End of November Update

Well we have had a difficult month-- but it will be over soon enough and then we can start anew with a shortest month of the year. YEAH! The queen continues to have some problems with budgeting her time between our homeschool work and her co-op course load. I think it is something she is starting to get the hang of, but she sometimes tends to dwell on the "stress" and does not do a quality job. So sigh I had to be the mean mom and come down hard on her she did horrible on her math last week, and her phone time had been substainly cut down on and will until she brings her grade up.

I have also made decision to swtich from TOG and get something that is not so teacher intensive for me, at this point I just don't have time to devote to it as I had in other years. So my oldest two are using Beautiful Feet Anicent History and my chef to be is going to be using History Odyssey. HO looks like a good fit for him but will require him to learn to outline, something that I really need to work with him on anyway. Beautiful Feet looks good for the older two and I think it will free up some of my time.

We once again signed up for Co-op, this coming semester I am teaching 3 classes again- can you tell I love to teach at co-op. I will be teaching a class in every grade level. I will teach Readers Theater (1st-3rd), Literature Quest (4th-6th) and the Hobbit (7th-12th). I really enjoy teaching more of the discussion literature classes and am amazed every semester by some of these homeschool students and their deep thoughts. This semester I will have my grandson in a class that is a first I am looking forward to that.

My kids classes look really well some of their first choices were filled up, we go to a BIG co-op but I think it will still be a good semester for them.

**Queen to Be**
Biology
Dance
Spanish
One Act Play

**Wacky Prince**
General Science
Spanish Made Fun
Architecture
Archery
Entomology

**Chef to Be**
Early Explorers
Whose Line is it?
Literature Quest
Adventure Down Under (My DIL is teaching this one)
Entomology

Week in Review Catch up

Well it has been a long time since I have updated but with co-op going I just don't have the time with keeping Queen to be on track. She is doing much better at keeping on top of things and is doing very well at planning out how to get the work done.

All the kids have now done the big switch from MUS to Saxon and boy I wish I would have just done it at the beginning of the year with everyone. The only problem is with Wacky Prince, he just does not seem to retain how to do certain things. So I think we are going to have to have a lesson in taking notes and remind him that that is not a sign of weakness. MUS definetly is a good fit in the younger grades but you know spending a year on fractions(or in our case 2 years) tend to make anyone loathe math.

The chef and the prince has switched from CQLA, I really liked the idea of cqla but the boys needed a little bit more review on grammatical concepts than they allowed so both boys have swtiched to Easy Grammar. This way we can do a strong spelling program, chef is still really struggling in that area so he is using Apples and Pears and wacky is reviewing his spelling rules with Apples Spelling Drills. Both boys also have a daily review program for english concepts and they both has new writing programs.

Tapestry has definetly taken on a light status here, we have had to switch our priorities especially with the queen to be. WE don't do as many projects or activities but we still do a lot of the reading and about 1/2 of the literature selections. I think we are trying to get over a little Fall Fever and it is just taking awhile. I finally sat the kids down and we have decided we definetly don't want to do school after May so we need to get better about doing school work on the weekend.

WEll that is a little update I hope to do better next week.

Week 6 and 7

We have been very busy still getting and keeping our groove going. WE are making progress, in fact next week is our first break week and we will start co-op that week too. WE are working on Biblical era of Exodus and talking about the tabernacle. WE are finishing up our Ancient Egypt projects so I have pictures of them working on those. We are making progress in all of our other subjects.

We are enjoying Write Your Own Roots a lot, dd is learning a lot about our family tree. I really do like the concept of the book, I do recommend if you are going to use it as your writing program to(at least at the beginning) supplement with a grammar program (we are using Easy Grammar/Daily Grams). It is very simple to use, you just have a short weekly "meeting" with your student and then they have a learn and apply section and write their story.

The Queen is finishing up MUS we probably have another 4 weeks left and then we will switch. She is counting down the days and so am I, I think MUS got us through a rough spot but I think she needs more of a constant review built in. The chef is still about 8 weeks away from switching. It seems as they get older they all need that constant review. I was the same way so I know how it feels to know you how to do something but then for the life of you, you just can't remember how to do the problem.

Week 5 in Review

Well we are into week 5 of our new year, we are in the midst of our Ancient Egypt study and also talking about Moses this week. It is very interesting to talk about Ancient Egypt and Moses at the same time. We are focusing our studies this week in the pyramids and the preparation for the after life that the Egyptians took.

The kids are working on a salt dough map of the Nile delta region. Notice the Queen is having way to much fun while the chef is totally disgusted by the whole thing. I think the wacky prince is thinking up how to smear this all over the queen (SIGH) but he knows better and tries later when there is no proof of his crime


Here is a close up of the map, it is still in its drying phase. We are expert salt dough mappers now! Let's hope I don't get the urge to do this again this year, we are still cleaning up the table boy it was a mess

See enjoying this way too much!!!


OUR CORE WORK

This is the chef math, he is trying to finish up the Delta book so we can move onto Saxon, my kids really need the spiral method in math if not they will total forget everything. Chef had a good week this week, he finished up another CQLA essay and is excited about our co-op starting again.


This is Wacky Prince's essay he is doing really well in his writing, and who said this boy was dysgraphic? Yep the advantage of homeschooling is we waited until he was developmental ready and boy his writing is wonderful. The prince has moved onto Saxon and is doing really well with spiral method. MUS was so boring for him because he just hated studying the same thing almost all year. He also got very frustrated with the MUS videos, especially when a new concept was taught and Demme showed three different ways to solve a type of problem one right after another. It was very annoying and ended up confusing him most times so we had to say good bye to MUS, it was great for a season!


