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choirfarm

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  1. Well, my boys are 12 and 14, but I will tell you what has worked. I have a chart on the fridge of their morning routine. They check it off as they go. At 8am, if it is not done I take off time. They get 90 minutes of video games on the computer on the weekend. So I take off 5 minutes for each chore not done. It has done wonders. I used to nag. I don't anymore. I tell them to get up once at 7am. Then I walk away and let them take the consequences. My boys could still care less about chores and still need an external motivator to get them done. I wish I could figure out a way, but I cannot. For my 7yo girl, I have pictures on her chart since she isn't the best reader. She gets dressed, eats breakfast, brushes her teeth, makes her bed, empties the silverware, and empties the cat litter. Now we do other chores, but we do them later in the day. My sons get dressed, brush their teeth, make their bed, empty the dishwasher, eat breakfast and feed the dogs. We have a 30 minute clean up time later in the day. Christine
  2. My boys are in 6th and 8th and LOVE Shakespeare. We are going to have a test next week. Last year we did Julius Caesar( We were studying Rome.) This year we did Much Ado, Hamlet, and we will do Henry Vth this week. What I find helpful is to have them read a graphic novel orother easy version. This about Hamlet is excellent. It has cartoons that summarize part of the story and then pages that have actual of the most famous lines of the play: Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, The Author: Edited by Lacie, Christina For Much Ado, I used 2002 3. Much ado about nothing for kids Add to My List by Burdett, Lois, 1952- ... William, 1564-1616. Much ado about nothing Adaptations Juvenile ... Publisher, Date: Willowdale, Ont. : Firefly Books, 2002. Description: 64 p. : col. ill. ; 24 cm. They have these for other ones as well. I read this out loud to them. Then we watched the movies for about an hour at a time while we ate lunch. I also had them watch the short Standard Deviants videos about Shakespeare tragedy and the major thems of each play. So basically, they knew the whole story and themes before they ever watched the plays and that helped A LOT. They weren't trying to figure out what happened as well as understand the language. We stop the films after famous speaches and talk about what the speeches meant. For Hamlet, it really helped that the speeches were in that book. As people have noticed. The Kenneth Braughnau films need to be edited, but that was easy to do. We LOVE Shakespeare around here. They are currently memorizing a speech: one to be or not to be and the other one firends, Romans, countrymen.. Have fun! Christine
  3. My boys turn 12 and 14 in a 2 weeks ( March 27th and 31st) and they have always been like that. They are finally doing youth things because my oldest wouldn't do it until younger one was old enough. They each have their own room but they both sleep the same one. They just switch rooms sometimes. They have always been close. The last year they were in ps they were 1st and 3rd grade and my oldest read so many books he got to pick a friend to go to eat pizza with at a local placeand he picked his brother!! They have also always had joint parties because they have the same friends and it is the same time. So I see nothing wrong with it! Christine
  4. The high school level literature is TOUGH. How in the world is it not enough?? I was an education major with an English teaching field and the work is more rigorous than I had to do in most of my college classes. Christine
  5. I am with a couple of other people that it didn't stick until I took Latin. I know that I had done many worksheets up until that point in ps, but most worksheets you just follow a pattern without really knowing what you are doing. But you HAVE to know whether you are using that noun as a subject, direct object, possessive, etc before you know what ending to put on it. So suddenly a light came on for me. Christine
