Accountability Thread: 8/16-8/22

[Another Lynn]

My usual routine was thrown off by dd taking a shower after morning time.  But youngest dd continued to do a fair amount of her work independently.  10yo ds read her a Bible story when I wasn't available (because I was finally getting to oldest dd) which was sweet.  I'm not a rigid scheduler, but I may have to give the younger 3 assigned times with me because when something throws off the usual routine then I have several coming at once hoping to just "get done" which feels stressful instead of relaxed. 

 

Anyway, I'm only doing one trip to town tonight instead of two, so I'm very happy. 

 

(Critter, rain sounds great right now.  It is really hot here today!)

[OneGirlAcademy]

Well, late start due to dd sleeping in. I never wake her up. I figure that has to be a perk of homeschooling.

 

Also, orthodontist appointment at 2pm halted school.

 

Tomorrow is a new day. School will happen.

 

Best part of the day was having a happy, cheerful girl.

[MeaganS]

We are doing well so far this week. DD4 begged to start spelling and she is far enough in reading that I thought she could handle it. So we started AAS. She LOVES it so far and zoomed through all the pre-spelling lessons and is about to start actual spelling. DD7 got a book creator kit from grandma for her birthday and has been begging to do it. You know, one of those they mail in and get a hardback book back? She makes 1 or 2 books a day on her own, so making a "real book" is something she really looked forward to. They are mostly picture stories with a few words thrown in. I wanted to have her put a little more thought into this one, so I wrote a step-by-step list she had to follow to make it.  Her obsessive personality did not appreciate me editing her book, but that's what we did for writing today. We turned all her sentence fragments into full sentences and rephrased things to make her story more clear. It took a lot longer than our usual writing lesson, so we weren't done with school until lunch. Usually we're done around 11. It was really good for her, and by the end she was enjoying the process.

 

In CLE I've been working on trying to get her to do her own flashcards as I HATE doing them with her. I feel like I was making her refocus after every. single. card and I get more frustrated during them than any other aspect of schooling on any given day. Having her do them herself has been working pretty well and she seems to finish them faster. Here's hoping it continues to work because I'd rather not have that drudgery for the both of us on a daily basis. We're almost to the end of CLE 1, so there are many flashcards every day. They're good for her so I'm making her do them, but I don't have to like it.

 

On the other hand, my almost 5 year old continues to amaze me with math. She will probably need no math fact memorization at all. Today she figured out on her own what 13-5 is without manipulatives in her Miquon because, "5 has a 3 and a 2 in it and 13-3 is 10 and 10-2 is 8." Yeah, this kid is going to be fun. I love seeing her start to really play around with numbers and almost every day lately she has a moment like this. :)

 

So yeah, I'm doing pretty well. I did call it in and do Mac and Cheese from a box for dinner tonight, but it is their favorite and I gave them grapes too, so that's ok, right? Oh, and I folded a load of laundry and put it at the bottom of the stairs to be put away the next time I went up there. An hour later my 4 year old comes and tells me that she put all the laundry away! I never have them do that, and it was an especially small load, but still! It melted my heart that she thought of it and did it all on her own. I'm ignoring the fact that the towels are on the floor in the closet and my clothes are on the wrong shelf. :)

[Soror]

Critter- If I flop on the bed to read I might not get up!!!!

Well, late start due to dd sleeping in. I never wake her up. I figure that has to be a perk of homeschooling.

Also, orthodontist appointment at 2pm halted school.

Tomorrow is a new day. School will happen.

Best part of the day was having a happy, cheerful girl.

Cheerful kids make a HUGE difference :) 

 

My own are sleeping in at the moment. I actually hope they get up soon so we can get started.

 

 

We finished late here but we had lots of breaks, lots of fun and plenty of work done so I consider it a win :) We did indoor science with the Science of the Seasons book and activity book from Guesthollow, I can already tell the girls are going to LOVE this, it is exactly the thing ds would hate!!! We did get our read-alouds in, all in all the day was a great one by my accounts and I'm hopeful that perhaps a slight tweaking of the schedule is going to be what is needed to make our days go smoother with more schooling to be done now.

[Critterfixer]

 

Critter- If I flop on the bed to read I might not get up!!!!

 

And I can't nap unless somebody hits me on the head with a hammer. :glare: But I get so tired. 

I was a good girl and read through my first chapters in the Artist's Way last night. So far, I did my morning pages, despite my thirty minutes of writing being invaded by cats sitting on my arm, dogs barking about the possibility of an early breakfast, and two little boys galloping in to comment on the cool weather and DH texting me to tell me the same. But I did 'em. 

