Sep. 7, 2009 - Good-bye to the summer

Well here it is the unofficial but yet seemingly end of summer.  I'm sure not ready for it to end!  Summer has always been a favorite season for me and even though it's beautiful in the fall I hate to see the carefree days go. 

We have had a full summer filled with camp, swimming, the beach, campfires, vacations, amusement parks, the fair, the zoo, picnics, gardening and other things I'm sure I can't remember.  So now come the things of fall like crisp air, colorful leaves, maybe some campfires still, hot cocoa, football and foremost in my mind today SCHOOL.

Can it really be back to school already?  Well ready or not it's tomorrow at our house.  We've spent the day both relaxing by the pool and cleaning up the school area to get ready for tomorrow.  It's amazing how many things get put there over the summer!

Though I have had good intentions of getting this on here sooner here's what we're studying this year:

Logan (age 16):  Physics (Apologia), Algebra II (Switched on Schoolhouse), Trigonometry (Life of Fred), History (Mystery of History III, All American I + II, Truthquest), Language Arts (Total Language Plus-Scarlet Pimpernel, Scarlet Letter and American Literature Short Stories), Economics (What ever Happened to Penny Candy), Debate and testing (SAT and CLEP's).  He may also do some of the New Testament Survey from Grapevine and some Apologetics with our Truthquest  history.

Taylor (age 14):  Biology (Apologia), Algebra I (Switched on Schoolhouse), History (Mystery of History III, All American I + II, Truthquest), Language Arts (Total Language Plus-Treasure Island, Johnny Tremain and The Giver) and extra Writing (Wonder of Words), Economics (What ever Happened to Penny Candy), Debate and Bible-New Testament Survey (L5 Grapevine).

Ariel (age 11) : Science (Holy Cow experiment and various other things), History (Mystery of History III, All American I + II), Language Arts (Total Language Plus-Ben &Me, Incredible Journey and Amos Fortune Free Man) also for extra Writing (Wonder of Words and Learn to Write the Novel Way), Math-finishing fractions and on to Decimals and Percents (both Life of Fred), Economics (What ever Happened to Penny Candy) and Bible-New Testament (Grapevine L3).

Lexie (age 9): Science (Holy Cow experiment and various other things), History (Mystery of History III, All American I + II), Language Arts (Total Language Plus-Ben &Me, Whipping Boy and Sign of the Beaver), Math (Spectrum 4), Economics (What ever Happened to Penny Candy) and Bible-New Testament (Grapevine L3).   We still need to decide on handwriting but we figure it can wait a month or so.

Maybe you're doing some of the same?  Or maybe you want to check back throughout the year to see how they're going in case you want to use some of the same curriculums next year.  I'm sure I'll be blogging and sharing our experiences with many of them.

Hope your ready for your year too!  Ready or not here it comes!

Aug. 9, 2009 - Still planning?

I have several planning forms on the site that have been downloaded quite a few times in the last week so apparently I’m not the only one still doing my planning for this fall!  Typically I’m done by now but I guess it hasn’t been a typical summer for us.

Since it appears some are still planning I will share my favorite grid.  It’s just an Excel spreadsheet I made but it has everything for each child on one sheet.  I LOVE THAT!  Here it is in pdf and in Excel.  If you have Excel chose that one so you’ll be able to make changes.  If you’re looking for other ideas and forms check out my planning category at right for previous blogs.

Here’s what a finished sheet look like.

It may not seem to make much sense at first glance but once you know the abbreviations it makes perfect sense.  For instance under history I have MOH, that stands for Mystery of History and the number is the chapter.  In the math column I have LOF, that stand for Life of Fred with the chapter or “bridge” which is what they call their tests.

Each child gets one of these in the front of their binder so they know (and I can remember) what each is responsible for that week.  We do have a daily/day schedule that I post of the bulletin board that simply says what day and sometimes time we work on what.  (I’ve blogged on that before so I’ll not repeat here.)

