Education Update–June 28, 2014

Big news around here. Wild Man is going to public school next year! Yep, as of the end of the summer, we are no longer a homeschooling family. (We’re technically homeschooling ‘til then because he needs to finish his Math and Biology credits.)

How did this happen? Wild Man asked about going to school in the spring which started us thinking that direction, but I was still pretty firmly set that homeschooling was the best option for everyone. As the spring semester wore on, though, Wild Man was spending lots and lots of time at school for Band and Choir class, but also for the spring musical and getting ready for solo and ensemble and Jazz Band. In fact, he was getting home in the late afternoon and having to do his homeschool work before bed. So, we started considering our options.

Wild Man is very involved in all of the performing arts activities at the local public school. Homeschooling has been very convenient in allowing him to work his academics around his performing arts and music ministry activities outside of the public school as well. We used to like homeschooling because it didn’t tie us to the school schedule, but we’re tied to the school schedule anyway because Wild Man takes Band and Choir at school.

Homeschooling has also been great for working with Wild Man’s dyslexia. When Wild Man was in middle school, we got to spend extra time on reading and language arts as he learned to read and learned to deal with his dyslexia. Now that he’s 16, Wild Man is compensating really well for his  dyslexia. In fact, this is a good time for him to start to interact with the educational system on his own. He took the ACT this  last spring with no preparation and got a 19, with his highest scores on Reading and English, so I think he’s ready to take on the high school.

I’m also ready for him to go to high school. I believe he would get a better education in many ways if we were still homeschooling, but between my migraines and his being so busy, his academics were becoming almost an afterthought. We had lost the joy of learning together and reading together because we were always trying to fit the Biology or Literature in by the end of the week.

PWM and Wild Man and I prayed a lot and thought a lot. We’ve been very fortunate that our school district allows him to participate almost fully in the music department while still being homeschooled. He’s gotten the best of both worlds for the last couple of years. Now it’s time for Wild Man to step completely into the public school world.

We went to the high school last week and got Wild Man all signed up for his new classes. He’ll be taking Jazz Band (before school), Band, Choir, Geometry, Chemistry, Wisconsin Studies/PE (each a semester), Web Design/Video Design (semester classes), English, Study Hall.

Pray for this new adventure for all of us!!  Pray that Wild Man will continue to be a leader in Band and Choir! Pray that his academics will continue to go as well at public school as they have gone at home! And pray that PWM and I will get used to our roles at parents of a public school student!

Have any of you made this transition? What is it like?

P. S. Don’t worry, we’re still going to read books together at night as a family. I don’t think you could actually stop us from doing that.

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?

 

Upcoming Graduation!!

 

Rosie Girl has one more month of school left before she graduates. That is just about impossible for me to believe. It feels like yesterday that she was learning to read. And now, she’s accepted into the college and department that she was hoping for.

Homeschooling was an easy choice for us. Rosie Girl did the 3 year old preschool program just for something to do and to give PWM and Wild Man some time together. It was obvious, though, that she was already academically pretty well established and would be fine without anymore preschool.

I was working as a family doctor with a crazy schedule at the time. I would be on call about every 9th night and then have most of the next day off along with my usual half day off. Homeschooling made sense for us with that kind of schedule. We didn’t want to be bound to the public school schedules if we didn’t have to be.

PWM was the kids’ primary teacher until they were in 3rd and 6th grades – when I got severe headaches and had to quit working. By then, we enjoyed homeschooling. We liked being together as a family, but we also liked the field trips and other activities like dance, piano, and sports that the kids were part of.

When I quit working, we had a serious debate about whether home education was still the best thing for our kids. We never were “afraid” to put our kids in school. We always felt that we would be their primary influence. The question was “what is best for the family right now”. Every year, the answer was to home educate.

Wild Man was diagnosed with dyslexia during 4th grade, which wasn’t surprising. Homeschooling was great for him because we spent a couple of years focusing on him learning to read while I read his other subjects aloud to him. Now, in 9th grade, his only dyslexia symptoms are slow reading and poor spelling.

Both kids have taken classes at the Wegauwega-Fremont Middle School and High School in an attempt to help our family become part of the community. They have enjoyed the classes, but, in discussions, haven’t wanted to be in school full-time.

Homeschooling has given our kids the opportunity to pursue their musical goals in ways that they might not have had time to if they were operating on a school schedule. Rosie Girl is going to study music composition at UWSP starting next year. Wild Man plays percussion in the high school band, but loves playing percussion and various guitars in the church worship band.

Looking back, I can see about a million things that we could have done differently with homeschooling. But, I don’t regret that we continued to homeschool. The kids are both happy and outgoing children. We aren’t caught up in one of the seriously fundamentalist versions of homeschooling that over-shelters children. Our kids have jobs in the community along with friends from the schools.

Rosie Girl has an academically strong record and I think she’ll do OK next year. She has some challenges ahead (deadlines, I’m looking at you). I’m optimistic that she’s up to them. Wild Man has three more years here at home. His needs are quite different than Rosie Girl’s needs were at this time in school, so a lot of things will be different. I’ve also learned a lot. (Rosie Girl, I’m sorry that you were our guinea pig. That’s what happens when you’re the firstborn.)

I’m looking forward to Rosie Girl’s graduation. It’s a big milestone for her, but also for me and PWM. Our first child graduated from our little home school. And she’s going on to bigger and better things!!

And I couldn’t be more proud of her!

Finding the Homeschooling Balance

A few days ago, I came across a site called Homeschoolers Anonymous that is devoted to sharing the stories of homeschooled students (and some parents) who were involved in abusive or strictly fundamentalist homeschooling and the negative effects that this homeschooling environment had on them. It is truly appalling to read. Some of the stories were about abusive home environments – that might have been abusive with or without home education. Other former students wrote about a life that was very restricted and constrained where they had a limited social environment and little exposure to competing ideas about religion, history, science, or worldview. In all cases, these former students regret being homeschooled.

Obviously, this gives me, as a homeschooling parent, pause. Will my children have the same feelings when they are young adults? Will they look back at their education and feel like they were exposed to a limited set of ideas? Will they feel like they were not allowed to explore their own feelings or have their own interests?

Over the years, I’ve seen the fundamentalist homeschool movement grow in prominence. This is the movement associated with ATI, Bill Gothard, Vision Forum, the Quiverfull movement, Bob Jones, Answers in Genesis, David Barton, and more. And it has concerned me. I actually know very few people who are immersed in this kind of overall fundamentalist lifestyle, although some of my friends do use some of the curricula noted above. I’ve seen, though, that a number of Christian state homeschool conventions have become very influenced by this fundamentalist strain of Christianity. Several years ago, in Colorado, Sonlight was disinvited to be a vendor at the Christian homeschooling convention because it was considered too “liberal” or “not Christian enough” by the Christian homeschooling group that put on the convention.

I’m particularly concerned about young women in some of these groups. Some groups teach that women don’t need higher education. Some teach that young women must live in their parents’ home until they are married, when they move into their husbands’ home. Not only are these young women taught that they have only one role in life, but it is then enforced upon them, even when they are old enough that they should be able to leave the family home and be independent.

While we have this excessive sheltering going on in one part of society, we have the opposite in other parts of society.  Melissa Harris-Perry commented on MSNBC that we need to get away from the notion that kids belong to their parents so that society will have the idea that the kids belong to the community and then the community will make better investments. This isn’t a new idea. There are people who think that children should be in public school because parents can’t be trusted to teach them and because the needs of the state rank higher than those of the individual.

