The curriculum sampler. What I have walked through so far this year 2013-2014

I feel like for some reason it is my job to try every curriculum out there and it is costing me a fortune. Well, comparatively we have yet to a cumulatively spend as much as one child's tuition at a private school. See perspective is everything. As homeschool parents, this is what we do, we try everything until we find a fit.  My local homeschool friends always ask me what are we using now. They love it, because I will get rid of it cheap. Nice for them.

So here we are 7 months in and I have an exhausting list of things we have tried. Her is the list and the pros and cons of each we used. Maybe you can glean some experience from this and not have to go to the trial and errors.

Easy Peasy Homeschool www.allinonehomeschool.com

This is a free program put together by an amazing woman. She has created an independent curriculum that just requires your child to work through each day's work. The site uses videos from you tube, free domain books on archive.org, along with other free resources she has found. She has amazing resources.

We used this for a month in the summer to see how it would fit.

Pros: My kids could work pretty much independently of me, especially for my child that can easily read. A lot of times,  my daughter would get up at 5am and would work for 4-5 hours to have most of her day free. The children enjoyed the time on the computer.

Cons: I had a difficult time keeping up with my kids to insure that the work was done and done correctly. I will admit that this could be the fact that I have 5 kids under 9 years old. I also could not insure that my little to no reading son did not just click through the work, I caught him. 

So this was just not a fit for us.

AOP lifepac

So with the start of September, I decided that we were going to finish those workbooks that I paid so much for. I made them suffer through three more weeks of it. Before I knew it was time to stop.

Pros: easy to follow teacher manual that went with the workbooks. As the children could read, they became more independent of me. The years worth of work is broken up into 10 small workbooks. This is nice because it doesn't get the children overwhelmed to see how much they have to do.

Cons: The workbooks are broken up into 3 sections and it is assumed you would take three weeks to complete. Well, there is not a start and finish to the day. They break the section into a list of activities, so spelling will show up five times, but in a random order. We had a hard time with knowing when enough was enough for the day. Sometimes the day would end in the middle of the page. This just made it difficult.

Also, my daughter found that the pages got busy and distracting with the images and she would often times get lost on what is the purpose to this exercise.

Sonlight - Core B & PK/K

So next I found sonlight and loved the reading, especially since my daughter consumes books like a bag of potato chips. I enjoyed the idea just a relaxed reading atmosphere. We easily submerged ourselves in this for about 5 weeks. 

Pros: everything is laid out for you. You get an amazing instructors guide and a forum that is not comparable to anything I have discovered. 

My favorite part that I will not part from is the science that they use in the beginning. It is a Usborne science activity do book that they paired up with a sonlight made DVD to walk you through each activity, that you can get a box with every tool you need for the experiments. I can't say enough about it.

I love the book selection also. Also, I was introduced to explore the code for my son that ended up being a great fit for him, but not for his sister.

Cons: you better have nothing else to do. The required reading of a few pages from several books a day times 2 became daunting for me. I would prefer a max of just 3 books at one time. Most times they would forget what we read from the day before. Some days I would read short excerpts from up to 16 books!

The instructors guide is through, but huge and overwhelming. Most times I would get lost in it, even after pulling out that weeks instruction into a smaller binder for my ease.

We had no success with the grammar, within 3 weeks I was asking a fellow homeschooled doing sonlight, what she used. 

Math-u-see

This program is a video instruction on DVD with the use of manipulative and a very simple workbook to reinforce. We used about 16 lessons of this.

Pros: they can work on this independently, are you seeing a trend on what fits with us. It uses pretty blocks and is simple enough.

Cons: I live in a world of distractions and most times they did not watch the instruction carefully. There was such a distance between the video and the practice my children were not retaining the building blocks to the lesson.

I know of another family that this works well with. We used it from the end of September to the first of December.

