Totally Chilled

Yep, that's what this week has been like. Except life happens in a major way.

Even though our school year is officially over. We've been working on subjects Mon-Thu.

Tiger Lilly, my youngest girl is studying for her CLEP test, American Literature and finishing up her Geometry course. This is an experiment for us as I wanted her to take the actual test to see what we needed to focus on next year and what her learning style is. We will see if this turns out to be a pass or a learning experience.

Speed Racer is working daily on 'fun' subjects and Math. He does Time4Learning (all subjects) which takes him no time and really isn't that challenging for him but he likes it. Also, he's doing Tynker.com (a preliminary computer programming curriculum) and Education-Portal.com Spanish and Music. For math he is whizzing through Teaching Textbook Math 6.

Now for my older 2 kids. A bit about them.

My oldest son there, Static Ray, now has on his 'big boy' pants. He is working one job as a patient transporter on the weekends also squeezing in some valet work. Finishing up his AA degree in BioInformatics and ending as one of the top lacrosse 'Face Off' players at the Community College level he is preparing to work as a Camp Director this summer before moving into his apartment with his sister for 4 year college. So happy with the man he is turning into.

My oldest daughter up there, Roses, is 17yrs old, been homeschooled for 1 year and is also finishing up her AA degree in BioInformatics after just 1.5 years in Community College with Honors! She also has been the lead Goalie on the College's lacrosse team as well as tutored in math for a year while there. Now she is preparing to study abroad to Ireland and Denmark this summer. Afterwards, she'll be moving into an off campus housing apartment with her brother and making the transition to a 4 year college.

Now in the homefront, my Hubba is looking for a new job, and we are starting a new company - yeah, I still work a day gig, write on the side and am most likely to be diagnosed as a Hyper Active Insomniac :-D

Also, we just celebrated 21 crazy years of Marriage! Woot!

Officially the End of our School Year Curriculum

Yep, it's the end of the year for us. All of our curriculum is finished :-D

See the picture of Speed Racer from Spring Break Circus Camp? Well he had a blast!

Our SCHOOL YEAR IN REVIEW

It was a hectic start. Our year started with a long school day beginning in July and ending officially the week before our Public Schools started Spring Break. I didn't plan it that way but as the school year progressed I noticed some things.

Are we doing it again?
YES! I plan to give my kids a choice to do this and they said absolutely.

About my kids...

They like doing schoolwork or something daily besides sitting around. If I make it fun, they will do it. Or even if it's interactive online - they will do it independently.

My kids are geniuses (not really but considering what their Public Schools told me about them they've doubled their capacity for learning) and enjoy learning.

They prefer Abeka Academy DVD style of Learning. Who would've thought it. Everyone on most of the boards seem to hate Abeka. But my kids...they LOVE it. I've thrown several other options at them. BJU - they said it felt weird that the teacher was looking at them. They say that Abeka explains things well and they feel comfortable with it because it's taped in a classroom and has been the best laid out curriculum from all the samples we've seen. Yes, my 13yrs and 10yr old told me this.

They love getting Report Cards. We use the report cards for them to tell me what I can do to help them better in the specified areas - not to 'grade' them. They've told me what curriculum they didn't like, which to keep, what's not teaching them. 

My Speed Racer is a good kid. He really is. It was a rocky start. I had to create a CALM DOWN LIST for him and after 4 months it became part of his normal way he talked his temper down. And now that he is in a healthy free environment for learning - he is happy and free. Kids are wonderful little creatures that recover if given the right environment.

My Tiger Lilly is Artistic, Analytical, Creative, and Inquisitive. She has been a joy to teach. Also, she's blossom  into a wonderful companion for me and her brother. I didn't realize this about her when I was working and someone else was teaching her. Oh and she loves going to plays with me. My husband even went to a few with her.

What I'm going to change

The schedule! We are going to a BLOCK SCHEDULE for Tiger Lilly. She will have her core subjects all year (MATH, SCIENCE, ENGLISH) and all other subjects will be broken up into 8 week segments like college courses.  They will have designated Test Days set to Friday so that our Friday's are shortened. We will also do school 5 days a week (one day being Saturday as a makeup day since I don't know what my work schedule will be like). Also, we are taking 1 week a month off as a break for mommy.

The location! I'm re-arranging our school room and adding more light to the area. That's been their main complaint.

More Field Trips! This year we just wasn't able to get more than 4 in. Next Year I'm adding more.

Things staying the same?

Co-Teaching with my husband. He loves it and so do I!

Workboxes! Love, them. Thank you Sue Patrick.

Working full-time while homeschooling. I've even attempted to find jobs that would let me work from home. But that doesn't work well for me as it would be a big cut in pay and would tie me to the house (which doesn't bode well for my sanity). So by leaving my home to work, it makes my husband more eager to help out and gives us the extra cash to pay for College for my other two kids.

Curriculum. Our core curriculum of a DVD based and Interactive tools has been wonderful. It's taken the guess work out of teaching for me. Also, has been more thorough than I would've been - heck their their teachers at traditional school has been.

Tutoring. We used my older daughter as the kids weekly math and science tutor. She was wonderful. Also, for Writing we used Time4Writing.com and tutoring for this.  Having someone else tutor them in these areas has been a great boost to their learning and relief to me.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS ON HOMESHOOLING AND WORKING

I love it and never want to go back to Traditional School. I'm ecstatic my kids want to do this another year. This is MUCH easier. This has given me the following:

- Control over my kid's learning
- Flexible Schedule - works better for us than the rigidity of traditional school
- I know what my kids are doing - when at school I had no idea what they were doing
- My relationship with them have grown deeper. Yeah, I had a great one before, but now it's even better.

SUMMER-WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON?

DOES LEARNING STOP?

Nope, this summer we will be taking it easy. Our break starts June 5^th through July 14^th. During that time the kids will be having fun.

PRE - SUMMER subjects are from April 1st - June 5th is when or core curriculum is done but we learn in a different and fun way.

 

Some of the items I’m looking to keep them using during the SPRING before Summer is:

Teaching Textbooks

Uzinggo

Youth Digital (MOD Design)

Time4Learning

Tynker

The Focus is MATH and ELECTIVES

GOAL TIME: 1.5 hour tops from Mon-Thu

EXPLORING MORE THIS SUMMER!

Camps are a major plus for my family. When they were in traditional school they couldn’t wait to do Sleep Away camps and Day Camps. They didn’t want curriculum or typical learning camps they wanted FUN! FRIENDS! And ADVENTURE!

There are several Christian based sleep away camps we are trying out this year.

River Valley Ranch

Camp Wannabee

Also, they will be going to a fun-filled Day Camp at a local Private School

Adventure Camp

Circus Camp (yes, my son went for SPRING CAMP but they have a 2 week SUMMER CAMP)

WHY SEND YOUR KIDS TO CAMPS?

One aspect about Traditional School my kids loved was experiencing seeing and meeting other kids all day. The problem with the schools they went to were the kids rarely got to interact with the exception of 25 minutes during lunch.

The major friendships were gained with consistent after

-Sports

-Before/After Care Camps

- Summer Camps

- Play dates

So by sending your kids to fun camps, you are taking the best part of the traditional school experience and giving them a chance to ‘socialize’ and explore.

THIS WEEK of CHAOS

So, just to sum up our week. We've started the first week of our SPRING FLING and have a really light school schedule.

Speed Racer was sick a day this week but got through the following:

Math 6 Teaching Textbooks (4 lessons and is on lesson 50)

Writing and Rhetoric (4 exercises finished)

Tynker.com (worked through the first part of Lesson 1)

Xtramath.org (now is on multiplication facts did 4 days this week)

Language Arts Time4Learning (he's really having fun with this 'light' curriculum and did 4 days of it)

Math Time4Learning (this is more fun and interacive for him and he did 3 Lessons)

Social Studies Time4Learning (He did 2 of these)

History Time4Learning (He didn't like this since it was a lot of reading and only did 1 day of this)

Music Appreciation Education-Portal.com (loves this actually did 5 lessons)

Piano Online Hoffman Academy (1 lesson https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/)

Tiger Lilly is focusting on Analyzing Literature CLEP test for next week

Java with MOD Design Youth Digital

Game Design 2 Youth Digital

Analyzing Literature CLEP Study (Petersons Test, REA Test, SpeedyPrep Flashcards, Quizlet Flashcards)

So have you started planning summer?

What's your summer Adventure?

Excitement and Mayhem!

I hate them! I love them! VIDEO GAMES has become an addiction with many faces in my home.

This week, I figured I'd give my 10yr old a reprieve from his video-game punishment.

DRAWBACKS OF VIDEO GAMES for ALL AGES

When I hear people say that they let their kids play video games for hours and hours, all weekend long I cringe.

I'm a techie myself, and design large computer systems - even had dreams of writing and creating my own video games one day. YEP.

Until I realized as a parent how much time this sucks up and the NEGATIVE aspects of being a full-time gamer can be.

HAVING AN OLDER CHILD who plays mature games is detrimental when you have a younger child who can't.

What happens? Well the younger child, watches their sibling play (even though they aren't supposed too). They also sneak and play themselves (even though they aren't supposed too.)

And HAVE YOU - yes YOU - the PARENT actually sat down and played and watched these games with your kids?

Oh, and if your kid can't watch an older sibling play - they WATCH GAMERS ON YOUTUBE show them things that they can do in the game that may not be easily figured out.

Did you also know that your kid can (1) search for inappropriate websites on their game systems - and you the parent will never know? (2) meet people and devolve things about themselves and the parent will never know? (3) experience and see things at a much younger age than even on TV?

So, my kids are on another 3 month video game sabbatical. And when their older brother leaves for college - they may not see a video game system for the entire school year. 

SO. THIS WEEK WAS FRUSTRATING

We had to devise yet another way to rid my 10yr old of his video game obsession after realizing that he'd been sneaking downstairs at night while everyone was asleep to play video games in wild abandon.

My older dd too is hit with the Minecraft bug, but that's not all she sneaks and plays either. She too is going on vacation from video games as she's been playing Call of Duty, Assassins Creed and Grand Theft Auto (all games belonging to her 19yr old brother)

Sheesh! I hate being the meanie parent that has to pack up video games and systems and hide them - locking them away for months.

SO. THIS WEEK WAS EXCITING
Hubba and I went off to a Marriage Retreat! Lovely! After 21 years of marriage we enjoyed mentoring younger couples. We even joined up with 2 other couples we went to college with.

I ordered NEXT YEARS MATERIALS! Woot! Woot! I really think I am a bit of a curriculum junkie.

Also, ordered....

Tynker.com for my 10 year old to use next week because I just found out about it and ... ALL OUR SCHOOL LESSONS will be done next week (happy dancing!)

Speed Racer's finishing up test and quizzes with Abeka, his Currclick Spanish 3rd week and he asked for a break from Xtramath.com where he is starting on Multiplication.

BRIDGE SCHOOL TIME

Since most instruction will be ending for both next week we are doing a lighter schedule.

Keeping instruction time to the following:

Speed Racer (10 year old) - everything online from April-June
2 hours and mostly independent

Time4Learning (all subjects)
Tynker.com (computer programming concepts for kids)
Xtramath (multiplication)
Music Appreciation (Education-Portal.com and Easy Peasy High School)
Art Appreciation (Easy Peasy High School)
Logic (workbooks for his grade)
Writing and Rhetoric (from amazon Workbook and Teacher's guide)
Teaching Textbooks (TT Math 6th)
Spanish (Currclick live and Education-Portal.com)

Tiger Lilly (13yr old) - focus on studying for CLEPS
3 hours and mostly independent

Java Programming (youth digital)
Game Design 2 (youth digital)
Biology (Thinkwell)
Aleks math (College Mathmatics - since she finished Alg 1 and Geometry this year)
3 weeks focus on one of the following CLEP test (English Literature, American Literature, Humanities, College Math - using Instantcert, SpeedyPrep, REA.com, Peterson's Review Test and Quizlet)

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)