Grandma's Boy

Shameless brag, here. Isn't he just adorable? He is 8 weeks old now.

New Year, New Look

As everyone can plainly see, I've finally decided to change the look of my blog a little bit. Don't worry, I'm not done. Well, I might be. I'll probably be too lazy to change it again for another 5 years. I'm not 100% sure about this font, and I don't like the big, blank space on the upper right side. My picture should go all the way across the top. Or I should be able to put a few smaller pictures in that spot. (Like of my kids, but that's too sensible.) But with this template I can't. But I like the template. Or maybe I'm just too technologically inept. Which is, most likely, the case.

So for now, this is the new look. I hope everyone's new year goes better than my blog-altering abilities...Happy 2013!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We finished school Friday. We will be on break until January 7th. I have been cleaning and sorting all weekend. Look at all this curriculum I donated to the Goodwill Saturday! I'm too lazy to post ads for sale, and keep having to make trips to the post office. I had no idea I had this much! (We did not donate the cat. LOL)

We also donated about 80 additional books to the library. The above picture is just of the curriculum.

I was also able to finish up my Christmas shopping yesterday morning. Today we will be doing our last-minute grocery shopping, cooking our Christmas Eve dinner, and baking cookies. Tomorrow the girls and I will just enjoy at home with our small family.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

Good-bye Saxon

After 9 years, we are finally saying good-bye to Saxon math. Colleen began using this when she was in public school. I have a certain sentimental attachment to Saxon math. BECAUSE she used it in ps, and I was familiar with it, and because I was a homeschooling novice and knew of no other math program back then, Saxon was what I ordered for her. In fact, Saxon 54 was the very first homeschooling purchase I ever made. I actually ordered it 4 months before I pulled Colleen out of ps.

Saxon worked well for us up until this year. This year we have been doing pre-algebra. We are almost finished with the book. It is December, a time when I typically have been researching and choosing the next year's curriculum. Colleen normally begins her next grade level in January or February. Because she will be moving up to 9th grade, a FRESHMAN, AND because she has really been struggling with pre-algebra, I have been stressing myself out to the max over what math to use for her. Saxon seemed fine for the lower grades. Colleen caught on and moved through each grade level quickly. For 4 months now, I have known I would NOT continue to use Saxon math for her. For four months I have looked and looked, researched, asked other parents what works for THEIR child, looked at samples online, watched videos, discussed math programs ad nauseum with Colleen, made HER watch videos, read reviews, take placement tests.

Each day we struggle through math. Colleen takes about an hour, maybe a little more, doing her 30 daily problems, and each Friday she takes a test. However, we then have to take ANOTHER 45 minutes or so correcting all the problems she is missing. Saxon calls itself "incremental", which is a code word for spiral mathematics that just leap from topic to topic randomly, with only about 3 problems each assignment that actually have to do with the lesson for that day. Ok, maybe SAXON has a rhyme and reason for them leaping from topic to topic, but I sure don't see it, and it isn't working for us. And of course Saxon is well known for its tedious, repetitive practice OVERLOAD in the primary grades. But then we get to the higher levels of math and there is less and less practice. The past couple of weeks I have actually been spending my mornings making up my own practice problems for Colleen to do before we even open her book.

Um....why am I writing out pages of practice problems when I HAVE a book? Why do they introduce a concept, such as solving for 2 variables, and then only have 2 problems per problem set dealing with this? Yes, to ME, it is easy. I LOVE algebra. (I'm a geek, what can I say?) To my 14 year old daughter, it is difficult, and she doesn't "get it". Well, if you are in softball, you don't expect to show up at practice and hit fair balls, only batting twice a day. Ok, yes, for some people that works. My younger daughter doesn't even need to keep hearing me explain a new concept; she tells me, "Ok, Mom, I know." and has the problems done while I'm still talking. Colleen, on the other hand has reached a level where she simply needs more practice, and more consistency in the lessons, not jumping from one topic to the next. Then Colleen gets frustrated and angry, slamming the book and declaring herself stupid.

Ok, so for 4 months now I have known this was it. I knew Saxon was done in this house. I just haven't known WHAT was going to replace it. Colleen doesn't LIKE any of the samples we have looked at online. She doesn't WANT a video/DVD teacher. Colleen is pretty set in her ways for such a young girl. She doesn't like change of any kind. She actually WANTED to stick with Saxon through high school math. She figures I can just keep holding her hand and getting her through it. We went with change for math once, 2 years ago, and went with a mastery math program, and it was a dismal failure. Most likely because it revealed WAY too many gaps that Saxon had left.

