We are still here - prepping for school

Or...maybe people have just given up reading this blog...haven't been posting very often.

Life has been busy...for everyone I am sure!

• Still working on curriculum for next year.  I usually have everything planned and ordered long before July.  Well, better late than never.
• I've decided to "design" my own spelling curriculum, at least for this school year for 2-3 of my kids.  Am I crazy?!?!  I think those kids would learn quite well with Sequential Spelling, but I think learning the rules is important too.  I have flashcards from All About Spelling and W.I.S.E. Guide.  I'll need to take some time to figure out how to work those into our daily lessons.  I never took much stock in sequential spelling, until I took a look at it!  It is quite similar to the method I did on my own (very time consuming) after attending a workshop years ago for teaching struggling readers/spellers.  It worked great!  But, as the presenter said...it's not something you want to take the time to do unless your child really needs the extra help.
• I've also decided to do my own thing for Religion this year for all but my high school age son (well, maybe I can pull him in n some things, we'll see).  I want us to attend daily Mass more frequently than once a week!  I may lighten our Religion lesson days to make room for this.  Hopefully we can make it a habit and next year attend Mass and get back to more religion lessons.  I plan to follow the Baltimore Catechism for much of it.  I want the kids to learn the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit, pillars of the church, 12 apostles and something about them - their symbols?, I don;'t just want them to learn those things - I want them to OWN them.  I want to introduce them to spiritual reading, more with the saints, liturgical seasons, parts of the Mass, etc.  Guess I'd better get working!  They have a Mass set and our altar servers can share some info. about what they do.  I'll have a First Communicant again this year so I want to plan some of this around her schedule.  If she's learning about the Mass in the winter then we will too!
• I've also got a new plan in place for helping my kids with their math.  I really think it will work.  I pray it will.  I love math and I want them too as well.  I have a couple kids in paricular with a natural inclination to math but for various reasons they are loosing the interest due to mundane learning.  I think I can liven it up a bit and stay with our current curriculum of Teaching Textbooks for most.  It frees me up to spend some time on the exciting and/or confusing topics without everyone needing my help on that ever day.   For the record - you must know that my all time favorite math curriculum is Righstart Math.  I refuse to part with my entire series - but it's time consuming and kids need my time in learning to read more than they need the best math curriculum.  I still use a lot of the methods I learned with it though - that's something I hope to be able to utilize more of this year.
• We moved a year ago and our old house had a white board wall that I really miss.  We are fortunate to have a lot of natural lighting (windows!) in the room we do most of our homeschooling.  But, I want somewhere to write our English From the Roots Up words - somewhere they can add derivatives! Somewhere to stand up and give fun lessons and leave it there to soak in over a few days.  So, we are working on a bit of a reorganization in that room!
• I'm also trying to prayerfully decide where to spend time on extracurriculars.  With homeschooling grades 9,8,5,3,2 plus a 4.5 yr old, baby, and a first yr college student coming and going I need to guard my time really really well.  But, I see a few needs that are best met with outside involvement. 

Summer School Journals

This summer I am having the kids keep a journal.  I should say journal rather loosely because I really don't care what they write about - I just want them to write.  My13 yr old asked if she could write a story - not exactly a journal - but that's fine.  We've been a bit inconsistent but are finally getting into a rhythm (probably didn't help that this normally very scheduled momma didn't make a summer school schedule...until now :) )

This is what we are doing:

1. Kids journal T, W, TH, F
1. Length is determined loosely by grade/age.  By the end of summer everyone will be writing at least a paragraph.  Older kids are already doing that.
2. Corrections
1. They get to choose which entry I will correct.  I don't want them holding back on length because they know they will be required to rewrite one.  I don't care if they choose the shortest.  It's all about punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, etc.
2. They hand their books in to me to peruse/correct over the weekend.  I will make note of spelling errors to be addressed on a separate list.
3. On Monday they rewrite the chosen entry with all the corrections.
3. Most of the kids include pictures.  I enjoy looking at them.  I love seeing what is important to them.  I've seen drawings of our new (used) lawn tractor, chickens, and Menards!

We're also working on reading and math....but that's a different story.

Birthday Week

3 of our kids have birthdays within 5 days of each other.

Happy 9th Birthday Wyatt!

Happy 11th Birthday Henry!

Happy 13th Birthday Terese!

Celebrating our 20th Wedding Anniversary

Celebrating our 20th anniversary today.

The kids and I went to Mass  where my 2 oldest boys serve every W morning.  The younger of the 2 mentioned to the visiting priest that is was his parents's 20th anniversary and gave him our names (with a little suggestion from his dad).  So, we were mentioned in the petitions (which I didn't hear because I was out in the hallway with the baby - dh was at work) and again at the end of Mass apparently the priest was looking for me and someone pointed out I was in the hallway, again, with the baby.  That's OK  - he still gave the blessing and I still felt it :)

Dinner with the kids...then watching our old wedding video.  Really nice evening :)

Storm alert and map skills

We have a weather radio.  This time of year it goes off quite frequently simply because it's summer and also because we have it set up to notify us of alerts for neighboring counties.  This works great for me because I know the neighboring counties and approximate distances.

When our weather radio goes off a couple kids run to the kitchen to listen and then stare at me until I tell them whether or not it is something that could affect us (they know our county - but that doesn't always help). 

So, problem solved. I printed a state map off the internet complete with all the counties.  I then printed a county map complete with all the cities. 

These are now hanging near our weather radio.  When the alarm sounds they run and try to locate where the storm is and which way it's heading.  They've also learned that storms typically head northeast where we live.  I think it's given them some consolation that we don't need to panic everytime it goes off.  I also think it's giving them the tools they need to see if it is something that may be affecting later the same hour/day.

Hehe...I also plan to work on county recognition/memorization...a secret motive....

The graduate and the rest of us

Our oldest daughter recently graduated high school from our home school. We now have a new normal. Now her life consists of: 1. Writing many thank you notes (party was Sunday). 2. Applying for ANY job at a vet clinic, kennel, etc. 3. Continuing with her part time nanny job for a great family. 4. Filling out all kinds of college paperwork. For the rest of us...we took a couple weeks off of school. This will be the first year we have REALLY summer schooled...as in...yeah..we'll go to the zoo tomorrow if you get tomorrow's work done today kind of summer school. We were thrown for a few loops this year - in the past we've managed to get done in May or June - not this year. That's OK. We are mainly working on math, reading, and journaling. It will consistent but not all consuming. We moved last fall and this is also the first year I am determined to look at the calendar at least a week ahead of time and see when my kids could invite someone over. I still hold to my "we will have one day a week with no company and I will not drive anyone anywhere rule"...for my sanity and that of my younger kids. I don't think one day a week is too much to ask. And...they are welcome to catch a ride with someone else (guessing my oldest might be getting a few requests) to a friend's house. It's interesting raising introverts and extroverts...we all have a mix don't we? Some kids that wake up and ask, "Where are we going today? Who are we going to see today?" and other kids wake up and ask, "Can't we just stay home".

Little kids: Big books

The kids were soooo excited when Daddy brought these home.  This is what I found at bedtime.

This reminds me of something that happened years ago when my oldest was about 6.  We were at the public library when she pulled a very large book off the shelf and looked at....and looked at it....and looked at it. I gave her some space and stood there watching, being VERY prideful.  Ha!  All you other moms of 6 years olds...look what MY daughter is reading.   TWENTY minutes later she asked if we could check it out.  Only then did I discover that the entire book was in German, it just had really interesting pictures.