We have already done 5 weeks of school, and this week is our first break. 

This is a week to catch up on my records and planning.  Our next break will be the week of September 10th and I hope to have all things Five in a Row ready to go through that week.  I have already pre-planned most of the books.  Mary Evelyn will be learning from Amber on the Mountain, Gramma's Walk, and Night of the Moonjellies.  Rachel's lessons will come from Mailing May and Higgins Bend Song and Dance.  Now I just need to glance at my pre-planning page and see if I need any materials for projects or crafts. 

I also want to review where we are ao far in the three R's and make some short term goals for these.  This is our first year using Easy Grammar with Rachel and we both really like it a lot.  She had her first test recently and did great.  In math she is brushing up on her multiplication tables and she is loving Wordsmith Apprentice for creative writing.  Mary Evelyn is working hard to learn her addition facts mostly using games and hands on activities, though we do use a math book too.  She is still learning to read, but thinks that should wait until college.  Her writing is great and she is getting braver and trying to write more on her own and not asking me how to spell every little word.  Both girls love Five in a Row and our read aloud time.  I let them draw while I read chapter books out loud.  Currently we are reading Caddie Woodlawn and really enjoying it.

Some of their extras are swimming lessons, church activities, and Rosetta Stone foreign languages...free though our library.  Jason is going through the book of Acts with them and we are learning catechism questions and answers with our small group from church too. 

Busy, busy...just like everyone else I know!

I wanted to share a game idea I learned about in the Carol Barnier book I am reading (see my sidebar for the title).  We have been playing Hop on It to review our math facts.  You write one answer per index card and lay these on the floor in any order.  I call out a math fact (like 7x6) and Rachel hops on the card that says 42.  It makes review a little more fun than it could be.  I like this game because it can be played with just about any subject.  Mary Evelyn likes to play this game as well.  There are lots of other game and manipluative ideas in the book.  If you need a little creativity in your homeschool, check your library.  It's a great book. 

Or is it finally meeting old friends?  Today I had the pleasure of meeting a few of the moms from the Five in a Row boards.  We took the kiddos to a fun little play place.  They got to play in several child sized areas like a grocery store, a dentist office, a vet office, and a diner.  My girls loved it, but I was blessed to finally meet a few of the people who have encouraged me in homeschooling, marriage, parenting, and so much more over the last 5 years. 

Standing: Heather with Grace, Michelle, Lorrie, Kendall, and me with Betsie

Sitting: Kafi and Rebecca

And here are some of the girls having lots of fun.

Lesson #1:  I think God wants me to homeschool so I can see how much I need Him.  I was very prideful when I started this journey five years ago.  Not that I have conquered that sin in my heart by any means, but I am certain that I am not the perfect mom or teacher nor do I have perfect students.  However, God is so very gracious.  He knows what each of us needs each day and we are never left lacking in any way.  The joy of the Lord is most certainly my strength.

Lesson #2:  My girls are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Period.  I have one student who learns differently from the average child.  This has not been easy for me to accept.  I want it to be easy to teach her, to pull out the manual, do what it says, and then have her understand each concept right away.  But the way she learns requires a lot more hands on kinds of activity and a lot of patience.  It really stretches me.  And yet, she is made in the very image of God.  There is nothing wrong with how she learns.  In fact, it is a gift because it forces me to depend on the One who made her to show me what she needs.  I am so very thankful for who she is.  So, so thankful.

Lesson #3:  My husband is the best out there, no doubt in my mind.  I was made to be his helpmate, but I promise you that most days I feel like he is the one helping me all the time.  He came home the other day with all sorts of notes from his own "research" on how to teach our daughter.  He spent a few nights working with the girls on some hands on lessons this week.  He does devotions every night to lead them into a closer walk with God.  I'm not sure it was intentional, but he has even made these devotions good in the area of language arts as they are currently making their own notebooks about the book of Acts.  I was feeling very burdened for one of our girls the other day, but God has shown me very clearly this week that I do not carry this burden alone.  I have my Father, who knows everything already, and I have Jason, who takes full responsibility for his girls.

Lesson #4:  It's gonna take a lot more than a few activities in a box to keep Betsie busy during school time. 

I can't believe we're about to start a new school year already.  Didn't we just finish the last one?  This year we are starting back on July 9th.  I have several Five in a Row units planned for each girl already.  They will be working at different levels this year.  I admit I had a miniture panic attack/freak out time last night thinking about how in the world I will get it all done.  Betsie is acting a bit clingier these days and that makes it hard to get things done.  Jason helps me see the big picture at times like this and reminds me of our goals.

