Pinewood Castle

Progress Report - Dancer

Now that we are back to our full schedule this week I have more time to continue my self-imposed evaluation of the new school year. This is the time when we homeschoolers decide what to ditch and what to stick with, right? Tell me I'm not the only one . . .

I chose Mother of Divine Grace because I felt ready to try a pre-planned curriculum again and would really like a program we can stick with through high school. I also wanted to free up some brain space and free up my evenings that I used to spend planning and researching on the computer. I have certainly needed extra sleep the last four months, so I think this was a good choice!

I am mostly happy with our choice. Right now we are liking about half the subjects in the 4th grade MODG curriculum and are assessing the need to switch books in other subjects. The subjects that are working well for us are religion, poetry, history, science, drawing and Latin. The subjects I have qualms about are math, spelling, phonics and geography.

Back to Dancer. If you have gleaned anything about her from my blog you probably know that she loves ballet (even though she is not currently enrolled), is coming along well on the violin and is my sweet, melancholic deep-thinker and feeler. She is developing a sweet gentle nature after a bout with an eldest sister "bossy boiler" phase. She picks up a lot from me when it comes to emotional reactions and anger, unfortunately. Our personalities are so much alike that that we often clash, but over time we seem to becoming closer and more understanding of one another. Dancer is the one who loves to cuddle in bed the longest in the morning and the longest at night. She loves one-on-one time with mom or dad and is learning to graciously but slowly put some ways of childhood behind her such as jealousy and envy. Lately she has been a stellar big sister to Sunshine and Dino, even designing a reward chart for them. Last night I overheard her say, "Play Memory with me and you get one mark. If you win you get two marks. When you get ten marks we will do the pinata!" Evidently she made a pinata out of a shoebox and extra Halloween candy. Unbeknownst to me!

As for school - here are the subjects that are going well ~

Religion: This would include Baltimore Catechism memorization, Bible stories followed by narration and copy work, and lives of the saints. This is all going well. As I have said before, I am amazed at how much a child can memorize in just five minutes a day. Even though the children are already familiar with most of the content, memorization solidifies their understanding and gives them words to use in family discussions. Hopefully this will be a great foundation for apologetics later in life. I am excited to facilitate this treasure, being of a CCD generation that received a much lighter religious education.

Poetry: Although poetry memorization is not new to her (I was inspired some years ago by someone's daughter's recitation of The Lamplighter) we are duly impressed that she was able to memorize a six stanza poem in seven weeks. I do include copy work as part of the memorization process, rather than waiting until the end to write the poem in her blank book. There are only five poems total to memorize in 4th grade MODG from The Harp and Laurel Wreath, but some are quite lengthy.

Science: In the past we have used Sonlight Science and Noeo, as well as plenty of Magic School Bus and various nature books. MODG recommends ABeka's Understanding God's World. This is going better than I expected. The content is familiar, but the level is deeper than we have dug in the past, with specific terminology and tests (gasp!). She has to get a little more used to remembering the content of what she read and being accountable for knowing it rather than just enjoying it and letting it wash over her. The units include insects, plants, birds, matter, energy, geology and astronomy with experiments throughout. Bird study runs throughout the book and students are asked to draw birds in their nature notebook. I like that the student gets a variety of subjects throughout the year, rather than one subject all year long like the Apologia books that I am tempted to buy and feel a little guilty for not using. I could always splurge on those books to supplement, right? We are supplementing with A Beka's Health, Safety and Manners book. I might also buy a Christian Liberty Nature Reader since her sister enjoys hers so much.

History: This is Dancer's favorite subject. My heart is glad, because isn't history really THE subject? After considering Winter Promise and Sonlight and the Prairie Primer I settled in with MODG mostly for the history from a Catholic perspective. Texts include Our Pioneers and Patriots, The Catholic Faith Comes to the Americas and the Evangelization of the New World. In addition there are dozens of supplementary books, old and new. MODG 4th grade covers history from the Vikings through George Washington. Here is our collection thus far:

Also recommended - keeping a time line and adding writing exercises on what the student has read.

Latin: MODG students would be in Latina Christina 1 by 4th grade if they had completed Prima Latina in 3rd. Dancer did half of Prima Latina two years ago and remembers nothing so we are reviewing this book. I remember that she hated filling out the workbook at such a young age (what was I thinking?) and I think she is dreading filling out the other half. She seems to retain more now. I am also supplementing with English From the Roots Up since she would have done that in MODG 3rd grade. There might be better programs out there, but for now I think this is going well and a vital (Latin, meaning fundamentally concerned with or affecting life or living beings) component to a well rounded education. (where are the smiley faces on Typepad?)

