Imagine

Weekly Report 8/19/2011

2011-08-21T07:56:00.000-05:00

Confession: This is the second try at this post. The first time was dry as dirt! Hopefully this attempt will be better.

We've actually finished 3 weeks of school so far, and I thought I would take a look back over the weeks.

First Day of School

Our tradition is to go out for breakfast. The kids chose IHOP and it was yummy!

Math

Ruth just started Saxon 8/7 this past week. I'm actually making her do all the facts practice sheets and mental math this year. I'm mean that way. :) Actually, no complaints from her.

Robert is loving Algebra I with Mrs. Genco. He actually told me this week that math is now his favorite subject. Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor.

Science

The kids both like Mr. Harmon. Ruth has never enjoyed DVD instruction, but this is going well. She says it's long, but she likes it. We've done one science experiment so far, but I was so involved in the experiment with the kids that I forgot to take pictures.

I plan on doing 8 labs this year and have ordered most of my supplies from Home Science Tools. BJU included a shopping list with HST part numbers, so that made it very easy. I also bought a triple beam balance off Craig's List. I have to say that I love having all this science-y stuff around. I have test tubes! And beakers! And graduated cylinders! :) I'm such a geek.

Grammar

Robert is doing grammar in the fall and literature in the spring. I had planned on him doing Rod & Staff, but we had the BJU class, so I thought we'd try it. I compared the two programs and figured out if we did the first chapter of BJU Grammar and didn't like it, we could easily switch back to R&S, skipping the first couple of chapters. However, after the first test I asked Robert and he says he wants to stick with BJU.

Literature

Ruth is doing literature in the fall and grammar in the spring. Working from a textbook is forcing me to cover all kinds of literary terms with Ruth (irony, foreshadowing, and more). I am so hopeless with this that if it's not explained in the teacher's manual, I don't really get it. It makes for some interesting discussions. Or maybe I should say, some NOT interesting discussions. I'm very thankful that we are going for an introduction here and it's not the last time these concepts will be covered.

Writing

We began our IEW SICC-B class this week. The kids are doing this with a friend's son and we will rotate houses. We started first at ours. It was an easy week because we are doing a review of key word outlines. I'm anxious to get to meatier stuff, but I do enjoy the easy start to the year.

Cultural Geography

I think this is going to be our least favorite class this year, and the one for which I'm most likely to drop the DVD instruction. I'm not terribly impressed with the teacher, but Robert hasn't complained about it yet, and we'll keep going as long as he wants. I also think that there is something to the idea of being able to learn from teachers with different lecturing styles, so it may be that we should stick with it just for that. We'll see. I am keeping our options open.

American History

Ruth's attitude about is history is "I don't care. I just want to get it over with as quickly as possible." Lovely. I'm trying to engage her more, but it's a struggle. This is nothing new, so don't blame it on the textbook approach.

I kind of wish (okay, more than kind of) that I had gotten the latest edition of BJU American History, rather than the previous edition. I like the Student Activity Manual much better in the new edition. However, this edition is being lent to me by a friend and free is good.

Latin

We are using the DVD instruction with First Form Latin. The teacher is adequate. As Ruth puts it, he doesn't talk too long and it gets the job done. I guess that's good enough!

I've decided to do Latin with Ruth this year. Since I've never learned it, I am often at a loss as to how to help her. I think I also need something to keep my brain active. (ha!)

Books

Robert finished his assigned reading of Around the World in 80 Days.

Ruth has read Landing of the Pilgrims and Stink Alley for school. She also read The Pushcart War for free reading.

Overall

Switching to textbooks has been more of a change than I thought. It feels... strange. Not in a bad way, but it's very different. I have more things to grade and am having to do more teaching (at least with Ruth). However, it's also easier in that I'm not stressing that we are missing something. And it's getting done! I'm also very impressed with the quality of BJU textbooks. The kids are both having to do more critical thinking, which was something that was harder for me to guide on my own. So overall, I'd have to say this is working out well.

New Schoolroom

2011-07-22T15:45:00.001-05:00

When we moved into our house 8.5 years ago, we decided that an extra room we had on the first floor would be a gameroom. However, we didn't really have anything to put in there to make it a gameroom, so it just became a sort of catch-all (read "junk") room. There were bookshelves, Griff's LP's, a desk, my sewing cabinet, and a weight bench (yes, actually used). With no true definition for the room, and only occasional use, it became filled with more and more... junk. I cleaned it out several times over the years, but never seriously, and it would always return to its former glory (or lack thereof).

Meanwhile, we started homeschooling 5.5 years ago, and we did school all around the house. Kitchen, den, dining room... And the gameroom was ignored because, well, it was going to be a gameroom. Finally, this summer, I decided enough was enough. The gameroom was no more. It would now be the schoolroom. And the great purge began.

In the interest of complete disclosure, here's a "before" shot.

(Oh, my word, that's just terrible.)

I got rid of books, curriculum I knew we would never use, and piles of paper. Things were moved to an upstairs storage room, and many items were donated. I was brutal! I wasn't able to get rid of some bigger items, but they are not interfering with the room's new purpose, so they will stay for now.

Here's the final result.

The desk in the corner is the desk that was originally in there. I cleaned it up and rotated it so that I can keep an eye on a certain teenage boy who is easily distracted. More about the shorter bookshelf and items on the desk later. The kids will work at the not-so-pretty brown table.

Bookshelves are filled with books, curriculum for spring semester, and scrapbooks. That 6-drawer unit contains craft supplies that I couldn't fit in the room's closet. See the weight bench? Yes, it's still in the room. There's no place else to put it and it is still used by Griff, so it stays.

Griff's LP's and my sewing cabinet, with Ruth's latin posters on the wall. I'd love to have a big, overstuffed chair in that corner, so I'm hoping to find a different storage place for the LP's and possibly sell my sewing cabinet.

You can see our whiteboard hanging on the wall. The door at the far left of the picture is the closet, which now holds most of my scrapbook and art/craft supplies. There is a door to the right of the closet that leads to the rest of the house. The french doors lead to our back porch.

My desk. :) Actually, it was my mom's desk, and she technically gave it to Griff years ago, but I have now claimed it for my own. (he hasn't used it since we moved into this house). You can see 3 Desk Apprentices from Staples. The kids' are on the left and hold all of their school books. Mine is on the far right, and holds teacher manuals and tests.

The bookshelf was in the dining room when our school was done in there, but I moved it in here when I decided to convert the room. The top holds the boxes the kids use to hold their personal pencils, ruler, protractor, etc. I use the digital frame with our artist study. Artwork from that artist will rotate in the frame. The top shelf holds extra books I want the kids to read. On the left are Ruth's American History supplement books. On the right are Robert's geography books. That plastic box holds notebook paper. The middle shelf holds a dictionary, thesaurus, bibles, blank index cards (in a box) and some miscellaneous papers of mine. The bottom shelf holds Robert's DVDs and binders with class notes and handouts.

The one thing this room does not have is a dedicated space for Robert to watch his DVDs and take notes. I think the best solution is going to be a portable DVD player that he can watch at the table, but if anybody looking at this has a better idea, leave me a note in the comments.

This room is not going to win any design awards, but it's very functional and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

2011-2012 Curriculum

2011-05-08T08:00:00.002-05:00

Robert did BJU's Space and Earth Science this year with their DVDs. He enjoyed it so much that he has asked to do all of his classes this way next year. I am still trying to figure out the finances for this, but if we can possibly swing it, that's what we're going to do. So, assuming this works out, this is what he'll be doing.

BJU Geography (supplemented with Sonlight Core 5 books)
BJU Algebra I
BJU Physical Science
BJU Literature (1 semester class)
Rod and Staff English 7 (I know. It's not BJU, but this falls under "if it's not broke, don't fix it". It's a fantastic grammar program.)
IEW SICC-B
viola lessons/orchestra

I am aware of the time involved with BJU's DVD classes. However, I also know that I am in control of it, rather than it being in control of me. I will modify as I see fit.

Ruth does not enjoy DVD classes, so while she will be doing some BJU courses, she will not be using the DVDs. The possible exception is Physical Science. I am not sure if she will be doing that with Robert or in an outside class.

BJU American Republic (supplemented with Sonlight Core 100 books)
Saxon 8/7
Physical Science (BJU or outside class)
BJU Literature 8 (1 semester class)
possibly a couple of Total Language Plus guides
Rod and Staff English 7
IEW SICC-B
Art (outside class)
cello lessons/orchestra

There are other things I would love to do. I've always wanted us to go through Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings. However, our days are going to be full enough, and sometimes you have to say no to even the good stuff.

I cannot believe that I will have a high schooler next year. Where has the time gone?

(Yes, I know Sonlight has renamed their cores, but I'm referring to them by the names I'm familiar with.)

Looking Ahead to Next Year

2011-05-06T17:52:00.000-05:00

I've been a horrible blogger lately. So bad, I'm not even sure you can call me a blogger anymore. However, I'm giving it a try once again. I will have a high schooler next year (and 2 high schoolers the year after that!), so I'm feeling the need to savor every minute I have left with them. One way to do that, and to hold on to all the memories, is to blog about our adventures.

I thought I would start out by talking about the changes I am making to our homeschool next year. The biggest change is that I'm going to change to textbooks. I've thought of doing this in the past, but guilt over the lack of a living books education for my children held me back. Something I read awhile back has really stayed with me, though, and I've let go of this guilt.

What was this "something" that I read? Basically, it was said that our goal in homeschooling is to teach our children to have a heart for God. This can be done with any style of education, all the way from unschooling to traditional textbooks. Pondering this over the months has helped me realize that thinking that one educational method is the "be all and end all" is just plain wrong. I need to find what works for me and for my children. And honestly, the few textbooks we've done over the years have been very successful. I have felt comfortable with them and the kids have learned.

I made the final decision a few months ago to switch to textbooks for next year and I have never felt such peace about a curriculum choice. Even the arrival of the annual Sonlight catalog had absolutely no impact on my decision. :) I am eager to start our new adventure in the fall with textbooks.

I will be posting my list of exactly which textbooks we'll be using in another post.

Scrapbooking

2010-10-20T15:40:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to spend time scrapbooking lately. Just a page every couple of days. It's not much, but I hope it will help me make some progress. I'm working on photos from 2005, people. 2005! When you consider that I was actually caught up back in January of 2005, that is just very, very sad. (In my defense, I have done layouts from other years, but finally decided to concentrate on finishing up chronologically.)

I'm still using my crazy scrapbook organization chart. It really does help me keep a handle on what I have done and what still needs to be done. I'm so visual that it's a scary thing.

These are layouts I've done recently. They use Close to My Heart products for the most part. I'm still meeting with my CTMH group once a month, but these are not layouts I've done with them. (We do a 2-page layout every time we meet, learning new stamping and scrapping techniques.)

This first layout is from when Robert got his first pair of glasses. A friend couldn't believe I did a two-page layout of this one event. However, I really wanted to include pictures of the equipment used for his eye exam. I know that later in his life, everything will look different. I'd love to see how things were done when my parents had eye exams as children. Know what I mean?

I made a mistake on this layout. Originally, the word "bike" curved like the work "shop". However, when I stamped the journalling lines, I messed up, so I needed to cover that mistake. So, I changed the word "bike" to a straight line and voila! No mistake. (My scrapping group is fond of saying "There are no mistakes in scrapbooking.")

I have scrapbooked for almost 13 years now. It's something that gives me a creative outlet, and I often spend time with friends doing it. Do you have a hobby? If so, I'd love to hear about it.

Books, Glorious Books

2010-05-06T14:50:00.005-05:00

Katy, TX has the most wonderful used bookstore. While most used bookstores I've been in have mainly used romance books, Katy Budget Books has a huge variety of genres available. We used to live around the corner from the store and it's one of the things I miss most about that area of town.

Twice a year, KBB has a huge sale of their surplus used books. Prices range in price from .25 to $1.00. A sale started today and I drove down there with the kids to be there when the doors opened. I usually concentrate on the children's section of the store since that's mainly what I buy these days. I could have been there all day if I had gone through the whole store.

This is what I bought today.

The grand total for all these books was about $22.00. The most expensive book was the book of Emily Dickinson poems because it was a hardback. It was $1.00. The copy of Homer's The Odyssey is a $35.00 book. I got it for 75 cents. I'm excited about finding Otto of the Silver Hand for 35 cents. There are some books in there that the kids picked out that I would not have necessarily chosen, but for 35 cents each, I figured it was okay.

The cost of all those books new? $305.00 I definitely think it was worth the 45 minute drive.

A Favorite Around Here

2010-05-02T07:00:00.002-05:00

We love Stan Freberg. Now, most people of my generation have never heard of him. I certainly hadn't before I met Griff. We have introduced him to our children and they love him as much as we do. We spent several hours in the car yesterday and most of that time was spent laughing at his recordings.

To give you a brief summary, Stan Freberg was a comedian who made satirical recordings starting in the '50s. If you like that kind of thing, you should check him out. Our favorites are:

The United States of America (history of America)
The Very Best of Stan Freberg (Sh-Boom and The Great Pretender are my personal favorites.)

There are a lot of references to pop culture and politics of the era, so it opens up some very interesting conversations. And it is just laugh-out-loud funny.

Enjoy!

Workbox Chart

2010-05-01T06:43:00.000-05:00

In a comment to this post, I had a request for a copy of my log form.

This is the chart (log form) I use to record our weekly box activities. As stated previously, I put it in a page protector and use a wet erase marker to fill it in. It can be downloaded in pdf form here.

I thought I'd share what the abbreviations stand for. I hope this gives you a better idea of how I use it.

H: History - all of our history readings for the week
T: Timeline book
W: Writing (the asterisk lets me know that it requires my instruction - in this example, a new IEW unit that needs to be explained - I don't use them for items that need regular instruction, like math)
L: Literature
M: Math
FUN: anything extra that I want to add to break up the school day
FL: Foreign Language
B: Bible
HW: Handwriting
G: Geography
PS: President Slideshow - This was year-long project involving every president of the US, so it got its own abbreviation. More temporary activities would be noted a different way.
HL: Health
A: Art
C: I honestly don't remember. It must have been something we did for awhile, then quit.

Let me know if there are any other questions, or if you have trouble downloading the form.

Hmmm...

2010-04-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

I wonder what's been on my mind lately.

Plans for 2010-2011

2010-04-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

Along February or so, I really get the itch to start planning next year's curriculum. (I don't think I'm alone in this.) And, since I need to spread out purchases, I usually start my shopping sometimes in April. So, with no further ado, here are my choices for next year.

History

I've decided to go back to Sonlight. Several things led to this decision

- I have always loved Sonlight books.

- We've used it in the past with great success.

- I want Robert to have a one-year overview of history before entering high school. We haven't done the ancients since we started homeschooling 5 years ago. Finding this at the 8th grade level has been tricky.

- I want everything scheduled for me.

Robert will be doing Core Alt 7. Ruth will be doing Core 6. I gave her the option of doing either and she chose Core 6. She's my true reader, so she will enjoy having more books for the time period.