We also came up with a few things to try differently this year.  This won't work every week, but we are going to see if schooling Tuesday through Saturday some weeks works.  That way, I can almost guarantee at least one smooth and get-done-quicker school day each week because Jason will be here to make sure I don't have to stop each time we get some momentum going.  I sure hope Betsie continues taking naps all year because that is the planned Five in a Row time.  When I am working with one girl, the other will have BOB time (books on bed).  However, if they decide to sit in on each other's lessons, that's fine, but BOB time will be done later in the afternoon.  I definitely want them reading.  Also, Jason is going to take a little more active role in a few areas this year.  He has always been involved but he wants a little time each evening to help Rachel with standardized test preparation and to listen to Mary Evelyn practice her reading out loud.  This is a HUGE blessing to me. 

Part of my nervous breakdown concern has to do with how much time I spend preparing food now.  Since we started the Feingold program I am cooking more from scratch.  Some of you who know me are laughing right now.  It's true.  We have to be careful to use ingredients that have no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, etc. and so I make bread and much, much more.  I even make syrup now!  The program seems to be working so I don't want to quit, but until it is "normal" for me it takes time.  And I was already short of that.

But I am excited!  I love our curriculum and it's the time of year when the shiny new school supplies start going on sale.  (Jason has never understood the thrill I get from a new box of crayons.)  There is so much potential in the 180+ school days ahead.  I love homeschooling and learning right alongside my girls.  So one more week to get ready and then we're off!  I need to get that school table and bulletin board cleaned off tonight!

My students:

Mary Evelyn (2nd grade), Betsie, and Rachel (4th grade)

This week's book was Paul Revere's Ride ibeautifully llustrated by Ted Rand.  It is the old poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  This was the first time we have done this book and I was pleasantly surprised at how much we learned.  I was afraid the language of the poem would be a bit too difficult for the girls, but after the fifth day interacting with this book, they have a good grasp on the language and the story I think.

Here are Mary Evelyn's pages.

Mary Evelyn wrote the title of the book and a sentence containing the date of the ride.  There is also a picture of Paul Revere with a silver teapot.  He was a silversmith.  The big sun is from our art lesson where we named as many sources of light as we could from the illustrations and a few that we have now that the colonists would not have had.  On the right side is a vocabulary booklet, a mini timeline of a few key events from the American Revolution, and a bar graph of the animals in the story.  Mary Evelyn requested that last activity since she like doing it with When I Was Young in the Mountains. 

Rachel's pages are similar except she skipped the bar graph and insted did a math problem subtracting 1775 (the year of the famous ride) from 1861, the year the poem was written.  She also decorated her pages with her own drawing of colonial and Revolutionary items. 

We also found Boston, Massachusetts on the map and listened to the horse's version of the story in Mr. Revere and I on audio tape.  We read a few other picture books about the time period.  The girls watched Johnny Tremain as well, which is set during the Revolutionary War.  Rachel says we should have had Boston Creme Pie too...maybe next week.  We'll continue this unit study next week as we start a new read aloud from the Childhoods of Famous Americans series about Paul Revere. 

I know occasionally someone who is considering homeschooling will stumble onto this blog.  I have to put in a plug for Five in a Row.  It is such a rich curriculum for elementary aged children.  Rachel and Mary Evelyn work at very different levels, but they are both learning quite a bit as we read the books and do the corresponding activities.  The only hard part is that there is always more to do than time to do it.  

Last week's Five in a Row book was The Salamander Room.  We had a fun week.    On Wednesday, Jason took Rachel and Mary Evelyn to a local wildlife education center for a field trip.  They got to go on a real salamander hunt.  Mary Evelyn of course loved this!  We also made little shoebox salamander rooms.  We had toy salamanders too.

Making the shoebox salamander rooms

Real salamanders! 

Mary Evelyn's pages.  We talked about animal classification, the life cycle of a salamander, and what makes an animal an amphibian.  Also included are the book title, her own design of a salamander room, and a photo of her hands holding a real salamander.  Rachel's pages are below with similar items scrapbooked.

This week's Five in a Row book was They Were Strong and Good by Robert Lawson. 

Here is Mary Evelyn's scrapbook page.  On the left is the title, a Bible verse about honoring your parents, and a coat of arms from our lesson on symbolism.  On the right is a basic family tree, an envelope containing state flags from the 4 states represented in the book, and a hexagon.  She made a really cool (but way too big) picture of some cats out of hexagons she traced around and decorated, but it just wouldn't fit. 

Next are Rachel's pages...

