Loves School

Great Sites for Moms

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:49:00 +0000

Do you know about two great sites that encourage praying God's word over our children and nurturing Godly character in our children?

MOB Society (Mothers of Boys)

MOB Society also has a prayer party every Tuesday night at 7pm central on Twitter. Join in and share what God has on your heart.

and

MOD Squad (Mothers of Daughters)

Check them out!

Are You Ready to Hop?

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:43:00 +0000

Don't miss all of the Back to School or shall I say Not Back to School Excitement next week. There are two great sharing and learning opportunities for you listed below. I love reading and learning about what others are doing in their homeschool.

Be sure to join the fun!

My Self Evaluation

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:56:00 +0000

The Homeschool Village has a great link up this week. The topic is Self Evaluation.

The question:

1. If you were to "grade" yourself on homeschooling this past year ... what "grade" would you have earned? What if your children were grading you?

Well, this wasn't too hard for me to answer because I'm always grading myself which could be good and bad at the same time. I would give myself a B-. I have had an extremely hard year (2009). Many of you know, if you have read my blog, and understand the circumstances which were beyond my control but I give myself a B- concerning the situations which were yet still within my control. Going through a divorce and returning to work, I managed to continue homeschooling five children and graduate one of the five. Although, we weren't always on schedule, on task, or on time, we pressed through the stress! My children continued their sports and music lessons and every activity imaginable in order for Mom to keep a sense of normalcy within our home. However, if I were to jot a little note on my progress card, it would read "needs to be more consistent". I have a tendency of stopping and starting things or losing my motivation and gusto after a while especially when my wheels are running like crazy. As a result, I have been more relaxed this year which could be good.....and bad. Being relaxed can remove the pressures of homeschooling yet it could also enable one to become too relaxed or inconsistent in certain areas. I see several areas that need consistency.

How would my children grade me? I ask my children this question a lot! We have started to periodically have family meetings to discuss how our homeschooling efforts are going. These meetings have led to curriculum changes this past year after listening to the feedback of my children and now they couldn't be happier. These meetings have been eye openers for me as well because my children are free to voice their opinion and thoughts without fear of punishment or repercussions. I've been told that I'm on Facebook entirely too much, I need to arrange more field trips, etc. etc. Ouch! The truth hurts but it also helps. After asking, my children stated they would give me a B+.

Please feel free to link up or read more self evaluations at Homeschool Village.

Wordless Wednesday: House Call

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:34:00 +0000

What Am I Doing?

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:01:00 +0000

I'm just thinking over here. ...thinking about our new year. ..thinking about schedules.... thinking about what to do with this blog LOL!....just thinking, thinking, thinking...hmmm. I'm excited and nervous about our year with homeschooling, work, college and all of the activities and to do lists in store. Oh, my oldest was blessed with a job! Thanks for all the prayers. He's working part-time while he attends college full-time this year. He was a part-time student last year and just wanted to get his feet wet with the college experience. Now he's pushing forward. I'm proud of him. We are still homeschooling year round so we have been continually working on the 3r's. Our new year will be in full operation in a few weeks with all subjects in tow. We have a few more summer activities to complete before we start but I'm gonna get back with you soon. Thoughts are stirring! I miss you, guys!

Hey, you can follow me on Twitter to read about what I'm doing daily. Craziness! LOL! Linky on the left. Also, if you have anything on your mind that you would like to ask me, ask away! My email is in my profile and I've been feeling a little nutty. There's no telling what kind of response you just may get but feel free to ask. Ha!

Our Menu

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:34:00 +0000

Monday~chicken salad sandwiches and baked chips

Tuesday~ Tator Tot Veggie Casserole

Wednesday~ Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

Thursday~ Homemade Pizza

Friday~ Sloppy Joe sandwiches and fries

Saturday~ Spaghetti and salad

Sunday~ BBQ chicken, corn, greens and candied yams

Am I Crazy?

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:54:00 +0000

I quote one of my favorite movies, Master of Disguise, "It's crazy but so crazy that it just might wooooork!"

I'm now officially a college student again. Yes, I'm re-entering college to work towards another nursing degree which is something that I had always wanted to accomplish. However, due to life's happenings I just couldn't make that happen. I'm so glad and thankful that I now have that opportunity.

