

One of my favorite aspects of homeschooling is the ability to tailor our curriculum to Rachael's level, and it's all over the place this year! Here's what we'll be studying, in no particular order.

• Learning Language Arts Through Literature - this is a comprehensive language arts series that covers grammar, reading, spelling, vocabulary, writing mechanics, creative writing, thinking skills, etc. I love that it's laid out for me, day-by-day, and in the 3rd grade book that Rachael will be using this year, it's really geared toward independent work by the student with very little help from the teacher. I have a feeling she'll be working on this one while I'm working with Milly!

• Grammar, Usage & Mechanics - even though grammar is covered in LLATL, a little extra practice won't hurt anything. I've read wonderful reviews of the GUM series, and it's another subject that she'll be able to do independently. It's a smallish workbook, so it won't be an every day thing. I went with a 3rd grade level here too, so it should compliment her larger language arts course nicely.
  

• Spelling Workout - we used the Natural Speller last year, and I liked the word lists, but Rachael breezed right through it. She's very fortunate to (apparently) have gotten my knack for spelling. So again, I've read great things about Spelling Workout, and after looking at sample pages online, bought the 4th grade book for her. Maybe it'll challenge her a little! Again, this one is meant mostly for independent work. I'm loving that theme. Language arts is the area in which Rachael excels most, so I'm fine with her doing most of it on her own. I'll have to be much more involved in the other subjects.

• Math-U-See (Beta) - dreaded, dreaded math. Again with following in my footsteps, Rachael isn't a huge math fan. I'm not sure why this is, as she hasn't had any trouble understanding the concepts...she just doesn't like it. I was tempted to explore other curriculum choices because of that, but MUS just looks like more fun than the other, drier options. We actually started on the Beta (2nd grade) book back in the spring, so we'll be working through it this school year - multiple-digit addition and subtraction, etc. We're not going to be in a big hurry to get through it, but IF she finishes it before spring, we'll move on to Gamma (single and multiple digit multiplication, which I can't imagine her being ready for...but I've been wrong before.)

• The Story of the World I: Ancient Times - okay, we slacked off on history last year. We got about halfway through the book, so we'll be reviewing and then moving on. I'm really looking forward to SOTW II, which covers the Middle Ages. I'll be more in my element teaching from that one!

• Apologia - Exploring Creation Through Botany - so, I'll admit, I'm not terribly excited about this one. Maybe it's because I've never been terribly excited about science, maybe it's because we still have a couple of chapters of last year's Exploring Creation Through Astronomy to wrap up first. I'm sure it'll be more fun than I'm anticipating - classifying plants, making slides and checking them out under the microscope, making our own "light hut" and growing plants, etc. Rachael will love it, and I'll try to! At any rate, I'm a big fan of Apologia in general, so I'm sure it'll be a great book.

• Map Skills For Today, Grade 2 - throwing a little geography into the mix this year! She's already somewhat familiar with maps thanks to our history book, but this will give her a more thorough lesson in directions, symbols, etc. (I also bought a huge wall map of the world that I'm pretty excited about using this year!) This is another small-ish workbook that won't be an everyday activity.

• Horizons Health 2 - focusing on safety, hygiene, nutrition and fitness. We used Horizons last year too and found it a little dry, but it does cover the topics that need to be covered. Fellow homeschoolers, if you have any health curriculum suggestions for next year, I'd love to hear them!

• God and Me! Devotions for Girls 6-9 - I had to spend a while browsing in the Lifeway store for just the right book for our Bible study this year, and I'm really excited about this one! This is SUCH a cute book - full color, with a devotion for each day and an activity to go along with it (questions to answer, a picture to draw or a puzzle to work - things that I know Rachael will enjoy.) There are three God and Me! books for girls ages 6-9, and I'll probably be going back to pick those up before the end of the school year. This will definitely be an everyday activity - probably the first subject of the day, to get us off to a good start. This is going to be so much more fun (for us both) than the Bible studies we used last year!

Those are all of the big/important/book-based curriculums we'll be using this year...although I have a few more things in mind as well.

• Muzzy French - a "sometimes" and "mostly for fun" thing, for now. Rachael is already a little fascinated with French vocabulary thanks to Fancy Nancy (who is currently the top contender for this year's Halloween costume, by the way.) I may even be able to help a little, having taken four years of French myself. Of course, that was a long time ago, and off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure I remember how to find a restroom, an airport, and some green beans. Maybe I'll just leave it all to Muzzy.

• Art - something else we're really excited about this year! Rachael will be taking an hour-long art class on Thursday afternoons at the Danville School of Arts and Science, a homeschool co-op. We just visited yesterday for their open house, and Rachael met her art teacher and got to check out some of the projects they'll be doing this year. They'll learn some art history and practice methods used by great artists, they'll sketch and sculpt and paint gourds that are grown by the teacher. They'll also get to help create backgrounds and props for the drama class's annual production - and they're hoping that it'll be Charlie & the Chocolate Factory this year. I can't wait to see what she creates! (THANKS to Gramma for Rachael's "scholarship" to DSAS!)

