Sep. 29, 2008 - Will I ever learn?
I don't know what your September has been like, but mine has been one thing after another AND last week was the worst week yet!
I'm not sure what I am going to do, but I cannot keep up to this pace. smile I think it has been about 5 years or more, since I had a week as busy as last week. AND I won't have another week like that. Period.
So, here is last week:
Mon - Home Schooling, Prayer at the Church and did a program at TOPS
Tues - Home Schooling
Wednesday - Home Schooling, Share and Care evening (support group for Christian women)
Thursday - Home Schooling, led a Bible Study on Joy (also baked two cakes - one for tonight and the other for tomorrow)
Friday - Swimming, Groceries, Games Afternoon,
Saturday - Went to my sister's (1 1/2 hour drive each way) to pick up bookcases and then to Walmart to develop pictures and shop, Babysat 3 kids (10 months, 3 and 6) overnight.
Sunday - Got a meal ready for a potluck (Pistachio Poundcake, Hashbrown Casserole and Greek Salad), kids went home at 10:15 a.m. just before church
Wow - you know that isn't even all I did. Had a couple visits with friends and kept the house and laundry under control. BUT it was too much. I was considerably stressed by Sat. night. Why pick up the bookcases? It was the only time I could go and if we were passing by Walmart, that is the time to shop.
And I even went to the gym 4 mornings at 6:00, too. Wow.
Why babysit for a friend? Because that was when they needed it and like another sister once told me, "people don't ask for help at convenient times". Smile
Most of it just happened. BUT I am going to use my calendar more and like I was discussing with a friend earlier today, I'm going to build in time at home. Only two nights out a week, I think.
I had a meeting tonight, but I canceled on it because I was not feeling good and need to take a break.
Why blog about this? Well, it was a busy enough week, it made an impression. I want to enjoy life more and to not have that stressed feeling. It does happen, but my goal is to have it happen less often than it did years ago and less often than it did this year.
It is hard fitting everything in. I've got extras that are taking time to do, like painting and organizing, BUT I have to have some time to plan our home school, some time to exercise AND some time to enjoy life and friends.
That is my goal AND I will learn it.
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Sep. 24, 2008 - Recycling Center Field Trip
Last week, a few families from our area went to the Recycling Center. WOW. I learned so much and am inspired to do more recycling than we do already. The man working there is just passionate about recycling. I didn't know our recycling center took tin cans and glass, so that was an eye opener.
We got to see the bales of milk cartons, tin cans, amd plastic bags up close, as well as the containers of white bond paper (about the only thing they make money on - keep yours separate from all other paper to make it easier for the people working at the recycling center). There were also continers of mixed paper and newspaper.
He takes the covers AND glue off the books that come in to be recycled and has found a first run of Moby Dick AND The Hobbit at the Center. People just emptying shelves of loved ones who have died and don't know the value of a book. They were both in great condition. smile He welcomes people to come in and check out the book bins before the books are destroyed. Just call first. smile
We got to see the compactor AND the shredder at work. He loves the shredder. smile There were huge bags for mixed, white and hard plastic pieces (after being shredded) - weighing about 2000 lbs.
Each of the bales and bins mentioned above weigh 1500 to 2000 pounds. WOW.
25% of what comes in is garbage because they aren't cleaned or is actual garbage. People need to be educated about the Recycling Center. All glass, tin and plastic has to be rinsed and cleaned.
They even take household chemicals and batteries. He even has quite a bit of NEW paint come in to be recycled. He tries to find people who can use it.
Very, very good field trip. Smile - the mom looking after booking the trip had her daughter make a recyled card as a thank you from the HSers that attended. VERY NICE - made of 100% recycled products. smile
I'll put on another blog what Redhead and Jewel wrote about this field trip. They learned so much. smile
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Sep. 24, 2008 - Home Schooling Highlights - Sept. 15 to the 19th, 2008
I must admit it is going to be fun getting this typed up weekly. smile BUT my husband enjoyed reading the last one and I think it will be a good record of our year. I'll see if I can keep it up. smile
Sept. 15 - 19, 2008
The girls continued on with their math. Each day is a bit easier. Lots of drill daily on the Math U See website. MUS Drill I would like to add in extra drill with math games and more, but until I do, this is working. They are enjoying Math U See and continue being challenged with the word problems and more. This week, they are both doing corrections on previous lessons, as well as new lessons each day. Somehow we fell a bit behind on corrections, but they are almost caught up to where they are now working.