I have been stressing out over ALL our soon-to-be-ordered curriculum, for both girls. But Algebra has definitely been my main worry. I have never spent this much time deciding on curriculum. I've been close to choosing a popular video text math, but Colleen just could not abide the thought of the man's voice doing the teaching on the DVD. Can't say I blame her. I almost chose another program, too, but something kept stopping me. Other than that, I was up in the air, starting to panic over it being almost Christmas break, and not only do I not HAVE next year's math here at the house, I don't even know WHAT next year's math will be. I was just about to throw in the towel, and just order Saxon, but I just couldn't quite make myself do it. Much as I love algebra, I just don't want to spend all my free time writing out equations and problems. That's what the book is for.

And then. Last night. (hear the choir of angels singing in the background here?) I was idly on another site reading math reviews. This is for a company that only has math for grades 1-6. BUT.....it has suggestions for what to move on to from that particular program. And since, like most homeschooling mothers, I am addicted to researching curriculum, I clicked on the links to read reviews of higher maths. And there were several there I had never even heard of. Then I read user reviews. Then I went over to Amazon, and read their user reviews. Then I made Colleen come over here to the computer, and I showed HER, because it was truly the best looking Algebra program I've seen yet. AND SHE LIKED IT TOO.

And so...an end to an era....good-bye Saxon. You were good for awhile, but it's time for you to move aside for: Jacob's Algebra. As soon as I looked at Jacob's Algebra (and their Geometry, too, because what homeschooling mom doesn't look ahead at the upcoming years?) I just KNEW this was the one. Really, I felt it was right. And when Colleen agreed, and was SMILING over a MATH prgram? Yeah, that clinched it. So, in just little more than an hour, I will be calling Rainbow Resource (yes, I'm old-fashioned, and like to CALL in the order, as opposed to ordering online.) and ordering this. We will start it as soon as we go back to school in January after Christmas break.

Best Buy Ain't Got Nothin' On Me....

And they told me there was no way to transfer 5 1/2 years worth of our old Wii data to my brand new one. Ha!

Why Homeschooled Kids Don't Get Their Math Done...

So we got vitually NO school done in November

The first week of November entailed my 2 youngest daughters getting food posioning, and then just when they were starting to recover I got it about 5 times worse. I don't recall being that sick to my stomach EVER, and I don't wish to repeat it. I was only sick 24 hours, but lost 11 pounds. It took me the rest of the week to get back to feeling normal, but I only had one day to sleep, before my oldest daughter went into labor. So, after only the one day of rest, I then went 58 hours with no sleep, at the hospital with her. It was well worth it, though, because being there with her, and seeing my grandson being born was the most amazing, awesome experience ever.

The whole time I was sick, recovering, and gone at the hospital, 14 year old Colleen took care of EVERYTHING here at the house, even sacrificing her sleep time to get up at 6:45 two mornings in a row to come take care of our 16 pets. (I promise we aren't hoarders; they are all very well taken care of and my house is as clean as any homeschooler's house is.) I could not have done it without Colleen's help, though.

Two days after the baby was born, we had a cat emergency, requiring us to make a late Saturday night trip to the vet for a deathly sick cat, who ended up anesthetized just for the vet to be able to examine him, and then undergoing surgery.

The next few days involved a few visits over to April's house, because she was afraid to change her new son's diaper for fear of hurting him, and was letting her husband do ALL the baby care. Since he was going back to work the next day, she needed to learn to do it herself. She went through a brief period of new mommy panic, but all is well now.

My husband had a birthday early in the month, but unfortunately that was the day I was half dead from being sick. His dad also had a birthday, which I DID manage to at least get his presents to him on time. My husband had to wait 11 days before I had time to make his birthday dinner and cake, and that was all he got this year.

So by now it is mid-November, and I think we will get back on track with school. But, alas, another sick cat, another trip to the vet, and a sick baby. Thankfully, Brendan just had a common case of thrush, but it took our whole afternoon waiting for the doctor to call back, and me to go get his medicine. Of course his health insurance card came in the mail about an hour AFTER I left. LOL

Then Thanksgiving week. Which, as all of you know, entails a gigantic grocery shopping trip and two days of cooking. The girls and I work at the animal shelter on Thanksgiving Day, itself, since they don't get much help on holidays, and had our dinner Friday. Saturday we worked at the animal shelter again, since we wouldn't be able to go for our usual Sunday hours. Last Sunday we went to my ex-sister-in-law's for a second Thanksgiving dinner. I am turkey'd out, but it was all good. Just a really busy week, and a really busy month. One thing after another.

