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Even if no one else ever read my blogs, I just discovered that they are still worth writing. I just spent the last half hour or so rereading my blogs and have for the most part been encouraged. But it is nice to see comments and know that I am not totally alone out here in blog-land. J
Last night I wrote a nice update and it was lost. I will try to recreate it again this evening with some additional thoughts.
I am still struggling with the fatigue, aches and pains of the fibromyalgia in various degrees from one week to the next. However, we’ve done so much better the last month and a half school wise than we have done all year and that is encouraging. We have not kept my schedule exactly, but it has given me a framework to keep in mind as I work with the kids each day. Last week my twins did not keep up with their work for the week so they “lost” the weekend. No sleep-overs or outings with friends on Friday night. Saturday they spent most of the day doing school work. I did let them have a few hours “off” Saturday evening, but then Sunday afternoon it was time to do science together. They weren’t really happy about it, (and to be honest, either was I) but I believe they finally are understanding that it must be done. Neither of them gave me much of a hard time about it. I can see that they are not totally staying focused and getting all their work done this week either. SJ has Awana Varsity Games on Saturday, so it looks like Friday night and Sunday afternoon will be homework time. I hope that after losing enough weekends to work that could and should have been done during the week I may begin seeing an improvement in their work ethic.
When I was looking at what I had planned to be using for school this year I thought it would be interesting to check the list and see what I was actually using 6 months later.
- SJ- and JP- - 9th grade twins
- Sonlight's Alt. 6 Bible program – Not using
- Awana's 24/7 program on Sunday nights – Going strong.
- Sadlier-Oxford Grammar through Writing and Composition 9 – Still using, but only on Chapter 6!
- Sonlight Alt. 6 readers and dictation – Dictation isn’t happening. They have each read about four books so far. They will probably only each read about 8 books from the Sonlight readers by the time the school year is done.
- Apples Daily Spelling Drills for Secondary Students – Not happening, but both wanted to work on their spelling. Maybe a summer project?
- Bob Jones World History with Activity book – Have dropped the activity book. The reading, section reviews and chapter reviews keep us busy enough.
- Sonlight Alt. 6 read alouds – Have only now become consistent at a daily read aloud time on Mon., Tues and Weds. We are presently enjoying The Bronze Bow. Just finished reading Watership Down (not a SL book, we were reading it for a literature class they had with our co-op last quarter).
- The Teaching Company's High School World History DVD Course (A weekly supplement for fun and discussion.) Yes and no. We’ve watched about 8 lessons, but since we had gotten behind in history and are trying to catch up, we’re not doing this consistently because of lack of time.
- Apologia's Exploring Creation with Biology, Modules 1-9 with Co-Op We’re doing it. It’s a struggle, but it's happening.
- Rosetta Stone German – JP started doing it in January. SJ wants to wait till next fall. I think we need a good German Grammar book to go with it.
- SJ 9-
- General Math with SOS – We’ve dropped this. It didn't work for her at all. SJ saw an education specialist in November, was tested and we’ve developed an IEP for her. She’s now doing daily Calculadder drills, 4-5 pages from a Pattern Blocks book or Geoboard book each week, and will be working through Various Key To books. We’ve been consistent in this since we got the new plan in December.
- The Teaching Company's Basic Math DVDs – Nope! Dropped too.
- Chorus on Thursdays with Umbrella School – Going well.
- Improvisation on Thursdays with Umbrella School – Also going well.
- Soccer in Fall, Basketball in Winter and Softball in Spring with a local Christian School – She did the Soccer and Basketball and earned 1 credit. Her basketball team went to their league’s division championship and WON! More on that in another post. She has decided not to play softball and to focus on getting school work done.
- JP-
- Video Text Algebra Modules C-F – We had to back track but he’s finally almost done with Module D.
- Visual Basic (with Dad) – I think this may be dropped for now. It’s not happening.
- Karate for Christ – Yes, he’s doing well and logging his hours.
- Added – Shop Class - not sure what to call it, but he’s working side by side with his dad to remodel our bathroom. The bathroom has been gutted and now we wait for warm weather for the project to resume. The goal is to have it done by December, so he’ll probably get a half credit this year and half credit next year.
- E- - 3rd grade
- Leading Little Ones to God - ::sigh:: This has fallen by the wayside. My Mom was doing it with her twice a week, but I thought I wanted to do it with her so we WERE going to do it at bedtime, but I forgot about it till I saw it written here. Either I’m giving it back to Nana or just consider it dropped.
- Awana's T and T program on Sunday nights We’re plugging along at this.
- Continue to learn to read with 100 Easy Lessons and Reading Reflex – Dropped. EE didn’t like 100 Easy Lessons and they began moving too fast. We used Reading Reflex for awhile successfully but came to a stop again. She needed more practice. We replaced it with something else…
- Phonics Pathways and Pyramid Reading Exercises – a friend loaned me her book, we tried it and it was a perfect match. I will write more about this in another post, but both EE and I are thrilled with the progress she is making.
- Lots of Easy Readers and Bob Books – Done and added…
- Sonlight’s Fun Tales (27 short syllable stories like Bob Books)
- I Can Read It! by Sonlight – No. A friend was going to loan this to me but I never got it from her.
- Old version of LLATL Red – No. We did the first few lessons and realized it was too much right now.
- Sonlight Core 1+2 history – hmmm, yes and no. We dropped the Children’s History of the World, but have been reading many of the other history books from the core plus some. I’ve really ended up doing my own thing with Story of the World CD’s (have listened to the first set, and will listen to the second set later this year), Mystery of History and children’s history books I already own. We’re still having fun with Ancient Egypt but should move to Ancient Greece in a few weeks.
- Sonlight Core 1+2 read alouds with Dad – Wow, I forgot I had planned this! Need to talk to Dad about it!
- Mystery of History Volume 1 - Started using it, it’s on hold for now.
- Apologia's Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 – Finally began this in January and we are doing it with some friends. She LOVES it. She is doing oral narrations for me after each lesson. It’s going well.
- Singapore 2A, 2B and 3A – We’re done with 2A and are in the middle of 2B.
- Handwriting Without Tears – off and on as needed
- Art with Co-op (Drawing with Children and Art History) Yup.
- P.E. and/or Spanish with Co-Op – Yup… on her third quarter of Spanish, had two quarters of tumbling and will now be doing general fitness
- How Great Thou Art, I Can Do All Things art lessons – Just began these lessons with my Mom in February.
- Fall Soccer with Local Recreation Group – Nope, we decided against it, but she wants to do t-ball in the spring.
- Weekly Piano lessons – Yes, but I’ve got to get her to practice more.
- Twice a month drop-in science, art and P.E. classes with Umbrella – When we can. She really enjoys it.
- Modern Curriculum Press Maps, Charts and Graphs C - She’s actually been doing this since the beginning of the year. Loves it and just finished it.
- Read alouds with big brother and sister - She listens in to the twins' read alouds.
I am not getting everything in, but we are doing much better at getting the basics done. I feel confident that if we can keep working at consistency and a good work ethic towards school work, that we can be in a much better place next year at this time. Between that and possibly having more realistic expectations of what we can get accomplished, even if I am still struggling with my health, I have hopes of a productive school year that doesn’t drag into the summer for the 07/08 year.
And with that I’ll end this post to my blog on a positive note!
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