A Great Start

Elementary and Middle school started August 26th and High School Started September 2nd. We have had a good start so far. Yesterday the weather was fantastic and we had school outside. Today was rainy and we had school in our pajamas. I love homeschooling! :)

Joshua loves Kindergarten! Because he is already doing some reading, it makes it so much easier to teach him. He can almost read most of the instructions on his page so I have to do very little at this point. We are still in the review stage so he is flying through the curriculum. I have always enjoyed teaching kindergarten the best.

Elementary is doing well. Jackson and Jeanna are showing more comfort in reading and finding information. Jeanna's comprehension has improved a great deal. I can tell she is understanding what she reads, but she is still struggling on being able to write what she knows.

James has gained a since of maturity that is showing in his work.

Jordan started one of those online public schools, but we are having to change to something else due to life changing.

Peace to all!

Trying to start back up...

We had our orientation today. It is always fun to get new school supplies, new schedules and take pictures.

This year something new for us is that Jordan will be attending an online public school. She was unhappy with the curriculum we had been using and we searched and researched and prayed and sighed LOL until we decided to try this. She got her desktop in the mail and we set it up only to find out that it is not wireless. Of course, our modem is at the complete opposite end of the house and on the upstairs floor. So we are going out to buy a wireless adapter tomorrow. Oh yeah and believe it or not, they mailed her books and supplies, but we have misplaced them in my effort to put them up so that they would not get damaged before school. Seriously, we cannot find them anywhere. bigger sigh.

James is excited to have a new computer as his little sister stepped on his Mini that he left on the floor?!?!?

Jackson and Jeanna are both excited to be back in the school room. We have not been in the schoolroom since December, 2013 when Monica got sick.

Joshua is in Kindergarten this year and his smile is so big I'm afraid his face will break. His new books and supplies came and he is simply giddy.

I found a new homeschool group on Facebook that has been so supportive, I actually comment and interact.

We were planning to start August 25th, but now we may have to wait a week due to still taking care of my dad's estate.

Peace!

***UPDATE***

15 minutes after hitting publish we found the school stuff in of all places, the school closet on the top shelf... in a safe place!

Kindergarten Graduation: PS Style

We went to my foster child's Kindergarten graduation yesterday and it was typically cute with the little cap and gowns, the really funny little songs and the wild clapping for awards such as "knows all my colors", "can count to 100" and "most helpful milk passer outer" (or something to that affect! LOL!) My kiddos were really proud because their foster sister had gotten awards for skills that were a direct result of their help. Every morning and every afternoon, Jackson would stand at the number chart with her and count to 100, count by 10's and blast off counting with her (10, 9, 8, etc...). Every afternoon and evening, James would read to her, sometimes clocking 160 minutes per month on her chart. Every week, Jordan would do her homework with her, making copies of the homework so she could master the skill and then Jordan would find other activities that matched the skill she was learning.

Tomorrow is the last day of public school, but we don't get to sleep in yet as I am doing respite for a child that is attending a charter school, so we still have to get up in the mornings to get her to school. She is a very interesting young lady. We had green eggs and ham for dinner yesterday in her honor because she was reading the book, but did not believe that there could really be green eggs and ham. The color turned out perfectly and I read the story to them as they ate breakfast for dinner (a favorite around here).

On another note: our caterpillars arrived yesterday and have already started growing, some doubled in size in just the 24 hours that we have had them.

Year End Celebration & Graduation

Today we had our year end celebration and the pictures turned out so cute. Their eyes sparkled so much and they were proud of their accomplishments. Every year they dress up and I give a very cheesy graduation speech that mimics the speech given at my graduation for my Masters program.

Congratulations go to Jordan for the completion of the 7th grade, "B" Honor Roll and the award for messiest desk.

Congratulation go to James for the completion of 3rd grade, "A" Honor Roll and the award for "I didn't do it!" (James is the kid who will have powdered sugar on his face, hands and shirt, but will act as if he has no clue what a powdered donut is nor has he ever seen one in his life! )

Congratulations go to Jackson for completing Kindergarten and a Reading Achievement award.

  

Summer school starts June 22. The 3 younger kids will be using summer skill workbooks and Jordan will be using Life of Fred. We all will be writing short stories using character development and setting worksheets from edHelper.com.

Happy Birthday, Jackson!

Today is Jackson's 7th birthday! He has been counting down all month. Jackson is a pretty intense little dude with all the classic signs of being the "class clown". He struggles with APD, but works very hard in school, impressing me everyday with his reading abilities. He loves cars, sunglasses and baseball caps.

Happy Birthday, Kid!!

3 Books Down

This was our Kindergarten curriculum this year...

Today he completed another workbook with smiles and cheers. So now "A - Z Bible Stories", "Handwriting Without Tears" and "Spectrum Phonics" are completed and he has 30 days left for Lifepac Language Arts and Math and about 6 days of lessons for Spectrum Reading. As for science and social studies... I did not come anywhere close to completing them. I just could not get into the way they were organized and ended up doing some of hie science with the other grades (adjusted to his level) and social studies we did together.

I am starting to shop for next year's goodies.

Finishing Units

Several units have been finished by all grades. Kindergarten in on the last unit of H*ndwriting Witho*t Te*rs and I am actually thinking of moving him to the cursive book instead of the next one which continues with printing. I have not done well with cursive for any of the other kids, so maybe he will be the only one to learn it early. LOL! He is also almost done with his Bible curriculum, having only 1 weeks worth of lessons left. He will then move to a 365 day children's Bible which has little 1 minute Bible stories. I am doing the Bible in a year again and really want the kids to be able to do it too.

Both 3rd and 7th grade are in the review units for most of their subjects. We did not have much of a summer break last year because we got so far behind in school. Looks like that is not going to happen this year.

