First week in review of the new school year!

We officially started the World Geography High School guide this week.  I have to admit to being very apprehensive prior to the start of this guide.  I am well aware of the challenges that N faces with certain things and I knew some things were going to be overwhelming for him.  I would like to say I was wrong and that this week went super smooth, but I want to be honest on this blog, so I will say that we have had smoother starts.  It did get better as the week went on.  Here he  is in the traditional first day of school pic.

First I have to say I am impressed with this guide and how it is all put together.  There are so many skills that are imbedded in the different boxes.  This week he worked on taking notes from a reading, drawing a sketch from just a description, annotating, writing a one sentence summary, answered thought provoking questions about literature, searched his reading for phrases to describe 4 different religions and of course did a written and 2 oral narrations. 

In history he read A World of Discovery on the first day and he struggled with understanding this reading and said he didn't even know where to start with an oral key word narration.  I could tell his frustration was real so I let him go back and read a paragraph at a time and then narrate to me.  Not ideal and I know he should be past this point at his age, but it was the only way he could do it.  I am hoping as he moves further into this book he will get back to narrating in more typical fashion.  The rest of the week he read the Archaeology book and did well with it.  His written narration lacked life and was back to a just the facts type of narration, but I didn't have him add too much since this book is written in a somewhat just the facts kind of way. He drew a sketch of the pyramids(I labeled them as directed by him) and he drew a sketch of how they might have moved the stones up to build the pyramids. The DVD's that go with the World Geography are great and really help bring the readings to life.

In Science he did an experiment the first day just to get the hang of the scientific process.  He is going to like this lab kit and guide.  He is doing very well with answering the questions at the end of the reading.

The bible study is challenging.  I am trying to not grade too tightly because I don't want him to feel like he is failing at studying the bible. So if he can explain to me why he answered the way he did then I count it.  If he is way off we discuss it in a pretty casual way.  He is working on memorizing his first verses of the year and he was instructed to put them to a tune today.  He was quite dramatic in his delivery. (on a side note this is my favorite shirt of his, it truly describes who he is).

He is doing well with his World Religions and Cultures assignments.  He did need some guidance in taking a word description and putting it into a drawing.  He made his chart this way on purpose so that things lined up with each other.  We both love the look of the ivory copy paper that he is typing things on for this notebook.

Literature was the big bump in the road this week.  He really struggled to understand the first story and pretty much missed the entire climax.  It was frustrating for me and for him.  Unfortunately this gave him less than a positive attitude towards lit.  He was supposed to type the answers to the end of story questions the next day and the thought had him near tears, so I let him answer verbally and he and I set a goal of next time typing 1 and answering the rest orally and eventually by mid year work up to typing them all when scheduled. 

He loves Spanish and Logic.  The logic doesn't come easy for him, but he likes the way the book is written.

I was very discouraged at the beginning of the week, but then God reminded me that high school isn't a sprint it is a marathon and I need to set small goals for him to achieve and not expect him to have it all down just yet. 

Why we chose to homeschool

I have read a few posts by friends of mine talking about why they chose to homeschool.  I also recently heard someone say that they see no advantage to homeschooling over public school if the parent is an involved parent.  These 2 things really got me thinking about our reasons for homeschooling and what advantages I see for our children.  Notice I said see for our children.  I don't presume to know what is best for other peoples kids.  I can only state what the advantages are over public school for my 2 kids.  I don't want this post to make anyone who has their kids in ps  feel bad or as if I am knocking your choice.  This post is just designed to give insight into our homeschooling journey.

N. was in ps up through 4th grade.  He had a pretty rough 2nd grade year due to a teacher that truly didn't understand his physical challenges.  He also had quite a few experiences with bullying.  He came out of 2nd grade feeling frustrated and "less than".  He then went into 3rd and 4th grade where he had 2 great teachers who truly understood him and he regained some of his confidence.  He struggled a little with what we thought was reading comprehension, but we later found out was short term memory issues.  Towards the end of 3rd grade he told me he would stay in ps through 4th grade, but then he was going to be homeschooled.  Honestly I had thought about homeschooling, but I truly didn't think I could do it.  I didn't think I had the patience, knowledge etc.  I laughed at him when he told me this.  Well God started changing my heart bit by bit and as I researched homeschooling I could see so many advantages for N.  I finally got up the nerve to bring it up with him again and ask him why he wanted to be homeschooled and he replied that then he wouldn't feel rushed and could actually take time with his work.  He also said that he wouldn't have to feel out of place for having a laptop and typing up his work.  His last reason was that he could study the Bible and learn about God as part of his daily school at home, and he couldn't do that at school. These reasons were pretty hard to argue with.  God had given him some remarkable insight for a 9 year old.  So after much prayer we brought him home.  God led us to the Heart of Dakota curriculum, which is very Christ centered and also includes lots of hands on activities.  At first glance it looked like a poor fit for N. since it included lots of reading, copywork, writing and drawing.  These were all things he had big struggles with.  However, the curriculum has been wonderful for him.  He has discovered that he can write, that there are books he enjoys and that he loves to draw.  For the most part he truly enjoys each day of school. 

