Week 37: Wrapping it up

We're wrapping up the end of the school year this past week and next week. The days were spent finishing up undone bookwork and reviewing while my nights were spent creating assement tests for kindergarten and 2nd grade. Iris has 70 questions, mostly done with pictures with answers orally. Lily has 100 questions, mostly based in math and language arts, with a few history and science questions sprinkled within.

Making these assessment tests for the girls made me realize my bad study habits. Lily had asked me what exactly she needed to do to make sure she received a perfect score in her exam. I told her to try and memorize as much as she could. She stared at me blankly. I had nothing else to offer. Thankfully, J has been on the Dean’s list for his 4.0 these past four years (he finishes up his BaS next month) and knows what needs to be done to study. I’m hoping he can show her how it’s done. I have always been a terrible test taker. It’s a wonder why I’m still in college myself.

assessment tests

Anyway, this will be the last end-of-week post until mid-August when we start prepping for our new school year. Next week will be nothing but assessments and review and then it’s vacation time. While we will still be doing little things here and there, such as reading, book reports, languages, and a lot of math; science and history will be put on the back burner and we’ll be moving into our new place in a couple of weeks. Come June, I’ll be writing lesson plans, and in July, buying supplies, that by August we can slowly get back to some science and history review, so that by the first week of September, we are a go.

I know many of you are finishing up the school year if you haven’t already. Regardless on when your vacation starts, have a very wonderful summer!

Week 36: HUZZAH!

So implementing our sticker chart really helped get the girls to do their bookwork. It has worked so well, that Rose, my two-year-old, has begun simple bookwork to achieve a sticker for the day. I'm not as tough on her as I am with, say, Lily, who is doing 2nd grade, but sometimes she does lose focus. I'm not worried, though. She's two.

Speaking of Rose, she is doing splendidly at her bookwork. I have to say that my kiddos are not the norm. My daughters (and now my son) have always been above average when it came to developmental milestones. Academically, they have always excelled, and have helped children their age better understand concepts that they already know. It's actually quite wonderful to watch my girls patiently help a friend learn a new concept that they have already mastered. I just wish they were that patient with each other! But I digress... Rose has begun her line tracing. She is doing such a great job that I've added angles to the lines. Not only that, but she surprised the heck out of me by counting further than I knew she could. She even recognized the number 100. I didn't even know she knew that number yet!

Lily and Iris are excited for their certificates. I've actually had to tell them that they should wait to have a collection so they can use them for something BIG. They keep shoving it in my face asking for cake, but I want them to be patient and learn to save them and spend them wisely. I think this is good practice for when they start earning an allowance for chores and such.

Good news: at the end of May we are moving into our own apartment! FINALLY, we will no longer be homeless and we will be able to get our hands on all of our supplies once more. I am super excited for this and have already started planning the ideas for next year's lessons. It makes go *squee* just thinking about our schoolroom. *sigh* If time only moved faster.

Weeks 34 & 35: War and Peace

Last week, which I will dub WAR, was a complete and total failure. I struggled to keep the kids focused, and I struggled in keeping my temper. Many tantrums were had, both by the kids and ME! Both my mother and my husband had to sit down with me and tell me to just chill out. I admit, I don't handle stress well, and last week, I was feeling super overwhelmed. I had a bajillion things on my to-do list as well as all the stuff running through my head. Put homeschooling and taking care of four children on top of that as well as doing my own homework, and I snapped.

So I had to organize myself. I realized just how out of sorts I was and horribly disorganized. The kids NEED to do their work. They can't half-ass it. I need to do my work, too. I can't half-ass it, either. I'm not speaking of just my homework, either. I need to be the best at being a teacher, a mother, and a wife, as well. All of us need our PEACE. That is what I had focused to achieve this week, and we did it!

the girls chose their letter stickers
to make their names

Digging through our supplies, I found a few things that I was saving to use for next school year but decided now is a better time than any to dig into it, even if we are closing in on the last few legs of the school year. Grabbing some sheets of stickers, name plates, and a weekly to-do list that was actually for me, but I voted against it in this time of need, the girls made their own "I Did My Homework" charts.

The plan was simple. I need them to do one assignment from each subject every day. Some subjects they have already finished and they recieve a sticker at the completion of the section to place on a certificate. I don't know why I didn't do this more often, but now we do. They recieve a sticker at the completion of that one assignment, a sticker for each subject. On Monday, Lily had 12 subjects left while Iris had 5. On Friday, Lily only had 6, and Iris had 3. They both recieved all the stickers. At the end of our lessons, they would recieve one large sticker for completing all the subjects. They could not recieve a large sticker unless all of the small stickers were won. At the end of the week they recieved a certificate of completion for that week.

