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, Sociology, Macro Econ, Physics 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.