Ramblings

Here it is, the middle of May. Somehow we have survived this first year of homeschooling. No, it isn't over yet, but the official school year end is fast approaching.

You don't realize how fast time flies by while you're in the moment.

Time seems to drag on forever. You sit and think, God will this day never end?! You watch the clock hands move like they are slathered in honey, waiting just waiting for bed time so you can have a small about of silence in the house before you go to bed. But your work is not finished just because the little ones are finally asleep. You still have things to do before you can rest your head on your pillow and wander into dream land.

There are fish to feed. One pig and a demon disguised as leopard geckos to feed and water...and *gulp* handle so maybe one day they will stop biting so your son can enjoy his chosen pet. After the leopard geckos you sit in the floor nursing your bitten hand wondering why you endure the pain and torture of having a pet that bites you anytime you stick your hand in the cage and you remember that your son thinks the demon is the best thing in the world. You wash your hands and take your shower, check the computer one last time before heading to the bedroom for some rest.

Once there you realize you forgot something, which is inevitable. You get back up and grab what you have forgotten, in this case looking over that teacher's guide you've been meaning to do for a week now. You sit back down in bed discarding your chosen pleasure book in favor of the school material. Before you know it the clock says it is 3am and you've fallen asleep with the light on. You put the book away and turn off the light praying for sleep to come quickly.

Then another day starts. The boys are thirsty. They're hungry. They're bored. They're fighting. They're actually getting along, which means it is time to go see what forbidden thing they are doing. The house needs cleaning. School needs starting. You sweep while you teach grammar and wrangle your toddlers. The cat is laying in your dirt pile. Perfect, now you have to brush the cat off or he will just track it back through the house. Mop time is always fun. The toddlers are magnetically attracted to a wet floor when they have bare feet. Must be time for science then. Or is it math? No, it is time for boo boo kisses because even after you telling the small ones to stay in their room they have come barreling through the hallway to slip and fall on the wet floor and at least one of them will fall and smack their head on the floor.

My children are used to this routine by now. We've been doing it this way for 7 months. We do school when there isn't something else that needs to be tackled right this minute. Boo boos and ouchies always come first. Dangerous activity has to be halted before spelling can be considered. But somehow we still get everything done in a day...and before the public school bus arrives to drop off its load of students.

It amazes me at how much we are able to accomplish in a day at my house. Yes, we get side tracked, we get busy doing other things, we laugh, we dance, we play, and we learn. Spelling, math, grammar, social studies, and reading...we cover them all everyday somehow. And every now and then we even get to throw in some science, which is always our favorite subject because admit it, science is fun.

Our days aren't ever easy. We struggle every day to be kind to one another, to have patience, to be honest, to work hard, and to do our best in all that we do. We don't always accomplish our goals, but we always seem to get through the day without killing each other. Which in my mind, is a great feat when you take into account my toddlers. If they aren't fighting then something is terribly wrong.

Deacon is still hard at work on multiplication and reviewing subtraction in math. We haven't even touched division yet, but that will come when we are ready. He is working on proper nouns, pronouns, contractions, and the parts of a sentence in grammar. Spelling is more of a refresher course to make sure his handwriting is still improving for now, we will get back into spelling new words in awhile. Social studies is whoever we feel like learning about today, we keep it brief as it isn't as important yet. He's just started reading Carole Marsh Mysteries and he seems to be enjoying them. I want him to develop a love for reading so I don't want to push him too hard. Science is when we get to blow things up or see how they work. We love science.

Calen will be starting Head Start this year. I am not ready to homeschool another child just yet. Dallin may get to start Head Start as well if there is room for him. They take 4 year olds before considering 3 year olds. They will both be taking speech therapy from now until they no longer need it. Calen may also be taking OT for his fine motor skills, but I am unsure as to the score of his evaluation at this time. Calen is really excited about going to school. It is what he has been looking forward to for a few years now and was his main goal and reward in potty training. Dallin wants to go to school, but hasn't decided he wants to use the potty yet. He will hide in the hallway when he needs to go instead of using his really cute and expensive potty seat he picked out. This thing even sings...time will tell if he is ready or not.

