I'm Writing a Working and Homeschooling Book

Yes, It's True!
Since no one has written the book I desired on Working and Homeschooling, I'm just going to write it myself.

Putting everything and the kitchen sink in ...

This book has been on my heart for a long time. I'm an author as well as an engineer, working mom and wife. I know, that's a lot, but all of those roles I passionately love and give my all to them when I am able.

I've written many books and published in fiction. Those books have made it to various Best Seller lists. That's my other life. This blog was personal, a diary for my kids of the adventure we journeyed together.

They've asked me to write a book on how I accomplished this, walked a road with them that impacted their lives and yet juggled all the other parts of me.

I smiled and said, not until I'm finish raising you all and I know what I did actually worked.

I'm almost finished the first draft. Can't believe it.

If you want to peek at my other non-fiction book, hop over to my website www.empoweredsteps.com
but if you are on the adventurous side, and want to read some of my fiction books, visit www.lmpreston.com

Let me know in the comments any questions you'd like answered in my Working and Homeschooling book.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I'll be back to regularly scheduled programming in a few weeks when my son finishes this semester. We are struggling through this one.

A full week with overtime at work ~ Oh My!

Yes, It's been one of those weeks!

You know the kind where you question your sanity?

Why oh why did I choose this week to try to do the following...

Work overtime 12 hours.
Host a Homeschool High School Cup Games and Event Planning Party.
Volunteer to pick up and drop off husband and daughters at the airport.
And too much more...(above is what I looked like after it all)

KIDS PROGRESS

SPEED RACER's been bored.Since paddling is winding down and he doesn't have his sister as his homeschool companion much anymore, he complains about boredom.

This is a huge transition for him, learning to entertain himself. He is a bit lonely, so I'm going to have to creatively find activities for him. Thinking of letting him go to aftercare at one of the local boys and girls clubs.

Homeschool Classes:
Investing: We've only watched 1 Youtube video in the series and haven't started the Cashflow game yet.

-After watching the Stock Market Crash and Market Bubbles video we played the Cover Your Assets Game. We needed four players so we gathered his siblings to play.

Recreational Pilot License Training: He wants to get this next summer so we are adding it into his curriculum. We got through 2 videos from the Sporty Pilot License lessons.

-He finished two videos with one quiz. He actually did pretty good.

Black History: This week we watched a documentary on African Jews and The Moors. The highlight was watching the movie The Tuskegee Airmen.

-  We had a discussion on all, but the most interesting was his perspective on The Tuskegee Airmen movie.

Astronomy: Something he wants to explore.

- Didn't get to these. I know, it's been three weeks and we haven't touched these yet.

Bible Review: We are doing this together with videos. The Truth Unveiled Video playlist has been good for him. He asked several deep questions and we did some deep diving on topics.

- Watched two videos from the Bible video series we found on Youtube.

Cooking and Car Repair: The cooking I am letting him build his own recipes and prep dinner. Car Repair, he is helping his father and brother fix our cars. Oil Changes, Brake Pad changes, etc.

- This week he prepped dinner three times.
- Car Repair - he refused to watch more videos until he gets some hands on experience.

PE: Distance Canoe Team, Martial Arts and Breakdancing.

- Martial Arts - practiced two times each week.
- Breakdancing - back to practice on Friday.

JavaScript and Unity 3D Programming: A Saturday small class with a teacher that meets from 8am til 1:30pm. All other kids are public school kids.

- He went to class all day Saturday and wanted to sign up for the Hackathon coming next month.

College Classes
5 Week of 8 -  into Biol 101 and Biol 102 (lab)
2 Week of 8 - Info Sys in Org - Started 1 class this week
1 Week of 8 - Introduction to In-depth Research

Biology with Lab (Aug to Oct)
-Finished class discussions
-Finished Week 5 of 8 class Labs
-Finished Week 5 of 8 quiz

Information Systems in Organizations (Sept to Nov)
-Finished Two discussions
-Finished Assigned Reading
-Reviewed interactive Learning Activity
-Completed Quiz 2
-Case Stud Paper

Introduction to In-depth Research (Sept to Oct)
-Finished discussion
-Quiz 1
-Quiz 2
-Research Log Project
Advanced Business Writing (Oct to Dec)
College Algebra (Oct to Dec)


TIGER LILLY the Homeschool Graduate with a BS Degree, now Working on MS Degree

After many challenges with her new company's lack of communication, she has started her new job. They just didn't know what to do with a 17 year old Software Developer, they'd assumed she was much older due to her maturity.

