Tawlas
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Posts posted by Tawlas
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Thanks for the encouragement ladies! (and giggles. You guys can be MEAN!) Sahamama, 9,8,6 and 2 is normal for me so I guess I forget sometimes that it's also crazy lol. Thanks for the reminder! I've done 2,1 and newborn so this is actually a lot easier in some ways. Although that meant my day was devoted to diapers, snacks and sleep with a few extras thrown in if we were lucky. Having a bigger spread and some more requirements to our day definitely complicates things. Good to keep in mind!
Our morning is done. That's the most intensive part of our day. Kids are outside and I'm breathing for a while. I think my oldest has caught a chemistry bug lol. She LOVES drawing pictures of atoms right now. We've been talking about atomic numbers, atomic mass, energy levels and all the particles, so she's just clued in to how that all fits together and has been drawing atoms on the whiteboard lol. Oh, and she also finished book 2 of AAS today, which is fantastic!
Reading left to do, then piano practice and typing/cursive/spelling. Then we're off for another bajillion days. Trying not to panic, but custody orders must be followed! DD is off to Alberta for a week, and the two boys are going on a hunting/buisiness trip with their day for a week. I need to spend the time cleaning, cooking/baking to prep, and figuring out a whole bunch of school stuff for all three kids. Tweaking is my favoruite, but it's time consuming. Looking forward to some one on one time with my baby :)
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Man, for some reason I am just a stress bucket. It was strenuous day and I can't relax. I didn't get any alone time which is very hard for me. Dh is home right now and he keeps interrupting to show me something, ask me something, needing help or suggestions or information. DS8 is soooooooo passionate about fish and aquariums right now that he asks eight million questions about fish (you know, in the middle of Latin and writing and math and grammar and at snack time, while I'm in the bathroom, while I'm cooking lunch, while I'm pottying the baby, etc, etc) - we read his aquarium encyclopedia today for reading instead of AAR, we then wrote a list of questions for the pet store, counted up his savings AGAIN, and he phoned his grami and the pet store twice each. And fish is about to become a dirty word around here because now his older sister is asking for fish, wanting to read the fish aquarium encyclopedia and wanting to phone the pet store. I'm a horrible home school mom. I just want to get what needs to be done done, so I can go somewhere by myself and not play 20 million questions.
Sigh.
I should know better than to skimp on my scheduled alone time. I'm usually a much nicer mother than this! But dh will be gone come Friday (and so will the three older kids) so I'm attempting to just go with the flow. I'll get a ton of alone time next week!
And I've poured myself a glass of Angry Orchard Apple Cider. That should help too ;)
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Morning ladies. Well, I did my civic duty and voted - though by the time my province votes, we pretty much know who's going to win since most of the votes are in the East, but oh, well. Liberal government, conservative opposition. Really not sure how I feel about it. Honestly, I dismissed liberals when I learned that Justin Trudeau has never held a full time job in his life. Seems like a prime minister ought to know what real life is like? But enough politics lol!!
Another day of love and learning over here. No running around to do either, I'm pretty sure we're all going to stay home today for a change :) Because of voting yesterday, I didn't get to piano practice or the typing/cursive/spelling block I'd planned yesterday afternoon, but I suppose more serious things have happened in life. Today!!
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A lot of great ideas up there! Do one of those projects each day, mixed with time for snacks, stories, outside play and bathroom breaks and that would probably take up most of your morning. Afternoons could be more low-key with each child assigned to his or her own area (room?) with a place to lie down, a few books and puzzles and a small toy set (Depends on age of the kids of course, but I'm thinking math manipulative type things like cuisinaire rods or sorting bugs, or maybe a game like four in a row with things to order and insert as they like or the large wooden beads to string by melissa and doug). This would take some training on your part at first, but would be so worth it. I find kids, even if they don't nap, come back from independent, quiet play recharged and refreshed and ready to share and compromise for a little longer.
