D's birthday is today. I won't say how old he is, but it's younger than I am. : )
Basically, what this means is we will be having meatloaf and scalloped potatoes for dinner, and a big pan of brownies in lieu of cake.
There, honey, you made it into my blog. I'm sure you're thrilled. LOL
I love you!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Christmas Break
We are well past halfway through our books. The girls (and I) need a break. We are sticking to the public school schedule for our break, and will be resuming classes on January 5, 2009.
Of course, little E goes on her own schedule, so whenever she asks to do school we will. C has to finish 3 or 4 pages in science. We're right in the middle of the atmosphere, and will finish that the first few days of next week. We also have a few chapters left to read aloud in "The Witch of Blackbird Pond". She is actually enjoying the story, and likes to tell me what terms in the book she already knows from U.S. History.
After Thanksgiving we ran into horrible problems with the way Abeka introduces and teaches grammar. As soon as we are financially able I will be buying Easy Grammar, and BJUP English 5 instead. EG teaches prepositional phrases first, so I think that will make things much less confusing. Not to mention there won't be any diagramming.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Of course, little E goes on her own schedule, so whenever she asks to do school we will. C has to finish 3 or 4 pages in science. We're right in the middle of the atmosphere, and will finish that the first few days of next week. We also have a few chapters left to read aloud in "The Witch of Blackbird Pond". She is actually enjoying the story, and likes to tell me what terms in the book she already knows from U.S. History.
After Thanksgiving we ran into horrible problems with the way Abeka introduces and teaches grammar. As soon as we are financially able I will be buying Easy Grammar, and BJUP English 5 instead. EG teaches prepositional phrases first, so I think that will make things much less confusing. Not to mention there won't be any diagramming.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving
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.
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.
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! : )
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Too busy to post
I know my blog can be deleted if I don't post every so often. I've been so busy, I just don't have time to post anything right now. The girls are all doing great in school (except a certain step-daughter). C is working on her very first report, and suprisingly she is doing far better than I expected. E will finish all her Kindergarten work within this month, and I've been working on gathering curriculum for first grade. That's all I have time for now. Hopefully next time I'm here I remember my password, and not have to spend 10 minutes trying different combinations of letters, symbols, and numbers to access this thing. : ) Hope everyone is doing well.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Happy Birthday C!
I've now been a Mommy ten years. C's birthday was this week. She didn't have to do any school or chores on the day, and we skipped Vocabulary for the entire week in honor of her being ten. She woke up, played Guitar Hero III (we own every one...I'm a bit addicted to it, and although this is supposed to be about C, I'll brag that I can pass every song on "Hard", and about 80% of them on "Expert".)After 2 hours of that she helped make her cake. This basically meant that I stood watch while she did everything but pour the batter in the cake pan, and pull the hot pan out of the oven. She then played Wii Sports with her little sister for almost 3 hours. We went outside for a bit to play, then back in for baths before Daddy got home early from work. Once here, we went to the State Park and hiked for an hour and a half. We got to see dozens of deer, several geese, a groundhog, and 5 swans. The swans thought we had food, and we got to within 3 feet of them. The girls each kept a beautiful feather for themselves. From the ground; we didn't pull them off the birds. : )
Then it was off to Taco Bell, C's choice for dinner. Everyone but Daddy enjoyed it; he hates Taco Bell. Then home to watch Survivor and open gifts. I wasn't able to afford much, but she enjoyed them. The most expensive gift was "Barbie as the Island Princess", which I found on sale for under $20, and was the thing she most asked for. I spent under $80, and managed to buy 13 things, so it looked like she had more.
The timing worked perfectly, because the VP debate was on at 8, and I had told her she had the entire day till then. Birthday or no I wasn't missing the debates. She actually watched about half an hour of it. She knows who's running, and the running mates, and actually will pay attention when they are on TV, but birthday presents called, and she didn't watch the whole thing.
Anyway, we had an awesome day, a nice break from school, and I thank God for the best ten years of my life! I never knew what love really was all about until I felt this little, tiny baby girl seconds after she was born. I've NEVER regretted having her or her sister, and although it's sad she's not so little anymore, I hope my daughters and I continue to be close, and that when they are all grown up they can be my best friends like my own dear mom was to me.
Happy Birthday C, and I love you and E more than anything or anyone in this world! I am so blessed.
