Wow. I just realized I have not done an update for over 2 months. I suppose, as tomorrow is our last day of school until after the new year, I should. First, though, Let me explain WHY I have not been posting. D and I are in the process of getting a divorce. We officially seperated Oct. 23, and he moved out of our home Nov 13. For a few of you that read this blog, this was not a surprise, as you have known D and I the entire length of our marriage. For those of you that I've met through the homeschooling community, I imagine this is quite a shock, as I keep my private life just that...PRIVATE, and this is the first time I have brought it up. I will not go into the reasons on a public blog, but this is for the best. D and I just have too many problems that could not ever be resolved. He and I both are in agreeance that we would like me to be able to continue homeschooling the girls, therefore I am trying to make plans to find an at-home job that will allow me to keep the girls here at home, and yet earn some income to survive. D is NOT contributing at this time in any way financiallly. Thankfully, the Lord has been providing, and we are making it.
Now for the update on school-related topics.
C, in 5th grade, is doing WONDERFULLY. She has completed Saxon 65 math through lesson 93, earning A's in all her tests and assignments, She will be finished with the book within 3 months. We are wrapping up Unit 8 in BJU English tomorrow, which is exactly half-way. I STILL can not say enough good things about this english program, as she is finally getting straight A's in English, too, and has actually written several good pieces this year, in addition to cementing her grammar skills, and learning to diagram sentences. She's even written some poetry, and is currently working on a play for her sister, and their friend to perform. C has also finished book 3 out of 5 in her Bible for this year, and is loving this subject. She is on unit 24 (out of 36)in Spelling. All this adds up to my daughter will be done with her 5th grade work within 3 more months.
E is doing wonderfully with her first grade material. There was quite a long period that we did not do any formal schooling....for almost 4 weeks. E is so active and high strung, and I was feeling unable to cope well with all that is going on in my life that we took an extended break. It's easy to do this, when we school year-round, and she is still ahead for her year. When we finally got back to school for her I was afraid she would have forgotten everything. To the contrary...the break was the best thing I've ever done for her! Not only did she remember everything, she has been doing a far better job in her schoolwork than before. Instead of math boring her, she whizzes thorugh her math facts, and is into adding 3 numbers at a time, and double-digit addition. Instead of whining about having to write a few words, she is now writing several sentences per day, and up to doing 2 pages a day in English, as opposed to 1/2 or 1 page a few months ago. Her had-writing has improved TREMENDOUSLY, and she is reading fairly fluently, although her spelling is still more phonetic, than correct on many words. She has only 6 lessons left in Bible, and will be done with the entire first grade Bible curriculum. As I've mentioned before, E does school on no set schedue, other than when she asks to, so I anticipate accomplishing a lot with her over the Christmas "break". As long as she keeps progressing well, and enjoying her work, I see no reason to change what we've done and has worked for 2 years now.
Both girls have still been doing science together. I had hoped to have finished Zoology 1 by Christmas, but science was laid by the way-side for awhile, while I was feeling overwhelmed just trying to get the basics, reading, writing, and 'rithmatic done, so we are only half way through the book. Science, is one subject we will probably continue with through our "break", also, as both girls ask for it frequently, and usually during the hour or so before bedtime, which actually works out very well.
C and E have both also been working in their map skills/geography books, but we have not done any FORMAL history since September. We have done quite a bit of INformal history through reading "living" books, documentaries on TV (C just loves the show, "Cities of the Underworld" on the History Channel), and looking up places and events online.
My hopes are to be able to still somehow afford Sonlight's Core 5, Eastern Hemisphere for her upcoming school year, along with SL's core 5 science. Both are reportedly THE BEST in Sonlight's line-up, and cover very extensively areas of study I feel imperative for her to learn. However, you get what you pay for, and for these 2 programs alone, the cost will be a little over $800. Add in her English and Math, and I will need to come up with $1000 for her full 6th grade year. That is my dream for her next year, but time and finances will tell the reality. Paying for a divorce from a father that does not contribute, trying to find some work that will still allow me to be home, and still keep up with normal bills and groceries, does not leave me with money for the EXCELLENT programs I've had planned for over a year now.
