School Year Plans 2013-14

We're starting back to school on the 12th. Ack!  I've still got TONS of planning to do!  I have the preliminary outline but still so much detail left to figure out.

Overview For 10th grade:

• Math: Finish Algebra I and begin Geometry (Probably in December)
• English:  DS. has some LD in the language arts so we'll be working on writing narrations, sentence structure and paragraph structure along with spelling, reading and listening. I have several sources to pull from that I've had FORever! We'll also be reading some literature from the historical time period being studied.
• History: Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, Exploration.  Whew!  A lot to cover!  We'll see how far we get.  We are doing our own thing most likely, following a pattern of Charlotte Mason style learning.
• Science: Almost finished with Physical Science and in September we will begin Biology.  We're doing a co-op this year and I'm leading the Biography class!  Talk about out of my comfort zone!!! We will be mostly doing the experiments and lab books.  I think I can handle it.  Pray for me. :)
• We'll be adding in speech, foreign language (Spanish or Latin), technology as well as fine arts.

It's going to be a full year but I am actually excited.  DS is maturing so much and things are getting easier.  I pray constantly for his increase in wisdom and stature with God and others.

Wrapping up 9th Grade

We always tend to school year round with no particular "off/on" days.  We just do school when we can and don't when we can't.  And typically we end up finishing in the winter rather than the summer.  But I thought I would record some things from this year up to now.

C.J. has grown TALL this year.  He is just a smidgen taller than me and I am 5'10"!  His voice has changed and many times when I don't see him but only hear him he sounds so manly.  It's still a shock sometimes.

C.J. walking like his dad.

C.J. has a challenging time with book learning because of some LDs but it's no sign of his intelligence and understanding which are off the charts sometimes. One thing he's done this year is a daily quiet time on his own.  Nothing fancy, just reading the Bible every day and hearing what God has to say.  C.J. learns some profound things sometimes.  In our youth group at church he is often the only one who knows the story or event in the Bible.  The other kids are "church kids" too but maybe they don't spend consistent time in the word like him, especially the Old Testament. I also see spiritual growth and understanding as he applies God's word to situations.

C.J. reading on his Bible app

C.J. LOVES the History Channel and any type of war documentaries.  He records them on his own and I don't have to make him watch them.  It's quite the other way around. He is quite obsessed with military weapons and warfare.

C.J. trying out his new Air Soft Gun

We went to our local library sale this year.  There are tons of books they are selling.  We snagged this one for $2 and it has become his favorite book this year. He wants Volume II.

Favorite book of 2013

C.J. is showing signs of becoming a gentleman.  Just when you think a teenage boy can't get any more irritating, he opens a door for others, he does chores without being asked, he notices something out of place and picks it up and returns it.  Wow!  These small moments make a mother's heart melt. :)

C.J. will not smile in pictures.  He has braces but I don't think that's the reason.  I think it's called B-O-Y.  Boys!

C.J. and his sister S.

C.J. is a very talented puppeteer.  We travel with the PIT Crew puppet team to do shows and to conferences with others to learn more about this ministry.

He smiled! Sort of. ;)

C.J. and friends at a Puppet/Creative Ministry Conference

C.J. started working in the tech booth at our church. He's learning so much from this experience. I've been told he's a fast learner.

He also loves to make stop motion videos.  Here's a sample of one he made about a year ago.  I have to say he did a good job considering we had no special equipment and in fact he had a poor camera.  He tells me that the camera is shaky because he didn't have a stand, he was just putting the camera on the floor.

Warning - subject matter is "war".  What else?

I see my son growing into a young man.  He's my baby but he's not a baby anymore.

Look out 10th grade here we come!!!

Melt down today, Happy dance tomorrow

Life is always moving.  So just earlier this week I was having doubts in my homeschooling but then today the mailman once again made me happy.

We received our Apologia Science kit!  One decision I made this week was to stop trying to do so much myself and take some help where it is given.  So I ordered a science program rather than trying to piece something together myself.