Explode the code

Great black and white drilling of phonetic principles with spelling. My son was able to work independent through the lessons with little oversight. Is a great fit for him. My daughter's attention was not held and she would lose sight of the intent on the page. We could not use this as a stand alone phonetic curriculum, we have completed 1 & 2, we have book 3. He wil finish book 3 and then we will not continue with explode the code, for now.

Christian light education, www.clp.org

This was brought to our attention from another home schooler. This is one of my favorites. We started it at the end of October and we still use it today in some areas. It is much like lifepac with the best qualities and some even better ones. We use the reading/learning to read and the language arts. We gave the math a try. But it was not a fit.

Pros: budget and user friendly with no fluff or frills that has helped my kids immediately learn. I can't say enough about it, my son's reading has drastically improved with this strong phonetic based program.  The 10 workbooks are laid out with a lesson a day, so it is clear and obvious where to start and end. The lessons maintain the same format so my children know what to expect and after a few lesson the instruction becomes strictly about the skill and not the technicalities on how you are to practice it. 

The phonetics are excellent and spelling training begins right away. Also another awesome way to reinforce reading.

Cons: in some ways it is a con, cle so effectively teaches the principles from the start, that as a consequence I had to have my third grader go back to the second grade reading and language so she would not miss the skills. So as a con, you almost have to work through every lesson to pick up the skills needed.

I love cle and plan for everyone of children to work through the kindergarten and first grade work.

Robinson curriculum

So I actually found this last year and tried to implement it and we were just not ready yet. Well as we approached December, I realized it was time to see if it was a fit again. Sure enough it is a good fit now. A bit of background, I actually heard Art Robinson on Moody radio a few years back, he and his wife homeschooled their 6 kids. She got sick and died within 24 hours. He decided to continue homeschooling them but did not have time to teach them. So he did an experiment that worked. He first liked the math they had, so he had them do 2 hours of math, if that ment 1 lesson or 2 or even half a lesson, this is what they did. They used Saxon 5/4 and up only. Next, he required his kids to write every day. When they were young, this was in the form of copy work, as they got older it was an essay. Next he put good books in front of them.  He packaged his curriculum up with the course of study that has stand alone value in its self. Then he has a collection of the enough books to give a 12 year education that you can convert to an e-reader pr print. He has a 2 hour video where he fully explains on his website. He is no nonsense or frills.

Pros: this is cheap with a mastery of the three Rs, arithmetic, reading and writing. Although the focus is just this and not social studies, science and everything else, it is enough. You have a wonderful experience in nature and experiments from the literature and an amazing basis of history. The vocabulary is amazing. You essentially do the parenting of teaching your child to learn and then be responsible for their own education.

Cons: although it is a k-12 program, you are required to teach reading before setting them off on their own. Reading is not included, but you are pointed to use a strong phonetic program. You better have a laser printer and a cheap toner source.  

I find my children do best when the books are on paper, I keep an electronic reader for when I am in a pinch and need new books now. So I print and bind a months books at a time and it takes me a day. So,entires I am just not in the the mood to do it. You must purchase math separately.

Ultimately, this is what my kids will use with minor supplementing. The rest of my children are in the pursuit to begin program. I tantalize my younger ones by reading them a page from a cool book. For instance, my son was in love with the letter from the author of Josephine Pollards book U.S. grant that states girls will not like this and she wrote it just for the interest of girls. Wow, did my son light up. I read with him the first page and then stopped, telling him he could read this himself as he masters phonetics. It keeps him motivated.

Saxon math 5/4 and higher

my daughter just hated math. It was a useless process as far as she was concern. Well, using art robinson recommendations I started saxon 54. I am using the third and second editions because they are cheap and easy to get on eBay. I purchased initially the textbook, answer keys, and test book. There is so much mastery in the textbook, I feel that the testing is unnesseccary and I will not require it from my kids.

Pros: it is easily purchased for around $40 for everything you need, it is not consumable, so it will be used by all 5 of my kids, making it an $8 investment per child. Since it is out of print, I will more than likely sell it  in 9 yrs for $40.