Rose gets in on the sticker action

I'm not one for bribery. I hate bribing. It doesn't teach responsiblity. I don't want them to think that just because they did something, I'll give them something special. I want to teach them that they have to be responsible and by doing so they EARN something special. This reward system is the best form of subtle bribery. :) They need to earn the certificate throughout the week. After earning so many certificates, they can then trade them in for something special. Even the two-year-old wanted a piece of the fun. She refused to be satisfied unless she made her own nameplate and was able to recieve stickers.

The week is done!

I'm considering "pricing" special treats. Like a trip to the park equals one certificate. A trip to the indoor playground or the zoo (both an hour away) is five certificates, etc. I think I may even price a field trip or two. Whenever we get into bats and caves and things, I could easily get them to do their work if they earn a trip to Inner Space Cavern. So many things I can charge!! I'm excited to see what they plan on "buying" now.

Here they are at the end of the week, super happy to have finished the week!

Weekly Wrap Up: Week 33

Note: This was intended to be posted on Saturday, when I wrote it. My days feel like they are just melding together, we've had so much to do.

Monday: School lessons were slow. While Lily made her day interesting by doing her bookwork starting from the back sections of her book and working her way forward, Iris spent TWO HOURS doing the same two pages. I was on the brink of insanity with that child. She absolutely refused to get any work done. While they lunched, I made some phone calls to my old school to see how much I owed them and what I needed to do to get back to my own classes. We then headed to the district attendance office to sign an affidavit that states we are homeschooling and to not bother us. It makes it easier. If for whatever reason the truancy officers are called about my kids running about, all they have to do is check the system and find us there. :) Afterward, we headed to the store and did math while adding up the total for groceries. This was my first day hauling ALL four of my children around without my husband to help. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the day.

Tuesday: Lessons went along like they did on Monday. Lily continued her work backwards just because it made it more interesting that way. Iris spent another two hours on the same two pages. I had a WIC appointment, which was tedious. It was a class on nutrition. Seeing as I've done this four times already, I'm a pro. So both my children and I were bored. Thankfully they had a little hackey-sack game that the girls played while I answered questions and the girls got to win prizes. They then grabbed a bunch of toothbrushes from the dentist who was talking to everyone there, and we left, headed to the library. Library day is usually fun, but unfortunately I have to hover around the children's section with them as they are under the age of ten and are not allowed unattended. I MISS the old library we used to go to where my children could browse without my hovering. The librarian knew them and knew they would stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, because of this, they were reprimanded and I was scolded frequently by the staff because I was letting my children browse the aisles. This was also the last day my children were to see their grandpa Doug. Doug was moving to Oklahoma for a new job endeavor and wouldn't be back again until June when he would pick up Gin and their things to their new home. The kids' uncle Joey and aunt Lauren came up from Austin and we spent a little bit of family time (unfortunately without J who was working) before heading back to my mother's house. Day two of being alone with the kids everywhere and I was beyond tired.

Wednesday: CRASH AND BURN. I could not wake up long enough to get out of bed. I am ashamed to admit that I turned on the TV to Nick, Jr. and had the girls watch it until lunch time only getting up long enough to feed them and the baby. I crawled into bed and snuggled with my little man while the girls watched their shows.

Thursday: My mother came home with a wading pool and set it up, along with buckets, outside. The girls stripped down to their underpants and the two eldest played a game of sink or float with Rose. Great learning activity for the toddler that I didn't have to do. :) I hung out on the patio with my little man and watched them learn and play. As the day cooled, they got out, received haircuts from my mother, and were able to spend some much needed quality time with their daddy who came home from work early.

Friday: Back to book work it was. Lily plowed through as usual, switching up her sections so she wouldn't get bored. (Smart kid, that one.) Iris FINALLY got through EVERY single section that day and we were able to place stickers on three chapters for completion. Lily was a bit bummed that she has yet to complete a single section, but seeing as she is six and doing 2nd grade, that's a feat in itself and I told her so. :) I then threw them outside to play.

Saturday: J used this day as a make-up day for Wednesday since I had TV babysit them while I recovered. Using our feet as units of measure, we mapped out the backyard until they became disinterested and played with the wading pool where they got muddy and gross until we headed to their Abuela Gin's house to play.

J worked from last Wednesday until Thursday. He's been off since Thursday afternoon and has spent most of his free time either catching up on sleep or catching up on homework. I'm dragging him to church tomorrow for my mom's Easter shindig.

