Will it work? A first look at an organized day

I like color coding people and times.  The Blue is CC, the Pinks and Orangey Pinks are LB, the Yellow is me, the Purple is both girls, the Green is a scheduled rest or together time. I have lots more meetings during the weeks, but they aren't as predictable as the ones I have here.  I decided that I would do a morning and an afternoon session in a "main lesson block" where we'll cover the main content, art and writing for the day.  The other scheduled times are for reading, phonics and math in their own time slots.  My idea is to weekly add in the rest of my meetings and reorganize blocks as needed.  At least it works on paper, which is a big step towards working in reality.

Week 15 Snowflakes

It is so good the have BB home!
Other than that here is our week by school-age child:
CC: Christmas party, cello recital, reading, indoor sky diving, reading, math, party, reading, math, judo, square dancing, math, reading

LB: playing, math, reading, pajama day, about me poster, snowflakes, math, reading, singing, math, reading, judo, square dancing, playing, exploring, gingerbread people, math, playing, reading

We've reduced the week to our math+reading requirements which is a pretty good workload for the last two weeks of the year.  We're doing lots of Christmas carol singing, decorating, present wrapping, baking, and enjoying each other.
 
 I'm rethinking some of what we use for school for the new year.  I'm looking to add some formal geography memorization to our week.  I'd like the girls to learn the names, capitals, and locations of all of the countries in the world.  If you have taught this and have a recommendation, please let me know.

My thought for this week is to stop and enjoy the right now without comparing it to what you think it should be and without trying to hold on to it or get more of it.  Just enjoy it as it is, just like a snowflake.

Week 20 - The Plan

When I worked weekends, I liked Monday because it was the first day of my four-day weekend.  This morning I decided I like Monday's because they are fresh and full of possibilities.

I used to do a weekly plan, but haven't this year yet. Here is my school plan for the week.

The breakfast story is   Of Courage Undaunted
Poetry memorization  is Stoppying by the Woods on  a Snowy Evening
K book for the week is If you lived in the time of George Washington
Picture of the week is Washington Crossing the Delaware by Leutze
Music of the week is "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"
Making tri-corner hats and talking about presidents for social studies
Talking about fruits and vegetables for science
Week 4 in PR1 for LB
CC will do copywork two days, writing 2 days and spelling two days.
Saxon 7/6 lessons 25-29 for CC
BJU 1 lessons 2 & 3 for LB
We Will play Dogopoly
CC needs to pick a new book from the book basket to start
CC to research the Alien and Sedition Acts for history, the idea of Serendipity and mitosis .
I'll start our programming in Python class (with CC)
Each girl will do 30 minutes of Rosetta Stone
We're watching America the Story of US from the History Channel, and we are going to watch a Discovery Channel show about the Manhatten Project.
For outside classes CC has fencing and pottery.  LB has Tap.  We might go snowboarding if the weather cooperates.  Each girl has a day of school.

Week 23 - Art and Ideas and Math and.....

Chocolates were made (and peanut butter caramels too).


Miquon is still terrific and LB rocks on it. She mixes being brilliant at math.



With playing with the blocks.



LB made a spider web.



She also made a camouflaged lizard.


CC made an illuminated letter along with a stuffed dragon that I forgot to photograph.


LB finished her cheetah paw print. The cheetah still needs to be fired and glazed.


She worked on patterns and learned the difference between a coral snake and a king snake.


CC finished through lesson 46 in Saxon and did 4 sheets of facts practice.


She created an awesome sea dragon.


And finished through lesson 14 in Fred.

Other than that, we went out for sushi, copied America the Beautiful, read lots from Mary, Queen of Scots and learned lots about the French court, learned that I need lots of practice on my states and capitals, fed the ducks and geese at the pond at the park, took an afternoon off to play with our friends, made a huge mess in the kitchen then left it for the unsuspecting Daddy and made a tongue twister - Picky Pierre Picks Plump Purple Plums.

I think our ongoing Shakespeare study is successful. CC entertained us by retelling The Taming of the Shrew while we were waiting for our pizza this week. She discovered that one of her friends likes "good literature" when she heard him quoting lines from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. CC has a favorite line from Midsummer Night's Dream - "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania." LB has named two of her stuffed animals after Shakespearean characters Katherina (the wild one) and Bianca (the sweet one) (which is the best test to see if a 5yo likes something).

This week LB had a very serious discussion about her future career plans. She wants to be a veterinarian and help people's pets. She was concerned about whether or not there are any good universities nearby with a program. I assured her that a top vet school was in the state which seemed to relieve her concerns.

