Classes and Debating

HIGH GEAR AND STEPPING OUT

of our comfort zone

Part of me wondered why I put my son in all these social justice and debating programs this year. It only makes his ability to 'debate' his point against what I want him to do much easier.

Hard to be the only kid homeschooling now, that's what my son complains about lately. He is looking forward to working this summer and hoping to keep doing so when the new school year starts. I am concerned about the distractions, but will let him try it this summer.

He misses the days he got to hang around with his sister who is now working. Now his schedule is to sleep all day, and work on stuff in the evening, then stay up all night playing video games.

Not Working, but fell asleep playing online Games

He was supposed to be doing Computer homework

KIDS PROGRESS

SPEED RACER has a mildly packed schedule
He literally hardly gets anything done while I am at work and his dad or sibling that works from home is there.

Basically, I get home, I tell him to get off the video games and lets get to work. We work for about 3 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Monday and Wednesday only an hour or so. Most work is getting done on Sundays afternoons where it's our finish everything for the week. He will do the work, I check it, give it to him to revise, he fixes it, then turns it in.

Homeschool Classes 
Bible Study (online) with discussion with mom or dad
Pilot Training (online) mom reviews his test and quiz success and helps
Java Programming (online) sister reviews his projects and CompuScholar checks his test and quizzes


College Classes

C Programming
In week 1 of 8
-Finished Lab Project
-Finished 3 paragraph discussion
-Finished 1 page paper

Information Technology Ethics
In week 1 of 8
-Finished Ethical Analysis 5 page Paper
-Finished 3 paragraph discussion
-Finished Current Event Review paper

Foundations in Information Systems
In week 1 of 8
-Finished 3 paragraph discussion
-Finished 1 page paper

WORK and HOME BALANCE Working and Homeschooling 

MEAL PREP: This is on schedule. Thank goodness. My kids help with meal prep and planning for the week, then we do actual prep on Sunday for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This has been working well the last two weeks.

HOUSE CLEANING: Chore chart is being used for a reference and if they aren't done, they don't get to do their fun stuff...most times. I'm a softy so I have to work on this.

LESSON PLANNING: I now do it on google docs and share it with him. We get through it for the most part, now less then when both kids were homeschooling. 

MARRIAGE CHECKUP: We've been setting up a weekly game night with friends and family, not much alone time, but we are having some fun since the kids spend time playing with the other kids.

SELF CARE: My coworker bought her neck massager to work and gosh, I love it! Every morning I massage my neck for a good 10 minutes. Best way to start my day!

Planning The Next Semester

LESSON PLANNING IS NO FUN

But Someone's Got to Do it

We do lesson planning for the year, then a weekly plan, and a re-evaluation plan for the 2nd semester. It's usually when we clean out curriculum that isn't working, add curriculum we want to try or pause curriculum in place of adjustments to schedule or the child's progress.

Breaking down the school year into 4 quarters and 2 semesters has helped our family make adjustments as needed. Filling in educational gaps is something the shorter quarters or block times help us focus on. As working and homeschooling parents, it gives clear time frames for us to make adjustments and to deep dive into subjects.

TIME FOR CHANGE

It never fails, we always need to drop a curriculum item, condense something or elongate lessons. We've learned to expect it and not get too upset about it. Math and Writing are always an issue for our current student and we have had to prolong lessons in certain areas in order to strengthen and solidify understanding and skills in these cornerstone subjects.

THE QUICK AND DIRTY WAY

Creating a topic list with the subject, page/reading or videos to watch is a fast way to add a new subject or curriculum into the mix. Setting a weekly review of the student’s accomplishments of the list we do with the student’s weekly presentations to the family.

BREAKING IT DOWN

After taking note on how long it may take to finish a subject for the semester, we review areas that can be combined or removed in order to fit the shorter timeframe. We make sure to focus on the key points of the topic. Also, using visual aids and posters to show the information in a condensed manner. This is a great approach for Science, History, Language Arts, Grammar, Reading and Remediation of subjects.

PLAN IN BREAKS

Never forget to plan in for time off. Realistically planning for a four day week with one day of makeup work is doable for most working and homeschooling parents. However, we planned for a five day week with the kids having the weekend as their ‘homework’ period to finish any work they haven’t completed for the week or to review any work that they had problems with.

