Weekly Report Week 23

The good news is that I finally caught up my calendar so I know what week it is, but the bad news is that we'll be 24 days behind last year's count at the end of this month.   I think this year I must have started later or something. 

The time change really got us this year.  We've been tired all week.

CC had a good week academically and a bad week socially.  She scored well on the tests she took last week, which is good except that she also received some hurtful comments from her classmates because of her grades.   She came home in near tears on Wednesday because she got two tests back that day and was told by some peers that she is a terrible person because she makes them look bad.  I was ready to take her out of school right away, but she wants to stay and is already looking forward to classes and teachers she'll have next year.  So instead of taking her out of school, I emailed the principal.  We'll see how it goes, but she's already met with the 6th grade team and found that the teachers haven't noticed this happening.   This has been getting steadily worse since Christmas break, and I've run out of ways to encourage and comfort her.  I want to see change, but having suffered this myself, I don't really believe this can be changed.

For LB, the warm weather contributed to a wonderful week along with some pain.  She's been taking her scooter to co-op and riding with her friends.  This week, she fell three days in a row and came home with increasingly worse skinned knees.  She also exclaimed , " I can read!" for the first time ever.  She reads well, but it is a huge milestone for her to realize it.  MUS is starting to seem easy for her so we've picked up the pace.  I won't skip any lessons, but at lesson 14, we're finally starting to move rapidly.  I can actually imagine her getting up to grade level before fall.

Week 13 Long, Good, and Painful

Right at this moment on a Friday morning, LB is at the park where she'll spend the day playing at a nature center all day, and CC is sleeping after being in the ER with me until the wee hours of the morning.  That is a tiny picture of our week.  Yesterday, LB was at a Waldorf co-op that we recently joined making gingerbread cookies and painting with watercolors while CC was at school taking a science test and preparing for her winter orchestra concert.  Last night, after the wonderful concert, we found out that she is allergic, very allergic, to tree nuts.  I also had my first experience jabbing her with an epipen which was no fun.  It was a long, long week.

Right now, the Waldorf co-op is providing LB and I with a tiny community to belong to.  She's getting art, music, stories, and lots of outside time with a few children instead of just working around my work schedule.

I'm back to being very afraid for CC with yet another life-threatening allergy, but  we knew right away what the reaction was and didn't underestimate it.  We reacted exactly the way we should have even though we were afraid, and we didn't panic.  She seems to get in a perfect balance in her life then her health throws it out again.  We'll fight to get  control back again.

The best thing I heard all week:
When I came home from the ER last night I peeked in LB's room to kiss her sleeping head good night.  She rolled over and sang, "Carry me home."

Week 12 1/2 Creating complexity

"Humans tend to create complexity."

This week our home and school stretched a little to make room from more complexity.  CC was asked by her cello teacher to audition for a strings group.  We  received a letter from her school notifying us that she'd been identified for their gifted and talented program.  She also excitedly joined the Junior Classics League.  LB started her bass lessons and found that she loves it as much as she though she would.

Sixth Grade:
CC had another great week.  She's realized one of the reasons she loves Latin (besides the fact that it is orderly and logical) is that she has never learned it before so it is all new to her.  She was frustrated with her science this week because the topic was ecosystems.  She has very strong feelings about human intervention in ecosystems and strongly disagreed with the simplistic answers provided in her textbook.  She's currently loving math because her teacher has moved her and a few other girls to the back row in class and started assigning them more challenging problems for each topic they cover in class instead of the more simple problems.  Overall, she had a great week in school but is looking forward to a week off.

Second Grade:
This week LB and I enjoyed Jan Brett's newest book Mossy about a turtle taken from her pond.  After we read it and examined all of the pictures, we pulled out a book of Natural History and looked up the names of as many plants and things as we could find.  It was a great way to tie literature with science.  Along with Mossy, we enjoyed Swirl by Swirl which is another illustrated science poetry book by Joyce Sidman.

She worked hard on her vision therapy exercises to get her eyes to focus together as she moves them.  We continued in ETC6 with phonics along with AAR2.  She had her first actual reading assignment from a book since we started vision therapy.  She was very nervous and resistant to reading, but once she started, she was surprised at how well she read.  She's still been working with Daddy in math - slow and steady.  I still like R&S2 for her. The amount of practice seems like a lot to me, but it makes her feel successful and helps to make it automatic.  We're still working through the OM Folk tales which are varied and entertaining.

Our week was good.  I'm looking forward to them being off from school next week to add some simplicity back to our lives for a short time. 

Week 12 - Fall Back, Reading, Music

With the time change, it is dark when I finish work, but the sun rises as I make my morning coffee.  I'm never sure if it is a good trade.