We have 6 more weeks and 6 more books to do before a month long break.  Hopefully we'll have more scrapbook pages to post during these weeks. 

Here are this week's scrapbook pages for our  Five in a Row book, When I Was Young In The Mountains by Cynthia Rylant. 

First is Mary Evelyn's scrapbook.  On the left page is a map of the Appalachian mountains with a story disc to mark the setting of the book.  The yellow book opening is a little three sectioned flapbook showing life then and now.   (As in then...outhouses and now...toilets!)  There is a picture of a snake and a few facts about it (researched in the encyclopedia) because of the snakes in the book.  On the right page is the title of the book, traced by Mary Evelyn, a girl with a braid, a book using repetition like the book, and a bar graph showing how many of each animal were in the book.  Other activities we did were putting a story disc on our big atlas, washing our hands outside like people did before runniing water, having a cornbread and pinto beans supper, and putting snakes on our big animal classification chart.  It was a fun week!

Next are Rachel's pages, which include the same things except she researched a different kind of snake.  Also Rachel did not illustrate her own repetition story.  She asked her cousin Libby to be the illustrator. 

The next picture is one from school but not a scrapbook photo.  Mary Evelyn is reading from the Reading Made Easy manual in this picture and Rose the dog seems to be taking it in as well. 

Here are the first pages we have scrapbooked for our Five in a Row lessons.  We did Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say.  Here is what you are loooking at:  their names in Japanese, the Japanese and American flags, a map of the world with stars labeling Japan and the USA, pictures of 5 generations (the book, Grandfather's Journey, covers 4 generations.), and a picture that illustrates how children can take care of the environment.  (For you FIARers, that goes with the pollution lesson.)

Thanks Sheri for the idea to scrapbook rather than lapbook! 

Mary' pages

Rachel's pages

I am not the hands-on project type mom at all.  However, since the girls loves crafts and projects of all kinds, we do them occasionally.  They never turn out exactly right though.  Today we made sugar cube igloos to go with our Five in a Row book, Very Last First Time.  Why do these igloos look more like teepees or small wedding cakes?  Oh well, they had fun and it wasn't too messy. 

I was given some wonderful gifts this year (as always).  I have been thoroughly enjoying season 5 of Little House on the Prairie as well as some new clothes and an ipod (yay!), plus lots of other neat things.  This year our homeschool got a Christmas present too, a new table and chairs!  We had a school table already (our old kitchen table) but it is used round the clock as a craft/play/drawing table by the girls.  When I am ready to do school, we have to clean it up.  So I wanted a place that was for school and NOTHING else!  I have already threatened the rest of the family not to even look at this table unless you are planning on sitting there with a math book!  This table has one use only...seatwork.  I LOVE it!    It is exactly what I wanted.  And I have my dear mother and father-in-law to thank for it.  Thank you Nana and Papa!  I know it was not easy to find the right size.  And those chairs are way nicer than I would have bought for myself.  The girls were itching to use the table so I gave them a small assignment so they could sit there...they are busy decorating the January pages of their new make your own 2007 calendars.  I'm sure they'd be just as happy with math pages though. 

Rachel and Mary Evelyn spent the better part of yesterday afternoon making nativities that we printed from this website .  They had a great time.  As they worked on the nativities, they watched a new DVD we got called The Very First Noel .  It's a very cute story told from one of the wisemen's perspective.  (who happens to be Melchior, played by Andy Griffith)

Here are some pictures of their nativities.

By the way, we used cardstock and that made the nativities sturdier. 

Our first day trying out the new schedule went pretty well.  I definitely will be tweaking it (for the rest of my life, according to my pal Hollie!).  I felt rather rushed all morning trying to stay on task, but then we finished by 10am and had all this downtime until 1pm, lunch being the only exception.  Like I said, lots of tweaking to do. 

Instead of doing some cleaning at 8am, which is what I have scheduled for myself, I stayed with Rachel to give her a little training in her personal devotion time.  (Of course Betsie was in there with us, but that's just life right now.)  Her reading plan had her in Genesis 1 reading the creation account.  It was so neat...we got to the part where God was creating people.  Rachel read, "let us make man in our image," and she stopped.  "Our image?" she asked.  I was able to tell her, yes, Jesus was there with the Father right from the start!  So cool...I was kind of surprised she caught that.  I was also blessed to hear her pray.  I helped her start a prayer list and showed her how I wanted her to journal.  (for now anyway...she can have more freedom as she gets older and grows in her walk with God.)  It was a special time, even with Betsie being a very active and noisy little sister.