So happy planning!  I’m “almost” done, how about you?

p.s. Just a little note, on the download's sometimes in "preview" mode the line don't turn out right but when you actually download they do.

Jan. 5, 2009 - You get a restart!

Well, how was school today?  I try to look at January as a restart doing a similar evaluation to what I do in May/June for the coming year.  Some things to consider:

1.  What’s working really well?  What’s not?

2.  What are we enjoying?  What is a big hassle?

3.  How many outside activities are we involved in?  Is it too many or not enough?  What’s changing in our schedule?

4.  Which kids are behind and needing extra help in a certain area?  Which areas have we done really well that we could perhaps slack in to give more time to something needing more attention?

5.  Did we do anything fun this fall?  (i.e. field trips, big hands-on projects etc…)  Can we make time for some of these things this semester?  Something may have to give, when and what will it be?

6.  Are we on schedule?  If we’re ahead do we want to add anything (maybe or maybe not?)  If we’re behind can we adjust it?

With January I’m also trying to ease into this first week much like the first week of school in September.  We’re not adding in the extra read aloud's and many of our outside activities are still off this week so it makes it easier to get back to business.  It’s not quite as difficult as after the summer off but it still helps to ease in a little.

Another area to consider is your home.  How are the chores doing?  Do we need to adjust any lists or assignments?  How about your food?  Is the freezer well stocked?  Is your budget stretched right now, can you eat out of your freezer/pantry for a week or two?  Take an inventory and see.

So what were our answers? 

1. What’s working well?

            Things overall are going pretty well, nothing stands out as extraordinary this semester, but  nothing  going horribly either.

2.  What are we enjoying and what’s a hassle? 

            We continue to like our project weeks so we do have more scheduled.  We love the YWAM biographies and other read alouds so we have those planned as well.    I’m not sure if we’d exactly classify Latin as a hassle, we do like it when we do it, it just seems to be a hassle to find time to get it done.  We’re not stressing about it, well do it when we can.  Maybe we’ll do just Latin in May/June when we finish up other things, well see.

3.  How many outside activities?

            This area we really cut back on this year and have enjoyed more home time though some activities, especially choir, are missed by a few of the kids.  For time and money reasons though, we are sticking to our original plan.  We did however allow the kids each one sport so I need to get Lexie in gymnastics hopefully this winter as that was her choice for the year and also get Logan into the life guarding class if that’s possible.  Those are both on my to do list for today.

4.  Which kids may need some help in areas?

            We are focusing on study skills and time management especially with our older   two as this seems to be our greatest area of need.  Our younger two had some areas they were week on but we seem to have found some things this fall that are helping and we’re getting closer to where we need to be so we’re going to stay the course with them.

5.  Did we do anything fun? 

            We did do a field trip to the state Capitol.  We’re considering a trip to Jamestown  next fall so we’ll probably not plan anything big for the spring.  We will do some hands-on type projects to go with their history and science fair exhibits.

6.  Are we on schedule?

            Yes, we are doing pretty well here except for Latin as I already mentioned.  The one we did adjust is some assignments for my oldest.  He was getting hopelessly  behind in his computer course so we revised our timeline on that so it seems  more manageable to him.  It will just mean his internship or hands on computer  building gets put off till summer or fall but that’s okay.

With the home things I did do a pantry/freezer inventory and found we’ve got over two weeks of dinners and at least 10 days of breakfast and lunch items without buying very much.  That helped us these first two weeks of January.  It just seemed like money was flying out of here in December!

We also went back to a chore system we used before which had worked pretty well for us.  For a time we tried a different way to break up the chores but it just wasn’t working for us.

So I hope you’ll take an hour or two and give some thought to the rest of your year.

“Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.”  Napoleon Bonaparte

Proverbs 16:3 Commit your works to the Lord, And your plans will be established.

Sep. 7, 2008 - Weekly Meetings

In my weekly schedule I have something called individual meetings with each child.  These over the last year or two have really helped us all keep on track.  The original idea came from just a sentence or two I heard at a convention and my imagination kind of filled in the blanks to form what we do.

