Goals for 2017

As this new year begins, I have decided to post my 2017 goals rather that proclaiming "resolutions". In Boy Scouts we teach goals should be "SMART":
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Relevant and
T - Timely 

I don't have all my goals honed adequately that they are stated in a "measurable" format, but here are goals I have for 2017:

• Weight loss goal: lose 20 (more) pounds.
• Menu-planning goals: plan and prepare six to seven healthy meals per week for my family and post these plans to my blog each week;
• Spiritual: this year I'll be working to regularly read, pray, journal and worship privately and corporately;
• Exercise: I am planning to try to get exercise 3-5 days per week;
• Nature study: I'll be continuing my bird watching. I think I should start a nature study journal of the birds I see starting this year.
• Homeschool: the plan this year is to finish 11th  with a credit in Geometry, to take Spanish 1 and Sociology 100 at the community college in the Spring 2017 semester, and to take Spanish 2 and ENGL 210 in the Fall 2017 semester. I'd like the student to take a summer computer course, but I don't know if that will happen. As he rolls into 12th Grade, the student will be taking a Bible course at home, as required by our umbrella school (with which he'd like to participate in graduation) 

• Boy Scouts: encourage my son to do his Eagle project, paperwork, Scoutmaster Conference and Board of Review to achieve Eagle rank (he has to finish this as he is "aging out" this year (old photo below);
  
• CAP: I'll be encouraging the cadet to get some flights in and to continue to work on advancement;
  
• Decluttering: not stated measurably, but it is my goal to declutter this year as if we were moving in one year (which we're not, but that's the goal);
• Sewing: make pajama pants I promised to my adult daughter (long overdue);
• Quilting: finish the quilt I've been working on for 18 months and start a new quilt.

• Crafting: I plan to continue crafting for my favorite charity, Online Angels, out of Pottsville, PA (I usually make baby hats, booties, and various other items like slippers and totes).

I think I'll be reading more this year as well, but I'm not going to set a goal. I've just started a book my father-in-law loaned me.

What are your goals this year?

Christmas 2016

This year Christmas was a little subdued in our household. My sister has been battling breast cancer for almost four years. In June she broke her ankle, and recovery from that injury has been slow.

We were delighted to be able to be a little generous with our adult and almost-adult kids. We sent gifts, via Amazon, to one in Colorado.

We surprised our local daughter and her husband with various nice things.

                          

We gave the student a lot of this and that.

One of the gifts for our youngest was an item we had been saving, keeping a secret, since we received the product as part of a home school review. It was a really nice item, and we had paid extra to upgrade the item over what we would have received if we'd gone with what the review was offering (we got a bigger size). But as Christmas approached, my husband and I were having doubts. Our son wanted knives and paracord for making braided whips. We began to lower our expectations of his reaction over the gift, because we were giving our 17-year-old son something he hadn't asked for. We'd decided he wasn't going to appreciate the item, or the effort the company had taken to create the gift. It was a personalized gift from CrossTimber, so we went ahead and gave it to him.

To our surprise and delight, our son loved the personalized name plaque!  He loves the jets! He loves the Bible verses! He loves knowing what his name means!

He now has his name plaque proudly displayed on his computer desk where his friends see it when they visit. His love of this gift was my biggest surprise this Christmas! Thank you, CrossTimber!

December 2016 Highlights

December came so quickly in 2016 that I couldn't believe it. Where has the year gone?

Early December was my student focusing on finishing his to college courses for the semester (Dual Enrollment program). There were also Boy Scout meetings, Civil Air Patrol meetings, and getting ready for Christmas.

In December, both of my CAP family members got promoted on the same night.

The Cadet got promoted to Staff Sgt.

The Senior member got promoted to 1st Leutenant.  

The Boy Scout troop met each week and went camping. Our Scout missed some of the meetings because college studies taking up a lot of his time. Our troop was honored by a visit from five of our former Scouts, all Eagles, visiting while on break from college.

My husband and I got new cell phones. We didn't get all the most expensive bells and whistles, but I'm thrilled to have some newer technology and some faster speed for the things I use my cell for. The photos are better quality, too, and I'm glad about that.

