homeschool report

We are finishing up our second 12 weeks of school this year, we try to take april off for a spring break. Caden still has 2 weeks left to get him back on schedule as we have been behind 2 weeks almost from the start in his HOD. Reading and math are going well for him, we just started subtraction.

Z just finished lifepac # 5 covering factoring, GCF, LCM in math. He is working on a science project to show at the NACHO science fair on the 26th. Spelling continues to be a challenge but he had shown improvement, (we will be working on writing next year.) In geography we have finished Canda and are working on central America this week. In music he will be singing, playing guitar and doing some handbells in the end of year program with our homeschool group. His guitar teacher just loves him and they have become good friends. We have been struggling with teenage attitude as of late, I am seeking prayer and guidance on this issue of heart. Nothing major but I can see the seeds of rebellion at times and am faithfully plucking those weeds them when I find them.

Autumn continues doing well, this has been one of the longest stable periods of her life, I am thankful and hopeful for her future, she is reading Greek literature, she will finish her BJU lit. book early this year. She is slowly making progress in geometry, future plans for math include a heavy review of basic algebra and then shift of focus to life math skills. For history ( see above geography) She has almost completed her vocab. book, our focus will be on writing for the last 12 weeks this year. She has been riding horses almost every afternoon, she has made good friends with a couple of girls that live nearby and ride allot. I plan on including a 4H study on horses and management, also she is helping tend chicken houses this summer (yuck!) as a part time job, I am going to include some 4H workbooks on chicken farming and allow her 1/2 credit in animal keeping this year. Also in the next 12 weeks we will be adding windows PowerPoint & word.

Home school report for January 30th -



The weeks are definitely going better without mom having to attend college classes 2 days a week. The online RN program is difficult, but worth it for us. This week we attended the home school co-op on Monday afternoon. Caden's class is studying honey bees, he is also participating in choir, Zach is in guitar classes and hand bells. Autumn is not involved in the co-op this year but she using the time to work on her independent work. The boys will be making valentines for a class party next week. This week at home we covered...



Autumn :

Math - a review of ch. 1-3 in geometry this week, she is having trouble remembering some of the concepts & we continue to go at her pace in this area.

Science - properties of water in chemistry

Literature - read Ilyas by Tolstoy, The Mansion by Henry Von Dyke, The Brothers by Bjornson. Ilyas was her favorite.

Vocab/ spelling review of roots; ven,vent,ali,alter,log,logy,omni and the prefixes; peri,ante,un,hypo,sur,ante.

Writing - continues with dictation exercises and free writing

geography - southern states, we plan to go out for Cajun food next week to wrap up our study of Louisiana.



Zach:

math - fractions/decimals

Science - plant kingdom studied molds, moss and mushrooms. We have a mold experiment in progress...

grammar - word usage ( lay/lie, set/sit ect..)

spelling - learning rules ( Z is such a poor speller, we are starting with the rules and phonic instruction to see if it helps)

writing - continues with dictation exercises and free writing

geography ( as above)

music - lesson each week and in home school group



Caden:

math - horizons finished lesson 20 ( doing great in math)

science - studying plants, attempted to a bean seed ( it never sprouted will try again this week, read aloud the trellis and the seed, & cactus hotel. We studied how water travels up a stem.

story time - we are reading a pioneer sampler (both boys love this book , so do I)

copy work - least favorite subject, we copy selections from poems, history, science, and spelling words.

history - continue with early life for the Pilgrims, made ice cream ( use HOD)

reading - phonics using Noah Webster's reading handbook



yesterday we added a small unit study on snowflakes to take advantage of the 6 inches + that fell here over the last 24hrs. We made snow cream, looked at snowflakes, learned why snowflakes form the way they do (hexagon shaped) and read the poem To a snow flake.


Blessings Lisa

The week has had it's ups and downs in the homeschooling area, even after almost 2 yr of algebra Autumn is still having some problems with the concepts..today's lessons were

math - review of midpoint formula, finding slope and intercept and solving equations.
In literature - this week she has read The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe, Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott with discussion on rhythm and pattern in poetry. Also she read What men live by by Leo Tolstay.
in vocab - today's study was the latin root van/ vant, the prefixes peri & hydro, the suffix ment.
chemistry - the discovery of inert gases & Daltons atomic theory
geography - New York city & upstate.



