Finally

Middle school graduate! She wore my gown from my Masters  graduation. LOL!

First Grade to Second Grade. 

School Outdoors

"Little Kitten"

Vacation Pics

1st graders working on 1000 pc. puzzle, James reading.

Preschooler watching "Big Screen" nature show. He yelled out with excitement for every duck, goose, boat, bird, swan,  and blade of grass that moved!

Napping in sun!

Rut roh....I got caught!

Football with Uncle

Story Teller Jackson

This weeks story:

Progress, Pies and Reborns

Progress reports:

Jordan loves to bake. This week she made a graham cracker crust pudding pie with a cherry fruit topping. Very yummy. 

As an early birthday present, Jordan received a reborn doll. He is a Michelle Fagen Sculpt by the artist, Cindy Sales from the Bountiful Babies Nursery. She loves him so much. She dresses, grooms and changes him several times per day. He goes almost everywhere with us. Last night he had his first photo shoot. She took no less than 70 pictures of him. LOL! Here is 1 of my favorites. The picture with the 3 babies shows my 2 reborns with hers. I have 2 Berenguar Reborns whose artist I cannot remember. They have crazy, wild hair as I did not prepare them for pictures. :)

 

That is what we are doing around here. I am hoping to work on our use-to-be-playroom-that-turned-into-a-storage-room-because-we-had-too-many-toys-room as we are hoping to change it to a schoolroom. 

Have a Great weekend!

Peace!

Round 2 of First Grade Story Teller

This is my 8th year of homeschooling and my 2nd time teaching first grade. I have used the same curriculum for the whole time and while my Eighth grader is growing tired of it, it has worked out very well for the boys. (Next year she will be doing something different, but we are not sure what that will be yet)

I remember when James started writing his stories and could not wait to post them here. Here is one his earlier ones. It is that time again to learn to write short stories and Jackson has gotten off to a pretty good start. Here are two samples of his story writing skills

He is still reversing some letters in words, but it is getting so much better. 

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First Grade Dolch

We use a combination of Harcourt High Frequency, Readers Are Leaders and Dolch for learning to read around here. Jackson started on the pre-primer list during Pre-K and took right off with reading. He started the First grade list this year and has mastered it as of today, so I am letting him move on the the 2nd grade list. He is happy to be moving on. We are doing consonant blends in Language Arts and he can name the sound of them all, but struggles when they are not at the beginning of a word. Lots of practice on that this week.

Starting Again

We are getting ready to start our first full week after a wonderful vacation. It was good to be back at church today, although I was uncomfortable with the comments made about going to Nassau.

1st grade opened his unit 4 Lifepacs today in order to get ready for tomorrow. He is always excited to get new booklets. I was using Spelling Connections for 1st grade, but switched to ABC Teach spelling units as I liked the activities that could be done throughout the week for practice. He seems to like the sheets too.

Our home-school group is having the annual Spelling Bee in February.  I think I am putting a hold on everyone's spelling program to focus on Spelling Bee words.

4th and 8th grade have several essay projects coming up in the next few weeks so I think I will make Fridays a project day for them. We have a very old set of encyclopedia's that I would love to replace. I still like them to use reference books for research instead of the internet. We have not had our consistent weekly library trips yet because we have been so busy. I need to get back on track with those as they have yet to fulfill any of their required reading list. So much to do...so little time. LOL!

We were surprised today with a very generouse donation today for our Personal Needs Closet. We are so excited for the opportunity.

Home School Lite

We made it home Sunday, early evening and the kids decided that they missed school enough that they wanted to get back into it. They set up school and got everything ready without me even telling them to. My foster child, Jeanna*, DID NOT WANT to go back to her public school and promised to cry Monday morning. I debated back and forth as to whether to send her or not for the 2 days before Thanksgiving Break and her teacher (who really does not like Jeanna all that much) had suggested that I just keep her home for those 2 days. But school attendance is an issue that I don't want to have problems with, so I sent her on Monday. Luckily the hot lunch for that day was a meal that she liked. It was the only reason she went. Ha Ha!

We are doing just review type work here in Rottie Land. 8th grade did a couple of hours on Monday as well as 1st grade. 4th grade ended up doing a bit more as it is just the nature of his gig. Today is my birthday so we will watch a movie together...my choice even though I will most likely fall asleep and only see the opening and closing credits as usual! LOL!