Week 01: Mostly Fail

Monday: Homeschool FAIL. I forgot we planned to start school this day and ended up just putting on educational cartoons for a couple hours. All of our textbooks are in storage and there is such a large amount of boxes in there, we don't know where to begin. Spent the day watching educational cartoons on Nick, Jr and discussed the topics within the episodes.

Tuesday: For the time being, I went ot Target and grabbed some basic educational supplies, and then to Walmart to replace our dry erase and bulletin boards. I also bought basic school supplies that needed replenishing that had been, unfortunately, destroyed during the move thanks to the triple-digit weather the south is suffering through these past two months. The girls spent time going over the books (not doing work, just skimming through pages) and asking questions about the material provided.

Wednesday: Absolutely nothing. J was studying for his finals and I was sick. Girls had a free day but we talked about being a hero without super powers and how to measure.

Thursday: All the boards and supplies were still not situated, but that didn't stop me. We still did our foreign language with the month, day of the week, number of the day, and color (orange) of the day in English, Spanish, French, German, and (phonetic) Chinese. Lily worked on her cursive by writing letters A - H and the sentence "Amanda eats apples." For math, I gave her a pretend object that she had to pay for. She had to add pretend coins in the exact change to buy the product.

Iris refused to do any work whatsoever that morning and kept making up excuses, so since she didn't want to "go to school" she spent the entire time in her room and missed out on 1/2 an hour of TV. For math, Lily took over while I made lunch (I didn't ask her to, she just did it anyway) and helped Iris practice addition using Othello pieces.

Rose worked on identifying colors. She refused all colors except orange (ownj) and black (back) and then threw a fit because she wanted to "write," too. Lol.

The day's lesson was: "Try new things; you never know if you may like it."

After lunch we tried some reading and comprehension. Iris actually did it, but was terrible at it. :) Lily refused. Rose enjoyed the pictures. The book I was trying to have Lily read was at a higher level than she was used to and she didn't want to try. She just refused. I had to remind her about the day's lesson and told her to sit at her bed and think about the lesson for the day and how it pertained to her assignment. Eventually Lily caved after some time spent contemplating in her room and read her story wonderfully (with minimal help from me) and did great at her quiz afterward.

By then it was already 3pm (we start our lessons at 10am) and I was pooped from all the whining and excuses laid out that day as to why no one wanted to do anything. I called it a day and took a nap.

Friday: The girls had an uncle and aunt come to visit so they didn't get started until sometime after 1:30. We did our basic foreign language with Yellow as the color of the day, then proceeded to our new arrival. Last week, J sent out for the Team UmiZoomi math kits and we broke one of them in, partially anyway. This covered reading and comprehension, math and recognition, and all three of the children were able to participate.

Rose surprised me by being able to point out the shapes when asked. She can't say the names at all, but knew which ones to point to. Lily read the entire story by herself as well as did some of the activities. Iris did the activities requested, and all three of them had a great time. Even the older two girls excelled at the reading comprehension quiz I surprised them with at the end of the story. They then watched a DVD of TUZ and took turns filling out the pages of the corresponding workbook.

We finished everything up by 4, which was nice. Hitting so many subjects at the same time is pretty awesome.

I wonder what next week will bring...

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Universe

So, for science, we decided to start astronomy. Rose is currently emphasising this by singing "Twinkle Twinkle" at the top of her little 20-month-old lungs. :) We don't have cable, so use Netflix a lot for our documentaries, and we came across The Universe. It's a TV show that was aired on the History channel until Septemeber of last year, and, if you are a secular homeschooler like us, IS AWESOME.

So far, we watched the following episodes. We only watch one each day of the week, and we started them last Saturday, which is why we've watched seven instead of five. :)

101 "Secrets of the Sun" May 29, 2007 (aired: 2007-05-29)

A look at how the sun was formed and how it could potentially die; its physical composition; how it makes energy; and the nature of solar eclipses, solar flares and sunspot activity.

102 "Mars: The Red Planet" June 5, 2007 (aired: 2007-06-05)
A look at the planet Mars, the planet most similar to Earth in our solar system; an examination of Olympus Mons the largest volcano in the solar system; how NASA probes search for evidence of past life on the red planet, and what that life might have looked like.

103 "End of the Earth" June 12, 2007 (aired: 2007-06-12)
A look at end of the world scenarios involving killer asteroid or comet impact events, solar flare and gamma-ray bursts, and the plans that scientists have to potentially save the Earth from an interstellar disaster.

104 "Jupiter: The Giant Planet" June 19, 2007 (aired: 2007-06-19)
A look at the solar system's largest planet, Jupiter; its formation and composition and its mini-solar system of over 60 moons – some of which may have the potential to support extraterrestrial life.