Thankfully, E's 2nd grade curriculum won't be nearly as expensive. No Sonlight for her, and although I have not researched enough on all her subjects, I am tentatively planning to at least use R&S English for her 2nd grade year, which is thorough, rigorous, and yet, very inexpensive. I will not decide on her math until she is closer to finishing her first grade book, and as she is such a whiz in math, it is a difficult choice among all the many good math programs out there. All I know for certain regarding math for E is that it is time to move away from Abeka, and she is too young to start Saxon; I won't begin her in Saxon until 4th grade. She does not need repetition, as she grasps concepts very quickly, although a small amount of review would be good for her. I have not even had the inclination this year to even look ahead for her other subjects.
Another quick thing to update on, we were able to have a week-long visit with April and Lance the first week of December. Lance's father suffered 2 heart attacks, and underwent cardiac surgery. Lance obtained emergency leave, and he and April stayed here at out house. Although they spent much of their time at the hospital and with his father, we were still able to see a lot of each other, and had a nice visit. They even worked in a special afternoon with just C and E, going out to lunch and bowling, which meant a lot to the 2 little sisters, who have missed them greatly. I am impressed with how mature April has become in just 6 months of being a married young woman. (Although her housekeeping skills need work!!!! LOL) We are so thankful Lance's dad is recovering well, and even though the reason for the visit was scary, we are thankful for April and Lance making it safely here and back home, and for the nice times we had.
One last thing I'd like to mention, a HUGE thank you to two of my friends. Denise, thank you for being tolerant of my going days/weeks without e-mailing, you, only to barrage you with my problems and moods. Thank you for listening to me, and being there for me, and for your many kind invitations. You are awesome! And M...I can't begin to list the things I have to thank YOU for. You are one super-special friend to all 3 of us.
My apologies for such a long post, but there's been a ton of changes in my life the past few months, and I haven't felt like writing until now. Wishing everyone who read this far a great Christmas and New Year.
Showing posts with label Update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Update. Show all posts
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Week 3 Review
We had a very productive week, even though it was shortened by Labor Day.
In Math, C completed Lessons 52, 53, and 54. She missed one problem each day, and every time it was a problem on using the distributive property of multiplication. She obviously isn't getting it, but since she can multiply those numbers in her head, I don't really care. Yesterday she was so tired of missing the same type of problem she actually voluntarily took notes on my explanation to refer to.
E did 3 pages of math with her dad. He's not being very consistent, so I've started orally drilling her on facts and skip counting, so she doesn't forget. She does fine; it's just that they will never get through the book at this rate, even though I had her 1/3 of the way through it before he took over.
C completed the next 4 pages of Daily Grams, and wrote a compare/contrast essay all by herself. She earned an A. This is a huge accomplishment for her...an A on writing, with no help from me. She has completed 19 lessons in her 5th grade English book now. E did 7 lessons in her Queens Language Lessons, and 2 pages in her Abeka Language.
Both girls finished lesson 3 in Zoology 1. I hadn't intended for E to participate in C's science, but she loves it, and is having no trouble retaining the information, so we've been doing science together. C is notebooking through this course, and writing lab reports on all experiments. E just listens, and helps out with the experiments.
Both girls also completed a few pages in their respective mapwork books.
C did Chapter 13 in BJU Spelling 5. She got A+ on it, as always. E completed Step 4, and half of Step 5 in her All About Spelling.
Both girls completed 4 lessons in their Bible workbooks.
C and I began the first 2 chapters in history. They are all still pretty much review of the fall of the Roman Empire, which we just finished studying a few weeks ago. She did get to read an abbreviated version of "Beowolf", which was pretty cool. She liked the poetry style of story writing.
We have not started literature yet. I will next week. It has a ton of time-consuming work, so thought it better to hold off until she wasn't on a writing chpater in English.
E read me 3 stories. She actually asked to. She doesn't like the stories in her graded reader, but she begs to read to me from real books.
