September 8, 2008

Today was a great day for a Monday!

A tried out his new letter practice books and LOVED them. He played for 15 minutes on the math trainer at mathisfun.com. He also completed 6 pages in his Phonics workbook. He finished up by going for a visit to Grandma and Papa's.

J came home this afternoon (he was visiting at Grandma and Papa's) so he skipped morning work and bounced straight in to afternoon work. We read the first two chapters of Story of the World out loud.

K worked on some inference, dividing decimals by whole numbers and a page in his spelling skills workbook. (still need to find a program to use for spelling with him) He was the one that read Story of the World out loud for the most part.

I downloaded a program to help me keep track of their assignments and lessons. I'm testing it out now and like it but need to work out the kinks.

September 4, 2008

So after 2 days of posting the wrong dates.. oh boy.

Today was a good day.

K posted on his blog for the first time. He was required to spend at least 15 minutes on it.. I showed him some of the mistakes he made. For some reason he was never made to capitalize I in his writing.. hopefully I can break that habit. All in all, I think it was a great exercise for him.

J spent 15 minutes at his favorite math site practicing his multiplication tables. He's hoping to get all golds (perfects) eventually. I keep telling him practice makes perfect.

A reviewed some phonics. He's fairly proficient with short vowel sounds and recognizing if the sound is in the beginning or middle. He did some basic addition using pennies, nickels and dimes.

September 2, 2008

Another easy, gentle day. The boys worked on some math lessons and that was about it. I think tomorrow K will post his first post on his blog and J will get serious about those times tables.

I found a spelling curriculum that I'm interested in trying for K. It's called Sequential Spelling. I think it is perfect for him, it helps to show the patterns in words. I think he could understand that much easier than attempting to explain the "rules" of English spelling. He's always had such a difficult time of things when it comes to spelling so maybe this will be the breakthrough he needs.

September 1, 2008

It's been a rocky day. Everyone is a little off kilter from the long weekend and we need to work at getting back on task. Long weekends are rough on us, I think.

This week we will kick off a kindness bootcamp. I want to work on how we deal with each other, myself included. I'm still working out the kinks but will post about them when I do.

We attempted to get some workbook time in but it didn't happen for the two littles unfortunately. We did however manage to get started on a solar system mobile. Tomorrow we will likely finish that off. I will be taking some pictures and posting them.

K and J set forth some goals this morning. K wants to blog at least 2 times per week and J would like to memorize his multiplication tables up to the 6's. I think maybe we'll focus on working up to the 4's this week. 15 minutes per day on the math trainer game and that should definitely help him accomplish that.

We also need to implement a set reading time and maybe as incentive for that, I'll match them minute for minute on one of the game systems.

August 28, 2008

Today felt good. I was given some very sage advice from another homeschooling mama friend this morning and the feelings it provoked lasted all day. We were very relaxed but got our morning work done pretty quickly.

I finally found the perfect tool for J to learn his multiplication tables. We used this site, www.mathisfun.com and he had a 15 minute turn with the math trainer. He was pleased with himself and that of course evoked some confidence in him. I'm hoping he'll want to do it again tomorrow. :) J also did a reading comp. lesson and played some games on the Scholastic website.

A worked on reading small passages and answering questions about what he read. He also learned to count by 10's.

K did a grammar unit on relective pronouns (myself, himself, themselves, etc), a spelling page, inference and some more multiplication of decimals. He was supposed to use one of the writing prompts in his blog but we didn't get there today. That's ok there's always tomorrow.

I must say it's very enjoyable to watch the boys interact with each other lately. It is so different from when they were in public school. It truly is. Don't get me wrong.. there is still bickering and arguments. There always will be but they seem to handle those sorts of things better now.

August 27, 2008

A pulled out his reading rods and started making simple words today. He's got CVC words mastered. Now I think it's time to move on to long vowel sounds... hope we don't confuse him along the way!

J worked on multiplication again today. He also knocked out a reading comp. lesson and worked on Subject Pronouns.