The thing is that kids don’t “belong” to anyone. They are placed in families by God to be raised until adulthood. But, the families are part of larger families and communities that need to work together to raise educated young adults of character.

I’m a big fan of homeschooling when it is done well. Home education is great because kids can be exposed to MORE people and MORE ideas, not fewer! Homeschooled kids should be part of the larger community, not kept away from it. And there’s certainly no need for kids to be in a public school to get a good education and exposure to people and ideas.

How have we found a balance? Here are some of the things that we’ve done (besides all the church stuff – ‘cause we’ve done LOTS of that).

Community sports – mostly when the kids were young because they’re not very sports minded now.

Dance

Tae Kwon Do

Volunteer at senior lunches and at nursing home

Classes at the high school

Discussing other ideas than what the curriculum presents, watching TV shows that present other views

Courses like World Religions

Making friends with families that have nothing to do with church or homeschooling. Not living in a little box (I hope).

Encouraging the kids to be more independent as they get older – get jobs, do their own laundry, start to buy their own clothes, get bank accounts, etc.

Does it work? I don’t know. My kids say they like being homeschooled, but they haven’t gone off to college yet. PWM and I do the best that we can. We see the problems with the fundamentalist homeschooling lifestyle and try to avoid it. We also see the problems with the idea that our kids belong to the state and encourage our political leaders to maintain our homeschooling freedoms. Thankfully, the majority of home educators are reasonable parents and not part of the fundamentalist stream. The evidence suggests that our kids will be just fine.

How do you find a balance in homeschooling? How do you keep the family primary but still be part of the larger community? And, how do you become part of the community that’s not the church?

 

Planning–And the Lack Thereof

Yesterday was confirmation of my need to plan ahead. Or maybe it was a demonstration of the importance of being flexible.

I woke up with a bad headache yesterday but still went to the neurologist office and got my Botox treatment. Unfortunately, Botox is more painful when my head already hurts! Ack!

I came home and went back to bed for a couple of hours while Wild Man went to band and Rosie Girl and PWM went car shopping.

Since I still felt rotten and not like organizing Wild Man’s schoolwork after my nap, he and I watched a NOVA program on the elements. Actually, this was probably one of the best science activities we’ve done. It required no effort on my part, and Wild Man enjoyed it and learned a good bit. It didn’t hurt that there were lots of explosions.

I did manage to make some dinner and straighten the living room because some friends came over last night to watch Les Miserables with us. And, yes, on the third watching, it is still one of my favorite movies.

And I woke up today with the headache still going strong. Wild Man gets to do lots of math with PWM and read To Kill a Mockingbird. Maybe I’ll sort out the rest of his work later today. Or maybe not.

Home Schooling High School Ramble

I just have some random thoughts about homeschooling high school, giving grades for a transcript, and other homeschool things in general. This is all based on my experience, so don’t take it for gospel truth.

I’m very glad kids are resilient. I’m sure PWM and I have made tons of mistakes with Rosie Girl that we won’t make with Wild Man. The biggest one I can think of right now is generally being stressed about being “on schedule”. I actually think being on a good schedule is incredibly important when the kids are in high school because I want to be able to justify what’s on the transcript. But, when they get behind, I’m learning to be more relaxed and just make some schedule changes and keep going. The main thing is to remember that their teenagers and that their attention span is short. Keep reminding them, especially in 9th and 10th grade, to check to make sure all their subjects are done.

I’ve also decided that schooling was more fun when the kids were younger. Nowadays, we have to consider credits, transcripts, and getting the boring work done. When they were younger, it was easier to do a field trip, some reading, make dinner, and call it a day. But, I have decided that we’re going to figure out how to do some field trips this year – for my sanity if nothing else.

We don’t give grades in our little “homeschool”. I’m not a fan of them. Mostly, they measure how well a student kept up with their homework and assignments. They are less good at showing how much a student actually learns. Our goal is for Rosie Girl and Wild Man to learn the material. They also need to learn responsibility, but that’s separate from Math, History, or English. And there’s no need to move on to another topic in their course if they didn’t master (i.e. make an “A”) in the previous topic. This is most important in skills courses like Math, but it also applies in Social Sciences, etc.

Grades are also hard to use when you have kids who are as different as Wild Man and Rosie Girl. Rosie Girl is good at taking tests and writing essays, the most common ways to grade students. Wild Man is another story. His dyslexia makes writing, particularly spelling, but also the act of putting sentence to paper or computer, very difficult. If he was in a traditional school, he would likely make low grades in social sciences and natural sciences even if he knew the material because he can’t express his knowledge of it. At home, we work hard  on the spelling and writing, but I can evaluate his understanding of many subjects just by talking with him (because he has GREAT verbal skills).

Overall, our grading system hasn’t been too bad. One problem that has cropped up is Rosie Girl’s perfectionism. If she can’t make something perfect, she becomes paralyzed and won’t even start. And since we’re working toward mastering the subject, she feels the need to get any assignment perfect the first time. Somewhere along the way, we failed to instill in her the concept that making mistakes is good. It’s an opportunity for learning. But, let me tell you, writing rough drafts has been very difficult for Rosie Girl. The idea of going back and redoing her work just drives her crazy! And when there are multiple deadlines, she has trouble prioritizing the projects so she can do her best work on the most important assignment, especially now that she’s working on piano lessons, composition lessons, BYU Japanese, and her regular homeschool work. She told me the other day that her life would have been easier if she could have learned to take the “C” and move on. I think it would have been better for us to discourage her perfectionism, instead. I think we’ll agree to disagree on this one.

The other issue with our grading system is that it doesn’t translate well to a transcript. Either she gets all “A”’s or all “P”’s. I don’t know what a college will think seeing a homeschool transcript with all “P”'s. And I do think that she deserves “A”’s since she mastered the material. I think part of  the problem with all “A”’s is that PWM and I know the blood, sweat, and tears that he and I have put into getting her to that level of mastery. The thing is, though, that it hasn’t been actually teaching the material that’s been difficult, it’s been parenting a teenager.

Which brings me to being the parent of two teenagers. One of the hardest things about homeschooling is that these children are always HOME. This isn’t a big deal when I’m feeling well and am up at the shop for a good bit of the day so I get a break from being Mom. But, when I’m home, there’s always a kid. I love my kids dearly, but sometimes I need a break. When I’ve got a migraine, I really need a break. Homeschooling is wonderful but very “home” intense.

The other problem with them being home is that they make a mess. It’s not that they won’t clean up when asked – they’re really good kids – but neither is much of a neat freak. So far, I’ve managed to get them to take responsibility for their own laundry. The only issue there is that I still have to get them to bring the baskets back downstairs. There’s very little interest on their part in cleaning the kitchen. When asked, they do clean and they do a good job and without complaining. But the very fact of them being home all day means that there are more dishes to deal with, books strewn all over the house, and general messiness. I handle it pretty well for about a week or two, depending on the headache level, and then it becomes clean-up time before Mom goes insane. Although, occasionally, I’ll just clean it up and they never really notice. Sigh.

Those are my rambling thoughts about home education tonight. I welcome any and all comments.

