Wordless Wednesday

My husband is in tax accounting; I never knew he had a tacks shelter.

I've heard of homeschool days like today

Yesterday we had a nice Mother's Day.  We ate dinner very late and I did not make the kids clean up the house before going to bed.  AND...I did NOT jump in and do it myself (it was mother's day...) 




This morning we woke up to a mess...there was stuff everywhere. But, I decided we would NOT start school late to clean it up and each child could handle cleaning up their own zone after school.  


It was very humbling/embarrassing when the city inspector came to do the door...to inspect the INSIDE of our house.  This is what he walked into during our school hours (and this is what he didn't know). But, maybe he didn't notice the kids; he was probably too busy navigating his way through the house.

10 yr old on the computer playing a game

 (it was his spelling list on spelling city)

14 yr old on the computer writing a letter to a friend

 (it was an assignment for Greek History on Pericles' Funeral Oration)

9 yr old cleaning her room

(she was using her time wisely while waiting for help since she'd finished all her solo work)

6 yr old cutting paper on the couch

(he and I were working on math when the doorbell rang, the assignment had to do with the shapes he was cutting out)

12 yr old cleaning the bsmt

(he, too, was using his time wisely while waiting for me)

16 yr old cleaning his room

(he was cleaning all the schoolbooks off his desk that he is no longer using)

2 yr old glued to my hip

I don't know what bothered me most:  the fact that the house was a mess, the kids didn't "look" like they were doing schoolwork, or that my immaculate kitchen counters weren't noticed because he had to watch where his feet were stepping as he walked through that room.

Wordless Wednesday

Grammar Grading made easy

 Automatic Diagramming




A few weeks ago I made some changes to the elementary kids' schoolwork after looking at someone's The Logic of English book.  I was close to jumping ship and switching since it seems to combine
subjects so nicely; then I slowed down and realized I could combine the programs we already use.




They were thrilled when I told them we would be combining spelling, grammar, and handwriting.  My 4th and 6th graders know cursive but don't use it unless I force them to.


They still have their spelling lessons with All About Spelling (and spellingcity.com for review every day) but instead of me dictating sentences to them at the end of each section I am allowing them to copy them.




I have them write sentences (the number = to the grade level they are in) 3 times per week.  If they do them in cursive they can skip their handwriting.   (I've discovered this is much better anyway because it's harder to "translate" from print to cursive than it is to copy).




I also set aside their Winston Grammar workbooks books (which I do love) and have them mark these sentences with the parts of speech learned thus far.  (I use the teacher's manual to move forward and teach them something new each week.)




This is working wonderfully; it's fewer books for them to pull out and finish yet another page, and it's fewer things for me to correct.  However, the one major problem with this is that grammar  is NOT my strong suit. I am one of those mom's who really does need the answer key (or I ask one of my older kids...thankfully they have learned their grammar despite their mother's faults ;) )




Then I remembered that someone I knew posted the above link to our homeschool group awhile ago.  Excellent!!!