Yes, I will still homeschool. Thank God for leading us back to ACE which is working perfectly for our schedule and the children are learning so much. I'm returning to my Alma Mater to upgrade my degree. Their nursing program is designed for those who are working full time and all courses are online. I only report to a physical class once every few weeks in addition to clinical work. I work every weekend so there's really no excuse for me not to take this opportunity. It will open doors for us in the long run. As a single mom but simply as a mom, I want to provide the very best for my children. We have certainly had our share of struggles.

My children are excited. They thinks it's cool that mom will be in college again especially while my oldest is also a full time student. Am I crazy for doing this? "Yes, but so crazy that it just might wooooork!" LOL!

Learning with Leap Frog: age 3 1/2

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:34:00 +0000

My toddler started the year only knowing three of her letters: A, B, and C. We do not formally have school, just reading and fun play but I'm so proud of how far she has come.

ACE Celebrities

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:09:00 +0000

It's no secret that my children love ACE but you would think they would love it even more or at least be excited to know that the well known Duggar family used ACE, Accelerated Christian Education (and SOS, Switched On School House) but nooooooo. Their response: "eh?"

But when they learned that the popular teen singing group and pk's (preacher kids), the Jonas Brothers used ACE. Well, that's another story altogether, Mom. Their response: " Really? Cool!!!" Kids! Go figure! LOL!

I can't honestly say that our day looks as laid back as the Jonas Brothers but they really got a kick out of watching this video with a peek of those paces from ACE in there. :-)

ACE and Learning Styles

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:04:00 +0000

Someone shared this article on the ACE Yahoo Group and I was so encouraged by it.
Just wanted to share it here.

Should homeschooling moms panic over discovering that their children have different learning styles?

by Renee Ellison

Thousands of homeschooling mothers who have attended workshops on “discovering your child’s learning style” or who have read some popular new educational books about this, have left that conference or shut that book wide-eyed and panicked about the implications of this concept and all the work and time and expense it will entail. They begin an absorbing search for the perfect tailor-made curriculum for each subject, DIFFERENT for each child. Years later, however, we find many of these same moms in tears, and the children no better educated than before. After arduous hunting, moms wearily soon find out that there is a dearth of availability of such “differing learning style” materials…once they’ve run through the phonics options for teaching kindergartners. Many of the expensive materials they DID find and buy are now sitting unopened in the corner of the living room. Sadly, they discover that these materials are just too overwhelming, demanding too much of mom to even implement. The size and scope of the teacher preparation required for such an optimal approach has simply burned mom out on teaching at all.

Several decades ago, when I was still a public school teacher, research began to emerge over this topic of discovering that children have different learning styles. This information made many teachers happy because all of a sudden it explained why Johnny couldn’t read while Susie COULD, given the same lesson. In large classrooms where children get very little of a total percentage of a teacher’s attention, this was helpful information. In many schools it resulted in instituting pull-out programs to teach struggling children, using more targeted materials and approaches for those problem cases. It is interesting to note that in every case, however, an overlooked success factor was the greatly reduced class sizes. Most all of these special programs had a teacher/pupil ratio of five to one or less.

For clarification purposes, “different learning styles” just means that some children are largely auditory learners (they can pick up most information accurately by just hearing it), some are visual (they must SEE the materials), and some are predominantly tactile (they learn best by touching). All children learn most optimally when all three styles are employed in each lesson, because whatever is experienced with the most sensory input will stick with the learner more powerfully than what is learned with just one sense. This is only an ideal, however; it is nearly impossible to achieve over the long haul.

The power of one-to-one tutoring, however, that was simply impractical and way too expensive to implement in public schools, IS now available in virtually every homeschooling home. It is my experience that one-on-one attention CAN yield nearly the same results, without the frenzy of finding and buying perfect different learning style materials for every subject for every child.

I HAVE recommended (and still DO recommend)—even in the face of this research—that a sequential step-by-step progressive line-upon-line individualized curriculum will yield the same results at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the frenzy to homeschooling parents. The reason? The power of tutoring. Side by side, the parent and child can learn about pyramids without also having to build them under the kitchen table and sing about them, all of which consumes a disproportionate amount of time, as in oceans of downright wasted time, for the single fact learned.

Parents think they are educating as creatively and powerfully as possible when they are thoroughly covering one topic, by doing a unit-study of the Renaissance, for example, by providing hands-on materials, expensive materials, supposedly perfect materials. They add to this, their own personal adult sweat equity to deliver the subject on a silver platter for their child at that one moment. But what they fail to see is the other 16,000 concepts over 12 years, six subjects a day, with four concepts per subject (pace), that fall through the cracks while they overemphasize and EXPERIENCE one topic.

