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What's Up on Wednesday?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
So kiddo is upstairs doing her lessons, DH is at work, Me- I have a "short list" of things to do today, the sun is shining (though high only in the low 50's... but as we like to say, "Hey, at least it isn't SNOWING!")
I spent yesterday finishing up my lesson plans for Unit one of Tapestry of Grace Year 3. I just have to enter weeks 9 & 10 into Homeschool Tracker, print up a few things for notebooking, and that will be that. I also hammered out what to do next in IEW. Both of those things will also take place in weeks 9 & 10 of TOG.
Tonight kiddo has soccer practice. My DH is the assistant coach. So far, we've yet to actually PLAY a game since one was canceled due to a flooded field and the other game was forfeited by the other team, thereby a WIN for us! The kids are SOOOOOOO ready to just go play! This is our daughter's third soccer season. She's been placed this season in midfield, having previously dominated on the defensive line. So, we'll see how that goes. Our team has one kid whose never shown up and apparently isn't planning to, thus leaving us one person short. This means no rotations. That's bad enough during a regular game day, but even worse on a day of double headers!
Her homeschool volleyball program finished up. She starts a homeschool track program tomorrow. I'm so thankful that there are opportunities such as these for her here. She really liked volleyball. She's not much "into" running but wanted to give track a try. They'll go through all the various aspects of track and field, giving each a try. Track meets 2x/week just for May. Not too long to feel overwhelmed but long enough to get something out of it. Nice!
We're LOVING our guinea pigs! Yes! I said PIGS. We got Theo a friend, another male. I named him DINKY cause he’s little. Theo has had his issues with Dinky, trying to establish dominance, but it’s working itself out. They are both happy together. It isn’t any more work to have two than it was one, and barely any additional cost involved. Just so much fun and such different personalities. Love it!
Here's little Dinky:
He's WAAAY smaller than Theo.
And here they are together, munching on some corn husks this morning:
Look at how much Theo has grown in the time that we've had him!
He has a double chin now. LOL
This afternoon I need to finish up my reading and "pre-quiz answer gathering" (open book quiz) for my Biology 100 class. I tell you, I really had no clue how VERY different taking a college course online would be vise what I was used to-- sitting in a classroom listening to lectures. *sigh* But only a couple weeks left in the course! Registration will be soon for the next 8 week term which starts in June.
Well, I suppose that's it for now. Time to get crackin' on my list of TTD.
**Edited to add (in response to a comment left)... Dinky is smaller because he is a lot younger than Theo. We got him because he specifically was young. It is (typically) easier to introduce two boars when one is younger. And, TTD= things to do.
Weighing in on the economy...
Monday, April 28, 2008
So on one of my email loops I brought up the topic of the skyrocketing gas prices. Instead of rethinking it all to post here, I'll just edit it and repost here...
These crazy gas prices! We buy gas on base and even it is skyrocketing. It's put a real damper on those things that I'd otherwise have done/attended/participated in. Like tomorrow, we had a HS day at a ceramics place to go to ... but, because it is about 30 minutes away, I've decided to forego the outing-- because it would be a round trip to GO and paint the piece, plus the cost of the actual piece (though I could have just given DD a $$ amount to stay under) plus another round trip a week later to pick up the finished (fired) piece. Gas just rules that out. Kiddo has a month of track starting on Thursday which we've already signed up/paid for and both DH and I think it is a great opportunity for her that we've decided to suck up the gas expenditure and take part in this homeschool track program (offered in May only) which meets 2x a week. The meeting place is about 20 minutes from home. Heck, I've already prepaid for a field trip to a factory (in downtown Chicago) but I'm strongly considering not going and just forfeiting that money (only $6.00) because it would be at LEAST 45 -60 minutes getting there in traffic and most certainly more coming home, due to the time of day--- all that time sitting in traffic just sucking down gas. *sigh*
So, has gas changed ya'lls outings yet? If not, how are you dealing with the higher gas costs? Ya know, come to think of it-- if it were JUST gas prices raising, we could deal with that. But obviously everything is raising (string cheese is now $3.09!!!! when we moved here it was under $2.00! Needless to say, I don't buy it now. Instead I buy a block of Colby-jack and slice it into pieces. Yes, DD loves cheese and eats a piece every day! She'd be happy with a piece at every meal...but I frown on that. LOL)
And now I read this article and feel "validated" in my thinking/observations. Funny, my online buddy was the first to inform me about the rice hoarding going on. So I mentioned that to a few homeschool moms a couple weeks ago when we were discussing gas prices. They looked at me like I was crazy! Now they might not think I'm quite so crazy.