When we brought N. home S said no way was she coming home, so she went to 9th grade determined to love it.  9th grade proved to be very different than previous years.  Bullying that had always existed, but had been controlled by school staff, escalated.  Now she also had the added issues of sexual harassment.  She was in gifted classes for all things except math and electives.  The classes that were not gifted classes were miserable for her.  The pace was way too slow and the teacher spent the majority of the class time dealing with behavior issues.  The gifted classes moved at a better pace, but she dealt with a teacher that was very condescending towards her Christian faith and her belief in creation.  I watched her become a different child who went from smiling and laughing to one who was angry and sullen.  At Christmas of her 9th grade year she told us she might want to come home the following year, by spring break she told us she was sure of her decision and asked if would I homeschool her for the remaining years of her education.  I was terrified-how was I, someone brand new to homeschooling, going to tackle  high school!  Once again the adage of if God calls you to something he will supply the ability and strength to answer His call, was shown to be very true.  She thrived with homeschooling and graduated and has gone on to a Christian university.

So that is how we came to homeschool and why.  Here are some of the advantages I have seen for my kids.  For N. I am able to adjust things specifically for him.  I import pdf's onto the Ipad and he types on to them.  He types most of his work and knows how to manipulate things in Microsoft Word in order to make our tweaks work with the HOD notebook pages. He can take as much time as he wants to do his work.  If he doesn't remember something after reading it once he can go back and read it again without worrying about holding others up or getting teased for not understanding something. He is truly able to work at whatever pace he needs.  If we want to stretch math out over the summer because I supplemented with another curriculum then we can do that.   I have been able to introduce him to wonderful books full of stories of missionaries, martyrs and others who endured hardships and overcame their own personal "handicaps" to do wonderful things to further God's kingdom. He has the bible incorporated into every subject from history to science to grammar.  He has time to pursue his interests such as getting his black belt in karate, taking a few years of trombone lessons, golf lessons and parkour gymnastics.  Yes, theoretically he could have done those things while in ps, but honestly homework just took up too much time and we felt  stressed as a family so we wouldn't have signed him up for many of these things. 

For S. she was able to work at her own pace which was a more accelerated pace.  She could finish her day fairly quickly and have time to have a job, do church activities and volunteer in a classroom with kids with special needs. This led to her deciding to major in special education and early elementary education.  She took college classes online her senior year and went into college with 12 credits from that same college.  She was able for the first time study school subjects from a Christian, bible based perspective.  She loved having textbooks that had this point of view.  She felt like at school she was spoon fed deadlines, what would be on a test, exactly what to write and how to study.  At home I backed off and had her figure out some of those things on her own.  This has really helped her in college. 

As for me I have discovered that I love homeschooling my kids!  I have seen God's provisions in ways I never had before.  He has given me friendships I wouldn't have had except for homeschooling and he has pushed me in ways that have been difficult, but on the other side I can see how He was molding me or refining me.  The part of me that was put on the back burner when I stopped working as a pediatric physical therapist has found an outlet in homeschooling my son with some unique learning needs.  God has brought others into my life whose kids have similar needs and hopefully some of the things I have learned have  helped them also.  My only regret is that I didn't bring them home sooner, but when I feel like that I have to remember this wasn't orchestrated by me it was orchestrated by God and His timing is perfect.

Getting ready for the World Geography Guide

I am a planner and I like to get everything ready as early as possible so I can relax and know that I am ready for the school year. I also tend to print as much ahead of time as possible.   It seems helpful to show a visual guide of all I do to get ready for the school year, so that is what I plan to do in this post.  I do some things a little differently due to adapting things to N. and his difficulty with handwriting.  I will mark those with an *.

World Geography: First I prepared the Expedition Journal and I went ahead and printed off from the Mapping the World With Art CD any pages/activities/games that were needed for the first 15 weeks.  Some of these go on cardstock and some on calligraphy paper.  It was pretty time consuming which is why I just did 15 weeks.

I then gathered almost all of the supplies that he will need for Mapping the World With Art.  This list is in the front of that book.  I still need a few colors of acrylic paints.

Next I prepared his Book of Centuries and printed out all the timeline figures.

For the Living Library he fills out a summary sheet after most of the readings.  Typically those are copied.
* For him I made a word document on his laptop so he can just type in his summaries.

