LIVING SHAKESPEARE...and JOIN the CIRCUS

This week my daughter is starting to really get into reading the classics. And I have to admit, it's hard even for me.

So....

Who says we homeschoolers or any student has to learn the traditional way?

WE ARE GOING ON a PLAY HUNT!

So I went to Goldstar.com and ordered some really reasonable tickets for us to go the all the Shakespeare plays I could find.

This is what we've done to prepare.

1) Read samples of his plays
2) Watched Education-Portal.com English Literature course
3) Skipped around the internet for reviews of his works

Then ... da ... da ... da dum!

We booked some reasonable shows

Hamlet
Romeo & Juliet
King Richard III

We'll be going to see them all in the next few weeks.

1) Taking our cliffnotes (yeah! Mom's not an English Teacher so I'm going to need some help)
2) Drawing pad (my Tiger Lilly likes to draw so she's going to capture her favorite scenes)

CIRCUS! CIRCUS! CIRCUS! is coming to town!

Woot!

As a great adventure for my Speed Racer! We are going to Ringling Brother's circus. AND...

THAT's NOT ALL 

Then for Spring Break! - Speed Racer is going to CIRCUS CAMP!!!! Yes! you heard me (I'm patting myself on the back for this one).

This is an inspiration for both him and I. He'll be writing a paper on his adventures running away with the circus. Also, the camp is for 1 week and ends with him in a circus act!

SCHOOL?

Well we are on track for Tiger Lilly to take the Analyzing Literature CLEP.

We decided to move the Technical Writing DSST that she has to retake to the beginning of school later this year.

Her Algebra 1 with Teaching Textbooks is coming to and end. And her Abeka Algebra 1 is only 20 days from ending.

Biology is going so slow with Thinkwell I want to speed it up but it's just so much information I won't do that to her.

Computer programming with Youth Digial is going great and will be finished by June when she goes to summer camp.

So, Speed Racer, is almost finished his Abeka Academy classes (Math 4, Reading, Penmanship, Language Arts, History ~ Science ended and now the dvds are teaching Health)

Just 15 more days of instruction and it'll be done.

Spanish totally rocks with Currclick which is only 6 lessons but interactive. Not enough for it to stick I don't think but a good orientation to the language. He's also doing Education-Portal.com Spanish.

Bite off a Lot Lately?

Well I did! Woot! 

This week work at the day gig almost did me in. I love, love, love my job. It wasn't my first choice for a career but as a 2nd choice it way fits me.

Not only that, but Mom takes the evening shift since Hubba has to work late due to taking the morning shift with kids. So what does that mean? Only I have to drive the kids to all those activities I've got listed for them below (every day of the week they now have one)

However, it totally stuck a fork in my plans for my HOMESCHOOL and my poor little Tiger Lilly paid for it.

CLEP and DSST Testing Diary

Tiger Lilly crammed for 2 weeks and sat for her COLLEGE COMPOSITION CLEP and we got her scores back with a PASS! Woohoo for her :-D

However, with me working overtime this last week, she sat for her DSST TECHNICAL WRITING test, pretty much cold because she and I was supposed to study this week and got very little of it done.

Work = Overtime = too many darned activities (we added Lacrosse this week and martial arts) = Failed test...

So, she failed her DSST TECHNICAL WRITING test by 5 stinky points!!

Now what?

She wants to do the retest before she leaves for Summer Sleep Away camp. With DSST you have to wait 90 days before you can retake the test.

Tiger Lilly told me she is glad she took it. That know she knows what to expect and it will be easier for her next time - > as long as she gets at least 2 weeks to study. (Mom learning lesson from kid? Yep. Always.)

Lessons Learned:
1) My girl needs at least 2 weeks in between test to study
2) Move the test date if you are not ready
3) Retaking a test doesn't freak her out, she doesn't mind and sees the benefits in it
4) Her retaking a test - SHOULD NOT freak mom out.

OUR WEEK OF HECTIC MAYHEM

Other than the cramming for test, we got a lot accomplished.

Tiger Lilly:
She finished up the following subject.

Geometry - Thinkwell is pretty much finished. Just 2 chapters. She has a lot to do with Teaching Textbooks Geometry though and finished 4 lessons of it this week.

Algebra 1 - The Abeka Algebra 1 DVD course is about 120 lessons in of the 170 left. She finished up 3 lessons this week and plans to do the work from 2 of them over the weekend.

Java with Youth Digital - She loves doing this more than the Game Design 2 so she did this 4 days this week, finishing up Module 4.

Game Design 2 - Tiger Lilly has been slacking on this one and only squeezed in one lesson this week.

