Aug. 10, 2007 - Mac friendly homeschool planning software
I am asking for help. Homeschool planner and portfolio was a very mac friendly planning software and I enjoyed it very much. However the company is no longer and my calendar on the program only allows use until 12/07. So haver any of you found a mac compatible software? I really don't want to run any microsoft on my mac, call me a purist. I have found some programs geared toward traditional school but don't allow multiple students.
::sigh::
dh is trying to come up with something using the new mac numbers program but I thought if someone had a program it would save him grief of listening to me ask for what I want differnt :)
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Aug. 6, 2007 - School is in session
School started today. Had I been a good mom I would have documented it with pictures. Instead it is documented with completed assignment sheets :)
The kids are excited to delve into all those good books that I had forbidden them to read until school started. The girls are devouring Core 4, the second part of American History. Ian is reviewing and diving into Core 2 which is world history part two. And the shrimps started Core B. We did the Shrimps work at the Pediatricians during a well check. They both did well in the Developing the Early Learner book 1 page 1. Avery it turns out is a lefty. I am not sure if I will continue having Avery do the DEL. She did the first page well but looking ahead I don't see her grasping all the concepts in the master range they suggest. She is only three so we shall plug ahead and play dollies and kitchen and settle on coloring on the paper and not the table. Honestly I am not worried. Neil on the other hand is eager for school. At 4 1/2 he needs some brain stimulation. I am waiting on the return of 100ez lessons from a friend and I think I will start that with him.
I am also back on the preparing meals wagon. I use Menus4moms.com. The kids are willing to eat most of the recipes so its a good thing. My goal this year is to have at least two weekdays begin with a hot breakfast. Problem being I am not a morning person.
Have a great day
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May. 3, 2007 - 4 weeks 1 day left
That is how much school we have left! I am thinking of squeezing it into 3 weeks as we have an opportunity to travel to Dallas to meet up with my sister in law (Happy Birthday by the way)
I can not believe the end is in site. The kids are excited as well. We will take some time off as we have Cub sout day camp, musical day camp and Girl Sout overnight camp all planned during the summer. But I plan on having Ian cover the Grade 2 readers and optional LA workbooks over the summer since he is reading so well. In the fall I will start him in Grade 3 readers. He is devouring books. Claire will continue with math. She hates it but she is getting it and slowly moving towards grade level. I am proud of her efforts. It hasn't been easy but she has persisted, and is earning a 91% currently. Way to go Claire! All the kids will continue spelling throughout the summer as we got a late start on the program we all enjoy. A Reason for Spelling has been a good fit for all of us. Claire has been gettign extra practice at spellingtime.com as well.
So we bid farewell to Core 1, Core 3 and say hello to Core B, Core 2 with Grade 3 readers, and Core 4.
I can't wait to hit that order button and see all those fabulous books arrive on my doorstep.
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Apr. 15, 2007 - Wrapping up our fruit mummy
We chose another cold and dreary day to finish up our fruit mummy from Hands and Hearts. Here is my son wrapping it up   These kits are alot of fun. Almost everything is included, instructions are easy to read and follow. I highly recomend them to supplement history if your kids are hands on learners.
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Apr. 8, 2007 - Easter
My inlaws came in for a week to see the kids and celebrate Easter with us. We enjoyed hikes in the pine forests, walks around the neighborhood, baking cookies with grandma and just general grandparent spoiling!
Here are the kids Easter morning before church.
We also dyed eggs. Here is the tray of not so brightly colored eggs.