Obsessing about perfectionism in one topic, in many cases because the parent himself happens to want to learn that topic along WITH the child, because she missed learning it at the far more appropriate time in her own childhood, leaves their present child under-trained, slanted in his or her skills and perceptions, and wastes a phenomenal amount of time. Sometimes this becomes even an escape for the information-hungry-mom from other more drudging domestic duties to keep the family fully functioning and the hubby happy. This untimely, inappropriate priority causes untold daily stress on the entire family…to say nothing of burning out the mama.

What beginning homeschooling parents, by the droves, don’t realize is that your child can learn far faster than you can teach. You simply can’t prepare all this information in bite-sized and comprehensive enough pieces to be as effective as a thorough individualized curriculum can.

Having said all this, not all curriculum are equal. Some sequential programs are nothing but dry bones. Fortunately, there is ONE that isn’t. It is the exact opposite of all the boring dead curriculum we were pushed and pulled through in our own educations. The difference? This one has God on every page! After all, education is ultimately HIS-story…history. A growing, caring relationship with God waltzes the learner through the beautifully illustrated, up-to-date material time and time again. I’ve seen children literally click their heels and cheer with excitement when they were finishing one level of ACE and receiving the next level. This individualized, engaging curriculum is five-star, state-of-the-art- excellent…the top of the pile!

In addition to yielding standardized test scores to be proud of, ACE gives a general education that is comprehensive enough, and spiritual training that is thorough enough, to eventually release your child as a refined adult into the big wide world. And, as if that weren’t enough, the children carry the load of their OWN education, going at their own pace and correcting their own work IMMEDIATELY, rather than continually waiting on the often preoccupied and unavailable and overtaxed parents to do it for them. (note: I still check my children's work with ACE. I like the independent style of ACE but I enjoy teaching and being involved too.)

We’ve found that ACE is simply the most effective way to conquer education for children the world over. ‘Tis now taught to over 1 million children in over 135 countries. We say, “Let ACE be your child’s tutor and you be their cheerleader!” It is my strong seasoned advice that you not waste your time reinventing the educational wheel, achieving much less desirable outcomes. Such experiments have been tried before with miserable results in countless families now over the past two decades.

Children can easily master all academics by tried and true sequential baby steps. It has been my experience in over 35 years in the field of education that daily sequential discipline will yield results that are superior to academics taught only by sporadic passion and novelty, regardless of how superior that moment or two managed to be. If you still want (and have the energy) to, go ahead and teach your passion subjects in ADDITION or on top of a SURE curriculum. ACE is your horse to ride to go the distance. It’ll still have your children habitually working and progressing on the days when you are totally out of it. And if you’re human, that’s a lot of days. Get ACE and stick with it; I think you’ll be very happy with the results.

You can read more of Renee's articles and check out her archives on Homeschool How Tos.

Ordering ACE?

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Sun, 30 May 2010 04:49:00 +0000

Places to order ACE.
Curriculum Express (I haven't personally used them.)
Pennywise Learning
Accelerated Christian Education (fast shipping)
Heartland Educational Ministries (discount paces. fast shipping)
School Supplies Online (I haven't personally used them but know someone who has without complaints.)
ACE motel meetings (always free shipping). Check the website for meetings in your area.

Our ACE Notebooks

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:30:00 +0000

We are loving our ACE (also known as School of Tomorrow) notebooks.

These binders have very roomy pockets. We can pack several paces and our goal cards in these babies. These are terrific for when we are on-the-go too! Thanks for the info about these, Dawne! I think we may add some zipper pouches for pencils and what-not like Dawne also.

ACE: Rediscovered

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:22:00 +0000

Do you remember my original plans post for the upcoming year? Well, scratch it. LOL! We've been using ACE (Accelerated Christian Education), also known as School of Tomorrow and CLE (Christian Light Education) for our Math and LA this year. We switched months ago. I've just been too busy to blog about it. Anyway, I thought I would never go back to ACE. Honestly, we have found that we like the gentle mastery flow of ACE much better compared to CLE. CLE is a work text curriculum written by Mennonite publishers. Some of the older (non-Sunrise editions) editions are actually Alpha Omega Life Pacs which are mastery in approach but CLE is revising all of their subjects to their spiral approached Sunrise editions. It's a wonderful curriculum but it's spiral approach is somewhat choppy for my bunch and moves a bit fast for us. On the other hand, they absolutely love ACE, a non-denominational, mastery approached, work text curriculum. ACE has also been making revisions to their curriculum also. Although, I'm really not surprised that my children love ACE since they originally wanted to return to ACE every since I switched our curriculum.