A few other ideas that came to mind:
build them a fort with sheets and clothespins in the living room and give their stuffies a bed inside
balloons and/or soft balls
cars and a ramp (board propped up on the coffee table type ramp)
outside play and walks! especially on a rainy day, puddle jumping! I cared for three, 2 years and under, one year and this saved me!
any kind of magnets on the fridge (Melissa and Doug have animals, transportation, letters & numbers, etc)
if you have wooden train track, my littles loved to get help building a simple circle track around their sitting bodies to push a train around and around and around . . .
pushing toys were a hit: play strollers, push wagons, wheeled ride-on toys, especially if they have a cubby to transport a few blocks, stuffies or dollies
pull toys on a string: cars, animals, stuffies on a leash, etc
good luck!
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Omigosh. There are two dogs downstairs that won't stop howling!! What the heck? It's six in the morning and I don't need all the kids awake. Mama needs quiet time ;)
First day of school for us in more than a week. And it's only a three day week! Feeling a chunk of stress about that, but what can I do? All three older kids will be gone for a week, we have lessons in town on Thursday and dd will be at a guide camp from Thursday evening until Saturday, then gone for a week on top of it. Maybe we'll skip Christmas lol. So, attempting a normal school day:
morning time (french, music, read alouds)
spelling
chores
group time (calendar/word problem, writing, memory work, grammar, read aloud, latin)
break
math
science
lunch
quiet time and one-on-one work
cursive/printing/typing
dd has a four o'clock riding lesson and we need to get into town to vote. Still so on the fence for who to vote for, but I think I have a back up plan since none of the candidates are very satisfying. And we need to go to the feed store while we are in town for chickie and chicken pellets. Blah. That means, probably, a late night for us all.
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The only things I've done separately for my kids (curriculum and ages in my sig) is reading and spelling and math. I even have a math time for my two oldest at the same time. I second the option for CLE math for a pretty independent solid math. 15 or so minutes of daily instruction and the rest is review. It's exactly right for my third grader and he can usually do the entire review section with minimal help for me. My youngest is a natural reader and has now out-paced his two older sibs so I'm starting to use our reading time to cover history and science since that is usually the lesson time in the day where his focus is shot and goes to play with the toddler. He's at the point (maybe?) where we can move on to reading-to-learn as opposed to learning-to-read.
I've noticed that over the years he's retained a good chunk of what we've covered while he's sitting in on the older two's grammar, history and science lessons so I didn't worry too much that he doesn't do all that during our one-to-one time. For a six year old first grader he's got a pretty good grasp if all kinds of things. And, for what's it's worth, we do group time first thing, all four kids - including the two year old with play dough or colour wonder felts or whatever catches her interest: calendar math or word problem, CAP Fable (he does the narrations and modified copy work - if there's nothing for him that day he'll work in a page or two of HWOT), FLL 3 (he unloads the utensil tray of the dishwasher and listens in), history related read aloud (reading about Mary Queen of Scots right now), he loves Song School Latin, some of Ecoutez Parlez French and we're trying to get to regular private blog posts for family, but so far it's been sketchy at best. After that he does some RAZkids (considering dropping this for math fact mastery apps) and he's free to go play while the older two do math, then science or history. After lunch and a break, they have quiet time while I work one on one for about 45 minutes each, one at a time. For him, that means reading (finishing up the last few pages of OPGTR then moving on to reading-to-learn), MM1 (we're skimming until we hit something challenging) and about to start AAS
Maybe your youngest could join in what you're doing with your oldest in a modified way? It's been amazing for my younger ds. My oldest is nine next week and she is just NOT an independent worker. She just isn't. I'm working on that, but I know we'd just be sooooo frustrated with each other all the time, we'd make ourselves miserable. I know this isn't what you're looking for at all, just saying that you can still do everything you want to do even if you don't want to change curriculum. Maybe lol. Some days I think I'm crazy!!
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Aurelia, I hope that all gets sorted out quickly. It does rather sound like a little too much excitement.
