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Monday was a really good day, at least homeschool-wise.
Well, beside the part about my van needing to be towed to the dealership twice in one day.  Yes, we towed it there twice.  Second time is the charm, I hope :) 

So, Monday was a really good day, we got so much done.  The secret?  I planned ahead.

Yes, 11 years of homeschooling- and I don't plan ahead much.  {secret confession}

Sunday I sat down, and not only did a smidgen of preparing, like I am apt to do...but I sat down and typed up schedules for DD16 and DD14 for the week.  I haven't been doing this, since Sonlight gives me these nice schedules all done (love it!)  

But, DD14 just finished Core 6 and we decided we don't have the funds for Core 7- so I will be putting together a History reading list for her, based on Story of the World vol.3 (which I adore). 

DD16 does very well working with her Sonlight Core 100 schedule and using her syllabus for the classes she takes through the Biola Star program (Physical Science, Lit & Comp) but..she tends to get a bit free and loose with her other subjects.  I realized I need to type up what she needs to do for the week, so I can see when she doesn't do them...ahem.

I also planned out which subjects I wanted to tackle with the 3 younger students- and we started our first day with Writing with Ease .  The day went by very smoothly and clockwork. 

LOVE IT!  Sky is not surprised, it is a logical way to do things, but of course I am not logical.

I hope all of my bloggy-friends are having a great week, too! 
And that you don't have to tow your van ;)

Labels: homeschool, homeschool planning, sonlight

We are wrapping up our study of knights and the Medieval age with Sonlight's Core 2 World History.  I love Sonlight, and it is really working with my 8th and 10th graders...but lately, with my 3rd and 5th graders- we are just not feeling the love with the Usborne Book of World History and the Usborne Time Traveler.  They are interesting books, don't get me wrong...but they are difficult for reading out-loud, the kids lose interest.  They are nice for the individual kids to sit with and read, but they are just not working for our group learning.

• What happened next cards

• the life of a knight tab book

• Where did knights live?

• design a shield

• Kn in Knight phonics add-on

• Protecting the castle

• Code of Chivalry

• Bible verse cards

• Vocabulary cards

Labels: homeschool, sonlight

Our homeschool day today, Friday looked like this...

8:00 Teddy arrives, I am getting ready for the day, getting the littles breakfast, Meg takes the dog for a walk.

8:30 leave to take Meg to horse riding lesson, the littles have instructions to finish the 30 min. video they are watching and then to do something else, they play with playmobil

I return and school begins with the 4 youngest.

Character Study with the 3 littles, then they move on to Math-today they are doing Math skills work for their grades using Flashkids workbooks, I am giving them a Math-U-See holiday today. Then we do cursive handwriting, Language Arts workbook -using adjectives to make sentences more interesting, and phonics (explode the code).

Josie does Math-U-See on her own, today she has a test. Then she does a page in her Language Arts workbook- using prepositional phrases to make writing more interesting, and then she works with Literature using Mosdos Press. I work with her a bit on the assignment, explain terms a bit.

I leave to pick up Meg at her riding lesson, the littles do a bit of quiet reading and then go back to playmobil...Josie tackles her History reading assignments from her Sonlight core 6 program.

I get back with Meg, she tackles her Math-U-See work, her grammar work and then her independent History reading. I set the 3 littles down again with drawings they did yesterday from our history reading, and have them write a paragraph beneath the drawing describing what the picture is about-from the read aloud History book.

I make lunch, set up the table in the family room so the 4 youngest can eat lunch and watch an Eyewitnnes DVD on Butterflies and Moths that I got at the library. This will be the introduction for Science work we will be doing on Monday.

We are done for the day at lunch. The 2 older girls will still have some history reading and comprehension questions/vocabulary later in the day, Josie still has to do some spelling, but the 3 littles are done.

After lunch, I have promised to take the kids to Barnes & Nobles for hot chocolate and reading fun.

this is a snapshot of our day today, a bit of a light day, but not totally unusual.

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: homeschool, snapshot, sonlight

We read about the vikings in A Child's History of the World. We then took paint to paper and followed the Vikings adventures, starting with the Viking homelands.

This is Amie's Viking settlements map.

We read more about Viking villages and Viking ship building methods in
the Usborne Book of World History. I had the kids draw a picture from the reading, and then write a narration about what they learned.

Window on the World is another Sonlight 2 book. I love this book. It's colorful, full of interesting facts, and outlines the role of Christianity in each country and gives the students points to pray for. This book is big on cultivating a heart for missions.

It helps my boys to have something to do during the read alouds. Here is a flag coloring page I found online.

My Sonlight history notes suggested we go outside and measure out a viking ship.

80 feet by 16 feet. I had no idea. Fascinating.

This is a glimpse into our history/geography studies last week. Thanks for visiting:)

Labels: school year 09, sonlight

A peek at our Homeschool Week that was...
-part 3 of a post that began here* with Monday & Tuesday

Friday began with Sky dropping Meg off at the Stables on his way to work. I then picked her up a little after 10 a.m. We had a late start in our homeschool day, we started with a Bible/Character story with the 3 littles around 9:30. Josie worked on her own Bible reading assignment from Sonlight 6, and also her own devotional reading from her youth group.