We got a silly little Christmas tree this year. Sorry for the washed out photo...

We enjoyed our giving of gifts this year. I won't list gifts here, mostly. I'm not even sure what people's favorite gifts were (I'm meaning the gifts they received). I'll post more about some of the received gifts in future blog entries.

After Christmas we visited some family we don't often see. Didn't photograph everyone, but here are photos of some of our close family. The first is my nephew Jared and his mom and dad, my husband's brother Mike and wife Deanna:

The next is my husband Rick visiting with Deanna's mom Dixie:

We also saw Rick's other brother, Larry; Larry's son-in-law, Lee; as well as Rick's dad, Jerry -- but at the time I wasn't thinking and didn't take photos of them.

We were visiting them in North Carolina from 12/26 to 12/28. We came home to piles of laundry and some post-Christmas shopping 12/29. Then 12/30 was my birthday. We went out to dinner, which we don't normally do on my birthday, so that was special. I made my own cake, but doing so was a stretch time-wise. The cake was lopsided, and the icing wasn't warm because of how cold the house is in December. Then I kinda ran out of icing before the sides got iced all the way down. I photographed a better looking side. I requested, "No candles, please!"

12/31 was menu-planning and shopping, and not much else. We're leaving the tree up an extra few days because we're celebrating late-Christmas tomorrow at my house.

Student has been on break from college since 12/18 and has been focusing some time on his Geometry. He did a smashingly marvelous job on his courses during the fall semester (English 102 and History of the 20th century). He has also been making bull whips out of paracord. (Google it!) 

    

We're going to try to get him to buckle down and work on his Eagle project as well during his college break.

That's about it. Coming soon: results of 2016 year goals!

Financially Managing our Home School

Homeschool Budgeting 101

I began homeschooling at a time in our family when we could not afford to purchase curriculum in order to do the job. So, in my discussion of Homeschool Budgeting, I am going to give different financial levels to describe the task.

1) Homeschooling on next to no funds:

With next to no funds, I began my homeschool curriculum journey by doing the following:

• Networking with friends and homeschoolers, getting advice, borrowing when possible.
• Learning from various resources what I needed to teach for the grade my child was in.
• Attending local used curriculum fair, and purchasing a few things if I could afford it.
• Going to the library and checking out materials to use.

I began when my daughter was in Kindergarten. Guidelines change, but my goals were to teach her numbers, letters, shapes and colors. We got through those goals very quickly. While we worked on that during the day, I studied at night to learn how to teach my daughter to read.

Using a book I got from the library, The Writing Road to Reading, I learned what to do. I bought 3" X 5" cards and a sharpie and made phoneme flash cards. Using this library book I taught my daughter to read.

After the initial no funds Kindergarten we managed to set aside a little money each year for curriculum.

2) Homeschooling on a Small Budget:

With a small amount set aside, I purchased a small amount of curriculum at our local home school support group's used curriculum fair. I found an all-in-one first grade curriculum, Ann Ward's First Grade Learning at Home. I wasn't real pleased with its Math program, but found a somewhat inexpensive Math curriculum for First Grade from Modern Curriculum Press. I saw fun, expensive Math manipulatives that I couldn't afford, so I didn't buy them. Instead, as we drank milk I saved the bottle caps, and they were our counters.

The main curriculum required some additional books, such as Pilgrim Stories by Margaret Pumphries. I found it at the library. If I "needed" something the library didn't have I either borrowed it from someone else, substituted another title, or skipped it. I supplemented with read-alouds from good books. I usually had one book my girls enjoyed, and they got to "have" a chapter after they listened to a chapter from a science or history book they were less interested in.

3) Homeschooling on a Larger Budget:

As we continued homeschooling (we've homeschooled 25 years), my husband's income gradually grew, and we were able to budget a larger amount for our homeschool. We considered our path carefully and invested in Tapestry of Grace, one Year Plan each year. We built a long-term library around the reading lists in the four Year Plans of Tapestry. We also were able to purchase NEW Science materials. We were always buying for our oldest student, and having the second student use the same material three years later. We networked with friends, shared teaching in co-op settings, and again used the library extensively.

