Monday, October 31, 2016

Meal Planning As Working Homeschooling Mom





MY SECRET WEAPON to COOKING is FREEZER MEAL PREP

I've purchased lots of cookbooks on this over the years and found that I didn't really like all the pre-planned recipes.

Therefore, I created my own.

Here's how.
*PREP*

1) Find Recipes you like that have similar main ingredients (Chicken, Fish, Pork, Beef)
2) Organize each recipe and cut them out, stack them up according to the main ingredient.
3) Research what freezes well at what doesn't (recipes with the items that don't freeze well, buy it and save it for preparation)

*SET UP*
1) Create your grocery list and make the recipe for 2 or 3 occasions (that means you only need 10 recipes tops)

2) Go shopping and Prep

3) Put all parts of recipe in Bags, or Tin baking platters - Only pre-cook items that you don't want to wait to long to cook (I prefer not to precook the meats)

4) Tape recipe to the bag or put inside the bag


*Voila!*

1) Take bags out on Sunday that you plan to cook that week.
2) Have kids or spouse prep dinner according to recipe.


Monday, October 24, 2016

Family Debate On Home Schooling

My Oldest Son Vows Not To Homeschool His kids


Yes, it's true. We have an older son that went the traditional school route. He had some major challenges with getting in trouble for minor things. Had some horrible teachers that even put their hands on him in aggressive and disciplinary fashion. He had coaches that didn't give him a chance at playing because he wasn't in the 'favorite' group. Also, he got hazed and witnessed sports hazing.

Yet, he said it was a 'rite of passage' that he learned a lot through those challenges and came out unscathed.

In our case, we do realize that there are some things that we are giving up on as experiences for our kid, but those things are recoverable and worth the risk.


Our Personal BENEFITS In Homeschooling Our Youngest Kids

1) Their EDUCATIONAL GROWTH has amazed us!

2) The ABILITY TO CREATE A CURRICULUM TO MIRROR THEIR DREAMS or interest.

3) Being able to SAVE MONEY ON COLLEGE and allow them to get DEGREES EARLY.

4) To be able to have TIME TO EXPLORE PASSIONS and sports or artful interest.

5) To always have POSITIVE VOICES CONSISTENTLY which makes them believe they can and will accomplish anything.

6) To expose them to FRIENDS that are POSITIVE INFLUENCES and WEED out of the NEGATIVE.

7) FLEXIBILITY of our SCHEDULES. This was more challenging when they were younger and we had to hire a nanny. But now that they are older this is a great benefit.

The things we SACRIFICE BY NOT GOING TRADITIONAL

1) Giving kids MORE OPTIONS for friendships. Yep, the 'social' aspect of school. Although, it's not always positive, it is much more than I can offer in homeschool.

2) There are opportunities in SPORTs that are only offered to traditional schooled students.

3) There are TECH training and STEM programs only offered by traditional schools. Like my oldest son did the EMT training through his high school for free.

4) EXTERNAL positive and negative influences. And exposure to other cultures and ways of thinking.

5) LEARNING HOW TO ACT IN TYPICAL SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS that are in the 'school' setting or with other kids that have been exposed to that setting.

6) Not HAVING FREE CHILDCARE or a place where the kids can go during the day outside of the home where I don't have to see or assess their behaviors.

ARE THE SACRIFICES or DIFFERENCES WORTH HOMESCHOOLING?
For us...YES!

For us, definitely. Sure my 13 yr old Speed Racer is a over talkative because he is an extrovert that loves outward attention.  It wears us out with his over talking and repeating of known facts just as a way to get personal interaction. However, that's just the way he is wired and has caused him to get in trouble in traditional schools big time because of it.

In addition, it allows us to feed Speed Racer's new passion of flying planes. He wants to be a pilot and if he gets his BS college degree out of the way, he can get the Airforce to pay for his Master's degree and he will join the Airforce at a higher rank as well as be able to fly.We have the time to condense high school to get him set for his Master's by the time he is 19 yrs old! That can't be done in public or private school environments.

My Tiger Lilly is able to focus her time on building her game developer's portfolio while finishing up her college classes as a homeschooled high school student. She can work an internship with several companies or take a gap year to explore building her own games. Also, she can expound in her artful pursuits because she has the time to focus on those passions.

Our oldest homeschooled student Rose was able to graduate from college with both AA and BS degrees and play college sports by the time she was 19yrs old. She even studied abroad for a summer.