The first chapter speaks of three keys to helping rejuvenate a creative nature of any kind: getting frustrations out (3 pages of writing every morning), spending quality time with the artist in you.  That's going to be tough-two hours weekly of personal, quality time with yourself. I ask you? Two hours?! and increasing image content. Basically, filling your mind and soul with beauty. :001_smile: I can totally get behind that, because I have not been exposing myself to pictures. It's been hot, so I've stayed inside. Instead of reading books with lots of pictures, I've been reading a lot of text. It's library night--I will be getting books on Art, Nature and Travel--coffee books, and will set aside some minutes every day to indulge myself in pictures. 

 

Other than that, pretty quiet day here. I've got a little housekeeping, I've opened all the windows to air out the house, and after we finish a few things like Math and Geography (one boy also wants to do a little science--we skipped the kidney and he thinks it looks cool) we will head out to the park after picking up some snacks for lunch.

[mama25angels]

i don't think my day is going to be a good one. Two of my spares were caught up again in the wee hours of the morning, using the forbidden iPad so, I have been  asked to keep them up and they aren't happy about it and neither am I. Finished the diagnostic testing with my Ds this morning and the results were about what I expected. Multiplication and division, ugh!! On a good note, I allowed him to read the passage he was to narrate and then I read it to him and he gave an awesome narration and was able to answer all of the questions in complete sentences. I don't think I'm going to push my luck by having him try to test out of level 2, I think we'll just work through it at an accelerated pace. So, it looks like some mega review is in order for us and I don't think we'll stop math again, I don't care what's going on!

[Soror]

Another early start here, I hope dd is getting back to her old routine of getting up early, it makes things go so much smoother when she is able to start before anyone wakes up. I finished seat work with the girls this am and ds did his history, science and math(with much complaint for long division practice). After that I decided we should do our pond nature study, I had a feeling if we waited until after lunch we wouldn't feel like it but if we did it first thing I wouldn't feel like much school after we returned. So we are just now getting back to things after a bath since we all got covered in seed ticks. Ds has finished spelling and is working on grammar now. Next I have read-alouds for everyone and the girls have an art project that they might want to finish. 

 

We had a good time at the pond, although ds was a bit of a sour puss at times, I think we've started the moodiness already sometimes he just seems to want to be grumpy. After a bit of a suck it up buttercup talk he seemed to do a bit better. We hit the creek on the way home and had our picnic right in the middle since it was dry, the kids were shocked about since it was so high when we visited in the spring. 

And I can't nap unless somebody hits me on the head with a hammer. :glare: But I get so tired. 

I was a good girl and read through my first chapters in the Artist's Way last night. So far, I did my morning pages, despite my thirty minutes of writing being invaded by cats sitting on my arm, dogs barking about the possibility of an early breakfast, and two little boys galloping in to comment on the cool weather and DH texting me to tell me the same. But I did 'em. 

The first chapter speaks of three keys to helping rejuvenate a creative nature of any kind: getting frustrations out (3 pages of writing every morning), spending quality time with the artist in you.  That's going to be tough-two hours weekly of personal, quality time with yourself. I ask you? Two hours?! and increasing image content. Basically, filling your mind and soul with beauty. :001_smile: I can totally get behind that, because I have not been exposing myself to pictures. It's been hot, so I've stayed inside. Instead of reading books with lots of pictures, I've been reading a lot of text. It's library night--I will be getting books on Art, Nature and Travel--coffee books, and will set aside some minutes every day to indulge myself in pictures. 

 

Other than that, pretty quiet day here. I've got a little housekeeping, I've opened all the windows to air out the house, and after we finish a few things like Math and Geography (one boy also wants to do a little science--we skipped the kidney and he thinks it looks cool) we will head out to the park after picking up some snacks for lunch.

Sounds like a lovely day, I need to open the windows here the weather is gorgeous. Interesting idea of spending time with pictures, hmmm. I should think about that as I've been trying to find my own creativity. 

 

i don't think my day is going to be a good one. Two of my spares were caught up again in the wee hours of the morning, using the forbidden iPad so, I have asked to keep them up and they aren't happy about it and neither am I. Finished the diagnostic testing with my Ds this morning and i got the results were about what I expected. Multiplication and division, ugh!! On a good note, I allowed him to read the passage he was to narrate and then I read it ti him and he gave an awesome narration and was able to answer all of the questions in complete sentences. I don't think I'm going to push my luck by having test out of level 2, I think we'll just work through it at an accelerated pace. So, it looks like some mega review is in order for us and I don't think we'll stop math again, I don't care what's going on!

