I know it's September 30th, and it hasn't even been 4 full weeks since we started school, but....

the kids have already had a 'light' week, or two.

 

I went back to the east coast the 19th - 25th.  I left full, easy-to-read schedules for the kids and McGyver.  The younger two had a light history schedule, but full other than that.  Guitar Boy had a pretty full schedule.

McGyver had a full schedule too, and didn't get on the kids to check their work.

I had a massive case of jet lag when I returned, so ....

light week!

We topped off our week with a back-to-school breakfast with our new homeschool group, the Henderson Christian Homeschoolers!

It was fun to see new and 'old' faces alike.

 

 

Tomorrow we start week #5, and it's a full week. I hope.

Missions Boy (son #2, who graduated in May 2012 and is currently preparing to head to Cambodia on a missions trip) will be home the morning of the 4th till he leaves for Cambodia on the 9th. I am being hopeful that we can enjoy our time with him AND complete our schoolwork!

 

I am really enjoying our history program - Truth Quest History.

The Guides are just that, a guide, or outline, of events and people from the time periods we are studying. There is a commentary on a particular subject, then followed by lists of books/movies about that subject. Some of the books are resource - like Story of the World, Sweet Land of Liberty, Greenleaf ... some are biographies, some fiction.  I can choose what to stop and spend some indepth time on and what to skip over.

 

Guitar Boy is studying The Age of Revolution I.

Chicklet and Survivor Boy are doing Renaissance and Reformation.

The author definitely promotes a Christian world view... her thesis always that history is His Story.... God initiates, man responds.... how events in history are always a result of man's belief in God.  Has society decided to follow God and include Him in society or turn away from Him?

 

The 2 boys are enjoying Latin.  Poor Chicklet's Japanese program isn't working. It's Rosetta Stone 2, and we can't get it working. I will try one more thing with it to see if we can get hit going. She is very disappointed that it isn't working ;(

 

Other than that,,,, all is well!

 

How is your school year coming?

 

 



There's a place here, in the desert, that offers Homeschoolers Ice Skating once a month.

2 Hrs, $5, includes skates and hot chocolate.

Guitar Boy has been skating, once before.  He had no trouble getting on the ice.

 

Chicket and Survivor Boy, well....  they did pretty good for their first time.

 

I didn't skate.  McGyver was out of town and would have been upset if I called him and told him I broke my ankle while ice skating!

 

Next month, I'm skating.

I did enjoy the nice cold arena though!





 

 

 

Here we are at the Da Vinci exhibit last week.

More than half of the exhibit focused on his inventions.

 

Happy campers!  No wonder Mona Lisa is smirking. 

2 Down, 50 To Go!

Well, the first two weeks of our homeschool year are complete!

 

Did I mention my panic attack after our first day of school? 

 

Ok, so it was a minor attack. Nonetheless, it was a panic attack.

 

I realized several things...

 

- It was going to take me about 8 hrs to homeschool all three kids at the rate we were going.

8 hrs a day, 5 days a week. GULP!

 

- Guitar's science program wasn't going to work... the Solutions & Test Manual is no longer in print. The only one I've found is on Amazon, and the seller literally has a price tag of $599.00.  I emailed him to see if that was a typo... never heard back.

 

- I didn't have a science program for Chicklet. Nope, not a one.

 

- I can't find the 2nd year of Winston Grammar. GULP!

 

- Our Japanese program (Rosetta Stone) is an older version and we can't get it going.

 

- I was going to have to do spelling, writing, poetry, dictation/copy, grammar, and reading with  3 different people. At 3 different levels. GULP!

 

- The cool Latin program looked way more difficult than I thought it would be.

 

Sigh.

 

It took us 2 hrs to get through just Bible, math, and maybe reading?

 

Breathe.... I needed to breathe.

 

So I did. I bounced some ideas around.... went searching through boxes of curriculum I have hiding.  I found the Lifepac L. Arts 7th grade I had purchased at a used curriculum fair.  It seems to cover spelling, writing, poetry, grammar, and some reading. 

Sold.

 

Ordered a set for my 8th and my 11th grader.

 

Chicket seems to be doing well with the Lifepac L.Arts, so I purchased the Science for her too.

 

Pheeeew... I am breathing.

