We haven’t done any sports this year.  It’s been nice having our weekends free to spend together as a family.  The winter has been much colder than in previous years so we signed the kids up for a homeschool gymnastics class.  They got a great workout and had loads of fun.  They will do this until summer when we may take a break and chose a new activity for fall.  Will try to get some photos soon!

I finally made some decisions regarding next year for the children regarding grammar and writing and feel at peace with the choices I made.  I like to always be looking ahead to the next year as we work through the current  year so I know where we need to be when we get there.  I have struggled this year to feel at peace about some of our choices and it’s nice to now know the next year as a plan, as well as a back up

The children tried Rod & Staff Grammar this year but Bugaboo absolutely hated it!  It was so hard to have him so upset about 10 minutes of his day.  After much thought we dropped it.  We completed two units and I know that information is more than a lot of kids get in a year.  At this point we borrowed the Michael Clay Thompson Grammar Island to read together.  It has been fun but I can see Cutiepatootie doesn’t get the funny stories, so she probably isn’t getting the entire gist of the lessons.  She liked Rod & Staff grammar though.  Do I put her back in it but allow Bugaboo to do a less thorough program?  I really would like to offer the same education to my children.  That has been my dilemma.

I really like the idea of Charlotte Mason education but our History, Math and literature choices are going so well.  I don’t feel the urge to dump our entire routine to pick up theirs.  I am however intrigued by some of the ideas.  We have followed a Classical model of education so far and been pleased with it.  I am not strong in language arts so this model served well in making sure they had a solid foundation.  However, I like the idea of more gentle grammar since my son despises it so much.  The question is could I teach a more relaxed grammar and he still learn from it?  I certainly did not learn much in grammar, lol!  Cathy Duffy mentions repeatedly in her, “100 Top Picks for Homeschool”, book that if you are using a strong grammar program you don’t need to do it every year.  Hmmm, this idea intrigued me!  So if we do a solid program like Rod & Staff one year then we could review the next year while focusing on writing?  That idea I could feel at peace with.  So the children will be doing Daily Grams next year for our grammar review.  They have had solid grammar for years.  I think a light review for a year is deserved and they won’t forget what they know.  Writing was harder.  In this case my younger loves to write and would do anything I threw at her in that area.  My older is not into writing and I really do not want my children at the same level for math or language arts.  There is too much competition to bring academics to that venue.  It would not be fair to either one.    The problem is I did not feel drawn to any writing programs at the elementary level.  Many were challenging.  Many were detailed.  Many looked boring, boring, boring!  I have to teach it.  They have to do the lessons.  I knew that we would be miserable.  Then I realized they could be in different programs.  Age wise Cutiepatootie just isn’t ready for a challenging writing program.  Mentally Bugaboo doesn’t want to do a writing program.  This week I came across Writing Tales and knew it was perfect for Bugaboo.  It’s classical in nature but allows freedom of thought at the end.  For Cutiepatootie I found the Royal Fireworks Press Aesop’s Fables.  It’s a lot of coloring and writing!  Perfect for my drawing child.  I have no idea where I will put her later on but this year it’s the right fit and it will get writing focused on.

So we will continue with grammar this year using Sentence Island and Practice Island from the MCT items.  Next year grammar will be a daily short review and we will focus on writing.  I finally feel at peace with the choices we made.

As far as my Charlotte Mason interest goes we will be doing the Artist and Hymn studies.  I believe Module 6 for each.  Science will be through Sonlight.  I could say we will add in Nature Study like we did last year but I do not know.  Depends on the weather and how much else we get done in a day.  We are still very Classical.  At this point it would be hard to change everything to go that way.  It does not feel right to do so.  Perhaps if we had started out in that area.  Who knows.  Right now I feel good about our educational choices.  I feel like everything is being covered.  I look forward to next year.  Means we have to finish this year first

Wow, we are into February and this week flew by.  We did our schooling but most days we had to break it up into little bits and two days we did not really finish until late afternoon.  We were doing things off and on all day and honestly, it made the day long and no one got a lot of free time.  It’s almost 10am now and we haven’t started school yet due to everyone sleeping in after a late dinner last night.  It means our whole day is thrown off.  We will get the basics done today(grammar, math, history).  I know History to some isn’t basic, but my kids love History and you can’t tell an 8 year old boy that the Samarai Warriors aren’t important to our schedule.

