A Recap of 2017-2018 and When Summer Gets in the Way

Recap of 2017-2018

So, just to update on everyone. Rabbit "officially" graduated December 2017 and started at the local University in January, taking 12 credits. Between CLEP, her classes at the community college, and her credits from this last semester, she has 48 credits under her belt. She was going to major in music, but has decided her heart is really in education, becoming a reading specialist. She wants to work at a missionary school someday. She is planning on taking two more CLEP tests this summer.

Tigger and Pooh completed 8th grade. They really did pretty well. Tigger took a writing class at our co-op. I'm not sure I'll do a separate writing class again, though. That really challenged us time wise. They both did Physical Science labs at co-op. VideoText was not a good fit for Tigger, so we have switched to Saxon Algebra 1. He is actually enjoying it. (He completed the pre-Algebra section of VideoText twice last year, the second time through, he was finally getting it.) Pooh has continued through VideoText.

When Summer Gets in the Way

I had great plans this summer for math, language arts, and computers. Sigh. Real life often gets in the way. It's all good stuff, and I know it will work out. We joined in with friends from our co-op for a graduation celebration, and that interrupted us getting started. Then a camping trip, birthday, and another trip to visit family provide more interruptions. And then two basketball camps in July will mess with the schedule. We're continuing working through math as the days allow. For computers, I'm teaching Tigger Scratch and Pooh Java programming. My husband has noticed that they aren't very good typists, so would like them to work on their typing.

Fall Plans

Dare I lay out our fall plans? Sure, why not. First, Ancient History and Literature from My Father's World for Bible, History, and English. Plus, the boys will be in Awana Journey, so that adds Bible, too. They both volunteer at our Cubbies/Sparkies/Truth-and-Training club, so that takes care of their volunteering efforts for the Bible credit.

Science will be Apologia Biology, with labs at our co-op. Hopefully they will be able to work those more independently this next year.

Pooh will do VideoText, and Tigger will do Saxon Algebra 1 for math. Right now we are following the My Father's World lesson plans. I teach the lesson rather than using the DIVE CD. None of my kids have been big fans of the DIVE CDs. Math is one subject I will be helping both boys with. I think having someone guide you through math over and over, and explaining the thought processes behind what you are doing is necessary.

Tigger is going to do Spanish 1 through our co-op. I'm debating whether I need to add a little more. The teacher does weekly quizzes and sends home vocabulary, and has a project to do each semester, but I'm not sure it's 5 hours worth of work a week. I'm considering whether to just add DuoLingo time, or getting a curriculum like Breaking the Barrier to beef it up some.

Pooh is going to do the Java programming class as his sixth credit. I'm teaching it at our co-op this year, so I hope to have him a couple of weeks ahead so I know where the pitfalls are. Right now I'm going to use Stanford's SEE Introduction to Programming Methodology as my base, and then facilitate to help the students write the programs. I'm excited about the possibilities.

They will both do P.E., one day a week. Tigger is hoping to try out for basketball at the local high school. They will also continue music lessons and playing in their various worship bands.

2017-2018 School Year

Plans for Rabbit
Rabbit is enrolled at the local community college to take English Composition 1, College Algebra, and Music Theory 1 with Lab. She will take Spanish through our co-op. This will be a totally hands off semester for me, except for any help she needs with math or English. She is also a company dancer and dancing in competitions this year for her dance studio. I hope she can keep up with it all. In the spring, she will be starting at a local university.

Plans for Pooh and Tigger
This year we are repeating 1850 to Modern Times from My Father's World. Last time through they were third graders, so they just did the 2nd/3rd grade supplement. This time a lot of the information will be new. We will not be doing the Bible memory, as the boys participate in Awana. We will read the other books under the Bible section though, as those are good. They will also be doing Apologia's physical science curriculum with labs at co-op, rather than the science in 1850 to Modern Times.

Language Arts will be looking a bit different this year. I am adding in vocabulary, using Vocabulary Cartoons. We'll just do one word a day, 4 days a week. There is a quiz in the book after every 10 words, so we'll even do the quizzes. It will probably take us 2 years to get through a book, and I do plan on continuing them through high school. I feel like the boys are lacking in vocabulary. They don't like to read as much as Rabbit and it shows in the words they choose when speaking and writing. We are doing Easy Grammar as recommended by My Father's World, and continuing in Sequential Spelling as Pooh needs more spelling. Pooh will continue in Writing With Skill 1 this year, but Tigger will be taking a middle school writing class at co-op. I think it will be very good for him.

I'm going to continue with VideoText Interactive for the boys for Algebra 1 this year. Rabbit has done really well with it, and I like the way they teach it. I did briefly consider Shoremann math, but I think I like to be more involved with math, especially with Pooh's dysgraphia. This will allow me to keep up with what they are doing and not hand off a topic completely.

Apologia's Exploring Creation with Physical Science is recommended for 8th grade, so we are doing that. Our co-op has a teacher that offer's labs to go along with this text. I've already talked to her about Pooh's dysgraphia and how to go about handling that. The teacher really loves science, so I think this will be good for the boys.

For Foreign Langauge we are going to try a Spanish curriculum I picked up for $5 from the Build Your Bundle sale (if you consider I bought 5 things for $25, it was $5). I had OfficeDepot print out 2 copies and spiral bind them. It is written as a one semester course, but we will spread over the school year. Mostly I want to expose them to it before taking Spanish at the co-op in 9th grade. I might also add a little DuoLingo to it as well.

Art and Music we'll continue as part of the 1850 to Modern Times curriculum. We usually don't do the art projects. We read the art history and technique, but the boys aren't really interested in doing the art projects, so I let it go. We've got enough on our plates already.

There are also some really good read alouds this year that the boys didn't listen to last time. I'm looking forward to reading those with the boys. The books have longer chapters, so I don't know if I'll be doing those during lunch. Hopefully I can find some audio to go with the books so I don't have to do all of the reading myself. I did manage to get audio for Sargent York last time, though I ended up reading it because the audio seemed slow with the southern drawl. I know I got Across Five Aprils audio from the library last time, and that was helpful. 