Arts and Ideas

Saturday morning before I went to work, I helped CC sew wings onto a dragon and helped LB work on a swing made from K'nex. As I drove to work, I thought about the "arts and ideas" charter school in our neighborhood.

I am firmly on the side of imagination. I spend a lot of our time and money adding art enrichment to our lives. I work hard to create an environment in which inquiry science can thrive.
I also try to put most of my energy into getting the core subjects done. Arts and Ideas need language and math.
My goals for this week:
Make sure CC finishes her dragon for art class
Help LB finish her swing so I can have my table back.
CC needs help making a new chocolate that she has been thinking about and wants to finish before school this week. She also needs to select and print pictures of our vacation to the coast for her scrapbook project.
I want to help LB finish her digital story book.
We need to accomplish 4 chapters of Fred and 4 chapters of Saxon, and some Miquon.
We need to do 3 hours of French, 4 copywork exercises, 4 chapters in the Mary Queen of Scots book, finish Peter Pan, do a section in MCT Grammar, Poetry, and Vocabulary, and maybe read some of our viking book, some fairy tales, Shakespeare, and do some phonics.

Yep, we are all about art and ideas here. No time for rigorous work. We'll get started just as soon as CC finishes hemming that princess dress she is making for LB.

Here we go again

School starts next week. Vacation is over. Lets get busy. Right after I clean my house, pay some bills and get some sleep.

I declare Monday to be a Get Ready To Learn day. I've got everything ready for the new school session except the teacher and the school.

For CC and Third grade - We're going to learn Where the Sidewalk Ends as our new poem. French is still on the agenda. We're going to pick up Saxon 5/4 and Life of Fred right where we were. We are moving on to Week 3 in LA, starting SOTW3 along with the Activity Guide. And science will be both reading the Ocean encyclopedia and starting Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding by Nebel which we are starting so that we can fold LB into some hands-on science with us.

BB is here for one more week before he returns to school in Tokyo for the beginning of his Junior year. Hopefully we can fit one more day of skiing in before he leaves. I'm starting to miss him already.

I'm going to try to incorporate some hand-eye type activities into our day to help LB with her vision. Her eye doc noticed the same things I have noticed in her reading - letter reversals, letter flipping and a mid-line jump where she loses her place when her eyes cross the midline while she is reading. It explains why she compares a word she has read to the same word on a different page - to her they don't always look the same. It also explains why she is progressing faster with reading since I started her copying words, spelling and reading words from flashcards instead of just doing phonic and chugging through readers. The eye doc said that she should outgrow it soon, but I'm not one to sit by without trying to fix things.

Tomorrow is the perfect day to clean the house. It'll all be easy after that.

Week 10 - The Prologue

There are going to be changes around here. I am going to plan for success. First, what is a successful week? Is it a week in which I have no days that end with me hiding in a corner avoiding my kids and swearing off education? or should I aim higher?

BB is counting down his weeks in this semester. He has a paper in Comparative Politics, a paper and questions about Socrates and the allegory of the cave, something about Freud and the analysis of something, and lots of Japanese. He's also planning an early Thanksgiving because he will have class that day and will be preparing for finals that weekend. My baby will be making his first Thanksgiving alone; it is his favorite holiday. He loves the cooking, the smells from the kitchen warm and inviting, and he is trying to figure out how to do that in a tiny apartment oven and a two-burner stove. I'm going to help by sending some spices and cornbread.


I passed by a '67 Shelby GT500 this morning on my way to work. I love the lusty sound of that engine. It was a beautiful car.

There is probably nothing sweeter than the sound of LB singing to herself while she cleans her toy kitchen and makes a wonderful chef's special for us.

Apparently, I am easily distracted and a bit sleep deprived. I plan to take a day off school on Monday and rest. We're painting my mom's room this week. I need to finalize everyone's travel plans for Thanksgiving and figure out what we are doing with the dogs and chickens while we're gone. I need to make some headway on the clutter, and I decided to put a few coats of wax on the woodwork around the windows instead of adding a toxic finish to them. I'm also looking for a couple of dozen houseplants to clean the air. I want to build at least one cold frame and plant some winter lettuce.

For school: more of those PILGRIMS, Mr. Revere and I, WWE, math, Latin, and something. I think we are in a groove with our work right now so it is on autopilot until after Thanksgiving at which time we will switch to Roman history for a month - hopefully.