Art: MODG recommends The Drawing Textbook, various Dover art postcards and Mommy, It's a Renoir. Looks like she will do the drawing book only through week 8 and then move on to the schools of art. I think this will be fine, although I might add exercises inviting her to copy the art from the postcards. We also supplement with Draw Write Now, various drawing books, crafts and projects from the Art Explorers Series. For next year I am looking at adding Artistic Pursuits.

 

Subjects with which we are struggling to get used to:

Math: Who doesn't have qualms with math? Ok, ok a few of you don't and have programs you happily use year after year. What are they? We started with Horizons, which was fine, even though math has never been Dancer's favorite subject. Then I became intrigued with Singapore which we used until the multiplication became overwhelming and we had to stop and spend time memorizing rather than just understanding the concept. MODG recommends Saxon 5/4 in 4th grade so I was willing to give it a try. I think it is good for her, actually. I think she needs the speed drills of basic addition and subtraction (100 problems in five minutes) to get these facts down cold and fast. She is able to read and understand the lessons on her own. The daily lessons provide plenty of review (which Singapore did not). The problems? One is the time - it takes her an hour or more to complete her daily math. Another is that the text is all black and white and she misses color graphics. The other is that she scores well on the tests but makes sloppy errors on the daily assignments. I think we sill stick it out for this year, perhaps making some adjustments and trying to make it more fun for her (like saving math until dad comes home!) For next year, though, I will take a second look at Math-U-See or Teaching Textbooks.

Spelling and Phonics: MODG recommends The Writing Road to Reading and Starting a Spelling Notebook. The first part of this program reviews phonograms, which was a worthwhile review, but would have been a lot easier with ready-made flash cards. Many of the directions in the syllabus I find confusing and tedious. I am perplexed as to why they want students to learn the "Spalding marking system" the same week as the language arts book has a lesson on the pronunciation markings found in dictionaries. We have finally come to the point of taking a diagnotic test for a starting place in the Ayer's word list. I hope this program will work for the rest of this year. I am looking into MegaWords or A Reason for Spelling as a plan B. Advice here is welcome.

English/Language Arts: The text here is Intermediate Language Lessons. This is an old-fashioned looking Charlotte Mason style book that includes a rotation of copying, dictation, memory, observation, conversation, language usage, narration and creative writing. I think it's the rotation part that seems haphazard to me and the level of language usage could be more rigorous. I know many believe that grammar can wait even longer but I think this particular child is capable of more. I may supplement with more writing assignments because she is such an excellent story teller, but a reluctant writer. Letters to her pen-pal may become fodder for learning - perhaps a first draft that is corrected before it is copied onto stationery. Next year I am looking at Voyages in English or Winston Grammar as well as Karen Andreola's Story Starters. Advice here is welcome too!

Geography: As I mentioned in Sunshine's report, there are more creative ways to learn geography than just flash cards. Flash cards do serve a purpose, but we are using them to copy the information into a United States blank book. She copies the information and draws the state. I print out the state flags from Enchanted Learning as well as a fill-in-the-blank page about the state. I copied a page of state birds and flowers from the ABeka science book for her to cut and paste. We also enjoy state puzzles, Sequence, a states and capitals CD and a license plate sticker book. All together we are reading the Holling C. Holling geography books and Sunshine is completing the map activities. We like these online games , collecting quarters, state and capital wraps (like Math Wraps) and States and Capitals Sequence. We are also checking out the state books from Sleeping Bear Press from the library. Under consideration for next year is: A Child's Geography.

Music: We do not follow the MODG syllabus for music since we take piano and violin. I am trying to get back to a composer of the month. This month I had meant to do Handel by listening to the Music Master's CD and reading the book by Zeezok publishing but we didn't get to it.

Some non MODG subjects -

Literature: Here are photos of Dancer's reading choices for the next year (or two!). We used the Pizza Hut reading program coupons for the first time in October and enjoyed a family dinner out. She has a little less time to read literature with all the history reading, but I think she will figure out a way to make time. Keeping in mind for the future - the Sunflower Basket.

Foreign Language: I will copy and paste the same thing I wrote for Sunshine: We added French to our curriculum after purchasing Rosetta Stone at a homeschool conference. Dancer does this about twice a week. She doesn't seem to mind it, but she is still repeating lesson one until she can score better than 48% or whatever her average score has been. I also don't hear her using any French vocabulary around the house. I am wondering if we should have gotten something more child friendly like Muzzy?

