FaceTime

Well, this blog hasn't gone as I had planned because my girls just can't seem to ever stay at home for too long. I have figured out a solution to this and could kick myself for not thinking of it sooner!

All my girls have an iPod Touch. Yes, I'm one of THOSE moms. Before you cringe, though, let me say that they have been very helpful in many situations. What I'm about to tell you is just another one of those times.

FaceTime. It's a wonderful tool on both the iPod Touch and the iPad. Video chatting isn't exactly a new thing but before it did require at least a laptop if you were on the go. With the iPods the girls just carry it in a purse or pocket and when I ring them, I see their beautiful faces when they aren't with me.


I have an iPad in which I'll use as we are doing our "reading through the Bible". It has the bigger screen, of course, where everyone can see the person on the other end clearly while we study.

See, technology is amazing if you use it wisely.

Stay tuned...about to begin again....again.

Our New Classroom

Things are changing up for the new school year.  I do believe for the good! 

I'm envious of those who have a room dedicated solely for homeschool.  I know how it feels.  I've had one in the past.  Here in this home, we don't.  This is one of the reasons we go to the library.  It's not a huge hassle to carry our backpacks into the library and do our thing, but since they changed the rules of emptying them at the front desk, it's becoming a pain.  Our library has more books than it does shelves, so all the tables have books on them being held up with bookends.  There's almost no surface as it is and when you have to put every book for every subject on them or on the floor, it becomes a little irritating.  

We could stay home and do our schooling on the dining table.  Since Clayton works a month at a time, we have the house to ourselves all day for the most part.  When he's home, though, it becomes a problem.  We have bigger meals when he's home, so there's no scooting the books to one end of the table.  He's a movie buff and he owns Bose speakers that can be heard throughout the entire house.  He has every bit of respect, of course, but we don't want to put him out too much either when we are studying all day and he's home all day for a month at a time.  We also do much better without other distractions as well.

So, with our home remodeling, I've tried to come up with a solution, trying to see where we could have school in different parts of the house.  As much as I have thought and found possible solutions, it still leaves a trail of our material throughout the house, which is something I just can't live with.  Maybe I'm just missing our classroom too much.

I get overwhelmed easily too.  With all this, I had to scope out all options to make our year a great one and not allow anything to get in the way of a great education.

I may have found and answer.  I found a building for rent right up the road from us.  It's a little pricey for my taste, but there are quite a few bills we are getting rid of as of this month, so maybe, just maybe I can live with the price.  From looking through the windows of this building, I could see it had two rooms.  It had a wall of shelves as well.  A wall of shelves!!!!  That means, no having to lug furniture up there for storage!  When I called the landlord, he told me he pays the utilities.  BONUS!   He said it had a bathroom.  EXTRA BONUS!!!  I'm not sure if it has a kitchen, but if it does, there's no doubt I'll take it!  

I'm just imagining the idea of being able to leave all our material up there, being able to do science projects without them getting in the way, being able to decorate and have things visible without having to put them away.

We are going in the morning to look at it.  Could this be my answered prayer?

I sure hope so!

Changing Up a Bit

Our style has been cramped a bit. We discovered today the library will no longer accept backpacks or large bags beyond the front desk. We had to empty our backpacks and carry our stuff to our table which doesn't sound too terribly horrible until we had to do it. It just made for an unorganized visit. We don't know just yet how we will do things from now on but we will figure something out. It's just a hurdle we will have to get over. 

We really enjoyed the girls' first music lessons here.  So far, the choices have been made.  Emily - drums, Morgan - guitar, and Allison - drums and guitar.  As mentioned before, they will also all three be taking piano lessons.  Morgan already knows a little guitar, some piano, and clarinet.  She's very musically inclined anyway and does exceptionally well at playing by ear.  Emily loves to sing and carries a tune beautifully.  All these things, I have to wonder how they could ever be my children. 

Although I can't get it to upload,  I have a short clip of Emily playing the drums for the first time.  Not too shabby for a first timer.  Her instructor was at very impressed and said she'd have the beat down by next week.  Allison tried her hand at them too while she was trying to decide which she wanted to do.  The instructor asked her if he could persuade her to learn the drums because after hearing her, he realized she had a good beat going on.  Looks like I'll have to invest in more drums soon.

Back to the Library

I was going to post about the incentives I use to keep the girls motivated, but it's taking too long to get things together to take pictures to give you a better idea.  I do want to share, though, so hopefully by the end of this week I'll post all about it.  We've been pretty busy around here as you can see in my regular blog.  So, I decided to get away from all the mess here at home and go back to the library where we can focus a bit more on learning.