  6. My boys have seen Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones series, Star Wars, Spiderman series, etc. We don't watch network tv. They loved Flywheel and Facing the Giants. I think the older ones are ready for Return of the Titans ( title correct..one with Denzel that is about racism) . (They are sports nuts.) So we are not ultra-conservative. I don't mind talking about controversial things. I just wanted to double check what they see and if he is spending TONS of time on the computer, then that would be GREAT for my oldest to see. Before he got his computer privileges yanked for a month, he was on it ALL the time (not on the internet) and we have talked about how his relationship with his siblings and us as parents got so much better over the month. However, he wants to go into a computer field as a profession, so... I'm just not sure what to do. We are getting a new filter, but in 4 years he will be out on his own able to do whatever he wants.. So he has to WANT to limit the time and his exposure to bad things out there. ( he didn't do anything terrible, but violated our rules, changed parental controls, was on a website we probably wouldn't have approved..) The computer is in the family room. They have to ask to get on the internet, but we have satelite so it is always on if that makes sense. So he has just recently been allowed back on that computer ONLY if I or his brother are sitting right there with him. Otherwise he must use the old computer. So this movie sounds like it would be a good example of overuse of computer.. Christine
  7. Dh thought it would be good to watch this movie with the children, but after reading the thread below it looks like internet porn is talked about?? We have two boys 14 and 12 and a girl that is 7. I'm thinking it would be good for my 14yo, not sure about my 12yo and I would have my little girl watch a different movie in another room. What do you think? We have had some internet issues with the 14yo, so I thought it might be good for him to see some of the dangers even if it does talk about this subject. Christine
  8. It looks like my 8th grader wishes to stay home for high school. So this semester he is doing this course by Sonlight: http://www.sonlight.com/580-00.html He is loving it and it is very good. Right now he is doing all of the aptitude tests in the booklet and finding out what careers might be good for him. After that you look at the homeschool college admission book and I've read it through and it has some GREAT information. My goal is for him to finish it by May. I went ahead and bought the schedule and everything because that way he has just been doing it independently and has been going at a pretty fast clip because he is enjoying it so much. He has completed 2 to 3 assignments a week not the 1 they recommend. Then I plan to take June and for us to plan out his 4 year schedule and talk to the various colleges around about dual credit options and that sort of thing. We will plan out testing: practice PSAT 10th grade year, etc. But HE will have a big part in the planning. He is very much an introvert and I'm hoping this will help him see that he needs to have SOME kind of activities to put on his transcript as well as to prepare him for some kind of career. For example, so far it looks like research and investigation is one of his gifts. There is a lab here in town that has a VERY strong Christian owner. He goes to our church and sponsors a big concert for World Hunger every year. Perhaps he could so some kind of work there part time?? Anyway, we will brainstorm. But if HE wants to do something, then you cannot stop him and if he sees the need for something like writing. He will work on it even if he doesn't enjoy it. So in June we are going to be doing some major planning TOGETHER. Christine
  9. A thirty minute clean up every afternoon does WONDERs. At 3pm we all start at one end of the house. Example: we all pick up the playroom, Brian vacuums, Jonathan takes my Flylady duster and gives a quick dusting, Megan sweeps the hall. The boys straighten the study and Brian vacuums it. Megan wipes down the half bath. If we have been bad and the kitchen is a mess (I'm trying to get us to clean it after each meal), then Brian loads the dishwasher, Jonathan wipes tables and counters and Megan sweeps. We then go to the living room and straighten, dust and vacuum like we did the playroom. Now I am not talking a deep clean. We don't move furniture to vaccum, but at least the heavily traveled places get somewhat clean. That takes us about 30 minutes with all three of us working. They are supposed to start the day with their room clean and I generally make them wipe down/straighten their bathroom before they can go out to play. My boys are 12 and 10 and Megan is 7. Another thing that has helped me is to start handing over the cooking. For several summers, I would have the boys look through my Taste of Home magazines and cookbooks and they would cook something every week. My oldest is a good cook and now has