4) Homeschooling with Free Stuff!:

My favorite "budget" has been homeschooling while a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew. I receive free stuff, use it for four to six weeks, and write a review about it! I've received Math, Science, History, Literature, Grammar, Bible and character studies, foreign language studies, Art, Music and Physical Education materials. I have received planners. I have even received soap, moisturizer, lip balm, natural pain reliever emu oil lotion, and emu oil. It has been so fun, but can be challenging. I'm a planner, but can't know in advance what I will have to use, so I buy some stuff but then get other stuff free.

I love being on Crew!

***************************************************************

Now my "baby" is in 11th Grade, so I am in a different season. I no longer need materials for K-10th Grade. So, as I am able to I sell materials I am done with. I find buyers online. As I sell materials, the income goes toward materials for 11th and 12th grade, or to be set aside for college. We are definitely in "down-size" mode. It is a different season. Now the decision on curriculum is more of:

• chuck it;
• donate it;
• sell it; or
• save it for my adult daughter.

Space is always a consideration. It is time for school materials to take up less space in our home. It's been a good journey, but I'm looking forward to seeing my last student, my son, graduate from home school in a couple of years. 

I'm looking forward to spending my hours and my dollars on quilting!

Recent Life in Review

It's been a while since I did a "weekly" update, so I thought it was time.

As May came to a close, my student heaved a relieved sigh to be done with his English 101 course at the local community college. His grade was a good one. Not bad for a 10th grader enrolled in dual enrollment!

His time spent keeping up with his college class did cause his other studies to have less time spent than I would have preferred. So, while most home schools are gearing up for different activities for the duration of the summer, my student and I see school work stretching out before us. The subjects not yet complete are 19th Century History, Algebra 2 and Chemistry.

The Boy Scout Troop celebrated an Eagle Court of Honor, welcoming four scouts to the rank of Eagle.

The troop end of year Court of Honor occurred a couple of weeks later, and my Scout received the last merit badge he needed to get to Eagle. Now he needs to find and do an Eagle Project in the community.
As a Civil Air Patrol Cadet, my SRA was signed up for and rained out of yet another flight. Six and 0 so far. He'll get off the ground some day. My husband signed up to participate with CAP as a senior member and got all his uniforms in order. He has already ranked up his first level as a CAP Officer. 
The squadron split up on Memorial Day. The Color Guard served at a local Flags for Heroes event.

Others recruited sponsorships for Wreaths Across America in December.

Our squadron had its end of year banquet.

Dad got an award. We had a cake.

 The cadet is getting ready for TriWing Encampment and got a military haircut.

He also just got a phone call setting up a summer job internship interview at a local food store. After encampment he plans to take driver's education. Busy, busy!

Well, there is probably more I am forgetting, but I guess that will do it for now. How is your summer shaping up so far?

Today's Schoolwork

Since I don't regularly do a Friday Wrap-Up, I thought I would post an occasional "Today's Schoolwork" post. It is one way to do periodic wrap-ups, and it keeps good links that I've searched for and liked (after finding lots of links I did not like).

Bible:

Hymn:
All Hail the Power of Jesus Name 


Memory:
 Working on Revelation 5 for The Edge (youth group at church)

Math:
Horizon's Pre-Algebra, lesson 47

Science:
Apologia Astronomy, Lesson 2 (textbook and Notebooking Journal)

English:
 Literature: Treasure Island, chapter 7

Social Studies:
 This Country of Ours, chapter 88 ("Gettysburg")

Latin:
Lesson 1 (Week 1), Day 2
("o, s, t, mus, tis, nt; amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant; I love, you love, he, she, it loves, we love, y'all love, they love...")

Music:
 We only ended up doing the hymn shown above today. We're still humming Ravel's Bolero.

Phys Ed:
Struggled through Lesson 1 (part of it) of Family Time Fitness. (Decided to repeat it because it is already printed out, and we've been sluffing and are out of shape.) Had trouble getting my pdf reader program to open the youtube links, but got it to work by switching to Adobe to open the document.

Health:
Working on health low-fat, low cholesterol food lessons, whole food, whole grain.

Combined with that, swiped my bathroom sink, but didn't get the commode done, nor the other two bathrooms in my house.