Second Grade:
School seemed a lot more like school this week.  I've continued to increase LB's work back near normal levels.  It seems to take us all day, but we're getting through it.  She does 4 vision exercises daily which can take a half hour or up to an hour depending on how many times she has to straighten her hair and adjust the eye patch.  She's been doing R&S Math lessons daily again and has decided that Daddy is the perfect person to do review math with her.  She does ETC6 with GMa daily.  I typically do Life of Fred and memory work with her.  She also gets a nice folk tale every morning plus a story at least one more time during the day.  She and GMa spent a lot of time this week coloring pictures of horses and Thanksgiving pictures that we printed from here.

LB riding an elephant at the penny arcade.

All About Reading - or is that play?

This week, we started All About Reading 2.   She knows all of the words, but her vision  slows her down.  I hope this will help her learn some strategies to tackle new words and get practice while we work on her vision.  She enjoyed the first two lessons so far, and I found out that she is pretty good at spelling.  She likes the activities best.  So far we've made strips of ants with words to feed an anteater and matched puppies with their toys for rhyming words.   

Sixth Grade:
CC had a rough week this week, but is doing well.  She had another stomach virus this week and missed a day of school.  She also had several quizzes, a science test and an ancient Egyptian feast (we brought ale (ginger ale), dates, gf bread and honey, and gf couscous).

CC and GMa taking a break from window shopping.

 

She's  been working on Christmas songs in cello so we all have "Silent Night" and "We Wish You  a Merry Christmas" stuck in our heads already.

Guess who's going to play bass?

Week 11 - Slow and Steady

LB learning about food in ancient Rome

CC still not feeling well, but still exploring ancient Rome

LB and I enjoying history

LB - Second Grade
We started reading the Oak Meadow book  of folk tales and started back where we left off in R&S Math.    Additional, we played lots of card and board games, watched a lot of Magic School Bus and went for long daily walks.   The VT exercises are still hard for her, but she is making  little improvements every day.  I also installed the new Classical Conversations Year 1 app on my phone.  I have a CC book and cd but have had trouble making the review a part of our daily routine.  Maybe this will help.

CC - Sixth Grade
Went back to the allergist Monday for a follow-up.  After a week of watchfulness and worry, she is still steadily improving from last week's systemic reaction.  The allergists have gone over her records and agreed that she should not have anymore allergy shots.  We're going back next week for another follow-up and to discuss an alternative long-term management plan.  I read a terrific post this week about anaphylaxis. 
http://familynature.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/the-epipen-long-time-owner-first-time-user/

Not a lot to report in school because it is terrific.  She's been learning about ancient Egypt, prepositional phrases, genetics, prime number factoring, and learning lots more Latin vocabulary.   Even though she's ahead of her orchestra class, she enjoys playing as part of a group with her classmates.   She was spending a couple of hours a day after school doing homework, but now finishes most of it during their afternoon study hall/ tutorial period which has been a big relief to her.  She still practices her cello most days for about an hour or until her fingers or arm hurts.

Last night while we were talking about school, she explained how much easier it is to do GCF using prime number factorization and asked why I didn't teach her to do it that way first.  Try explaining to a 6th grader that there is more than one way to do it, and that she first learned GCF in 4th grade which was way before she learned prime numbers.

We had a good week.  It was not exciting except our visit to the Pompeii exhibit.  We are in a slow and steady mode right now.

Week 10 1/2 - Art, Allergies and Vision Therapy

Last weekend we took LB's friend with us to ride

This is what LB wanted for her birthday

She's wanted to do this since she was "little"

We had perfect weather and a beautiful ride

This week CC had 2 days off from school so I'm only counting it as a half week.

Monday night I had one of those rare moments when I felt like I was a picture-perfect classical educator.  LB was tucked into bed listening to the audiobook of Moby Dick, and CC was stretched out in bed reading a summary of the Aeneid in her Latin book.   Of course the perfect moment didn't last long because LB was in chapter 135 and the whale was attacking, so it was much too exciting to fall asleep to which somehow led to her playing with green food coloring in the bathroom.  CC thought the summary of the Aeneid was shallow and left out too much of the story and couldn't figure out how to summarize such a poor version of a story she already knew.  Oh well.  I enjoyed my moment while it lasted.

LB had her first vision therapy appointment Monday, and we were given 15 minutes of homework to do everyday.  The therapist warned that because her eyes had such a large problem with tracking that she would only be able to work about a minute per eye at a time.  She suggested that we break up the work into 4 or 5 sessions throughout the day.  It sounds like a little bit of work, but it is taking up our whole day.  I was warned by other moms to scale down school expectations during therapy. She gets tired eyes after the first session of tracking exercises.  After the third session, she gets a headache.  I think it will be a while before she can realistically do schoolwork and VT, but we've been playing lots of games.

When I first saw how much her little eyes jump around during the tracking exercises, I was shocked.  I can't believe that her eyes are that bad and that I didn't know.  I'm feeling pretty guilty.