She starts her GRAD-SCHOOL class in one week. 

WORK and HOME BALANCE Working and Homeschooling 

MEAL PREP: Speed Racer did most of the cooking of  meals this week and one by Tiger Lilly.

HOUSE CLEANING: We had to clean the house for company on Tuesday. After that it was downhill. 

LESSON PLANNING: I did better this week, even though I wonder how much of it he follows nowadays. He still requests it as though its a contract of what he has to do before he can go out with his friends. 

MARRIAGE CHECKUP: Hubs has lots of patience as I signed him up to take his daughters to San Diego at the last minute.

SELF CARE: Did nothing for myself this week .

Our First Hackathon and more adventures

PUSH the LIMITS

TRY Something NEW

These last two weeks were VERY hectic for us. I can't believe I was able to work a full-time job in between. I fell into bed on Sunday and didn't move til 10am, barely making it to church on time. And this past Sunday, we didn't make it at all as I completely forgot it was a holiday weekend.

HACKATHON

 The Team

 Talking to the Subject Matter Experts

 They really did a great job at asking questions and interviewing the customers with the different challenges. The team split up to do it and my girls decided to do their questioning together.

 The Team's 1st ONLINE MEETING using GOOGLE HANGOUTs
My 19 yr old is the Team Leader. Squeezing this in between working full-time and graduate school.

 RUBICs CUBE while attending the online meeting.

They had some challenges with their first online meeting, but now they have the hang of it it's become a good experience for all of them.

We signed up for this at the last minute. I asked my 19 yr old daughter Rose if she could lead a team so that her 15 yr old sister would feel more comfortable.

Rose jumped at the chance to do it. They have 1 month to create a solution. They decided to work on a web-application for the disabled.

DATE WITH HUBBY CRASHED BY DAUGHTER

Well hubby and I wanted to go to my favorite restaurant after dropping my daughter and her friend off at the Greek Festival. Right after I sat down, Rose texted me to pick them up.

They got to share some of the great Cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory with us, after Hubs and I ate his Jambalaya Pasta. Yum!

DAVE & BUSTER's 1/2 WEDNESDAY and MEETUP with Homeschool Co op

The kids were so excited to be meeting up with other homeschoolers their age. We belong to two homeschool groups and we are just getting to know the folks on this one. This group stays busy and thankfully they do things in the afternoons, evenings and weekends sometimes. It has allowed me to be able to schedule them for over 8 events this year.

And... THEY DID AN OVERNIGHT GAMERs PLAY NIGHT

My wonderful hubby, partner in teaching, took the kids to the Gamer's overnight. His job is a bit more flexible at this time than mine is. The kids prefer him going to these types of activities anyway as he enjoys video gaming more than I do.

Last minute, I had to change their schedule and lighten their load when I realized all the activities they had this week.

SPEED RACER's WEEK

12 yrs

Changes! We had a SITUATION with our LANDRY ACADEMY Algebra 1 class. The teacher changed the book the week before class and we purchased the original book noted on the course signup. LANDRY IS WONDERFUL and gave us our 'generic' online course back, and allowed me to register him for another class. We elected to do the Algebra 1( which is SAXON Algebra 1 at home using the Dive disc) and to take a Logic course in the Spring.


(7am-8:30am) Online Live Class
Landry Academy Classes

Writing ER: is on Monday's.  He now is waking himself up for his morning classes! He does the homework on Saturday evenings since he said he didn't want to do the work on the Weekday's. We will see how this goes.

Python Programming is on Wednesday's: This class gave him a bit of a challenge, he doesn't like the reading homework, but I read it with him later in the day to get him engaged. He does a bit of the weekly homework a little each day.

