Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - Happy New Year!! 2009 Let's Begin!
Well, here we are, the beginning of yet another year. Although we just started homeschooling 5 months ago I feel that we have made great strides and tackled many obastacles very quickly. This year, I know, will be even better.
2008 In Review!
Curriculum & Activities:: Lifepac!!!! HATE IT. Well I don't really hate it but the book is dry and dull to me. To much Q&A and no creativity, activities to spark excitement...none of that. Just dull boring pictures on an off white, greyish page. Blah! It served it's purpose while I found my rythem, discovered my child's learning style as well as her likes and dislikes. i have found myself moving away from the set curriculum more and more in the last few months. To hold DD's attention, I had to move away from the books a little and allow her to explorer her own world. She likes to work with her hands...gluing, cutting, coloring...finding out "why" and then applying it to things she already knew. LEARNING TO LEARN!
This year, I will take the time to do more research for curriculums that will be more interesting as well as create my own unit studies. LAPBOOKS AND NOTEBOOKING. Okay, this is my new thing. We have only done one and we never really finished it. I have joined a wonderful social network for homeschoolers called www.LapbookLessons.com which has tutorials in print and video to assist me in making one --and finishing it this time! LOL!!
As far as activities go, this year I hope to get out a little more. More field trips, more trips to the library to learn to do "research", and exposing DD to things that will spark her interests and motivate her to grasp for more information. Remember Johnny 5?? "Input...Input!!" 
At any rate, I want to really get out and do more with her and move away from the books so much. Perhaps, a nice trip for VISUALS as she fills out her clipboard...so she can put a memory with a piece of information.
For science, I'm really thinking about Apologia Zoology 3 which is Land Animals, followed by Apologia Botany. I believe that the notebooking and doing different hands on activities can really reinforce the learning. It can't get any worse than LifePac Science. Although, the worse LifePac is the Literature set. BORING!! I'm grown and I was board. LOL!! For math, I think we are going to go with Saxon. DD is very good with math and doesn't need my help at all to learn it so far. I let her take her book and run with it. Overall, she has done very well with all of her subjects.
I am still working on getting the public school (ps) out of her. Whew, the 'spoonfedness' and dependence on being told step by step what to do rather then find your own path and take it to where you desire. I know that I can incorporate SCOPE into her instrests...I just have to be creative with it. Like I said...I'm moving away from all the boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooks.
The library, I have found, is an excellent choice. I like to see her do her work (from her books) and then find a nice colorful library book that basically says the same thing but in a fun artistic way...or with a great story line. I think the stories help her to remember the information.
What are we working on right now/? Well, let's see. In math, she is doing division, learning capacity, weight, and distance measurements and sharpening those times table skills. She has also done a little work with solving for N in an algebraic eqquation. In History, she is studying Island Nations. She just finished Cuba and is halfway through her Iceland and will start Japan by the end of the year. In science, she is studying forces of weather: tornados, hurricans, snow, sleert, storms-- that sort of thing. I think that she is enjoying that section. And lastly, Language...Ug! Again I say, LP Lang is horrible. I can't tell you what she has learned in that book... maybe different kinds of poems...that's about it. All it does is give a story followed by some quesitons...for the most part. Not teaching her a darn thing. We are going to work some things OUTSIDE THE BOX this fall. I will have to think on that this week. She also works on WordlyWise for buildling up her vocabulary and I just started her on a Comprehension strategies workbook. That is one of her weak areas that we need to sharpen berfore the summer hits. We do art projects (like the paper mache we did Monday night) as well as little spontaneous projects. She works in her healthbook maybe once a week and I use that as her morning journal exercise. For P.E. she takes Taekwondo and Gymnastics.
2009 VISION
Well, I really don't have a vision written out for this year -- except for what I just said in the previous paragraphs. I will, however, in the very near future, sit down and write something out for this year. I also want to come up with a mission statement for our school. I have dubbed the name of our school "Way of Excellence." where did I get this from? Well, my goal is for her to do everything to the best of her ability, with excellence, never settling for second rate work or understanding. That will be deeply rooted in our mission statement.
Why do I keep saying OUR? Well, my husband is promising that he is going to help more this year. He has been a GREAT help in the past...but he promises to be an even GREATER help in the years to come. I'm excited about that. We are thinking about each taking 2 major subjects and do the planning and what not for those. We will see how that works out.
Okay, so that's the year in review and the pre-vision for this new year. I'll try and pull something together by tomorrow perhaps as far as Vision and Mission is concerned.
Awesome!