World Religions and Cultures:  I prepared his notebook.  *These pages have lots of graphic organizers of odd shapes so it isn't going to work for N. to just type and then cut it to size so I went through each page and made a blank template of sorts so that he can type and then cut it out.  They aren't exactly the same shape but they should work.  Below is an example of what I am talking about.  There are also pages of questions for several of the books so I typed out the questions in Word and made it where it should fit in the notebook page. 

They won't be on white paper.  I found a good deal on ivory paper, so I bought that specifically for this notebook and any others we decide to use it for.

There are bookmarks in the back that need copied. *However for N. I scan them into the computer and load them on his Ipad in an app called PDFexpert so he can type on the bookmarks.  This worked well last year.

For Bible I purchased a leather bound prayer journal. I also copied and laminated Preparing Your Heart for Prayer sheet  * The adaptation for Bible is that for the scripture memorization he is supposed to use some techiniques where he does things like re-write the verse leaving off certain words or cut out phrases and put them back together etc.  It is a lot of extra writing which just won't work so I used bible gateway to copy each verse 3-4 times on paper and then he can use white out to mark out words or he can cut it up or highlight in different colors etc.

Logic: I photocopied the tests from the Art of Argument Teachers guide.

 Spanish: the only thing I did was download the audio files from the website and put them in a folder on his laptop desktop.

English:  He uses one notebook divided into sections for dictation, grammar, writing and literature.  He also files his bookmarks from the living library in here. He also has the same common place book from last year. I didn't buy the student book for the Essentials in Writing so I had to print that. * I photocopy the dictation passages and that way he marks them up if he misses them and just checks them off when he is done and I have a record of the ones he has done for the year.

Science:  He has his lab clothes from this year.  He doesn't need a science notebook since everything is done in the lab manual or the activity booklets.  I made a list of what extra materials he will need each week and usually I just look at that the weekend before a lab and make sure he has what he needs.  The one thing I do still need to get is graph paper.

I think that is about it.  Hopefully this helps others as they get ready for the World Geography guide.  I have to say the more time I spend reading the books and looking at the assignments the more excited I get for him to do this guide.

Final update for MTMM

Today we finished MTMM (with the exception of a science experiment that N. has to still do with his dad).  I have to say this may be my favorite guide next to Preparing, but it seems I say that every year.  I was worried about studying modern history that it would be too depressing, but this guide is a nice blend of the realism of man's sin and depravity and God's hope and promises.  This update will cover highlights from the last few weeks.

Our last storytime book was about Mother Theresa.  It was a very good book and offered opportunity for some good discussion about reaching out to who the world sees as the "least of these". 

In history we covered some of the events that I remember very clearly such as the Challenger disaster and 9/11.  As we watched videos from 9/11 I could see for the first time it really click with N. what actually occurred on that day.  He was visibly disturbed by it, but what I love is that today he watched a speech by Billy Graham that he gave in response to 9/11.  In it Billy talked about yes there is evil in the world, but God is still in control.  Always a good reminder to hear.

In science the genetic study couldn't have come at a better time as N. just had some genetic testing done, so he has heard lots about DNA and chromosomes.  He built this model of DNA.

He says his favorite science book that he has done in all 5 years of HOD has been "Evolution the Grand Experiment".  He feels like he has learned so much and can actually pose a good argument against evolution.

One thing he has loved this year is the hymn study and I love hearing him sing hymns first thing in the morning.
Here he is on the last day of school, still waking up, but singing his hymn for the week.

His last drawing in his nature study was a very cool pen and ink drawing of the view out our window.  Looking back through his journal I am very impressed with everything he drew.

He finished up the state study and did well on his final test.  This study was a nice easier part of the day, but yet we discussed some topics that I am not sure we had discussed before.

Overall it has been a successful year.  He still has to finish up his Algebra 1 so we will work on that through the summer and start Geometry at some point next year.  He will be required to do some free reading or listen to an audio book each day of the summer and we are going to use Word Build by Dynamic Literacy for some short sweet vocabulary lessons.  I have found with him that it is important to keep his brain engaged as well as he has to keep writing a little bit during the summer or he really has a tough time in the fall. 

Week in review 4/7/2014

Once again I haven't done an update in awhile.  Part of that is due to sickness that swept through the family and we had several days where school wasn't done.  That is highly unusual for us.  As a result we are in the middle of week 31 right now.  Definitely heading into the home stretch.

In science N. is really enjoying "Evolution the Grand Experiment".  He finds it fascinating to see the lack of fossil evidence for any intermediate forms.  It does a good job of presenting what evolution believes and then countering it with what creationist believe and letting him draw some conclusions on his own.  It ties in very well with the Genetics experiment kit.  This week he made a model of a cell and then had to tell me all the parts of the cell. He chose to make it out of playdough since that is what we had around the house.