Critter, my creative outlet is to journal. It's kind of an art journal, kind of a low-input writing journal, kind of a common place book where I keep my favourite quotes and reflections from reading and podcasts as well as goals and inspiration for motherhood and home schooling. I also have space for daily gratitude. It's my one-stop 5 minute a day place to relax, reflect, and get a little creative. If I have more time to spend on it, I do by adding in little peices of index card art from this site. The whole 'art journal' idea started out from my wanting to add even a tiny bit of creative time to my day, then finding this art journaling book and I sort of took it from there. There were several water colour classes offered over the last six months, but I just can't get motivated to drive into town (an hour away) for an hour long class, when my days are already so long and busy. I'm hoping to find a good youtube water colour class for beginners if I can because I love water colour and I'd like to use mine more effectively!
So. I got some stuff done but nothing really homeschool-y lol. Some prep work maybe. But other stuff! It's been a good day. Nice to relax after the last few weeks of busy, busy, busy!
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Morning ladies, I'm back :)
Don't think I'll be doing any school this weekend, although maybe i should be. I told the kids if they aren't fighting with each other, or whining at me, we'll probably wait until Monday. We've been gone for six days and I need to get a handle on all the critters around here and dd is having a few friends (and their families) over tomorrow afternoon to celebrate her 9th birthday, so I have a few things to get organized that way as well. I don't want to overload us. As of today, we're officially a week behind, but considering I thought it would be two weeks, I guess that's not so bad. We may just have to work later into the Christmas season than I would like.
In other news, dd's other parent (she's my step child) is pushing for 50/50 custody, saying that a tutor will be provided from the local elementary school to oversee her education while she's there. Seriously? I'm expected to send her with a stack of books and rely on a very sketchy past record to oversee half of her education? It's crazy! We're lucky to get her back on time, never mind all the (fairly) expensive books. And we use the books as a group, more than half of them! And her piano lessons, riding lessons, swimming lessons and girl guides? It's ridiculous to think that a nine year old girl would be expected to live two half lives like that. Maybe it would work if both homes were in the same town, but they're not even in the same province! But have to play the game. Sigh. So now I have to put my case together for that as well.
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No school here today but I have a ton to do. we're heading out of town until Friday and I've been unable to find anyone to come check in on my animals. They should be fine, I'll set them up with a ton of water and food but I wish someone could look in on them mid week to make sure. Turned the cow and her calves out into a creek fed pasture so she should be happy. It's the chickens, guinea fowl and ducks I'm worried about. Also need to finish up the laundry, pack and tidy up around the house so I don't come back to a disaster. Hopefully leaving before 9 tomorrow. Maybe I'll come back a day early. I'm actually not all that thrilled to be going. I'm a homebody.
actual school related accountability: I think I'm going to bring all our read alouds and math fact cards to work on while we're gone.
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Thanks for the replies everyone :) We're taking the week off next week (Canadian Thanksgiving) so I'll mull it over and place an order for when we get back!
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Lunch break here for us as well. Got a decent amount done - the bare bones. I ended up giving them an extra long snack break at 1015 as I needed to go repair two strands of barb wire fence in the horse pasture before they got out on the road. It sure is a beautiful, gusty fall day - nice warm wind making all the aspen and cottonwood trees whirl around :)
Ended up skipping history and didn't get to Home Art Studio, but maybe I'll set them down in front of the TV tomorrow while I'm running around packing up for our trip. Some reading to do this afternoon, then get set up for the week following our trip so I don't have to worry about it then. And get the animals all set up. Oh the animals!
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sahamama, it can be hard to be Resilient Family Encourager all the time. Reach out to someone and get some of your own encouragement in real life, it can make all the difference! If nothing else, get some extra hugs from your family. Hopefully you'll find your cheerfulness in al day or two after a bit of babying.
soror, hope this is just a quick bug and she's back to normal soon!
Jean, better luck today, yowza!
Fairly normal day today. Finishing up this week's writing lesson. They are amplifying "The Crow and the Pitcher". We'll probably do an art lesson from Home Art Studios if there's time although I did forget to buy red paint in town yesterday. . . wonder if we need it? Better check! We're all out of town for nearly a week starting Sunday so I'm just looking for a good stopping place at this point. It's a combined visit/work trip and I'm feeling quite anxious about it. Would rather just stay home, really, but what are you gonna do?