Tigger is also taking acting again at our co-op. Both boys take music lessons. And Tigger is planning on hip-hop, flag football, and basketball this next school year. Oh, and we'll be doing P.E. classes as usual. I suspect our days will be much longer. History will take more time due to outlining each chapter (but that will be good for them). And I suspect science will take longer, as the co-op teacher said part of the homework is not only writing up the lab, but watching related videos and such. And, math too. But, I like to use a timer, and when we hit a maximum time for a subject, we stop for the day.

Preparation

So, I've read through the introduction section of the teacher's manual a couple of times. I went shopping for a few items we need. I've printed the first few weeks of the Student Activity pages (bought the PDF this time) that we'll need and the timeline pieces. I cleaned out their history notebooks from last year, bought new binders, and put all the page protectors in the new binders. I've also put lesson plans for physical science, vocabulary, the Progeny Press guides we're doing this year, and Easy Grammar into my Homeschool Tracker Plus database. 

What's left? A little more organizing the bookshelves, ripping the CD's for music to my phone (because the cars no longer have CD players, and I plan on listening to the music in the car on the way to co-op), reserving books from the library (that needs to wait until closer to our start date), and finishing lesson plans to go along with our Awana program this year. We start in a month, so hopefully I can get it all done.

Successful Homeschooling

So, my oldest completed her junior year. This fall she will be taking classes at the local community college, I will graduate her in December, and in January 2018 she will start as a freshman at a local university.

What We Did in Elementary School

We have used My Father's World since she was in 3rd grade. And, we used all their recommendations except for Spelling and Writing in the elementary years. (For spelling she used All About Spelling. For Writing, we started with Writing Strands and then used Essentials in Writing for 7th and 8th - this was before My Father's World started recommending Writing with Skill 1 for 7th and 8th). Singapore math was very good for her. 

What We Did in 9th Grade

For 9th grade, we used My Father's World Ancient History and Literature, as written. I did have a friend who was willing to help me with improving and grading her writing. That was very helpful. For Math, we used Saxon Algebra 1. Science was Apologia's Biology, doing labs at a co-op. For Foreign Language we used My Father's World lesson plans for Rosetta Stone. This included writing  a report about a Spanish speaking country, watching videos with Spanish language and subtitles turned on, and reading children's books in Spanish. We also did the Logic books and she had dance classes approximately 7 hours a week. Since our local high schools have "Performing Arts" classes with credit, I gave her credit for that. She also volunteered every week at our Awana program and helped set up and tear down at church on a 2 week on, 4 week off rotation. She also did the Awana Journey program, which I used for her memorization, rather than any memorization in My Father's World Bible component.

What We Did in 10th Grade

For 10th grade, we used My Father's World World History and Literature. For Math we used Math-U-See's Geometry. Since she did Apologia's Chemistry this year, I needed to make sure the math program was not too hard. For Chemistry, we were able to take labs at our co-op, and those took her 3 to 5 hours a week to do, much of the time due to her struggles with math (related to her dyslexia). Our co-op began offering Spanish 1 classes this year, so she did that, while doing Rosetta Stone level 2. The combination really helped. She also did the Health program sold by My Father's World. I did have her read Boundaries in Dating, as I disagree with the premise behind the I Kissed Dating Goodbye book. Add in her dancing, Awana, volunteering, and church volunteering and you have a full year.

What We Did in 11th Grade

Again, we used My Father's World US History to 1877 program. She did like the BJU textbook over the Notgrass from previous years. The section quizzes and tests take it up a notch. We switched to using VideoText Interactive for Math. She has worked hard to complete all the videos. And, we did Apologia's Advanced Biology for science, as I didn't feel she could handle the math for Physics. We have a microscope, so she just did the microscope labs (no dissections, but she did those in Biology). I let her take pictures through the microscope with her phone rather than hand drawing what she saw. At co-op, she took an ACT/SAT prep class that uses John Baylor Test Prep to prepare for taking her ACT and SAT, and Spanish 2 (which was really Spanish 3 on her transcript). We dropped the Personal Finance class, as it was too much with the ACT/SAT prep, and I felt it was more important. This year she did a one week missions trip to Honduras, as well as her usual Awana, volunteering, and dance. We did have occasional tears and had to adjust schedules and expectations.

At the end of the school year, she took her ACT and SAT. She had above average scores, but not super high scores, which I expected based on her dyslexia and math challenges. I had her take the Accuplacer test at the local community college, and she placed into Freshman Composition 1 and College Algebra. Those are the only two classes she actually needs to meet the minimum admissions requirements to get into the university. So, she will be taking those, and a Music Theory 1 class with lab. 

She is actually studying to take the College Composition CLEP, and if she passes, she will take Freshman Composition 2 instead, since the target university accepts the CLEP and we have guaranteed transfer on the Composition and Math classes. She is also studying for the US History 1 CLEP, which makes sense after studying that time period. Other CLEPs are on the horizon.

What We Might Do Differently

So, now that I've done this once, I have twin boys to follow (they will be 8th graders this fall). Here are some things I might do differently the next time through.

Since the boys do Awana, and worldview is in the program, I'm seriously considering *not* doing the Bible part of the 11th grade year. We might do something like watch The Truth Project once a week just to cover it, but not have it be part of our homeschool classes. I have one boy who is more of a STEM kid, and would like to open up a slot for programming or extra science. He also is dyslexic, so I don't want to overload him. Also, the other boy likes music and acting and sports, so I want to have room in his daily schedule for him to do those things.

We've already started and completed VideoText Interactive Module A, which is pre-algebra. We will do it for our school the next 2 years. I have their Geometry program, too.