Well, at least now you know for sure how they are doing, I'm in a similar spot with spelling, it is our nemesis. Fabulous on the narration!!! It will likely do him good to work through the easier level and build his confidence.

[mama25angels]

Oh my word!  Was I drunk posting this morning, lol?  I went back and edited it but, I must apologize to those who had to read it earlier, I will have at least 2 cups of coffee from now before I post and I don't even drink coffee.

[Tawlas]

lol mama, i *always* have to go back and edit. For whatever reason, I simply cannot pick out errors until I've hit "post". As soon as the message flashes up on the screen, all those errors are absolutely glaring!

 

Soror, dreading the day my kids get all grumping on me! The drama we've got is more than enough already lol.

 

Busy morning here, been awhile since we had a full house + spares (in-laws :P )! Ds and I sat down and did a bit of math together. We're about 1/2 way through grade two in CLE and he still hasn't got a few of the less-than-ten facts mastered. We're both tired of them!! But I got a walk-on number line from a dear friend who's deceased wife used to teach primary grades and he loved it! Usually he complains when he has to do those flash cards but this time he was begging to do more lol. Wonder if the whole-body movement will help? I listened to the whole-body learning seminar through the WTM conference and I thought it had a lot of really great ideas for my fidgety kids. I'm inspired enough to use them after our extended break - I definitely wasn't last June although they were sorely needed!

 

Well, older kids are fishing at the river with their grandparents, baby is *supposed* to be napping so I have the house to myself! Just wish I could figure out what to eat! I've been picking at this and that since I woke up and nothing is hitting the spot. Maybe another cup of coffee . . .

 

Have a great day!

[Critterfixer]

We had a wonderful time at the park. Plenty of sunshine and warm, but not horribly hot. I forgot to do our spelling test before we left, so I'll get that here in a bit. We are fixing to read Jane Eyre, and I'll kick my feet up for a bit.

I actually was kind of creatively productive this afternoon. With the boys busy in sand and lake-scum, planting water lilies to be prehistoric creatures of the Devonian seas and launching log crocodiles, I sat at the picnic table and put together two chapters of history! :hurray: Don't know if I'll like it in a week or three, but it's simple comprehension questions, a few vocabulary words with Latin origins to explore, and a primary source passage followed by some thinking questions. I identified additional reading material to use and got the page numbers down. I think it's perfectly doable in the 45 minutes I'd like to have for history. I think I can actually print these pages out and have the boys copy them to their notebooks without too much drama. Guess we'll see next week.

 

And we got two hours in at the park. The Artist's Way specifies time to be alone with my 'artistic self' but that isn't likely to happen right now. But if I can get two hours with the boys pleasantly occupied and in sight, maybe that will do for now.

[Soror]

Tawlas- I have plenty of drama here too, I've got 3 girls!!!

 

Critterfixer- I think your plan sounds good and doable, I hope it works for you. 

 

The girls are now finishing their mixed media chalk/watercolor art project and everything else has been marked off the list. 

 

I just had an urge to read Dr. Seuss today so I grabbed The Butter Battle, they were all listening, even ds, I just love that, picture books aren't just for little kids :)

 

I'm tired! It has been a good week but I'm glad for a lighter day tomorrow. Ds is going to finish his letter he started today(he had finished his other writing assignment yesterday so we started new today). We'll do games for math and a stack of read-alouds. Our friends are coming over for a Japanese tea party and haiku writing in the afternoon. 

 

[Soror]

Tawlas- my son has taken forever with his facts, I think it is just the way he is wired. We've done so many things! I'd guess my daughter is already faster than him with addition and subtration and is well on her way with multiplication too, I don't think it is a difference in what I've done really. 

[MrsRobinson]

Critter- I added Moon Flute to my wish list!

 

Meagan- dd is asking for spelling here too. She also makes little books and knows when she spells words incorrectly and gets frustrated. I haven't decided on a curric. yet. Glad it's starting off well for you and your dd.

 

Well, I didn't make it here yesterday. Wednesday is my busiest day with lots of out of the house things going. Today we skipped school in favor of going to the park. We were there for over an hour and the kids talked me into going to another park with a lake that we went to a few days ago. I felt a little tug of guilt for not doing lessons until I heard them telling dh that they discovered that pine cones and branches float and rocks sink, which led to a big scientific discussion among the 3 of them about why some objects float and others don't. That made my day!

[Another Lynn]

We had a lot of interruptions today, but still got the most important things done.  I had to take oldest ds to school again which means I didn't get C25K in or morning time.  I'll be scarce next week, but jumping back in the week after that. 