This past week, we actually got things accomplished. We got our 7 month old kitten neutered...the last of my pets to need "fixed". This one was a planned vet visit, unlike the two prior emergency cat visits. We did school every single day, and we managed to do every single 4th grade subject, and every single 8th grade subject done.

I am proud of my daughters for working so hard all week, and all month, helping me, dealing with all the baby and cat issues. We have 3 more weeks till we go on Christmas break, so I pray we have a smoother month, and can meet our goals for schoolwork.

Now I have 23 days to figure out Christmas. : )

A Precious New Life to be Thankful for This Year : )

I am thankful every day for the special people in my life, most especially my daughters, being their mom, being blessed to raise and homeschool them. But 2 weeks ago today, a NEW little person came into this world.....my first grandson.

Announcing Brendan Dean. I was blessed to be present for April's entire labor and delivery. Both she and Brendan are healthy. Here is Brendan about 10 minutes after birth:

His first family photo:

MY first photo as a GRANDMA: (this is what I look like after 58 hours with no sleep, LOL)

Aunt C:

Aunt E:

And Brendan and happy parents just a few days ago:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! The girls and I are off to work at the animal shelter this morning, as we did last year. We will have our family dinner tomorrow, and another Thanksgiving dinner Sunday at my ex-sister-in-law's house.

It's Been Awhile Since I've Written a School Update

C will have her 8th grade year completed by January or February, as usual, and I have already chosen part of her 9th grade curriculum. She has completed 76 lessons, and 18 tests in her Saxon pre-algebra. She has been averaging a B for math, although yesterday she got a C on her test. I took half off on 2 problems because she didn't fully reduce the answers, although she had the correct answers, which dropped her grade from a 90 to an 85.

She does 2 lessons per day in her Easy Grammar. They take her all of maybe 5 minutes, and are, frankly, a waste of her time to do, and my time to grade, but it covers the legal requirements for covering grammar. : )

She is doing very well with Apologia's Jump In writing. She doesn't LIKE it, but there will never be anything involving writing for this girl that she will like. We have completed the first 3 chapters, an opinion, a persuasive essay, and a cause-and-effect-persuasive paper. She actually wrote the persuasive paper twice. Once for school, and once in a different, very limited word count, to send in to the local paper's Letters to the Editor. Now we are taking a "break" and doing Jump In's writing plunges for a couple of weeks. You would think that would be easy, but for this child, it is like pulling teeth. Ironically, E was upset that SHE couldn't do writing plunges, so at her request, she is now writing on C's assigned topics, too. At least one of my children enjoys writing.

Social Studies....well, that is MY favorite subject of the year, maybe because we have spent 8 weeks studying the Holocaust. This year we are using something I stumbled into by accident, and that no one I've heard of uses: Perfection Learnings "Literature and Thought". (Sorry, if I knew how to insert links that actually worked into my blog I would, but they never work...google it if you're interested....I HIGHLY recommend this program.) Anyway, this program consists of short, 4-6 week studies of certain historical eras/events using actual literature from that period, letters, documents, personal narratives, newspaper articles, poems, etc. It combines History and Literature, and yes, more writing, into one subject. Yes, we could have gotten this done in the 4-6 weeks it is supposed to take, but because of how in-depth we have gone, we have spent longer. Each chaper, or "cluster" as they call it, has several short pieces of literature, with vocabulary words, and comprehension and analysis questions. But there is also one MAIN question that is to answered throughout the entire cluster, and at the end, instead of a test, she writes a paper to answer the overall question. There are also tons of suggested further reading (and funny, with my fascination with the Holocaust, I already own much of it, LOL), and websites for further research. C and I have spent hours watching videos of actual liberation footage, interviews with many of the victims and authors, and extra rabbit-trails. In addition to the topics in the book, we have had to learn about atomic bombs and the after-effects of nuclear war, due to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yesterday we were discussing other instances of genocide, and got on a roll gathering information about the UN. Which has an excellent website, for any of you interested. Who knew? LOL And of course, I happen to have numerous books on Rwanda and Darfur, too, you know, for anyone wanting to do further reading. Anyway, this program has been wonderful...everything I'd hoped for when I found it and more. We will finish up the Holocaust this week, and after a week or so break, we will be studying the Constitution. Not as fun, maybe, but I can't think of a better time in history to be studying and learning about the foundations our country was built on and supposed to be following.