Didn't get my bed made. Wanted to several times, but was decluttering and had left stuff on the bed. Guess I better go do that when I finish this.

Put together a bag of giveaways to post on Freecycle. Not getting that posted quite yet.

Took a load of stuff that needed dumping to the dump.

Figured out what leftovers JD will eat tonight. (I'm going out.)

So, today was supposed to be Weekly Blessing Hour, or at least something from it, but I just don't think I'll have time. I'll post this now and go see if I can start my load of laundry (tried to earlier, but my adult daughter had stuff in the machine, and I just wasn't up to the effort of moving it... ::sigh:: On a schedule here.

So, after I post here (and link my menuplan to orgjunkie.com) I will try to make my bed, swish and swipe commode, start the laundry, get the leftovers out of the freezer, sweep the stairs... and go out by... Nah. I have to leave in ten minutes. Guess I'm just gettting the leftovers out of the freezer. Ciao!

In Which we Try to End Strong!

I have been scurrying for a couple of weeks, trying to end when I had planned (tomorrow). The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!

My mind has been somewhat fogged, anyway, because my step-sister, who lives with us, has been ill. It appears she may have been sitting on symptoms for years, and waited until it is too late-- it is looking like stage IV breast cancer. I will find out Friday.

In the meantime, some of the subjects have been sliding. In April, I had tax issues, and my subjects that slide when I don't have time, slid... That would be nature study, artist study, and composer study. Some nature study DID get done, and I even took photos, but I haven't had time to blog about it.

So, blogging has slid as well. I've kept up with my reviews, but little else. So, here is our current effort at our home school before we can end for the summer.

BIBLE
My son finished his Awanas year strong, only to find out that he wasn't eligible for an award that he longs for. This was because he joined Awanas at the end of 4th Grade, and only has completed two books of T&T. So, after a conversation with the Awanas leader, he learned that he is allowed to complete those two books, become eligible for the award, and move on to Trek. He's been going like gangbusters on the first of those two books, and I think he is 3/4 finished after only three weeks. (This is a book that is normally done in a year! This is amazing!)

In addition, we have begun the Apologia study of the series, "What We Believe", book 3, Who is my Neighbor. He is doing this grudgingly, but today, when he saw the word search in the journal,  continued to growl (with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth), and left his Legos and disappeared to work on it. He loves word searches!

We also did the hymn, Rock of Ages:

MATH:

This year we have been working on Horizon's 6. We almost finished early, and then let the last six lessons slide, and now are scurrying to finish up. After I go over something JD needs help with, I think we are done. I think he actually already did the final test.

We are also doing (almost) daily work with IXL.com to cement facts. He also previously was using AdaptedMind.com (I had a free 30-day trial), which he really liked, and he was not happy when I switched him from that to IXL. He doesn't do well with change.

SPANISH:
We are currently working hard trying to get started in Spanish. We have a 7-week course with Homeschool Spanish Academy, which I will report on in July.  We've had a rocky time of starting with this. My son seems to expect to know stuff before he gets taught, and then gets upset when he is asked something that he doesn't know the answer to. ::sigh::

Ah! Update! We had class today, and he was doing much better! ::sigh of relief::


HISTORY:
We have actually finished all of our history assignments for the year. We have just finished AmblesideOnline.org Year 5, Term 1.

LANGUAGE ARTS:
My son has been regularly working on a Daily Grammar book, a handwriting book, and we have done writing assignments here and there. I didn't do much to work on his spelling -- he's always above grade-level on that one, so I let it slide for the time being.

LITERATURE:
Each day we finish more of our books that we have been reading from Ambleside. We finished Of Courage Undaunted, by Daugherty,last week, as well as our Isaac Newton Biography. Some of our "reads" fall under "Free Reads" instead of "Literature" by the AO schedule, but it is all the same to me. Left in our bin we are working on Little Britches, by Ralph Moody, The Little White Horse, by Goudge, and On the Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald. I think we won't finish Little Britches today, but we should be finishing the other two.