I want to do more PSAT/SAT/ACT prep earlier. Maybe just a little each week using a book or something. So again, I need to make sure we don't overload. Mostly this is because the schools my boys are thinking of attending will cost more than the one my oldest is attending and will need scholarships. Good test scores help with scholarships.

I'm also thinking of doing the Accuplacer at the end of 10th grade. If they place into Freshman Composition 1, then we will direct more of our English time onto CLEP preparation. I am also considering how to use Writing with Skill 2 (and maybe 3) in conjunction with the My Father's World writing. I really like the way Writing with Skill breaks things down.

I'm sure there are other ideas tumbling around in my head, but these will get me started.

Preparing for a School Year Using MFW Curriculum

So, one of the common questions I see on the Facebook My Father's World group is: How do you prepare for Exploring Countries and Cultures? (Or whichever year the person is using.)

I've never used MFW's Kindergarten curriculum, so I really can't advise for that one, but I'm pretty sure detailed instructions are in the front of the teacher's manual.

So, here is how I prepare each school year.

First, I just briefly flip through all the books that come with the curriculum just to be a little familiar with them. Sometimes the books are Usborne books and have lots of text or columns of information or sidebars and I just want to be familiar with how the books are laid out.

Next, I get a pencil, notebook, small sticky notes, the teacher's manual, and all the books, and find a quiet corner, or spread them out on the coffee table. Do whatever works. If you have littles, you may need to wait until nap time, and spread this next part over several sessions.

I read through the front introduction section, underlining anything that jumps out at me as important. I might make a little note or put an asterisk there. If I really don't want to write in that particular TM, then I'll use a sticky note. I use the notebook to make lists of things I need to do to prepare, supplies, etc. So, if I am reading the Rome to the Reformation TM, and I see that I need certain page from The Body Book copied, I'll make a box and then write "Make Body Book copies." (I like having all my copies done at the beginning of the year. You may not feel like you need to do it in advance. Only write what you need to do based on how you like to prepare.)

I also think about what supplies I already have, and then write down any other supplies I need based on the list in the front of the TM. Some years, like Explorers to 1850, it suggests spiral bound 4x6 cards for the memory work. That's something I probably wouldn't have on hand, so I write it down and then watch prices in the Sunday sale ads. 

I usually read through the introduction section more than once, trying to become really familiar with it. I want to remember when we use narration and when we use copywork and dictation and such, so reading through it several times helps me. (One big tip I have is to read through that introduction section about once every 8-12 weeks, as a reminder. I often forget things.)

Next, I go to Week 1 in the TM and look over the grid and see how it is laid out. I pull out all the books that are used that week, and as I go down each day, I find the book, read what the TM tells me to read, look at the student sheets to make sure I understand which one and what the kids are suppose to do. I might write "narrate" in each Bible and History box on the grid for the first two weeks to remind myself to do that when we actually start. Then I read all the Notes after the grid to make sure I didn't miss any important information. The grid will say "see notes" if there is information there. 

If all the books aren't used the first week, I will go through the weeks until I find a week where it is used, and then read the Notes about the book and read the pages assigned for that day. The idea is to feel comfortable using the books and TM together.

I might be able to do this process in one day, or I might spread it out over several days. Then, I go ahead and read the grid and Notes for every week of the year. Yep, every one. I have that notebook handy and will write things like, "Week 7, Make boats - supplies needed. . ." This really helps me get an overall view of the year. (The second time through a year, I don't go into nearly as much detail, as I'm already familiar with the books and topics.)

Finally, I read through that introduction section again. Just trying to cement all those little clues in my mind.

After that, I have my list in my notebook to work with. I put the student sheets for each student in a separate hanging file folder. We pull them out of the folder, complete them, and then they go into the appropriate notebook in a page protector. Two sheets per page protector, one facing forward, one back, unless the sheet has a backside. It took a little bit of training to teach my kids how to do the sheets in the page protector, but now at the end of the year, I can take the sheets out and have them bound at my favorite office supply store. Then I go through my checklist and do all the prep work from that.

Preparing a high school year is similar. I read through the Daily Lesson Plans, get familiar with the books my daughter will be using, and try to get a feel for the flow of the year. Then, I go over it with my daughter so she and I are on the same page. I do use Homeschool Tracker Plus to track assignments and grades, so that is a big part of my preparation for high school: entering the assignments into HST+. 

So, that's is basically how I prepare using a MFW TM. For 1st grade, I did laminate things that were used frequently: the reading chart, the math place value cards, and a few other things. For that year, I also made several skip counting charts, calendars, and other daily repetitive things and put them in a notebook for each boy, and then would go through them with each boy separately. And, for first grade I added in memorizing home phone, address, and their birthday.

Enjoy your year in My Father's World!

Finding Your Kids' Interests

As I now have a child halfway through highschool, and Tigger and Pooh are starting junior high this fall, I thought I might change the direction of this blog. I know. I haven't been that good about keeping it up anyway, so might as well change course.

This fall, my oldest (Rabbit) will be doing My Father's World U.S. History to 1877. I've read through it, and it looks like a good, challenging year. It also looks like it is going to take a good deal more of my time - especially teaching Thinking Like a Christian. It looks like great material, but with our weekly co-op, we may have to do the parent-led teaching on Saturdays. She is also doing Spanish 3 and Apologia's Anatomy and Physiology for science. We're going to try VideoText for math. I think she needs to relearn those foundational algebra concepts. 

Tigger and Pooh will be doing My Father's World Explorers to 1850. The last time through the boys were second graders, and only did the second grade supplement. It will be interesting to see how they like it. They are also doing Apologia's General Science (they will be doing the labs at our co-op), Saxon 8/7 for math, and My Father's World seventh grade English recommendations. We have already started Saxon 8/7 this summer, to get a head start.

One of the things about heading into junior high and high school is to start focusing your kids on their interests. Seeing where God might be leading them. Rabbit is pretty easy. She loves dance and music and teaching. She is thinking about perhaps a Music Education degree, some how tied into dance. We'll figure it out. 

