I knew going into this school year things would be hard. I did have to neglect most fun things, including projects, photographing projects, and blogging. Sorry.
I had no idea just how hard a 3yo, a 2yo, and a baby could be while also homeschooling five other kids.
Here is a quick update:
My oldest is truckin' along in BKSK 8. He is reading the history books and answering the questions in a spiral notebook that I correct on the weekends. He does no map work and no time line. He claims that if he needs to know where something is, he can just look it up online. And he knows how a timeline works. He does all the literature reading on the weekend after we've cut him off from screens and he wants to stay up late. Not my ideal schedule, but as he gets older and wants more independence, I'm okay with him trying new ways of homeschooling. He is on Week 22 and is on track to finish school by the end of May!
The second two, the 12 and 10 year olds, are around Week 18. We are just getting into World War I. This is the point in history where I look at my current fourth grader and shake my head. The World Wars straight out of the Landmark and Usborne books are just too much for this age. I've decided to cut my 10 year old loose and let her read American Girl books for the next few topics, along with biographies for the Wright Brothers, Hellen Keller, and whatever I come up with... They are both told what reader to read on Monday and what chapter to be finished with by Friday. They are learning to budget their time with their language arts assignments.
I've had to follow that same plan with science as well. I hand the 10 and 12 year olds their science activity sheets and tell them what book to read. I've given up on the TOPS books for now. I'm hoping to add some of the other projects when spring rolls around. But for now they are fine with a bare minimum schedule.
My 12 year old is not liking BKSK Science 7, which is sad. Too many labs from the Robotics book don't work out, so he is discouraged. The solar panel lost its wire, so his solar bot couldn't work. The walking robot wouldn't walk. But he is still doing the reading and worksheets in the other books.
My BKSK Level 1 groups was dissolved. My special little Kindergartener just needs more time before he is ready for organized learning and this is the perfect year to let him play. He does like to earn screen time by doing a math sheet, so we keep that up. My 2nd grader really does need to do more, but she will not miss out on too much and will join us all next year when we start the Eastern Hemisphere as a group. She is cruising through the reader schedule for LA 2.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Sunday, October 25, 2015
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!
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!
Monday, October 12, 2015
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.
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!
....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.
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| BookShark Science 7: First Project, a Dancing Robot! |
Monday, October 5, 2015
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!
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?
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!
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| Charlotte and her babies |
Monday, September 21, 2015
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 ;)
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 ;)
Friday, September 11, 2015
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.
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.
Friday, September 4, 2015
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.
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...
...and enjoy the last nice days of summer.
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.
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| 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...
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| William Wilberforce (Level 4 Week 1) and water experiment (Level 1 Week 1) |
...and enjoy the last nice days of summer.
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