Then it was off to Taco Bell, C's choice for dinner. Everyone but Daddy enjoyed it; he hates Taco Bell. Then home to watch Survivor and open gifts. I wasn't able to afford much, but she enjoyed them. The most expensive gift was "Barbie as the Island Princess", which I found on sale for under $20, and was the thing she most asked for. I spent under $80, and managed to buy 13 things, so it looked like she had more.
The timing worked perfectly, because the VP debate was on at 8, and I had told her she had the entire day till then. Birthday or no I wasn't missing the debates. She actually watched about half an hour of it. She knows who's running, and the running mates, and actually will pay attention when they are on TV, but birthday presents called, and she didn't watch the whole thing.
Anyway, we had an awesome day, a nice break from school, and I thank God for the best ten years of my life! I never knew what love really was all about until I felt this little, tiny baby girl seconds after she was born. I've NEVER regretted having her or her sister, and although it's sad she's not so little anymore, I hope my daughters and I continue to be close, and that when they are all grown up they can be my best friends like my own dear mom was to me.
Happy Birthday C, and I love you and E more than anything or anyone in this world! I am so blessed.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Crazy Week
Somehow I managed to get school done for C this week. We did Math every day, including Test 5, and an hour long investigation yesterday delving into area, squares, and sqare roots. She's finally into something a bit challenging. We've spent a LOT of time on her new chapter on "The Writing Process" in LA. Yesterday we spent almost 3 hours writing, editing, rewriting descriptive paragraphs. Writing is definitly her weak area. She hadn't had any writing instruction in ps, so we had to start from scratch last spring when I brought her home. We will take an easy day today after such a long lesson yesterday. She's doing fine in Vocab, and Ancient History. We began U.S. History Wednesday, and for the first time I heard a complaint of, "This is boring!" Maybe because I brought out a textbook instead of living books, and the internet. We've also managed to get Science in 3 days this week. (This is in addition to the year of Astronomy she is doing "for fun" with Dad.) Now that, to me, is boring! LOL We're in the first Unit of Abeka grade 5, and I have read more about bees, wasps, and other insects than I ever cared to or feel is necessary. She seems to like it, though, and is really remembering it. The book is very detailed and technical. I don't remember having so many things to learn and remember when I was a kid. It's actually a pretty tough class. Good thing I have planned for it to be a 2 year course, since she does the other science, too.
Ok, sounds like I did good, right? Well, that is about ALL I accomplished this week. Lots done for C, but poor little E (5) has done nothing. Well, she does her calander and weather graph each morning, she does 2-3 pages of phonics, one day we even did spelling and math. And one evening she read to me for an hour. And we began her geography books, where she colored a globe, and found and labeled N. and S. America. I feel as if I've abandoned the little one. She is so good, too. I spend hours reading, and talking with C, and poor E just quietly goes off on her own this week. : (
Part of the reason for this is because she is so far ahead, so I excuse myself on busy days by thinking she is over half a year ahead; she can miss a day. Part of it is because some days I have to choose....should I finally vaccuum, and get laundry done, or should I get some school in, and hope one of the 3 other able-bodied teens or hubby not only sees and complains about the dog-hair covered carpet, but actually does something about it?
Yesterday we started out great! I had vaccuuming done, dishes mainly done, a laundry started (just one for once), and was having the girls take early baths in the morning. (It was forecast to be thunderstormy in the afternoon, and they had not had baths the night before due to swimming) Just when I had E's bath done, and C was getting in tub, the high school called yet again about B(14). What a surprise.....her blood sugar was over 500 again, she had Moderate Ketones, and was puking in the halls. Clearly, ketoacidocis. For the second time in 7 days of school she was sent home. It's amazing she goes 3 months of summer with normal sugars, same schedule, no ketones.....perfectly fine, and as always, once she is out from under our thumb, and back in school this happens. I said point blank I could not get her immediately, at least until C was able to finish her bath. So hubby had to take off work to go get her, and missed 7 hours of pay. (He can leave, but once he does he is done for the day.)So, by the time B's sugar leveled out, we rid her of Ketones, and finished our daily lecture of "If you're going to eat, fine, but give yourself the insulin for it" it was 12:30. I ran to pay the sewer bill before the city shut off our water, bought 2 loaves of bread, came home and fixed late lunch for the girls. C finally began her school day at 1p.m., which is usually when we take out break, and are done with the exception of history and science. We finished at 8p.m.due to the lengthy writing assignment I mentioned above.