Both girls have sinus infections, but not severe ones. They've been well enough to play outside with friends every day this week. I think it is interesting that this is the first time either one of them has gotten sick since I pulled them out of public school a year and a half ago. I'm almost positive they caught their bugs from a little boy they play with who was over here, and didn't mention he'd been out sick from school until my girls had been playing with him for over an hour.
This week was a very good week school-wise for all of us. It has also been a very busy week with step-daughter, B. She is having more issues, and has a court hearing next Wednesday. This was an unscheduled hearing, but due to her extreme problems, it was requested.
In Math, C completed Lessons 52, 53, and 54. She missed one problem each day, and every time it was a problem on using the distributive property of multiplication. She obviously isn't getting it, but since she can multiply those numbers in her head, I don't really care. Yesterday she was so tired of missing the same type of problem she actually voluntarily took notes on my explanation to refer to.
E did 3 pages of math with her dad. He's not being very consistent, so I've started orally drilling her on facts and skip counting, so she doesn't forget. She does fine; it's just that they will never get through the book at this rate, even though I had her 1/3 of the way through it before he took over.
C completed the next 4 pages of Daily Grams, and wrote a compare/contrast essay all by herself. She earned an A. This is a huge accomplishment for her...an A on writing, with no help from me. She has completed 19 lessons in her 5th grade English book now. E did 7 lessons in her Queens Language Lessons, and 2 pages in her Abeka Language.
Both girls finished lesson 3 in Zoology 1. I hadn't intended for E to participate in C's science, but she loves it, and is having no trouble retaining the information, so we've been doing science together. C is notebooking through this course, and writing lab reports on all experiments. E just listens, and helps out with the experiments.
Both girls also completed a few pages in their respective mapwork books.
C did Chapter 13 in BJU Spelling 5. She got A+ on it, as always. E completed Step 4, and half of Step 5 in her All About Spelling.
Both girls completed 4 lessons in their Bible workbooks.
C and I began the first 2 chapters in history. They are all still pretty much review of the fall of the Roman Empire, which we just finished studying a few weeks ago. She did get to read an abbreviated version of "Beowolf", which was pretty cool. She liked the poetry style of story writing.
We have not started literature yet. I will next week. It has a ton of time-consuming work, so thought it better to hold off until she wasn't on a writing chpater in English.
E read me 3 stories. She actually asked to. She doesn't like the stories in her graded reader, but she begs to read to me from real books.
Both girls have sinus infections, but not severe ones. They've been well enough to play outside with friends every day this week. I think it is interesting that this is the first time either one of them has gotten sick since I pulled them out of public school a year and a half ago. I'm almost positive they caught their bugs from a little boy they play with who was over here, and didn't mention he'd been out sick from school until my girls had been playing with him for over an hour.
This week was a very good week school-wise for all of us. It has also been a very busy week with step-daughter, B. She is having more issues, and has a court hearing next Wednesday. This was an unscheduled hearing, but due to her extreme problems, it was requested.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Whew!
Just a quick update for now. C is finished with her 4th softball season. Her team won the first game of the tournaments, and lost the next two, so her team finished in 4th place for the season and the tournament. In the very last inning of the very last game she was injured. C is the pitcher for our team, and was hit in the ankle bone by a line-drive grounder. Although it is bruised and swollen, she refused to sit out, and finished pitching the game. Our team pizza party is this Sunday, and the entire softball league's annual potluck/coach softball game is the following week.
C was also busy with Bible school, and her enrichment classes at the college. Those are finished now, too. E participated in Bible school again, too.
My husband's transmission went out in his truck, so he has spent the last 2 weeks riding his bike to work. It will be quite awhile before we have enough spare money to work on getting a new transmission, or fixing this one.
We're close to meeting our goals for the summer with our schoolwork, and have even exceeded our plans in some areas. I'll try to make that a separate post.