Z - spelling - lesson on adding suffixes to words ending in ce, de, dge
grammar - subject verb agreement
math - radius, diameter, circumference of a circle
science - Hidden Treasure moody science video
geography - New York city and upstate.
reading - historical fiction, a pioneer sampler



Caden - copy work spelling rule on c/k sound
played the exclamation game
math - place value tens and ones plus review of number line, counting by 10's
science - Hidden treasure moody science video plus activity on building a bay (see below)
history - reading about the first winter at Plymouth
reading - historical fiction a pioneer sampler



This is a pic I snapped of Caden playing with his boat, we made a bay out of play dough after reading how the pilgrims sailed into the bay at Plymouth.





The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
blessings,
Lisa

First day back at homeschooling after our break,

I managed to get home from work this morning without any problems despite the snow covered roads, I am grateful the hospital let me use a sleeper room on sat. night but was so glad to get home... I missed my boys.
After sleeping for a few hours we started back at our schoolwork. Caden continues to study the pilgrims, todays reading was on the discovery of Plymouth rock and some of the hardships of that first year. In math he is working on number lines, he has no problem with the concept but was most curious about what went on the left of zero, so we discussed negative numbers in addition to our lesson. His copywork was from our phonics book today. In reading we started a historical fiction book on early settlers, I think we will all enjoy reading.

Z got our of doing school by sleeping over at grans tonight..

Autumn had a hard time settling down to do her work, her mood is better but she is more easily frustrated then normal, she did a math review lesson, chemistry lesson on the spectroscope & Newton's work with prisms. Reading was The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Browning), she failed to see the twist of fate in the children's probable imprisonment vs promised journey into paradise. She worked a lesson in vocab also. I am at wits end in getting her to apply herself a bit in her studies.. she would prefer to be let alone and every gain we have made in her education has been akin to pulling teeth for her and me. She sees no reason she needs to apply herself, as always punishments & rewards fail to motivate her. I am however very determined to give her at least the basics and instill in her the fact that she can learn if she so chooses too. sigh... I is difficult work... Maybe tomorrow will go better..

Oh yeah.. due to the extreme cold Moby the great dane has been shampoo'd and is staying IN MY HOUSE AGAIN....uggh.. Blessings, Lisa

WOW time is flying, this year is almost gone and Christmas time is upon us. I am doing a poor job of keeping this blog up to date so let me update on the happenings around here...

First in line is the homeschool department, we are finishing week 6/7 in our studies

Caden- * starts unit 7 in HOD next week
* reading is going very well, he is able to read books like cat in the hat, and most early readers on his own.
* he continues to do copywork for handwriting
* we are continuing to study phonic and spelling rules
* in math he can add, subtract ( simple without borrowing) he can write math sentences, can count money and we are currently working on telling time and place values.
* he enjoys Bible quizbowl each week during homeschool group.

Zach- * has completed 34 lessons in his grammer book covering usage of commas, run-on sentences, apostrophe, contractions, colons, hyphen, semicolon and underlining.
* almost finished with lifepac #2 in math
* has finished 6 lessons in spelling and vacab. (each lesson takes 4-5 days)
* we are finished with ch 4 in geography, this is taking longer than I planned, there is just so much good info in these chapters. We have covered the earths surface and landforms, maps, climate, and industry. The kids are also making a map project this semester.
* we have completed studies or experiments in the following areas of science.. air pressure, light, (color, refraction, shadows) and wind. We are ready to begin weather, clouds, and water. We all took a tour of a hydro-electric dam also.
* reading - has finished one biography (sitting bull) and is halfway into the second Gengis Khan
* music each week taking guitar lessons
* Bible quizbowl each week at homeschool group.

Autumn - * has finished 16 lessons in vocab/spelling. study of word root, prefixes & suffixes
* finished 25 lessons in editor in cheif for grammer review
* 104 pages in world literature
* Geography ( see above, both she and Zach are doing this subject together)
* science - finished ch 5 in exploring chemistry ( study of metals and gases)
* math - geometry- finishing ch 2 this week, this is slow but we don't move on if she is not understanding the concepts. The chalkdust DVDs do a great job of teaching, and she likes them alot more then the math-u-see we used last time.