Language Arts

I have also purchased Sonlight LA 6. I've never used it before, but I wanted a different type of writing assignment, rather than the informational reports we've been doing most of this year. There seems to be quite a few complaints about the lack of writing instruction in SL's LA. We will be doing them using IEW's methods, so I'm hoping this will not be an issue. I'll be sharing our experiences with it as we combine the two.

For grammar, I've decided to have a year of review. We'll be using Daily Grams and Better Sentence Structure Through Diagramming. This will free up some time for other subjects.

Sonlight recommends Wordly Wise for vocabulary. We haven't done vocabulary work in quite awhile, so we're going to use that as well.

We'll also continue history narrations using notebook pages.

Science

As I said before, I've decided I need to outsource science. Ruth will be taking BJU Science 7 in an outside class. Robert will be using the BJU DVDs for Science 8. I'm hoping this will take care of my deficiencies in teaching this area.

Math

Robert will be using Lial's Basic College Mathematics. It's supposed to be a very good pre-algebra program, and I plan on using Lial's for Algebra, so it seemed like a logical choice. And, as a bonus, I can find an old edition for cheap. Ruth will probably go back to CLE, but I haven't decided for sure.

Other

A Beka Health - very low key. We just read and discuss.

Getting Started with Latin - We quit using this at Christmas, but Ruth has asked to start using it again. Who am I to argue with a child that wants to learn Latin?

Logic - something, but haven't decided yet.

Art - This one is... complicated. We're going to use Meet the Masters again with our friends. However, I feel that we need more than that. Ruth is very talented in art and I need to encourage that more. I've looked for awhile at Harmony Fine Arts curriculum. I decided to go ahead and purchase Ancient and Medieval/Renaissance. They each have things that appeal to me. I have yet to figure out how it's going to work, but I want to use them both in some way.

Extracurricular

The kids will continue playing their instruments. We're looking at options for an orchestra program as well.

We're going to rejoin the world of co-ops. I'm feeling the need to add more fun, social activities. This year has been kind of "blah". I've found a group that has a lot to choose from and we will most likely join them in the fall.

I think that's it. All in all, I'm very excited about next year. Now, on to finishing this year.

Love this.

2010-04-27T06:32:00.000-05:00

You may have seen this already, but I was a little late to the game. Love it.

Hits and Misses (Updated)

2010-04-26T10:15:00.006-05:00

It's only been 3 posts since I gave a 9-week review of our hits and misses. However, much time has passed, and, as the year is drawing to a close, I have a much bigger picture of what has worked and what hasn't.

Tapestry of Grace - This is a wonderful program. Having said that, over time I've found that it's just not a good fit for us. I don't feel that I, as the parent, am taking full advantage of all the wonderful things in the program. This has led to my decision to use something else next year (more on that later). I think if we were part of a co-op, it would be completely different. There is a co-op in our area, but we tried to get in this year and they turned us down because nobody in the group knew us. Really. A friend compared it to getting into a country club and I had to laugh. She's right!

I dropped TOG's literature and added CLE Reading after Christmas. This is a good, solid program, and the kids like it for the most part. (no complaints, at least, and they are getting good grades)

Math - Ruth completed Life of Fred Fractions, then Decimals and Percents. She's finishing up the year with BJU Math 6, reviewing and filling any gaps. I did find that LOF was not a good fit for Robert. He loved reading the lessons, but had difficulty seeing past the story to the math. I moved him back to CLE Math and that's gone well.

Science - Ugh. Ruth finished Apologia Elementary Zoology I, then has done some of A Beka Science 6 to finish out the year. I switched Robert to A Beka Science 7 after our struggles with Apologia. We've kind of limped through it this year. I've come to the conclusion that teaching science is a weakness of mine, and something that needs to be outsourced.

Our other hits of the year (IEW, Rod and Staff Grammar, Meet the Masters art program, workboxes, and History Scribe notebook pages) have continued to work well.

Up next... our plans for next year!

Let Try This Again.

2010-04-26T10:06:00.003-05:00

I have been very, very absent from the blog lately, but I think about it frequently. Does that count? Yeah, I didn't think so.

I'm going to attempt to turn over a new leaf and blog every single day for awhile. Maybe that will get me moving again.

Life has been good here lately. Full and good. The school year is winding down (4 weeks to go!). We've already finished grammar. Our last week of history is this week. Math and science are the only two subjects that will go to the very end.

I want to do a post about hits and misses, as well as plans for next year. I also want to talk about books I've read, movies I've seen, and life in general. So, hopefully, I can find plenty to talk about in my daily postings.

Until tomorrow...

Spam

2009-12-20T04:38:00.004-06:00

I have been getting some spam comments lately, so I have enabled "word verification" for comments. Hopefully this will cut down on it. I apologize for the inconvenience. Please don't let it keep you from leaving your thoughts.

Week 11 Report

2009-10-24T05:50:00.000-05:00

History

We studied the Depression and the Dust Bowl this week. I chose a book from TOG Classic for read-aloud. I already owned this one, so I chose it over the Redesign selection. (I'm such a rebel.) The kids loved the book. Robert, whose mind sometimes wanders during read-aloud time, begged me each day to keep reading.

This subject definitely sparked some great discussions. We talked about what caused the depression and what got us out of it. Also, with today's economic climate, we talked about whether it could happen again.

Literature

We finished Mary Poppins this week. Both kids liked it, but Robert especially loved the book. I shouldn't be surprised by that. He really enjoys quirky books (Roald Dahl is one of his favorite authors) and this fit the bill. He's already talking about reading the other books in the series.

Science

Ruth continues with Apologia Elementary Zoology I (Flying Creatures). She was telling me how the albatross, who soars through the air effortlessly, has a terrible time taking off and landing. So, what's a mom to do, but search youtube for a video. We came across this one. It's very funny, but shows the point well. That poor bird.

Robert's science is a point of great homeschooling angst right now. He's been really struggling with Apologia General Science. He failed the first two tests miserably. I thought it was a study skills problem, so he and I worked together throughout this last chapter. I realized he's not getting the concepts of the material (and, while he did better on the test, still made a 67). After talking to a friend, and also bringing it up on a homeschool message board I visit, I realized something. Robert really struggles with reading comprehension. It is very possible that the "chattiness" of Apologia (which I love) is getting in the way of the technical information. So, I'm going to try a couple of chapters of BJU Science 6 (that I already have) with him to see if that is a better fit. If it is, I'll then have to decide if I'm going to continue with Science 6, or buy their 7th grade science. I hate wasting time like this with a curriculum that doesn't work.

I'm feeling the pressure of making sure the kids are ready for high school and it really weighs me down at times.

Math, writing, art, etc. keep moving forward with nothing very exciting to report. We are meeting with our friends on Tuesday to do our Georgia O'Keefe art project, so I'll have that to share next week.

First Term Hits and Misses

2009-10-13T10:19:00.000-05:00

We finished our first 9 weeks of school recently. Woo-hoo! I planned a break week and am so thankful that I did. We definitely needed a break. :) We spent the week mainly relaxing around the house. I also spent quite a bit of time planning the next term.

Looking over the first term of our school year, I wanted to share what's working, and what's not.

Hits

History Scribe notebook pages - I really, really love these. I was struggling with how to make sure the kids are absorbing some of what they are learning and these fit that need perfectly. Having pre-made pages helps me to focus on just a few things each week, which is also beneficial. Love them! (one small criticism - I wish they had pages for more 20th century world history events, rather than focusing so much on American history)

Tapestry of Grace - I love this history program. We've read some great books and the kids have really learned a lot.

Grammar/Writing - Alternating these two subjects is working very well. We finished two chapters of Rod and Staff English 5 and the first two units of IEW. Next term, we'll do units 2 (concentrating on adding dress-ups) and 3 of IEW and one more chapter of R&S. Love it!

Workboxes - I won't write more about these, but wanted to include them in the "hits"

Schoolroom - I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I turned our dining room in a school room this year and it is wonderful. It's great to have a room that is just for school, but is still close enough to everything that I can get small housework projects done while keeping an eye on the kids. I also set it up so that I can easily turn it back into a dining room.

Activity Points - I debated on where to put this, under hits or misses. I think the idea is still a "hit". However, our implementation was sort of a "miss". Ruth did well. She hit the goal of 30 points easily. Robert, however, did not. I think the open-ended nature of this was too much. I need to either make it part of his schedule, or do a lot more hand-holding until he gets the hang of it.

Meet the Masters - I love this art program. It combines art appreciation with art instruction, so we're covering both. We covered Frederic Remington in September. I won't say he's my favorite artist, but the kids enjoyed it. We also had a good time with friends working on the final art project. I am very glad we chose this program to use this year.

Misses

Math - BJU math is a very good program, but just doesn't seem to be a good fit for my kids. They were hating math, and as a math lover, this was just killing me. I made the decision to really shake things up and switch to Life of Fred. It is going tremendously well. The kids love the stories and are doing well on the assignments. We are currently using the Fractions book. We'll do Decimals after that (assuming it's still going well). We'll finish out the year using the BJU math to fill any holes I feel were left. The biggest bonus is the kids are loving math now. Amazing!

BJU Science - Ruth was really not liking BJU Science 6, so I decided to switch back to Apologia Elementary. A friend let me borrow her copy of Zoology 1 (flying creatures), so we're doing that.

I have not done well with Robert's science program (Apologia General Science). He is doing very poorly on the tests and we're not following through with science experiments very well. I need to figure out a better way to handle this subject. Any tips would be appreciated.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how the year is going. We have more positives than negatives, and that's a good sign.

Workboxes and Homeschool Tracker

2009-09-08T10:00:00.008-05:00

We started using workboxes at the end of last year. It made the end of the year easier, but I was still working out the exact logistics of filling the boxes each day. I've spent some time working on the process this year and feel that I have finally figured out a streamlined method that combines the workbox concept with my use of Homeschool Tracker Plus.

I began using HST+ last year and really love it. It does have a steep learning curve, but it is a wonderful product. As a bonus, I have found it to be a great help when setting up the workboxes.

First, I thought I would show our workboxes. These are Robert's, filled for today (and for the week, but more about that in a minute). You can click on any of these pictures for a larger image.

This is a copy of the assignments for box 7. It is the "assignment calendar" report from HST. I print off a week's worth of assignments at a time. I have to run a separate report for each box in order to get the dates across the top. This is the most time-consuming part of this process, but I feel it really pays off in the end because I'm not filling boxes or writing up assignments daily.

You have probably noticed that it is only half of a sheet of paper. Once I am halfway through the printing, I turn the paper over and reuse it in the printer. This conserves paper. I also color code the kids' assignment sheets (Robert - orange, Ruth - blue) and write the number of the box on them. This makes it easy to put them back in the correct box if they get separated (not that my kids would ever be so careless as to lose something... ahem).

This is a picture of the first box. This is the box with his TOG history readings. There are several books and they would not fit in the box, so I have them stacked elsewhere in the room. This is also helpful because Robert and Ruth share the books. I also put all of the papers needed for the week in the box. So, this box contains all of the History Scribe notebook pages we are using for the week. The math box contains all of the math worksheets for the week. I do this for as many subjects as possible.

I prefer to staple the pages together (that losing papers thing again), but I have them turn in work as finished, so I will only staple pages together if I'm not worried about the condition of the pages. I don't keep math worksheets long-term, so I don't mind if the corner is a little torn. I do keep notebook pages, so those are not stapled together.

I recently created a chart for my purposes. I wanted to see at a glance which boxes are being used on which day. Also, some boxes rotate subjects during the week. It's helpful for me to know, for example, that art is assigned on Tuesday, so I will remember to put the time aside to do that together. (This is not a typical week since Monday was a holiday. That's changed up our schedule for the week, which is another advantage of using this chart).

I put the chart in a page protector and use a wet-erase marker to mark the week's box assignments. I keep the page in my planning notebook and re-use it each week. I use abbreviations for the subjects, so if you have any specific questions about which subjects are in which boxes, let me know in the comment section. If there is interest, I'll do a separate post on that. UPDATE: See here to download a pdf of this chart (blank).

We also use the schedule strips, so this makes it easy for me to quickly see which boxes are and are not being used each day. (These are Ruth's schedule strips.)

We all love the workboxes, but I've heard many moms say that the time it takes to fill the boxes each day is burdensome. I hope that I've shown you a method that can make the process easier and allow you to get the full benefit of the workboxes with minimal work on your part.

(Disclaimer: I (and my kids!) love workboxes. However, they are not for everyone. If you have a system that works, for goodness sake, don't feel you need to change it!)

Weekly Reports - Weeks 3 and 4

2009-08-30T06:56:00.009-05:00

I guess I should call this the semi-weekly report. I can't seem to get around to doing an actual weekly report.

History - We are two weeks into our study of World War I. We have studied the causes for the war, trench warfare, the use of poisonous gas, the use of airplanes, and several other parts of the war. We've also studied the first term of Woodrow Wilson and continue to read about Fanny Crosby.

For a project, Robert did a diorama of trench warfare. He actually asked this summer if he could do a diorama, so he was very excited to work on this.

See the smoke in the background? Once Robert started working on the trenches, he noticed that the box was upside down. He didn't care enough to turn it over, though. Since it's his project, I let him handle it how he wished.

Do you notice the soldier in the trenches who has been mortally wounded? Actually, it's not looking too good for the British soldiers. They are are not even out of the trenches yet! The Germans are definitely winning at this point.

Literature - For Week 3, we read a collection of O. Henry short stories. One of them was The Gift of the Magi. I remember reading that story and knew Ruth would love it, and I was right. It was her favorite. They both enjoyed the stories.

Now we're reading Anne of Green Gables. Ruth actually read this on her own this summer, but she loves the book, so doesn't mind reading it again. In her words, "I feel sorry for anybody who hasn't read Anne of Green Gables." I agree with this sentiment. :) I worried that Robert would think of it as a "girl" book, but it has enough funny parts that he's enjoying it, too.

Science - Robert started Apologia General Science and is doing pretty well with it so far. I've increased my expectations for him and was worried that he would balk at the extra work. However, he's adjusting well. He's not quite up to the level I would want, but I figure he will be by the end of the year, and that's my goal.

He did two experiments - on density and atomic motion. I hope you appreciate how I cleaned off my kitchen countertops before taking the pictures (ha!). Keepin' it real, people.

Ruth finished her chapter on earthquakes and volcanoes and has moved on to weathering and erosion.

Grammar/Writing - We finished our first grammar chapter and have moved on to our writing unit. This week was Unit 1 of IEW, which is just writing out a key word outline and telling it back. I almost skipped this unit since we've done it before, but finally decided it wouldn't be bad to have an easy week. Next week we'll start Unit II and do some actual writing. I am really liking alternating grammar and writing.

We're up to a full schedule now and we've been getting done by about 2:00 each day, so that's good. We have been getting a late start, not beginning school until after 9:00, when I'd prefer 8:30. Still, since we're getting the work done in a timely fashion, I'm happy.