Tuesday afternoon I was back to feeling pretty happy with the education my kids are getting.  When I asked CC what the highlight of her day was she said that it was that she got to touch a Van Gogh.  That is a really cool highlight.  I got to see the Van Gogh but not touch it.  A private collector brought his amazing collection of art to her school.  She loved hearing him talk about collecting it because he had such a passion for each piece that it became alive to the students.  He had even met Picasso and told the story of having dinner with the artist.  LB liked the Jackson Pollack and the Da Vinci.  I didn't get to spend nearly enough time looking at them, but I enjoyed seeing such a diverse collection.

Wednesday ended the school week.  CC is still doing great in school and thriving from the interaction with girls with similar interests and teachers that are passionate about their subjects.  LB is working hard at her vision therapy but having trouble sleeping this week.  I don't know what's up.

Since CC had two days off from school and her allergies have been better because of the weather, we decided to try another allergy shot.  She had been bumped down to the lower than low bottle of serum, and we expected to not have a reaction because of the dilution.   Of course, she had another systemic reaction.  Instead of a quick shot and a 30 minute wait to make sure there was no reaction, we spend almost 2 hours there.  The doctors are reevaluating and will call us with a new plan.  I don't know that I am a strong enough person to take her back for shots again, but she is terrified that if her allergies don't improve before spring that she'll spend the whole spring in the hospital. 

Week 9 Mitosis and a Doll Party

A birthday party for Sammy

Sammy and LB with the toy LB made for her

A lovely view from a lovely walk

CC's Insect collection for science

Her grade - the color coding was appreciated

This week in science, CC learned about mitosis.  Her teacher had the class act out the stages. Ideas that were just words on a page at the beginning of the week are now tied to funny images of her friends lining up, pulling apart and becoming their own cells.  I loved the light in her eyes while she was describing how much fun she had learning about mitosis - even if she had looked at me strangely when I was helping her with her mitosis-related vocabulary earlier in the week.  Somehow me acting out mitosis in her room just isn't as memorable as 28 girls acting it out together.  Cheers to Mr. Science teacher!

I've been telling CC all year that her "Lit. Comp." teacher will grow on her.  Today, she admitted that he is.  They started the section on prepositions not only with a song but also demonstrating prepositions with their chairs.  Prepositions have to be one of the best parts of speech.  At least grammar class wasn't boring today for a change.

LB sat with me one night while I was watching CC do her grammar homework and decided that she wants to do grammar to.  I pulled out my old FLL from when CC was in first grade -  such sweet memories.  I have learned so much since then.

For school this week, LB did her math, poetry copywork and science.  That's all except for stories.  We played some games, did some art, sewed a stuffed dog, baked a chocolate cake and even made chicken enchiladas, but schoolwork was short.  If you can find a copy of Dove Isabeau, it is a great story and very different than many fairy tales.  We loved that the girl was sweet and fierce just like the best girls we know.

Week 8 Vision Development

A mountain in fall

This week LB had her evaluation by the developmental optometrist.  It was very interesting to watch.  I could tell that she was curious about the process and trying very hard to not have anything "wrong" with her.  After two hours of hard work, the doctor concluded that she has tracking problems and convergence insufficiency.  Essentially, when LB reads across a page, her eyes can't stay focused on the same point so words go into and out of focus as she reads, and she easily looses her vertically in the page.  It explains the way she reads, why she tires easily from reading, why words "jump around the page", and a lot of other things.  Now that I know more about how she sees, I understand a lot more about her reading, her lack of confidence about reading, and her resistance to reading despite her ability to read.  We're going to do some vision therapy starting in a couple a weeks.  Hopefully, it will help a lot.  In the mean time, she has chosen some really cute reading glasses that should make it easier to read when she has to.

LB and tiny aspen

That was LB's big accomplishment for the week.  I've spent the time since the appointment reconsidering the material we're using.  I understand why the simple, clean pages of R&S math work better for her than the other math books we've used.  I'm adding in additional read alouds for her and some daily board games.   I want some more art and less reading until we've started making progress in VT.  I'm keeping our science, poetry, copywork, and math just the way it is because it has been working well.

CC and more aspen

CC had a great week at school this week.  She wore a dust mask to orchestra to help with the rosin aggravating her asthma.  It was a huge improvement for her.  I really like that her school creates a culture of respect and kindness.  Instead of the other kids making fun of her, they expressed concern about her breathing, supported her and celebrated with her when it proved to be effective.

Family picture - I'm the tall one in the back

She had a history test this week covering Ancient Mesopotamia and did well on it (they used this book for this part of the history class).  She also had quizzes in Latin and Math and a playing test in orchestra.  She is still doing great in school and still loving it.

