Weekly update for the week of 9/24/2012

     This was an interesting week full of highs and lows.  The highs were the things in the HOD guide.  This weeks history project included lots of cooking.  My ds has grown to really enjoy cooking and I know it is because of HOD.  This week he made English Tea Cakes. His independence once again came through when he said "Mom I've got this, I will let you know if I need your help."  Then he realized he needed an extra pair of hands and he said "well it is a semi-independent box, so it is ok for you to help."

He then made French Tea cakes, which I forgot to take a picture of the final product.  He decided he liked the English ones, better than the French.  In fact he plans on making the English ones again around Christmas time.

     In Geography he continues to do his mapping by using our shortcut method with the numbers.  He says the locations outloud as he numbers.

     He continues to really enjoy the state study, the composer study and our time together doing "Who is God."  We have some great discussion surrounding that book. 

     He finished reading Michael Faraday, in his Inventor study.  His last written narration of this book was his best by far.  He also did more experiences with his racer and learned to calculate things like horse power and work.

    Our low came in the area of Math.  I have sensed his frustration building for about a week with how fast Chalkdust math moves.  I think Dana Mosley is an excellent teacher, but he does talk fast and is wordy with his explanations and for some reason it just was too confusing for N.  He had a huge meltdown and after we talked it through he was able to verbalize some of the issues.  So we are back to square one with Math.  I have a Lial's Prealgebra book here.  He thinks it looks better.  I think it may still move to fast and I am not sure the mastery style of teaching is going to work for him.  I will try it this week and see how it goes.  I think if it doesn't work I will order Teaching Textbooks.  The new editions are supposed to be more complete as far as concepts covered so I am not as hesitant to use it as I have been in the past.  Just like teachers in a classroom, homeschool teachers have to be ready to make adjustments for their students if something is not working and so that is how I am looking at it.

Weekly update for the week of 9/17/2012

This is actually the weekly update for last week and this week.  Since we now are off schedule with doing day 5 on Monday and then doing only day 1-3 in a week it has me messed up some.  I didn't think it would bother me, but I must say I will be happy to see Thanksgiving week come so I can "straighten" things out.  N. doesn't seem to mind it though. 

As I had posted on the HOD board N. had been struggling some with a negative attitude and the days were taking forever.  I finally realized it was because I was hovering too much.  I backed off and let him be totally Independent with the I boxes and it has made a world of difference.  I still check his work after almost every box and he answers any follow up questions then.  He realizes he will have to redo something if he doesn't read the directions fully so he is being more careful with that.  It so happened the day we decided this he had an experiment that was tough for him to do with his weak hands.  He tried it once on his own, which resulted in some very wet feet when he just couldn't hold the jug steady.  He asked me to hold the jug and that worked out fine.  The rest of the week he did all the experiments on his own and did a good job of figuring out his theory.

He is enjoying the Inventor study and does a pretty good job with the written narrations, although for some reason doing an oral narration from the Michael Faraday book is really tough for him.  I think he gets bogged down in the science details the he doesn't quite understand.  I have found a few videos for him to watch in his spare time that have helped him at least visualize some of the concepts.

He continues to enjoy doing the state study and likes to pass along some silly law that the states used to have.

He made an oriental vase for his history project.  I am not sure he did it right because the directions seemed very similar for day 3 and day 4 so he was a little confused and I must admit so was I, but he did what he thought it was telling him to do.

We finished the storytime book Songbird, which he loved and we are now reading "The Secret Wish of Nannerl Mozart".  He has really connected with this book and does a great job orally narrating and answering the deeper thinking questions.  In fact I have seen real growth in this area by using the storytime questions and Carrie's questions. 

He continues to say he loves George Washington's World, but he does tend to struggle with the oral narrations from this book for some reason.  It is mostly on the days when he knows it is supposed to go 4-6 minutes.  Something about the time limit stresses him out.  He is barely able to narrate for 2 minutes.  This past week I did make him re-read the selection and he did a much better job.  I know Charlotte Mason says not to have them re-read, but sometimes I just have to with him or he just can't do it.  I am not sure if that is his short term memory issues or just a lack of attention.

For written narrations I had an aha moment with him when he was ready to do a written narration and he said he didn't know what he was going to write because all the passage did was describe what the man looked like and how he felt.  I told him that was what he was to narrate.  He got a puzzled look on his face and said "that's not what I put in narrations."  I realized he only focuses on the action when he is reading and when he is narrating.  If there isn't much action he doesn't know what to put.  He is like this in everyday life also.  He does not notice any details of dress or what someone looks like.  I talked to him about it and gave him some examples and it is slowly getting better.

I think this is going to be a real growing year for both of us.

Weekly update for week of 9/3/2012

We only technically schooled 3 days this week.  We took Labor Day off since Daddy was home and then Friday was our first day of co-op.  We finished up week 3 of Rev to Rev on 9/10.  Each week N. gets a little more into the routine.