The girls have learned a few extra "life-lessons" this summer, too. They are still grieving over the loss of their friend across the street. At the same time they (and me) are anxiously awaiting the arrival of kittens. Minnie, an abused stray, has decided she likes being fed and loved enough to stay here. One of our outside cats decided he liked her, too, so sometime in the next month we will be caring for newborn kittens. I've had cats all my life, but always had them spayed/neitered, so this will be a new experience for me, too.
And what would an update be without letting everyone know how the newlyweds are doing? They seem to be enjoying life, spending money like it grows on trees, and behaving just like any other newly married teen couple. I've had some interesting phone calls...."How do you make green beans?" "Mom, Lance is at the store, and he called me to ask you where the instant mashed potoatoes might be?" "What does it mean when the directions says to grease a cookie sheet? And what IS a cookie sheet? All I have is those big, flat pans you bake cookies on." (ROFL!!!) You get the point. This child stood in the kitchen myriad times talking to me while I was making dinner or baking, and obviously didn't notice a single thing. She's catching on, though, and at least she calls. : ) I'll be nice, and not even post in public the checking account drama....
As for myself, I'm fine, just glad to have some down-time finally, to prepare and organize for the new school year. Both girls are already ahead for their grades, but there are still boxes of books I need to put in order, and figure out some semblance of lesson plans for 5th grade. I might even stick to them for 2 weeks this year....
C was also busy with Bible school, and her enrichment classes at the college. Those are finished now, too. E participated in Bible school again, too.
My husband's transmission went out in his truck, so he has spent the last 2 weeks riding his bike to work. It will be quite awhile before we have enough spare money to work on getting a new transmission, or fixing this one.
We're close to meeting our goals for the summer with our schoolwork, and have even exceeded our plans in some areas. I'll try to make that a separate post.
The girls have learned a few extra "life-lessons" this summer, too. They are still grieving over the loss of their friend across the street. At the same time they (and me) are anxiously awaiting the arrival of kittens. Minnie, an abused stray, has decided she likes being fed and loved enough to stay here. One of our outside cats decided he liked her, too, so sometime in the next month we will be caring for newborn kittens. I've had cats all my life, but always had them spayed/neitered, so this will be a new experience for me, too.
And what would an update be without letting everyone know how the newlyweds are doing? They seem to be enjoying life, spending money like it grows on trees, and behaving just like any other newly married teen couple. I've had some interesting phone calls...."How do you make green beans?" "Mom, Lance is at the store, and he called me to ask you where the instant mashed potoatoes might be?" "What does it mean when the directions says to grease a cookie sheet? And what IS a cookie sheet? All I have is those big, flat pans you bake cookies on." (ROFL!!!) You get the point. This child stood in the kitchen myriad times talking to me while I was making dinner or baking, and obviously didn't notice a single thing. She's catching on, though, and at least she calls. : ) I'll be nice, and not even post in public the checking account drama....
As for myself, I'm fine, just glad to have some down-time finally, to prepare and organize for the new school year. Both girls are already ahead for their grades, but there are still boxes of books I need to put in order, and figure out some semblance of lesson plans for 5th grade. I might even stick to them for 2 weeks this year....
Monday, May 11, 2009
Please excuse Rebecca from her blog for a few weeks....
She has:
1.) Spent the past week helping her husband clean out over 3,000 pounds of garbage/junk/things-hubby-brought-home-from-jobsites-that-he-thought-were-useful, and-then-never-used from the garage. After living here 8 years I realize we actually have a 2 car garage. Who knew?
2.) Also spent the past week weeding, breaking up ground, planting seeds and flowers on the south side of our house. I do NOT have a green thumb, but the girls wanted flowers, and I decided we could try. It actually looks quite pretty, and will look more so in a few months. I might take a picture and post it, but then...you all know how I am with actually posting photos. : )
3.) Finalizing wedding plans for my eldest daughter. She is only 18, but has been engaged over a year now. The wedding has been planned for June 6th, and suddenly 2 weeks ago was moved to the 23rd of May due to her fiance's leave from the Air Force. In addition to the date change, dear daughter has somehow gone from a simple, family only, wedding, to tons of people, a fancy wedding dress (after changing her mind 4 times she found a beautiful one on loan from a friend for free.) bridesmaids, millions of flowers and candles, and the whole she-bang. Always lovely to have less than 2 weeks to get all that together. I WILL post pictures of that!