Or maybe I'm in red

This is what the top of the mountain looks like

Or this about 15 minutes later when the storm blows by

Week 7 Mermaids and Neutrinos

Ultra Deep Field Hubble View of a speck of a the universe

I really love watching children become storytellers.  Monday after LB was finished with her schoolwork, she excitedly pulled out a bunch of her stuffed animals to decide who would be the damsel in distress, the hero and the villain then told a cute story of a fair maiden captured by a dragon and rescued by a brave knight.  She wasn't satisfied with the story so she pulled out more characters and things to use as costumes, drafted dh and I for parts and spent the next hour preparing a production of Rapunzel inspired by Zelinsky's beautiful telling.   She even wrote a script for daddy since he didn't know what the handsome prince was supposed to say.  It all turned out exactly the way she wanted it to.   She spent the afternoon telling a wonderful story that has been told many times before, but this time, she told it with her own voice.

A quick snapshot of my life because this moment is strangely typical:
It is 5 pm.  I have an hour or more left to work.  CC is home from school practicing a Bach piece on cello so she can relax before she does her homework.   I just finished helping LB make a mermaid tail for herself so she's stranded in her room for a while - I do know better than to just answer "Where is the duct tape?" without first asking "Why?".  It is Tuesday, so there is taco meat in the crockpot.  All I need for dinner is to find the spinach and tortillas and grate some cheese.  Hubby is at work but should be home soon.  Wait...CC is alternating Bach with the theme from Jaws.  It was a long but good day; we have about 4 more hours before I send the kids to bed and one more after that before I can hopefully sit quietly for a minute with hubby.

Thursday morning, CC had a hard time getting up.  She was tired and disgruntled.   Once she came down to sausage and waffles for breakfast we started chatting.  I shared with her the newest Hubble deep field photos then we talked about the scale of the universe.  She'd learned about neutrinos in morning assembly and was explaining to me the relative size of things in the universe.  Apparently, compared to neutrinos, we're unbelievably large although looking at space through the deep field, we feel very small.  I love curious minds.

By the end of the week, LB has done 4 lessons in R&S Math.  She's doing great and has been getting the math without the stories this week.  I still like the amount of practice that she is doing daily because I see that it is helping her to remember the problems instead of having to work them out every time.  She illustrated and copied "The Eagle" again and copied two more short poems this week.  She's still doing the Daily Science workbook.  I like that she is writing full sentences for her answers and learning to use and spell science words like marsupial and germinate.   I think of it more as writing than as science, but it is a bit of both.   We started reading Little House in the Big Woods in the mornings for our literature.  For history this week we read A Year in a Castle and enjoyed reading about the history of Caerphilly Castle which has some family ancestry ties. From the point of Vikings to modern day, I should be able to link in an ancestor or two into each time period.

CC has been doing great at school until Thursday.  I had to pick her up because of her asthma Thursday morning after orchestra then she came down with a stomach virus in the wee hours of Friday morning.   When she went to public school, I was concerned about a lot of things academically and socially, but I had forgotten the stew of germs that simmers in public schools.   I'm just trying to remember that this is good for her immune system.  I guess limited germ exposure is both one of the benefits and negatives of home schooling. 

Week 6 Finally getting easier

Starting history map project

Where did fall come from?

It is important to take the toys for a walk

CC practicing cello after school

Well, CC finally messed up.  She forgot to bring home a book and couldn't do her assignment for Lit./Comp.  When she told her teacher the next day, he said something that included the words "finally" and "you are really human."  She had to make up the work the next night and the world didn't end - I had assured her it wouldn't and was happy to be proven right. She also noticed that school seems to be getting easier which is good.  She's settling into a routine and feeling good about it.

This week, LB learned to joys of doing her work early in the day which include playing cards with me during lunch.  We've decided our favorite "class" of the day is cuddles which begins sometime after 8:30am and lasts for quite a while.  It is one of the best parts of school.

LB chose The Eagle as her poem this week.  She's copied it and is working to memorize it:

The Eagle

 By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

As a peek into our day: this morning I reviewed Latin with CC over breakfast then went to morning assembly at her school to hear the fourth year orchestra class perform  Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.  Hubby and LB put up a tent in the living room, and I made them peanut butter gf waffles for breakfast.  Hubby is trying to get some work done and LB is supposed to be doing her math, but I think they're both playing.  After I get some of my work done, I'll get her to finish so we can play Clue. 

Schoolwork for both girls is under control.  We're settling into a nice routine that helps me to feel successful and balanced. This was a good week. 

Week 5 With Focus on Math

History:

LB has been spending her evenings listening to David Tennant read How to Train Your Dragon to her (isn't that sweet of him?).  She has decided that it is time for history again and wants to study Vikings which are always fun.  We're using our trusty Time Traveler for most of our historical information along with a globe and some books on Norse mythology.  She spent some time in the afternoons practicing her longsword skills with her sister and breaking down boxes to fit in the recycle bin with the those wooden swords.  The Good Times Travel Agency book on the Middle Ages arrived, and judging by her reaction to the book, we might be ready for the Middle Ages next week. Although, I just might pick up their Viking book if I can find an inexpensive copy so we can stay here a little longer.

