Stage Odyssey

Here's a couple of clips from A8's performance at Stage Odyssey_Rhythm of Life! We are going to Grandmas tonight to get ready for the Bronx Zoo tomorrow... we leave nice and early!! See you Sunday with lots of pics!!

A Week of Music School

This week I signed A8 up for this Rhythm movement class at CVSM, the same place she takes piano lessons. She gets to go with her friend and her friends Mom will be taking her to class every morning and dropping her off at noon. The class is 3 hours, 9 AM to 12 PM, for the whole week! Yes, it does count towards school! By the time we start normal school in August we will have 11 days of school in the bag!!

We long decided, Dh and I, that we were going to try and limit the kids' activities to one per kid. However, since X5 is not involved in anything right now we are going to sign A8 up for Ballet this Fall. It starts right after Labor day and goes till May. It is an hour class once a week, and there is a recital at the end of May.

As for X5, we are waiting till he is a bit older to sign him up for either soccer or football.. although I'm hoping for soccer!

At the end of this week we are taking a field trip to the Bronx zoo with Grandma! X5 will be staying with Daddy this weekend. Dh is going to plan something for the two of them to do!

Next week we start packing for Roxbury! We need to find somebody to take care of our dogs....

Our Upcoming School Year 2010 Edition Part 2

Last year was really the first year I had to homeschool both my kids. It took a while to find our rhythm, I made some changes and then ended up going back to my original plan. This coming year I feel a bit more relax.

For X5 this year is all about learning to read. When I started homeschooling with A8 she had all of my attention, this is not the case with X5. He has to share me with his sister. I am going to try to give the kids different table times. A8 is at a point where she can do her table time activities with little help from me. Which frees me up to work with X5 on reading and phonics.... we will see how this plays out....

Here's the planned lineup for our upcoming year(X5):

Five in a Row
Story time will be first on the list with X5. Only FIAR books will have lapbooks, for the other books we will have coloring pages, crafts and the like. FIAR books all include lessons in Social studies, language arts, science and art.

• Fireflies (Reading Rainbow book)
• Storm in the Night
• Harold and the Purple Crayon
• A Little Prairie House (not a FIAR book)
• Dandelion (not a FIAR book)
• Lentil
• Henry the Castaway
• Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
• The Ugly Duckling (not a FIAR book)
• Truman's Aunt Farm
• County Fair (not a FIAR book)
• Columbus Day (Unit Study)
  
• The Feast (not a FIAR book)
• The Three Questions (not a FIAR book)
• The Library Lion (not a FIAR book)
• X-mas Books
• Madeline
• Winter on the Farm (not a FIAR book)
• Katy and the Big Snow
• A new Coat for Anna
• The Greatest Treasure (not a FIAR book)
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
• Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car
• Papa Piccolo
• Grandfather's Journey
• The Story of Ferdinand
• The Caboose that Got Loose (not a FIAR book)
• Abuela (not a FIAR book)
• If Jesus Came to my House
• The Three Trees (not a FIAR book)
• Easter books
• The Runaway Bunny
• I am an Artist
• The Bee Tree

Math

• Math U See Alpha

Language Arts

• Explode the Code 1 & 1 1/2 - 2 & 2 1/2 (3/week)
  
• Language Lessons for Little Ones 2
• Handwriting Without Tears: My Printing Book (2/week)
  
• Reading Made Easy (1/week)

Science

• Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day(2/week)
• Junior Notebook Journal for Zoology 1 (I made a junior copy for him with mostly coloring pages and simple mini books.)
  

Art

• Art with a Purpose 1 & 2

Lapbooks from 1+1+1=1

• Pond Life (Ugly Duckling)
• Farm (Winter on the Farm)
• Tarzan II (just for fun)
• Christmas
  
• Easter

I have a variety of games and activities that we'll be doing throughout the year.

• painting
• puzzles
• pentominos
• geoboards

Our Upcoming School Year 2010 Edition Part 1

Now that I'm done with all the planning, gathering and printing... I can go ahead and post what our school year is going to look like come Fall.

I have 36 weeks of school scheduled, that is 180 days. I always start the school year at Roxbury Holiness Camp. We spend 10 days there(1st week of August) but I only count Monday through Friday, 5 days.

The kids are on a schedule at Roxbury, breakfast, lunch and dinner are always at the same time everyday(when the kids hear the bell, they know exactly what to do). They have Sunbeam(K through 6th) in the mornings and afternoons, two sessions everyday. They get to hear Bible stories, do activities, crafts, songs and memorize scripture. Not to mention nature study and lots of playing time with friends.