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What do I need for my advanced first grader?
I have two older children (3rd and 5th) with whom I've gone through ETC 1-5, FLL 1 & 2, WWE 1 & 2, AAS 1 (and almost 2) as well as parts of OPGTR, AAR 2, and the beginning of AAR3 and REWARDS Intermediate. If my first grader wasn't participating 100% over the last two years, he was in the periphery and has absorbed and mastered a ton.
But he's six. He's not ready to diagram sentences (as in FLL3), he's not ready to rewrite fables (we're using CAP Fable this year). He doesn't have the focus and I don't have the time to scribe everything I coax out of him ;) He can read like nobody's business, he's passed his older siblings and is in the final pages of OPGTR (Exercising Your Reading Muscles). For funsies, we're going to work on syllabication (syllabification?) and word attack skills for really long words. For writing, I'm giving him tiny little copy work sentences from CAP Fable a few times a week while his older siblings are working on writing too. We're using HWOT as well but I'm considering dropping it by the end of the grade 1 book and just using spelling or copy work for mastering printing. We're about to start AAS 1 but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be overkill for him - I suspect he's a natural speller although I think we'll definitely go through level 1 to set down some basics procedures. I'm fine with not advancing in grammar, but I don't want him to forget what he's learned already.
All that to say, we have 45 one-on-one minutes to work together in the after noon. I spend roughly 15 minutes on math, 10 minutes on OPGTR and now I'm looking to add some daily language arts in the mix to make sure he hasn't missed anything important (I never required him to stay for grammar so there were definitely periods where he disappear into the sandbox for days lol) and to keep up what he does know. I have 15 minutes set aside later in the day for spelling, but if it turns out AAS isn't necessary, I'd be happy to find a solid grammar, spelling, printing and possibly phonics/reading review to do together.
CLE 100-110? CLE 200-210?
Evan Moore Daily Language grade 1 or grade 2?
Other suggestions?
We're a secular family, but I'm okay with Christian (or other religious) references as long as it doesn't mean I'd be bypassing entire lessons. CLE math has been amazing for my older son and I'm attracted to CLE LA for that reason.
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Town day today, errands as usual. No school except piano lessons and home school swim lessons (aka gossip session for moms). And the library. Does that count as school or an errand? I'd love for it to be a relaxing time, but even with the friendly, accommodating librarians, I find myself torn between three kids asking about finding specific books and a toddler who grabs handfuls of novels and DVDs off the shelves and stashes them in my book bag. I'm usually frazzled by the time we leave! I once listened to a podcast (or read a blog?) about a well-known home school mom who left her kids at home and brought them home a big bagful of books every week for a year or two when they were little and I completely understand the appeal. However, it seems extreme to leave the kids in the car while I go into the library lol!
Have a fantastic day everyone :D
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I think it depends on the child - you know him best! How obedient is he? Does he test limits a lot? How cautious of a personality does he have? I was able to let my two year old out alone. He was very conscientious and cautious by nature. All of my children have played outside without adult supervision at a very early age without any problems. I know this isn't always the case for every kid in every location. I'm also very rural, but we've never had any problems with kids and wildlife of any kind.
Except my two year old just licked my arm. Maybe she spends too much time with our yard dogs?!
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School is done. Yay! Afternoons are low key, but they take a long time. Oh well, we're happy and making good progress. DD8 is off to girl guides, the boys are playing outside and the little one is trying to get into all kinds of trouble, except she can't get away with anything because we're in the same room lol.
My six year old is in the last section of OPGTR. He's passed his older siblings in phonics and fluency - maybe a grade four level? I was going to wait until he was done his printing book, but I think we'll get started on AAS 1 - he can use the tiles if the printing is too much for him. He's more than ready! I skipped ahead in math too and he's much happier playing with ten rods and unit blocks and working with place value than perfecting subtraction and addition. I think I'll start using a CLE approach to flash cards to solidify his facts instead. Man, I've spent the last two plus years sorting out what my reluctant readers need, now I feel like I'm scrambling to find what my accelerated learner needs! Wonder what curve ball the two year old will throw? Makes life interesting at least!