We are back at school here in the Lewis home. This week we finished our second week of homeschooling, all in all it's going well.
Autumn started chalk dust geometry late, we had to wait on the book I had e-bayed, so she has completed a weeks worth of lessons. She loves the chalk dust series and is very happy to watch the teaching DVDs :) She is working through a lesson 4 x week in her editor in chief book, I love it for teaching grammar and attention to detail. Reading/ vocab and spelling are going very well. In science she is reading Exploring the World of Chemistry, she had covered two chapters on metals. Geography is going slow, we have covered a weeks worth of lessons in two weeks, mostly due to some time issues with the need to go into town so often right now (Zach's PT, both boys having had mono, ect..) I just started dictation with Autumn and Zach to work on writing skills. Here at home her mood has been very stable, she is helpful and pleasant to be around. (although she has had issues with behavior while out of the home).
Zach is half way through his unit one life pack in math mostly it is review work. He has almost finished his first biography Sitting Bull, he is on track in his grammar workbook, reviewing comma usage. He has completed two lessons in spelling workbook, this is the hardest for him, (using the dictionary to look up parts of speech, usage, ect). We are a bit behind in geography & science we just competed week one's lessons. He started guitar lessons this week & is really excited to learn more.
Caden finished unit 1 in HOD, he was sick several days so we broke week one into two weeks. We will start unit 2 on Monday. We are almost finished with his first biography read aloud, Helen Keller, he really loves this story. He is continuing to improve on his reading skills and doing very well. In math he has mastered counting money & counting by 5, 10, 2's.
Everyone (mom included) is finding it difficult to stick to their routine & chores, this is the area where MOM needs more SELF DISCIPLE (and prayer) to get us all to stick to it...
Next week we are adding BIBLE study each day, also Tuesday school starts soon.

Our home schooling plans...

I have finally worked out our home school schedule for this coming year. I am blessed to have most of the books for the older children, Cadens total curriculum will cost around $140.00, very well priced for the quality of the program. I have chosen beyond little hearts for his glory for him. I recommend anyone looking for a Christ centered, complete, engaging & hands on program that's easy for mom to use to check it out.
so here's what it is looking like...

dd- 10th grade
language arts:
World literature - abeka
Editor in chief - critical thinking co. (grammar skills)
Spelling & vocab. - abeka (this is under grade level for her but is plenty challenging for her skill level.)
Writing lessons in structure & style - institute for excellence in writing.
math: Geometry - BJU
history: Geography - BJU
science:
Exploring the world of chemistry, will still need addition chemistry with labs. I will most likely go with apologia science. I may look into what is offered at the local community college.
Knowing creation a nature study
she will also be working on life skills: household management, banking, cooking & shopping.

ds - 7th grade
language arts:
God's gift of language - abeka ( used for grammar instruction)
Spectrum reading workbook - chosen for the strong use of vocab. instruction
Spelling & usage - hearthstone curriculum
Writing lessons in structure & style ( I will be combining writing )
He will also have daily reading time covering selections from the following genres: biography, adventure, historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, nonfiction, humor, realistic fiction & folk tale
math: Life pac 7th- alpha omega
history: Geography - BJU ( I will combine this subject )
science:
Considering God's creation
106 days creation study
We are looking into at least one of the following: karate or music lessons, boy scouting.

ds - 1st grade
using Heart of Dakota, beyond little hearts with daily lessons in: history, poetry, geography/ science, bible, copy work/spelling, reading & math.
history resources are - American pioneers & patriots, Stories of the pilgrims, Boys & girls of colonial days. ( all christian liberty press)
science resource - God's wonderful works ( christian liberty press)
reading made easy for phonics instruction.
math: Horizons - alpha omega

Also we will be attending our local home school co-op each week for Tuesday school activities.
It looks like a busy year, I am so happy that I will have them all home next year :)

Need to update...

I haven't kept up with my posting as of late, things have been so busy. I am thrilled to be finished with another semester of college. Finals were the first week of may, yesterday I took the CLEP test for English comp I & II..... I passed!!! Praise God that I was able to get credit for these classes because I have no idea how I would have fit them into our summer/ fall schedule if I had failed the exam. Now I have 3 weeks off :) during which I plan to prepare the crafts for our VBS and missions trip. Harry and I are taking a mini vacation to Branson on the 31st ( for 2 nights) then I return to college for summer classes June 2nd.