some really good meals he cooks: Seafood Bisque, Cheesburger Soup, etc. I did this in the summer when schedules were lighter. This year, Tuesday night is their night to cook. One cooks one week. The other one cooks the next week. My oldest can pretty much cook anything. He does take forever to cut up veggies. My middle one sticks to easy things like soft tacos, spaghetti, etc. When one cooks, the other one helps him clean up. My dh normally grills or makes a huge amount of something on Saturday, so this helps me out a lot. It looks like you have a 10th and 12th grader so this is something they could certainly do. My children also do their own laundry. Now their rooms are still a place where I struggle and what drives hubby batty, but I figure that if the general family areas are straight, then I am doing pretty well. Christine
  10. There is a Christian private school near me that allows us to test there. It costs only 25 dollars and they do the SAT-10 for all grades. For the odd numbered grades, they also do the IQ test...(can't remember the name now). They do it the first week of April. To be honest, that is always a little early for my middle child and math. I always try to rush and do a review/teach what we haven't gotten to yeat but that is on the test. But it is always his worst subject and it is hard for me to know where he really is there. Our homeschool group does the testing as well, but it is more expensive and you have to stay and help give the test. The Christian school is more attractive..however, we have had a little trouble with the timing. My oldest has a different test schedule than my younger one. I do have a friend and now my two and her oldest will be on the shorter schedule: 8-10: Monday - Thursday whereas the younger ones just test in between their regular classes like pe or music. So their testing tends to take from 8 to 11: 3o. So one of us picks up the older ones and one picks up the younger ones. Christine Christine
  11. I was typing out my course of study for next year for my oldest who will be in 9th. Gulp... the English section was overwhelming: TOG literature- 5 times a week for an hour- to read and do the analysis, etc. Writing- TOG writing or IEW C.. and 45 minutes 5 times a week Analytical Grammar or Winston Grammar Advanced( I don't have a clue how much time... 30 minutes 5 times a week??? Vocabulary?? Don't know what to use here Handwriting- it is atrocious, I have Write Now- 15 minutes a day So we are talking 2 1/2 hours for English without a vocabulary program??? That sure seems like a lot. Tog History- 1 hour, 1 hour for Chalkdust Geometry, 1 hour for Apologia Chemistry, 1 hour for Spanish, 1 hour for piano practice (competitions), some kind of computer course since he loves it and that is his passion- 30 minutes, pe for 30 minutes. So, we are talking at least 9 hours so far and that is if Geometry only takes him an hour which it may take more.. Gulp... Seems like a lot. Christine
  12. When I looked at AO's site, I see SOS Secondary Spanish, SOS Spanish I and then SOS Spanish II. What is the difference between Secondary Spanish and Spanish I?? Christine
  13. Hi Jean, So how did you stay consistent? Right now I have vision therapy with my daughter on Mondays- we leave at 2:30and get back at 4:30. On Wednesday morning we have co-op and in the afternoon they boys have 2 hours of piano while I go take my dad to Walmart or whatever. My daughter has violin on Thursdays, we leave at 1:45 and get back at 3. So I guess they could do it at 1pm on Monday, Tuesday and Friday??? Then we would do it for awhile but we will be gone to Corpus witht he trailer feb 19-24th then it is trying to get back into the routing. We get into the routine for a couple of weeks then my in-laws will be here for spring break. Then the last week is the week of SAT=10 testing at a private school.. Plus, how do you handle variations in weather. Right now, running at 1pm will be great, but by May itis likely to be 90 at that time and June, July and August here in Texas are unbearable. We tend to get out with our huge garden and do chores from 7-9am and then don't go out again until 8pm. So do you just vary it according to schedule?? I just have a hard time being consistent with anything because I can't ever have the same thing happening for more than 2 weeks in a row: dad had doctor appointments, we are off on another vacation ( only real time dad spends with them so he takes off a week, sometimes 2 every quarter), or someone visits or it rains all week. You get the idea. How do you MAKE yourself do it..
