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.

busy day!

today was my first day of class on campus this summer, and i honestly didn't expect to get much done at home, what with the general craziness of a new schedule.  i prepared to chalk today up to be one of those homeschool skip days.

but.  i got home from school and found that all i had to do was *mention* lessonpathways and beau was in.

so, we finished up the king tut unit, which turned out to be extremely interesting.  we shied around the mummies, since beau didn't really want to go there (he doesn't like to think about death in general), but we learned about the nile river and we even found a transformers reference when we started talking about pyramids!  planning to watch that movie later so we can talk about the different kinds of pyramids they show in the movie.  (i didn't know there were different kinds and that the step pyramids predate the smoother ones!  i'm learning, too!)

then he worked on a handwriting worksheet for a little while, and already we're seeing a huge improvement.  i suppose we have to give credit to all those fine motor skills it takes to play video games...beau is better at video games than most adults i know!  i don't object as long as they're age-appropriate or lego-based because the ones we have foster problem-solving skills and critical thinking. 

i'm going to order a handwriting without tears workbook; we downloaded a few sample pages and it was really fun to watch beau's reaction go from, "but mommm, i don't *want* to do worksheets!" to "hey, this is pretty fun!"

and that is why we homeschool.  'cause i get to see those moments.  and i wouldn't trade that for quiet midmornings, uninterrupted showers, or even an afternoon spent reading a good book.  how is any of that worth missing my son's big ah-ha moments?

like whoa.

beau's handwriting...leaves something to be desired.  most of his education so far has been through online games and reading and him asking questions with me answering, so i hadn't paid incredible attention to the handwriting thing yet, really.

but when he went to vacation bible school last week, he couldn't (or wouldn't, which is more likely the case) write his name.  so i thought, hey, let's work on this whole handwriting thing.

whew.  it isn't as bad as it could be, of course; i mean, he knows all his letters and he can *read*, for goodness' sakes, but his letters are incredibly shaky and they definitely need work.  so i'm off to download some letter worksheets!  fun fun.

i'm thinking twice a day working on worksheets, and he should be up to speed in no time.

whoosh.

so this afternoon i'm sitting here, looking at lessonpathways.com, and suddenly...

i'm thinking of starting xander on the pre-k program.

nothing out of the ordinary, really; i should have probably done this last year, but he wasn't ready then.  he's ready now.

but i'm not.

i feel like the mom dropping her baby off on the first day, crying in the car all the way home: "my baby, my baby!"  except i won't have to leave him, obviously, but i'm about to help usher him into the wide-eyed world of letters and numbers and pencils and shaky renditions of his name written by his own chubby hands.

i'm crying.  this is all so exciting and yet it stinks big time all in the same moment.

but he's five.  it's time.  he's showing interest in things he never looked twice at before.  i've just got to suck it up.  i'm the mom. 

whoosh.

summer school

for some reason, i tend to get really excited about homeschooling in the middle of summer.  :)  it probably dates back to me hating the summer about three weeks in because i would be so BORED with nothing to do. 

we're jumping back in.  hubs wants to see something concrete that we're learning, and so do i.  unschooling is very freeing...but it's really difficult to explain to friends and family, and sometimes, to myself.  i know it's normal to feel a bit freaked and wondering if they're learning anything at all, but i'm thinking it's time for a change.  time for a shift in priorities.  time to jump in.

It’s hard having a big brother.

I know, I’ve been there.

You want to play with his toys; he doesn’t let you.  You want to play the game he’s playing; he doesn’t want you to.  He’s impossibly faster than you, being older, and you can never keep up.  Playing hide and seek with him isn’t fair, either; he knows all the best hiding places and he can run faster than you so you pretty much are always “it.”

I see Xander trying to keep up with Beau in everything.  Mostly, they play together really nicely – best friends.  But Beau *is* older, and he doesn’t always want his little brother constantly tagging along everywhere he goes.  Xander is almost lost without Beau sometimes; he misses him when Beau spends some quality alone time with his Nana.

Bella gets a double dose.  Beau is really good with her; he lets her play all his games and makes allowances for her since she’s smaller. 

But.

Xander has gotten it into his head that girls can’t do things that boys do.  He doesn’t like to play with Bella, and this really makes Bella sad.  She doesn’t understand, and I hate to see this “sex discrimination” in my own household, lol.  But there isn’t anything I can do, really, except try to argue with a four year old that girls can do everything boys can and that he should let his sister play.

It doesn’t help that he’s already pretty bossy, lol.  I see a lot of my bossiness in him.  I remember being that way when I was his age.  Talk about reaping what you sow!

It’s been a while.

It HAS been a while…since I posted.

That doesn’t mean that learning hasn’t taken place, though.  Beau has picked up reading SO quickly that it’s almost given me whiplash.  He has gone from not being able to read Kindergarten-level things at the beginning of the “school" year to being able to read at almost a second-grade level now.  His only problem is the fluency bit – he still sounds a little like a robot when he reads aloud.  :)  He is DEFINITELY getting there, though.

I’ve been checking my copy of “Home Learning Year by Year” this afternoon, trying to see the gaps that need to be filled in.  Beau is right on track to be considered a first-grader; he’s only behind in history and a bit in science.  I’m going to make a trip to the library (with or without the kids) to check out some books “Year by Year” recommended for history.  Science can be filled in using Lesson Pathways once we get signed up again next month.

Also, something very strange occurred to me just now.  I realized just how much I had been letting the traditional “school year” hold me back.  I’d been reluctant to consider starting new material on a new grade level with Beau because it’s the “middle of the year.”  What nonsense! 

That’s part of the beauty of homeschooling, isn’t it?  We can learn what and how we like, no matter what the school system is doing. 

So I considered making OUR school year begin in January, contrary to the traditional school year.  Or maybe I could just let go of the concept of a “school year” altogether and just focus on what the kids are learning and how much they know to classify them in “grade levels” (for the benefit of family members’ collective sanity, lol). 

I thought a bit about standardized testing.  I don’t really know how I feel about it and won’t until we actually pick a program and try it on for size.  I know I don’t personally agree with testing and grading in *general*, but for assessment purposes, I can see the appeal.  It would help assuage everyone’s worries about whether or not Beau is getting a proper education and is on par with others his age.  At any rate, I’m thinking we’ll wait until next year (or next semester) to worry about it.

I generally regroup about twice a year and assess the progress and direction of our homeschooling.  For my own purposes, I’m calling them “semesters,” because that’s a term I’m familiar with and it’s the best word I can think of to describe dividing the year into essentially two parts: Spring and Fall.

So now is really the beginning of the spring semester.  The “plan” for this semester is to get signed up with Lesson Pathways (already in the process of that) for the Science and Math sections, at least; library it for the History section; continue to be hands-off in Reading, except to possibly read more books with the kids and take more trips to the library.

Goodness, I feel like I could write TONS more, but the kids want to go outside and play and I’ve got to get them bundled up!