A Glimpse Into Our Homeschooling Life ...

It's been a while since I have updated this blog - life just seemed to get away from us for a while.

The kids have been working on their math a lot lately - mostly marking and corrections, that's another thing that seems to have gotten away from us lately.

We went to the library a few weeks ago and I got Josh to borrow a Clive Cussler book - he is really reluctant to start this book, I'm not sure why.  I think if he starts it he'll really enjoy it, however, if I let him choose all of his books (rather than showing him ones that he wouldn't normally think to pick up) he borrows Astrixs & Oblix type books all the time.  He did borrow an audio of Sherlock Holmes books that he really, really enjoyed - he quite liked the fact that he could lay on his bed listening to a story while he flipped through the Wish Book, lol.

Yesterday was swimming for the kids and today Charlotte's stomach muscles are really sore - they learned the Dolphin Kick (I think that's what it is called) and it looks like it literally uses all the muscles in the body to do.  I do have one complaint about the swimming lessons - last session the instructor would not allow the kids to wear goggles during lessons, her reason was that if they fell out of a boat they wouldn't have time to find them and put them on before they hit the water.  This session their instructor (a different one) says that they need to have goggles.  Now, here is the complaint - why can't they all be on the same page about these things?????  Why isn't it all the same with each instructor??????  So, last night while the kids were at Scouts we (Don and I) were in Wal-Mart frantically trying to find two pairs of goggles.  We could have bought them at the pool but I thought that they were a bit high priced for my tastes.

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The other day I downloaded a program onto my laptop computer and it is such a wonderful and amazing free program - yep, you heard right I said free. 

The program I'm talking about is Homeschool Tracker, I downloaded the free version mainly to see how I would like it (they also have a version that you pay for).  It's a great tool to help me see everything from how many hours (and days) we have done school to what books that they have read on their reading lists.  I am able to add all the resources that we are using and mark which child needs the stated resource.  There is a section for fieldtrips (you can even add what subject the fieldtrip falls under).  If you keep a portfolio to show your facilitator (or just for your own records) you can print off the pages that you need - doesn't get much simpler than that.

The best thing I like about this program (other than it being free) is that it is keeping track of everything that I was actually writing out on paper - and we all know how easy it is to lose pages that we have written on.  I tend to keep better track of where my laptop is than where my homeschool notebook is, lol.

I'm still in the process of adding assignments, resources, etc. but I really do encourage you to check out this wonderful tool - especially if you haven't already checked out the link.  This is a program that I plan on using for a long, long time. 

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Wow, things have really been busy around here - the second week of September we took the kids and my Mom to Moose Jaw so that we could tour the tunnels that are under the city.  They have two guided tours that you can go on, one is called the Passage to Fortune - it is about the Chinese that paid a head tax to get to Canada so that they could have a chance to carve out a new life for them and their families - we were able to see where some of them worked, slept, etc.  It was a sad tour to take because it really brought home what these people went through and all that they did for Canada.  The other tour is called The Chicago Connection - this one is about Al Capone and the bootlegging that was going on.  Out of the two tours I really preferred the Chicago Connection one, it was more interactive than the first one was but both of them were equally informative.  If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend that you check them out.

Yesterday the kids started swimming lessons - they enjoy this activity so much that I don't even have to ask if they want to sign up for it, lol.  Their only complaint about going to swimming lessons is that they would prefer to have more time doing free swim at the end of the lesson - right now, they don't get any free swim at the end of the lesson, so I can understand that they would like this, lol.

Last night was also the first night for Scouts - I no longer have to call it Cubs and Scouts because both Josh and Charlotte are now in Scouts.  They really weren't sure if they were going to be joining and actually made their decision yesterday morning - so, with swimming and Scouts on Tuesday's I am now really busy that day (thankfully it all starts in the afternoon so that we are able to get our schoolwork done before it starts.

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