Redhead continues to enjoy Sequential Spelling - I haven't written about it yet, but it is a great spelling program. Sequential spelling I have used a few over the years (we are in year 17 of Home Schooling our children!). Smile - it is the best fit for us, just like Math U See is the best fit for a math program in our house.
Jewel is using Explode the Code weekly. Explode the Code I can't say she is really enjoying it. Smile She struggles a bit with reading and gets tired of all the extra practice, but I think it is great fun for extra reading / phonics practise. Redhead finished the course a couple of years ago and Jewel is on level 6 out of 8. (Two levels per year - so she has two to go.) (Oh, and if you have little ones, Get Ready, Get Set and Go for the Code is excellent. That is probably another blog, though!) It is encouraging to see how she is improving.
Jewel enjoyed doing 3 Mad Libs this week. Mad Libs Like I said, I have home schooled for a few years and have collected items through the years. Smile I had a _My Littlest Pony_ Mad Lib book and she enjoyed doing 3 of the stories. She laughed and laughed at some of the word choices. You can also do mad libs online. Might add that in later this fall. We'll see. She needs extra practice writing stories. This might help.
Jewel started reading another book aloud to me each day. That was a tip from another mom in our home school support group. Have your child read aloud daily, esp. when they are in the *learn to read* category. She is enjoying reading aloud to me. It is sometimes tough picking the right level for our child to read. Another tip I had heard, is that they should make no more than 3 mistakes per page. Any more and the book is too hard for them to read.
We finished our readaloud last week and I started a new book this week. The Journey of Yung Lee Redhead has read a couple of books in this series and I thought it was a good add on to learning a bit more about China (even though the Olympics are done!). I was surprised to read that the main character in the book has her feet bound, so that has been an interesting ongoing discussion, as well.
We managed to go for a couple of nature walks. Once down the sidewalks in town and once in the Provincial Park that is so close to us. It is getting harder to go for a walk with dad, because it is getting dark so early. We might have to try a night walk. smile
We were reading about Ancient Egypt in Mystery of History. I found the girls names online in hieroglyphics and they made that into a nice poster for their binder.
One morning for Bible, Pink Princess read from Isaiah 52 and shared what her favorite verses are..... We also sing a hymn once a week, so our girls can get to know the different hymns. Our church sings mainly choruses, so I thought singing the hymns weekly would be a great way to familiarize them with some of the great hymns of the Church. I actually bought 2 special binders, page protectors and then printed a bunch of hymns off the Net. I'm looking forward to printing some more. It has been a good activity - some of the hymns have such good words, they make me cry AND the girls have problems understanding some of the words used, so we get to discuss them, too.
We did get to go swimming twice this week - great exercise for all of us and we enjoy it so much. Friends joined us on Friday for swimming - Redhead and Jewel get to do a certain amount of laps each time we swim (a suggestion from another friend - get the laps done first and then free swim).
For Current Events, I played the link on 9/11 . Yes, it was past the day BUT was still a good learning exercise. I mostly cried through it - I can still remember what I was doing when I heard the news that something was happening .... We talked about it a bit and will talk about it again as it comes up.
We did a field trip to the Recycling Center with home school families and enjoyed it so much. Here is the link to my blog about the Recyling Center Field Trip!
After swimming on friday, friends joined us for the above field trip and then we watched a movie together. The Great Debaters It was a tough movie to watch - raised a lot of discussion about slavery and freedom. Very good movie.
So those were the highlights of this week. I don't believe it is possible to write down all the learning opportunities the girls have, but these were what came to mind. I also appreciate how well they have played together in their free time, and the maturity they show in certain areas. They are growing up and I am thankful to be spending this time with them.
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Sep. 13, 2008 - Accomplishments for the 2nd week of Sept., 2008
Well, I saw another Home School mom say she was going to start doing this and I thought it might be cool to actually blog about what we do get done. It's been a busy week, but a good week.
I have learned to pace myself. I had a couple of extras that were commitments outside of our homeschooling, but we did our home schooling first in the mornings and then I did those extras in the afternoon. That was cool. smile
My older homeschooler (Pink Princess - 17) started a consumer math program and is enjoying it. She also did some scrapbook journaling (2 double pages on her 12 pictures on the 12th day of every month album - amazing journaling and amazing creativity. She is so talented in this area. She also continued reading a classic book (I'll have to find out what she is reading this month) and continued reading about Buzz Marketing (I read part of her book while waiting for Jewel at the dentist's office on Monday - great book with some very novel ideas). She also worked part time in the afternoon this week and was an all round blessing in my life. She is a grad escort for a friend today and I hope she is having a good time.