K worked on decimal multiplication and inference. He was supposed to get to some Lang. Arts but I think he put it off.

All 3 learned how to hook up a water line to a refrigerator and how to install a dishwasher with Grandpa. The highlight to this was watching Grandpa pull the hose through the floor in to the crawlspace. There was lots of giggles and exclamations of Watch! Watch!

We watched The Magic Schoolbus: Space Adventures.


I felt much more relaxed today. Although around 4pm, I feel a little overwhelmed by the noise and activity level. Seems a good time to throw 'em outside for a bit.


*Quit procrastinating and figure out the Homeschool Group situation.

*Keep scouring the web for a decent spelling program, or kick myself in the butt to make my own.

*Introduce K and J to their writing blogs. Maybe tomorrow have them sit down and write.

*Figure a way to implement the kitchen lessons the boys are all interested in. We've picked recipes, now I need to find a fair way to implement how to choose. I think we might stick the names of the recipes (along with the page number) in to one of my baskets and let each one choose one each pay period. Then we will work together to make the new recipe and hopefully enjoy trying new foods as well.

August 26, 2008

Today went a bit smoother than yesterday. Morning work was accomplished with little fan fare.

J worked on his times table. I don't want him to just memorize them (although this of course will help) but to actually know what he's doing. He's pretty good all the way up to the 6's... after that it starts to get a little frustrating for him. I know in time he'll get it. That's all he did today.

A worked on copying some sentences (he needs handwriting practice again) and some basic math review.

K jumped right in feet first. He knocked out two math pages, two reading pages and a spelling page from his next unit. He's working on decimals and inference.

*I really need to find or create a spelling curriculum that will work for both K and J. J is ahead and K has never been a natural speller.

*I need to keep going slow.. add one thing at a time.

*I think we should do a fun, crafty type project this week.

*Keep looking in to homeschool groups. Don't really want to but I know the boys would greatly benefit from one. Don't forget about 4H AND take another look at scouts.

August 25, 2008

Today is our official "back to school" day.

This morning I had J and A work on an "All About Me" booklet. A needed a little help finishing his.

K wrote up his goals for the year. Some were pretty self explanatory and some were quite interesting. He's curious about the history of the Olympics, evolution and cooking. Hopefully I can draw him in with these. He's hoping to finish 6th and 7th grade this year. I know he can do it.

This afternoon didn't go as I had planned. I really want to get in to a routine with history and science. I was hoping to read from our Story of the World books on M,T,W and either draw a picture of what we read, wrote a paragraph or do a project depending on what it is we were reading about. None of the kids were capable of sitting still this afternoon while S napped so it was a no go. Instead I put all of their energies toward some cleaning because well.. something needs to happen here. I think we'll skip history for this week as it is a little boring to listen to someone read when all you can think about is moving around. Maybe science will go better? TH and F are our science days and September will be our Astronomy month. Maybe that's a better plan.. wait until September to introduce those subjects.


*find a homeschool group to join

*call 4H again because we have not received any information about joining and we called a couple of months ago.

*relax a little.. it's still the beginning of the year.

August 13, 2008

*played geography with the kids for a couple of hours this afternoon. I definitely recommend Highlights Which Way USA books and maps for anybody interested in learning about the states and map reading.

*made K and J blogs that they will use to write with journal prompts. Today's 'topic'


What do you like most about yourself?


*explained to A how to tally things up, counting by 5's.

*practiced reading out loud.


Still left to do.

*discuss household tasks again. I feel we need a routine or something.

*clean my computer area so it's more 'user' friendly.

*lesson plans, lesson plans, lesson plans!

August 12, 2008

Today was a day of grammar review and swimming! I used one of our Learning Resources "games" for today's review lesson. They are called Reading Rods and are pretty cool. The kit we used was called Sentence Builders. All of the different words are color coded. We played with nouns and pronouns built compound words and played with punctuation. I was pleasantly surprised with how well this "lesson" went. Here the boys were truly learning and none of this was down on paper. J helped pick up with a huge smile on his face. It's moments like these that I truly know I'm doing the right thing!

