Filed under: homeschool
Something about the approach of February puts me in the planning mode for the next school year. As the years have gone by, experience has made this process far easier. The first year, I just bought what was suggested in The Well-Trained Mind for the most part. But then, I started reading the WTM forums and life has never been the same. I found out about all these other books and resources that people were using. Maybe they were better than what I had blindly purchased. How would I ever know for sure without buying it all and trying them? So, after that first year of homeschooling when we completed 1st and 2nd grade in one year, I ventured off to the Home School Book Fair in Arlington, TX to become even more confused. There were so many cool things available! The possibilities were endless. I left the book fair feeling so proud of all my purchases that were going to make that school year even better than our first. I made plans. I read and reread the books I had purchased. It was all so great. And then we started our school year. I was overwhelmed. My not quite 8 year old was overwhelmed. There was no way we could accomplish all of that. So, I set aside the less important books and we moved along. I was sure that we would fit those books in eventually. The end of 3rd grade came and I was off to the book fair again. I had learned my lesson from the previous year, I would only buy the things I had on my list. Unless, of course, I ran across some really cool new book that I couldn’t resist. I did. But these were ones I would use, so it was okay. Right? Nope. I’m starting to notice a trend here. The following year I had to go back again. Buster was going to be starting 1st grade and there was surely some new things out that I would need to get for him as well as some things for Doodles as she was approaching her last year in the grammar stage. Boxman decided that he and the kids should go with me. I thought it would be fun and maybe having him to bounce things off of would help me resist some of the purchases. Instead it did just the opposite. Every book I questioned him about was met with a hearty, “Go ahead and buy it if it will help with school.” Little did he know that buying too many would make it worse, not better. I went to that book fair one more year with a friend of mine. I had a list and stuck with it, for the most part. I had finally learned my lesson.
So now, as I start to plan for the next year, things are far simpler. I have a list of questions I ask myself.
- What do we already have?
- What are my goals for the next year?
- Will these resources be enough to meet my goals?
- Are they resources that have worked for us in the past (meaning that Doodles used them and liked them so maybe they will work for Buster, or they are in the same series of books that we have been using)?
- Do I need anything else to fill them out a bit?
Of course I always have the problem of needing something new and have to research. For example, Doodles started Algebra this year and I wasn’t sure what book to use. For Buster, it’s usually pretty easy – I just use whatever we used for Doodles for the most part. Sometimes I need to find something particular for him – I had been kind of negligent on the science side of things so I made sure to get him a science program this year that I thought *I* could stick with. We went with Singapore My Pals Are Here science and it seems to be a good fit for both of us. I’ll get him the next level. Doodles presents more of a challenge this year. I was thinking about getting Veritas Press Omnibus for her but since she has mentioned wanting to go to high school, I’m rethinking that. We haven’t done a good year of US history since we have mostly been using The Story of the World so we might have to go that route. But, I won’t buy too much and I will try to use what we already have if it will meet our needs.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Back in 1989, Boxman finished college and had his first real paying job. He also had his first real apartment with no roommates. This means he had to buy a few things – like a bed, some small appliances, and a brand spankin’ new 27″ JVC tv. It was a really awesome tv back in 1989. I think he payed a whopping $600 for it, which was quite a bit back then. He still had that tv in 1993 when we got married. It had moved from Galesburg, IL to the Chicago ‘burbs with him. It had a place of honor in our small first home. We had gone to a nice furniture store and bought a lovely piece of furniture to store the beloved tv. When we built a new house, we even had a cubby built into the wall to place the entertainment center with the tv. Then it even made big trip down south with us, never skipping a beat. It didn’t care that we never got cable again after moving out of our small (affordable) first house. It gladly accepted the signal we sent it using the rabbit ears antennae. It was happy to have our vcr, dvd, and video games plugged into it. It was used and well loved. Our friends and neighbors were upgrading to huge 42″ and bigger tv’s. Over time, they even moved on to plasma and lcd tv’s that they could mount on their walls. Not us, we were happy with our old 27″ JVC. This past weekend, we were noticing that sometimes old faithful was getting a little fuzzy while playing our video games on it. When we would watch a channel over the airwaves, it would get bits of static now and then. And then, it stopped working. Nothing but static on every channel we tried. We checked to see if we could still play video games or watch videos. No-o-o-o-o-oooo! It wasn’t working. But, wait, we could watch things through the dvd player! It’s hooked up through a different plug in the back. Maybe if we can hook the vcr, which has the antennae hooked up through it, to that plug, maybe, just maybe, we can squeak a few more years or weeks out of it. Unfortunately, it’s a big tv so it will take two of us to mess with it without dropping it on the floor and Boxman has gotten what Buster started with on Sunday. So, I will wait with a small amount of optimism knowing that things are not looking good for it. I know any tv we would go buy now won’t last nearly that long. The really sad part is that I will have to watch Lost tonight and tomorrow on a smaller tv.
