25th June, 2008
Vacation…all I never wanted
So today is like most days this month. We are wrapping up a lot of loose ends for portfolio review. We have been concentrating on history because that is the subject that suffers the most during the times I am busy with school. My goal was to make it through the revolutionary war. I am however making an executive decision to pause at the French and Indian War. It just feels like I am rushing to “get through” a time period that is so important and interesting. We have kind of a weird schedule. Joe is taking July off, but then we will we be back to work in August and September. Once I start student teaching Joe will lay low and unschool for that time.
I am not sure how well I am handling the concept of summer vacation. I would rather do maybe 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off kind of rotation. With my own school schedule, it just doesn’t quite work. I know that it is hard for Joe when all of his friends are at their leisure and he has to get his work done before he can go outside. Honestly, I am not forcing him to slave away by candlelight like some medieval scribe. Especially right now… it’s just a few things we need for portfolio filler. I have always been in the year round school camp. Joe thinks I am torturing him slowly. I feel like, we don’t get time off in the real world (because what is more real than homeschooling, honestly?) and it cuts down on incessant reviewing. Plus, it’s not like we are stuffing him in a classroom for 8 hours. Sheesh.
So what are your feelings on summer vacation, do you vacate the learning just because it’s warm out? 
Posted at 8:22 pm | Comment (1)
11th January, 2008
First week of the rest of my life
Well we made through the first week of homeschooling with few hiccups. It is really amazing what a short stint back in public school did for Joe’s attitude. We are focusing on tying up some loose ends while we wait for his books to come in. This past week we reviewed our Latin from last year, restarted Japanese, and picked in history with the War of the Roses. He is doing a novel study on a Wrinkle in Time and just finished The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull who also wrote Fablehaven series. Oh yeah, and Writing Strands Level 4. I thought I would be incredible nervous going back into this, but honestly?, it feels like coming home. I love doing this. I love knowing what he is learning and passing on the topics, subjects Ithink are important. I love giving him the space to choose how he arranges his day and get a peek inside his creative mind. I thrill at being able to provide the atmosphere that lets him learn and grow, not be stressed and weary. I’ll probably have more thoughts to relate next week about some topics that have arisen this past week in education. But for now, I am content and blessed to have a happy, healthy, and eclecticlaly educated 10 year old boy.
Posted at 4:32 pm | Comment (1)
16th May, 2007
Soooo….
I feel little like Mr. Rogers updating on what is going on in the neighborhood. I will probably add some more stuff this post later. I just really need to document my life in a medium where thousands of people could look at, but most likely no one will. :)
We found a super cool math quiz for metric prefixes. There is also a ton of other math stuff at this web site. Really cool for the older ones. Joe was drivin me crazeee with the constant guessing of answers. After a few tears, I finally got him to sit down and slowly go through the problem to get the answer. Then he used our little chart all by himself. Then he didn’t need the chart at all. I love it when I am right!
Joe also worked on this art/science project. Step 1 is to draw the world map onto a piece of poster board. He got the Americas done today. I must say, he is an excellent sketch artist. I was way impressed. This will eventually lead to a lesson on plate tectonics but we’re takin it easy for now.
Posted at 10:31 pm | Comment (1)
14th May, 2007
Slacker Mom
I have been so neglectful about posting. Even though I know that we will still consider ourselves homeschoolers after this year is over. But I started this blog to chronicle what we did all day. And so come what may. I will try my best to do that. I have been very pleased that even with my intermittent posting to find some really nice peeps to share ideas with. Thanks! *hugs*
So as per usual I planned this totally awesome unit on plants….AND now we are interested only in rocks. Figures. If this journey has taught me anything it is 1) Don’t plan anything and 2)Don’t buy anything. #2 is by far the hardest for me. Our bookcases are groaning with my rehabilitative backsliding. Anyway, we read about minerals and started a crystal growing experiment. His interest was peaked after a cub scout field trip to the geology lab at our local college. So rocks and the rock cyle will be next. That Geology Badge is in the bag,baby. Math we reviewed a bit. Joe does really well with concepts, but computation still frustrates him. I think we need some more fun ways to play around with basic facts, especially multiplication. He checked out The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the library, but ended up reading Matilda for most of the day today. Fine with me. I did find a great reading motivator web site. Joe was having trouble starting a book and then never. finishing. it. :( Drove me crazy. Then I found Bookadventure.com … so cool. This web site is free and run by Sylvan Learning Center. You and your child register, then pick a list of books to choose from. You select grade level, challenge level and interest categories. Then they read some of the books on the list and can take little 10 question quizzes on them to earn points (You can only take the quizzes twice, be forewarned!). They can redeem the points for the FREE prizes on the site or you can make your own prizes. They cannot receive a prize until you approve it by email. It really gave Joe the little push he needed to get back to reading again. Give it a whirl and tell me what you think. Slacker Mom is singing off to go lay in the bathtub. I might shave, meh, whatever.
Posted at 9:34 pm | Comment (1)
