Mr. Yellow's Progress

Mr. Yellow is 7 this year. Reading with ease is still elusive, but math is coming along nicely. I've been very relaxed with his schooling thus far.  He's a Minecraft fiend, so whenever I see printables with that theme, I print them for him. Other than that, here's what we have for him.

Math: Math Mammoth 1

Phonics: Explode the Code 1 & 1.5, and the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading

Science:  Apologia Explorer's Series Human Body and Wild Kratt's videos

Handwriting: Preventing Academic Failure Handwriting Program for Print

English: First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease 1

He also enjoys doing Before Five in a Row with Mr. Orange, age 4. I have begun making sensory bins for the 3 little boys, Mr. Yellow, Mr. Orange, and Mr. Red. They love them! Pinterest has been great for combining BFIAR with sensory bins and artwork. 

So, What Does a Midwife's Assistant Do?

I was trained as a doula, and although I don’t practice as one anymore, I love the meaning of the word: a woman who serves. That’s what I see my role as a midwife’s assistant as, more than anything.

I assist two midwives currently. As an assistant, I am CPR certified and am seeking to become NRP certified. I generally attend only births and not prenatal or postpartum visits. Occasionally I will attend a prenatal or two so the parents can meet me before the birth. I am paid by the midwives I assist to be an extra set of hands, which usually means taking fetal heart tones, charting, giving her instruments as needed, cleaning up, etc. Sometimes I will check on a client in early labor for the midwife, so she doesn’t have to make the drive.

Labors can be long, and it’s important the midwife has a support person there for her, so that she is at her best when “the big moment” arrives. That means she can rest while I check fetal heart tones and chart through the early and active phases of labor.

When I arrive at a birth, the first thing I do is check the fetal heart tones.  I observe the mother for a contraction or two before and after I check, that way I can report to the midwife how labor is progressing, and whether or not she needs to rush to the birth site. After charting my arrival and the baby’s heart tones, I begin setting up the birth kit. This means making sure that all the items the midwife has requested the clients provide are available and in one place, as well as preparing the birth tray as much as possible without the midwife’s tools. Once all that is done, I sit down and relax with my knitting and/or a book. Normally mothers want to be left alone, which is part of why they chose to have a homebirth. I understand and respect that, as a mother and birth professional.  

After the midwife arrives, I will bring her bags in and finish setting up the birth tray, with her tools, medicines, etc. She normally will go and check on the mother, which I observe and chart for her. After that we settle in together with our books, phones, etc. Sometimes we’ll visit, but normally we’re quiet and just sit. Every hour or so in early labor I will get up and check on the mother, check fetal heart tones, quietly watch a few contractions, and chart everything. One thing I really appreciated on my labor charts, as a mother, was the positional changes related to time. You really lose track of time while laboring, and it’s nice to have that record.

After  many hours the rhythm of labor begins to change,  and we begin to check in on the mother a little more often to observe and get fetal heart tones. If the baby is posterior, many times the mother begins to get discouraged at her lack of progress. At this point the midwife or I will provide ideas, normally positional changes to try, or asking if they have eaten or drank, and urinated. Sometimes the mother begins to have a hard time “staying on top of” contractions. I like to encourage them at this point, to let them know that I know they can do it. Again, this is done when I come in to get fetal heart tones, and observe a contraction or two. Unless the mother requests we stay nearby, the midwife and I tend to stay out of the way, unless we have specific duties to attend to. I really hate bothering mothers in labor and feel like quite the bother coming in to get heart tones. It is a vital part of attending a birth though, so I try to do it as unobtrusively as possible.  It’s a special time in a couple’s life, and we don’t want to interfere with their laboring relationship.

When it’s finally time for the baby to be born, I sit beside the midwife ready to grab whatever she needs. I make sure the blankets and towels are in my lap, ready for her when needed. I provide gauze, oil for perineal massage, compresses, and anything else she asks for, including tools and meds when needed.

After the baby is born, I begin the clean-up phase while the mother and baby begin to bond. I will make sure any blood is cleaned up, all laundry is ready to go in the wash, and the trash is collected. I load up the midwife’s car with the equipment that she’s done with and then sit and read until we are ready to do the newborn exam and postpartum exam. I chart both of those exams for the midwife, and once she has gone over the warning signs to watch for, we are ready to leave.

All in all, the biggest time commitment of being a midwife’s assistant is sitting and waiting! 

End of 2012 Update

Now that the calendar year is drawing to a close, I have a minute to update on our progress this year. As I type this, I'm looking out my bedroom window at the loveliest sunset. The oranges and reds are the most vivid I've seen in years. The bare branches of trees silhouetted against the gorgeous backdrop of the sky is too beautiful for words. It makes me wish for my camera, but I'm too run down to go downstairs to get it. I don't remember being this tired with the other pregnancies, but I guess it just goes with the territory of getting older.

Miss Green is doing very well so far. I've started using Homeschool Helper on my iPad, and she really appreciates being able to know where she stands. She loves having a GPA, go figure! Her Apologia Biology co-op really helps her to have  accountability as well. She thrives in a social setting, and that's the only school work we do with other families. She uses Quizlet quite a bit for studying her vocabulary and is doing really well.

The one change I've made for her thus far is to drop Rod & Staff English 8. It was just too advanced for her. I had her move back into Rod & Staff English 5 with Mr. Blue and Miss Pink. She's acing it, but she's also learning, which is the important part. I have Analytical Grammar on order, but I'm not certain yet if we'll switch her over.

Mr. Blue. Oh, Mr. Blue. He's my hardest kid to school. I haven't made any changes for him. I'm just having to struggle to get him to do his school work. He's on a very light load right now, as I'm trying to just get him int he routine of actually doing his school work on a daily basis. He does Math, Spelling (forgot most days,) English, and Latin every day. I'd like to get him consistent with his science, but I haven't reached that point yet. We have the audio CD, which we listen to in the car, and that helps him get it done. He loves science, but he wants to study only what he's interested in.

Miss Pink is pretty easy going. She's having a hard time keeping up in English, but its getting better. She's my Perfect Paula. Every time she writes an answer down, she wants to know if its correct before she writes it. Its made test taking very hard for her. She is doing better than the older two kids in First Form Latin though, so that makes up for her struggles in English. She's using Quizlet to study her Spelling Workout lessons, instead of using the workbook. That works really well. She's able to master most of the words and test out of the lesson without writing in the book at all.

Miss Purple loves to get her school work done. She's usually done with it before I ask her about it. She's learning borrowing and regrouping right now and has had a few hiccups with it. I think she's got it down now. I have her do her Math Mammoth lesson herself, but if she doesn't understand it, she brings it over. I work through a couple of problems with her, she does one while I watch, and then she can work independently. She decided to start Prima Latina last week. I'm afraid it might be too easy for her. We haven't started learning prayers yet though, so that may make it just right.

Mr. Yellow unfortunately gets pushed to the side education wise. We are still working on his Consonant Rhyme. We're on the letter L now. I'm hoping this looooonnnnng introduction to sounds will make it click faster once we actually start reading lessons. He has a math workbook I put together for him, and the kids like to do that with him. They really like doing any school with him, as he's such a fun kid. In the meteor shower the other night he wished for a cow. Then he wished for a pink cow, a yellow striped cow, and a purple polka dot cow. The next day, he told Miss Green, "I wonder where my cows are hiding. I checked the chicken house, but they're not in there. I bet they're in the barn." I'm trying to convince Daddy to paint our cows in those colors, but he hasn't fallen for the idea yet.

9th Grade Add-Ons and Deletes

Language Arts: I'm still looking for a spelling curriculum for Miss Green to review. I haven't had time to really research it yet though, so I'm putting it on hold. English is going great, though I need to add in the tests. She really likes tests, oddly enough.

History: She finally admitted she needs something more in depth than Mystery of History. I'm going to have her start History of the Ancient World. I think it will go well for her. 

Latin: I can't believe how well First Form Latin is going for all of them. I'm absolutely thrilled! 

Logic: She's enjoying Fallacy Detective, but again she wants tests to do. The Bluedorns offer a test, but it covers the whole book. I have recently discovered Quizlet and am loving it. Others have uploaded the lessons and you can print tests for each lesson there. I think this will work perfectly for her, especially since she likes to study on Quizlet. They even have an iOS app, so we have it on everyone's iPods. You don't have to be online to use it, as long as you load the lesson while online. Then you can use it anywhere. 

Everything else is going well. I think she's finally happy in her schooling, for the first time in, well forever. We have settled into a nice routine working with one another. It's nice to be able to have a less hostile relationship. I think a lot of this may stem from allowing her a little more choice in choosing curricula. I choose the subjects and then give her a variety of choices to work on that subject. It makes it easier for her to accept when I say we have to do something and why, since she has had a say in much of her schooling. 

Miss Green Starts High School. Ack!

I have been worrying about high school for years, but now that its here, I'm not worried. I had planned a more challenging year, a la Well Trained Mind, but she needs a different pace and that's fine.

Math: She has been asking for Teaching Textbooks Algebra for quite a while, and I finally found it for the right price on Homeschool Classifieds.  I'm so happy we did. She is loving it! This is working so well, I hate to say anything to jinx it.

Language Arts: I decided to give Rod and Staff another try for her and purchased Preparing for Usefulness. I was a mean mom when it came in the mail and teased her about how much she was going to love what was in the package. When she opened it, she literally cried. I felt horrible, but she's starting to come around a little. She has asked to start doing the tests, so I plan on starting them this week. She really learns more if she knows there's a test coming. I also need to get the next level of Vocabulary from Classical Roots, but I've dropped the ball. She also asked to get a spelling curriculum to review, but I don't know what to get yet. I had her do the Sequential Spelling placement test, and she only missed one in the uppermost level. I'd love suggestions!

History: She asked to use Mystery of History 1 instead of Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Ancient World. I've decided to roll with it, since she's planning to beef it up and write weekly papers. We'll see how that goes.

Science: I had planned on using Apologia's Biology, and when I found out our local homeschool group was having a science co-op using the same, it was a lock. Miss Green wasn't so sure about it, but she is loving it! Well, she loved it up to the Chemistry module. Hopefully it will go back to loving it now that we're done with that module. I bought her the audio as well, and it helps tremendously to get it done in the car.

Latin: She is doing First Form Latin with Mr. Blue and Miss Pink.

Logic: Together, we settled on Fallacy Detective combined with the Art of Argument. She really likes Fallacy Detective, but she doesn't think she's retaining what she learned. She liked the look of Art of Argument, so we'll try adding that in.

Rhetoric: This past year she discovered Public Speaking and fell in love. She won the county 4-H competition and went to state where she got the highest honors possible at her level. She wants to start a speech and debate club and really wants to develop her public speaking skills. She likes the look of Argument Builder, and we both think it will help develop her speech writing.

Art: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in our little co-op.

Electives: She has asked if she can independently study Soil & Water Conservation. I'm excited to see what she comes up with!

Mr. Blue and His 7th Grade Year

Mr. Blue is probably my most challenging child academically. He's incredibly bright, but also lacks concentration skills. I've discovered that I can't leave him to do his work independently. I used to think parents who said that had a lack of discipline in their homes. I'm learning differently. Isn't it great what homeschooling teaches us as parents? I'm hoping that if I can stay on top of him, he will gradually develop a slightly longer attention span. We'll see.

Math: We have done 2 things this year. I started with the Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra. I really like this curriculum. I like that its challenging, but the challenge is more in thinking about the math than actually doing a difficult problem. This is the kind of curriculum that would have been perfect for me as a kid and will probably be perfect for Mr. Yellow when he gets to that stage. However, it didn't quite cut it for Mr. Blue, so we switched to Teaching Textbooks Prealgebra. This is working perfectly for him. He especially loves getting graded on every lesson, go figure. He has quite the competitive streak and likes to find out how he did versus his sisters scores for the day.

Language Arts: He's doing Following the Plan with Miss Pink. It's going really, really well. Rod and Staff is quite challenging, so even though its 2 years behind where he is grade-wise, I don't feel too bad about it. The important thing to me is that he's learning new things. For spelling, I have him now doing Sequential Spelling on dvd. He really didn't learn anything the years he did Spelling Workout, and Sequential Spelling seems to be helping. I'm going to look at their apps next and see if they'll be a good match for him.

History: Story of the World Ancients as a spine, with added reading.

Science: This is my first time using Apologia's General Science. I have found that the audio CD is worth its weight in gold for Mr. Blue. Oddly enough, he's resisting doing the experiments. Since his retention seems fine, I'm not going to force the issue. I see they have a new notebook, which looks intriguing, but not for the $33 price tag. I have him taking the tests at our science co-op with another family doing the same curriculum. It helps him tremendously to have that accountability.