GEOGRAPHY
I think we are behind the AO schedule on our reading of The Book of Marvels. I'm not sure if I will continue to work on it this summer, or just squeek it into our schedule in the fall. Our last reading was about a French citadel called Carcassonne, which we really enjoyed reading about due to our love of a game by the same name that was apparently based on the place, made by a European country. We ignorant Americans had had no idea it was an actual place!


So, Art, Music, Physical Education, Health... I wish I had more to put down for my review, but hopefully our reviewer will be content that we did enough to be marked "Compliant" for our state's requirements.


So, that's it for now. Need to get off and get on with my day. Thanks for reading.
 

December update

Our schedule this week was disrupted by Standardized Testing. My church's umbrella offered it (for a fee). My son had never done it, and I knew my husband was favorable to having him tested. I decided to go for it, because my son is in 6th grade. I know PSATs come in 10th grade, and there are very few opportunities for home schooled students to get experience taking the tests where you read the test booklet on the left and fill in the answers on the answer sheet on the right. I didn't want the PSAT to be the first time my son experienced this type of test. My umbrella only offers it every other year, so this is his first experience. In a couple of years it will be something he knows how to do because he did it before, and two years after that he starts college pre-tests and then SATs.

In addition to him testing Monday, Tuesday and Friday, we had a field trip Wednesday to a local theater to a live production of The Sound of Music. I used my time to do minor things like get my license renewed, wrapping Christmas presents, and sewing. So I didn't realize how long it had been since my last entry! I really meant to do our nature walk yesterday, but even that didn't get done.

So, I don't know whether we'll get nature walks done before school resumes in our house in January. We'll see. I will be reviewing some products soon: World's Greatest Stories; Real Homeschool Spanish; Zeezok Movie Guides; and Maestro Classics. So, stay tuned!

Why Homeschool is COOL!

Here’s my amazing homeschool story for the day. 
First, the groundwork for this story is that for a couple of years there has been some unusually rapid deterioration in the vision in my right eye. On my last visit to the eye doctor, she was concerned that she was seeing Macular Degeneration, and wrote me a referral to a specialist.
Tack on to that some information about my little guy’s interest this year. He wanted to study the five senses. I owned a Scholastic book called The Body Book (you can click it on the sidebar), so I made copies of all the student pages in preparation for going through it. The first section is on the Five Senses, so it is a good fit.

So, yesterday I had this specialist eye doctor appointment, and I was wondering if I should get a sitter, when it dawned on me that I could try to capitalize on the visit in light of our studies.  Would the doctor be able to talk to my son at all, or would the office be too busy?…

Well, not only was the great doctor able and willing to, but he also let my son look INTO my eye!  He let my son look through two different pieces of equipment. My son saw the optic nerve (it is yellow), the retina (it is orange), blood vessels that feed the eye, …the whole bit.  He said my son is the only child his age that he knows of who has ever seen some of that stuff!  It was so cool!

So then we came home and put together the paper model of the eye (over two days).  Now I just wish he ever enjoyed coloring, because I really wanted him to use the colored pencils and get the model colored, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen. I’ll keep working on him.

Why Homeschool Moms Quit trying to Exercise...

Let's see, how can one begin?

I hope to make this humerous, while bringing truth to light about the real life of a home school mom! 

At about 9:30 a.m., the mom decides it is time to get ready to exercise.  She plugs her 6 year old into a computer phonics game and goes to put on exercise clothes.

She sees the bed and remembers that she needs to strip the sheets on her bed.  She strips the sheets.

She goes to use the bathroom, so that the old, saggy female plumbing won't give her trouble while she is exercising, and she gets sidetracked playing “Jawbreaker” on her Pocket PC.  She finally gets up and gets dressed.

She heads downstairs to the treadmill, but halfway there remembers the sheets sitting on the bed that need to go in the wash, so she goes back and gets them.  On her way, she sees the tissues that her allergy-prone child has discarded on the carpet, and picks them up and throws them away. 

She gets the sheets and goes down and sticks them in the washing machine.  While she is at it, she folds the stuff in the dryer and takes it up and puts it on her bed.  Since she is upstairs again, she goes into dear son's room and strips his bed as well.  While she is in there she puts away his toys, throws away stray tissues, and puts away clean clothes that are sitting on his dresser.  She takes his sheets downstairs, and makes sure that she has her hair clip, her MP3 player, and her water jug.  She dumps the sheets at the washer and then goes to the treadmill.

