We're home from our big trip. W and T still have 3 day camps up in the mountains with the school district. We'l also take a long weekend in Colorado at the beginning of August. T starts school on August 18.
Over the summer, we'll keep going with math (W is doing CIMT 7 and finishing Life of Fred Decimals and Percents, T has a workbook assigned by her teacher, A is finishing CIMT 3A and Miquon Yellow). I'll probably have W read and analyze a novel or 2 from my list. We're doing Alice in Wonderland as a Read-Aloud. I want to do RS4K Biology while T is home. The rest of our time will be spent on the Olympics. I'm going to have them study 1 or 2 Countries and 1 or 2 Sports per week between now and August 8 so we understand what we're watching. Here is the form I made for them to use. I have such fond memories of tracking the 1984 Olympics, when I was just a bit older than they are. I think we're in for a fun summer.
The big ones will still go to school in the mornings, when their classroom teachers have them full-time. But there were some problems with the cafeteria staff (if it's called bullying if it's kids on kids, isn't that abuse if adults on kids?) I asked for alternate supervision, since the principal admitted the cafeteria staff have bad judgement, and the principal told me they could eat in the room for dc with behavior problems because she wasn't going to hire someone to supervise her supervisors. 
Both dc are a bit disappointed, but W also seems to be very relieved to be removed from the situation. T really does do better in a traditional school setting so we're looking at Catholic school for her next year. There's a decent one in a parish we've been considering moving to anyway, but it's a bit of a drive and the price!! 
The dc and I had a good meeting today to go over what curriculum materials we have and which ones they'd like to use, what might be a good pace, etc.
Here's what we've settled on:
Math (they'll be getting math in school too, but it's Everyday (Chicago) Math, and to say I'm unimpressed would be an understatement). W: Life of Fred -- 5 chapters and a Bridge test per week T: 2 pages/day of DK Math Made Easy 4th Grade A: 2 pages/day of CIMT MEP level 3 (on the computer) ... he finally burned out on the Miquon after doing Orange through Green this school year.
Science: A chapter a week of RS4K Chemistry I until done, then move to Biology ... they're halfway through Chemistry.
History: W: A History of US with the Hewitt Syllabus. I was thinking I had until July, so I just ordered this. We'll decide on a pace once it arrives. T: Listen to AHOUS audio books A & T: One chapter of How Our Nation Began per week, with T answering all of the end of chapter questions and A doing the ones I select.
Geography: Trail Guide to US Geography. They all really liked the look of this one. A will do the Beginner track, T Intermediate and W advanced, and we'll do oral reports at the end of the week.
Reading: As long as the big ones seem to be choosing appropriate material, this will be a free category for them for now. I do have Your Reading Power available for them ... A is assigned 2 cards/day for now. I'm expecting that pace to slow in a couple of weeks.
Art: Art With A Purpose 3 for W & T, level 1 for A
Games: I want them to play an educational game together every day (for those of you who haven't seen our house, we have between 200-300 games, so there's a lot to choose from). Monday is Math day, Tuesday Geography, Wednesday Language Arts, Thursday History, Friday is a free pick day as long as there's no fighting, in which case, it's Mom's pick.
This should keep them busy for a couple of hours in the afternoons. We'll probably also hit more park days and I'm going to see if our playgroup can temporarily switch to afternoons.
We'll be starting our next school year on July 21. If anyone has any of the following that they're looking to sell, let me know.
Hewitt Junior High American History Syllabus (that coordinates with the Hakim books)
Power-Glide French Ultimate Year 1
Pilgrims of the Holy Family
CHC's Middle School Lesson Plans Guide
Life Of Fred -- Fractions, Decimals and Percents and/or Beginning Algebra
Analytical Grammar's How to Write a Term Paper
Trail Guide To US Geography Student Workbooks (all levels ebook preferred).
In honor of Pi day, I made this quiche for dinner.
Yes, I know it's not round. Yes, I have "real" pie pans. Think about it.
