Alpha Omega Lifepac - Week 1

With feeling so behind in our year a done need to make up some time, we started lifePAC the day After receiving them. Now doing this with a mom on the verge is not to smart. so we started on a Friday, skipped monday and finished out the week. We had some ups and downs.


Now for my planning on the fly, I have had a few shake ups. My initial plan was to work through 3 pages a day. Nice plan.

We did day 1 and I got a taste of lifepac. Mostly we introduced the format and the expectations of life pac. I had a small shock of needing to reel the worm back in, since she took off with it and went astray in the book. I almost felt like I was being left behind and had no idea where the two were going, wait I started without planning. Of course, what should I have expected to have happened!

Our two hour ride Monday, gave me a chance to review the lifepac 1st grade. Going through it with paper and pen, I was able to make a list of what I needed on hand for the day. I also created a noted book for 9 weeks, for me to keep track of the things I need each day and our expectations for the week. I am also using the record keeper from lifePac to record as we go. This was a huge benefit for my worm.

I have to laugh, the review, yes I bought, but I am still reading them. Alright, the reviews state there is no planning. Well by mid-week, I am thinking yah right. It does need a little prep work, because flying by the seat is hard, especially with five kids. I guess this is why lifepac says to work one workbook a head. Hmm, eventually.

The Worm is finding her groove.

So to do a bit of catch up, I am not allowing us to fall behind. So I make us plans and expectations of what we need to get done in our booklets. If we are not at our end of the week page by Friday night, than the kids have to forfeit Saturday. This also means not just the lessons, but also correcting the work.

At the end of our first week, we will be schooling on Saturday. Rooster will be making up about 2 days, while Wormy will fix a few problems and write a story she missed to do.

We actually had a great week. At the first part of the week, I thought the curriculum was going to be a bust. Nice about the way lifepac is working out, is that I the core work text drive us along and then it is easy enough to add to it. This week both worm and rooster did a book report, sadly their first ever for me. They did handwriting everyday. Worm started everyday with a devotion. Score!

Rooster working on Lego Calendar

Now things to know. Our 45min per subject, making a 4.5 hour day, was in some cases a 6 hour ordeal. I think this is a short term thing. My son, rooster, takes a long time to get started, like 2 hours to get going. He literally spends 2 hours on the first subject and then only half an hour on each after that. Doesn't matter what the subject is.

Also we did a total of 4 quizzes, ha, we had not done that yet.

A bit about rooster. He is a brand new 7.
Thursday resulted in a test of car schooling. Mixed reviews.

Things I was not expecting:
1. I would have to sit with Rooster the entire time he schools. There are minimals written instructions for him as they expect him to be a limited reader. Well, he is a limited reader, but there is enough reading with all 5 booklets to give him a good bit of practice. I noticed by the end of Saturday he was doing much better at reading.

2. Lots of vocabulary words in every subject. At this point with Rooster, we write the 3-5 words on paper talk about them. We figure out how many syllables are in the word, we identify any double letter phonograms, identify any spelling rules, and then count how many sounds are in the word. All of these task are the rules we found in logic of English book I downloaded this winter. The task of doing this is greatly helping my son to identify the rules and encouraging him sound words out.

3. feeling like we are getting somewhere. Boo yah! Love the fact that we did a lot and have a lot to show for it. And for once, it is like we did a lot of learning and not chasing our tails.

Monkey doing a puzzle that gave me about 10 minutes.  spent 45 minutes finding all the pieces.

4. I better find a way to keep the monkey busy.

Lets see what this week brings.
T