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Homeschooling Adventures at the Maxwell's
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Why I Like The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
I enjoy this magazine because it is written by those in trenches, so to speak. It is always far more helpful and reassuring to receive tried and true advice and insight. I love the ads too, always full of wholesome tools that can be used to enhance your homeschooling experience. This is one magazine I will continue to subscribe to for many years. |
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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Great School Days
Why is it that I'm always worried that we aren't doing "enough" for school? I do this every year, then as I'm assembling their portfolios, I'm always amazed at how much we've done!
Our day today was pretty full with our schooling and I still didn't get everything covered that I'd wanted, but it still was a good one. When I calculated up on the calendar that we only have about 8 solid weeks of school left before I send in their portfolios I got a little shock!! We normally do formal schoolwork 3 days a week, the other two being "life lessons" meaning participating in activities in the real world. So I found a blank lesson planning chart and made one for each kid and one for me.
On theirs I have categories for Math, Reading, Writing/Penmanship, Spelling, and Language Arts. In each of these blocks I have written specific pages or lessons they are to cover for the day and week. It is up to them how they do it as long as the entire page is complete by the end of the week. On the one I have for me, I have those subjects and anything I want to cover with them in addition to assisting with their assignments, like reading a punctuation book for Language Arts. I write those things down and check them off as they are done.
In addition to those 5 subjects, I also have written down assignments for Health, Science, Social Studies/History. These 3 subjects we are going to do as a group and some with have individual follow up assignments. For instance, Science today was working on the Undersea University kit we purchased from Scholastic, and History was reading more in "To Be A Slave." Unfortunately, we got so into the oceanography book that we wound up not covering what I wanted to in Health. Oh, well, I still have it written on my chart so it will get covered this week sometime.
The reason we normally do school just the three days is so we can have other interactions on the other two. On Wednesday's we meet with other homeschoolers and either do field trips or just let the kids hang out while the parent's discuss homeschooling topics or just chat. On Fridays are the days we do our errands and cleaning of rooms. We do the bank, post office, groceries, and most importantly the library. However, I'm going to make sure that any work written on their charts that are not completed must be finished before leaving the house on Friday. Usually I've been letting them hold it over until the next week, but we really need to focus on getting it done for the portfolios.
I like the portfolio option that we are able to utilize, but I'm thinking I might try testing again next year. I haven't done the best at keeping records this year so testing would definitely not be making me stress out like I am right now. However, the portfolios keep the kids from stressing out like testing would. Oh, well, we'll see how the reviews come back to determine what our assessments will be for next year. |
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Friday, January 25, 2008
My Wedding Cake - Blast From the Past!
My cousin that made my cake for our wedding reception called today to see if I could email her a pic of it. This was 16 years ago and my wedding album is the second scrapbook album that I completed. Come to think of it, I think it was the last one I completed too! LOL. Since I uploaded the pic to photbucket, I thought I'd share it on here too. I may have left it to large a file, if so I'll edit it.
I just scanned the entire scrapbook entry. My what sloppy handwriting I used! I also hate how the glue shows through the vellum. But the cake was lovely and delish! It was three flavors, spice cake in the middle tiers (my fav), chocolate on one side and white on the other. Everyone at the reception all said they enjoyed the variety of cake, they said they'd never had anything but white at weddings. What can I say, I like to be different!! |
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Need To Start School Earlier
Here lately, it seems like we are getting a late start with our schoolwork. It's my fault, too. By the time we all get ready to go with it, everyone is hungry for lunch! I have written down the most beautiful, organized schedules for us to adhere to and things will go wonderfully for those days I use them. Then I slack off into the old ways and we get back into our bad habits/routines.
I 've been reading some back issues of several different types of homeschooling magazines and one in particular has given me great ideas on organizing my life and the way we homeschool. I can't wait to implement some of them. It is similar to the Flylady system of the control journal, but in this case you make a seperate binder for each area you are wanting to address. Instead of using a 3 ring binder for each, I'll be using some of the multitude of portfolio folders I bought at the back to school sales this past fall. I'll put in about 5 or so clear plastic top-loading sheet protectors then fill them with the papers I need.
Here are some examples of what I plan on doing with a few of the folders:
TEACHER PLANNER: I'm going to print out the forms I like from www.donnayoung.org and have sections for Goals, Curriculum info (either what we are using or what I want to check into), section for each child, routine events (like clubs and extra classes), menu ideas (breakfast and lunch), monthly kids cook day menu plans.
STUDENT DAYBOOK: fill with weeks worth of assignments, each subject in own divider check off lists, list for tracking reading, movies, games, etc.
FIELD TRIP INFO: brochures, contact info., all planning notes.
CORRESPONDENCE: pen pal letters, stationery, envelopes, stamps, return address labels, stamps, etc.
HEALTH RECORDS: one section per family member.
RECIPES: frequently used favorites.
YARD AND GARDEN: record of planting, empty seed packets, seasonal checklists, photo records of plant growth, gardens, etc., landscape plans, price quotes.
PERSONAL: journals, goals, planning, thankful lists, prayer lists, page to jot down funny/memorable moments, entertaining guests (when, what served, allergies, preferences).
There are some other ones I want to do too, but these are the ones I plan on doing first. |
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Sunday, December 30, 2007
Printer Woes
| My printer is giving me fits and I have a bad habit of forgetting exactly what ink it uses and I keep buying the wrong one!! Walmart is where I normally buy the ink and I know exactly what shelf they keep it on, so no problems usually, except they were out of the red one. I went to Staples a few days later to get the red and thought I remembered the number and of course once I got it home, it was the wrong one! Now I need to take it back to get the right one (if I can find the daggone receipt!). I'm so used to printing so much stuff for our homeschool that it is really driving me crazy!! |
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Sunday, December 30, 2007
Educational Christmas Gifts
Even before we started homeschooling, educational gifts were always showing up under our Christmas trees. The kids actually ask for them and they are the gifts they will use over and over again. This year was no exception. Most of the stuff is already cleaned up and put away but I'll try to remember the ones that really stood out (at least in my opinion).