4.) My husband and I are now coaches for softball. This will be C's 4th year in softball, but we have never coached before. For anything. We kind of had no choice....there are 2 teams who had no coaches, and we (I) volunteered. D is more of a coach than I am....he actually does softball stuff with the team. So far, I just print out schedules, plan to keep the stats book, and provide whatever might be needed that does not include athletic ability. : ) That's probably (definitely) for the best. I'm the least athletic person in this family, not to mention legally blind. My normal outfield mode is to duck when someone warns me a ball is headed for me.
So...I've been busy. I haven't had time for much school at all, although C 10 is plugging away at English and Grammar.
D has an MRI this evening for his back. He's already had X-rays, and been going to the doctor 3 times/week for 2 months. Hopefully they can find and fix whatever's wrong before the end of the month or we won't be able to. With A getting married, we won't qualify for health insurance anymore, and can't afford private insurance.
1.) Spent the past week helping her husband clean out over 3,000 pounds of garbage/junk/things-hubby-brought-home-from-jobsites-that-he-thought-were-useful, and-then-never-used from the garage. After living here 8 years I realize we actually have a 2 car garage. Who knew?
2.) Also spent the past week weeding, breaking up ground, planting seeds and flowers on the south side of our house. I do NOT have a green thumb, but the girls wanted flowers, and I decided we could try. It actually looks quite pretty, and will look more so in a few months. I might take a picture and post it, but then...you all know how I am with actually posting photos. : )
3.) Finalizing wedding plans for my eldest daughter. She is only 18, but has been engaged over a year now. The wedding has been planned for June 6th, and suddenly 2 weeks ago was moved to the 23rd of May due to her fiance's leave from the Air Force. In addition to the date change, dear daughter has somehow gone from a simple, family only, wedding, to tons of people, a fancy wedding dress (after changing her mind 4 times she found a beautiful one on loan from a friend for free.) bridesmaids, millions of flowers and candles, and the whole she-bang. Always lovely to have less than 2 weeks to get all that together. I WILL post pictures of that!
4.) My husband and I are now coaches for softball. This will be C's 4th year in softball, but we have never coached before. For anything. We kind of had no choice....there are 2 teams who had no coaches, and we (I) volunteered. D is more of a coach than I am....he actually does softball stuff with the team. So far, I just print out schedules, plan to keep the stats book, and provide whatever might be needed that does not include athletic ability. : ) That's probably (definitely) for the best. I'm the least athletic person in this family, not to mention legally blind. My normal outfield mode is to duck when someone warns me a ball is headed for me.
So...I've been busy. I haven't had time for much school at all, although C 10 is plugging away at English and Grammar.
D has an MRI this evening for his back. He's already had X-rays, and been going to the doctor 3 times/week for 2 months. Hopefully they can find and fix whatever's wrong before the end of the month or we won't be able to. With A getting married, we won't qualify for health insurance anymore, and can't afford private insurance.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wow! Someone actually reads this; aren't I special?
Ok...I actually had a request to update this, so....
I don't have a lot of time to post much now, but in a nutshell here's what I've been up to. We had a great Christmas. Except for the rotten ham I didn't find out about until I was ready to cook it for Christmas dinner. And all the stores were closed on Christmas day. (Where are all the people who are offended by Christmas? Don't any of them work in a grocery store?!?)So we had cheese and crackers and lots of cookies.
The whole two of you that read this know about our troubles with step-daughter B, age 14. She's been keeping us very busy this month, although she isn't even living at our house right now. A few court appearances, a visit from DCFS, and about 100 phone calls and e-mails.
I've also been busy the past two weeks getting caught up on finances and schoolbooks. Hubby's been laid off since before Thanksgiving, and money was very tight. I guess the economy's hit us, even though I thought we were too poor to notice. : ) We managed to get caught up. I had a lot of debt to pay off...the power company, the water company, the phone company, car insurance, father-in-law (Thank you for helping us out for food throughout!)and sadly, even our daughters savings was dipped into, but I repaid them double what I had to borrow.