This week, Entertaining Angels on Wednesday and food bank on Thursday.

Today is my brothers birthday. I cannot believe he is 39 years old.

Happy Birthday, Kid! Ha Ha Ha!!

Reading Award

Yesterday during class, Kindergarten demonstrated great use of his phonics knowledge to read words that I thought he would not be able to read. So he received an award for being a "Star Reader"

Kindergarten Writing and Full February

Kindergarten is writing stories now in Language Arts.

"play" LOL!

He is reading well and seems to be strong in math. He still cannot get the concept of how days and weeks repeat and so we have our every Monday morning "I can't figure out what day it is" conversation. He can count ordinal numbers pretty consistantly with difficulty transitioning from 20th, 30th, etc...  saying "Twenty-oneth, Thirty-oneth..." instead of "first."  It's kinda funny to me.

7th grade has completed almost all of her units and now has to go back and do corrections and complete some of the essays. She strongly dislikes them and I have allowed her to save them. She is currently reading "The Hiding Place" and seems to really like the story, except the sadness of it being a true story. She is enthralled with Corrie Ten Boom.

3rd grade has started multiplication and he "gets" math in such a weird way it is hard for me to help him sometimes. He works hard in school most of the time and had perfect attendance in January!

We are going to hit the ground running starting tomorrow with Early-On appointments for our 2 year old. I asked for a PT consult as his gait,  he is 29 months old, still seems pretty unstable. Just checking to be sure.  We also have recert. for WIC. Jordan has her girls group thing every other Monday.  Our homeschool group is having the bowling Valentine party again this year. I think we are making our cards unless "The Nana" buys boxed cards. (You know you can't help yourself!) We have food bank and personal needs closet and well child doctor appointments. We are also going to sneek a 4 day weekend get-away in there with a quickie vacation with family friends.

Peace

Wow Ya'll

My kindergartener just asked Jesus to come into his heart.

Yipee!!!

Progress Reports and Fire Drill

Progress reports:

3rd Grade

7th Grade

Kindergarten

Fire Drill:

January 1, 2011. 10:50 pm

Studies have recently said that you have an average of 3 minuets to get out. So that is our base goal. These are our times from when the alarm started to reaching the patio door.

3rd grade: 20 seconds

7th grade: 32 seconds

Kindergarten: 3 mins 45 seconds after having his name called and told, "Fire!" He also stopped to put on his slippers,  so... he gets to practice again.

My public safety message: check your batteries, practice escape routes, stay safe!!

Ending With Fun!

For review sake:

Kindergarten is able to count ordinal numbers up to the thirty-first consistently and seems to understand it. He can spell and write the days of the week and write his numbers up to 100. He has completely learned the Pre-Primer list of Dolch words so I have moved him to the Primer list. We are moving slower in Science and Social Studies as the lessons are very short and I am trying to figure out how to bump it up some.

Third Grade has completed several of his test with scores in the high 90's. He is struggling with mental math that includes carrying so we are doing some math drill sheets to help him with the basic addition part so that it takes some of the work out for him. James is a child that does well with memorization, but struggles with transferring information to other situations. He picked up some books about cheetahs from the library and really enjoys reading anything about animals. His school behavior has really improved in that he stays very focused and on task.

Seventh Grade is ahead in all of her subjects. She has several essays that she is working on at the same time for 3 different classes. I may have to delete some of them as it seems to be too much ( and I think so as the person who has to read and grade them.) Her music and guitar class is going well... I broke her E string this week and when we went to go have it replaced, the guy tuned and then played a real fancy song on her guitar. She and I both cracked up and said we did not know that guitar could sing like that. LOL! I read a blog by Christie and she was describing a research project called a "delight directed" project. I totally stole (err I mean borrowed) the idea and Jordan is doing her project on the history and making of French Toast. I can't wait to taste/grade her project. ~Smile~

We went out for a ride in the country yesterday and stopped at one of the local small farms to get pumpkins and gourds. We are looking forward to making some pumpkin muffins, pancakes and toasting the seeds. Not sure what we will do with the gourds.

Today we went to the YMCA and it was pretty quiet there. Had the pool to ourselves.

This weekend is the changing of summer to winter clothes bonanza. Woo Hoo!! Fun times...

Dinner Helpers

We had a very simple dinner tonight, made by the kindergartners: Sandwiches, carrots, chips and milk. 7th grade went to a function with our home school group and momma's not feeling well or hungry, so the 6 year olds decided that they would help with dinner. It was so cute watching them work together and they were so proud when I asked if I could take a picture of the finished product. Jackson said, "For the blog?!" with the biggest, cheesiest grin on his face.

So here it is folks!! Don't crowd!!

Virtual Refridgerator

Confession: I am a collector and I love the art and work that my kids complete at school, daycare, children's church, etc. This presents a fridge and wall space problem. So I started taking pictures of the kid's art and filing and posting some here. We review the original and say how beautiful it is and then we toss most of it. I still keep some very precious ones, but this system has saved space.

This week in Bible class, Kindergarten made these things:

A dove and booklet about John.

I searched long and hard for a Bible curriculum for kindergarten that would fit our needs and I finally found a great workbook called Bible Stories from A to Z. I like that I can make up to 5 lessons per week if needed (even though we rarely school 5 whole days per week). Here are 2 examples of the pages:

It was kinda funny because I was going to just use some tissue paper to tear into pieces and glue onto the dove, but in looking for my tissue paper found some really old art feathers that were left over from my student teaching days in 1986. They were still soft and in really good shape.

We had a week that was very interrupted, but still productive. Next week we have so many appointments that they barely fit on my dollar store dry erase board. LOL!

Pancake breakfast tomorrow!

Have a great weekend