The Plan

Yes! I now have a plan - wooohooo!

I have spent the greater part of this weekend coming up with a plan for this upcoming school year.  Last year being our first full year on our own taught me quite a bit.  I learned mostly, what doesn't work for me vs what works well.

What didn't work for me/us:

• Trying to plan out more than a week at a time, inevitably this was a waste of time and ink.  Something always comes up in our lives that would cause us to have to derail from the schedule.
• Using an online record keeping program that requires daily login and input of activities.  I am on the computer constantly for work and ministry and yet I found it extremely difficult to login and enter the daily activities.  I would end up spending a whole day inputting assignments for a month - not working!
• Allowing electives to slip - this was one of my biggest failures I think this year.  I was so unorganized that when it came down to it, the extra stuff got pushed by the wayside.  I do believe that these are just as important as the core subjects. 
• Not following a set daily schedule, even though everyday is different.  I didn't have set times for younger daughter and she was able to "disappear" when I got caught up in something else way to often.

So what are the changes:

• I am only going to plan out one week at a time.  I have a start date but no ending date or days off planned.  I am praying about trying the Sabbath Schedule which consists of 6 weeks on and the 7th week off. But we will see how the school year starts.
• I am switching from the online record keeping program to a simple spreadsheet that I downloaded from http://fivejs.com/homeschool-gradebook-free-download/  it is awesome and so much easier for me.  I am able to put in the information that is required vs putting in everyday activities whether they are graded or not.  It has everything I need - Thank you FiveJs! I will keep track of the daily activities in my planner that I use for work/ministry.
• I am going to be very strict about the electives this year.  To do this I will make it clear to the girls that school work is not done until EVERYTHING on the list is finished.
• Even though everyday is different around here our weeks tend to be the same ie: Home on Mondays, work on Tuesdays, half day of work on Wednesdays, errands/meetings/appointments on Thursdays, home on Fridays.  So I can set up a daily schedule for each day and what works for that day - and stick to it.

I am so excited to have a plan now.  I have also figured out the curriculum for each girl which I will post about later.

I love it when a plan comes together - (sorry, my A-Team secret is now out)

Getting Ready To Start Again

We finished up most of the curriculum from this past year this week.  Oldest is going to continue to work on English and Math.  English should be finished by end of July, Math is another story.  2 years ago I switched her math mid-year because I could tell that she wasn't mastering the concepts. So she has been about a 1/2 year behind - to help make up for this she pretty much does Math year round.

Yesterday, as a family, we went to our area curriculum sale.  I was thrilled to find both of the girl's math books and a science and spelling for the younger.  These curriculum fairs are a great way to find curriculum for a lot less.  By making this trip to town we saved almost $200 in curriculum.

Hopefully, in the next few weeks I will be able to order the rest and than that will give me a couple weeks to get organized before we start mid August.  I am moving up the start date this year in hopes that next year we can have June and July off.  These 2 months have become very busy due to vacations and ministry work getting ready for a conference that is held at the end of July every year.

Healthy Minds & Bodies

As we continue on this journey of raising our children, I am realizing that there are some areas that I feel it is important for us to focus on in their education.  One such area is teaching them to be healthy.  I am realizing that I am not real healthy and I want to give the girls a good start in their life long pursuit to be healthy adults.

I have decided that I am going to devote a good portion of our "School" day to focus on devotions (healthy spirits) and exercise (healthy bodies). Academics are important yes, but I think that we will be more productive in the long run if we are learning to be a healthy family also.

I'm so clever!

And apparently a little prideful as well.

I had an idea that I wanted to share.  Anyone who is teaching children who have different learning styles knows that you have to be able to adapt to what works best for them vs what is traditionally done.

Having said that, I was in a little bit of a pickle with my eldest's science this year.  I had bought a great science curriculum for 8th/9th grade used.  Of course with it being used all the workbooks and test sheets were also used.  I figured at first that I would just go online and order the workbook and test booklet - only to discover that they were really expensive.  My next thought was that I would just skip the workbook and have her read the text and take notes and then answer questions in a notebook.  That has worked fine for the workbook - but I still have the matter of the tests.  She isn't a great test taker, she tends to get frustrated easily and even though she knows the material she doesn't do as well on a "test".  So I decided to forgo the chapter tests and have her concentrate on the semester and final tests as long as she was putting in the proper time studying.

As far as the Semester and final tests go - we had figured to just type them out on our computer and them she can take it.  Which brought me to my next dilemma - I have very little time on a daily basis and so the thought of typing out a 100 questions was very daunting.  Then my Ah Ha moment came.