After paying off bills and debts I had to get ordering schoolbooks. Little E, 5, was sorely in need of 1st grade materials. She's been doing nothing but phonics, math, and health for 2 months. C is moving through her 4th grade much faster than I thought, and was needing 5th grade books for next year. She only has 30 lessons left in math. I also finally was able to order her more appropriate Language Arts/English books to finish out this year, as we gave up on her Abeka sometime in December.
I intend to write a post and maybe some curriculum reviews on both old and new books soon. Note....I said intend so don't stone me if it takes awhile to truly get around to doing so. : )
Another thing I've been trying to spend time doing daily is reading the Bible. I happened to start January 1st, but it wasn't even something I planned or made a resolution for. Prior to 1-1-09 I tried to make time each morning (and some evenings) to read a bit in Proverbs and the NT. I began on New Years Day at the beginning...Genesis 1:1, and have found it fascinating reading this time through. I just finished Deuteronomy this morning, and will be moving on to Joshua. I am gaining much more perspective on the history leading up to the New Testament. Many have said only the NT is important in these times to Christians, but as I read more and more I have to disagree. Read Numbers 22-24...the story of Balak and Balaam. Read carefully Balaam's fourth oracle. Clearly prophetic, and very interesting. (to me, at least). In all my life I'd never come across that story before, or if I had, I'd never noticed the prophecy in it.
Please excuse any typos in the above. : ) No time to proofread....
I don't have a lot of time to post much now, but in a nutshell here's what I've been up to. We had a great Christmas. Except for the rotten ham I didn't find out about until I was ready to cook it for Christmas dinner. And all the stores were closed on Christmas day. (Where are all the people who are offended by Christmas? Don't any of them work in a grocery store?!?)So we had cheese and crackers and lots of cookies.
The whole two of you that read this know about our troubles with step-daughter B, age 14. She's been keeping us very busy this month, although she isn't even living at our house right now. A few court appearances, a visit from DCFS, and about 100 phone calls and e-mails.
I've also been busy the past two weeks getting caught up on finances and schoolbooks. Hubby's been laid off since before Thanksgiving, and money was very tight. I guess the economy's hit us, even though I thought we were too poor to notice. : ) We managed to get caught up. I had a lot of debt to pay off...the power company, the water company, the phone company, car insurance, father-in-law (Thank you for helping us out for food throughout!)and sadly, even our daughters savings was dipped into, but I repaid them double what I had to borrow.
After paying off bills and debts I had to get ordering schoolbooks. Little E, 5, was sorely in need of 1st grade materials. She's been doing nothing but phonics, math, and health for 2 months. C is moving through her 4th grade much faster than I thought, and was needing 5th grade books for next year. She only has 30 lessons left in math. I also finally was able to order her more appropriate Language Arts/English books to finish out this year, as we gave up on her Abeka sometime in December.
I intend to write a post and maybe some curriculum reviews on both old and new books soon. Note....I said intend so don't stone me if it takes awhile to truly get around to doing so. : )
Another thing I've been trying to spend time doing daily is reading the Bible. I happened to start January 1st, but it wasn't even something I planned or made a resolution for. Prior to 1-1-09 I tried to make time each morning (and some evenings) to read a bit in Proverbs and the NT. I began on New Years Day at the beginning...Genesis 1:1, and have found it fascinating reading this time through. I just finished Deuteronomy this morning, and will be moving on to Joshua. I am gaining much more perspective on the history leading up to the New Testament. Many have said only the NT is important in these times to Christians, but as I read more and more I have to disagree. Read Numbers 22-24...the story of Balak and Balaam. Read carefully Balaam's fourth oracle. Clearly prophetic, and very interesting. (to me, at least). In all my life I'd never come across that story before, or if I had, I'd never noticed the prophecy in it.
Please excuse any typos in the above. : ) No time to proofread....
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