[Critterfixer]

Oh, yeah. That was the last of the summer stuff. I think this is the first year I have been able to complete a summer schedule from beginning to end, without skipping or changing a whole lot as we went through.  :hurray:

On to fall curriculum next week!

[MeaganS]

We were done with school in record time today! DD7 did an end of unit (108) test in CLE and got a 92%! She even got the "order the numbers" problem correct. She has never gotten them correct before, despite hours of working on it. She also struggles with greater than and lesser than problems (for the same reason, I think) and got them all correct as well. I was so proud of her.

 

I was feeling jealous of all the back to school Facebook photos from friends this morning. Then we had a wonderful school day and the girls played pretend happily together all afternoon and I remembered that there are pros and cons to homeschooling and the pros outweigh the cons in our home. :)

[mama25angels]

Critter-Congratulations of finishing summer term!!

 

My day was long as expected, I did manage to keep the boys up, but not without a struggle.  I cooked dinner and then we to our co op's kickoff bash.  If I can just make it through this weekend, some of the busyness will come to an end and I can get some much needed rest.  I've decided to go to bed early tonight and snuggle up with a book or maybe a movie.

[arliemaria]

lol mama, i *always* have to go back and edit. For whatever reason, I simply cannot pick out errors until I've hit "post". As soon as the message flashes up on the screen, all those errors are absolutely glaring!

 

Soror, dreading the day my kids get all grumping on me! The drama we've got is more than enough already lol.

 

Busy morning here, been awhile since we had a full house + spares (in-laws :p )! Ds and I sat down and did a bit of math together. We're about 1/2 way through grade two in CLE and he still hasn't got a few of the less-than-ten facts mastered. We're both tired of them!! But I got a walk-on number line from a dear friend who's deceased wife used to teach primary grades and he loved it! Usually he complains when he has to do those flash cards but this time he was begging to do more lol. Wonder if the whole-body movement will help? I listened to the whole-body learning seminar through the WTM conference and I thought it had a lot of really great ideas for my fidgety kids. I'm inspired enough to use them after our extended break - I definitely wasn't last June although they were sorely needed!

 

Well, older kids are fishing at the river with their grandparents, baby is *supposed* to be napping so I have the house to myself! Just wish I could figure out what to eat! I've been picking at this and that since I woke up and nothing is hitting the spot. Maybe another cup of coffee . . .

 

Have a great day!

 

Didn't listen to that seminar.  Would love to hear more about it and strategies.  My son is very good at sitting for his lessons.  They are short and usually after I've allowed him to do something he wants, even if he has played with his legos for 15 minutes.  My daughter... she is my wild child.  I keep telling myself that she will grow out of it, but I fear that may be in 10 years or more.  

[arliemaria]

Tawlas- I have plenty of drama here too, I've got 3 girls!!!

 

Critterfixer- I think your plan sounds good and doable, I hope it works for you. 

 

The girls are now finishing their mixed media chalk/watercolor art project and everything else has been marked off the list. 

 

I just had an urge to read Dr. Seuss today so I grabbed The Butter Battle, they were all listening, even ds, I just love that, picture books aren't just for little kids :)

 

I'm tired! It has been a good week but I'm glad for a lighter day tomorrow. Ds is going to finish his letter he started today(he had finished his other writing assignment yesterday so we started new today). We'll do games for math and a stack of read-alouds. Our friends are coming over for a Japanese tea party and haiku writing in the afternoon. 

 

Butter Battle is one of our favorites!  My children will not eat a piece of bread without saying something about eating bread with the butter side up.

[arliemaria]

Yesterday ended up being an ok day.  I kept telling myself it was a holiday and not to worry about anything, however, I always really feel bad if we do nothing.  We had a nice dinner with blackened catfish with swiss chard and chickpeas.  My husband is obsessively working on some music before he leaves for Russia in 11 days.  He will only be gone about 9 days.  Everyone keeps asking me if we'll be alright.  He is a prosecuting attorney who is wrapping up his own practice.  He works late a lot.  I will be fine.  

 

Today I had my goddaughter and her sister and brother at my house.  So I had six kids under 9.  We painted our boards to do the van Gough project.  We started on the paper part, but made VERY little progress in comparison to how much work it will take to lay all of the pieces down.  I am not giving up on it, but not expecting it to be finished quickly.  It will just be one of those rainy day or "I'm bored" projects.  Perhaps grandma would help Robby.  She helped him do an oil painting for the Mastodon Fair this spring past.