Curriculum Review–Revelation for Everyone

When I picked up Wild Man from camp this summer, he told me all about everything he had done during the week and everything he had learned, including all about what was going to happen in the “end times”. He had learned the popular “premillenial dispensationalist” perspective from his counselors which includes the Pre-tribulation rapture of the church, etc. I didn’t object to his hearing this – he is a teenager, after all. He’s certainly old enough to learn about different points of view. It did, though, remind me that PWM and I needed to make sure he got another perspective rather soon.

Things worked out pretty easily because Wild Man said that he wanted to learn more about Revelation, particularly what PWM and I believe. So, I started looking for a good curriculum for him. I have several really good books on Revelation, particularly that address the use of apocalyptic language, but they are college/seminary level books and not great for a 14 year old. I wasn’t crazy about what I saw for homeschool curriculum.

Then I was reminded of N.T. Wright’s “For Everyone” series of commentaries. I don’t know if they are available for the entire New Testament yet, but they are available for many of the epistles and for Revelation. Revelation for Everyone has been great for Wild Man. The reading level is right about high school age and it’s written for a general audience and doesn’t assume a high level of previous biblical knowledge.

It’s a commentary, not a curriculum, so there are no comprehension or study questions. But, it does have something of a devotional/application tone to it. Wright handles each passage separately, with an introduction, an explanation, and then a little wrap-up/application/lesson. They don’t have “3 action steps” for each section or anything like that, but he does make sure to have a summary at the end of the section.

What I mostly like about this commentary is Wright’s overall approach to Revelation. He looks at the original author, audience, and context to try to figure out the meaning of what are, admittedly, very confusing passages. He doesn’t spend much time detailing apocalyptic literature, but gives a brief explanation. While he doesn’t assume that the reader has a strong grasp of Old Testament apocalyptic literature, he doesn’t hesitate to explain the images that refer back to these passages. And he explains why the first century church would have understood these images so readily.

Wright does not take the premillenial dispensationalist point of view, which is one reason I chose this particular commentary. I think that Wright’s perspective makes the most sense and I hope that my kids will agree. But, I really wanted Wild Man to read that bible scholars can disagree on some of these issues while still taking scripture very seriously. And I think it’s working.

How are we using this as a curriculum? I have Wild Man read one section each day and then I give him a question to answer in his notebook. Given his dyslexia, this pushes the language part of his brain! He has also started several discussions about what he is reading – sometimes just discussing what Revelation says, sometimes comparing Wright’s perspective to what he learned at camp.

I can strongly recommend this for personal study or for homeschool use. If using it as curriculum, you may choose to add questions or other writing or response, depending on your educational philosophy. I prefer using “real” books, including commentaries, as much as possible for home education, and this one fits quite well into our home education plan.

Debate Watching

Monday night, we finally got around to watching the presidential debate from last week. Actually, PWM and I are pretty conservative and don’t think a single debate performance would have changed our minds on much, but we really feel strongly that our kids be as involved in thinking through politics as possible. So, we bribed them. Yes, we let them have chips and soda while we watched. (Bad homeschooling mommy, bad homeschooling mommy . . . .)

After the debate, we had a really good discussion about the two candidates’ debating skills and positions. The kids had very good and pertinent observations. And they had listened to what the candidates said separately from their debating technique. Both kids agreed, though, that President Obama did not have a very strong showing in this format and they are both interested to see how he changes his style for the next two debates.

I thought it was very interesting that the kids were still talking about the debate yesterday and even some today. PWM and I take our civic responsibilities seriously and make sure to stay informed and vote, but we aren’t otherwise very political beings, so I was a bit surprised to hear Wild Man talking about things that one or the other candidate mentioned during the debate.

Rosie Girl is studying American Government this semester and Wild Man is studying American History this year, so following the election links perfectly into their other studies (and if it didn’t, we’d study it anyway!). Wild Man and I have been reading the Constitution together at night and last night we read about the Electoral College and got to talk about why the framers chose that method of choosing a president.

Just some stray thoughts about home education. Although, really, this isn’t specific to home education. Any family can (and probably should) be paying attention to the national election and making sure their kids understand (at age-appropriate levels) what is going on. And the kids might not dislike  it as much as we grown-ups think. . . .

Our Week In Review–The One With All The Grandparents

My parents came to visit this week. We only got two weeks notice, so I didn’t change up the entire school schedule around their visit; it’s gone well despite the interruptions. PWM’s mom arrived Thursday so we had some overlap in visits. She usually comes twice a year so I don’t worry so much about working school around her visits. It’s all good.

Overall, it has gone remarkably well, except for my near constant severe headache. I did get started on some dexamethasone on Tuesday afternoon. It definitely has side effects, but the headache was much better on Thursday. Early Friday morning, though, I slipped and fell in the wee hours of the morning (dexamethasone gives me insomnia) and hit my head on the corner of a table and strained most of my other muscles. I didn’t tell my parents till they were Friday night, when they were already stopping for dinner in Missouri! The headaches weren’t fun, but they allowed the grandparents to spend more time with the grandchildren, I suppose, and I felt no guilt over not doing anything useful in my own house!

My mom was completely taken in by the yarn shop. I refused to make a shawl out of novelty yarn for her because it’s so simple that she can do it herself and I don’t like working with that yarn. So, she’s well on the way to having a lovely Organza scarf that she knitted herself. But, she did twist my arm (about 3 degrees did it!) to make her a silk shawl.  By the time she left, she had yarn and needles for three projects along with some shawl pins.

Grandma (PWMs mom) arrived late Thursday morning. She got to hang out some with my parents, but she’s staying at a friend’s house, so we will get to see her after breakfast most days. She has a new  toy – an ipad! I’m a bit jealous, especially of the picture quality! She’ll be here for a week or so. And Rosie Girl actually has this weekend completely off, so she requested that we do something family-like. We’ll see what we can manage!

Wild Man

He seems to be enjoying his American History. Yesterday, he was particularly intrigued by Roger Williams since he  seems to embody the American ideal of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association.

The N.T. Wright Revelation commentary is also rather interesting. I’m glad we’re using this particular commentary because it is the clearest explanation of some of the confusing images from the book of Revelation that I’ve read. Wright is good about explaining what the various options are for a symbol and then explaining the most likely meaning. Wild Man understands what he’s reading, but has told me that this is more unusual than he expected when he requested to study it!

Grandpa was most impressed  with Wild Man’s science book. I have Wild Man read a section of DK/Smithsonian Earth each day and answer a question or write a summary sentence for me. Grandpa was amazed by the amount of information and pictures, but then also by the price! I bought the book about 5 years ago for only $25 off Amazon. It’s now being used for the second time for a high school science credit – probably the best money I’ve ever spent on these kids’ high school studies!

I’ve found that his handwriting fluency and legibility is much improved by having him answer questions for each subject each day. The questions aren’t hard, but they make sure that  he  has read the material.

He’s playing drum kit for one of the Christmas songs in band but still playing bells in marching band and cymbals in pep band. And I’m super-proud of him for staying a few minutes after class to get the band director to help him with his timpani part when none of the other percussion players could.

At church, he and another few teenagers lead worship for the kids during the 10:30 service on Sunday. The teen bands have practice on Sunday afternoon where Wild Man plays drums or acoustic guitar. On Wednesday night, he and a couple of other teens lead worship with just keyboard and drums.

Wild Man and Rosie Girl Went to the local nursing home a few weeks ago and played guitars and sang for several residents. They are working up some pieces to play in a few weeks when they go again.