  14. Ok...so how do you schedule this.. I'l have my9th grader doing: computer programming, Spanish, Apologia Chemistry, Chalkdust Geometry, TOG redesigned 3, IEW Essay Intensive or Elegant Essay, and piano with competitions. What time of day? And I'll be honest, he won't do it if I'm not watching.. I will also have a 7th grader and a 2nd grader, piano lesson, violin lessons for youngest, and taking care of my disabled father who doesn't drive and now has lung and bladder cancer. I think I'm dropping co-op even though I don't know how we will do labs and children's choir. I'm going to keep adult choir/praise team for my sanity/outlet. I will have dropped everything else I love to do. We also live on 5o acres and they do the riding lawnmower as do I, push mower, etc. I just can't figure out how to fit it all in. Christine
  15. Could I use this with my 7th grader and my 9th grader at the same time? Could I somehow program it so that my 7th grader could take a much slower pace?? Christine
  16. I took my kids out of ps after 1st and 3rd...so this is what I did: For 2nd and 4th We studied the human body on our own. We listened to the Lyrical Life Science CD Human Body. We memorized the songs, but did none of the work on the workbook. We checked out books from the library and created a notebook. We also utilized our doctor's appointments. We had the dentists show us models of teeth. My middle one had problems with his tonsils and so the ENT showed us a bunch of stuff. My dh is an orthopaedist, so we have tons of bone models. I think I bought a few cheap kits and had them build a few. For Spring, we did Apologia Elementary Astronomy and they created a power point presentation of the information instead of a notebook. We capped of the year with a visit to the Davis Observatory and a star party. What a fun year! For 3rd and 5th We did Apologia Botony in the spring and Apologia Zoology I in the spring. By this time, I was tired of the Apologia Elementary series. For 4th and 6th The 6th grader did General Science at co-op and the younger did magnets and electricity in the co-op. To be honest, just make it fun. I don't think it really matters. Right now my oldest is doing Apologia Biology as an 8th grader, my 6th grader is doing Zoology I, but then we are taking a trip to Corpus so I have been reading Zoology II aloud to everyone and my 1st grader has been doing free lapbooks I found on the internet. We will be going to Alaska in the fall, so the animals we don't see this spring, we will probably see in the fall. What are they interested in? What do they want to study? Then just have fun exploring it together. I really like that. It is fun... Christine
  17. What do you do for physical education for high school? My nearly 14yo LOVES sports...watching them that is. When he was younger he tried soccer, baseball, basketball and now he does play flag football in the fall on Saturdays. But he has always been small and he didn't really want to play sports after he turned 9 or so, because only the "good" ones got to play. (Please don't get me started...) So he turns 14 in a couple of weeks and is only 5 foot. His cousin who is 3 days older is 6 foot, so organized sports is probably out. He would get squashed.. He and his brother ride their bike and play basketball on the driveway. ( His brother turns 12 in a couple of weeks and is 1/2 inch shorter.) We live on 50 acres. We are taking a trip to Alaska in September and need to get ready for all of the hiking. We've tried getting up and running/walking but then we are gone on a vacation or it gets cold in the morning or it rains for a week straight and we get out of the habit. I need to do something as well. But I can't figure out what to do consistently. There is a fitness center, but it is 20 minutes away so that would mean 2 hours out of our schedule... That is another thing, how do you schedule it with all of your work??? Christine
  18. I have the first set of BOB books and she is bored with them. She is also tired of the dragon books at the library.. I think part of the problem is she is so smart... I was listening to the POP quiz for TOG in the car ...rhetoric level about King Henry VIII and my daughter preceded to tell my dh all about his different wives and what happened to them all.. When she was three one day out of the blue, she said.. "Mom, if Lincoln was shot at Ford's theater by John Wilkes Booth, what movie were they showing when he was shot?" She had been listening to Oddyssey that day and had remembered it when I was driving to church, so we talked about the difference between a theater and movies.. So Bob sat on a hen is boring to her, but she can't read. Christine
  19. I just gave her the Reading Competency Test that Elizabeth posted and in section A she made 6 errors and they were ALL mixing up b and d. She is 7 and in 1st grade. Sigh. She cannot figure it out.. She is AWESOME at math with the exception of the symmetry exercises. She cannot figure out how to draw a line to cut it in half and/or if two sides are equal or not. Christine