My NON-HOMESCHOOLER still graduated from high school early, started Community College courses and played Lacrosse in college. He is opposed to homeschooling since from his prospective there is a social adaptability he sees as a missing link. The benefits to him in Traditional school was the ability to play sports, compete at national levels and get his EMT for free with an automatic 2 yr scholarship available in our county.

EVERYONE SHOULD DO IT? 

My personal answer is: NO
Homeschooling isn't for everyone. Just is a CHOICE. We have many choices in educating our kids. And that is the best tool off all. EXERCISE THE CHOICE THAT FITS YOUR CHILD and HOME.


Friday, October 21, 2016

The Drum Beats Loudly

Two Weeks of Fun and Creativity


Tiger Lilly completed her first game with UNITY 3D. She's created game based applications using Java, Python and C programs before, but she was super excited to learn Unity 3D.

She used Udemy and Youtube videos and had a few Tutoring Sessions with Techrocket.com which she enjoyed.

Tiger Lilly Named the Game 'Racing tiger'


We also put up the Wall Decals that I've had around the house and wanted to put up.


His oldest sister experimented with temporary color in his hair


Then we went to the street market where Speed Racer played drums


Tiger Lilly went to a Comic Jam and just drew pictures with the attending artist



Overall:  We just started a new sport - BASKETBALL - time! Speed Racer is so excited that his older brother Razor Ray and his dad are his coaches for this 7 weeks of basketball. However, the schedule is a killer with practices at 4:30pm! Ugh, which totally interferes with our work schedules.

CHALLENGES: Very challenging week with the roaming kid that has a flip flop schedule. Speed Racer is not sleeping in his bed. He is staying up late at night (after the game controllers, cellphones are taken) to sneak out, watch TV and eat snacks in the living room. Then he somehow makes it to his room to sleep on his floor near the door.

Solution? Well we are taking all electronics and putting them in the safe for two week. Also, hourly check in via a phone call and online checks.

So, the kid wakes up, but falls asleep at his work desk.

Meaning, he doesn't finish all the work assigned for the day, doesn't get his stuff back and ends up with weekend homework. Sheesh, when will this kid get more consistent!!!!

Guess this is why we homeschool him. If he was in traditional school, from experience, we know this is a recipe for disaster for him. At home - it is somewhat managed because he finishes his work eventually.

Algebra slip up: he has lost his way and so we are having to back-track some assignments and do a redo.

Lastly, MUSIC PLAYING while he is working! He claims it helps him, I hate it and feel as though it's a distraction. This is why I still use Abeka for him because it's a DVD-based option for us.

SUCCESS: Shocking homeschool moment of growth. My kid got home late from his basketball practice and I told him he could skip his Abeka Academy videos today. He responded, I need the videos to give me the explanations. No skipping. :P totally accidental parental success here.

Day Classes that he is doing Independently

(7am-8:30am) [MON and WED]
Landry Academy Classes

Writing ER: is live on Monday's.  His grade has crept up to a B! Yay! Hoping he keeps it up. I now check his work before he turns it in. He fell asleep at the computer and his sister sprayed him with water from her handy water bottle, lol!

Python Programming is live on Wednesday's: He created two games in these last 2 weeks of class. One was a Hangman class and the other is a puzzle game. Not much help from the book or teacher, so he watched youtube videos and followed the instructions to code the games in Python. He's not much of a reader, so I think he basically skimmed the book.

(8:30am-9am) Snack Break

(9 am-11am) DAILY Independent

Psychology, SociologyMacro EconPhysics and Information Systems (Study.com) he is making good mommentum on these classes. I am thinking of letting him study for the CLEPs in the spring for the Sociology, Psychology and Computing (DSST). We will see how he continues.

Body Language (Udemy) he is taking forever to finish this course! It was supposed to be 2 weeks long and he is stretching it out. So, we may not finish til December at this rate.

Online Classes takes 15 to 20 minutes
IXL (Language Arts - Review) is on Monday and Wednesday this is giving him more practice. He spends about 10 minutes on it and hasn't been doing to well with semi-colons for some reason.

Prodigy (Math Game - Basic Math Review) Tuesday and Friday he is still working through basic math concepts with this game. It's a different way to jog his memory in decimals, long division, fractions and exponents .

CTCMath (Algebra 1 - Supplement): on Monday and Friday. This is a piece of cake for him. He is finishing the lessons pretty quickly.


(11am-12:30am) [THU only] Online Live Class Independent
Landry Academy Classes 

Spanish live is on Thursday's: He isn't doing well in this class at all. Spanish is a difficult class for him to take online. At this point, I will have them change the 'grading' option to 'audit'.


