• Sep. 4, 2009 - Need to Get Some Updates Out
Life has been pretty hectic around here the last couple of months and we are really just now getting back into the swing of things. I will posting more details on many of these things in the next few weeks. So here are some highlights.
My oldest Jacob who graduated from homeschool in 2002 is now on the mission field as a NGO for MCC in Southern Sudan. (NGO - Non-Government Worker, MCC - Mennonite Central Committe). He left July 31 for a three year term.
Next is my 18 yo. He took the GED in the Spring and passed 3 of the 5 sections. He will return to adult education classes to work on those skills. Once he completes his GED we will also issue him a homeschool diploma. He's future plans are unsure at this time. He would like to get into designing video games and there are college programs for that but we need to find out what options are available with his learning disabilities.
In a big change for all of us our 14 yo is now a public school student. He is very interested in the military as a career choice and would love to attend the Air Force Academy. Our county offers one of the few public military high schools in the country and so we allowed our son to enroll. The program is similar to those offered by private military schools costing $27,00-$40,000 a year although the public school is only a day school. They have their own campus location for everything but lunch. They were military uniforms. They have a strict policy on conduct and those who don't comply are asked to leave. So with much apprehension we have allowed him to explore this option. The school has only been around for 4 years and they have already placed 4 students in military academies and many others have received full ROTC scholarships at traditional colleges. As well as those who are not military minded and received good scholarships based on academic and extra curricular performance.
We have always homeschooled because we felt it was the best option for our children. That has always been our main concern. And so after much prayer and research we have decided that for now this is the best option. Of course we reserve the right to change our minds if necessary.
The two youngest continue to homeschool. This year we are using lots of lapbooks mainly from Hands of A Child. Our plan is to cover a continent and habitat every 5-6 weeks. We will also study an animal that ties in with one of those things as well. In addition the 12 yo will be studying using Beyond Five in A Row and the 8 yo will be using Five in A Row. Finally, I will be finishing up our reading of Sonlight Core K and then Core 2. Our plan will be to move on to American History next year. |
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• Apr. 28, 2009 - Worbox System - A Week Later
Well I've been using the Workbox System for over a week now and I'm very, very happy with the results. I still think the biggest benefit to me so far has been how it has kept me accountable. Now when the kids ask can I go out, play the Wii, etc. I can easily say are your boxes finished. (And because of the box system I can also very quickly see visually the answer.) Before I might get the yes I'm done or I finished my list when they in fact had not but since I didn't have time to go through their list I'd let them go and find out later they had left something undone. Now even if I haven't checked it all I can easily see its not done.
I had to be out of town part of Thursday - Sunday. I set up the boxes a bit different with the work to complete while I was gone. If they had an assignment both days I put two numbers on them. For example the math workbook box had a #2 and #7 on it. They each knew how much they needed for each day. Joshua figured out if it was all done he could have more time off so he actually finished both days worth in one day. Hannah didn't get all of hers done because she got sick but I could still see what needed to be reschedule due to illness and she is back on track today.
I started out with the idea of just using the system with my two youngest who will be staying home again in the fall. I figured we could give the system a try and then decide how I wanted to use them next year. My 14 yo will be attending a military school through our local school system in the fall so I didn't want to invest in a new system. But I've found that the ideas and principals of this system so helpful to me as the teacher that I decided I wanted to expand its use to my 14 yo as well.
Since I didn't want to spend too much I decided to use a crate with hanging folders for him since these were materials I already had. I just printed off another number set and purchased some more velcro. Today is our first day and I found that he had not completed everything last week that he was supposed to so he has some folders with more than one assignment in them. What I told him was to go through the folders in order, doing one days worth in each folder and then after he has completed one full days worth he can go back and work on the additional assignments each day until he catches up. I wanted him to get an idea of how long it is really taking him to complete a full days work and to get the feel of working through the folders in order, one assignment at a time until done. Sometimes his biggest problem is finding his book to complete the assignment or "forgetting" to do his book reading. Now it is all in one place and easy to find. He is to bring the crate out at the end of the day for grading and pick it up again each morning stocked and ready to go. I think that learning to think in this more organized way will help him in the fall. He can come home and crate his homework so he can clearly see what he needs to accomplish before doing other things.