I'm even reevaluating if I *NEED* the items that I was going to purchase through the food co-op, or if I ought to change some of those items to other things that the prices have already been going up, to try to stock up more on those. This is all driving me nuts, I tell you. We were already on a pretty tight budget due to the HUGE pay cut we saw moving off of sea duty in Hawaii to shore duty in Illinois. Money isn't very stretchy nowadays either. LOL This one-income, homeschooling family definitely has some purse strings to tighten. Pretty soon, I think, that so-called purse is going to be inside out from so much tightening though! Ugh. I even sold a few books via email lists here lately. Something I said I didn't see me doing again anytime soon, due to the headache. Well, having even a tiny bit of extra cash flow far outweighed the potential headache. Now to just sit and wait for those money orders to arrive!
So, readers... weigh in. Has the rising gas prices (and even food costs) played into your homeschooling yet? If so, how? And, how are you coping?
Q: Chelelew posted a comment wanting to know how what report options in HST+ I'm using to get the assignment sheet we use (and that I post on my blog.)
A: Once I've clicked the REPORTS tab I click the ASSIGNMENTS radio button (third radio button down under the "assignments" header, on the left. A pop-up screen will appear at which point I usually type something into the title field (an outing that day, a riddle for the day or just a nice comment to my daughter.) I've captured the pop-up window to share here so that you can see what settings I have checked.
Click to enlarge image!
I use the "Grey shading" option so that the DIRECTIONS FIELD (in the assignment grid/LP screen) will show up more clearly, different than the actual assignments. I adjust the font and font size of the assignment body according to how easily it can be read. Sometimes there will be 1-3 assignment items that fall over to a second page. In that case I'll wiggle things around (like putting shorter directions in place and moving them to the PLC field instead) and make the font smaller. Additionally, I have my footer section of the reports to a font size of 2, font of GARAMOND in order to save ink and space.
Hope that spells things out clearly enough! As always, if you have questions, about this or most anything else, please leave a comment and I'll try to post a Q&A for it!
The Bradys sing "Sunshine Day"
Monday, April 21, 2008
Growing up in the 1970's I could help but be exposed to the Brady Bunch-- all nine of them, plus Tiger. The ultra, white-bread, blended American family taught various life-choices, morals, and problem solving. Right?? One of the better episodes, IMO, is the one where the kids are "music stars" trying to earn the silver platter. Who can forget the song SUNSHINE DAY...
Truly one of my favorite songs, yes, even now-- a gazillion years later, even now as an adult. LOL
Anyway, this song sprung to mind this morning, when I awoke at 6:15am. The sky was a bright, clear blue and the birds were enjoying the feeders my husband put up this weekend. It's now, 4:15pm and the day was, indeed, a SUNSHINE DAY. DD and I enjoyed about an hour outside after breakfast, with her riding her bicycle and me walking (listening to my iPod shuffle--yes Mom, I finally loaded some songs to it and even got the arm band for it. LOL) We just walked through our neighborhood, watched the construction workers STILL working on new housing here. It was a nice time, ending at the park across the street for a few minutes before heading home and starting our school day.
While out at various times on the patio today I spotted some wonderful seasonal visitors back to our yard... saw a Golden Finch, a Red-winged Blackbird, Grackles, Cowbird, and a cabbage butterfly. Add those to our already spotted (or never left) visitors. It was again, a SUNSHINE DAY.