Both kids worked through Miquon this week.  They were in multiplication but on different levels.  Cutiepatootie liked the new material while Bugaboo was having to apply it in a new way.  Next week we go back to Horizons math but I think we are going to try and do one or two Miquon pages a day as well as Horizons.  We jumped all over in History.  The ancients people of the America’s to Samarai’s and the library is holding about 20 books for us to pick up this morning.   Spelling is going great, Bugaboo finished the ETC series this week, woohoo!  All in all I was pleased with their work this week, especially considering nothing was normal in our schedule.

So I am glad this week is over.  I am planning next week out and hope we have a somewhat normal week!

OH!  We are adding in gymnastics to our routine.  The new gym is adding a homeschool class.  We tried it out and the kids had a blast.  It’s hard work so we know they will grow stronger while having fun.  More on that later.

Have a great weekend!

Ok, it snowed here in Tidewater Virginia.  A lot.  I believe 8 inches in our yard.

We spent all weekend outside playing in the snow.  Building a snow ‘bear’.  Sledding down the lone hill at the park.  Letting the kids try out their snowboards on the same hill.  Watching them go all the way down without falling!  Not bad for the first try.

The public school kids are out.  So we did all our schooling this morning and sure enough after lunch the kids headed out to play in the snow.  Somehow the entire street filled with kids and they had a wonderful snowball fight.  Sure enough someone got mad and now it’s my two and another child building an igloo, lol.  Fun, Fun times!

We have really enjoyed the snow.  We will miss it.

Wow, I can’t believe January is almost over!  We had another great week learning at home. I am not going to outline our weekly activities this week.  We finished all our assignments.  We had a field trip to the aquarium.  We alternate math curriculum and made that switch this week for a 2 week stint.  Both kids are reading daily on their own for hours!  We are in a great place right now and feel good about the progress they are making.

It is supposed to snow tomorrow all day, so our weekend plans include lots of outside snow time

So Daddy recently had to go to Charlottesville and went to the Whole Foods store there to pick up a few allergy free items for us.  (How come a town of 41K gets Whole Foods but Hampton Roads does not?)  He brought home a ‘365′ brand in several options: Pancake Mix, Muffin Mix, Pizza Crust.  Upon further review I realized it is the store brand.  Hmmmm.

We baked the muffins Sunday morning and added Enjoy Life Foods chocolate chips to them.  They were yummy.  Fluffy muffins!  Gluten free/nut free muffins!  We were in heaven.

Sunday night we made the pizza.  It was good but different.  It was FLUFFY.  Now, gluten free products don’t do fluffy most of the time so this was odd to us.  It was a fine pizza.  We had sauce, cheese and pepperoni on it.  Everyone liked it.  But we also had the idea that with all the fluffiness perhaps it could be made into a *gasp* biscuit????  But we have no more of that box to try.  So as soon as we can we will try to make biscuits out of the Pizza Crust.

We have more of their products to try but so far we are 2 for 2 and happy with the taste/texture.  We have not had pizza in a long time.  We had not had muffins in a long time.  I like finding new box mixes that my son and I can both enjoy.

Wow, it’s Friday!  It’s been a long week, but also a short week in an odd way.  We had a full wekk of school and got a lot done.

History

We finished, “The Door in the Wall”.  We studied cathedrals and watched David Macauley’s, “Cathedral” video.  We also read about the Magna Carta, Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.

Math

All our lessons got done and next week we will be taking a Horizons break and doing some Miquon to add a little change in our routine.

Everything Else

We did all our subjects this week.  Spelling, Grammar, Advanced Phonics, Copywork, Art.  Oh wait, Science.  *sigh*  We will do science next week.  We will be doing experiments with a litmus solution.  We are also going to the Virginia Aquarium for one day.  It truly was a good week with a lot accomplished.  I am just tired to write it all out today.  Next week I promise!