We finished yesterday with nothing done for E, and Mom had the worst headache I've had in months. Hubby was in a grouchy mood...probably because he hadn't seen much of me all day, and I was grouchy thinking, he was home 7 extra hours, and all he did was finally hang a map on the wall I'd been asking him to hang since the order came in a month ago. Oh...and play a total of 8 hours of Zelda on the Wii. Just when I thought I was done B wanted help with her Health, and A came home and said I'd told her I'd review her A&P vocab with her. Finally (this was at 9, 2 seconds after I got the younger 2 to bed, and was hoping for some quiet and dim lighting for my headache) hubby noticed I was having stress issues and reviewed the vocab with her. I thought I'd get right to sleep, but my head was throbbing, and it took quite a lot of tossing and turning before I finally fell asleep.
So, here I am....thankfully I DID get tons done yesterday, so basically only have dishes and school today. C has a much easier lesson plan today, 3 subjects I can just give her the assignments to work on, and hopefully have plenty of time to work with E for once this week. C has done 4 days of science, so if we don't get to it, fine. And right now they are both asleep, and will be for at least another 1/2 hour. Gives me time for another cup of coffee...
Ok, sounds like I did good, right? Well, that is about ALL I accomplished this week. Lots done for C, but poor little E (5) has done nothing. Well, she does her calander and weather graph each morning, she does 2-3 pages of phonics, one day we even did spelling and math. And one evening she read to me for an hour. And we began her geography books, where she colored a globe, and found and labeled N. and S. America. I feel as if I've abandoned the little one. She is so good, too. I spend hours reading, and talking with C, and poor E just quietly goes off on her own this week. : (
Part of the reason for this is because she is so far ahead, so I excuse myself on busy days by thinking she is over half a year ahead; she can miss a day. Part of it is because some days I have to choose....should I finally vaccuum, and get laundry done, or should I get some school in, and hope one of the 3 other able-bodied teens or hubby not only sees and complains about the dog-hair covered carpet, but actually does something about it?
Yesterday we started out great! I had vaccuuming done, dishes mainly done, a laundry started (just one for once), and was having the girls take early baths in the morning. (It was forecast to be thunderstormy in the afternoon, and they had not had baths the night before due to swimming) Just when I had E's bath done, and C was getting in tub, the high school called yet again about B(14). What a surprise.....her blood sugar was over 500 again, she had Moderate Ketones, and was puking in the halls. Clearly, ketoacidocis. For the second time in 7 days of school she was sent home. It's amazing she goes 3 months of summer with normal sugars, same schedule, no ketones.....perfectly fine, and as always, once she is out from under our thumb, and back in school this happens. I said point blank I could not get her immediately, at least until C was able to finish her bath. So hubby had to take off work to go get her, and missed 7 hours of pay. (He can leave, but once he does he is done for the day.)So, by the time B's sugar leveled out, we rid her of Ketones, and finished our daily lecture of "If you're going to eat, fine, but give yourself the insulin for it" it was 12:30. I ran to pay the sewer bill before the city shut off our water, bought 2 loaves of bread, came home and fixed late lunch for the girls. C finally began her school day at 1p.m., which is usually when we take out break, and are done with the exception of history and science. We finished at 8p.m.due to the lengthy writing assignment I mentioned above.
We finished yesterday with nothing done for E, and Mom had the worst headache I've had in months. Hubby was in a grouchy mood...probably because he hadn't seen much of me all day, and I was grouchy thinking, he was home 7 extra hours, and all he did was finally hang a map on the wall I'd been asking him to hang since the order came in a month ago. Oh...and play a total of 8 hours of Zelda on the Wii. Just when I thought I was done B wanted help with her Health, and A came home and said I'd told her I'd review her A&P vocab with her. Finally (this was at 9, 2 seconds after I got the younger 2 to bed, and was hoping for some quiet and dim lighting for my headache) hubby noticed I was having stress issues and reviewed the vocab with her. I thought I'd get right to sleep, but my head was throbbing, and it took quite a lot of tossing and turning before I finally fell asleep.
So, here I am....thankfully I DID get tons done yesterday, so basically only have dishes and school today. C has a much easier lesson plan today, 3 subjects I can just give her the assignments to work on, and hopefully have plenty of time to work with E for once this week. C has done 4 days of science, so if we don't get to it, fine. And right now they are both asleep, and will be for at least another 1/2 hour. Gives me time for another cup of coffee...