I read Starship Troopers this weekend for the first time. It was surprisingly good and much better than the movie. There is one scene in which the main character's mother writes him a letter encouraging him to drop out of the Infantry and come home because "a boy is never too big for his mother's lap." Take a look at that picture of my boy. He's 6'5". I have been pondering that passage for two days. I think the point is that a boy isn't ever too big for his mother's lap, but a man is.

Week 6 - A plan for Getting on a schedule

We took the week off after our loss last week and spent most of the time out of the house. We went to the zoo twice and for a long hike in the mountains. It was a good week, but I am ready to put some structure in our days. Of course structure calls for a spreadsheet. I opened up Excel and made a little general schedule with time slots and everything on it. I need to get more done no matter how much I prefer sitting in my pj's, drinking coffee and watching the girls play all day.




Here is my basic schedule, and I have already changed it since I took this screen shot. On Thursdays, CC goes to a public school enrichment program for Science, art, music, Spanish and PE so the daytime schedule is just for me and LB. I also don't have any reading scheduled for CC, but she reads about an hour every night.

Let's raise a mug to schedules. I don't generally stick to them, but I think it will help me get back into a more productive rhythm.

Next Week is Spring Break - NOT

This week our county public schools are on Spring Break which is probably good for them. I bet they need a break because the warm weather has been giving us spring fever. Now of course the bad news is that the weather is turning cold next week. The good news for us is that all over the county, there are wonderful programs setup to entice parents to drop off their little darlings for enrichment.


I plan to take full advantage of these enrichments, add a little math and writing and call it school.

The big plan for next week if for both girls to be in art classes all week for 2 hours a day in the afternoon while I sit nearby and read a book. I might even bring along a big cup of coffee. Before our strenuous time in class each day, each girl will be working on her own math book creations. LB will be making a book of numbers, and CC will be making a book of multiplication tables.


Whew - I think this is going to be a hard week of school or NOT.

Week 19 Planning for a Good Week

The highlights this week are Valentines, Darwin Day, Medieval Japan, lots of art, and working on those taxes.

My week this week is much less cluttered than last. Still there is art class, ballet, Darwin Day, a couple of Valentines parties, a date with a park, and a fancy French restaurant in our week. The box with the art supplies from Rainbow Resources should be here so that we can do the first lesson in Artistic Pursuits. My preschool art book has finger painting with chocolate pudding scheduled so that should be fun. We're going to read about Cupid and Psyche.

That is all for the special things. The normal day should include math (multiplication or the number 7), copywork, poetry, IEW for CC, HWT for LB. We had a nice routine of chores down when my mom was here - that extra adult really helps. I have to get us back into a good routine.

My must remember checklist -
Post office Monday.
Art class Monday.
Is that family dinner this Tuesday or next?
Hubby's shirts are at the cleaners.
Gotta get valentines.
Need to make Valentine boxes.
Park Wednesday.
Fruit tray for Thursday.
Ballet Thursday.
Need to get with BB to do his taxes.
Still need to cancel the phone.

Week 18 - planning - how did it get this busy

The girls got to enjoy the beautiful, unseasonably warm weather with the-best-hubby-ever this weekend. Wow, the things I miss.

Anyway. I was mentally going over my list for the week and needed to write it down before I forget.


Monday -

• I have a meeting at work from 3-4; we are getting reorganized again.
• CC has art class at 5.
• I need to get LB signed up for ballet.
• I have to go to the bank and get some money to BB - the weak US dollar hurt us. All of the paperwork for college was done with an exchange rate of about 110 yen per dollar. By the time tuition came due, the exchange rate had dropped to 85 yen per dollar. Ouch. I guess the boy is getting a lesson in international economics.

Tuesday

• I was supposed to take snacks for girl scouts, but I need to change this. ( should probably do something about this before Tuesday)
  
• We are taking my mom to the airport. Gma is going back to Florida.

Wednesday

• Meeting friends at the park.
• Need to buy LB clothes for ballet class, and there is some urgent thing I am supposed to get for CC which I hope to remember.

Thursday

• CC is at cottage school.
• Lb going to first day of ballet, hopefully.
• Meeting another homeschool mom at her judo class to preview a book I have been interested in buying.

Friday

• Assuming I still have a job after the re-org, I am back at work.

Other stuff that needs to get done but not on any particular day.

• I need to update the credit card number on my insurance and remove BB from the car insurance. I am sure it will be cheaper without the teen driver.
• I need to cancel the old phone service since hubby had the new service installed.
• I must get started on the income tax since I have all the forms. I have to get it filed so I can do the FAFSA - which is the WORST form EVER! - I will make a whole post about that one after I fill it out again.
• Need to mail BB's latest care package.
• I promised CC we would fill out adoption forms at the local husky rescue.
• I need to make reservations for Valentine's day dinner.
  