Notebooking - As much as I love doing the scrapbooking notebook pages, I've found that they just don't get done as often as I would like. We started out this year with some free TOG pages I found, but they really did not fit our notebooking style. I started looking for pre-made notebook pages, but was having a hard time finding ones for a study of 20th century history. I finally found them at History Scribe. A bonus is that I was able to buy the whole History Scribe set (including History Scholar - their high school level notebook pages) for $8!! This is the download version, but that is what I prefer, so I don't mind. (they are still on sale at the time I'm posting this)

One thing I like about using these pages is that is very quick and easy. I just print out the pages that go with our history topics of the week and assign them to the appropriate reading. This way, they are using them for their written narrations. If there is not a page for a certain topic, I don't worry about it. It's a way of controlling the amount of narrating I'm requiring of them. It's working very, very well.

Activity Points

2009-08-23T13:26:00.001-05:00

I have always wanted to do projects with the kids, but never seem to get around to them. They don't ask for them, either, so I've never been too concerned with it. However, I do believe they have some value. I want the kids to think more about what we're studying, and I think these would help. I also think having them do some long-term (3-4 weeks) projects will help them learn how to schedule and some time-management skills. While thinking this through, though, I came to realize that I don't want to just assign them different projects. I want them to have some choices and some personal investment in what they choose. With that in mind, I came up with what I call "activity points".

For a 9-week term, I am requiring 30 activity points. These are divided into two different categories - hands-on projects and books. Since my children are not crazy about projects, I wanted to give them the opportunity to earn some of them by reading extra books. They have to do one long-term project that is worth 7 points. They also have to earn 5 points in books. Other than those requirements, they can earn the 30 points in any combination they choose.

BOOKS I went through TOG's alternate book selections and Sonlight's booklist. I had quite a few of these on the shelf already. The rest will come from the library. I made sure I had several biographies on the list, because Robert really enjoys those. My list of books for term 1 are the following:

Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt (4 points)
Wilbur and Orville Wright: Young Fliers (3 points)
All-of-a-Kind Family (5 points)
Dragonwings (10 points)
Five Children and It (8 points)
Freckles (13 points)
A Girl of the Limberlost (18 points)
The Good Master (5 points)
Angel on the Square (8 points)
Hero Over Here (1 point)
After the Dancing Days (8 points)
Letters from Rifka (4 points)
Rilla of Ingleside (16 points)
Homesick (6 points)
Li Lun, Lad of Courage (3 points)
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze (10 points)

I chose point values based on Renaissance Learning's Accelerated Reader program. We are not using their program, but I did find it a handy way to assign points to the books.

PROJECTS I went through TOG's guide and made a list of all the activities they suggested, broken down by week. From there, I assigned them anywhere from 1 to 7 points, depending on the difficulty of the project. Unfortunately, I can't share that list here because it is part of TOG's curriculum. For example, though, the drawing that Ruthie did our first week of the Model T was 3 points. I do plan on adding things that are not associated with our history study at some point. I know that I want the kids to do a science fair type project in the spring, and that will be a high number project.

After compiling all this information, I made a chart and printed it off for them. They are in charge of choosing their activities and making sure they have the correct number of points by the end of the first term. Of course, since this is new for them, I'm doing a lot of hand holding at this point. My hope is that by the end of the year, they will be working on this completely on their own.

Weekly Report - Weeks 1 & 2

2009-08-19T07:00:00.004-05:00

I can't believe we are through our first 2 weeks of school. Goodness, it's already going by so fast.

Here are the weeks in review:

History - We covered the first two weeks of TOG Year 4. Subjects covered included:

Albert Einstein
Pres. Theodore Roosevelt
Henry Ford
Wright Brothers
Titanic
Pres. William Howard Taft
Jane Addams

Science - Robert hasn't started science yet, but Ruth has almost finished the first chapter of her book. She has covered earthquakes and volcanoes. We've always been lax on science, so I'm determined to dive in this year. So far, Ruthie has already made an earthquake study structure (based on fettucinni noodles and marshmallows - which amused me) and a paper mache volcano. She found the paper mache very messy, but really enjoyed painting it.

Literature - We read Call of the Wild by Jack London. (Robert did not like this book at all. He does not like books that have any type of cruelty in them.)

Activity Point projects (I will blog more about this at a later date) - Ruth drew a picture of a Model T Ford based on directions I found here.

We also did math and grammar. All in all, it was a good beginning to the school year. I look forward to sharing more of our homeschooling adventures in the future.

Final Curriculum Plans

2009-08-08T15:55:00.002-05:00

A few posts back (but several months ago), I talked about our curriculum plans for this year. Things have changed a bit, so I wanted to share what we decided on.

History - This is the biggest change. After deciding on Sonlight Core 6, a friend offered to lend me Tapestry of Grace Year 4 (Classic) for free. After thinking about it, I decided to take her up on that generous offer. I spent some time with it, but found that going from Redesign to Classic was not that easy for me. I love all the updates in the Redesign version! However, after looking over Year 4, I also found that I did not want to go back to my original plan of Sonlight. So, I discussed it with Griff and he agreed that I could get TOG Year 4 Redesign DE if it fits in my school budget. After checking out the list of books needed for Term 1 (first 9 weeks), I saw that I would only need to buy 2 books. I either own them or the library carries them. That makes TOG much more affordable than I would have originally thought, and I made the purchase.

I am keeping my friend's Year 4 Classic through the end of the year. That way, if I find that I cannot continue to purchase the DE edition, I can go back to that.

Grammar - We will finish Rod and Staff English 5 as I mentioned before. However, we will not continue into English 6 as I had originally planned. Instead, I am going to take the opportunity to lighten our load a bit and alternate grammar with writing. Which leads me to...

Writing - We're going to continue with IEW. I'll be alternating a chapter of grammar with a unit of IEW. I want to get through Unit VII this year, and this will work out very nicely.

Literature - This is part of TOG, so we will use that part of their program. I may still buy some Total Language Plus guides if they fit into the budget, just because I like them so much. We'll see...

Math - We did switch to Bob Jones. I put both of them in Grade 6 math and I teach them together.

Science - Robert is doing Apologia General Science. Ruth is doing BJU Science 6.

Bible/Devotional - We will be using the following books, alternating them through the week.

Bible study - How to Study Your Bible, for Kids - I took the adult version of this class years ago and really like this Bible study method. It will not take us the full year to get through this guide, so we will hopefully use the methods learned to study at least one book of the Bible.

Devotional - Boyhood and Beyond (for Robert) and A Girl of Beauty (for Ruthie)

Composer and Artist study - I want to study 20th century composers and artists, but I haven't quite worked out the specifics.

Art - A friend and I are going to do Meet the Masters together. We'll get together once a month or so and do art projects. (Actually, this may impact our artist study, too. I'll have to take a closer look at it before deciding about that.)

Music - The kids will continue with private lesson instruction. We are not doing homeschool orchestra this year, so I will be looking for other opportunities for them to perform. I am thinking of nursing homes and our church's preschool program.

Health - We've never done this formally before, but I think we need some guidance in this subject. I want to keep it simple, though, so I just got the grade-appropriate A Beka Health textbooks. The kids will read from them, and we'll discuss what they read. That's it. Easy-peasy (and not too time consuming).

We have finished our first week of school and I hope to post a weekly report soon, so stay tuned!

One More Thing... (end of year portfolios)

2009-08-04T07:30:00.003-05:00

I had thought my next post would be about our first week of school, but I was thinking about our portfolios yesterday and decided I would share how we do them. So, I'm backtracking to the end of May when our school year ended. (See what happens when you don't blog for awhile?)

Living in Texas, we are not required to keep any sort of paperwork. However, I think most homeschooling parents want to keep a record of the year. The problem is deciding what to keep, what to toss, and how to put it together in a way that will stay together.

I originally wanted to make a really nice bound book, but knew that if I waited for the "perfect" method, it wouldn't get done. I also found a couple of 3-ring binders that were the right size and, since I already had them, free!

So, what's in our portfolios? It's really simple, people. Done is better than perfect, right? Right.

- Final grades as figured in Homeschool Tracker. I only take grades in a few subjects, so it's a pretty short list.
- Scope and Sequence Report, also from HST. This is one thing I love about HST. I use the "topic" field when I make assignments. S&S uses that field to make a list of everything we've studied that year. One bonus is I easily get a list of all the books we've read during the year. Love that!
- Quizzes and tests from CLE Reading, Math, and R&S Grammar. I threw out all the daily worksheets because I just want a snapshot of what they learned
- Science worksheets. We didn't do test in science last year, so I included the worksheets. If we had, I would probably have just included the tests and experiments.
- History notebook pages. We kind of fell of the notebook pages wagon once we started TOG (my fault, not TOG's), but I included the ones we did.
- Maps. Any mapping assignments we did during the year
- Other various writing assignments. Our writing usually centers around history and is made into notebook pages. We did have a few assignments that are not, though, so I included them as well. (not shown in slideshow)

We did not do many projects this past year. The kids weren't that interested and I didn't push it. If we did, though, I would have either included photos of the projects, or scanned and reduced copies. You can have the latter done at places like Kinko's if they are over-sized.

Like I said, it's simple. But, I'm happy to have it done. If you make portfolios at the end of the year, please leave a comment so I can see how you do yours.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

2009-08-03T06:16:00.000-05:00

Summer is winding down for us. I've decided to start school early this year, much to my children's dismay. :) I know that it's because we will be taking more time off during the year, but all they see is that their days of lazing and doing nothing are coming to an end. So, in honor of the end of summer (for us, anyway), I wanted to tell what we've been doing.

Surviving the Heat We've had a record-breaking heat wave this summer. Day after day of 100+ degree weather, with no rain in sight. We were breaking records that have held since 1980. I typically don't mind the heat, but this has been ridiculous. Blech. God bless Willis Carrier.

Personal Retreat For the second summer in a row, I went on a scrapbook retreat with some friends. 3 days of nothing but scrapbooking and way-too-much food. I am very blessed to be able to do this. Not only do I get a lot of pages done, but I am refreshed and rejuvenated when I return.

Home Renovations We have been remodeling our bathroom for about a year and a half now (yes, we are very slow workers). We've made significant process this summer and I can see the end in sight. We also spent a weekend tearing out the tile in the kitchen. Removing the floor was hard, dusty labor, but it will be so worth it when the new floor is in. We will not be installing the new tile ourselves. I would like it done in a few days, rather than a few months. :)

School Planning I had a goal to do no planning for the month of June. However, I figured out we were going to have a pretty busy July, so that really did not make much sense. I didn't obsess over it, though, so I'm pleased. I've gotten the first 9 weeks of school all planned out. I'll have a separate post about school curriculum and plans soon.

Time With Friends The kids had various sleepovers with friends, but the friend highlight was when my best friend Linda and her girls came for a few days in July. We alternate houses each summer and this was their year to come here. We went to the beach in Galveston (ouch, sunburn!) and our favorite haunt, Katy Budget Books. It was a short trip (only 3 days), but it was a great visit.

Short Vacation We had originally planned on going to Colorado this summer. However, the budget being what it is, we decided it was not the smartest thing to do. We did go to San Antonio for a few days, though. Griff attended a music convention and we tagged along.

Music conventions not being the most exciting thing for two kids, we headed up to Austin for the day and saw old friends. I finally got to meet this little guy. Isn't he adorable?? He's the baby of my friend, Sprittibee. Be sure to check out her blog. It's great!

Various Summer Activities VBS, swimming, friends, library visits, summer camp (for Ruthie), movies... It was a good summer.

Organizing My Scrapbook To-Do List

2009-06-27T18:52:00.005-05:00

Once upon a time, my scrapbooks were all caught up. Really. It was January of 2005 and I was working on December 2004 pictures. I don't think you can get much more caught up than that. However, I obviously rested on my laurels, because as of now, I am still working on 2005 pictures. A few things contributed to that.

- We began homeschooling in January of 2006 and my free time was no more. :)

- My Creative Memories consultant stopped doing monthly crops. I got most of my work done at those crops, so that really hurt.

- When I did start scrapbooking again, I was in a group with a Close to My Heart consultant. We did a kit with a specific theme each month. So, I would need to find something like Christmas pictures and would often choose the most recent Christmas, skipping many, many months in between. I was officially working out of order. (ack!)

As the pictures piled up (figuratively, as they were on my computer), I was getting more and more overwhelmed trying to figure out what I had and had not scrapped. When I get overwhelmed, I mentally shut down, so I knew I had to get a handle on this. I knew the only way I could was by a lot of (compulsive) organizing and list-making.

The following is what I came up with. It is working marvelously. I know exactly what needs to be done and am getting so much more accomplished.

First, I organized my photos in iPhoto. I had them sorted by year, but I took it a couple of steps further and organized them by month and event.

I did screen captures of this and printed it out. I needed to be able to sit down with my scrapbooks and mark off what had been done. I pulled out my scrapbooks (one for each kid and the family album) and started the somewhat laborious process of figuring out what I had done and what I was missing. The only thing that kept it from being extremely tedious what the trip down memory lane I took as I went through the finished pages.

Since I needed to know what pictures I still needed to print, I had to go through all my pictures. I put the photos in envelopes, sorted by date and category.

From there, I made the following spreadsheet. The categories (events) are the same ones that are in iPhoto.

Then, I started working on my chart. Items highlighted in blue are finished for each album they belong in. A box with an "X" means it is done for that album. Boxes highlighted with gray still need to be done. If it is highlighted in gray in the photos column, that means I need to have those pictures printed out. I also have a column for journalling that needs to be done (a lot still does!) and a place to put any ideas I might have for those layouts.

I've done this up through 2008. It was a lot of work and may seem like too much to some (most?) people. However, I no longer have that feeling of being overwhelmed by the confusion, and that makes it all worth it to me. And, hopefully somebody out there will think I'm not so crazy and this might actually help them. :)

Planning for Next Year

2009-03-31T12:54:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking about next year's curriculum quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. I thought I'd write it all down so I can remember my thought processes. I also try to find as many things used as I can, so I give myself plenty of time to do that.

Note: Robert will be in 7th grade next year. Ruthie will be in 6th.

History - As much as I have loved using Tapestry of Grace for the end of our school year, I've decided that I just can't justify the cost. Our money is just not going as far as it used to. (I'm pretty sure this is a common problem everywhere.) I'm going to have to cut expenses somewhere and TOG just does not fit into the budget. So, I'm now looking at Sonlight Core 6. I love the book choices of Sonlight and we already own most of the books for this particular core. My only hesitation is the speed at which Sonlight moves. We'd be covering the Ancients all the way through the Reformation in one year. Wow! I would probably slow it down, spending at least 1.5 years covering this core.

Grammar - We started Rod and Staff English 5 a few months ago and we'll continue with that. We only do grammar a few days a week, so we probably won't finish it until February. We'll then start R&S English 6. I have tried other things for grammar, but I just love how R&S is set up. I also know it's very rigorous, so I'm comfortable using it below grade level.

Math - This is a tough one. I have really liked CLE, but my kids' grades on tests and quizzes this year have been very low. I feel that they really need more one-on-one instruction. And, while I am very good at math, I'm not so good at explaining it. So, I am probably going to switch to Bob Jones. I like their teacher manuals a lot and it's what I need. Since Robert is behind in math, I'll be able to put both of them in Grade 6 math and teach them together (which will also save money). The following year, Robert should be able to move into pre-algebra. Ruth can either do Grade 7 or pre-algebra, depending on how strong I feel she is in the concepts.