(12:30-1:00pm) - lunch

(1pm-2pm) DAILY Independent

Membean (Vocabulary Builder) he is now only doing 10 min sessions but getting none of the words correct. We have to work on this.

Geometry (Teaching Textbooks as our Math Lab) this is a good supplement for Abeka and he is getting 80's on it. Only problem is he isn't doing the Proofs. I had to make him go back and do them.


Ace Reader (Speed Reading & Comprehension) he is almost finish this tool. I will have to find him another Speed reading activity tool at this rate. We will probably use (7 Speed Reading after this completes)


(2pm-2:30pm) DAILY Independent

Copy work is doing Great Writer's Quotes he is writing well in cursive. I specifically got a cursive book so that he could continue to practice.

Wordly Wise he does a good job of retaining the words but he didn't finish all of his sections and had to do them for 'weekend' work.

(2:30pm-3pm) Snack Break

Mom or Dad 'Assist' with these courses

(3pm-4:45pm) DAILY with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
Geometry AbekaAcademy he had his 9 week test in Abeka Geometry and came out with a low B. His proofs were neatly written and well done, even though he didn't do them in Teaching Textbooks.

Sequential Spelling  He has missed a week of doing these. Sigh, I just moved this two weeks of lessons to next week.

Algebra 1 (Saxon with DIVE dvds): He has a test a week and this week didn't do too well. We are going to review the test together over our weekends. We will have to back track some of his lessons that seem to slip his memory. This spiral approach really makes sure there is retention and when there isn't, it shows up in the test.

(5pm) Martial Arts  or Soccer
PE (Basketball/Soccer & Martial Arts) We are going to have to forego our soccer practices since Basketball started. His martial arts classes are 3 days a week until Novemeber so we will see how our schedule is impacted.

(6:15-6:30pm) 2 days a week with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
3-minute devotional for guys is on Wednesday and Friday's. We forgot some days of this and got a few lessons out of the way.

(7-7:30pm) Dinner

(7:30pm - 8:15pm) DAILY with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
Chemistry his Abeka he had his 9 week test and did pretty well. We had him study for it.


(8:15pm-9:15pm) 3 or 2 days a week with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
English Literature and American Literature He's doing the 'homework/seatwork' but I didn't make him read MacBeth. We watched the play/movie and I printed out questions from TeachwithMovies.org for the lesson.

Tiger Lilly's Week: High Schooler /Dual Enrolled 15 yrs old


CHALLENGES: Finishing up final work for three of her college classes while working on her homeschool classes are causing her to be really lazy about her homeschool classes. I am trying to get her to work on time management better.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Happy to say she finished all her college courses with B's in each class. At this rate she will be graduating with her BS in 2018 Spring at 17 yrs old! Beating out her sister by 2 yrs (Oh MY GOODNESS!) who got her AA and BS by the time she was 19 yrs.

(9 am-10:30am) DAILY
Landry Academy 
Network Pro she has class on TUESDAY . She takes the test using 'testout' until she passes them with 100% then emails her teacher her score.

10:30am-11:30am - 2 days a week
Software Development class (Homeschool Class by mom) She created her first Unity 3D game demo with features of Flappy Bird. However, she is working on her Framework Comparison paper now going on 4 weeks!!! Why is it taking her so long I don't know.

Build Video Game using Unity 3D It's an Udemy course and she is learning how to build her next demo game.

See the Light Art Class she didn't finish her artwork from the previous 'Perspective' lesson.

11:30am-12:30pm- 3 days a week
Calculus with Saxon & Dive and CTCMathThank goodness for our TUTOR! She is working with Tiger Lilly 2 hours a week. This is the last week before the College Calculus class starts.

1:30pm-4:30pm- 3 days a week LAST WEEK! Yay! [Dual Enrolled College Courses UMUC.edu]
Nutrition Final Exam of multiple choice questions and Course evaluation was finished and it ended 10/16.

Relational Database Design Research paper on database products and discussion question scenario rounded out this class that finished on 10/16.

Technical Writing The Technical White paper and course evaluation were due as the final in this class.

Information Application Management [ends 11/06] This still has a few more weeks. It's her worst class of this set. The quizzes aren't recording scores correctly. She had to call tech support about it. Also, the projects are rather boring for her since she did similar work in a previous course. 

5pm-6:30pm - 3 days a week - PE
Gym Circuit training and Martial Arts . We increased martial arts to 4 days a week. Also, we added 2 days at the YMCA with her dad.