Redhead had a good attitude with math this week - we are continuing on with a Math U See level, so that was good to see. She has done quite a bit of reading this week and also got back into math drills online. That seems to be working well this year. She had a lot of fun writing about her favorite holiday - a journaling prompt. I told her she had to write at least 4 complete sentences, but once she got started, she wrote an entire page. Smile She loves writing. It was so well done, I told her she might have to type it up as journaling for a scrapbooking page.
Jewel had a tough start this week. She had a root canal on Monday (because of her front tooth getting knocked out earlier in August. The tooth does seem to be doingw ell, but she still needed the root canal. She is a trooper, but all the dental visits and needles are getting to her. It was a tough day. She has found it hard getting back into math this fall. A little resistant. It is usually so easy for her, she doesn't like to work at *getting it*. She also is doing math drills online and is doing well in the next book of Explode the Code.
Redhead and Jewel are listening to me read The Hundred Dresses . It's provided us with some good discussions on compassion, being a friend, poverty and *different* names. We also have a different last name, so it is good for them to realise the teasing some children get because of that.
They also had fun making a Greenhouse Jar - it is supposed to show how condensation of water works. It is working well - we just need to talk about it.
AND Redhead and Jewel got to go to their monthly card making class at the local scrapbook store. They had fun AND I need to plan a weekly lesson on some cardmaking / scrapbooking technique. I have some ideas already.
We also got to go swimming twice and walked once. My goal is to do something every day, but it has still been too busy getting everything together in Sept. I'm working at saying no to some things and preparing better. That is helping. I even made a sheet that tells me what we need to be doing each day, each week. I'll see if that helps and run more off, if it does. I do have lots planned - if we only accomplish 3/4's of it, we still will be doing well. Smile
I also wanted to do some current events with them about Sept. 11 (9/11), but ran out of time on thursday - we will do that next week. I don't know if they remember what happened and how it has changed the world we live in.
It has been a good week and we have enjoyed our time together.
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Sep. 12, 2008 - What are your resolutions for the New Home School Year?
New Home School Year resolutions
Saw the above link about resolutions for the new Home School year and it made me think.....
I loved these resolutions:
1. Do what I actually planned.
2. Use the items I have bought/been given
3. More hands-on activites and field trips.
I think my resolutions are along that line. What about you? What would your home school resolutions be?
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Sep. 12, 2008 - September Home School Support Group Meeting - great!
The question of the night was:
What is the best thing that works for you HSing your children?
Some answers were:
- From a mom of eight (soon to be nine) - Giving everyone some individual attention each day.
- Getting a good night's sleep
- Having a family meeting regularly and discussing things
- Another mom shared that praying regularly gives her grace for her children
- Flexibility - HSing on the go during everyday life
- Reading works - lots of readalouds
- HSing in the afternoon works for one family (She also mentioned that they are enjoying listening to audiobooks together
- Stay at least one step ahead of the kids
- Give your children more credit for what they have learned and yourself more credit for what you have taught them
- Some children need structure - they want to know when they need to study and when they can play
-Using a daytimer - one child has learned to do more scheduling over the years and is getting very good at it
- Their children love to write - their family tries to get as much out of everything they do - to learn from everything
- Try to talk about what the kids want to learn - try to model a love of learning
And the second question was:
What is your best tip for parenting teens?
- Continue praying - don't give them too many decisions to make. Parents are still the ones in charge.
- Parenting teens? Let dad take charge.
- Be there for your teenagers
- Don't treat children as teenagers - everyone grows and changes. Give children reasns for family rules
- Either a person is a child or an adult - no grey zone. They either are a child with a child's rights and responsibiliities or an adult with adult rights and responsibilities. (There was a bit of debate with this comment - interesting discussion)
The Show and Tell's were:
_Do Hard Things_ by Brett and Alex Harris The Rebelution Blog Looks very good.
- One mom is thinking of doing a kid's book club (elementary) with mom and child involved
- Another mom recommended _ Games for Learning_ by Peggy Kaye
Games for Learning
- One mom reviewed Sonlight Curriculum - her older daughter (high school) is loving the books
- One mom brought the entire set of Uncle Eric books Uncle Eric books Wow - they look good for high school. I've got a couple, but will be buying more to read and discuss with my older children.
