Two Down, Two to Go

Our high school age child attends an early morning (6:30am) religion class which follows the public school calendar.  Tomorrow she will finish her second year.  Two years down, two more to go.  Goodbye 5:30am wake up time.  I'll see you in September. : )

This child has been the hardest to nail down with academics.  I'm a procrastinator. She's passive aggressive.  We've spent the past three years battling her depression, anxiety, and sleep problems .  Lots of issues have combined to make it easy to put academics on the back burner.  Major guilt!  Thankfully we've had one thing going for us ... early morning seminary.

 Recordkeeping for Christian Stewardship

As good as that has been for us both, I feel like she needs something more on her records than attending four years of religion class and earning a 99 in cooking and fire making on Runescape (I love Runescape too : ).  I wanted something she could use.  As I was perusing the Rod & Staff Publishers catalog, I spied their recordkeeping course again.  Being a practical person (or so I think I am), I decided that this would benefit her as she becomes an adult and will hopefully give her a few job skills.  She has now finished her first week of the three part course (personal recordkeeping, business recordkeeping, and business accounting).  She has studied diligently which I so appreciate.

Rod & Staff English 2

 

Rod & Staff Grade 2 English

My youngest is nine years old.  My guess is she is academically 2-3 years behind other children who are finishing 3rd grade.  When I compare her to children her age I feel discouraged.  You may have heard the saying "comparison is the death of contentment."  But, when I think about how much she has improved over the past few years, I'm motivated to keep pressing forward.

It is the desire to help her move forward that convinced me to try Rod and Staff's Grade 2 English textbook with her.  This kiddo is not gifted in language, so I approached the first lesson with fear and trepidation.  What was I going to do if she couldn't grasp the difference between a phrase and a sentence?  She did well.  Phew!

Of course, that was only the first lesson.  The real test will be if we last another three months. ; )

Summer's Stumbling Block

 
The first stumbling block of "summer school lite" has arrived....private school is out.  That's the negative perspective.

Let's rethink this.  My two younger girls are going to be motivated to get their school work done early so they can play with their friends every day during the summer.   Yeah, that sounds better. : ) 

A Tiny Change

Routine is good for me.  It ensures that what needs to get done happens.  Since I am naturally a procrastinator, it is vitally important for me try and establish routines.  (My husband would laugh if he read this.  Her?  Have routines? LOL!)  I'll admit that I struggle with actually sticking with them even though I know they are good for me.

At the same time, you can become so dependent upon routine that you get stuck in a rut.  For example, 13yo does not like math.  As part of our routine homeschool day, we do math first to get it out of the way and over with.  But, it was causing a problem.  It made our day start with a feeling of already being stuck in the mire.  The day seemed to drag on.  Plus, I never felt like I had enough time with the other girls once the 13yo and I finished her school work (no, my kids aren't independent).

Today we tried something different.  Mom picked out the order of subjects and left Math for last.  We were playing a mental game, but I believe it worked.  By about 10am we had covered most of what we needed to do together.  She did have work to finish (kind of like seat work/homework) to do, but it freed me up to work with someone else.  It told my mind that we were finished.  Usually we plod into the afternoon which leads to discouragement and mentally slowing down even more.

Usual sequence:

• Math
• Grammar
• Latin
• History/Science

Today:

• Grammar
• Latin
• Writing
• Science
• Math 

Say-It-Again Series

My 9yo is a struggling reader.  She is at that stage where she can read a wee bit but not enough to take on your average book.  While looking through the Rod & Staff catalog I came across a series of books that I thought might be on her level.  I decided to take a chance and order them even though I had never actually looked through them.  Our Rod & Staff order came today and I am so pleased.  These are exactly right for her.  I had to help her with a few words, but she was able to read most of it without help. 

Say-It-Again Series

These storybooks have short sentences and much repetition. Large, easy-to-read type and simple, basic words help children to grasp the facts and to begin reading for themselves. These make interesting storybooks for any young child. Many large illustrations. (from the Rod and Staff Books website)

Side Bar Curriculum Lists

Okay.  I 'll admit it.  All of the curriculum in the side bar, it's just for looks.    Who am I fooling?  We don't come anywhere close to doing that much.  But, having it there is actually a good thing.  When I visit the blog after long periods of absence, seeing those beautiful lists jogs my memory that we ought to be getting back to some of it.  

It makes me sad sometimes too.  For example, when I see the plans I had for 15yo and realize that we aren't accomplishing ANYTHING from that list.  Somewhere along the way we fell off the wagon and have never been able to regain our footing.  When she was in 5th grade we read Homer's The Odyssey (Butler trans.).  Later we read The Iliad (Fitzgerald).  Then...depression at 12 years old.  My goal became to get her out of her bedroom, take her to dr.'s appointments, and to try to find medication that helped.  Once we found a groove battling depression, we took on her sleep problems.  She became "addicted" to an online game (Runescape).  It has become a great way to practice social relationships and a way for us to connect (I play too).  In all of this, academics was not only pushed to the back burner, it was shoved off the stove top altogether.