7pm-8:30pm - 4 days a week
Japanese her tutor is still working out well. I am trying to find her an actual class to take. I am planning on enrolling her at UH soon and it will allow her to start taking other classes there too.


8:30pm-9pm - 2 days a week
3-minute Devotional for Girls we are having some good conversations because of this.


WORKING PARENT's LOG


Meals Another week of bad planning. No freezer prepped meals. Also, trying to focus on a Meat, veggie based dinner without so much 'rice, pasta, potatoes'. I am getting major push back from the family on this though.

Cleaning. Meh. These last two weeks we've gotten off base.

Work & Life Balance.I am back to a manageable balance again. I have two weeks of flexing of my hours to work with. I also worked on the holiday Monday so I could take Friday off instead.

Lesson Planning. The benefits to doing this 1 time a week is that I can add what we didn't finish to the week plan. I had to do this 2 weeks in a row now.

Rest. I just can't sleep 8hrs! Why? Why? Why?.

Marriage Check Up. We went to the movies and dinner alone! Yes :-D finally.



Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The HARDEST CLASSES to TEACH in HOMESCHOOL

You heard it!

There are some classes that I failed at teaching.


My MOST difficult one to Teach
Teaching languages has been an utter failure for me in my homeschool teaching career. My kids have tried EVERYTHING from Mango Languages, to Currclick Live, to Landry Academy, to Abeka Academy and lastly Middlebury Interactive.

None of them - not a one have given them the same level of expertise I found while learning both French and Spanish in the classroom.

Why? Well because No-One-Is-Speaking it to them.

As a last resort, my daughter, Tiger Lilly really wanted to prolong her Japanese lessons so I hired a Japanese tutor to work with her weekly. She won't listen to the Immersion CDs because she'd rather have someone speaking to her. As for my son, he has a 'basic' understanding of the Spanish language but doesn't feel confident speaking or writing in it.

This is the one class I am throwing in the towel on. I had to find outside and IN-PERSON classes to meet this need. 


Teaching Writing was another challenge. Now I love writing. I'm pretty good at it also. However, teaching it, reviewing work, and making the curriculum just wasn't as effective as I thought it would be.

My kids needed someone to help them learn grammar and editing rules while checking their work. I've had to order this curriculum out because they preferred to learn from an 'interactive' tool or teacher.

We've used Time4Writing, Fortuigence, San Diego Scribblers and lastly a private tutor. The combination of all of them worked well.

Teaching Advanced Math, Oh my goodness! Teaching up til Algebra 2 wasn't too difficult. Watching videos, teachers and having a few tutors here and there worked well. Most all of their classes were successful with Abeka Academy, Saxon, CTCMath and Teaching Textbooks (for Geometry).

But when we hit Pre-Calculus and Calculus there was a roadblock, limited teaching materials and difficult problems.

I hired a tutor to work with my daughter through her CTCMath and Saxon Calculus materials.


Physics and Chemistry were very difficult to teach. Especially, since the labs were not easily done at home. Also, I wasn't comfortable with these courses when I was in college 25 yrs ago and still am not.

These subjects we did a 'light' learning of by using Abeka Academy and Study.com videos. In each scenario the kids learned a lot, but didn't get the full experience of doing 'labs.'

I used Landry Academy 'Intensives' camps to expose them to labs.


WHEN TO HIRE OUT A SUBJECT

If I was doing this all over again, I would've hired out the subjects I knew my kids needed a 'great' takeaway or in depth understanding for as far as college was concerned.

Come to find out, my daughter didn't have to take Chemistry or Physics in college. So, I should have done my research earlier and wouldn't have needed to stress out about it so much.

We hired a tutor to work with the kids 2 times a week on the Curriculum we chose for them.

SUBJECTS YOU CAN'T SKIMP ON

Writing, Grammar, Reading! And Math. 

Make sure your student can Read and ComprehendWRITE (grammar and reading) well and understands MATH up to Geometry and Algebra 1 at least. All colleges at least want that. Even a job wants that. All entry test have those basic skills on it.

So if you're not confident in assisting your student in learning the above, don't feel guilty about 'hiring' to teacher or tutor.



Friday, October 7, 2016

Wow! Can't Believe They Did That


OUR AMAZING VIEW WHILE RUNNING ERRANDS


A two week review and rewind.

SPEED RACER's WEEK
12 yrs



BIRTHDAY PARTY
Yep, we celebrated his birthday with a whopping 10 kids to celebrate at a Dave & Buster's party. He was so happy to have that many friends party with him.