Science, Writing and Reading:
LB started avoiding the CLP Nature Reader so I decided it was time for a switch.  I pulled out the Daily Science 2 workbook and did a few lessons a day with her.  She read each lesson, answered the questions, and talked about the discussion questions with me.  It was a fun change.  I changed out the writing to poetry copywork from our old, tried-and-true IEW poetry book.  I also brought up a shelf of mixed level books from our basement library so she can have independent reading which really excited her.   I can't really decide where we stand on reading this week, but she did make it through a stack of books.

Dogs aren't very good at math.

Math:

Currently math is going well.  I'm pretty sure I have low expectations gained from years of failures teaching math, but I like math with LB right now.  We're doing a chapter of LoF Cats which is too easy and too fun to really count.  We follow that with a section of R&S Math 2.  It starts with what should be review of basic operations on numbers.  This week we started  subtracting from 6.  The math was easy, and we made it fun.  She doesn't have these facts as automatically as I think she should so I'm not skimping on this step.  We're also using toys.  We use Calico Critter toddlers which to the casual observer may not make good manipulatives, but they are for LB.  For the 6's, I chose 2 sets of triplets that each have 2 girls and 1 boy.  Each and every math problem had a story this week.  Six toddlers were playing when the 2 boys decided to chase the girls.  How many girls did they chase?  Six toddlers where playing, but the 3 kittens had to go home for their bowl of milk.  How many meerkats were left? I made a lot of silly math stories which were completely unnecessary, but she didn't have to stop and think or count the toys even once.  She knows how many kittens she has and how many are boys.   I told a lot of stories, and she did a lot of math.  It is clicking a lot better than any of the other math we've done.   After the calculations, there is place value work, skip counting, and other math that is very easy for her. Math is a marathon.

I think it really helps me to have clear goals of where I want to be in math by the beginning of 6th grade.  My previous big plans with contingencies based on when we hit Algebra were just too vague to really be useful.  I know now that by 6th grade I want her to be solid on computation along with some basic geometry, fractions and decimals.  That is all I am aiming for right now.  I know how to achieve that.


CC's School:
CC's school doesn't give the kids grades until their parents get very detailed evaluations at the end of the semester.  Instead of a numerical grade, each quiz, test or paper is supposed to have detailed feedback which is supposed to help the kids improve and not circumvent a conversation about the work.  Based on her recent quiz in Latin, I think she must be doing okay.  The comments on the different sections were: "Super", "Great", and "Terrific."  The overall comment at the top was, "WOW!!"  That must mean she did alright.   Her only trouble so far has been with the phrases in the vocabulary that use declensions she hasn't learned yet.  My attempt to explain the more advanced declensions to her gave me a great deal of respect for a guy that could successfully explain that to a whole gaggle of 6th grade girls.

CC's Allergies:
I bought two air purifiers for medium sized rooms which we put in the two classrooms where she spends the most time.  We have 5 hours of school covered with those two purifiers.  So far, it has helped tremendously.  She might survive weed season after all.

Week 4 - Victories and Allergies

It was a really great week.  LB has been pretty happy being at home.   She's making slow and steady progress through her math and writing and has found her place in reading.  This is her daily work:

• A chapter from LoF Elementary - currently in Cats
• A lesson from R&S Math 2
• Copy at least 2 sentences from the CLP Nature Reader 1  although she's been copying a whole paragraph (we had some chapters left from last year before we start book 2)
• I read aloud a couple for chapters from a couple of books - Currently reading The Courage of Sarah Noble and a children's Bible.
• She reads at least 2 pages from Trumpet of the Swan to me.  Two is the minimum, but she's never stopped at just two.

Next week, we're adding in spelling.   She's excited about that.   Second grade is progressing nicely.  Her non-school work this week has included a lot of play with Schliech horses and of course the paper dinosaurs - this week they migrated from one side of my office to the other to find more food.  They need to be boxed up today so I can vacuum.

Now for CC who is attending the amazing classical charter school, the pollen count is high.  She came home Tuesday itchy with aggravated asthma.  Wednesday, she came home with hives so I put her back on a medicine to help then started to worry that if she's this bad in the fall when the weed pollen is high, she'd never make it in spring when the tree pollen explodes.  I have a plan to work with our doctor and the school to get hepa air filters for the school and portable air purifiers for the classrooms she uses.  All I need is some way to get grants to happen so I don't need to save up and buy them myself.  I chatted with the school nurse and the dean of girls.  We have to do something before spring.

Other than air filled with pollen, school is still everything I had hoped it would be for her.  This week was the Back-to-School Night so I got to chat with most of her teachers.  Her Latin teacher asked if she had shown a talent or affinity for grammar because she seems to have no problem with the Latin grammar.  I had to explain that we had homeschooled, and I never taught grammar because I had found it too abstract to teach to a younger student.  I had been saving grammar for middle school and Latin.  She has said that she loves Latin grammar because it makes so much sense.  It is nice to see a classics teacher smile.  Of course, now it will be harder than ever to start grammar with LB.