It has been three years and I finally felt like we were coming out of the deep dark woods into the light.  She recently tested positive for an anti nuclear antibody test.  It may mean  that she has an autoimmune problem, and it may not.  We've started the process to see if it is a possibility.  What does that mean for homeschool?  Recently, she started seriously studying for the GED.  I never imagined that I would be happy to see one of my kids wanting to take the GED.  I think the truth is I'm happy to see her pursuing her education with determination whether it is to be classically educated or to obtain a general education diploma.

Current side bar:
15yo

• Early Morning Seminary
• Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1
• Key to Algebra (+online)
• First Form Latin
• R&S English 6 (grammar only)
• IEW's Phonetic Zoo (A, B,and C)
• Spielvogel's Western Civilization
• DK's History: The Definitive Guide
• Biology (Prentice Hall)
• Guten Tag!
• goPimsleur German

13yo

• Rod & Staff 7 Arithmetic
• Key to Fractions/Key to Online
• Lively Latin 2
• Writing With Ease
• R&S 4/5 English combo (grammar)
• IEW's Phonetic Zoo (A)
• K12's The Human Odyssey: Prehistory Through the Middle Ages
• R&S 6 God's Inhabited World (science)
• Le Francais Facile
• MP's Christian Studies Vol.1
• Discover the Old Testament (older)
• Handwriting Without Tears
• Typing Instructor

9yo

• R&S Math 1
• Singapore Math Practice 1A (Frank Schaffer)
• 100 number chart/Calendar
• Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
• AAS's Beehive Reader 1
• Oral Language Lessons (Abeka)
• First Language Lessons
• All About Spelling 1 CD
• Handwriting Without Tears
• Story of the World Ancients
• R&S Science 2
• Christian Studies (Memoria Press)
• Discover the Old Testament

Push the reset button

My oldest child and her family have been living in the other half of our duplex for a couple of months.  When they first arrived I tried to continue homeschooling but there were too many interruptions.  I lowered my expectations for what we could accomplish but I kept trying to do a little something.  Halfway into their stay, my daughter gave birth to baby #3 (3 babies in 3 1/2 years).  All efforts to homeschool ceased as we attempted to help with the little people.

We're trying to get back in the groove this week and guess who is the problem? ME!  I feel agitated.  And, it isn't helping that my right hip and ankle are annoying me.  Apparently those body parts don't like homeschooling on my bed anymore.  I also haven't had much patience with my younger two.  Their math brains apparently turned to mush during this break.

I would like to pat 15yo on the back.  She has been consistently studying for the GED.  Self-motivation...I love it. : )

Reading Progress

First we tried Rod & Staff's first grade reading program.  It moved too fast for 8yo (boo hoo, I love R&S).  Next we tried 100 EZ lessons.  That went great until she started to bog down about lesson 45.  Plateau.

While she is in this plateau I decided to pull out the predictable books and let her read those for practice.  If a  book is too long for her, we take turns reading.

This week's predictable books:

These aren't as predictable but she is familiar with the them which helps:

And just because she is into snakes:

Little Women

Crater Lake and Oregon Caves

Just back from a week of vacation.  No school for a whole week. Wow! But, we certainly weren't idling the day away next to the pool.  Nope. We were learning.  We spent a couple of days at Crater Lake National Park, a day at Oregon Caves National Monument, and a couple of hours at the Klamath County's Main Museum.

Klamath County's Main Museum has an awesome hands-on exhibit for kids - "Forests for Everyone: Klamath's Living Legacy."  The exhibit shows how forests can be shared by sportsmen, preservationists, foresters, and recreation seekers.  There are many displays about the Modoc Indian Wars along with a huge washtub collection.  But, you know what was really amazing?  The actual newspaper pages from the 1940's taped up on the walls of the bathroom stalls.  It made for great reading along with the 1958 Rand McNally poster of the universe.



Crater Lake was beautiful of course.  We learned how the collapse of Mt. Mazama formed the caldera over 7,000 years ago.  There were so many geological features to see and cliffs to pull the 8yo away from.  Aside from the regular view the movie, drive around the rim, and take a hike, we also decided to stay and view a moon rise over the lake.  A natural forest fire provided the smoke necessary to create a deep orange moon as it peeked over the rim of the lake.





Oregon Caves was nothing like I imagined (I guess I was thinking of Mt. Timpanogos).  The drive was steep with hairpin curves for a good 8+ miles.  The guided tour had strict guidelines - no children under 42", no carrying children, no food, no flashlights, no back, breathing, or heart problems.  I knew I was too out of shape for the entire 90 minute tour, so I bailed at the 110 step exit.  But, what I did get to see was fun to share with my family...especially when the lights went out.  Oh, and on my way down the trail I was able to hang out with a group of five deer.






We even had an educational experience at the primitive campsite we stayed at, Huckleberry Mountain Campground (camping with cows was scary and fun all at same time).  While chopping wood for a fire, Dad exposed a fat grub we think may have been a mountain pine beetle larva.  Later the 12yo showed me the white fat grub and announced that she was going to eat it.  Crunch!  It was just biscuit dough.