It's Been 2 Years Friends

It has been two years since I've posted anything. [sigh]  We have been very busy; as I'm sure y'all are too.  We now have a 6th grader, 8th grader, 10th grader, and 11th grader.

I've added two links to curricula I like on the tab to the right (for PCs).  So check them out.

So, what are we up to?

In school, we are still incorporating Easy Peasy into our school day for history, science, Music Appreciation, Art Appreciation, and high school English (American Lit).  I also use You Tube videos to supplement.

Books we've read so far this year for High School are: The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, and The Red Badge of Courage. We are starting My Antonia this week. For Middle School: The Story of My Life (Helen Keller), The Singing Tree, and Turtle in Paradise.  We are starting Navajo Code Talkers this week.

We are using The Bible Project on You Tube for Bible class.  My kids love this series.  Thank you to my sweet friend in Rochester, NY for giving me the info for this great resource!!

In math we are using Math Mammoth for the 6th grader. (Math Mammoth caught us up from a deficit created by Teaching Textbooks.  TT works for some, but not for us.)  My 8th grader just started Algebra using Harold Jacobs Elementary math.  He's doing great so far.  And my 10th & 11th graders are continuing Geometry by Harold Jacobs from last year and will begin Trig/Alg 2 later in the year.

My daughter is doing CLEP courses for History, Science, American Literature, and German.  She is realizing how intensive college courses can be, but is plugging away and doing a great job!  We use Modern States, a free online program, where you can get your freshman college year for free.  For real... FREE.  It also counts as a high school credit. Sweet!

For PE our family does Taekwondo.  Two of my kids are Brown Sr. belts (only a half belt away from black recommended). I'm a Red Sr. belt (a belt and a half away from black recommended).  One son is a Purple belt (3 belts away), and the other son is a Green Sr. belt (4 1/2 belts away).

All of my kids take a Tech/Robotics course at our local library.  My kids actually started that up, as well as a chess club at the same library that they help teach.  And the tech librarian there has been kind enough to teach my two high schoolers an engineering course every week as they volunteer for him.  We're heavily involved in our local library. :)

Speaking of... my daughter is on the Teen Advisory Board for our library and meets up once a month to plan activities and events for the teens of our area.  She started a self-defense class there.  It's in the preliminary stages.

I began working this year for a few hours a week at our Taekwondo school as a receptionist and janitor.  It helps pay for our tuition, tournaments, and tests.  It also helps pay for my son's piano lessons.  But what I love most is that I still get to spend time with my kids, because they take classes as I am at the desk, AND they help me clean the gym.

We have gone on many field trips since I last posted.  Some field trips this school year include:
Sea Turtles @ Gulf State Park
Cintas Factory
Golden Flake Factory
Noccalula Falls
Southern Museum of Flight

There is much more that has gone on, but I think this is enough for now.  I'm hoping to get back to blogging again.  It's like a journal of our homeschool journey for me.  :)

Here are some school pics of this year.

The 6th grader at Homeschool Tech class

The 8th grader making a polymer ball (silly putty)

The 10th grader finished her soldering class and passed her test!

The 11th grader at the very 1st Homeschool Tech class

Change Is in the Air, Again

It has been a year since I've last posted.  There is a reason for that.  Chaos. ha!

This past year was a tough one.  I feel like I really didn't have anything important to say.  I had no advice to give.  In my eyes, I was failing at this homeschool thing.

My last post was a post on making homeschool easier.  I used all these online resources.  So why wasn't it easier?

I don't exactly have an answer for that.  I don't know why.  But I do know, that this tough year pushed me in directions I would not have gone down on my own.

Mid school year, we began Easy Peasy Homeschool for some of our subjects.  (Science & Geography)  And it's a good thing we did.  We were majorly struggling with those.  I mean, struggling to get them finished daily or even do them at all, kind of struggling.

This year, I plan on having the kids use Easy Peasy for everything except Math and Grammar/Spelling.  I'm looking forward to that!