Latin: First Form Latin with Miss Pink and Miss Green

Art: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in our art co-op.

Miss Pink's 5th Grade

Miss Pink is starting to resist school a little more, but for the most part it's still easy to work with her. I can usually trust that she'll get assignments done, even if I don't stand over her shoulder the whole day. We've changed a few things for her this year, but overall we've just moved on to the next level of what she was doing.

Math:  She didn't finish all of Math Mammoth 4 last year, so I had her start this year with Teaching Textbooks 4 and just take the quizzes until she got less than 90%. She's now on Lesson 90 of 119 and will then start Teaching Textbooks 5. I found both on Homeschool Classifieds for great deals. It's my latest favorite site. She's also reading Life of Fred Apples and will go on to the other books in the series soon.

Language Arts: This year we've moved to Rod & Staff's Following the Plan. I do the lesson with her and Mr. Blue. We do a lot of even the written review orally, especially since she broke her finger. We don't have the workbooks or tests, but I'm thinking they'll be a helpful addition. She has continued on with Spelling Workout Level G. I have started having her and Miss Purple write the rules for the day in their new Spelling Notebooks.

History: As I mentioned in Miss Purple's post, we're doing Story of the World Ancient Times. I think I'm going to add the tests in this go round for Miss Pink though.

Science: She's going to the science co-op with Miss Purple and also doing Zoology 2 with her and Mr. Yellow.

Latin: The 3 oldest kids have started First Form Latin. I really like it so far. It's challenging for Miss Pink, but I think she'll do fine. That was another purchase from Homeschool Classifieds.

Art: Miss Pink is going to our little art co-op where they are studying Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.. Once again, this is a little challenging for her, but the teacher is very patient and kind. I think she'll make it through with wonderful results.

Miss Purple's 2nd Grade Plans

Miss Purple is still at the stage of loving school work, so she goes through quite a few workbooks.

Math: Math Mammoth is going great for her, so we're sticking with that this year. I'm also adding in the Life of Fred Elementary Series, starting with Apples. 

Language Arts: First Language Lessons 2, Writing With Ease 2, Spelling Workout D, and Sequential Spelling 1 when she feels like doing it with Mr. Blue.

History: We have completed one 4 year cycle and are now starting the 2nd. We are using Story of the World Book 1 again. I started out switching to Mystery of History for a change, but they all rebelled and missed Jim Weiss' voice.

Science: We are doing a couple of things this year. The 2 little girls are going to a science co-op once a week, which they're enjoying but isn't as in depth as I'd like. So, another co-op mom and I decided to add on Apologia's Zoology 2. We meet once a week before the other co-op and do the experiments and notebooking. We have finished Chapter 1 and are moving on. I think it will be a fun year, culminating with a trip to an aquarium.

Latin: I've been putting off starting this again. She has finished Song School Latin, but I wasn't able to do it with her. She didn't retain as much as I would like. I can't decide if we should redo that or do Prima Latina. I love Memoria Press products, but I'm not sure if I have the time to devote to it at the moment.

Art: We are doing Artistic Pursuits this year in a co-op with another family. The older kids do a different curriculum, but the littles like Artistic Pursuits so far.

So, that's her 2nd grade plans. I'll get back to you and let you know what actually got done!

Not Filing This Year

I really liked having my whole year planned out, but I discovered that different kids worked at different levels than I expected. So, I was constantly having one work on a week or two ahead, another 2 weeks behind, and our together stuff could be anywhere. There were some things that consistently didn't get done, so I ended up starting a file for each book that I ripped apart to put them back together eventually (still haven't got that done.)

The other problem I had was the teacher's manuals. It was a pain to have to put things back into binders at the end of the week and I ended up having months to do at one time.
I think filing is awesome, and if I didn't have so many kids to homeschool I would continue to file our year at one time. This year though, I'm going electronic! My tablet will replace my instructor's binder. It should make my bag a lot lighter to carry around.

I love that Peace Hill Press offers almost all of their curricula electronically. I am purchasing the instructor's manuals to put on my tablet. We also buy the mp3s of Story of the World to put on our iPods and my iPhone. I can't put everything on there (Rod and Staff I don't think will ever go electronic,) but I will put everything I can find in that format on my tablet.

Our Math Mammoth is pdf based, so I have put that on there. I'm still printing Miss Purple's papers, but at least I can view what she's doing.  I haven't put the Sequential Spelling dvd on, but I think I could. I just wish Teaching Textbooks had an app of some sort.

Mr. Yellow Starts Kindergarten

Mr. Yellow is 5 now. I don't know where the time went, but here we are starting Kindergarten. I love that I don't have to follow a traditional time to start school with each child. He wasn't ready for Kindergarten at the start of the traditional school year, but he is now. We are following his lead and really letting him choose which days to do school and what to do when, totally different than I did with Miss Green her kindergarten year. I'm still paying dearly for my control issues those first years homeschooling. The only thing I "make" him do, is review is OPGTTR poems. He doesn't mind too much, but I like to review them at least 3 times per day. It distracts him from the important work of playing, which no 5 year old enjoys.

We base our Kindergarten work on the traditional 3 Rs, Reading, Writing, and Math, but I've found he's a science buff. He sits beside Miss Green while she does biology, and at the end of every page asks her what it was about. So, he is doing science with Miss Purple and Miss Pink and thoroughly enjoying it. He does get frustrated when he can't remember things that they do, but we are working on that. I try to make sure I ask questions of him first that he's able to answer.

Without further ado, here's his list for Kindergarten.

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Explode the Code: Books A, B, and C
Math Made Easy
Miquon Math
Developmental Math
Writing Fundamentals
Apologia Zoology 2

Closer look at our filing system

Here's one weeks hanging file folder. From left to right you have my items, Miss Green's folder, Mr. Blue, Miss Pink, Miss Purple, Mr. Yellow, Science, and History.

This is my binder. I have post-its, a pencil holder, and lined paper in the front. I use the lined paper for writing narrations quickly before adding them to their illustrations or dictating them back to them. Below is the same binder on the side. From front to back you have history and science together, Miss Green, Mr. Blue, Miss Pink, Miss Purple, and Mr. Yellow.

Kindergarten ABC Workbox Ideas

I've mentioned Mr. Yellow is showing signs of being ready for school work. He's developed quite the addiction to my phone and tablet. If I don't have him right beside me, he's sure to be hidden with one of them under the covers in his room. The little stinkerpot! So, I've been trying to make sure I have several fun activities planned for him to do independently. I get him started and then let him

have fun with it. I haven't been using our workboxes since we moved, but I'm ready to get them out for him now. I think they'll work beautifully for him, so I've been brainstorming ideas. Here's what I have thus far.

Handwriting Without Tears Capital Letter Pieces

We have these already along with the cards. I've been planning on adding magnets to the back forever, but I see

now they have magnetic pieces now. It's about time! I'll probably just add magnets to our existing set though.

Roll-A-Dough Letters

We have these too. I'm not thrilled with them, as my kids haven't had the dexterity to make the long thin pieces needed at the age they need these. I do like the idea of them, and I see that you can use them with shaving cream or rice. We may do something along those lines with Mr. Yellow.

Lauri Alphabet Puzzle Boards

I love Lauri products, and this one is no exception. It has 3 parts, matching the shape of the letters, matching the shape of the picture, and putting the two together.

Alphabet Art Puzzle

This is one of the prettiest alphabet puzzles I've seen. I think this will be my 3rd child to use it.

Clothespin ABC Match-up

I love Erica's printables. I printed this one up and laminated it. Then I printed the alphabet on labels, stuck them on clothespins, and Mod Podged them.

I'll probably also use some of the File Folder Games I made for Miss Purple when she was this age.

I found them!

I actually managed to find the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading magnets. This means we can start reading with Mr. Yellow this week! I need to add the cd to iTunes, so it will be on my phone. After that, its all systems go. Have I mentioned how much I love having in iPhone? I had an iPod Touch before, which I adored, but the unlimited data plan on the iPhone is just amazing. The kids use it all the time when w
e're on the road and need to look something up. I let Mr. Yellow use it when we're at swim practice. It's hard

for a 2 year old to stay in the same place every night for 2 hours with very little to do. We used to haul lots of toys and books in for him, but now I just consider that his screen time. I don't let him use it for the full 2 hours, but it does keep him entertained for as long as I'll let him keep it.

At the moment, he's enjoying the Starfall app. Everytime it plays the ABC song he runs to me to have me sing it with him. It's adorable.

More finds from the barn

Today one of the boxes we went through was full of binders. Some of them were Story of the World activity books, but others were the kids history and science binders. It was so fun to see their handwriting from 3 years ago.

Another box had a lot of printer supplies, i.e. labels, greeting cards, photo paper, and tri-fold brochure paper. I see some printing in my future!

Mr. Yellow is showing many, many signs of reading readiness, so I guess I need to get fired up in that department. We started learning the Short Vowel poem from the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Now if I could only find the magnets to go with it. I think may still be in the barn somewhere. Hmm...

I've made a lot of printable math activities for him. I am loving Confessions of a Homeschooler right now. She's got great stuff like a Number Word Match-Up that he has great fun with. We put the laminated print out on a cookie sheet, and then he matches up his magnetic letters to the paper. Then he counts the items and "reads" the word and points to the number and says it. He also likes the Number Dots Worksheet to use with pompoms from Dollar Tree. I got him some little tongs, so he uses tho

se to pick up the pompoms and put them on the print out. He likes to count while he's doing them and then he says the final number. I've also let him play with the Cuisenaire Rods a bit after Miss Purple is done with them and he uses them with the fabulous Cuisenaire Activity and Exploration Book. We haven't played any of the games yet, but he has done the pictures. He's getting the hang of them for sure. I have the Cuisenaire letter book, but it may be another one that's in the barn. Are you seeing a pattern here? Speaking of patterns, I've also got pattern block work planned for him. We have the Melissa and Doug set, but I want to get a magnetic foam set to use with the Patternables book we have on hand, in page protectors no less!

I tore up the Capital Letter Stories workbook and put it in page protectors, so he can do it over and over again with dry erase markers. I recently saw the same system at Wal-Mart, but in a dry erase form. I prefer the page protectors though, as I can choose which letters to put in his binder for the week. This system reminds me of Handwriting Without Tears, but its a little more colorful/kid friendly. We have the wooden letter pieces for that program too and need to pull them out in the coming weeks.

Oops!

I loaded up with Miss Pink and Miss Purple this morning to make the 3 hour drive to my brand new nephew, but the car wouldn't start. I've suspected the starter was going for a few weeks, but this morning it completely gave up. So, I'm house bound until Daddy gets it or the van fixed.

When we moved back to this state 3 years ago, we knew we would be in a rental for about a year before moving into this house. Instead of unpacking everything in the rental, we loaded up the barn with things that weren't in use at the time. Fast forward 3 years, and now we'd really like to use the barn as, well, a barn. So, today we went out and filled up the truck bed with boxes to sort through. There's lots more to go through, but this made a good start on it.

We found the greatest stuff, including some of the kids most loved toys, i.e. dress-up clothes. My greatest find though was all the school supplies! I found my missing Story of the World 4 cd set, unopened. I've since bought the mp3s, so I guess I can put this one up for sale. I found a lot of Bob Books, which are perfect for Mr. Yellow in the next few months. We also found a lot of Peg Puzzles, which Baby Orange is loving. He puts a piece in and claps for himself. The greatest part is he claps whether he gets it in or not. It's just hilarious and adorable. Mr. Yellow is also liking the alphabet puzzles we pulled out. We discovered duplicates of the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and the Usborne Internet Linked Science Encyclopedia. These were put away before I cataloged our books in the rental, which reminds me I need to update those records. This just scratches the surface of the great stuff we found. Most of what I'm excited about is for Mr. Yellow's kindergarten year. He's starting to show signs of reading readiness. It's such an exciting time! More on his plans later though. For now here's Miss Purple's list.

Song School Latin We've used this before, with Miss Pink. She enjoyed it, and I imagine Miss Purple will as well. We love the songs!

Math Mammoth 1A She's nearly done with this, so we'll soon move on to 1B. I haven't done well making sure facts are memorized, so I need to add some drill work.

Miquon Orange I used Miquon when Miss Green was 4. I pushed a little too much and we both ended up hating it. However, I scored this for free when CurrClick had an Easter giveaway. I printed out the pages that use Cuisenaire rods, (another find in the barn) and have her working 1 or 2 a day. I've seen her make connections that weren't there before, so I think I'm going to buy the Red book and continue in the same way.

Writing With Ease 1 I would say how wonderful this is, but I think I'd be repeating myself. One thing I don't think I've mentioned is how this series piques their interest in some classic books. We've gotten a lot of library books after using passages from them for narration and dictation.

First Language Lessons 1

She's loving the poetry memorization. I've typed in some of the definitions, which we'll start doing as copywork soon. I use StartWrite for that, which is quite handy. I can easily print out different fonts for different kids.

Handwriting Skills Simplified Level B Her letter shapes are pretty good, but she doesn't know how to use the lines yet. I'm hoping this will help that issue.

Algebra, here we come!

We certainly did a shortened day, but since we missed so much time with the baby we have to be diligent.

We did have an amazing, wonderful thing happen today. Miss Green has always been math phobic to say the least. She has resisted my teaching on anything related to math. I had decided though to switch her to Teaching Textbooks next year, since its something the younger ones will be able to use as well unlike Aleks which is a subscription. I printed out the 7th grade placement test last week, and to my great surprise she said it was too easy. She asked to have the next test to take. So, I printed the Pre-Algebra test. She did great on it! She missed a few questions, but was still passing. So, she wanted the Algebra test. That was more challenging, but after I had her do 2 sample lessons of Algebra, I made the executive decision to order Algebra 1 for her. I can not believe how excited she is about it. She called Grammy to share how thrilled she was. So, it looks like I'll be placing a Timberdoodle order soon.

Miss Pink this year, 3rd grade or so, wrote in her binder today "gnirob si htam." I think she's tired of working on clocks and time. I'll have to fast forward her to the next lesson in Math Mammoth 3A. So, here's her work for this year.

The aforementioned Math Mammoth. I don't think I've mentioned that I bought all levels of Math Mammoth when Homeschool Buyer's Co-op had it offered. It was one of my best purchases yet. It's really nice to be able to print out remedial things for any of them to complement their other math programs. Just this year we've switched over to using it as our core instead of a supplement.

First Language Lessons 3

I just can't say enough good about this program. My kids especially love the poetry memorization. I love it even more that I've got the pdf for the workbook. It makes it so easy to file.

Writing With Ease 2

This one we may skip part of to move up to 3. I'm still undecided. She's doing quite well with it so far. I have the pdf for the student pages on this one too. It makes it super easy to replace anything that goes missing in the course of the week.

So, that's her core. She also has the subjects we do as a group, which will come later.

Another successful day notebooking

Today we did our basics and finished up with silent reading of history books. Everyone was reading about FDR today. Afterwards, they each drew a picture and captioned it. They knew they would be notebooking their books, and I believe paid better attention to it than as per usual. So, I think we're going to stick with narration for the foreseeable future.

So Mr. Blue's (age 12) plans for now and the coming year are as follows:

MindBenders- B series I think this is his favorite subject. He pulls out extra to do. He likes me to sit with him while he does it and talk him through it. It's lots of fun for both of us. We may move on to the C Series if he completes this before the end of the school year.

Math Mammoth 5 & 6

He's getting a better grasp on math this year. He's actually enjoying long division. He likes to have competitions with his older sister to see who can work a problem faster.

First Language Lessons 4

I really like this program. I'm adding one small thing this year for all of mine using it, copywork for the grammar rules and definitions. He's a champion at diagramming.

Writing With Ease 4

This is another love of mine. I've found that all of mine who have used this program are able to narrate quite well. They're also better at summarizing than the oldest, who never used WWE. I really appreciated watching Susan Wise Bauer teach her son out of this book.

Of course he also has group subjects, which we'll discuss later. I need to add in handwriting for him, as his italics need a little work.

Major breakthrough!

I'm reading The Well-Trained Mind yet again, but I was forced to take a break when it fell apart. I've since rubber cemented it, and am waiting, ever so patiently to crack it back open. While I was reading the science section for the elementary grades, I once again was motivated to "do narrations." After reading from the Apologia Anatomy book I had each one tell me what they remembered. Then we pulled out the paper and they drew something to go along with it. I wrote their narrations all on one page for them to copy, but they all ended up writing a lot more to go with their illustrations. I really can see how much more they learned using the narration method. They also made sure to pull them out to show Daddy when he got home. They don't usually want to share what they've done and only will under duress. For them to be anxious to share is a huge accomplishment. I'm looking forward to doing more for history and science.

Filing has worked surprisingly well for us. Every Sunday evening we pull out the file and put our papers in our respective binders. I've been slowing adding things to the files as we go, and we've abandoned some things that I to put in their own special file for a later date.

So, for Miss Green, now an 8th grader, we've got a short line-up. I'm still tweaking what she needs, and while we do that we're keeping it simple.

English in Blue and White.

She really, really likes this one, and insists its the best grammar program she's ever done. It was written by two 8th grade teacher's to make sure their students knew what they needed for high school.

Vocabulary From Classical Roots C

She completed the A book rather reluctantly, but after about a month off has attacked this one voraciously. I think she's realized that its fun to learn finally.

Vocabulary Cartoons

This one is quite enjoyable to flip through. I've learned a few new words.

Aleks

This is one of the few maths she's like thus far. I'm not sure what she likes about it, but she's learning, enjoying learning, and gaining confidence.

Writing With Skill

We just started this today, but I can already tell we're going to adore it. She never did Writing With Ease, but I've loved it with the younger ones.

Filing part two

So, as promised here's what we do once a week. I pull out the hole punch and the file for the week on Sunday evening. The kids pull out their binders and I pull out my binder. Then we go through and pull everything out, completed or not. We sort out what we'll save,(history, science, writing, and copywork) and what we won't (math and handwriting.) They file away the papers to save in a file with their name on it and shred everything else. It's hard for them to just throw away papers, so the shredding is kind of a fun way to do it. The shreds go into the garden in the summer and to Daddy in the winter for restarting the outdoor furnace.

Now that their binders are empty, we can refill them. They have a divider for each day of the week, which we made ourselves. I printed out a checklist of school work and chores for each day on cardstock and slid it in a page protector. Then I applied the NoteTabs shown above. That way they can check off assignments and chores as they're completed. I let them break things up the way they'd like, unless its a subject I do with them. In that case, they have to do one assignment per day.

In my binder I have a divider for each child and one extra for the subjects we combine. Behind each divider is anything I have to do with that child for the week. This makes our school work extremely portable, which is a necessity for our swimming schedule. We do a lot of school in the car and at the pool, since we're there 4 nights a week in the winter and 5 mornings a week in the summer.

I am such a follower...

I tried really hard to stay away from the posts about filing everything for the year, but once I started thinking about it I realized how well it would work for me. Basically you print out everything you're going to use, rip apart all your workbooks, and file it by week. I've taken it a step further and taken apart my teacher's manuals, put the pages in page protectors, and filed them by week as well. Everything we need for any given week of the school year is in the file. It should make life a lot easier once the baby comes. We usually take an extended break, but I think having everything ready to go will make a huge difference. The other benefit is how portable school is now! Many of the filers have dated their folders, but mine are simply labeled Week 1, Week 2, etc.

This will save me from having to relabel things next year, but also allows us to take a break whenever we need one without messing up the system.

Without further ado, here's what I've done. Each weekly hanging folder has 9 folders inside it as follows:

Dark Green: History (SOTW done together) All of our supplemental history books also have green stickers on the spine, so we can see at a glance which shelf they belong on. I'm also including a state study coloring page in this box and I may add a presidential coloring page as well.

Yellow: Science (Apologia Elementary Anatomy this year) Once again the supplemental books have yellow stickers on the spine. I've purchased a lapbook to go along with the Anatomy text and have a few coloring books as well, which are what is filed, the Apologia book is not ripped apart, it stays in my box to use.

Orange: Language (First Start French, Latina Christiana, and Greek Code Cracker) Once again supplements have orange stickers on the spines

Manila: This one is my folder. I put everything in here that goes in my binder. Teacher's manuals, scripted texts, SOTW Activity Guide pages, etc.

Light Green: Miss Green's work, ie. Math Mammoth, Wordsmith, Growing With Grammar, Vocabulary From Classical Roots, copy work, and Checkbook Math

Light Blue: Mr. Blue's work; Math U See Delta, Checkbook Math, First Language Lessons 4, copy work,and Writing With Ease 3

Light Pink: Miss Pink's (are you noticing the pattern here?) pages including Math U See Beta/Gamma, First Language Lessons 2,copy work, and Writing With Ease 2.

Light Purple: Miss Purple's Kindergarten work, i.e. Handwriting Without Tears, Explode the Code, and Math U See Alpha

Light Yellow: Mr. Yellow's busy work, which includes Patternables, extra maps from history, and shapes.

Tomorrow: how we organize each week into days...