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Mar. 28, 2007 - Preschool Activities in a bag
I love this book. I just ordered it from TOS. I have made a few activities and am looking forward to making more. I am trying to organize a swap so the activities I have made I have duplicated. I plan on giving a set of 5 or so to my nephew for his birthday. My two littles enjoyed the abc 123 match. I wish I had a day all to myself to just make them all :)
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Mar. 21, 2007 - School Room Snapshots
Well what do you think? This is where we do school. This is my desk. Command central :)I have the current books on the shelf along with references and other assorted handed down teacher books. Here is where two of the kids study. The time line above the desks if for our bible curriculum but we put it on hold for awhile.  The cuddle up couches while I do a read aloud. Also felt animals stick nicely to it for the littles to play.  A view towards the final desk and the hall that connects the boys wing and girls wing. The school room is centered between the two  I picked up the student desks for $10 each at the local ISD surplus store. Hubby and I put a coat of iron wrought texture paint on them and woila desks for each child. The chairs are from an Ikea table set. Over the window on the left is a pull down map of Texas, also picked up from the surplus store for $15. I need to go back and get another pull down for the other window. Then I plan on making cornices to cover the roller
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Mar. 9, 2007 - Birthday season comes to an end
From the end of January until today we have three kids birthday. Feels like evertime I turn around I am baking a cake or hanging a birthday banner from the mantel. But alas the season is over until summer.
My son received a taxadermied alligator head for his birthday today. Charming little fellow. He loves it, I'm hoping to not run into it in the dark. "Better than clothes", was his comment!
All my babies are growing up!
Got some other news today as well. My husbands sweet grandmother had emergency surgery today. She is in critical condition but vitals are good. If you read this could you say a prayer for her for a speedy recovery.
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Mar. 3, 2007 - Bible Quiz and Game Ball
Today was a busy day. Both of my girls participated in Awana Bible Quiz. Yep I made them :) With the stipulation that they wouldn't have to do it next year if they didn't want to. Well after my oldest (book 3) team placed 2nd and my next daughter (book 1) placed 3rd they were ready to come back and do it all over again next year. Hannah almost quizzed out (in a good way) during speed quiz. Claire aced the multiple choice. I am so proud of both of them especially after two years of trying to get through book 1 myself!
Ian had his first preseason game of coach pitch baseball. His team won, he actually got a hit, and RBI, made it to base and scored a run. Pretty good considering his parents are not much help in the athletic department. If he had chosen swimming we would be all over it, baseball.... good thing he has a wonderful set of coaches. How wonderful... wonderful enough to award Ian the game ball. Not because he was the best but because he tried and was a team player. I was especially proud of the boys cheering Ian on and cheering him up as he striked out. Not a one said a negative thing to him. Great group of kids and parents. Brought tears to this saps eyes.
Proud of kids today for going for it and coming out ok on the other side.
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Mar. 2, 2007 - On to Corn and Beans
It has been awhile since I last blogged. I really need to keep this updated more.
The girls wrapped up their radish project. We have a few spare seedlings out in the yard. They survived the winter so we shall see what happens. We started TOPS corn and beans a few weeks back. My kitchen sill is now alive with bean plants in what looks like a covered wagon. I need to get a picture of it.
Other homeschooling excitement. Back in January we got snow. Yes snow. Enough to make snowballs and sled down the drive. Due to the cold outside we got out our hands and hearts kits. The girls made apple pomanders, and later stiched their lavender satchets with grandma (who was visiting from FL poor thing stuck in snow!) Ian got to work on his fruit mummy. It is still sitting in the closet. This weekend we hope to wrap it and lay it to rest in a handpainted coffin. The kits are a lot of fun and very well done. Can't say enough about the customer service, been very responsive to all my questions. hmmm that sounded like a commercial :)
We are on wrapping up week 24 of core 1 and 3. Only 12 more weeks of school! My oldest has blasted her way through math and is working her way up to grade level. She should be grade level by November. I am so proud of how hard she has worked. Back tracking was a good idea since her frustration level has been reduced by revisting the basics.
On to week 25.......
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Nov. 8, 2006 - Belly Laughs
Nothing better than to hear my kids give an unabashed belly laugh. We just had such an experiance. Our 10 month old beagle/chow mix Maggie Mae was making a rare appearance in the school room. She got to sniffing around and then discovered her tail was following her. She started chasing it, sending my 6 year old into a good ole belly laugh. Funny thing is, Maggie can actually catch her tail and continue to circle a few times. Honestly dog!
