A New Year...

Ok, so it was requested that I blog again. So as requested, here it is Amanda, I hope you enjoy! The new school year has begun, and thankfully we were not affected by the teachers strike that was happening here in BC. We got our start on September 15th. I think I've done a schedule at least 3 times and am now on revising it yet again! So far the year is going good. Aliyah and Alexandra are doing everything together except for math. I love their socials studies, Story of the World. We are learning about Ancient Times, which I adore, I'm not sure who is enjoying it more, me or the girls! Kaitlin is doing online English this year. She has completed 3 full weeks of work and she has 87%. She is really liking it. I like it because I don't have to be so hands on but she does need help from time to time. All but Alexandra are doing this amazing online math program. It has a multimedia lesson that they watch on the computer and then they have questions. They complete that then do a printed worksheet. I mark the worksheets, enter in their scores and it keeps track of everything. It's perfect and SO much better than the dreaded JUMP MATH! Joshua is doing a fun, interactive, virtual world type program this year. It covers science, health, bible and Language arts. I find it a bit confusing but the teacher is still getting things in order so hopefully it will get better and also hopefully I'll get better at understanding it. It really frees up my time though. For the most part my curriculum choices were much better this year than last. I adore our science books, which was a huge purchase so thankfully they are good! The girls Language Arts is fantastic! It literally tells me exactly what to say. I didn't know how they would like it because last year they had 3-5 workbooks each for LA and they love workbooks but they both really like it. The only curriculum dud was bible. I got given a new testament workbook for grade 6 so I changed Kate to that. I was going to continue the girls on what I bought but then thought why? The bible and learning about God, connecting with Him and learning His truths is the MOST important aspect of their schooling to me. We should like it! The curriculum I was using was dry and boring and I could tell they didn't really like it. So I went to a trusted friend-google! Google didn't fail me and I was able to find a free curriculum I could use. This was a sunday school curriculum but easily adaptable. At the beginning there is even an movie clip of the bible story. Which is great because my girls adore that kind of thing. They are learning practical things that I want them to know. We are on our second week of showing hospitality. I want my girls to be loving and caring. I don't want my kids to say they are a christian but have their lives not show it. These lessons will hopefully translate into their everyday life. Homeschooling is a tough job and last year I stopped going to my ladies life group meeting (a bible study type thing). I decided this year though I needed to take the time and go. So every tuesday morning the kids are given a list of things to do and off I go. I've gone 2 times and it was so nice to have that time away. I think I need this time away to get some adult time and just have a break where I don't have to think of what I need to do. That being said my bed is calling :)

Ok, so once you start homeschooling, even though you may have great intentions of blogging, for me it just doesn`t happen. So what`s been happening? Hopefully something that resembles success. We have had one report card and one is approaching. All the kids did great, which was a huge relief. You really don't realize what a reflection this is on you as a teacher/parent until you go through it.

My favourites of the year:

Apologia Science: Land Animals of the 6th Day. It doesn't get better than this. I'm amazed every time I read this book at the Presence of God in the text. Science and God really do go together despite what the world would have us believe.

Outlooks: New Beginnings: This is Kate and Joshua's grade 4 Socials Studies. The convenience of this is the biggest draw for me. All learning outcomes in one book. Thanks to Sarah for lending it to us!

Spelling Workout: The kids LOVE this spelling program. Kaitlin who struggles with spelling has really excelled using this curriculum. She has gotten an A on nearly every test and no lower than a B.

Cricket in Times Square Novel study: This was an hilarious book that Kate and Josh didn't only enjoy but I did too. There are some great free novel study downloads online. Looking forward to our next novel: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and yes I was able to find another great free download for the study.

Things I've learned, things I've made:

So I'm not going to list the countless things I've learned because I am seriously learning new things daily. I love it. What I'm going to talk about are things I've learned about the kids. Joshua, despite my loving Apologia, does not so I think next year we will do a different curriculum that takes a different approach. Another thing I've learned about Joshua is he can actually do art well. I think he does better at home with this because time isn't such an issue. I've been really amazed at some of the artwork he has done!  Aliyah and Ally: LOVE WORKBOOKS. I am shocked and surprised to say they do not like to color, cut, paste ect too much during school. Speaking of workbooks I recently made a diy workbook station. Recently I've read about workboxes on other homeschooling sites. This is basically having a set of drawers one with each workbook and a simple schedule the student can follow and do independently. Independence is something I strive for in our classroom since there are 4 of them and only 1 of me. So I took a loose approach to this idea and created something similar. For each girl I took an old crib rail. I leaned it against the wall by their desks so the bars are horizontal. I then stapled on folders to make pockets in which their workbooks go in. I have a time slot on our schedule (did I mention our schedule has changed a zillion times!?) for the girls to do their workbooks. They are allowed to choose in any order they want. Wow, have they loved this. They are so happy and proud that they can choose which book to do, take it out of the folder and put it back in. Yes I still help them (alot) but they really love the independence this gives them and I love to see how proud it makes them feel of themselves.  If I could I'd share pictures of my workbook station but my sd card isn't working right now.