 

I ordered the schedule for the Latin program.  The book breaks the Latin down into units, into weekly assignments.  I scheduled their first week over 2 of our weeks, just to give us some 'breathing' room.

We got through their first week's schedule in one of our weeks.

 

Breathing a little easier now.

 

I ordered Guitar's Science on a cd. It's the full curriculum, just for the computer. We are awaiting it's arrival.  It has the Solutions & Tests on it as well.

 

Big, deep breath. Aaaahhh.

 

***********************************

 

We joined a new homeschool group this year...

 

next post will be from some of our gatherings.

 

 



It's almost that time...

to start some school around here!

Woot! Woot! 

I think, lol. 

I was finally able to get the The Little Blue House in August for 10 days, preceded by a 4 day trip to Beaver, Utah with some of the kids & friends for the County Fair.  Chicklet and I just got home last Wednesday, and am struggling to find the discipline to get my rear in gear, as far as school is concerned.

Guitar and Survivor have been doing math for 2 weeks, basically.

Chicklet has done some, but not so much as her brothers. 

I am excited to start TruthQuest. 

I sat down one day, before our trip, and made out a broad schedule for school. 

I listed the first 3 or 4 topics from each era (Ren/Ref and Age of Rev) and then wrote down books we are going to read while studying each topic. I ordered some of the other resources for Chicklet and Survivor, such as the Binder Builders and Notebook Pages. We'll see how they enjoy using them. My kids might be a little too old for that, maybe not.

The younger two are doing Math-U-See and Guitar is doing Teaching Textbooks Algebra II. 

I might check out Khan Academy for online drilling. 

We will start Winston Grammar review, and do the intermediate book this year. I think we'll spread it out one lesson for 2 weeks. It's simple, but I am just doing it to reinforce what we did last year, they came so far I don't want them to lose the ground we gained. 

Guitar will be doing lots of reading for Language Arts. I will have him do written and oral narration on his history and books. We are going to spend some time on vocabulary as we will be taking the SATS and ACTs this year. 

Guitar and Survivor will be doing Latin as well. I purchased Latin, the First Year by Henle. I am excited about how it works. I will be spreading the First Year over 2 years though. That's the plan. That can always change, lol.

Well, that's all the blogging for today. I need to get the books out and get organized for Tuesday! 

July 19, 2012!

Summer is half-way over!

We haven't done much... or I haven't done much.  The kids have been off to camp, working, traveling overseas, leaving me.  I don't like that last one.

I have spent some time looking at curriculum, planning our next year, praying over these things.

Guitar Man is coming home for school again.

He will be starting his junior year.

Yikes, homeschooling a highschooler, that idea is a little intimidating. 

I have been tempted to use a boxed curriculum for him, like

Bob Jones or Christian Libery Press.  I know he'd be okay with those, and would get the work finished.  I want more than that for him, though.

I want him to be challenged, to think outside the box, to study history with a Christian world view, to read living books, to search for what he is passionate about and persue that passion.

Two years ago we used AmblesideOnline for our spine curriculum. We really enjoyed the books and scope/sequence.  Last year, we used Sonlight as that spine. We used  some of the books from AO as well.

We didn't enjoy Sonlight enough to fork out the money for it again.

While perusing the AO sight, the scope & sequence for my 11th grader, I came across a reference to

www.truthquest.com. 

TruthQuest embraces the Charlotte Mason method, using living books.  What I read truly excited me. The author of TQ, Michelle Miller, views history as this...

God initiates, man responds, history happens.

She says History is His story...

The scope and sequence is similar to AO, and can be used together. What I like about TQ, compared to AO, is that TQ has somewhat of an outline to go by.  The Guides come with a Table of Contents, each chapter (if u call it that) consists of a commentary.  Along with the commentary is a list of suggested readings, resources and fiction.  We choose what we want to read from there.

I like that it has the outline to go by. I can read whatever commentaries I want, I don't have to read them all if I don't want to. But at least I know what and who I can read about, in that time frame we are studying, without having to do that research myself. 

The Guides are inexpensive as well, another bonus!

The younger 2 are doing TQ Renaissance to Reformation.

I think Guitar Man will do the Age of Revolution I, II, and III.

We inherited a pastor's personal library a few years ago, and there are some amazing history books in there, some from the 1800's.  Before 'those who know better' started changing history.