And it's Albert Einstein's 129th birthday today. I can't do a German accent very well, but I can do Microsoft Sam. So I'm talking like Stephen Hawking today, and it's really freaking the kids out. Especially T.
I'm trying to come up with a budget for homeschooling for next year. I know it's going to be more than we've spent in the past few years, but I am trying to keep it down, as with a move, things are likely to be tight. I think I might have a plan that will keep the budget for books, etc. in the $500 range, maybe less.
History -- The History of US is available in both print and audio at the library. It doesn't look like any one book will take more than 6-8 weeks to cover. I would like to get the study guide for W though (saves me having to continue writing my own, though if I get the thing and don't like it, I might still do my own. But at $9, I'm willing to take the chance that I'll be able to save myself a boatload of work. This Country of Ours is available at The Baldwin Project and at least partly at Librivox. I have a copy of How Our Nation Began that my grandmother saved from my dad's school days.
Literature -- Dh and I have decided that every month I should present W with a list of maybe 8-10 possible readers for school and let him pick 1-3 off of the list. I might do the same with A, we'll see if he's ready for that. I'll try it with T if she's home. I know it will work with W, not sure about the middles. In any case, some of the readers and read-alouds will come from the American History Literature guide I bought on clearance at Overstock for $22. I'm not sure how I'm going to like the questions and activities, and some of the selections aren't appropriate for at least A, maybe a few not for W, either, but between the large group, small group and additional book suggestions, it's a good resource for making my lists.
Language Arts -- For W, our main focus will be writing ... specifically, writing term papers. I think we're going to use Analytical Grammar's guide ($15 plus shipping), though we also found this free recording ... the speaker sounds like Casey Kasem LOL!
I'm not sure what I'm doing with A. I need to get him writing more, but probably need to do some grammar, too. He's a workbooky kid. For writing, I'm kind of looking at this, from Trigger Memory.
For the boys' math, we've decided to go with Life of Fred. We'll start with their pre-algebra books, Decimals and Percents and Fractions, at $19 each, that's $38. Plus a couple of grid-ruled notebooks each for them to work in. T will either use the SRA textbook or do CIMT, so cost is negligible if she's home. I've already made and will make a few more Montessori materials for E. So math should run between $50 and $60.
Science: Real Science 4 Kids has their Bio 1 and Physics 1 bundles on sale right now ($less than $175 for both). We might supplement with these free books, courtesy of the state of Florida. They're supposedly mostly high school level, but W could do them easily, I think. We might also read Joy Hakim's Story of Science (avail. at library).
We'll be doing Pilgrims of the Holy Family for Religious Education and to start exploring careers and such. I'm thinking about getting Fallacy Detective and seeing if he'd just read it on his own (he might). Not sure what else. We're trying not to structure them too much but have them take control of a lot of what they learn, but still want to make sure th bases are covered.
Oh -- and French ... if anyone has a good French program ... textbook/workbook would probably work best. I can speak it well enough to teach. We've been dabbling in Spanish and Sign Language for a while, but we're thinking that since I was at one time pretty fluent in French, that might be the best language for them to learn now.
I'm debating on whether or not to upgrade Homeschool Tracker ($30) or have the dc use Montessori-style goal and record forms that I made. I think I'm leaning toward at least starting with the forms. For anyone interested, you can download them Daily Record Weekly Plan and Weekly Summary ... I'm working on Quarterly and Annual Goals sheets. If they don't work out, I'll move over to HST.
It's that time of year. Winter doldrums have hit. And although things are going pretty well this year (A is burning through math books like there's no tomorrow, isn't fighting me much on LA, and we just finished a 3 month engineering study using the PBS series, Building Big), it's awfully fun to plan.
Next year, I'll likely have:
W, 10 year old, working on a 7th grade level and A, 7-8 year old, working on a 3rd grade level. If we move (likely, but not definite), then T (9 years old, 5th grade) will be home until I get an appropriate school situation (magnet, charter, or private) set up where we're going. And of course there's E (3-4 years old, preschool-K).