Q & A- Hours of our schooling
Friday, April 11, 2008
Jen asks, "Do you set hours you home school? May I ask what your hours are? You seem to have full busy days :)"
Great question, Jen!
Do I have "set hours" for our homeschooling? Hmmm, in my mind, no. We start when morning routine (breakfast, dressing, bed made, teeth & hair brushed) is completed. While kiddo is doing her teeth and hair, that is when I usually go up to the school room with the assignment sheet in hand and stack her books & cards for the day. I've been doing this for years. I'm sure she could manage without it, but it even helps me see what I might need to print off or set aside, etc.
She usually starts eating breakfast about 7:30am (it's been a bit earlier as of late, with the sun rising earlier) after a few minutes taking care of Theo and chatting to him. By 8:30 she's nearly always ready to start lessons, again-- if not sooner.
Sometimes there's a little mid-morning snack at around 10:30.
Lunch is mostly from noon to 12:30-12:40, depending on what we're having for lunch, how long it takes to make, and what we're watching during the lunchtime (Last two days has been United Streaming movies on the Industrial Revolution, last week it was some DVR'd episodes of Leave it to Beaver... things like that ) or listening to on iTunes.
In a normal, full day (I didn't hold back assignments for something else we're doing) most everything is done by 1pm. Handicrafts, projects and sometimes science experiments will come afterwards, thus taking us till 2pm.
Of course, not every day runs 100% smoothly (like yesterday when my computer wasn't reading a CD I'd put in and singing had to take place upstairs), people call, something comes up, etc. and our day might go longer, say till 3.
That probably seems like a LOOOONG school day, but we're so relaxed it doesn't seem long. The majority of the days do NOT run that long, like I said- usually ending at 1pm. But even then the afternoon hours, at least until neighbor friends are available for playing, are spent doing something enriching.
Rainy start this morning included cereal and canteloupe for breakfast (for DD, not me, as I do NOT like canteloupe at all!) After paying some attention to Theo this morning she completed her normal "morning stuff." DD had already started her lessons by the time the "scheduled start" of the day came around, so that was good.
This afternoon is volley ball practice (have to leave about 2:30pm) so I purposely didn't assign any science for the day as I knew she'd want to do more work on the weaving project she started yesterday (ala a Tapestry of Grace handicraft suggestion, using the weaving loom I thrifted last January. Boy, was I glad to have THAT on hand!) and I wanted to give her time to do that before we had to leave for volleyball.
Here is today's assignment sheet:
Click to enlarge to read.
Notes--
"Laps" today were just running up/down our stairs since it was raining out.
The project listed at the bottom of the page is a project from Tapestry of Grace. She picked the Spinning Jenny to do her project on. I printed up some information sheets for her to read through and some images for her to cut/glue as desired. The project is all up to her. We selected a due date of 4/21. I gave her the criteria and she's off and running. She knows I'll help her with a direct question(s) she may have but otherwise won't give my input.
Today was her first day of memorizing Rudyard Kipling's "IF" poem. We just completed a study of Kipling and I selected this poem to conclude that study. Today she did a straight read through a couple of times then worked on memorizing the first stanza.
DD was thrilled to get an A+ on her math test.
This is the first time we're using her PDA as a "book source" for reading. I didn't want to print up the online text of Five Peppers Abroad and knew I had seen in online for the Palm However, since she's running a Pocket PC I had to install MobiReader and get a version for that. It worked and she's been reading from her PDA for this book for a few days now. Usually I assign a page count or chapter, but this time I have to assign "by time" since the PDA pages are merely a few lines of text. LOL It's working just fine for her though, and I think she enjoys the "change."
She'd finished up listening to Oliver Twist as an audio book a few days ago but we just got around to the TOG discussion questions today. This was a Dialectic level assignment in TOG but since our DD was already familiar with the storyline (having read an abridged version a few years back and seen the movie a few times) I thought she could handle the unabridged audio book. She said she didn't mind it but thought it was "a bit drawn out in places, kind of rambling on" (LOL) She also said she thinks kids a bit older than her would like it and should give it a try. She gave wonderful answers to the TOG discussion questions (wish I'd thought to record them!) It's nice having a handful of "starter questions" that then continue nicely into a socratic discussion. I really enjoyed listening to her thoughts and insight of the plot and characters. It was neat to see how she'd internalized the plight of Oliver and all that he went through.
