Cana
Ever get that feeling that something has got to give? I'm there. About a month into the school year and I'm not sure we'll make it with our sanity intact.
Of course, both kids are homeschooled, so that requires planning, teaching, grading etc. Lots of time. both kids added athletics; golf and football. My hubby is the football coach. Both are Monday through Thursday with Football games on Saturday. There is also Girl Scouts for Callie and myself (a leader, not to my daughter's troop and SU Manager). Callie attends the local Middle School for two art classes and violin, this is Monday through Friday for 6 hours daily. And to top it off, we've started attending church 60 miles away. All this means the next day of doing nothing is very far away.
What is truly amazing is we are pulling it all off with only one vehicle.
Cana
My son had 41 spelling words last week.
I teach my kids spelling and grammar rules, but we do things in a way that feels natural to us. Reading is core to our literature based education, so I have no concerns about them not having a diverse vocabulary. As I review their work, any misspelled words are added to a list. This list becomes next weeks spelling list. If I see them struggling with a specific rule, I will add words that will help them understand it. I use
Spelling City to create lists and worksheets for them to work on that week.
Theoretically, they could have no spelling, but this has yet to happen. Usually they hover around 10 to 20 words, but my son had a epic week. Most were errors because he didn't want to take the time to look up the word, but 41 is a lot of spelling words!
Cana
Books are the core of not only my children's education, but my own continued education. I'm currently reading
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and
How to Rule the World From Your Couch by Laura Day. Brent is reading
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl and
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling. Callie is reading
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare and numerous other books.
Cana
This is my first time participating in the Homeschool Hop. I love seeing all the different blogs out there. There is such a wonderful community of homeschoolers.
For those of you stopping by, our homeschool is quite eclectic. We use a thematic approach, it has been the only thing to keep my kids interested. I homeschool a 4th and 8th grader. This is our 3rd year of homeschooling.
Welcome!
Cana
I'm looking forward to a normal week. If there is such a thing. While this week wasn't a bad week, it wasn't normal either. Callie was sick two days last week and really struggled getting the extra work done on top of her regular weekly assignments. This was due to planning problems. By Wednesday we sat down to go over her schedule and plan out her remaining assignments.
Our cats seem determined to undermine the kids attempts at learning. The big gray one, Delilah, swats at the pencils when they try to write.
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Cana
This pictures pretty much sums up our week. Brent has been tired enough to take some afternoon naps. Both kids got sick by the end of the week. I think they just took on too much and got a little run down.
The 6-week binder system is working smoothly. After 3 years of experimenting, I think this might be it. Having said that I take the risk that next week we'll have a meltdown. The binders have all the assignments for the entire 6 week unit, organized by weeks. Instead of carrying around 6 weeks worth of work, the kids have small binders that just have that weeks' work and any incomplete work from previous weeks. I grade a week after they are done completing it. I no longer have to wait until they are done with their binders since they move completed weeks into the big binder when they are done. I am also currently working on the next 6-week binder. We begin the next unit on September 27th. Brent will be studying inventions and Callie will be studying Ancient India. I've ordered most the books I will be needing and am setting up assignments for each week. Much less stressful than planning for tomorrow (or today) with the kids waiting.
Cana
I can't believe we are nearing then end of August. This month has flown by and we're all exhausted. It just now feels like the schedule is starting to work, though I must say I wasn't kidding about being exhausted. Brent has started taking power naps in the afternoons and the rest of us want to. We are almost half way into the second week of homeschool plus electives at public school. Of course this only applies to Callie, however, we are all feeling the impact of this on our day.
Callie is really enjoying her classes. She loves her two art teachers. One is a drawing class and one is an arts and crafts class. She is also enjoying her Violin class. Today was the first time she picked up her instrument. Exciting. The Library period has turned out to be a blessing. Plenty of time for quiet school work and a room full of books for her to use for 70 minutes. The only disappointment so far is that her lunch is during the 7th grade lunch and not with her 8th grade classmates. She has joined the student council, plans on joining a few clubs and is thinking about going out for golf. As if she didn't have enough going on already. She is volunteering at the Animal Shelter and is doing Girl Scouts. I'm tired thinking about it.
For his part, Brent has been quite happy with the new schedule. He says it's quiet with Callie gone. He is getting his work done much faster than before. I don't think Callie was noisy alone.