  

I am ashamed of myself for not keeping this blog up-to-date. We've had a busy year, and are still schooling here in the desert.

Chicklet and Survivor literally just finished their grammar final (Winston Grammar). 

I am ready to call it quits, myself.

I told the kids they have to finish reading Story of the World - Middle Ages and spend three 30 minute increments on www.ixl.com, working on math.

They are also going to read some biographies I have upstairs, that I can't bear to give up. They haven't read them yet, so I am going to make them read them before I pack them up.

Just 'cause I can and I am the MOM in charge here, lol!

Anyway... now what?

Guitar boy will be coming home for 11th grade this year. Missions boy graduated, and we really can't swing the tuition this year.  That's ok, because I really missed him when he was at school.

So... dynamics always changing.

I think Survivor and Chicklet are going to do TruthQuest for our history, geography, and language arts this year.  I stumled upon it and was soooo energized, excited, and impressed by the curriculum. It's a lot like Ambleside Online (www.amblesideonline.com) but has a twist. The Guide Books have commentaries, that give an overview. The TQ side of history explains how God initiates and man acts... how historical events and cultures are a direct result of man's opinions and beliefs of God.

TQ actually uses or recommends several of the same books that AO has as well.  And we loved all those books!

I will probably use it for Guitar boy as well.  I haven't really decided on that one though. I am going to go ahead and order what I need for the younger two. Can't wait to get my hands on it all.

The younger two will still be doing Math-U-See, The Write Institute, and also Story of the World Vol. Three w/ our TQ.  I picked up Rosetta Stone Japanese at a curriculum swap.  We will be doing keyboarding as well.  I believe they will have their own little lap tops this year, but we will be disconnecting the wi-fi on it.

I might also do a unit study on the electoral process. Good timing for that one.

So anyway... that's what we are up to. What about you?

Blessings!



Gilcrease Orchard

October 3, 2011

Our V&B Homeschool Group went for a little field trip to Gilcrease Orchard in the northwest part of the desert.

Acres and acres of pumpkins, veggies, apple orchards, etc, growing right here in the desert.  It was fun!

We've been here 10+ yrs now, and this is our first trip to G.O.



Catching Up...

Catching up...

it's the story of my life!

We started our Sonlight program on Sept. 6th.

We are enjoying the program, mostly.  I haven't had the funds to get some of the books, so we are adjusting the curriculum to that fact.

I do like the history, so do the kids. They like the readers and read-a-louds. We are doing Winston Grammar, simple yet complete.  We are doing Math-U-See, and we like it overall. We are just doing a lot of review on math, making sure we master math and not just keep going on. We are almost done with our first book! I think we'll get through at least 2 more levels this year.

The kids are doing a lot of writing with Sonlight as well. I like their L. Arts program, overall. We are doing dictation on Mondays, and writing every other day. Sometimes, I have them copy poems to get some handwriting practice.

My overall review of Sonlight - it's important to have all the books, otherwise it's difficult to follow.  I'm still waiting for some of our science books to come in.

I'll admit, I am missing Ambleside a little bit. We'll see... but we are doing this Sonlight till we're done!

We went on a field trip last Tuesday with our group to Gilcrease Orchard. We picked veggies and walked in the rain and thunder! It was a beautiful day in the desert.

I have no idea who this little girl is... she wasn't with our group. But I loved her hat!

New Curriculum

Well...

Last summer I was up & down about our curriculum. Drove me nuts. I'm sure I drove everyone nuts. We did http://www.amblesideonline.com/ and really enjoyed the history. The one thing I didn't like too much was the booklist... what the kids were supposed to read along with our history. The books they had listed didn't correlate to the same time period as what we were studying. 

I was planning on staying with AO... and decided to look at a recent Sonlight Catalog to look at their book lists. I love their booklists!  You can download (for free) a 3 week Sample of their History, L. Arts, and Science programs, for any or all levels.  So I did!

Their booklist is in time sync with their history timeline. (Both AO and SL study world history this year, but AO doesn't start at Creation, as I'd like).

I love how their L.A. program (writing, dictation, narration, vocabulary) focus around their readers and read-alouds, as well as the history books.

While reading reviews of SL, I noticed moms saying that SL was a little weak on Grammar.  Looking through their L. Arts guide, ah, they might be a little. But I can fix that!