Our homeschool centers a lot around reading out-loud...which is a bit of a challenge for 2 wiggly 10 year old boys, and bordering on problematic for our bonus student, Teddy- who has an auditory processing disorder. (Frankly, I just don't know how to get around this until his reading is up to grade level..for now, I am better at moving through the material using Sonlight..so we are doing what we can to adapt when we can, such as finding coloring sheets to anchor the reading material)

All of that to explain that I quit using the Sonlight Bible reading schedule with the 3 littles, it was just too much. Instead, I use the Awesome book of Bible facts they schedule, and I switch back and forth between the Miller books and The Child's book of Character building.

I then had to leave to pick up Meg at the stables, so I turned the kids loose. They immersed themselves in a new Playmobil set Demi got as a gift.


I returned home with Meg, and we began table-time. The kids all helped themselves to a snack and juicebox, bringing them to the table while they worked. Today we worked on Math, handwriting and a language arts worksheet. Josie worked on Math, her math notebook (copying times tables and area formulas) grammar (with some intro work with me) and then she got out her notebook with her Sonlight assignments which are history and literature. I spent a few minutes directing her with some map worksheets. Meg worked on the same subjects as Josie, but with different materials/books. (minus the math notebook).

We had a quick lunch.

We then put our books away and headed out to the skate-board park, which I count as p.e. We spent a little over two hours there.

When we came home, I set the 3 littles up with their phonics work ( 2 online and Amie with her workbook, she did 2 pages) Josie read more history work, Meg worked on a creative writing story she is doing on the computer. Then, we were done for the day.

I commenced cleaning and going to the store/baking a birthday cake. The kids played inside/outside/ at the neighbors.

We had a small party that evening with friends and family for Josie's birthday. She is 13 now...I officially have 2 teenagers in the house.

This friends, has been an accounting of our week.
I couldn't squeeze everything into my posts, I did not put in music practice, music lessons, fencing/tennis lessons, orchestra rehearsals...but I'm sure you get the picture!

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: homeschool, school year 09, sonlight

A peek at our Homeschool week that was
-2nd part of a post that began *Here with Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday began with Josie, Amie and Demi-Sky writing persuasive essays that they had begun on Tuesday with a pre-writing exercise. Amie was assigned a persuasive letter, instead of an essay. This project took about 45 minutes for Amie, and about an hour for Josie and Demi.

We homeschool 4 of our students through a home-based charter school in California, so today was our scheduled meeting with the credentialed teacher who looks over our work. There are different types of charter schools in California, and even among home-based programs, the set-up can look a bit different. We chose a charter that gives the parent full choice in scope and sequence and in books/materials used. (the exception is that they cannot pay for curriculum from Christian publishers, but I am free to buy it myself and use it.)

Today was our meeting day, so we sat down with our piles of books and notebooks and had a show-n-tell, basically- of what we had done the past month. Wednesday is the day of the week we do not have Teddy here, his mom is able to work from home on that day and keeps him, he also meets with his special ed. tutor at his house on Wednesday.

Our meeting went a bit long, so I made the kids sandwiches and we jumped in the car, heading over to Art class for Josie, Demi and Amie. (the younger 3 ate lunch in the car)

• The above photo is of an oil painting Amie did, love all that red! (I'm going to have to frame this one!)

Meg and I headed over to a local bagel shop for lunch, and to discuss her History and Lit reading for her Sonlight Core 6. The heart of Sonlight is the use of Socratic oral discusssion. So, discuss- is what we did. During this discussion I can tell how much comprehension she had, and emphasize any major points I think she missed...or even just give her something more to think about. (shh...if I didn't get a chance to read the books that week, Sonlight gives me notes...!)

we came home, the kids all did a math page (because everyday is math day!...) and so ended the parent-driven school part of our day.

Thursday began with our table-time work...on this day we tackled Math (all together...everday is Math day...!) handwriting and Language Arts writing workbooks. Then I gave the kids a break while I dropped Meg at her High School General Science class. She stayed for Science, lunch, study hall and Photography class. Back at the house, Josie continued her History reading on her own, and then moved on to her Health/Science book. I had the 3 littles read aloud from their health/science readers. Next, I moved the 3 littles through Explode the Code online (For Demi and Teddy) and Explode the Code 3 workbook (for Amie).

• Our school instruction for the day, with Mom at least, then ended.

The kids played outside with friends for a while, I went back to pick up Meg from her classes, Meg finished a math page,and then we packed up and headed out to a hockey game. This was Amie's very first hockey game, Demi and 2 boy cousins are on her team, and Sky is the coach. I had a blast watching, I think the parents laughed more than cheered...we had many new players on the rink this day!

Thus ends our day, thanks for visiting!

Labels: homeschool, homeschool California, school year 09, sonlight