A8 is going on a field trip to the Bronx Zoo, that is day 6! That leaves 174 days of school.

Normal school will start the 3rd week of August and end the 3rd week of May. God willing of course!!

Here's the planned lineup for our upcoming year(A8):

Five in a Row
We are doing Vol 4 this year, FIAR includes Reading, Social Studies, Language Arts, Science & Art. We are going to focus more on the Social studies part of it this year, geography, culture etc.

Here is our FIAR book list for this coming year:

• Roxaboxen
• Albert
• The Raft
• Angelo
• The Pumpkin Runner
• Arabella
• Grass Sandals
• Mailing May
• Snowflake Bentley
• Higgins Bend Song & Dance
• Hanna's Cold Winter
• The Gullywasher
• The Bravest of Us All
• Cowboy Charlie: The Story of Charles M Russell
  
• The Hickory Chair
• The Hatmaker's Sign

American History
My America Books
Colonial Period 1600s

• Our Strange New Land, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book 1
• The Starving Time, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book 2
• Season of Promise, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book 3

American Revolution 1770s

• Five Smooth Stones, Hope's Revolutionary War Diary, Book 1
• We Are Patriots, Hope's Revolutionary War Diary, Book 2
• When Freedom Comes, Hope's Revolutionary War Diary, Book 3

Underground Railroad 1850s-1860s

• Freedom's Wings, Corey's Underground Railroad Diary, Book 1
• Flying Free, Corey's Underground Railroad Diary, Book 2
• Message in the Sky, Corey's Underground Railroad Diary, Book 3

Civil War/Slavery 1850s-1870s

• My Brother's Keeper, Virginia's Civil War Diary, Book 1
• After the Rain, Virginia's Civil War Diary, Book 2
• A Time to Dance, Virginia's Civil War Diary, Book 3

20th Century Immigration 1900s

• Hope in My Heart, Sofia's Immigrant Diary, Book 1
• Home at Last, Sofia's Immigrant Diary, Book 2
• An American Spring, Sofia's Immigrant Diary, Book 3

Additional Books

• Paul Revere's Ride
• Pocahontas
• Benjamin Franklin

Math

• Math U See Beta & Gamma

Language Arts

• Language Lessons for the Very Young Vol 2(Grammar)
  
• Wordly Wise 3000 Book 3 (Vocabulary)
• Learning to Spell through Copywork Book A & B(Spelling)
• Handwriting Without Tears Cursive Handwriting

Science(2/week)

• Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day
• Notebook Journal for Exploring Creation with Zoology 1
  

Art (1/week)

• How to Teach Art to Children, Grades 1-6
• Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters
• Art with a Purpose, Artpac 3
• Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Michelangelo

Music

• Suzuki Piano Book 1
  
• Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers: Ludwig Van Beethoven
• Book & CD: Beethoven Lives Upstairs

We are also doing Home Economics for Home Schoolers 1, and Perplexors: Basic for Logic!

Next post, X5's upcoming school year!

July Update

So here we are... it's July already!! Summer is going much too fast. I have been purging my house of all things unnecessary. Summer is a great time to get rid of all those things that have been gathering dust during the long winter months.

I was able to donate a big box of books, workbooks and the like to the local used books store..I have two more boxes to give them. Out with the old and in with the new!

Homeschooling requires a lot of books around, but even that can get out of hand sometimes if you are not careful.

Speaking of homeschooling, I'm done making the folders for each week for each kid for next year. I have A8s notebooking journal done for American history and I have X5s Jr notebooking journal for science. The last thing I need to do this month is plan the workbox schedule for each kid.

I'm making some changes to the boxes this coming fall. X5 had the more traditional boxes, with the shoe rack and 9 individual boxes. That is about to change! After talking to him about it, he would rather use the Iris 6-Drawer Mobile Chest that his sister has been using.

He told me he likes it better than having to bring the box with him to the table, he would rather get the stuff he needs from each drawer and then when done just put it back in the box.
This works for me since I was going to go from 9 boxes to 6 for him this coming year anyways.

He wants the black and clear model.
This weekend we are having Nina and Grandpa coming over to celebrate the Fourth of July! We have burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob and sausages ready for the weekend, and hopefully we'll get to watch a little movie called Eclipse while the kids stay with Nina and Grandpa!
Happy 4th everyone!!!

Journal Update

The notebooking journal for My America books is done! I created 114 pages for 15 books. I will be taking it to Staples to get it spiral bound!