The Queen to be is really doing well last week we had to give the poor girl a meet the "principal"(instead of a meet the maker) speech. She improved her attitude and has had a great week. This is her Bible for one day this week, it is from Bible Explorer series. This is a great series and real dives into the Word, it especially great for kids who have gone to church their whole life and needs an indepth study. The queen is enjoy the calm before the storm, we register for co-op on the 23rd and she will have pre-homework for co-op and that is when she will get busy. She is taking 3 credit classes this year and boy will she have homework. But she will survive-she knows this because I tell her all the time!

Week in Review week 3

Well we are already to week 3 of our new school year, where did week 2 go? Well let's just say we don't really want to review it LOLOL. Here are my two boys working on our TOPS science electricity, it has been a huge hit. They love that is written to them and I do too. This next week we are going to check some books out from the library to do some readings also to round out our study!




This is my Chef's asssignment sheet for this week. I thought I would include this pictures in case anyone wants to see how these look in action. The Sunday column is for when co-op starts and we have to do school on Sunday because we take Wednesdays off because it is DHs only day off.

Handwriting for ds, we are trying Italics. My poor chef's handwriting is very hard to read so we are still trying to improve it. The Wacky Prince graduated from Handwriting this year.


This is the wacky Prince's assignment sheet, the circling is things that were missed during normal school hours. NOT COOL this happened last week and trust me no one wants that to be repeated. If it is on the assignment sheet it has to be done, if it is not done on that day you listed, you lost your right to ask questions like, "where would I find the area of Greenland?"


This is Wacky Prince's first essay (CQLA) of the year. He wanted a letter grade and so he got one because, I really think he did a good job. This was the same boy 3 years ago who could barely write a sentence, and when he did it took him hours. Dysgraphia is so annoying!


This is Queen to Be's assignment sheet, this week was rather lite in government because she had a test and essay. She does the essay tomorrow but the test is down below.


Queen to Be's test this will 2/3 of her test grade for this unit, the other 1/3 will be her essay.


This is the logic we do during "circle time" we also do word winks, sudoku and other "logic" games I come across. WE do a devotional called Extreme Devotions which talk about modern day people who spread the Word. Every day we locate the place and read the devotion. We also do a read aloud this terms read aloud is Gilgamesh by Geraldine McCaughrean. We will add some hymns, folk songs and Chistmas Carol study later on in the year, after the first terms.


This is one of our projects we are going to work on for the next couple of weeks, while study Ancient Egypt.


Here are the instructions for said project.

My list of what I have learned during this weeks history study
-the book of Job should follow Genesis (I actually think I learned that during Bible time when studying up for our Psalms and Proverbs Bible study)
-Isaac means he laughs
-Abraham means the father of many
-and the Bible is not in order, at least the old Testament is not
-and we have a weird squirrel who lives in our tree
-and we have more baby possums under the house although I am not sure how many

Yes I did learn those last two things during history, I can be a little ADD after lunch and sometimes I have to be redirected (I just hate it when the kids feel the need to redirect me LOL) So all in all it was a good week. Hope you enjoyed!

Week in Review- week 1

Well week 1 did not go as smoothly as I would like, although day one was awesome but it would not last. Day two was the victim of surging hormones but was salvaged and we were still able to get the whole days work done. Day three we had a little issue getting the garage door to come down and I had to be outside until dh got off at noon because it seems the little public school kids have nothing better to do than to get into trouble (the kids were able to finish their core subjects but no history or science). Day four was a weird day dh left for work late, the garage door guy came and the plumber came. So all in all it was a very atypical and weird week, and for me frustrating (at everyone else not the kids).


DD started her high school classes this week, she is finishing up her MUS and will move into Saxon PreAlgebra in another month or so but is moving along and is understanding so that is good(math is a very hard subject for her, just like her mom)! She is working a lot on her own and we have scheduled two "teaching sessions" per morning with mom but honestly she can get by with just one. It will probably change once we really get going! She also decide to tag along with our electricity unit and science and SHHH don't tell anyone she likes it, she is also decided to do a science fair project this year. She is thinking of doing a project along the lines of anatomy. Government proved to take more time than she budgeted so she is stuck working on it on Saturday.


This is from Trail Guide and instead of using an Almanac for all of this, you will be amazed at how quickly you can fill this out with the help of Google.

This is her assignment sheet for Government, she found that she definetly needs to allot more time for this subject than she was.(This picture came out really large I don't know why and can't shrink it) I am letting her plan some of her subjects out this year and it is definetly a learning curve, she ended up spending about 4 hours on Saturday working on things not finished from this week. She will do better I bet :)

Wacky Prince is working on a high school level health class, even though he is in 8th grade we are allowing him to do the Abeka 9th grade health for credit. He loves abeka science, in facts he jokes that he must be a geek because he automatically knew the name of the small clusters of endocrine gland cells that are located in the pancreas are, do you? He got an easy week in geography this week, it seems the chef got his worksheet and he got the chef's work. I wish sometimes the trail guide series codes for levels was a little easier to keep straight. He has one lesson in his MUS and will move to Saxon, He has been so bored in MUS for the last year it has been good for him but he does not like staying on one topic all year and I agree with him.


This is his first Health Quiz


This is his map work for Trail guide notice you can read the handwriting, that is big :)

The chef had a good week he is still getting hung up on long division but it is almost figured out. He can do it but just doesn't like it at all, the steps of divide, multiply, subtract and bring down just drive him crazy and the way MUS teaches it really confuses him. CQLA is going the same, they do it but they don't like it but would they really like anything? Nope probably not!


here is his handwriting, it is still needing some help. SIGH dysgraphia is very annoying

This is a worksheet for history, I am using it with TOG it shows all the different animals and how many really would need space on the ark. IT is very very neat.

So that is our week 1 in Review! Ohh and if you missed our pictures from the first day of school click here