The lessons are laid out with a short warm up of about 4 problems to get the mind warmed up. My daughter usually needs to talk it out with me for the last problem, but gets it on her own with a bit of discussion. She then reads a 2 page lesson with example. Then works 5 problems on what she has learned. Then she works 25 problems from what she has already learned. 

The nice part about the 25 problem review is it gives her the practice to master it. And she is given a note to tell her what lesson the problem is from, so she can review the skill.

Cons: you need to have your math facts for at least addition and subtraction when starting and then simultaneously learn multiplication and division. My daughter resented matering the facts. It started catching up with her at lesson 10, by becoming very slow at her work. I made her take a week off to master her facts, it has helped tremendously. Since my son can not read by himself, he has mastered the facts better than her.

Also, your reading comprehension will become obvious. For me this is a blessing to find the weakness of other subjects, so you can correct it. For others I know, this has become an extreme stumbling block that has them disliking their saxon textbook. With discussion with my friend's kid, she quickly concluded it was not the math skills that made it difficult, but the reading.

So as I always say, hopefully we have found our fit and will not be changing anytime soon. I have also found some great supplements that keeps us on course with our Robinson Curriculum (RC), but I will save this for another discussion.

Hope this helps you,

Trish

Curriculum I buy: Horizon Readers

So I know I haven't written much.  I would hate to say that I am busy, well, but I am. To the point that things are being over looked and I am getting nasty grams.  But hey, I was gifting my time, and my gifts ran out. When confronted I just smile and nod, I will have to start chronicling those events too. On with the story!

So for those who know me in person, there is a running joke about how I like to buy things.  I would hate to say I am indecisive, I think it is just trying to find our fit with the energy I have available. See that is a very limited resource now days. I would hate to just walk around and use, "well, I DO have 5 kids under 8 and I homeschool them!"; but I feel as though it would be a cop out. I would really like to say some elaborate story, but really I would just be makin it up and it would be a lie.  So since, I feel like a cop out for the truth, I just smile and nod.  

So, again, on with the story.  I buy curriculum like crazy!  I buy it all, whole kit and cubuttle.  I want it all, because I jumps in like this is going to save my homeschool momma life!  Guess what, (this is where my friends begin to laugh), it doesn't always work! So I decided to start reviewing the things I buy, since, well I have a lot. I plan to only review what we use.  So as you might have guessed it, we are no longer using LIFEPAC. I will later tell you why.

So in the midst of the more than I really need stash of stuff, I have purchased the AOP Horizon Readers.  Now I picked these up last April. I know kind of soon to think I didn't want them and soon shelved them, but I did.

Now I purchased them, because I felt like I needed more reading time or the ability to assign reading to my children to go along with LIFEPAC. Well, in the last 5 months we never used them. I looked at them, reviewed them and then just could not figure out where or how to fit them in.  Side note, this to some is a no brainer, but at this time in my life, my days feel like a whirl wind.

So, I placed them on our reading bookcase and hoped by some chance that my kids would for some reason decide to read them. Yah, laughing with you, when has a child decided to read a textbook like literature fore fun!

Welp, I figure out how to use them!  first let me begin with the Ws!

WHAT: AOP HORIZON READERS  grade K-3rd

WHO: my struggling 2nd grader reading at more like a beginning first grader (Rooster) and my brand new kindergarten (Sweet Potato)

WHY: I decided to pull on these, because, although we really already have readers, we need more practice.  I could easily take Rooster's curriculum reader and run right through the whole book, especially since we are repeating the first grade for language arts, but it feel like we already did that and it did not stick.

So I figured, why not use an appropriate leveld reader to give practice  and experience with. Now what we are using now, is really just building his fluency. I have no doubt that he will finish the year in about 120 days of work, but I am not in a hurry to rush him through. If I was sending him back to a school system, I would probably push him hard through the review, but we have no intentions of that. My need is for him to come to love to read and write, not just develop the skill. For him, he needs to feel ahead of the work, not constantly grabbing to keep out up.

Now for the Sweet Potato, I have her using the K readers so that I can introduce sight words.  So today, we did the first story and as I read, I had her repeat after me and read the words: the, is, and. Nice and easy.

Where: anywhere, really, but mostly on the couch together.

When: at the end of our school day, it is our quiet snuggle time.

How: well, we read! The one thing I will note, is Horizon Readers for each grade is a bit higher level than our current curriculum and LIFEPAC. Now LIFEPAC I pretty much expected, since it is very much a go at their own pace, can't wait for you to read, here teach yourself. By the way, I still love that about LIFEPAC!

So for my remedial reader, Rooster, it is not such a stretch to have him read first, because he has some experience. The reality, though, is if I had expected him to read these in April, the whole house would have melted down, because it would have been frustrating.  So we are making progress! (SMILES) 

See the first lesson of First Grade!

Now the Sweet Potatoe is really not ready for these to sound out each word, but I feel that it is great practice to see the words being deciphered and there is just an appropriate amount of sight words.

Here is her first lesson, 

Now I am not sure how long I will use these, but I will say if we can finish out each grade for each reader, I will be thankful that I purchased them. Now if I don't, it will be again another thing I bought and didn't need after I made myself silly being so sure I had to have them.

Also, we are just beginning to add this into our days.  We are really just finishing our second week of our new curriculum.  I would like to get a couple more weeks in, before I review that one.

On another side note, the older readers begin pulling out stories from classic literature, I found this to be a very exciting prospect, you know in April. I also love the artwork in the books, very colorful and intriguing but not distracting.

Do you have experience in using AOP HORIZONS READERS or another reader that you use along side your actual reading curriculum? Please share with me! Because like it or not, I will probably want to try it too! Smiles.

Binding My Blog Planner

I want to do a better job at posting new post to myblog.  I want toshare more with everyone.  I also need to keep my thoughts together.  Hmm, what was I saying.  Oh, yes.  So I wanted to make a blog planner forever now and just got to it.

I am using a free blog planner printable from here, http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2012/02/free-printable-blogplanner.html. She did a wonderful job and made a video on it too.

So I wanted to make one.  I decided to make one using my binding system I got at the FPEA convention.  I was so excited to find this, that I had to take it home.  You can find it here, http://www.bindingbooksbeautifully.com/index.html.

I would love to call this a tutorial, but I think it is more of just a show how it went together.

So I got it all printed out, again I am making it just like Infarrantlycreative did her planner.  Except she went to the store to bind it and i did mine at home.

Then I got my binding things.

Next I got my covers.  I used craft card stock from just stampin up.  I like it because it is pretty sturdy.  

So here is where I just go my own way.  I love all the creations made by Lisa Cannon. If you go to her website you can see the fabric covers and man they are WOW!  For this project I really don't need a cover like that.  I am very happy to just have a good soft cover.  In the future, you will probably see a lot of soft style covers versus a hard covered fabric cover.  This is purely my preference.  I bind a lot of free books off google books.

The file folder is to create the divider for the month calendar just as she did in the video.  next I trimmed the file folder to fit the cover.

so first order of binding was the monthly calendar on the file folder.

to make it stay I used the big clips from staples.

To make sure I got the holes where i wanted them, I drew a line across the top.

I forgot to take a picture of lining it up.  In order to fit it in the bracket vise, I folded the file folder back.

here it is out and then I stitched it together.

here is the file folder altogether.  see the holes on the otherside?  that is because I had to fold it over to get it to fit in the vise

Next, I am assembling the rest of the book.  If you look close you can see that I have notebook paper at the front and back.  I like to take notes.  Now the file folder part with the monthly calendar is flipped out and the rest of the file folder is in to be bound. 

here is another view.

Then I stick it in the vise.

now i got it in and got the nails set, now take it apart.Now this is not how it is supposed to come apart.  My little engineering brain has concluded that I gripped the paper too tight and paper being wood held onto those nails pretty good. (if you want to know about this phonemina watch How stuff Works?  On Netflix about wood.).  But with some work it came apart.

