SevenLees Homeschool - Homeschool Blogger

Still getting back into the groove.

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 14:39:00 -0600

NJ Shakespeare Festival!!

Fri, 8 Dec 2006 23:08:00 -0600

I took my 3 oldest (ages 14, 11 and 9 in 3 days) to the NJ Shakespeare Festival production of Cymbeline. It was great! I had sent the older 2 to see the other Shakespeare plays this season, but for this play I decided to ask my parents to babysit my younger boys. So...I got to go to the play and I can't wait to return next season.

Then we had a "girls party" for my soon-to-be 9 year old. Just a bunch of girls, and we did lavendar facials and manicures before eating a lot of yummy food! I was glad I got organized enough to do this for my daughter.

Now...I need to get things organized for Christmas! The older kids have picked out presents for their younger siblings. It makes me happy to see how excited they get about buying presents for other people.

Now we're going to watch Little Women!

Hope everyone's having a great December...

Larissa

Homeschool support groups

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:43:00 -0600

I went to a homeschool support group meeting tonight. This group has been around for a long time, but for some reason I never went to the meetings. I'm glad I did--the meeting focused on the tribulations and triumphs of homeschooling. Three moms who dealt with some serious reading/vision/neurological problems spoke about their struggles and how they overcame them and it was very reassuring to hear how an attentive mom is the best advocate for a child. So often we turn to the experts, but in these cases the experts were frequently wrong and it was only because the mom continued to pray and advocate for her child that the correct diagnosis was given.

It was also neat to see that there are more homeschooling families in this area than I thought. We're not as unusual as we were 10 years ago, at least around here.

I am taking an on-line class on the "overview of Orthodoxy." It's great to have weekly reading assignments, papers to write, quizes to take--it's nice to be the student instead of always the teacher.

I can't believe that I haven't written so much more...

Larissa

February already!

Sat, 11 Feb 2006 08:30:00 -0600

It's already February!

I'm reading a good book--"The Chosen" by Chaim Potok. It's a great description of life of Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish boys in Williamsburg, Brooklyn during WW II. It's interesting to me--we used to live in Brooklyn and I never really understood too much of the history of the hasidim.

I'm also starting to give some thought to next year.

A homeschool mom I know wants to get a part-time job--she misses "doing something with her degree." That's seems so strange to me. I feel like I'm really stretching myself intellectually now that I'm homeschooling so many levels. And I'm also getting to do lots of studying/reading on my own. The freedom to study/read anything I want to is really amazing! It's beyond what I had in college.

Some of my friends heard John Taylor Gatto speak last weekend, and I had a chance to read their notes. I've heard him before and I agree with so much he says. The motivations of the public school system are really not to fully educate all children--there is a huge agenda attached to forcing all kids into the system. And the elite of this country have never had their children participate in this system... OK... enough conspiracy theory!

Time to take my 8 year old to ballet!

Larissa

January blahs

Sat, 21 Jan 2006 18:13:00 -0600

I haven't really bounced back to work since taking the Christmas/New Year's break. We aren't back on a good schedule, the housework isn't getting done very well, we're not getting to all our schoolwork. I guess it's the January blahs. I think it's time to start getting everyone up on time so that we can do our work instead of allowing myself an extra cup of coffee (or two!) in the morning before we get started!

Still studying WWII and watching WWII movies. I watched Taps on TV last night. I didn't really like it at all--it was about American GIs stationed in England. I had a hard time caring too much about the characters. As opposed to Casablanca!! Tonight dh wants to watch Midway. The male members of my family are much more interested in the military part of the war; we girls are more focused on how hard daily life was.

My oldest is 13 and she is a great student when she wants to be... Unfortunately she doesn't always care about things I assign. I really need to keep better track of her work and make sure she's staying on track. It's hard because she's normally an independent worker, so sometimes I forget to check up on her. My five year old is doing a great job sounding out 3-letter words--what an exciting milestone!

That's it for now!

Too much running around!

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 18:48:00 -0600

I'm still reading and learning about blogging. It's fun to see so many fellow homeschoolers!

Today we spent most of the day running to different activities. I love how much we can get done when we stay home, and I am better at keeping the house together when we stay home. So why are we always running around? Some activities seem so worthwhile, and others are things my kids really love. I wonder how much is really necessary and how much is just a waste of time and money. Sometimes I worry that if we didn't do anything, my older kids would have blank college applications--no activities, no outside interests, no recommendations.

We're going to watch Fiddler on the Roof tonight--I just love Topol in that movie! We've been watching a lot of World War II movies (we're doing year 4 of TOG/TWTM) and it gets pretty depressing after awhile. DH and I have stayed up to watch Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Enemy at the Gates and Casablanca over the past few weeks. It's hard to teach my kids about these horrors when I just cannot wrap my brain around people doing these things! With the kids under ten we're just looking at the life in the US during the war--and even that is harder than what we are used to.

OK--time to pop some popcorn!

First Blog ever!

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 23:52:00 -0600

I may be doing this all wrong, but here goes...

I have been homeschooling for six years and I've heard about blogging, but never actually did it. On one hand, I shouldn't be looking for a reason to spend even more time on the computer. On the other hand, I love to journal and I can type faster than I can write. So maybe this will be fun?!

I homeschool five children. We are classically-orientated, using the four-year cycles from TWTM and TOG.

I'm at the point in the school year where I panic and worry that I'm ruining everyone because we didn't get everything done that I had planned in September. On the other hand, we are doing some good things and we can always get to Elementary Greek next year...and Rosetta Stone...and IEW...

As far as me, I am interested in running/working out. I am starting over after an achilles tendon injury last year that kept me sidelined for most of 2005 (and I have 30 extra pounds to show for it). I like reading and writing. I teach Sunday School. We are Russian Orthodox.

Well, I hope that's a good start.

More later?