Our church had a yard sale to benefit the quizzing team. They are going to California in July for finals and they need close to $1000 per person. They have been doing different types of fundraisers throughout the spring and early summer, the latest one, a huge yard sale.
I don't usually do yard sales because I don't feel like we have good enough stuff to sell and most of the time I would rather just give my stuff away, however when I heard about this one I started going through my whole house just to see what things we could donate to it.
I ended up having a car full of stuff, old books, kids clothes, clothes that no longer fits me, lots of toys that were in great condition and kids books. I'm happy to say most of our stuff sold on the very first day and it made the team close to $100!!! Not bad!!
Of course the thing I liked the best about it was purging my house of all this extra stuff. Especially the kids' rooms and the basement! It is a great start to my home organizing summer!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Purging and Yard Sales
Friday, June 22, 2012
Summer Update
You know it's been too long since I've posted anything on my blog when the whole interface looks different... :) Here we are on the third week of June already!
The kids and I are enjoying our summer vacation, I have all of my planning done, not only for Dampf Homeschool but for our Co op as well. Everything has been printed, bound and put away in the kids' workboxes. I have all the books I need for next year for both kids and for the co op!
A10 is done with ballet, the recital was wonderful! I'll have to post post some pics of the rehearsal soon. She also participated in an Art Camp last week. They got to do an art project everyday and she really enjoyed herself.
The boy has been playing with all his little friends, riding his bike, his scooter and roller blades! We have been doing the Library's Summer reading program, so we are keeping up with that during the summer. I still have to get A10 to practice a bit more math!
I already handed in my portfolio to the local school office and handed in the kids' "registration" to homeschool next fall. Next month A10 will be going to GreenWood Hills camp!! X7 is still a bit too young.
SO now for the rest of the summer I am going to, once again work on my home. Organizing, clearing, throwing out... all that fun stuff! I will be posting my planning post for both kids soon. I always look forward to that post!! It is my favorite part of homeschooling! ha ha!!
Monday, May 7, 2012
School Week 36 2011/2012
Even thought we are on week 36 we are not done with school yet. A10 has one more week of math and four more weeks of her Felicity class. The Felicity class is only 1 day a week and she has already read four of the six books for it, but she will have some homework and field trips that go along with the class as well.
So after next week, all that will be required of her is reading for 45 minutes and any homework from her Felicity class.
X7 will continue to do a page a day from Explode the Code 2 1/2 till we are done with the book. He will read from his phonic readers but not everyday, and I will continue some type of read aloud with him, but not necessarily during the day(before bedtime read aloud time).
This week is A10's evaluation week. It is schedule for Tuesday. I have everything ready for it, including the portfolio that I have to hand in to the local school office.
Monday, April 23, 2012
School Week 35 2011-2012
We are almost done! We had a great last day of co op. A10 has one more week of vocabulary work and she needs to finish her Editor in Chief workbook. After that, all that's left is math. She starts her Felicity class on Thursday, six weeks, one book per week.
She has three weeks to go with math. She will continue to read independently for at least 30 minutes a day. Mrs. Long has assign them at least 10 books to read this summer.
I'm thinking The Spiderwick Chronicles and Little House on the Prairie books since we never got around to reading them during the school year.
X7 has phonics and read alouds left, he is also working on cursive, but only because he wants to! I really want to finish Explode the Code 2 1/2 so that in the fall we can start with book 3.
I'm still working on co op plans for next year. I have to work on lesson plans for our younger class. I'm going to be working on that in the next few weeks so that once summer gets here I will be done with all the planning.
I want to start working on my house again, just like I did last summer!!
Monday, April 16, 2012
School Week 34 2011-2012
Last week of Co op, last week of history! X7 is done with Writing with Ease Vol 1(we'll be doing the other half of the book next year). We are going to focus on Explode the Code 2 1/2. There is plenty of copywork there are well, plus he is working on his cursive workbook, which he loves!
We are rowing the book Miss Rumphius, which I love!
A10 is almost done with vocabulary, and she has a couple of weeks of Writing with Ease Vol 2 left. For independent reading she reading Anne Sullivan's biography. She has read Helen Keller and Louis Braille's biographies as well. I try to make sure she has a nice variety of books to read from. She needs to read fiction, non fiction, historical fiction, fantasy and biographies... so far she has hit all of these!