Science - Robert will be moving into more serious science. I have enjoyed using Bob Jones science this year, and he really likes the look of Life Science. However, it's very teacher-intensive. So, if we can afford to do the DVD (or their new online) classes, we will go that direction. Otherwise, he'll do Apologia General Science. I honestly think he would enjoy either one, so I'm comfortable with those choices. Ruth may do BJU Science 6. I'm not sure about that.

Literature - Well, Sonlight has plenty of reading, so that's covered. I'm going to try to involve the kids in some casual discussions of the books using Sparknotes, and possibly some Total Language Plus guides. I'm also looking at how logic-stage literature is covered in The Well-Trained Mind.

Writing - We're going to continue with IEW. I'm going to use the IEW Ancient History-Based writing lessons. We'll also do written narrations and notebooking.

Bible - We're going to do something wild and crazy here and just read the Bible for our curriculum next year. :) I might try to find a one year Bible for them to use, but I'm not sure. Since we're studying the ancients, it makes sense to start with the Old Testament, so that is what we'll do.

Composer and Artist study - We'll continue with the Ambleside Online rotation.

Art - A friend and I are going to do Meet the Masters together. We'll get together once a month or so and do art projects. (Actually, this may impact our artist study, too. I'll have to take a closer look at it before deciding about that.)

Music - The kids will continue with private lesson instruction and homeschool orchestra.

I think that's it. I'm happy with how it's shaping up. I think it's going to be a good year.

Spring Break Plans

2009-03-13T22:45:00.001-05:00

We are taking Spring Break next week and I am so excited. We're not doing anything spectacular, but we do have a few fun things in the works, and I have quite a few things I want to accomplish. I'm listing them here for my own record-keeping purposes

- spend the day with a friend
- take pictures of kids in bluebonnets
- go to the Houston Livestock Show (depends on $$)
- work on taxes
- plan out TOG Year 3 Unit 4
- go shopping for some new clothes for me and Ruthie (maybe Robert, too)
- watch lots of movies
- read lots of books
- scrapbook with my sisters
- go to the dollar movie (assuming there's something worth seeing)
- finish stripping the wallpaper in my bathroom
- do some decluttering
- get Robert's legos organized (again!)

A mixture of fun, friends, family, and work (sorry, couldn't think of another "f" word that would fit). Sounds like a perfect week to me!

Civil War Study

2009-03-06T11:19:00.000-06:00

We just finished our 3-week Civil War study with Tapestry of Grace. I thought I'd share some of the things we used and some projects we did during this study.

Mapping of the Civil War battles. Rather than have individual maps of the battles, we did one large map. I enlarged a Knowledge Quest map at Kinko's and glued it to some foam core board. We have made small flags (glued to toothpicks) to mark battle locations. The back of the flages are noted with the name of the battle site and the date. The flag shows which side won the battle.

You probably notice that my Confederate flags don't look like what most consider the flag to be. While searching for images to use, I came across this article. (Yes, it's a wikipedia article, but I found it confirmed here.) I had never heard this before, so I found it very interesting. I chose to use the first flag (with 13 stars) of the Confederacy and not change it, just for the sake of ease in reading the map.

(The kids are pointing to the white flag I made that marks the location of Lee's surrender to Grant.)

Our read-aloud was Across Five Aprils. When I decided I wanted to add some discussion of this book, I went looking and found a free study guide. We did not do any of the assignments, but I did use the questions for discussion purposes. I had never read this book before and it is excellent.

Another project was creating a wanted poster for John Wilkes Booth. While looking for examples to show the kids, I came across an online wanted poster generator. We had so much fun with it that we used it for our project.

We then got silly.

We enjoyed our Civil War study and we all learned something. It's a brutal, ugly part of our country's history, but it's important that we know about it so we can better understand where we are now.

I still have a few things I would like to do, but I haven't posted in so long that I wanted to go head and share these. If we get around to them, I'll post them later.

Tapestry of Grace Week 19

2009-01-30T17:46:00.000-06:00

We really enjoyed our first week of Tapestry of Grace. So far, so good.

We studied Manjiro,

the opening of Japan by Commodore Perry,

and President Millard Fillmore.

We also covered the Opium Wars in China as well as the Taiping Rebellion. Whew! That's a lot covered in one week, but it really didn't seem like too much.

Ruth learned a bit about Chinese brush painting from this book. She made this picture of a dog from the instructions.

We will be adding writing back in next week, so hopefully we'll have some notebook pages to share then.

Idealess? Really?

2009-01-24T09:39:00.004-06:00

Ruth attends enrichment classes once a week. This week, they asked the students to write a poem. Ruth loves to write, so this would not typically be a problem. However, they gave them a form to follow that has fill-in-the-blanks. Ruth does not like being told what to write. At all.

So, she ended up writing a poem about how she couldn't write a poem. I thought it was pretty clever, so I'm sharing it here. I've underlined the prompts she was given.

Idealess

Whenever I'm asked to write a poem,
Whenever the teachers ask me to play with prose,
All night I think, searching my mind
A mind like an empty slate!

Late into the night I work feverishly
Why don't the words come easily?
Whenever I write a story, it's like a faucet turned all the way,
And they dance across the page.

By Robert Frost
By Emily Dickinson
By Shel Silverstein
By Robert Louis Stevenson
My deepest respect for them all.

Idealess, indeed.

It Must be January Because...

2009-01-17T07:48:00.004-06:00

I'm making changes again in our homeschool. I don't know what it is about January, but it always brings about a need for change. I've lost enthusiasm for what we're doing and feel the need to shake things up.

This year, I've decided to give Tapestry of Grace a try. I know, big change. What's funny is that when TOG made the decision to go digital, I basically gave up on it, and was pretty vocal about it. However, my pull to that program has never gone away. I was looking at it last week and saw that Year 3, Unit 3 fits in perfectly with where we are right now. I thought about it for awhile and finally decided that I would not be able to let go of the idea of TOG until I had actually tried it. If it doesn't work out, we haven't lost anything. If it does, I've found something that quells a lot of my fears about homeschooling my kids as they get older.

So, I did it. I am currently working on scheduling out the next 9 weeks. I've decided we're just going to do the 3 R's next week while I finish up the planning. Then, the following week, we will dive in.

I've read Harmony Art Mom's method of using TOG in a more Charlotte Mason fashion, but for now I'm just going to use it as written. I will tweak it later. I'm afraid if I try to tweak it now, I will just get overwhelmed. I am, however, taking her words to heart and being very careful about not selecting too much from the options.

One of my biggest questions was what to do about Ruth's Eastern Hemisphere study. There's no way to do both. She has been doing some of the American History readings we've had this year, so she's up-to-date on that. I've decided to shelve the Eastern Hemisphere study for now and have both kids do TOG. It would be very easy to finish over the summer or even as a slowed-down side project next year.

I'll keep you posted on my experiences. I am very excited about this and hoping it's a good fit for us.

Digital Layouts

2008-12-28T11:47:00.004-06:00

I made some digital scrapbook layouts for my mother-in-law's Christmas gift again this year. I only got a few done for Christmas day, but I do plan to do more. I thought I would share them here.

I had to go back to using GIMP for the layouts. The CK Scrapbook Designer software was not translating some of the colors properly. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the software, or with Parallels. However, GIMP was not too difficult once I remembered the specifics, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Christmas is Coming

2008-12-23T20:40:00.000-06:00

We are down to the last couple of days before Christmas. Everything is almost ready here. We've had a lot of fun the past few weeks.

Griff had a Christmas concert.

So did the kids.

I made Christmas goodies for friends.

We put up the tree and decorated it.

We made Christmas cookies.

And gingerbread houses.

We will spend Christmas morning at home, then head over to my in-laws to exchange presents there. On Saturday we will have a Christmas celebration with my family.

I have had a very relaxed, enjoyable Christmas season. I hope yours has been the same. Merry Christmas to you and all your loved ones.

SNOW!

2008-12-12T06:37:00.005-06:00

Okay, all you northerners get ready to laugh at me.

We had snow on Wednesday! Real, live, honest-to-goodness snow! It probably snowed for 6-7 hours, and it all melted overnight, but it was there.

My kids went out and played in it. Ruth got involved in a snowball fight with kids down the street. They took most of the snow off of cars, but hey, you take what you can get. It was so neat hearing the laughter of those kids. Both of my angels pelted me with snowballs, so their lives are now complete.

It was really coming down. (again, you northerners keep your laughter to yourself)

So pretty!
Ruth spies the snowball fight down the street.

Accumulation!
I took this picture, then ran! LOL

Too distracted to actually look at the camera. :)

What a wonderful treat for this Christmas season.

(BTW, the projected high for Sunday is 76, for which I'll be thankful after our cold spell this week.)

How We're Using Total Language Plus

2008-12-02T10:19:00.000-06:00

We are a little over halfway through our first (okay, sort of first) Total Language Plus study. I say "sort of" because we actually did try one a couple of years ago and I just couldn't get a handle on how it worked. We've figured it out now, though, and I thought if I spelled out exactly how we do it now, it might help someone else.

I bought one copy of The Cricket in Times Square study. TLP allows you to copy it for use with another child in the family. However, I'm not sure how much I came out ahead doing this. I think next time I'll just by two copies.

I don't like book binding on workbooks, so I had the binding cut off and made a notebook out of it using my comb binding machine. I put dividers between each unit to make it easier to find the correct page as we're working.

Since my children are so close in age, we are able to do our study together. This is basically how we go through each lesson.

First we do the dictation exercise, if there is one.
If the kids worked on comprehension questions on the previous day, we go over the answers.
Each unit centers around a specified number of chapters (2 to 3 in the case of TCITS). We read from the book, taking turns reading aloud. The Cricket in Times Square has short chapters, so we can cover one chapter each day. There's plenty time to stretch out the chapters if you need to, though.
After reading, I assign the work for the day. Comprehension questions are by chapter, so I assign those if we read from the book that day. Vocabulary, spelling, and grammar are broken up into A, B, C, D, and E assignments. We do one letter each day (i.e. vocab A, spelling A, and grammar A). We will typically run out of comprehension questions before we are through the other assignments. If that is the case, we will either have a shorter lesson time or I will look through the suggested projects for something fun to do.
Writing assignments are included in TLP, but we use IEW, so I don't usually use them. If one of the assignments strikes our fancy, or I can see how to adjust it to a IEW assignment, I will do so. We also use the writing prompts for discussion purposes. (There is no actually writing instruction included in TLP, just a bunch of prompts.)
I always include an extra day at the end of a TLP unit. This allows us to catch up if we have fallen behind on anything, or do some of the projects listed in the guide.

I also wanted to show what we do with the spelling words. One of the assignments is to copy the words onto index cards, then use those for review each day. We were having a problem with our cards getting misplaced. I thought of buying index cards that are spiral bound, but I didn't want to spend the money. I finally decided to bind them just like the notebooks. This has enabled us to keep up with them.

TLP has been a big hit here. I know we will do at least one more study this year, but I haven't decided which one. Grammar is pretty light in the lower levels of TLP, so you might want to supplement that with something else. I would not do it at the same time, but fit something in when you're not doing a TLP study. We will probably take a break before our next study and do something like Junior Analytical Grammar.

I hope this helps someone. Let me know if you have any questions.

More Notebook Pages

2008-11-21T13:30:00.002-06:00

I'm trying to get us back in the habit of making notebook pages. We've really let that slide, but we've had such a good week that we've easily found the time to fit it back in. I wanted to share what we've done.

Ruth was fascinated with the study of North Korea. She just cannot imagine living under such a totalitarian regime. I admit, I think it's pretty scary myself. She thought it very odd that there were actual flowers bred in honor of these leaders.

Robert studied the War of 1812 a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted a notebook page for it, so we went ahead and did that this week.

We're taking next week off of school next week, but I'm hoping to do some catch-up on notebooking pages then. Maybe I'll have more to show in another week or so.

(Ruth's page uses Always Asia paper from Raspberry Road. Robert's page uses Celebrating paper from Shabby Princess.)

It's All About Me

2008-11-17T11:32:00.003-06:00

Yes, it really is. I set the tone for the day. I determine, to a great extent, whether it's going to be a good day or not. My attitude is more important than the kids' attitudes.

I woke up very early this morning and I decided to take advantage of it, rather than wasting time on the computer until the very-last-minute. (yes, I admit it. I do that.) So, this is how our day has gone.

6:30 I showered & dressed
7:00 made waffles for breakfast
7:30 gathered and organizeed all the kids' school books and put them on the table
8:00 called kids down for breakfast (wonders of wonders, they're actually dressed!)
8:30 started school (on time, even!) -

We are all sitting at the table with our assignment sheets, check-lists, and books. School goes smoothly. Robert asks several times if he can take a break, but I point out the assigned break time and say, "not yet". His attitude is great. He even says, "This is one of my happy days. I love it when I have a happy day." So do we all, sweetie. (And, hmm..., I wonder why the day is going so smoothly.) We get Bible, history, poetry, math, and Total Language Plus done. Robert even gets his Latin assignment from last week finished. He also does his president fact sheet and his timeline entry.

I sat at the table with them for the most part. I graded papers as they finished (bonus: nothing to grade tonight!). I did check my Motivated Moms chore chart and did a few things, but I stayed within a few steps of them the whole time. I was very focused on them and what they were doing.

10:20 We took a break. Ideally I would like to spend this time outside, but I had some things inside I needed to do. The kids played upstairs. I put together 3 orders from our online scrapbook store. (Yes, we have one. I rarely talk about it here.) I also started our lunch (pizza biscuit pockets - something new I'm trying)

11:00 break is over - time for writing! We are on Unit IV of IEW and I explained again how to do the outline. Robert is writing about the War of 1812. Ruthie chose to write about national flowers of North Korea. (??? - not what I would have chosen, but the point is learning to write at this point, not so much content)

They finished their outlines early, so Robert goes ahead and finishes his Story of Inventions reading and Ruthie does her typing lesson.

We are done for the day! And what time is it? 11:30 am. Yes, indeedy. It truly is all about me. Now, if I can just keep remembering that.

Recently...

2008-10-27T11:07:00.011-05:00

Goodness, I haven't blogged in forever. Life has just gotten in the way.

I've been tweaking our homeschool day again and I think I have finally gotten it the way I want it.

I've made some changes to Robert's history program. AO 5 has been a bit much for him this year, so I've cut out a few things. I've also found that I really prefer that each week have a specific topic to center things around, so I'm using an adapation of the Truthquest American History II schedule I found at Ambleside Classical (look in her sidebar).

One thing that is encouraging is that Robert is very enthusiastic about his history studies this year. I think a big part of that is the AO books. They are wonderful!

I've also changed Ruth's Sonlight schedule to more closely follow Higher Up and Further In's Year 5 schedule. Lindafay has British history scheduled with this. I have replaced it with Robert's spine reading. This way, they will be at the same point in history next year, when I plan on combining them again. Ruthie's main focus is still the Eastern Hemisphere study, but she is learning the American History that Robert is, too.

We have changed from CLE Reading to a Total Language Plus study of The Cricket in Times Square. A childhood friend of mine is a rep for them and she was able to answer all my questions. It's going very well. I like the time we spend together working on it. Also, it includes vocabulary, spelling, and dictation, so those are finally getting done.