 

After they left Robby completed two pages in his workbook.  We watched a lesson on ronpaulhomeschool.com for Ray's.  He added the 40 line on his 100 chart.  He started on the 50's by himself and messed up a 5.  I might need some white out.  I admit that I was a bit angry about it.  I know that is quite ridiculous, but it was mostly about obedience.  I told him to only do the numbers we had practiced.  He said he wanted to surprise me.  He is such a good boy.  Mommy guilt is rough.

He drew an octopus on Art Hub for Kids.  He really likes those videos.  I don't know much about the iPad, but maybe I can find a way for him to have access to only a few YouTube channels including this one.  That would be a good free time activity.

 

I listened to the Your Morning Basket's first podcast.  Pam created a study guide for For the Children's Sake.  I've read that book a few times, but might go through it again with those questions in mind.  

 

I am also reading The Writing Road to Reading trying to wrap my head around how to teach phonics better.  So far I understand we drill the phonics sounds.  I also really like the Webster's Syllabry.  I've thought about using that after Robby knows his phonemes/phonograms really well.  Then I came across a line in the forward in WRTR on page 16 (4th ed.) "In many of the basals, or in other collections of so-called phonics units, children have to learn excessive numbers of essentially arbitrary letter-sound units."  I was trying to decide if this was anti Webster's Syllabry.  From what I understand you learn the first 54 phonograms then begin spelling.  This is at a hopeful pace of about 30 words a week.  This seems like A LOT.  Then after they've learned about 150 words reading begins.  Any of you WRTR users?  Am I completely off or am I on the right track?       

 

Tomorrow's goals: Math, Read Aloud (min 1 hour of me reading not including audio books), Science page for his notebook, Writing (mail a card to grandma), afternoon nature walk with Dad.

[mama25angels]

Morning ladies, I don't have any spares today. The boys and I got out the books and flipped through them, they decorated the notebooks that we'll use as planners and I wrote them letters to read on Monday. I also wrote my expectations in it and now we're just going to relax for a bit.

[arliemaria]

Morning ladies, I don't have any spares today. The boys and I got out the books and flipped through them, they decorated the notebooks that we'll use as planners and I wrote them letters to read on Monday. I also wrote my expectations in it and now we're just going to relax for a bit.

 

How does your younger K/1 student use a planner?  I love the letter idea.  We write emails to the kids in an email account we'll give them access to when they are 18.  At least that is the plan currently.  We haven't been doing it long, but hope to continue.  I've written letters on birthdays and St. Nicholas day.

[OneGirlAcademy]

Yesterday we had a lot of interruptions, with the kitchen being restored. So, I gave up and we went to the library. Ended up not getting our core done, but enjoyed ourselves at the library instead.

 

This morning we both got a late start. So the idea that we would be able to finish yesterday's core and complete today's core is unrealistic. Also, another big construction day for the kitchen. So I'm expecting a lot of noise and distractions.

 

I'm glad we take it slow and steady all year round.

[Soror]

Morning ladies, I don't have any spares today. The boys and I got out the books and flipped through them, they decorated the notebooks that we'll use as planners and I wrote them letters to read on Monday. I also wrote my expectations in it and now we're just going to relax for a bit.

The letters sound like lovely, how sweet and thoughtful of you!

 

 

 

Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday I had a bit of a stroke of genius. Ds is in a bit of the sourpuss I'm too big for this stage, not all the time, he is generally mellow but it coincided with our nature walk. I hadn't even bought him a sketch book because I knew he would hate that but I asked him to take pictures with the iPad and then next thing I know he is making a Lego Movie of the pond, I gave him some ideas of some things I wanted but then he ran with it, so he was involved in his own way win/win!!

 

Today so far ds has read a short Paulsen book, I read him a bunch of I am Malala, we're up to the part where she got shot so I have to stop every little bit so I don't break into tears! I'm still hoping to read some to the girls and play some games, our friends will be over after lunch.

 

So, I found a huge piece of white paper in the basement- I think from some Amazon box and as I was wadding it up to throw it away I remembered this post I'd seen about taping a huge piece of paper to the wall and drawing frames on it for them to draw inside (nothing fancy I took seriously 5 min to set it up- I'm no way an artist but the kids didn't care), the kids were so excited when they discovered it, they quickly filled all the frames in and then I made some individual pieces for each one of them with their name on it, so everyone is filling in their frame now. EVEN my son! I directed him to the Art for Kids Hub and he found a Minecraft Creeper tutorial, he excitedly drew it and is even coloring it now, this is unheard of!!!!!

[mama25angels]

How does your younger K/1 student use a planner?  I love the letter idea.  We write emails to the kids in an email account we'll give them access to when they are 18.  At least that is the plan currently.  We haven't been doing it long, but hope to continue.  I've written letters on birthdays and St. Nicholas day.