Unfortunately Mary Evelyn's devotion time was frustrating.  Her CD walkman wouldn't work.  I'm going to give that time slot to her tomorrow and see if I can help her a little bit.  I'll just plan to alternate between them for a little while during this training time.  Cleaning will happen when it happens.  This spiritual training has waited too long already.

By the way, they each have a computer time in the afternoon.  So if anyone has any favorite educational websites for children, let me know. 

I have started a couple of posts that are really rather serious, but I can't seem to get my thoughts down, so for now they are still drafts and I am just going to stick to a lighter subject today. 

My new favorite homeschool resources:

     *Start Write:  I learned about this from the ladies at the Five in a Row boards.  It's software that you install to create your own handwriting pages.  What I love about it is that one of the fonts I can choose is the Handwriting Without Tears font, which is not on regular pc's.  I can type in passages to trace or copy in print or cursive, change the size, add clipart, etc.  I've been having Rachel write a verse from Proverbs each day.  Mary Evelyn writes shorter sentences, but she sometimes writes whole Bible verses as well.  Sometimes the girls need to be reminded of what God has to say concerning certain character issues.  I can just type up a verse, print it out, and have them write.  Really liking Start Write!  Two thumbs up.

     *Sequential Spelling:  I tried to use the lists at www.everydayspelling.com last year, using kind of a Charlotte Mason approach to teaching the words to Rachel.  Unfortunately though, I would see her spell the same words incorrectly that we had been over so many times.  That was frustrating.  We just started using Sequential Spelling last week and it is going really well so far.  You don't have a list of words each week.  You have a new list each day.  The words kind of build on one another.  You might start with in or be and end up spelling beginner by the end of the lesson.  There are twenty words each lesson and the misspelled words are corrected immediately.  Sometimes the words are repeated in upcoming lessons.  Basically it teaches common spelling patterns.  Rachel is doing great with this.  Two thumbs up for Sequential Spelling too! 

It's always good to find something that works.  Just wanted to share. 

We officially began our school year back on August 14th.  I had planned a full week and was ready to get back into a routine.  After our exciting and crazy summer adding a new child into the family, I thought we could all use some structure.  However, my plans never really do seem to work out perfectly. 

That first week back I started feeling a little run down, like I was coming down with a cold, only I didn't have typical cold symptoms.  I was just SO tired!!!   After a week of that, plus running a fever most days, I went to the doctor.  There I was prescribed an antibiotic even though they didn't know what was wrong with me.  A few days later, I was still sick and now I had a killer sore throat.  Still, we pressed on with school.  I normally start in July and I was feeling like we needed to keep at it.  But I am usually a night owl, and I was going to bed around 8:30 some nights.  Jason asked me to please go back to the doctor.  When I did, we finally learned I had mono. 

It's funny, but all you really have to do to get people to do all your work is say the word mono.  I haven't had to cook or do much else since the doctor diagnosed me.  It's not that I'm suddenly worse, it's just that now it has a name.  Rachel and Mary Evelyn have gotten to spend time with all kinds of people too.  They've been taken bowling, to a football game, and out to eat.  Today, one of their aunts is taking them to the library and to McDonald's.  I think they could get used to Mommy being sick.  And Jason, wow, he's a great nurse.  A girl could get used to this. 

I'm better now actually.  At least I'm not contagious.  I'm supposed to rest frequently to prevent a relapse, but I feel good.  We are doing the three R's and that's about it.  The girls are watching the occasional educational video and doing plenty of reading plus Bible study with Daddy.  (I have got to blog about our great new Bible study sometime!)  These girls are always writing and drawing and making little books.  They have their chores too.  Still, I look forward to adding in Five in a Row, Spelling, etc.  Maybe next week! 

My students:  Rachel is in third grade this year and Mary Evelyn is in first grade.  They are modeling some dresses we got them in China.

I have posted pictures of our school room before, looking it's best of course.  However, I figured I better come clean and show you what it really looks like most of the time.  I wouldn't want to give you the wrong impression and have you getting jealous or anything. 

Notice the dog outside begging to come in.  She has been banished to the yard during nap times.  And those would be my shoes left in the floor.

Craft/School table:  Actually this is pretty neat.  The problem is the overflow onto the floor.  Betsie LOVES to explore under there!

Fussy baby also iin the floor.  Probably fussy because her favorite flavor of crayon was not in reach this time.

Apparantly these are the fans at a horse race.  (Notice the horses at the bottom left of the picture.  These would be the contestants.) 

