A Homeschoolers MEA

[When Terese found out I was taking some time to reassess some thing and take a breather she suggested that homeschool moms should always take a break on MEA...Seems that's about the usual time to need that first break.  She also pointed out that we should get together with other homeschool moms at this time....and that would help the kids too. Wise girl  :)  ]

I's that time of year again, I should just schedule this in to our school year.  Time to take a little break.  We've lived with our schedule for 7-8 weeks now and we need to make some changes.  Quick modifications are easy to make.  But when you have a lot of quick modifications, as well as some not so quick ones....I find it's better to step back, take a break and a breath, then proceed. 

It's often best NOT to forge ahead and continually fix the glitches...sometimes it's best to stop and pray about/analyze the glitches you already have and the ones that you can now forsee with your new knowledge (very timely...don't you think?  Do you think anyone in politics reads my blog?  Nope, I highly doubt it).

Back to school:

I'm finding that my high school kids need more help with math than I planned for.  They are in co-op classes to save me some time.  But since I am able to do the math, and have been called on for help nearly every day, this may or may not be the best route for us.

I'm also finding that I need to keep up on the readings with my highschoolers.   (Last year was American History.....something I am much more familiar with).  Greek History is not something I am all that familiar with (my oldest took a guided online class).  That means reading about 50 pages per week....or better yet for me....listening to it.  I might just see if I can squeak a Kindle in the budget so I could do either at any time (dropping a math class would pay for that!)  My other option is enlisting the help of my oldest since it's a time period she loves and is very familiar with.  But, for numerous reasons that might NOT be the best option.

My 6th grader will be starting Saxon math next week.  I really do have a love/hate relationship with Saxon.  But, I think it will be a good fit for this particular child.  But that will require some time on my part, at least at first.

We need to find a better time of day for Spelling - right now it's just before recess.  I thought that would be great, they can rotate through with me and do their afternoon chores when they aren't working on their spelling and then all head outside for recess.  That worked until our youngest decided that's the time of day she needs mommy the most.  All About Spelling appears to be doing wonders!   But it takes time.  And for many reasons I know that using this and taking the time is the best route for us to go.

I need to do a better job enlisting the help of TA's on a regular basis.  There is no reason that my other kids can't sit down with my K and help him with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (though I would still want to teach him his lesson at least once a week to make sure he is learning it well and doesn't need to slow down or add some review).  I keep reminding my kids that if I am not available, usually any older sibling who is available could answer their question.  (See the post below about our long division solution).  But reminding takes time, I need to work that into their plan, maybe set two kids next to each other to work on math and instruct the younger one to ask the older one for help if needed.

Our 3rd grader is working on strengthening very poor vision in one eye.  We need to dilate her good eye every other day to make it blurry and force the other eye to work.  We've had to shift her reading lesson to first thing before I get those drops in.

Our toddler needs some planned activities.  She is no longer content to play quietly near us (no....I didn't expect that to last!)  Rotating toys has helped...but she likes different things to do and different people to play with.  She has already picked out 14 year old Terese to color with.  She goes to Terese's room, climbs on her bed next to the desk, and colors pictures while Terese reads her Biology or whatever else she is doing out loud to her.  She goes to 16 year old Nathan for music.   I have a list of  Activities for Little Ones and plan to have someone scheduled to play with her and use some of these ideas when I am not playing with her.

Also, if I schedule someone to play with her - things will be less chaotic...No more yelling, "I need a break!  I'll play with Abigail!"

I also need time when I am NOT available to help with schoolwork. When I can just sit down and play or talk.  I need time to visit my elliptical downstairs on a more regular basis. 

So, next week will be a light week.  Maybe some enjoyable classes as well as some basics that I want to make a few changes to.

Righstart Division

	1		5		9
3	) 4	1	7	2	7

I was trying to teach long division to Wyatt.  He usually catches on to math concepts quite quickly....but long division has been stumping him for some reason. His oldest brother (who also catches on to math quickly) suggested he skip long division and do it the Rightstart Math way. He showed him and guess what?! Wyatt caught on almost immediately! Seems long division made no sense to him because he had to perform so many steps to get something that was already in his head anyway.

So, Wyatt will stick with this method for now.  Nathan ALWAYS does division problems this way and only ran into difficulties with polynomial division...he had to learn long division first.  He did.  But he told me tonight that when his Algebra II teacher asked if everyone knew long division he was the only one in the class who didn't raise his hand (*gasp*  please tell me he didn't let her think he doesn't know how to do division problems!!!  Thankfully she was puzzled since he gets A's in math, and after talking about it with him she's decided he is doing long division but most of the work is in his head).

Homeschooling: Week 1

Strangest event:  2 kids brought me apples, 1 brought me a zucchini :)

Most life changing event:  2nd child now has his driver's license.

Sweetest event:  The elementary kids continued to work on their history long after I had called it a day.  A big thank you to Amy who lent us her History Pockets:  Ancient Greece book. 

Most inspiring event:  16 year has driven to Mass every day since getting his license, and he brings his 14 year old sister too (who rarely misses an opportunity if presented).