105 "The Moon" June 26, 2007 (aired: 2007-06-26)
A look at the formation of the Moon; how it played a role in the evolution of life on Earth; and the future plans of NASA to establish a permanent base on the surface.

106 "Spaceship Earth" July 10, 2007 (aired: 2007-07-10)
A look at the planet Earth; how it was born out of a chaotic shooting gallery during the formation of the solar system; how life could have begun here; and what could ultimately cause its destruction.

107 "Mercury & Venus: The Inner Planets" July 17, 2007 (aired: 2007-07-17)
A look at the two most hostile planets in the solar system – Mercury and Venus; one gouged with craters, the other a greenhouse cauldron of toxic gases and acid rain; both scorched by their close proximity to the sun. Scientists theorize about what sort of life could evolve on these alien worlds.

 

We continue our work with foreign language by using a dry erase board and a dry-erase calendar. We use a calendar similar to the one shown, with a space on the left hand side usually used for notes. What we do instead is write the day of the week in the different languages we are learning. For example, today is Friday. After writing "Friday" on the notes side, it is followed by Vendredi (French), viernes (Spanish), Freitag (German), and 星期五, writen both in simplified Chinese and phonetically as Xīngqí wǔ.

On the dry erase board we have the month in all four languages (April, Avril, abril, April, 四月[Sì yuè]), the number of the day (which is based on the date), and the color of the day. We've gotten into the habit of writing on the dry erase board with the same color as the color of the day.

Nothing was really planned for history this week. Lily has been keeping track of our paper calendar and asked about the holidays listed, so she learned about Easter, Passover, and the like, with my husband in the background making stuff up. He's an atheist, and, though open-minded, he doesn't really know much about the meanings of the holidays associated to a certain relgions. So when Lily asked the meaning behind Palm Sunday, the converstaion went a lot like this:

Lily: What's Palm Sunday?

Me: It's when Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem and...
J: Gave everybody high-fives. They were like, "Whassup, Jesus!" *gives self high-five*

Everyone seemed to like his explanation. He then added that Palm Sunday came after Thumbs Sunday and before Fingers Sunday. *facepalm*

Math, writing, and reading has been basic, using workbooks we bought at Target for $1 each last summer as well as our Brain Quest books and any other books we find in our personal library.

It's been a crazy week. The weather can't make up it's mind, but today was lovely, so we all went outside to play. :) Happy Earth Day! Rejoice in Nature! Hope everyone had a great week!

Week 0: The One that Got Away

I was going to begin lessons this week, but was unable to. Iris and Rose (my youngest two) have a stomach flu that has kept them lethargic and, for the most part, miserable. Fevers have been up to a little over 103, and the amount of diaper changes due to loose stools should have been a contest. My husband has been Super-Dad for the past few weeks taking care of them while I at work. He should win a prize!

All lessons were few and scanty. We read phonic books for Iris, and Lily practiced some reading and copy work, but all together, nothing more than a subject a day for about 15 minutes. Our foreign languages are a constant thing, since we are learning 3 at the same time. Nothing new to report other than Iris and Rose seem to be doing better, and I hope to pick up our schooling next week.

Oh, and guess who now has the stomach flu as well as sinusitis & conjunctivitis? Yeah, that would be me. Oh, joy.

Weekly Wrap Up: PIRATES!!

This week, we learned all about pirates and watched pirate-themed movies.

Movies:


Books:


For "bookwork" in this theme, I found a coloring book at the Family Dollar store for $1, and the girls worked on the activities and coloring pages. And so did their father, who decided to color a picture like a bunch of superheroes. He had the Human Torch and the Hulk as well as a werewolf and the pirate's chest was "the head of a sentinel." Sometimes I wonder if he is all there. LOL.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Bright and Sunshiney Days

THIS WEEKS HOMESCHOOLING WAS CANCELED DUE TO AWESOME WEATHER!

No, seriously, when you have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old, and they only have about a handful of pages to go in their workbooks, you NEED to go outside and play! Especially when the weather is awesome. Granted, we did have a couple of rainy days, but it never lasted long, and we went to the library instead of staying home and staring out the windows :) It was a GREAT week of sun and play-fun.

Child: "Look what I can do, Mommy!"
Mommy: "Hold on, honey, Mommy's gonna go down this slide real quick!"

Weekly Wrap-Up

We did stuff with things this week. :) The weather was so lovely the entire week that we spent most of it outside.

Monday:


Tuesday:


Wednesday:





Thursday:




Friday: