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!

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

5th grade plans

So, we're here at the end of the year, but we're going to have to work through the summer to catch up. I'm still trying to figure out what we're doing for her this year, and it helps me so much to write it down. So, here we go...

Math: Math U See Epsilon and Life of Fred Fractions. She loves Life Of Fred, but when she picked up Epsilon last week she told me she liked to do both of them. Epsilon she says explains some things better. So, at her request we're doing both.

Science: Apologia Elementary Astronomy with the 2nd and 3rd grader

History: Story of the World 3 with her brother and sister, along with accompanying reading from the library. We're also managing to do some projects this time. Woo-hoo!

Language: I just ordered Language Arts Through Literature for her yesterday. She really enjoyed the orange one, but I wanted to try something else. Well, we're going to go back to LLATL for this year.

Spelling: Spelling Workout G and H

Latin: Latina Christiana I We've worked through Prima Latina and part of LCI already. However, we need to review the first half of the book, which we're doing now. Then we'll move on to new stuff.

Classical Studies: D'Aulaire's Greek Myths and Study Guide from Memoria Press

Bible for Children I: Just starting this, but the three oldest are doing it together.

Music: Themes to Remember, accompanying books, piano lessons twice a week

Art: We go to art lessons with the sweetest woman. She doesn't charge us anything, not even for the supplies. We meet another family of 5 there as well. It's great fun.

So, that's our year!

New Scheduling Method

I'm super excited about trying this, but first the back story. Since I started needing to schedule work, I've scheduled it in a book. I started out with a teacher's lesson planner, putting everyone in the same book. Then I bought individual books and scheduled weekly. Although it works, its hard to check what's been done and what hasn't. Then half the time the kids say they can't find their schedules.

So, I went yesterday and bought a 4x8 piece of tile board from Lowe's. I divided it up in to sections with a wet erase marker. Down the left side I have 6 rows: Monday-Saturday. Along the top I have all the subjects we do. Then I have scheduled the kids work on there individually. They each have a color in our house: towels, cups, plates, notebooks, etc. (hence their blog names) so their individual assignments are written in their color. The subjects we do all together are written in orange. I left one space for myself for my reading and latin studies. I figure even if we abandon it shortly, we'll still have a monster, cheap whiteboard.

You can also see some other recent additions to our day. On the floor are the kids individual boxes. We've used several different methods for keeping our every day stuff out, but this is working the best so far. Theoretically these get put away after we do school, but they seem to stay out unless company is coming. On the far right is a cart I got from Target. It has a Staples Desk Apprentice on top that I found for $5 at Goodwill. In it I keep my teacher's manuals, science, and my Henle Latin. In the binders below I keep the Student pages for Writing With Ease and Story of the World. Once a week I'll pull their papers out and put them in a folder in their boxes. In the drawers are my (indispensable) Rainbow Resource catalog, and the felt pieces to go with our calendar. On the bottom I'm putting the additional history, science, and music reading we need for the week from the library and our personal library. After we've read it, it gets put away or in the main library box. I need to move that green strip above the white board. That's where they hang their artwork for the week before we put it in a binder for science or history. I love those things! The little whiteboard is from the same company.
http://rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1237183829-315409&subject=1&category=228
They're on clearance from Rainbow Resource and I'm getting ready to order a few more of the strips. They rock!

Trying to start a new routine

I'm trying hard to get the kids and I into the routine of doing school. It would be easier if we didn't keep getting these wonderful invitations and opportunities! As of today, we have 3 days per week out of the house for the afternoon. They're wonderful learning opportunities, piano for 3 kids, art lessons for 4, and swimming for 1, but I'm struggling to squeeze our schooling into the morning. I'm not a morning person. I'm REALLY not a morning person. So, I need to figure out a way to get us up and going, starting with breakfast. I'm not willing to, gasp, schedule things yet, but I'm getting there.

We've done school every day this week, though some days are cut short. Then my oldest was invited to spend the night at her grandparents, which is a rare enough invitation I thought she should go. Fortunately we had her school work with us and she was able to complete her independent studies.

Speaking of independent, maybe I could have them do their independent work on the days we are out of the house and the other 2 days and Saturday could be spent on the things I have to help them with. Up to this point its seemed to keep in the routine of doing school we have to do every subject every day or it gets missed. I may need to work out a chart for us. Goodie! I love organizing things! I can see a trip to Office Depot in the near future. Be still my beating heart.

You know this is why I need to keep a blog. I don't need anyone to read it, I just need to write to organize my thoughts. Now I just feel sorry for the unfortunate soul who stumbles across my ramblings!

Starting Don Quixote tomorrow!