Our Art Project Friday has not happened for a couple of weeks. It seems that something always comes up. One Friday a friend called up unexpectedly to ask us to go to lunch with them. Then we had eye appointments. Our conflict today is a rescheduled cello lesson. I'm going to have to get control of this, but I can't quite figure it out.

In other news...

I had to share Robert's Halloween costume. He was Mario and it turned out great! (Can you guess why he's in that pose?) Ruthie doesn't like Halloween (she scares easily), so she chose to skip dressing up and trick-or-treating this year. She stayed home and passed out candy, instead.

Ruthie got braces this week. She has adjusted to them well. She chose blue rubber bands, but wants to change the colors for different seasons/holidays. Braces were not this fun when I had them.

You can click on any picture to make it larger. Please excuse the red-eye. I had to choose between fixing the red-eye and getting this post done. Posting won.

This school year is going by so quickly. Is anybody else shocked that Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away. How did that happen?

Friday Art

2008-10-24T11:17:00.002-05:00

One of the changes I made to our schedule was to add art projects to Friday. I found this project through a link at Hearts and Trees. The original instructions called for Art Stix, but said that pastels would work as well. When I compared the prices (and Amazon is much cheaper than Michael's!) , I decided pastels would work just fine for us.

I wanted to share Ruth's final picture. The picture doesn't do it justice, however. It is really very pretty. She wanted the hills to glow from the sunlight, so she added orange and yellow. I never would have thought of doing that, but it gave just the effect she wanted. I think it's lovely, and shows that my daughter is much more artistic than I am. :)

Math Fun

2008-10-23T11:48:00.002-05:00

I'm not going to try to reinvent the wheel here.

Head over to Let's Play Math and Homeschool Math Blog for some great ideas for having fun with math.

A couple of recent favorite posts.

Free math resources (Check out the logic problems. I just love those!)

Coffee Shop (Ruth and I have spent a ridiculous amount of time on this game.)

Spend plenty of time at these blogs. They are so rich in information and fun. Enjoy!

I Won!

2008-10-21T09:59:00.003-05:00

I don't usually enter contests. I'm very much of the "somebody's gotta win, but it's probably not going to be me" mindset. Ever the pessimist, that's me!

However, when I saw that Half Pint House was giving away copies of God's World News, and that there could be multiple winners, I held my breath and jumped in. I've wanted to get subscription to this magazine, but having never seen it before, I was hesitant.

I was thrilled when I found out I was one of the winners. I even won two copies! The magazine is divided into age groups and I won News Current (4th - 5th grade) and Top Story (6th - 9th). I was very happy with what I saw and now plan to subscribe.

Thank you, Megan, for having this contest!

Put Title Here

2008-10-17T19:57:00.003-05:00

I could not think of a single good title, but wanted to give an update, so there you go.

We've had a bit of a hard time getting back in the swing of things since the hurricane. We took a week off (I was feeling whiny about having no power) and I think we're paying for it.

One thing I did was move us to a definite time schedule. As in, 8:30, 9:00, etc. You get the idea. It's had mixed results. Ruthie loves it. It keeps her moving and she has consistently gotten her schoolwork done. Robert fought it, but actually has gotten more work done. The big drawback with him is if we start school late for some reason. He cannot be convinced that we can just move everything back. We'll work on that.

Even with the new schedule, though, we've been lagging this week. One thing the new schedule showed me is that there is no way we can be done before 2:30 pm. That is not what I want for our school days. So, I'm making more changes.

The biggest change is to our Friday schedule. I dropped math. That was difficult to do because we haven't caught up to grade level since we switched to CLE. I also took science out of the daily schedule and put it in a block of time on Friday. I'll see if that works better. Overall, our Friday is now more of a project day (science, notebooking, art, etc.).

I also took out our read aloud time in the morning. We've been reading Inkheart. It's a good book, but it's not school related. It also means I haven't been doing Ruthie's Sonlight read-aloud like I should. So, it's been moved to a different time of day. Book Basket and instrument practice have also been moved off the schedule. I still expect them to do it, but as long as it's done sometime during the day, I'm okay with that.

In an effort to make sure they do things like reading and practice, and in an effort to work on attitudes around here, I'm creating a "nobility record" for the kids. I got the idea from Trivium Academy. If you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. It's a marvelous idea.

In other news, Ruthie and I went camping with her Girl Scout troop this past weekend. As the camp-trained person, I was in charge of the whole event. I do not like being in charge of things, so it was very stressful for me. We had a great time, though, and are already planning another trip for April.

Robert had a friend over for a late birthday celebration. They were originally going to see the new Star Wars animated movie, but it was no longer in theaters by the time the power came back on. So, Griff took them to play laser tag instead. We also took them out to lunch and had cake and ice cream at home. It was very low-key, but Robert enjoyed it. I'm thankful that both of my kids prefer smaller parties.

If I get it together, I'll post some pictures later. I make no promises, though.

Our Ike Experience

2008-10-03T08:12:00.007-05:00

I'm late, but I really want to record these memories, so I'm sharing our experience with Hurricane Ike.

I lived in the Houston area when Hurricane Alicia hit back in 1983. I was 16 years old. I remember my mom waking me up to go down the street to a neighbor's house. They had a central room with no windows. We spent the night sitting on their kitchen floor with a transistor radio. We watched debris fly down the street at times, but my biggest memory of it is being bored. Our power came back on the next day and it was pretty much a non-event for this teenager. However, viewing a hurricane as a teenager and as an adult are two very different things!

After Rita completely missed us three years ago, I wasn't really expecting Ike to hit us, either. And, since we live about 70 miles inland, I wasn't particularly worried about if it did hit. We did prepare, though. I bought water. We filled up our cars. I convinced my brother (who still lives in that closer-to-the-coast area) to come stay with us. We watched the news all evening, and we went to bed.

Our power went out at 12:18 AM that Saturday morning. I looked out the windows at that point, but couldn't see much because it was so dark. The wind was certainly howling, though. When we got up that morning, the hurricane was still going through, but it wasn't as strong as during the night. We didn't get out to see the damage until that afternoon.

We were very lucky. We lost our back fence and some bushes. Our next door neighbor had a pine tree that broke in half, but thankfully it broke towards the street rather than their home. Other neighbors were not so lucky. We suspect a tornado went through the neighborhood because certain sections were definitely hit harder than others. I've included some pictures in the slideshow at the end.

We got power back on Sunday for 5 minutes, then we heard transformers blowing everywhere. Parts of the neighborhood kept power, but we didn't. We were out of power for 13 days and 12 hours! Let me tell you, people, that is not something you want to experience.

I don't know that people outside of our area really understand what the lack of power meant. My sister told me she read a blog comment somewhere of some guy in Colorado. His response was, "Big deal! So they don't have power. They're a bunch of whiners." He, my friends, didn't have a clue what was going on. Here's just some of what no power, city wide (93% outage!), meant.

- Airports were closed.
- Gas stations were closed. When they did open, many could only take cash. Lines for gas were absolutely incredible!
- Street lights were out. Not flashing. Out!! This caused many accidents. I, myself, drove through several intersections, not seeing the light. I was lucky to not crash into someone else.
- Grocery stores had no power. When our local grocery store opened after 5 days, they had minimal power. We had to shop with a store employee and a flashlight!

This is just what I can think of off the top of my head. I'm not even talking about the minor inconveniences of no A/C and cooking on a camp stove for two weeks.

This story will give you an idea of what things were like. I was in Target a few days after the storm. An employee was unboxing batteries. A very well dressed lady with her young daughter walked up to him and said, "Do you have C batteries?" He said, "Yes, ma'am". She grabbed her daughter by the shoulder and said, almost giddily, "We're going to be able to listen to the radio!" Folks, when somebody gets so excited about listening to the radio, things are definitely redefined.

I thought I would share what I learned and blessings we had during this time.

Things I Learned

1. Before the storm, buy as many bags of ice as the freezer will hold. I bought none. That was not smart.
2. Make sure the grease container in the freezer is sealed properly and not laying on it's side. Yuk.
3. Bake all refrigerated bread products before the storm.
4. Run the dishwasher one last time before the storm, even if it's not full. You will be thankful for every dish you don't have to wash by hand.
5. Buy your son's birthday present before the storm. Bake the cake, too, even if you're worried it will be a bit stale. Otherwise you will end up sticking a candle in a Ding Dong.

Our Blessings

1. We were all safe, with no damage to our home.
2. We never lost water.
3. We have a gas water heater, so we had hot water.
4. We had a corded phone. Those with only cordless phones did not have phones until their power came on. Cell phone reception was spotty at best.
5. We homeschool, so we don't have to worry about making up 6 (or more!) school days.
6. We have a battery-operated television. Small, black and white, with poor picture quality, but it kept us in touch with the outside world.
7. With fewer outside distractions, we spent much more time together as a family.

There are still many people recovering from Hurricane Ike. It's going to take Galveston months, at the least, to recover. People lost their homes. People lost their lives. After 25 years without a major hurricane, many of us did not take the warning seriously. I don't believe that will happen again.

We have power!

2008-09-26T16:45:00.002-05:00

After 13 days and 12 hours, our power is back on. My reaction to this prompted my son to tell me that I am an "energetic mom". Anyone who knows me personally knows that this is so not true.

Once I get my pictures uploaded and thoughts together, I'll be blogging our hurricane adventure.

Hurricane Ike Update

2008-09-18T09:08:00.003-05:00

Our power is out and expected to be out until at least Monday. I am at my sister's today, but obviously do not have internet access at home. I will update once we are back up. Please pray that that is soon!

Notebooking

2008-09-05T12:09:00.008-05:00

One thing I'm trying to emphasize this year is notebooking. We've done simple notebook pages in the past, but I wanted to add some pizzazz to it this year. The kids don't enjoy subject-specific hands-on projects, so I thought this might add a bit of fun and creativity to our days.

I got most of my ideas from the blog Ambleside Classical. She has some wonderful ideas and instructions for notebooking.

We are using the software Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Designer as our basis. We either use it for paper and designs that we then cut and glue, or we do all the work with the software. I'm still learning how to use the software, so I expect their pages will only get better as I find more and more to do with it.

This is Ruthie's first page. The "journalling" is from her IEW writing assignment. The background paper and title are from the CK software. We got the pictures off the internet.

We printed everything separately, then cut and pasted it together. We learned that if we're going to do this, we need to use cardstock for the background paper. I also think using scrapbook adhesive would be better. The glue warped the pages even though we used the gel glue that's not supposed to do that.

I had to really encourage Ruthie to do this, but she enjoyed it in the end.

Robert's first page was about George Washington. Along with his writing assignment, we used a picture of Washington from Homeschool in the Woods' Time Travelers CD. I am using selected items from this study to supplement what Robert is learning. I also made out an information sheet for him to fill out on all the presidents. I hope to have a page for each president studied.

We printed the background on cardstock. The title is part of the background as well. See, we're learning!

Robert was not as much of a participant in this as I wanted, but he did give me his opinions, and put it all together. I figure we have to start somewhere.

This is Ruthie's page from today. It was made completely with the CK software. She chose the title because it the letters hop like kangaroos. The picture is from wikipedia.

Ruthie did most of the work on this page herself and is very happy with how it turned out.

Robert really enjoyed making his most recent page. As soon as he saw this title option, he said, "Star Wars!" and I knew he was hooked.

While we worked on this together, he said, "I wish I could do this all by myself." So do I, son, and that is the goal.

I've been trying to think of something to add to our school days, something the kids will really look forward to. I hope this is it. It's fun, creative, and will leave them with a wonderful book at the end of the year.

School Day Organization

2008-08-12T06:33:00.001-05:00

It's good to be back. :)

One of the reasons I've been so absent from blogland is that I was determined to be organized and ready when school started. I made my goal and things are looking good for the year.

One of my biggest helpers for this school year is the Desk Apprentice. I used one of these last year, but found that I really needed one for each kid, so I bought another one. They are kind of pricey, but a Staples opened near us this summer and had some fantastic sales, so I got a good deal on it. If you watch the Staples web-site, you can occasionally find it on sale. That's how I got my first one.

I'll take you through how we're using them.

The outside pockets are holding books and workbooks (including self-made notebooks like I made last year).

The corner pencil holders contain pencils, scissors, rulers, and colored pencils. I still have empty ones and I'm sure I'll find a use for them.

The center section holds over-sized books and binders. One of the things I'm most excited about, though, is the hanging files. I have 12 weeks worth. Each week contains papers and items that didn't fit in other places - memory work pages, timeline figures, miscellaneous notebooking items, and maps. As other things come up, they'll be placed in there as well.

The whole system is very flexible. And, since we work at the kitchen table, it makes clean-up at dinner time very easy. I love having everything contained and organized.

I'm considering getting one for myself, but I'm going to have to wait awhile for it. That money tree we planted in the backyard hasn't bloomed yet. I hope that man at the nursery wasn't lying to me...

We have started school here. I'll be posting later this week about how that's going.

Too Funny!

2008-06-15T17:38:00.000-05:00

I came across this quiz and, being the Star Trek Geek that I am, had to take it. My results are fine, but check out who came in 2nd.

Your results:
You are Beverly Crusher

Beverly Crusher		75%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt)		60%
Will Riker		55%
Chekov		50%
Uhura		45%
Data		42%
James T. Kirk (Captain)		40%
Geordi LaForge		40%
Worf		40%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)		35%
Spock		32%
Mr. Scott		25%
Jean-Luc Picard		25%
Deanna Troi		25%
Mr. Sulu		20%

A good physician and a caring parent.
You are devoted to your children
and to your occupation.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

An Expendable Character! That just cracks me up!

Or maybe I'm just the plucky comic relief.

Frustration

2008-06-13T17:00:00.000-05:00

Looking through my blog drafts, I found this one, and just had to share it. I'm not sure why I never got around to posting it.

A few weeks ago, Robert was having an especially hard time concentrating on his math. He was working in another room in an effort to reduce distractions. All of a sudden, I heard the following.

(loudly) "Argh! Why can't I figure this out?!" (yes, he really says "argh")

a few minutes later

(even more loudly) "4!!"..."TIMES!!"..."5!!"

silence for a bit...

(in a normal tone of voice) "Oh, wait. Never mind."

Yeah, I was pretty sure he knew that one.

Funny, funny kid.

In Training...

2008-06-09T13:21:00.000-05:00

for a half-marathon. Yes, indeedy. Really and truly. I'm not kidding. Really. I'm not. (Those of you who know me in real life can pick yourselves up off the floor now. I can hear you laughing across the computer line.)

A good friend of mine did the Houston Marathon last January. I've watched her go from being a non-runner, to that. It was great... for her. I was so happy... for her. For me? I wasn't interested. But for my friend... way to go!

Then, I found out next year's marathon is going to be on my birthday. My 42nd birthday. 42!! (Yes, I'm announcing it for all the world to see.)

That got me to thinking... I'm still not interested in running a marathon. (I haven't been since I found out years ago that your toenails might fall off after the race. Yuk and ouch!) However, a half-marathon. Yeah, maybe I could do that. I talked to Griff about it. He said, "Go for it!" I talked to my friend and her excitement pushed me right into training. LOL

She told me about a local training group. They help you train for the marathon and half-marathon. You join, then meet up on Saturdays for running. They give you a training schedule to use during the week. They also have speakers about marathon-related topics. It sounds like a great way to keep motivated. The group meets for the first time in July, and if I want to be able to run at all by then, I knew needed to start right away.