I decided to go with Apologia Physical Science.  DS has plenty of time to get to the other sciences before graduation so starting with something a little easier would be good for both of us.

So I ordered this


and this 


and this 



all from www.homesciencetools.com


My DD used Apologia, so I knew it was challenging and wasn't sure DS was up to it.  But I think we now have a good plan and the audio mp3 should help us.  I'm thinking we can listen to it in the car and at other places when we can't sit in front of the computer.  I'm not planning to use it in place of the book, but as a repeat as needed kind of thing.

When we got home this morning (I'll have another post about where we went) the box was on the porch and I made DS carry it in and he said, "You're making me carry my own box of doom?" LOL Dramatic maybe?  But then he opened it and was oooing and aahhing over all the stuff.  So maybe not so bad after all huh?

We'll see!

Veteran HS Mom has melt down

Earlier this week I had what I would call a "melt down".  It was mostly internal.  I didn't really take it out on anyone but the feelings were so overwhelming I felt like running away and not stopping! So I decided to go out on a limb and share on a homeschool forum that I belong to.  Here's a portion of what I wrote:


"Okay, so I'm really going out on a limb here and make a confession: I'm tired of hs-ing! (14 yrs!) I'm tired of all the decisions and mostly situations in our private life have caused our hs to be more of a "to do" list than a way of life... I feel like most days *I* just don't have the brain power to do school with him. It's not fair to him at all but ps isn't an option at this point. So I guess I'm letting myself vent here a little and I need some encouragement...Is there anyone who can relate?..."



The ladies there were so encouraging!  I got lots of prayer and scripture and reminders from these sweet ladies who identified with how I was feeling.

Thank you AO Forum!

I'm going out on a limb posting this here, publicly, not that I have that many readers but you never know who will see this and well, I feel awfully vulnerable.

But maybe, just maybe someone else needs to know that they are  not alone and that everyone has "low" times; especially in homeschooling.  It's such a BIG job, you can't possibly expect it to always be FUN right?  Right.

So thank you for the encouragement ladies, and bless you to anyone else who is feeling this way.

Now I am ready to move forward!

“The question is not, -- how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education -- but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” 
― Charlotte Mason, School Education: Developing A Curriculum


This is the philosophy I go by in our homeschool.  It's a good reminder to see this quote again when I get bogged down in life!  I am not, and cannot teach my children everything there is to know but I can make sure they grow in character and live a life of learning and caring!


My God is my strength and guides me through it!

Sometimes, it takes awhile...

Funny story, funny to me anyway, it dawned on me just today as I was writing up assignment sheets for my son that I should add the days' events at the top and upcoming events on the bottom!  He has always wanted to know what we are doing tomorrow, where we are going tomorrow etc. He has been asking me those questions since he was old enough to talk! LOL He loves having his own calendar too.

I took a cue from the workbox lady a while back to write out a daily list for him with detailed instructions rather than a weekly chart on one page.  Although I prefer charts.  I love charts! But we have great success when I make the daily pages for my son.  The problem is it is time consuming and I have to use my brain A LOT!! LOL So that's why I slip and don't do it.  

But I really, really need to do it! It helps him so much.  I can't wait to see how he likes the "upcoming events" on his pages.  I'll let you know what he thought, although I can't let him know that I want to know what he thought because he's 14 and 14 year old boys don't like to let their mom know they like something about school. ;)

Librivox. It just keeps getting better.

I found this link today.  Some lovely person has organized all of the AmblesideOnline books that are available at librivox!  Wonderful!  I had a list somewhere...but now I don't have to find it!

http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Recordings_of_Books_on_the_Ambleside_List_2

Thank you RuthieG!!!

You

You know you have too much homeschooling stuff when you clean the shelves (AGAIN!!!) and take boxes of books and miscellaneous things away and you STILL have no empty shelves when you put everything back!

Is it just me???