Wild Man is delighting Grams by eating everything she makes plus some! He and Grandpa shared some “guy time” by watching LSU play pitifully against Towson (although they won) and the Packers play OK against the Saints (again, they won). There was much testosterone to be had in the living room during those games. During half-time of the Bears/Cowboys game, the kids brought out their guitars and played and sang some beautiful music for the grandparents. And a good time was had by all!!

Rosie Girl

Rosie Girl is enjoying British Literature except for poetry – although I suspect that deep down she really doesn’t mind it all that badly. She’s reading Sherlock Holmes right now and really likes it.

I DVR’d the presidential debate to watch next week as part of her American Government (and Wild Man’s American History). She likes her American Government Text even though I regularly assign her questions that require a little internet research.

Rosie Girl is finished with Japanese except for taking the final exam! Now she gets to use Rosetta Stone for her second credit of Japanese. And now she has extra time to finish Algebra 2 before Personal Finance starts. Yippee!! Can you tell that  these aren’t her favorite credits to rack up.

In music, Rosie Girl is learning pieces for her college audition (while also filling out her general college application). She’s taking composition lessons as well. And, we are borrowing an old electric guitar from church so Wild Man can practice guitar without bothering Rosie Girl, but Rosie Girl is finding that she likes the idea of getting to learn to play electric guitar when Wild Man isn’t using it. I think she has musical ADD.

And, of course, she’s taking a tap dance class and demonstrating for  intermediate child ballet and intermediate child tap classes. And teaching piano lessons.

Rosie Girl  and Grams spent some time Monday driving around and taking pictures of Fall colors. She’s also been driving Grandpa around making sure he knows where the grocery store, etc. are. And, of course, there’s cooking. They made some delicious Zuppa Toscana on Thursday morning for all of us to have as the weather cooled down! And then they proceeded to have a girls’ day out. Grams went with Rosie Girl and watched her demonstrate for dance classes. Then they did a bit of shopping and stopped at Starbucks. A teenager and her Grams. Does it get much better than that?

How has your week gone? Anything exciting or educational in your world?

Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others are doing!

Our Week In Review–Week One is Done!

This was a very sentimental week for me – Rosie Girl’s last year of high school and Wild Man’s first year of high school. Forgive any random outbreaks of “Sunrise, Sunset” in this post.

The children, however, were not remotely sentimental. They were, for the most part, typical teenagers. Meaning, they needed to be reminded to do schoolwork and housework and they occasionally had teenager attitudes. And they did not understand my need to hug them and sound like a Hallmark commercial.

Here’s how the week went (with commentary):

Our evening read-aloud is usually one of the kids’ literature selections. This week, though, we’re finishing The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. OK, fine literature it’s not. But, it’s entertaining.

Wild Man

• Social Sciences – He is doing Sonlight Core 100 American History. I alternated reading out loud with him on Monday and I’m confident in his reading ability and comprehension of the books. Whew! (I was a little concerned that his dyslexia might be an issue, but I guess it’s not.) This week, he read about ancient South American peoples and very early Native Americans. I had him writing a paragraph each day and one of his paragraphs was about his history reading.
• Literature – This is part of his Sonlight Core. His book this week was Peace Child.
• Math – ALEKS Algebra 1 – Seems to be going pretty well, but PWM and I need to stay on top of this a little more to make sure Wild Man spends enough time on it each day.
• Science – Wild Man is reading 3 or 4 pages from Smithsonian Earth each day. This is his most challenging reading, but he wrote about it twice this week and was able to talk intelligently about it the other days, so I’m pleased with how he’s doing.
• Bible – We are reading N.T. Wright’s Revelation for Everyone, a commentary on the book of Revelation. So far, it has been an excellent book. The reading level is great for Wild Man, and it is broken up into very manageable sections. I really like most of what I’ve read by Wright, and this is no exception.
• Spelling – Ah, spelling, the bane of Wild Man’s existence. We are still using Spelling Power. Unfortunately, Wild Man’s assessment placed him lower than he was last year. This means that his lists are easier, but he’s still got a long way to go. I hope that the increased amount of writing this year will help him use more words and put them in his working vocabulary. He speaks with a wide vocabulary – he just can’t spell them!
• Writing – This last week, I had Wild Man write (as in, use a pencil on paper) a paragraph each day. His writing fluency is improving markedly, but he still has issues with capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. And, in order to fix those while he’s writing, he should be writing on his computer. This week, I’m going to have him answer some study questions each day from one or two of his subjects. That should give him practice in writing fluency. On Thursday, I’ll have him do a paragraph that should have good punctuation, spelling, and all the IEW “dress-ups” that he learned last year. He’ll be able to fix any issues that come up on Friday. In a few weeks, I hope we can increase his writing assignments to a couple of paragraphs. For a kid with such great verbal expression, we’re having to work really hard on written expression!! But, he’s doing the work and not fussing about it.
• Band – Wild Man isn’t crazy about playing cymbals, but he’s sticking with it. Next week is the first pep band of the season.
• Volunteer work – Unfortunately, Wild Man won’t be able to work at the Nutrition Site because of his band schedule. We’re hoping that the kids will be able to do music at one of the local nursing homes (their idea!).

Rosie Girl

• English – Rosie Girl is doing Sonlight Core 530 – British Literature and is pretty happy with it so far. The core is intended to be an Advanced Placement course. Rosie Girl isn’t too interested in the AP exam, so I’ve reduced the memorizations from 6 to 3 and the research papers from 2 to 1. Otherwise, she has lots of reading and writing to do each week. This week was Beowulf, so Rosie Girl requested the DVD of it being read in Anglo Saxon with captions instead of just reading it from the book. OK. She also bought a copy of Henry V when she and a friend were out shopping because she’s going to memorize the prologue for her first memorization. She’s a little confused that I didn’t read all of Shakespeare’s plays in my free time in high school and college. Ummm, yeah.
• Social Science – She’s reading a book about American Government right now and answering study questions about it. So far, so good.
• Religion – This year, we’re using the Hippocampus World Religions course. I’ve also added the few chapters from the textbook that the online course doesn’t use. She has been answering the questions I assigned without problem.
• Math – Rosie Girl is still finishing Algebra 2. Hopefully, she can do this in a month or so because she’s scheduled to start the Dave Ramsey Personal Finance Course sometime in October.
• Japanese – She’s almost finished with her BYU Japanese semester 2. When that is done, she’s going to start Rosetta Stone for her last Japanese credit.
• Music – Rosie Girl started her piano lessons again this week. She has pieces for her college audition to learn as well as some other pieces for the final contest. In two and a half weeks, she also starts her composition lessons. Yep, lots of music.
• PE – Rosie Girl has been diligent in getting out to walk every day. She’s going to continue taking a tap class every week. She’s pretty excited that she’s also going to be a dance demonstrator for a Music and Movement class (3 year olds) and  Pre-Tap/Pre-Ballet class (4-5 year olds).
• Volunteer work – Rosie Girl was the one who suggested taking their guitars to the nursing home. I will be talking to the nursing home next week to see if this is something they are interested in.
• Employment – This was the first week in a long time that she didn’t work at all during the week. She was only supposed to work till noon today, but ended up having to work till 4pm. Bummer. On the flip side, she has a good bit of money in her savings account from working all summer.
• Getting into college stuff – In addition to getting schoolwork done, Rosie Girl is supposed to be filling out her application, writing a personal statement, and practicing her piano pieces for her audition. She’s taking the ACT one more time (mostly to improve her chances for academic scholarships). There are three possible times to do her music audition, so she’ll do the early spring since she doesn’t think her pieces will be ready in the fall.

My babies are growing up entirely too quickly! But the school year is off to a good start. I think both kids will do well and learn a lot.

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

2012-2013 Curriculum

By this time of the year five years ago, I had curriculum and books purchased and was scheduling out our year week by week. By this time of year two years ago, I had curriculum and books purchased and was planning the year although I hadn’t gotten around to actual scheduling. By this time of year last year, I had everything purchased and was hoping we got most of it done. Right now, I have a general plan, but haven’t actually purchased any curriculum.

And this is Rosie Girl’s senior year of high school (or, for the more unschooling in the world, it’s her last year of being educated at home). Which kind of freaks me out. I’m not concerned that she’s not ready for college – she has great ACT scores and is clearly academically ready. I’m not emotionally prepared to be the mother of a high school graduate. YIKES!! But it does have the advantage that I’m no longer responsible for her education

Here is the general plan:

Rosie Girl

English – Sonlight Core 450 – British Literature (lots of reading, some writing)

Social Science

Semester 1 – American Government – The Everything American Government Book (with some supplements, I’m sure)

Semester 2 – Sociology – I don’t know what text we’ll use, but I have a degree in Sociology, so I’m confident we’ll figure something out.

Math

Semester 1 – Dave Ramsey Personal Finance

Semester 2 – Basic Probability and Statistics (probably using ALEKS)

Comparative Religion – Hippocampus using World Religions in America

Tap Dance at Dance Dynamics

Piano Lessons

Music Composition Lessons

Community Service – helping the Worship Arts Director at church every week.

 

Wild Man

English

Spelling – Spelling Power

Writing – Excellence in Writing, maybe WriteAtHome

Literature – American Literature from Sonlight Core 100

History – Sonlight Core 100 (Rosie Girl did Core 100 three years ago, so all I need to buy is the Instructors Guide and a few new books) – American History

Math – Algebra 1

Bible – Starting with N.T. Wright’s The Bible for Everyone: Revelation because that’s Wild Man’s current interest. From there, who knows what he’ll study?

Science – Singapore Biology with lab

Marching Band at the local high school

Possibly hip-hop class

Community service at the Senior Nutrition Site

 

How prepared are you for the new school year?

Our Week In Review–February 25, 2012

Yes, indeed, we are still homeschooling.  As life goes on, our homeschooling becomes more relaxed, and I’m more amazed at what the kids are learning.  This last week, I think we got a little too relaxed with Wild Man, so I need to add a little more structure to his life.  And Rosie Girl got a little off schedule, so she’s going to have to get back onto her schedule that’s already been planned out, but I think they’ll be fine.  The short version is that the kids are getting educated.  The long version is:

Wild Man

• Social Science – This is where we are the most relaxed.  I’ve had him watch some videos about Mesopotamia and Sumerian culture and then look at some websites.  We did the same thing, but in more depth with Egypt.  In the last couple of weeks, we’ve repeated this with Ancient Greece and next week we’ll start Ancient Rome.  When Wild Man starts learning about a culture, he often goes back to Weapon and Warrior that he used last semester to look up some of the thing he learned about then.  I want to do a quick overview of the major cultures up to the time of Christ by the end of the year.
• Reading – He finished Hittite Warrior this week.  I’m finding that he reads one chapter a day unless I assign more, so I’m going to need to be proactive on his reading assignments.
• Writing – This is so frustrating for us.  Wild Man has great oral communication skills, but he has a hard time translating that to written/typed communication.  I told him to write a paragraph on any subject he wanted 2 weeks ago and gave him two days to complete the assignment.  In one day, he researched and did probably three paragraphs worth of information into a Power Point presentation.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a paragraph with the topic sentence and supporting sentences that we had discussed.  I was really pleased with his ability to research and do Power Point, so I wasn’t very negative about it at the time.  However, next week, I am going to go back to basics and have him copy a paragraph so we can then move on to writing a paragraph and not get sidetracked with bells and whistles.
• Spelling – Wild Man enjoys Spelling Power more than All About Spelling, but I find that it’s good to also have him use the online SpellingCity (we paid for the premium version) for added review.  I was quite concerned that the Spelling Power would “let him off the hook” if he spelled a word correctly and then he wouldn’t see it again until the review a week or so later.  By having him review on SpellingCity as well, he sees whether he really does know the word.  I understand, though, that he likes that All About Spelling moves along faster.
• Bible – Wild Man is happy with his reading through the Bible and writing about what he read.  The only problem I’m having is that he wants to give me a complete one page summary of what he read when all I want for his journal is 2 sentences about what he read – something he thought was interesting or something he learned.  He’s having to learn to read and then interpret and not just summarize.  Definitely a higher-order skill.  I know he can do it, but now he also has to write it.
• Math – He is doing math facts and fractions with PWM several mornings a week.  When he goes up to the shop with PWM in the morning, he also gets the register ready and counts the money, etc., so he’s learning some real world math skills as well.
• Music – Oh, so much music in this house!!  Wild Man played at Solo and Ensemble today.  He got a “2” on his timpani solo and on  the mixed percussion ensemble – Yippee!!!  He’s been spending a lot of time after school practicing by himself and with the other percussionists.  He’s also been staying after occasionally to help with music department fundraisers.  The church youth band has now been split into middle school and high school bands, so Wild Man is the middle school band leader.  He plays drums and percussion most of the time, although bass guitar occasionally.  He’s also getting some voice lessons to help with his leading skills because his voice is changing so he’s not quite sure sometimes which octave to choose when he’s singing.  And, at home, he’s playing acoustic and bass guitar for hours on end!!  I’m not complaining – except when I want him to do his other schoolwork or chores, of course!!
• Life skills (AKA chores) – I’ve been having the kids cook one meal each week.  Wild Man is relatively adventurous when it comes to cooking.  One week, he made a Cajun Chicken pasta dish from the Food Network site.  Other times, it’s spaghetti.  Being an extrovert, Wild Man is also very active in the Children’s Ministry at church.  He has to be there at about 7am on Sunday morning to get everything together and he helps run things in both Sunday services.  Once a month, the Wednesday night Children’s activity night is Family Night, so Wild Man does that instead of his usual Junior High group.  Yeah, he’s never met a microphone that he doesn’t like!!