Morgan bought a book the other day that I thought would be interesting to read aloud.  When she was younger, she was addicted to American Girl books and Emily and I read some of the Little House series last year.  I'm guessing this book will be of interest to all of us.

Here is the description:

Lizzie and Rosanna are cousins who share a friendship that should last forever.  But when the Civil War breaks out, they find themselves on opposite sides.  Lizzie joins the cause of the Union as her brother and father fight for freedom.  Rosanna is swept up in the passions of the old South and her love for a young Confederate officer.

Torn apart by their alliances and separated from each other, Lizzie and Rosanna are tested by love, tragedy, and the sacrifices they must make to survive.  It will take one of the war's bloodiest battles - at Gettysburg - to bring them together again, forever changed.

Sounds pretty "dig in" worthy, I believe.

A chapter a day, so we will finish it in 49 days.  That's the plan, anyway.

The girls are also beginning some music lessons today.  They had all 3 started learning guitar right before we moved here over a year ago.  I didn't know anyone who gave them here, but a place just opened in town a few months ago.  I finally checked it out and they offer guitar, bass guitar, and drums.  Emily is wanting to take drum lessons.  That's about right since we left the drum set at our old house due to no room for them.  They will also begin piano in the next few weeks.  Some schedule tweaking has to be worked out with their teacher before they start.

That reminds me of back when Morgan was about 7 years old and started taking her first piano lessons.  I have it on video and it's the funniest thing.  I'll have to find it, then convert it and post it.  Precious. Precious.

It's off to bed for me.  I've pulled a very very late one tonight, so that means loads of coffee in the a.m. to stay focused.

Schedule

Schedule

Before you look at this schedule and think this is a lot of periods or even a long school day (especially for home-school), it's not as it may seem.

First of all, I broke up the English classes into each subject (language, writing, spelling, literature, vocabulary) So, instead of 1 subject as in English, I did it this way.  Why?  Because it helps me be able to help one student in say, history, while the other reads their literature.  When I have them all together as one subject, it's a lot harder on me to have to teach two kids at one time.  (I can't seem to find the ability to read one's history lesson and another one's language lesson at the same time)  I want to keep the girls in their own work without the distraction and annoyance of having to wait on sister to get finished being taught while they twiddle their thumbs.  Do you follow?  You will see.  I hope!

Also as far as why it goes so late and not end at 3 or earlier...Well, #1 because I divided the English course, but also because they have an extra course that helps them in the things they find interesting.  Electives if you will.  Also, even though we school until after 5pm, they have a lot of free time during some of those subjects. For instance, spelling doesn't take 45 minutes.  I get that.  The extra time they have in each period allows them to finish their daily work.  Whatever they don't finish in class is for homework.  They finish most of the time, so they have the rest of the evening for their own free time.

So, with all that being said...

6:00 - 7:00 - up and ready for day

7:00 - 7:30 - breakfast

7:30- 8:00 - clean up/chores

8:00 - 8:45 - 1st period

8:50 - 9:35 - 2nd period

9:40 - 10:25 - 3rd period

10:30 - 10:40 - break/snack

10:45 - 11:30 - 4th period

11:35 - 12:20 - 5th period

12:25 - 12:55 - lunch/break

1:00 - 1:45 - 6h period

1:50 - 2:35 - 7th period

2:40 - 3:25 - 8th period

3:30 - 3:40 - break

3:45 - 4:30 - 9th period

4:30 - 5:15 - 10th period

This OF COURSE isn't an exact science.  Different days lead to different ways.  I try to stick to this as much as possible, though.  Also, this is the schedule if we are at home.  When we are at the library or out of town, it  has to be tweaked a bit.

Here is a list of their subjects.  Notice the study hall and how Language Arts are broken into separate subjects.

Emily

Bible

Spelling/Writing

Study Hall

Math

Language

Reading

Science

Art

History

P.E.

Allison

Bible

Reading

Science

Spelling

Study Hall

History

Math

Photography

English

P.E.

Morgan

Bible

Life Management

Vocabulary

Literature

Language

Study Hall

Math

Government/Economics

Home Economics

P.E.

Why Study Hall?

Study hall is just extra time to finish what they can so they don't have homework, but also allows me to be able to have them do independent work while I'm doing teaching another girl something else.  Notice they don't have study hall at the same time.  Study hall is also used for extra time for memorization work, projects that need to be worked on, supplemental exercises for extra practice, reading, and of course, studying.

The girls each have a folder they keep in their backpacks that hold supplemental exercises and such.  They just pull it out if they are idle, so they keep busy until the next period.

