Week 7: The Monopolies

The highlight of this week was the addition of The Men Who Built America series.  We watched the first three episodes and covered Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Carnegie.  Even my Level 1 group enjoyed the shows!

My oldest wisely suggested we play Monopoly as a "hands-on" accompaniment to the lesson.  Oh, he knows his mother well.  Of course we can spend the afternoon playing a board game!

At our house, we constantly lose game pieces.  We have fun choosing replacements too.  The turtle is my son and the rubber fly is me.  I'm obviously visiting my child in jail.  Funny times, I tell ya.

After much luck, I showed no mercy to my children once I secured the four railroads, Park Place, and Boardwalk.  With my earnings from the railroads, I built houses and then hotels.  And won easily.  History lesson complete!

Sixth Week Slump

This is right about the time homeschoolers start to feel the slump.  Studies become routine. Routine becomes boring. The excitement of the new pencils and new books wears off.  I have the slump.  I think I got through Day 3 of Week 6 before I needed to take a break.  The straw that broke this camel's back wasn't even homeschool related: a coyote killed one of our geese. I don't even like the geese, but I know my husband does.  I took Thursday off teaching to preserve some harvest and spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday switching bedrooms around...and now we should be on Week 7, but....


....I've been way to busy with kids activities to catch up.  I lost the TV remote. My schoolroom is a mess of unfinished projects. The baby won't give me a break.  Six weeks was all it took.

BookShark Science 7: First Project, a Dancing Robot!

But never fear! The books haven't gone anywhere, the schedule is there for when I can dig myself out, and we will pick ourselves up where we left off... Besides, the local school district is having half-days for parent/teacher conferences, so this may be a good time for me to evaluate how we are doing!

Charlotte's Web

We are just starting Week 6 across all levels.  I am amazed at how well we are staying on schedule this year and I have to think it is all because of the 4-day BookShark schedules.  I've done the 5-day Sonlight schedule (and other plans), but this one seems to keeps us going. 

My 12 year old son exclaimed, "What? First you read history to us, then I read history to myself, and then you read some more history stories out loud? That's too much history!"  And that is the end of Week 5: an introduction to the Civil War, a biography on Harriet Tubman, and starting Across Five Aprils.  He'd much rather do science, not only because science is far more interesting, but having a strong background in science is far more important career-wise than a strong background in history.

Lucky for him, BookShark 7 Science came out.  I ordered it the first day, received the first five weeks of the Instructor's Guide, the books, and the science kit.  I think he has already read the robotics book, cover to cover.  I can't wait until Friday (experiment day) when he finds out he gets to build something!

Charlotte and her babies

My Level 1 group seems to need catch up on Thursday and Friday thanks to our ultra-busy activity schedule Monday through Wednesday.  We are in the midst of Charlotte's Web as our read aloud.  Most kids turn vegetarian and become animal rights activists after their first exposure to Charlotte and Wilbur.  My kids, however, have become spider rights activists and refuse to let me vacuum down the cobwebs in the corners.  They add that the cobwebs are perfect decorations for Halloween and why take down the natural webs and replace them with fake ones?  Why indeed?

Week 3: Water

This last week's best moment was the water experiment on surface tension in Science 1.  We've all been getting through our work faster than I had planned, so I had plenty of older helpers for gathering materials and managing little siblings.

After we did all the projects in the book, we headed down to our pond to see if we could find some water striders:

We've had a drought this summer, so the water level is way lower than it usually is.  We found some dragonflies, but no water striders.  Maybe they are a spring insect!

We left our science supplies unattended long enough for the little ones to turn them into a tea party.  No needles or coins were consumed ;)

Week 1 and 2

We have miraculously stayed on schedule for the first two weeks.  Well, almost.  My 5yo and 7yo are still finishing up some language arts from last year before they move on.  But, they did language arts instead of skipping!