As I kept adding kids to the schedule and our work became more intense I found a need to keep track of and mentor/encourage each child.  Knowing myself, I need to be real intentional with this or it won’t get done.  As they get older my desire is also for them to be more responsible for their own work. The first year I started with just the older children with more of responsibility focus but have now found all the kids want to be included and it’s a time where I can give individual mentoring.

Once a week we set in the schedule a time to meet with each child and go over their assignments and progress.  These meetings generally last about 15 minutes per child but can be shorter or longer depending on our needs that week.  Each of my children bring their binder so I can look at all their work from the previous week.  I check each section to make sure they have completed what they were supposed to and that it’s stored away.

This is my time to see mistakes they are making and read over daily writing assignments.  It’s also a time to make sure they are keeping organized.  Yes, this is a skill some of mine need to be taught, two in particular.  They usually do the assignments but whether they can ever find what they did with it after it was complete is another question.  This is how I keep them accountable.  If it’s not in the binder they must either find it or re-do the assignment.  If I see mistakes they are making, or work that isn’t neat, this is where we talk about it.  I may assign some things to be re-written or go over things they missed.

From this I will write out what we discussed and specifically what assignments or corrections I requested by the next meeting.  I keep this in my binder.  There have been times in the past where I even have the child sign that they will complete “such and such” so there is no question as to what was assigned and when it’s due.

Also, during these meetings I try to find something I really liked that they did that week.  So often I think I (maybe you to?) are always having to harp on what they did wrong and we don’t give enough encouragement.  I especially like to encourage their writing.  I’ll say, “wow, I really like that word you used” or handwriting is another area I like to encourage so I’ll say, “that page looked almost perfect, I love that!”.  The smiles beam on their faces! 

We also try to brainstorm solutions to problems at this time.  Yes, I think we need to teach and model problem solving.  If they are having trouble getting a certain subject done we’ll discuss why they think that’s happening.  Once we’ve decided on something else to try I’ll write that on my sheet and we’ll talk again the next week on how that change went.  Now, sometimes I already know, but it’s good for them to learn to identify it and voice it themselves.

It takes about an hour a week but it helps me keep on track with my goals and helps the kids become more independent and accountable.  It helps me give the individual attention and encouragement that I want to but might get neglected if I don’t make intentional time and it keeps me checking their work on a regular basis.  Now I don’t sit there with an answer key checking every answer (unless I feel they really are missing the boat.)  I spot check and discuss.  Most of their work is done by notepage, or paragraphs so I quickly read through and do little correction unless there are obvious things they missed.

Sep. 3, 2008 - Schedules

Once again I got sidetracked from my series on planning with all the end of summer "fun" stuff we've been doing!  I'd gotten to the point where I've figured out what each subject/child needed to do each week.  Now is where I put it (and all the other things we need to do) into our schedule.

Here's what it looks like this year:

It will probably be "tweeked" once or twice in early fall and then we'll stick to it.  Like for instance I know we need another workout day at the Y.  It will probably be Friday but I haven't got that in yet.  I know we also need to schedule a regular library day but I haven't decided which would be the best day for that yet.  Thought we'd give it a week or two and see which days seemed lighter.  Here's the link to this file in PDF, and in Publisher.

I also do this at a glance subject assignment calendar.  This helps me as well as the kids remember which subjects we do each day. 

 In past years I've had Thursdays as Science day and Fridays as History day (that's where we basically do nothing but Science/History on those days, so that made Mon-Wed. heavy in "Core" subjects) but this year that isn't going to work so this is quite a change for us.  With the reading assignments in Mystery of History getting so much longer (from book I to III) it was getting difficult to absorb all in one day (though I much prefer that method!)  Also, with science my oldest doing Apologia Chemistry this year needs more than one day to complete science so I thought it was best to just put everyone on that schedule.  Here's the link tothis sheet in xl   andin pdf if you're interested.

