A Skip And A Hop…

from week 5 to week 9!  I just cannot seem to get back into my blogging groove, which stinks.  I like blogging and it’s a great way to record the boys’ homeschool progress and general family memories.  So why do I keep avoiding it?  I haven’t taken many pictures this year either, of both schooling and general family life.  Sigh.  How do I make myself want to do these things again?

Anywho, the past month has gone by fairly well.  The boys’ routines are still making school much easier for all involved.  They have both finished their Math Mammoth books and I have decided to go back to ABeka math for them both (ds3 with Arithmetic 6 and ds4 with Arithmetic 2.)  Ds4 is loving it!  The colorful pages and variety of work really clicks with him.  Ds3 is not as thrilled as his is some pretty hard work.

Ds4 also completed his HWT and Explode the Code books!  He has moved on the ETC 2 and asked to do HWT cursive.  This young man is stepping up to the plate with his schooling!

In our group studies we are doing Trail Guide to World Geography, an election study and reading The Indian in the Cupboard.

Here ds4 takes a link off our countdown to election paper chain.

Ds3 working on our public officials poster.

The finished product.

We have a busy time coming up.  I’ll be helping with my niece’s baby shower this weekend and of course Halloween is sneaking up on us.  On top of it all my Mom is in the hospital.  What a roller coaster ride that has been.  I’ve been trying to get into town to see her as often as possible.  It sucks when the immediate future is so unpredictable.

Week Four and Week Five Smooth Sailing

Both weeks went fairly well.  We have established a nice routine and it is helping us stay focused and on track.  This is one of the first years in a LONG time that I’ve even bothered with any kind of “schedule” in our homeschooling.  When my older boys were starting out we were very scheduled, but as we added new babies (toddlers,etc) into the mix we became more and more relaxed due to life’s many interruptions.  Now with ds2 in public high school and since my youngest is almost 8, having a schedule is working just fine.  So far lol.

Basically I get up around 7 and have some free time until I wake ds2 at 8.  We leave to drop him off at school at 8:50 (most times the younger boys are up by then.)  When we get home I give the boys until 10 to eat, dress, etc.  Then we start with math, writing and language lessons.  While each boy is on a different level in these subjects, they have workbooks that they can work on somewhat independently at the same time and I am free to monitor and help as needed.

Then we dive into the “group” subjects that they study together, science, history, geography and P.E.  Here is the center set up for our dinosaur study.

Various books, assorted toys and a timeline.  Love the “wanted” poster they collaborated on one day to show what they had learned about an allosaurus.  Ds4 drew the pic and ds3 did the writing, including that the dinosaur was “wanted” for voting for Romney lol.

We are studying various sports for P.E. starting with basketball.  We are using Family Time Fitness and liking it so far.

On Fridays we take a break from regular studies and do only nature and art.  For nature we are doing a weather study and took a walk along the neighborhood to observe the clouds and other seasonal changes, then drew in their nature journals.  We had an unusually wet summer and it was quite refreshing to actually have clear blue skies.  In art we learned about Marc Chagall and the boys painted their own “dream” paintings.

Ds4 went all out with paint and made a pic of his own dreams and made sure to include floating things.  Ds3 took another route and drew his “dream shelf” filled with all the game systems he would like to own.  He missed the point a bit, but who am I to criticize art?  :)

Week Three I Think

Already losing track of time.  Not a good sign.  We had a good to fair week of schooling.  No hurricanes, holidays or other such interruptions.  Somewhat of a routine is developing.  We get ds2 off to high school, come home and eat then dive right in to studies.  We usually finish by lunch and have free time until we pick up ds.  While waiting in the line we do our reading, which currently is Doctor Doolittle.  Both boys are enjoying it.

The schoolroom is still in transition, but I did get a little “center” set up for our dinosaur unit.  Some books, stickers, flash cards, just there for independent exploration.  Ds4 is really enjoying the dinosaur studies.  I love this picture he produced on his own.

As I was describing certain types of dinos, he was drawing pics of them.  He would then come over and tell me about them.  His own version of taking notes and narrating.  :)

This has nothing to do with school.  It just struck me that my laundry sorter hasn’t been empty since I first bought it and set it up years and years ago.  I felt the need to record this bit of history when I actually had done ALL the laundry.  You bet it felt good!!

Still Shaking

Last week I posted that we got off to a shaky start in our schooling.  We pretty much face-planted and are crawling to the first aid station this week.  I honestly cannot remember if we did anything Monday.  I think we spent it getting ready for Isaac.  Then school closed down on Tuesday and Wednesday for the storm.  Ds3 got sick Tuesday night and dh and I followed suit this weekend.  Today is a “holiday”.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a fresh start and I’ll have a better report for next week.

A Shaky Start

Well, week one of the new school year has passed.  I got my 17yo to and from school, on time, all 5 days.  Success!  I taught the homeschooled crew 3 days this week.  Bummer.  We took off day 4 on purpose to run errands, and then dh unexpectedly took off work yesterday so there you go.  But I will say that the 3 days of school were quite productive and stress free.  No fussing and fighting and both boys were attentive and receptive.  Now, of course, there is a tropical storm in our future and the possibility of more school interruptions.  No comment.

I need to remind myself to take more pics of the school day.  Here is all I got, and it’s not even school related.

Well, unless you count disaster preparedness that is.  :)