DON'T OVERBOOK ~ I MEAN IT ~ DON'T

This is one of the major mistakes we made early on in our homeschool and working adventures. Slowly, we learned what our challenge was and fixed the issue (mostly). Once we 'underbooked' it was easier to have time to focus on topics and skills that the students really needed the most help in.

Helping My Kids to Work Through A Gap

The Last Week Of Our Season But Work's Not Done

Tiger Lilly Working On a Chatbot 

Program for her Game Server and Friends

Speed Racer and Pops Paintballing

Preparing for the Holidays was harder this year.

We used to travel every holiday from Thanksgiving to Christmas, but now that we live here, traveling is very expensive and well, we love it here and aren't anxious to go. So we are struggling to redefine our traditions. We aren't big tree families, and so we are doing a Christmas Chair, and going to volunteer on Christmas day as we did on Thanksgiving day. Hopefully, this will spark a heart of giving in our kids. They have been less forthright in asking for presents and have instead told us to just pick another name off the angel tree at church.

Working Through Some Writing Gaps

Speed Racer can write well, however, he can't write fast. We discovered this during his pretty intense college Writing course this semester. Therefore, I had to actually work with him two nights a week to edit his work, give it back to him, and have him fix it to motivate him to write faster. The class is over and he passed with a good grade, however, this is something we need to triage. During the break, he will be doing some speed writing drills to prepare for the next class. He will also be finishing his homeschool Java class to prepare for his college Java class he is starting in March.

Working through learning or skill gaps is a good way to keep moving your child forward, despite their struggle.

KIDS PROGRESS

SPEED RACER's extra activities are slim this season. 
Since his classes were pretty challenging for him, we decided not to sign him up for any outside of his martial arts the last few months. He complained, but we all needed a break from ripping and running for sports. He now just has a Monday and Wednesday obligation until January when dance is thrown back in. April is when canoeing season starts and it's hectic again.

SPEED RACER desired more one on one time this semester.

This school year has been challenging for Speed Racer becuase his sister Tiger Lilly isn't home with him. He spends the day sleeping until noon, waits for me to get home at 2:30pm to actually start his work, and sometimes doesn't finish until 10:30pm since he is having to redo some work for improved quality.

College Online Courses:

Wrap up of Fall Semester Classes

Finished all with 'B' or better

8 week courses

UMUC.edu

Biol 101 and Biol 102 (lab) - 4 credits

Info Sys in Org - 3 credits

Research Writing - 3 credits

College Algebra -3 credits

Business Writing - 3 credits

Homeschool Classes:

Wrap up of Fall Semester Classes

Investing: The video course on Youtube was informative, we even purchased stock (that tanked) and played the investing game (which the kids hated by the way). The game was a bust, the kids found it frustrating and even I thought it was a bit depressing, so we shelved it.

Recreational Pilot License Training: Speed Racer is enjoying the self-directed, online course. He doesn't love it, says it has boring moments, but he desires to learn the information. He is about half done this course and will pick up on it in January.

Black History: We spent this semester watching movies, documentaries and having long discussions about them. We both learned from this class.

Astronomy: We failed to work this into the schedule this semester.

Bible Review: He is actually enjoying the TruthUnedited Bible videos, and we are almost finished them. We watch them together, and discuss the topics.

Cooking and Car Repair: He cooked dinner about two times a week and did great at it. The videos were a bust, because he said they were boring and he'd rather just fix a car. So he helped his dad change the oil and do some minor checks of our vehicles.

PE: Started with three sports and went down to one by October, we need to step back and focus, and mom needed to relax.

JavaScript and Unity 3D Programming: He finished the Saturday classes in November and started with CompuScholar (formerly Homeschool Java) in December and is getting through it pretty easily. This class is to prepare him for his college Java class starting in March. He's had to have some help from his sister in the Compuscholar course.

TIGER LILLY the Homeschool Graduate

BS Degree, now Working on MS Degree

17 years old

This is the last semester I'll be updating Tiger Lilly as she is officially working full time, found hobbies such as group meetups for Dungeons and Dragons, gym workouts 3 days a week, and completed two semesters of graduate school.

WORK and HOME BALANCE Working and Homeschooling 

MEAL PREP: These few weeks we've been just tossing something together. Eating out, and making sandwiches have been getting us by. 

