Monday, August 30, 2010

week one, finished.

so i'm not sure how i got myself into this mess, but apparently there are a few people in my life who feel that i've taken too much on my plate.  the main segment of them the very ones who are extremely anti-homeschool for reasons that haven't fully been made clear.  it's almost as if they hate it, but even they don't know why.

so i've been walking around for the past two weeks, glancing nervously over my shoulder, preparing to be ambushed at any moment, hog-tied, and forced to watch as they ship my children off on yellow buses to the nearest public school.  any public school, apparently.

and while my logical mind knows that this is impossible, that no one can make the decision regarding my children's education except for hubby (who's only concern is that they are "keeping up" with the kids in public school) and myself, it's STRESSING ME OUT, PEOPLE.

so i am decidedly relieved that week one is OVER.  and i have lovely documentation of all the work we did, a copy of my lesson plan from last week on my hard drive and also printed out (to be placed in a manila envelope and filed away neatly (along with all the paperwork we did and possibly copies of the pictures of crafts we've done), and an actual gradebook with actual GRADES (which i HATE HATE HATE).

all of this is MEGA new to me, as i would, if left to my own devices, NEVER touch ANY of this stuff.  but the nay-sayers are really starting to get to me, and in the end, having a bit more structure isn't so bad.  i'm not going to go so far as to say that it's GOOD, especially since my hand has been forced with all of this, but it's all right.

it helps hubby sleep at night.  and if i were ever educationally audited by the anti-homeschoolers in my life, i could simply pull out a file and a report card and rub their noses in it show them exactly what we've been doing.

/end rant.

today we finished up our nature detective science study and started on part two of the seven wonders of the ancient world unit.  i also tweaked our weekly school schedule a bit, since last week was basically a test-run of the new schedule and i pretty much knew it wouldn't be permanent anyway.  it looks and feels a lot better and more laid-back now.

mondays we do hardcore school.  history and science, condensing two days of lessons into one, since we're basically home all day.  even though we cover a lot of material, it still only takes about two hours.  copywork and then we're done.

tuesdays, mommy has school from 8-2 and beau has football from 6-8pm.  so, accounting for travel time, we are home for about two hours in the middle.  BAM handwriting worksheets and copywork.  and then i had the bright idea of sending a worksheet or two along to mimi's and whoosh!  even yesser.

wednesdays, mommy has an hour-long class from 9-10.  before nine, you can forget about getting my angels to concentrate on anything that isn't lego star wars or cereal.  after school, we might go to the store OR the park.  when we get home, we're all completely wiped and all we want to do is relax for some reason.  so we do some handwriting worksheets and copywork, no pressure.

thursdays look EXACTLY like tuesdays.

fridays are library days.  in the afternoon, if that ever comes, we MAY do a few worksheets.  MAYBE.

saturdays are another hardcore school day.  finish up history and science from earlier in the week.  we try to review on the days in between so we don't forget.  there's also a sheet of copywork in there somewhere.

in other news, I GET TO ORDER MATH-U-SEE THIS WEEK!!! 

i am far too excited about that, as you can see.  i have been looking forward to this practically all summer.  although it's going to throw a bit of a wrench in our schedule, we'll adjust and i will feel SO much better knowing that math is being learned in this house from someone who isn't dora the explorer.  i'm actually considering starting them all off on the primer, even little bella, all at the same time.  we shall see when it gets here, though.

that's it for today!  the best i can promise is weekly updates, if that!

Monday, August 23, 2010

i can't believe i thought i used to be busy.

new year!  today was our first day back since, well, since my english class TOOK OVER MY LIFE.  no, seriously.  it got crazy.  we are just settling into our new routine of football practice and new college courses for mommy.  and actually, starting mid-september, we'll be throwing ballet classes for bella into the mix as well.  oh, and we recently acquired a new member to our family...a nine-week-old german shepherd puppy named alice.  we are house-training her as i'm typing this.

whew.  can we do it?  YES, WE CAN!

i hope.

recent circumstances have caused me to need to be more record-take-y, so i completely hijacked my friend rachel's organization system, turned it upside down, tweaked it A LOT, and basically it only barely resembles her method anymore.  i thought it was such a good idea, though, and i figured it would help me out a BUNCH to have written lesson plans.

it's already imploding.

but i am going to keep plugging away at it!  here's a screenshot of our plans for this week (since i am not sooperwoman like some people i know who plan the entire semester at once).  baby steps, people.

still looks kinda impressive, though, right?
 today, we have done everything on our schedule except for the copywork (another gem i stole from rachel...here's hoping she remembers that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!) and the second handwriting without tears (HWT) worksheet for today. 

there are two handwriting worksheets per page in the workbook because i take the HWT pages and basically go into paint and create extra practice pages for us.  beau needs extra practice because his handwriting is still mostly illegible at this point.  i know.  i fail.  in my defense, though, most of his education up till this point has been through time4learning.com and TONS of reading.  we did practice handwriting now and then, when he asked, but i'd never made it a major priority until now. 

now it is most DEFINITELY a priority, partially because i am beginning to feel uncomfortable that his handwriting isn't better, and partially because he is starting to become really interested in writing.  the point is, he's ready now to sit at the kitchen table and practice printing for extended periods of time, whereas before, i couldn't PAY him to do worksheets.

something i noticed today: xander has to be tricked into doing schoolwork.  i honestly have no idea how i'm going to manage him this year, especially with everyone harping at me that he's in kindergarten and he needs to be doing work, too, and blah blah blah.  he HATES worksheets.  hates coloring on demand.  he WILL listen to read-aloud stuff, and he particularly enjoys charlie and the chocolate factory at bedtime.  he'll even answer questions about what happened in the previous chapter and be correct about 89% of the time.  so i guess it isn't such a big deal that he isn't into worksheets right now.  he's five.  

it's just hard to document those sorts of things.  and documentation is what the people want.

anywho!  today we learned about two of the seven wonders of the ancient world: the statue of zeus at olympia and the pyramids of giza.  i leave you with a picture of the play dough models we made of the statue of zeus:

mine on the left (which still managed to look crazy even though i took a ridiculous amount of time and trouble trying to make it "authentic"), beau's in the middle (looking quite a bit like alf), and xander's on the end.  bella told me hers "wasn't ready" at the time of this photograph.