Our schedule looks like this:
5:30am - Callie's alarm goes off
6:30am - Brent gets up
7:00am - Breakfast
8:00am - Brent starts school, Callie heads to RMMS for Creative Art/Painting, Crafts, & Violin.
Noon - Lunch for Brent
2:00pm - Callie is done at RMMS and the kids take a 30 min break
2:30pm - chores
3:30pm - School for both
4:30pm - Brent is done for the day. Callie takes a break
5:30pm - Football for Brent until 7:00pm, if no Girl Scouts- homework for Callie until 7pm
7:30pm - Dinner
8:30pm - Bedtime
Saturdays are when Callie does her volunteering at the shelter. We'll see how clubs and golf fit in.
Cana
I knew eventually that with Brent studying insects they would eventually need to come into my home. Thanks to a friend, our first guest is a centipede (I think). He used our dissecting microscope to get a good look. Very interesting.
Cana
Week 1 was tough to get through after having so much time off. I don't know how teachers do it! We have a little unfinished work from last week, but that is why we started early. The hardest challenge will no doubt be next week, when Callie has to be somewhere everyday by 8am.
I completely see the reasons behind year-round school. It wasn't just one thing that slowed us down this last week, it was everything. Handwriting is rough, time-management skills are poor, heads are a little slow. I had intended to maintain a small amount of daily writing, reading and math; I wish I had.
I'm sure we'll get up to speed.
Cana
This week I'm putting together the kids' binders for the first period. Callie is focusing on the
Ancient Middle East and Brent is all about
Insects. Our main resource is the Thematic Units from
Teacher Created. They were both downloaded as ebooks, so I can print just what I need.
We are saving money and looking out for the environment by using binders from last year. They don't have a lot of life left in them, when I do replace them I am looking at getting away from the vinyl.
The Naked Binder makes some very nice ones as does
Earth Binder. Earth Binder is especially great because you can replace the shell only and keep the metal rings as long as they last. The disadvantage, they are sold in packs of 10. We are using about 8 right now, so maybe 10 isn't too many. I have 2 binders, one for yearly records and one for the current period. The kids have 3 each. One for the current period, one for the upcoming one (this allows me to get it ready ahead of time) and an annual portfolio binder. The annual portfolio binder is where transcripts, attendance and samples of their best work is kept.
I'm organizing the period binders by weeks, normally this would be a 6 week period, but we are going to ease into it for the first one. We will be doing it in 8 weeks. Both kids thought this was a good idea. It's hard to start up when you've had so much time off. This should allow the kids to get back into the swing of things. The weekly organization helps the kids see clearly what needs to be done each week. In addition, both kids will be using planners this year to help organize their time.
Cana
I feel a little silly. Trying to save money and get the cheapest edition of
James and the Giant Peach that Barnes and Noble offers I accidentally ordered
James and the Giant Peach: A Play. I then had to order the
book too, lessoned learned. Other than that, everything for school came promptly and I'm getting a little excited for school to start. Next Friday our home school group is having a Curriculum Show and Tell. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else is doing. I'll have to bring my laptop though, I have two ebooks to share.
Cana
It's about a month before school starts here. I have been chatting with the kids trying to determine how we want to approach this year. The kids and I agree that we've had the most success with thematic units. Callie especially seems drawn to this and has expressed learning more about ancient cultures. After much looking and decision making the kids have picked their 6 subjects for the year.
We are dividing the school year into 6 six week periods. Each period will be focused on one subject.
Callie is doing a survey of ancient cultures: Middle East, India, Egypt, Rome, Greece, China, Japan and a unit combining Mayans, Incas and Aztecs. She is also doing Oceanography.
Brent is doing Insects, Inventions, Flight, Amphibians and Reptiles, Money, Spiders, Baseball, Chocolate and Oceans.
We've ordered some of the supplies for the first 6 week period and have scheduled an Insect fieldtrip. We are also busy updating the website. The first day of school will be here soon!
Cana
This morning both kids made online posters using
Glogster for History. Callie did one on the Magna Carta and Brent did one on
Lief Erickson. A couple things to note if you try this free service. First, save frequently. It doesn't save automatically, as Callie discovered today when she lost over an hours worth of work. Second, don't hit the backspace button on the keyboard unless you are in a text field. That is how Callie lost all that work. Third, there is no spell/grammar check so we found it easier to type in a word processor and copy and paste. I like the technology and the savings on wall space, but sometimes the features became more important than the information in the poster. A simple syllabus with the required content can help kids stay on track. Overall, a really nice site.