So, I started Couch to 5K. I started week 3 today. I am sore, but very excited. (Although after the way my legs were screaming at me after my 2nd 3 minutes of running today, it amazes me that I will be able to run several hours by January!) I have never done anything like this before, but I think, for that reason alone, it is important that I follow through.

I'm kind of funny about things like this. I haven't told many people about it. My family, and a few close friends. Other than that, I've been pretty close-mouthed. I'm probably not going to blog about this much, but I'm going to set up a sidebar item here on the blog to keep a record. If you're interested, check it out!

What Time Is It?

2008-05-29T16:19:00.000-05:00

This says it all!

Where I've Been

2008-05-28T18:10:00.001-05:00

I haven't been blogging much lately. I have a new toy that's taking a lot of my time. Wanna see?

Can you tell what it is? It's Microsoft Windows - on my iMac! Now, don't get me wrong. I love, love Macs. However, there are a few things we can't run on it. With Parallels (& Windows) installed, here's what I can now do.

- stamps.com (for our business)
- Creating Keepsakes digital scrapbooking software (there are some for the Mac, but none as cheap as this one)
- Mavis Beacon typing software (which I bought thinking it would work on the iMac - nope!)
- and....

Homeschool Tracker! I spend too much time planning and rearranging. I'm hoping that using HST will make that easier and faster. I also love their daily assignment sheets. I've been using them for the end of this year and it has really kept up focused.

I've gotten just about everything entered, and up to speed on using Windows, so I'm hoping things will calm down now and I can relax (and blog!).

Plans for Next Year

2008-05-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

I know it's been awhile since I blogged, but I have been busy working on our curriculum choices and schedule for next year. I am hoping to get it all done before summer so that I can concentrate on other things at that time (like my house!). I am almost done and am very happy with how it's turning out.

So, without further ado, here is the outline of our 2008-2009 school year.

Robert (6th grade)

History, Geography, and Literature: Ambleside Online Year 5
Writing: IEW
Literature Analysis: CLE Reading
Grammar: Junior Analytical Grammar (after finishing CLE Reading)
Spelling: Spelling Wisdom (includes copywork and dictation)
Math: CLE Math
Latin: Getting Started with Latin
Science: BJU Science 5
Logic: Dandy Lion logic, various other puzzles and games
Bible: Explorer's Bible Study

Ruth (5th grade)

History, Geography, and Literature: Sonlight Core 5
Writing: IEW
Literature Analysis: CLE Reading
Spelling: Spelling Wisdom (includes copywork and dictation)
Math: CLE Math
Science: Christian Liberty Nature Reader 5 (from AO Year 5) and library books
Logic: Dandy Lion logic, various other puzzles and games
Bible: Bible Study Fellowship

We will also be following Ambleside Online's schedule for composer, artist, folk song, and hymn studies. Another thing from AO I've been wanting to fit in is Shakespeare and Plutarch. I finally decided to do one each term, rather than try to do both. So, we'll start off in the fall with Plutarch, then do a Shakespeare play when we're done.

You may notice that Ruth does not have grammar or Latin in her schedule. With her 4-day week, I found that her daily schedule was getting way too full and complicated. I decided that grammar and Latin could wait until the following year. It's funny that it took me awhile to figure that out. Once I remembered, "Hey, I'm splitting them up! They don't have to do the same thing!", it became much clearer.

I still have some planning to do. One of these is figuring out IEW writing assignments for the first term. However, there are a couple of books I need to have before I can really do that. I've ordered them and they should be here next week. For now, though, I'm done. It's a good feeling.

Because I'm a Glutton for Punishment

2008-05-08T09:40:00.000-05:00

One of the advantages of homeschooling children that are only 17 months apart is the ability to combine them for many subjects. I've combined Robert and Ruthie for history and science since we first started homeschooling. It has made life easier in many ways.

However, I'm running into a few problems for next year.

- Robert will be in 6th grade, which is middle school here. I am feeling the need to ramp up my expectations of him. Combining has often meant bring him down to Ruthie's level. That's got to change.

- Ruthie will be attending a day of enrichment classes every Wednesday, which will mean a 4-day week for her. As long as they are doing things together, it also means a 4-day week for Robert. I'm not sure I want this.

- They have different interests in school. Ruthie is much more interested in the arts. Robert is much more interested in science.

- Speaking of science, Robert needs to be ready for Apologia General Science (or whatever formal science we decide on) in another year. Ruthie does not.

- I plan to return to Ambleside Online after Sonlight Core 5. Looking at their schedule, Robert would not reach a study of the 20th century in high school if he does Sonlight next year. I'm not absolutely sure we will homeschool the high school years, but I need to plan like we will.

So (deep breath here), I've made a decision. Ruthie will do Sonlight Core 5 next year. Robert will do Ambleside Online's Year 5. I am also separating them for science. I'm not sure exactly what I will do with Robert's science, but Ruthie will have a much more relaxed year in that subject. She will be doing some science in her enrichment classes, so I might let that be the bulk of it and just fill the rest in with library books.

I've talked to the kids about it and they are thrilled. I think they want their "own" schoolwork, rather than sharing everything. We will still do some subjects together (composer and artist study, read-alouds, etc.), but they are looking forward to the separation.

I'm a bit nervous about this. (okay, more than a bit) It will mean more work on my part. In some ways, though, it will be oddly easier, if that makes any sense. Combining them is too much like multi-tasking, and I don't multi-task well. I do better with separation and clearly defined lines. So, bring it on.

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to, at any point next year, throw up my hands in defeat and go back to combining them without anybody saying, "I told you so."

Bible Study Fellowship

2008-05-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love Bible Study Fellowship. I was in the middle of attending a daytime BSF study when we pulled the kids out to homeschool. At the time, I thought about getting a sitter for Wednesday mornings so I could continue to go, but figured out that was not going to work. I also thought about transferring to a nighttime meeting, but I really felt that I needed my focus to be homeschooling. So, with great regret, I gave it up.

I have finally decided that I'm ready to add it back in. I went to an informational meeting last night and am signed up for next year. I am so excited! Ruth will be attending the children's program on the same night. I have heard wonderful things about it, so I'm hoping it will be a good experience for her.

BSF is very structured, and has some rules that some people don't like. However, they don't bother me at all, and I have found that it is a method of in-depth study of God's word that really works for me. I encourage you to seek out a group in your area and see if it's for you.

Like chocolate and peanut butter...

2008-04-15T15:00:00.000-05:00

Two constants in our home - classical music and Warner Bros. cartoons. If you are at all familiar with both of these, you can see how the two go together so well.

Griff had a concert Sunday and they played Overture to Barber of Seville. We could not get the following out of our minds during the performance. It's pretty bad when you have to resist the urge to break into song during an orchestral performance. :)

Mother/Daughter Time

2008-04-13T12:56:00.000-05:00

Ruthie and I went to a Mother/Daughter Luncheon on Saturday. We were unable to attend last year because of a conflict, so I've been looking forward to this year's. It was hosted by one of the mothers at our church and we had a wonderful time until... Well, I'll explain later in the post.

It was held in the our friend's backyard and the weather could not have been more perfect. It was warm and sunny, but a breeze kept it from being too warm. We had actually had some cooler weather come through the day before, which kept the humidity down.

Ruthie and the other girls played with bubbles and made a small craft while the last-minute preparations were made. It was a simple menu of sandwiches, fruit, and chips with dip. The hostess emphasized that the food was "plain" - plain turkey, plain chips, plain bread - for the possible picky eaters among the children. It was very sweet of her to make it so child-friendly.

For dessert, the adults had yummy lemon cake and the children had butterfly cupcakes. This is where we ran into a problem. The body of the butterfly was 3 pastel-colored peanut M&Ms (cute!). Ruthie didn't know they had peanuts in them, and I was refilling my drink when she decided to eat them. When I found out, I told her that they had peanuts in them and that she should tell me if she started itching. I wasn't too worried, though, because her allergies have never shown up too seriously.

About 10 minutes later she came up and told me that she was itching. Her face and neck were red and blotchy. I carry Benadryl with me for this (doctor recommendation) and gave her one. About 20 minutes later, she was still itching, so I gave her a second one. This seemed to take care of the problem, but it was still scary for us. This is the first reaction we've run into since she was diagnosed with allergies last fall. It really put a damper on the day, and since the party was officially over, we went home.

I had a talk with Ruth about how she cannot just eat something without being sure what is in it - especially things like candy, which can have a coating and/or unusual shape. It was also a wake-up call to me. I need to take this much more seriously than I do. Since Ruthie has never had an anaphylactic reaction, I have on many occasions left her without her epi-pen. That has to stop.

Despite the allergy learning experience, we had a wonderful time and cannot wait for next spring's repeat event.

Weekly Report - April 7-11

2008-04-11T07:30:00.000-05:00

This was a pretty good week for us. I instituted a "by the clock" schedule, which is completely new for us. I was having a hard time getting back into a routine after spring break and this really helped. I don't think we'll stick to it long-term, but it's working for now.

Science

We finally pulled out BJU Science 5 and are almost finished with Chapter One. I was really hung up on the fact that I did not have all the supplies for the expirements, but I finally decided to do what we can and move on. Done is better than perfect, right?

History

We studied the 100 Years' War. I've pretty much abandoned my history schedule. We've fallen so far behind and I really want to get through Queen Elizabeth I, so I'm picking the highlights of Our Island Story and moving through them.

Writing

We are continuing with IEW. We covered Unit III this week, which is summarizing a narrative story. I am so incredibly pleased with this program. I actually got three good paragraphs out of Robert and he is showing some creativity in his writing. Ruth, who has always fought the restrictions placed on her writing (she's the 18 page girl Andrew Pudewa talks about), is doing well also. I only wish I had started IEW earlier. I had it sitting on the shelf for months before trying it.

Composer Study

We are finishing up Handel this week. We listened to Harmonious Blacksmith (aka Keyboard Suite No. 5 in E Major) and did a notebook page. We are technically supposed to listen to one of his organ concertos before being done, but, again, we are behind, so we are moving on. Handel is one of Griff's favorite composers, so I know the kids will be exposed to plenty of his music.

This is the composer notebook page we did (map is a printed and reduced copy of Uncle Josh's Outline Maps). I know I got it from somewhere, but I can't remember where. If someone recognizes it, please let me know so I can give the appropriate person credit.

UPDATE: Katie reminded me where I found this notebook page. It's from Mrs. Happy Housewife. How could I have forgotten? Thank you, Katie!

Picture Study

We are still (!) on Mary Cassatt. I think we have been studying her all year! We'll finish her up next week, though, and should be able to move on to Leonardo da Vinci.

Our picture was The Boating Party. I found a coloring page of the painting at Enchanted Learning and the kids, who are not especially fond of coloring, humored me by coloring it with colored pencils (somewhat, at least). I thought it might help them remember it better.

Nature Study

I'm hoping to do the next Green Hour Challenge today. We'll see if the weather cooperates. We're only up to #2. I am not behind on that, though. I only learned about them after my blog break. :) Once it's done, I'll write about it here.

Read-Aloud

We finished Swallows and Amazons this week. We were going to start The Hobbit next, until we found out this book is available. We can't resist, so I'm going to get it this weekend and we'll start it on Monday.

I also have pretty much gotten our taxes done, but that's not a pretty story, so I won't share it here.

I hope you had a good week, too. Homeschooling or otherwise.

Poor Customer Service (AKA How I Totally Lost It)

2008-04-11T01:26:00.001-05:00

(Apologies to those who may have already read about this on a particular homeschool message board I visit. You have my permission to completely skip this post.)

I called Papa John's somewhere between 6:45 and 7:00 pm last night and ordered 1 large pizza and an order of breadsticks. I was asked how I would be paying for it (cash), given the total, and told it would be about 45 minutes.

At 8:00, after having not received my pizza, I called Papa John's back and was told that I had never placed the order. I have ordered many times from this particular Papa John's, and had even used the re-dial feature on my phone to call them back. After the girl I was talking to just kept repeating that I had not placed the order, I asked to talk to the manger.

I told the manager that I was angry at this point, but that all I had needed before that was an “I'm sorry. We'll get your order out right away.” The manager promised that they would do this.

By 9:00, I still had not received the order. I called again and spoke to someone different. He was very apologetic, told me that the delivery person had just left, and I should get it soon.

9:30, still no pizza, so I called again. By this time, my two children and I were very hungry, but as I have always had good experiences with Papa John's, I kept expecting the pizza to show up. I think I spoke to the same guy again. He was very surprised I had not received it yet and asked if I wanted to cancel the order. I said, no, I just wanted my pizza, but I would not be paying for it. He said this was fine and I was to have the delivery person call him if there were any questions. (I later found out that it was sent out as a no-cost order, but I did not know that at the time.)

10:00, still no pizza, so I called again. They said all the delivery people were back. The guy who was supposed to deliver my pizza insisted that he had delivered it and that he had given it to my husband. This is impossible because my husband had not been home since he left for work that morning. The delivery guy said that my husband had told him that I was out, but I had been home all night.

I talked to the delivery guy on the phone and he kept insisting that he had given it to my husband, but I knew that could not be true. He also mentioned seeing a black and white cat, which we do have, but there are 3 black and white cats on our block, so I was still convinced he had taken it to the wrong house. However, even when I described the house, he insisted that it was the house he had delivered the pizza to.

At this point, I asked to talk to the manager again. He kept repeating that the delivery guy said he had delivered it. This is where I lost it. I confess that I did start yelling at the manager. I was frustrated, not to mention hungry. I also take offense to being basically called a liar. My son (who I've mentioned before is mildly autistic) was very distraught over the whole thing, which wasn't helping anything. However, it was not appropriate to yell at the manager, and I did apologize for it. I was wrong to speak to him that way. The manager asked if I wanted a credit for my next order, but I really doubt I will ever be ordering from Papa John's again.

I called Griff (who was on his way home by now) and told him the whole story. He went by Papa John's to talk to the manager (and defend my honor - isn't he a sweetie?). He told the manager he had not been home since 8:00 that morning and had NOT had a pizza delivered to him. The delivery guy was apparently close by and asked him what our address was and then proceeded to tell my husband that he had delivered to him that night.

My husband leaned closer and said, “You're saying that you recognize me? That I'm the man you gave the pizza to?” The delivery guy insisted this was so. He even mentioned the cat again.

At this point, Griff turned to the manager and said, “I have never seen this guy before. He is lying. He is lying to you.”

Griff then left.

We are pretty sure that this delivery guy gave our pizza to someone else (probably some friends). This means that he is stealing from Papa John's. Not only that, but his actions have caused the loss of a very good customer.

And I want to know what kind of person can lie so blatantly?!

Green Hour Challenge #1

2008-04-02T15:21:00.001-05:00

One thing that we have really missed out on during my blog block are the Green Hour Challenges at The Heart of Harmony. They are wonderful, and even though we are late to the game, we are going to join in.