I think we are at least 75% pleased with MODG. Please do keep in mind that I just ordered the materials without enrolling. I am sure I would receive sound advice for working out the program to suit our family if I had enrolled. I might do that next year, or I might just use MODG for the subjects that work for us and choose other programs for the rest.

Progress Report - Sunshine

My little Sunshine girl is turning into a big girl before my eyes. Now that her two front teeth have been lost and replaced with the adult version she looks so totally different to me. She acts totally different too!

First day of school age 6 ~

First day of school age 7 ~

It's that "seven year change" I guess. She has always been so sanguine, eager to please and overly cooperative. Now she tests the limits constantly, over-reacts to get her way and charges ahead with her own will when she thinks she is justified. What a big personality for such a little girl. What an awesome responsibility is is to form her character and train her in virtue!

Really though, she is still the same sweet life of the party she has always been. She is generous to a fault and will do almost anything to cheer anyone up. She is Wild Strawberry's #1 pal - she is SO GOOD to her I am amazed almost every day with how nice she is to her sister. One morning she dressed her as a princess and sat her on pillows -

On our trip to Oklahoma she volunteered for the job of writing down six pages of the words to all of Wild Strawberry's songs:

"O Daddy-O, bo-dee-bo-dee, narnia, narnia, O Mommy-O, shh, shh, mom . . . "

She loves her older sister and brother too. They vie for her attention and playtime. These sisters will be BFF.

Sometime last spring, eyeglasses became a new addition to her looks. We were thrilled that her eyes got the help they needed and we all think she looks super cute in her purple frames, but our Sunshine is less than thrilled. She thinks that people are afraid to be her friend when she wears them. Encouraging her to wear her glasses has become a daily battle as you can tell from this photo -

 

This too shall pass, right?

In spite of having to wear glasses I think she is enjoying her MODG school work for 2nd grade. It is perhaps a little less work than I had her doing last year, but I think she enjoys the extra time it affords for playing because of course, if you ask her, she never has time to play!

Here are the core books:

And here are books with which I supplement when it seems she needs a bit more to do:

Math: The A Beka 2nd grade math is all review for her so far. I often wonder if we should have continued with Singapore, but I do like the review a spiral curriculum provides. We are also supposed to be doing Math-It, but I like other math games better.

Science: This is all review for her too. Kind of boring, but maybe I will go back to something more exciting next year. I almost went with Noeo Science again. I am intrigued by Apologia, but reluctant to commit to spending an entire year on one science topic. This year we will supplement with nature readers, the Nature Friend magazine, Magic School Bus and A Beka's Health, Safety and Manners book. Mental note: I should look to see if there is a set of Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs.

Phonics: The first part of Sound Beginnings is a painful review of letter sounds for a girl who is already an avid reader. I have decided to quit and pick it up again on Week 8 when it might be a better use of time. In the meantime she still likes doing Explode the Code.

Poetry: This is going well, although I used to push the kids to memorize a poem a week. MODG allows a longer time - about a stanza a week. The syllabus doesn't say to, but I have her copy the poem into her blank book before illustrating. Here is a sample -

I love the R.L.S. version illustrated by Tasha Tudor, bty. We use this one for copying.

Handwriting: I made an oops here - she did the Picard Book 1 last year. She is doing it again, just for review. We are supplementing with the Getty & Dubay Level C because I like how it incorporates a little language arts as well.

Language Arts: I thought MODG used Primary Language Lessons for 2nd grade but I was mistaken. It is not required in this syllabus. I already bought it, though and am using it. I like the Charlotte Mason feel it has, but the concepts seem rather in a random order. I almost went with a 1950s book my MIL found at a garage sale because it looked more practical and moved along at a good clip with what 2nd graders should know. But I am willing to stick with the Serl book before considering something else such as Simply Grammar, CHC or Seton.

History: One reason MODG finally made sense to me is when I realized that how the children are eased into history. Instead of beginning with the ancients like some classical curriculum programs do, American history is the focus of the first several years beginning with the introduction to biographical figures. Sunshine seems to enjoy this approach already after reading some d'Aulaire books. I have added a blank book for her history as well, asking her to illustrate and write a few sentences, Draw Write Now style. In fact, DWN has a few pages on Christopher Columbus. Here is a page she did on Leif Ericson -

Geography: So far, MODG asks for flashcard review. How boring. I just think there are more creative ways to learn about the states. I am having her 4th grade sister do a states notebook, similar to what Jessica's kids do except that I am lazy about printing out so much so she is just drawing hers by hand. For Sunshine, though, we are listening to this CD, doing a state maze book I found at the grocery store, puzzles, online games and collecting quarters. We are also checking out the state books from Sleeping Bear Press from the library.