Pooh is pretty easy. He's very much the engineer. So, we have gotten him Mindstorm Lego kits and he's learned to build cars and program the remote control. I also plan on adding in some programming somewhere. (Finding the time is the challenge.) His dream is to eventually run a car company - he wants to design and build cars. 

Tigger has been more challenging. He can build things with Legos, but it's not his number one favorite. Mostly, he has been into sports - baseball, flag football, hip hop, and basketball. But, he is also very small, and though he wants to be a professional basketball player, i'm not sure he will be big enough. Two things about Tigger caught my attention: one is that he likes doing things that get other people's attention - dressing super nice, cool hair cut, asks if he can get his ears pierced; the other is he perseveres. I also noticed he was writing lyrics to "rap" songs and other things. Then, he wrote up an "article" on a NBA team, on his own. So, I set up a blog for him. This allows him to write, and when people read it, he gets the attention. It's all about his thoughts on the NBA. I also saw an ad in our newspaper for a "Journalism Day" - they learn how to interview, photograph, etc. So, I've signed him up for that. The nice thing is, if he does this one day camp, he may decide he loves it or hates it. If he hates it, we can move on to something else. But, I'm thinking we're on the right track for his future.

Let me just say this: I'm not really worried about their futures. God has a plan for their lives. He will guide them, and use their experiences (or lack thereof) for their futures. I will give them the best foundation I can, but God's got this. 

So,that's where we're heading this next school year. I'll try to keep posting about different things. How our days are going, our co-op, and then maybe thoughts on more "general" homeschooling topics.

CTG: Week 4

The boys got tired of the shofar every day and the "Awake you that are sleepy..." reading. But we did it. We didn't fast at the end, but we did read about Yom Kippur in our Jewish Holidays book. The boys already know the books of the Old Testament from AWANA, but we sang our Old Testament song each day for fun.

The boys did fine on their first Vocabulary quiz. So far they have had no trouble remembering the meanings of the roots, and they've remember all the words we learned from the back of the cards. I've been making trees to put up on the wall with the roots and then the words on the branches. I don't know that the boys are really looking at those, but they're up.

Math is going pretty well. The boys like alternating Life of Fred and Singapore. I think it gives a good mix of activities. Life of Fred really makes them think, too.

In History we covered the unification of Egypt. Here are the crowns we made:

Then we just nested them together for the unification:

After we were done, I taped them on the wall above the timeline as a big reminder:

Science is the study of pyramids right now. We couldn't get sticky-tac to work to hold our straws together. We ended up using tape on one, and clay for the other. And of course, the boys had to build one using Legos:

Pooh wasn't satisfied with a four-sided pyramid, so he spent some time finding pieces that would allow him to build a three-sided pyramid:

The boys are taking an art class at the co-op we're going to, so that means moving stuff around on the schedule. We are listening to the music scheduled in the car on the way to co-op. And then we move the God and the History of Art to one of the other days. Foreign Language is moved too.

All in all, not a bad week. We didn't make the reed boat. And we didn't go all out on the feast, but that's okay. I will say they are asking for Science in the Beginning already. They really like that book.

AHL: Week 9

Well, school is just flying by. This week's highlights:

Rabbit finished the Fallacy Detective. We went through a couple of magazines and identified what kind of propaganda they were using. It was really interesting going through a homeschool magazine and deciding what propaganda they were using. She is beginning to see that you need to be careful what you believe in the ads. And, when we watched the football game, we talked about it with the commercials. A good activity.

She is doing well in the Ancient Literature Supplement. Sometimes her answers are too vague or short, so I have to go back and have her tell me what she meant or more details. She seems to be keeping up just fine.

I think Spanish is her easiest subject. For her Real Life Activity this week she watched a Veggie Tales video with Spanish subtitles and took notes on a few word meanings that she could figure out. She is also still working through the verb workbook.

She is flying through All About Spelling level 7. We are already on step 10. She really tries to have fun with it. She really likes the new Writing Station Prompt Generator. She pulls out strips of paper that make a complete sentence, and then try to use the vocabulary words for that step in writing. So, she pulls out something like, "Write a post-card to a master candlestick maker who is trapped on a deserted island." She does great with these creative writing prompts. (And, when Writing Strands gets old for my boys, we use these for writing, too. Lots of fun!)

I am still way behind on the Old Testament Challenge. Rabbit is keeping up. And, she is being thoughtful in her answers. I really appreciate the effort she puts into it.

Our co-op started this week for Rabbit's biology labs. That has really forced us to adjust our days. She is going to have to do some school on the weekends to stay on top of things. It is about a 1/2 hour trip to the location, then 1 1/2 hours of class, and then a 1/2 hour home. She reads in the car. And then she only does Spanish, Logic, AWANA, Spelling, and Piano (plus 2 hours of dance classes in the evening) the rest of that day. And she can use the time to catch up on any other work. This is why we started so early with AHL - so she doesn't have to do AHL on co-op days.

Math is still her nemesis. But, she plows on. Saxon 8/7 was good preparation for Saxon Algebra 1. A lot of stuff was already covered. Sometimes I think the Algebra 1 explanations are more complicated - like some of the ratio problems. Rabbit still solves those the Saxon 8/7 way (which I am fine with). But then, there are explanations in the Algebra 1 book that make so much more sense than the 8/7 book (like range, mode, median, average).

Days are long. Sometimes we don't finish until 4:00pm or so. But, she is doing well.

CTG: Week 3; AHL Week 8

Okay, so with the boys liking pulling the paper strips out of the jar, I thought I'd make something a little more durable. I wrote all their subjects on craft sticks. (On the back side of some of them is what the other one is doing if it is a one-on-one subject.) I also lined the jar with black construction paper so they can't see the writing on the sticks. I only put in the subjects in the jar that are to be done that day.