Cana
Well, it's that time of year. Curriculum time. At least it is for me. I'm looking back and planning for the future. I have been contacting companies about educational discounts and I keep running into a problem, they want me to have an official name for our school. Their accountants prefer it if it doesn't have homeschool in the name. So we decided to name our school and reap the benefits. We got some ideas from
A to Z Home's Cool. We narrowed it down to two and we are now officially, drum roll,
The Ocotillo Academy. Bring on the discounts!
We've also decided to make our private homeschool site public. This is the one the kids use regularly. I had made a small public one with links, but got so many requests to see the real one, that I gave in. I made a few changes to get it ready and there is a lot more information there now for fellow homeschoolers.
Cana
I know the eruption didn't happen yesterday, but we weren't able to get to it until today. We followed the lesson plan from the
Learning section of the NY Times. We read several articles from all over the world and discussed all the different types of impact the eruption had. We mapped out the areas impacted in the articles that we read on a world map. I would have loved to do the push pins, but we don't have a cork board.
Some are just dots, where the impact was felt locally, others are connected. We used a color code system to view the types of connections. Travel is economic, but we felt it should be separated due to the level of impact.
Cana
Brent and Callie will be making Glogs this week for History on castles. I did a sample one in about 5 minutes to show them all the things they can do. Glogs are digital posters. You can add images, texts, video and sounds. I added a Gregorian chant to mine. I love that you can hear coughing. This is scaled down to about 1/2 of the actual size.
Cana
This morning I woke deciding that the kids aren't getting enough physical activity. I hated PE in school and I want my kids to have that memory too. So after JT left for work I told the kids to put something athletic on. Callie came out in a sporty cute outfit. I told her that wasn't exactly what I meant. Driving to the track it started to rain, I was undeterred. Then it started to hail.
Callie, "Is that Hail?"
Me, "No, that would be crazy."
Brent, "It's Hail!"
We went anyway. Callie was able to run and glare the whole time. Truly amazing. Brent was able to run and grin. It was fantastic.
Labels:
PE
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Cana
JT has been gone this week and our schedule has gotten a little off. Especially Tuesday night. I had a late meeting and the kids and I didn't get to be until after midnight. Brent was happy he went to bed in the morning. Stuff like this doesn't happen often. So of course my plan was to let them sleep in, despite what would happen to our schedule the next day. I got up first and headed outside with a cup of coffee to let the Nuggets work on the grass that has been springing up in our back yard.
Slowly the kids joined me; Callie first and then Brent.
It was lovely. It is mornings like this that I feel so blessed to homeschool my kids. What could have been a hectic morning, full of rushing and tired kids, turned out to be the best morning of the week. Not only that, but everything that was needing our attention that day got it, just a little bit later. Plus, we saw beauty in an unexpected place, our own backyard.
Carabella
For Girl Scouts we went to EYH. One of the workshops I got was on Biological Anthropology. It was so great that the other day I got myself two college text books on anthropology. Anthropology is the study of Humanity. It has four categories, Biological, Archeological, Cultural, and Linguistic. I'm so interested that I think that's what I want to be when I grow up. We're having a project fair in four weeks and my project is going to be on anthropology. I don't know exactly what it's going to be about yet but It's going to be more on the biological and Archeological side. Wish me luck!
A chimp skull and a human skull
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Cana
We watched this movie as a follow-up to the Omnivore's Dilemma that we just finished. It was very good and interesting. It was helpful, especially to my youngest, to see it rather than just hear it. If you rent this, there are a few tough parts, but overall it is very easy, and interesting, to watch.
Brent added a Walmart documentary to his queue on Netflix. All I'm thinking is I have to shop there, it's one of the only places in town. Darn informed kids, lol.
Cana
Yesterday the guys spent some more time outside removing things from the yard. Three cacti came out and a large agave was trimmed. The gravel area will eventually hold the raised garden beds. We have a definite timetable, the seedlings are already growing inside!
Brent looks scarred, but I think that is just because he just witnessed me pulling cactus spines out of his Dad's leg. He's just concerned.
It looks so open after the removal of the cacti. On the far left was a lilac bush that was taken out last Wednesday. Callie was a little bummed, but we will be planting lots of cutting flowers.
