I decided to make a list of homeschool resolutions for 2014, print them out and keep them somewhere that I will see easily to remind me to keep them. Here they are-
1. Have more fun! Life isn't just for school and school doesn't have to be boring.
2. Keep to our schedule. Don't skip subjects and try and make them up later, those days are not fun. Read out loud every day.
3. Spend more time on art and music. Clarinet lessons twice a week and 15 minutes of practice each day for Babalu. Practice singing for 10 or 15 minutes a couple days a week. Paint more, color the driveway in a beautiful spring mural.
4. Find a way to make history exciting. Study more war leaders and battles. Get together with friends to reenact famous events.
5. Take a day once a month (preferably the last day, right before grocery shopping) and make it a "life skills day". Use the day to clean the house and make the kids help. These skills are just as important as what they learn in school. Take the afternoon and bake with them. Let them do all the measuring.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Bad blogger :(
I feel like a horrible blogger for leaving such an enormous gab between posts. So sorry Mom! I'm planning to start devoting an evening a week to blogging to keep this updated. This will also give me a break from World of Warcraft. I generally only play after the kids go to bed but I shouldn't play every night.
We are just about finished with our first semester! We have math to finish for Rookie (he will finish up today) and poor Babalu has to work all through his winter break on his multiplication and division facts. We have taken a break from his math books (Singapore 3A/3B) until he has these memorized through 12. We are working on 6 right now. 2-5 were super easy as will be 10 and 11. This break also serves as a time for Babalu to have a break from division with remainders which is what he was working on (rather unsuccessfully) when we started our break a couple of weeks ago. I'm a big believer in taking a break when something is frustrating you. It worked for the subtraction with re-grouping like a charm so I'm hoping it will this time. He should still finish his books by the middle of June and if not we will keep working through the summer.
We are taking a short break from our science curriculum to spend time studying two topics that are very interesting to the boys- dinosaurs and astronomy. When we return from our trip to Texas in February we will resume our normal study of science but for now we are enjoying the change of pace. We used the Magic School Bus Dino Kit. It was great but I did not like the model of the T-Rex (the pieces were not numbered and they didn't fit together very well) and we did not use it. We may finally put together the model of the dragon that we have or I may save it for a unit study over the summer (who wouldn't want to spend their summer learning about dragons?!). For astronomy we are using the Magic School Bus Solar System Kit. I'm super excited about it. We will start it in January.
For physical activity Babalu is doing swimming. He joined a local swim team and is working hard to improve. We may begin a routine of activity at home like jumping jacks, push-ups, crunches and the like. They enjoy that sort of this. They have also been asking to begin weight training. Rookie starts baseball when we return home from Texas. His league names the teams after real baseball teams. Last year he played T-Ball for the Mets and this year he will play Rookie level ball for the Angels. My mom is over the moon with excitement that her boy is playing for her favorite team.
I'm very excited to being doing more art with the boys. I'm going to steal an idea that a friend of mine came up with- a poster uniting the elements of design. That will be a nice way to finish up the spring semester.
I'm looking forward to a fresh start in January. I'm also looking forward to a couple of weeks off from school (aside from Babalu's math facts which shouldn't take more than an hour each day and probably not even that long).
We are just about finished with our first semester! We have math to finish for Rookie (he will finish up today) and poor Babalu has to work all through his winter break on his multiplication and division facts. We have taken a break from his math books (Singapore 3A/3B) until he has these memorized through 12. We are working on 6 right now. 2-5 were super easy as will be 10 and 11. This break also serves as a time for Babalu to have a break from division with remainders which is what he was working on (rather unsuccessfully) when we started our break a couple of weeks ago. I'm a big believer in taking a break when something is frustrating you. It worked for the subtraction with re-grouping like a charm so I'm hoping it will this time. He should still finish his books by the middle of June and if not we will keep working through the summer.
We are taking a short break from our science curriculum to spend time studying two topics that are very interesting to the boys- dinosaurs and astronomy. When we return from our trip to Texas in February we will resume our normal study of science but for now we are enjoying the change of pace. We used the Magic School Bus Dino Kit. It was great but I did not like the model of the T-Rex (the pieces were not numbered and they didn't fit together very well) and we did not use it. We may finally put together the model of the dragon that we have or I may save it for a unit study over the summer (who wouldn't want to spend their summer learning about dragons?!). For astronomy we are using the Magic School Bus Solar System Kit. I'm super excited about it. We will start it in January.
For physical activity Babalu is doing swimming. He joined a local swim team and is working hard to improve. We may begin a routine of activity at home like jumping jacks, push-ups, crunches and the like. They enjoy that sort of this. They have also been asking to begin weight training. Rookie starts baseball when we return home from Texas. His league names the teams after real baseball teams. Last year he played T-Ball for the Mets and this year he will play Rookie level ball for the Angels. My mom is over the moon with excitement that her boy is playing for her favorite team.
I'm very excited to being doing more art with the boys. I'm going to steal an idea that a friend of mine came up with- a poster uniting the elements of design. That will be a nice way to finish up the spring semester.
I'm looking forward to a fresh start in January. I'm also looking forward to a couple of weeks off from school (aside from Babalu's math facts which shouldn't take more than an hour each day and probably not even that long).
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