Monday, April 9, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
School Week 32 2011-2012
This was a three day week because of Holy week. A10 is done with her Primary Language Lessons! For the next 4 weeks she is going to be working on Editor in Chief three time a week till she is done with that as well.
My plan for Writing with Ease is to get to week 30 and then we'll be done with that as well. WWE has 36 weeks but I don't see the need to do all 36, every week is the same things, narration, copywork and dictation. I don't think an additional 6 weeks are going to make any difference. She also has four more weeks of vocabulary work.
As far as math, she will be on Lesson 25 next week, which means she has six weeks to go.... yes I know we only have four weeks of school left, but she really needs to be done with Delta, plus she is starting a Felicity class on April 26th and that it's going to be a six weeks class. On May 21st we have a field trip that has to do with the books and that time era. So, as she is reading the Felicity books, she'll be doing math as well. She should be done with math by the third week of May.
The boy is done with Beta and has started some form of Gamma, mainly the skip counting part. We are also going to try very hard to get through the Code book 2 1/2 so that in September we can start book 3. I want to do 3 & 31/2 plus 4 & 41/2 next year.
I am in full planning mode for next year, not just for our homeschool, but for our co op as well. I just purchased Math U See Epsilon from Ebay, both the Teacher kit and the student kit for just $50!!! I still need the fraction overlays but I'll get that at the homeschool fair I'm going to at the end of April.
The only things I need to purchase for next year, besides math is her Editor in Chief A1 and her vocabulary 5 workbook.... THAT'S IT!!!! For the boy I need.... NOTHING!!!
For co op all I need is the book list for their language arts class with Mrs. Long... I have most of his books already, I think I need Mr. Putter and Tabby Drop the Ball, but that book is not out yet. For A10 I need a few more (5), but I have the whole summer to look for them... I will be visiting Booksavers a lot this summer to see if I can find them there cheaper!
Monday, March 26, 2012
School Week 31 2011-2012
This week X7 is done with Math U See Beta and we have started to do skip counting for MUS Gamma, that way he'll be ready for next year. We have read lots of books, and finished Explode the Code 2, he just started Explode the Code 2 1/2! For Co op he'll be reading a Magic Tree House book.
A10 is coming right along with Math U See Delta, we should be done by the 2nd week of May, she has read even more books and is currently reading the Heller Keller biography, and when done with that will read George Washington Carver's biography, for Co op she'll be reading the book Soup.
She is almost done with her language lessons and vocabulary. Co op will be done April 20th.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
School Week 28 2011-2012
Ha ha!.... You know what's coming!! Yep, you guessed it!! I've been busy.....
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
School Week 24 2011-2012
A10 will be done reading Charlotte's Web today and is going to start The Boxcar Children for Co op, btw X7 read the book A Pair of Red Clogs last week, I've been getting my books mixed up. That's what I get for not posting things on time!
A10 is on week 16 for Math U See Delta! This is very good news because it means we will be able to finish it this year! She is really enjoying division... so far! She is almost done with Book 7 of the Harry Potter books and is looking forward to finishing the Percy Jackson series as well!
X7 is rowing the book The Adventures of Taxi Dog for Co op. He is getting better at reading everyday!
This week the kids are going to have a special craft at Co op during lunch time, they are going to make a Valentine's day "mailbox" and then give out valentines to all their co op friends!
They are very excited about this, we already bought the valentines, the ones with candy of course!
I will try to post all of the pics this week sometime... key word here is TRY!! ha ha!
Monday, January 30, 2012
School Week 23 2011-2012
Another late post... This week started with Dh complaining that his foot was hurting, by the time he usually goes to work his foot was in A LOT of pain so I told him to go to the ER instead to see what was going on. It was no broken but probably a sprain... So he took lots of Motrin and went to work and stayed in his office all day!
A10 finished the book The School Mouse and started Charlotte's Web. X7 rowed the book Daniel's Duck, he loved it!
We got some new readers for X7 and he is really enjoying them! he finished Explode the Code 1 1/2 and started book 2!
Both kids got to do a diorama for their Co op class, however I forgot to take any pictures of them. Silly, silly me.. I'm feeling awful about this, I always take pics of stuff like this.. SIGH... I have a lot of pics to post but for some reason I keep forgetting to bring the camera downstairs...
We are having a Co op meeting on March 2nd. A planning for next year meeting and I have been working on samples of what we are going to be offering for next year as far as science and history. I created a survey/questionnaire so we know who is in and who is out and to see if anybody has any other class ideas.