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I've been drooling over one like this for a bit. I love open kitchens and have no desire to ever have a formal dining room. I would need it to be a bit bigger, though, to make it work. Still. I love it. It won't happen for many years (I'd basically have to build my house to make it work) but still, a girl can dream, right?
Omigosh, Meagan, I've totally seen that one!! Maybe facebook? It's such a dream! You could have kids working on bar stools on back counters (if you gave the counter top an overhang) or with you on the table. So. Much. Table. Space! And storage! I've certainly had some lovely daydreams with that one as well. There was thread where a homeschooling mama of ten bought some booth tables (free or cheap, can't remember) from a cafe that was closing. Her dining room looked a bit like a fast food joint, but she had two tables down one side that sat four each and two tables down the other wall that sat two each. Perfect for a large family with all kinds of needs and activities lol.
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Critter, there is a small local brewery in my town that has a "sipping room". It has the most GORGEOUS table ever. It's essentially a giant slab of wood - at least four feet across and maybe 15 feet long, probably 6 - 8" thick - with a solid bench on either side. I adore it. I use my grandparents' old formica table, which has its own merits, however it wiggles. A lot. And with four kids (one of whom is a two year old who hasn't accepted social niceties such "only draw on your own paper" or "keep your snack in your mouth") plus me sitting at the table with binders, papers, books and pencils galore, it's just too darn small, even with the leaf added. I can picture this giant table in our house. It would fit if we commandeered the dining room and 1/2 the living room lol! It would be heavenly. All that space. So solid. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. I'm seriously fantasizing about it! ALl that to say, enjoy your table!! I'm jealous! Happy retirement to your current table :)
Okay, another day over here for us. Read alouds, memory work, Latin, French, writing, skip grammar, math, history, reading lessons. Hm. It doesn't look like so much when I write it down like that. Why do my days feel like a four ring circus lol?
Good luck everyone!
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AAAAAAAH!
I gave the kids a review crossword for their unit in chemistry. I'm not all that crazy over crosswords, especially for my kids who struggle to read and spell (both are possibly mildly dyslexic) so I said they *could* do it if they wanted to, and I'd reward each correct word with a skittle. One of my kids filled out the words he knew and was happy with that. The other one is OBSESSED and will not let it go. She's crying and huffing and puffing and stomping and sighing and complaining. I've signed off helping cause I've moved on to other things and I refuse to tell her any answers because otherwise I should just hand out bags of skittles lol. She's looking for the word Molecule (only she just gets the definition). Obviously we need to go over the term molecule and element again because those are the two that are challenging for her. But gosh, I wish she'd be a little LESS perseverant (I never thought I'd say that). How is that she's less than perseverant when she's trying to do math, but on this, she's driving me batty!?
That is all. :)
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Morning ladies. Afternoon, I guess, seeing as I'm in the PST and it's after 1 o'clock lol. Got our morning work down. No elapsed time with dd8 today and we're all in a better mood lol! We did mental subtraction by adding as well as reading a graph on temperatures and it went waaaay better. DS also got all three of his CLE We Remember section done with little problems, so with our 15 minutes of tutor time later, I'll feel much better about math in general.
Mama25, I'm sorry you're having a rotten day. Keep on eye on your school time, be gentle with yourself and see what happens. Sometimes things are glum for no good reason and then it gets better for no good reason as well. If it doesn't after a while, then it's time to get serious about why.
Sahamama, it seems so organized to have the whole week organized like that! I'm not sure what we're up to this weekend either, though I'm betting we'll stay close to home since we're out of town next week. Packing up this show for the road is no easy feat!
