Labor Day: Weekly Update

All is quiet ---

Actually is has been nice. We have had a break in the heat. Thank God. The AC has been off and windows have been opened now for the 5th day in a row. Even though tomorrow like today is suppose to get up in the 80s we might be good to keep the AC off. Mainly, because we have one of those whole house/Attic fans and the nightly temps have been in the high 50s/low 60s. We turn that fan on at night and it's instant breeze throughout the whole house. In the morning we turn it off, it stays off during the day, and our home stays on the cooler side. Just when it starts to get uncomfortable, the sun has gone down and the outside temps have started to cool off so we turn it back on.  If the night time stays on the warm side like 70s it doesn't do as good of a job cooling the house the whole day -- so with the project forecast we most likely turn the AC back on on Tuesday or Wednesday. Time will tell.



Despite the pleasant weather I haven't been able to enjoy it -- totally -- I have been dealing with a nasty head congestion, cold.  This prevent Web-Princess from doing all of her work on Friday. She did most, but not all. She, even though it's high school, still needs my help time to time. Some things like Spelling Power I have to do simply with her. It can't get done otherwise.



Other things she prefers my help. For example when it comes to biology she reads her text orally to me. This is mainly because reading is still an issue for her! NOTHING like it use to be. She can read but some words still trip her up -- so reading orally to me is to help her make sure she's reading properly. It also gives her the opportunity to ask me questions right then and there if she doesn't understand something.  (We made the most process with her reading when we starting sight phonics.)

She did what she could and what wasn't done will be moved to Tuesday. I'm counting Friday as a half day of school. We are taking tomorrow off for Labor Day. At least she had some school and me being sick didn't mean no school day. When she (and Superstar) were younger mom being sick meant no school at all! -- so glad those days are behind us and she can do a lot of the the work, even if I'm down and out, by herself.

I'm still feeling nasty. The head congestion alone is enough to bug anyone -- add vomiting, ear aches, -- it's not pleasant. I still have to make all of my lesson plans for this week. I will do that tomorrow even if I'm still feeling like crud so Web-Princess will have what she needs for this coming week. Hopefully, regardless of how I feel I will be well enough to help her for those areas she needs help.

This Tuesday will start week 3 for us! (3rd week, but not 3rd full week. Our first week we only did school on Wed to Friday). I can't believe 3 weeks in already.

We have been doing:

• English
• Algebra
• Biology
• World History
• PE/Health

I will be adding some Bible/Religion to the list. I just don't know what yet.  What I was going to use has proven to be beyond what Web-Princess can handle. So I have been looking for an alternative but haven't found anything I'm happy with. Do you have any suggestion for Bible/Religion for High School/9th grade (from a Catholic prospective of course)?


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Lazy, Sleepy Day -- It's okay!

One thing I have learned over the years it's OKAY to have a lazy, sleepy day, week, month, etc.  It's okay not to do much. It's okay if all you did was math all day. It's okay if just watch a movie. It's okay if you.....

Really it is; one "slow and lazy day" is even more learning then what can be done in a public school setting. HONEST!! There is nothing wrong with having a sleeping, lazy, day or week.  As a homeschooler I set the pace, I set the schedule, I set the routines, etc. There is NO such thing as "behind"!!  There is no such thing as "catching up"!! If you want to sleep the day away with the dogs then do it.  Well granted you don't want everyday to be that -- because then you are going to be dealing with heart issues and sloth -- but if your week is slow that's okay, if your month is distracted because of the holidays or a new baby,  that's okay. If not much was done because illness that's okay!

Just pick up where you left off and go with it. You are NOT behind. You do NOT have catching up to do. Honest!



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Have you had a slow lazy day, week, month before? Do you feel like your behind? Leave me a comment!

Wait, we are sick? How to handle sick days

Homeschool Sick Days 

Yes, Virginia homeschoolers get sick just like anyone else.

It's amazing what some people think. Oh you homeschool -- therefore you you shouldn't get sick.

I may homeschool, but I'm not necessarily home all day, every day. My kids are not necessarily home all day, every day. We do venture out into the world, going to parks, gardens, museums, zoos, gyms, etc.

We are really just normal people that do normal things and sometimes get sick just like anyone else.