Math... I have to apologize readers.  I recommended Teaching Textbooks.  And I really loved the fact that I didn't have to teach.  And that it was student led.  It had its own gradebook.  And it was self grading...  BUT, after my youngest was using it for 2 years, my middle son used it for 3 years, and my oldest used it from 3rd grade to 8th grade, we did assessment tests.  All three of my boys scored well below their grade level.  I had heard and read so many great things about this curriculum.  So, I'm very disappointed that this was the result.  As a side note: my daughter used Horizons for 5 years, 1 year of Teaching Textbooks, and PACE math for a year, and she scored above her grade level.  She actually struggles with math, and my boys are naturally good at it.  So I don't know what happened and why this curriculum failed us, but it did. :(  If you're using Teaching Textbooks, I recommend assessing your child in math to make sure they are on target.  I'm sure it works just fine with some kids, but not mine.

So what am I doing for math this year?  A friend of mine recommended Math Mammoth.  I am very excited to start this program for my two youngers.  They have a lot of catching up to do, but I think they will really excel once we get started.  It explains the math concepts from multiple angles.  And the one that clicks with your kid, is the one you use to teach.  This makes sense, because each of my kids learn differently.  And there isn't always one perfect way to teach something.  I will be using the Blue series.

* * *

I actually ordered from Math Mammoth and accidentally ordered the wrong thing.  It was a digital copy of worksheets, and I received them right away.  As soon as I realized that, I messaged the company and told them what I had done.  I also told them since I've already received the product, I understand if they couldn't do anything for me.  Guess what?  They gave me a full refund!  That was more than I ever expected!  I only have great things to say about their customer service!!  When I use the product, and I assess the kids at the end of the year, I'll let you know how the product did. :)

* * *

For Algebra I, I am using AskDrCallahan.  They use Elementary Math by Harold Jacobs, as their textbook.  They offer DVD helps, teacher's manuals, and Answer Keys.  This math text has been proven by a local high school to produce the highest grades in college compared to all other high schools in our area.  Plus, my friend's family owns the company, so I can go to her anytime I need help. :D  She's gonna love me. :P

For Grammar, I am going to continue using Easy Grammar for my two younger ones (with Daily Grams).  For Spelling: All About Spelling (like the years before).  These are still working for us.

* I began writing this post in early June 2016 and never published it. Since then, we have started school back up (end of June).  I am loving Easy Peasy so far. We've only done Art, PE/Health, Computer, and 6th grade Spanish so far.  My younger boys are liking Math Mammoth and aren't complaining.  And my two olders LOVE their new math program (Harold Jacobs Elementary Math) and actually enjoy doing math now. In fact, they argue over who is getting the textbook first. Now that's an argument that I can tolerate. Haha!

So, as I say at the top of my blog... I am always learning on this homeschool journey.  So here's to another year of learning, changing, and trying not to go crazy. ;)

Sanity Restored! (Hopefully)

I feel like I'm drowning in lessons.  They swarm about me.  Four separate grades.  I look at my upcoming schedule and haven't a clue on how I'm going to teach all of the day's lessons in just one single day!  At this rate, my school year will be 365/year. sigh.

So I began to brainstorm.  What can I do to alleviate all the lessons?  I love teaching all the kids all the subjects myself, but realistically, I just can't.

So I began the search for helpful tools on the internet.  And I found many FREE great sites!!

Here they are:

Quizlet - Free to join, but better options with subscription: I will use this one for Classical Roots Vocabulary for my 5th, 7th, and 8th graders.  They have the workbook, which they will use, but they will practice and take the final test using this site.

Wordly Wise 3000 - FREE: (I could only get this site to link up to Book 2, Lesson 1.  But you can navigate from there.)  This one does basically the same thing as Quizlet, but it's geared toward Wordly Wise and you use Wordly Wises's premade study system.  This will be for my 3rd grader.

Spelling City - Free to join, but better options with a $29.99/year subscription: I bit the bullet and paid for a year's subscription. :)  It equals out to being about $0.62 per kid, per month (I have 4 kiddos)  They will practice their spelling list daily on this site (I will teach the initial lesson and make them write out sentences daily still) and they'll take the final test on here.  This alleviates me from having to take the time to administer 4 different spelling tests every week.

Book Adventure - FREE: This website allows you to have your kids take a quiz after reading their book to test their reading comprehension.  They have thousands of titles and most books that you would use are on this site. If one isn't, you can read the book yourself and make your own quiz!