My BKSK 8 guy is holding up.  He says his schoolwork "sucks," but he gets it all done.  He reads the chapters in the assigned history books (A History of US and Before Columbus) and writes the answers from the questions in the student guide in a spiral notebook.  I agree about the sucking part. I once had a class in high school where all we did was read the textbook and answer the questions on paper. Boring. I retained nothing. I can't even remember what that class was about.  This is where additional activities would make information stick, but unless he is willing, the projects will not be assigned.  He is also reading Guests for literature.  The main character is a 13yo boy who is coming of age and struggling to find his identity. It is an easy read. He says the book is "good."  We'll save our soul-searching discussions for a better book later in the year ;)

The BKSK 4 RH group learned about William Wilberforce. Neither one had an easy time comprehending the book as written.  I spent a lot of time paraphrasing and summarizing.  They do however understand that the whole point of learning about Wilberforce was that he managed to abolish slavery in Britain without war and it took him 18 years to do it.  We did end up just reading ahead and finishing up today so we would have something else to look forward to on Monday.

They are plugging along in BKSK 4 Science as well.  Diary of an Early American Boy is also difficult to read and we stop and look at the illustrations frequently.  The kids have enjoyed learning about how things used to be done on a farm and comparing how we do things now on our hobby farm.  We work through the activity sheets together after the reading so I know they both understand.  When we read about the mill wheel, I had to find modern day examples to help them visualize what a mill wheel was.  We started with Zelda: Ocarina of Time when Link is jumping on the mill wheel for jewels, remembered that one time Pa needed to make some money on Little House on the Prairie and dug a sluice for a guy, and ended with episodes of Pokemon where Pikachu needed more electricity. Video games and TV are finally educational! I find myself reminding them that listening to hard books is part of their education.  Trying to understand is like push ups for their brains.

My BKSK 1 group skips a day or two here, but it doesn't take more than 15-20 minutes to catch up.  And since I've been teaching my kids for so long and I know their learning styles, I know some shortcuts to make learning for them a little easier.  These Usborne books can be overwhelming and dry for little kids.  We covered food and cooking, clothing, and hair, jewelry, and makeup this week.  Food and Cooking was the assignment that needed catching up and we did it right before dinner.  The baby had been fussing all day and my husband wasn't home to help out, so dinner was a daunting task.  How fun it was to think about just skipping dinner and calling it a "hands on" lesson about starvation.  Instead we had a simple meal of corn on the cob while playing on the swing set. While learning about clothing, my 5yo wanted to run around in his underpants while the weather was still warm.  I told my husband he was experimenting with clothing and climate for a joke.  This morning, my 5yo asked me if I was going to shave my head so I could be beautiful.  This is a perfect example of assessment of learning.

Work Boxes!

With the first week of juggling three cores over, I can honestly say, "YES! You can do three cores (or levels) at once!"

Since I find myself moving all around my main living area, I have found work boxes are the only way to keep everything from getting lost.

F's (7yo) work box.  She is still finishing up workbooks from LA 1, but has moved on to reading LA 2.

My work boxes are simply cheap plastic totes from Target.  I have one for each student's math and language arts workbooks, readers, and weekly 3-ring binder with additional worksheets inside.

In addition, I have one box that holds the IGs and the scheduled books for both reading/history and science.  The box with the purple and blue tape in the lower right is for Level 1 (Intro to World History and Science 1).  Each kid got to choose a tape color to identify the box because I knew they would never agree on one color.  I can say, "F (or D) go get the blue and purple box, please," and they will know exactly which one I mean.  The box right above it holds the reading/history for Level 4.  This has been so great for our crazy, go-with-the-flow style of learning.  Not only can I send a child to fetch a box and bring it downstairs to me while I nurse the baby, we can just head outside...

William Wilberforce (Level 4 Week 1) and water experiment (Level 1 Week 1)

...and enjoy the last nice days of summer.

Line Up 2015-2016

This year, with five school aged kids, I am trying to keep things simple.  And by simple, I mean not planning anything myself.  I'm going to attempt to use my BookShark (or Sonlight in some cases) curriculum as scheduled and not deviate or do other things.  Nothing bugs me more on recipe websites than people writing a review that says, "I love this recipe! Only I added more cinnamon and less baking powder and and extra cup of chocolate chips!" because that isn't using the recipe-that is creating something else.  Which isn't bad of course, but this year I'm not going there.  For the first time ever.

I love adding extra hands-on projects and documentaries and actually had to stop myself from planning a list of extras.  I just don't need the work this year.  Now, if my kids come up with a self-directed project, I have no problem opening the craft cupboard and setting them loose.  I just don't want to put my own effort into anything.  Three kids under three is enough extra hands-on project for me!