Most of our family doesn’t ask a lot of questions about our homeschooling and I thought I would share a little about our schedule, future plans and why we do what we do.  First, we have read about many educational philosophies so we didn’t just go choose anything old curriculum off the shelf.  Everything had planning and consideration involved in it’s choice.  Since we have the option to change as needed(and we do!) nothing is ever set in stone and this year is one year of changes.  For the most part we follow a Classical method using Well Trained Mind suggestions.  However, in some areas we are trying more Charlotte Mason style methods of teaching.  Here is our current curriculum lineup:

Math: Horizons.  It’s spiral with lots of review, color, and jumping around to keep their interest.  It’s easy to teach for now.  It goes to 6th grade and then we will change to something.  That won’t be decided until we get to 5th grade and see where they are.  Math was hard in the beginning because of the ‘wall’ Bugaboo hit with math facts.  I have since learned it’s normal to know all of something one day and nothing the next.  So Cutiepatootie has hit the same wall and passed it and this time we didn’t change math programs.  Knowing what I know now we would have done things completely different but at this point we are staying the course in Math until we hit middle school grades and will then choose the next path.  Both kids are working a grade level ahead in math.  I expect this to slow down as we hit harder math.  And since we are ahead based on age/grade it gives them time to learn it well.

Reading/Grammar/Spelling/Writing:  This is our new area of change.  We did First Language Lessons but then we did a basic workbook last year in an attempt to put the kids together this year.  I realized last year late that would not work.  So they went into Rod & Staff Grammar this year.  Bugaboo hated it.  So much hatred it was an issue.  This is the time a parent has to choose whether to fight the battle or make change.  I didn’t want him to think if he complained enough anything could change.  I even considered moving him down a level to be with Cutiepatootie since she never complained.  In the end I decided Grammar will be in our studies until their leave and so I could find a different program.  We are borrowing Michael Clay Thompson’s Grammar Island right now and both kids enjoy it.  It’s expensive and we won’t be using it in the future but it’s filling the hole for this year.  Both kids read well above grade level and are completing the Explode the Code series.  Bugaboo will be done this week and Cutiepatootie has one book left.  They also do copywork daily.  This included Bible verses, poems and basic knowledge.  We haven’t done writing courses yet but next year will add in Writing With Ease.  Which means Grammar next year will be Daily Grams.  It’s something to do while we focus a little on writing.  The plan is to try Analytical Grammar in a year or two with both kids.  So we aren’t dumping the subject, but rather we are going to try a more Charlotte Mason approach in that area.  They know more Grammar than I did at that age.  We also added in spelling this month.  All About Spelling is a hit and they beg for it when it’s not on the schedule! Overall our language arts have been solid and while we are making changes they are still getting a lot of information in this area.

History:  We use Sonlight for History.  It is a literature based program.  It does not follow the 4 year rotation but the schedule is nice, the questions are great, and my kids really like History!  We are finishing up a two year World History study.  Then we will begin a two year American study.  After that who knows.  There are a lot of quality history programs available.  At that point we will move into a 4 year rotation.

Science: For two years we used a wonderful Classical based schedule program for science and loved it.  This year I had hoped to get through Chemistry and Physics on a light scale doing my own thing.  Doing my own thing has run into snags.  Our library is lacking.  I also discovered the planning of my own thing to take longer than I had wanted.  We have started Chemistry recently and enjoy it, but we aren’t doing science on the level we had been.  We are going through a chemistry set now for experiments and reading lots about Chemistry.  It’s more than other elementary kids do, but it’s not what we wanted for this year.  So after some physics experiments this summer we will try Sonlight Science for the next 2 years along with our History.  Sonlight Science has a schedule with a video for experiments to watch and then do.  We also love to watch Blue Planet videos.   When we hit middle school science, there are lots of quality choices for this area.  Apologia was always my long term plan but they did not care for the elementary Astronomy book last year so that plan may change later on when we find another good program.