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Labor Day Weekend
What a long weekend. Friday we attended a rally to save our State Park. Our lovely governor has decided our budget is so in debt that he is closing 11 State parks, over 30 Historical sites, and 300 positions in our states Dept. of Children and Families. This park is the ONLY local place we have to go to enjoy fishing, hiking, trails, wildlife, camping, canoeing, a National scenic river, and just general natural beauty and peace. Our local state representative was there, and is introducing new legislature to have the land deeded back to our county. Our county is the one who donated the land to the state in the first place! I'm sure with all the red tape, it will be years before we can enjoy this beautiful area again. They plan to gate every road, and anyone "trespassing" on the soon-to-be-vacant, unused land will be subject to arrest.
Sunday we all went to a fair and festival about 30 miles from here. It featured free sweetcorn, which our family was happy to partake of. Even C ate 2 whole ears...that's more than her normal vegetable allotment for a year. : ) It was very hot, but we all had fun. The prices for rides was ridiculous. $1.25 for one ticket, and each ride cost either 3 or 4 tickets, so we could only afford to let the girls choose 2 rides each. The food was ridiculous too, but it always is in those places. Good thing we filled up on free corn first.
Yesterday the schools were all closed, but not here. C did 2 math lessons, some vocab, and then asked for history, so we did that too. Last night she asked Dad to do some Astronomy, so they worked on that while E read to me for an hour. She read so well, and so fast that I wanted to record it. She got shy when anyone else came to listen, so I decided not to. It would be neat to have a video I could post on here. C is a great reader now, but she sure wasn't reading that well on her own till 1st grade. I can't believe I've successfully taught a child to read.
The rest of our weekend was spent arguing with our oldest dd17 and her fiance. They insist on getting married the week after she graduates high school, and no amount of talking will change their mind. His parents are very encouraging, and see nothing wrong with it. They took A shopping Saturday to try on and choose her wedding gown. We don't have a problem with the boy. he is a great, responsible, hard working, kid. The problem is they are both just children! We would like A to be able to make it on her own...get a job, a car, pay bills, take some classes at college, get an apartment and find out how hard it is to just take care of yourself, let alone another person. If she can prove herself for a year at least, we might be more open to a wedding. However, as they will both be over 18 next June, legally we can't stop them. I informed them both that we simply do not have money for a wedding, so if they persist in this she had better get a job (we've been working on THAT lost cause for 2 years) to help pay for the wedding, the reception, and the honeymoon. And that's only the first week of marriage.
All in all it was a good weekend. Even the hours of trying to talk sense into 2 teenagers heads....maybe they will think about it a little.
Sunday we all went to a fair and festival about 30 miles from here. It featured free sweetcorn, which our family was happy to partake of. Even C ate 2 whole ears...that's more than her normal vegetable allotment for a year. : ) It was very hot, but we all had fun. The prices for rides was ridiculous. $1.25 for one ticket, and each ride cost either 3 or 4 tickets, so we could only afford to let the girls choose 2 rides each. The food was ridiculous too, but it always is in those places. Good thing we filled up on free corn first.
Yesterday the schools were all closed, but not here. C did 2 math lessons, some vocab, and then asked for history, so we did that too. Last night she asked Dad to do some Astronomy, so they worked on that while E read to me for an hour. She read so well, and so fast that I wanted to record it. She got shy when anyone else came to listen, so I decided not to. It would be neat to have a video I could post on here. C is a great reader now, but she sure wasn't reading that well on her own till 1st grade. I can't believe I've successfully taught a child to read.
The rest of our weekend was spent arguing with our oldest dd17 and her fiance. They insist on getting married the week after she graduates high school, and no amount of talking will change their mind. His parents are very encouraging, and see nothing wrong with it. They took A shopping Saturday to try on and choose her wedding gown. We don't have a problem with the boy. he is a great, responsible, hard working, kid. The problem is they are both just children! We would like A to be able to make it on her own...get a job, a car, pay bills, take some classes at college, get an apartment and find out how hard it is to just take care of yourself, let alone another person. If she can prove herself for a year at least, we might be more open to a wedding. However, as they will both be over 18 next June, legally we can't stop them. I informed them both that we simply do not have money for a wedding, so if they persist in this she had better get a job (we've been working on THAT lost cause for 2 years) to help pay for the wedding, the reception, and the honeymoon. And that's only the first week of marriage.