Go figure...I just rambled so much about HISTORY that I am making this too long. That pretty much leaves science. This year, C is "unschooling" science. For those of you that aren't homeschoolers, this means she has no formal textbook, and follows her own interests. Considering we are a very sciencey family, and cover a variety of science topics in our day to day life, we aren't having a problem with this. As I've already posted, C took 6 enrichment classes over the summer at our local community college. 4 of them were science classes, and one was a babysitting/first aid class, which would constitute as a "Health" class. She is also helping E and I do Abeka's 5th grade science this year. (Which is my all time favorite science text ever, and I'm loving getting to do it again with a second child.) I'm amazed at how much C remembers of this book from when we did it 4 years ago. We are currently studying geology, which coincides perfectly with C's ongoing interest in rocks. I let both girls choose and order several items from Home Science Tools this year, and the first thing C chose was an entire kit about rocks.

Well, my original intention was to post a brief update on both girls' progress so far this year. I should have known I'd never keep it brief. Sorry, E, but I'll get to your school update at a later time. I WILL mention that E is FLYING through BJU Math 4 with, as always, straight A's. Her spelling, while no where close to perfect, has steadily been vastly imroving, too, and her cursive handwriting is gorgeous. She can't print worth a hoot, though, still looks like a first grader's printing. It's embarrassing, so we just stick to cursive. ; )

Hope all my readers are doing well, and hopefully next time I post I will be a GRANDMA....the baby is due in only 9 more days!

Just Another Reason I Love Homeschooling...

We have been busy all week. Sunday, E and I cleaned the house top to bottom while C volunteered at the animal shelter. She's going on Sundays now alone, because that's the day they have the least help, and they've decided C is mature and responsible enough to work there without me having to be there every single time. E and I still plan to go, but only every 2 or 3 weeks.

Monday, I decided not to do school because it was more imperative to buy jeans that actually fit C. I had new shirts for her birthday, but there is no way I can buy jeans without her trying them on. She had none at all. All of us hate shopping, unless it's for books, but we managed to get C 3 new pairs of jeans, 8 bras, and a pair of tennis shoes. E got one pair of jeans, a pair of sweatpants, a pair of shoes, and a much-needed haircut. I got a pair of tennis shoes, one bra, and some much-addicted-to Bath and Body Works shower gel, lotion, and body spray.

Tuesday was C's birthday. She asked for blueberry muffins for breakfast and then opened her presents. I have never liked having to make children wait for their gift-opening. It makes no sense to give them things at the end of the day when they will have no time to enjoy them. I then made her brownies (not ONE of my children have ever asked for cake.) Then we waited for Dustin to get off work, so he and April could join us in having a birthday dinner at Olive Garden, and then they came over here to the house to play games with C and E.

Wednesday I figured we'd had 2 days off school so we might as well continue taking it easy. Both girls did math, and C wrote her final draft on her persuasive essay and 2 pages in Easy Grammar. Then we took the dogs to the vet so Lucky could get her nails trimmed, and Shadow could get some ear medicine.

Thursday was the one nice day this week with nice weather. C had asked to go to our local state park for her birthday, but every day this week has been cold and rainy, except yesterday. We did our grocery shopping, came home, and the girls did school while I vaccuumed. Then I had to take April to her doctor's appointment....only 4 more weeks till the baby is due! As soon as her appointment was over the girls and I took off for the park, where we hiked a trail, played at the park, stopped and explored several areas, and hiked some more. The weather was GORGEOUS, and the trees are turning their beautiful fall colors. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Today the cable company was supposed to come fix whatever was causing me to not have internet, but they called and asked me to check it an hour or so ago, and they got it fixed without having to come to the house. I have most of my chores done, and will soon be waking the girls up to start school and the rest of our chores. My husband has decided to cook supper for us tonight, so I'm off the hook there. We might actually get a full day of school in.

So what is the reason on my title that I love homeschooling? The reason is that I can't IMAGINE being able to get all this other stuff done if my daughters were gone all day and doing homework all evening! I love my girls, and I love spending time with them, and working one on one with them, knowing how they are doing and what they need to work on with every lesson, in every subject. I know when I need to sit and work with them, and when I can assign them something while I clean house or take a bath. I love knowing they are months ahead in their lessons and we can just take most of the week off to get things done that NEED to be done or are just for fun. We couldn't have gotten clothes that were needed, we couldn't have gotten the haircut, we couldn't have enjoyed C's birthday, it would have been rushed, and we couldn't have spent the whole afternoon and evening enjoying nature on the one day this week that the weather cooperated, and C couldn't be gaining valuable experience working at a no-kill shelter weekly. I simply don't know how we could do all that we do if my girls spent most of their waking hours not home, and spending their evenings doing homework.

This is our fifth year homeschooling, and I love it more and more, for SO many reasons. This week is just one example of many that it is what is best for our family.