This year, my 13yo son will be using Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 for math, Rosetta Stone Spanish 1 and The Fallacy Detective for his electives, The Big History Project for science, and BookShark Level 8, a one year course of American history, for history and literature.  He is also taking a writing course outside our home for a classroom experience.

My 12yo son and 9 (almost 10) yo daughter will be using BookShark 4 Reading with History, the second year of the American History curriculum.  They are using their own levels of Teaching Textbooks for math (Pre-Algebra and Grade 5).  S (12yo) is using BookShark 4 for language arts, which uses readers from the reading and history.  E (9yo) is using Sonlight's language arts for 4th/5th graders.  Her readers are slightly easier than the readers that are scheduled for the reading/history course.  These two students are also working together in science.  There is not a huge difference between Sonlight's Science E and BookShark's Level 4 Science.  So we are learning from the Sonlight version, because I already bought it a long time ago, but we are using BookShark's worksheets.  S has already read most of the books simply because they have been on my shelf for four or five years, but going through the material, experiments, and worksheets will be good for his organizational and writing skills.

My 7yo daughter and 5yo son will be using Saxon 2 and 1 for math.  They will be using BookShark's Level 1 Reading with History program, which is an introduction to world history.  They will have their own language arts levels, also BookShark: F (7yo) is using Grade 2 and D (5yo) will be finishing up some kindergarten work before he starts Grade 1.  They will be using Sonlight's Core B science, again, because I already own it.  However, because I bought it seven (or more?) years ago, the books are slightly different than what is now offered.

All of my kids will be going to Homeschool PE and taekwondo at the YMCA.  The older boys are active in Boy Scouts and the girls participate in dance classes.  I've tried to focus on just the bare minimum for our activities and obligations, but I also know that I'm going to need a break from time to time, so I will be going to a MOPS meeting one time per month.

My goal this year is to just do my best...and forgive myself if I don't :)

Notebooking

Notebooking is a great way to shake things up in the literature-based style of home education.  One only needs to check the topic before the reading (today's was Daniel Boone) and simply do an internet search on the topic plus the word "notebooking."

I have a lifetime membership to Notebookingpages.com, so I just printed a simple one-page document with a picture of Daniel Boone for my BKSK 3 group.  I read the entire Daniel Boone assignment from the Beginner's American History (to make up for taking yesterday off) and assigned a "complete" written piece on whatever part of the chapter struck their fancy.

I do not assign a number of sentences or a certain length of writing.  I just want them to write and produce something that I can put in a page protector in a three-ring binder for all eternity.  Notebooking really is that easy.

I've over-thought the whole notebooking topic for years; all it did was set me up for failure.  I found all sorts of really cool free printables for different subjects, but I didn't want to spend a ton of money in colored ink.  I tried lapbooking, which is just notebooking in 3-D, and my kids hated all the cutting, folding, and gluing.  I tried the Evan Moor History Pockets, but again, my kids hated all the cutting, folding, and gluing and I hated all the photocopies I had to make.

But notebooking when the mood strikes? That keeps things interesting and prevents waste and burnout.

Just make sure you keep your notebooking pages away from your baby sister!

Box Day!

In one of my earlier posts, I wrote that we (my husband and I) weren't sure if my 13 year old would be joining the homeschool next year or if he would go to the local middle school.  The main reason he would go was that I didn't think I could continue to meet everyone's educational needs, especially with three little ones three years old and younger.  The last two years have been extremely difficult thanks to L (3yo) and especially H (1 1/2yo).  H was born in November of 2013, right at the beginning of a school year, and was extremely colicky until the following summer.  With another baby joining us next month, I thought for sure he would be better off in public school...

...only we don't live in the best of areas.  The public school does have nice teachers and some nice kids, but overall, this isn't our first choice for "socialization" or character development.  Our small town has a library, a grocery store, and a fire station.  It also has three bars, four marijuana dispensaries, a tobacco shop, a liquor store, and a wine store...all within walking distance of one of three food banks.  Since over 60% of the students attending the schools qualify for the free/reduced lunch program, the schools just hand out free food for both breakfast and lunch to all kids, plus they send them home with backpacks full of food on the weekends.  Our little region is also famous for its meth houses, homeless camps, and bank-owned homes overrun with squatters.  The school buses are used as public transportation during the day while the kids are in school.  I know they don't clean the buses before the kids get back on.  And my friends often report they find drug needles at the bus stops.