Here are all my holes to stitch.

Then, I stitched and was finished.

Turned out great, have a look.

see, the monthly page can be teared off for the following month and the pad can flip out to hide the weekly pages, just as in the blog tutorial for the planner.

I like it!
I usually bind with hot glue and vices and the Your Story from Provo craft.  i like this better.  My fingers were not burned from the hot glue.  I had more control and not near the mess.  I plan to be stitching my binding from here on.

This little system runs $35 at http://www.bindingbooksbeautifully.com/order.html

Now let see if my planner gets me to do my work!  Just a hint, I now plan to bind the kids portfolio for school this year, well, if I get those portfolios done in time.

~trish
fyI - if you ever wonder why my caps are all squirrel-ly.  the monkey broke my shift key and i am still training my brain to use the shift on the right.

Back home from convention.

Nothing says you are home from homeschool convention like a pile of laundry! Now i have been home since Sunday, but now on Thursday I am finally taking notice to tackle the inevitable. Even after such an awesome weekend being refreshed and energized, I can easily come home and look at a pile like this and get into a pretty bad attitude.

I got the blessing of sitting in Diana Waring's first Session on Things I Wish I'd Known.  What a powerful way to start of the weekend at the convention off!

The greatest influence she spoke about was to fixate on what I am thankful for and how my complaining could very well become a very well controlling thing, just because I give it power from my lips and then my mind and ultimately my heart.

It hit home with me.  I have a huge stumbling block, I complain voice my concerns about it all the time.  My house.  My husband says I am not being content.  I respond that I am stating facts.  Well a thirty minute session with Diana and I for once, seen what my husband had been hearing from my mouth.  I am not content and I shamelessly and entitled-ly voice my resentment. Uh-oh.

Well the truth is, unknowingly I allowed my resentment to become the very thing I fixated on.  I allowed it to control my attitude and even control what I would do each day.  My house became my excuse for  everything.  

Diana explained instead to fix on the things to be thankful for and know when we do the Lord will open us to even more.

So today when I began to compile the dirty laundry (BY THE WAY THIS IS NOT ALL OF IT), I counted my blessings that I am thankful for.   Here they are:

1. I have laundry!
2. I have a wonderful washing machine that works as it should!
3. I have laundry detergent!
4. I have water and electricity to run it!
5. The machines are in my home, so I do not have to go anywhere!
6. I have a lot of little hands to help me make dirty laundry and collect it!
7. My laundry is on the back porch, I get to hear God's wonderful birds sing a song of joy!
8. My laundry is on the porch, I get a muffled sound of the chaos!

Lord, thank you for all these blessing and your unchanging promise to show them to me with a pile of laundry.  A pile of laundry that is not a one time gig, but a daily reminder of how you provide for me.

Tell me.  What is your hang up and how can you be thankful? after this weekend, I realized I am not alone in this struggle.  Sometimes during the worst of it, it is hard to know how to find thankfulness in the chaos.

~trish

2013 - 2014 homeschool curricula

We haven't finished our year yet, but I am so excited about things for next year.  Of course, I just got the bill for my purchases and  for the FPEA Convention and it does make me know that our year is about done.  I do not plan to actually begin this curriculum until September.   But I am so excited about it!

3rd grader - Worm

She is a strong reader, self driven that can manage herself, if give the tools. She will be by far the easiest, as long as her confidence grows in math. Thankfully lifepac is working nicely in this. I choose to give her art, mostly for something fun. I still want her to enjoy and around here a free for all on go make something doesn't always work. We need a bit of direction.

LIFEPAC Core Grade 3 (Bible, Language Arts, Math, Science, and History)



Horizon Penmanship 3                                       Horizon Health 3                          A Beka art 3

2nd Grader - Rooster

He is something else. I sometimes worry about him, especially when I use my keeping up with these jones homeschool family comparison. He has little confidence in reading, would skip out on school completely. Can do math like nobody's business. Where is the analytical test, he would ace it. Thankfully met another homeschooled boy his age and quickly realized it is just a season and boys just do this.