And least I forget - I am supposed to school the kids and take care of the house.

Week 15 - Peeking Ahead

BB is starting class this week! Yeah BB!
Week 15 for us will be a big week. We'll aim for math, grammar, copy work everyday and fill out the rest of our schedule.
I'm trying to get back into doing the Alice in Wonderland study. History has made a good comeback so we will continue at least reading Story of the World 2. I am going to try to start RS4K Physics this week. I just have the teacher's guide. I think I can implement it this way. If it doesn't work, then I'll pick up the student book and lab sheets too.

I am printing off some more magic squares from WorkSheetsWork for CC and some more simple math sheets and letter sheets for LB.

Other than school work here is the list: register CC for a class at the art school, register LB for pre-ballet, go to the pool with our friends, and sell some Girl Scout cookies. maybe even make up with the library, but I don't know about that - they only take cash.

We Will begin Now

BB left Sunday Morning. My Brother and his family left Monday morning. We sat around and enjoyed the Quiet yesterday and today and comforted each other and pretended that we weren't tired and sad and worried. We even went to Girl Scouts today. Both the girls spent most of today playing Video games. School begins tomorrow.

There will be BIG changes. Okay not really. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what Lorna said about continuity. It was the idea that I was aiming for and had not yet reached. Continuity.

This week we will start slowly. We will pick up where we left Alice in Wonderland and where we left off in Jabberwocky. We will back up again in math to addition and subtraction - 3 and 4 digits with carrying and borrowing - mixed practice just to warm up the "math brain."  We will start Growing with Grammar.  I already started history by finding the long-lost Story of the World 2.  

Welcome back to school.

After weeks off and weeks with a house full of family and days of holidays and celebrations and skiing and long, sad goodbyes, School will start NOW.

Week 13 - Peeking Ahead

Guess what the temperature is right now? Did you guess 1? Yep, it is ONE degree Fahrenheit. That is cold. It is going to stay snowy and cold. I think that "Partly Cloudy" and 32 is the best day of the week next week. I think we will plan to stay inside and enjoy wintery, warm things. OR

We could go for annual check-ups, go to a Girl Scout holiday party, go swimming, go on a field trip to an art museum, and go grocery shopping. AND this is the last week before Christmas. AND we have family coming the week after. Nice. It would be good to cancel school this week, but we can't skip math because it is always bad when we do. If we are doing math, we may as well add in the subjects CC likes. We are doing school this week. More Lewis Carrol. More Jabberwocky. More Middle Ages. Some writing. Lots of reading. That should be enough.

Have a good week.

Week 12 - Peeking Ahead

Yes, Hubby took them hiking again today - he is SuperDad. See that little dot of a person way up high in the background? That is my 7yo. The 4yo is balancing in the front.

I have a plan for this week, and it does not involve pulling out my hair or hiding in a corner. I printed out samples of CW Aesop Core, A and B and have been reading those. I also printed copies of Writing Tales 1 and 2. I decided to work through the sample of Writing Tales 2 this week with CC to see how that goes for us. It was the easiest thing to do right now, but I know that CW is where I want to be eventually.

Other than that, we are continuing Jabberwocky, starting Alice in Wonderland, and actually doing history. We're also doing the four-digit addition and subtraction math, plus starting back up with multiplication and division.

BB is taking a short trip to FL to visit family there before he goes to Tokyo in 22 days. He won't be back until right before Christmas which is just in time to get ready to leave.

We are getting ready for CC's birthday party. Everybody repeat after me - "No Snow on Saturday." If it snows Saturday, then the lady with the horses can't drive them down for the party. We have carpets to clean, a horseshoe cake to make and decorate, party games to plan, snacks to make, a yard to clean, and I think it is going to snow for the next two days.

The Plan - Week 9

There will be order this week. There will be school and math and cleaning and order. Okay, we'll have some fun too.

We are doing Lesson 8 in Singapore Math 3A tomorrow. Then, if that goes well, we'll march on through to the review of addition and subtraction, up to 4 digits. I want to also add back in some more math games and fun to our math.

We will do the next lesson in Writing With Ease 2. I think we are on Week 4. We are doing Dr. Doolittle. I have the copywork already printed from Startwrite.

We'll begin the water cycle in earth science. I am excited to be able to actually cover sublimation as part of the water cycle - we live in the arid west and get Chinooks. Sublimation isn't one of the topics covered in the water cycle when you grow up by the beach like I did so it was all new to me when I first moved here.

