okay, so. music.

i've been looking at different music books online for a while now.  it started as a desire of beau's to learn to play the piano.  so i thought, hey, that's easy!  just find a nice little primer piano book and we can get started!

not so easy.  there aren't a lot of piano books geared to kids under the age of eight. 

but.  i found one that i seriously love.  it uses animals for the notes; "e" for elephant, "c" for cat, "d" for dog, etc.  example:

cute, right?

the only problem is that this book is primarily a piano book.  i love that it teaches note names and positions on the keyboard, and the next book in the series teaches beginning timing.  but that's really as far as it goes.  i'm assuming that by that point, the child would be ready to move on to one of the piano books for eight-year-olds that you can find just about everywhere.

so i kept looking.  and i found theory time. 

MUAHAHAHAHA

i seriously love the look of these books.  and they're dead cheap, too; like nine bucks for a workbook.  they also go all the way from primer - grade 12. there are great worksheets included (which the other book does not have) that really cement the ideas and also look pretty fun. 

also, it isn't just piano.  there are sections on music history, different instruments, etc.

so my idea is to use them together

and so.  probably starting next semester, in addition to everything else, we will also be starting music theory.  this makes me incredibly happeh.

in which i have the attention span of an ADD ferret.

just a quick post before we head off to beau's LAST FOOTBALL PRACTICE OF THE SEASON THANK GOODNESS.

so.  first week back = success.  i know the week isn't over yet - according to my records, there's still one more day before i get to officially say that week seven is done - but i'm declaring it.  i hope i don't jinx anything.

which brings me to something i hadn't bargained on.  we are technically in week eight, since we took last week off.  that's going to confuse the heck out of me.  i'll just have to deal with it for now, since everything is labeled already and i don't want to have to go back and fix it now.  we're just counting actual weeks of schoolwork.  there.  that makes it all nice and tidy in my mind.

anyway, next week we are starting two new subjects.  i know.  shut up.  but we're adding a little at a time so as not to completely get overwhelmed...or at least that's what i'm telling myself.  the reality is that every couple of weeks i notice something that we aren't doing that i feel needs to be done, so i research a little and add a new subject. 

as i said before, shut up.

ooh, before i forget it, i need to send out an apology to a friend of mine who sometimes reads this blog.  darlin, i am so dreadfully sorry i never emailed you back.  i had this extremely long and well-thought-out email written and i had been adding to it for a couple of days when i had the chance (i don't have tons of time for some reason), so i left it up in my browser.  well.  i came home from school one day and the POWER HAD GONE OUT.  my beautiful, intelligent email to you?  gone.  poof.  so i said, oh i'll remember what i said and write it all out again later and i totally. haven't. done that. yet.  for that, i am sorry.

and now i must apologize to the rest of you for making you read all of that.  in my defense, it WAS homeschool-related, because we were having a lovely little chat about it.  so nyeh.

what was i talking about?  ah, new subjects.

grammar, for starters.  i've put together something of my own from worksheets i found at different places online and a few scope and sequence .pdf's i scrounged up from different sources.  basically, i know what needs to be learned in first grade grammar, and i'm about to get on that.  for all you haters.  *cough*rachel*cough*

also, language arts.  FINALLY.  i broke down and printed everything out from the lesson on the website that i use (which i won't mention because then i'll get a totally impersonal comment from them and it's unnecessary so neener neener) and put it all in my shiny green notebook.  i'm even going to *gasp* laminate a game and keep it for next. year.

i know what you're thinking.

who IS this lady?

i totally am thinking the same thing.  you aren't really that crazy.  i'm just getting uber organized and we all know who to thank for that one.  but i digress.

the point is that i'm stupidly excited for monday.  and it's like light years away.  but i'll live.

so how is your vacation going, jessica?

you know what the funniest thing about our vacation has been?

the fact that none of the children have mentioned "school" since the very first day. 

i'm not entirely sure that's a good thing.  hopefully they haven't forgotten their names or anything by the time we start back tomorrow. 

the weirdest part is that i'm ready and rearin' to start back.  the week off has been GREAT - with no having to think about worksheets or lesson planning or any of that...HOWEVER...

there has been no lesson planning.  there have been no worksheets. 

mommy has been slightly bored.

well, not bored, but it's just seemed like there's been nothing to do this week when i find myself sitting on the couch and casting around for something to do.  (side note: i'm aware that sentence was redundant.  see what being bored does to me?  facebook has rotted my brain.)