So that's about it on my planning.  We started yesterday and things went almost according to plan.  I was thinking it was Monday and it was actually Tuesday so I didn't do Science which is scheduled for Tuesday.  Oh, well, if mom can figure out the days of the week we'll be all set, LOL!

Gina

p.s. Look in the future for more ideas on weekly meetings and projects weeks which you might have noticed in our schedule.  Both of these work really well for us!

Aug. 5, 2008 - Planning done!

Whew!  After a marathon session yesterday I'm done!  Well at least done enough that if I don't get anymore time before school starts (which I probably won't) we'll have a plan to get going.  I still need to do a little work on the schedule of what we'll do when and I didn't do planning sheets for my youngest but the biggest hurdles are complete!

So here's what we're doing this year.

Logan (15)

The High King-Total Language Plus

The Trumpeter of Krakow-Total Language Plus

Pilgrims Progress-Ken Ham study guide

with this he’ll also read Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by   Bunyan and all or excerpts of Paradise Lost by John Milton

Geometry -Switched on School house (Math 10)

Chemistry- Apologia

Computer Science-Christian Light Education

World History-Mystery of History book III 1^st semester

Government-Are you…Liberal? Conservative? or Confused? by Richard Maybury (Bluestocking Press) along   with some other things I’m adding from various sources.

Economics-Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard Maybury (Bluestocking Press)

Taylor (less than 30 days till 13 he’ll tell you!)

Swiss Family Robinson-Total Language Plus

The Trumpeter of Krakow-Total Language Plus

Pilgrims Progress- Ken Ham study guide

Pre-Algebra- Switched on Schoolhouse Math 8

Chemistry-Christian Kids Study Chemistry (Bright Idea Press)

World History- Mystery of History book III 1^st semester

Government- Are you…Liberal? Conservative? or Confused?  (see above)

Economics-Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (see above)

Pre-Drafting-Insight Technical Education Advanced Complete-A-Sketch

Ariel (10)

The Cricket in Times Square- Total Language Plus

Adam of the Road-Total Language Plus

Pilgrims Progress-Ken Ham study guide

Math- she’s struggled a little here so we’re starting with Times Tales then finishing up some work from last year in here Spectrum Math 4 workbook then either on to Spectrum Math 5 or I may try Mammoth Math.  Still thinking on this…

Chemistry- Christian Kids Study Chemistry

World History/Government/Ecomonics-same as the boys above although assignments from workbooks will be different

Art-Creativity Express (got from Timberdoodle)

Lexie (8)

Velveteen Rabbit- I’m writing the study guide for it

The Courage of Sarah Noble-Total Language Plus

Pilgrims Progress-Ken Ham study guide

Math- Spectrum 3^rd grade

Cursive handwriting- Handwriting without Tears-Cursive

Chemistry- Christian Kids Study Chemistry

World History/Government/Economics-same as the older kids again her assignments will be different

Art-Creativity Express (see above)

For read aloud we’ll do Swiss Family Robinson, Adam of the Road, Christopher Columbus, Across the Sea biography (and unit study along with MOH) by YWAM, Tinker’s Daughter to go with Pilgrims progress unit study, Pilgrims Progress, and I’d like to find a good biography on Calvin but haven’t yet.  Of course we also do our reading of MOH together and we’ll read the Uncle Eric books(Bluestocking) aloud together too.  We’ll probably throw in a YWAM missionary biography or two along the way when we run out of something else.  The kids love those!

Our extra curricular focus this year is Physical Education, last year we were big into music.  This year the boys are talking a class on weight training and learning how to properly do all those machines (you can tell I’m an expert at this, I don’t even know what you call all those!)  I’m sure they’ll learn a lot about muscles and fitness.  The girls are participating in a fit kids class.  They started already and I didn’t realize how poorly they jumped rope!  Yikes…us homeschooler’s you know…all those “holes” in our children’s’ education!

We are still planning to continue in music but scaling down quite a bit.  You just can’t do it all (time and money!)  Logan plays the alto and soprano Saxophones and he’s learning the clarinet.  Taylor plays the drums and bells and will continue with lessons through a mentoring program at a local university.  Ariel started playing the flute last year (which luckily I play so I can help her) and she also enjoys choir.  Lexie started on violin and enjoyed it but for the time being we’ve put it on hold.