As for me, I'm here. I'm surviving some days and thriving on others. I take it day by day. I wonder if I'm doing the right thing while at the same time convinced I must be doing something right. My children may fight and bicker, they may rebel on occasion, but overall they are well behaved, intelligent kids. Deacon is learning. He may not be on par with what he would be doing in public school, but at least I know he knows the information instead of being forced to move on without a full grasp on the topic.

I must admit, if it weren't for my Swappie friends I would have given up long ago. Do I get full support from family in regards to my homeschooling my child? No. I don't. Does my family mean well? Yes. I think they do. I have learned that in regards to my children, only what my husband and I think is best really matters. The advice and support I've received from The Swap forum is one of my most used and best loved tools during each day. So to my Swappies, I thank you.

Things changing

Well, things have been pretty steady lately. Still concentrating mainly on math and grammar. He can just about knock out multiplication without thinking about it, which is the goal. I really don't know what to post anymore now that this whole homeschooling thing doesn't seem as difficult or confusing to me. I will have to think of a way to use this blog now that things have settled down.

New Curriculum

After pouring over the Internet and many a homeschool forum I've decided what to do for next year....for the most part.

For math (which is really the only bundle curriculum that I am planning to get) Daniel and I think Math-U-See is perfect. He has struggled all year with Horizons Math. I have watched all of the video demos on the website. I think Deacon will like it and learn from it. Downfall is to get all of the manipulatives and the books it is $230 plus tax and shipping. He would be doing Gamma. This is a 100% going to get it for next year.

For science I plan to spend the year doing science experiments that Deacon will love and learn from. I also want to get him a real microscope (which he asked for at Christmas but we couldn't find) with an internal light. The ones with a mirror are just plain hard to see. I priced them online at around $120 plus tax and shipping.

For reading, literature, grammar, etc we are going to just get books he likes to read for pleasure like the Junie B. books and work out of those. I am considering getting Easy Grammar as well. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

For history I have heard from a lot of people that Story of the World is a great set...but man it's expensive! I found it on Amazon...going to try to see if I can't find it cheaper.

For foreign language we're going to get Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish. It's also pricey, but I have heard so many good things about it as well. They also have a payment plan on their website for the homeschool edition, which is a great perk. Studies also show that learning a language at a young age is better than trying to learn it later in life. Deacon wants to learn Spanish, so that's why we're going to do Spanish.

We're also going to enroll him in guitar lessons at the local Strings N' Things. They aren't expensive and I think he'll love it. (I'd rather him learn piano, but I don't think he'd agree.)

If he still wants to, he will take Hip Hop dance class again next year. We will also be looking in to another Cub Scout Pack if he still shows interest.

Spelling and penmanship will not be done with a curriculum. We have not enjoyed the current curriculum we have been using. It has a lot of busy work and just skims over other important areas. So we end up spending more time using supplements than we do using the textbook. The idea behind it is great, but the way it carries it out is lacking. I have spent the last month looking for and researching curriculum and I hope that this is the right choice for Deacon. I have taken into consideration how Deacon likes to learn and play in all of it. This next year will be focusing on having fun while learning and loving to learn.

This year we are also going to start informally homeschooling Calen, who I am proud to say is pretty darn potty-trained now. I am hoping to teach Calen how to read this year, as well as counting, colors, shapes, etc. He knows a lot of his colors and some numbers, but not much past that. I'm also curious if that "Your Baby Can Read" thing really works like they say it does. I think I will wait until I find someone who I know has used it with success.

That's everything that I can think of to update you for now. Hope you're enjoying your Friday!

