Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and a yummy dinner.
We only had school Monday and Tuesday this week. E didn't have to do any this week at all. She doesn't even realize it, but she has finished every speck of kindergarten work I could find, and is well into first grade now. There are a few curriculum I need to still buy her, but we have plenty. The rest is just icing. One thing I'd like to be able to buy her is "Moving Beyond the Page's" Pattern book for 5-7 year olds. If ever a child was addicted to math and patterns, E is, and it would be a fun addition to our schedule. However, at $90 for a semester, it will have to wait until after Christmas presents are bought.
Congrats my sweet E for working so hard, and learning so quickly. It's very bittersweet for me to realize you're already a first-grader.
Our main plan this week is to successfully make another great dinner. C will be getting lots of "home-ec". I feel at 10, she can make the deviled eggs, cherry fluff, and home-made cranberry sauce this year. (With my supervision, of course.) She and E can both help with pumpkin pie.
We have a 21 pound turkey this year. It will be just the 5 of us again, but last year 15 pounds didn't do it. Skinny-minny step-daughter eats 12 pounds by herself. : ) And yes, I said 5, not 6, of us. B(14) is once again not home due to her behavior issues.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Things you'd only hear a homeschooled child say....
A few weeks ago C and E were in the yard playing. C came running in. "Mom! Mom! Get my science book! Hurry! There's an insect out by a dandelion, and I need to see if it's a honeybee drone, or an American Hoverfly!" We'd studied insects 2 months ago.
LOL
Last night in Mc Donald's, happily eating a cheeseburger...."Daddy, do you know how the state of Virginia got it's name?"
"Um, no."
"Well, because when Raleigh sent some people over to the New World to explore and look for a place to settle, they named the land Virginia after the Queen of England. Her name was really Queen Elizabeth I, but since she had never married, everyone called her 'the virgin queen'. Get it? VIRGIN queen...VIRGINIA?" This was 2 or 3 weeks after we had learned about it.
LOL again.
Overheard while playing Guitar Hero with her big sister....C happily explaining in great detail about the missing colony in Roanoke, and the settlement of Jamestown, and how it almost didn't last, either, until John Smith stepped up as leader, and told the settlers, "You don't work. You don't eat." Big sister, listening intently, and complaining that she had never heard that before, and how come C got to learn all the interesting stuff.
At least I don't have to issue out tests every week to see if she memorized material. She, quite obviously, is retaining what we read and discuss. Of course, I have the advantage of working one on one with my students, and exploring further anything they want, and I already KNOW she's learning.
LOL
Last night in Mc Donald's, happily eating a cheeseburger...."Daddy, do you know how the state of Virginia got it's name?"
"Um, no."
"Well, because when Raleigh sent some people over to the New World to explore and look for a place to settle, they named the land Virginia after the Queen of England. Her name was really Queen Elizabeth I, but since she had never married, everyone called her 'the virgin queen'. Get it? VIRGIN queen...VIRGINIA?" This was 2 or 3 weeks after we had learned about it.
LOL again.
Overheard while playing Guitar Hero with her big sister....C happily explaining in great detail about the missing colony in Roanoke, and the settlement of Jamestown, and how it almost didn't last, either, until John Smith stepped up as leader, and told the settlers, "You don't work. You don't eat." Big sister, listening intently, and complaining that she had never heard that before, and how come C got to learn all the interesting stuff.
At least I don't have to issue out tests every week to see if she memorized material. She, quite obviously, is retaining what we read and discuss. Of course, I have the advantage of working one on one with my students, and exploring further anything they want, and I already KNOW she's learning.
Where we stand for the year so far....4th grade
Well, C and I have finished Story of the World, Vol. 1. We both have enjoyed it; C loves it so much she is begging for Vol. 2. We are on Lesson 58 out of 120 in Saxon 54. Which means we have 62 lessons, 7 investigations, and 13 tests left. In US History and Geography we are about 1/3 of the way through the book. Currently we are studying the origins of the original 13 colonies, and early government under England. We've finished the New England colonies, and are moving on to the Middle and Southern colonies. We are taking a brief (2 weeks) break from Vocab, because it's just for extra practice, and C has informed me she doesn't like it. In science we are beginning Unit 3, about Light. Unit 1 was on insects and flowers, and believe it or not it was actually fun and interesting. (Who'd've thunk it? ) Unit 2 was THE LONGEST unit ever on mammals. Fortunately we both enjoyed that one too, and hopefully never have such a long unit again. I have no idea how Astronomy is going, because that is C and her dad's thing. : )
But the big news is.....Language Arts. Oh, the dreaded, horrid, Language Arts. 7 months ago when I began homeschooling C, she had had NO writing instruction whatsoever. She hated it. She knew virtually nothing. I can thank God she is a natural speller like me, and also seems to just naturally know how punctuation goes. However, the child couldn't write a decent sentence, let alone even know what a paragraph was. I was really dreading this year's English, because not only does she hate it....I love writing, and never had an issue with it, so it is very frustrating to me to see her struggle on what seems to me to be something she ought to just KNOW how to do.