Rosie Girl

• Social Science – Rosie Girl is studying 20th century history this year, which is interesting because PWM and I have actually lived through some of it.  Rosie Girl has been studying some of the events of the 70s, so we’ve had some interesting discussions.
• Literature – Her reader this week is The Old Man And The Sea.  I haven’t read any Hemingway, although I did try a few years ago and just didn’t find it to my liking, but since I grew up in South Florida, I heard a lot about “Papa” and his life in Key West.  I’ll be interested to hear what Rosie Girl thinks about the book.  (And I realize that not having read Hemingway makes me a completely uneducated clod.  Especially since I was appalled that there are people in this country who don’t know where the fertile crescent is!  Alas.  Maybe I’ll read it when Rosie Girl is done and my life will be complete.)
• Writing – Rosie Girl is taking a research paper workshop through WriteAtHome, an online company that provides writing classes and workshops for homeschooled students.  We’ve had great success with all of her previous classes except the research paper workshop.  So, she’s doing it again.  The issue is that she never really understood the process for doing the research, making source cards, making research information cards, and then writing the paper from the information cards.  Rosie Girl writes quite well, but we’ve had a stressful week with her struggling to master this new set of skills and finish the first draft on time.  But, it’s done and sent in!!
• Bible – I love to read Rosie Girl’s take on Paul’s epistles.  She comes at them very straightforward and isn’t afraid to give her opinion!
• Math – She’s working her way through Algebra 2 and hoping to finish by summer, otherwise she’ll be doing math during the summer!
• Japanese – She’s about halfway through her Japanese semester.  I’d like her to be done by summer and start the next one during the summer so she can be done well before the end of her senior year.  In any case, we’ve been happy with doing these courses through BYU. 
• Music – More music . . . . She’s still taking her piano lessons at Lawrence, which include some intense music theory, even though she’s not taking the music theory class.  She’s also been playing her guitar a good bit.  I haven’t heard her clarinet or ocarina much lately, but she’s been pretty busy.  She will be playing ocarina for the Good Friday service.  She is arranging some Lord of the Rings music for her guitar.  She’s an introvert and more of a behind the scenes music person.  She also tends to turn to music when she’s stressed or doesn’t want to do schoolwork. 
• Life Skills (AKA chores) – When I ask what she wants to cook each week, her answer tends to be along the lines of whatever is easiest.  I don’t think she’s going to be our gourmet cook.  But I’m really glad she has her driver’s license because she’s been driving Wild Man to church for all of his activities and not been fussing about it.

Don’t expect quite such a novel every week, but I figured I’d catch you up since I hadn’t blogged on our homeschooling in so long. 

Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others are up to!!

7 Quick Takes Friday–September 16, 2011

 

1. Wild Man has shingles.  Seriously?  Shingles?  He showed me this rash on his back and chest early in the week and I thought it might be a herald patch from pytiriasis rosea which is completely benign.  I briefly thought about shingles, but I’ve never seen them in a kid, although I have seen them in a young adult.  Anyway, the rash wasn’t getting better, so PWM took Wild Man to see a “real” doctor (as opposed to his mother who still has my MD, but no valid license).  Well, the “real” doctor said Wild Man has shingles.  Huh.  The poor kid has to take “horse pills” for a few days, but overall appears not to be terribly ill.  Now, I’m still not going to be an anti-vaccination person (because there is lots of good evidence that the vast majority of vaccination programs have been very helpful to the population), but I do wonder about the whole chickenpox issue.  The kids were both vaccinated, but the vaccine uses a live virus, which could be the cause of the shingles.  Or, Wild Man could still have picked up a low-level chicken pox infection.  And, one article suggested that since people are no longer frequently exposed to small amounts of the varicella-zoster virus, we are seeing more shingles in kids and young adults.  Food for thought.

2. So, the idea of opening a yarn shop was that I could go in and work when I was feeling decent, which would be several days each week.  That would not be this week, though.  I had a wicked migraine on Tuesday, bordering on requiring a visit to the ER.  Then I woke up Thursday with another one – and PWM was waiting at the pharmacy when they opened because I was out of Imitrex.  Not good.  Anyway, I was at the shop a little on Wednesday afternoon and then today.  Here’s praying that next week is better.

3. I think I have found something that works for our school days.  Each kid fills out a journal page each day telling me what they did for each subject and giving me their thoughts about any reading they’ve done (hopefully).  This has been a real challenge for Wild Man since he doesn’t spell very well and is often asking me and PWM to spell words for him.  However, they do the journal pages on the computer and email me when they’re done.  We’re still working out a few kinks, but overall, I’m pretty happy with it.

4. Tomorrow is Weyauwega’s Horse and Buggy Days!!  This year, they’re just doing a parade down Main Street, but Main Street businesses are encouraged to have a presence.  We are going to be teaching finger knitting and giving away little bags with enough yarn to make a finger-knit bracelet.  We’re really excited about this – more people to see what our shop is all about!

5. The library sure knows how to get my attention.  One of my books is significantly overdue, so I can’t put any more on hold until I turn in the book and pay my fine.  Unfortunately, I’m not exactly sure where the book is.  Hmmmmm.

6. We were very bummed that Lawrence Academy of Music was not able to offer the composing and arranging class that Rosie Girl wanted to take.  The good news is that her piano teacher is taking a few minutes of her regular lesson time to help her learn some skills for composing and arranging.

7. My mother is on Facebook.  Thankfully, we managed to get her to change the account name to hers and Dads because she was the only one talking, but it had Dad’s name.  That was kind of freaky.  It’s still a little strange to see both their names as one, but it is a reminder of who does the typing in that house!!

How was your week?  Check out 7 Quick Takes Friday to see what others have been up to!

Our Week In Review–September 3, 2011

It’s “Back To School” week here at the Martin School of Joy!!  We started on Monday, while the public schools started on Thursday.  Overall it was a good week, and we only have a few kinks left to work out.

Rosie Girl

• Bible – She is reading through the New Testament and journaling as she goes.  Right now she’s in Matthew.
• History/Social Sciences – Core 300 is looking to be pretty interesting.  The one issue that we had is that one of her books (A Visual History of the Modern World) had some pages missing and others duplicated.  Sonlight is sending us a new copy.  We’ve never had any issues with Sonlight, but this year, both of Rosie Girl’s primary history books had problems, one of which might have been an Sonlight issue, while the other was definitely a publishing issue.  In any case, they made the return process very simple and Rosie Girl should have her new book next week.  Rosie Girl is enjoying this Core so far.
• Literature – Rosie Girl questioned why they had The Great Brain in Core 300 because she thought it was a little “easy”.  I reminded her, though, that she’s going to be reading a lot of “heavy” stuff this year in history and literature.  The 20th century was the most brutal and bloody in history.  Books like The Great Brain are scattered through the Core, not just because they’re good books, but also to provide a little break from all the bad stuff of the 20th century.
• Writing – In the second quarter, Rosie Girl will take a research paper writing workshop through WriteAtHome in conjunction with her self-directed science course.  Otherwise, I’ve scheduled an essay per week from her, rotating through History, Literature, and Bible.  Next week, she starts with a paper about The Great Brain.  She will also choose which paper she wants to also present as a speech.
• Science – Honestly, I’ve been a little concerned in the last month how a self-directed science course might work with Rosie Girl, but I’m pleasantly surprised so far.  She is reading a book about how music affects the brain and watched a PBS show about the same topic.  She is thinking that she will do her research paper on something to do with music’s effect on the brain.  Then she wants to do a second semester project using her computer, keyboard, clarinet, guitar, and ocarina in some combination that explores the physics of music.  She’s also excited because I agreed that we would get her the microphone that she needs for second semester if her research paper effort was up to par.
• Math – Rosie Girl is starting Algebra 2 in ALEKS.  She was very bummed out that her assessment score was very low, but she’s never had Algebra 2, so it’s supposed to be low!!  After this  year, she’s not going to be taking trigonometry as originally planned, but will do a semester of personal finance and a semester of statistics (not AP). 
• Piano – Lessons start next week, but she is still doing some work from her summer lessons.
• Community Service – She hasn’t worked at church in the last two weeks, but now that she knows her schedule, she’ll set up times with our Worship Arts Director.
• Art – This course is taken at the public school.  There is a new teacher this year and Rosie Girl thinks she’ll like him.
• Japanese – Rosie Girl turned in her last assignment of Semester 1, so she needs to take the final.  This year, she needs to get her semester’s work done in a semester, not a year.
• Other Music – Rosie Girl has been singing and playing guitar lately – and she’s really good!  She continues to play ocarina.  She’s also practicing clarinet so that she can perhaps have clarinet as her second instrument in college.

