Sliding into Another Adventurous Week

YOU DON'T NEED Much ROOM To LEARN

See that compact set up? Well that's in my dining room. Tucked in the corner as his sister's desk is tucked into the other corner. The chair and the desk are foldable. The drawer set is a product of using Sue Patrick's workbox systems (changed a bit to fit our needs). So when company comes over, we just put them away.


SPEED RACER (age 11yrs) my Middle Schooler
Homeschooled at 4th grade on.

Had a great week. With this shortened schedule he and I were looking at each other at the end of the day as though we were lost. He asked to play on Clever Dragons or to be signed up for Minecraft Homeschool. I told him 'No' since I want to keep things manageable.

So instead of adding more school work, I signed him up for Archery of 5 weeks.

He has gotten the hang of his subjects and in English, Grammar and Spelling (an all in one class for Abeka) he read several short stories, picked out a book for his book report, completed a spelling test and passed his quizzes in Grammar with a high score. Biology, History and American Government are challenging for him and he doesn't like the task of taking notes daily (I require him to take notes from the teacher for me to sign off on each day). Economics is a class we discuss afterwards since I minored in it in college and liked it. Saxon Math 7/8 is coming along well with solidifying things. He enjoys the way CTCMath explains math topics and does a daily drill. Membean has improved his vocabulary, spelling and ability to break down words. In Techrocket he is on the 2nd module on Python Programming.

TIGER LILLY (age 14 yrs) the Dual enrolled High Schooler
Homeschooled at 7th grade on. 

 Tiger Lilly is a budding Artist and Game Designer. She drew the cat.

She had a project and quiz in both her Landry courses, C Programming and PC Pro. Her Japanese class had her doing some writing exercises and she and I watched some Japanese Anime where we had close caption on. We also listened to some Immersion CDs in Japanese a few days of the week.

The Community College courses started with a bang. She got access to them online this past Saturday. We went to an in person orientation for her Software Application's class. Her US History 1 course has her reading a chapter, reviewing the videos online from her instructor and writing a reflection paper. I had her add notes and terms to Quizlet.com for her to do a review of topics daily. In Psychology, she has some class interaction through online discussions, reading of chapters and a weekly quiz. In College Math, she did the homework in advance of class, read the book and looked at some Yahoo videos prior to attending class on Friday (today).

For fun, she is on Techrocket, learning Unity 3d and practicing Java (since she has to take it next semester at the college). In addition, she is doing some Art DVDs to practice her artwork since she is excited about the Animation Course she is taking this September.

For PE, we've been slacking on her going to the gym. But we did better this week and I also signed her up for Archery.


The other two young adults in the house...

Are living back at home after a year on campus.

ROSE (age 18yrs) senior in College
Homeschooled in the Middle of 10th grade on.

Is taking 21 credits this semester. She's a bit bummed she can't work. But is making some money helping me 2 days a week as a tutor and homehelper for her siblings.

Her goal is to work next semester to continue to save towards her move to Maui, HI next May. She wants to live there a year before she attends Grad School. In between her AA degree and starting her BS degree she did a study abroad program to Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. We spent 18 days in Maui in planning for her move next year.

In just 3.5 years this girl would have accumulated an AA in BioInformatics, a BS in BioInformatics and Minor in Computer Science with so far a 4.0.

RAZOR RAY (age 20yrs) senior in College
Never Homeschooled.

Has a hefty load. He is working on 19 credits this semester. He also has a weekend job at the hospital as a patient transporter. Then the young man added on using his talents as a Physical Therapy Tech at the college in the Athletic Department.

In addition he's taken on dropping off his siblings at some of their sports events.

I am hoping he didn't take on too much, but he seems eager.

He also plans on moving to Hawaii next year with his sister. A little later than her since he changed his major a few times.

He also did an AA in BioInformatics but changed to Information Technology with a focus in User Engineering for his BS degree.

Although, he loved playing lacrosse and was pretty successful at it, he gave up playing at the college level so he could concentrate on his studies.

WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. The kids cooked 2 times this week. I prepared and cooked the other 2 days. Friday is always pizza or Chinese it seems.

Cleaning. The house and bedrooms are cleaned, but the laundry is again out of control. We are planning to make a trip to the laundry mat so I won't be washing clothes all day. Also, we had a squirrel in our attic (my little man told us he heard noises but..we didn't believe him). A company came by to fix that up for us.

Work & Life Balance.I had Monday off work (Yay!) and got to sleep in til 8am. We had some work done on our roof so I hung out till they were done.The rest of the week at work has been busy and I've gotten home later than I wanted. Luckily, my home helper started the younger kids off with their work.

Lesson Planning. Nailing it. Can't seem to do more than 1 week at a time since I am still trying to make sure this will stick.

Rest. Well rested earlier in the week, but by Thursday, I'm living on coffee.

Marriage Check Up. Me and hubby went to the farmer's market and I read out loud to him on our trips to run some errands. He and I are reading a Zombie book, then discuss the characters.