Religion: Memorizing the Baltimore Catechism is new to us. I think it's pretty amazing that she can do it! I mean, my kids know more about the faith than I did for decades, but I am beginning to see the point in having answers memorized, especially when it comes time for high school apologetics. The classical method taps into a young child's ability to memorize and so far it is working well. The syllabus also asks the child to do saint reports. Not every week, but I am asking for them almost once a week. The little Saints and Friendly Beasts books give more info than the average saint book entry. I should get some more of these recent reprints too - In the Footsteps of the Saints series.

Here is an entry about St. Germaine -

Of course we are also trying to keep up with the liturgical year traditions and re-read the Catholic Mosaic books when the time comes. Sunshine will receive First Holy Communion this year so I had better look into doing a notebook like I've seen on other blogs.

Music: For MODG she is learning the recorder and Latin hymns. MODG recommends the Usborne book, but the music teacher in me prefers the Best in Class Method.

Art: MODG uses Mommy It's a Renoir, a tissue paper flowers kit and a crochet kit. These are great, but again, I feel the need to supplement. I love these Fine Art Primers, Come Look With Me and Lucy Micklethwait books. We also do projects from the Art Explorers Series.

Foreign Language: We added French to our curriculum after purchasing Rosetta Stone at a homeschool conference. Sunshine does this about twice a week. She doesn't seem to mind it, but she is still repeating lesson one until she can score better than 48% or whatever her average score has been. I also don't hear her using any French vocabulary around the house. I am wondering if we should have gotten something more child friendly like Muzzy?

Literature: In addition to our family read-a-louds (lots of Nesbit this year) Sunshine has a whole shelf from which to choose. I will have to remember to redeem our Pizza Hut reading program coupons!

 

In summary, MODG is working mostly well for us with generous supplementing. I love having everything planned out into bite-sized daily chunks and because I have needed hours of extra sleep this pregnancy I am quite glad to have a pre-planned syllabus. I simply cannot stay up late planning and printing things out like I used to!

In addition to school, Sunshine and the others are taking violin, piano and theater class. This might be the last year I can get all three children in the same activities since their talents and preferences are beginning to emerge. Sunshine does not want to continue with violin, but does have the admirable goal of wanting to complete Book 1 in Suzuki. She absolutely loves piano.

This theater class is right up her alley, with her naturally loud voice, dramatic flair and ability to entertain (they are doing a musical version of Daniel and the Lion's Den). Given the choice of a physical activity when violin ends for her, she chooses gymnastics. I think this will suit her. She is our most physical child and evidently has no fear of heights. Her grandpa calls her "part squirrel".

Three children down, one to go. This is like a self- imposed parent-teacher conference, isn't it? It is useful to me to evaluate each child; hope it helps you in some way too to see what works and doesn't work for one family. And if you want to help me out (and are still reading this long post) let me know a few things in case I modify MODG for future grades:

Have you used Sound Beginnings successfully?

What is your favorite, fun yet thorough math program?

What do you like for language arts, grammar and spelling for 2nd-4th grades?

Which science program have you enjoyed the most?

Is there something else out there better than Rosetta Stone to teach young children French?

Progress Report - Dino

This is Dino, our 6yo cutie-pie boy. Lover of dinosaurs and trains. Resistant and easily discouraged, but full of joy when achieving success or actually liking something new he tries. Full of questions and constantly asking how things work. Every day looking older and taller and more like a little young man. Even though he still has most of his baby teeth!

Being the third child, he has wanted to be somewhat involved in his sister's school time for the last four years. He has learned so much just from osmosis. This year he finally has his own official curriculum. His 1st grade MODG books look like this all laid out on my desk:

His daily work starts with math, followed by phonics, handwriting and religion, and poetry memorization. His blank books are starting to fill with illustrations of memorized poems and narrations of Aesop Fables. Mommy it's a Renoir is in there too - just not a daily subject.

So far this seems enough for him. Almost. On days when he seems up to more I add these and activities from ArtPac 1:

The main challenge I am still wading through is whether to have him complete his work right away when he is fresh or let him play with Wild Strawberry and keep her occupied while the girls begin. His work would take less than an hour without distractions, but takes two or three hours with everything else going on. If only I didn't need a nap after lunch I would sit down with him one-on-one and get it done without distractions. 