• Piano lessons - Rachael and I will both continue piano lessons with a wonderful friend-of-a-friend this fall. Rachael can already play a couple of simple tunes with her fingers on the correct keys, and she can't wait to learn more!

• Girl Scouts - my big girl completed her two years of Daisies and bridged up to Brownies in June! We're looking forward to a great first year of Brownies...we since I will be her new troop leader. :) I've completed a portion of my training already, with another session next week, and one more to go before our first meeting on September 13th. I have a wonderful co-leader who will be working with Daisies in the same troop, and I'm sure we're going to have a great bunch of girls this year too.

Now that all of that is out of the way...I just need to put together some "school" activities for Milly, and we'll be good to go. She insists that she wants to "do school" too, and I'm looking forward to it being much easier to keep her happy this year than it was last year. Homeschooling with a toddler under foot was, I'm sorry to say, just not much fun. This year will be different...details on her "curriculum" are coming soon!

It's almost that time...

My girls have both reached that point again where it's just too dreadfully boring to go on existing. Which means...it's nearly BACK TO SCHOOL time! (It also means that I'm going to consider a shorter "summer break" next year. But that's a later post.)

It has been a rather boring summer, actually, with no real vacation to speak of. The girls have been camping twice - once with just their daddy (while I escaped for a much-needed girl's weekend) and once with not only our family, but another family of six as well! Still, those were just weekend ventures, and the rest of the summer has been filled with a dreadful lack of structure and excess of nothing-to-write-home-about.

Rachael did take gymnastics this summer, although we missed about half of the classes thanks to her having the chicken pox, my having a cold, etc.

She went to a four-day Green Thumb Gardening camp at the Spencer-Penn Centre, and she loved every minute of it. She was really looking forward to a creative writing camp last month that was geared toward 5-8 year olds...unfortunately, they didn't have enough people sign up to have the camp. :(

Rachael and I both started piano lessons this summer, and we're both loving it, for the most part. I started several weeks before she did, so I'd know enough to help her out. Let me tell you, after years of playing the saxophone and reading one measly little line of notes at a time, this two-staff both-hands-doing-something-different mess is blowing my mind! But I'm trying. And Rachael is catching on very quickly, as she'll gladly demonstrate to anyone who comes to visit.

And finally, I have to brag on my girl...she ROCKED the summer reading program at our local library! When it first started, she was allowed to choose from two options. One, she could set a goal for how many books she'd read during the program, and if she met that goal, she'd receive a free book. Or two, she could enter the big kid/adult contest, where you received one entry into a drawing for every hundred pages you read. No free book, but a CHANCE to win one of several donated gift cards. Rachael noticed that there was a $25 gift card to Walmart on the list, and that was the end of it - she wanted to win THAT. I explained and explained that there were no guarantees, etc. and she said that she got it. Well. After two months of writing down every single book that she read...after many trips back and forth to the library (because only books checked out of the library counted)...after counting down the days till the contest ended because I was SICK of writing down all those books (!!!), the contest finally ended. Rachael turned in four pages of books, with a total of 7, 126 pages.

That's right. SEVEN THOUSAND PAGES. Granted, a few of those were "Easy" books that she read to Milly and counted on her own list too. But most of those were books on a 3rd, 4th or 5th grade level - American Girl books, children's poetry, lots of novels. Most of the books she read ran around 200 pages, and she knocked them out in no time.

I'm still in awe. Girlfriend topped me by 3,000 pages.

Finally, the day of the drawing rolled around. The drawing box was so saturated with our entries that I knew there was a good chance that one of us would win something (and of course, if *I* had won, I would have passed it off as hers!) Sure enough, the phone rang shortly after the library opened...and Miss Cecil, her favorite librarian, told me that Rachael had won the $25 Walmart gift card. :) Milly got to pick out a free book. I won nada.

So, I guess we've had a little excitement after all.

BUT. I'm ready for some routine, and I think the girls are too. Our Notice of Intent to homeschool for the 2010-11 school year has been filed, and we have about half of our curriculum already. The rest is on the way and should be here any time. Time to start making lesson plans!

I'll tell you all about our curriculum choices soon...and the extracurriculars we have planned for this fall. I still need to sort out something for Milly too, as she's quite insistent that she wants to "do school like Sissy."

Milly Logic

Okay, I confess...I may rely more often than I'd like on the electronic babysitter while I'm doing school with Rachael. But the fact is, I can turn on Milly's favorite show (Team Umizoomi) and have a quiet, uninterrupted twenty minutes to focus on schoolwork with Rachael. Alternatively, I can leave the TV off, set Milly up with a pile of books, paper, crayons, what have you, and she's climbing my leg and screaming bloody murder within ten seconds because she wants all of the attention, and she wants it now.

Tonight, I was talking with Gene and mentioned that I'd be starting preschool* with Milly this fall. She was standing nearby and obviously overheard our conversation, and pondered it for a bit... About ten minutes later, she came to find me in the kitchen while I was making supper.