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Nov. 8, 2006 - Growing Radishes
My girls are having a blast with the TOPS radishes unit. I have a kitchen window sill full of mini planters and makeshift green houses. But we are learning through fun and exploration.
I have hands and hearts kits coming in the mail too as incentive for them to finish the boring work (their words) and do some hands on fun stuff. I must say I am excited to mummify an apple with my son who is in the thick of learning about ancient egyptians.
My biggest struggle right now is the two underfoot. All advice of starting "school" with them first loving them up and then letting them play just isn't working. They are loud, and sometimes very mischevious. I have devised a schedule where the older kids play with the youngers while I work with the odd man out. It works but makes it diffilcult since my girls share a core. I know the answer lies in consistency and diligence on my part but it is wearing on my heart. My patience is short fused these days.
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Oct. 31, 2006 - Trick or Treat
 We took the kids trick or treating around the new houses in the neighborhood. Lots of families were out chatting in driveways, roasting marshmellows, bbqing hot dogs, frito pies. So much fun. We got home to some candy still in our bucket that we had left self serve style on the porch. By the time we rolled in we only had one set of kids come by. Oh well more caramel crunch for me. :) The kids had a blast dressing up as Cat in the Hat the story book. The littles played their parts as "Things" fabulously. Ian had a fish bowl full of candy!
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Oct. 30, 2006 - Trying to keep up
 Five kids, two cores, two little ones running under my feet and I am just trying to stay caught up! Needless to say my dreams of keeping up with blogging fell by the wayside. Our trip to England was fantastic. We had gorgeous weather, a great time exploring, and wonderful friends who put us up (and put up with us), showed us around, and shared good times while reminescing about the old ones. Our girls fell right into step with their friends hardly skipping a beat. It was great to see the four of them back together. The kids loved everything about the trip except the long drive into Wales. I think the highlights were the Natural History Museum in London and the Cadbury Chocolate Factory Tour. 600 pictures to put into a scrapbook and a lifetime of memories. The kids are enjoying hearing about London landmarks in their readers, proudly exclaiming "hey we have been there!"
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Aug. 31, 2006 - Leaving on a jet plane
We begin our first journey across the pond shortly. As a homeschooler one of the "best" perks is being able to travel when we want and with five kids you better believe that is when tickets are cheaper than not! So we are packing up our suitcases (no gels or liquids though!) and flying over for two weeks of study abroad :) We plan on exploring the streets of London, the wonders of England and the views of Wales. I will try to update if I get internet access along the way but it isn't guaranteed. besides I might just be having so much fun that blogging would be the farthest thing from my mind, that is if I still have it after a nine hour flight with five children and an airsick husband.
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Aug. 16, 2006 - CHINA explained
 So I showed my blog to my husband who asks if I explained CHINA. Umm no hadn't gotten there yet. Here is the explanation. CHINA is an acronym for our chidrens names. We have five kids Claire, Hannah, Ian, Neil and Avery. Was it planned that way? No not until we had CHI and were faced with CHIN or CHIA (if Neil was a girl) Then when we were pregnant with Avery we really couldn't mess up what we had going. If she were a boy we would have had the acronym CHINS, I much prefer CHINA :) It makes for a good conversation starter, once we get past the whole five kids issue. Easy enough for the neighbors to remember who is who too.
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Aug. 13, 2006 - School Starts Tomorrow
Around these hills school starts tomorrow (or Wednesday in the next school district over). We however started a few weeks back to get our feet wet in the new curriculum before getting down to it on a daily basis.
This will be our second year of homeschooling and our first with Sonlight. I thought chronicling it would be the best way to look back and see how we fared.
Welcome aboard our homeschooling journey.
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A blog about homeschooling five children, the good, the bad, and the best.
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