Filed under: Louisiana
So it’s Mardi Gras time here in LA. The kids are always excited to go to the parades and see how many trinkets and beads they can get. It’s really kind of an amazing site – all of these people, especially grownups, fighting for goofy little beads, little stuffed animals, noise makers, etc. The first year we were here, we were amazed at the behavior of people. I was a very large 7 months pregnant at that first parade and we took a friend who was also new to the area and 8 months pregnant with us. There was Boxman with 2 very pregnant women and a 2 year old – I’m sure we were quite the site. What totally shocked me at our first parade, besides the number of beads we ended up with, was that nobody seemed to care when they were plowing over pregnant women to get some beads. I was elbowed in the stomach, nearly knocked over a couple of times, and still they were more concerned with getting their precious beads. It was amazing that our friend and I didn’t go into labor after all of that.
This year, we had a secret weapon. Being kind of short, beads are often snagged midair before they can land in my waiting hands. Boxman has a friend from Chicago that recently moved to Texas. He talked him into coming to visit this past weekend and go to a parade with us. Oh, and this friend happens to be 6′8″ tall. He was grabbing beads out of the air left and right. People around him didn’t stand a chance of catching them. He then placed them around the kids’ necks. By the time the parade was over, Doodles had nearly 100 beads weighing down her neck. Buster had long before tired of their weight and had put most of his in a bag. We also left with a multitude of plastic cups, some candy, and a few small toys. It was a lot of fun.
Oh wait, I didn’t mention how we turned it into a whole math/physics unit – studying the trajectory of the beads as they were flung from the floats, estimating how many beads were on each float. Or the psychology of it all – watching the people and their behavior when they caught lots of beads vs. fewer beads. And history of both the church and Louisiana, and France too while we are at it. The possibilities go on and on.
Filed under: homeschool
Poor Doodles has to do school today while Buster does nothing. She thinks we should all get a sick day. I think not. The only time we all get a sick day is when I’m sick. Well, not even then as I make them do some of the work they don’t need me for and even get Boxman to help out some. I’m thinking we will probably have one of those days later this week – I’m sure he’s spread his germs to me.
Buster wasn’t feeling so well yesterday afternoon. I thought it was just a combination of staying up too late the night before and the beginning of a cold. By bedtime, he was complaining of a headache and actually asked for something for it. Some Motrin helped him feel better so that he could get to sleep and it was well after 9 when he got up this morning. The fact that he was actually crying because he felt so badly was not a good thing and I set out to Target to get him some cold medicine since he said the cough and his stuffy nose were the worse things and we didn’t have anything for that for kids. He really likes the Triaminic strips. That was helping with the symptoms it’s meant to help, but he was still crying some from feeling awful. He wasn’t even interested in watching a video! He felt very warm so I took his temp out of curiosity and it was 102. I gave him some more Motrin. He’s now feeling slightly better, but still lounging on the couch. He asked to get on my laptop but was probably only on it for 10 minutes or so. He has no interest in food but I talked him into having a small scoop of ice cream. I keep making him drink water too.