Someone had commented that they wanted to know more about what I was talking about so here are a couple of links. The first link is to Sue Patrick's Workbox System site. Sue Patrick Workbox System the second link is to the Five in a Row Discusion that I read that got me started on exploring this system in the first place. FIAR Workbox Discussion And if you google Workbox System it will bring up all kinds of homeschooling blogs on the subject as well. |
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• Apr. 12, 2008 - A Beautiful Day
| Yesterday morning Hannah said she didn't want to go outside instead of doing school. So I decided to compromise and do school outside. Of course the camera batteries were dead so I have no pictures (we may just need to recreate the scene.) I said in camp chair, Hannah sat on her Barbie jeep. (Which her brothers rescued from someone's trash pile so it doesn't run but she loves it when she can get her brothers to push her.) Joshua sat on the blanket or up in the tree. We really had a great morning. The weather was perfect and under the shade of our oak tree it was really pleasant. Not sure how many more days like this we will have before the hot, muggy days of summer come in full force. Already by lunch time its starting to get hot. It was fun to hear the birds and watch the squirrels. We even got a mini air show as there is a big Fly In over in the next town and I guess they were practicing or something over our way. We saw some Warbirds plus a few others. It was fun to just relax and enjoy the day. |
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• Jan. 20, 2008 - Family Photo
• Sep. 18, 2007 - Rainy Day Fun
The other day after a good rain we had water standing in our drive way. Well Caleb, Hannah, and the boy from across the street had fun playing in the puddles. Finally the called me out to see their creation. They had use debris to create an island home. They couldn't wait for me to take a picture. They worked so hard that I decided I just had to share all their hard work.
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• Jul. 17, 2007 - Our School Room
Well I’m finally getting around to posting the pictures of our school room. We actually have a great room that goes from the front door to the back door and then L-shapes into the kitchen. We use the end nearest the front door as our main school area. It is set up in a sort of rectangle shape. One side is my computer table. One side is my scrapbook table. One side is Caleb's work table. The final side is the table that Joshua and Hannah sit at for their school time. Of course the pictures were taken before I declutter so things look a bit better now.
Here are Joshua and Hannah doing thier school:
Caleb's Work Space
My desk and scrapbook corner
The dinning room table is at the other end of the room and where I read to the guys during lunch.
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• Jul. 14, 2007 - Major Declutter
Well I had good intensions of writing a very nice entry and add some pictures but then we decided to do a major declutter. I have now lost track of the number of bags of trash that have gone out. One big pile at curbside is gone. I have free cycled 1 big bag of girl clothes and 7 small bags of books. I have a huge pile of books that needed to be sorted for sale or cycle. I have a big pile of cloths that need to be sorted for cycling. Most of the rooms are not finished with the major reorganization and decluttering. Now its the finishing to pick up the floor. Not letting the two rooms completely done to get messy again.
The major area left to work on is my desk, scrapbook table, and school table as stuff that was in the wrong place sort of got set there. But there is now room for it to get reorganized its just a matter of getting to it.
I have a meeting during the day on Monday and an online conference later in the week so I'm going to surprise the kids with the the week off to reward them for their hard work. Everyone pitched in. Sometimes it was as simple as move that pile of books from this spot to that one but everyone worked.
It really looks so much better but now its the little stuff that needs to be swept up or the last pile that needs to get put away or whatever. Now this little bits seems like a lot which seems so silly considering what has disappeared. Of course looking at shelves and drawers I have no idea where all that stuff was. 
I did get pictures of our school area and maybe I'll get those added later in the week when we are taking our time off. Of course you can still some of our clutter in the pictures.
Well my goal was to get back to blogging no less than once a week on Saturday so here it is. Not what I was planning on but very happy with the results so far. And my dh cooked a pork roast on the grill which should be ready any minute. Umm.