She can type it out.  I gave her my test key, and she is typing out all the questions on the test.  This actually helps with her typing skills, helps her to study for this test because since she is reading and typing the questions on her own she is more likely to remember them when she is studying over the next few days before she takes the test.  And she is seeing the answers in my booklet and that is allowing the proper answer to "get into her head" so she is more likely to retain this information well past the day of actually taking the test.

Now some may think that this is encouraging her to cheat so to speak - kids who have different learning styles need to learn according to the way that their brain can retain information - by her "touching" this information several times, she is more likely to retain it vs what a test reveals about memorizing the right answer.

For me and my husband - test taking is just another tool for learning, important but not the final word on what she knows.  I took many tests when I was school and did well, but it wasn't until I put something into practice or saw it for myself that I actually retained the information.

Be open to different possibilities in educating our children - trying to keep everything in the same box is just as damaging as not learning at all.

Semester Update

We have almost finished our first semester, what a learning process - for me!  The girls are doing well considering I am constantly changing things up (or at least it seems that way).  I am figuring out what I like and what I don't like, what the girls respond to and what they don't respond to and overall what seems possible to accomplish and what I may need to let go of.

One thing that is bugging me is the record keeping, last year I downloaded a spreadsheet form from another blogger, that worked well but I seem to have a hard time filling it in.  I joined a free online record keeper this year and am really impressed with it, but am still having a hard time keeping up with filling everything in.  Also, because of our slow internet, it takes forever to update each activity and fill in all the subjects each day.  I have attempted to just leave the laptop on all day and go back and forth between chores/schooling and filling something in.  Keeping track of everything  if mainly for my choice to be accountable since our state does not require us to submit records to them.  I know that when #1 daughter enters high school next year I will need to keep good records for her transcripts.  I figured I should get in the habit now.  I am a little torn because of the amount of time it takes and I feel like it takes away from actually teaching time.  I am considering just going to a simple form that can be put into their planners or mine to help keep track of everyday activities and just enter graded tests and reports into a record/transcript creator type program.

Another thing I have discovered in the last semester is that we have gotten a good jump on the core subjects but I have really slacked off on the electives.  This is bothering me because it is the electives that really set apart our home school from traditional school.  Bible, arts, foreign language options etc.  So when we start back tomorrow I am going to figure out a schedule for making sure we accomplish ALL that we have committed to learning.

Finally, I am learning that not all curriculum is created equally and that it is ok for me to decide that something isn't working well or to decide to try something new instead.  At first I was really hard on myself about what I had chosen and sticking it out.  Now it is really getting into my brain that it is ok to say "let's take a break from this" or "lets do this differently."  Homeschooling is very forgiving!

Officially Homeschoolers

We'll, we have been officially homeschooling for 2 months now and I love it!  The girls are doing really well, although I am really struggling with getting the 1st grader on a schedule.  She has CAPD and I believe ADD as well and so it is very hard to get her to concentrate for very long.  So we take frequent breaks but then she goes off for her break and I see something I need to get done and before you know it, it's an hour later and she has been playing this whole time.

Luckily, she is only 1st grade so I know that we aren't doing to much damage.  I also feel that I want her to like learning and if I am being to strict with her and demanding she will begin to hate school work.

I think the biggest things I want my girls to learn is that learning is fun and you can turn almost any situation into a learning experience.  I do want to try and stay on track with what colleges would want and so forth but how we do is going to be our own style.  I am already finding resources that I do like and ones that I don't.

I am also finding that I still was stuck in the box more than I thought I was. I am working on that, I have always been the more "rebellious" one in our way of thinking about education, but I didn't realize how much I was still influenced by what I learned in public school concerning how school should be. I am loving this and love looking up blogs and resources on the subject! :)

I want the first shot!

I have a preteen, well actually I have a preteen for about a month and then she will be a full-fledged teenager.  Yes, I am stocking up on coupons for hair dye!  A couple of weeks ago, we were kind of going through something with a friend of ours when a thought occurred to me.  I want first shot at my kids.

I don't want my kids learning about boyfriend/girlfriend stuff from their friends.  I don't want my kids learning about right and wrong from their friends. I don't want my kids learning about what they should look like or what a real friend is from their friends.  I want to be the one to teach them these things first.  Now, I am not naive in thinking that they will only listen to me and not their friends, but I know that first impressions and first statements stick with you, am I right?  I don't want my almost teenager to think that she isn't special because she doesn't have a boyfriend at the age of 13.  I don't even want her thinking about that subject,  I did when I was her age and it really messed me up.  I want to be able to teach her that a boyfriend does not define her and that there will be plenty of time for dating and such when she is much older but right now the Lord has a special plan for her that she needs to be focused on.

I just want a chance to plant the seeds that I feel the Lord wants planted, to surround this seedling with the nutrients and environmental conditions needed to encourage healthy growth. Before all the weeds start to invade, I want to make sure that she has a firm foundation that will help her battle through.