We'll be studying American History, and hopefully relocating to somewhere truly ideal for lots of field trips (top of the possibilities list at the moment is between Washington DC and Baltimore).
The boys will be using The Story of US by Joy Hakim. Our library has these on tape (which A and T prefer -- T is almost through listening to the first book already). I'm kind of writing my own study guide to go along with it. So far, it's coming out nicely, and I might be willing to try to market it. If anyone else wants to try it before I get to that point, it would probably work better if I had some guinea pigs in addition to my own children. Email me if you're interested. As supplements, we have How Our Nation Began (a Catholic elementary US history text) and This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall. Readers and Read-Alouds will be taken from Ambleside, Mater Amabilis, Sonlight, etc. ... I'll try to line them up with the history as much as I can, but I'm not too worried about it.
W finished Singapore Primary Math last year and has been playing with CIMT 7 some, but most of his math has been Everyday Math in the ps, so he needs lots of review. Meanwhile, A has decided to turn the 3 year Miquon program into a one-year course. So we'll be combining the boys in Life of Fred next year. I don't know whether or not they'll work at the same pace, but there's no rush, especially for little A, who will be doing prealgebra as a chronological second grader. If T is home, she'll either use the SRA 5th grade textbook I have or CIMT 4 or 5.
I think I'm going to use Analytical Grammar's Research paper guide with W, and the only other LA will be Reader's Digest Word Power and some copywork (things like George Washington's Rules for Civility, the Preamble to The Constitution, famous poems like The New Colossus). I'm undecided on what to do with A. My friend Molly has had good luck with Jessie Wise's grammar workbooks for her similarly workbooky ds who is 7 mo older than A and working at about the same pace about that far ahead. I also have Winston Grammar, which W liked in second grade. I definitely need to start working on the writing process for him, and am a little nervous about it. It might be a few years until he gets a chance to try brick and mortar school. The others went in third grade and have had teachers who have done wonderfully in teaching them how to write. I feel much more comfortable picking up where they've left off than starting from scratch.
For science, we'll use Real Science 4 Kids Biology 1 and Physics 1. I'm hoping A will have grown into it, if not, he'd certainly be willing to check out science books from the library. We might also use Joy Hakim's Story of Science.
The big kids will all be on Montessori-styled work plans and logs with weekly meetings to determine the work for the week. I know that W will love this style. We'll see if A is ready yet, or whether I'll need to work more with him.
As far as little E goes, I've been in Karen Tyler's Montessori training course for almost 2 years now. I really need to pull out my Practical Life and Sensorial albums and start making that work available to her.
Planning season is so much fun!
Sonja let me know that I was horridly behind on my blogging. So here's an update. 
Better?
I'll try to get a real update leter, but I'm sick with whatever the little germ factories brought home to me.
One of the things I love about our one car, homeschooling lifestyle is those days when I don't have to commit to be out of the house ... in fact, when I CAN'T commit to being away from home because I don't have the car.
Well, today is NOT one of those days.
One car isn't an issue. Dh is in DC all week. This is good and bad. It can be tough holding down the fort all by myself, but I kind of like the extra quiet time, too.
My day started at 3:30 am. E had lost her pacifier (it was next to her) and kicked off all of her covers. The sprinklers then woke her up. I covered her up, closed the window, plugged her back in, and then heard the boys' door opening, then the fridge door opening. A was foraging. Um, no. It's the middle of the night, and you chose to throw half your supper away. Water and bed. Now I'm awake and the water main and sprinkler valve box are right by my room. So now they're keeping me awake. 4:00, I go turn off the sprinkler controls. It's getting to be fall anyway, they don't need to run as much.
4:30 E is up again, cold, just after I drift off. I cover her up. I come read an ebook on my computer for a while, and wait for the Advil to hit my headache. Then I start hallucinating that dh is trying to give me a book, though even in the hallucination, I know he's out of town. I KNOW I didn't take the PM stuff (which can make me goofy ... I don't take it unless it's the weekend and dh is on full backup). I must just be tired. Off to bed. It's 5:00.