(9 am-11am) DAILY Independent
Study.com
Psychology, Sociology, Macro Econ, Physics and Information Systems he now has these down to 10 MINUTES per course with finishing of the quizzes of 5 questions with 4 correct or more. He decided that if he didn't past the quiz after 2 tries, he would save this work for the WEEKEND (seems he doesn't mind weekend homework).

Algebra 1 (Saxon with DIVE dvds): He does a Lesson a day, watches the DIVE video, does Problem set #1 evens or odds. Then he gets a test every 10 lessons that mom or dad administers. He actually likes Saxon better than he liked Abeka's Algebra 1. He told me that he thinks Saxon gives you a slower start and more explainations than Abeka Algebra 1 did.


(11am-12:30am) Online Live Class
Landry Academy Classes

Spanish  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.

Online Classes
IXL (Language Arts) is on Monday and Wednesday and it takes him twenty minutes to finish. He doesn't like it, but realizes that it reinforces his grammar skills.

Prodigy (Math Game) Tuesday and Friday and he really likes it. He said sometimes he has to watch the time because he would stay on it for too long.

CTCMath (Algebra): 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.

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

(1pm-2pm) DAILY Independent

Membean we lowered this to 10 minutes of training a day.

Geometry (Teaching Textbooks) he is whizzing through this and I asked him if he wanted to put it aside, he said it helps him with understanding his Abeka Geometry, and gives him more practice.

Speed Reading & Comprehension with Ace Reader he is almost finish this tool. I will have to find him another Speed reading activity tool at this rate.

(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

(2:30pm-3pm) Snack Break

(3pm-4:00pm) DAILY with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
Geometry AbekaAcademy he finished his test and got a 78% but still had some concepts he needed help with. We called the student tutoring line which seemed to put him back on track.

Sequential Spelling  still seems a bit easy for him (I think membean is really helping). I am considering giving him the chapter test to see if I should just move him on. This takes about 10 minutes.


(5pm) Martial Arts  or Soccer
Soccer & Martial Arts: Which he loves having something to do everyday to break the school monotony.

PE Is done 6 days a week. He is in Civilian Airforce Program (or CAP), Young Eagles on Saturday's and now wants to add dance (not happening!)

(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. He reads the lesson with his dad and now insist on saying the prayer.

(7-7:30pm) Dinner

(7:30pm - 8:15pm) DAILY with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
Chemistry with Abeka he didn't do to well on a recent quiz, so I sent him to watch some CRASH COURSE videos to help him to better understand concepts. I give him the quizzes pretty much open book, but the test are closed book.

(8:15pm-8:30pm) DAILY with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
Wordly Wise he finishes these pretty quick and have been making between 75% and 85% on his test.

(8:15pm-9:15pm) 3 or 2 days a week with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
English Literature and American Literature he takes pretty good notes during these classes and seems to be somewhat interested in the literature. I am not making him do some of the required papers since he is taking the Landry course.

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.

(9 am-10:30am) DAILY
Landry Academy
Network Pro she has class on TUESDAY and does her homework daily in this class. The homework (Mon, Wed, Thu, and Fri) takes her about thirty minutes.
 
10:30am-11:30am - 2 days a week
Software Development class (Homeschool Class by mom) She is working on building a web application for the Hackathon - mother assigned :-D They are working on Wordpress, with JAVA and PHP to build their website and app.

See the Light Art Class 2 days a week and she shows off her Art in our 'living room gallery'. weekly.

11:30am-12:30pm- 3 days a week
Calculus with Saxon & Dive and CTCMath She only worked on the CTCMath these last two weeks. She also has been resorting to Khan Academy to further understand some concepts.

1:30pm-4:30pm- 3 days a week [Dual Enrolled College Courses with UMUC.edu]
Nutrition she noted that the adult students aren't doing that great of a job on their Discussion questions. She was shocked considering how much work I made her put into hers. I explained to her that everyone shoots for a different grade and for her to keep shooting for the best. She had a discussion post of about 200 words to do and a paper. Then a quiz.