 

I'm introducing him to his planner this year.  I'm going to let him check the boxes as we complete each assignment, we'll look at it together to see what's on his agenda for the day and i'll let him choose what to start with.  I'm hoping this will help him to become independent in a few years.

[mama25angels]

Soror- I love your idea of making frames on paper to let them draw in, filing that away to use my boys.  Great idea also, of using the ipad to take pictures of nature and make a movie of it, I think my boys would love that one as well

[MrsRobinson]

Arliemaria- do you have a link to that study guide for For the Children's Sake?

 

Love the frames idea and movie making idea!

 

Today I let the kids start the day outside. It's beautiful here again and I want them to take advantage of this weather as much as possible. Plus, the sandbox is sort of built in and we can't take it with us so they are enjoying it as much as possible before we move. Well, ds got 2 splinters in his finger and after an hour of trying to remove them, I gave up and took him to the pediatrician. That was 3 hours total of the day down the drain.

 

I had expectations of what lessons I wanted dd to tackle up on the fridge first thing this morning and we talked about it at breakfast. She agreed to be diligent after playing outside and promised it wouldn't derail her lessons. Well, it did. Lessons were untouched all day. Part of me feels like whatever, it will get done eventually and part of me feels like I am not teaching her a strong work ethic. Balance is hard!

[Aurelia]

The week has been pretty good, school-wise. DD has been finishing up much more quickly than usual, so I actually get free time, yay! Officially finished up the last of "last year's" stuff today, so all the shiny new stuff starts Monday (mostly science and literature, since we started history a couple of weeks ago and math back in April.) Still, new stuff! DD is thrilled she will have books that say Seventh Grade on them. 

 

I decided to drop the Great Courses audios for the Viking stuff, because it's pretty high level, and the instructor would be more interesting if he didn't say "uh" and "ah" so much. Both of us keep getting distracted and start counting the "ahs" instead of listening to the lecture. She loved the Nova video about them, though. And I think I'll use this as a spine, since it looks a little more DD's speed. If it doesn't work, at least I'm not hugely financially invested. 

 

And I stumbled onto Visual Manna's website and have been strongly considering their English through Art and American History Through Art curricula. It looks like stuff DD would love. Someone needs to take my PayPal access away. I keep finding stuff to buy, and I've already planned and bought everything for this year! (And some stuff for next, and the year after. Egads. I need to stop.) 

[Critterfixer]

I worked today, but I found time to do my morning pages and to read a few more chapters of The Artist's Way. I am really enjoying it so far. I'm still not sure how to find two hours a week to have alone time with my artistic self, but I am finding solace in coming up with two hour sessions out of the house with the boys just being in nature. Fall is a perfect time to do that in this state. Summer...not so much. Too many things that bite and suck blood. 

I've got to find time tomorrow to go shoe shopping with the boys, and to listen to our French lesson. We start French on Sunday morning. :svengo:

[arliemaria]

Arliemaria- do you have a link to that study guide for For the Children's Sake?

 

Love the frames idea and movie making idea!

 

Today I let the kids start the day outside. It's beautiful here again and I want them to take advantage of this weather as much as possible. Plus, the sandbox is sort of built in and we can't take it with us so they are enjoying it as much as possible before we move. Well, ds got 2 splinters in his finger and after an hour of trying to remove them, I gave up and took him to the pediatrician. That was 3 hours total of the day down the drain.

 

I had expectations of what lessons I wanted dd to tackle up on the fridge first thing this morning and we talked about it at breakfast. She agreed to be diligent after playing outside and promised it wouldn't derail her lessons. Well, it did. Lessons were untouched all day. Part of me feels like whatever, it will get done eventually and part of me feels like I am not teaching her a strong work ethic. Balance is hard!

 

Link here:  http://edsnapshots.com/ymb1/ Anyone wanna read together, say a chapter a week?  It is only six chapters.

[Aurelia]

I never got past the first chapter in The Artist's Way. I did the writing daily for about a month, but lost interest after that. I should probably pick up the book again and see what the later chapters have. I even bought The Right to Write by the same author, and it has done nothing but gather dust. :mellow:

 

 

DD just came in and said she wanted to do as much of her schoolwork for tomorrow as she can tonight (so she can play "hang out" with the neighbor girl, who starts school again Monday - 9th grade!), so she's in bed, doing math. It's weird to me that she has suddenly realized if she hurries up and gets her work done she has more free time. We've spent so many years with her dawdling and me constantly trying to get her to refocus that I almost don't know what to do with the extra time (and autonomously motivated child) I suddenly have. I guess that busts my excuses for not practicing, writing or exercising. Does this mean I can hang up my drill sergeant uniform for awhile?  :gnorsi:

[Soror]

We had a fabulous tea party with our friends, good visit for us moms and the kids. Today is a family day, I have Aerial in the City, the kids want to rock climbing and I think I'd like to visit the Art Museum, we'll see what time we make it there and what we feel like when we get there!