Mango Language - FREE: Through our local library, we have signed up for Mango Language to teach my 8th grader Spanish.  This is not available in all areas.  The link will take you to a page that will see if it is available in yours.

Teaching Textbooks - Not so Free: ;)  Y'all already know my love for this program.  It does have free placement tests and sample lessons.  I love this program because the lesson is taught on the CD, the quizzes are on the CD, and it grades for you! You have the option to delete or change an answer if your kid accidentally hits the wrong key (I usually 'quiz' them on a similar question before I change to see if they really understand.)  And I can use it for all my kids without buying a new workbook every year.  So although the initial cost is a tad expensive, having 3 kids use the lower grades, it equals out to $40 per kid a school year. Not bad! :)

Multiplication - FREE: This site has free math drills and self correcting scores.  I'm using this as a supplement to Teaching Textbooks. 

APlusMath - FREE: This site has math related bingo games and flash cards.  Another supplement I'll be using. :)

Good Reads - FREE: Is an excellent site to find books that are age appropriate for all your readers.  I am making my own reading program this year, and between this and Book Adventure, this alleviates a lot of stress and work. :)

Jeopardy Rocks - FREE: This one is a little more tricky. It is absolutely free.  BUT, you have to make the board right before you want to use it, and if you "x" out of your jeopardy board, you lose it.  It doesn't save. But it is so very fun!  I will be using it for Science, Grammar, Bible and Social Studies as a quiz of sorts.
And there is a trick to getting your game to open.  But now I can't remember!!!  I'll have to research it and edit this once I find out what it is. :)

** Edited 5/29/15: For Jeopardy Rocks, from the person who shared this resource with me, "After you type in your words and your title, refresh the page. It will begin the game."

I hope you find these resources helpful!  I am so excited to be relieved from some of the busy work.

There are some subjects I'm not "delegating" out to the cyber world: History/Social Studies, Grammar, Bible, and Science.

I'm hoping that all of these sites will alleviate my stress during the school year, and help my kids so they don't have to listen to me drone on everyday, all day. :)

Math Helps

It's the end of the school year.
Just 12 days left.
The kids are tired.
Mom is tired.
And Math seems to be suffering.
Math has become "too hard".  At least that's what I hear over and over again.

My solution: Try to help them understand what's going on.
My tools: Microsoft Excel, a printer, and a laminating machine. :)

For help with converting the metric system, I made this chart and laminated it for them.  They can use a dry erase marker to use the chart for multiple problems.

Simple directions are under each side to help them decide where the whole number goes.

For help with Place Value, I made this chart.  Again, laminating it and having the child fill in the number, so that he can see which number is in the _ place.

My son struggles with where the commas go, so I made sure I put those in place for him.

For help with beginning stages of long division, this chart has been very helpful.  He fills in the "blank" divided by "blank" and then works the problem filling in the boxes, subtracting, and following the arrows.  Dry erase makes it easy to do with multiple problems, especially since he's using Teaching Textbooks without the workbook.


I made the boxes a little big, so the remainder box is small.  I was just too lazy to do it all over again making the other boxes a bit smaller.

I make him say what is happening as he fills out the chart.  For example, let's say the problem is 541 divided by 3.  He'd say, "Three goes into 5 how many times without going over.  One.  Five minus three equals 2.  Drop down the 4.  Three goes into 24 how many times without going over. Eight.  Twenty-four minus 24 equals 0.  Drop down the one.  Three goes into 1 how many times without going over? Zero.  One minus 0 equals one.  The remainder is one.

**Edit** 4/23/15  I've added another template for when the divisor will not go into the first digit of the dividend.  It also has a fraction bar for the remainder.

If you don't have a laminating machine, menu holders make great dry erase boards too.  I got some at Sam's Club years ago... I'm not sure if they still carry them.  I still use those if I've bought a consumable workbook and didn't want to keep on buying it for the next child.