Poor kid….
Filed under: homeschool
We went to the library this morning. Apparently they had a variety of reading/lit textbooks for all grade levels that parents were supposed to come in and vote on for use in the schools. The voting is done with and the librarian was told to throw away or give away the books. She is always very kind to us homeschoolers – we are their best customers, so she immediately thought of us. We went over this morning to check out the goods. They are your typical textbooks. Many of the books had not so classic literature in them, some excerpts, some undoubtedly stories written just for that type of book. Buster found a 4th grade book that he liked so we picked up it and the 5th grade book in the same series. I saw a couple of others that he might enjoy from another publisher so I grabbed them too. The books have stories or part of stories in them along with with some comprehension questions along with outlining, writing, vocabulary, etc type assignments. We might use them some. And then, I looked on the other side of the cart where the high school books were. These actually had more classical lit in them – even Gilgamesh. One of the high school ones is American lit and one is British lit. They have more literature analysis type questions in them. I actually kind of like them except for the fact that they are still excerpts.
But anyway, Buster came home all excited about this one book he picked out that he decided he was going to read it today for his free reading time. He sat there reading this school reading textbook for an hour this afternoon. He put aside The Dangerous Book for Boys to read this book. Then he sat there and had to read some of it back to me after he read it. I think it’s hilarious that he was sitting there reading a school textbook for fun. Kids are forced to read these books at school and most of them that I know of really don’t like them. Yet there sat Buster, reading away.
Filed under: Uncategorized
We were at tae kwon do class when one of the other moms told me that her 5 year old daughter, Myra, asked if Doodles could come live with them. Myra made it quite clear that she didn’t mean for her to just come visit or even have a sleepover. She wanted Doodles to move in with them and she was willing to share her room with her. Her mom said that might not work out because the rest of us would miss Doodles too much at our house. She had an answer for that too – we could all move in with them. Buster could share a room with her brother and Boxman and I could share a room with her parents. We could all just live together. We told her Doodles could go babysit her sometime and maybe spend the night then too but there just wouldn’t be room for us all to live together.
All of the little kids at TKD love Doodles. If she didn’t have dance at the same time as the little dragon class, she would be teaching it because she is so good with the kids. It must be from those years that she had to help me teach preschool.
Filed under: homeschool
I’m starting to stress out over the idea of Doodles only having one more year before high school. It’s not because she is getting so old, it’s that I have to make sure that she is getting everything she needs to be prepared to go on to college, hopefully with a scholarship. And then there is the whole concept of <gasp> public high school. I have told her that if she wants to go, she can. She has a good friend who homeschools who will be going to high school for not so noble reasons – her mom doesn’t want her to miss out on things like football games, dances, the prom, etc. Eh, I could care less about those things. I just want to make sure that my child is well prepared, well educated so that she can go out into the real world and lead a happy, successful life. This is where I could get into the whole definition of successful, but I don’t feel like it. Let’s just say that it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with money although I hope she doesn’t have to worry about whether she can afford groceries or how she is going to pay the rent/mortgage. So, am I equipped to give her the best education that will result in scholarships and admittance to the college of her choice? If we continue to homeschool, will she look back on it all and wish that she had the opportunity to experience school? If she goes to high school, will she get the best education that will result in scholarships and admittance to the college of her choice? If she goes to school, will she look back on it all and say it was the worst 4 years of her life? Well probably not, as I would allow her to drop out of school and go back to homeschooling. Then she could claim that she was a high school dropout. he he. Despite my anxiety, as I research it more, I think I could give her a pretty good high school education. I’m not really worried about whether I can teach her math, or anything else, but more whether I can help her grow in her independence and responsibility. I think I let her get away with too much – too many second chances when she doesn’t get something done or doesn’t do it right. I’m a softy like that. Can I stand my ground with her? There are some great resources out there, and we have a community college very close to us that she could go to in a few years. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…. How much say do I let her have? Do I let her decide whether to go to school or not?