When sickness hits the home it always leaves the questions, for many homeschoolers, especially newbies: Now what? How do we handle this? What about school work? Do we double up and play catch up? Do we just skip it not worry about it? What if not all the kids are sick? What if you are sick and the kids are fine? What do you do?

Well I tell you what I do. If any of us are sick we simply do not do school work that day. It doesn't matter if it's me, just one of the kids, both kids, etc. If anyone is sick we simply don't do school, book work, for the day. I also do NOT do catch up. If we miss day or two or a week or more it's okay!! No big deal we just pick up were we left off. No worries, No stress.  There is no need to play "catch up". You are in charge of your days, routines, schedule. -- there is NO need to play catch up. There is nothing to "catch up" to. I know this is mind blowing especially for the newbies seeing they, and I was one, are worried about keeping up with the public schools.

LISTEN, You do not have to keep up with the public schools. You can school on any day or time of day that works best for your family. You can homeschool on any number of days that work best for your family. Many homeschoolers I know homeschool ALL year round.  It's about developing routines that work for you and when something breaks up that routine and cause a bit of a monkey wrench, just going with the flow, until you can back to your more normal routines.




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How do you handle your sick days? Love to hear from you! Leave a comment!

How the new routine/schedule is working!

Back in January I mention how I was going to reshape our day. So that I 'school' superstar in the morning and web-princess in the afternoon. Well after some trail and error I found a routine that seems to be working for everyone.

This routine allows me to focus on one child at a time. In the morning Superstar does Math, Spelling, and English. I'm there to help him with those subjects, but I also do some house work, or little projects that need to be done, but can be easily put to the side if Superstar needs help.  While Superstar is working on those subjects Web-princess does some reading, wii fit, and piano practice.

After these things are done we do science and history together then break for lunch. After lunch it's Web-princess' turn to do Math, Spelling and English while Superstar does some reading, wii fit, and piano practice. This allows us to be done around 3:00 pm which good because Superstar has made some friends via scouts and they are home by 3:30 pm and at least twice a week are calling here asking if Superstar can play.

After dinner I've put in their time to read their McGuffy Reader lessons with mom. I think this works best, because it does allow us to be done by 3:00 pm and if daddy wants he can read the lessons with them.

It took us a while to figure it out, but so far so good!

Recap Of Our Week

Last week I shared how I was going to split the kids up and work with Superstar in the morning and Web-princess in the afternoon. It's only been one week, and Superstar has been sick for 1/2 of it so I haven't been able to really test it out.  Although the days that I was able to follow this new schedule/routine it worked out pretty good. The house was quieter, there was less stress for everyone, and the days seemed to be more productive. Of course it will be only a matter of time before we know for sure.

I'm starting to miss my friends and our co-op. I-HOPE, the co-op,  has been on break since the beginning of December and won't start back up until February.  In the mean time I'm planning to meet up with some of the families before February if my kids are well enough.

Since Christmas we have been battling fevers, runs, vomit, etc.  This week just happens to be Superstar's turn. The only symptoms he has had this week is sore throat and fever. Today is temp is closer to normal, but seeing he had a temp of 101-102 the previous 2 days I decided no school again for him today.

It's been a bummer for him seeing yesterday we FINALLY got snow fall and a good amount of snow too. The kids have been itching all winter for snow! Our first snow fall this winter season and Superstar is to sick to go out and play in it. Web-princess on the other hand has been enjoying the snow. I gave her a snow day yesterday and she spent the nearly the whole day outside in the snow.  I could have done school, but honestly it would have been an battle seeing I know all they have wished for the last month now is for some snow to go play in.  

New Year, New Schedule, New Routines

Or at least that is the plan. I've been reading, my dear friend, Judy Dudich's book: I Surrender and have been participating in the discussion group on facebook.

Recently Judy mention, in the discussion, how she's been reconstructing her schedule and not doing "school" with a few of her children until the evening. This is because her family structure  is such that it's easier for her to give more attention to those children in the evening. With 10 children I'm sure that makes more sense.  In response several other moms mention they did similar things.