Wild Man

• Wild Man does his schoolwork up at the shop.  He needs reminders to stay focused, etc.
• Bible – Wild Man is doing a “tour” of the whole Bible.  So far, so good.
• History/Social Science – He is reading through Weapon and Warrior.  Not only does he tell me about what he is learning, but he journals a few sentences each day.  He’s not fond of journaling, but he needs to get used to writing.  And I usually am around to spell things for him, but when I’m not going to be available, I tell him to guess at the spelling and we’ll check it later.
• Science – Wild Man is learning a good bit of science from his Weapon and Warrior books, but  I also will have him reading some about the human body.  That will provide a nice basis for understanding how bullets affect the body, etc.
• Math – He’s working in ALEKS Middle School Year 3.  He’s realizing that he needs to know his math facts better, so he’s been asking me to help him.  He conceptually understands math very well, but still needs to practice his multiplication tables. 
• Writing – Wild Man’s main source of writing at the moment is his journaling.  Mondays are our days at home since the shop is closed, so I plan to do some work from Institute for Excellence in Writing with him once a week.  We’re going to start this year with outlining.
• Spelling – I’m still using SpellingCity as a resource this year, but I noticed that Wild Man does better when I drill him than when the computer does.  I’m trying hard not to give feedback until we’ve done the  entire list, but he still spells better working with me.  Hmmmm.  We are still in Book 3 of All About Spelling.  In addition to learning the spelling rules and how to spell the words, I’m also dictating lots of sentences to get him used to writing.
• Typing – This  is new for Wild Man.  I think we’ll be using TypingMaster.  In any case, he definitely needs some typing practice.
• Grammar – He is continuing in Easy Grammar 5.  He’s able to be more independent these days, which makes me very happy.
• Community Service – Still helping at the Senior Nutrition Site.
• Drums/Percussion – He takes Band at the middle school and plays  percussion.  They have a new band director, and Wild Man likes her.  He will be starting back with his drum lessons (with our Minister to Students) in the next week or two.  He’s also playing drum kit and percussion in our church’s youth band.  They also split into middle school and high school groups every week; when they do that, Wild Man plays bass guitar.
• Literature – I’m pulling books from previous Cores for him to read this year along with some library books.  Our read alouds are going to be alternating apologetics with novels.

Both kids are also helping out at the shop when we need it, although we haven’t needed much help since we opened now that the yarns are priced and  put out on display.  But, I’m sure there will be more opportunities for them in the future!

Whew!  It looks like more than it is.  Really.  Now  I need to get the books off the dining room floor and find them homes on the school bookshelf (which is already full, even after  I weeded out the books a few months ago).  But, I have a migraine today, so I’ll  just  knit.

How did your week go? See what others have been up to at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Reading Aloud

Our family loves to read.  We all enjoy personal and individual reading, but we also love our family reading time (almost) every night.  We’ve been reading aloud since our children were babies.  Yes, we read to them even before they were really old enough to “understand”.  Rosie Girl has always been willing to sit and listen to someone read.  Wild Man, though, would often crawl off while I was reading to him.  I used to read to him while he was in his high chair or in the bathtub, telling him, “All the books say I should read to you, so I’m going to read to you!”  Once the kids got to school age, PWM would read the “school” books to the kids during the day and we would read the Bible and a read-aloud (from the Sonlight curriculum) at night.  The children are 13 and 16 and still look forward to read-aloud time every night.  We often finish the Sonlight read-aloud earlier than scheduled, so we’ve added in lots of other books – the Narnia series, the Septimus Heap series, the Artemis Fowl series, and (of course) the Harry Potter series.

Reading aloud has lots of advantages.

• It’s a scheduled “together” time for the family.  We don’t always eat dinner together because of schedules, but we try to make sure we can read together.  If we aren’t going to be together at bedtime, PWM will often read to us during the day.
• Wild Man had a hard time learning to read because of his dyslexia.  However, once he could decode words, he didn’t have much trouble at all with comprehension and all the other things that kids learn as they read, because we had been reading aloud and talking to each other about our books.
• We have a shared “family culture” from reading the same books.  We often laugh about things that remind us of something that happened in a book we read.
• Especially when the kids were young, reading aloud was great to help them wind down and get ready for bed.

This year, I’m having a more interesting time coming up with books to read.  Until 2 years ago, the kids were using the same Sonlight Core, so we would read the read-alouds from that Core.  For the last two years, we’ve been reading the read-alouds from Wild Man’s Core (American History and then Eastern Hemisphere).  This year, though, Wild Man is going to be studying weapons and warriors, so I don’t have a read-aloud list.  I got a set of books called the Rani series from Sonlight that look like they’ll be fun.  I’m also going to have use read some of the Core 6/7 books but also add in some of Rosie Girl’s Core 300 books.  We haven’t done C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy books, yet, so I might include those.

We’ve also decided that we aren’t going to read a read-aloud and then Bible at night.  The kids both have Bible reading and study to do during the day and we were finding that the Bible reading was getting pushed to the side so we could read more of the read alouds.  In addition, we weren’t really getting into much discussion about the Bible reading.  So, we’re changing things up.  We’re going to read a read-aloud (i.e. fiction) until we finish the book and then read a book about faith or the Bible.  We’ve started with Matthew Paul Turner’s What You Didn’t Learn From Your Parents About Christianity.  This is a rather light-hearted look at our faith, and we’re having a great time with it.  Tonight, we talked about our earliest mental pictures of Jesus.  The kids are really engaging it, and we’re having some good discussions.  Eventually, we want to read The Ragamuffin Gospel, Know What You Believe, and The Jesus I Never Knew.  If some of the books are hard to get through, we’ll either put them off till the kids are a little older, or we’ll read a couple of chapters and then read a novel, and then come back to the non-fiction.

What does your family enjoy reading?  Any suggestions for me to put on our read-aloud list for this year?  And, if you don’t read aloud as a family, maybe this year is a good time to start!

 

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I have had the most incredibly awful headache for the last three days.  It seems to be letting up today, but it’s still not gone.

 

2. Rosie Girl takes her driving test on Monday!!  Please send lots of prayers for her to be relaxed – she drives quite well and will certainly pass!

 

3. Wild Man spent yesterday and today at a waterpark in Wisconsin Dells with five other middle school boys and our Minister to Students.  He came back tired, but with lots of great stories.  He also came back with writing on his arms.  I asked if they went to a tattoo parlor or something, but he said that they were just writing on each other with Sharpy on the way home.  SHARPY!!!  He’s going to have black marks on his arms for months – crazy child.

 

4. Does anyone else up north think it’s been a hotter than usual summer?  I don’t recall having so many days of temps in the upper 80s and 90s.  These low pressure systems are killing my head – and I’m not as fond of the heat as when I was growing up.  Fall weather, we’re ready for you!!

 

5. The big Sonlight box came today.  The kids were going to clean their desks this week, but they managed to avoid the task by working up at The Knitting Nest.  Hmmmmm.  Next week, I need to have some clean desks so I can start putting away the books, etc.  I wonder if they will work as hard on their desks as they do at the shop if I bribe reward them with a latte from the coffee shop when they’re done?  I need some leverage, although I supposed I could always take away ipods, computers, and TV time.  Eh, offering a latte is easier on everyone.