At the beginning of the week, when I see a feast day coming up, I always get a bit nervous. But, I am determined not to let these feasts get the best of me. These are to glorify God, not stress me out.

Monday really seemed to be a long day. Then Tuesday I figured it out: we had a bunch of writing on Monday. There was a notebooking page in History, a notebooking page in Science, and writing out their Vocabulary. Tigger writes most of his stuff, but sometimes I scribe for him. And then I scribe for Pooh for most everything, so that made it take long. Plus there was the map work. 

Tuesday went much quicker, and the boys really liked the subjects on craft sticks. They worked pretty diligently and got done.

The rest of the week went smoothly. I took pictures of our timelines. Here are the ones on cardstock that we fold up and put in the front pocket of their history binders:

And then here is the start of the timeline on the wall. I am reusing our timeline figures from the first time, so some of the images are different than what is in the student packet.

Friday night we did our Rosh Hashanah feast. It was lovely. Here is our table setting:

The boys made the crown and we made 4 shofar horns - one for me, and one for each of the kids. We just put the one on the table. I just used packing paper because I didn't have a grocery bag to use. The ladder on the bread is a Lego ladder from the boys. Dad has been great this year in reading his parts for the feasts. It is really neat how they all point us to Christ. I missed lighting the candles, but that was okay because the crown kept falling off. The boys wouldn't try the apples dipped in honey, but the rest of us did. And the loaf of bread is just from our local Kroger store - it is called a sheepherder's loaf. It was very tasty.

With AHL, I started the week behind in the Old Testament Challenge and ended behind. But, I love how what we're doing in AHL can tie into CTG.  We're in Leviticus where Aaron's sons are killed for offering a foreign fire to the Lord. And the note in my study Bible compares it to Ananias and Saphira being killed for lying about the money they offered. Anyway, the conclusion of the note said that the people needed to know that the community existed for God, not vice versa. And that got me to thinking about the feasts. I often look at them as burdens. But God did not intend for them to be looked on that way. They are to bring Him glory. To remind us that we exist for Him. And it reminded me of a line from The West Wing (a TV show about the president of the U.S.): "I serve at the pleasure of the President." Just change "President" to Lord, God, Jesus Christ, or Holy Spirit and I think that is to be our attitude. Now, I'm not saying I have to do 100% of what the TM prescribes to do for these feasts, but I do think I need to have an attitude check and make sure I'm serving at the pleasure of God.

Adding in Biology made Monday go until 5:00pm. Whew, a little long. It has made for very long days all this week.

Rabbit is getting the literature subjects, but I've told her she needs to give more detailed answers in the Ancient History and Literature Supplement. Sometimes she just barely describes a person or situation instead of naming it. 

We've been going over her work daily. I skim through the books and ask questions of things I see, and then go over her answers to questions if she has any. She's doing pretty well.

CTG: Week 2; AHL: Week 7

This week we continued drawing subjects out of the jar. The boys really like it. It really mixes up the days.

This week I decided to add in Life of Fred Fractions and alternate it with Singapore 4A. The boys love Life of Fred. Fractions in Singapore have been a big challenge for them. I think they will get it, but it is going to take time.

We are pretty well enjoying Bible and History. I keep on forgetting to read the Victor Journey Through the Bible pages. My remedy is to put the book out on the coffee table as a reminder. They like the Dinosaurs of Eden book, too. Much of it repeats what we are reading in Bible time, but that's okay. I didn't read any other creation myths. I did tell them that there are several books in the book basket that have other creation stories, and that they should think about how the compare to what the Bible says. One of our projects for history was to go outside and measure the length of the ark. I remember when we did this with Rabbit. Here's our picture from this time:

Now, you can see our street is quite curved, so you'd have to follow the curve of the street to get 450 feet. I circled where Pooh is standing. You can't see it in this reduced-size picture, but there was also a hazard cone right next to him. The 450 feet went all the way to where Tigger is standing up close here. We are only about 10 to 15 yards from the other end of the street. That would be huge!

We started The Easy Spanish this week. We are doing it together, which I think they like better than doing it with Rabbit. I'm keeping it light - my main goal is for them to hear it pronounced and get comfortable with some of the words. I know they'll start to get the hang of it soon.

Art was not a favorite this week. Tigger really got frustrated with drawing ellipses. I told him it didn't have to be perfect, but he still wasn't happy about it.

And, of course, our number one subject is Science. They love Science in the beginning. We did lessons 3-5 this week. We were able to get lessons 3 and 4 experiments to work fine. For lesson 4, we just placed the plastic out on the patio since we don't have any south-facing windows. We were not able to get lesson 5 to work. Someone on the Facebook Creation to the Greeks group said she couldn't get it to work with printer paper, but she did with newsprint. I will have to try that. My guess is our magnifying glass doesn't make a small enough pinlight. The glass is kind of warped in the middle - it's some cheap magnifying glass that came with some toy kit or another.

The read aloud is a great book and we even read one day ahead on Friday.

For AHL, well, we didn't follow the lesson plans exactly (shhh! don't tell!). The lesson plans suggested that for the Exploring World History project we pick one of the two writing assignments. Well, Rabbit didn't understand that when she read the assignment, and so she picked one of the other projects: make an electronic display of pictures (like a PowerPoint slide show) that shows the influence of ancient mathematicians on today's world. (I knew by her expressions that she would be really, really upset if she had to do one of the writing assignments - she was already getting ideas for doing the other one.) So, I let her do it. But, I told her she had to do the presentation for Dad - since he has to give PowerPoint presentations all the time, I thought he should be the one to grade it. He gave her an A. Anyway, from now on I am going to read the lesson plans ahead on Friday to make sure we don't run into something like this again.

She is doing great with Spanish, and keeping up with Logic, so not much to report there. She got a couple of Spanish books from the library and is trying to read them. 