1 Quarter Down, 3 to Go

I hope you all are having a great school year!  We have managed to finish our first quarter.  This year has not been easy.  Teaching 7th grade has taken a lot more of my time and energy than I thought it would.  But, we made it past the quarter mark, so Yay! :)

If you know me or follow my blog at all, you know that I am constantly thinking of new ideas and new ways of doing things.  I have a couple of those ideas posted here.  I have changed some things since that post.  My kids help me find the flaws in my designs/plans. Hehe.  For instance, I had the months of the year in two rows up on the wall, but my 2nd grader was getting very confused of the order (especially since they were seasonally color coded), so I made them into a straight line under the date.  He is understanding that much better, but still doesn't get why winter just doesn't start in January. (It bothers me that the colors are not grouped together too Buddy.) ;)

This handy dandy Handwriting Without Tears chalkboard now is our official school countdown. Please ignore the bookshelf that it sits under that I haven't painted yet.  I have been. Teehee.

And I am typically a grammar nut.  But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out when to use lying, laying, lied, or laid.  And was layed a word?   Hence, one of the things I love about homeschooling, I seriously learn stuff right along with my kids.  So, if you were ever wondering, here it is:


To lie means rest.  To lay is to place down.  Lays, laid, and laying will have direct objects following them.

And now you know. :)

Ok, so, I love my gradebook.  Click here for a FREE Download by fivejs.  But, it doesn't break down the grades into quarters for grading / report cards.  So I made my own quarterly break down that I've attached to the end of my gradebook.  It's fairly easy to do, but time consuming.  You just have to know 4 formulas, and make a Grade Calculator page.  If you are not weighing your grades, you only have to know 1 formula & have a grade calculator page.  It's kind of a pain in the behind to describe here.  I may have to make a whole separate blog about it.   Oh, and FYI, these formulas are for Microsoft Excel only.  I'm (unfortunately) not familiar with Mac.


The history grade is N/A because we have not done history yet this quarter.  And if there is no grade, I just haven't plugged in the formulas yet.

Here are just some shots of our first quarter.


Coming partially or barely dressed is a regular thing in our school. (Not for me though! lol)



He's so proud to be reading.



Doing TT3 in 2nd grade



Another partially dressed kid doing Typing



These two goofballs are two peas in a pod



And as always, we love having this student join us twice a week.

Report Card Day!!  My eldest did not want his picture taken. :(

[And yes, I'm going to have to go back and make new report cards.  Those white spaces that should be gray are driving me crazy!!!] :)

So we celebrated all straight A's by going bowling!

Our Latest Field Trip

Mountain View Orchards

Jemison, AL

 

Here we picked the best tasting apples that we've had in a long time.

As my son says, "It's like candy, but it's healthy."

 

They were excited to go picking

very excited



I'm trying to condition her... I WILL take pictures, it's inevitable.

The first apple

Looking for that perfect apple

He found his apple in a hard to get to spot

The Golden Delicious Team

The Fuji Team

We loaded the basket pretty well



After the orchard, I had this brilliant idea.

Let's follow the brown sign on the interstate that reads,

"Brierfield Ironworks State Park"

I mean, if they have a sign for it on the interstate,

it has to be close, right?!?

Um. No!

That is incorrect.

But, we had a good time there,

and saw a part of Alabama that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

 

Brierfield Ironworks State Park

Brierfield, AL

 

Maybe the reason the park doesn't charge much, is because their employee doesn't demand much.

 

The covered bridge.  I let my friend go first, just to make sure it would hold us. ;)

And of course, they found the playground right away!

Part of the furnace

We don't know why this is Jake's tree, and we forgot to ask.

 Info on the furnace:

He found this really cool rock while we were taking a walk.

A forced picture at the covered bridge

And doesn't that just represent the south. :)

 





New Ideas

I'm always coming up with new ideas for our school.  Our "classroom" is eight years in the making. :)  In NY we finished off half of our basement and used that as our schoolroom.  When we moved to AL, I had my husband build us a schoolroom above the foyer.  Transitioning from a 30' x 15' schoolroom to a 10' x 8' schoolroom was not an easy task.  But I am oh so thankful for my little classroom, and the husband who built it for me. :)

Because we are working in such a little space, I have to make every little square inch count.  I think I've changed the desks around 5 times this year, and we have only done 9 days of school.  I also have the issue of growing children.  When they were in PK 3, K, 2nd & 3rd, they were able to maneuver around the room just fine.  Now they're in 2nd, 4th, 6th, & 7th and there is no wiggle room. At. All.  Just Wednesday, I had to rearrange the desks, because my 4th grader and 6th grader kept bumping elbows.  My hubby told me I could use our dining room as a school room.  Which actually probably would be MUCH better since they're growing up so fast, but I'm having a hard time giving up my dining room...  We'll see.  Maybe this year will be the game changer.