so yeah, this week was an EXCELLENT idea.  we kicked back and went to a birthday party, the kids had a slumber party with their nana, and we went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch with the local homeschool group.  (note:  as soon as i get the pictures from that from my dear friend, rachel, i will post about that funn experience...in the meantime, you are welcome to go here and see a few of the fifty kabillion pictures i took using her camera that day.)

we're going to be taking two more weeks off before the new year.  one will be the week before thanksgiving, and the second will be christmas week.  that makes five weeks on, one week off.  and that totally works for me. 

well, i'm off to enjoy our last day of vacation! 

i'm declaring vacation. which is different than defeat.

i should probably post.  but there isn't really anything interesting to say other than i got new folders-which-allow-me-to-keep-my-mommy-teachery-things in them that go with the kids' weekly folders.  mine are green.  <3

yesterday, school was like pulling teeth.  for me.  the hooligans were like, "SKOOL!"  and i was like, "please don't talk so loud.  mommy needs her caffeine."

today, the thought of pushing worksheets at them almost literally gave me hives.  i may be exaggerating slightly.  i just know that i will lose my mind and/or temper if we continue this week.  and homeschooling means i can declare a break whenever i feel like it. 

which is now.  i feel like it now.

beau totally just BEGGED me to do school today.  and i was like, "yeah right, kid, go play lego star wars."

'cause that's how i FEEL.

we'll start back up on tuesday (or sooner, if this week slows down a bit and we get bored.)  but i'm not pushing it until tuesday.  the incas can wait.  so can worksheets. 

this week i'm going to cuddle with them on the couch and veg out to willy wonka.  there may be naps involved. 

and that. sounds. GREAT.

the post that isn't remotely funny.

1.  i pretty much stink as a friend because i can't ever find a babysitter for my hooligans so i can enjoy a grown-up lunch with any of them (my friends, not the kids), and most of my friends who are single don't really want to come hang out with us at the burger king play place and have our conversation interrupted every three seconds for me to yell at a kid for something.

2.  i know i came into this semester wanting to live up to the name sooperhomeskoolmom and be and do everything and do it WELL, darn it, but i am now seriously contemplating taking next semester OFF from college.  maybe i'm just tired right now and it's the exhaustion talking.  but right now, being less busy sounds EXCELLENT.

3.  something has gotten into the hooligans this week and they have been SUPREMELY naughty and grumpy every. day.  or maybe they're picking up on the fact that my sleep has not been great this week and i'm not winning any mommy-of-the-year awards with my own attitude. 

i think it has to do with we all have stinkin' runny noses and runny noses give people headaches.  headaches make people grumpy.  grumpy people make anyone else who did NOT have a headache develop headaches of their own and then the cycle begins again.

4.  there are only FOUR MORE FOOTBALL PRACTICES LEFT.  i hope.  i'm holding on to that like a drowning woman to a life preserver because if i can hold on to my sanity for TWO MORE WEEKS we will be out of two nights a week of getting home at eight thirty and still having to do our entire bedtime routine so that no one really gets to bed until like ten o'clock. 

that COULD have something to do with my sleep-deprivation.  hmm....

oh?  what's that?  this is a home education blog and you'd like to know how my lovely little ones are coming along in school? 

beau has zoomed through the first nine lessons in the math-u-see book.  he finally hit one yesterday that he had a smidge of trouble with.  so we'll do a couple more of the worksheets until he's got it down pat. 

why am i excited about that?  because i am.  i think it's because i know that NOW the real learning is happening.  all of that other stuff, he already knew.  now i can see those little cogs in his brain turning away and he's CHALLENGED.

i really like to see him challenged.  not struggling, mind you.  just STIMULATED to the point where he's really learning.

AND I GET TO WATCH THAT HAPPEN.

i love that part.

he's enjoying geography, and i've cut back a leetle bit on the worksheets...shut up.  i should say, i've cut back on the amount of UNNECESSARY handwriting work that he has to do.  if he's already doing spelling words that day, no copywork.  cuts down on the amount of time we spend at the table and the amount of time he complains about doing worksheets.  everybody's happy. 

and i know he's still getting enough practice because his handwriting is SO much better than it was just a few weeks ago.  i also love that part.

xander?  zooming through worksheets, tracing letters all by himself, fine tuning those fine motor skills like CRAZY.  i can already tell that this is going to help next year (or next semester) when i start him in the HWT book. 

bella just likes coloring.  she stays between the lines tons more than she used to.  her stick figure people are starting to have eyes and noses and things like that.  oh, and she's getting better at tracing, too, which is AWESOME.  all of this means that her (and xander's, naturally) first grade year won't be as much of a shock into writing that beau's was. 

poor beau.  he's our homeschooling guinea pig.  if something isn't going to work out for us, he's the first one to find that out.

being a first grader means...