Math is her biggest challenge. She needs me to do it with her, but we can't work on it until after lunch since I am working with the boys in the morning. We're trying to do it right after Spelling - and Spelling isn't usually happening until after lunch, so it is 2:30 or 3:00 before we tackle it. 

Next week I'm going to have her start reading the Biology book. Our co-op starts the week after that. I haven't received any e-mails from the teacher, but I don't want her to be behind.

CTG Week 1 with Sabbath; AHL Week 6

So, for Week 1, Days 3 and 4 we continued with the drawing of subjects out of a jar. Tigger really likes doing school that way. They don't like it when they draw the Spelling cycle, though. And our days went great with this method. Finishing by noon both days.

On Friday it was Sabbath preparation day. We did do a little bit of academics: Math, book basket, and memory verse review (verses I am having them memorize until AWANA starts). The boys helped make the bread. We didn't make the official challah from the book. I made my usual Italian bread, and we braided it to look like challah.

The boys also made a spice box. The Book of Jewish Holidays said most spice boxes were made like a castle, and they had a craft you could do to make a castle-like spice box. I had also saved our tin Altoids box from the last time we did CTG. We never did the closing of Sabbath last time, so we never used it. The boys chose the option to decorate the Altoids box. They kept it simple:

Once the had the paper glued on and it dried, I took a small nail and a hammer and punched the holes. It was really easy. Then we just put in some cloves and a couple of broken-up cinnamon sticks.

It was a pretty intense afternoon y of cleaning, shopping, and meal preparation. The boys helped a little, but not much. And Rabbit had a dance class in the late afternoon that I had to run her over to. And Dad got home later than usual. But, the table was ready when he got home:

So once Dad was here, we grilled fish (we don't like to bake fish as it smells up the house), had a salad, and also sweet potato fries and waffle fries. Not very traditional, but a meal we all enjoyed.

It was different doing the Sabbath with older children this time. The last time there were a little more "oh's" and "ah's." This time it was a bit lighter. We didn't do everything in the book, but we did the essentials. But it was special. We talked about the good from the week. We laughed and enjoyed each other's company.

Saturday evening we concluded the Sabbath. We went out for dinner (I know, not the recommended course of action). When we got home it was pretty close to the end of the day, so we lit the Havdalah candle (just a regular candle), said the prayers, and then the boys dipped the candle in the overflow of the grape juice. Rabbit was in charge of the spice box (she is just a little pyrophobic). 

I think, if we were to do a Sabbath again, I would do it Saturday night through Sunday night. It seems to me that fits better with what we already do. From reading in our Jewish Holidays books, we learn that the Jewish people usually go to synagogue on Saturday mornings, and then spend the day with family, friends and God. That sounds just like our Sunday.

Overall, I think the first week of "full" school went really well. Next week we add in Foreign Language and the Read Aloud...

*****

As far as AHL with Rabbit goes. . . She finished up her Exploring World History project. She wrote about how life would be different if we were nomads. I really like how she concluded with reminding us that God says we should live as if this earth is not our home.

We finally finished up her Math lesson and did the next test. She got a B on her test. There is one thing she struggles on that I need to go back and review with her. It has to do with exponents on variables when you have a substitution for the variable. She'll get it eventually, but we need to go back and review.

I finally figured out what was bothering her about The Fallacy Detective and  Exploring World History  with regards to checking her own answers: she doesn't like having to figure out why she was wrong. She doesn't mind discussing her answers with me, but I think she just doesn't like doing it by herself. That's fine. We'll continue meeting daily, anyway, for Math, so I can check those other things too.

Rabbit is doing great with Rosetta Stone. She's been working through a verb workbook I got from Barnes and Noble in order to get more time in. We haven't figured out our "real life" activities. But, we got an e-mail that the Spanish version of the You Version Kid's Bible app is available. So maybe we'll do something with that - listen to it and try to use it.

CTG: Week 1, Day 2 and AHL Week 6, Day 2

Okay, well, today was better because we finished at 4:00, rather than 4:30.

I tried something a little different today. I printed all our subjects from Creation to the Greeks onto strips of paper, folded the paper strips up, and stuck them into a jar. Then I had the boys take turn pulling strips to decide what to do next. That didn't work very well because they didn't want to do spelling. I thought it might be fun, but they didn't buy into it. Tonight I talked to them about what order they would like to do things. Of course, they didn't agree. I think I will come up with an order that considers what they want a little, though.

The boys are loving the Science in the Beginning, even if I am making them do notebook pages. I had to hunt down colored pencils so they could draw their rainbows, and help them with the wording for the explanation. But, I do think it will be very memorable and they will retain what they learn from doing the notebooks. We will do science first on the days I have it scheduled, since they love it so much.

Math was a long Review in the workbook, so I decided to break that up over two days. They are more than halfway through the Singapore 4A book, so it's not a big deal if we do this every now and then.

The Bible and History really go together quite a bit this year, so I really think we will do those two subject together. The boys think it is funny that I'm taking notes on what they say when I ask, "What do we learn about God in this passage?" 

I still haven't heard from either library on my book basket books. A friend of my husbands from his work gave us a book called The Book of Jewish Holidays by Ruthe Lurie Kozodoy. I read a section of it to the boys about the Sabbath. It is interesting reading about the holiday from a more Jewish perspective. I really liked this line from the book, "Our tradition teaches us to stop working on the seventh day too. As God did, we look at what we have done to see if it is good." I really like that idea: looking back at your week honestly and just seeing if what you did was good.

Of course we did the other subjects too: English, Reading, Vocabulary, Handwriting, and Spelling. In Spelling, Pooh finished the All About Spelling Level 2 book! Has he mastered it? Not perfectly. But I just don't feel like I can keep him at the same level any longer. He has to move forward. We've been through the material twice. I will continue drilling him and pray he makes progress.

As we were finishing up school after lunch, Rabbit started on her Spanish. While she was working on that, I assigned the boys to work on making the challah covering. I had bought a blank handkerchief and fabric paints last week. Then we looked at the design in the Celebrating the Biblical Feast books and did a google search of images of challah coverings. I told them to design one that would be nice and honor God. They did a terrific job all by themselves.