Since yesterday’s post was about Buster, today I have to write about Doodles. I don’t really have much to write, just humored by the fact that we got home from piano lessons 45 minutes ago and she is still sitting in the car reading. It’s kind of cold outside, but the sun is shining, keeping the car quite comfortable. I’ve gone out to check on her a couple of times and she smiles and waves at me. I so love the fact that she loves to read so much. She prefers thick books and series – so she always knows she has something to read next. The current series she is reading is Left Behind: The Kids. They are thin, but there are 40 books in the series, so she is content with that thought. She will read one book in a day or two depending on what else she has going on. Thank goodness for being able to put books on hold at the library on-line, or we would be having to run to the library every couple of days. I haven’t read the books. I used to try to skim over the books she would pick out to read, but I can’t keep up with her anymore. These are supposed to be Christian books about the end of the world. The librarian, who knows us pretty well from all of the books we check out there, recommended them. Does that make it okay for her?
Filed under: Scouting
Let me start by saying that I love Cub Scouts. Of course Buster and Boxman do too and even Doodles enjoys her time at scouting events. It’s a great complement to homeschooling as we sometimes incorporate his rank requirements, belt loops, and pins into our studies. He had to write about a president or other important person from US history for his Citizen activity badge so I made it a writing assignment for school. I got far less grumbling about writing a paper that way.
It was a big week for us with Cub Scouts. Buster is a first year Webelos and earned his Webelos rank on Thursday. To make it all a bit more meaningful and special to him, we decided to have him continue to wear his blue shirt instead of switching to the tan Boy Scout shirt that most of the other boys wear as soon as they move up to Webelos. His blue shirt was adorned with all of his awards from the past three years. It also made sense to not wear the tan Boy Scout shirt until he knew the Boy Scout oath, law, motto, and slogan. We told him that as soon as he earned his rank, he could switch to that shirt. Friday morning, when he got up, his rank was sewn on his shirt, waiting for him. He was so excited about it and it made the whole thing so much more meaningful.
Then, on Saturday, he had the pack pinewood derby. This is always a big event in our house because Boxman gets way into it. The first year, he even went so far as to make his own car after the race was over to try to figure out ways to make it faster. But, it has been so neat to see how Buster has been doing more work on it each year. This year he had some definite ideas about how he wanted things and did them even when Boxman didn’t necessarily agree with him. The hard work payed off – he finished 3rd place in Webelos and 5th place overall. He will add the trophy to his 2nd place Tiger, !st place Wolf, 1st place pack, 2nd place council for Wolf, 1st place Bear, and 2nd place pack trophies from the previous years. I told you that Boxman was way into it. I was actually kind of glad to see him let someone else win this year.
I’ve also volunteered to be the advancement chair for our pack. The woman who was doing it has resigned. I think it’s something I can handle. Boxman is also moving back into the Cubmaster position. He had to resign when he started his current job because he was traveling all of the time. Now he is home most of the time so he is relieving the woman who stepped up to do it in his place. The problem is that we will only be filling these positions until February of next year when Buster moves on to Boy Scouts, so we are actively looking for people to train to take over next year.
And one final thing, Boxman got his invitation to Philmont! For you non-scouters, this is the ultimate in Scout training. You have to be recommended by your council in order to get invited to the training. It is located in New Mexico and the whole family is encouraged to attend. They have programs for kids based on age and things for spouses to do too. We are all excited about our summer vacation for this year.
Filed under: homeschool
I got an e-mail from my old blog that it was being featured on a list of top 50 homeschool blogs. I find this quite amusing as I had already posted on there that I had moved my blog to here. I’m also wondering what type of criteria they have as I mostly write this just to keep family and friends up to date on our lives. I do recognize some of the other blogs on the list as fellow homeschoolers from the Well-Trained Mind message boards so I guess I am honored to be mentioned in the same list as they are. If you are interested in seeing the list, it’s at Top 50 Homeschooling Blogs