HOUSE CLEANING: The chore chart only works when I go to it, point to it, and tell these older teens to do it or else.

LESSON PLANNING: I did more day to day lesson planning. I would send Speed Racer a 'what to do today' email, call and check on his progress from work, then call on my way home and tell him what better be done...or else, no video game or cellphone. That seemed to work since his sister is no longer home to make sure he stays on task.

MARRIAGE CHECKUP: Weekly date nights haven't happened in the last few weeks, but I purchased tickets to see Sheila E. and some comics my husband likes to get us back on track.

SELF CARE: I decided to take off several days from work to just relax, help my son catch up on his work and ...clean my house (but I didn't get around to doing that so...)

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.

Student Maturity Happens in Waves

Tiger Lilly aka the new Willa Wonka

Doing School On the Road tested My patience and Their Maturity

Kids sometimes get the work done without nagging, overseeing and punishments. This last few weeks were like that, until the most recent week, I had to withhold fun activities before going on trip to get Speed Racer to finish his work on time.

The family went on a cruise, and stayed in Long Beach, CA for a time. The benefits of my job, was a discounted hotel room! Woot! But I also had to do some extra working hours to go without using all my vacation time, which I am saving up for a big family trip to Sydney, Australia and New Zealand next year.

It's been a struggle to post since I am trying to make my writing (publishing) side business. I will be revamping this blog once I publish my book in 2019, so stay tuned.

This week I get to work from home while completing some training. I find that being at home has sapped me of strength and a large amount of my motivation to do 'extra'. I guess since I am going doing this temporarily I don't have enough time to build a routine. However, I actually find I get LESS accomplished with housework and my son's school work with being home. Haven't figured out why yet.

KIDS PROGRESS

SPEED RACER's been bored. 
We have found a way to get rid of his boredom (for the most part) by having a multi-family game night and monthly mult-family cook out and get together with friends of ours with kids the same age. It's been a good thing for all the families.

Denying Being Homeschooled?

Lately, though, my son has been telling his non-homeschool friends (which he has much more of than homeschooling friends) that he goes to regular school and that he is in the 10th grade. He doesn't want them to know he is taking college classes since he just wants to be like 'one of the guys."

I plan to do a deeper post on this.

Homeschool Classes:
Investing: Finished this online Youtube course. 
Still haven't started playing the games. It's on the list for this weekend.
Recreational Pilot License Training: He wants to get this next summer so we are adding it into his curriculum. 

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

Black History: This week we studied the MOORs and BLACK ACHIEVEMENTS

-  We sit in my room and in my bed eating popcorn watching these documentaries.

Astronomy: Something he wants to explore.

- Didn't get to these. Well, we are going on 2 months and haven't even picked up the lesson videos.

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.

- He and I finished 2 of these (he hates to admit it, but he likes these) and we are almost done with the series.

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.

- He made smoothies and tacos this week, the rest of the meals I made.
- Car Repair - His dad is showing him how to change the oil in our van. Son is helping.

PE: Distance Canoe Team, Martial Arts and Breakdancing.

- Martial Arts - getting ready for belt test
- Breakdancing - only one day practice - 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.
- The Hackathon was a good experience for him, he is also working on an online Java course.

Compuscholar (formerly homeschool programming) - Java
This is working well with our schedule and for reinforcement to his weekend class. He does this independently and this is an upgrade from the former HomeSchool Programming series curriculum.


College ClassesFinished: Biol 101 and Biol 102 (lab)
Finished: Info Sys in Org
Finished: Research WritingAdvanced Business Writing 
In week 4 of 8
-Finished three papers
-Finished 8 discussions and responses
-Finished 3 quizzes
-Finished project

College Algebra 
In week 4 of 8
-Finished 3 quizzes
-Completed 4 Discussion Homework



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

Is doing a great job of juggling her new full time position, her graduate degree course and her workout schedule.

In addition in her free time she has taken on some art commissions and is creating a bot for her gameplay website.

Also, participating in Nanowrimo and trying to finish her first novella and chapter of her Web Comic.

Dungeons and Dragons is something she loves to play and meets a group with her father to play one day a week.