Cana
This weekend we sat down and discussed our Language Arts program. Right now, it is the subject that feels like it is just not working. Both kids are finding the lessons a little boring and abstract. Starting this week we are going to relate most of the Writing/LA assignments on our History. Research Projects will have a greater writing requirement to help. We all think this is a great idea.
Cana
Our school schedule experiment is over, that was a rough two weeks. Now that the kids have more to do in some subjects than others, they find the time constraints of a schedule confining. They also are now frustrated to stop working on something and move to something else just because the class period is over. I couldn't be more happy to rid myself of that demanding, artificial schedule.
We had fallen behind Monday and Tuesday, a little on Wednesday too, and spent the rest of the week catching up. It is often tempting as a homeschool to just do it later. If there had been an event that caused our falling behind, that is what would happen. Part of the advantage of being able to deal with the surprises in life. In fact, we were sick most of January and just added a week on to the end of the school year rather that stress about catching up. This week however, it was just a lack of focus on the kids part. Monday, all the lessons happened, but no assignments were finished at all and actual daydreaming was seen. Both kids have claimed the new class periods helped keep them focused. I guess that effect has worn off. Maybe I should increase snacks.
Today, we have park day. Considering the week, we can all use the break. The kids will spend the rest of the day completing the weeks' work. I'm glad they will have no work over the weekend, they need a break before next week. I will spend the weekend grading and planning, but that's OK.
Cana
It seems just as I get used to something, change is needed. We've switched our schedule this week to a conventional schedule with class periods. All I need is a bell system. The results have been immediate. The kids' school work has improved and both have expressed that they prefer this; it keeps the day more interesting. They are getting a lot more done.
I however do not prefer this. It has been awhile since I have felt so confined and tied to a clock. Our periods are 40 min long, with a 5 min break in between, 1 hour lunch and 30 min break in the afternoon. The kids get a 5 min warning before the end of a class time. I am directly involved in 7 out of the 8 classes. I guess that is my planning period. I can't leave the house unless I can do it in under 30 min. And that is only during one class period a day. Gone is the luxury of hitting Cruces on a work day to run errands and avoid the crowds.
The previous way was doing lessons and assigning most of the work on Mon & Tues. Then the kids would work independently and I would have free time on Wed & Thur. Friday would be our Homeschool group, library and testing. But the truth was the kids had a hard time staying motivated and would forget work they needed to complete. My optimistic hope is that they just need a refocus and then we can go to something a little more flexible.
Cana
I love to read and I want to pass on that love to my kids. Reading is so important to us that our daughter (7th grade) reads 2 hours a day and our son (3rd grade) reads 1 hour. These are the minimums for our school. Reading time is split between a personal choice book at their reading level and a classic at their reading level.
I was walking past the Pit and caught a glimpse of Brent in there reading. Too funny. He loves doing his school work in there too. He has a desk in his room and a huge table in the dining room, but he likes to squeeze into the pit and work in there.
Cana
Callie's turn to complete her experiment. She also enjoyed the process and was able to determine the nature of her unknowns. I think it is hilarious they were both wearing wrestling sweatshirts. Maybe I should incorporate a school uniform!
Cana
We went to Spring Canyon on New Year's Eve, so I'm late adding these pictures up. Unfortunately, we spent the first few weeks of the year sick. It was off and on, but it seemed just as we were getting better we would sick again. Yuck. We all seem healthy now and the Nyquil has finally wore off!
Both the kids wanted to go further, but we really don't have the gear they need, so we didn't venture too far from the main park. Despite this they still had quite a good time.
Spring Canyon is always beautiful. I love how in some of the pictures it looks warm, believe me, it was quite cold! I love that New Mexico Sun! It was quite windy as well.
The kids went much farther than we did, I'm not sure when they would have stopped on their own, but a trip to the winery lured them off the mountain.
They raced back to the car, Callie tripped him and won, Brent jumped that rock right behind him in the picture, I was pleasantly surprised when he didn't end up on his face.
Cana
Vacations seem to end just as they really get going, however part of me is happy to slip back into a normal routine. We have just completed our first week back. It took about a week and a half. We started some of the assignments early because I know the kids would have a slow start after so much time off. We needed the little jump start, since the kids are just now finishing up. Monday was rough, but over all the week was a success. Now, if we can just fit a week of work into an actual week.