Planning

A friend of mine mentioned that she had begun planning for the upcoming school year and that got me to thinking about what I plan on doing next year.  Here is what I have so far:

Dd1 10th grade

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2

BJU Writing and Grammar 10

Apologia Biology

Spanish (Rosetta Stone)

As for History I have Abeka World History, but I am not sure if we will use it or not.

 

Dd2  9th grade

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

BJU Writing and Grammar 9

Apologia Physical Science

Spanish (Rosetta Stone)

History ?

I will also be throwing in a few electives, but I am not sure what at this point.

What are your plans for the next school year?  Have you even thought about it?



 

 

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Scheduling…

It seems that my life is consumed with making schedules lately.  I will try one schedule and then if it doesn’t work then I am off to make another one.  I am forever searching the internet looking for blogs where someone has posted their homeschool schedule.  But it is more than just a school schedule, it’s a schedule for our life.  I have been the one who has been slacking lately and I need to get things back in order before I loose what is left of my sanity.  For those who know me, you know that I don’t have much left to loose.  I think without a schedule my kids become confused about what to do and when to do it.  School begins to suffer and so does the house.  I refuse to give up.  I will conquer this scheduling monster.  I WILL!!!!

Another problem I have is getting the girls up in the morning.  They are both night owls.  I was too when I was their age.  They go to bed around 9:00, but they have the hardest time falling asleep.  We allow them to watch select dvd’s to help them fall asleep quicker, but it seems like as they get older they are having more and more trouble falling asleep.  They are like Dh, they need to listen to something to help them fall asleep.  I have tried giving them classical cd’s to listen to, but they don’t seem to help.  They sure help me.

Another area that I feel we need to work on is food.  We have been working on cutting out junk food for sometime now.  We do like to bake an occasional treat every once in a while though.  I am more or less talking about chips, snack cakes, etc.  I know that the sugar rush at the end of the day doesn’t help sleeping matters much.  I am happy to say though, that our girls don’t really ask for junk food.  When we go to the grocery store they want fruit.  It’s just when they go to Grandma’s that they think they can take a ride on the Sugar Express.  🙂

Now back to my original topic.  Do you have a schedule for you and your family?  If so I would love for you to post a link to it.

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January 12th

I don’t normally post on Saturday’s as I am usually busy doing family things, but I thought I would go ahead and write a little today since I am the only one up right now.

The house is quiet as Dh has left for work and the girls are still sleeping.  Trixie Bell is asleep in the chair with me.  I want to get up and get a Krispy Kreme doughnut and a nice glass of milk, but I am too lazy.  So I though I would just sit here and write.

This past week has went fairly well.  The girls did well in school and are only a little behind in math, which they will catch up on today.  The house stayed somewhat clean and I managed to get a little laundry done and even hung out for a little while.  So our lives are back in full swing now that Christmas break is over.

On another note, Dd#2 was supposed to start back with orchestra lessons yesterday and she didn’t want to go and I didn’t want to take her.  Long story on that one.  She loves music very much, but there have been a few songs that she feels have just been over her head.  Right now they were just given a 15 page piece loaded with 16th notes.  She feels very overwhelmed by the piece.  I think she can do it, but her confidence level is very low right now.  She has lessons for a total of about 3 hours a week and they consist of working on this song only.  I am afraid that if we don’t make some changes quick that she will just want to give music up all together.  Last night she drug out the violin for the first time in a while and played Cannon in D and it was beautiful.  What I love the most is that you can just sit and watch her play and the movement of her hands is amazing.  I love to hear her play.  She has such talent when it comes to music, but she is constantly tearing herself down about it saying that she can’t do it.  She is very humble about her music.  She is not one to boast to people that she can play, and it is very hard to even get her to play something for us sometimes.  Her music teacher is working on a college path with her for music, but I think that dd wants to go down her own path.  She wants to play music that she feel in her heart.  I have always encouraged our children to follow their hearts and do what they want to do, but I just don’t know about all of this right now.  I feel like I pushed her into the orchestra and now she wants out.  There is a children’s bluegrass group conducted by the same teacher she currently has called the Pint Sized Pickers and she wants to join that group and play more fiddle style music.  I want her to do both, but I don’t want her to feel overloaded.  I will say that I am starting to notice more of a change in her as to how she handles her workload when it comes to school.  Other than math she finishes everything by herself and does a good job too.  She has learned to cope with her learning disability and I have learned how to see the signs of overload.  We still have days when she struggles with everything she does, but that is when God steps in and tells us to put the books away and go learn from life. 

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Oct. 31st

Yesterday went really well considering the cold weather.  Sorry CC, I just had to throw that in.  Actually it ended up being really nice with only a slight chill in the air.  And I got to talk on the phone with CC which was a suprise.  I also got to visit with a friend yesterday for a little while while Samantha was teaching piano.  So all in all it was a really good day.  I continued with my ritual of spending more time with my family which is working out great.  I even got to spend time with the animals.  Sonya loves the attention and Percy, one of our dogs whom I never paid any attention to before, was shocked when I stopped and started to rub her head.  Percy is a Border Collie and therefore she has the softest head I have ever seen. 

As for school, we are trucking along.  One thing keeps coming back to me every year though.  We are and will always be relaxed homeschoolers.  I have tried to be different, really I have, but it’s just not working.  It never fails, but around the middle of the year we tend to start back into our old relaxed habits.  But I have to say that in my honest oppinion, the girls learn more that way.  They stay more interested and focused. 

So what kind of homeschool do you have?  Is it structured or more relaxed?

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Wednesday 2-14-07

Happy Valentines Day.

Today the girls and I worked on school and then took the rest of the day off.  I have to say that Math went better today. 

I finished my sock that I have been working on and now it is time to start the other one.  I must confess that I do like knitting socks.  I feel like I have actually made something that we will use. 

Sam is busy in the kitchen making fire starters. I know that doesn’t quite sound right, but at least the kitchen isn’t on fire.  Yet. 

 Ash is on the computer as usual.  She loves her computer time. 

And here I am listening to the movie Cars in the background and working on my computer.    I am spending most of my time here reading my favorite homeschool forum before it goes away.  I love that place.  I have made so many wonderful friends there.  I am glad that we will still be able to keep in touch.  I would love to meet each and everyone of them.  I wonder if DH would take time off from work so that we could travel the U.S. and meet all of them.  Somehow I don’t think he would go for that.   So until that day comes I will just hold them in my heart and mind (what little I have of it).

 Time to go and make sure that I still have a kitchen.

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Wednesday

Hello to all my DY friends.  I am so glad to see a lot of you coming over.  I don’t know what I would do without you.  You are like family to me. 

Well today I started a new approach with school, well a new one for us anyway.   I finally for the first time wrote all of todays assignments on the board and looked at the kids and said,”You are on your own”.   I think they were a little frightened.  I have spent so many days sitting with them making sure that they did all of their work.  It is time that they learn some more responsibility.  They are slow with their work today, but they know that what they don’t complete today will just be added to tomorrows work.  It has taken a lot of stress off of me. 

Tomorrow the girls go to the orthodontist to have their braces put on.  While this is happening DH will be going for a job interview.  Afterwards I am going to make a trip to AC Moore to look at yarn. 

 Well I’m off to clean and start dinner.

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