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal ~3-2-12

I wrote this a while back and missed the link party, but thought I would post it anyway!  I have a tendency to write posts, not finish them or think they have to be perfect. But today I'm posting imperfect posts!  Yay!

In my life this week…

My “baby” turned 14 years old this week!  He’s been counting down the days until his birthday but more importantly his party.  He’s tried every year to get his friends together and have an overnight party with outdoor activities and video game marathons and this year it’s happening. Tonight his friends will all come over and they will have a wiener roast, play capture the flag, football, video games and who knows what else?



In our homeschool this week…
We had a good week this week.  I know it’s almost spring but I am just now getting stuff really organized for the year!  Back in August we were gone 3 weeks and it really put a kink in my planning and we’ve been really just “doing the next thing” all year.  That’s fine, but I don’t think we were moving like I think we should.  So this week I dusted off the old Homeschool Tracker Software and got everything up to date. This is what his daily list looks like:

I always have to make a list like this so I don’t miss anything when I’m planning lessons.  It really helps!  I know it looks like a lot but many things don’t take but a couple of minutes.  Then of course somethings take a while, like Algebra!!

What do you do when...

I'm in a hard spot lately with my ever increasing schedule.  What do I do when I don't really have time to develop my own hs plan and yet I don't have the money to buy the really nice, already laid out plans that are out there?

Anyone else been there?

Math Answers

In a previous post Amy asked why I switched from Teaching Textbooks to Chalk Dust.  So I thought I'd answer here, since it was a long reply!

The first reason was $$$. I basically got the Chalk Dust for FREE!  Also I had been told that the TT didn't work the same way in the higher levels as it did in the lower levels.  By the time they get to Algebra the solutions were not included on the CD's like they are in the others.  The solutions showing my son what he did wrong was the best thing about the program for us!  So while others continue on with TT we decided not to.  I might even be wrong about it all, but really in the US math is math and I always use whatever works at the moment!
We've used MUS, MEP (free online here), TT and now Chalk Dust. :)

Just as an aside; we really enjoyed MEP but I am working part time now and it's just too teacher intensive for our schedule.  But I would really like to have continued to use it.  What ds did in level 3 of MEP was the same as TT6!

Another aside; my dd (now a hs graduate and in College) used MUS mostly all the way through, but her learning style was different from ds's.

What have we been up to?

Well, I haven't been blogging much. I need to get back into The Homeschool Mother's Journal on Fridays.  I'll try to do that this week.

But right now we are in transition waiting for new math to arrive and trying to find our way around biology.  We haven't gotten very far.  My son doesn't have a good memory (unless it has to do with Star Wars) and so I'm backing up a bit and trying out some hands on activities to help cement these concepts in his brain.

Biology begins with the smallest organisms so I found some projects to build atoms, molecules and cells.

Here is what we are using:


I downloaded them from Currclick.  They have several titles and I downloaded many of them when they were on sale.

Now, for an atom model  I got instructions here.


For marshamallow molecules I found a post here.



I would love to buy these, but the above are more accessible.


For cell models I found this and this.



I found more middle/high school ideas here.


Disclaimer: All these photos are from the original sites, they are not mine.  
But when we make ours I will post pictures!

Working routines...where are they?

Remember flylady?

Some folks may have never heard of her at all.  I met her years ago and she quickly changed my life, but I outgrew her.  All those e-mails!  All those reminders! I just didn't need them anymore.  But I still revert back to her basic cleaning lists and the routine lists I created back then when I get overwhelmed.

Well, my weekly schedules and demands have changed and I finally realized that those old lists just don't fit anymore!  It's time to rethink my week and what I need to get done on each day of the week.

I was talking with a friend the other day and she said something similar about her routines too, or actually lack thereof.  She realized that certain routines saved her so much time, that she needed to establish some other routines in the day to save time as well.

There are certain days that we are home, and certain days we are not and I'm still not used to it after a year of this schedule!  It's time to do some serious thinking and planning and get some *working* routines in order!