Our church added a Wednesday morning prayer meeting that I am excited about as I never get to go to the evening one (bedtime conflicts), so we will get to attend that tomorrow morning before Entertaining Angels. We have also decided to give out meals to any families that come for personal needs on Wednesday. We will be giving out a small chicken, a bag of potatoes and a can good. Just a small meal for hard times.

Thursday we look forward to our traditional grilled cheese and french fries Thanksgiving dinner.

To my Sister-girlfriend: You know I love ya! We are making arrangements.

*My foster daughter's blog name

Record Keeping

No new cord yet...

10/18/11      math      self test 3      100%


10/19/11      bible      self test 3       94%



10/21/11      spelling level 1,unit 6    100%

                    LA        self test 3          95%

                    math      self test 4        100%

                    math       self test 5       100%
                  
                    His/G       self test 4         95%

Schedules, Homework and School on Vacation

Schedules

When I first started homeschooling, I used a very detailed schedule as my oldest (who was the only student for the first 2 years) really needed that type of setting. Over the years, while we still use a schedule, it's a more relaxed situation where the 2 older grades can do whatever class they want during whatever period they choose as long as they complete assignments on time. Since I actively teach 1st grade, he does not have that option. One of the helpful parts of the schedule is that I can stagger classes that people are more likely to have difficulty in, such as math, so that I am more available to help. So if science is your difficult class, then it is easier to have my full attention as it has been scheduled during everyone else's free reading or something like that.

This is an example of what our schedules look like:

This year we are using a binder system in which the kids keep their attendance calendar, school and homework schedules, supplies needed to do school in the car and on the run and whatever book they are reading at the time. It has been the best system ever as the binders are smaller than lugging around backpacks and if some particular classwork does not get done, they they can just stick it in their binder for homework.


The great homework debate.

My kids have homework. I use it as a time for them to work independently, we used it as school work if we have to run errands and we use it for vacation. I also believe, and this may sound morbid,  that if something happens to me, the single parent, my kids will most likely have to back to school, so they may as well know how to manage their time to include homework.

These are our homework schedules.

Vacation

Every year I have to decide how much schoolwork to take with us on vacation. This is especially important if we are going to be gone for 4 weeks or more. In order to take time off at Christmas, for spring break and to still get out for a summer break at the end of May, we just can't take off 3-4 weeks of school.  Eighth grade has been working super hard to complete assignments through December dates so that she does not have to take her laptop and only do "vacation school work". Fourth grade is ahead in one class, but he always ends up taking his laptop with him because if he gets behind, it is very overwhelming for him. First grade is ahead in all classes, so he will only have to do "vacation school work".

This year they will be doing a unit study on the Solar System and then their regular vacation assignment of interviewing someone from another county to learn more about other places around the world. We will take spelling and some math word problems and also reading. We have not decided on the family read for this year.

13 days.


No passport yet... ~sign~

Another Funny Drawing

I am not typically one of those parents that considers every scrap of paper that my child colors or draws on to be of the level of Picasso, but I do have to say that I find Jackson's drawings to be funny not only because of the character he draws, but more because of the truth behind the drawing.

The explanation says: "I am picking up James' shoes and putting them in his shoe box." 

The parts that are funny to me: James has a billion pairs of shoe, they are usually all over the floor and Jackson takes the time to match up, line up and arrange shoe boxes often. 

The Mailman

She Really is Reading

I have a foster child that is 7 years old. She has been in Early On and other early intervention programs since she was about 18 months old. Last year she was in a special ed kindergarten that was an extremely small classroom with lots of professional support.

As a homeschooling mom I think there is always that wondering if you are doing enough, giving your kid the right tools or desire to "keep up". Having another kindergarten child in the home really helped me to see how our curriculum compared to the public school. It was also very helpful for both kids because it gave Jackson an opportunity to practice what he learned by teaching her and gave her exposure to more challenging concepts with him.

She ended the school year with the need to learn to read in order to be more successful in the next level of program. This summer, I used the same phonics/dolch reading program that I have used for all of my children with her.

We started school about 2 weeks before PS started and she had joined in with my first grader. Imagine her surprise when she was able to read! It was such a neat look on her face when she was reading in the same book as Jackson. I think her teacher will be surprised too.

