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.