All in all it was a good weekend. Even the hours of trying to talk sense into 2 teenagers heads....maybe they will think about it a little.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Olympics, cheap workbooks, and the past month in general.
I just don't update like I should. My intentions were to post here once a week. I never seem to have the time or inclination. My blog is so boring compared to some.
C and E are still doing well. I'm amazed at how quickly we complete a school day. I can't imagine how bored C must have been in ps. Math....still whizzing through. LA...she mostly whizzes through, unless she has a writing assignment. She's not a great writer, and doesn't like it. She did surprise me yesterday. She had to write a letter to a make believe friend in India, telling this friend about Christmas. She had the letter done, in correct form, and very well written in 5 minutes. I was very surprised, and it was her best written assignment yet. She still begs to do history/geography every day, even on weekends. We are slowing down now, because we've reached the rise of the Roman Empire, and it's pretty fascinating stuff for both of us, so we are adding in lots of extras outside her history book.
About 2 weeks ago I found some really cool workbooks at the Dollar Tree. 4 Science ones for C, and 4 Math and 1 Phonics/Reading one for E. Since they were just for fun, and not part of our curriculum, I handed them to the girls to do as they felt like it. C had hers all 4 done in 2 days. E had the math ones done, about 1 per day. The phonics one was 60 pages long, so it took her a whopping 2 days on that one alone. I told hubby maybe I should just hand them all their schoolbooks, and see how long they take to finish those. LOL
C loved, LOVED the Olympics! It was on all day at our house for the past 2 weeks. Her favorite sports were swimming and gymnastics, but she watched it all, every sport, every country. If something came on after her bedtime she knew who was competing, and asked me first thing in the morning to check online to find out scores. She either has a crush on Michael Phelps, or just really admired his record setting in swimming. She learned to average while the teams did qualifying rounds. She tallied the scores, divided them by the number of competitors, and tried to get the team score before the judges posted it. She watched so much swimming she learned to do the dolphin kick in our pool. I can't believe I work and work on teaching her proper swimming, and she learns one of the hardest strokes from watching TV. LOL She's impressive at it, too. very quick and graceful. I can't do it at all. I look like a whale having a seizure when I try.
Hope everyone reading this is doing great. : )
C and E are still doing well. I'm amazed at how quickly we complete a school day. I can't imagine how bored C must have been in ps. Math....still whizzing through. LA...she mostly whizzes through, unless she has a writing assignment. She's not a great writer, and doesn't like it. She did surprise me yesterday. She had to write a letter to a make believe friend in India, telling this friend about Christmas. She had the letter done, in correct form, and very well written in 5 minutes. I was very surprised, and it was her best written assignment yet. She still begs to do history/geography every day, even on weekends. We are slowing down now, because we've reached the rise of the Roman Empire, and it's pretty fascinating stuff for both of us, so we are adding in lots of extras outside her history book.
About 2 weeks ago I found some really cool workbooks at the Dollar Tree. 4 Science ones for C, and 4 Math and 1 Phonics/Reading one for E. Since they were just for fun, and not part of our curriculum, I handed them to the girls to do as they felt like it. C had hers all 4 done in 2 days. E had the math ones done, about 1 per day. The phonics one was 60 pages long, so it took her a whopping 2 days on that one alone. I told hubby maybe I should just hand them all their schoolbooks, and see how long they take to finish those. LOL
C loved, LOVED the Olympics! It was on all day at our house for the past 2 weeks. Her favorite sports were swimming and gymnastics, but she watched it all, every sport, every country. If something came on after her bedtime she knew who was competing, and asked me first thing in the morning to check online to find out scores. She either has a crush on Michael Phelps, or just really admired his record setting in swimming. She learned to average while the teams did qualifying rounds. She tallied the scores, divided them by the number of competitors, and tried to get the team score before the judges posted it. She watched so much swimming she learned to do the dolphin kick in our pool. I can't believe I work and work on teaching her proper swimming, and she learns one of the hardest strokes from watching TV. LOL She's impressive at it, too. very quick and graceful. I can't do it at all. I look like a whale having a seizure when I try.
Hope everyone reading this is doing great. : )
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