Will I ever be ready?

Today in the mail, we got The Ark’s planner, he was not impressed. Too bad……I’m excited, and the Princess Artist wanted to know why she didn’t have a planner? Someone save me. We also got Ace’s grammar book that we had lost from the Ark sometime during the move from the apartment to our house 2 years ago. *it seems like we’ve been here longer than just 2 years 4 months.*

So today I’m going to do some cleaning, maybe send the husband to the pool with the little ones and then I’m hoping to get some rules for the new year down on paper, a chore list and finish planning a few things. I never even started the Peanut’s school stuff. We have only 5 days to our first day of school. I know that on Friday we are having a brief info day to introduce the new year, I like to do that before our first day of school, although I could start off our year with a bit of a slower first day, but that means we might not get done in time to go swimming and if it stays this hot we might want to do that as well. I hate making all these decisions.

I know that I’m going to order the recovery cd’s for the Toshiba and hope that gets it up and running so I can have the Ark do his schoolwork on his computer, leaving the desktop free for Ace, the Princess and the Peanut. I can’t wait to order my macbookpro…..so that I can not have everyone bugging me about using the computer.

Ok, I guess I should close this and get to work. We are having a grad party for Jasmine since she finished her English 4 in summer school and graduated a year early.

I guess I should…..

Start putting my thoughts down for goals for the new school year. Since it starts in just 15 days! I’m almost ready to be back in our routine again. Although I’m not sure the kids are ready. I’m praying that this year will be a great year of learning and growing not only in wisdom and education but also as a family and in the Lord. We always include bible study into our school day and one of my personal goals for my children is to see their faith grow while they are homeschooled.

• Need them to come up with at least 25 goals on the first day of school, working their way to 100. The teacher said that her husband told her years ago that if she didn’t have goals, she couldn’t plan for the future and didn’t really know where she was going. I agree, my mother never helped me to focus on anything, so as a teen I had no hope and had no idea of what to do with my life, which led to some very bad choices on my part. I want my little ones to have a better life and relationship with God than I did.
  
• Getting them into a good schedule so that we can finish most of our work by the time swim team starts next June. I want to take off that whole 6-7 weeks and then start up school again after it is over.
  
• We had a family meeting this morning, I’m not happy with how my children are not seeing beyond their little reality at the moment. We read tons of books about other cultures but they aren’t getting it. So we are going to cut expenses as much as possible and take them on a vacation next May to Chicago to see a bit of how life is different elsewhere. Please pray that the Lord gives us the funds to go.
  
• I need to challenge my boys, they are great sons but they will only do what they have to and are not challenging themselves at the moment. So the teacher said if they won’t challenge themselves then I have to challenge them with their schoolwork and I fully plan to do that. They may hate me for awhile, but later in life will hopefully be grateful.
  
• Part of their new challenges will be just requiring much more writing from them as well as studying. I may have to institute tests for science and possibly history for them. The Ark will have some for Gen. Science but I normally wouldn’t give Ace tests for anything but math, but laziness is not working for me so he might be getting tests as well.
  
• Another thing bothering me is not that we haven’t finished their latin book yet, so that is now back on the list and I want no excuses for why they didn’t get to it.
  
• I know that I need to get an alarm clock for the boys room, so that they can learn to get up without me being the bad guy. Although I am wondering if a bit of staggering of waking up times would be beneficial. I could get one started on a lesson, then get the next started finally adding in the two younger ones.
  

Well the two little one want to watch The Magic School Bus online so I will have to finish this later.

Planning Stages

Well yesterday I printed out tons of stuff, course of study pages for 3 kids for every subject, calendars for july and august, history pages, science pages for the Ark. I also planned out how often we will do each subject and for how long, ie: 1 or two semesters. I also figured out what I still needed to an extent and have started a running list. While I will print out the 3 younger ones planner, I’m leaning towards buying the Ark’s. I want him to be a bit more responsible for his education since he is going into 7th grade. I might plan out his work on my pages but have him right in the stuff that he needs to finish, as I have a very tight schedule for actual teaching time and he will have to learn how to finish work on his own. I am hoping that we have a great year but with so many time restrictions, I’m worried but the Lord has laid it on my heart to continue homeschooling while I’m in college, so I’m praying that if I plan well, and follow our schedule it will help us stay on track.

Houston….we have a plan! I think.

Well, I finally made a decision on our grammar. I showed Noah Easy Grammar Plus and Growing With Grammar. He decided he would rather go back to GWG for 7th grade. We had used it for him in 3rd. grade. So he will use that and I decided since I had it for 3rd grade that Ace could use it as well. I ordered it last night. Yes, I know that Ace will be in 4th grade but since we haven’t done any with him for awhile either it won’t hurt him to do a year behind. Camryn will probably do 1 year of First Lang. Lessons this fall in 2nd grade. I don’t see the point of doing grammar until they are reading decent and her reading is slow to come. I hope to help her improve this summer when I have a bit more time.

On the math front we are staying with MUS this year, the kids are doing well with it especially Ace and that really helps us. The only problem i have with Ace and the Princess is because the pages are black and white they doodle all over them sometimes. But at least they get them done in a timely fashion. With having the video do the teaching part of it, my life is a bit less complicated, I only have to reinforce the concepts on occasion.

History~ That is a joke, my kids thrive on the stuff. We are staying with MOH going to vol. 2 whenever we finish 1. We got behind because of so much illness. I have on order some great history novels for us though. The boys reading will be something of the time frame we study. I like using real books for their reading. I just have to find a way for them to document their reading that they like that I like.

Science~ The Ark will be doing Apologia’s General Science. I bought him the mp3 cd so he can read along with it and I’m hoping that will help him with his dyslexia. Ace and the Princess are going to do Zoo 2~ Swimming Creatures. I wonder if the Ark will be jealous or join in with them? I wish their was a cd of the readings for this book.

Which brings us to Art and Music. We are using Music Ace Gold this year. Here is the review from Rainbow Resource Center:

Maestro Max and his Singing Notes teach you all the piano fundamentals. The small conductor with a tuxedo, bow tie, white hair and gloves, and European accent guides you through each lesson. The first lesson explains the staff. In each lesson the staff and piano keys are pictured, and Max points out the corresponding notes, which light up green when played. On the staff, the Singing Notes open their mouths and sing their notes. Students progress through 24 lessons on sharps, flats, pitch, duration, and several other topics, with Max offering encouragement every step of the way. Corresponding to each lesson is a game for extra fun and practice. A progress chart tracks each individual’s progress through the lessons and games. You can use the lessons and games in any order that you wish. This program would help children that need the extra instruction or extra practice, but do not have access to a piano. They could also coordinate the software with a music book in situations where no teacher is available.

Music Ace 2 picks up where Music Ace 1 leaves off, introducing such concepts as standard notation, rhythm, melody, key signatures, harmony, and intervals. More than 2000 musical examples and a variety of new instruments are incorporated.

Both Music Ace 1 and Music Ace 2 include the Music Doodle Pad, where students compose their own music. It pictures the staff and piano keys. Choose a note (whole, half, quarter, or eighth) and place it on the staff where they want it. Bring out as many notes as you want, then the computer plays the song. The piano keys displayed at the bottom are helpful; students can test a tune on the keyboard before positioning the notes. Misplaced notes can easily be deleted or repositioned. Besides the piano, students can listen to their composition as a flute, marimba, or jazz guitar.

If you want the whole shebang, Music Ace Gold packages Music Ace 1 and Music Ace 2 together.

Art~ the ongoing issue in our house as to how to fit it in. But since we  will eventually get to the Middle Ages next year I think we will just study art in that time frame. We haven’t finished Artistic Pursuits, so I think we are going to work on that and when we finish it move on to the second book for the boys and then The Princess, even though she takes art lessons, she needs to do art, it is like air to her. I would love to get to the 3rd K-2 book, it is about sculpture and painting. But not until 3rd grade I’m guessing.

Because we are adding in grammar this coming year, we are taking out vocab. but adding back in spelling. I like the suggestion the teacher gave us last year with not trying to do it all in one year but focus on parts of lang. arts. So that is what we will do. Let’s see~grammar, spelling, creative writing and reading. Still a bit heavier than I would like but, it will have to do.

After our books come I will have to make a book list of read alouds and readers, using both the new and the old books. Ok, this is all to overwhelming for me at the moment.

Grammar Suggestions?

Ok, I need grammar suggestions for the Ark next year, 7th grade, we have not done a great deal with grammar in the last couple of years because we have focused on his dyslexia so much. But since he will be a short two years away from high school, I would like for him to have grammar down pat by 9th grade.

So give me your favorites and pros and cons of the systems you have used.

Where we are on our goals

The Princess had her first art lesson this past Tuesday, she has 5 more weeks of them. She used chalk pastels and drew a chickadee and a bluejay. She is very happy to be back at art lessons.

I’ve been able to make a schedule and it is helping keep us on track for the most part. I really need more time in my day though.

I’m happy with the Ark and how responsible he is becoming, even Ace is putting forward more effort but not quite where I want him yet.

The boys history binder is looking nice, we are finally getting the hang of MOH. It is a lot of work with the readings, memory cards, mapwork and special projects. We still haven’t had time to start the time line yet though. Soon I hope.

I’m trying to get them to do more notebooking, that is like pulling teeth still but I will persevere!!! I’m stubborn like that.

I’m looking ahead to next year and getting rough ideas of what I want to cover with them. Will write about that later, when the plans are finalized. Soon, I hope since I want to get their books ordered during my spring break in 6 weeks.

Ok, that is all I have to say at the moment, I still have to read a chapter of Tirzah to them. That is our current read aloud.

Two weeks until school starts.

We will be starting our new school year on August 17th. I’m going ot be spending the next two weeks planning and scheduling. I have The Ark’s reference book done but need to do the others, yet. Still trying to decide if I will make their student planners or if I will just go the easy route and buy them. Will be back with the finalized plans in a few days.