What's new

Yeah, I stink at coming up with subjects. Anyways, We've been doing things a lot more casually lately. We haven't even opened up the textbook in weeks. Instead we've been doing things our way which I really like because it means I am getting more comfortable with homeschooling and learning what works best for us. Deacon does a definition and sentence, spelling practice, journal and penmanship, math, and reading(which implements history and geography) everyday. We play games on some days, either memory games or other educational games, or something on the XBOX 360 like Lego Indiana Jones or Band Hero. He also likes to do his own thing, like hole himself up in his room with his TV and DS, but I guess that isn't too surprising considering we didn't have cable for a good two years. His brothers get on his nerves and I know he wants to yell "Get out of my room!", but he doesn't. He's usually a pretty patient brother. Since things aren't as hectic and we've gotten into a good routine I can't think of anything else to say and updates may come less often. See you next time!

Catching up

Let's see. A lot has been accomplished since I last posted. This year we have revolved around Christopher Columbus, Squanto, the Pilgrims, and now we're on Daniel Boone. Deacon is really interested in Daniel Boone. We've been working on multiplication for the past several months, but it has been slow going. I haven't found the right way to explain it to him so that he understands, but we'll get find a way. He's learned (and mostly forgotten) all of the sign language I can teach him and be certain I am teaching him properly. We plan to start Spanish this summer using Rosetta Stone Home School edition.

I know I am being scatter-brained with this post, but it is a lot to try to condense. Deacon continues to keep a journal every weekday. Each day has a different topic to write about. They vary from what we're learning about, to his family, his pets, to poems about nonsense. He has a reader and a read aloud book everyday, which for this unit he is reading both of them himself because otherwise he can't seem to remember what I just read when I ask him the discussion questions. He has trouble paying attention and staying on task, but he had the same problem when he was in public school so I am not worried about it since I can keep him on task and work with him one on one. He writes a definition everyday and a sentence about the definition from the Children's Dictionary. He also is supposed to try to use that word when he can during the day he learns it. The definitions are short and he likes learning about most of the stuff. We've stopped doing copywork, as it is just busywork and he gets his penmanship practice through his journal, spelling, and definitions. We work on punctuation while reading everyday, which he still has trouble with. I'm trying to show him the importance of reading like you speak to others...with stops, starts, and pauses. He tries to make it a continuous sentence, but he is getting better at catching it himself and correcting it before I have to correct him. He is also doing a lot of things this unit with the Original Boy Scout Handbook of 1911. We've made and played memory games already and will begin semaphore (flag code) and Morse code later this unit. Most of the things he does are around the same things they do in public school, just without the time restrictions and dress code, haha.

I have a lot of things planned for this summer that we have been unable to get done through the year, like visiting Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth, Massachusetts. Also visiting and hiking a small part of the Appalachian Trail, visiting Cherokee, finding and seeing a honey bee farm and learning about how honey is made, and much more that requires some travel. I also have a few books and videos that I'd like for us to find and use this summer to expand on what he has learned about through the year. The thing I love about this curriculum is that is works through history. It starts with Columbus and the discovering of the New World all the way to more recent events as he goes through 5th grade. In 5th grade he will be learning about WWII and I am praying my grandfather is still alive and well to tell him all about it first hand when he is mature enough to understand and appreciate it.

In other news, Deacon has become very interested in music and instruments thanks in part to (I believe) the video games out like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. he loves to sing, but gets upset because he can't hit the notes properly. I keep telling him it just takes practice and a good listening ear to hear the notes they are hitting, but I am unsure if I am giving him proper advice. I don't remember having to "try" to sing on key, but he is struggling with it no matter how I tell him it doesn't even really matter if he can sing on key, just as long as he enjoys singing. I may try to find him a voice instructor if he continues to have this self consciousness. Daniel had voiced that he wanted to learn to play the guitar several months ago so I went and got him a fairly cheap (as far as guitars go) guitar to learn on. Of course he hasn't picked it up again since the first day that he wasn't able to make his fingers form the G cord...but I still have hope that he will learn. When I was younger my Dad got me a very nice guitar and I was interested in learning...until it hurt. I may try to learn again, but that is besides the point. The local music store offers lessons for $15 for a half hour session. I may try to sign Deacon up for guitar lessons if he continues to show interest.