One more thing.  Quickly now.  What is 7 / 1.4 ?  How fast did you figure that out? Did you get it without writing it down? Math is currently covering a lot of computation that we'd covered in 4th and 5th grade so CC is sailing through it, but she can still amaze me.  The answer to that problem was obvious to her, and her explanation confused me greatly, but  it had something to do with half of 14 and 10 times 7 and something.  It was the problem she was assigned to work on the board which she did in her head while writing it down.  She is doing great in school.

Week 3 Back Home

After watching the street sweeper, LB designed her own.

Well, we lasted for 6 days with LB in the local public school.  On Monday, she stayed home because she didn't want to go, and I didn't have the conviction to make her go when she was unwilling.  Hubby and I talked about school and decided to just withdraw her now instead of waiting for a one-month trial.  We started homeschooling again on Tuesday.

Right now, we are ramping up our work.  She read every day.  She did a chapter in Fred Cats and a lesson in R&S Math 2 everyday and declared, "I feel like a math monster!  I love math!"  I started reading The Wind in the Willows to her.  She also copied a paragraph from the CLP Nature Reader each day in addition to reading a chapter.  Next week, we'll add in phonics and spelling then add in some geography.  We added a morning walk to our day and some outside playtime.  She's been drawing, coloring, labeling and laminating families of dinosaurs that now have nests and herds all over the floor of my office.  We had a great week.

CC had another terrific week at school.  She's finally gotten her homework time under control and is getting all 19 pounds of homework completed in a reasonable amount of time.  She took a quiz in grammar and got 42/44 and got a 44/45 on her math quiz which are her first two quizzes ever.  She's told me that she can feel the wrinkles in her brain soaking up more information.

For the first time this school year, I'm happy about school and feel like everyone is where they should be. I guess this will be my eleventh year homeschooling.   I have a homeschool graduate who is a senior in college in Japan, a sixth grader in a classical charter school for the first time, and a second grade homeschooler.  I still have a lot to learn.

Week 2 - Day by Day

Monday -
CC was up right on time at 6:30.  I made her waffles and turkey bacon for breakfast.  Hubby came down a little later and joined us; then BB came down around 7:00.  CC and I reviewed her Latin vocabulary words as she was finishing her breakfast then we all helped her with tips on how to get her 19 1/2 pounds of books back into her backpack.  She was out the door a little late at 7:20.

I started waking LB up at 7:30, but she was too warm and cozy and didn't get up for about 15 more minutes.  I made more waffles and more bacon plus her lunch.  She enjoyed breakfast then BB walked her to the bus stop at 8:20.

Hubby took me to the doctor for my horrible, aweful sore throat.  BB took himself shopping for some food and stuff to take back to Japan.  He's all packed and ready to go.  They got the girls home from school, and we all went out for dinner.  I was getting more and more sick.

Tuesday -
Tuesday was kind of a blur to me.  I had had the worst sore throat ever since Friday, hubby took BB to the airport at 4am, and I spent part of the morning throwing up blood because of the sore throat. Ick.  The girls made it to school with Hubby's help, and I started feeling better after I could keep some food down and the antibiotics kicked in.  Tuesday night the kids were tired, but happy.

They shared about their day over dinner.  CC beamed after telling how her Latin teacher noted that her homework was good and that she was a perfectionist.  Latin is her favorite subject.  Also, her science teacher said, "Wow" after she explained how a virus works to the class.  She loves getting  feedback from her teachers.   LB excitedly described her science experiment and explained to everyone how her reading circle works and what a "whisper phone" is used for - they're for the kids to quietly read to themselves while the teacher listens to one child read.

We're all missing BB already.

Wednesday -
I made some rice pudding for breakfast which both the girls enjoyed.  CC read and discussed Gilgamesh with me over breakfast then hubby took her to school.  LB was sleepy again.  Over breakfast she shared that the girl that sits across from her is mean, and she's been having trouble in class.  When was LB the first in class to earn enough points to go to the prize bin, the girl said to her, "You don't always have to be so perfect."  When they were standing in line a girl accused her of bragging about the prize she chose (a cute, stuffed puppy).  Another time, a girl asked her why she's always trying to be the best at everything.  We talked about her feelings, and  I  reaffirmed that trying your best is the right thing to do.

After my morning meeting, I sat in a very empty and quiet house wishing LB was home.  I really miss her.  I wonder if this is the the right choice.  I wonder if I want her here because it is best for me or because it is best for her.  When I brought BB home, I knew it was best for him.  When I sent CC to the charter school this year, I knew it was best for her.  I'm just not sure what's best for LB.

CC enjoyed school again even though she came home early because she wasn't feeling well.  She took a nap and did her homework which included math and writing a legend for history class.