Another question I ponder is the difficulty level of 1st grade. Kids this age seem so bright and capable of so much more than a typical 1st grade curriculum offers. And yet, kids this age often  excel in some subjects but not others. For Dino, his handwriting seems right on track after completing two years of Handwriting Without Tears. His is right on track with reading, not having been an early reader like the girls.

It's the math that stumps me. He can tell me that 80 + 20 = 100. He figured out that if there are 8 rows and 8 columns on the chess board that there must be 64 squares all together. He loves helping my 4th grader with her math. In other words, he is way beyond the 3 + 2 problems in his math book but he doesn't want to skip ahead and doesn't seem to mind filling out the pages anyway. I don't think he is a math whiz or anything, I just think that most first graders are can do way more than first grade math books expect.

I think the lady at the local homeschool store would remind me why math books are written (for the masses, in public or private school) and how they are designed to fill up 180 days, to catch up the kids who are behind, to review, etc. This makes me tempted to skip math books with him until around 3rd grade, but know that there will be more concepts coming up in his math book that I might forget to cover if we didn't use one. So I will probably keep him on grade level with math, supplement with Games for Math and let him help Dancer when she needs it!

The other little struggle is that my Dino can focus better if he sits across from me at the Teacher's Help Desk but Wild Strawberry think he is invading her territory and throws a royal tantrum. Sometimes she is willing to share the chair  -

We aim to eat lunch by noon and I send the kids outside before or after lunch. Nap Time/Quiet Time is at 1:00 until I wake up and then he has some time to play before music practice. Here are a few things Dino enjoys in his spare time -

Looking through his favorite book -

Watching Dinosaur Train at 2:30 -

Learning to ride without training wheels!

Bear hunting  in the backyard (he finally likes exploring the backyard by himself)

Learning to read notes on piano:

He is tolerating his second year of violin better that the first and is having his first taste of participating in a theatrical production of Daniel and the Lions Den with his sisters and dozens of other home-schooled kids.

He also loves rocks, insects, constructing with K'Nex and Legos, domino run, marble run and playing with his sisters. He loves Wild Strawberry so much that he was in tears the other day as he accused Sunshine of stealing her away from him. Good thing we have another one coming!

Does that bring be to the guilt factor segment (otherwise known as Are We Meeting His Needs?) of this series of posts? I have to admit that I am a little bit worried that we will have another girl in April. Even the neighbors are concerned that he will be the lone boy sandwiched between two sets of girls. Not much I can do about it, though, is there? God will have to know best on this one. If we do have another girl he will have a lot of sisters to protect and torture.

What I do think about when I can't sleep at night are all of the activities I think he would enjoy if we had the time, money and energy to get him there.

• Cub Scouts
• Karate or Tae Kwon Do
• 4H
• an internationally acclaimed boy's choir in the area
• after-school Lego robotics classes through community ed
• more after school sports like soccer, basket ball or hockey

But then I think, he's only in first grade. Can these activities wait? Or will he be hopelessly behind in some sports unless he starts early? Personally, I would like to see each of the children narrow their interests to one musical activity and one physical sport.

I know parents hold wide opinions about outside activities. Some strongly believe in keeping their children home without the hustle and bustle of chauffeuring children around and exposing them to outside attitudes and language. Others believe the effort is worth it when they see their children blossom and develop their passions and talents.

For me, well, I have three other children to tow along, dinner to cook, enough $$$ being shelled out for our current music lessons and a bedtime to keep. Some of these activities go awfully late for little ones!

So, what do you do? Do you let each child pick one activity at a time? Do you require piano for a certain number of years? Do you try to get as many kids in the same activity as possible? Or do you encourage each child to have their own sport or instrument suited to their talents and interests? I would love to hear your replies!

*** I found out just today a little reason why it takes Dino so long to do such easy math lessons. He explained, "I like math the best and just want it to last longer!"

Progress Report - Wild Strawberry

Oh, this child.

One of these children is not like the others:

She is the first child of ours to:

• have blue eyes
• be a picky eater
• be picky about what clothes she wears
• throw full-fledged tantrums
• climb out of the crib
• like to help around the house
• be more willing to repeat Latin words than English words

And she is accomplishing some feats earlier than the others did such as:

• jumping down the stairs with two feet, step-by-step
• jumping down two or three stairs at a time
• climbing up to the top bunk and getting herself down
• dress herself
• undress herself (sometimes in public)

This one is equal parts delight and agony. Like the nursery rhyme about the little girl who had a little curl, "When she was good she was very, very good. When she was bad she was horrid!"