Well, I suppose that wraps up today's lessons. I need to call up to DD (who is weaving and listening to THE WOODBEGOODS on her PDA via Audible) to remind her to get her volleyball stuff on. The kitchen smells delicious: chili and cornbread is done, fresh veggies are cut. I need to call DH to ask him to pick up some more milk on his way home. We'll be stopping by the library on our way home from Volleyball as we have six things on hold that have come in! (HOW EXCITING!!)
I'm a gal who likes to wake up naturally, no alarm clock, no lights turned on-- just natural-- the sun coming gently rising into our east-facing window, the birds chirping outside, neighbors' dogs barking, etc. Nature wasn't so helpful with waking this morning, though. Nope. The gloomy, haze grey sky barely allowed any sunlight to come into the bedroom. No sun rays available to poke me in the eyes. No birds chirping. Even the dogs were inside, probably snuggled down on a bed of some type. Instead, the pitter-patter of rain truly made it difficult to want to get up this morning. I've always thought rain made for perfect sleeping weather.
However, I knew dear lil' Theo was downstairs and awaiting the refilling of his guinea pig pellets (he typically always finishes the last of them during the night) and would want a freshening of his hay. Plus, he's always eager to see what fresh veggies will be served in the morning. (Today was a canteloupe rind and cucumber slices.)
It's now 1:19, lessons and lunch is over, dinner is made (tonight is volleyball practice for DD so I wanted dinner to be ready when we get home. Tonight it is chili and cornbread) and it is still RAINING.
My DD picked out the positive the other day (when it was also raining) about all this rain we're getting. She was delighted to look out the schoolroom window and see that the grass is greening back up. We always took pride (and care) in our little bit of lawn out our patio. The military housing has landscapers that come and mow it (and mow it VERY low, and TOO often!) but we enjoy our little patch of grass.
All this rain will make for an interesting "opening day" of our soccer season, though! I'd like to say, "Hey, at least it isn't SNOW!" but all the weather forecasting I've seen says there is a pretty good chance for some white stuff! AACK!
He's WAAAY smaller than Theo.
Look at how much Theo has grown in the time that we've had him! 
These crazy gas prices! We buy gas on base and even it is skyrocketing. It's put a real damper on those things that I'd otherwise have done/attended/participated in. Like tomorrow, we had a HS day at a ceramics place to go to ... but, because it is about 30 minutes away, I've decided to forego the outing-- because it would be a round trip to GO and paint the piece, plus the cost of the actual piece (though I could have just given DD a $$ amount to stay under) plus another round trip a week later to pick up the finished (fired) piece. Gas just rules that out. Kiddo has a month of track starting on Thursday which we've already signed up/paid for and both DH and I think it is a great opportunity for her that we've decided to suck up the gas expenditure and take part in this homeschool track program (offered in May only) which meets 2x a week.
I'm a gal who likes to wake up naturally, no alarm clock, no lights turned on-- just natural-- the sun coming gently rising into our east-facing window, the birds chirping outside, neighbors' dogs barking, etc. Nature wasn't so helpful with waking this morning, though. Nope. The gloomy, haze grey sky barely allowed any sunlight to come into the bedroom. No sun rays available to poke me in the eyes. No birds chirping. Even the dogs were inside, probably snuggled down on a bed of some type. Instead, the pitter-patter of rain truly made it difficult to want to get up this morning. I've always thought rain made for perfect sleeping weather. 
My DD picked out the positive the other day (when it was also raining) about all this rain we're getting. She was delighted to look out the schoolroom window and see that the grass is greening back up. We always took pride (and care) in our little bit of lawn out our patio. The military housing has landscapers that come and mow it (and mow it VERY low, and TOO often!) but we enjoy our little patch of grass. 
