Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Home Sweet School - checking in

Here we are 
~ half way through our year ~ already! 

We school year round. 
The kids get bored when they have to much free time and 
"Idle hands are the devil's workshop". :) 
This also frees us up for spontaneous days off and allows space for sick days too. 
We start our year after fair, this year it was August 23. 
We have "together school" and "individuals". 

Together school includes:
 We are in Weaver Volume 5, chapter 6. 
Hunny has finished Interlock so all the girls are together. Yay! 
We do Weaver as often as we can, somewhere between 3 and 5 days a week. 
It's so much fun to learn together. 
To practice test taking, I've started giving chapter tests. 
I haven't felt the need to in the past since we talk so much about the chapter, I know they understand the material, but I want to increase test skills and confidence.   
Latin for Children by Classical Academic Press. 
Loving this! 
We have the bundle (plus extra workbooks). 
We typically start a chapter on Monday by watching the dvd and then reviewing the new chants.
Sometimes we watch the grammar lesson then, others we catch it later.
Homework is to start on the worksheets.
This then becomes "individual" for some of the week while we (I am doing it too) work on worksheets in the book and activities in the activity book. 
I try to touch base mid week and rewatch the chants and sometimes the lesson. 
Quiz work is due on Friday and we'll go over it, either that day or catch it on Monday.



Individual work includes:
We aren't using a spelling curriculum this year, just words from our chapter or words they tend to ask about, or for Sis ~ a high school word list I found online. 
They have spelling tests on Wednesday, weird day I know, but with our schedule it works for us. :) 

Hunny has started Alpha Omega's lifepacs for math. 
She was so very excited to begin this, however it requires MUCH patience from me as she is VERY slow. Not because she is struggling but because she insists on perfection and dissects everything (I'm sure that isn't the correct way to explain it). Like the number four will remind her of something and she has to thoroughly explain and question that before she can move on.
She is doing great though, I'm very happy with her progress although we need to work more on subtraction since she doesn't like it.
The other two are using Switched On Schoolhouse also by Alpha Omega. 
This took a little bit to get used to for Sis but Bug jumped right into it. 
Sis does NOT like math, but Bug loves it. 
Sis does well but lacks confidence in what she does. She easily gets A's on the work but when it comes to tests or quizzes she freezes up and will often get a C. 
Bug is getting all A's and B's. 

Bug is still using Weaver's Penmanship to Praise, as her handwritting needs some improvement. :) 

Sis has been struggling in Hebrew.
It's difficult to learn when the teacher is so far away. :)
 (my brother is teaching this)
And then there were computer issues...
So, it is getting restarted, and I am going to attempt to learn it as well so I can help her. 
I had wanted us to read the first three chapters last week, but since that didn't happen it's now this weeks goal. 

For literature, Sis is using Learning to love Literature.
This has some pretty heavy reading in it! 
We are almost done with non-fiction.

They participate with other homeschoolers in karate and gym class, and do wii fit at home for P.E.

Then there are those things that happen all the time.
Life skills, child care, animal husbandry, community service, etc.
4H gives us amazing opportunities as well.

How's your school year going? 

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