Post Break Wrap-Up for Week Ending Jan. 10

All in all I will say we got a good start on our second half of this school year.  We started the week with icy cold weather and a bit of snow.  The kids of course wanted to declare a "snow day" but the temps were too frigid for outdoor play.  Hubby stayed home on Monday so we ended up taking that day off anyway.  Three cheers for an extra vacation day!

As I am sitting down to write this post, I have discovered that I did not take any pictures last week!  So I will have to recap this without photos.  I do remember that on Tuesday, we did our work in my bedroom because it was chilly downstairs.  Imagine, all three kids with books, papers, pencils/pens on a queen-size bed.  No one cared that I didn't have a spot.  They were literally like three peas in a pod.  :)

We were back full steam ahead on Wednesday.  T(8), is moving along with her multiplication.  She has grasped the concept and is bulldozing her way through.  E(11) is finishing his decimals unit.  He's overjoyed about that.  Dividing decimals has kicked his butt.  Next up, percentages!  A(7) is finishing her regrouping/renaming (or, carrying/borrowing depending on your generation) with 2-digit numbers.  As long as she remembers her basic math facts, this unit is fairly easy for her.  She's not a confident mathematician but once she's on a roll she has no trouble.

I am on the hunt for a science curriculum.  I have toyed with purchasing Elemental Science.  I would rather do something a bit more relaxed but easy enough for me to "teach".  I definitely want to get a library load of reference books.  For E, I really need to discuss his prior learning to gauge where he is with science.  He does a lot of independent study and is probably well versed in the typical 6th grade scope.  T and A will be fairly easy as they've done minimal science in the past.  Either way, we'll all tackle Life Science first and then Earth Science.  My plan is start sometime next month and work through the summer.  Kind of like a summer of science.  We'll see what happens.

Happy New Year!

Vacation Mode

Am I the only one who gets into vacation mode around the holiday season?  We don't get into all the festivities of celebrating Thanksgiving but we do have the big turkey day feast.  All this week, I've been so slack and unfocused.  I've kept up our scheduling but I've relaxed my teacher role a lot this week.  My focus is on all the prep work and feasting we'll do next week! lol  I really can't wait.

The kids are moving right along with their studies.  E(11) has moved on to decimals. He worked on Khan Academy this week to refresh his memory. (He started working with decimals last year, but eventually the teachers started teaching for the state exams so it wasn't a necessity for his grade level.)  He was so happy to finally be done with the fractions unit.  A lot of it was a repeat from last year but dividing fractions kicked his butt.  He stuck with it and made it through.  I expect this decimal unit to last throughout the month of December and then after the new year, we'll move on to ratios, percent and conversions.  What fun!
 

T(8) has finished her review of addition up to 4-digit numbers.  She struggled a bit with her math facts but she remembered the rules for carrying (regrouping) and borrowing.  Her next unit is multiplication.  We've discussed it previously so she's familiar with how it works.  She determined that it is just like skip counting.  We'll start the unit in December.

  

A(7) has just learned how to regroup 2-digit numbers!  I'm so proud of my baby.  She fought me so hard when I introduced this new skill!  Oh my goodness, that girl is tough!  She insisted it was too hard... she would never learn it... she didn't need to learn it.... I took the whole week to go through the problems in the first lesson.  It was about 25-30 problems.  We started with doing five a day using base tens rods.  By the third day she said she didn't need the rods.  Day 4 she was doing the problems on the whiteboard with my confirmation of a right answer.  On Friday, she was doing the remaining problems in the lesson by herself.  My girl!  She proclaimed she is now a pro at regrouping.  We'll do another lesson of problems and then we'll move on.  I'm not sure if we'll do larger numbers with regrouping or learn borrowing with subtraction.  Either way, it will begin in December.


Next week, is a short work week for us.  We'll do fun stuff on Monday & Tuesday and then take off the rest of the week to enjoy some much needed rest and family time.  Whatever your plans, have a fantastic time!!

Our Days in Pictures

This is not all of the pictures I've taken since September.  It is only a fraction.  It has been my intent to update weekly, biweekly, at least monthly.  You see how that has gone.  I promise to try to do better to document our journey.

Week One In The Books

In my last post I talked about how I wanted to homeschool for free.  Well, that was a difficult task.  I decided to buy a few workbooks for the 3 R's - reading, 'riting & 'rithmatic.  Everything else I am using free resources.

Thankfully our first week back was a short week.  We started back Tuesday, September 3.  Everyone was excited.  I made them pancakes for breakfast to help ring in the new school year.  Even the dog behaved.  Usually, he whines and whimpers for their attention.  He sat quietly until they showed him some love.

I tried a new subject - current events.  I wanted to pull articles for International, National and Local news.  I decided to use a country they were not familiar with but would be interested in. I chose Delhi.  All summer, my kids have been watching a movie called Delhi Safari on Netflix.  I figured it would be a great tie-in.  While they enjoyed seeing some of the places (Parliament) in real life photos, the lesson took too long.  They enjoyed coloring the flag, looking at the money and talking about the people, food and neighborhoods.

We did everything else on plan with a little push back and laziness.  It was expected so it didn't upset me too much.  It was a great start and we are moving forward in to the second week of school.

2013 Fall Planning

It is that time of the year... planning time.  Though, when are homeschooling moms not planning?  It seems we spend a bit of time planning the next school year throughout the current year.  As you know, we spent most of the 2012-2013 school year with K12's Virtual Academy.  We made the decision primarily based on financial necessity.  This year, we are not much better financially but our resolve to independently educated our children is stronger than ever.

Earlier this year, I discovered the wonderful resourcefulness of YouTube.  Now, I've watched many a YT video but never did I watch (or look for) homeschooling videos.  All it took was one video for me to get hooked.  (Don't ask which one because I couldn't tell ya!)  Most of the videos I was attracted to were the ones explaining how to homeschool on a budget.  And not just the average 'get books from the library' suggestions.  I was learning the who, what, where & why of creating your own homeschool curriculum for free or as close to free as possible.  I've discovered so many websites that provide free curriculum, resources for creating lesson plans, etc.  I've always known of free printable websites but for the first time since we began homeschooling officially in 2006, I've come to realize I can (and will) homeschool for free.

Now by "free" I mean I will not purchase a full curriculum from publishers (with the exception of science that we will begin in the Spring).  The majority of my lesson plans will be created via printables I find online, unit studies,  notebooking and lapbooks centered around living books.

I'm so excited to begin formulating a plan for each of my children.  I love to shop but I'm just as excited to see how little money I can spend this year! I'll keep you posted.  How's your planning coming along?

How Am I Smart? {Freebie Alert!} *Limited Time*

If you haven't heard yet, Great Homeschool Conventions is giving away a free e-book by Dr. Kathy Koch titled, "How Am I Smart? A Parent's Guide to Multiple Intelligences".  It's about behavior struggles, solutions to relationship conflicts and how we as parents can tap into our children's individual intelligence.

This free download expires Wednesday, July 31 at midnight EST.