 

Dh will evidently be working Sunday so I think we'll do some games since that didn't happen yesterday, we ended up spending most of our morning on Art and considering how much the girls love it and how rarely ds participates I was fine with that. Ds is a page behind in Spelling so he'll make that up then and we'll do our haikus which we skipped since our friend was having a distractible day (I did however make him a frame on the wall and he was happy to draw us a picture :) ).  Oh, and despite all the other art that happened we haven't done our Art Tango lesson and I'd like to keep that up as it has some skill progression work, besides it is easy to set up and the girls enjoy it. 

 

I woke up this am unable to sleep because I couldn't stop planning in my head so I had to get up and check the calendar. We started the second week of July and I'd originally planned around 9 weeks or so and I knew we were getting close to that, I believe we'll go 2 more weeks and then break for Fall. I think we'll break for 2 wks but the plan is to keep our days like yesterday, get some skill work and hit the extras. I also need to schedule some appointments so it will be a bit of a stress relief to have a time to put them without worrying about a full day of school as well. I'm working hard trying to embrace more of a tidal schedule, so we'll technically be schooling more but our days a more relaxed because I'm not trying to squeeze as much in just to get it done, or at least that's the thought. We'll have time to finish 2 9 wk blocks before Thanksgiving and then we're going to go to relaxed mode until the new year. I want time to really enjoy the season, we took some time last year but I feel like we don't slow down enough during that time. I want time to volunteer, to bake and craft with the girls, read lots of stories/books and play together with some math and writing thrown in there. 

 

Evidently we will be doing a monthly painting with friends so I requested books to go along with that study. Ds' Manga Guide to Physics came in and my Miquon Annotations (which I donated after it being a failure with dd1, oh well at least it is cheap). 

The week has been pretty good, school-wise. DD has been finishing up much more quickly than usual, so I actually get free time, yay! Officially finished up the last of "last year's" stuff today, so all the shiny new stuff starts Monday (mostly science and literature, since we started history a couple of weeks ago and math back in April.) Still, new stuff! DD is thrilled she will have books that say Seventh Grade on them. 

 

I decided to drop the Great Courses audios for the Viking stuff, because it's pretty high level, and the instructor would be more interesting if he didn't say "uh" and "ah" so much. Both of us keep getting distracted and start counting the "ahs" instead of listening to the lecture. She loved the Nova video about them, though. And I think I'll use this as a spine, since it looks a little more DD's speed. If it doesn't work, at least I'm not hugely financially invested. 

 

And I stumbled onto Visual Manna's website and have been strongly considering their English through Art and American History Through Art curricula. It looks like stuff DD would love. Someone needs to take my PayPal access away. I keep finding stuff to buy, and I've already planned and bought everything for this year! (And some stuff for next, and the year after. Egads. I need to stop.) 

Let us know what you think of the English through Art I just sent a link to a friend whose son is very artistic, she is always struggling with how to English with him.

 

I worked today, but I found time to do my morning pages and to read a few more chapters of The Artist's Way. I am really enjoying it so far. I'm still not sure how to find two hours a week to have alone time with my artistic self, but I am finding solace in coming up with two hour sessions out of the house with the boys just being in nature. Fall is a perfect time to do that in this state. Summer...not so much. Too many things that bite and suck blood. 

I've got to find time tomorrow to go shoe shopping with the boys, and to listen to our French lesson. We start French on Sunday morning. :svengo:

I know the weather is starting to really get gorgeous here too. I find a lot of peace to us being outside as well and with the weather so unbelievably hot it didn't happen much in July.  Good luck on French!

[OneGirlAcademy]

Okay. I was reading the conversation on burnout and it got me to thinking(that's a dangerous thought). We have been following the CM theory of laying out a buffet feast for the student. We love all the topics; but, it seems a little choactic to do so many topics a day, for both myself and my dd. Granted, they are short 20-30 minutes. But, it seems a little manic for us.

 

I think we are going to try to do just one non-core subject every two weeks. My dd likes to dive into a subject and spend some time with it.

 

We will keep the 3 R's daily and short. That's working well.