After we tested IJ (he scored very high for his age) and much talk about social issues, finding alternatives to the "teacher experience," and admitting that whatever path we choose will mean work for me-no matter what-it was easy to decide to keep him home.  I happily ordered BKSK 8th grade Reading with History and it arrived today, along with the IGs for the younger kids.

When I was unpacking all the new books, I wished I had been homeschooled.  Maybe I will take the Reading with History course with him!

Shifting to Technology

When I first started homeschooling, the year was 2006, which seems ages ago, but really wasn't.  I was still using dial-up internet and we had only one computer in the house.  I didn't have a cell phone, but my husband had one for work.  We still watched movies on VHS, but we were gradually moving over to DVDs.  My kids were playing video games on a Nintendo 64 handed down from their older sisters when they got a Playstation.  We have always been a bit slow when it comes to accepting new technology.  Don't get me wrong, we love technology.  We just always seemed to have something more important to upgrade than the entertainment systems.

We are now running three computers on a network in our house, including a special hard drive that holds all our movies.  We have a 62 inch sorta flat-screen TV with one of those expensive light bulbs that need to be replaced every few years.  The kids are playing on a WiiU (but the 64 is still hooked up on the "old TV").  We still aren't keeping up with Jonses; we don't have Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime.  We still use the library to get DVDs, which can be a really slow process when I want a documentary to go with a science or history lesson.  I really have to know what subjects are coming up in the next three weeks to stay on top of that kind of a life style!

Just a few months ago, my old cell phone was upgraded to a smart phone when my husband got frustrated with me missing appointments or double scheduling.  Seriously, when one gets to seven kids, the memory starts to slip!  And then, just a few weeks ago...we got WiFi in our house. 

Why?

All because BookShark has electronic instructor's guides!  I can access them with my phone!  I have a huge basket of binders that I have to haul to my different teaching stations, but starting next year, those binders stay on the shelf and all my Sonlight IGs are getting upgraded to BookShark IGs.  I'll be running five language arts levels, three reading/history levels, and three science levels.

I'm pretty excited!

How We Do It All

And by "it" I mean get through what we need to get through each day.  And we actually don't.  But we try :)

I see a lot of posts on both the Sonlight and BookShark Facebook pages asking what a typical day looks like or how a space is organized.  I never respond because everyone is working with their own types of kids or their own special space restrictions in their homes.

My home is quite spacious and for that I'm extremely thankful.  We have an open floor plan with lots of large windows...and no wall space for hanging maps or timelines or white boards.  I have a dining room, complete with table, desk, and computer, with a sliding door leading to a porch and a large fenced yard.  We live on 15 acres and have the fenced play area to keep my babies from wandering off and drowning in our pond.  On the opposite side of the sliding door is a sunken living room, also quite large with a nook that holds five full sized bookcases and three small ones.  We also have two desks and a computer in the nook.  The living room has two couches and is divided in half: one side for TV watching (or doing schoolwork) and the other for playing.

Workboxes for E, F, D, and L

Each morning, my Grub Club sets up a small plastic table and four or five little school chairs in the living room.  Because I'm pregnant, I sit on the couch and not on a little plastic chair ;)  D and F bring their "workboxes" downstairs while I get my basket of IGs.

All Sonlight, but will get upgraded to BookShark

I keep all my IGs intact because I know that I will lose a page here or there if I try to take out only a few weeks at a time.  I use Post It notes as bookmarks so I know which week I'm on for each subject/level because there is no way I can keep us all on Week X on each subject all year long.

Grub Club and Usborne Children's Encyclopedia

The older three kids take turns on the two computers getting their math (Teaching Textbooks) done.  S finished his math last week, so he helps out with the two babies.  I start my teaching day with History and Science for the Grubs.  I don't read the book at all, I just open to the scheduled page and let them ask as many questions as they want.  That is one thing I love about the Usborne encyclopedias.  When they are out of questions, I fill in whatever information they missed.  Then I get F started on her Saxon timed test, which I don't time, while I do D's math and LA.  He likes to finish first (because first is best in his mind) and go off and play while I finish math (and maybe LA) with F.