Technical Writing DSST Test - Only got to study flash cards and watch videos in 4 days. Took test on Friday and missed her pass by 5 points. Will table this subject until June when she retakes it with her College Math Clep.

Activities: Went to the Girls STEM day at the Naval Academy last Saturday.
Sports: Started Lacrosse, Martial Arts and is finishing up tumbling. Still doing Hip Hop Dance one day a week.


Speed Racer:
This week he is working well independently.

Overall he's finished up to Lesson 151 of 170 from Abeka's Academy's DVD/Streaming homeschool

So I'm slowing things down getting ready for his 'bridge' school year of subjects that will be a lighter load.

Bible: He finished 3 days of it this week

Math: He finished 4 days this week of Abeka, Teaching Textbooks Math 6, and XtraMath.com

Reading: Skipped Abeka reading and is reading his own book of choice to me outloud.

Penmanship: He's now just working on the exercises that don't require him writing spelling words in cursive. However, for a lefty, he's writing is superb.

Spelling: Got  a C on his spelling test. I think he's getting lazy with writing his words 3 times and putting them in spell city

History: Got an A on his History test! Woot!

Health: He's interested in this class at least and finished up 4 days of it. There's lots of quizzes and worksheets.

Spanish: We are using Standard Deviants DVDs, Education-Portal.com and now Currclick.com as a Live Class.

SPANIsH with CurrClick! A success. We just started this on Tuesday and he is LOVING it! The teacher is very good. And keeps the class engaging and in order. This was a win. win.

Activities: Visiting friends
Sports: Tumbling, Hip Hop Dance, Break Dancing, Martial Arts and now Lacrosse (shoot me now!)

BIT OFF A LOT, and GOT a lot done in spite of some hiccups.

I can say that even with the unexpected snow days, the extra work ours, the crazy test schedule, I am pleased.

I learned so much about myself and my kids during this week that I'll take the LOSSES and make them GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES for IMPROVEMENT.

How do you and your homeschool grow from these challenges?

Oh my! We are finishing our curriculum WAY too EARLY

How did this happen? Well some of our planned vacations got cancelled and we just filled in those do nothing days with our curriculum lessons.

WE ARE FINISHING EARLY

The Abeka DVD boxed curriculum has 170 lessons. We started the 2nd week of July and are finishing March 30th if we keep at the rate we are going.

And I don't know what to do next...

BRIDGE MONTHS

I don't want school to stop until May 19th, 2014 and I plan on us taking off the month of Mid May through Mid July.

So we will have to fill in that time with areas where the kids are really needing some tightening up.

THE BRIEF MONTH CURRICULUM

Tiger Lilly plans to take several CLEP test in May and June. She has been bumped up to 8th grade and will officially be a high schooler next school year.  However, we will use this time to study for them by doing the following for our 5 day school. We mapped out only 3 to 4 hours of study either with her siblings or a study group at our co-op.

- Reading CLEP Study Guides
- Practice Test
- Watching course videos to summarize what we learned this school year

Test to take in May/June:

Analyzing Literature (studying with her brother & sister who are taking it)
English Composition
English Literature
American Literature
Humanities (studying with her brother & sister who are taking it)
College Mathematics (combines Alg 1 & Geometry which she took this year)

Inspired by book CLEP LESSON PLANS by Tricia McQuarrie (http://clepprep.tripod.com/cleplessonplans/)

KEEPING the ELEMENTARY SCHOOLER ON TRACK

So my elementary schooler, Speed Racer, will be able to do some of the classes he's been wanting to try out that his sister was finishing up.

YouthDigital.com Game Design 1 (he loves watching her create video games. And this is interactive)
Jr. Analytical Grammar
Sequential Spelling 5
A+ Interactive Math Grade 5
Guitar (Private Lessons)

Is The Purpose of Learning to Retain?

So, now that we are half the year into our homeschool journey, I ask myself - is Learning Meant to be retained?

My kids have been bombarded with a lot of information. A lot. I mean the boxed curriculum we use is nothing to sneeze at, those DVD teachers leave nothing out.

Not to mention my kids usually get at least 2 quizzes and 1 test every other week in each subject (both the 4th grader and formerly 7th grader [that I skipped a grade] have this schedule)

I've heard other homeschooling moms say it is way too much information.

But my kids hardly ever complained since they did double the work in public/private school and didn't retain much of it.

PLAY instead of WORKBOOKS, TEXTs or TEST

I've switched things up with my kids and introduced some ways to 'play' and work at the same time.

We've added online math games, reading games, language games and the kids don't even realize that they are LEARNING and RETAINING the information.

However, those tools were selected because they do TEST the kids knowledge to make sure that the method is working for them.

RETAINING? and ACCOUNTABILITY?