Okay, off to finish my lunch before afternoon tutor times. Curried pumpkin soup (using our own pumpkin :) )
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I'm always looking for the biggest bag for my buck (monthly audible credit). I search for the longest stories in the children's section for one credit. So far, the complete Wizard of Oz series, The Once and Future King, The Adventure Collection, the complete Ramona, the complete Henry Higgins and other Beverly Clearly collections have been incredible successes. We rarely listen to audiobooks as a family, it's all on them during their free time and they adore these books.
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Okay, day is done. Didn't get to cursive/printing since I had to do some emergency electric fencing to keep the milk cow where I needed her, but whatevs. I was in a bit of a funk all day honestly. dh left again (ranch wives are on their own in round up season, especially if the range is far flung like ours is) but really, I just had a case of the "idonwannas". I feel like I grumbled my way through the day, despite the total change in routine yesterday. Or maybe because of it?
Anyhow, got the basement cleaned up (kids rooms and playrooms anyhow, they still need to clean their bathroom and the mudroom) and vacuumed upstairs and down. I also vacuumed upstairs but really need to mop the dining, kitchen and school area. On to glass of wine number two though, so really, my evening probably includes a dish of tortilla chips and guacamole and an episode of Bones on Netflix. Maybe tomorrow. Off to read another chapter of "Danny, Champion of the World" to the boys before bed and then I'm done :)
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Bzymama, i wanted to incorporate more Canadian history into SOTW3 and I'm not even sure I"m going to do world history during the modern era. Mostly that's me, I found the world wars dead boring (all those dates and names and quarrelling leaders). So My plan is to tackle SOTW 3 over 1 1/2 years and incorporating more Canadian stories into them. Then, during the final six months of ds8's fourth grade year, approaching modern history from a provincial view. How did the two wars and the great depression affect our areas? There were Japanese internment camps in our province, some you can visit. We also have a personal angle since two of his great grandparents fought on opposite sides and we have Great Depression stories from great grandparents on all sides from both Europe and Canada. That takes us to logic stage and we'll cover the World Wars on a more global scale in grade 8. At least that's the plan. :P
Got a good morning's worth of work done. . . except math. I'm doing two kids at once and I feel like I don't get enough done with either kid. older dd needs more fact work and concept review. Youngest needs more concept instruction. I may add 15 minutes to both of their days later on after their one-one-reading time to incorporate that. Maybe that would work?
Lots of history! That first chapter in SOTW 3 is packed! But we made it a chocolate chip history day (which I usually only resere for weekends) since I was away yesterday. Also started our Mary, Queen of Scots read aloud. Trying to get as much done in that as possible so we can start our New France read aloud in a few weeks.
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Wow Soror, so motivated! I'm sure our house could use a good overhaul but not sure when I'd find the time? Maybe our next week off? I feel like we drop a load of clothes and books off at the share shed every month and we're still just about out of storage space.
Went to Costco and left a list for the kids. Its the first time it seemed to go off without a hitch. It helped that dd8 (who has the most teacher intensive math program and most teacher intensive personality lol) only had a page of subtraction with borrowing. I chose it deliberately because it was review of something she's fairly solid on but it turned out to be a doozy! I didn't look closely but there were a lot of problems like 9000-6897 so lots of borrowing. Still, I'm very pleased, she only had one incorrect answer and it was just "typo" kind of error where she copied a problem wrong. Very cool! I'm impressed with the quality of their work, maybe I should try this more often?! Do you guys reward kids for doing a good job like this? On one hand I'd like to recognize how pleased I am, on the other hand I don't want them thinking they need a "cookie" for every little thing, ya know?
So back to reality tomorrow! See you then!
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Accountability Thread: 10/18-10/24
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
Today's plan: No school, go to town.
-piano lessons
-swimming lessons
-drop dd off at girl guide camp
-errands!
looks really simple, but town day is exhausting :p
PS Looks like one of our dogs escaped his kennel (there's a hole in the back so he must have wriggled through. He's a big dog and the hole is like, 10" across. I don't know how he managed!). He's dug through the recycling completely scattering it, and ate all the cheese buns ear marked for today's lunch. So I'm now rather disgruntled.
Sahamama, just read up thread. I hope the rest does you well and you're soon feeling much better!