After our lessons we discussed household chores, duties etc. I need help keeping this house clean. When it's really messy it puts me in a terrible mood and I feel like I just can't function properly. So J decided he wanted to help me in the kitchen (he also very cutely told me that when I am stressed to please tell him so he can kiss me and make it better), K said he would cover the living room and poor A got stuck with the bathroom again. Of course, I will help A keep the bathroom up.. it's not like I'm going to let him hang out in there alone with all sorts of cleaners. I feel a little better about the cleaning setup now. I think I may print off some chore charts of some sort, I'll ask the boys what they think about that.

We finally left the house around 2:30 this afternoon. Today was our Tuesday swim day. We left the house (I was a bit irritated and flustered) and were met by a tractor in front of us. He was traveling at a exceptionally slow, for my irritated self, 20 mph. I followed him for quite awhile of course because that was just the way my afternoon was. Then there was a cop behind us. After that, there was a caravan of trucks crossing the road. AND after that! There was a freight train.. I then proceeded to hit every red light the rest of the way there. I was practicing my patience for sure. The boys thoroughly enjoyed their swim.. there's only a few more weeks of warm weather left now.


Things that still need to be done:

*finish organizing the astronomy lesson.

*finish writing up the August 25th lesson plan for each boy, K's is done.

*get our schooling areas clean and organized. Things just work out better when I have some semblance of order.

August 11, 2008

As a collective, we decided that we would start schooling in full on the 25th of August. Today we started the first of our review work to get us in gear. The boys awoke at 9:30 this morning and hopefully within the next week we will bump our wake up time to 9:00. Bedtime will move from 10pm to 9 pm.

Today K and J both worked on some Math Review. A reviewed his addition facts and some reading details online. I found a very fun and interesting educational site for them to play on. I figure some game play will help make the review work a little less boring.

I need some fun ideas to help J learn his multiplication facts. I also think we need to work on being nice to one another.. the summer has been a little slack with that for some reason.


SO what are my goals for the upcoming month?

*I'd like to bring together an astronomy unit. I've already asked a friend if we can use his telescope and expertise with this. Now I just need to get the paper stuff together.

*I'd like to have an actual schedule for our history book. I haven't decided how many chapters a month I'd like to read from Story of the World but I would definitely like to move a little faster than we did last year.

*I'd like to do a weekly written lesson plan, that way the boys and I both know what to expect from each other. :)

*Find something fun for learning multiplication facts for J.

*Discover a way to help my boys play nice all.the.time... yes, I know this one's a stretch. :P


I really want to make sure I accomplish the first three.. the other two are bonus goals.

edited to add...

*I'd like to post daily here. I think it's important for those close to me to see what exactly we are doing.

*I'd like K to write a list of his own goals for the month (year) and share them here.

I think that might be it.. but who knows my brain is always thinking.

July 26, 2008

Happy 10th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

To celebrate we went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. Here's a slideshow of our day! Enjoy!!

July 21, 2008

It's Ocean Day in Japan! I haven't pulled out any ocean activities just yet but maybe I'll grab something off the net. :)


Third Monday of July (national holiday)
Ocean Day (umi no hi):
A recently introduced national holiday to celebrate the ocean. The day marks the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Hokkaido in 1876.


K has been gone for a week now, he'll be back on Wednesday. He decided to take some time off at his grandparent's for a bit. We see him every couple of days because we are so busy in the summer.. I'm guess that he's loving the time away from everybody though.

Tomorrow is pool day! More swimming fun for us.

July 15, 2008

Another day of swimming! It was very hot and humid today so we spent the day in the pool. A practiced holding his breath and putting his face in the water while J perfected going under water and picking up things from the bottom of the pool. K played with the big kids, pool volleyball must be lots of fun.

K also discovered he has a sensitivity to chlorine. He now has to be very careful NOT to swallow ANY pool water. After a day of play in the pool he got out with a nasty cough, very red eyes and a headache. :(

Miss S perfected her social skills with all of the new faces at the pool. She's such a flirt! She also spent the day walking all over the place, her newfound skill. She's going to be running before her first birthday.