So... I chose to do Core G - World History 1.  Next year we follow up with WH2.  I was able to buy the Instructor's Guide for History/Geography, L. Arts, and Science (a & P) on Ebay and am piecing the books together. Some I have, some I am purchasing, some I will borrow (hopefully).

I was going through the IGs tonight and am getting excited about starting school. Of course, we need to finish school. UGH!

Summer Vacation

Summer Vacation....

Has lasted a lot longer than I intended!

We will start back on Monday July 18th.  We are not 'starting' our next year, we will be finishing the past's years assignments!  hunk #4 has to finish math & spelling, and Chicket has to finish spelling & work on grammar.  We'll take @ 2 weeks, tops, to finish up, then take a break for a few more weeks.  But we just gotta finish what we started, right?

We are going to be doing Sonlight this year, Core G... World History 1.  I am pretty excited for it... Hunk #4 has found my books and is already reading them. I need to hide them!



May 2011

I am preparing for our Homeschool 'Promotion Ceremony' tonight at church. This is the first year we have participated in this gathering.  I have been busy printing off certificates for my 2 kiddos at home -

grade advancement for both (and yes,a bit prematurely be/c we are nowhere near done w/ the schoolyear!).  Chicklet is receiving a Reading Award as she has totally taken off in her reading the last few months! I am soooo grateful she is now enjoying reading!

Hunk#4 is receiving a Writing Award.  This is one of the items he has penned within the last year. (or so).

Nature, nature, everywhere

Little bunnies, little hares

The sun shines straight down on

Sweet nature everywhere.

At night, nature sleepeth

The little owl whoo’s

The tiny bug creepeth

Everything’s still.

At first light, the world awakens

To the happy songs of life.

The Birds fly,

The river runs,

The deer loves to play.

When the sky turns grey

The deer cease their cheerful play.

The leaves fall.

As the sky darkens, the world becomes

Quiet once more.

The fall of the rain ends this cheery poem,

A day I shall never forget.

Richard Davis 2010

Round 4 - Sewing in the Desert!

Miss E. has her binding on, and needs to finish that and she will be done!

The back of Miss E's

Miss V.'s quilt!  She is in the process of making her binding!

The back of Miss V's quilt!

Miss I's quilt!  She has been gone for a while.  We sandwiched her quilt today and she started quilting it!

Chicklet's quilt!  She finished quilting it and is now working on her binding.

This is me.  Going to bed.  I am utterly exhausted!

March 15, Sewing Day, Round 2

Round 2 = borders for our quilt tops!

The girls had sooo much fun making these quilts!  Miss V even bought more fabric and made a 2nd quilt (w/ lite greens & browns).

 

I’m so excited they are excited about quilting.

We meet in 2 weeks to sandwich the quilts. Then they get to start quilting!

 

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Sewing Day 3-8-11

 

Today was a fun day in the Vine & Branch Sewing Group!  We tackled our first big quilt! 4 girls, lots of strips of fabric, and loads of fun.  The quilt pattern we made is called the 1600 Quilt.  You take @ 40 strips of fabric, 2 1/2” x WOF (width of fabric), sew the strips end to end, till you have one long strip measuring 1600”.  That’s a strip that measures over 133 FEET! Wow!  Sew & flip, sew & flip, and there you go! We’re waiting to receive a picture of the fourth finished quilt!  Next week, we’ll add borders and sandwich. I’ll show them how to quilt it and send them home. The week after, we’ll bind.  I dislike binding, but that’s ok!

 

 

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Museum of Natural History

 

The Vine & Branch Homeschool Group from CCGV went to the Museum of Natural History this morning.  We had a great time! There were about 6 or 7 families represented – not a full turn out but fun, nonetheless!

We were pleased to have a guide that never mentioned evolution or that the earth was millions of years old.  Or that I was a million years old, lol!

 

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Birds of a feather...

We started Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day a few weeks ago and we are all enjoying it a lot!

This past week, the kids made bird-feeders out of juice bottles.  We hung them up late yesterday afternoon and saw that we had some visitors this morning! What pleasant company!



Issues....

So sorry for not writing in ages!  Life has happened, but we're back! 

We had a great Christmas break with all the kids home!  It was hard to start back to school on January 3rd but we did it! Yeah me... !

Tonight I am writing about a website called

http://www.spellingcity.com/

 I love it!