Out little Wild Strawberry thinks she is big like her siblings. She will not be left out. She even thinks she can read Bob books like her big brother! (every page sounds like "Da, da, bee, bee.")

She is behind in only two areas - weight and speech. Our 28 mo girl weighs in at 24 lbs. and uses only around 25 words, the most recent acquisition being, "No, mine!"

I can't really do much about her weight - she is offered all kinds of healthy food and chooses to eat or not. It's feast or famine with her. When served any milk but sweetened Almond Breeze she throws her cup across the kitchen. I do put extra butter on her toast.

The speech, though, should be coming along with so much language in the house. Or maybe she is overloaded by it all? Perhaps she became too dependent on baby sign language?

Worried mother that I am, I called for help. A team from the school district came over for a little play-date evaluation. Because her overall score included understanding and development, she does not qualify for services at this time. But they will check back at 2 1/2. In the meantime we are supposed to learn some visual cues to go with starting consonants when we speak to her. I'll have to study up during my "sofa time"!

During school time, however, we do try to keep her happily occupied. What seems to work best is to have Dino (6yo) play with her as much as possible in the morning. His work is easily accomplished in under an hour so I have learned to let him do it later in the day.

Our front closet used to hold board games. Now it is home to this:

Five storage tubs of toddler toys to rotate on school days. Here's a sampling of their contents:

Around the school room she has her own stack of paper and crayons as well as a BIG floor pad:

I picked up these Kumon books for half-price at Target remembering how much Dino enjoyed them at age 2:

I used to try to keep up with the activities in Slow and Steady Get Me Ready but have fallen way behind. As much as possible I try to include messier activities like painting and play-dough. We have big tubs, one with rice, the other with beans, for her to play in (and the older kids make a bigger mess with this than she does!). With supervision she loves Montessori type works such as  using a dropper to transfer colored water from one glass to another. But here's only so much messy stuff I can let her do while schooling the others. 

Enter in: The Guilt Factor.

Do you get this too? I look through our local ECFE and Parks & Rec course offerings as think, "If only the kids were in school I could take her to Tumble Tots or Library Story Time or Musikgarten or Princess Party class . . . " After this line of thinking I have a pity party, "If only I had a relative or friend in my life who could pick her up and take her to these while the rest of us homeschool . . . "

It's a dangerous trajectory. Moms of many sometimes have to accept that some of these activities are for the privileged first or second child and are increasingly difficult with a bigger brood.

So I read something like Homegrown Kids and feel reassured that the best place for a young child is in the home. She is getting plenty of stimulation, socialization, regularity and love. And boy do we love her! She is wild and sweet and the life of the family. It is difficult for the children to remember what life was like before she came and we can't imagine our family without her!

Progress Report - Pregnancy

Since survival mode began several weeks ago I suddenly find my focus narrowed to the three things I feel I have to function well enough to do: feed myself and my family, cleaning and laundry routines and homeschooling. Cooking and eating has been difficult, but manageable. Cleaning is falling a bit behind - we are not starting the day early enough to get many chores done and still start school by 9:00. Homeschooling is definitely in session and we have completed the first three weeks of MODG. We are still struggling a bit to fit in both violin and piano practice four days a week and I hope this will get easier with time.

By about 5:00 when I am making dinner I find myself utterly exhausted and out of gas. I do try to eat something with protein in the afternoon but by the time DH arrives I am ready to crash. I have to force myself to eat (even though I'm starving) and promptly plop on the sofa or take myself to bed. I won't burden you with TMI about my pregnancy related digestive issues but I will just day that without Zofran I am on the sofa all day barely able to function but with Zofran I suffer an unpleasant side effect requiring a battery of OTCs.

Anyway.

Then there are the nights. The 2yo often cries out in the night, "Mommy-O! Daddy-O!" Then there are night like tonight when I am wakened by sirens going down the county road, followed by "Mommy-O! Daddy-O!", topped off by hunger pangs, a desire for a bowl of granola and a temptation to get up in the quiet of the night and blog. So here I am.

All this late-night wakefulness also lends itself to reflection on my part of the children and how the year is starting out for each of them. In my next few posts I plan to highlight each child and what they are up to. 

So stay tuned in. I'm not up to much these days, but can still blog about what God is helping me to accomplish even in the midst of mild suffering.