Sometimes I feel like a bad Homeschool Mom because we aren't able to expand on what we cover like most others do. We don't take field trips or do all of the fun things that I read about. It is pretty much like regular public school in our living room on our schedule. It is frustrating to me to not be able to expand on the things he is most interested in so I write it down and hope to be able to do some of it over the summer months when it is warmer and when (hopefully) Calen is potty trained and Dallin isn't such a "I'm the center of the universe and I control all outings with my fit pitching" attitude. We struggle to go out to eat as a family, I'm not certain I am ready to take Mr. Paci to a Bee farm or all the way to Massachusetts. It's a scary thought to be honest.

Things Deacon would more than likely want you to know that don't have anything to do with learning...He has a new haircut. It's a very bright, cherry red Mohawk. It started out as me picking on him saying "Yeah, I think Deacon wants a bright blue Mohawk." And obviously it sounded good to him. Daniel says we should die it white and the buzzed part black and call him Pepe Le' Potter. Deacon, however, is not amused by this. He has a new pet. She is a leopard gecko named Jasmine. She eats crickets and crickets are nasty, nasty things. I'd rather be in a swimming pool with a water moccasin as opposed to having to mess with those crickets, but it doesn't seem I have a choice in the matter. He is taking a dance class, Hip Hop dance to be exact, and me being the forgetful mother that I am forgot that is was Monday on Monday so he missed it this week. We are no longer in Scouts due to reasons I'd rather not post on the Internet, but we'll say had a lot to do with me and nothing to do with him. We are considering joining Pack 77 in Dandridge this coming year. Daniel works with a guy who is a member of that Pack and he says it is a good one. Hopefully he's right. We'll see.

I don't think there is really anything else that I can think of to update you on right now. I know this has been a horribly long and poorly laid out post and I apologize. I'm trying to get it done before waking Daniel up for dinner then XBOX time with Deacon. I REALLY hope he doesn't choose a music game tonight. I miss the days of Lego Indiana Jones that didn't require talent to make you feel like a winner. *sigh* Goodnight, all.

Back online

I am sorry for not updating this. I have been without
Internet access. I will update as soon as I have time to do so. Thanks!

This week

Let's see. We're at the end of one section of unit one, so we're doing a lot of review right now. Things have been a bit busy here at home this week, so haven't had time to even write in my journal each night. Deacon is doing wonderful! He knows around 40 signs in ASL, we are getting into multiplication and he's learning his 3's right now, he did his very first report today about King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain...I had to help him put it in paragraph format, but he made notes and we went off of those to write the report. I'm proud of him! He's doing really well in keyboarding, I stepped out of the room today to see if he would cheat and look at the keyboard...sure enough he did. So he will be doing today's lesson over again tomorrow. He is still doing well with the listen and obey chart. He has missed two days on it since we started using it, so not bad really. The biggest challenge we are having to overcome is concentration. He gets side tracked and distracted easily, but all he needs is a reminder to get back on task. Some days are better than others in that respect.

Scouts is about to start back up and Deacon is excited about that. He will get to see all of his friends more often than he has been over the summer. His other friend from school, Amelia, is home schooled and has been since last year. Hoping we can get with her and her mom some this year for field trips. We're still taking it just a day at a time, with the philosophy of try to survive it, then learn to thrive from it. I'll try to scan in is journal entries and his report for you guys soon. I'm low on ink right now. I think that's about it for now. Until next time!

Update

I haven't posted in a few days. Things have been so busy and by the time the kids are in the bed, I'm ready to sleep myself.