This is taking a lot of my time which is way I haven't been working on the blog.... sorry!
Monday, January 23, 2012
School Week 22 2011-2012
This post is late, really late... A10 had a wonderful b-day party on Thursday! On Saturday we got her a small chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream for her to enjoy on her actual b-day, Sunday the 22nd. Well, Saturday night she threw up... we thought it was because of all the cake and ice cream she ate... until Wednesday morning when the boy threw up as well. He didn't have ANY cake or ice cream. They both felt better after vomiting but just in case I put them on a toast and juice diet for the rest of the week.
I came down with a little nausea and put myself on the same diet as them. I thank God there was no vomiting for me but it was not the most pleasant of weeks. We are all fine now, our appetite is back to normal and school is back to normal as well.
I'm trying to remember what books we read during this week... I know A10 read a Ramona book, X7 read the book Warm as Wool. We got our History, Math and Language Lessons done as usual but that was it...
School work got done quickly and the rest of the time was spent resting and working on getting better.. all of us! It could have been A LOT worse and I am thankful that we were speared!
Monday, January 16, 2012
School Week 21 2011-2012
This week we have a four day school week since we are celebrating A9's birthday on Thursday! We are going to Monkey Joe's. I've never been there but both kids have and they love it! We will be going around mid morning and staying till lunch time. My baby girl is going to be 10 years old!!
A9 soon to be A10 is going to be reading a Ramona book this week, I'm giving her a little break this week, so she got to pick which book she wanted to read!
X7 is rowing the book Very Last First Time.
Co op went very well last week, they seemed to enjoy health class and we had tons to do for history!
We have homework again so school will probably go a little longer than it has in the last two week... which is fine!
I'll be posting pics of the birthday party later in the week!
Monday, January 9, 2012
School Week 20 2011-2012
This week both kids are reading co op book selections, A9 is reading Babe: The Gallant Pig and X7 is reading The Drinking Gourd: A Story of the Underground Railroad. We are back to a full load this week! We really miss science but the kids are enjoying history. Also, the days are not as long since science used to take over an hour every day and history's only taking us 15 - 20 minutes.
A9 finished the 5th Harry Potter book, she is now reading the 2nd Percy Jackson book then she'll be reading book 6 Half Blood Prince. I told her after she is done with book 6 she can go ahead and read book 7. I'm hoping after reading all Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books, she'll get into Artemis Fowl!! or maybe 39 Clues... we'll see!
Co op starts up this Friday as well.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
School Week 19 2011-2012
Holidays are over and it is time to start our 2nd semester of the school year. As usual I change things around a bit, January and February are hard months around here so every little bit helps in making it less blah!! ha ha!!
We are done with science, American history(through reading My America books), and spelling. We are now finally starting world history! We are using Mystery of History Vol 1, which is ancient history. I've had this curriculum since the end of A9's K year. To say I have been looking forward to doing this is an understatement! The great thing is we are also using Mystery of History for our Co op class!
Vol 1 is actually 36 weeks, but we are only going to do half (18 weeks) this semester and the other half next year. Vols 2 & 3 only have 28 weeks, so it will be easier to get them done in a year each.
Each week has three lessons, each lesson is no more than 2 pgs. You can read all three in one day if you wanted to, but I'm not doing it like that, we'll do one lesson a day and on day 4 we'll try to do an activity and any quiz or exercises. On co op day we will go over the quiz (or exercise) any mapping exercises and of course our timeline!
A9 will be starting a new vocabulary curriculum, Vocabulary from Classical Roots 4. She used Worldly Wise last year and enjoyed it, unfortunately book 4 is 20 weeks and I don't want to do 20 weeks of vocabulary. Classical Roots is only 14 weeks.
As far as read alouds, we'll be reading the book Adam and His Kin, this will be a great book to do along side MOH, especially in the beginning. I also want to do Gilgamesh the Hero, and other ancient civ related books. We'll see how far we get.
As far as independent reading, I'm hoping A9 will get to read the Little House books. Again, we'll see how far we get. She is still reading The BFG since she took a break from it last week.
X7 will be rowing the book A Farmer Boy Birthday. He really enjoys the Almanzo books! and of course any books assigned by the co op.
Co op starts again next Friday! So now the kids will have World history instead of science and Health for 7 weeks, after that we go back to art for the last 7 weeks of co op.
Happy New Year everybody, here's hoping we all stay healthy in 2012!!