Major accomplishments this week.
1. Major declutter.
2. Got all but one bug worked out for the program I'm using for our homeschool group and got this years members listed.
3. Started a major declutter.
4. Got several pages done in our School scrapbook last weekend. (Of course it was 2003 pictures but they are now done.)
5. Found the stuff for Hannah's birthday and my nephew's birthday next month that had been hidden in my closet.
6. Finished my book from the library on Elizabeth Tudor.
7. Got pictures from our last several lapbooks taken. (Finally) Took pictures of school area. (Now I just need to post.)
My plans for next week:
1. Attend homeschool board meeting (including prep tomorrow.)
2. Attend a virtual convention online.
3. Continue to scrapbook. I need to get caught up from 03 to 07. Current project School Album 03.
4. Finish up some school plans for the next several months. While we have our school year from Jan-Dec this is the time of year we reevaluate somethings. We will be continuing with most of the same stuff we were doing but adding in a few things after PS kids go back and stop knocking on the door. The biggest changes will be for Hayden later this fall. I'll have to post more. The biggest change Hannah and Joshua want to add Five in A Row to their SL stuff. We did a lot of FIAR in 03 and when they saw the pictures as I was scrapbooking they decided they wanted to do it again.
5. Get pictures posted to blog. |
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• Oct. 17, 2006 - Making Changes
Well we had pretty much settled into a regular rountine with our school and then we recieved some exciting news from our in-laws. The family is making a trip to Norway next year and our way is being paid so that we can go as well.
I decided I wanted to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity and learn as much as we could before we go. So I began to look for a way to study about Norway and the Artic. I went through some of my old links and did some google searches. This all lead me back to the idea of lapbooking. I was able to find several that will be benefical for our trip.
Then I had to decide how to incoorporate all this into our school week. So we have started Fun Fridays. This is a day when we work on our lapbooks together. We have two going at a time one aimed at the younger learners and one aimed at the older learners at our house. Although everyone usually listens and even works on at least parts of both levels.
We just finished our first month of Fun Fridays and decided that even after we finish our Artic studies we want to continue to do Fun Fridays.
If you have ever thought about using lapbooks but weren't sure where to start using one that is already planned out for you is a great way to start. Also right now Hands of a Child is having a really super special you should check out.
Hands of a Child Super Sale Link
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• Apr. 30, 2006 - What's been going on
It's been a while since I've updated. I spent most of the time from mid March to mid April battling with my blood pressure. I have been under treatment since 1998 and have been staying balanced. But all of a sudden it shot way up and it took almost 3 weeks of trying different medication combinations to finally get things back in balance. Doing great now but it took so much out of me that doing schooling and laundry was about all I mananged. It just left me exhustated. Now I feel like I'm stilling trying to get the house and paper work back under control.
Now I have to get the house completely cleaned as my oldest is returning from Uganda on Saturday and we are having a party for him a week from today. Shortly after that we take off for vacation and I have a ton of stuff around the house to do. To add to that a lot of our "school year" stuff is wrapping up so we will be on the go almost every day.
I will be helping at the Sonlight booth at our state Convention at the end of the month and I'm bringing some of the display stuff so I have to get that packed up and ready as well.
Despite all that has been going on we have had some really great school moments. Hayden had one of his best weeks homeschooling ever. I knew that I was going to be busy with some other things so we set our Pace goals for the week at the beginning of the week. Hayden had everything done by Wednesday. I suggest that if he did 5 more assignments he would earn two more stars for the week. He rose to the challange and earned a total of 4 stars last week. I'm so proud of him.
We finished up our little unit on Colonial Williamsburg to prepare for vacation and have started our Sonlight Core 3 readings. So far we have been able to read 1-2 days every school day so we are already starting week 3. The boys are really enjoying it. Hayden who never used to like to sit and listen to too much reading is actually the one making sure I don't forget to read every day.