He drew insects for his nature journal this week.  His journaling is pretty short and to the point and that is one area I have chosen to not battle.  I wouldn't want anyone critiquing my personal journaling so I don't critique his.

In history he has been studying the USSR and the cold war.  He learned how the USSR took over Czechoslovakia. This has tied in well with some things that are currently going on in the world.  His history project was to make Czechoslovakian cookies.  They were good.

In storytime we are finishing up Children of the Storm which is an autobiography of a Christian girl living in Communist Russia.  We have had some pretty good conversations that were sparked by this book.

In English he is finishing up the BJU grade 8 lit book or at least as much as I have assigned and he will start reading Salt in His Blood which is off the Drawn Into the Heart of Reading list.  He is also coming to the end of Rod and Staff 6. 

Overall I am feeling more confident in his ability to do the World Geography guide next year, but I know there are going to be some areas that will really challenge him.  I am already praying that God will prepare his heart and mind for the new challenges and that he won't become too frustrated with all the work and reading.

Week in Review for 3/10/13

We just finished week 27 in MTMM.  This year has gone by quickly.  As with all years I have seen N. grow in some areas and there are a few things we will be working on right up to the last week and then probably start out next year emphasizing those same things. 

This is the first time we have studied history that I actually know something about.  We are now heading into the portion of history where I was alive.  He is up to Lyndon B. Johnson in the president study.  He enjoyed learning about JFK and did a nice written narration on him.  We finished the book Freedom Walkers in story time and are now reading Team Moon.  It is written in a different style than what I am used to, but it is a very interesting book. 

In Science he is really enjoying Evolution: The Grand Experiment.  Since we have visited the Creation Museum and listened to Ken Ham debate Bill Nye this is a topic of interest right now.  The DVD combined with the book make things very easy to understand and give N. lots of food for thought.  This goes along very well with the Genetics experiment kit.  This week N. and his dad did an experiment where they separated the DNA of a tomato.  It started out a little rocky due to not quite enough liquid, but dh added a little water and then everything went great.  N. types up his labs on the ipad and this works pretty well.  We have a bluetooth keyboard, but he prefers to just use the virtual keyboard. I am not sure who found this experiment more fascinating dh or N.

 If you look closely you can see the DNA floating around.

I feel like this year's science is preparing him well for next years physical science class.

In literature he continues with the Bob Jones Grade 8 lit book and is reading an adaptation of Ben Hur.  He is enjoying the story and we have had some good talks about revenge and what the bible says about revenge.

In the state study he learned about our state, national and local government.  He knew more about this than I thought.  I guess just from all the history reading he has done. 

He also is doing well with his Economics study and is reading about starting your own business.  Since he says he would like to run a gym for kids with special needs some day this is a good introduction for him into the world of running your own business. 

All in all we continue to have good weeks. 

Week in review for 2/17/14

N. had a good week of school this week.  He buckled down and really focused after we talked a little bit more about expectations.  I find these talks are good for both of us.  It makes me put in words what I expect from him as far as quality of work and it allows him to hear it again and also to ask any questions about the expectations. 

His history project this week was drawing animals related to South America since he learned about Jim Elliot and Nate Saint as well as Mission Aviation Fellowship and Betty Greene.  We know some missionaries with this organization so he found it interesting to read about the founding of it.  I especially loved his Jaguar.  He spent lots of time getting it just right.  He has found that listening to music while he draws helps him to focus.

He was to draw a sunrise and sunset for his Nature Journal.  He copied one of them from a picture he had taken on his ipod and then one from the book. This picture is the one he copied from the book.

It amazes me that he enjoys drawing so much, especially if you watch his hands tremor.  He never would have attempted drawing if it weren't for HOD and he has found that it is actually relaxing for him.

His president's notebook is really looking impressive.  I admit I do watch the videos with him, just because I feel very lacking in my knowledge in this area. 

 

He is reading a book on Albert Einstein in science and is enjoying it.  I think it is great that he reads these biographies of famous scientists to complement the rest of the study.  As much as his memory can sometimes be an issue for him, when I least expect it he will come up with something during a conversation that I know he only knows because of something he read in one of his HOD books.

He is moving right along in Rod and Staff Grammar and this week was able to diagram some pretty complicated sentences.  I don't usually have him diagram every sentence just because his hand tires so easily.  Often we will pick around 2/3rds of them and he will talk me through the diagram as I draw it on the white board.  He has difficulty coming up with the correct words sometimes such as independent clause or subordinating conjunction,again I think this is due to his short term memory issues.  However, he can always tell me in the diagram what phrase is related to what other phrase and how.  This is the main reason we do the diagramming.  He is a visual perceptual kid and I think this helps him understand sentence structure in a way that just naming things never would.  He enjoys it also.  This week he noticed we were nearing the end of book 6 and he wanted to make sure there was another book after that one.