Today's lessons

Well, today DS is doing History, Spelling, and Math. For History we are using "History Odyssey Ancients, Level Two" so he read in "The Story of Mankind" about what we've learned from the Egyptians and wrote a little about in his History binder. Then he did the Language Pocket from "History Pockets, Ancient Egypt".

He's done his spelling and even did it well with few mistakes. We check it together so that he can see right away what he has done wrong and fix it or ask questions if he didn't understand. We are using the "Rod and Staff" spelling book. I will probably switch for next year.

For math is brushing up on his division. He's pretty good at it but I just want to be sure he really has it down. The book is a little easy in the beginning but I don't want to skip just in case something wasn't covered well enough in Public school. So far so good. We are trying to move quickly through it.

He'll also do reading later. He's reading "The Number Devil". He is enjoying it. I need to catch up with him on it. I'm behind in reading it myself.

Tonight we have "Trunk-er-Treats" at our church. The kids are really looking forward to it. We still need to decorate the trunk. We're just hanging up some inflatable pumpkins and DD made a cute poster she wants us to hang up somehow. Should be fun. Everyone is looking forward to it.

Have a great day!

Good Sunday Morning!!

Well, we are home from church and are picking up around the house and I thought I'd take a moment to update this blog.

Last week, my parents were visiting so I didn't post at all. We did do school work though. My mom helped DS a lot. I think she misses being a teacher sometimes.

Anyway, I'm still working on figuring out our Science. I want to buy the books in from TWTM for the ancients but I can't find them locally and I'm working on not using my credit cards any more. I don't use them much at all anyway except to pay for things online but I'm trying to catch up on paying it off. So, anyway, we've been using the internet right now for our science, but I need to find and do more experiments. He'd would sooooo enjoy that!

Everything else is going pretty good. This month DS and I (DD too when she is able) will be helping with the F.U.E.L ministry at our church. We are packing the bags for the kids. It should give DS and I time to talk about helping others and those who have less than us. I'm looking forward to it!

I guess that's really about it here for now. I'll try to do better. Did you see where DS posted? He thought that would be neat. He did decide that it wasn't a good idea to use yellow. It's too hard to read. Have a great week!

The point of view from DS

Hi I'm DS I home schooled and I like it. Mom can get annoying but she can get that way anyway. Today we have to take DD [that's what mom says]out of school early. Only for the dentist of course. I don't want to go. Well bye.

Better day...

Well, today has been a much better day. Yesterday's being mean must have paid off for us. He has been more focused and on target. He's been less careless. I feel like he's done everything twice as fast and much neater. YEA!! I guess sometimes he just needs a reminder that this is real.

Any unschoolers out there? I'm not sure I understand how it works. I'm too scared about it not getting learned, it being anything!!

What about Eclectic homeschoolers? Are you out there? I'm leaning more this way. Never thought I would but it seems to be what works best and keeps us the happiest. I could sure use some tips. I am constantly worrying about whether or not I'm doing it right and whether or not he's learning. I need grammar and science ideas. Do you have any?

Monday...

Well, it been a little rough today. Eventually we have to figure this out, right? It started out great but he's not grasping a few things and he's working slowly and carelessly. I made him recopy his spelling but it was just sloppy and had too many careless mistakes. I guess I'm going to have to be tougher now. Anyway, any suggestions? Anybody out there??

Backtracking...

Well, I'm finding out more about what my DS knows and what he doesn't know. I'm appalled at what they either don't teach in school or what they don't monitor to see if it's been learned! It's really unreal and rather scary.

I'm also finding that we've been "doing school" at home too. I really didn't intend to but we were. Things were going great for us until I started "doing school" when I bought that curriculum. Now we are going back to eclectic homeschooling but will still use the curriculum as a guide and check point. The problem is somethings are too easy and then others he has no clue about! What strange is that it's the really simple stuff that he somehow missed in public school. Maybe from our moves. But it's easy enough to catch up on I just have to find out those things and then search info out on the net.

It's coming but so far all the books I've read have been right. The first year is trial and error. It'll all work out.

After a long break

Well we are back after a long break. The public schools were out Monday - Wednesday, so this is a really short week for us. We had a Bible study to lead at a nursing home this morning. Then he did some grammar and science. Now we are using the History channel to do some extra history. I'm not sure that what we are using is working out for us. I need to find some things to go with what we are doing. He's just not really into it. Help! Any suggestions?

This past week

Well, we worked hard. We are having a hard time finding our rhythm. We either have too much work or not enough. Too easy or too hard. It's driving me crazy. I know it takes time to find our way.

We went on a field trip with DD's class this week. I think DS enjoyed it too.

He's really getting into e-mailing right now. It's funny. He only has family addresses right now.

Public schools are out Monday through Wednesday here so we probably will be off too. I may have do a little but his sister will be home so... He'll think it's not fair.

I do need to make my lesson plans though. I better get to it!

Boy, is it a Monday!

Well, we started out so good but have been really slowing down. He was already working on his school work when I got home from taking DD to school. I was so proud of him. He wants to get his work done early so he can do something special he's got planned. (I don't know what it is.) Anyway, he's done math but the history is taking a little more time. He's done half and is going to come back to it. He's getting ready to do grammar and spelling after a short break. He started before 9 and now it's 11 so he deserves a break.

We started a new history plan so I think it's just taking time to get used to it. Once that happens it shouldn't take as long. I think he'll really like it. It's starts out covering some we've already covered but goes into it better than we did so I want him to do it too. He's a little reluctant but he's doing it. He's actually excited about it, he just wants to get past what we had already covered. Can't blame him there.

So proud...

of me! I've got my lessons all planned for next week. I need to print a few items but other than that I'm pretty much ready for the week!! Yea me!