Why did I switch anyway? Believe me. I'm truly kicking myself on that one but five and a half years ago, I just simply didn't give ACE a fair and honest try. My oldest used it during private school so I tried it with the younger ones at home. The younger years of ACE move very slowly. I was a little put off by it back then but I later discovered that the scope and sequence lines up with most other Christian curriculum in the upper levels. Actually, their math scope and sequence is somewhat similar to Teaching Textbooks except ACE has more business math during the junior high years. Initially, I didn't really educate myself enough concerning ACE nor how to teach ACE. I now realize that the slow start in the younger years actually lays a solid foundation to build upon in later years. Lessons are taught according to the way a child thinks. In the beginning, lessons are concrete and gentle then become more abstract in later years.

Oh yes, I've read a few negative reviews about ACE just as I have with other curriculum and honestly, all I can say is "to each their own". Many reviews have been excellent but a few reviews have been attacks on the unashamedly Christian content of ACE, the traditional work text approach, the cute character teaching cartoons, a bad experience with an ACE school, or someone such as myself who did not fully educate himself/herself regarding how to properly teach ACE. Unfortunately, it sounds like a few of those ACE schools did the same as I did also. However, all schools are not the same. Do I have to defend ACE? Certainly not. ACE has been around for years and I think it speaks for itself. It is an awesome ministry which was designed to reach the world for Christ. You can read more about the history of ACE here. I highly recommend ordering the Quick Start kit if considering ACE. It contains the scope and sequence. You can also view that here. The kit also contains the necessary Parent Teaching Kit and Diagnostic Tests. You can also take diagnostic tests here.

What other qualities have I loved about ACE?
- gentle and mastery in approach
-self paced
-independent
-structured
-teaches children how to set goals
-teaches children responsibility in obtaining those goals
-character building
- fills in learning gaps through diagnostic tests
- not grade specific (great for children using paces to fill learning gaps)
-provides academic instruction from preschool to high school

ACE is great for all learning styles but I will mention that if you have an advanced learner, you could add library books to topics to beef up things a bit in the early years or try CLE (Christian Light Education) which is a bit advanced compared to ACE in the younger years. That's just my opinion. The later years in ACE get pretty tough on their own. We will add history related literature to some of our Social Studies anyway because it's the best way to slip some reading on my children. Ha! Our local library is pitiful so I'm ordering a few books and purchasing a few others from the local bookstores. I found some great finds for $1-3/each a few weeks ago.

Off topic: Isn't it strange how some of us seek advanced materials for the younger years only to discover that by the time a child reaches high school, everyone is on the same page anyway. LOL! After a few years of homeschooling under my belt, I can honestly say that I'd much rather prefer my child to actually understand and master the content rather than have the content be "advanced" especially in the younger years. Frankly, I have to remind myself of this often when that rare "comparing" mode creeps into my thoughts. We, homeschool moms, can certainly claim that we have never compared our children to others but that's a lie and you know it. LOL!

OK, back to ACE! Can you count how many times that I've listed ACE? I feel as if I'm typing ACE, ACE, ACE. LOL! I'm not intending to give a review of ACE but usually when I post about curriculum, questions soon follow so I hope this helps someone. Anyway, ACE work texts are called p.a.c.e.s (packets of accelerated christian education). Basically, a pace is like a chapter from a textbook divided into a work text. This work text breaks the info into small bite size pieces for a child. There are five core subjects: Math, Science, Social Studies, English, Word Building (spelling). Each subject consists of 12 paces or packets, which equivalents a year's study so a total of 60 core paces are completed in a year. There are quizzes throughout sections of each pace and a self test, then a final test. A child has to master the material before starting another pace. If not, the pace is repeated. There are two electives: Bible Reading and Literature/Creative Writing. There is also a computerized drill program available for reading, typing and math skills.

Now, just because this curriculum encourages independent learning doesn't mean that I can simply throw a pace in front of my children and let them go. I still have to teach but it's not intense at all. I prefer to watch over my children while they are learning so there's definitely no looking back in the text for answers here, Buddy! As a busy, single, working, homeschooling mom, I love the fact that we can take these on the road with us also. I just ordered these wonderful ACE notebooks and these files for storing our paces. Thanks for these wonderful suggestions by Dhasa and Dawne from the ACE Yahoo Group! My children are learning responsibility by writing the assignments (from Mom) to be completed each day on their personal goal cards. You can check out a sample ACE goal card here too.

I'll be posting more about our ACE adventures as we learn. You can view samples of ACE at Penny Wise Learning but there are several samples on Dawne's blog and she also lists content information for each pace. Definitely join the yahoo group if you would like more info. You can also read some great ACE articles on Jennifer's blog, Home Grown Mommy. For those interested, ACE also offers Standford Achievement Testing on-site via ACE schools in your area. These are usually given once a year. ACE also host hotel meetings in various locations which provides opportunities for homeschoolers to view the paces in person and place orders with free shipping. (check the site for meetings in your area)

So our new line up for 2010-2011 hasn't changed much except ACE will be used where we once listed CLE. We also decided to use Latina Christiana for foreign language since we already own it.

6th and 7th grade:
Bible- Apologia's Who Is God?
Literature- ACE
Math- ACE
English- ACE
Spelling- ACE
Writing- Apologia's Jump In
Science- ACE
Social Studies- ACE
Foreign Language- Latina Christiana
Typing- Typing Tutor
Music- Vox Music Masters CDs
Art- How To Teach Art To Children

Other Activities:
Karate, Flag Football, Cross Country, and Music Lessons (piano, guitar and drums)

Pre-K:
Kindergarten with ACE and Christi (by Accelerated Christian Education)
My daughter will be 4 when we start this. She has been begging to do formal school so we will give it a try albeit slowly.

Other activities:
Ballet, Tap and fun play

By the way, my "not so great speller", Sweet Potato (the younger twin), has vastly improved his spelling. You should just see his face when he takes his spelling tests. I'm so proud of him! Thanks to ACE!

Wordless Wednesday: Birthdays (11) and Recitals

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:15:00 +0000

Faith Like Skates

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:58:00 +0000

We went skating with our homeschool group today. It was 85 degrees and my children had been longing to get out of the house all day. They practically zoomed through lessons. Great motivation isn't it? All of the littles were allowed to bring scooters or tricycles to the rink since they didn't know how to skate just yet. My daughter had her little pink tricycle.

She hesitantly approached the edges of the rink, watching all of the older children skating by, then cautiously waited for me to pull her hand and walk along side her as she pedaled her bike. I simply stood there while watching her response. She finally looked up and asked "Mommy, are you gonna come with me?" I could see the anxiety in her eyes. "No." I responded. "But I will be right here. I can see you from here. You can do it. You're a big girl. I know you can." My daughter focused on the moving tall figures once more then back at me. After a few more seconds, she placed her little feet on the pedals and started to slowing pedal along the flow of skaters. Pedaling then looking back to see if I was still there and watching. Pedaling and looking back again. Pedaling and looking back once more until she realized that she had pedaled to the other side of the rink. Once more, my daughter paused to watch the skaters zoom by her.

I could just imagine how she felt...alone and perhaps filled with anxiety in the midst of all that was occurring at that very moment. Everyone zoomed by as if her little shape had been invisible. For a brief second, I felt that she would cry. I knew she would would be ok but perhaps cry. She didn't. She placed her little feet on the pedals and pushed off without even looking at me. I realized that she then knew I was just a call or yell away. I sat with tear filled eyes because God said this is you and this is faith. In the midst of your circumstance, when it seems as if the world is going on without you, or all chaos has broken loose, I'm here. I'm watching you. Stop looking at your situation. You are going to "grow" right through this. Just remember that I'm here. I'm just a yell or prayer away. I'm always with my children.

No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Joshua 1:5

Confessions of a Homeschool Mom

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:16:00 +0000

1. I don't always get up at the crack of dawn.

2. I sometimes teach in my PJs.

3. I don't always love homeschooling.

4. I don't always know the answers.

5. I don't always cook hot meals.

6. My children never stay on task or complete activities without constant supervision.

7. Some of my children absolutely hate to read and love "twaddle" books.

8. There have been occasions when we didn't complete books nor subjects. Drives me nuts but go figure.

9. Sometimes I hate to read and would rather watch a good movie.

10. My house is definitely not always clean. Laundry on the floor now.

11. Sometimes I "tune out" while my children read.

12. I can't stand it when other homeschoolers "dog out" someone's choice of curriculum or someone's choice of method that's not their own. Gets on my last nerve.