We are still working on the Columbus Unit. In math we are doing money and place values as well as addition and subtraction. The listen and obey chart is still working wonders. We've been working on his handwriting and it is getting much better. He is up to the whole home row, r, u, t, y, i, and e on keyboarding. In ASL we both have a vocabulary of about 50 words now and I'm still waiting to hear back from KCD about the ASL courses. He got a perfect 100 on his spelling test on Wednesday and is doing well on his vocabulary. I will try to scan in his journal entries tonight and put them on here. Deacon's friend Alex is coming over to spend the night tonight, so we will see if I have time to do that. I know this has been a short entry today, but time is short and we have to go to Bush's for our HRA this morning. Fun, fun, fun. I'll try to update it better next posting.

Day 4 and 5 - August 11th and 12th

I didn't write a journal entry on the 11th, so I am combining the two today.

Yesterday and today were much better with the new listen and obey chart. I didn't have to remind Deacon to stay on task at all either day, which made me extremely happy. Yesterday we finished Unit 1 part 3 of the Columbus based curriculum. We didn't work on the text book today. Today we did math, a spelling test, keyboarding, art, sign language review, language review, music, and journal. I love the use of a journal for Deacon. It helps with sentence structure, penmanship, memory, abstract thinking, and so much more. Today's math was telling time on an analog clock and placement values. Art was coloring a picture of Christopher Columbus' ship and the country of Italy. I was impressed with how well he did on both. He still bears down too hard with the crayon, but he says it is because he likes it to be bright and he likes the way it feels when he colors like that. We worked on coloring in one pattern instead of all zig-zagged. He remembered all of the signs we have learned so far, and I contacted the Knoxville Center of the Deaf about ASL courses for the both of us. They offer an 8 week course in September and another in March. They meet once a week from 6 to 8pm in South Knoxville. I think it would be a good idea to try to attend the classes. They can teach him ASL much better than I ever could. I'm also looking forward to starting Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish in the spring. Now is the perfect time for him to learn multiple languages. The Rosetta Stone Spanish has 6 levels altogether, I believe. Daniel and I look forward to learning it with him. I'm trying to talk Daniel into attending the ASL courses with us as well. Since we don't know anyone who uses it as a main form of communication, we need some way to make sure he uses it so he doesn't lose it.

He did so wonderful in keyboarding today. He really likes the dance mat typing. He did R and U today. I push the keyboard tray all the way in so he can't see the keyboard, otherwise he is tempted to cheat a bit, lol. I'm glad we found the dance mat typing course, it's been an excellent resource since it makes him want to learn to type so he can hear the song at the end of each lesson. I'm very impressed with it. For music this week we've just been singing along to radio Disney. I need to find some more things online for us to use. Maybe later in the year I can find someone local who teaches piano or guitar lessons for an affordable rate. He'd like guitar I think. The local boys and girls club offers lessons, but I can't sign him up for them. They do it on certain days and only allow so many people at a time each day they do them to attend. The good thing about the Boys and Girls club lessons is that they are free of charge, but I'd like to be there with him to see what he is learning so we can review it each day.

In bible we are still working on Psalm 23. It is a long one, and hard for him to remember anything more than "The Lord is my shepherd." I don't intend to keep going until he has it memorized, but I'd like for him to have a good handle on it before we move on to another memory verse or memory project. I'd like to find a good bible story book soon. I just need to go to the bookstore and look around. He is still reading Junie B. Jones for his independent reading, which he has been doing since before the school year started. I like the fact that he really gets into those books and I don't have to tell him he has to read for 20 minutes when he gets lost in it for an hour or more. I have been researching crafts to do online and I think we will attempt to make a globe in the next few days. I'd also like to make the milk carton Columbus ships soon. I think he will enjoy that. After he did all of his school work today he played on pbskids.com for a few hours. He loves that site, and it has a lot of educational games on it. He is doing his journal now. I told him he could write about anything he wanted to write about and he has chosen to write about "his" cat Ella. It's going to break my heart when we give her away. He is very attached to her, as am I, but we can't continue to keep her when she has an avoidance of the litter box sometimes.