Yes, this is the cover of the journal! I was able to make it into a pdf file for when I need to use it with X5.

It was a lot of work, I spent 3 to 4 hours a day just working on it. I was obsessed! I now need a nice long brake from my computer...

By the way, we are all set to go for next year! I went to our local school district office and brought all the paper work needed to homeschool A8 next Fall since she is now going into the 3rd grade.

They were very helpful and pretty much told me how easy they make it for homeschoolers in this area. They don't require too much of us which is great. Even better news, I can administer the end of year test myself, no need to go some place else for it!

Oops..Update

I haven't blogged for a while so here is an update on what we've been up to in the last couple of weeks. The kids are enjoying their summer now that the neighbor kids are done with school as well. The pool is open but it's been raining, hopefully today we can go since tomorrow it's supposed to rain again.

I have all of A8's lapbooks done! Like I said before, she has 16 FIAR Vol 4 books to do lapbooks for and they are all done!

X5 has 34 books, however I am not doing a lapbook for every book. Some books will have coloring pages, others will have games, art projects and for a couple of books we are just going to read and enjoy, no activities. I'm 3/4 of the way done with X5"s lapbooks.... a few more to do and I'll be done!

I've come up with great ideas for American history using My America books. I'm going to do a journal style notebook, just like the ones from Apologia elementary science. There will be questions about the books, she will get to draw in some pages and I will have a few lapbook type mini books. I will also have pages with historical names.. for example in the Jamestown books Pocahontas and John Smith are mentioned. I can have a page where she gets to write a few sentences about who these people were.

This journal is going to be a sweet challenge for me! I haven't decided whether to do it in a three hole binder or to have the whole thing spiral bound. We shall wait and see how this thing ends up looking like!

For X5 I'm going to be working on how to make Reading Made Easy a fit for him. This coming school year is going to be all about getting him to start reading!

Summer Planning Part I

Our first week of summer vacation! I'm doing a lot of brain storming for the upcoming school year.
I know what it is that we are doing, I just want to do some things a little different.

For A8 the 3rd grade is really a transition year. She will leave behind the things she's been doing for the first three years of school and move into things she is going to start doing in the last three years of elementary school.

For the first 3 years the focus was on learning to read, learning to write and of course math.
In third grade we will start to go in another direction. Now that she can read and write, she will use those things to broaden her learning horizons so to speak. She will be learning how to assimilate information, more specifically, information she gets from reading a book herself.

We are still going to do FIAR and lapbooks, but we'll be adding chapter books as well.

The chapter books she will be reading are part of our American history course. I don't want to do lapbooks for these books, I want something different. I'm looking into this resource book: Better Than Book Reports: More Than 40 Creative Responses to Literature. Hopefully this book will help us find different ways to present the information she will be learning from the My America books.

Like I said, it's going to be a transition year for her. As for X5, things are not going to change too much for him. We'll be doing math, phonics and lots of reading a loud with FIAR. The lapbooks will look different than hers just because he can't read or write yet. I need to come up with simpler things than she had for his lapbooks. A lot of the lessons will be oral, just like I did with her during her K year.

I've been told many times by homeschoolers with boys that they are usually behind girls when it comes to reading, but will catch up by 4th or 5th grade. I will trust the wisdom of these mothers and not panic... yet! ha ha!!

End of Clubs Picnic

This Saturday is our last Club activity, our end of clubs picnic. Normally we have a Camp out for the older kids and a picnic for the younger ones. This year not enough funds or people to have a camp out, so we decided to have everybody come to the picnic instead.

It looks like it is going to rain on Saturday, I'm really hoping it won't start raining till the evening. The picnic is from 12 to 4.

It is wonderful to see another Club year come to an end. We have some ideas on what to do for next year. Some leaders are leaving, hopefully most are coming back. What a blessing it is to have a Pastor who is really taking a interest in making Clubs better.
Enjoy the Summer brake everybody... we'll see you back in September!!

End of School

Last Week of School

Our last week of school, we have been doing our dinosaur unit study. The kids are really enjoying it! This week we are finishing the fact files activities. We took a day off last week, which means one extra day this week. We should be done with everything by Thursday, unless the kids decided to do everything in the next two days!

A8 had her evaluation, I think it went very well. Now that she is entering the third grade we have to let the local school district know she is going to be hhomeschooled. I need to send them a notarized affidavit stating she is staying home plus I need to list the objectives for third grade. At the end of the year I need to get her evaluated and she needs to take a test. Followed by a portfolio of work she's done throughout the year, plus we need to show we did school for 180 days... they don't need to know what we did each day, just show that we did school for that long.