Discount!

Didax is offering a 20% off back to school special. The promo code is "BTS2009"

The Didax catalog is full of hands-on learning manipulatives for math and language. I especially like their reading puzzles that can be purchased separately or as a set. I just put in an order to complete our set!

A Slow and Steady Start

This time of year I always marvel in fear and trembling at just how in the world we will have time to "do school" again. It seems that by the end of the summer it takes all day just to accomplish house cleaning, meal making and still have some time outdoors. But somehow, every year for the past three years we managed to start school and we still have time to get the house cleaning and meal making done. Mostly.

Just as we wound down school in June we wound up again this week in a similar style. My key to sanity is not to start them all on the same day. Monday was devoted to Dancer's Day 1, Tuesday to Sunshine and Wednesday to Dino. This worked amazingly well for us and it gave me time to read some prefaces and become more familiar with our new texts. I realized things such as -

• You don't write your answers in the Saxon 5/4 math book and that I needed to make 120 collated copies of three answer forms for a three-ring binder.
• After penciling lines in two blank books for copying poetry I realized that a line guide to place behind the page was provided.
• I still need to buy several pocket folders to hold the Mommy it's a Renoir art postcards. Things like that.

The children's art supplies seem to last for years (I buy Lyra colored pencils and beeswax crayons) so I didn't feel the need to prepare the every-so-cute German Schultuete cones. We do have a tradition of giving the children a new picture book wrapped in a silk scarf and that went over well again this year.

Dancer, who loves anything Arctic/Antarctic received:

Sunshine, who endlessly asks about large numbers was intrigued by:

And Dino who loves books with cut-aways of insect tunnels was overjoyed with:

Even Wild Strawberry received books!

We also do a First Day of School photo on the porch:

Gotta get the toddler too! She won't be left out of anything these days!

After each child completed this Back-to-School book from Enchanted Learning we felt that we were officially back-to-school!

Today we "did school" with all three children, all completing Day 2 and it went amazingly well. Dino played with Wild Strawberry while I worked with the girls. When my 2nd grader finished she switched with her brother and we had all the seatwork done by lunch. Sweet!

Now for handwork, Rosetta Stone French and violin practice - the day is not over yet!

*** I forgot one thing - we eat these cookies on the first day of school too!

How to Quit the Homeschooling Habit

Step One: Decide that you all need a summer break, even if unfinished workbook pages remain in math, handwriting and Explode the Code.

Step Two: Call the babysitter who is now available during the day. Ask her if she is available in, like, 30 minutes to come over while the baby naps.

Step Three: Take the school-aged kids out for ice cream.

Step Four: Go somewhere fun. My kids like this place along the highway with playhouses and gazebos. We went there last year too, so now it qualifies as a Last Day of School Tradition.

We calculated that each child would need to save $2000 and pool their money for one of these  -

Actually, this one met all their criteria: porch, porch swing and an inside loft We can always dream. I told them that if we ever won the lottery they could jump on the bed and then come  here to buy a play house.

Good-bye to 3rd, 1st and kindergarten! Hello to 4th, 2nd and 1st grade!

Coming Events . . .

At Heppner's Legacy

Tuesday, June 16th - Credits Before College (~ 2½ hour workshop)

Cheri Frame (Be sure to check out Cheri's Bio on her website www.CreditsBeforeCollege.com)
Non-refundable registration fee: $35.00 (includes same-night $5 store credit plus an extensive Resource Packet)
Are you resigned to the fact that attending college is expensive?  Most of us hope for the best: scholarships and financial aid, yet try to prepare for the worst: how to repay huge student loans.  There is another way.  Since many introductory college courses are a repeat of those studied in high school, your student can earn college credits for those courses while in high school--and you can cut your college costs in half!
This workshop includes:
Thinking outside of the box--options to consider
Credit by Exam--a very inexpensive and efficient way to achieve college credit through testing programs such as CLEP and Dante
Middle/High school--how to combine earning college credits with your homeschool courses.
Scheduling and studying for exams--effective techniques and free resources including free exams.
PSEO and the MN Transfer Curriculum--combine these options with CBE and open up many more future options.
The Gap Years: Graduating early. . . now what?
Regional Accreditation --How to "bank" and transfer credits to the college of your choice.
Setting a course--earn a year of credits before 11th grade, or simply save hundreds of dollars by passing just one exam--and where to begin.
Degree for $6,000--take the independent-study approach all the way through and have a college diploma in hand by age 18!