I slept until 7. Groggy, since insomnia isn't a regular issue for me I'm kind of disoriented. We're almost out of milk, so I put the kettle on for oatmeal. W and thegirls wake up as I'm getting dressed. E is put out that I insist on finishing before getting her some juice.
W decides on waffles instead of oatmeal. I help him open the case (we get them at Costco) and later find the freezer door open. I get T's hair brushed, planners signed, help E get dressed under duress while listening to T complain that we're going to be late, even though it's 7:40 and we don't need to leave until 8:00.
I coax E into some shoes, wake A and tell him to get breakfast, and we're off to the bus stop. 5 minutes later, I return to find A just getting out of bed. I get him fed, pull out his seatwork for the day, and get E settled in front of a video. Remind A that in order to be dressed, he needs some pants (other than underpants) on. By 8:30 we're ready to sit down with seatwork, which actually goes smoothly. 3 pages of math (to the end of the section), 2 pages of language arts. E stinks, so I clean her up, put in another video, and discover the oatmeal I made at 7:15 still on the counter. I eat it cold as ds reads half a chapter of his reader to me. I leave well enough alone and call school done (we got the 3 R's in) so I can check email and forums. Not bad, since I checked it at 4:30.
So, here I am.
At 10, we'll leave for the school to help T's class with a treasure hunt. I did this with W's class last year. The dc make up rhyming clues to hide around school grounds. After they hide them, they get assigned a differen't team's clues to hide, and at the end of the trail is a bag of candy. Wise woman decided to hype them up on sugar on a half day this time (why a half day in the middle of the week, I have no clue ... I don't see how both parents can work full-time and have their dc in school during the fall quarter ... so many days off, half days, etc. I can't keep track.
After we're done there, I need to run to the store. We're out of milk and bananas. We'll come home for lunch, and then soon after W and T will be home. W has a lot of work to do on his science fair report.
At 2:45, my friend is dropping her boys by ... she's on her own this week, too, and has a lot of dental work scheduled. My friend's nephew can watch her boys, and that way, they can go visit her dh's grandmother after the dentist.
At 4:00, we head back to school for parent-teacher conferences ... maybe with 7 children in tow. (Just my 4 now, still, with E, it'll be an adventure).
Papa Murphy's has large pepperoni pizzas on sale for $4. I'm thinking that that's dinner (maybe one or two for the freezer).
Oh, and our current read-aloud is in at the library. So we need to swing by there sometime today, too.
Tomorrow, another friend's dh is taking all of the bigger boys (6 of them, ages 6-10) on a field trip. My friend whose dh is also out of town and I are SO looking forward to having them go for a while. We mom will all just hang out here with the littles.
Days like today give me a new respect for military moms faced with deployments (my mom often was), and single parents. A week at a time of this juggling act is enough for me, and scouts and ballet don't start until NEXT week!
I didn't get back here last week. W and T had Monday AND Tuesday off and were kind of in the way of schooling A. Then Wednesday A had a cyclic vomiting episode. It was one where he crashed fast and had us worried and almost going in to the hospital, but he managed to turn around on his own, and was fighting with his sister by the time the older dc came home from school. But we didn't do any formal schooling. Thursday is our socialization day ... playgroup, no formal school. So we were so far out of our routine, I was surprised on Friday when he presented himself fed, dressed, and ready for school promptly at 8:00 ... no "go put some pants on" or anything. We got one good day of formal lessons in for the week. So my HST schedule (which was optimistic) is shot. But life goes on!
She's pretty smiley for only a week old. E wouldn't smile for the camera until she was close to a year. I have dozens of outtakes trying to get her to smile. Erin seems to be a pretty easygiong baby. I hope she stays that way ... the condo b-i-l and s-i-l have been waiting to be finished closes in the next few weeks. I've moved with a newborn (thankfully, my most laid back one) ... it's an adventure.