13. Sometimes I check school papers while on the throne. Gotta make the best of that rare time alone.

14. I hate lesson planning.

15. Sometimes I spend too much time of the puter researching curriculum.

16. I don't have many "homeschooling" friends. I can count them on one hand...no one finger.

17. I get cranky without caffeine.

18. It gets on my nerves when people brag about how great "Johnny" is excelling as a 4th grader reading on a 12th grade level when we know Johnny can't even speak in complete sentences. Just be real. Just be real.

19. I don't like it when people continually ask, "Where do your children go to school?" then frown at your response or give a long silent pause with a "deer in head lights" stare or ask the infamous question.."Where do ya get ya books?".

20. Sometimes I don't want to talk about homeschooling.

Wordless Wednesday: New Pet

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:50:00 +0000

Wordless Wednesday: Deep Toddler Thoughts

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:47:00 +0000

Virtual Science

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:35:00 +0000

My son yelled, "Mom! I'm doing surgery!" and I walked into the room to discover that he actually was...virtual hip surgery. My children stumbled across this virtual surgery website that has knee surgery, hip surgery and even brain surgery. Humble Genius is aspiring to become a surgeon and he loves this site. Caution: virtual blood is shown. We also have a Wii which allows us to access the web via our tv so while one child was performing knee surgery on the computer, another was performing hip surgery on the TV. LOL!

Another favorite site that has actual surgery videos is orlive.com. This site is definitely not for the squeamish but these kids love it. If you know about any other sciency sites, please let us know!

Sorry the pic is a little dark but you can't disturb the doctor while he's operating. :-)

Set Apart As Holy Unto God

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:16:00 +0000

Wordless Wednesday: Circus

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:17:00 +0000

You Know You're A Homeschool Mom When...

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:31:00 +0000

...you take curriculum catalogs into the bathroom with you for good reading. :-)

Our Plans 2010-2011

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:04:00 +0000

We had to go back to the drawing board for our next school year. If you had read any of my previous posts, you can understand that many changes have taken place over the past two years thus causing changes in our homeschool as well. It's amazing how one circumstance or situation can drastically affect another. I've switched from the role of a stay-at-home, homeschooling wife and mom to a working, single, homeschooling mom. I've experienced burn-out, exhaustion, depression, recession, elation, inflation, and any other word ending with -ion. I'm sure of it! In experiencing such, I've switched from an eclectic Charlotte Mason mama to a more relaxed and a just "get 'er done" mama.

Two weeks ago, after I had taken my oldest son to his college class, the younger ones and I finally had a family pow-wow. We sat down and I told my children to just let it out. Tell me what's going on in our homeschool...the likes and the dislikes and there will be no repercussions or punishments for speaking their thoughts and opinions. Here's a briefing of our meeting.

My youngest son, Humble Genius (he calls himself), told me that "Mom, school is boring. We just work and work. I want to do school and have time left for fun stuff like playing outside. I liked it better when we used A.C.E a long time ago. Can't we go back to A.C.E. Oh, and Mom, you're on Facebook too much."

Mom: "O-Kaaaaaay! I agree with ya with the Facebook and I don't think A.C.E. was right for us back then but I'll see what we can do."

My oldest twin, Slim Jim, told me, "Mom, sometimes when you come home from work, you're really tired. We don't finish a lot of work on those days. We need to do those important things like math and stuff on those days. We can leave off the extras, Mom."

My youngest twin, Sweet Potato, told me, "Mom, I just agree with everyone else. On the days, we do a lot of work, we don't really have fun. I want school to be fun but shorter. I liked A.C.E. too, Mom. We had fun back then. I want to use A.C.E. too!"

Mom: "I see....sooooo basically, you want shorter days and more fun."

All: "Yes, ma'am!"

Mom: "Ok. I will work on it."

I immediately unsubscribed to my relatives and friends Facebook status updates on Facebook which is a HUGE distraction. Hey, I'm just gonna have to keep up with the fam' using the old fashion way...a phone call or a letter. I don't check my Facebook as often also. It's made a huge difference. When I started blogging, I used my blog as a form of my "therapy" or outlet for stress, socialization, scrap-booking, and what-not and then Facebook took its place a few months ago. Now, I'm returning to blogging. My children loved it when I blogged (scrap-booked) our activities and showcased their work. I've seen a difference in my home again! I'm cleaning! Yay! LOL!