Rabbit is having a pretty easy time in Spanish. She's done the Rosetta Stone level 1 enough that she is pretty familiar with it. So, I had her listen to the Spanish phonograms tracks from The Easy Spanish CD to start learning those. And, I had her read the introduction to a chapter on Spanish verbs in a workbook I picked up from Barnes and Noble. I am truly amazed that she has been able to learn Spanish, given her dyslexia. But, we did start when she was 5 with Power Glide, so she's been exposed to it for a long time.

Next, I went over her AHL work - checked her answers, skimmed her books. She has been doing a good job getting it done. Then we did math for an hour. We still didn't complete the lesson, but she did a good job on the problems with the new concept. She needed a little refresher on one of the previous lessons, though. Hopefully we finish it tomorrow. 

She typed up her Exploring World History project this morning, so I looked that over. When we ran the spell check, it said she had a 9.3 grade level. After a little editing, it went down to an 8.6 grade level. I think it was because we took some of her long-worded sentences that were a little confusing and made them two sentences. The shorter sentences knocked down the grade level. I told her for tomorrow, she needs to work on eliminating the word "probably" - she used it too much. She definitely has the word count, and seems to have thought through her essay.

MFW CTG: Day 1, The Second Time

Wow! I am glad today is over. It was a good day. I had no tears from Pooh and Tigger, and Rabbit only had a couple of tears.

We started at about 8:20, and of course, started with the first day of school pictures. This time, I included myself, too.

Rabbit went off to work on her stuff (and she was a little disappointed not to be joining us) while I started with the boys. We basically went down the grid in order, except spelling.

So, we did Bible, vocabulary, handwriting, English, math, history, science, reading before lunch. After lunch we did the spelling cycle and art. For Bible, I remembered to get a notebook and write, "What do we learn about God from this passage?" That provoked some good discussion for a couple of fifth graders. 

For the vocabulary card, I found our Greek roots cards from last time, and got those out, and then the boys drew a picture of the word and wrote the definition on my special notebook page. They also wrote three derivatives down. Well, I scribed for Pooh. 

It took a while for Tigger to write down everything for his vocabulary page, so I went ahead and started with Pooh on his handwriting page in his Handwriting Without Tears book. I am finally starting to see some carry-over into spelling. Then Tigger worked on his page, and they both finished about the same time.

We did English as a group today. It was a passage study, so working together on the couch was fine. I probably won't do tomorrow's dictation - they get dictation in spelling, and there is no way Pooh could do that much dictation. Tigger would probably be okay, but we might skip it (shhhh!).

Math was more on adding and subtracting fractions with improper fraction results and such. Pooh decided to stay with Tigger and me to do the workbook. There wasn't much space in the workbook to do the problems, so they would tell me what to write on the whiteboard, and then they copied hte final answers into their workbooks.

History was great. Tigger got bummed that we didn't read more in the Dinosaurs of Eden book. And Pooh had some good insights on things. I had them do their notebook page for the day, and then we set up their History notebooks. That took extra time that we probably won't spend tomorrow. Their History notebooks have the history section in the front, and a Vocabulary section in the back. For their timelines, I taped cardstock together end to end for them to each have their own copy. Then I copied the timeline pieces onto sticky label paper. I saved all the timeline pieces from last time through, so I just made our wall timeline like this:

The timeline itself is just blue Mavalus tape. On the left is the very first piece, right next to the clock on top of the bookshelf. We will just add pieces and year markers as we come to them so we don't have to predict the space we need. I think, based on the first time we did it, it will take up to about 2/3rds of the line for the first year. (Eventually, we had to add a second line when we did this the first time around.)

I forgot to place requests for book basket books until last night, so they didn't do book basket today. But, as soon as I get my e-mail notices I'll be picking up the books.

The boys were anticipating science all day. We started Science in the Beginning. I think they enjoyed it, and it didn't really take all that long to do the experiment and notebooking page. (I, along with someone else on the Facebook Creation to the Greeks group, made some pages in Word to use as notebook pages.) So, we also had to take some time to get their science notebooks setup. Pooh wanted to use a copy of the cover of the book for his cover page. We'll have to see about that.

And then we did reading. I went ahead and just jumped to the 5th grade Pathway reader. We didn't finish all the Abeka 4th grade readers last year, but I felt like we need to just be 5th graders. They both did fine. Pooh still reads a little slower than Tigger, but he is reading fine. After we finish this book, we'll jump into the Abeka 5th grade readers. Tigger actually wanted to finish the story on his own to find out what happened.

All that took us to lunch time. We took an hour break for lunch. After lunch I started the spelling cycle. I started with Rabbit. When she was done, she wanted to tackle Spanish, so that took a few minutes to get Rosetta Stone setup again for her and go over the lesson plan book. Next I worked with Tigger, and then Pooh. Tigger and Pooh work on memorizing verses and doing math drill while I work on spelling with each one. It works kind of like this, spending 15 minutes on each bullet point:

• Rabbit does Spelling with me, Tigger does math drill, Pooh studies verses
• Rabbit can move onto whatever she needs, Tigger does Spelling with me, Pooh does math drill
• Rabbit works on whatever she needs, Tigger studies verses, Pooh does Spelling with me

This generally works really well for us. I moved this to right after lunch so as not to interrupt Rabbit in the middle of something she was working on.

And then finally, we did God and the History of Art and the infamous first lesson - drawing with your mouth:

Neither was successful, and gave up rather quickly, but I think they will appreciate how much work goes into any art.

After this, it was time to work with Rabbit on her stuff. We started with going over all of last week stuff, since we didn't do either daily or weekly meeting. Her paper was very good. We had to go over the lessons in the English Literature Supplement. She had a moment of tears with one thing about find the subject in a sentence. But we shook that off and moved on. I looked over all her history, and as usual she missed about one question per lesson. She started her Exploring World History Project. She chose to write about how her life would change if she was a nomad. It was pretty good. She needs to type it up and everything, but it was a very good start.