Well, just looking around, Spencer and Lindsey are using her gift of The American Girls Pom-Pom Pets kit. So far they've made a kitten, duck, mouse and are now making a squirrel. I like this kit because once you use the yarn in the kit, you can just supplement with yarn you have already. They all got several science kits from Scholastic and they've been enjoying exploring and experiementing with them. We all got many, many books and we've not even begun to make a dent in them yet, we have finished a few though.
Isn't it awful, now that Christmas has come and gone and everything is put away, I'm having a hard time remembering what we got!! |
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Sunday, December 30, 2007
Update on Grandpa and My Dad
On December 4th, my grandpa went into the hospital with chest pains and wound up having a heart attack as soon as he arrived there. He was kept pretty much in a med induced coma for over a week. He is now home and doing very well. I haven't seen him since he got out though, but I hope to soon.
My dad went into the doctor in the same VA hospital that my grandpa (his dad) was in for some normal bloodwork. Something must have shown up as the doctor kept asking what pain he had, and once he finally admitted he had some in his shoulder and little tightening of the chest, then he was on his own bed and wheeled to his own room in ICU right down the hall from his father.
It was determined that he would need a triple bypass so he was shipped to another hospital 2 hours north of us. My mom, brother and I went up to stay for the surgery and ended up being there for 2 nights. He came out of it normally, but it was so hard for me to see him so vulnerable and scared. He's always been my rock and it was awkward for me to see him in this new light.
They are both home now and doing wondrfully. My mom is starting to get irritated with my dad because he is more interested in sleeping the day away instead of getting some exercise doing basic thins like walking. He does it some, but he is getting into a bad habit of falling asleep as soon as he sets down. I know he needs to rest, but in order to get better sooner he needs to put forth some more effort. I'm worried that he might be in a sorta depression, so he needs to get that checked out with his doctor too.
So, so far so good, now it's up to them to keep it up. I pray for them constantly. My kids are really missing the time they used to spend hanging out with their pap. |
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Thursday, December 6, 2007
Pray for my Grandpa, please.
My grandpa is 84 and has been in relatively good health, he does have diabetes and had a pacemaker installed a few years ago, but was still getting around just fine. So fine, in fact, that I'm afraid I've taken him for granted. Night before last he was having chest pains so his lady friend took him to the VA hospital to have him looked at. He needed ventilated and while they were trying to insert the tube in his throat he suffered a heart attack. And he kept trying to yank the tube out so they decided to put him in a medically induced coma to give him a chance to start to heal.
Yesterday they were able to get the amount of oxygen they were giving him to a normal level although he is still on the vent and in the induced coma. However, he ran a fever of 102F all night and they fear he now has pneumonia on top of all that. He is on antibiotics and who knows how many other meds too and although his kidneys are working enough to filter the normal daily toxins out of his system, they are not strong enough to filter out the dye they would normally inject in order to do more tests to check out his arterial blockages. They doctors have said that it is all up to him now, and I keep praying for his comfort regardless of God's ultimate decision.
We are a pretty big family and unfortunately, unless his will is very very specific, there is going to be a maelstrom when all is said and done. I have a couple of aunts and uncles that will be so sneaky and underhanded and vicious that my parents pretty much intend to stay out of it and let them all fight over it. it is so sad when adults act that way, but I do see it coming. My parents are worried about how my brother will behave when they pass away so my mom is always telling me where they keep money and other things, and have given me the combination to the safes and has told me where to find specific keys and also how much money they have put back just so he won't try to railroad me.
This all reminds me that we really need to get our wills updated. We had them made when our oldest was our one and only and there is no mention of any additional children that may come along. I know there is a way to make your own will without going through a lawyer, I just need to search online as to how to do it. |
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Monday, November 5, 2007
I Need Help With "CATEGORIES"
Could a fellow blogger that is more comfortable with the template html coding please tell me how I can make my list of categories show up on my blog? I played with it a little and can't seem to make it do what I'm needing. Please describe it like you would to a 1st grader so I can really understand it.
Thanks!
Dianna |
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Sunday, June 24, 2007
I'm Back!!!
After trying to blog on a different blogger site and not really feeling comfortable there, I decided to come back here. I know they've been working on this site to get it running more smoothly, so I'm going to give it a go again.
So what has been happening in my life? The one event that stands out the most is that our beloved cat, Smokie, has passed away. I cried for two days solid, and things have gotten better slowly. Spencer and Lindsey have been wanting to talk about him a lot, and that has probably helped me to deal with it too. Ty and the kids had a funeral for him, but I couldn't attend, I was a mess so I just stayed in the house and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. I have gone to the gravesite, even though I didn't really want to, but the kids insisted. Sometimes the kids know better than the parents on how to work through grief, just face it head-on.
We've went to see some movies recently. We've seen Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Carribean 3, and yesterday we took in Evan Almighty. I highly recommend all of them, especially the last one. The kids enjoy the movies, but Spencer starts getting pretty wiggly once about an hour and a half has passed. Since the pirates movie was nearly 3 hours, he did a LOT of squirming near the end.
I also put in a garden again and so far so good. I need to set a time to go do some weeding, the onions are getting overtaken by grass. I can see some tomatoes, watermelon, cucumbers, zucchinis, and peas that are nearly ready. Lots of other things planted, but those are the fruits I can see right now.
Well, since I'm fighting another migraine (day 3) I think I'll end the updates now. I have more, but these stood out the most. |
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