Oct. 15, 2006 - Days 17 - 21
Hi Kate and Rebeca! Thanks for your comments. It gives me a lift to hear from you. Yep, it took me the whole week to recover from our holiday, but it was worth it. And what's this about not caring about hockey? We care deeply and truly about hockey here. I love, love, love the USA but how can you (they) not care about hockey? Ha ha! My sister-in-law lives in Houston, and she sometimes gets together with some other Canadians down there to go to hockey games to cheer. They are a small but lusty group of cheerers.
I'm trying to get geared up (in my mind) for the school week ahead. Boy #1 and Boy #2 will be doing cards #17 through #21 this week. There are 200 cards in a school year, each of which contains one day's worth of work (we started that particular system only recently). It works quite well so far. Little Girlfriend is doing some preschool: Phonics Pathways and lots of read alouds. She likes it.
One thing I will be adding to the lessons is poetry. My guys actually like memorizing poems and have done so in past years. My oldest asked if we could it this year, too. I decided to start with Piano by D. H. Lawrence. I kind of like it. I like the poignant stuff like The Highwayman by Noyes or even spooky-ish poems like Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. Piano is sad and sweet. We'll see how the boys like it.
Have a fantastic week, everyone!
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Oct. 11, 2006 - Back from hols
And back to work. Oh yes work. Let's see: there was Day 13 (school card system I invented), there were squares to make for an event tomorrow, there were piano lessons for two, there was pre-school for the girl, there was Awana in the evening, there was unpacking, grocery shopping, laundry, sorting mail for my neighbor, and I even made supper. I had a good day, though.
The card system rocks.
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Oct. 5, 2006 - Slowly packing
I'm so happy. The boys were able to accomplish this week's work (including tomorrow - Friday) AND Monday's tasks. Ha ha. I worked them hard and now they get four days of holiday with no being behind in homeschool. So guess who's burnt out now. If you guessed me, you win. So I'm supposed to be packing for my family right now. Hubby and kids are watching hockey right now. Very important hockey. I like the peace and quiet this affords me, and so I'm dawdling on emailing and blogs. I like blogs.
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Oct. 4, 2006 - Another good day in the can.
I invented a card system to help us with our school work. Each day the kids pull out their card for the day, and complete all the tasks upon it. Once the assigned work on the card has been completed, the school work is over for the day. This is working the best, by far, of any of the other schemes I've devised over the course of four years. Here's a shot of what my cards look like:
Also the card gets decorated with a sticker when they're all done! Stickers are motivating.
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Oct. 3, 2006 - What a day!
Wheew!! I'm done. And it's 1:05 in the morning. But I'm done. The kids (boys 9 and 7 yo) did a lot of school work today - to try to get ahead in anticipation of our Thanksgiving trip. I rewarded them by letting play games on the computer for a half hour each. My eldest also had soccer try-outs this evening. I prepped 4 meals for the freezer, using this menu which I bought a week ago. I am hoping for the wonderful gift of time-saving suppertime heaven. I have about 26 meals all ready to go in the freezer as of now. Go go! Now - time to hit the hay. Got a big day tomorrow, too (don't we all). Hope all of you are sleeping peacefully.
anise
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Oct. 1, 2006 - I'm a mean mum
Yep. After church and lunch, and before going to Grandma and Grandpa's for supper, I'm making the two oldest boys do some extra schoolwork as an early makeup for the upcoming holiday Friday and Monday we're taking. We're traveling to see some wonderful cousins. Fun! (Thanksgiving for us Canucks comes especially early this year). The boys don't mind. They're all buoyed up with anticipation for next week-end. And I figure it's better to be a little behind in our curriculum than so, so, so behind. Know what I mean?
DS # 1 (J) is doing his Singapore Math - level 3B at the moment. Concentration just oozing out right now. Won't last though...
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Sep. 30, 2006 - A good idea
About us: Family of six....one husband
one wife (that's me)
one young man - age 9
one young man - age 7
one young lady - age 4
one little (loud) man - age 1 1/2
We homeschool because we like it. It's hard work but flexible, time-consuming but rewarding, frustrating but bonding, at times tedious and yet often so very interesting. Juxtapose competing emotions and factor in the fatigue and you get the idea. But we are idealists and just a teeny bit counter-culture. We love Jesus, too.
I will be posting some of our methods and activities with a view to encourage others and to gain insight from the great wisdom of you homeschoolers out there.