Thankfully I've been doing all of this since she was in grade K, I wanted to get comfortable with the whole process before having to actually do it for real... The only thing I haven't done is the test. I'm going to get it online and give it to her myself just so she knows what to expect next year.

So that is it! that is all for now, we are going to take the rest of May off and I will start my planning for next Fall in June!!!(ha! no, I don't buy that either!)

School Week 35 & 36

Here we are, last two weeks of school. Both kids are done with math and handwriting, A8 is done with her spelling and language lessons book and she has one week left of vocabulary.

Both kids will be working on a Dinosaur unit study from Learning Page.com is very much like the other ones we've done in the past. We have fact files on all the different dinosaurs, we'll be doing a mural, which means the kids will be coloring all our dinos and pasting them to the mural. Then, they'll get to do different activities based on the fact files... science, lang. arts and of course math. The activity sheets are by grade, so I have activities for both K and 2nd grade.

I also have The Field Guide to Dinosaurs to read a loud and a movie. I really want the kids to watch Jurassic Park. I think it's PG13 but if I can skip the dinosaurs eating people parts it should be okay for them to watch.. I love this movie and can't think of anything better for them to enjoy dinosaurs!!!

This unit study is not going to take two full weeks, however we have three school days that haven't been counted this year(two COOP days and one field trip), so I decided to count them at the end of the year. So we'll be officially done with school on Tuesday of week 36.

After that we'll do nothing for the rest of May and come June both kids will have one day a week of review, handwriting for X5, reading, writing and math for A8. As for me, I will start my gathering(printing) of activities for each weekly folder in June. I am very much looking forward to sunny days at the pool!!

School Week 34

This week we are rowing our last FIAR book of the year, Wee Gillis. It's a short book with a really good message! it's about an orphan with a tough decision to make: whether to live with his mother's relatives in the Lowlands and raise long-haired cows or his father's relatives in the Highlands and stalk stags.

Geography: Scotland, highlanders, lowlanders
Lang. Arts. copy work, days of the week, months of the year
Science: bagpipes, lungs, fog

X5 is also rowing his last book, The Little Engine that Could.

Two weeks of school left!!!!

Three Weeks to Go

We have three weeks of school to go.. today A8 got done with math, she has two more weeks of vocabulary. X5 is done with math and his handwriting book.

I made the decision to end math with lesson 15. A8 took her unit test which covers lessons 1-15. I did not want her to start something new and have to wait three months to finish it. I'm going to keep it 15 lessons per semester.

A8 is going to be evaluated next week so I want to have all her work ready to show the evaluator. Too many things on my mind about next year, changes I want to make... I need to finish this year first!:)

One thing that won't be changing is our workboxes, they worked better than I expected.
Lots of posts coming on new things for next year and changes from this year... stay tune!!

School Week 33

This week we are finally rowing the book Follow the Drinking Gourd.
The story of an old white sailor called "Peg Leg Joe" who went from plantation to plantation in the pre-Civil War south, teaching enslaved blacks a folksong that he wrote, the lyrics of which held directions for following the Underground Railroad to freedom. This particular story focuses on the journey of one group of runaways who travel according to the directions of the song to reach the Ohio River, where Peg Leg Joe himself is waiting with a boat.


X5 is rowing the book Blueberries for Sal.

Philadelphia Field Trip

Over the weekend we took a trip to Philly. We were there to visit my sister and her new baby!
The kids had never been to a city the size of Philly so it was a field trip to them! We got to see so many places while we were there. Many historical places is Philly. We also got to eat a Philly cheese stake, it was so much better than the stuff we get around here!!! There were also a lot of cars... everywhere..I'm not kidding.... they have so many cars in that city that they have to park in the middle of the street I kid you not.. the hotel we stayed in was wonderful and huge.. the kids really enjoyed the trip.

Of course the best thing about the trip was of course the baby! She is a beauty, such a good baby!
She had no problem being in my arms, I even got to change a poopie diaper.. ha ha!!
My sister is doing very good with her, she is adjusting very well to motherhood!

Here is a collage of pics we took of me and the baby!

School Week 31 and 32

Okay, spring break is over and we are back at work or rather school. We have four weeks to go!!
I got a lot accomplished in the two weeks we had off. I have the book list for both kids done. I also have a very good idea and plan for next fall for both kids. During the summer I'll be working on the weekly folders for each kid, can't wait.. I love getting everything ready!!