I may have only 2, but it gets difficult for me. Often Superstar is waiting for me to help him with one thing because I'm helping Web-Princess.  Web-Princess has to wait for me because I'm helping Superstar.  They get annoyed with each other and impatient. I'm jumping back and forth like a pinball and often feel bad because we get the bare minimum done. That's good, but I would like more. If only I could just focus on ONE.

Out of the two Web-Princess is the child that needs my help more because she's a struggling reader. I don't just want to focus on her I want to be there for Superstar. Jumping back and forth just isn't working. Some subjects go every fast others take longer. There is no way to really plan it well.

Judy's post, in the facebook group, was I light bulb moment for me! Why don't I just restructure our day and focus on just ONE child at the time.  I'm not a very good morning person. It's a bit of a struggle for me to get into the grove of things. Superstar like to start first thing in the day and seeing he often doesn't need my help as much I figure I would focus on him in the morning. I can still get other things done, but be available for him when he needs it. So I could not only be there for him but get some housework done.

Then after lunch it will be Web-princess time to start school. By lunch Superstar should be done if not soonner and I'll have the rest of the afternoon to work with Web-princess. I choose to put her in the afternoon because she does require a lot more of my help and in the afternoon we'll have more time.  Seeing it will be easier to work up to dinner if needed or pick it back up right after dinner and finish it up.

I don't foresee us going that late all the time but the possibility is there so I thought it was best to put her in the afternoon. The other bonus of putting her in the afternoon is that if Superstar gets done before lunch, whihc I see happening several days, I can start her early

I'm going to start this new schedule tomorrow and see how it goes!

Our Daily Schedule

I don't know so much if it's a bid for trying to get more "free" time or what, but Web-Princess over the weekend asked if we could do school like this. Work-Free Time; Work-Free Time; Work-Free Time.

I thought about it and said why not? I could use the Free Time to make sure I had the subject ready and they wouldn't have to wait on me. So we agreed that we would do a subject then have 20 minutes of free time, do a subject and then have 20 minutes of fee time, do a subject.... (I'm sure you get the picture)

During that free time, the kids can play or whatever, and I can makes sure I'm ready for the next subject, do a chore, read a book, or even blog. I just have to make sure the timer is set and when it goes off we go back to the school work.

We'll try this for the week and I'll let you know how it went. :)

School Again!

Well back in June/July I announced we started school, then I said we were taking a week off because it got terribly hot! Well that week turned out to be the rest (or most of) the summer!

Which is totally okay! However, tomorrow we are going to hit the books again! Honestly, I'm looking forward to it and I believe the kids are too. Our homeschool group is also meeting up again soon...within the next week or 2...so it's beginning to feel a little more like "school time" :)

Not sure what there is going to be yet for co-op classes. I should be getting that info sometime this week. Our co-op offers a variety of classes. The schedule generally works like this: 2 classes, then lunch, and a class after lunch.

What classes are available is totally depended on the parents that choose to teach a class. We can be there for all the classes or just for what we want. Like the last semester of last school year the kids just went to play practice and that was it. We do try hard to have at least one class per age level, per class time, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

Anyway that's what's going on here. I'm going to be working on my lesson plans today and hope to have them posted soon on my lesson plan page. I wonder if there is away for me to post a doc of some sort so I don't have to retype everything.... hmm... something to consider especially if I'm going to be "sharing". :)

Perhaps some of my readers know of some FREE programs that would allow me to share docs or make pdf? That would also allow me to share them but edit them any time if needed. Not only that but the editing wouldn't effect what was shared. As a matter of fact it would auto edit what I shared. Does that make sense to anyone? Any ideas?

Heat Wave Over: Back To School!

Last week we had a heat wave, temperatures in the 90's. Not only that but when it gets hot here it gets sticky because of the humidity! So I canceled school! This week the temps are going to be a balmy low 70's! So we are going to have school this week! No school today, but tomorrow and the rest of the week we will do work! :)

Heat Wave = No School

We have a bit of a Heat Wave here and with NO air conditioning it's a little sticky! Thus it's "hard" to focus on school work! So we've decided not to do school for the next few weeks so we can get pass this heat wave!

Starting School...NOW!!

I know that most of my fellow homeschoolers are finishing up their school years, but we are going to be starting ours on MONDAY!!