Tuesday, July 21st - Where Do I Begin?; A workshop for new & potential homeschoolers

• Nancy Bjorkman
  Non-refundable registration fee: $10.00 (includes same-night $5 store credit)

  Considering homeschooling? Not sure where to begin? This workshop will help define several different learning and teaching styles found in homeschooling families. We will then explore resources and curriculum to fit your family’s particular style. We’ll cover some common roadblocks and misconceptions about "what school should look like" and also discuss many of the stages that homeschool families experience as they walk through the years. There will be a time for interaction and questions.

As seating is limited, pre-registration with a non-refundable reservation fee is required for each attendee on a first-come, first-served basis. Workshop attendees will be given a $5 credit toward any purchase made the evening of the workshop. All workshops will begin at promptly at 7:00 p.m. and will last 1½ - 2 hours (except as noted below). Call today to register! 763-241-HOME (4663)

MACHE in Numbers

So much time has passed since I attended the MACHE (Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators) conference this year that I forget exactly what I intended to share about my experience. I do want to offer some report of my experience because I know some of you are curious and may give it a try one of these years.

First of all, it was HUGE

• attendees numbered 6,200 +
• over 86 workshops
• each workshop I attended must have been filled with 200 - 300 people
• over 100 exhibitors

Impressions of the workshops:

• most of the sessions I attended were worthwhile and I came away with a nugget or two
• most were at least as interesting as the description
• workshop handouts are available online

Purchased from these vendors:

• Rainbow Resources
• Rosetta Stone
• Lifetime Books
• A Beka
• My Father's World
• Corps of Rediscovery

Costs:

• $40 per couple, I think
• around $10 a day parking per car (my DH went half days so we payed double)
• meals (very little meatless on a Friday during Lent!)
• babysitting
• CDs of talks are $7.50 each
• enough water to stay hydrated and quell the cough I had that weekend

Convenience:

• no strollers or wheeled suitcases allowed (this was the policy of the RiverCentre) but . . .
  
• a free book check was offered (nice!)
• we forgot to check the hockey schedule! We had hoped to eat at Cossetta's Friday night before Stations but the hockey crowd was lined up out the door.

Baby Friendly?

• I love seeing so many babies in slings but iit must be awfully inconvenient to attend a conference with a baby and without a stroller that doubles as a shopping cart and diaper bag holder
• I heard that the nursing mom's room had one sofa to sit on and most moms had to sit on the floor to nurse
• at least one of the speakers I heard considers babies a blessing and has sixteen of her own

People Watching:

• all lengths of hair
• all lengths of hemlines
• lots of babies
• lots of pregnant mamas
• lots of home-sewn clothes
• lots of smiles and Christian joy in faces
• seemed very inclusive of a wide variety of Protestant denominations

 

Other neat ideas:

• a prayer team to pray for the conference, speakers, attendees
• a display board featuring seniors with photos and their future plans
• a program for high school students during the conference

Overall:

A worthwhile experience, though I must admit to feeling a little out of place as a Catholic Christian. Maybe I am too much of a sensitive melancholic, but I felt as though the organizers do not define Catholics as Christians. Maybe some do. Maybe some don't. One talk I attended contained anti-Catholic views of  the English reformation.

While I am thankful we have our own Catholic conference to attend I can't help thinking about how nice it would be to go to one big conference instead of two and for Catholics to be represented among the speakers and vendors. Maybe we could have our own little corner in the vendor area arranged in way as to not offend others with our statues, rosaries and icons?

Would I Go Again?

Perhaps, the next time it is in St. Paul. The 2010 conference will be in Rochester. I did enjoy seeing so many curriculum options, even if many were not viable (like I doubt I would ever use Bob Jones or Rod and Staff). Some programs I might use, for instance, I learned that Nature's Workshop sells experiment kits to go with the K-6 Apologia science should I ever choose to use that text. I was pleased with my finds - the pioneer craft kits at Corps of Rediscovery, the discount Rosetta Stone offered on three years of French and  books I had seen on the Ambleside list and in the Sonlight catalog. Personally, I wish I had attended this conference years ago when we were just beginning so I could have seen some other options like My Father's World and Sonlight.

What seems to me to missing at both MACHE and the MCHEC are Montessori vendors. My impression is that many homeschoolers draw on Montessori for the preschool years and beyond and I have always been puzzled as to why I have not seen Montessori materials at curriculum fairs.

Have you gone? What did you think? Anyone who attended please feel free to add your impressions to the combox.