No pictures today, I spent most of the day in the pool having too much fun to take the time to get the camera out. :D

July 14, 2008

Today was a trip to the Illinois State Beach. We collected many rocks to look at and to paint. Daddy found some fossils which were very cool. K wasn't feeling too well so he decided to stay home. J and A were in all their glory studying rocks. :) Lake Michigan goes on and on forever.. it almost looks like the ocean when you look across it.

July 12 and 13, 2008

Last night we discovered that some wasps decided to make our attic vent their home. They were starting to enter the upstairs (where K and J sleep) and I felt it was a bit risky for us to be there for the time being. J is somewhat allergic and I didn't want to take the chance.

For the time being, we are hanging out at my grandparent's house. Enjoying the change in routine and of course the multigenerational banter. The boys went to the driving range this afternoon. S is walking more and more each day, probably around 75% of the time now.

Hopefully, we'll be able to trek back home on Sunday with no more wasps! (well.. maybe I'll dig up some info on wasps and share it with the boys. I'm sure I can find something interesting about them. LOL)

July 11, 2008

Last night Daddy rescued a toad from his work. We are observing the toad, watching it eat and hopefully grow.


Here are some of the things we learned today about toads.

•we were surprised to learn that toads are actually frogs
•most toads have stubby bodies with short hind legs(for walking instead of hopping)
•they prefer dryer climates (making their bodies dry and warty)
•some have poison glands behind their eyes
•toads tend to lay eggs in long chains instead of clusters and there's at least one species of toad that has live young.
•they are find worldwide except in Australasia, polar regions, Madagascar, and Polynesia, though Bufo marinus has been artificially introduced into Australia and some South Pacific islands.

Tonight when Daddy gets home we'll probably release the toad in our backyard where it will hopefully help eliminate some mosquitoes.

Pics to come!

July 10, 2008

In an effort to get in to the habit of updating this regularly, I'm going to try and post daily.

Today we had some friends over that we hadn't seen in a very long time. Everyone had a really great time! I made a yummy lunch of mac-n-cheese with no icky stuff hot dogs even S enjoyed it.

J and A were having a nice game of brain quest earlier... A gets really excited when he answers correctly. I even got in on the fun.. I need to make a mental note to get more of those, in all different grades.


An interesting observation.. J and A are really looking anywhere right now for some mental stimulation. J made me download spelling bee lists to drill just him at night. A has a million questions about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.. I'm thinking within the month we'll probably pick up a more active school plan.

I worry about K. He doesn't, at this time, seem to have an interest in finding something to stimulate his brain. He prefers to have his work handed to him and directed what to do. He definitely takes delight in helping his brothers to learn so I'm hoping some of their interests rub off on him. I'm thinking maybe a longer deschooling period might have been beneficial for him but we'll see as we enter in to the next year. I'm sure being in traditional school for 6 years made an impact, I believe it might take some time to unlearn those habits.

The past week...

I wanted to get started on this blog... while we are definitely taking a break from paper drills and the hum drum of regular school work we are far from not learning while we take a break.

K asked me last year on his birthday if we could make his favorite t-shirt (he's a HUGE Beatles fan!) in to a pillow when he grew out of it. It took exactly a year for that to happen and he's totally lovin' the new pillow he helped design, sew and stuff!

Here's a shot of him in it a year ago as a t*shirt:




And here is a shot of him at the age of 13 with his new pillow:




I truly can not believe how big my boy has become in just a year...

Swimming!!

Today we went for a swim at a friend's pool. All the kids had a blast! Even Miss S got in on the fun, splashing and surprising me with her instincts to swim already. A is getting better and better at remember to move his arms AND kick his feet. He should be swimming, really swimming in no time. J was practicing diving under water and K of course was at the head of all the activities.

Here's some great pics from our fun filled day:

Our First Post!

This blog was created to chronicle our homeschooling journey. We can't wait to add some fun and interesting posts. Stay tuned!