I have made the decision to home school my children next year. This has been heavily on my heart this year with them not being home schooled. I am certain (along with her therapist) that it is in Autumns best interest to home school (both for academic and behavior reasons.) Z would have been going up to jr high this year, and although I dearly love the teachers and staff at our small elementary sadly I don't feel the same about the high school. There is a lot of things going on up there that I just don't want him exposed to yet. Also we are having trouble in the blood sugar department, due to his forgetfulness in giving boluses and checking BS. It will be easier to manage with him at home. Caden is having a miserable time in his kindergarten trial, he is hating the long days, he's board, he's whiny and worn out by the end of the day, he is looking forward to returning to homeschooling. I have most of the materials for them already but will need to purchase Caden's 1st grade supplies. I am leaning toward beyond little hearts for his glory by heart of Dakota, the more I look at this program the more I like it. I have decided to apply for the online RN program at UACCB for next year. Taking the online course is the best way to manage the clinical days and my weekend job while still allowing me to be here to home school my children.

I haven't posted any coupon deals in a while but I have been staying on track with our grocery/ household budget of $75 weekly. Last week I got some really good deals at walmart ( shocking because I usually don't get very good deals there) here's what I got...

bounty paper towels 2-wheat thins artisan crackers

2- kraft dressing 2- kotex liners

2- pk light bulbs sure for men deodorant

frenchs mustard kraft BBQ sauce

halls cough drops lint roller

2- graduation cards trial size Colgate toothpaste

altogether I paid $8.?? some change (half of this was for the light bulbs and cards.) Several items were free or just a few cents. Next I stopped at kroger and at Walgreens and spent 1.60 at each of those stores for the following items

That's quite a bit of stuff for around & $10 all together. :)

Autumn is coming home this weekend. I can't wait to see her, I miss her so much. She is doing ok, I hope our visit goes well. She sprained her ankle this week and is having to use crutches to get around. :( I hope she comes home to stay in the next month or two, I think she is ready & am seeing some positive changes in her coping skills. I know it will be a transition for her and for us. I feel like she is much more receptive to God's love now that she had seen first hand girls that have never had love, or someone to care for them. Continue to pray for her. I praise God for what he has done for her so far. Blessings Lisa

I really enjoyed spring break, having the boys home from school made me really miss homeschooling. We are unsure what we will be doing next year. Dd is talking of wanting to homeschool again & her therapist thinks it may be a good ideal. Caden begs to "do homeschool again" every day & spent a good part of spring break working in his old workbooks. Zach is thinking about homeschooling again but not sure. I am thinking we may give it a trial over the summer and see how it goes, if I can manage with my college classes ect..

Sadly, I planted my squash over the break & it appears that the cold weather got to them, they are all limp and seem dead. My peas are doing great though, the green beans are holding their own, but the radish also seems gone :( I plan to start a new batch this week maybe planting in the warmer weather will be the key. I also put out strawberry plants, I don't expect them to produce fruit this year, it is really just bulbs that I planted but we will see.

Also over spring break Caden got a new friend... Yes, someone dumped a mutt puppy on our doorstep. Of course he " just loves caden so much, and minds him so good, and caden promised to take good care of him and love him...." so he's our new family member. His name is Marty.

Wow! we've had a busy week. On Tuesday hubby and I took both the boys to our state capital for home school day (hubby kept reminding me that technically we weren't homeschooling at present..) anyway it was great. We took a tour of the building & had a wonderful tour guide that told lots of stories. The boys got to see the Senate and House chambers along with the Governors office & reception rooms. After having lunch at the capital cafe we headed to the inland maritime museum to take a tour of the USS Razorback submarine. This was great! our tour guide served over 11 yrs on a sub just like her, he was very friendly and good with the kids. What a great way to bring history to life. They are getting ready to start giving overnight parties on board the sub. Z's already got his sights on having his 13th there. I can't believe how cramped the service men were on these submarines, they sure earned all my respect for giving so much of their lives to protect us. We took lots of photos. Here are the highlights...

our state capital building

over looking the house chambers, flags from all 50 states sitting at the Governor's table

Then on the Razorback... going down into the sub...

you can just make out the plastic cots along the sides in the second photo, can you imagine living for months at a time here, with 60 or more of your buddies!!!

the Razorback was named after the razorback whale ( all submarines were given names from marine animals.) The sign below shows the 12 battles she was in, the 6 Japanese ships she sunk (the larger middle sunburst stand for battleships) the five flags above them represent the 5 downed U.S. pilots she rescued. We are Lucky to have her here in Arkansas, (we were chosen because of her name.)

