Friday, February 13, 2015

So Close Til The Finish Line

Weekly Wrap Up

We are so close to actually finalizing our school year with our core curriculum, Abeka Academy, that I and the kids are jumping for joy! Just two weeks and we are on lessons 155 (which is where we usually end our school year even though Abeka Academy has 170 lessons included).

I'm looking at Time4Learning.com and MinecraftHomeschool.com for Speed Racer. Stay tuned.

On The Road Again - Yep! This is a big field trip for just me and the kids. We are going to Disney world (again) to hang out and relax while doing a 'light' school week. So we packed our gear and are ready to leave this weekend. Rose is coming home to hang out with Hubba so he doesn't get lonely.

Speed Racer, 6th grader

With MOD Design (Java beginner curriculum) by Youth Digital he worked with support to get some things back in order. Also, I'd noticed he didn't do the section reviews and troubleshooting for each Module - so, I told him he'll be backtracking and finishing up the 6 of them he'd missed. Clever Dragons he played in during the morning finishing more Spanish and Literature. WordSmart (vocabulary software program) which is working well to teach him word meaning.

We had some glitches with Time4Writing [Paragraphs] since they are doing updates to their web app.

He's worked independently this week on his Saxon Math, Spelling You See. While his dad worked with him during his Abeka Academy [Bible, Language, Reading, Penmanship, Science & History]. No copywork this week in Anatomy. He is still working on consistency with his Fraction Practice Review Sheets. I videotaped him while he played his 2nd song he learned on the Piano with Simply Music.

Yellow Belt advancement was this week, and he squeezed in two days (4 hours) of dance and acrobatics practice as well as 2 days (2 hours) of martial arts.

Tiger Lilly, blended 9th grader

Tiger Lilly is in the groove. She is working independently on her college courses now in their 3rd week  (Sociology, Interpersonal Communication and Art Appreciation). On Friday, I assigned her the task of making Quizlet.com flashcards for her to use to study with for her coming mid-terms and quizzes.

She is no longer doing her Physics class online with Education-Portal since she finished all the videos and quizzes.

One day of Web Design with Currclick.com (she finished her 2nd project), Python class with Landry she had her class on Wed with a quiz, Psychology with Currclick was a little longer class on Monday. Blender Animation with Youth Digital is almost 70% done. Chemistry with Education-Portal is still fun for her and she watches the videos and does the quizzes that follow each video.

While her brother was snowboarding, she did her Saturday session with Digipen-Animation with 3D Maya. She had to work on her animation project for her next class this coming Saturday.

Pre-Calc with Abeka had her doing 2 quizzes this week - she got 'A's on it. She complained that Pre-Calc is just like geometry - only more of it, lol!

She's studying for her CLEP exam in US History to 1877 Review with Instantcert and has memorized 50 of the 82 facts in her 1st set of instantcert flashcards. CLEP Professor Algebra she finished 4 days of lessons this week of her total 20.

She does two days of martial arts (2 hours) and 1 day (an hour) of Hip Hop dance. I promised her we would do 30 minutes of exercise 2 days a week but momma is lazy about exercising.

WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. This week went by like a breeze. I had all my meats prepped and we had a hot meal every night. Hubba even cooked (put meat in the oven and made the minute rice with veggies). I was a bit miffed when I came home from work after a 12 hour day and cooked dinner - only to have my Hubba take the kiddos to Chick-Fil-A. However, I felt bad afterwards for fussying him out about it since the kids asked him to take them since they got their Yellow Belts in martial arts that day and wanted to celebrate. Sigh. So I ate, then packed that day's dinner up for the next day.

Cleaning. Don't ask. I did put away the clothes I washed last week. But there is another pile on the couch since my Hubba decided to wash clothes but hadn't had a chance to fold them. We hope to prep the living room for painting since we are getting new Dining and Living Room furniture.

Work & Life Balance. A crazy week of 12 hour days and freezing rain. Also throw in some pretty highly visible work product deadlines to present to other engineers - eek! I'm trying to work extra hours to compensate for my plan to be off next week for our trip to Florida and I may end up sleeping to recover, lol!

Lesson Planning. Not done for next week since it's going to be a light week and we are going out of town.

Rest. I actually got 6 to 7 hours of sleep out of the way. So I wasn't tired this week, surprisingly.

Marriage Check Up. We stayed up way later than I should've to watch my Hubba's favorite show together while eating candy we 'borrowed' from the kids.


8 comments:

  1. Visiting from Weekly Wrap Up. How do you and your children enjoy Abeka curriculum? I think we may be headed in that direction in a year or two. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. The Abeka Academy DVD/Streaming curriculum works well for my family for several reasons I believe (1) My kids are used to a traditional school environment so seeing a teacher lecture isn't a problem for them-they actually selected this curriculum out of others I've shared with them for this reason (2) It's so organized that both my husband and I can administer it with little or no communication between us-everything is in the Video Log/teachers manuals (3) It comes with free (included) teacher support in which my kids have used specifically for math related problems, test or quiz review when they needed it.

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  3. Thanks for giving us a glimpse into your very busy world! Have an amazing Disney trip! :)

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  4. Thanks for stopping by, Nita! Nice to "meet" you. It looks like a very busy week in your house too. :) Our age spans are similar, I have still schooling ages: 16, 13, and 10 {graduated two already, now ages 19 and 18}. I remember Abeka days fondly!

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  5. Have fun at Disney! (I'm just a little bit jealous that you're almost done with school AND going to Disney) ;-)

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  6. I had never heard of Currclick, but my daughter would love to do that web design course! I had no idea I could get Minecraft in to our homeschool either. Thank you so much for opening a few doors for us. I also love your 'marriage check up' addition!! So very important in a fast paced life!! Thanks for stopping by earlier!

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  7. Hello Nita. I am visiting from the link-up and saw your kind comment on my blog. Thank you. You are so organized and diligent and doing a great job providing varied learning experiences. Excellent job of using technology in your curriculum. Have a blessed Valentine's Day!

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  8. Visiting from Weekly Wrap Up. How exciting to get to go to Disney! I wish we were almost done with school. It feels like the last bit of the school year takes forever.

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