She turns the treadmill on and sets it to run Program 1.  Seems easy. It's for 30 minutes, and that's what she wants.  She starts out the warm up and walks for 3 minutes, and then she sees her dear son poking his head around the corner. She stops the treadmill and asks him what's up. He says the computer locked up. He rebooted it but needs help getting back into the phonics program.

She walks upstairs and shows him how to get back into the program, and gets him into it.  While she is in the kitchen, she empties the dishwasher and loads the things that are in the sink.  She goes back downstairs to the treadmill.  She sees part of a sewing project has fallen behind the treadmill, and she squats and squeezes and gets to where it is and picks it up.  It is the sleeve to a size 6 months sweatshirt. Her son is now six.  ::sigh::  She turns the treadmill back on.

The crazy treadmill does not seem to understand what she wants to do (remember, she selected a pre-set program).  The crazy thing keeps changing pace, changing to an inclined ramp, no matter how many times she reduces the speed and puts the ramp back to level.  It seems convinced that she should go 6.0 miles per hour.  She knows that she will get an inflamed knee if she goes that fast, but it speeds up every 60 seconds anyway.

Dear son is back again.  He says big sister kicked him off the kitchen computer.  She turns the treadmill off again and sets him up at the downstairs computer, by the treadmill, to do the phonics program there instead.  She turns the treadmill on again and is finally able to finish her time on it, with her son resting his foot against it the whole time, giggling because it tickles his bare foot as the treadmill turns.

She turns the treadmill off and closes it (so dear son won't play with it), and goes to check the washer.  There is very little time left on the cycle by this time, so she goes into the sewing room to do some pick up while it finishes.  She picks up the construction paper that is all over the floor from dear daughter's birthday card project last week.  She also picks up pins from daughter's sewing project, and ignores the mouse droppings from whoever had the pet mouse out last.

The washer turns off, and she transfers the sheets to the dryer and starts the next load.  She goes upstairs to shower, but since she is still sweating, she puts away the clothes that she brought upstairs earlier.  As she reaches the bottom of the pile, she is glad she put them away, because her shower towels were in this load, and she is going to need them.

She goes into the bathroom to shower, and resists the urge to clean the bathroom first.  She turns on the water and hops in.  She shampoos, conditions, and starts to shave limbs.  By this time the water is no longer hot.  Remember, she just started the second load of sheets in hot water – necessary to kill dust mites in an allergy home.  By the time she finishes shaving the water is truly 70 degrees–not her idea of a good time.

She gets out of the shower and gets dried and dressed.  She starts to dry her hair, and daughter comes in to remind her that she needs a ride to work.  Hair finished, it is now 1:05 p.m.  Daughter is supposed to be at work at 1:00, and it took 3 and 1/2 hours to exercise and shower. 

That's why homeschool moms don't usually bother trying to exercise.

What did you learn in school today?

Well, not as much homeschooling today.  Got up this morning and did other stuff all morning figuring I'd homeschool in the afternoon.  Gave dd#2 a ride to co-op, then came home and ate breakfast, cleaned up the sink, made the bed, spent some time on the computer.  DD got a ride home from co-op with someone else (yea!) so I didn't have to go out to get her.  Had lunch, did some wiping down of furniture made dusty by our renovations (power sander on spackled walls). Cleaned out the tadpole's habitat. Cleaned up and spent time on the computer again.  Trying to do HTML programming on another other blog. 

1:00 came and it was time to take DD#2 to her job. Went out the the van.  Remembered that the tire pressure warning light has been coming on, so I walked the perimeter of the van and found a basically flat tire!  Was probably quite low when I went out this morning, too, but that was only a 1 mile round trip.

Called my daughter's employer (a friend), and she came and picked daughter up.  I asked her to follow me so I could drive up to the gas station (3/4 mile away), but after 50 feet or so I decided the tire was too low now to do it.  She left. I kept trying unsuccessfully to get ahold of hubby, figuring he might want to come and help me during daylight rather than put it off until tonight. (He works 3 miles away.)