Sooner or later we are going to have to do a little work around here.  I had actually scheduled Monday, August 14th as the first day of school, but we might do some light work this Thursday and Friday just to test out our schedule.  Hopefully we won't have to spend those days retraining in obedience!  (Although lately I am thinking this might be the case.  )

I keep hoping for that big block of free time to organize the school room and do tons of planning, but I've decided that just won't happen.  Getting more than a paragraph on here is actually accomplishing something.  I keep looking over my shoulder to make sure Betsie isn't eating the remains of her big sisters' craft projects that have made it to the floor!  Right now she is playing with a red feather that Mary Evelyn must have dropped when she was making puppets. 

One thing I have done this summer is a lot of planning.  We have made an animal classification chart to use with our Five in a Row lessons.  We have made a few other posters that we can use with other lessons too.  I had also planned which weeks we would tentatively do school.  Unfortunately when I double checked them this week, they do not add up to the required 180, which is why we are starting this week! (Now where can I sneak in 3 more days?)

There are at least three used book and curriculum sales in this area this week.  I went to a big one tonight and spent all my money, so I guess I can skip the other two!    I went armed with an envelope of one dollar bills and a list of what I wanted (complete with what the new price would be).  I spent a whopping $22, and I feel really good about what I brought home.

My big purchase for the night was a copy of English From the Roots Up .  I paid $15, and it looks as good as the new copies that sell for $30!  This was #1 priority on my wish list, along with Sequential Spelling, which I did not find.  English From the Roots Up is basically a vocabulary building curriculum that teaches English words that are derived from Latin and Greek words.  (Mom, I can hear you laughing and saying, "I told you so."  For the rest of you, my mother made me take two years of Latin in junior high.  I'm still not over it.  But I admit that I can see the point now anyway.  )  I plan to start this with Rachel after Christmas.  I want to finish up First Language Lessons first.

I also picked up the next two Handwriting Without Tears workbooks that Mary Evelyn will need (got those for less than half price and they are new!) and three paperback Magic Schoolbus science books. 

Rachel bought a book of mazes and a Liberty Kids Cd rom.  And she managed to get an art set free!  It has markers, oil pastels, and some other goodies in it...brand new.  Happy girl!   Mary Evelyn found a huge book about animals (surprise) so she is just as happy.   

Next year I think I will need to sell some things to cover my purchases. 

Now that this year is winding down, I have my mind on next year!  I figured I better do a little pre-planning now so I won't feel like I am just "winging it" next year.  The ladies at Five in a Row have given me some good advice on how to plan out the year and I am working on it!  So far I have loosely planned which weeks we will do school and which Five in a Row books we will be doing those weeks.  Next I need to glance through the manuals and see if there are any materials I should go ahead and pick up for those units.

I also want to loosely plan where I'd like to be in the three R's by Christmas, but first I'd like to make some general goals for those areas. 

Then there's all those little (or big!) extras like our Artpacs I got from Rainbow Resource, scripture memory, character training, chore training, foreign language, read alouds, etc.  I am really hoping I'll get to buy Rosetta Stone Spanish sometime.  I have so many ideas for little things I'd like to do and I will surely forget about them if I don't get some planning done now.

Homeschoolers, I welcome any ideas and suggestions from you for planning your school year!

We have just a few days left of our official school year, and five of those will be spent at drama camp.  I find that at this time of year I just want to be done and send in the required paperwork to our accountability association.  Then we can clean up the school room and I can set some goals for next year.  I am ready for a break so that I can mentally prepare for a new year.  A few weeks off usually helps me get excited about a new year. 

But next year will be different.  We will have a one year old.  I've known lots of friends who have tried to figure out the logistics of getting school work accomplished with the older kids when there's a toddler on the loose.  I have no idea if they ever figured it out or if the toddler just finally grew up and life settled down.  Should be interesting to say the least.  I'm thinking work that requires my help will be left until Betsie's nap time.  Independent work can still be done before lunch.  Sounds good, but I really have no idea yet what we will end up doing.

Whatever the new schedule looks like, I know for sure that we WILL be learning!  At the very least we will all be learning how to take care of a little one and keep her safe!  We are so thankful that she will be a part of our lives.  Rachel and Mary Evelyn will be learning some life lessons that will hopefully stay with them always. 

I'll still be posting throughout our break...as much as I can handle anyway.  I have two blogs going now so this one hasn't been updated as frequently, but the other one is temporary.  Besides keeping up with the other blog, I have much to do to prepare for our trip to China. 

By the way, we got notice today that our fingerprints (2nd set) went through just fine.  And we have another 14 months before they expire!  So we're all set.  All that's left now is just to go get that little monkey and bring her home!  Won't be long now!