Over Labor Day weekend N. and my husband worked on replacing a porch column that was rotten.  N. loved helping with this project. 

Tuesday it was back to work.  Every year we have one day that runs a little longer than the others and this year so far that is Day 1 of the week.  Tuesday was a long day, but N. didn't complain.  That tells me he enjoys the program.  He continues to read "George Washington's World" as his history spine and he alternates that sometimes with "Hearts and Hands". 

He is really putting some effort in to his timeline entries this year.  I still do the labeling of those entries because it is just too hard for him to write that small. 

His history project was making coins with monograms of Catherine the Great, Fredrick of Prussia, and Louis XV.  He then did one with his own monogram.  He was excited because for the first time the clay made of cornstarch, glue and toothpaste worked.

In Science Exploration Education continues to be a huge hit.  I have been impressed with his ability to reason out the answers.  He is always sad on the one day of the week that we don't do it. 

We finished reading Amos Fortune: Free Man and just started Songbird.  He already really likes Songbird because it is set in Williamsburg and he has been there.  It also focuses on a boy who loves birds, which is something N. likes also.

Chalkdust Math is starting to go better as he gets used to doing a program other than CLE.  He got an A on the first test so that gave him some confidence also.

I love the "Who is God" study and so does he.  His favorite part is using arrow sticky tabs to mark things in each section we read that stand out to him.  We then discuss those things.  I am really enjoying these discussions as it gives me another glimpse into the way he thinks and what things are important.  He is also enjoying the Hebrews Bible study he is doing.  In fact this past week he prepared a devotional for family devotional time and he quoted from memory Hebrews 1:1 and used an illustration from "Who is God" in the devotional.  That made this momma's heart happy to see  him carry over the spiritual things he is learning into other things.

Weekly update for week of 8/27/2012

Our second week of school was definitely smoother than our first. N. is settling back in to his routine and becoming quickly independent with the boxes marked as Independent.  He says that he really likes the book "George Washington's World" that he is reading as his main history spine.  His written narration this week was on Benjamin Franklin.  We talked about the fact that he still needs to make his narrations more story like.  This has been an ongoing problem with my "just the facts mam" kid.
He was excited to be back with Draw and Write through  History where he drew a Bison.  It still amazes me how much he enjoys drawing, when I know it is a challenge for him and wears his hand out.

His history project was making clay and then forming it into a piece of Pueblo pottery.  He tried to duplicate one of the designs in his notebook, but it didn't quite work. In the past when he had to make clay he would have me help him.  This year he kept saying "I got this.. I don't need help."  Holding measuring utensils still is tough, but he managed.  He has learned to do all measuring over the sink.

He is really enjoying the state study.  He seems to be absorbing quite a bit of the information.  He fills everything out on his own, which means it can be tough to read, but I feel it is important for his independence.

We continue to read Amos Fortune: Free Man in storytime and he has improved significantly in his ability to answer the tough questions at the end of our readings.  He also gave a great oral narration this week about this book.  It just showed again that he needs to develop relationships with the characters in a book before he can truly understand it.

In Science he continued to experiments with his car.

We are also really enjoying doing "Who is God?" together and have had some good discussions so far.

He did his first writing assignment this week.  He was supposed to describe a zoo animal doing something, but I let him describe his favorite dog from the animal shelter playing in the baby pool.  It wasn't bad for a first assignment in this program. 

At the end of each day I am just amazed at how much he has done and all the topics he has covered.  I love that he is getting such a well rounded education.

First week of new school year

Well we started school this week.  It was a little stressful for the first few days, but things got running smoother by the end of the week. Of course I didn't get around to taking our first day of school pictures until the 4th day.

N. is doing HOD's Revival to Revolution Guide this year that includes a classical music study and a 50 state study as well as 2 Bible studies.  The set up of the guide is familiar to him so that helps.  He was a little distraught over the fact he had to do his history written narration on day 1 instead of day 4 and that he had to wait until day 2 to start his history project.

The big hit has been the science which is using Exploration Education's Physical Science program.  He does his lesson on the computer and then fills out his log book and builds something in order to perform the projects.  This week he built an electric racer.  This box is marked as Independent, but he does need my steady hands to use the glue gun and to hold the tiny pieces. 

What I liked about it is that in his off time he was looking up Discovery Streaming Videos on force to watch due to what he had studied in science this week.

For mapping this year I was concerned about all the labels he would have to put on his map.  The ladies on the HOD discussion board helped me brainstorm a solution.  I put a number by each city, river, lake etc name on the teachers map and then he puts that number on the student map.  I made him say the name outloud of what he was labeling.  He then glued the teachers map to the back of his student map so it acted as a key.

