Month: February 2014

February 20, 2014

A Wednesday School Day

Today I am sharing our school day from yesterday Feb. 19. 

Everyone is up and dressed by 8:30 and has started morning chores.  There is little complaining since they were told that once done we had plans outside the house.  We went sledding.  6 inches of new snow and temperatures actually above freezing made it a great morning to go sledding.  My husband was looking more forward to the Starbucks treat after. 

10:45 We are back home and starting the work. 

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First up for Joey is reading.  He is slowly working his way through Nate the Great with Daddy. 

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Alex is working on finishing a science experiment.  What happens when the water from salt water dries up. While waiting she decides to start History.

Joey then moves on to Handwriting and lots of phonics work. 

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I start making lunch and in the middle of it realize that the bottom of the fridge is better bad so I quickly clean it up.

Lunch is at 12.  Today’s lunch is Tuna Melts and Chicken Noodle soup.

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After lunch chores and Bible time Peter and I head out to his parents house to drop off the tax forms.  Joey decides to spent his free time with a computer game, Alex reads her book.

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1pm we are back home and Daddy helps Alex clean up the bird cage and mess around the cage. 

1:30 Hubby is off to work.  The kids and I head off for the every other week shopping trip. (This is normally a Friday but it is suppose to be cold and I would prefer to go when it is warmer.) Today’s trip include Costco and Pick N Save.

4pm We are back home. Joey heads outside to play and Alex is back to reading her book.  (It must be a good book).

The evening progresses with kids finding there own dinners and Lego playing. There is some computer time too. 

7:30 Joey is off to bed and Alex is headed to the shower.

8:30 Joey has fallen asleep and Alex is in bed.  I head to Target to get the few items I have left on my shopping list.

9:30 I am home and working on lesson plans for next week and cleaning the house.

Midnight. Hubby is home and we head to bed.

This was not a typical day at all but I am so glad I decided to write about it since I now see that we did actually get some school work done. 

Thanks for stopping by

April

Link back to Our Busy Homeschool

February 14, 2014

Scope and Sequence planning for Our High School Student

Welcome back. I will warn you now this post may get lengthy and I may ramble but if your up for a little of that grab a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy. 

It is hard to imagine but our daughter will be a part time high school student in the 2014-2015 school year.  Part time because only some of her classes will be counted towards high school credit others we are saying are part of her 8th grade year.  I am doing it this way because I have a very goal driven little girl who knows that she wants to be a nurse possibly in the missions field. With that said she knows she has a LOT of school ahead of her and would like a jump start on it.  Her goals include finishing high school early and having some college credits done.  She would like to enter college as far into it as possible.  She knows she will be a young college student so she has even planned on going to a local school so she live at home and not have the temptations of dorm rooms at a young age. 

I am a parent that believes you follow your children’s lead.  Which is why when she came to me at 3 and said I want to learn to read we set out to help her do that.  With in a few months I had a full fledge reader on my hands and she wanted more so we did more.  If at any point she says it is going to fast I will slow her down.

Are you still with me? Good! On to the fun part.

First thing I did was go the the University site where she is hoping to attend and find the requirements for admissions.

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I then looked at what is recommended for her interest of study. Nursing involved a lot of Science and Math.

Then I made a detail list of all the classes that are recommended, required, and some that are in areas of other interests in her life…i.e. art, music, and literature.

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When I had a total of 30 credits (.5 credits per semester 6 classes a semester times 4 years) I stopped.  Trust me I could have added a lot more but my goal was not to over load her.  If ever she feels her year is not challenging enough (yes I have heard those words from her mouth) I will add more (most likely a class of high interest or a community project). 

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Then when it is time to plan for a year I pull the classes needed from her Scope keeping in mind what her primary grade level is and what needs to be done first, i.e. hard to take Biology 2 before Biology 1.

Now I know that kids change there mind.  That is fine. If she ever comes to me and says hey I don’t want to be a nurse I want to be a teacher I will stitch it up. Actually she has no idea I have this list.  She knows I have a general idea of what is needed to go to the college she hopes to go to and that I know what is needed to be a nurse and realizes that is just so that when applying comes it will be easier.

So what if she never makes it to college.  We are OK with that.  We are just trying to help our child follow what is her passion now in life and if or when that changes we will change how we help. 

Any of you raising a gifted older child? How do you help keep them a kid and yet help them meet there goals?

Thanks for stopping by

April

February 13, 2014

What Works for Us Thursday….Planning Ahead

This week I wasn’t going to post because I have been spending my extra time planning for the next school year.  I know for many of you, us included, that it is a ways away but I thought I would explain why I do it now and not later.

First off our official school year ends when the books are done. Normally that falls in the month of April.  Then from April to mid-June we finish any subjects that we may not have finished due to side trails or ones that we changed course in mid-way.   Examples: Side trails- Joey in History (He is enjoying spending a little more time on projects than I thought he would) Changed Mid-Course – Alex English (Her original course was not working and brought more tears than necessary so we changed it up.)

During that time we spend time still in the main subjects too (Phonics, Math, Reading, English) but change it up a little by adding in more games and projects. 

Then we take a break from Mid July to the beginning of August. 

So as you can read we won’t official start our new school year till August.  Most of you are probably wondering then why start planning now.  Well really it comes down to saving money.  I found for me that if I start planning now I can then take advantage of all the home school sales that are in Spring and of the used materials that moms are starting to put out there for sale. 

This is how I do it…….

Frist I take a look at each child’s scope and sequence

 DSC_0415 This is part of Alex’s. (I will do a post later this week explaining why it looks so intense and how I put it together.)

Then I pull off what needs to be done the following year and make a new list.

DSC_0419 Again this is Alex’s

  DSC_0421 This one is Joey’s.  (My kids are almost 6 years apart hence the big difference in what I expect from them.)

Then with that list I go to the sites that I would buy them from if I can’t find them used. This year that includes Rainbow Resources and Abeka.  I make an other list with the price of the items so that I know when I spot something used I know if it is a good deal or not. 

Then I start looking at Homschool Classifieds and other sites that are having a sale on curriculum like Timberdoodle Company.  With my list I know when I see a sale if the item is actually cheaper with the sale or at Rainbow Resources (which for new items seems to have the best price, but please if you know of some where that may be cheaper I am all ears.)

By doing this I was able to find a few items off Homsechool Classifieds already and take advantage for Timeberdoodle’s Damaged and Dent sale.

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Books are then put into a bin, crossed off the list, and put in a bin till I am ready for them in July when I do my planning. 

My savings so far is close to $200 dollars (homeschooling a high school student who needs a lot of science and math is expensive).

How do you keep costs low for your schooling needs?  Know of any good sites that one can find homeschool materials inexpensively?  I would love to know!

 

Thanks for stopping by

April

Linking up to Tristan at Our Busy Homeschool.

I am not affiliated with any of the links above they are just company’s that we use often and thought where worth sharing with you.