Art Plans

So today instead of studying for my history class I got distracted by planning art lessons for The Ark who will be in 6th grade this fall.  I’m very blessed because I know of this really cool blog that has lessons already planned for you. Most of the lessons are for 5th grade and under, but since we haven’t done much art we are doing the 5th grades ones that we like. so here are our plans:

• August~ An Eye for Magritte
• September~ How to draw King Tut
• October~ Positive/Negative Pumpkin
• November~ The Scream Painting
• December~ Tinted Christmas Tree Painting
• January~ Snow Man Drawing
• February~ Paper Chain using Valentine paper
• March~Cut-n-Tear City Scapes Collage
• April~ Marker Drawing of Squires Castle
• May~1point perspective drawing
• June~Handpainted Etchings

We have Abeka’s  Art Projects for third grade and plan to use that for Ace. While the Princess will be taking art lessons with the lady down the street, once a week. While my boys tolerate art, they do not enjoy it enough for me to pay someone for lessons, however my Princess LOVES art. She is forever talking about becoming an art teacher, possibly for the deaf community as she also loves sign language.

We only planned one project a month for The Ark, he will be drawing almost daily for the rest of his art. School starts on August 17!!!! I”m so not ready.

Planning

In spite of the fact that I’m supposed to be taking time off form doing schoolwork with the kids, I’ve been working bit by bit on planning for next year. My head keeps hearing ” fail to plan, plan to fail”. I truly want this year to be a wonderful year for us, even with all the chaos that is our lives right now.

So I’ve started gathering my forms for planning our year. my favorite resource is of course,  Donna Young . From her cd and at times website, I’ve printed off a school calendar, attendance forms, a course of study, a quarter planner and subject pages. Oh yes, I forgot, I printed off monthly calenders for the kids, we write short notes on them for an idea of what we did daily.

I also started printing off things for their history course, I did decide to only do half of MOH this year, thereby easing my workload, guilt and letting us really delve into the ancients. There is so much fun stuff to learn for that time period.

So once I get this moving I will post some photos of it for you to see.

The boys meeting with the Teacher.

So today we met with our favorite teacher to go over our school year with the boys. We have always used her and love her so much, she can’t quit until my kids are grown!!!! I’m not sure I’ve told her that yet though 😉

As always she was impressed with how much we did this year. In spite of all the personal chaos going on in our lives for the last 10 months. My personal opinion of our year is both positive and negative. We truly did do a great deal of work, the boys were exposed to a great deal and a few things did stay with them. On the negative side of things, we were very stressed out, didn’t really enjoy our days, forgot much of what we covered and we didn’t have as much to show for everything we did do. After awhile the boys didn’t want to write or color or document anything of what we read for school. We took field trips but didn’t document them at all.

The teacher~ Diane, suggested we go back to writing one or two words on our daily calendar, we talked about how I’m concerned about the boys decoding abilities and she suggested using sequential spelling so we will be switching to this and see if that helps us. A plus is that both boys can do it at the same time. Another suggestion she had was only focusing on a few things this year until we get to some sort of mastery. Giving us a much needed reprieve from trying to do it all and then suffering from major guilt because we didn’t get it all accomplished. So I have some major thinking to do. We are taking off for the month of July to regroup. I’m hoping to take a trip to visit friends in Va and NC in early Aug. providing we have the funds, giving us a much needed break from the stress here. She also suggested covering something only once a month! I’m thinking that poetry might be that once a month thing.  We are supposed to go back to the Ancients in history using MOH this fall but I’m seriously thinking of covering it over a two year period and really taking the time to delve deeper into it. Plus we have so many great fiction books that go with this time period that it would be a shame not to be able to read them.

She told me in front of the boys that the only thing she really requires on a daily basis is reading!!! Yea!!! Diane!!! So with that in mind, the boys won’t be allowed to not read daily and I can use her as my reason. I know evil mom, but we do what we must. Another suggestion was to go back to requiring the boys to write a bit more. She wants the Ark to write at least 1 paragraph with a topic sentence 3 supporting sentences and a closing sentence. At whatever frequency I decide, while Ace is to start learning that process this upcoming year.

So, my tentative plan is focusing on reading, writing, spelling, math on a daily basis, with a much reduced history and science. One thing I’m not sure I’m ready to let go is the boys Latin studies, I really want them to learn it, so that might be on our daily list. Another item I want is daily drawing, I think the boys like to draw and I want to encourage them in it. My only problem is that they don’t want to have any instruction, just draw. I would like to see their drawing improve.ONe thing I did this year was i had a self evaluation and had the boys look at it, the Ark filled his out and it was interesting to see what he felt he did. I think we will do one at the end of each semester to help evaluate us and hopefully keep us on track. Another thing Diane suggested was to make sure I write down our goals so I don’t forget them and freak out mid year. Which I definitely plan to do.

She loved our lapbooks but suggested that we only do a few minibooks and that the boys be able to pick out the minibooks that they want to do, so that they each are invested in what they are learning and giving them each a different look to their work but still learning about the same subject.

So that is the end of the year evaluation. We have some educational videos that we borrowed, I want the boys to watch and then notebook what they feel is important. So in August when we start again I will have a 6th grader, 3rd grader, 1st. grader and a preschooler.  I need to make up certificates for them.

Check back for the schedule….