Redeeming the Time

Almost a Year

I see it's been almost a year since I posted to this blog.  Our past school year did not run smoothly, primarily because I was disorganized and unprepared and I didn't follow up on my children often enough.  I have one student who needs almost constant follow-up, and I knew that before the school year started, but I didn't follow through.  I didn't get all of our records sent to our teachers until just 2 weeks ago, and even then we didn't have everything finished.  My 11th grader received only half credit for math and science because he didnt' complete these two courses for the year.  So I've spent the past few days compiling our curriculum for this year and getting organized for the coming year.  Hopefully we'll all have a better year this time around!

Curriculum is Arriving

The last few pieces of curriuclum are arriving bit by bit.  Andrew has everything now except his science from Alpha Omega.  Beth still lacks Bible, math, and science.  Her Spanish is up and running, and she is really enjoying it.  My parents and my sister and brother-in-law are missionaries to Mexico, so she's been talking about being able to converse with them in Spanish, and also asking them how to pronounce those rolled r's! ;) 

I don't think I've made a list of each child's courses, so I'll do that.

Andrew:

Bible - Character and More Character, books by Jeff Owens, study guides by Wes Hutchens for Temple Baptist School

Computer - PHP Beginning, Apex Software

Language Arts - SOS Language Arts 1000

Math - Saxon Algebra I

Planning 10 - Anchor Academy, for BC Provicial Learning Outcomes

Science - Alpha Omega LifePacs, Grade 10

Social Studies - SOS History 1000

Beth:

Bible - Proverbs, Landmark's Freedom Baptist Curriculum

Character Development/Applied Skills - Pattern for Living by Marlene Evans and Training Our Daughters to be Keepers at Home by Mrs. Ann Ward

Fine Arts - Piano lessons and performance

Language Arts - SOS Language Arts 800

Math - Saxon 8/7

Science - SOS Science 800

Social Studies - SOS History 800

Spanish - Rosetta Stone online course and workbook

Guidelines for a Research Paper

These guidelines were provided by Mrs. R at Be Not Conformed.  She is a former teacher who now homeschools her own children.  She used this method in teaching her fourth-graders, but I'm going to adapt this to my high schoolers.  I've never had such a clear-cut set of guidelines before!  To this point I've always just had them write and then edit; I've never been successful with teaching how to take good notes.  I can't wait to try this out . . . but I'm sure Andrew and Beth can!

1. Pick a topic.
Example: trees

2. Write questions.
Example: 1. How do trees help us? 2. How many types of trees are there? (of course there should be many more questions. The more questions; the longer the paper.)

3. Find Resources
Example: books, encyclopedia articles, magazines, internet articles.

4. Research Buy a pack of note cards. When the student finds an answer to one of his questions he will write the information in his own words on a note card. There should only be one fact on a notecard. There will be several notecards for each question.

In the upper right hand corner of the note card he will write the question number. Make sure to keep tract of the title and author of each book for the works cited page.

Example: note-trees provide us with wood. Upper right corner the number 1 because this is an answer to question number one.

5. Outline When the student has found all his answers he will then create an outline. First, he will organize his note cards. Make a pile for all the cards that answer question number 1, number 2, etc. If this report is about a person or event then he will take all his answers for question 1 and then put the cards in chronological order. He would do the same for each pile.

Example of outline (blogger didn't indent properly):
I. Trees help us in many ways. (this is the question turned into a statement)
A. Trees provide us with wood. (an answer from a note card)
1. We need wood to built things
B. Trees give off oxygen.
II. There are many types of trees. (The student would continue recording the information from his note cards.)

6. Rough Draft (double space it makes editing easier) The student then takes his outline and turns it into paragraphs.
Example: Trees are amazing. They help us in many ways. One way the help us is to provide us with wood. We need wood to built thing. (etc.)

7. Revising and Editing. Students will need help with this part. Once they write something they are done. They don’t want to go back and make changes or add words. You will have to guide them to make changes. With editing use a checklist (Does each sentence start with a capital? Does each sentence end with punctuation? etc.). Have the student go through with a red pen and look for mistakes. Then you will need to go through the paper with the student and point out errors.

8. Final Copy Tell them this is the easy part. They just copy their revised and edited rough draft.

9. Proofread This is another area that kids will need help with. They feel they are done and they don’t want to look for anymore mistakes.

10. Works Cited This is a great time to teach your child to give credit where credit is due. Record all the works used in the report.

Meet the Children: Beth

Elizabeth, whom we call Beth, is our youngest child and only girl.  She's 13 years old and entering grade 7.  She is very much like her dad - really laid back, easygoing, mellow.  She's a feminine girl, but not with a lot of frills and foo-foo.  She's also very tall.  I'm of average height, but she is a full head taller than I am.  Of course, her dad and his mother are very tall.