But the work doesn't stop. He even finished work on his birthday (which was during the week) so he could have fun at his party on Sunday.

STILL THE BABY 
*he fell asleep in our bed watching a movie*
It's times like this that make my heart swell knowing he's still my baby boy. Usually, he is the hardest kid to get to sleep. He hardly sleeps in his room. When he does, it's with the TV, game controller or he just crashes in the living room.

But this night, he slept like a baby next to me. I even was able to sneak a kiss.

Overall:  Sliding into 3 months of school! My gosh SPEED RACER is SO EFFICIENT at getting his work done these last two weeks.

HOW? Well ... bribery of course. He wants his brother's old Iphone 6. I told him he has to focus and finish his work daily without moving work to 'weekend homework'. He asked for a '3 strike' program. This child is very good at negotiating.

His TEMPER has been in check and he's actually been polite (maybe because his birthday party is around the corner - hum...)

CHALLENGES: Scheduling for all the sports has been a MONSTER these last few weeks. Now it's time for basketball (which I wasn't going to sign him up for). However, his dad and older brother are coaching. So...

We didn't get Friday's work done last week due to PARTIES and DISTRACTIONS, but no worries. We made Monday of this week 'Make Up work Day'. It's when we get off track and don't want to give up weekend activities to get back on schedule. This means I'll combine some assignments this week and cut out some 'floating classes' that include our online work.


Day Classes that he is doing Independently

(7am-8:30am) [MON and WED]
Landry Academy Classes [October Break started this Monday-this schedule is last week's]

Writing ER: is live on Monday's.  His grade is a solid C+, mainly because at times he gets lazy and does subpar work when I'm not looking over his shoulder or he knows I don't plan to check his work.

Python Programming is live on Wednesday's: He is getting better at finishing the assignments without his sister helping. He hates reading though, so we are working on him slowing down and reading the chapter assignments.

(8:30am-9am) Snack Break

(9 am-11am) DAILY Independent

Psychology, SociologyMacro EconPhysics and Information Systems (Study.com) he is getting into a easy rhythm with these classes. The quizzes and test are easier because now he either watches the video or 'speed reads' through the notes to get the information.

Body Language (Udemy) is 10 minutes a session and is only 5 sessions. I make him tell me what he's learned.

Online Classes takes 15 to 20 minutes
IXL (Language Arts - Review) is on Monday and Wednesday he is lazy with grammar, but scoring about 70 on his sessions before he stops.

Prodigy (Math Game - Basic Math Review) Tuesday and Friday I have to get him to time himself on this game. He enjoys it enough to not complain about doing it. I have it set to review Decimals, Fractions, Exponents, and Long Division which are his weak spots.

CTCMath (Algebra 1 - Supplement): on Monday and Friday. He does this before his Study.com work and says it helps him to understand or review anything that he didn't do well on with the Saxon/Dive lessons.It takes him about 30 minutes.


(11am-12:30am) [THU only] Online Live Class Independent
Landry Academy Classes [October Break started this Monday-this schedule is last week's]

Spanish live is on Thursday's: This teacher posted a Quizlet list for the kids to go over daily with homework. He started working through the list on Monday. He does a bit of the weekly homework a little each day.


(12:30-1:00pm) - lunch

(1pm-2pm) DAILY Independent

Membean (Vocabulary Builder) has helped him with his vocabulary and deciphering of words. He is still on Level 2.

Geometry (Teaching Textbooks as our Math Lab) he is on schedule and making higher grades in the 90s.

Ace Reader (Speed Reading & Comprehension) he is almost finish this tool. I will have to find him another Speed reading activity tool at this rate. We will probably use (7 Speed Reading after this completes)


(2pm-2:30pm) DAILY Independent


Copy work is doing Great Writer's Quotes in cursive, he writes so well in cursive and to think he's a lefty! It takes him 10 minutes

Wordly Wise he finishes these pretty quick and have been making between 75% and 85% on his test.

(2:30pm-3pm) Snack Break

Mom or Dad 'Assist' with these courses

(3pm-4:45pm) DAILY with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
Geometry AbekaAcademy has him taking at least 2 quizzes a week and 1 test every other week. He is really learning to do proofs much better than his siblings. Also, he takes rather good notes.

Sequential Spelling  The daily test are going well. He knows the words but we will see how he does at the next test.

Algebra 1 (Saxon with DIVE dvds): The growth and solidification I see of his understanding has been amazing. The Abeka Alg 1 didn't work out as well it got advanced way to early. He does 4 lessons a week and has 1 test a week.