- A young HS mom brought a homemade learn to read game to share - (blends, ends, and rules) Fish with paper clips and a magnetic fishing rod. Her son (6) fishes for one and that one is put on the frig - they look for the blend in the books they read and much more. He loves it. (If you need the list, she will share it)
- Another mom brought her HS scrapbook. She takes pictures of their HSing AND the kids do the journaling. Great job.
- One mom reviewed _A History of Britain_ (BBC Dvd) History of Britain Great.
- The Drive Thru History dvd's were mentioned again - great for jr and sr high HSers.
Drive Through History
A pretty full, busy, fun meeting with lots of support and ideas. Even some giveaways for those who attended. Smile
Hope you enjoyed some of our meeting and thoughts shared.....
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Sep. 12, 2008 - What a great blog on how to make home school friends -
Take the time to make home school friends!
I loved her thoughts on this topic. It does take time and effort, but it is so worthwhile for us AND our children!
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Sep. 12, 2008 - A fun little craft that the girls are enjoying - Perler beads!
I had used these for my older girls about 12 years ago, but recently found them again (my younger girls are at the age where they will enjoy them, too). Bought some more at Micheal's and a friend bought a couple of kits at Costco for me - wow, lots of fun.
Our girls did them with their friends over the summer and as long as you buy them at a good price - the kits and the big tubs of beads were best, it isn't that hard to share them with friends.
Perler Beads - fun and more fun!
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Sep. 12, 2008 - Boy, this Home School mom likes to sew -
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Sep. 1, 2008 - Take a look at your children and decide what they need.....
I've been thinking about this for a couple of days. We have home schooled for 16 years - this fall will be number 17 (how amazing is that?). I never realized how it would be when we started home schooling, but I am so thankful we are where we are, and home schooling definitely works for us.
My oldest daughter did go to kindergarten and that was ok - except when we brought her home, there were a couple of years of "the teacher didn't do it like that". Smile
Also, she had a taste of school parties. smile That has been another thing we have done through the years - my mom actually told me once that if she missed a christmas party like she had in school - why not have a christmas party for her and her home school friends?
I try to remember that even now. My three younger girls (17, 11 and 9) have never been in school - but they have friends who are in school and tell them about the *fun* they are having. smile
So, I will be planning little celebrations through our home school year. I try to include fun things as we go along. A holiday party now and then. A field trip here and there. Definite new home school supplies and classes - even if they are just at home with me. smile (I'm planning a scrapbooking / cardmaking / paper play class for Redhead and Jewel. Jewel just got into scrapbooking and loves paper play, so once a week, I'm going to do an afternoon of some paper project with them. I think it will be great for all of us!).
Anyway, if your kids are kinda missing the *fun* things in school, like field trips, holiday parties, movies on friday afternoon (rolling eyes here - smile), why not just add some of those things in now and then? Yes, they make us a little more work, but our children are so much happier with those in their lives. The extra effort is worth it.
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Aug. 30, 2008 - Just a note - please read!
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Aug. 30, 2008 - Just do it!
Read an interesting blog earlier today. Another blogger was sharing something about how things have changed for them through the years since they started Home Schooling.
It did make me think. I love being a support to other home schoolers. I moderate a small elist, post periodically on a home schooling forum AND am quite vocal about support for home school moms that need it.
It was a good reminder to me that some moms / families are just home schooling. Period. They don't need support. They just do it.
I still have a need to be a support to others, but perhaps God is leading me into another season of my life.
I know along with *just doing* home schooling this year, I will be doing the next thing in many areas of my life, as will as in our home schooling. I'm quite looking forward to it and the joy it will be in our lives this fall.
I hope you, too, will just *do* home schooling! smile
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Aug. 12, 2008 - Our first day of Home School for 2008 - 2009
Well, it was a day. smile
I had been planning on starting our new Home School year on August 11. I like to start a bit early, so that I have some flexibility during the year (my husband likes to take spontaneous vacations - smile)
I just want to ease back into our home school day, mostly. Redhead asked if we can delay starting math for a few days. smile
BUT my dear husband and I were looking at beds on Saturday. Redhead and Jewel need new beds. We finally decided on one, but my husband thinks their room should be painted before we get the bed delivered. Wow - what an addition to my week. (It is good, though - I wanted their room painted before the end of August, so this has lighted a fire under me - smile)
So, our first day of home school this year looked like:
We went to the Courthouse together and walked through the metal detectors - I had an envelope to drop off and had a thrill going through the metal detectors last month, so I thought the girls would enjoy going through them with me. We then talked about why metal detectors would be necessary in that situation.