Relational Database Design This course she had another project and a discussion post due. The project I had to help her out by googling some stuff she couldn't seem to find. She emailed the teacher who further directed her.

Technical Writing This class required her to write two Discussion points that she had to give directions on how to use products. Then she had to watch an Ikea video of someone putting together a bed and then she had to create the written directions to the activity.

5pm-6:30pm - 3 days a week - PE
Soccer and Martial Arts (we got her to try a Friday class).


7pm-8pm - 4 days a week
Japanese with 1.5 hr tutoring and I added some daily IMMERSION cds.

8pm-9pm - 2 days a week
3-minute Devotional for Girls we are moving steadily through the devotional. However, she isn't asking as many questions as I'd like.

WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals I basically through something together for dinner the days I had to cook. My girls cooked a few days. My oldest son bailed on cooking.

Cleaning. Started a new routine that has the main rooms of the house clean (almost) daily. The bedrooms are wrecked until Saturday night when we clean up.

Work & Life Balance. I am still dropping off my two oldest kids to work on my way to work. It takes me 1 hour to do so and makes my work time erratic. So right now, my hubs has been taking over most of the evening teaching and coordination.

Lesson Planning. I believe I finally have our schedule settled. That will make it easier to get the lesson planning solidified.

Rest. Now it's easier to get to bed by 10:30pm. If my husband takes over I get in bed by 9pm. Now if I could just convince myself to go right to sleep.

Marriage Check Up. Well our date got crashed by two lovely ladies, my daughter and her friend. We still had a blast sharing cheesecake with them.

Organize For the New Homeschool Year

Do It Now

One of the ONLY ways that I am able to pull off HOMESCHOOLING and WORKING without screaming to the rafters about how STRESSFUL it is - is by ORGANIZING things way in advance

I do realize that I am a bit Type - A and possibly would've been diagnosed with being hyper, scatterbrained, and unfocused. But I have learned to re-focus myself and my home.

THINGS TO PLAN and SET UP BEFORE THE SCHOOL YEAR

A space for school: Even though my kids roam the house with their laptops to do work, I do have a DESIGNATED spot for each of them. I use that spot or space to get them to refocus, get some accountability, or to review a topic with them.

Since we have limited space - we use a PORTABLE DESK that we break down when it's time for dinner. They also have a rolling drawer set that is our WORKBOXES where their books and work mainly reside.

A space for books: Our school materials are in two bookshelves. Each kid has their materials for school on their own shelves, in their rolling workbox drawer set, and materials on their shelves.

A laptop: We had to buy one for each of the kids, especially, since one was taking Robotics and the other was doing Computer Programming.

A DVD Player: We have some DVD based curriculum that worked well for us. Therefore each child has their own DVD player and earphones.

Meal Planning: Freezer prepping meals is my secret weapon. Great for a working and homeschooling parent and easy to get the kids cooking. This is another area I try to plan way in advance. There are tons of meal planning templates and plans online. I use those to build our meals for the school year.

Meal Prep Time: We schedule in family meal prep time for Sunday's. My secret weapon is Freezer Prep meals. Here's a great blog post that helps me a lot.

Cleaning Schedule: I create the chore chart for the school year, which typically include 'maintenance' cleaning during the week and 'deep' cleaning on Saturday afternoons or evenings.

Field Trip Planning: I take a moment to review their curriculum and then build our monthly field trips around what they are learning.

Curriculum Planning: This takes me several weeks of research and evaluation of what worked previously and what didn't.

Weekly Lesson Schedule: I put together the first two weeks of school on a daily schedule sheet for each child.

Parent Break Times: Yes, I schedule in when my husband and I relieve each other from 'homeschooling' duties to have time to relax.

Date Nights: I do this in advance in case I have to hire a babysitter or ask one of my older kids to watch their siblings.

AFTER IT's ALL PLANNED - SHARE IT WITH THE MASSES

Sharing this with your kids and spouse is a great way to get everyone's buy-in and help. I do a walk thru with the family the week before we start school, even if they grumble about it, they appreciate it.

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