Noticed my neighbor outside, so I called over to him. “Hey, Jimmy… Do you by any chance have an air compressor?”  Turns out he does!  It's a small one; he bought it for inflating bicycle tires, but it did the trick!  He inflated my tire sufficiently, and also was able to determine that I had gotten a screw embedded in my tire!  So now I was able to drive up to my local service station.  They were able to take me right in. They inflated the tire the rest of the way, pulled the screw, plugged the hole, and re-inflated (as air had escaped when the screw came out).  All this while my son, JD watched.

Then after they were done, JD was able to get some questions answered about what is this hole here for? (disposing of oil after an oil change) How about those over there? (That's where the gasoline tank trucks pump the gas that comes up to the gas pumps to fill the car.)

So can I count that as school for today?  Between that and the time we will read to him tonight, that is fairly substantial… I gave him the A Beka phonics worksheet for the day, but he isn't quite grasping the concept of marking the vowel with the mark to indicate it is making the long vowel sound…

Have a great day!

D

A Good School Day

Amidst being a taxi for dd#2, I managed to have a great homeschooling with ds!

8:30 dd was taken to Spanish by her wonderful dad.

9:30 I picked her her up, and of course ds was with us.  DD had had a bad class, not doing well on two quizzes on some new material that had been introduced while she was away out of state.  Now, having missed two weeks of classes, she's going to have to really hussle to get back up to speed with the rest of the class.

Home again, dd studied in her room and ds watched a bit of television while I got some things done. (It started because I needed a heater in the classroom, and I remembered there should be one around here, so I was looking in the attic.)  (I know… ::gasp!  she let's her son watch the tele right in the middle of the school day?…::  Well, I'm working on it, okay?)  After a bit, time for lunch, then dd to her afternoon class at 1:50.  I thought we were going to do some schooling while she was there, but ds got caught up in some other activity, and I remembered I a book sell on the interent that I needed to pack up and get to the post office.

3:10, picked dd up from her class.  Post Office, then home again.  This time ds and I really got busy.  First, he (on his own initiative) began doing several pages from his math book!  Now, it is a 1st Grade math book and he is only supposed to be in K, but I'm starting to find he's ready for 1st in many of the schoolwork…  After quite a bit of Math, I had him do some work from our English book, and then he did some pages from our Phonics book. 

I still would like to get serious and disciplined about daily Bible, as well as make sure I am not short changing him in Science, History, Art, Music and PE, but we really do get those, just not as often as I would like, nor in as organized a fashion as I would like.

Well, we played Uno tonight, just he and I, as dad and dd were at a 4-H meeting.  It was a great day through and through.  I read some about early North America and the conquistadors after Uno, and last night I was reading about the five senses, so that is an example that these are getting covered. I just think he'd retain it more and we'd both enjoy it more if I dove-tailed the subject material with hands on stuff.  I'd elaborate, but I'm afraid this computer is going to lock up before I can transmit this post, so I am going to quit for now. 

Blessings to you all!

Diana

A Good School Day

Monday was a good school day.  We started the day Charlotte Mason style, taking a nature walk.  We took along two empty bags to collect trash–J's great idea!  While we were on our walk we observed cardinals, mourning doves, a blue jay, chickadees (or sparrows, I need to look them up to check), and some birds with black and white stripes on their back that were either woodpeckers or flickers. Need to look them up too.

J also found a heap of rolly polly's, which he tried to bring home. But he had nothing to keep them in but his hand, and they crawled away.  We walked along the creek, and he enjoyed discovering the footbridge and crossing it. As we did so a squirrel in the tree began scolding us without mercy!

On the walk we did fill the bags with trash to the point where we had to stop long before the visible trash was gone. I promised J we will go back with bags again in the future to get rid of more of the neighborhood trash on another walk on another day.

We also did math and copy work today. J copied “God is love.”  I have decided that copy work will be a good way to reinforce for him the correct directions for the letters to go, which is something he is struggling with.

Well, I'm off to prime the hallway. After that I will be off to swap cars w/hubby, since I am getting his oil changed for him today but he forgot to leave his car with me!

Blessings,

Diana