Dining Room "Isolation" table-for older kids and those who aren't focusing.

After the Grubs are done and if we don't have to go anywhere (like Homeschool PE at the YMCA), I read History to E and S.  Neither one comprehends the Landmark book if I read it straight.  Honestly, I can't stand the Landmark book for this reason.  I paraphrase and ask questions and make up examples to help explain what is happening the whole time I do the reading.  I usually read two days worth at once because I never know if I will get to this subject the next day.  I've skipped the map and timeline activities so far, but have plans to incorporate them soon.  Then I go over the LA assignments for each of them (E keeps her work in a workbox and S works from a 3-ring binder) and they go off to read or write.  On nice days they like to read in trees or move my little table to the porch:

LA 3 and S in the sun!

I keep all the books I need for each reading/history/science level on the one bookshelf that isn't in my "book nook."  In front of the bookshelf I keep an open ironing board.  One might think I use it to iron things, but I actually use it to keep my IGs open while I pull down the books-of-the-day.  I have to be very strict with my kids when it comes to putting their readers back on the shelf when they are done for the day.  I have lost too many books and too many teaching days due to lost books.  Right now the bookshelf has only the two main cores and the readers since IJ finished BKSK 7 and I packed it away.  I won't need that level again for a few more years and I don't want to lose any of the books!  If IJ wants to revisit a book he enjoyed, he can just check it out from the public library.

Afternoons are tricky, especially when the sun starts shining.  I often find my kids outside instead of finishing up their daily work.  This is why several of them will be working through the summer.  By the time we get home from PE or Scouts, I need to make dinner and cannot teach.  I've had to make an effort to limit evening activities so we can get our work done after dinner.  I do the reading aloud for the youngest at bed time while the older three rotate through the dishwashing chores.

What I'm missing in my week is reading aloud to the older kids, science, and art.  It seems that my older kids would rather go off and follow their own interests instead of hearing a story or doing an art project.  Science is just plain tricky for us this year.  My husband and I both have science degrees and have no problem teaching or explaining scientific principles.  I had been following the four year cycle of science: biology, earth and space, chemistry, and physics, but we somehow got all screwed up over the last two years thanks to a cranky baby (H) and independent study.  My older three have no interest whatsoever in chemistry, so they are just going to not do science until BKSK 7 Science is released.  Sometimes I throw together a chemistry demonstration that I can do after dinner on Mondays while IJ is at youth group.  When E starts BKSK 4 Reading with History, she will also do Science 4 (which my older two did a few years ago from the Sonlight package). 

What I have learned, through trial and error, is that I really need to have a solid routine in place in order to get everything done.  Every kid needs to know where their stuff is and what space in the house they occupy while they use their stuff.  They need to put their stuff away too.  And I need to make sure I know what space I need to occupy with what materials so I can help them be successful.  And most importantly, I've learned that although I need to have routine and stay focused, I also need to be flexible for those days when kids are sick or the sun is shining or...*insert fun alternative to book learning here*  

Meet the BookSharking Bunch

I have been so blessed to have so many different kinds of kids.  I do, however, think it would be helpful if they all had the same daily pattern, the same interests, the same learning styles, and the same attitudes just so my life could be a little bit easier.  But they don't.  And I'm pretty sure I'm glad that I don't have a bunch of robot clones for children.  Variety is the spice of life, right? 

Here is my bunch:

From left to right, you have D (5yo and Kindergarten), F (7yo and 1st grade), L (almost 3yo), E (9yo and 3rd grade), H (1 1/2yo), IJ (13yo and 7th grade), and S (11yo and 5/6th).  The oldest three need to work independently as much as possible because of our out-of-the-house activities and younger students/siblings.