Well, I sure hope I made this clear enough to understand.  It's difficult to find a schedule that works when teaching different age groups.  I find this one works the best for us.

Next up:

Incentives

Organization

Organizing


There are so many ideas out there as to how people organize their home-school material.  I've tried different ways to do things and still may not have it just right.  Every year I tweak things over and over throughout the year.  Some have been brilliant for us and I've kept it that way, while others only lasted a day, if that long.

I was fortunate enough at one time to have a separate classroom.  I no longer have that and it's a lot more challenging to have class.  We have to use our dining table and I don't like our school items out in the open while school isn't in session.  It feels too cluttered for me that way.  So, I had to have closed storage where the material was still readily available.

Years ago, Clayton built me a computer armoire.  It was a perfect set up for a little home office.  My bills had never been so organized.  It eventually became a place to put our television before the HDTVs came out.  After we bought our first HDTV, I moved the armoire and was determined to get back my mini home office.  It never became more than a place to hide the computer and lots of overflowing piles of paper.  When we moved into this house a year and a half ago, I didn't do anything with it.  It didn't match any of my furniture, so it hid in my craft room until a month or so ago.  I refinished it to match my furniture, so now it is being put to use again...for the good.

The bin in the middle at the bottom is a treasure chest that needs to be updated.  More on that later.

It's in the dining room, easily accessible to the dining table.  I love that it holds our overhead projector perfectly so it's out of the way when not in use.

We started going to the library at the beginning of this school year to have class.  I wanted us to have a sense of having to actually have a place to be at a certain time, not just at the dining table.  I also wanted a different atmosphere than being at home all the time for school.  Of course, we wouldn't always be home, but the library was just a nice quiet, different place to do our studies.  We haven't been in a very long time and we can tell.  We all find it more thrilling to save home for days when we just have to be here for one reason or another.

Going to "school" at the library requires a little more effort, but not much.  I keep this box in my car at all times, so when we need something from it, it's there.  I don't bring it in to the library because with all the other books and supplies, well, it's just too much to have to carry around.  When we are at home, I simply take out what I need and replace it as soon as possible.  This box holds quiz and test books along with the quiz and test keys.  Books we don't use on a daily basis, in other words.

This is one of my very favorite ways I've organized something.  We use Abeka for the most part.  With Abeka, the lesson plans are separated with each subject.  I love the lesson plans, but with all the books that home-school requires to begin with, having those separate books was just a hassle for me.  I finally figured out how to solve that problem last year.  I took the spiral binding out of each of those books, punched 3 holes in the sides of the ones that weren't already like that, and bound them in one big binder.  It is a wonderful solution!

I used the covers of the lesson plan books as covers and used the pocket tabs to divide each subject.  I put in one week's worth of work in the designated pocket each week.  It's so simple to have the work right there in front of me as I review what needs to be accomplished that week.  As I go over the lesson, I simply hand out whatever work is to be done right at that moment as I'm discussing it.  Sadly, this only works for Emily, as Allison's and Morgan's are different.  Some are in the teacher's text while others are separate like Emily's are.  Bummer.

The girls each have a backpack where they store their textbooks, notebooks and other supplies.  They simply bring them into the dining room when it's time for school or bring them with us when we head out to the library.  I, too, have a backpack.  I use it to carry my teacher's texts and anything else that is needed for the day.  It's quite simple for us this way.

Next up:

Schedule

Introduction

Morgan

12th grade - J-Pop performer - Artist - Conservative - Unique

Allison

8th grade - Photographer - Creative - Outgoing - Thoughtful

Emily

4th grade - Singer - Tenderhearted - Social Butterfly - Generous

We are in our 3rd year of homeschooling.  Yes, it's summer, but the way things have happened in our lives, we have had to go through the summer to finish our year.  Morgan was away from home the majority of her second semester, so we will just be starting that fresh.  Allison and Emily had too many breaks in between, so we are going to be finishing and reviewing the entire year for the next few months.  After that, we will begin on their 5th and 9th grade year for Emily and Allison.  Morgan on the other hand, will be finished as far as credits go, but will  be taking another math class along with an SAT prep class.

I love being able to do things in our own time, although it does make us lazy if we aren't careful.  Before I knew anything about homeschooling, I thought the biggest problem would be all of us becoming restless and getting under each others' skin.  That's never an issue with us.  I have found the hardest thing about it is self discipline.  The way I can stay disciplined is to literally think about the fact that this is their future and there is no rewind button.  I have to daily ask for God's guidance to help me through.

Join us in our journey!

Next Up:

Organization