School Week 31
We rowed the book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Wonderful story however we didn't get in to the book as much, instead we learned more about the author Beatrix Potter. We watched the movie Miss Potter and watched a documentary about her that was in the DVD. Here life was truly a fairy tale!
A8 loved the movie, she loved the parts were Beatrix was drawing her wonderful bunny friends.
A8 got to draw using watercolors just like Miss Potter.


School Week 32
This week we are rowing the book Down, Down the Mountain. I'm not sure what we are doing with this book because I don't have my planner with me.. oops.. ha ha! I will edit this post when I get a hold of it.
Edit.
Geography: Blue Ridge Mountains, what is a mountain?
Language arts: Vocabulary, onomatopoeia, alliteration
Science: turnips, night time birds

X5 is rowing the book Katy No Pocket and doing a lapbook.

This Thursday is Earth day, the kids and I are going on a field trip to watch the Disney movie, Oceans.

Spring Break

We are in week two of our Spring break. We had a great Easter weekend with Nina and Grandpa! On Saturday we had the Shape and Race at Church. The kids got trophies again this year, 4th in Show for A8 and 1st in Speed for X5... I know, we were shocked with that one!!
As soon as I get their pics I'll post them.

Like I said in a previous post I've been working on the book list for next year. I'm done with A8's list and now I'm working on X5's. He has 35 books for next Fall, one for each week of the school year. A8 only has 18. We are not going to do the Little House on the Prairie series next year. I chose two other books that will go along perfectly with the whole 2 weeks per book schedule.
I'll leave the Little House books for when we start Beyond FIAR, they will fit perfectly with those books.

I also have all the curricula I need for the kids for next year. A8 is going to start Wordly Wise 3000, a vocabulary workbook. Each workbook has 15 lessons, so I got 2nd and 3rd grade. One for each semester. That and Apologia Science is all I'm adding to our school next year. She'll also be reading My America books as part of American History.

That's all for now, let me go and enjoy the rest of our break!!

My Niece

Some great news! I am an Aunt once again. My sister just gave birth to my niece Gabriella Jazmeen, 6 lbs 10 oz!!

She is a beauty!!!

Easter Break

We are officially done with school for the next two weeks. We ended in a good place for both kids. X5 is done with book C of the Code, when we start school in two weeks he's going to start book 1. A8 finished her math in a good place, when we come back from break we will be starting with measuring, something completely new to her...

I scheduled two weeks off, Easter week is full of activities, Shape n Race being one of them. I'm in charge of food this year again, plus filling up Easter goodie bags since we are not having an egg hunt this year.

Then there's Holy Week activities in our church, we hope to make it to some of them!

As far as school planning, I'm going to work on the book list for both kids for the Fall. X5 is going to be ready for FIAR books since we mostly worked on BeforeFIAR this year. He will be doing Handwriting w/out Tears 1st grade workbook, he will be done with the K book in a few more weeks. He has about three more weeks of math, lessons 28, 29 and then 30!! He will be starting Alpha in the Fall.

X5 is doing math & handwriting at a K level but his phonics and reading are still at a preschool level. In the Fall we will continue like this, 1st grade math and handwriting, K level phonics and reading... Many Moms continue to assure me boys usually catch up in the phonics/reading area within a few years... no problem! that's the beauty of homeschooling, I can customize everything to fit where he is at, at the moment!

A8 is going to be doing FIAR Vol 4. This Vol has a lot more activities than the previous books. The books are meant to be rowed for two weeks instead of one. There are 16 books in Vol 4. Which means 32 weeks of school. For the other 4 weeks she'll do Little House in the Big Woods and Little House in the Prairie lapbooks, each book will take two weeks. This will prepare her for what is coming in 4th grade, Beyond FIAR, which uses chapter books instead of illustrative books. We will do them at the end, the last 4 weeks of the school year.

As far as math, when we get to the end of the year she will have 20 lessons done in Beta. A8 is about 10 lessons behind in math since we started with Primer on her 2nd semester of K. Instead of 30 lessons she will do 35 till she is caught up. By the time she is in 5th grade she will be ready to start Epsilon in the Fall.

I'm getting way ahead of myself here.. ha ha!! The thing is math is tricky, if I want them both to take calculus their Senior year, I have to make sure they are on the right path now... same for Science which we will be starting next Fall with Apologia science.. but again, I'm getting ahead of myself... we still have this year to finish.. ha ha!

Happy Easter!!!!!!