I also analyzed our routine and thought about the upcoming year then reeeeally reassessed our goals. What do I want my children to learn? What's really important? How can I provide them with the best education and the best of Mom in order to do so? I want my children to love the Lord, know who they are in Christ and become awesome tools for His ministry. I want them to become independent thinkers and self-motivational life long learners. I don't want burn out from either side. I want to love teaching my children and I want my children to learn learning. I need a curriculum which is less teacher intensive, promotes more independence from my children, has a christian worldview, and is thorough or complete in order to help me achieve this. Oh, it also needs to be within our budget! So, we are returning to our old and former method which will better meet our goals, our daily routines and life as it is now... workbooks and textbooks. Yep! Every family is unique and one thing that I've learned over the years is never compare my homeschool to others. You have to use what works according to the learning styles of your children, the teaching styles of the parent, and the overall goals of the homeschool. I'm not in favor of curriculum switcheroos but with life changes, sometimes you just gotta go with the flow and make the necessary adjustments in order to cope.

I love getting feedback from my children. They always offer great insights and different perspectives about what we're doing so it looks like we will be using mostly CLE or Christian Light Education in the upcoming school year. With a low budget, a pitiful local library, and our crazy routines, CLE will be a better fit for us. CLE has an excellent Language Arts and Math curriculum. I've read nothing but great reviews regarding their materials and love what I could see from the samples and the info on the CLE Yahoo Group. I also love the fact that CLE students score among the highest percentile on standardized tests. I'm not a fan of standardized tests but experience and time has shown me that one never knows what the future may hold. Placing my children in public school is not an option for me but if that were no longer an option but a need, then I would like to have comfort in knowing that my children will excel in that transition. I don't teach to test. I teach to equip my children with the tools that they will need to travel the path which God leads.

Here's our line up:

6TH & 7TH GRADE

Bible: Apologia's Who Is God (as a group)

Reading: Christian Light Education

Math: Christian Light Education

We recently decided to switch or break from Teaching Textbooks for CLE. They didn't like the explanations nor review in TT and didn't care for the set up overall after we really dived into it. We had previously researched CLE, loved the layout, the many positive reviews, the lovely low price, so we took the placement tests to give it a try. What will we use for highschool? We will either try the upper levels of Teaching Textbooks which I've heard are a little different than the lower levels or we will try Saxon with the DVDs. Who knows?!

Science: Christian Light Education

We may use Apologia's Science texts for High School as we move towards using more textbooks in prep for college work or college texts. My gang wasn't excited about Apologia's General Science nor learning science as a group....again. LOL! We were initially going to try Rod and Staff's Science but after I researched it a bit further, CLE Science will work better for us. CLE's Science kits are available via Homes Science Tools also. My children just simply love doing their "own" things.

History: Christian Light Education

They wanted to be more independent and do their own history this year also so CLE Social Studies was another pick for us. For High School, we are planning to use Notgrass History or My Father's World High School curriculum which uses Notgrass and counts as three credits towards Bible, History and Literature. I say this now but we still have a few years so who knows but I loooove the looks of Notgrass!

Language Arts: Christian Light Education (spelling and grammar)

Writing: Apologia's Jump In (as a group)

Foreign Language: Rosetta Stone's Japanese (their preference)

Art: How to Teach Art to Children (as a group)

Music: Vox Music Masters CDs (as a group)
We will continue to notebook the lives of composers.

Logic: Logic games and more games!

PRE-SCHOOL (4)

Time 4 Learning
She's such a busy body and loves the computer. She's using the pre-K level now.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Rod and Staff ABC Series

Library books and lots of play time

Other activities:
Karate, Cross Country Running, Flag Football; Drums, Piano, Guitar lessons,
and Ballet/Tap lessons

I'm still a relaxed mama except now I'm beginning to see the big picture. I'm not super mama. ;-)

Wordless Wednesday: Easter 2010

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:09:00 +0000

Just Peeking In

allhim_praise@yahoo.com (Kysha) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:55:00 +0000

Looks like some changes will be in store for us in the new school year. An update will soon come.

Have a wonderfully blessed Easter! He rose .......with ALL power!