We had an extra student today (CCK) who really enjoyed this "classroom" setting. He did very well and will return tomorrow.

First and Second Week Done

Jordan surprised the kids with green eggs (no ham) for breakfast this week. Not a pretty sight, but tasty.

4th grade has finished his 2nd whole week and his grades are right on track. He is very much "set-up" for success in that he cannot move onto the next lesson until he masters the one he is working on.  He is also working more at his own schedule this year. While he has a chart that tells when to do math, language arts, history, etc... he can do them as needed and does not have to change classes when the bell rings.

1st grade finished their first week and they were excited. I used this same curriculum 3 years ago and had forgotten all of the extra prep work that is needed. I will spend this weekend making all of the copies I will need so that next week can be a bit more smooth. In History & Geography we learned about Betsy Ross and colored flags.

First Grade's First Day

We started the first graders today and it was a pretty good day. I have changed our schedule and the way we do things and both did very well. I may have to start our day about 5 minutes earlier to allow for set up and devotions. We have moved our classroom back into the dining room so there is a bit more set up needed. I am not liking the change of rooms, but it is hopefully temporary. We are redoing the playroom (which stopped being a playroom years ago when the toys took over, needing it to be a storage room) and planning to make it our permanent classroom. I am excited that the 2nd bathroom remodel is complete and I LOVE the room so much that I found myself just sitting in there enjoying. All these years with only having 1 bathroom has trained everyone to hold it...we forget that it is down there. LOL! Field trip to the city market tomorrow.

Community Service & Manipulatives in the Home

It was a good week of community service. The kids filled 13 food orders today. Lots of people showed up without proper i.d. so many graceful decisions were made by the staff today, but it turned out well.

In reading other home school blogs I glean great ideas for different manipulatives that I have right in my home. Kim at His Hands His Feet Today mentioned using UNO cards for sorting. I love that kind of thing.

4 days until 1st grade start.

"That'll Be 3 Cents Please"

Off*ce M*x has their lined paper on sale for 1 cents a pack (limit 3 per person). So each kid got three pennies and in they tromped to get our 15 packs of paper. We will go back again tomorrow and we should be set for the year.  I am in a slight software crises. I totally did not shop early to get our curriculum and am now in a race to get 8th grade's software. I was able to get 1st grade's stuff early for a really great price, but I keep getting outbid for 8th grade.

On a side note...we got our vacation confirmation e-mails today and my mom suggested looking at all the passports to make sure they are all set. Oh My Goodness!!! Jordan's passport expires next month!!!!  So we rushed to the post office and applied for a renewal. I am so glad we noticed that. We would have been so much in trouble at the airport.

This week: completing paperwork, updating portfolio files and getting joint subjects all together.  We are taking music, art, foreign language  and PE all together.

Screeech....Changing Lanes Again

We made changes to the start dates to stagger each grade a bit more. Orientation is still on for tomorrow even though our new school shirts won't be here for 2 more weeks. I kinda went shirt shopping crazy because the Mart of Wals had such a great sale on school polos with free to home shipping and then I ordered the new shirts with our school emblem as the other shirts are over 3 years old.

Old school emblem

New school emblem on navy polos

Fourth Grade still starts Monday, August 15th. James is excited.

First Grade will now start Monday, August 22nd. Jackson says he is happy and is very excited to get to his new Lifepacs. My foster daughter will start with him on the same date as Public School does not start until September 6th. She does not state how she feels about going back to school, but if I were to let him start and not her, she would cry and say she wants to come to school too, so I take that as a sign that she likes to be a part of things.

Eighth Grade will start Wednesday, September 7th. Jordan has been offered an invitation to take part in a small class offering group piano lessons, but I am not sure if she will be able to take it as our November vacation would cause he to miss so many classes. She is not looking forward to school, but is kinda excited about her new math curriculum (we are changing to Life of Fred.)

Pre-School. I am back to having a pre-schooler. My foster son will be 3 yrs old next week and he is already learning so much that we have decided to let him join in slowly. When Jackson first came home, I thought it would be good to start him at a preschool level to give him a chance to bond and mature. Jordan basically taught him and has offered to teach this level again. We use the Brightly Beaming Letter of the Week and I think my 3 year old will enjoy many of the activities. Anyway, he will start September 15th.