I am truly loving this application. One of the many challenges of homeschool, is that I'm not always available when the kids are ready to go over an assignment. With this valuable tool, there's a way to fix this. I love it for editing papers and working out problems.

Sounds so official, guess I could call them - What I Did All Day Logs. The kids fill them out with the details of what they did and when. Why is this necessary? Well, despite being home most of the day and working with them regularly, they are experts at looking busy and I have a lot to do. It's difficult when you find out late in the day that they haven't actually done much. We've simply had too many days in the past where they've just not done enough to count it as a day. This record keeps them accountable.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.   

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.

We just began a study focusing on Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, Young Readers Edition.  I have read a few of his other books, including the "adult" version of this book.  This version seems to have all the humor and general information, minus the technical details.  Whether you agree with his views or not, he is a wonderful writer.  Both kids were a little hesitant today, but there was plenty of interest and laughs once I got started.  Corn can be funny.

This week has had one surprise after another.  As well planned as our schedule was, it was no match for the challenges that came up this week.  Life happens, and in the middle of homeschool a lot of life happens.  I remind myself that not only are my kids getting an excellent education, they are learning to deal calmly with the chaos that life sends their way.  I'm still learning this little lesson myself.

As much as I am in love with the planner on this website, and I still highly recommend it, I am no longer using it. I was hoping this year to create my own science curriculum, but found it just too much for right now. I purchased a new program from Real Science for Kids, and have redirected the money I was spending for the planner. The planner is only $9.95 a month, but in a year it will cost more than the science curriculum I purchased. Oh well. I am happy with my binder and I'm enjoying all the free time I have since I am not planning as much for science. Brent is doing Pre-Level 1 Chemistry and Callie is doing Level 1 Chemistry. We will be adding History of Chemistry and Biographies of Chemists to our study.

Yesterday marked the end of our reading The Princess Bride. When we first began we didn't realize we were reading "The Good Parts Version". That is up to debate. The editor (for lack of a better word) removed chunks of the original authors writing that he felt unnecessary to the story. In one case actually removing an entire chapter. Callie was especially indignant about the editing, feeling that each reader should be able to decide for themselves what is necessary. She plans on reading the unedited version on her own. The most frustrating part, the ending was removed. Kind of a let down when you come to the end of reading a book.

It has been 5 weeks now that we have been using the organizer/planner from Simply Charlotte Mason. I love it. Our trial period is now over, but the planner has become an indispensable part of our school. I gladly pay the low $9.95 subscription fee a month to continue using it. I plan on purchasing it by the year soon, it has a lower rate then.