WORK and HOME BALANCE Working and Homeschooling 

MEAL PREP: We are trying to revamp the meals we are doing since Tiger Lilly and I are signing up for Weight Watchers.

HOUSE CLEANING: I had to put the chore chart back up. They started arguing about who's day it was to do what. 

LESSON PLANNING: I didn't do the lesson plan for two weeks and it was a disaster. This week I was back on track and so is Speed Racer. 

MARRIAGE CHECKUP: We went on a marriage outing with our church and with another couple and had a great time.

SELF CARE: Took several naps and got a massage.

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 .

Nothing Ever Goes as Planned

Momentum Slows Down ~ But We have All Year

To Get it Done

The last two weeks, we did the bare minimum. Not a bad deal since we are just beginning the school year.

We did have a small vacation and I didn't want to monitor homeschool work during it, so, we relaxed and just enjoyed.

Dungeons and Dragons is now the popular game in the house. Only issue is my Tiger Lilly had grown tired of being the Dungeon Master and requested that I learn to do it. O_o doesn't she know I am a working parent?! The other homeschool parents bailed on the 'learn to be a DM' so, for her, I'll do it.

My son's Paddling season is coming to an end. This was a canoe expedition they went on where they did open water switches of paddlers.

Speed Racer on Paddling Team Distance Run

Then, while at the store, waiting for my daughter to get out of the dressing room, a nice lady gave this to me. Boy, oh boy did it make my day! A wink from God is sometimes needed.

The note was beautiful and reminded me that Jesus loves me. Wow! Made me check that frown I had for sure.

KIDS PROGRESS

SPEED RACER's starts of in good shape.This is a 2 week review because, hey, we got off track. The first week, he only finished his College Biology Class and Biology Labs (that is an online class by the way). He likes science way more than I anticipated.

Homeschool Classes:
Investing: We've only watched 2 Youtube videos in the series and haven't started the Cashflow game yet.

-Our stock watching has become depressing since our stock dropped. We view it with an app called Robinhood. 

Recreational Pilot License Training: He wants to get this next summer so we are adding it into his curriculum.

-He didn't do the videos or quizzes this week.

Black History: We are deep diving into specific events like Black Wall Street and Pilots that have to do with our subjects.

-  We didn't do the videos I purchased this week.

Astronomy: Something he wants to explore.

- Didn't get to these.

Bible Review: We are doing this together with videos.

- 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.

- He only cooked one day each week.
- Car Repair - he reviewed video on changing the oil.

PE: Distance Canoe Team, Martial Arts and Breakdancing.

- Practiced with Distance Canoe Team - See the distance race above, that's the end of season run.
- Martial Arts - practiced two times each week.
- Breakdancing - had a performance (stay tuned, I'll post when I get it)

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.

- Didn't go since he had Paddling.

College Classes
4 Weeks into Biol 101 and Biol 102 (lab)
1 week Info Sys in Org - Started 1 class this week

Biology with Lab (Aug to Oct)
-Finished class discussions
-Finished Week 3 of 8 class Labs
-Finished Week 3 of 8 quiz

Information Systems in Organizations (Sept to Nov)
-Finished intro discussion
-Finished Assigned Reading
-Reviewed interactive Learning Activity
-Completed Quiz1


Introduction to In-depth Research (Sept to Oct)
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

Her new job is flying her to SanDiego, CA for two-day training.

Problem is, she is only 17 yrs old and can't rent a car. So...hubs is going with her since I can't take off work (I also get lost a lot).

She starts her GRAD-SCHOOL class in two weeks. 

Also, she spent the last two weeks playing video games. She just finished Spiderman and Gods of War.

WORK and HOME BALANCE Working and Homeschooling 

MEAL PREP: We bombed on this the last two weeks. Fast food and junk. Only 2 meals were made by Speed Racer and one by Tiger Lilly.

HOUSE CLEANING: I got those kiddos cleaning in exchange for video game play. Only my room isn't clean (oops). 

LESSON PLANNING: I am so behind on this, it's not funny. I started mid week and we just tried winging it, hence why we weren't as productive. 

MARRIAGE CHECKUP: We needed that vacation. Just saying, we left the kids and went on long walks and had some fun.

SELF CARE: I used my husband's foot massager and back massager, both gifts my kids bought HIM and not ME .