And finally, we did the dreaded Math. We're on lesson 44 in Algebra 1. It took a while to work through the explanation, so we only got through question 6 in the problem set. Hopefully we can finish it tomorrow. She was really fried by then. That was 4:30. She still needed to read the Cat of Bubastes reading.

Then at 5:00, Rabbit had piano lesson. 

Like I said, a very looooong day. But overall, successful.

AHL: Week 5

Rabbit had another essay this week. They expected the student to write the essay on day one. This was pretty challenging for her - it took her two days to get an essay ready. And then all the Ancient Literature Supplement work was to work with the essay! So, we've been kind of a day behind on this one. 

Her biggest challenge was turning the suggested topics into a thesis. She finally decided that her thesis would be "Gilgamesh is not god-like at all." Her three reasons: he is not loving, not slow to anger, and not a savior. She did a good job with supporting quotes from the Epic of Gilgamesh. I helped her find quotes from the Bible to show God's character.

I think it is really a challenge being the mom and the teacher. I remember my mom helping me with my essays and papers in high school, but she wasn't my teacher. Now, I'm helping Rabbit, but I'm also the teacher, so I know how I'm going to grade it. Sometimes it is hard to wrap my head around it. I ended up giving her a 9.2 out of 10 on it.

She got behind in Logic this week. But, we had a lot of appointments and other things going on this week.

Math was also a challenge, but we got two lessons done. We're going to shoot for 3 days next week. 

She did good in History, only missing a couple of questions. She is still not checking the review questions herself in the History book. But, if I go over it with her, it can give us good discussions.

She has also been keeping up in Bible - answering in complete sentences and everything.

Overall, not a bad week. Next we start Creation to the Greeks with the boys, and Rabbit will add in Spanish. I need to look over Rabbit's work everyday to make sure it is completed and she's been thorough.

MFW CTG: Preparations

Okay, so trying to be a good homeschool mom and get ready for the upcoming year. This week I've read the introduction in English from the Roots Up, and the introduction and chapter on the Sabbath in Celebrating the Biblical Feasts. I also remembered I hadn't cleaned out their notebooks from last year. It was a good thing I did, as both boys need new three-ring binders for this next year. I didn't realize the binders were in such bad shape. So, yet another run to a big-box store somewhere.

I have saved all our vocabulary cards from the first time we did Creation to the Greeks (CTG), so that part will be easy. I had to read the TM and the English from the Roots Up book to remind myself how to implement that. I have my notebooking pages from last time, so we will probably go with that. I may need to get another dictionary, as Rabbit seems to have absconded with our regular one. I will probably end up scribing for Pooh. His handwriting and spelling are still really bad, and he can't type fast enough to make it worth our while. 

I also saw an idea on the Facebook page where a teacher posted a tree with the root word at the bottom, and then derivative words on the branches. I found a tree with no leaves to use, and then I may post them on the wall. I haven't decided for sure on that, since we school in our living room, which is the first thing you see when you walk into our house.

Reading through Celebrating the Biblical Feasts reminded me that we needed a challah covering. So, I went to a craft store and bought a blank handkerchief and some fabric paints. I'm going to let the boys design one. I still have our Altoids tin from last time, too, so I'll probably use it and let them paint it or glue stuff to it or something. I'm really working on thinking about how to let them do it and not trying to be in control of everything.

We're going to do The Easy Spanish this year. Pooh has really had trouble with Rosetta Stone, so I am hoping it will help him more. I read through the first lesson and printed out the worksheets we will need.

We've continued Singapore Math (we are already about halfway through 4A), All About Spelling, and Handwriting without Tears through the summer. So, there is no prep work to do there.

I did get our walls cleaned up for CTG. I took down our USA map, took down some posters and art work, and put up a strip of blue Mavalus tape for our timeline.

My plan is to essentially treat the boys as one small class. I will work with them together on everything except reading (they will each read aloud to me for 10 minutes), spelling, typing, math drill, and AWANA. They will do typing while the other one is reading to me, and they will do math drill and study their AWANA verses while I'm working with each one (including Rabbit) on spelling.

Oh my goodness, at 4:00 in the morning the other day, I realized I hadn't sent in our Notice of Intent to homeschool! Whew! Maybe that is why I couldn't get back to sleep!

AHL:Week 4

This week Rabbit covered the Epic of Gilgamesh for English. She did great answering all the questions in the Ancient History Supplement. And, she even wrote short answers for the "Critical Thinking" sections, even though it wasn't required. She scored a 19/20 on the vocabulary quiz. The only question she missed was one of the analogies. She did notice that next week is another argumentative essay assignment. She might have tried to get started on it over the weekend so it's not quite so overwhelming.

She is pretty much staying on top of the history readings. Only 2 days of reading Exploring World History this week. She hasn't complained this week on the history, so I'm assuming it wasn't as repetitive as other weeks. She also did a great job on her map work. 

She keeps plowing through the logic book, The Fallacy Detective. I should probably read it when she is done :), or she'll be out-thinking me.

We added Math back in this week. It was a struggle to get going, so the first day we only did 1/2 an hour. But the next day we did a full hour and finished the lesson. She is only on lesson 43 in Algebra 1. I am hoping we can finish Algebra 1 by the end of this school year.

I think we will add Spelling (All About Spelling) in next week. And, we plan to add in Biology and Spanish in August sometime. I think staggering the start will be good.

I'll be starting Creation to the Greeks with the boys the first full week of August. Looking at all of our activities - P.E. class, biology lab class, dance classes, and AWANA - I feel pretty overwhelmed trying to schedule it all. I've told the boys we really need to start at 8:00am in order to get things done. I am even thinking about doing Bible time during breakfast!