Now I am using a reason for handwriting because I got it free and liked it. I have horizon handwriting 2, but it seems too advanced for him and it doesn't show the lines on how to write letters. We have a hard time with Rooster holding the pencil right and starting from the bottom. Thankfully we can reference with Logic of English.
I was going to do the same health as the worm , but after reviewing the scope, I realized he needs to do grade 2.

LIFEPAC Core Grade 2 (Bible, Language Arts, Math, Science, and History)

A Reason for Handwriting A              Horizon Health 2                 A Beka arts and crafts 2
  




Kindergarten - Sweet Potato

This little one is fascinating. Taught herself to ride a bike and is working on it for reading too. She is itching to do her school work everyday. I love the rod and staff abc books. I am using them with her as unassisted busy work. I hate to assign it, but otherwise she will constantly disrupt me, asking for work. I got the art and handwriting. Like the lifepac for her ma
Rod and Staff - ABCDEFG books

LIFEPAC MATH and LANGUAGE ARTS K


A REason for Handwriting - K                                A Beka Art - k
                                   
I'm


K3 - Monkey
Rod and Staff for 3                                    Horizon K3 set         ABeka lamb arts for 3 year olds



(Of course my little kernel will continue to enjoy being a baby)

Together we will be doing:
I most excited about the astronomy!  I think that is because I bought our first telescope.  (we just went camping and found the best place to look at stars.)  We will all do this together.  I plan to dig and enjoy in this study.
Exploring Creation: Astronomy                            Story of the World Vol. 1

The story of the world will be treated as read aloud time with activities.  I love the stories and the activities.  I am steering away from the notebooking and book work because, I don't want to miss the fun of history, not the work of it.

Horizon PE gr k-2


At homeschool coop, we will be doing a geography and cultures study with Christian missionaries as our focus.  This should be super exciting.

Enrichment
For our family, enrichment is a time to catch up, read, and play with cool educational games.  i am making a list to help them from getting bored or really keep me from handing out the same stuff everyday.  I am still making a list, but so far I have.
Computer based piano instruction
Puzzles
Games
Origami

When an all day time out is just necessary

When my sweet rooster just wants to start off in a daydream, dragging his feet at any idea to put paper to pencil, what is there to do?

I am going to bore it out of him. I love what Art Robinson said about letting a reluctant child sit in their seat for as long as it takes each day. It renews me, when my son just refuses. If it gets too bad, I send him to bed. I hope he goes to sleep, but mostly he forces himself to stay awake.

Reasoning? I tried telling him that his attitude is his only obstacle.

Punish it out of him.

Motivate him?

There will be a week here and there, that nothing is going right with him.  He just looses it.  Most of the time it is just exhaustion.  We might spend a few days of him going back and forth to bed and then we are done for a few weeks.  And then we start again.

It mostly goes he is stubbornly defiant and reluctant.  I send him to bed.

About 20 minutes goes by, he will ask to come out.  I let him out and he is told to do his work.  he will stare blankly at it.  I wait about 15 minutes and send him back.

about an hour will go by and he will ask again.  We will go through the same drama and he will be sent back.

Now this is when we begin the cycle of coming and going.  Usually after the third time, I make him stay until dad gets home.  sometimes I tell him 2 hours, I am always just in the hope that he will fall a sleep.

Once he gets about an hour of some afternoon ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzs.  He will usually come in sit down and do some work. Usually.

He is easy to pick out when he is tired.  The entire house will be screaming. He has those kind of magic powers.

This is what I can sometimes find him doing during his I will sit in bed days.

On days that it will be no use to sleep, I will typically bring his work to the room and I will work with him 20 minutes at a time through out the day.  Doing this, works out very well.

Alpha omega Lifepac - week 3

Week 3 is a better place to be at than week 1.