1. lots more writing than you are used to.

you're going to have to write for EVERYTHING.  if you can still get away with dictating a few things and letting your mom write it for you, DO IT.  because, i gotta tell you, writing is hard.

but you'll always have enough hand strength to play video games after lessons.  every. time.

2.  lots more subjects than you had last year.

oh, you had science and history last year?  did you also have copywork, spelling, geography, and math?  did you maybe have a subject in kindergarten that was COMPLETELY TO DO WITH COLORS?  OR SHAPES?

psh.  kindergarteners have all the luck.

kindergarteners can suck it.  first grade stuff is WAY HARDER.

3.  not as much coloring.

in kindergarten, everything has to do with coloring.  are you learning about the number seven?  you get to color seven birds.  are you learning about the letter "m"?  you get to color a moon and a moose and a mule and a mammoth.  are you learning about the statue of zeus because you're studying the seven wonders?  you get to color it.  (okay, so sometimes first graders get to color statues of zeus, too.  however...)

in first grade, if you're learning how to add two numbers together, guess what?  you have to write them.  if you're learning about electricity in science, you have to write about it when you do the worksheet.  if you're learning about globes in geography, you have to write the stinkin' word "globe" like fifty times.

4.  it takes you longer than your brother (who is in kindergarten, the lucky kid) to do seatwork.

while he is over there scribbling to color in six red radishes, you are toiling over about fifteen different worksheets of first grade math.  (note: may be a slight exaggeration.)

while he is learning about the sound the letter "a" makes, you are writing the letter "a" over and over again as you do your spelling and/or copywork.

while he gets to color in the squares he finds in the pictures, you are, guess what, doing more writing for the love of pete as you finish your geography worksheet.

and while he gets to run off and watch spongebob when he finishes his measly three worksheets, you are only halfway through with yours. 

punk.

5. learning new stuff.



not everything is bad about being a first grader.  having more subjects means you get to learn about more interesting things, like how the aztecs grew their food and how chemical energy gets changed to kinetic energy.

still.  you have to write about all of it.

and finally,

6.  being a first grader means getting to tell everyone you're in the first grade.

because "i'm in the first grade," sounds way better than "i'm in kindergarten."

'nuff said.

in which you will possibly question my sanity.

so, guys.  we are finished with week 5.

this week, we started math-u-see primer.  we are officially on lesson 6.  originally, i had only intended on doing math maybe twice a week, like we do science and history, but beau kept zooming through the lessons, and i realized that math is slowly becoming his favorite part of seatwork.

so now i'm faced with the realization that we're probably going to have to buy the alpha book for christmas.  which is actually kind of exciting. 

and.  starting tomorrow, we are starting two, count 'em, TWO new subjects.

#1, spelling.  because it's about dern time.  and #2, geography, because darn you rachel and your random curriculum you don't want and are willing to sell "for cheap."

both of which look seriously fun.  (again, i know i'm a dork.  shut up.)  and yes, i am serious.  the only problem is that now i have five extra worksheets a week and i have to figure out on what days to put them because i don't want beau exceedingly swamped with worksheets like two days a week with nothing in between.

i also downloaded this seriously cool (to seriously unhinged people, naturally) lesson planner which calmed the hives i was starting to get over the scheduling worksheets thing.  i'm hive-free now.  figuratively speaking.

and since i know you all want to know what it looks like, i'll include a link.  click here to see the source of my sooper crazy, diet coke-induced excited-ness.  also, superteacherworksheets.com (the source) is pretty much an EXCELLENT resource for printables.

speaking of moar and MOAR worksheets (which, by the way, would make an excellent name for a printables website), this site has lots of worksheets sorted by subject and grade level.  just sayin.

i can say, totally completely without irony, that i am SOOPER EXCITED about school tomorrow.  we're starting a unit on the aztecs in history and on heat and electric energy in science.  also, spelling.

we are now OFFICIALLY covering all the subjects mentioned for first grade in home learning year by year.  i. am. stoked.