LB had more trouble today with girls siding against her and telling her she's not so smart and that she hurt their feelings by always trying to be the best in class.  She came home with 4 pages of phonics homework and a page of math homework.  She's off for the next two days for "scheduled individual testing".  So I guess we'll  do some phonics and math on her days off.

Thursday
CC spent the day in bed after being up most of the night with a stomach bug.

LB had her first ever standardized test.  It was a half hour individual test administered by her teacher, and she loved it.  After the test she played on the playground for a while before we went home.  At home, she played doggie kindergarten with our dogs.  I read them a chapter from Wind in the Willows, and taught them math, art and music.

BB finally arrived in Japan, safe and sound but exhausted.

CC started running a fever and now has a sore throat too.

Friday
I woke CC up at 6:30 for breakfast to see how she felt then sent her back to bed with her fever.  I called her in sick for school, again.  I had missed having the girls home, but I'd be happier if she were healthy and in school than sick in bed.

We took CC to the doctor then she spent the rest of the day in bed.  LB hung out, did some of her homework, read to me, and watched too much tv.  She seems to be feeling under the weather and says her tonsils feel too big.  I hope she's not going to be the next victim of the sore throat, but I suspect it is just a sympathy sore throat.  

Overall
 Even with her two days off from school and  about 6 hours of homework to catch up, CC still loves school. The jury is still out for LB.  I'm trying hard to be encouraging and give school an honest try. 

Week 1 - All New and not at home

Well this has been a whirlwind of a week.  It was very strange being a drop-off Mom instead of the Mom doing the teaching.  I tried to focus my energy to "more parenting and less teaching."  

CC started her week with homework on her first day.  By the end of the week, she was measuring her homework in pounds - as in her backpack weighed 19.5 pounds with her science book, math book, Latin book, history book, grammar book and the accompanying binders and folders.  She has homework in every class every night, and she loves it.  She spent dinner talking to us about Fibonacci numbers and has red marks on her arm from history class - apparently cuneiform can be dangerous.  I was worried I'd feel left out of her education, but I've found that she happily lets me review her Latin, history and science with her and check over her grammar, writing and math.  She just needs to learn to work more efficiently so she can have more free time at night.  One additional note, this morning she complained that the muscles in her cheeks and neck were hurting - the muscles directly correspond to her great-big grin.   I think she's smiled too much this week.

LB decided at the last moment that she wanted to go to school too.  I had asked her about it all summer because I could see her growing sadder with her sister gone for her summer volunteer job.  I think that once school preparations started, she finally realized it too.  It has been really hard for me.  She is the only one of my kids that hasn't been in daycare or something like that.  She's riding the big, yellow bus to the neighborhood school.  After she gets acclimated, I'm going to add in some after school enrichment for her with continuing phonics, reading, and maybe more depending on what else I see.  It is harder with her to see what she's doing in school.  I think that so far they've spent a lot of time getting settled in.  We'll see.  Right now, I meet her at the bus then cuddle her on the couch while she eats a snack and tells me about her day. So far her biggest issue is that second graders aren't allowed on the monkey bars, and she loves monkey bars.

BB has been home for the past couple of weeks from college.  It has been wonderful to have him home.   I just love to have him around.  He's getting ready to go back to Japan for his final semester.  I can't believe he's almost done with college already.

Week 37 School's Out for Summer

This week was the last week of our school year.  LB spent the week at  zoo camp (it's a day camp).  It was very strange to not have her here, but she loved it.  She got to do a lot of hands-on educational things like preparing meals for different types of animals.  Her highlights for the week were feeding crickets to frogs, salad to a skunk and meatballs to a tiger.   CC, happy that her schoolwork is over, decided to start working on a historical fiction novel set during the Manhattan Project.  She's spent the week researching the draft in World War II and adding more notes to her files about the Manhattan Project (she's been fascinated with it all year).  She also learned to search historical census records and found draft cards from WWII.   She still says she doesn't like history or writing, but I know better than that. When I do my evaluations next week, I'm planning to count research and writing as definite successes.

 In other news, LB got her first job.  Yep.  She's 7;  I was beginning to think she'd never get one.  She's going to be assisting in her tap dancing class and also moving up to the next level.  She's really cute helping with the younger kids.  Now that both of the girls are working, it should be a very interesting and fun summer.

And that is all.  School is finally and officially out for summer.  It has been a terrific year.

Week 36 One more week

This has been a terrific week.  The sun has been shining, the kids have been playing, and everything is going along at a summer pace.  My peony even bloomed.

LB achieved a great landmark in reading this week.  She wanted to read a chapter book and chose Stink.  She is reading it smoothly and over three days of reading time has almost read two full chapters.  She wants to be able to read a chapter a day.  She keeps stopping during her reading to admire how good her reading is.  I love it.  We'll keep working on reading daily even when school is officially over.

I  got the results of CC's CAT-E survey test.    She did very well, but I knew she'd be fine.  She finished her math placement test for next year and had her first private cello lesson for the summer.  She finished the training portion of her volunteer job and started the real job.  She comes home exhausted and happy after every shift.  This is going to be a big summer of growth for her. 