His history project this week was using oil pastels to make a Woodland Indian head dress.  He also looked at a map to see all the names of the different tribes on the East Coast.  He was a little rusty in the following the directions department this week on several things and this was one of them.  He ended up having to redo a small part of it.

We are reading Amos Fortune: Free Man for storytime.  I have chosen to still read aloud to him the storytime book.  We both enjoy that time together.  The questions in the guide this year follow Bloom's Taxonomy and they are definitely a higher level of thinking.  At this point I am guiding him some with these if he can't come up with a reasonable answer on his own. 

His cursive is also a little rusty, but overall he did a neat job with his notebook pages this week.

In Math he started Chalk Dust Pre-Algebra.  I have broken it up into daily chunks that are more manageable than what Chalk Dust recommends.  He likes the videos, but seems to have some space cadet moments when working the problems.  I think it is a case of 13 year old boy brain.  Hopefully next week will be better.

Overall he has had a pretty good first week, and from past experience I know each week will get better.

S. has had a challenging week in that her dual enrollment online classes have had some issues.  My plan ahead daughter didn't like the fact that the syllabus wasn't posted until the first day of classes.  This did prove to be an issue because the book that the bookstore had us buy for one of her classes was not the book listed in the syllabus.  The syllabus was correct so now we are waiting on the right book to come.  She is doing a great job of taking on the responsiblity of the college classes as well as doing the few "mommy" classes she has.  She oredered herself a new desk chair since she is spending more time up in her room doing school this year so she can concentrate.  Here she is putting it together.

I must say even though the school year adds extra work for me I like having the structure back in to our days and I really love teaching my kids.

Getting Ready for the New School Year

I realized today that we start school in 3 1/2 weeks!  I have spent the summer getting things ready for N. and S.'s school year. 

For S. this year is a little different.  I only have to schedule 3 subjects for her since the rest she will be taking online as a dual enrollment student at Cedarville University.  She has taken the initiative to get all of that setup and has her syllabi printed out.  I am in charge of purchasing books and doing the lessons plans for the classes she is taking that are mom directed. 

For N. the process is a little more involved.  This year he will continue with HOD Revival to Revolution.  I am really looking forward to this year.  Since coming home he hasn't done an in depth study of American History.  I have pre-read all the history spines as well as the science books and I think he is going to really enjoy them.  I think it is vitally important that he learn about the Constitution and the founding of this country. He will study history up to the reconstruction after the Civil War.   He also will learn about Church History starting with Jonathan Edwards.

In Science he will do an Inverntor Study as well as Exploration Educations Physical Science.  I have his notebooks ready to go. This includes printing all the maps from Map Trek that he will do this year.

He also will do a 50 state study using "50 States Under God".  I have marked with tabs where the important appendices are that he will need to complete the pages for each state.

I bought a rolling plastic cabinet to store all of our craft supplies and even went so far as to label them.  We will see how long the organization lasts :).

As you can see the bookshelf is still messy.  I've learned to live with it.

He is using Chalkdust PreAlgebra for math.  This is a totally new program for him.  It will be interesting to see how he does with using DVD's to teach him math.

I have my Drawn Into the Heart of Reading Books selected.  He will start with a book in the Mystery Genre.  It is the 3rd book in the Viking Quest Series.  He loves this series so I figured it was a great book to start the year with.

He will also do a Classical Music study this year.  He will eventually make a huge lapbook that will cover all the composers he studies and information he researches about them.  It also will include all the instruments of the Orchestra and a study of the different time periods of music.  There is a lot of cutting required.  I knew that if he spent his time cutting out all the pieces he would not have enough endurance in his hands to do anything else, so I cut out many of the smaller pieces.  He can now focus on assembling the project and the actual information contained in the study.

This year looks to be a fun and challenging year and I have to say I am excited to see what God has to teach all of us this year.

Summer

Hard to believe we are almost 1 month into our summer break.  I thought I would do a post about what summer looks like here.  As far as school stuff we go pretty light.  I do encourage N. to do 1/2 hour of reading a day, he is in the library reading program so that is good incentive.  S. is reading some on her own.

For S. the big thing I have her doing is working on more ACT prep books so she can retake it in the fall.  Her score was very good, but I think she can bring her English up a little bit. 

For N. he rotates off on different days working on a typing program, doing math using Khan Academy, some handwriting practice and watching Discovery Streaming videos of his choice.  He is also working on a 500 word essay that he has to write in order to get his karate black belt.  He is doing this fairly independently, something I never thought he would do.

As far as fun things we did this for vacation and had so much fun.

N. and I are volunteering at the animal shelter and S. is working hard at her job at Chik fil a.  They also both volunteered at VBS at church and are doing other mission type work days with the youth group and of course the highlight of summer is church camp. 

We will start school back on Aug. 20th but until then they are enjoying every minute of summer while I busily plan for next school year.