The new school year will be beginning next week. I'm excited. I don't think the kids are. Not that it surprises me. They don't like a lot of busy work.
So this year I'm going way out in left field. This year we're using the Switched-On-Schoolhouse. We picked up a science disc in the spring and tried it out. K loved it right away but J took a little longer to get used to the idea.
When I started putting together the curriculum this year I asked them if they'd like to continue using workbooks or would like to switch to the SOS format. K was all for the SOS format, J was so-so. He wasn't against it, but wasn't excited.
Thankfully, we had some extra income at just the right moment so I could order the curriculum. These programs cost wa-a-a-a-y more than if I put it all together myself. But, I'm hoping the investment will pay off: i.e. they'll enjoy doing their work!
Which now leaves me teaching Bible, Art, Music, and various Social Studies lessons. We will be using SOS for Science, Language Arts, History, Geography, and Spanish. We will continue to use our books for Math.
Using the SOS will free me up quite a bit. Plus, I'll be able to put more into our other lessons, only having those few to plan out. I'm really looking forward to expanding our art and music studies!
Another project we will be working on is blogging. I know that seems odd, but I think the kids will have fun keeping a blog of what they're are doing and feeling from their own perspective. It'll make for some interesting reading, I'm sure! Keeping a blog will also count towards credit in L.A. as well as improving their typing skills. I can't wait to read some of their entries :D
So, until next week!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Summer Break
Now it's August we are officially on summer break.
With me working this last month we may as well have been on break, though we did get some work done. We did not finish Science like I had hoped we would.
Ah well. We're getting there.
With me working this last month we may as well have been on break, though we did get some work done. We did not finish Science like I had hoped we would.
Ah well. We're getting there.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The end is near...
The end of the school year, that is. :D
K&J finished their final tests in level 6 math on Tuesday. K breezed right through it but J seemed to struggle a bit. I walked him through a few problems to help refresh his memory, but it didn't seem to click. After the test he said he wants to do level 6 again in the fall for extra practice. As he says it, "I'm just not ready for 7th grade math, mom. I think I should work on this some more."
He looked so cute while he was expressing his thoughts on the subject of 6th vs. 7th grade math. When they start up again in September, we'll warm up with the basics and do some more review work from the end of the 6th grade book. Then we'll see where we need to go.
J also finished his grade 4 Vocab book and now only has English and Science to finish up this summer. K has English and Science to finish as well. K is a bit behind in Science so she'll need to double up on work to get caught up. Which doesn't seem to be a problem at all since she likes the SOS Science and usually works ahead anyway.
And that's that. As long as they keep working everyday we'll be ready for summer break by the first of August. That will give me time to collect next years workbooks and purchase the SOS discs I'll need for K, since she wants everything computerized, and a couple discs for J, since he really doesn't care either way.
K&J finished their final tests in level 6 math on Tuesday. K breezed right through it but J seemed to struggle a bit. I walked him through a few problems to help refresh his memory, but it didn't seem to click. After the test he said he wants to do level 6 again in the fall for extra practice. As he says it, "I'm just not ready for 7th grade math, mom. I think I should work on this some more."
He looked so cute while he was expressing his thoughts on the subject of 6th vs. 7th grade math. When they start up again in September, we'll warm up with the basics and do some more review work from the end of the 6th grade book. Then we'll see where we need to go.
J also finished his grade 4 Vocab book and now only has English and Science to finish up this summer. K has English and Science to finish as well. K is a bit behind in Science so she'll need to double up on work to get caught up. Which doesn't seem to be a problem at all since she likes the SOS Science and usually works ahead anyway.
And that's that. As long as they keep working everyday we'll be ready for summer break by the first of August. That will give me time to collect next years workbooks and purchase the SOS discs I'll need for K, since she wants everything computerized, and a couple discs for J, since he really doesn't care either way.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
SOS
As the kids are working on their science lessons, I'm finding more and more errors. Like pigeons are extinct?
While we all like the computerized lessons, I'm wondering if there might be something better out there?
Summer is a good time for internet research. When I have internet, that is. :D
While we all like the computerized lessons, I'm wondering if there might be something better out there?
Summer is a good time for internet research. When I have internet, that is. :D
Saturday, June 14, 2008
short break
Our break has officially begun. The plan is to leave sometime Sunday to head north for the ProLife Festival. So the kids are off school during that time. Except to catch up on the science they haven't gotten done yet. Even with computerized work, we still get behind! Life happens.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Week in review
This week has been a whirlwind of activity! I can't believe it's Friday already :D
Monday was a field trip (see previous post)
Tuesday was a work day. The kids helped clean up the yard and do some cleaning and detailing on the trailers to get ready for June's road trip.
