Our Week In Review–August 31, 2013

 

It’s really kind of strange to only be schooling one kid this year. I find myself thinking about Rosie Girl and then remembering that she’s in college now. Weird. But, I still have Wild Man. And he’s more than enough to keep me busy. Here’s how things went this week.

History/Geography – We’re using Sonlight Core 200. Wild Man is doing the reading and then answering a couple of the questions that I assign to him from the study guide. He’s also finding some of the places referenced on the maps in the study guide. This week’s study was the origins of the Christian church.

Math – He does about an hour of math each day. He’s finishing Algebra 1 and then will move on to Geometry.

Literature – We started reading aloud Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis because it is a hard book to read, but Wild Man took over reading it to himself on Thursday because he is enjoying it. I have him answering a few of the study questions and we also discuss it aloud together. He also reads some poetry every day, something that may have him calling Child Protective Services before the year is out. No, he does not like poetry.

Writing – Wild Man is doing WriteAtHome’s introductory composition course. His first writing assignment is due next Thursday.

Spanish – We’re using PowerGlide Spanish this year, which introduces Spanish very organically and not by translation and verb conjugations, the way I learned it. Wild Man seems to be enjoying it, partly because he looks forward to using his new phrases with some friends from the Spanish-speaking congregation at our church.

Biology – The Hippocampus biology course seems to be a success so far. Wild Man has been learning about science and the scientific method this week and did an online microscope lab. Cool stuff.

Bible – I’m having Wild Man use Bible Mesh again this year. Right now, he’s in Genesis. I’ll probably add in some reading from the Bible book summaries in BibleMesh as well as bits of How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth and How to Read the Bible Book by Book.

Spelling – We’re not doing a spelling curriculum, but I see that Wild Man is misspelling some pretty easy words in his notebooks, so I’ll probably have him practice them using the Spelling Power practice techniques.

Current events – Wild Man is writing a current events paper once a week. This week he wrote about modern day castles. His writing is good, although his spelling and grammar need work. I’m going to ask him to write about something more political next week.

Band – Public schools start on Tuesday!

Music – He continues to lead the high school worship team and play intermittently on the adult worship team as well as play guitar and keyboard at home.

That was our school week. Unfortunately, I was pretty much unavailable on Wednesday because of a migraine, and I was still pretty sick on Thursday and part of Friday. PWM did a lot of work with Wild Man, but Wild Man took a lot of responsibility himself to get his work done. I was quite pleased. It was a good start to our year.

How is your school year going? Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others are doing?

7 Quick Takes Friday–August 30, 2013

 

1. Wild Man’s first week of school went quite well. The one problem is that he may call the authorities over having to read poetry.

2. Rosie Girl is at college and moved into her dorm. The strangest part for me is that she isn’t telling me where she is going and when she’ll be coming home. And she’s not telling me all about her activities when she gets home. It’s going to take a while to get used to.

3. Sophie (Rosie Girl’s cat) is starting to spend more time in the living room with the rest of the family. She used to spend a lot of time in Rosie Girl’s room with Rosie Girl, but that’s a pretty lonely room now.

4. I’ve been reading through Rosie Girl’s school journal from 10th grade. She was hysterical sometimes. When reading Jane Eyre – “Is it poor form to fall for your employer? Just a thought . . .” Her take on Leviticus – “God’s version of the purity talk . . . Don’t do it, lest you die. Simple as that.”

5. I had planned to go to the second day of Rosie Girl’s orientation on Wednesday, but woke up at 4am (why is it always 4am???) with a wicked migraine. And I’m still recovering from that darn migraine. I’m going to hang out with her some on Monday, hopefully bearing cookies. Cookies always helps.

6. And Wild Man has been asking about when I’ll be making cookies. I know the kid can cook. He needs to start demonstrating some of those cooking skills soon.

7. Speaking of cooking, we have a half of a  side of beef in our refrigerator (1/4 of a cow). Last night, we had grilled T-bone steaks for dinner. There is nothing like grass-fed beef steaks! Between that and our CSA, we get plenty of fresh food around here.

That’s our week. How are things going with you? Check out 7 Quick Takes Friday to see what others are up to!!

7 Quick Takes Friday

 

1. We opened The Knitting Nest in our new location today on Tuesday!! Our customers really like our new place as much as we do.

2. Tuesday night’s storm only left us without power for about 12 hours. We’ve been praying for those nearby with more damage and been very thankful that things weren’t worse here.

3. Wild Man had his final exam in Driver’s Ed this morning and passed! He’ll start his driving in November and plans to get his driver’s license the first of May. Wow. Can this really be happening?

