In June I had written that I had everything figured out.  We were spending WAY too much time every day with me going back and forth between kids.  With 4 of them actively doing some type of school work, I was being worked to death.  I think we have it down for this year at least. I thought I would share what I am doing.

I have 4 children: Austin 10, Nathan 8 (almost 9), Adam 6, and Lauren 4 (almost 5).  First thing in the morning I have Austin and Nate do some independent work so that I can work directly with Adam and Lauren. 

My time with Adam and Lauren includes many things.  If one is having a particularly difficult time in language arts or in math, then I have time I can spend one-on-one.  Usually we start out the morning with both of them doing their Explode the Code books.  They love these, and they get them in the mood for working.  Then I read - right now we are reading Charlotte's Web.  I spend some one-on-one with Lauren with phonics work, then Adam.  While I am working with one, the other usually continues on Explode the Code, or some other fun little workbook I have.  Adam is working through First Language Lessons at a good pace, and he seems to really enjoy most of the lessons.  Lauren listens in while she is working.

At the same time, Austin and Nathan work on independent reading, spelling and grammar.  We have decided to use Rod and Staff's English for our grammar work.  It is rigorous, but not over the kids' heads.  Sometimes they do need my help to understand the lesson's idea, but most of the time the book explains it well enough for them.  We absolutely ADORE our spelling program.  We invested in Phonetic Zoo from Institute for Exellence in Writing.  It is self-paced and the boys are moving through the lessons at a good pace.  And the best part is that I can see them using what they learn when they notebook in other subjects.  Most of the independent reading is books chosen by my boys.  However, I am going to be assigning them some historical literature to read that will go along with our history.  Right now Austin is in the middle of A Series of Unfortunate Events.  Nathan just finished up reading some selections from Sonlight's Intermediate 2 readers.  He's ready for some more challenging reading.

When we are done with that first block - I usually give the kids a little break.  Myself, too.  Then it's on to either History or Science.  We are switching these two subjects every other day for now... we may change to every other week.

Story of the World 3 is our History spine for this year.  We are really getting into notebooking.  My kindergartener is even enjoying the stories and coloring pages.  She especially loves the maps.  My boys are really enjoying this approach as well.  We are spending a decent amount of time every other day on History - and they haven't grumbled once since we started the notebooking.  I hope to include some classic literature into this time, but right now we are comfortable with simply reading the stories in the book, doing some activities and then reading about the times in our Usborne World History book.  They are showing off their notebooks every day to their dad - showing him all they remember.

Science is following much the same path.  We decided to go with a notebooking approach with Science as well.  After looking around, I decided to buy the Botany book from Apologia.  We are so thrilled!  Today my children did the first activity in the book - Shoe Taxonomy.  They collected one of each pair of shoes in the entire house.  (ok, we have to weed out the shoes!)  They then sorted them into kingdoms.  We took one of the Kingdoms and divided it down into two phylum, then each into two classes, then each into two orders.  At the end of the documenting - I gave each of them a shoe that they were to identify using BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE.  I was so proud when the older two could do it without much prodding.  My little ones didn't really get that part, but they did love classifying each shoe. 

Math is our most fun subject.  I do NOT use a set curriculum and I cannot wait to write about what we are doing for math.  I am working on getting some documents together that I use - and putting it all together in a way that YOU can use it too.  It really is so much fun.  We all do math together, even though my older two are doing 4th grade level math... and sometimes higher!  We work together - each at his own pace and on his own level.  I love that I am not bound to a curriculum, but I love that I can see easily where each of my children falls in accordance with 'grade level'. I plan to have this uploaded by next weekend.  Cross your fingers!

We are into our 5th week of school, and I have to say that this is better than I had even hoped.  I have changed some things around already, but we are in a good routine and having minimal frustrations by my oldest.

First thing in the morning the kids come downstairs dressed (WOO HOO!) and make themselves breakfast.  My older two, Austin (10) and Nathan(8), make breakfast of either eggs or oatmeal.  I love this!

Then we start our school day.  I make every effort to begin by 9 am.  Austin and Nate work independently (or with minimal help) on grammar and spelling.  Austin will do spelling first, then grammar  -  and Nate does the opposite.  When they are done with those 2 things, they spend 20 minutes reading independently.  I really like having this time with the younger two, Adam(6) and Lauren(4).  I can do almost everything I want/need to with them in that amount of time.

After our Language Arts we most often break out Story of the World.  We are reading through the 3rd book now.  I sit on the couch - and the kids all sit around our coffee table and color their notebooking pages.  All 4 are LOVING the history.  I cannot tell you how much I hated history in school - so Story of the World has seriously rocked my world!  We spend a good amount of time making notebook pages about what we have read, doing map work, occasionally doing activities. 