I took off last weekend for a scrapbooking retreat and did some finishing touches on some album pages I have been working on so now our family reunion beach trip album is done and Hannah is now completely caught up from birth to December 2005. My next big projects will be our family trip and getting my oldest's pictures into album so all he has to do is add journalling. I have pictures from a trip to Chicago, 2 trips to the Dominican Republic, at mercy trip to Mississppi, and North Carolina all printed and at least sorted by trip. Plus he will have all his Africa pictures too. I figure if I can sit down with him and at least get them in order then I can lay them out and sticks them in albums so that they don't get lost or destroyed.
Well that's the latest at our house.
PS I'm too tired and busy to spell check or proof read. Consider it your test for the day. :)
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• Jan. 23, 2006 - Back from Christmas Break
Well it seems about time to add another update to my blog. We have finally gotten back into the swing of things school wise. The house is almost back together after my oldest leaving a bunch of stuff here when he left the country.
We have heard from my son a couple of times by email and he has updated his travel website twice. No pictures yet though. He updated in London at the Heathrow airport and once from Uganda.
We made a hard decision after testing and the Christmas break that my #2 son really had been placed a bit too hard in the ACE curriculum. In an effort to try to push him ahead I realized we pushed too far, too fast. But he has a good attitude about taking a step back. I really prayed for the right words with which to approach the subject and God was very wonderful to do just that. So I approached it like an army making a strategic retreat to go forward more effectively.
I was able to pick up the first few paces for each level at a store here locally so we only lost a couple of school days. I then order the rest from ACE’s and hope that it will all get here soon.
Also since Hannah really wants some paces like her boys and she always seems to need and want more school each day I decided to add the K level material. I have purchased just the first quarter for now just in case it doesn’t work out. It will be added to what she is already doing and will not be a replacement. The math portion should be right on target but the language arts may be a bit behind as she knows most of letter names and sounds but it should be a fun review. So we will see how it all works out.
God also blessed us with an older PC for only $50 so I have also ordered the Readmaster software. I think that all the boys will benefit from the programs on the disk. And since one of the evaluator’s goals for Hayden for next year is for him to learn touch typing this will really meet a need. Also all the boys were low in spelling so the Word Builder drills will help them in this area. I’m also excited to see how the other portions of the software work out. Also I had some old Critical Thinking Press (Bright Minds) software that was supposed to work on our MAC but actually never seemed to work. Now it is installed on our PC and it is working just fine. So we will be able to use the Ace software and this other software I had and was never able to use.
The other exciting thing was I was able to do all of this without increasing our debt level. My husband had an unusually good paycheck that covered the curriculum costs and we got a $75 refund of overpayment from when we refinanced our 2nd mortgage that paid for the computer.
Well it’s off to get school done today. I will have to post how things go for my son with the new level material later.
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• Dec. 22, 2005 - Christmas Break
Well we have decided to take the last few weeks of the year off for a change. It was a combination of the flu, the need to get some other projects done, and public school friends at the door or on the phone.
We had a good week after we got back from the beach but then I decided the clutter was just getting to me and in a way would affect my children’s ability to learn as well. So we started a room-by-room massive cleaning project. It involved throwing out a lot of trash, moving furniture, sorting games and toys, and buying some drawers and shelving to complete the project. By the time we were done the boys and I had cleared out 15 bags of trash. I have the games reorganized and a list of replacement parts that for about $20 will give us 10 like new games to enjoy all over again. All the books are on shelves and Caleb has a bit more privacy in his bedroom made out of the den/laundry room area. Most of the toys are now in Hannah or Joshua’s room. We moved all of Jacob’s stuff out of Hayden’s room so it can feel like his room. For now Jacob’s stuff is piled in the hallway. The pile will get added on to when Jacob brings his stuff over from Lake Wales before he leaves for Africa. My plan is to go through and sort his stuff and then repack it in a more organized manner with a list of what is in each box. The children were rewarded at the end of the project with a trip to the tree lot for a Christmas tree, which I vowed we would not get if the house was not picked up. Now the goal is to keep the house straightened which requires me to be consistent to check their rooms and make sure they stay picked up.
