K Cera-Cera....or however it goes...

Whoa Nellie, it's been a while since I last posted. I'm such a bad blogger lately....WAHHHH! But I've been super busy between my former 2 co-ops and launching my online crafting business. I'm exhausted! Now that it's summer time, it's my time of re-evaluation. I always wonder if public school parents go through this every year, but can't see how they would. See, June is my research month, July is my planning month. Even though we homeschool year round I'm way more lenient in the summer...which I'm sure some of you didn't think it was possible. As child-led learners, how can one be lenient? Well, as I've stated a bunch of times, child-led doesn't equate to non-educational. I still insist on learning between the hours of 10-3. The difference is in the summer, while the tv is off during that time, I'm not telling them they must complete x number of lessons for that day. (The child led part comes in that I allowed them to choose the lesson and the lessons were chosen based on their interests during these summer planning sessions).

But, as I said, every year I seem to re-evaluate. Heck this year I was even tempted to try out k-12...but it's insanely expensive in my area (thank the Gods as I'm sure my kids would hate it..lol)...but now that the kids are getting older I'm starting to worry about PSAT's, college entrance exams, etc. I don't want to 'teach to the test' as public schools already proved that's a bomb technique. But with my Aspie not wanting any worksheets and text books give him anxiety...I'm starting to panic on materials for a soon-to-be 13 y/o. Especially one who wants to go to medical school. GULP! Of course this particular roller coaster ride is entitled "Home School Mom's Annual Anxiety Slam" -- am I doing enough, am I challenging them enough, am I truly preparing them for college & the 'real world'...I almost always have to force myself to re-read my older blog posts and remind myself of my goals:

1) Raise boys that are solid in the self-esteem department. They aren't arrogant. They understand their strengths and their weaknesses and know how to work with both. If they have a solid sense of self they will be less tempted to do stupid things due to peer pressure (texting while driving, trying drugs, excessive drinking, etc). But they will also be able to articulate their own position on topics...heck they will be able to HAVE their own opinion/position. And they will be confident enough to defend that opinion.

2) They will understand how to find, process and retain information. While I'm certainly NOT a proponent of wrote memorization (maybe because I always sucked at it?) I fully believe students will be able to retain & regurgitate information (which looks suspiciously like memorization). So, while I don't care if they can list all the presidents in order, (though I'd like them to have a clear understanding of the time period in which each was in office) I DO want them to know where to go for that information. More than that however, I'd like my kids to have a total understanding of how their brains work. It took me until I had an associates degree to understand how to efficiently LEARN. If my kids understand how to do so before college? I'll give myself a huge pat on the back, or an intoxicating beverage, whatever.

3) I want them to understand how to make goals and how to follow through on said goals. I think so many kids these days see college as a goal, but don't really have a clear-cut plan of how to get there, what the purpose of it all is, and what they hope to achieve after it. I want my kids to understand how to set short & long term goals and how to make precise plans to achieve those goals.

4) Yeah, yeah I want them happy and healthy and all that garbage too. :)

Once I finish beating these points into my head every year, I can relax. It makes choosing "Just the right curriculum" seem silly. Instead I focus on subjects. Since my eldest wants medical school, I will be really focusing on math & sciences as well as technical writing this year. My youngest now says he wants to be an architect, so we will be starting to delve deeper into geometry, computer programming, etc...as well as math. :) Now I just have to find the tools we'll be using to achieve these points.....hmmmmm.....

Ahh, February is FINALLY over......

February was quite possibly the worst month i have had in a long time. With my vascular issues, changing seasons can be a tough time for me. Usually i'm in pain in March or April, but with the unusually mild winter we have had in the North East, we are going from Spring to Winter over and over. So, for most of Feb, i was confined to my bed.

I've heard from thousands of new HS'ers. Some have medical isues like i do, others are dealing with rough pregnancies, anxiety, depression, etc. many of these mom's stuggle to home educate during these times, then stess out that they are failing.

Here are my Top 5 Tips to dealing with complications to HS like these:

1) Take some time off!! IMO, you could take off up to 3 months a year and still be getting more education than PS kids. If you are stressed out, then you probably wont have the patience to be an effective teacher. Don't sweat it, take some time to heal/recover and you will be that much more effective when you're recovered.

2) Sign up for independant computer learning programs like www.theheadoftheclass.com or www.time4learning.com this will keep the kids into the routine of 'school' without your brain and body being overwhelmed by having it all on your shoulders. I don't like these programs as stand alone curriculums, but they are fine for a few months.

3) Learning Baskets. When i was on bedrest AND suffering with hyponemis (so i lost 25 lbs) i was exhausted & miserable, so not the best teacher ever. But, especially during my pregnancy when my oldest was 3.5 y/o, i couldn't just leave him infront of a computer. (aside from using time4learning on the laptop next to me) i kept stocked education baskets next to my bed & couch. These baskets were packed with coloring materials that coincided with a book (also in the basket), educational movies, etc. I really only had to exhert myself by reading the book, then popping open the crayons.

4) School Year Round. My medical condition is chronic, so i always have to plan for events like Feb - where i might be in too much pain to teach. By schooling year round we only have do school for an hour or two a day. And i don't have to deal with the stress of feeling like a failure for taking some time off - most PS schools Take off all summer!