4. Rosie Girl and I went shopping yesterday and got the last few things on her college shopping list. Two and a half more weeks before she leaves . . .

5. I’ve worked some in the shop every day of this week. I think this explains why I’m so tired and why the house is such a mess.

6. I finally got my washer and dryer, but couldn’t use them because both kids wanted to do laundry as soon as they were hooked up. I guess I raised my kids pretty well if they want to do their own laundry that badly.

7. In two and a half weeks, Rosie Girl goes to college and Wild Man starts his sophomore year homeschooling. No, I’m not ready.

What’s up with you? Check out 7 Quick Takes Friday to see what others are doing!!

School Planning 2013-2014

So, I’m finally planning the school year. And I only have to plan for one kid this year. Pretty strange. I’m also having him do several courses that are pre-planned which will make my life easier. I already know that I’ll be gone for a week or so in September because my mom’s having a medical procedure done.  And we’ve been so busy moving into the new Knitting Nest location that I haven’t had time to even really think about getting books, much the less making lesson plans.

Here’s the plan (subject, of course, to change):

History

Sonlight Core 200 – World History since the Time of Christ (with the emphasis on church history). I’ve got most of the Core 200 books, and I’ve ordered the ones I don’t have. I’ve also ordered the student guide. I didn’t order the parent guide (which is now separate) because I’ve never actually used the separate parent guide. So, I saved a little money there.

Language Arts

Sonlight Core 200 – World Literature. I’ve got most of the literature books for the literature part of the Core, so I ordered the few that I needed. I also ordered just the literature student guide.

WriteAtHome – I signed up Wild Man for Comprehensive Writing 1. Rosie Girl did this course and got a lot out of it. I really like that the instructors learn where the student is at in writing with the first two writing assignments and then gauge their evaluations during the rest of the course based on their initial writing. I have high hopes for this course.

Easy Grammar Plus – This is the ultimate Easy Grammar book. Wild Man should be able to finish it in one year, but, if not, it’s fine if he goes over two years with it. This book covers all the grammar he needs in high school and it’s using the same style curriculum he’s used in the last couple of years.

Spelling – We’ll use the Spelling Power technique on the words he misspells in his writing assignments.

Bible (Old Testament Survey)

BibleMesh – We used this last year and I thought it was rather simplistic, but I think that was because I was breaking it up into very small pieces and not requiring much of him. This year, we’re doing all Old Testament. We’ll use the BibleMesh lessons along with their book overviews and some readings from the Old Testament. This course requires the most planning from me, but I think it will be good because it uses video and reading. I’m not sure how I’m going to have him write yet – paragraphs or answering questions.

Math

ALEKS - We’re going to continue with ALEKS, but we have to be more focused. Wild Man needs to do an hour of math every day in order to finish Algebra 1 and get through Geometry this year.

Spanish 1

K12 – I’m purchasing K12’s Spanish 1 course for independent study.  Wild Man used Rosetta Stone as a kid and wasn’t crazy about it, and Rosie Girl had such technical problems with the discs when she was using Rosetta Stone Japanese that I’ve decided to try another approach to Wild Man’s Spanish. Rosie Girl did K12’s Latin back when it was still PowerSpeak and did OK with it, so I’m optimistic about it for Wild Man.

Biology

Hippocampus – Hippocampus provides learning helps such as lectures and outlines as well as full courses for free on their site. Rosie Girl did World Religions last year using their site. Wild Man is doing Biology for non-majors (they also offer Biology AP). The course provides outlines and videos and is mapped to several major textbooks. I ordered one of the textbooks (only $25 since it is a few editions old!) today. There are several wet labs that they recommend that can be done here and they have several virtual labs online. The course is only 24 lessons (about a week each) so I’ll have time to add basic mammalian systems, including reproduction, and some dissections at the end of the course. The advantage to me, though, is that the main part of the course is already set and scheduled out. All I have to do is make sure Wild Man does the work and is learning.

Music

High School Band – He’s already had some summer band practice to get ready for Fall!

Youth Band and Worship Team at church

Private electric guitar lessons (probably)

Physical education

Walking/biking to and from school

Working for neighbor cutting grass and doing other yard work

Shoveling snow in winter

Well, that’s the  plan so far. We’ll see how things actually play out. Wild Man starts the last week of August so he’ll be finished the last week of May.

You can go to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers  and ihomeschool network to see what others are using for curriculum in their homeschools!

So how is your school year (homeschool or whatever) going?