Then it's time for lunch.

After lunch we generally spend some time on math as a family.  I plan on making a blog entry completely devoted to our math.  I have searched high and low for a math program that was interesting enough for us, wasn't workbooky, and was fun.  I decided to not use one - and the kids are really making progress, and I can actually track their progress and work on skills where they may be lacking/struggling. 

Then we are done for the day. Most often before 1 pm we are completed.  I feel good about how much we are completing - and feel that we are making progress.  Both of which have stressed me out in prior years.  We are adding in Latin soon - but it will be in the morning lineup in with other Language Arts. 

I forgot to mention that we will be alternating Science with History as soon as I get our new Science book.  I can't wait.

I do need to get more art and music in.  I used to teach music, and I am honestly ashamed that I haven't done more music education wise.  BUT... we are starting piano lessons with my oldest two.  Austin has expressed an interest in playing flute, so he may be getting a flute for the holidays.  We'll see how he does with practicing the piano on a regular basis.

I hope to blog a little more often.  My goal is to blog about a serious to me topic once a week.  My first one is going to be all about how we are doing math.  I seriously think this is a fun, unique, effective way.  ;)

I'm hoping that someone will read my blog and have some links.  I would really like some ready-made craft kits for my kids!  I don't feel up to making up the crafts, which is why I want ready-made.  lol

Anyone?

We are starting our new school year now... in June... while everyone is on summer vacation.  I'm doing that because the kids have had a good month off and also because we will be moving sometime in the summer/fall... not sure when.  So, we started this week.  So far, ok.  Some kinks mainly dealing with time management to work out, but I think we are close to being ok.

This year there are 4 school aged children.  I'm starting with the oldest...

Austin, age 9, 4th grade

Language Arts

     *Spelling - The Phonetic Zoo (www.writing-edu.com) 

     *Grammar - Rod and Staff English 4 (www.http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/)

     *Writing - Insitute for Excellence in Writing (www.writing-edu.com)

     *Readers - Sonlight Core 3 readers (www.sonlight.com)

     *Misc. - Wordly Wise 3000 book C; Reading Comprehension in Varied Subject Matter book C; Kidspiration (www.inspiration.com)

History

     *Sonlight Core 3 - Early American History (www.sonlight.com)

     *Story of the World Volume 3 (www.peacehillpress.com)

     *Story of the World Volume 3 activity guide (www.peacehillpress.com)

Science

     *Sonlight Science 3 (www.sonlight.com)

Math

     *Saxon Math 5/4

Nathan, age 8, 3rd grade

Language Arts

     *Spelling - The Phonetic Zoo (www.writing-edu.com) 

     *Grammar - Rod and Staff English 3 (www.http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/)

     *Writing - Insitute for Excellence in Writing (www.writing-edu.com)

     *Readers - Sonlight Core 2 Intermediate readers (www.sonlight.com)

     *Misc. - Wordly Wise 3000 book A; Reading Comprehension in Varied Subject Matter book A; Kidspiration (www.inspiration.com)

History

     *Sonlight Core 3 - Early American History (www.sonlight.com)

     *Story of the World Volume 3 (www.peacehillpress.com)

     *Story of the World Volume 3 activity guide (www.peacehillpress.com)

Science

     *Sonlight Science 3 (www.sonlight.com)

Math

     *Saxon Math 5/4

     *Calculus By and For Young People

Adam, age 6, 1st grade

Language Arts

     *Readers - Dick and Jane books; "An I Can Read Book" level 1 then 2; Dr. Seuss

     *Phonics - Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (www.peacehillpress.com)

     *Grammar - First Language Lessons (www.peacehillpress.com)

     *Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears

     *Read Alouds - Sonlight PreK (www.sonlight.com)

     *various language arts 1st grade workbooks for reinforcement and busy work (so he is occupied and I can help the others)

Math

     *various workbooks dealing with addition, up to carrying; subtraction up to borrowing; beginning multiplication and division; measurement; time

History

     *Story of the World 3 (www.peacehillpress.com)

     *Story of the World 3 Activity Guide (www.peacehillpress.com)

Science

     *Sonlight Science 3 - tagging along - not full force

     *Sonlight PreK sciene books

Lauren, age 4 (5 in November), Kindergarten

Language Arts

     *Phonics - Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (www.peacehillpress.com)

     *Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears

     *Read Alouds - Sonlight PreK (www.sonlight.com)

Math

     *various workbooks dealing with addition; subtraction; measurement; time

History

     *Story of the World 3 (www.peacehillpress.com)

     *Story of the World 3 Activity Guide (www.peacehillpress.com)

Science

     *Sonlight PreK sciene books

This was the scene at the Mitchell house as two mummies were brought to life by upwards of 15 children at a birthday party.  Luckily, the Scooby Detective Agency was nearby to lend a hand at discovering who these mummies REALLY were.  Two homeschooling fathers were taken into custody after they were revealed as being the mummies who were terrorizing the children.