This last school year, IJ and S used BKSK 7 Reading with History.  IJ is a voracious reader, is a night owl and a late sleeper, hates being told what to do, and understands and retains just about everything he hears or reads.  Despite the frown on his face, he is quite funny and keeps me in stitches with his history/science/homeschool related jokes.  He read everything in the core, including the read alouds, and was tested on nothing.  He did no timeline activities or mapwork or vocabulary.  I purchased the Language Arts to go with this level, but he read the readers so quickly that I couldn't keep up and made him use Writing With Skill Level 2 instead.  He still hasn't forgiven me.  S, on the other hand, is not a fiction reader.  He doesn't comprehend fiction when he does read it, so I pulled him out of BKSK 7 just after the WWII unit and he joined...

...E in BKSK 3.  For years I bought Sonlight versions of the IGs and up until a few weeks ago I was using an old version Sonlight's Core D.  It's old enough that it might even be called Core 3.  Core 3 scheduled the old Landmark history book and the old Story of the USA workbooks.  E wasn't thriving or even comprehending what she was being assigned, so I went ahead and upgraded to the BKSK  version of Reading with History and the updated Landmark book.  I pulled S down to this level and formed a study group and we are now in Week 16...in May.  Since S never read any of the readers, I am having him follow with the Language Arts and advanced reading list.  He is being a good sport and starting at Week 1 in BKSK LA3 and reading A Lion to Guard Us.  Even though the LA is called "Third Grade" he knows he has some catching up to do.  E is working in the Sonlight Language Arts 3, which used to be the Intermediate LA2. At the rate she is going, she will be moving on to the next level mid November.  She is the most diligent, steady, meticulous student and makes sure each letter is formed correctly, but she is soooooo sloooooow.  S is impatient, fast, and sloppy.  These two are not taking the summer off and will go straight to BKSK 4 as soon as they are done with 3.

F and D are my "Grub Club" class.  They have completely different personalities too.  F is sweet and bubbly, but forgetful.  She, like her oldest brother, likes to sleep late and is a slow starter.  Teaching her is like catching a feather in the wind.  D is an early riser and desires to be the master of his own destiny.  He is incredibly competitive and hates being told what to do.  He destroyed my homeschool style when he hit a year old and has been trying to break me down ever since.  He wants to tell me what to teach him and his goal right now is to pass F in both reading and math.  He just turned five and he blows my mind.  They are on Week 7 of Sonlight's Core C, which is now called Core A, that I bought for IJ when he started Kindergarten eight years ago.  They are also using the science for that level.  F is using Sonlight's LA 1 and D is using Sonlight's LA K (and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons-or 100EZ).  Although they have crazy-opposite personalities, they manage to work together on their joint subjects really well! 

L and H are my babies and spend their school time crawling on my table and taking turns causing trouble and coloring on other people's books.  Their naughty older brothers call them the "Poop Group" because it seems they either need a bottom wiping or a diaper changed right when I'm going to start reading.

And then there is me.  My job is to manage the daily routine, keep kids on task, and read out loud to people who need it.  But that is a post for another day :)

Welcome!

Hi There!

Let me introduce myself: My name is Anna and I have been homeschooling for 8 or 9 years (depending on how many years of preschool you count).  I have seven children ranging in age from 13 years old on down and I'm expecting Baby #8 in July.  I consider myself an eclectic homeschooler and have used many different types of curricula.  We reside in Washington State, so our homeschooling rules are not too rigorous.  I have participated in Parent Partnership Programs through the public school districts and have also homeschooled independently.

As you can imagine, homeschooling with seven (or eight) kids at home is challenging enough on the easy days.  I have always loved reading and really wanted to love using Sonlight's curriculum, but although we follow Christ's teachings, we are not legalistic and prefer to have a more tolerant view of other religions than many of our friends.  We also subscribe to an "Old Earth" viewpoint.  Our views plus our busy lives means Bookshark is an almost perfect fit for our family.

The goal of this blog is to document the ups and downs of our homeschooling journey with Bookshark (plus whatever I happen to toss in with it), plus any tips or tricks I come up with to keep our days running as smoothly as we can.  This next school year, I will have a newborn, a 1 1/2 year old (turning two in November), a three year old, a Kindergartener, and a 2nd, 4th, and 6/7th grader (he has a late August birthday, so he straddles a grade level).  We still haven't decided whether or not the 8th grader will be staying home or attending the local public school.

I came up with the name BookSharking Bunch because my kids love The Brady Bunch and like to point out that we have a bigger family than they do and we don't even have an Alice.  Oh, don't I know that!