I actually got a Christmas letter written this year and got them mailed out early this week. The three youngest got to ride on the Bartow Ford float this year. I started out reading Christmas books but then the flu took over and my voice and throat have sort of put a stop to that. Hayden has been working on his Downtown Fire album and hopes to have it ready to show our evaluator in January.
Jacob has completed all his pre-trip shots and has his flight schedule to Uganda. We got him a camera for Christmas but gave it to him early so he could play around with it and practice. He plans to be home Christmas weekend and New Year’s Weekend but will probably spend the rest of the time at Warner as they have given him plenty of work hours. Jacob also heard from Luther Seminary in St. Paul this week and he has been accepted. He took Dan and out for dinner Monday night and shared the news. We plan on having a Send Off Open House for him on New Year’s Day.
We plan a much smaller and simpler Christmas out of necessity but I think it will really be much better in the long run. We will most likely restart school with our new school year after our evaluations, which are the first week in January. I’m looking forward to getting back on our regular schedule but this break has been nice as well.
Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.
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• Nov. 6, 2005 - Our new material arrives
Well our new curriculum arrived on Thursday. I spent all evening getting everything set up. We had a park day with friends on Friday so we will be starting our new curriculum on Monday. My 10 year old was especially excited about the new material. I realized that the more I looked the material over the more excited I got about the material as well.
I can’t wait to get started. For the first day I want everyone to work about 30 minutes per subject to help us get a baseline from which they can begin to set their own daily goals.
My oldest came by last night while my husband and I were out on a date. He stayed until we got back. Imagine the wonderful picture it made for me when I got home to see my grown child sitting on the floor with the 4 year old on his lap reading her a library book. They were looking for the hidden objects and counting. It was so cute. She really got to know her big brother last summer when we went to Louisville together. She’ll miss her big brother while he’s out of the country. We do plan to all take a family vacation together after Jacob gets back and before he leaves for seminary.
Well I need to get ready for church. We’ve been having internet issues for the past week and will be changing servers so I wanted to get this out while I had the chance.
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• Oct. 28, 2005 - Dinner in the Crock-pot
Well our Internet was down for a couple of days so I’m so excited to be back up and running again.
On Wednesday I drove about 150 miles to visit the ACE curriculum rep. I’m really glad I went. I got a discount that I didn’t even know I was going to get which was a great surprise. But the reason I’m so glad that I went because looking at the curriculum one more time before making a final decision really helped me feel really good about our decision. I was also able to talk over a couple of the areas I was unsure about. Also the rep saved me some money because I decided to skip the answer keys for the 1st and 2nd grade PACES. We should have our new school stuff in the next couple of weeks. I think we will go ahead and get started right away.
The weather here has been beautiful. We haven’t done much school wise as we wait for our new stuff. We will continue our Florida unit as well until the end of the year.
I’m so excited today. I have stew in the crock-pot. The iced tea is cooling in the fridge and I have a dessert planned out that I start around 4:30 in the little crock-pot. I just love fall.
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• Oct. 24, 2005 - Bye Bye Wilma Good Bye
From Wilma to Winter,
Well it’s about 5:30 pm and Wilma is now one for the history books. Are part of Florida doesn’t seem too bad. The biggest stuff we had in our yard were some dead limbs left over from last year’s hurricanes but were too high to reach are now down and ready for the trash man. The roof looks fine.
During the storm we had our power flicker but never suffered sustained outage. We now have sunny, cool, and breezy weather. To think a few short hours ago the air was running and it was hot and muggy. Now the windows are open and the breeze is blowing through.
We ended up with now school today. During the morning hours when the wind was really blowing they were just too keyed up and once the storm based soon after lunch they were just antsy to get outside. They are all running around now and having a blast.
I threw a soup in the crock-pot this morning to welcome in our winter weather. It 67 degrees right now. Our high was about 75 degrees at about 3 am. Our low was right after the rain stopped and it was still over cast. The thermometer was reading around 56 degrees.
Well that’s about all the news from Central Florida. Tomorrow back to school.