After our tour we all went to visit sissy, she was going to go out to dinner with us but she started coming down with the stomach bug and was vomiting.. :( So we had to cut our visit short. We are planning on going back Sunday for dinner with her. She is doing really well and seems to be learning coping skills for changing her behavior. We all miss her so much, I can't wait till she comes home.

Feeling a little down these days, Caden started public school this week. I feel really mixed up about it and I honestly don't know if this is going to work out or not. I truly feel in my heart that homeschooling is the BEST way to teach my children. But I also am being real in the fact that for that last statement to be true mom has to be able to put effort into it. College classes and studies take up a good bit of time from my school planning, but the biggest problem I think we face is that I don't like Caden being the only one homeschooling, if Z decided to homeschool again it would make it better. As it is I feel caden gets board most of the day, with no one to play with.. he is such an active boy, he loves to run, wrestle and romp outdoors. It's just not so great when your the only one... he misses his brother. Once a week homeschool groups just aren't enough. I won't force Z to come home though, he is very social and enjoys public school very much and at his age (12) he doesn't want to be 'different' from everyone else. I will be taking this to the Lord in prayer very often over the next few weeks and seeking his direction in this matter. I hate being home ALONE. I MISS MY CHILDREN! :(

I'll miss this, Caden is so excited about his school. Here he is showing his favorite science lesson, about clouds (from the world God made),

and doing some work in his purple book (rod and staff). I love homeschooling. I am not sure that I will be able to home school the year that I am in RN school ( planning on 2010). I will miss it. I already miss having all of them here to school. Z and dd are in public school this year. Caden really misses Z being gone all day, and so do I. I love that Caden gets to do school in his PJs on these cold winter mornings, snuggled up to mom on the couch, reading about how God made the plants. Learning about the beginnings of our great nation from a christian view point. How blessed am I to be able to share this time in his life of new learning with him. I will miss this.

Cadens week of school

Caden is doing well in his schoolwork, this week we are working on reading vowel blends, along with review of CVC words. We continue to work with sight words by playing our sight word matching game ( he loves to beat me, the little stinker) some of our words this week are
hear, seat, tour, mean, sea, eat, lie, boy, room, road, them, plow, bed, sun, went, town.
He has one work book left in the Rod and Staff ABC series, after which I have decided to use a Charlotte Mason style copy book for lang. arts. I found a wonderful family website that supplies CM school supplies, I am going to provide a link in the side bar for anyone who might want to check them out.
He has finished his Mathematical reasoning pre- K book and I have to decide what to use for the next step in his math . . In Science we are half way through the Christian Liberty Nature Reader. (We really need to be outside getting in some nature study but it's cold...) I am planning some field trips out and about the community coming up ( post office, fire station, water plant, ect..)
So thats what Caden is up to this week. Here is a sample of writing from this week

Back in public school

Daughter started back to public school this week, I really have mixed feelings about it. I have struggled this fall feeling that I wasn't teaching her enough. I really have worried more about her being isolated the past few months also. Even with the co-op meetings each week and her seeing her friends on the weekend. If she uses this as a new start and tries hard.. things can go well, she is excited. On the other hand if she starts getting into trouble and ect... I will feel we made a step backward. One thing that finally hit me was that no amount of homeschooling will change her into what I hope she will be, if she turns away from God and us, if she chooses to live worldly and in pain it's not because I put her back in public school. Lets face it 2 1/2 yrs of homeschooling haven't changed that part of her much if any. True, it is easier to control her behaviors but sooner or later she is the person that must decide what life she wants to live. I may change my mind tomorrow but for now....its where we are at.