We finished week three with a smile. We are still tweaking our methods. Here are some of the things that are helping us streamline our day.

www.spellingcity.com

Have you heard of it? Ohh, I heard about it but I never spent anytime investigating it. Well, in a thought I realized I might as well pay for something that will prepare my kids for spelling, so I checked it out. it was free!!!!!!
So what I love
1. I put the spelling list in and I name them. So I have been naming them by book and section. List 205-1 is the fifth book for second grade section 1. The nice part is that lifepac gives a spelling list per section. This means as I am planning my schedule out, I know that after a self test it is time for a new list.
2. I can make my list and when Worm is done with it, I can unpublish it and save it until Rooster needs it. I like this, because I can keep just 2 list up to pick from or I could pick more.
3. The games are entertaining enough that my kids do not realize they are working the words over and over again to a point of mastery.
4. All time favorite. It will give them a spelling test. Haha, nothing like free me up from a responsibility. Hehe. I have worm take the test, typing the word on the computer and them writing it in her practice test page in the book. She has been able to ace each practice test, so I skip the actual test.

Now, I love the way lifepac systematically puts the spelling list together for 2nd grade, but 1st seems a bit random. Also, second grade has a page introducing the list and some practice, while in first grade, the spelling list is only in the teacher manual. I decided as we move through the book, we will change spelling list and use them on spellingcity, but I have no intention of testing first grade spelling, so I am not.




Mommy homeschool planner
I have always had a hard time with the homeschool planner.  Mostly, i felt that I was always filling it out and I was never using it.  So my work was going no where.  The hard part is figuring out what I should put in it. Mostly, because I had no idea what I needed.  I was so overwhelmed trying to figure out just what i should do, that I couldn't even get a grasp on what I needed.

• I need to keep dates on when I am starting and stopping our school year. 
• When we are actively working on workbooks.
• Our goals per child and as a family.
• keep grades
• track what we and they are going to cover and when.
• what I expect to cover each week and each day.
• track our reading 
• track our field trips

wow, I guess I now have a sense of what I need to track.  I am working out the kinks. Once I get it put together, I will share all my parts and where I found them to print.

Yearly schedule
So for the past 9 months we have had for a lack of order a very unscheduled schedule.  I would make some great list that we could never keep up with and constantly run with as it accumulated what we still needed to finish.  Now if that is not a recipe for burning out, I am not sure what is.

My initial thought for our new routine with our LifePac books was to do 6 weeks on and 1 week off, with about another 3 weeks off for holidays.  During those 6 week sessions I figured we would do 2 booklets each session with a total of  7 sessions.  Now of course i calculated my daughters entire 12 years of school and thought how awesome, 14 books a year, high school would be done in tenth grade.

Here we are at the end of our three weeks, and I think we could use a break.  We are a bit tired, we need to do some catch up.  As we intentionally did nothing today (week 4 of lifePac), I broke from our routine and let the kids run off the glazed donuts lunch. Don't judge, I ate most of them to limit their sugar intake.

So my head was whirling in guilt for taking the day off and realizing we were really going to take the whole week off. So my head got to calculating.  Each year, we could go 12 - 3 week sessions.

• This is the state required 36 weeks/180 days, compared to the 42 week/210 days I was originally planning.  
• We will still be working year round, because that at the moment feels right.  
• We could possibly accomplish 2 books into the next grade each year.
• At the end of each 3 week session, we should have a book done.  If not, this gives us a week to work on it.
• Gives us a week of down time, to focus on hands on learning and fun. (hmm, this week, not sure.)

image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_Leghorn_rooster_in_Australia.jpg

On a side note, I am so happy to announce!
Rooster's booklets are not as spoon-fed as they go on.  happy Dance.  making it through the booklets, I was not prepared that the booklets will fill the need for his daily reading.  His reading is improving with this camouflaged reading.

Cool tools
I hit the office supply store for a few things and grabbed 3 of these.  I am not sure how well they will work out, but I have a feeling they will be useful.

It fits all 5 Lifepac booklets plus the handwriting workbook.  So now lets see if it gets used.