We just finished up our first year of homeschooling the last week of April 2009, and have been on "vacation" every since. I had plans to start the new year the second week of July, but the kids begged me to start sooner! So after talking it over with DH we've decided that we will start the new year on MONDAY!!! The kids are excited!!! They have been hugging on me all day and praising me, telling me, that I'm a GOOD MOMMY!!! (Thankfully I have all my books right?? LOL)

Record Keeping

Lesson Plans, Record Keeping, Scheduling, all just a click way, I hope! This as you may know by now is my last week of our first year of homeschooling! We made it through one whole year! 3 cheers for us! Hip, Hip, Hooray; Hip, Hip Hooray; Hip, Hip, Hooray.

Record keeping has not been our strong suit! That if anything is the one thing I need to change for the up coming school year. I'm hoping I can find (very soon) a software program that will make record keeping easier for us. I don't care if it's a program on the PC or if it's web-base. I do have a few things that I have in mind. Perhaps I can get some help from my fellow homeschoolers!!!

There are some basic things that I think would make a program good!

• Allowing easy scheduling. I can pre-enter a schedule with "certain days" for "certain subject", but flexible enough to allow me to edit each individual day schedule as needed.
• Can easily assign "assignments" for each subject as needed.
• Can enter in sick days, vacation days, etc and it will automatically adjust the schedule and assignments
• students' page for the kids to be able to view and check of their assignments for the day, etc
• oh and price, I prefer it to be FREE!
  

I've tried out homeschool-inc web based planner. It did most everything I wanted but the critical flexibility per day scheduling. We are going to working on a 5 day week. However we will have only 4 days of "book work" and allow the 5th day be be open for field-trips, errands, etc. That day will be on Fridays. However I have one week where I want that day to Monday and I can't adjust that week to reflex that....At least I'm not seeing how too!

I've taken a look at homeschool tracker and I've downloaded the FREE basic version, but to be honest it's to confusing and an NOT very user friendly in my opinion. Plus the basic does not have many of the features I want. The plus version may, but I find the basic NOT to be user friendly, so I assume that the plus will be the same. The PLUS, also, comes with a steep price tag $50. I don't want to spend $50 on software. I really don't want to spend anything, but that's besides the point.

However I'm hearing from Sara at A Shower of Roses that the plus is actually user friendly. So I really don't know any more!

So what do you use? (beside the good, ageless, paper and pen method LOL)

LAST Week of School

This is our LAST week of school! WOW. We will be starting school up again on July 6th, 2009! After this week and before our new year starts I think I'll be tackling the HOUSE! There are things that need to be done around here, because well some of the rooms just make me go UGH!

Do you? Do they?

Well we are wrapping up our first year of homeschooling! WOW that just blows my mind, I can't believe that it's been almost been a whole year. Just thinking about that just blows my mind!

The main questions I have been getting besides how do you handle being with them all the time: Is do they get spring break? Vacations? What about testing? (I did a post earlier about testing, so I won't address that again.)

So yes they do get vacations and breaks! Why anyone would think they don't is beyond me. The major difference between homeschooling, PS (public school), and private school is that when it comes to homeschooling and vacations I as the teacher, superintendent, and school board president can set the school days and vacations as I see fit!

Of course I have to be sure I follow my state laws, but truly I have the ability to set the days as I see fit. Daddy is home from work, then we are off of school. We feel overwhelmed with the schooling then we take a day or two off. No big deal!!

The schools here are on spring break, but we are still plugging away with school. Mainly because the kiddos want to be done by the end of April. They don't want to stop! Yes, we are going to be done by the end of April. One whole month then the schools here. However we started one whole month before the schools here!!!

Refreshing

So today went much, much, better then yesterday. I'm so thankful for that!!

I'm not sure what made the difference today. Our day was the same as yesterday (as far as the lesson layout/schedule), but it clearly was much better. DD and I had a heart to heart last night, I cried and she cried and today it was better. I noticed a shift in her attitude towards math. I praised her several times for that change!!

I'm hoping that tomorrow will yield the same result. I know it's New Year's Eve tomorrow and New Year's Day on Thursday, but for us it's really just another day.

It was nice to be done with the school work in 2-3 hours!!! That's the way it should be (in my opinion)!!