Most unexpected event:  On the very first day of school, my recess loving 4th grader got to recess 15 minutes late (it's only 30 minutes) because he was staying inside with me getting help on his math.  And he didn't complain one bit and was really very pleasant/fun to work with.

Most challenging event:  Our normally quite independent high-schoolers were completely thrown on the first and second day of school this year.  Brand new lesson plans, completely different from the old ones.  (Tell me again, Mom, what am I supposed to do?) They were frustrated and confused.  I thought our introductions to these plans over the past 2 weeks would have taken care of that.  It hadn't.  But by day 3 they were both on track.

Our oldest and youngest contribute in their own way.  I am very thankful that the kids are being accommodating/flexible schooling with an active 21 month old :)  And, everyone loves it when our oldest walks in their door (2nd year college commuter) and takes time to talk with them for a few minutes before heading to her room to study.

So far, so good.

Happy Birthday

to our second oldest child (oldest son).

He turned 16 years old today.  In 1997, Sept. 1 was Labor Day!

...and....I will always remember what year both Mother Teresa and Princess Diana died.

High School Schedules DONE!

A shot of W-F for Quarter 2 of Greek Lit.  For an explanation of why this is even here....see the previous post.

	Quiz 4	Discuss 4
	Paper 4, Quiz 5	Discuss 5
	Thanksgiving Break
	Study Sheet 6, Quiz 6	Discuss 6
	Outline 7, Quiz 7	Discuss 7

Part of my color coded high school schedule

I've been at it all week (first mistake...usually I start this process in June!) and I finally completed my semester 1 schedules for my 9th and 10th graders. It helps a lot that they are in many of the same classes - gotta love St. Thomas Aquinas Academy for that!   (My 9th grader is moving right into "10th" grade Greek Studies with my 10th grader.  She'll continue with him until he graduates and then when she is in 12th grade she will finish with their typically 9th grade American History Studies - the one she is skipping over for now).

I ran across someone making color coded school schedules at Shower of Roses blog.  I saw it an was intrigued.  I knew it wasn't going to work exactly the same way for us, but I loved the idea.  In addition to the color coding (Suz...if you're reading this....I can't help it...I must have your colors too...) I've always color coded our schedules to some degree.  The standard here is:  if it's printed in black it's solo work, anything in red is to be done with me, and items printed in blue are group work.   This year I added something extra...italicized orange for optional extra credit assignments. 

When I saw the color coded schedules online I liked the way it was easy to see, at a glance, what was to come and if they were falling behind in something.  I used to have each week's worth of assignments on 1 page.  But, if they struggled with something and I needed to slow them down, I'd be A) flipping back to old lists or B) continually adjusting their lists or C) make the lists so vague we didn't really have a good feeling for where we were in the subject.   Last spring, many of our 9th grader's classes finished early (co-op classes) and he asked for a complete listing of everything he had left.  Since he had more time available he wanted to double up on things and get done with school early.  It worked well.

So, tomorrow, my high schoolers will be given a packet for 1st quarter and a packet for 2nd quarter, each 4 pages.  They will clearly see where they are heading in their classes (I hope anyway!) and what is expected.  Their Greek Studies classes (Greek History, Greek Lit, Greek Essays, and Old Testament) have their own full lesson plans from STAA and it's simply too much to fit into a schedule like this, so for those classes I simply filled in dates assignments are due.

I'm a little too excited here.  I just might wake them up right now...or not.  I ended up color coding the weeks (rather than the quarters) to tie the them together.  It's easier to glance down and see what is assigned for all the "orange" weeks rather than search for Week 5 or the dates.

8/19-8/23	Gather Materials
8/26-8/30	Become very familiar with the book
9/2-9/6		Read 4-5 w/Mom & Em	Read 146-148 & 18-19  w/Mom & Em	Make FANBOYS card	Make copies of tests to use
9/9-9/13	Do I, c/c, I Test p.149	Rework I, c/c, I section if test not 91% or higher			Retake test if needed
9/16-9/20	Do I Sub I Test p.150	Rework I Sub I section if test not 91% or higher			Retake test if needed
9/23-9/27	Do Sub, I,I Test p.151	Rework Sub I,I  section if test not 91% or higher			Retake test if needed
9/30-10/4	Do I;I Test p. 152	Rework I;I  section if test not 91% or higher			Retake test if needed
10/7-10/11	Study I;c/a,I p. 52 and define c/a on back of FANBOYS card				Do page 53
10/14-10/18					Do page 54

Sibling "assignment"

I just have to share this because I thought it was such a great idea that other people might like to consider doing it themselves.   I had nothing to do with it.  I don't know if my husband thought of this on his own or not....but here you go.

He gathered ALL the children together and handed them each a piece of paper that had all the kids' names on it.   He instructed them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their siblings and write it next to their name.  Spelling didn't matter, he wanted them to do it alone.  (I did write down our 5 year olds answers for him though...word for word...)  They were instructed to not over think this, it shouldn't take long.  The next day he gathered all the papers and typed all the responses up in such a way as to be able to hand each child a list of the nice things said about them...anonymously.   I think it not only helped the child who received the list of all the nice things said about them.  It also helped, when writing the answers, to step back and think of something really nice about each individual sibling.

He plans to do this again; how frequently he plans to do this, I don't know.