 

6. I always love the Sonlight books, especially the read-alouds, but I don’t usually read the readers.  This year, though, Rosie Girl is in Core 300 (20th Century History), so she’s got One Day in the Live of Ivan Denisovich, The Old Man and the Sea, and a couple of others that I haven’t read but really want to.  I think I’m also going to make a few of her literature books read alouds since we’ve already read the Core 6/7 books once or twice.  I’m all about flexibility this year, though, so we’ll see how things go!

 

7. Silver and Sassy are enjoying lying on the wadded up paper from our Sonlight box.  Ah, to be happy with just some paper!

 

How was your week?  Check out what others are saying at 7 Quick Takes Friday!

Box Day 2011!!

It’s that time of year – the Sonlight box arrived!!  The kids don’t get terribly excited about Box Day anymore.  They like homeschooling, but the box of books doesn’t do much for them now that they are teenagers.  It’s almost bittersweet this year because this is our last year of getting a full Bible/Social Science/Literature curriculum from Sonlight.  We’ve done Cores 1-7 (in the old numbering system), 100, and 200.  Rosie Girl is doing Core 300 this year which is what came in the box.  Next year, Rosie Girl will be doing a one-semester American Government course and another 1/2 credit social science (not yet determined), so we won’t be getting Core 400.  We will be getting British Literature from Sonlight next year, and I’m sure that we’ll be ordering additional books and Instructor’s Guides for Wild Man over the next several years.

So, there’s a bit of an undercurrent of sadness this year, knowing that we only have two more years before Rosie Girl is off to college and five more years before Wild Man graduates.  On the up-side, that means we still have 2 and five years, respectively, to enjoy Rosie Girl’s and Wild Man’s presence here at home.  And I would not have traded any of our homeschooling time for anything!  Even when I was working full-time and PWM was doing the schooling, I loved that the kids were home on my days off and that we could take our vacations without respect to the school calendar.  Mostly, I’ve just been so glad to have time with my children.

School Year 2011-2012

It's getting closer and closer to school starting, so I need to put together a plan to make sure these kids get educated over the next year.

To start with, here are our general academic goals for both kids before they finish their formal education:

• They will be fully literate with very good oral and written communication skills.
• They will have good “number sense” with the ability to use math to manage their money as well as whatever math is required for any higher education that they choose.
• They will have a good understanding of the tenets of the Christian faith and the contents of the Bible along with a basic understanding of the other major world religions.
• They will understand the basics of world history and how the Church and our country fit into that history.
• They will have read a wide range of literature.
• They will know how to find information that they need.

Now, on to specifics for the 2011-2012 school year.

Rosie Girl (11th grade)

Bible – New Testament Survey

- Rosie Girl will read through the New Testament in conjunction with How to Read the Bible Book by Book and write an essay after she finishes each book.

History – Twentieth Century World History.

- Sonlight Core 300 reading with one essay after she finishes studying each decade of the 20th century.

Literature – Twentieth Century World Literature

- Sonlight Core 300 literature with an essay after she finishes each book.

Composition

- Write At Home – Research paper workshop in the 2nd quarter in conjunction with her science studies.

- Essays for Bible, History, and Literature.

Creative writing – She regularly writes stories for fanfiction.net and will probably be in the high school writing club.

Science – The Science of Music

- This is a self-directed half-credit course. Rosie Girl will study either the science of how music is made and/or the science of how music affects people. (If she decides to do both, we will extend this to a full-credit course.) She will keep a journal of her reading, do a presentation after the first quarter of the year, and write a research paper (in conjunction with her composition course) in the second quarter of the year.

Math – Algebra 2 (ALEKS)

Japanese – BYU online course

Art 3 – Local high school course

Metals – Local high school course (in the art department)

Piano and Keyboards

- Lessons at Lawrence Academy

- Playing keyboards with the worship team at church once a month.

Music Composition and Arranging – at Lawrence Academy (if there are enough students to have the course.

Physical Education

- Tap dance class and perhaps acting as a demonstrator for more basic classes at Dance Dynamics.

- Regular exercise – walking, biking, etc.

Community Service

- Helping our church's Worship Arts Director once a week.

Occupational Education

- Working at The Knitting Nest (our family business – opening August 23) as we need her.

- Babysitting

- (Possibly) teaching piano lessons

Wild Man

Bible – Apologetics

- Wild Man will read several books on apologetics over the course of the year with discussions and journaling to supplement.

History/Science – Weapons

- Wild Man wants to study weapons this year. For at least half a year (and, perhaps, the whole year), Wild Man will read Warrior and Weapon, two books that study warriors and weapons through world history. He will then use other materials (books, internet, etc.) to study the specific time periods in history, the important conflicts, and the weapons that were used. He will also take Hunter Safety course as well as go with family friends to use various types of weapons (bows and arrows as well as firearms) on a closed range. He will learn to use weapons safely. This course will cover both social science and natural science as he learns the historical use of weapons along with the mechanics of how they work. Wild Man will journal daily and do a project each quarter.

Math – ALEKS

Literature

- Sonlight Core W literature (we have the books from doing this Core three years ago)

Composition

- Institute for Excellence in Writing

- Writing about weapons in his unity study

Grammar

- Easy Grammar

Spelling

- All About Spelling

Music

- Band at the local middle school

- Drum lessons every week

- Youth Band practice every week at church

Community Service

- Senior Nutrition Site volunteering once a week

- Helping the Children's Minister at church on Sunday mornings

Physical Education

- 30 minutes of physical activity each day

-Tae Kwon Do

Occupational Education

- Working at The Knitting Nest as needed

One of the biggest changes that we're going to do this year is be more flexible and less scheduled. I've started by getting rid of their chore lists. The kids haven't been good about doing the chores regularly and PWM and I haven't been consistent in enforcing it. This does not mean that they won’t work around the house!!  They may actually end up doing more around the house since PWM and I will be working at the yarn shop!!  Instead of a schedule, we've asked the kids to step up and do things before we ask them. PWM and I will also assign the kids tasks around the house (cooking and cleaning) as needed. They won't be working less, but it will be less structured.

Instead of giving the kids school work lists each day, I'm going to have them take more responsibility for their education. Rosie Girl is going to have her Sonlight schedule and a Bible reading plan. For all of her subjects, she will journal the amount of time she spends on the subject as well as a paragraph about what she's done. Her science course is completely self-directed, so I'm expecting her to be very independent. She and I will have “conferences” every Friday so I can make sure she's keeping up.

Wild Man’s social sciences and natural sciences are a self-directed unit study, but since he’s thirteen, I don't expect him to be as self-directed as his sister. I'm going to have him read from one of the “spine” books (Warrior and Weapon) every day. As he gets interested in topics, I'll help him find more materials for study. Wild Man still needs my help with spelling, grammar, and writing, so we'll probably do those in the evening or up at the shop (although I'm hoping the shop will be too busy to allow us to do schoolwork there).

This has been a really long post, but it has helped me to sort out next year's schoolwork. One thing that I need to work on, though, is keeping up with Rosie Girl's work and assigning credit.

Fellow homeschoolers, how is your school planning going?  Everyone, are you feeling ready for the kids to go back to school, be it public, private or home school?  Are you wondering where all the time is going?!