Wednesday was J's last ballgame. It was hard to get him to settle into his schoolwork he was so wound up for gametime. We managed to get most everything done. Just as we were getting ready to work on science my computer decided it didn't feel like working and changed it's settings back to factory. Effectively ending our schoolday, since I couldn't find any of my files! I had an extremely awful moment there....I actually came to tears for a bit, I was so frustrated. But then a deep breath and I grabbed a book to read and just waited for Chad to get home and fix everything for me like he always does. :D
Thursday was K's day to flake out on me. She just had no desire to do anything. So instead of fighting it out we went swimming. After some fun and relaxation we went back to the RV, had some lunch, and then got our work done. Computer was nice and tidy so we did some SOS. Unfortunately, we're a day behind and I can't figure out how to change the due dates. So, we're just going to pick up the slack over the weekend. (Yes - the kids actually agreed to it!)
Thursday night we volunteered at the ball field. They needed help with the coach-pitch tournament. Chad did the field maintenance and I did scorekeeping (in the book) and K&J did the electronic scoreboard, until they got bored and Chad had to take over. We signed up for one game, but no one showed for the 2nd game so we stayed and helped out. I think we're going to sign up for some more over the weekend.
Friday (today) I didn't even try to get them started on school work right away. Instead I asked if they wanted to go for a swim. I've never seen them move so quickly! We relaxed for a bit, swam 2 laps, and relaxed for a bit. When we got home we had lunch and got to work. K&J both did 2 quizzes and a project in Science. They're getting used to the SOS program, which is nice. J said he'd like all his work on the computer now. Good thing I have the summer to save up for those discs! :D
We're also working on a couple things in Geography: learning the States (and capitals, postal codes, major landforms, etc) and about Biomes. We've finished the general study of Deserts. Next week we'll study the American deserts.
We're sailing right along in math. Should be finishing up about the first week of June. I'm not sure if I'll have them start grade 7 math just yet. We might take a little break.
We're pushing our way through Ancient History. A lot of the timelines overlap, which can get confusing. Right now I'm hitting the major sections. It's difficult to decide sometimes what they should know and what can be skipped or just mentioned. A lot of the ancients will be covered again later when they are in HS, so we don't have to do a lot of detailed work right now. I hope to get us up to 400AD by the end of summer, since that will put us on track for the Middle Ages next school year.
English and Vocabulary are going well. They are both almost finished with vocab. English will take us a little longer - most of the summer in fact.
I could wish they'd put a little more effort into their spelling words. I'm going to try some new ideas next week and see what happens.
All in all, it's been a good week. Only a couple hiccups. :D And they never last long!
Monday was a field trip (see previous post)
Tuesday was a work day. The kids helped clean up the yard and do some cleaning and detailing on the trailers to get ready for June's road trip.
Wednesday was J's last ballgame. It was hard to get him to settle into his schoolwork he was so wound up for gametime. We managed to get most everything done. Just as we were getting ready to work on science my computer decided it didn't feel like working and changed it's settings back to factory. Effectively ending our schoolday, since I couldn't find any of my files! I had an extremely awful moment there....I actually came to tears for a bit, I was so frustrated. But then a deep breath and I grabbed a book to read and just waited for Chad to get home and fix everything for me like he always does. :D
Thursday was K's day to flake out on me. She just had no desire to do anything. So instead of fighting it out we went swimming. After some fun and relaxation we went back to the RV, had some lunch, and then got our work done. Computer was nice and tidy so we did some SOS. Unfortunately, we're a day behind and I can't figure out how to change the due dates. So, we're just going to pick up the slack over the weekend. (Yes - the kids actually agreed to it!)
Thursday night we volunteered at the ball field. They needed help with the coach-pitch tournament. Chad did the field maintenance and I did scorekeeping (in the book) and K&J did the electronic scoreboard, until they got bored and Chad had to take over. We signed up for one game, but no one showed for the 2nd game so we stayed and helped out. I think we're going to sign up for some more over the weekend.
Friday (today) I didn't even try to get them started on school work right away. Instead I asked if they wanted to go for a swim. I've never seen them move so quickly! We relaxed for a bit, swam 2 laps, and relaxed for a bit. When we got home we had lunch and got to work. K&J both did 2 quizzes and a project in Science. They're getting used to the SOS program, which is nice. J said he'd like all his work on the computer now. Good thing I have the summer to save up for those discs! :D
We're also working on a couple things in Geography: learning the States (and capitals, postal codes, major landforms, etc) and about Biomes. We've finished the general study of Deserts. Next week we'll study the American deserts.
We're sailing right along in math. Should be finishing up about the first week of June. I'm not sure if I'll have them start grade 7 math just yet. We might take a little break.