We’ll also continue in our History co-op that we really enjoy.  In the fall we chose to take a break from History and focus on government and the election for a few weeks and some of the other co-op families are doing that as well.  We’ll start back with our regular co-op after the election.

So that’s what our year looks like!  It feels good to have it all mapped out!  How are your plans coming?

Gina

Jul. 29, 2008 - back to planning...

Wow, how time does fly when you're trying to accomplish everything you wanted to over the summer!  I fully intended to get back to this "series" on planning as I do my own planning but I've been sidetracked. 

For starters my son has been detasseling corn which means for almost three weeks I've been up every morning at 5:45 to get his lunch ready and get him to the bus.  I'm so tired but his last day is tomorrow!  Yeah!

Secondly, I try and get some projects done in our "off" time over the summer.   Unfortunately so far l had not much accomplished so I've been working on that list.  Today I painted two coats of paint in the kitchen.  It was "fussy" painting but I think I like it.  You know how it has to grow on you a little.  I'm hoping to finish up the kitchen this week (another color paint, bead board, trim etc...)

Okay, so back to planning.

Once I've "thought" about last year (see last blog) and made some decisions about what I want to do or not do I'm to my next point in planning.  This is where I actually map out what we'll do what weeks. 

First I take inventory of what we'll use.  This is simply a form that helps you keep track of what curriculum you're using each subject and each child.  Next I plan out what each child will do each week.  The semester plan I use is from Donna Youngs site.  Here's a copy of one from last year if you want an idea.

The dates I write in to the left and I don't use the garding part at the bottom.  The number's like 1, 2 etc... refer to chapters and the ones with higher numbers like 82-84 refer to pages.

This will take me a couple of evenings to complete each childs, then I get into our daily and weekly schedule but I'll save that for next time!

Jul. 21, 2008 - Planning for fall

Okay, we've been relaxing and doing fun things and as usual about the end of July I'm finally ready to think about fall.  Every year it seems like I need the whole month of June to "veg" out before I'm ready to even think of the next year.

Now don't get me wrong I have "thought" of the year as far as what we're studying and have all the books either already here or on the way but what I haven't done yet is plan and schedule it all out.  Last year it took me about two weeks of evenings to get it all set.  But I'm getting ahead of myself here. 

First, I'd like to share a few things you may want to think about before last year is too distant of a memory.

#1 What went well and what didn't and why?  The answer to this question may help you figure out what you do and don't want to do this year.

For instance last year we beta tested a curriculum about composers from Bright Idea press.  My children really enjoyed this!  We don't need to continue a composer study (it's certainly not in most "scope and sequence") but they enjoyed it (and might I mention learned) so much I'd like to continue. 

Now on the other hand for us we started to feel stressed with our time especially starting in January.  This happened because some scheduling was changed and we no longer were able to do all our "outside" activities (like band, choir, orchestra, history co-op etc...) all on one day.  This small change really stressed us.  I know we don't want to do that again.

#2 Make your records for last year before you forget.  Now, I know some of you did this before the end of the year because you're on top of everything but for those of us who were a little burnt out or just ready to be done now is our time.  In the state of MI we don't have specific "requirements" except to keep evidence of teaching the core subject so I file our papers, workbooks, lapbooks, notebook etc... in banker boxes by the year in the basement.

Besides those obvious records it may be time to start thinking about transcripts if you have a Jr. High or High School student.  I'm not ready to make our transcript yet but I will forget information if I don't write it down so I created this form to help me.

#3 Lastly, before you plan for the next year consider each child individually.  I created this form to help me think this through.  If you have more then one you've I'm sure realized that they are all different.  Your curriculum plan may be different based on their strengths, weaknesses and gifting.

So I hope you'll think about those 3 things and then come back for the next entry to get more into planning!  See you then!

Gina