Milly: Me do school now?
Me: Yes, you can start doing preschool soon.
Milly: And Sissy watch Teamy Ah-zoomi?


:)


Got another clever one on my hands! School with her is going to be fun!



* Preschool, of course, not meaning any sort of rigid, structured curriculum - just more focused play on learning letters, counting, etc. She already has her colors down pat.

Update time!

Since I'm currently being screamed at by an angry toddler who wants absolutely nothing that I have to offer, I figured it was as good a time as any to update the homeschool blog - since we're between lessons until the tantrum subsides anyway. :)

Rachael took an early spring break this year, while we worked toward sorting out some attitude issues that were making school more difficult...if not downright impossible, some days. Now that things are going more smoothly on that front, it's back to business as usual.

We've finished the first ten lessons already in her new Bible study, Choosing Obedience. I was really hoping that it would focus on a real-life application, but instead it focuses on obedience to God...which is, of course, more important in the long run!

She's moving right along through her English/grammar book as well - the lessons are so short and simple that we quite often do two per day. Although I really love the layout of this curriculum (Learning Language Arts Through Literature), I think I'm going to have to consider something different before long. Maybe not next year...but this year she's been working on the second grade book, and it's not been much of a challenge. She's learning lots of new things, but the concepts aren't difficult for her. We may continue with the third grade book for next year, but it certainly won't take her all the way through her elementary school years.

She's still plugging along with math, too. We're working in the Math-U-See Beta book now (their equivalent of second grade.) She's doing quite well with it, but just plain doesn't like math. Thank goodness for so many online resources - we've been supplementing with quite a few "fun" printable worksheets, and that seems to make it more bearable for her.

With spring finally here - and hopefully warmer days than today to come soon - we'll be moving the "classroom" outside a lot more. We've all had a bit of the "blahs" lately, so maybe the change of scenery will help. :)

Happy New Year!

Originally posted on January 4, 2010

As promised when I first began this blog, I have been spectacularly craptastic about keeping it updated. New year, new attempt at keeping it at least somewhat regularly updated...

The first quarter of our 2009 school year couldn't have been more perfect. We were met with a bit of a challenge in the second quarter, which led to us only covering the basics (reading, math and Bible) on most days. Fortunately, reading and math are the big ones that the county requires us to do every day, so we're still in good shape. As of December 22, we had completed 90 out of the required 180 days of instruction for the 2009-10 school year. Halfway there!

After a week and half off for Christmas and New Year's, we're back at the kitchen table for school this morning. Quite a bit of what we're doing today is review, especially in the subjects that have been somewhat neglected (science, history, health) in the past months.

We'll be starting all new things before long, as Rachael is just two lessons away from finishing her math book - the one that we only started in September! Granted, we didn't do all of the review pages - I let her work on each lesson until she was ready to take the test, and then let her go for it. (As long as she has a good grasp on each concept, I see no reason to make her repeat, repeat, repeat.) So, she made short work of Math-U-See Alpha, which covered more skip counting, telling time on an analog clock, addition, subtraction, solving for unknown, word problems, etc. I'm very impressed (and, I admit, a little surprised) at just how well she's done with this math book, especially since she claims that it's her least favorite subject. Oddly, she complains about adding but has no qualms whatsoever about subtracting. We'll be finishing this book on Friday and then working on review pages until the next book (Beta) arrives.

We'll also be starting a new Bible study at the end of January, when we finish reading through her God's Little Princess Devotional Bible. As sweet and meaningful as the devotionals are for a girl her age, I'm looking forward to beginning something more in-depth with her soon. Train Up A Child Publishing has a series of "Choosing..." books that have gotten excellent reviews - I'm leaning toward Choosing Obedience or Choosing Self-Control to begin with, which will hopefully help nip some behavioral issues before they escalate. Other titles include Choosing Kindness, Thankfulness, Humility, Responsibility...all geared at children in K-5. There are more titles for teens that I think will be interesting to study with her later on, assuming that the reviews are correct and we love this series just as much!

Rachael still isn't a big fan of handwriting, although she doesn't fight me on it as much these days. She only takes offense when I erase a word for having capital letters randomly inserted in the middle...

She's still taking gymnastics lessons, and doing well with them. I love watching her flip over the uneven bars! She's also beginning her last year (sniffle) as a Daisy Girl Scout. I can't believe she'll be a Brownie this fall! The first meeting of the new year is tonight, and we'll be kicking off the COOKIE DRIVE! (No, I'm not at all excited about that!)

So, there's our new year update - hopefully it won't take me three months to post another one. :)  It's my intent to ease into a more classical method of education over the next few months, which focuses very highly on history (as well as math and language arts, of course.) If you're a homeschooling parent and have never read The Well-Trained Mind, I would highly recommend it. Lots of wonderful food for thought!

Happy 2010, everyone! I'm very much looking forward to making some changes in our home this year, and to a fun and insightful school year!