(5pm) Martial Arts  or Soccer
PE (Soccer & Martial Arts) I am ready for Soccer to be over. It seems we overbooked and the getting him to games has become stressful on Saturdays.


(6:15-6:30pm) 2 days a week with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
3-minute devotional for guys is on Wednesday and Friday's. We now have allowed him to lead in nightly family prayer.

(7-7:30pm) Dinner

(7:30pm - 8:15pm) DAILY with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
Chemistry his Abeka he did well on his open book quiz. I had to print out his formulas for him though.


(8:15pm-9:15pm) 3 or 2 days a week with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
English Literature and American Literature He is doing a 'light' version of this class. I am not making him do the read outloads - yet. He does the assigned homework and test and quizzes. This actually has a grammar and language part to it so he does it for both classes - essentially getting a double teaching. It's working too.

Weekend Plans: Both CAP and YOUNG EAGLES programs were cancelled as was his SOCCER game.

Tiger Lilly's Week: High Schooler /Dual Enrolled 15 yrs old

All her classes are in full gear and we made some additions to her schedule.

CHALLENGES: So glad we are done with the Hackathon obligation. Calculus is proving difficult and I had to hire a tutor. Also, she is stumped with her Unity 3D class and I found a tutor for that course too.

Tiger Lilly has some distractions during the day. I haven't pinned them down, but she is still slipping on getting work done by Friday.

I haven't been checking her work daily, and that's one of the problems. So, back on track for mom.

(9 am-10:30am) DAILY
Landry Academy [October Break started this Monday-this schedule is last week's]
Network Pro she has class on TUESDAY . Her 'TESTOUT' is going well. The teacher just meets with the students and chats, but outside of that, testout is doing all the 'interactive teaching..

10:30am-11:30am - 2 days a week
Software Development class (Homeschool Class by mom) Udemy course (1) Learning Unity 3D by creating Games (2) Unity 3D Basics. Also, she gets 1 hour with her tutor. She watches the video, then takes 1 week to build the game. Also, she has to write a Framework Comparison Paper.

See the Light Art Class 2 days a week and now she has grown more in her art by using 'Perspective'.

11:30am-12:30pm- 3 days a week
Calculus with Saxon & Dive and CTCMath This is where she has a roadblock - on both! I employed her former math tutor who is now away at college as her tutor. I'll be paying her via paypal.

1:30pm-4:30pm- 3 days a week [Dual Enrolled College Courses with UMUC.edu]
Nutrition Just 2 more weeks left in this 8 week class. So far she's had lots of projects and a quiz every other week. There was a glitch with the quizzes and she had to email the teacher to correct it.

Relational Database Design Also on week 6. We are having problems connecting the Oracle SQL Developer. She had to call tech support to walk her through her account set up.

Technical Writing Finishing up week 6 of 8. Now she is writing a Technical White paper which is giving her some trouble with the alignment of pictures in the document.

Information Application Management This class just started. She is only 2 weeks in. They had her doing an excel budget project and several discussion post.

5pm-6:30pm - 3 days a week - PE
Soccer and Martial Arts . She basically quit soccer. So I am planning to add to her martial arts. She does go to the gym with her dad.

7pm-8:30pm - 4 days a week
Japanese she doesn't like the immersion CDs. So we are working on how she can get the immersion experience.

Build Video Game using Unity 3D It's an Udemy course. And she will be working with a tutor from IDTech to help her when she gets stuck creating her games.


8:30pm-9pm - 2 days a week
3-minute Devotional for Girls we are having some good conversations because of this.


WORKING PARENT's LOG


Meals I haven't had time to freezer prep meals, so we went to Sam's and Costco to buy meat that I just prepped every night.

Cleaning. This has been under control this past 2 weeks. It seems as though having company is a good way to encourage cleaning.

Work & Life Balance. Ahh! Catastrophic failure of our servers and databases at work meant - I HAD TO STAY LATE and RECOVER OUR SYSTEM on FRIDAY O_o (I am screaming inside). This type of problem rarely happens and when does it decide to happen? Just when I am ready to walk out the door for the weekend. Well, hubby came to the rescue and got off work in time to take the kiddos to their activities.

Lesson Planning. Updated it with the adding of some classes. Still on track.

Rest. Not good. I had a toothache and stayed up late watching movies with my husband.

Marriage Check Up. We are back on track. I started making his lunches again (I think he was jealous that I made lunch for my son and not him).