So the problems are:

• having the school week planned out
• having all books/supplies ready 
• we need lunches ready ahead of time
• I need a healthy quick breakfast ready ahead of time for those days we are running late
• I am getting behind on household chores
• I need time for my creative outlets too
• Wednesday nights are so late and Thursday comes so early ;)
• fitting in exercise time
• having the exercise equipment, clothes, music etc ready to go
• meals planned
• grocery list done
• chores more evenly distributed between the family
• there is probably more but that's enough to start!

I'm going to work on this tonight!  I'm actually excited to get some things written down and put into use.
For instance I need to plan ahead and make Wednesday and Thursday as easy as possible.

I'll be back with my plan when I get it done!

Biology Links

We're studying biology this year.  I'm in the last leg of planning.  But I found some links that might be useful and I'm adding them here so I can find them again!  Things get lost in my bookmarks folders. ;)

http://biology-animations.blogspot.com/

http://www.brainpop.com/science/

http://www.biology4kids.com/index.html

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/waldron/

http://biology.about.com/od/onlinedissections/Online_Dissections.htm

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073031208/student_view0/virtual_labs.html

http://mlhsscience.com/biovlab.aspx

http://virtualbiologylab.org/index.htm

https://www.msu.edu/~macart13/class/stuwork/cellmodels/cellmodels.htm

R&R

We haven't actually started school*, since we are still out of state helping with the new grand-baby but it makes my heart happy to see my VERY reluctant reader actually enjoying a book!!!

:D

*Homeschooling is a lifestyle, not a particular date on the calendar. ;)

Looking back, looking ahead

Have you ever had a homeschool year that just seemed like a blur?  This was that year for me.  I know that my son did some work, and I also know that we didn't finish everything we set out to do.  We had so many distractions this year and I hate to make excuses but stress got the better of me.  As I'm looking ahead for next year, I have to take a look back to see where we've come from.  It's a bit discouraging if I'm being honest, but then again, so many good things were learned this year that I just can't put down on a report card or grade book. Know what I mean?  In fact when I really think about it we really did so much this year!

My dh has been ill with an undiagnosed illness.  So far they have said "Fibromyalgia" but aren't sure.  All we know is that he is in pain almost constantly and for seemingly no reason.  He has been off work a lot with no pay and had test after test.  Thus I got a part time job, it was a Jesus deal and now I work 2-half days and 1-whole day at church as my pastor's administrative assistant.  My son can go with me and work in the office with me on school work. It works fine as long as there are no interruptions but believe me there are always interruptions!

One day he said to me, "I never realized there was so much that goes on at church. I always thought we just showed up." Ha ha!  He's learned a lot about this and I hope it's been a good experience.

I also make puppets for our church and to sell (sometimes) this is also time consuming.

There are so many, many other things going on that don't need to be aired out here, but just writing this post has helped me to feel better.  It's my report card of sorts, a record to help me remember what we went through this year.

Thanks for listening. ;)

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal ~1

This is my first time to post "The Homeschool Mother's Journal". I hope to do this every week.

In my life this week...

It's been very hectic but I see an end in sight!  I took C to soccer practice a couple of times, walked several miles this week.  Attended a women's conference this weekend. Whoo Hoo!

In our homeschool this week...
We have had a hard time fitting everything in this week.  So many interruptions!  I hope to get more done next week.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...
We started soccer, so C has met  a few new boys.  Tomorrow we will meet two new homeschooling families that we are doing a unit study with.  It'll be fun.

My favorite thing this week was...
WE Weekend at Prestonwood Baptist Church.  What an awesome time in the Lord! I learned so much and I hope to post about it soon.

What's working/not working for us...
Daylight savings time.  Need I say more?

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
Lately I haven't even had time to *think* about anything else!  I really would like to have some quiet time to go over the bookfair schedule and decide what I want to look at and what seminars to attend.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

 Just keep swimming...