First thing this morning, we went out to take a walk around our neighboorhood for Challenge #1. We have not done much nature study, and are true suburbanites, so we are still learning how to observe nature. The kids weren't noticing much, but kind of got into it by the end of the walk.

Our observations...

Two squirrels were chasing each other around and up the trunk of a tree (really funny). (We couldn't get close enough for a picture, so I'm using one I took last May in our backyard.)

These lilies were in full bloom in several yards. I am still trying to figure out exactly what kind of lily they are.

Our yesterday, today, and tomorrows are blooming. You can see the range of colors of the blooms in this picture.

Robert discovered this ant bed (nest?). You can't tell from the picture, but there are a lot of very tiny, but busy, ants.

After coming home, we read about ants and squirrels in The Handbook of Nature Study. I was thrilled to actually use this book, after having it sit on my shelf for about a year.

We didn't spend long on this - probably 30 minutes total. We haven't done any drawings yet, and I don't know if we will get that done this week. However, we did have nature study and I am thrilled about that. Thank you, Barb, for giving us an easy plan to follow! It was just what we needed.

My Week Summed Up In One Word

2008-03-27T00:52:00.000-05:00

CRAZY! (Either the week is, or I am. I'll let you know my decision later.)

I'm finally back, after weeks of longing to blog, and I'm too stinkin' busy to find the time.

Full update when I return. It should be Sunday. Should be. We'll see.

Oh, It's Good to be Back

2008-03-24T06:26:00.000-05:00

Hello, everyone. I cannot believe how much I missed being here. Even more, I missed knowing what was going on in your lives! This lenten sacrifice was incredibly hard. I don't know that I'll pick this one again. Wowza.

I was not perfect. I stumbled more times than I care to admit, but I was still on the internet for a lot less time. If you don't believe me, check out my bloglines. I have over 1400 blog posts unread. 1400!! Good grief. I fear I will never catch up. I've thought of selecting "Mark All Read", but I just cannot do it. So, if I have not returned to your blog, be patient. I'll get there.

I found that it is not enough to give up something for God, you have to replace it with something else. I started a Precept Bible study on Matthew that I found here. It's free and you can find online videos (also free) to go along with the lessons. I found that I did not have time to watch the videos, so I've just been doing the lessons. I took Precept training almost 15 years ago, but haven't done one of their studies in ages.

Here's a quick peek into our lives over the past few weeks.

Blog Break

2008-02-06T15:36:00.001-06:00

I'm giving up writing for my blog reading blogs for Lent. I'll see y'all after Easter!

I'll still be checking my email, so you can contact me through any comments to this entry.

God bless!

LOST Thoughts

2008-02-01T12:51:00.000-06:00

Did you see the season premiere of LOST last night? I stayed up way too late to watch it off the DVR. It was great!

I want to "talk" about my thoughts after watching last night's show. If you haven't seen it and plan to, read no further. Spoilers ahead.

- Who are the "Oceanic 6"?

Obviously, Jack, Kate, and Hurley are 3 of them. I really don't have any idea who the other 3 are. I was going to go ahead and guess 3 more names, but I really haven't a clue.

- Who's in the coffin?

Jack said it wasn't a friend or family. When Jack told Kate that he thought she might be at the funeral, she said something to the effect of, "Why would I go?"

I think it's Michael. If the survivors told that he betrayed them, that would explain the lack of attendees at his funeral. I've seen speculation that it's Ben or Locke. I don't think it's either of them because they would never leave the island. The only thing I can't figure out is why Jack would be so distraught over Michael's funeral.

Of course, this is Lost. Everything could change, and probably will.

- I really cried when Charley showed up to talk to Hurley. His death was so incredibly sad. :( I do wonder, though, if they will have him as a recurring character (albeit a dead one). I'd like that.

- Is Jack's dad no longer dead? He referred to him in the hospital ("let's call my dad"), but he could be a little looney. He did seem to be headed that way.

- Why isn't Kate in jail?

I think it's possible that her mother had a change of heart after Kate disappeared. She may have given Kate an alibi for the murder once she showed up again.

This looks like it's going to be a great (but short!) season. I like the back and forth between the present and future. It's really keeping me guessing. Please share your own ideas in the comments if you'd like.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-01-30T08:35:00.000-06:00

Success!!

2008-01-22T16:41:00.000-06:00

We have been very loosey-goosey in our homeschooling days lately. We have not had any type of real schedule and have not been accomplishing much. I decided things had to change.

I instituted a much more rigid schedule last Monday. Basically, they have a list of assignments, with time limits set. Whatever they do not finish, becomes homework.

Ruthie loved it. She got everything done without a bit of homework all week. Robert fought me every. step. of. the. way. It was awful. It was miserable. What a terrible week. He did not finish math on time a single day. Most days he didn't finish grammar on time, either. One day he didn't even finish Bible! I knew we needed to stick with it, but it was rough.

Fast forward to today. He finished everything. All of it. Not a bit of homework. Hallelujah! He is so proud of himself, and I'm proud of him too. Woo-hoo!

10 Days and Counting...

2008-01-21T12:06:00.001-06:00

Will you be watching?

My Privileges

2008-01-20T20:38:00.000-06:00

I found this very interesting. I did not grow up in what I would consider a privileged home. My dad was a school teacher and my mom was a secretary. There were plenty of things we could never afford (Gloria Vanderbilt jeans come to mind - remember those?). Yet I was able to say "yes" to more than half of these.

From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

Bold the true statements.

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child [kid's work is original!]
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

HT: My Thoughtful Spot

Prayer Request

2008-01-15T20:08:00.001-06:00

Please pray for my sister and her family. I don't feel comfortable sharing the specifics, but they could really use prayers on their behalf. God knows all.

Books I'm Reading

2008-01-12T16:56:00.001-06:00

I plan on making a sidebar on the blog listing what I'm reading, but I thought I'd start it out here first.

I've found a lot of book recommendations at various blogs I visit. I've made a list of them and carry it in my purse. For now, I'm just getting a few every time we go to the library. I really hit the jackpot yesterday. I checked out Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright. I started it yesterday afternoon and finished it this morning. I had a hard time putting it down, and that hasn't happened in years. I thought it was a good jumpstart to get me back to enjoying reading. While I wouldn't necessarily call it "Christian fiction", it does have a strong Christian undercurrent.

Other things I'm reading (I tend to have several books going at one time):

Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler
The Art of Teaching - Gilbert Highet
Charlotte Mason Series - Vol. 6 (Modern English) - Charlotte Mason
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Weekly Report - January 7-11

2008-01-11T14:40:00.000-06:00

This was our first week back after a 3 week break and it was a struggle for all of us. I had a hard time enforcing a routine. Next week should be better, though.

Our biggest event this week was my decision to add in IEW. I found Teaching Writing: Structure & Style, with all the video tapes and notebook, at Half-Price Books last summer. It was only $25, so I decided to get it. I didn't watch the first tape until last week, though. I really like it. I know it is very structured, but Robert definitely needs that, so I think it's a good fit for him. Ruthie is already very creative in her writing, so I'm sure I will de-emphasize the dress-ups when we get that far. She doesn't need much help in that area.

I'm following the syllabus in the notebook, so we spent this week just doing key word outlines. We did the first one all together. The next day, I let them choose a paragraph and I did it one-on-one with them. The following day, they did it completely on their own, just re-telling it to me from their key word outline when they were done. Next week we will begin actually writing the paragraphs.

We are still studying Handel for our composer study. We spent a long time on Handel's Messiah. Ruthie was able to recognize a modified Hallelujah chorus in a kid's show a couple of days ago. "Hey, that's Handel!" We listened to Vox's The Story of Handel and really liked it. Our library has a lot of them, but I just realized they are only $2.98 each at Amazon, so I may just go ahead and order them. The Vox CD ends with "Water Music", which works out well since that's our next piece to study.

Friday morning the kids played at a daycare for a class of 3 year olds. A friend of mine works there through a special early-intervention program with the school district. (Does that make sense?) I saw her at church Wednesday night and she said they had been studying musical instruments and asked if Robert and Ruth could come play for them. They agreed, and decided that they would play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" together, then each play one piece of their own.

This was a great plan until we got there. Even though Griff had tuned the instruments that morning, Ruth's A string was completely out of tune. I called Griff and he walked me through adjusting it. While tightening the peg, I went too far and broke the string. Whoops! Ruthie was (understandably) upset. We finally decided Robert would play "Twinkle..." on his own, and she picked a different song - one that she could play with just her 3 lower strings. So, it worked out okay, but I could tell she was still upset. Especially when they asked Robert to go to two other classes and play "Twinkle..." for them. I felt very bad for having broken the string. :(

My goal for next week is to get us on more of a structured schedule. I think we'll accomplish a lot more.

Never Give Up... Never Surrender

2008-01-11T08:15:00.000-06:00

Okay, I know I said I never make a New Year's Resolution about being organized. That's not to say, though, that I'm not constantly trying to be organized.

That said, I ordered the 2008 Motivated Moms chore planner a couple of days ago. This is the 3rd year in a row that I've bought it. You might think that means it's been highly successful for me. Well... no. I found that I still have to do the work. It's not going to magically get done just because I bought the planner. Nope. You have to actually use it for it to work. I finally figured that out. (I'm smart that way.)

I had decided I was not going to order it this year. Then, it seems that everywhere I go, people are talking about it. I can't get away from it! So, I figured it was a sign, and ordered it again. Eh, it's only $8.00, and now that I've figured out the key to it, maybe it will work for me.

My kids are going to love it. I'm going to use it as a method for assigning chores. (Hee!)

A Movie Recommendation

2008-01-09T13:30:00.001-06:00

Have you seen the movie "Facing the Giants"? It's a wonderful, Christian movie that uplifts and inspires. We missed it at the movie theater, but Ruthie and I watched it a few months ago and we both loved it. After Christmas, I went and bought a copy of it. Griff then watched it and loved it as well.

After seeing the movie, Griff went online to do more research about it. In the process, he found out about a previous movie this same group (Sherwood Pictures) had done. It's called "Flywheel". I saw that Netflix had it, so I ordered it and we watched it this past Friday night. Wow! It has a very powerful message. It has made me think and desire, more than ever, to live for Christ.

From what Griff found out, "Facing the Giants" had a $100,000 budget. "Flywheel", on the other hand, only had a $20,000 budget, and that's definitely apparent at times. However, the message transcends all the technical problems and really shines through.

I have watched the movie a second time since Friday night and we will be purchasing it soon. I know it's one I'll watch over and over.

Note: I checked and Blockbuster Online also has "Flywheel". Also, the version I had from Netflix was not the Director's Cut shown here. I'm not sure what the differences are.

How I Spent My Weekend

2008-01-07T09:55:00.000-06:00

When we moved into this house 5 years ago, Ruthie wanted a pink room. Now, as an almost-10 year old, she is rather tired of the pink. Since it was a glow-into-the-hallway pink, I can't say I blame her.

So, Griff and I spent this past weekend painting. On Saturday we primed over the original walls and I painted door trim. Sunday we painted with the finish paint. We still need to paint the baseboards before we can move the furniture back.

Saturday night I discovered that I am not as young as I used to be. My back and my painting arms were really aching. Sunday morning was even worse. I eventually worked out the kinks, but boy do I miss the days when I could paint all day and barely feel it.

There are other things we plan to do to her room.

white beadboard up to chair rail height
new furniture - bed, dresser, bedside table
new curtains
built-in desk and shelves (maybe)

I love the look of blue and white - it's so crisp and clean. I think it's going to look very nice when it's all done.

New Year's Resolutions

2007-12-31T14:42:00.000-06:00

I decided several years ago that I was not making any more New Year's Resolutions. I cannot think of a single "worthy" resolution that I have kept for any length of time. Plus, I believe that if there is something about yourself you wish to change, you should not wait to change it.

However, I amended that resolution (ha!) later. I decided I could make one as long as it does not involve losing weight, exercising, or being organized. One year my goal was to get to bed every night before 10:00. THAT was a resolution that was easy to keep (back then it was, anyway - these days, not so much).

This year, my resolution can be summed in one word... read. This is going to be the year of the books. Now, I read quite a bit now, but it tends to all be children's books. Children's books are wonderful and fun, but I'm feeling the need to stretch myself.

So, I will be doing more reading for myself this year. Some of these books will stretch my mind mentally and spiritually and I will be a better person for having read them. Some of them will be pure fluff and mind candy, and that's okay. I will be reading... for me. And I will enjoy it.

Christmas Review

2007-12-27T06:57:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas this year. We most definitely did.

I am now in recovery mode - trying to get everything cleaned up and organized after two weeks of fun. In fact, that is my goal for the time before we start school back up on the 7th. I have big plans for reorganization of some storage areas in our home.

Here's a quick overview of our Christmas this year.

Wanna See What I Made?

2007-12-17T13:06:00.001-06:00

I get together with a group of friends once a month to scrapbook. We rotate homes and work on a layout from a kit put together by our Close to My Heart rep. Since we use her stamps and ink pads, it can be difficult to put them together at home if we missed a month. So, December was our month to "catch up" on any layouts we may have missed.

We went to Sandy's house and had a yummy lunch, then got to work. I chose to work on non-scrapbook projects that she had showed us in the past. I originally thought I would give them as gifts, but have decided to keep them for myself. I will, however, make them as gifts in the future.

We are going to hang this in the kitchen. (sorry for the glare spot)

The following is not actually finished yet, but I think they still look cute. They need to have another layer of decoupage, then I'm going to add ribbon and tags and other what-nots. (If you click on the picture, you can see it enlarged, but please don't. If you do, you'll see the dust that I thought would not show up in the photo. I was just so wrong about that.)

My picture looks all curvy, but I'm not sure why. Must be all that dust. :)

Aren't they purty? Merry Christmas to me!

Last Day to Vote!

2007-12-15T15:15:00.000-06:00

I meant to post this reminder a couple of days ago, but then I got sick and, well, you know how it goes.

Go vote!! Now!! Vote!!

Today is the last day. Go!

(all links take you to the same place - here!)

A Dose of Christmas Realism

2007-12-12T06:32:00.000-06:00

I love Christmas stockings. Love. Them. When I was a child, I would wake up on Christmas morning at dark-thirty and go to the den and check out the Christmas tree with all its presents underneath. I would always pull everything out of my stocking and see what was in there. There was never anything big, but I just loved it.

Since I married, I have wanted to make us beautiful, cross-stitch stockings. It hasn't happened. I have started the things more times than I can count and never gotten more than an inch or so done. And, since my children are rapidly aging (good grief, why can't they just slow down?! - but that's a whole other post), I've finally become realistic and admitted it's not going to happen.

So, yesterday, I ordered these. They are lovely, and just what I wanted. And, they only took me about 30 minutes to order, as opposed to months and months of painstaking, time-consuming, labor. And, hey!, you save $2.50 per stocking when you order three or more, so I saved money, too!

Now, off to shop for stocking stuffers...

P.S. I found out a couple of days ago that Robert also gets up very early Christmas morning and looks at everything in his stocking. Now, how can I possible be mad about that? LOL

12 Days of Christmas

2007-12-07T10:05:00.000-06:00

I found this through TeacherBritt. It's great!