Beth's very first love in life is babies.  Any kind of babies - human babies or animal babies.  She has always been very mature and sure of herself, so our friends have been trusting her to hold and take care of their small children since she was just a little girl herself.  Any puppy immediately gets her attention.  Baby animals of any kind are deemed "so cute!"

Beth began taking piano lessons two years ago, from the pianist at Greater Vancouver Baptist Church.  Mrs. W is a very accomplished pianist, especially in the area of church music, which is the area that we would like Beth to excel in.  Beth has done very well with her lessons, and is in Grade 3 of the Royal Conservatory of Music.  She plays very well at home, although she gets really nervous playing in front of a group.  We have her play an offertory occasionally, to keep her in front of people and hopefully help her become more comfortable playing for a group.  She loves to play, and she's also a good singer.  We have sung together as a family for about five years.

Beth is a good student.  She doesn't particularly love to study, but she applies herself and gets her work done.  I'm planning to add some homemaking and personal development courses this year, that will continue through her high school years.  She is my right arm around the house already, but I want to have some guidelines to train her in some of the skills that I didn't learn as a teenager.

So that's our baby girl!

Meet the Children: Andrew

Andrew is our middle child and the younger of our two boys.  He's 15 years old, and his strongest interest is computers.  When he was younger, it was anything to do with cowboys - guns, hats, belt buckles, boots, bolo ties, Westerns . . . if it had to do with a cowboy, Andrew was interested.  Of course, being born and raised in Ft. Worth, TX - officially known as Cowtown - probably had something to do with that interest.  He still loves to watch Westerns and look at guns, but he's outgrown the love of wearing all things cowboy. 

Andrew is the sunshine in our family.  He is almost always happy, and that happiness manifests itself in his singing or whistling at the top of his lungs every possible moment of the day.  He loves to sing, and he is famous for making up his own lines to almost any song.  Praise the Lord that his interest in songs centers on hymns and spiritual songs, and is not turned toward the world's music.  Maybe that is due to the music we choose to play at home?  Anyway, Andrew is a music lover.

Andrew also has an interest in how almost anything works.  He likes to take things apart and try to put them back together again, especially things that are broken.  If I need something fixed (and it doesn't matter if it gets permanently broken!), I'll let Andrew work on it to see if he can figure out how to fix it.  Sometimes he does!

About two years ago, Andrew discovered the world of online computer games.  Under his dad's guidance, he joined an online gaming community, and through a friend there began learning some programming.  That has blossomed into his working with graphics, and now he has begun designing some blogging templates and web pages.  He is still in the amateur stages, but we believe he has a talent in this area and we're encouraging him to pursue any training he can find in regards to photo editing and programming.

This is just a peek into our son's personality.  He has a tendency to tease and pester, but he is a light in our home.  His unique talents, gifts, and personality are part of our makeup, and we thank the Lord for giving us this son!

Why This Blog?

Another blog?  Yes, another blog!  This one wasn't really planned; it just kind of happened.  And it's not so much for public viewing as it is for myself to record our homeschool days and to use for record-keeping purposes.

For our previous homeschooling years, we haven't been very vigilent concerning records.  In the state of Texas, we didn't need to keep them until high school, and then only for our personal use to compose a transcript.  When we moved here to Canada two years ago, we found that, as long as we registered our children with an independent organization, we didn't have to be bothered with record-keeping for the BC government, either.

I'm not against keeping records.  In fact, I think it's a good idea to have proof that your children are learning and that you are providing for their educational needs.  But this year (after one child has graduated and the other two are high schoolers!), I decided I needed more accountability.  We traveled for our church ministry for 3 years before we moved here.  Those years on the road were so hectic that we basically got the main school subjects done each day and that was IT.  No time for extras.  When we moved here 2 years ago, I had gotten into the habit (and so had the children) of just getting the basics done, and that's what we continued to do.  This year, however, I want my two remaining students to get more out of schooling than just two hours a day getting the basic curriculum done.  I want them to expand their horizons a bit, have some art and music and physical education.  So this year, we are enrolling the children in Anchor Academy, a BC registered homeschool organization, which follows the guidelines of the BC Ministry of Education.  And we have to keep and turn in records.

So this blog will be part of that record-keeping.  I hope to write what we've done each day, what the kids are studying, conversations we have, field trips we take, functions we attend - anything and everything related to learning.  And I'll have part of my records taken care of right here.  At the very least I'll be able to come here to check on what our schooling hours were spent on, at the very most, I can send the teachers here to see for themselves what we've been doing.  All of this, of course, in addition to the paper records I'll be keeping.  I figured I'd combine what I love to do with what I have to do; hence, a record-keeping blog!