Ok, onto my new ideas for this school year, and some old ideas that I just want to highlight because I think they're worth highlighting. :)

This magnetic dry erase board is perfect for All About Spelling.  It is available at Costco for only $20!!!  It came with an eraser, dry erase cleaner, and some markers too.  I don't use it for the dry erase purpose, but what a deal!!!  And the tiles don't fall off like they did with the magnetic chalkboard that I painted.  Spelling is less frustrating because of this gem!!

My 2nd grader still struggles with b and d.  Mostly in making the letters.  We use Handwriting Without Tears.  With that program, letter formation for printing is imperative for cursive.  Having this attached to his desk, has helped him greatly.

We don't use our HWT chalkboards anymore for handwriting, and I almost sold mine.  But I love them, and couldn't quite put them up for sale.  Instead I am using the one as a "Date" reminder.  The other is being used as the Teacher's Helper of the Week".  This is placed right behind the kids computer for their Math, so it also helps my 2nd grader who struggles with Days of the Week order and the Seasons.

I wish I could take credit for this awesome gradebook.  I can't.  But I love it!!  I went to a workshop earlier this summer where the leader shared this with us.  My version of excel is older, so everything wasn't able to transfer, but I know enough about excel to be able to fix those problems. To get this gradebook, click FREE Download.

 

I used to make separate "to do" checklists for my kids.  But I didn't have the time to do that this past summer while I was prepping.  So I made 4 extra copies of my weekly schedule and cut out each day, and stapled them in order.  This obviously is Courtney's, so I highlighted everything she has to do for the day.  She x's them off as she gets them done.  And when she's finished, she rips the top one off, and the next day's is on top.  They love this!!  I don't know why, but they do.  I'll take it! :)

My 2nd grader is still using Sonlight's 2nd Grade Reader Schedule, but my other kids are not.  Even though most of these are Sonlight books. :)  Again, crazy summer, so I didn't have time to make an individual reading list for them.  So I grabbed about 15 books from our personal library for them to pick to read.  The only requirement (besides being able to tell me about what they read that day) is reading at least 1 chapter a day.  They really like this, because they get to choose the book and I don't tell them what they HAVE to read.  And there are enough choices and reading levels to satisfy my diverse reading level students.  Oh, and I use Sonlight's Read-A-Louds from K-3 as my 4th - 7th graders' readers.

I used to print out the entire school year's schedule and put it in a binder, with 20,000 other papers that I swore I needed. (20,000 MAY be an exaggeration) ;) Well, my tiny school room won't allow for that.  I've done it before.  But my binder was constantly getting bumped into and dropping on the floor, or pages getting ripped out, etc.  Also, because I have some OCD issues, I hated having specifics scheduled, but not do them.  For example: My 7th grader I scheduled for him to do pages 1-5, but he could only do pages 1-3 that day.  Unless I played a game of 'catch up', my whole binder would be off page-wise for that subject.  Now I print just one page of the schedule at a time (even though I have the whole thing already done on my computer), and highlight as they complete each subject.  By printing just one week at a time, this allows me to change any page numbers for the next week, and so on without wasting paper and my time. :)  Oh, and I have it on a clipboard hanging off of a pushpin on the wall to free up the little table space that I have (which is basically only big enough to fit my laptop and a mouse).

I don't know if you'll find these things helpful.  But it works for me!  And if it gives you a foundation to do something better for you and your schoolroom, then I've succeeded. I love seeing and hearing about what other people have done.  It gives me ideas for my schoolroom.  My timeline was given to me by a dear homeschooling friend.  It's an awesome idea.  The shower curtain wire was purchased from IKEA.

I have it hanging under my bookshelf that runs across the top of our schoolroom wall.  It could also be attached to the wall if you'd like.  I use paperclips to hold the events. And a 'chip clip' to separate BC from AD.   It's very easy to slide everything off to the side and out of the way.

For my elementary math manipulative ideas that I still use click on the link.

So there it is.  All my ideas for this year (and years past).  I'm sure I'll come up with more ideas throughout the school year and torture you with a whole new post. ;)