Another year!!!!!

Summer of Learning

As we wrap up the "Summer of Learning", we are getting ready for our new year.  We do summer learning to give us a chance to take more time off during the school year.  We usually wind up with more than 200 days in our pocket, and that makes it easier for life challenges and scheduled time off from school during the year.

What learning have we done for the summer?  We finished up Math U See Beta, started Easy Grammar, started new cleaning habits, started learning the rules from Logic of English, read a ton of books and reviewed every subject under the sun.  We also spent most of the summer chauffeuring two darling tweens to baton camp and practices.  We are a twirl family and one of the girls is on a competition team.

My wonderful husband has been traveling for most of the summer, so we have not really had a summer vacation or staycation.  I look forward to a little time before we start our "Fall of Learning".

Fall of Learning - Part One

We will begin our "Fall of Learning" September 9th.  What are we using?

Free Spirit (7th grade)

She is having an increase in curriculum, but some of it is not at 7th grade level.  She has some challenges that we are working on and are seeing great progress with age and homeschooling.

Paths of Exploration - Volume 2 (we finished Vol. 1 last year)
This is a wonderful curriculum.  We are learning about Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed, and Lewis & Clark.

Lifepac Language Arts - Grade 5
We used the assessment tool to determine where she could use the most help or review.  I am hoping that she will move quickly through this and advance to another grade this year.  This curriculum will allow her to work as fast or slow as needed and she is super excited that she can set her own pace.

Lifepac Sciemce - Grade 3
This is a fun elective for her.  We use Apologia Anatomy and Physiology as our main science curriculum.  She loves science, so when I found a set at the thrift store I was thrilled.

Apologia Anatomy and Physiology
This is our primary science and daddy is trying to be the teacher.  With his schedule, we have not had a consistent and constant schedule.  We hope that changes.

Just Write - Book 2
She has difficulty with writing her thoughts and expressing herself in writing.  From reading reviews and looking at the curriculum, I am excited.

Working with Words - Grade 7
She loves using "BIG" words and so I did not think putting her in the 7th grade curriculum of this would be a stretch.  This is a simple and very inexpensive curriculum.

Math U See Gamma
Since we are still having difficulty with adding and subtracting, I have chosen to back her up last year and this year to prepare her for the math she will be doing in high school.  Again, if she can master or pretest out of part of this curriculum during the school year, she can move quickly ahead.

Life of Fred - Dog
This is once a week math and done for the fun of it.  If you are not familiar with this, please check it out. It is such fun as an add-in.

Easy Grammar - Grade 3
Same reasons we are doing Lifepac LA5.

SOS - Constitution
She loves history as much as science, so this is her elective for the fall.  This is our first time to use a computer based curriculum and we are hoping she likes and excels with this.

And for the most importance section of our curriculum.

Bible Study - Various
I am using several different items because not all will take 32+ weeks.  The first one is a Kay Arthur bible study called "How to Study the Bible for KIDS".  I bought the books and the DVD.  It looks like a fun video.
We are going to continue with the "Lily" series, Grapevine, and a few others.  More on how this works later.

I will continue in Part Two with Drama Queen (5th Grade) and explain our scheduling and our additional fun extras.

What is new and happening?

A new start and lots of things to do.

Where do I begin?  I have asked that question for the last 2 weeks.  I finally asked the right person, GOD.  I consider myself more eclectic and a little unschool, in most of what we do, for our learning.  I have spent plenty of time in the last 2-1/2 years of homeschooling to learn how my children clique and learn.

Now that I have more of a sense of their learning and they are more mature in their ages and behaviors, I am ready to unleash the real homeschooling.  That is a big HA HA.  It is all learning; life, mistakes, activities, everything.  But I ordered our curriculum and it is arriving.  I will show you and give you a run down in my next blog.

See you later.

I Have a Fever

I have a fever and it is not getting better yet.  I have Springitis.  We have had days with 65+ degree temperature, then highs in the 50s for the next few days.

Will we please make a change in the weather.

I need the sun, flowers, and outdoors.  As much for me as the girls.

We are going to start our seedlings this week.  I will try to add pictures.

Mama Fry

What, NO Valentine's Day?

I proposed not doing Valentine's on Thursday.  You would have thought that I said no more candy (we are about to get braces in the family, so not far from it).

We had some things that came up early in the week that just made it difficult time and cost wise to pull it all together.  They still did Valentine's for mommy, even though I said let us do it on Saturday.  You see, the weather has been yucky, mommy got a migraine (which makes me fuzzy), and we went to a specialist for my eldest daughter.  I always hate going to this specialist, but this could be our next to last time.

So let's postpone Valentine's because mommy hasn't had time to get things organized.  The tears started welling up.  I just thought that it would be better on Saturday than a Thursday afternoon/evening.

Well, a special meal planned for hubby with a chocolate theme (thanks Paula Deen) and some crafts and cooking goodies with the girls.  I am decorating the main area and have Little Women and Emma to watch with the girls.  Daddy is going to make cupcakes (bought the mix for .25 at Walmart today).  Got all we needed on the clearance aisles, so saved money.  I have a couple of crafts and we may work on little ones (turning 10 by end of month) birthday stuff.

Hope you all were blessed with a lovely Valentine's Day.

Mama Fry

What's New?!!!!!

It has been a while since I wrote on my blog.  Trying to get hubby to help me with some nuances, but he is busy helping teach and with a workload that has increased 150%.

We are still using Trail Guide to Learning Paths of Exploration.  We are studying Jamestown but we are a little behind with the schedule.  I plan to condense and pair down what there is for the first 3 weeks of the unit.  We have been reading the books though, so I don't feel so guilty.

We have been working on everything from Math, English, Bible, Writing, Geography, etc.  I am trying to prepare them for the Stanford Assessment Test (SAT).  I am working on getting them caught up on what I believe I have not taught them in the last year and a half.  Believe me, I do not feel very guilty about this.  They just weren't getting it last year so I did not push too hard.  They seem to be grasping it much better and I am using some tools that seem to be helping.

I don't have lots of wall space in the basement classroom, therefore keeping info up for them to "see" is difficult.  I figured out a way to get around that.  You know those project boards?  I am using them as a subject board.  Each one is set up with anchor charts, info posters, etc. about that subject. (Maybe I will try to load up some pictures.)  I bring them out when we are ready to learn about that subject.  Along with that, the girls are doing ISNs (Interactive Student Notebooks). I know this seems a lot like what is done in public school, but I am seeing such progress, I don't care.  They are learning, and what makes this so different than "notebooks" and "lapbooks".

To keep up with what we are doing, I am doing it with them, but mine has a few extra notes for teaching. This has been a great year.  We have not had it easy with schedules changing or extra things being thrown at us.

I am still adding, taking away, and changing things up - BEING FLEXIBLE.

Keeping God our main focus has been very helpful.  I feel the girls are really showing character growth.  I am trying to focus on SEEKING God's wisdom.

Praying for wisdom and guidance.