So, I also tried other ways to PLAY and LEARN that the kids explored things they wanted on their own, and we went on tons of field trips where I had them write about it.

But sadly, for my kids, after the event was over, they'd only retained or remembered a portion of the 'point' or learning specific subject matter the 'trip' was supposed to validate.

HOW TO DO BOTH?

Well after several trips, play activities and hands on task, I realized for my kids I have to do the following for them to really capture and hold onto that teaching moment.

1) Spell Out - Write out a List of what we are planning on learning
2) Point those things out during the activity
3) Have kid do a project or invest in writing about, reflecting on the activity
4) Go over activity with kid, point out the List of Learning Points
5) Test or Quiz the kid either with a game, or questioning them on their past projects

This way we have a way of (1) pointing out what child should gain from activity (2) seeing if kid retains the important facts of the activity (3) make learning FUN and ACCOUNTABLE

HOW DO YOU DO IT?

CLEP TEST Madness for the Homeschooler

Yes, this week it has been madness. I changed our schedule yet again. I know. I know. I'm a curriculum junkie of sorts. But I think I've got it.

My enthusiastic 7th grader wanted to go for it with me :-D

So this week week when I called to set up her appointment to take her CLEP test I got thrown for a LOOP.

Scheduling....never works out the way you've planned.

After talking with a friend of mine who's daughter did the COLLEGE PLUS way, I decided to tackle these test with my very motivated daughter by grouping similar or overlapping test together and studying within 2 weeks of each other.

But the Test Center was closed intermittently which disrupted my original plan.

Sigh...

THE FREEDOM OF HOMESCHOOL

Did I say I love homeschooling because of all the freedom it gives us? Well, in order to meet the new schedule we dropped some of her original coursework.

Courses Post-poned until after our CLEP test taking frenzy:
Analytical Grammar
Abeka Science
Abeka English DVD
Bible
Japanese

Courses moved to independent study done in the morning
(I asked my Tiger Lilly which courses she wanted to continue to do)
Youth Digital (Mod Design and Game Design 2)
Algebra 1 (both Teaching Textbooks and Abeka)
Geometry (Teaching Textbooks only - dropped Thinkwell)
Biology (Thinkwell)


THE NEW STUDY PLAN

Mon-Fri
10am-1pm (she does this on her own & I check at night)
Game Design 1 (or) Mod Design - Java
Algebra 1
Geometry
Biology

2pm-6pm - (English) COLLEGE COMPOSITION CLEP CRAM TIME 
(I sit with her and mark her scores)
This is where we focus ONLY on 1 test at a time until the scheduled day of test

College Composition (CLEP TEST) study
Instantcert Flashcards
Speedy Prep Flashcards
Quizlet Review
Education-Portal.com Video
Time4Writing.com (SAT Essay Writing Course)
REA College Composition Review

Practice Test (every other day)
REA Practice Test
Petersons Practice Test
Free-Clep-Prep Practice Test
Education-Portal.com Practice Test

Fri-Sat
Flashcard review

Instantcert Flashcards
Speedy Prep Flashcards
Quizlet Review

HOW DID IT GO?
Absolutely better than I could've expected!

Her progress:
Flashcards: Overall she went from knowing 5 to 10 per set, to 20-25 per set by the end of the week
Testscores:
Petersons: (1) 21  taken on Monday (2)39 taken on Thursday
REA: (52%) taken on Friday

TEST date is planned for when she scores a bit higher on her test and finishes her Time4Writing.com test in 2 weeks.

MY SPEED RACER...

Well he is watching his sister and thinking she has it easier since she in theory has less classes than he did. But this week we did have a step backwards with him.

He took it upon himself to stay up late and purchase a ton of stuff on playstation...so video game systems are currently banished.

Other than that, he's been scoring A's and B's on all subjects this week.

Don't Judge-Homeschooling is Great-But Traditional School is Needed

Sometimes I overhear mom's on the homeschooling front really rip a new hole in Public or Traditional School systems.

I get it, there are a lot of problems with the system ... BUT...

STEP OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE

There are many, many kids in the US that would never be able to be educated at home. Due to parental issues, parents that have to work but still can't make a decent living, single parents or disabled parents or even parents that aren't present.


THE NEED FOR PUBLIC or TRADITIONAL EDUCATION

The need is providing education for everyone. Yes, we don't like to be 'made' to send our kids to school, but some parents are negligent. This mode of operation was made into law for a rather good reason. The problem though is the execution is based on a system of people that have to make it work for EVERYONE - and that's just not a realistic goal.

My Mother In Law is an educator and I've seen her become so angry at her staff when they give up on kids. But the truth is, they graduate from college ill prepared to deal with kids that come from various homes with different levels of parental support.