I've known about it for at least a year, even looked through it a few times.  I was speaking to a dear friend I look up to for homeschooling advice - she knows who she is - and she recommended it to me for help w/ Chicklet.

Well, we have had so much fun on there!  It is a free sight, but you can pay $25 for additional uses.  Here's how it works...

you type in a list of words, and then click on test, teach, games, etc. There are several games they can play to build their skills, but it also teaches them the definitions and reinforces those too.

Hunk #4 and Chicklet are using Apples Spelling and Apples Phonics respectively this year.  I love these books.  Each section covers a rule for 8 days or so. The first day, the whole rule is printed on the top of the page. Each consecutive day, part of the rule is missing and the student needs to write it in. There are exercises on words that fit the rules.  I typed in and saved several lists for each of these rules that they have covered.  I can even print the spelling words off in cursive for them to practice. Heck, you can print it off showing the word in sign language! 

 They can even work on writing skills... having to type or write a sentence for each spelling word OR using all the spelling words in a paragraph. When they are finished, it is sent to me, the teacher, for grading!  These kiddos get to work on it after lunchtime.  So far, they really enjoy it, and so do I.

Thanks Miss Rosie!

Sewing Day in the desert

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We had only one Mom/Daughter team show up for Sewing Class this last week. We truly missed our other girls, but had a LOT OF FUN anyway!

The girls made a set of pillowcases for their beds.  They did a great job, I am so proud of them!  I even made one for my body pillow!  You know, the one that supports my poor hips, destroyed by stretching chicklet ‘ in utero’.  But I digress…………….

Great Old Book

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McGuyver was going through his boxes of books the other day, trying to organize his new bookshelves.  He came across this gem, called  The First Mortgage.  It was published over 100 yrs ago.  It is basically one very long poem, ranging from Creation to Revelation!

And it’s really cool!

I started reading it to the kids and they were hooked!  I read about 7 pages yesterday and 5 today.  We’ll read a little everyday for school.

 

 

 

Where oh where am I????

Wow - looks like I have been AWOL on this blog!

We're in week six of AmblesideOnline.com

and really enjoying it. 

I was so indecisive about which curriculum to use, always second-guessing myself.  I love Lorraine Curry's book - Easy Homeschool Techniques, and had decided to do that for school. But it wasn't laid out clear enough for me (silly I know) and then found http://www.amblesideonline.com/.  I really liked what I saw. 

Then, I  found Accelerated Achievement, or A Squared, and really liked that too!  All 3 of these are somewhat similar, basing themselves on the Charlotte Mason method of schooling.  Some based themselves on her method more than others. 

I really hated going back & forth with my decisions.  I didn't want to do just workbooks, I wanted the kids to enjoy school.  I kept praying about what to do, which curriculum to do, etc.

God answered my prayers.  He told me to put away all my different 'how to homeschool' books! So I did, and decided on Amblesideonline.com!  I felt the weight of the world go off my shoulders!

We do approximately 70% of what they have listed each week - some of the books I choose not to use. And that's ok!

We do our Saxon Math, Apples Daily Phonics/Spelling (depends on the kid), A Beka Language (they are suffering in grammar so I threw these workbooks back in our program), and Latina Christiana.  Somedays, when we get everything done, we have schooled for 4+ hours!  Solid straight hours!

I don't know if I posted that Hunk #3 started attending Calvary Chapel Green Valley Christian Academy for 9th grade.  Hunk #2 started there this year for his junior year.  I can't imagine trying to do AmblesideOnline.com with Hunk #3 as well, along w/ Hunk #4 & Chicklet.  It's even more intensive.  I find myself spending more time with these 2, for school, than I have in the past 3 + years that we've been homeschooling.  And that's a good thing.  I enjoy it more, so do they.

One of the books we read from, from the AO website, is called Triumph & Trial: Stories from Church History by Richard Hannula.  This is online and you can access it for free!  That's one of the really cool things about AmbleSideonline.com - they have links to most of the reading books online, so you don't have to buy all of them.  I have chosen to buy a few, and have been pleased with my purchases.  I will try to blog on some of those in the next week or 2!

http://books.google.com/books?id=QEcLSqCYi18C&lpg=PP1&dq=trial%20and%20triumph%20by%20richard%20hannula&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false