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• Oct. 23, 2005 - Wilma Watching
Watching and Waiting,
Well the last couple of days around here have really been about getting prepared and staying informed.
We did have a field trip to the Audubon Center on Thursday. We had a great time. Then we went to my oldest’s dorm room. We helped him cover some of his electronics as he was heading out of town. He lost everything last year when the roof blew off the dorm he was living in. So all of his stuff is just about a year old. The dorm he’s in now survived with just minimal damage last year. Most of the damage last year was from some leaks dripping from the roof and water coming in around the windows. So we are hoping that wrapping the electronics in plastic bags will protect them against what ever comes his way. After we got him packed up we headed out to lunch. Then it was off to the airport to drop him off.
I was going to pick him up on Saturday but he was able to have his flight switch to North Carolina. He has lots of friends up there and since they have closed the college campus it made more sense for him to head there. He will be coming back with his friend and classmate Monday or Tuesday depending on what Wilma does here.
Right now the latest track has it coming ashore early Monday to the south of us. If that holds we should get a lot of rain and tropical storm force winds here but avoid the worst of it. Of course tornados are always a possibility.
At this point we’re all just tired of watching and waiting. Also the timing of the storm keeps changing so at this point we’re not really sure of what to expect or when. We’ve brought things in from outside just in case. We already had food and batteries, which I collected at the beginning of the hurricane season. After last year I wasn’t taking any chances so I think we’re as prepared as we can be. Just looking forward to seeing Wilma’s backside.
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• Sep. 16, 2005 - Rearranging
Well we spent most of the day rearranging books and furniature. Now all the children have their own room. Caleb's room doesn't really have a wall or door but we creatively move some furniture to give him a bit of a wall.
This was the room that was going to be the school room when we remodeled a few years ago. We turned our 2 car garage (that never got a car in it) into a bedroom for our girl and a school room. I decided early on that I didn't like it as a school room. It was too narrow and hard to keep an eye on a toddler. So it became the TV room and where my treadmill was. So it is now a bedroom.
Hannah still has her own room and now she's not out it that part of the house by herself anymore which I like.
Joshua is keeping the room he and Caleb used to share. He is also keeping the bunk beds so Caleb will need a bed.
Hayden already had his own room that was first Jacob's room, then a den, then Jacob's room, then my study and library, and now Hayden's room. It is still full of bookshelves. But one of the things I did yesterday was to switch a bunch of books around so the more current school book are now out in the living area so I don't need to barge into his room quite as much.
In the living area I moved the treadmill out there by the window. I put the school table up against the front window. My scrapbook tables have been moved to that end of the room as well. The china cabinet went down by the fireplace. Computer desks went into individual rooms so there was space to move one of the shelves out of Hayden's room that made room for his computer desk. I also moved my file cabinet out of his room and it is under the school table.
We moved the dining table down to the fireplace end of the room closer to the kitchen. The orginal dining room now has the TV in the corner of the room so that food eaten can now be contained to all tile areas only. And hopefully helping to contain different bug problems.
These leaves a big open area in the center of the great room. Joshua and Hannah have their own school desk there so as they do some of their stuff I can keep an eye on them while working with someone else at the table.
Then if I'm having people over to scrapbook book. I can fold up the treadmill, push the little desks over in the corner. Pull out the extra folding tables, and I'm ready to go.
So with the new plan food stays contained to tile areas, if people are coming for scrapbooking they don't have to walk around the dining room table that was in the center of the room. If we are having the family over the school and scrapbook stuff can be easily push together to make room for extra dining area. And on the reverse it will be very easy to adjust the space for scrapbooking. Also it leaves a much more open feel if the children are working on something together.
The great room area is all done and picked up. The boys rooms are all mostly arranged except that Caleb needs a bed. But in there are piles in all the rooms that need dealing with. Stuff that got moved around like the toy bins need to be reorganized and then stuff sorted back into them. Even Hannah's room got a bit messy as stuff was shoved in there until a place for it could be found.
So I'm looking forward to having it get all done but I think this is really going to work out well for all of us and it will deal with some issues that we've been having as well. |
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