In LB's preschool class, we will make a book about the Three Little Kittens. I need to get some felt tomorrow - I think we will make mittens in class. We'll cover the letter K. Maybe I can get her back to the school table at least one day next week - either that or she can just play some more like she has been.

Alice and Wonderland just shipped from Amazon. CC asked to read it. I have been thinking of ordering the guide that Veritas makes to go with it. I remember not understanding it the first time I read it.

History - yes. My poor history. I think I need to figure it out. CC loves Ancient Rome. I'm ready for the Middle Ages. I'm thinking that Little House and CC's love of Rome will have to sustain us for history until I can get my act together. Maybe this week....

Week 9 will start in an orderly manner and continue until it is finished.

Have a good week.

Weekly Plan - Week 8

My week looks busy so I made a list. I BIG list. I am pretty sure I won't get to it all.

• Schedule a lease return inspection on a 2000 Nissan van.
• Replace a dead battery in a '98 Monte Carlo
• Find and Install an alternator in a '98 Monte Carlo
• Turn in the mail-in ballots.
• Schedule some volunteer time at the local campaign headquarters.
• Make mini-books on Itsy-Bitsy Spider with the preschool class.
• Find an interesting project about the rock cycle
• Teach rock cycle to the science co-op.
• 4 Math lessons
• 4 WWE lessons
• 4 Just Write lessons
• 4 copywork sheets in HWT font
• Finish Celtic Tales
• Finish decorating for Halloween
• Groceries
• Housework
• Enjoy the weather, since the temperature will be back near 70 degrees
• Schedule checkups for kids - they haven't had one in a few years
• Find out if BB needs Japanese Encephalitis shots before January

Okay - I am done now. "Can we fix it? Yes we Can!"

Week 7b Weekly Plan and Happy BDay Little One

The littlest one turned 4 this week. Where did the time go? How could she be 4? She is our sunshine and our joy. She is light and airy and smiles and cuddles and sometimes she is stormy just to balance out. She is delightful.


I am resetting my week clock so my weeks make sense with my days. We will have week 7 again. This week we are doing WWE, subtraction in Math Mammoth, Just Write, and finishing our Celtic tales. We will have a few days of 70 degree weather and a few days of 40s. So we will enjoy the warm days while we have them and celebrate the cold days when they come.

Week 7 The Plan

Is it really week 7? That just isn't possible. My calendar got off with the days somehow. We will just be starting day 26 tomorrow. Anyway, week 7 - yee ha. The BIG news is that BB got a promotion at work. He is now a field manager for the non-profit community activist organization! He also completed his online training that is required when you receive a federal student loan. He says the big thing he learned is that he will be in BIG trouble if he doesn't repay it.


The goal for school work this week is to get CC through 4 sheets of math, week 2 in WWE, 4 pages in Just Write, and start on the Middle Ages. She also needs to finish her sewing project since it is for LB's birthday.


For LB, I'd like to get her to sit with us at least once this week. I have the first list of words from Spell to Write and Read. I thought I'd use those lists since she likes to copy words. It would give some order to our writing.


My mom has a checkup on her broken foot Monday. We have co-op Tuesday and are going to learn to identify rocks and we're doing Row, Row, Row your Boat with the preschoolers. We're going swimming. We also need to weather-proof the chicken coop since we will have some freezing temperatures.


Sounds like an easy-peasy week.

Week 5 - The plan

I am almost afraid to make a plan for this week, but here goes.
The "Letter of Clearance" from Texas did not come, and I can't get my license until it does. I plan to be one of the first 10 in line when the DMV opens the day after I get my letter. My mom has an appointment for her broken foot tomorrow. I guess everything really depends on that. BB and hubby are both working next week, and I don't have a driver's license right now, and this town has stinky public transportation. I guess we will be working on flexibility this week. Wonder if I can find a good poem for us to learn?




Math - moving forward in double digit addition and subtraction in Math Mammoth
Handwriting - Can Do Print is my friend
Latin - I need to post about this. I think we are postponing this. CC is learning Spanish at her cottage school. I just t hink that Latin and Spanish for a second grader who is also getting her first exposure to grammar might be too much. Third grade might be the perfect time to start Latin.
Writing - Just Write 2 is getting into adverbs this week
History - We will be reading Across a Dark and Wild Sea and starting SOTW 2.
Myths - Celtic Tales is still a winner.
Earth Science - Plate tectonics and earthquakes this week

I'd like to take BB out for sushi to celebrate his scholarship this week. Hopefully that will work out.