SOME KIDS SURVIVE, SOME THRIVE, OTHERS ARE FAILED

With having 4 kids I have to say I see traditional school as an 'Option' for my kids. Truth be told, it was a good fit for my oldest son and my oldest daughter did just fine there.

However, my younger two kids suffered in this system. I moved them from Public school to Private school and still saw the light of learning seep out of their eyes, replaced by the depression of being bullied by both teachers and other students.

Maybe school has changed? Maybe these 2 kids are just different. I think it's a bit of both.

Finally, while homeschooling them makes them extremely happy (neither kid wants to go back to Traditional school - they remind me every so often). I believe I love having the FREEDOM to decide how I want to educate my kid.

WE MOVED TO BE IN A BETTER SCHOOL DISTRICT

The thing is, if you want to go the Traditional school route, there's lots of ways to get in the better selection of schools. Let's admit it. Some schools have MAJOR resources that homeschooling just can't give that easily.

So there were many people that moved to, rented in, and fought their way into the better schools or school districts.

In my current school area our kids have to 'compete' to get into the limited programs available.

IN YOUR SPARE TIME 

Take a look at A MOVIE that shook me,

Waiting for 'Superman'

 

THE MADNESS OF A LACKLUSTER WEEK OF HOMESCHOOLING

See that little snow man? They guy from FROZEN? Well that's what we were this week!

I've realized something about myself. I HATE SNOW!!!  But my little guy, SPEED RACER loves it!

NOTHING GOES AS PLANNED

Well I had the kids schedules all made up, their workboxes in order and their curriculum changes for the new year in FULL Effect.

UNTIL...the snow

MY BLESSING and CHALLENGES

I don't know if I've told you this, but I work during the day. My Hubba takes a mid-shift and I also write novels on the side. Yeah, I know ...madness.

Well my day gig (which I LOVE my new job btw) hindered my homeschool due to the many snow days I've had to take. I just started this job and have very little if any vacation time built up. So essentially I have to make up my hours within a 2 week period.

What suffered because of the DRATTED snow? My HOMESCHOOLing duties.

WHY I LOVE HOMESCHOOL

We can adjust and adapt. So here's what we did this week.

4th Grader, SPEED RACER's classes:

Bible (Abeka DVD) Skipped Mon,Wed,Fri - Used Bible Based Movie on Friday as a makeup
Math (Abeka DVD) Did All Days, working on Multiplying Fractions and more Long Division
Reading (Abeka DVD) Skipped Mon,Wed,Fri - didn't make this up in any way
Penmanship (Abeka DVD) Skipped all week - didn't make this up in any way
Spelling  (Abeka DVD)- Tue-used DVD to give Spelling Test - Wed-Fri: Didn't watch the DVD but wrote out the spelling words
History (Abeka DVD)  Skipped Mon,Wed,Fri - Had him write answers to questions in back of chapter on days missed.
Science (Abeka DVD) Did All Days

Additional Enrichment Labs Or Classes SPEED RACER DOES in addition to core 

Spanish Instruction- Used Standard Deviants Spanish DVDs (got from Amazon) They are great with a workbook
Spanish Games - Dulingo app (does daily on mom's iphone) Spanish School Bus app (does daily on mom's iphone)

Science Lab - Uzinggo.com - He did this daily since he loves it

Math 6 Lab - Teaching Textbooks - He did this daily

Math Drills - Xtramath.com - He did this daily

7th Grader TIGER LILLY did a LOT of independent work this week.

Algebra 1 - She did this daily using Abeka DVD and Teaching Textbooks

Geometry - She did this daily using Teach Textbooks and Thinkwell

Science - Skipped on Mon, Tues, Thu using to Abeka DVD on Wed/Fri

English Literature - Did daily using Education-Portal.com and SpeedyPrep.com Flashcards to prep for CLEP

American Literature - Did daily using Education-Portal.com and SpeedyPrep.com Flashcards

Analyzing Literature - Did daily using Education-Portal.com and SpeedyPrep.com Flashcards

English Composition -  Did Abeka DVD and Instantcert.com

Humanities - Did daily using Education-Portal.com and Instantcert.com

Speed Reading - Skipped this week

Logic - Skipped this week

Bible - Did on Mon, but skipped the rest of the week

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Cheering - Tiger Lilly did 3 days this week O_o
Tumbling - Tiger Lilly and Speed Racer do this together one Day a week through a private gym
Basketball - Speed Racer does this 2 times a week, Hubba is the Assistant Coach
Break Dancing - Speed Racer does this 1 time a week and is training for the Competition Team
Hip Hop Dance - Tiger Lilly and Speed Racer both do this 1 day a week

TIRED YET?
I am....