 

We will see how it works

[OneGirlAcademy]

Okay. I was reading the conversation on burnout and it got me to thinking(that's a dangerous thought). We have been following the CM theory of laying out a buffet feast for the student. We love all the topics; but, it seems a little choactic to do so many topics a day, for both myself and my dd. Granted, they are short 20-30 minutes. But, it seems a little manic for us.

 

I think we are going to try to do just one non-core subject every two weeks. My dd likes to dive into a subject and spend some time with it.

 

We will keep the 3 R's daily and short. That's working well.

 

We will see how it works.

[mama25angels]

Well, my day has not been too bad.  The garage sale is OVER!  I'm off to take a nap now, because i'm exhausted.  I did have a few garage sale finds, I found a 6th edition copy of Wheelock's latin, a copy of 30 Latin Stories to go with it for $1, a book about drawing tanks for my boys and a couple of the shopaholic books for my DD.

[arliemaria]

We woke up at a decent hour today and left early to go pick apples.  We are back and I am trying to institute a quiet time.  I would love to do this from 1-3 daily.  After lunch has been cleaned up.  I can put the baby down for an afternoon nap and everyone can be quiet.  My six year old can do this generally well.  My three year, not so much.  She probably is the one who needs it the most.  Well, we all need it.  I have needed to do this forever, but listened to Susan Wise Bauer on Read Aloud Revival last night.  Do you all keep quiet hours?  I know may be a very big undertaking, but one of my priorities for homeschooling, for me, is that children are able to have time to themselves to reflect and pray.  When you are in a school setting and then sports practice, etc. you do not have time.  This needs to be a priority no matter how difficult.  I am glad I was reminded of its importance.
 

[MrsRobinson]

Well, my day has not been too bad.  The garage sale is OVER!  I'm off to take a nap now, because i'm exhausted.  I did have a few garage sale finds, I found a 6th edition copy of Wheelock's latin, a copy of 30 Latin Stories to go with it for $1, a book about drawing tanks for my boys and a couple of the shopaholic books for my DD.

 

Where are all these garage sales with educational materials?! I am always hearing/reading about everyone's great homeschool garage sale finds and never find anything educational at local garage sales. The best I've done was a copy of The Giver a few years ago! :glare:

 

We woke up at a decent hour today and left early to go pick apples.  We are back and I am trying to institute a quiet time.  I would love to do this from 1-3 daily.  After lunch has been cleaned up.  I can put the baby down for an afternoon nap and everyone can be quiet.  My six year old can do this generally well.  My three year, not so much.  She probably is the one who needs it the most.  Well, we all need it.  I have needed to do this forever, but listened to Susan Wise Bauer on Read Aloud Revival last night.  Do you all keep quiet hours?  I know may be a very big undertaking, but one of my priorities for homeschooling, for me, is that children are able to have time to themselves to reflect and pray.  When you are in a school setting and then sports practice, etc. you do not have time.  This needs to be a priority no matter how difficult.  I am glad I was reminded of its importance.

 

 

We do quiet time here. I am in the same boat as you. DD has come to appreciate it and just today, we were on our way home and she said through tears, "hurry and get home please, I need some quiet time!" Ds, on the other hand, fights it. He does better if he has a snack and a drink which I really hate allowing food in his room but sometimes I'm desperate. Maybe he wouldn't be hungry if we moved it to right after lunch, as you suggested. As it is now, its from 2 to 4 or even 3 to 4 if we are having a long day.

 

Oh, and a book discussion sounds fun! If you start a thread for it, link it here for me so I don't miss it! Thanks!!

 

And, Yay me!! My first MultiQuote!!! :hurray:

[Critterfixer]

I don't know that it's exactly quiet, but the boys and I are fond of what we call "restful evenings". No television, just doing whatever we want until it's time for evening chores, showers and bedtime. But they are not always quiet. They are reflective. It's just that when one or the other boy comes up with something they simply must share!

I do quiet pretty well, but my mind wanders. To really reflect and focus, I need to be moving. I do some of my best reflecting and thinking when I'm on a nice, slow, long run. Or when I'm cooking something that requires a long stirring time, like rice pudding. 

 

Went to work today, then went shoe shopping for the boys, and bought drawing paper and watercolors. Now I'm going to try to get a few things done around here before bedtime. I'd like to start the fall term refreshed and not in a hurry. Got to listen to that French lesson, too.

[mama25angels]

MrsR- I generally don't get great educational finds at garage sales either, this sale was put on by our homeschool group and suspect that's why I was able to find my treasures.

 

 

Critterfixer-I think we're going to do our shoe shopping on Monday when everyone else is in class.

 

I'm a lot like critterfixer in that I reflect best when I'm doing something else, cooking, walking etc.