Fractions

***This post was originally written back in November, just found it, not sure why I didn't post it before***

We aren't using Math-U-See (MUS) right now for math, we are using a free program found here.

BUT we are using the MUS blocks, namely the fraction overlays.
These things are ingenious.  My dd learned fractions with them and ds is flying through it right now because of these.
They make the fraction world tangible and are easier to work with than a pizza, although not as tasty. ;)

They make increasing and reducing fractions easier to grasp for example:

One-half or 1/2

\

is the same as:

two-fourths or 2/4

is the same as:

three- sixths or 3/6

is the same as:

fifty-one hundredths or 50/100

We could "see" that the larger the number, the smaller the pieces.  I think fractions can be confusing to kids because the larger numbers are actually smaller quantities (on the denominator), but with these fraction  overlays, you "see" it right away.  That's probably why they call the program Math-U-SEE. ;)

Playing around with the overlays:

What's been going on???

Wow, I haven't posted much at all.  I read a lot of blogs every day, but never seem to post on my own.  I'm going to try to make a habit of writing more often.

I am working part time now so our schedule is a bit different now.  I work 4 hours Tue and Wed, and 8 hours on Thursday.  Best part is I can take my son "C" with me. YAY!  I am the admin assistant for my pastor at church.  He's real relaxed about things so we do school when we are there.  I just can't devote a lot of one on one teaching time when we are there so C has to do independent work, but that is actually a good thing!

Our computer went out last week and we thought we needed to buy a new one.  Didn't really want to do that, but dh took it apart and put it back together. Nothing.  He took it apart again and tested the power box thingy and it showed that it was getting no power, so we ordered one on e-bay, it came, he put it in and it worked!  So happy about that!

I ordered Teaching Textbooks for C and it is working VERY well for us.  It's just what we needed with the change in schedule and teaching time.  I'm excited to stay with this program for the rest of his home school career.  I highly recommend it. Even though to *me* it's expensive. ;)  I was using a FREE program.

Another exciting thing recently, C turned 13!!! I realized I now have only teen/adult children.  How's that for making you feel old????

Soccer season just began and C is on a new team.  Well sort of... some of the same kids, new coach new uniforms.  I don't know what his team name is yet, but the colors will be black and silver.  He's ready!

Next weekend he will be gone to a youth retreat so I may have some quiet time since dh has to work that weekend too.  Oops, I didn't think about soccer, we don't have the schedules yet.  I wonder if he has a game????

Okay, that's it for now.

Plugging along

I haven't had much to blog about lately.  We are just plugging along in our school and family.  We finished our big black light show with our puppet team. Whew!  That takes a lot of my time in October.  I am about to start a part time job so I'm going through our schedule to rearrange things a bit.

DS is getting more independent but as usual, his school books (history, science, literature) are way beyond his reading level and I need to read them to him.  This is tiring for me, so I'm trying to find some alternatives and audio books.  They are so expensive!

We're almost finished with our first term.  Here's what we've done so far this year:

• Daily Bible reading and journaling
• Math (mostly fractions!)
• Spelling
• Poetry of Robert Frost.  DS memorized "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
• Artist Albrecht Durer. DS made a powerpoint for this
• Music of Beethoven.  We listened, read and watched documentaries
• Science - earth science, astronomy & space, a little chemistry 
• History - from the civil war to now (DS Loves, loves, loves this and would do this all day long!)  We got these DVD's for free from the History channel.  They are his fav.  He would watch them every day!
• Writing - we are using Writing Strands for a little creative writing practice.  He's working on a simple story right now.  We may type it up and post it sometime.
• Shakespeare - we read Hamlet earlier in the year
• Greek Myths - reading once a week
• Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry - DS is enjoying this book.  I'm happy to know that my 12 yo child cannot fathom why people treat one another different just because of their skin.
• The Hobbit - reading this for the 100th time.
• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - always fascinating

That's about it I think.  It's been a successful year so far!