We have actually covered almost half of the material in her 4th grade book. She has mainly done well, although we had a few issues on using encyclopedias, and I made her re-do the entire chapter. We did Units 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. You notice we skipped 4. That's because Unit 4 is all about writing reports. Written and oral book reports, and a written research paper. I knew she wasn't ready, and I knew I would probably just get angry and frustrated, even though the girl can't help no one had taught her. Finally, last week I could put it off no longer. I felt that since we were so far ahead in Language, that I could afford to devote an entire 4 weeks to this one unit. Actually, I had planned to allow 4 weeks soley for the research paper. We began the unit, and just went through each lesson. We came to the assignment: Write at least a 125 word paper about "George Washington Carver". I waited for her to balk. She didn't. She was very diligent about her work. She read an encyclopedia article, she took notes, making sure to put them in her own words. I assigned the rough draft. She spent 2 hours writing the rough draft. The only problems I found were the order was off, and there were 2 or 3 places I felt she needed to clarify a little more. I explained that someone who hadn't read anything about this man before wouldn't understand, and she had to write in a way that ANYONE would know what she meant. She went through and re-wrote the whole report, revising and adding/editing where I suggested. We went back through it. I found very few problems, and only had a few suggestions. Wednesday evening I fell asleep after dinner. I woke up. The house was silent. I found Daddy and E watching TV. C was in her room. A short while later, she emerged from her room, and shyly handed me her notebook. Of her own free will she had completed her final copy of her report while I had been sleeping. It was't even due yet. It was over 200 words long. I don't think I could have written it better. I found one error in the entire paper...she had left out the word "a" in a sentence.
I actually teared up. Who would have believed a few months ago my daughter could write so beautifully? She cried over paragraphs, and had no idea how to go about writing or researching. Who would have believed a 4th grader's report on an assigned topic would make me so emotional. Not only was it skillfully written, she finished it entirely on her own! It wasn't due yet; I wasn't pushing her because I know she hates writing. She said, "I wanted to surprise you, Mommy." Well, boy, did she! Even Daddy and 17 year-old sister were impressed. (I had her read it aloud to them.)
Big sister said, "Mom, there are seniors in high school who can't write this well! That's why I dropped out of journalism class....because I got so tired of the teacher making everyone learn to write paragraphs because they couldn't figure out how to write articles for the school paper." It was nice to hear that, because I know my pride was a result of loving my child, and knowing how hard she worked, and how far she has come. I might have been just a wee bit predjudiced. I gave her an "A" for her final grade on the report, and Daddy was offended. "WHY would you give her an A? That should be an A+" I said, "I don't give out A+'s in writing! There are so many ways to express things in writing, and so many opinions on what constitutes writing well, and A is the highest I will ever give."
Congratulations C. You made me so proud! I know you still don't LIKE writing, but don't ever tell me you CAN'T write! : )
But the big news is.....Language Arts. Oh, the dreaded, horrid, Language Arts. 7 months ago when I began homeschooling C, she had had NO writing instruction whatsoever. She hated it. She knew virtually nothing. I can thank God she is a natural speller like me, and also seems to just naturally know how punctuation goes. However, the child couldn't write a decent sentence, let alone even know what a paragraph was. I was really dreading this year's English, because not only does she hate it....I love writing, and never had an issue with it, so it is very frustrating to me to see her struggle on what seems to me to be something she ought to just KNOW how to do.
We have actually covered almost half of the material in her 4th grade book. She has mainly done well, although we had a few issues on using encyclopedias, and I made her re-do the entire chapter. We did Units 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. You notice we skipped 4. That's because Unit 4 is all about writing reports. Written and oral book reports, and a written research paper. I knew she wasn't ready, and I knew I would probably just get angry and frustrated, even though the girl can't help no one had taught her. Finally, last week I could put it off no longer. I felt that since we were so far ahead in Language, that I could afford to devote an entire 4 weeks to this one unit. Actually, I had planned to allow 4 weeks soley for the research paper. We began the unit, and just went through each lesson. We came to the assignment: Write at least a 125 word paper about "George Washington Carver". I waited for her to balk. She didn't. She was very diligent about her work. She read an encyclopedia article, she took notes, making sure to put them in her own words. I assigned the rough draft. She spent 2 hours writing the rough draft. The only problems I found were the order was off, and there were 2 or 3 places I felt she needed to clarify a little more. I explained that someone who hadn't read anything about this man before wouldn't understand, and she had to write in a way that ANYONE would know what she meant. She went through and re-wrote the whole report, revising and adding/editing where I suggested. We went back through it. I found very few problems, and only had a few suggestions. Wednesday evening I fell asleep after dinner. I woke up. The house was silent. I found Daddy and E watching TV. C was in her room. A short while later, she emerged from her room, and shyly handed me her notebook. Of her own free will she had completed her final copy of her report while I had been sleeping. It was't even due yet. It was over 200 words long. I don't think I could have written it better. I found one error in the entire paper...she had left out the word "a" in a sentence.
I actually teared up. Who would have believed a few months ago my daughter could write so beautifully? She cried over paragraphs, and had no idea how to go about writing or researching. Who would have believed a 4th grader's report on an assigned topic would make me so emotional. Not only was it skillfully written, she finished it entirely on her own! It wasn't due yet; I wasn't pushing her because I know she hates writing. She said, "I wanted to surprise you, Mommy." Well, boy, did she! Even Daddy and 17 year-old sister were impressed. (I had her read it aloud to them.)
Big sister said, "Mom, there are seniors in high school who can't write this well! That's why I dropped out of journalism class....because I got so tired of the teacher making everyone learn to write paragraphs because they couldn't figure out how to write articles for the school paper." It was nice to hear that, because I know my pride was a result of loving my child, and knowing how hard she worked, and how far she has come. I might have been just a wee bit predjudiced. I gave her an "A" for her final grade on the report, and Daddy was offended. "WHY would you give her an A? That should be an A+" I said, "I don't give out A+'s in writing! There are so many ways to express things in writing, and so many opinions on what constitutes writing well, and A is the highest I will ever give."
Congratulations C. You made me so proud! I know you still don't LIKE writing, but don't ever tell me you CAN'T write! : )
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