Art & Music:  We have done some art this year.  The kids were enrolled in an ‘art co-op’ this fall.  It was a bust.  They changed teachers the day before classes started and they did not real art but ended up coloring/painting which we already do.  It was a waste of money and time and we won’t do it again.  Bugaboo made a new friend though.   For now we are doing some drawing related to our history studies and doing Artistic Pursuits here and there.  They enjoy those lessons and time wise we just need to do it more often.  Piano has not happened this year.  It’s one thing to make your child do math or read daily.  It’s another to make them practice the piano.  Bugaboo has no piano interest.  He likes the guitar.  However many have said to wait on guitar lessons until age 10.  Cutiepatootie can plan the piano but doesn’t want to put her fingers where the book says to.  It may not matter now but when you get to a quality piece of music it will matter.  So when she’s ready to listen and do what the book says I will teach her again.  She has some talent!  For next year we will be adding in an artist and composer study each month to introduce the masters to the children.  If I find some quality art classes for both kids they will do those as well.

PE:  I put this here since we have a homeschool group that does PE.  This year no one is leading the group in exercises.  It’s a volunteer group and this year has been disappointing.  They love to play at the park.  They run and have huge pretend battles.  It’s great to see.  I wish we still had the exercise circuit though for push ups/sit ups/running.  The kids work out with us some Saturdays so they are getting enough exercise.  Both kids love to ride bikes, rollerblade, scooter and now unicycle.  We are outside a lot, even in the cold weather.  We plan to enroll them in gymnastics in February though since no one wanted to do soccer or basketball this year.

Foreign Language: Yes, we did Latin last year.  They really liked it.  It hasn’t made it on the schedule this year.  Our time schooling has increased this year and they are ready for a break after lunch.  After looking at the work this year I have decided to take the break and pick it back up in the fall.  The did a beginner program before and the next level has a lot of repetition in the beginning.  So a year off will not be a problem.  They will pick it back up quickly.  Long term for this area is still in the works.  We are doing Latin/Greek roots and will definitely do Spanish as a family.  I would like them to try French since I know it is similar to Spanish and would be easy to pick up.  It is our long term plan to have Latin on the schedule.

Other:  I know family worries about socialization.  We are in a smaller church now with no kid activities.  This year has no sports.  Co-op is over.  Yet, the calendar is so full of playdates it’s a wonder we ever get school done!!!  We may have less formal activities but this winter has been full of playdates each week.  We also do field trips.  And we are in church weekly.  They play with neighborhood kids any day the weather is warm enough to be outside.  So yes, they play with others.  They play nicely.  And honestly, it would be nice to be home all day for once!

As far as grades go they don’t fit in one neat classification.  Bugaboo is 2nd grade age but working in 3rd grade for all his subjects this year.  Cutiepatootie is 1st grade age but working in 2nd and 3rd grade for her subjects.  I suspect over time they will settle into their age appropriate grade level work.  History/Science will always be together.  Language arts and Math are on their own level.  We school 4 days most weeks in the fall/spring due to playdates and field trips.  We do a lighter schedule on the 5th day.  That 5th day varies from week to week.  Next week is a field trip to the aquarium on Thursday.  We work from 9-12 most days with reading, science and art in the afternoons.  Science and art are not daily though.  More weekly.

Hope this gives you more insight into what we do now, what we will be doing in the fall, and some longer plans for their education.  The choice to follow a Classical education was made after reading about it and other styles.  Our academics are not light.  But we have plenty of play time and outdoor time.  They are also learning to cook and do some chores on their own.  It is our hope they will come to love learning and be able to reason and think as an adult coming to their own conclusions in life instead of just accepting whatever is taught to them.  We do teach from a Christian Worldview.  Bible history is part of our history curriculum.  Their faith is just amazing!  They enjoy being home and I enjoy showing them all the wonderful things they can learn.  But the unicycle lessons are all Daddy.

It happens every so often that our schedule gets shifted around due to cancellations or weather and we have a week where we find ourselves driving all over Hampton Roads to get to things.  This is that week.

Monday: Drive an hour to Sandbridge to visit friends.  Drive  back home.

Wednesday: Drive to PE class ~ 30 min.  Drive back home.

Thursday: Drive to Norfolk ~ 45 min to visit with friends.  Drive back home.

Friday: Drive to Chesapeake ~10 min.  Drive back home.

It’s just one of those weeks.  A fun filled busy week, but it is a lot of driving.  Next week is shaping up to be about the same, lol.

We are very blessed to have friends and we don’t mind driving to see them!  And yes, we do school every day BEFORE our activities.  That report will come at the end of the week.