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

The last 2 weeks of blur!

Well friends, the last 2 weeks have been rough in so many ways.  As a mom that wants to succeed at the task, I had to take inventory or my strengths and weaknesses and had to come to reality about my personal limits.  Like I said, it has been rough, a few personal meltdowns and finally coming to grips with the decisions we made.

I can imagine the “dun, dun, dun” loud eerie music playing.

Okay, no one died! But, my husband has been working some crazy hours with his second job. I feel so blessed that he is willing to work so hard.  These crazy hours are about15-17 hours each day on the weekend and 2-3 nights during the week, him working until 9 pm.  I had no idea how fragile our home is without him.  Let’s just say in no way, can this momma go it alone.  We were getting the kids fed, educated, and dressed, but this momma wasn’t getting to be the momma I want to be.

Now this side job will last like this for about 2 months.  I know we could put our school aside for that time and just focus on being mom, but then there is always another side job that will put the same schedule on him.  On top of this, I have a little test I have to study for that is a major deal. (This goes back to that professional degree I have.) 

So momma is off having day in and out with all 4, with pure exhaustion making me just want to cry when the voices are echoing off the walls to sound like I have an entire herd of hyenas in here.  So I was getting snappy with my precious babies and losing all joy in every moment and realized something needed to change.

I heard a while back on a podcast, that it is the attributes of the stay at home mom that will change the world.  It lingered in my mind as I was facing the stresses in my life at the moment.  What echoed is that it was not the homeschool mom that is changing the world, it is the stay at home mom.  SO it shook me that it is more important for me to be mom, than it is for me to school teacher.  I never thought that I would have to choose between the 2, but this is where my world is fragile without my husband being readily available in my day.

So I made the decision painfully and heartbreakingly.  And once I mourned at the loss this year of being able to school my own children, I put my big girl panties on and got to the business of enrolling my kids.  I made the decision Tuesday, enrolled them on Wednesday, and they started on Thursday!

Here they are on their first day.  Now #1 started kindergarten. #2 is going to VPK.  #3 just wants to go to school, so she totes a backpack with her all day long.  Every time we stop somewhere, she ask if this is her school.  I am using this opportunity to tell her she needs to go pee pee in a potty, so she can go to school one day.

Now we are on day 3 of them going to school and wow!  I feel like I am coming back to my old self again.  So I am embracing the change. I am also changing things with the baby! 

She has been evicted from my bed. She is thrashing around through the night and I am not getting any sleep.  I am almost dried up and have lost all desire to nurse.  SO now I am trying to get her on a schedule to take her bottle and sleep through the night.  I had to get on the phone today and find a crib that would fit in our bedroom, because she has outgrown the bassinet.  Thankfully a friend came through with the coolest port-a-crib.

It is low to the grown, so it is not overwhelming in a small room.  Against better judgement, I will show you what my room looks like.  We do not have anything fancy, it is just the nuts and bolts of real life.

 

And I didn’t clean up from my sewing project.  I even sew in my little bedroom.  Here is my $20 Janome machine I picked up at Goodwill.

I dream of grander things, but today is not the day for them and that is that.  I will make due with what I have got, because I know one day I WILL have them the way I want, so I will practice patience.  None the less, I get a lot of sewing done at this spot.

So all this craziness and meltdowns is the reason I have been lacking any real thought to my postings and why I was late on my give-away.

I do want to share my excitement for the plans to my new family order.  I am giving myself this week to catch back up on my house.  But hopefully next week, we will start back up on the unit study side of the MFW kindergarten program.  I want to continue to show them God in everything around us and the one week unit studies are perfect for that.  The nice part is, the unit studies have so many activities, I doubt they will feel like “work”.

I am also excited to have more time to devote to making my home more stream lined.  Yeah!  I hope that by the end of the school year, I will be more at a maintenance level than a purge and organize level. SO I plan to keep FLYING with the flylady!

I better post my next giveaway, toodles!

~trish