Deacon has gotten all A's in everything but a few math worksheets where he got a B so far this year. I let him correct the missed problems, but I still keep the original grade. I have been told that no homeschooled child should make less than a 100 on any assignment, but I feel that is dishonest. We do work through what he has missed and work on correcting it and re-enforcing the lesson, but I don't feel comfortable giving him a 100 unless that is what he got on the paper the first time. I think he is enjoying being homeschooled. He has more freedom to work at his pace and he doesn't get told no when he asks to get a drink or use the bathroom. Lunch is when he gets hungry and we do things in the order he chooses. After this year, I am curious if I will feel comfortable trying to do preschool with Calen next year. Calen wants to do school now, but isn't able to follow directions on what to do in a preschool workbook, so I let him color in the room with us. he thinks that is school and he is proud to be going to school with Deacon. Dallin naps while we work. When Dallin wakes up, I get Daniel up. Luckily Dallin is a long napper. He will sleep from 10:30 or 11:30 until 2 or 3pm. This helps a lot with trying to get everything done and let Daniel sleep. As Dallin gets older I don't think it will be as much of a problem since he will know what I mean when I tell him he has to be quiet and I will be able to turn my back on him for more than a few seconds at a time and trust he isn't into something he shouldn't be. We are learning to adapt our plans to what works for us on a daily basis. What works on Monday may not work at all on Tuesday, but we learn, adjust, and continue on. With that I will end today's entry. Only time will tell what tomorrow will bring in our journey.

Day 3 - August 10th, 2009

Yesterday was such a busy day I didn't have time to write.

We started school early yesterday and I planned to make it a short day. It ended up running longer than any of them so far. Deacon just wasn't feeling it yesterday. I ended up telling him about the fair, which was going to be a surprise, to try to get him on task. That didn't even work. I guess we all have our off days.

Yesterday we did 2 math worksheets, which is less than usual, one in addition and one in subtraction. We went over our spelling words in a game. I told him the meaning of the word and he had to guess which one it was and spell it correctly. He did wonderful on it! We went over our vocabulary. We did our copy work, which is one stanza of a poem called Journey of Adventure. We went in depth with our Bible memory project, Psalm 23. We read it several times each and talked about what it means to each of us. I had Deacon close his eyes and just listen as I read it. He said he pictured being in a deep, dark, scary wood surrounded by enemies and the Lord was there to protect him and he wasn't scared anymore. After bible class we did a short 30 second video on YouTube about American sign language, from a series for children called Signing time. We can't afford the DVDs so we will use the YouTube clips of it for now until we can purchase the DVDs. He learned how to sign "Nice to meet you.", "Friend", and "play". We plan to work on our ASL alphabet today. After watching the video clip a few times we went on to his typing class. We're using Dance Mat typing from the BBC until we find a better tutor. He liked it and did pretty well with the home keys. After that he played math games on the computer and had a blast. I don't think he knew math could be so fun. The last thing he needed to do was his journal and I set the assignment on Psalm 23 and what it meant to him.

In the end the school day that was supposed to be short ended up taking almost 6 hours. The majority of that time was spent procrastinating. It was the day of "My leg hurts.", "I have to go use the bathroom.", and "I'm thirsty.". After yesterday I have printed off some charts for him. We are going to do a "listen and obey" chart, where he gets rewarded after 30 days of listening and obeying the first time he is told, if he doesn't listen and obey the first time there are consequences listed as well. He now has behavior bucks, chore bucks, and school bucks. He earns the bucks, similar to money, and can then use them when he has enough for a treat. I also printed him off a checklist for him to keep track of what he has gotten done so far during the day. I'm hoping that will help him stay on task. As I said, I know we all have our off days, I just hope today isn't like yesterday.

Note:
Since I didn't get this posted yesterday, I will be posting another tonight if I have time. I have a meeting tonight for Scouts, so you never know. Thanks for following us on this journey to adventure. *smiles*