5) Ask for help!! Let's face it. As HS'ers we spend a lot of time telling people we are good enough to be the kids main source for education (even though most of us struggle with doubt from time to time). Therefore, asking for help from someone (even a spouce), can feel like you are conceding defeat and admiting to failure. But that is not the case. There is nothing wrong from giving your DH the math assignment the kids need to learn.

Plan for every eventuality, and don't stress. It will all work out. I took nearly 1/2 a year off from formal learning when i had my youngest. I just made sure the kids had tons of videos, art supplies, etc. basically we were unschoolers while i was exhausted and nursing.

You can accomodate any complication as long as you plan ahead!

Hugs & Blessings!

This come year....am I dead yet?

Well I'm very, VERY excited to report that my Latin curriculum is finally finished! (It only took me 4 months to design the 3 workbooks....of course they are all about 200 pages each). And I'm one of 4 women in charge of our cooperative this year - which is difficult as most of us only participated in 1 co-op semester before being on the board. Check out Latin Fructus for grades k-7.

Now, as most of you know, I usually spend most of the summer designing my comming years curriculum. But, due to the excitement of designing the Latin curriculum, and getting everything together for my oldest sons first appointment with a behaviorist on the road to his Aspergers diagnosis - the appointment is on Monday....gulp!!

So this week I've begun to compile our curriculum. Since it's kind of last minute, and since the boys are getting older (sniffle, sniffle), I'm doing a single combined curriculum. This means the boys will be learning the same subject, with the same topic, but different worksheet levels. I did it this way so I could finish the curriculum quickly - and they always end up joined at the hip for lesson time anyway. The cirric isn't completely done - but here's an example of our September breakdown -

Week 1:

Geography – City/State/Capital Maps
Cursive – U
Reading Comprehension – Main Idea & Supporting Facts
LA – Noun Review
Writing – Capitalization Review
Geometry – Angles
Math  - Addition Review
Western Civ – The Greeks
American History – Native Americans
Science -
Music / Art - to be determined
Economics - to be determined
Spelling - Unit 1
Biography – George Washington  

Week 2:

Geography – Map Scale
Cursive – S
Reading Comprehension – Amelia Earhart
LA – Pronouns
Writing – Capitalization Review
Geometry – Measuring Angles
Math – Addition Review
Western Civ – The Greeks
American History – Native Americans, MTH
Science -
Music / Art -
Economics -
Spelling - Unit 2
Biography – John Addams

Week 3:

Geography – Political Maps
Cursive – T
Reading Comprehension – Automobiles
LA – Possessives
Writing – Capitalization Review
Geometry – Triangles
Math - Subtraction Review
Western Civ – Alexander the Great
American History – French Indian War
Science -
Music/Art -
Economics -
Spelling -
Biography – Thomas Jefferson

Week 4:

Geography – City/State/National Maps
Cursive – Y
Reading Comprehension – Ben Franklin
LA – Look it up
Writing – Capitalization Review
Geometry – Lines, Rays & Segments
Math – Subtraction Review
Western Civ – Start of Rome
American History – Taxation w/o Representation –Boston Tea Party
Science -
Music / Art -
Economics -
Spelling -
Biography – John Quincy Addams

It Has Begun!!!!!!

Oh the joy and stress of this time of the year. This is the time of the year that super obsessive people like myself, must begin compiling the curricula for the coming year...This means printing endless worksheets, reorganizing entire collections and closets. Trying to figure out how to mesh a 3rd/4th grader's lessons with that of a k/1st grader so that I'm not teaching for 20 hours a day......not to mention the fact that my children are spread across the spectrum of grades....They really spread about 3 grades each depending on the subject. Since my state has no regulations or mandatory testing I never felt the need to push them into a pre-described box or grade. So in sciences they are at least 2 grades ahead of their peers while in math they are the same as their PS counterparts....it all has to do with the ... you guessed it... FUN FACTOR!!!

So, this elusive concept is what has me working for at least 8 weeks prepping the work for the coming year....what lapbooks can we do, what field trips, plays, experiments, etc can we do to keep up the FUN factor while still following some kind of plan....Total unschooling is like stabbing myself in the eye - I'm waaaaay to anal for that, I need some kind of plan...LOL...

So, I'm trying to simplify our lives while trying to increase the difficulty of the lessons, not an easy feat mind you...

I wanted to give you a list of the resources we'll be utilizing this year for both my boys:

links:
enchantedlearning.com
starfall.com
spellingconnections.com
teachervision.com
tlsbooks.com
abcteach.com
aaa(math, spelling, etc).com

workbooks:
America's Story (Books 1 & 2) - history workbooks, book one is US history to 1865 and book 2 is after 1865.
Teaching With Clifford (scholastic)
Brighter Child - we're using several of this brand - "I can tell time and Count Money". Math, etc
School Zone's Super Scholar series (we're using k, 1, 3 and 4)
Hooked on ___ Grade series (we're using k, 1, 2 and 3

Books:
Evan's & Moore's Getting Ready To Read (teacher's workbook)
Macmillan's 3rd Grade Language Arts

That's it so far. I'm still working on the Matrix for both boys, but I'll post them as soon as they're complete. We're trying something new organizational wise this year as well. I have 5 color coded folders. One for each week, and one for fun extra's. Each week this folder will have the blank index cards (for spelling/definitions) plus all the worksheets for that week. I had been using a shelf for each child but things always got messy and lost. Plus we'll have our Lapbook of the week and our Combo Books (which can spread for a month or more)...I'll keep ya posted!!