Today is the 167th day of our school year.   We're really almost done. 

An update on BB in college:  he is working hard in his summer semester and finding his classes challenging which he loves.  Before the semester started, he moved to a new apartment further outside of Tokyo where the rent is less expensive and he can see the sky.  He's still working at an English school teaching little kids, and he's started his required internship which he loves.  After this semester, he'll just have two more classes before he's all finished.  He's decided on a challenging career path in diplomacy and is working toward it.  I couldn't possibly be prouder of him.  He is amazing, and I miss him.

Week 35 - We're done soon

We're winding down the school year.  This week CC took the second hour of her math placement test for next year, started her volunteer job and did a science lab with her friend.  She's done with actual schooling for the year although she'll continue non-fiction reading and cello lessons.  LB spent three days this week practicing for her dance recital.  She has a solo in tap and a jazz dance.  She also did her reading, writing and math everyday even if we did it outside most days.  We have another dozen or so days left in the school year, but it is starting to feel like summer. I like summer.

Week 34 - eclipse

CC waiting for the eclipse

Hubby and LB waiting for the eclipse.

When I told the girls that there'd be a solar eclipse, LB was excited because she had thought that a solar eclipse was "mythical" and didn't know they really happened.


This was a rough week to do school.

Monday, Hubby and I went to the funeral of a 19 year-old young lady that took her own life.  It was horrible and heartbreaking.    After the funeral, I picked up CC early from her end of school party for her enrichment school because she started breaking out in hives.
Tuesday, CC had the rest of her allergy test which showed she isn't allergic to dust or grass, but is allergic to weeds which goes well with her tree allergy.  Hubby took GMa to the airport, while I took LB to the allergist with CC.  No one did any school.
Wednesday is normally a day off from school.  CC read most of the day and practiced cello until her fingers hurt.  LB played outside, even in the rain.
Thursday, CC took a computerized placement test for math for her school next year but had trouble entering the answers into the program and missed many that she knew the answer to.  I called the admissions director to see what could be done about it.  She also had a training session for her summer volunteer job.  LB did her schoolwork, played outside, went to Judo, and tagged along with me for a dance mom meeting.  The highlight of the day was turning to see what the magpies were fussing about and finding a bobcat walking across our cul-de-sac.  We followed it, of course.
Friday is finally better.  The girls read and worked on art projects in the morning.  We studied muscles in the afternoon with our friends then did the normal school work. 
 
BB has started classes for his summer semester.  He's taking a couple of history classes and loves them.   He was also in the path of the full eclipse and had a beautiful, clear morning for it.  He said the morning sky turned purple as the moon crossed in front of the sun.

Week 33 Little by Little

When I first cancelled school on Wednesdays, it was from desperation because I just could not make my super busy workday align with a proper school day for the girls.  At first they watched a lot of "educational" shows on Wednesdays and treated it like vacation, now they look forward to it and make big plans for it.  I would never have imagined how good skipping school in the middle of the week could be for them.  This week CC was up at 8am, dressed and ready to use her brand new hoe to clear the weeds from her garden.   The girls love the weekend because everyone is off,  but Wednesday is something very different.  It is a day just for them to use on what they think is important.

My two-cents:
As we begin to wrap up the year, I see other parents starting to plan for next year already.  Math is a subject that vexes many.  I frequently see recommendations such as, "If your kid is mathy..." or "If your kid needs more practice...", or "If your kid needs more ..."   Why do I need to assess my child's math abilities before I can pick a math program?  Why can't I just pick a good, solid math program that will help me teach her the basics of arithmetic?  LB has the advantage of being my third student.  I already know that I am a poor math teacher and that knowing how to do math isn't the same as knowing how to teach it.  I know that kids who are truly good at math will hate math programs that "teach" problem-solving strategies.  I know that changing math programs without a good reason is a really bad idea.  I know that slow progress in math compounded over the years will produce terrific results and let  kids slowly build confidence that math is fun and challenging not hard or boring.  Of course none of that stops me from second-guessing my plans for math. 

We had a really good week.  CC has finished everything I'd planned for the year and more.  She took her CAT test this week for state reporting, so she's all done with planned schoolwork.  Until we finish our 180 school days, she'll practice her cello, read non-fiction and work in her garden for schoolwork.

LB is still doing great with her work.  Her new reading book this week is One Morning in Maine, and she is reading it beautifully although she says the font is too small.  She still loves Life of Fred Butterflies.  WWE1 and ETC5 are still perfect for her.  When we first started reading the CLP Nature Reader 1, she had trouble with the reading, but now she can read an entry on her own.  I'm really happy with the progress she's making.  My main goal for this year was to get her reading fluently.  I'm really happy with her progress.  I'd still like to see her read more, but little by little, we're getting there.