Winter Art Kit from Hearts and Trees

2007-12-05T08:45:00.000-06:00

I've talked in the past about purchasing the Fall art kit from Hearts and Trees. We had a great time with it and I've been looking forward to the winter kit. (we did not finish all the fall projects, so I have things to save for next fall or fill "I'm bored!" days - yea!)

Well, the Winter Kit is now available! There are some great projects, including a fleece hat and a winter nature study lapbook. Those are just a couple of the projects available.

If you pre-order by December 7th, you are guaranteed a kit. After that, it's while-supplies-last. She's already had to increase her estimate, so I don't expect them to last long after the 7th.

You can find all the details here.

(BTW, I get nothing for recommending these kits. I'm just a very satisfied customer!)

In Which I Say the Word "Cute" Way Too Many Times

2007-12-04T16:15:00.000-06:00

Ruthie has beautiful hair. It's thick, soft, and wavy. And, when the slightest bit of humidity hits, really, really... big. She has a very hard time caring for it. It always has tangles underneath, which doesn't help the "bigness" of it. She has wanted to cut it for quite awhile, but decided to wait for it to be long enough for Locks of Love.

Last week we made a haircut appointment for today and she decided it was THE DAY.

I took some pictures of the whole event.

Before... (Ironically, her hair was laying smooth and beautiful today.)

In the chair...

Notice 4 different ponytails. Lisa, who cuts our hair, said it was still hard to get the scissors through it. Like I said, thick hair.

The cutting begins...

And the final result (after being washed and cut properly)

Cute, cute, cute, cute, cute! I just love it! And, really, who wouldn't love to have wash-and-go hair?

And a picture at home, after it's dried, with her holding the cut hair.

Can I say it one more time?

Cute!

Remember to Vote!

2007-12-04T08:36:00.000-06:00

Voting has started over at the Homeschool Blog Awards. Voting ends December 15th.

Weekly Report - November 12-30

2007-11-30T11:36:00.000-06:00

I haven't done a weekly report for a few weeks, so I'm covering everything we've done during that time. Last week was very light because of Thanksgiving.

GRAMMAR

CLE Language Arts arrived and we have started. We just finished the first quiz and it's going pretty well.

READING

Lots and lots of books about the middle ages were read. We have studied castles and knights the last couple of weeks and the kids are really enjoying it. They've been disinterested in the middle ages up to this point.

Ruth is also reading the Chronicles of Narnia. She read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe previously, but the others shown have been within the past couple of weeks. Robert has finally finished Lad: A Dog. I asked him if he finally liked it at the end, but he said that he's liked it since the beginning. So why did it take him a full month to finish the book?!

HISTORY

We read about William the Conqueror this week. I wanted to share Robert's notebook page. He is learning chess now, and since it had its beginning in the middle ages, his picture is a chess "battle scene". (We are working on the writing portion. Robert gives very good oral narrations, but struggles with written .)

MEMORY

We're working on the poem The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I really like this poem, and the kids recognized the first couple of lines from a Foxtrot cartoon. Now, how's that for cultural relevance? LOL (please excuse how crooked this is - I just could not get it to scan straight)

SCIENCE

It's taken awhile, but we've finally finished up our sea turtles chapter. I thought we'd never get those last things finished! Kids made sea turtles and sea snakes for the ocean box. I promise the next pictures will show them actually in the box!

BIBLE

I am putting aside our regular Bible curriculum for a study of Christmas. We are doing a Jesse tree for the first time. In an effort to keep it simple (to make sure it gets done!) and inexpensive, we are using the scriptures and ornaments found here. I also found an excellent overview of Jesse trees here.

Coming up:

We will return to our study of Latin and do better with our composer and picture study. :)

Tracking Assignments

2007-11-29T14:58:00.000-06:00

Keeping track of daily assignments has always been a struggle. I've tried several different methods - handwritten, daily assignment sheets, weekly assignment sheets, pre-printed, blank sheets with handwritten assignments. None of them work, mainly because we can't keep track of the sheets of paper and my children forget to check what has yet to be done.

So, I went back to something I used last year.

I have all our subjects listed, with columns for each child, written with wet-erase markers. Assignments are written by me daily with dry-erase markers. It is easy and impossible to misplace. :) (Please note that every single assignment from this chart is done. That hasn't happened since then, but I wanted to make sure you saw this it does happen here occasionally.)

I have also started using the Simply Charlotte Mason web-site organizer. I used to think the $10/month was too much, but after seeing it recommended by Christy at A Common Shepherdess, I decided to sign up for the 30-day trial. I figured if I used it for those 30 days, it would be worth the money (seeing as I've never stuck with any organization method that long - I am so ADD at times). I did and it is! I love it. It's easy to see daily assignments and check them off throughout the day. If I forget something, I can go back later and do it. Easy-peasy.

Another advantage to this method is that I get a break from the paper monster that threatens to take over my home. :)

This Could be a Real Bummer

2007-11-26T17:28:00.000-06:00

Ruth told me today that her face feels "itchy" after eating fruit. I asked her how long this had been happening and she said for "awhile". She used to think it was normal. (!!!)

I did some research and found that most people that have fruit allergies also have pollen allergies. She definitely has those.

So, we are headed to the allergist tomorrow morning.

This girl loves fruit (really, really loves it), so removing it from her diet will be very painful. Would you say a prayer that this is not serious?

UPDATE: We saw the allergist today. We got a prescription for an epi-pen and prednisone for an emergency situation. Ruth got blood drawn for that type of allergy test. If it doesn't show the results we expect, we'll have to do the skin test. She cannot have any fruit until we go back in two weeks and get the results.

Happenings

2007-11-21T00:28:00.000-06:00

The latest...

I took Robert on a Cub Scout camping trip this weekend. It went okay until the rain started Saturday night. The thunder and lightning lasted 4 hours! Thankfully, Robert slept through most of it. We got 6 inches of rain. At 5 am I found more than 3 inches of that rain in our tent. I had forgotten to close the bottom zipper on the door. (I'm smart that way.) Ugh. We were dry because we were on a blow-up mattress, but just about everything else was soaked. I decided then and there we were headed home. So we packed up and left. My rain poncho split down the front while loading the car, so I got soaked and filthy. It was so good to get home and be warm and dry again.

I found out this weekend that somebody is using my personal information (name, address, phone number) to create and forge checks. Not on our account, thank goodness, but I am getting the bounced check notifications and am having to deal with that. Identity theft is no fun, let me tell you.

We will be having more than 25 people at our house on Thanksgiving Day. I think it's going to be a great day, but I'm beginning to be stressed about cleaning my house and things like that. I'm trying to concentrate on thankfulness, and not on impressing everyone with my spotless home. :)

I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday!

Rhonda

Don't Forget to Make Your Nominations!

2007-11-15T21:09:00.000-06:00

The deadline for nominations at Homeschool Blog Awards is Saturday, November 17th. Don't forget!!

It Must be All Those Weekly Reports

2007-11-15T05:32:00.001-06:00

That's the only reason this makes any sense whatsoever.

(And am I the only person who immediately thinks "Wile E. Coyote - Su-per Ge-nius"?)

HT: The Common Room

Cat Alarm Clock

2007-11-12T12:21:00.000-06:00

I found this very funny. We have two very silent cats. One of them, however, has been known to come meow in my ear very loudly in the early hours of the morning if her food bowl is empty. I'm pretty sure she would take it this far if I didn't get up. LOL

HT: Accidental Blogger

Weekly Report - November 5-9

2007-11-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

Science

We studied sea turtles this week. We learned that the leatherback turtle can get as big as 9 feet long. That just astounds me. For an activity, we drew a life-size model of this mammoth turtle on our driveway. Both of my kids fit inside it! (You may need to click on the picture to see the turtle. I had a hard time getting it to show up in a photo.)

Math

I had gotten behind in grading math papers. I caught up this week and discovered that Ruthie is really having problems with multiplication facts. So, she spent this week correcting math papers and drilling multiplication. She hates drill, so this was not a good math week for her.

Art

We did another project from our fall art pack that I bought. I (again) want to highly recommend this if you're craft challenged like me. She has sold out of fall packs, but is currently working on a winter one that will be available in January. Hmmm... I guess that means I'm on my own for Christmas crafts. Bummer.

Ruthie painted fall trees using warm watercolors. Robert was not interested in this, but he did make the origami dog.

Language Arts

We are not continuing our use of Bravewriter's Arrow. I discovered that it's just too unstructured for me. Grammar and writing do not come to me instinctively. I have to work at making sure my children get enough of this and are learning it correctly. The Arrow is just not enough for me to feel confident in this area.

So, we are back to BJU for writing. I did decide to try CLE for grammar (still trying to simplify this subject). I gave them the placement test and ordered the first couple of light units to try it out. Hopefully those will come this week.

Geography

I wanted to share a new notebook I made. This one is for our U.S. geography study. I had to divide it into separate notebooks because my comb binding machine doesn't allow for more than 60 or so pages in a notebook. (I want to upgrade to a better one before next school year.)

There are dividers for the different sections of states. Each state has a map (Uncle Josh's Outline maps) and a coloring page with state bird and flower (links for those found in this post).

I love our notebooks. They keep everything organized and help tame the paper monster.

Motivation

2007-11-07T15:20:00.001-06:00

The threat of having to clean a toilet is very effective in getting a certain boy to do his math.

Google Notebook

2007-11-06T09:11:00.000-06:00

I recently discovered Google Notebook. I'm still discovering the full functionality of this feature, but I figured out a use that is coming in very handy for me.

I use our online library catalog all the time to check if our library has books and request them. I often need books for our history studies and need them particular weeks. One feature I wish our online library had is an ability to save lists of books I will need to reserve at a future date. I am often misplacing my list of what the library has and then forget to request the book.

Enter Google Notebook! I made a notebook for library books. I copied the URL for the book search result and add it to the notebook. In the comment section of the entry I put the name of the book and the week I will need it. Ta-da!

This makes my life simpler and it's nifty neat-o, too. :)

Homeschool Blog Awards

2007-11-05T05:53:00.001-06:00

I haven't mentioned it here, but I am part of the Homeschool Blog Awards team. I am posting there twice a month and will be assisting with all that's involved in making the whole process run smoothly.

I'm mentioning it now because nominations start TODAY! Make sure you head over there and nominate your favorite homeschool blog. There are a lot of different categories and there will be some great prizes.

Make sure your favorite blog gets the recognition it deserves!

Weekly Report: Oct. 29 - Nov. 2

2007-11-02T18:09:00.000-05:00

We had an unusual week. We spent Monday getting back on schedule, then threw it out the window the rest of the week to work on scouting activities.

Why scouting activities? Well, Robert is at the Webelos level and is working to finish everything up by February. There are quite a lot of things that we are falling behind on, so I decided to take a few days and work on his requirements. Most of them are educational. It was a real hodge-podge of activities, but there was learning going on and it was really a lot of fun!

Ruth also worked on scouting badges. She joined a 5th grade Junior troop this year, even though she is in 4th grade. We are working at home on badges that the older girls earned last year.

Math

This was not a part of badge work, but we did do a lesson every day.

Science

Robert gave an example of producer, composer, and decomposer of a food chain. We got the worksheet from Enchanted Learning.

We did an expirement from our Zoology 2 (ocean creatures) study that involved latex gloves, vaseline, and ice water. Can you guess what this was representing?

Health

Ruth studied food labels for nutrition information.

We studied basic first aid information. We also met with a friend of mine who is an R.N. to go over "hurry cases". This covers badge work for both kids.

Writing

Robert wrote a letter to Lego asking why Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga will not be available on Gamecube. He also wrote an email to a friend.

Ruth wrote an advertisement for a healthy food (drawings also count as art).

Art

Robert used our computer to make 6 different designs. (click on this image to enlarge it and see if you can see what would be my favorite design. :) )

We used our watercolors (finally!) to make a color wheel. Pretty elementary principles of art, but the kids had fun. We did discover we need more practice with watercolors, though. :)

The kids made seals for their ocean boxes. Robert's seals (mother and baby) are going to go inside the box so that his killer whale can chase it. (he's such a boy!) Ruth made a sea lion that will be on top of her box (and out of danger).

This was a great week. We had gotten in a real rut and none of us were enjoying our school days. Frustration levels were high and tempers were short. This was a welcome break. I feel rejuvenated and ready to get back to our regular schedule next week.

The Antithesis of the Weekly Report

2007-10-26T12:50:00.000-05:00

I think I should just list all the things that did NOT get done this week, rather than all the things that did. That list would be longer. Also, you could see all my good intentions, and that should count for something, right? Right?

Yeah, I didn't think so, either.

Please excuse me. I'm working through some things right now. I think I'm finally getting my head on straight, though, so next week should be much, much better.

I hope.

Temptation...

2007-10-24T13:58:00.000-05:00

Thy name is Halloween Candy.

Fall is Here!

2007-10-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

Finally, after weeks of 90 degree weather, we've had a cold front come through. Highs are in the low 70's (yes, that's a cold front here!) and lows are in the 40's. We've actually turned on the heater! It's such a nice, refreshing change.

With cooler weather, I'm back to drinking my morning coffee. I miss it during the warmer weather, but I just can't bring myself to drink a hot drink when it's hot and humid. Blech.

Here's my favorite mug, parked beside the computer, filled with coffee and all sugared and creamed up. Yum! (and yes, I do like quite a bit of cream in my coffee, thank you very much)

Sisters

2007-10-22T05:55:00.000-05:00

This is dedicated to my sister, Liz, who moved to Nashville on Friday. I love you and will miss you!

Busy Days

2007-10-18T22:32:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have a time in your life when you're so busy, you feel like you're meeting yourself coming? I am going through that right now. I feel that I am spending my days treading water, but never really getting my head above it.

Between school, church, orchestra (Griff's and the kids), cub scouts, girl scouts, and oh-yes-let's-not-forget-the-home, I am just about all done in. (Would somebody please remind me why the Arrow of Light is so important?)

I'm not complaining. Life is good. Busy, busy, but good. It does mean, however, that some things are going to have to slide. This blog is one of them. Oh, I'm not really going anywhere. I'll still be posting. But things, like this week's "weekly report", are not always going to happen. (believe me, you're not missing anything this week)

I am going to go to bed now. It's only 10:40. If I try very hard, I may actually get to bed before 11:00. Woo-hoo! :)

BTW, my back is better. I still get the occasional twinge, but it's greatly improved.

Free Mark Kistler Video Drawing Lessons

2007-10-18T08:03:00.000-05:00

We are big Mark Kistler fans here. Ruthie took a week-long class with him this summer and had a blast. She had been wanting to learn how to draw 3-d and he was able to teach that to her. If you ever have the opportunity to send your children to one of his classes, I highly recommend it. He encourages parents to stay for the class, so you will get a free art lesson yourself. :)

The exciting news: Mark Kistler has put some drawing lessons on Youtube. There are 8 minutes long and FREE! He currently has 6 lessons available.

As we all know, Youtube can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a very scary place for children. Mark Kistler put these on Youtube for adults to have easy access to his drawing lessons. He strongly recommends (as do I) that you do not let your children have access to these without 100% parental supervision. So, can you take 8 minutes out of your day to have an art lesson with your child? I think so. :)