  20. How do you find things your child can read to practice???? Lately, I have just been doing the little books that come with Saxon phonics 1 because at least they only have words she knows.. But she needs more practice.. The phonics goes so quickly. This past week it introduced qu, or, ir and ar. Every time I go to a "real" book she gets so frustrated. But I remember when the boys were in school they had to read for 30 minutes every night. It was easy for them in 1st grade, they could read anything you handed them. When I started homeschooling them in 2nd and 4th I was trying to figure out what phonics I should do with the 2nd grader and he read me The Chronicles of Narnia aloud, so I decided phonics were not needed. So this is my first time teaching someone to read and it is SO frustrating. We did find out she has vision problems, but the eye doctor told me to keep doing phonics and keep reading, but I don't have any idea of the pace or exactly what I am doing. I taught AP literature courses and I LOVE reading, but explaining how to do it... I laugh at her spellings. She recently spelled likes lixe... makes sense because with Saxon phonics ks sound is x. I guess I just tell her that most words with that sound end in x. So you don't have x with a silent e. Then she had a spelling test that had room and rule on it. So how do you know if it is oo or u with a silent e??? You just memorize it by sight, I guess. But she is a VERY auditory learner. Anyone says anything or audio books and she has it memorized. Her IQ was very high on the test she took and it is almost like she overthinks things... Sigh... So how in the world do I read for 30 minutes with her. To be honest, we can only manage about 5 minutes at a time even with readers where she know the words as she gets tired and starts jumping around or making up words... We all love reading around here and it is so frustrating. We have survived 2 weeks of therapy. I've endured the crying every day when she does the computer program..."IT's hard...my eyes hurt.." Yes, they are supposed to . You are having to retrain them, dear.. Christine Christine
  21. I was assistant co-ordinator for several years,but all my children were preschoolers then. However, the lady who did our MOPPETS program homeschooled and had 4 daughters and they helped her teach the 4yo. It was great. When I started homeschooling my older two, I quit but went back to help with a program on school choices.. I was the one who had experience in both the ps and homeschooling front... the other speaker only ps the other one only homeschool. So my boys did school work in a room, but they were old enough and responsible enough. MOPPETS was the hardest part of our program. It doesn't take very many moms to have tons of kids. We struggled finding workers constantly. You need to have backups as sickness always happens as well. We only had 10 to 15 moms, but we needed a baby room, a toddler room and a 3/4 year old room, though I think we divided that one at somepoints. You need two workers for safety in each room, so you are talking 6 to 8 teachers at least. It was hard to find that many that could come during the day.. Christine
  22. Ok.. this is what gets ditched or the short end of the stick in our homeschool. My 8th grade son has started Latin Christina twice and gotten 3/4 of the way through the first book both times before it has disappeared. This year we started Latin Road with his 6th grade brother and we made it through the first two chapters before life got busy.. Part of it is that between co-op on Wednesday and piano lessons, other activities Thursday afternoons as well as misc. doctor appointments for us and taking care of my disabled father, etc it got dropped. Next year I have already said I'm not teaching children's choir and I think we have decied no co-op. But dh MUST do the science labs as I am unable. We have also done Rosetta Stone. My oldest finished 4 units of level 1 2 years ago in preparation for our Mission Trip to Honduras. We didn't do it last year. This year we have done it again, but the cd keeps messing up and/or he keeps getting his computer privileges withdrawn. So I'm thinking maybe I need another Spanish program that you don't use the computer for but need minimal involvement from me since I don't speak Spanish.... Sigh.. He is on unit 3 at the moment, but once again is not allowed on this computer. ( He overrode parental controls.) So as I plan his 9th grade year. I'm not sure what to do. His 7th grade brother could do the same thing, but my oldest moves about twice as fast as he does. Trying to do Latin Road together really didn't work. So... next year he will be doing TOG Redesigned 3 Rhetoric, Apologia Chemistry, Chalkdust Geometry, IEW Essay writing intensive and TOG writing as well. So which and what foreign language would be good. I really need for it to be independent. I've got a lot to supervise with the 7th grader as well as my 2nd grader that year. Christine
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