Then we came home and I made the mistake of going downstairs to start a load of laundry first. Ever since we got back from Family Camp 10 days ago, I haven't caught up on laundry BUT I can't do that first, when we want to home school in the morning! I know that, but it is a good reminder! smile
Before we started, I did our first day of Home School speech. I found the original post here Responsiblity Speech I reminded them of what my responsiblities were AND what their responsibilities were... Jewel was a little negative about one of the things she was going to do and I thought it was a good reminder that we all need to be willing to learn at all times. smile
Then we started home schooling. Smile Jewel and I worked on her Explode the Code. She did really well. Her reading is coming along. We also did a couple pages of Math U See - She loves it.
Redhead worked on a notebooking page of an experiment we did previously - a sketch of the experiment plus she wrote what happened. We started doing that in the spring and she loves it.
She also worked on her Word a Day Book - affluent was her new word and read for 20 minutes.
Then we emptied their room of *everything* and washed the walls in preparation for patching and painting.
Jewel read aloud to me before bed and that was our first day of home schooling 2008 - 2009. smile
Yes, I had more planned and we will be doing a lot more each day, but it was a good start AND they were willing. I think we all enjoyed it. That was so nice to see.
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Aug. 12, 2008 - Record Keeping Idea
I just made one for our family (by hand! Because my computer program is new and awkward to use!) and it took about 3 tries before I figured out exactly what I wanted, but oh, I can see it being usable and a wonderful record, PLUS easy to use. All great things when looking for planning / recording tools.
This is a chart with the days of the month along the bottom edge and then the items (everything that you would have them do in a month - academic items to reading to church to crafting to baking to ___________ - you choose). I made one as a master and photocopied 12 for each child - although I guess 10 months would be enough, too)
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Home School Record Chart by Grace - shared with her permission
Yes, I do one for each child. They are fairly similar, but yet personalized for them. Our youngest daughter loves to write and make cards and draw, etc. So I have a specific box to record that kind of stuff. I have the form on my computer, and each month I just change the date at the bottom and print out another. It is in landscape orientation, I 3 hole punch it and keep them in a binder. If we are going along in a month and a new thing comes up - maybe they have moved into a new book, or added music lessons. Then I just tweak the chart to indicate that, maybe take out something that is no longer done, and then save it and print it.
This chart is my main method of record keeping. A check mark indicates we have spent at least 20 minutes doing that activity.
At the bottom I leave room for notes. I record the name of the book we are reading aloud, the name of the book they are reading to me, the type of concerts they have attended (we include concerts since we have a son that invites us to many and I make the children go for their fine arts exposure.) I will make a note about a special event, special holiday or a special visit.
I also include in the chart more than just the 3 R's. I do not like to think that home education and training of our children is limited to reading, writing and arithmetic. That is why I include going to church, or having visitors (socialization training) as part of their education.
******************************Great idea, Grace! I am so looking forward to using it!
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Aug. 12, 2008 - Planning for our next year of Home Schooling
I have spent a bit of time planning this summer - more time than I have spent in many years. I'm quite excited actually. smile
I planned our days on and days off - although I always try to be flexible there, too. I planned approx. 36 weeks on, with a week off every 4 weeks or 2 weeks off every 6 weeks or so. smile
My younger girls are 11 and 9, while my 2nd oldest is 17 - next year will be her last year. WOW - time goes by so fast.
Because Redhead and Jewel are getting older, I am planning on doing more things with them and getting more done. It is going to be a challenge to get everything done in a day. I'm still thinking about whether we need to do 4 days a week (lots of HSing) or 5 (less items a day) or have the 5th day off for chores, errands and FINISHING home school projects. We will see.
I then went through all the curriculum I want to use - assist me in teaching. I'm not much for worksheets, although they have their place for certain things (none of my three younger girls have gone to school, so they are not burnt out on work sheets - Redhead thinks they are fun).
I went through and figured out what science experiments we will do and what scrapbooking techniques I want to teach them. We had fun entering the local fair this summer, so I'm planning on doing one item a week with them, this next year, in preparation for next summer. We'll see if I can get that done. smile
I have found the more planning I do, the more I get done.
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