We're pushing our way through Ancient History. A lot of the timelines overlap, which can get confusing. Right now I'm hitting the major sections. It's difficult to decide sometimes what they should know and what can be skipped or just mentioned. A lot of the ancients will be covered again later when they are in HS, so we don't have to do a lot of detailed work right now. I hope to get us up to 400AD by the end of summer, since that will put us on track for the Middle Ages next school year.
English and Vocabulary are going well. They are both almost finished with vocab. English will take us a little longer - most of the summer in fact.
I could wish they'd put a little more effort into their spelling words. I'm going to try some new ideas next week and see what happens.
All in all, it's been a good week. Only a couple hiccups. :D And they never last long!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Field Trip!
Alas, no photography allowed :(
Today we went to the Orlando Museum of Art. J's been wanting to go for some time and we finally got around to it.
Boy was it disappointing. They've got nothing on Chicago!
J was so mad. He didn't want to see art he could make himself! (his words) He wanted to see the old stuff! (as in really old, where the artist is dead, OLD) I kind of had to chuckle. I did explain that some of the works here were by artists that had passed away some time ago. But he wasn't interested in landscapes, and he said the portraits were creepy. Their eyes follow you around! So what does he think OLD art is, I wonder? :P
We did get to see an exhibit of Norman Rockwell. I loved every bit of it! I really enjoyed seeing his orginal full-sized works and then the covers of the magazines as they chose what to publish. Fascinating stuff, and a little saddening when you realize how much power the media has when it comes to what we actually get to see.
We also ran across an early "coffee mug" made by the Anasazi of Colorado. Made between 900 and 1000 AD, they were in really great shape. I love the black/white designs.
After the art museum we popped into the science museum just across the street. They were changing out exhibits so there wasn't anything new to check out. We popped into the hurricane simulator and then went over and uncovered some fossils from the dinosaurs. We were having fun until one of the docents came over and began a lecture on how the earth is 65 million years old and the dinosaurs blah, blah, blah, blah...
We listened politely for about half an hour. He did have some really fascinating stories to tell about Dinosaur Sue and Dinosaur Stan. But when he drifted off into the extinction by meteor thing and started in on the whole 65 million thing again I just couldn't take it anymore. At some point I mentioned that we didn't believe that and that was that. You could tell he really wanted to try to convince us that science was right and the Bible was wrong. But we just smiled and changed the subject and asked some questions to keep the topic elsewhere. Eventually it was time to go and we headed out to grab some lunch.
On the way out Chad asked the kids how old the earth is. J looks up and shakes his head, "well it isn't 65 million years that's for sure". Enough said.
Next week: Museum of Salvador Dali! ooohhh! I hope they allow photos!
Today we went to the Orlando Museum of Art. J's been wanting to go for some time and we finally got around to it.
Boy was it disappointing. They've got nothing on Chicago!
J was so mad. He didn't want to see art he could make himself! (his words) He wanted to see the old stuff! (as in really old, where the artist is dead, OLD) I kind of had to chuckle. I did explain that some of the works here were by artists that had passed away some time ago. But he wasn't interested in landscapes, and he said the portraits were creepy. Their eyes follow you around! So what does he think OLD art is, I wonder? :P
We did get to see an exhibit of Norman Rockwell. I loved every bit of it! I really enjoyed seeing his orginal full-sized works and then the covers of the magazines as they chose what to publish. Fascinating stuff, and a little saddening when you realize how much power the media has when it comes to what we actually get to see.
We also ran across an early "coffee mug" made by the Anasazi of Colorado. Made between 900 and 1000 AD, they were in really great shape. I love the black/white designs.
After the art museum we popped into the science museum just across the street. They were changing out exhibits so there wasn't anything new to check out. We popped into the hurricane simulator and then went over and uncovered some fossils from the dinosaurs. We were having fun until one of the docents came over and began a lecture on how the earth is 65 million years old and the dinosaurs blah, blah, blah, blah...
We listened politely for about half an hour. He did have some really fascinating stories to tell about Dinosaur Sue and Dinosaur Stan. But when he drifted off into the extinction by meteor thing and started in on the whole 65 million thing again I just couldn't take it anymore. At some point I mentioned that we didn't believe that and that was that. You could tell he really wanted to try to convince us that science was right and the Bible was wrong. But we just smiled and changed the subject and asked some questions to keep the topic elsewhere. Eventually it was time to go and we headed out to grab some lunch.
On the way out Chad asked the kids how old the earth is. J looks up and shakes his head, "well it isn't 65 million years that's for sure". Enough said.
Next week: Museum of Salvador Dali! ooohhh! I hope they allow photos!
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