I threw my first ever brithday party.  I've had small gatherings before with a couple of close families to share our cake and ice cream... but nothing like a real party.  We recently moved into this courtyard (Feb/March) and have made friends with our neighbors.  There are a lot of young kids and they play together all the time. 

Adam decided he wanted a Scooby Doo party... so we ran with that idea.  We had a cookout - because Scooby is ALWAYS eating.  Then we dropped Scooby Snacks (dog biscuits) into a bucket.  We also took two volunteers (ok, I really voluntold them) and the kids worked together with 8 rolls of toilet paper and made mummies.  I must say, homeschooling dads are the greatest, most willing guys.  :)

Most of the kids were just kids from our courtyard.  One family we knew back in Omaha is here... and they came, too.  We were very close to them.  They have 5 kids, homeschool, and lived 2 houses away from us for 2 years.  We visited every day and the kids played every day, too.  Last spring I moved to notheast Ohio to be near family while dh was in Korea.  Shortly after we had moved, they moved to Dayton, OH with the Air Force.  When I found out that dh was being stationed here in Dayton when he got home, I made sure we hooked up a few times.  The mom, Amy, has been such a wonderful guide and mentor for me.  She's much more even keeled than I am, and has given me such great insight on parenting, homeschooling, and being a good friend.  I love her and will miss her (again) when they leave this summer.

Please take a look at the pictures from our party.  We really had an awesome time.  

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...slideshow=true

I haven't written in a while - mainly because of time.  There just aren't enough hours in a day.  How come when the kids were babies, it seemed as if the days lasted forever?  Now, the years are passing by so quickly! 

DH is back from his year long remote to Korea.  YAY!  I will honestly say it was the absolute hardest year of my life.  I did end up putting a couple of my boys in public school until we moved in Feb.  They did ok... but geez - it definitely reinforced the reasons I didn't WANT to do it.  But... for sanity sake this past year, it was a Godsend.  lol  DH got home 2 weeks ago (May 6).

Shortly after dh got back, we found out that he is being forced out of the Air Force due to force shaping.  He has 12 years of active time in... so we will get an ok severence pay - but we had planned on staying in for at least 20 years and getting a retirement.  Plans change.  A new fork in our road.  And now... deciding what to do, where to go, and how to get there.  We trust that God has plans... but we are really anxious to find out what those plans might entail.

The day after getting that news, Austin (9)  had surgery.  He had his tonsils out, adenoids out due to sleep apnea, and tubes placed in both ears due to conductive hearing loss.  When I took him to the doctor to see what could be done about the sleep apnea, I thought the doctor was going to turn me into some agency.  sigh... I told her that he was sleeping in my room when I noticed that he was stopping breathing at night.  She jumped right on that one.  Well... he was sleeping in my room because he had shown me that he couldn't deal with sleeping on his new loft bed - he jumped onto his brother!  So, he had his mattress on my floor for a couple of weeks.  But geez, they really do jump on anything that could be minutely misconstrued.  Sad.  Anyway... he had his tonsils out.

DH went back to work this past week.  After finding out he is loosing his job by the end of Sept. - he went to work at a new position that he was hand selected for.  He recently pinned on Captain.  He is a commander of aquisitions and also a section commander.  He actually has to work discipline issues for officers of all ranks as well as run the commander's support staff.  He is working directly for a 3 star general, too.  He has a cell phone issued to him, as well as a Blackberry.  His office is HUGE.  He has a large conference table that seats 6 large comfy armchairs... and an enormous desk.  I think he is a bit sad to know it will only be for a few months.  But... we are trusting that this position will give him some new experiences that will help him get a good position in the civilian world.

Hey, if anyone knows of a good Human Resources Management position... dh is interesting in hearing more!  (gotta throw that in there)

So I decided to get back onto my blog... but it wasn't here!  oops.  It's been a few months - ok, since probably last August (?) since I have written.  There wasn't much there anyway. 

But, I am back... I want to keep a log of some of the things we do.  Hopefully I can make some new online friends this way, too.  :)