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).
Monday, November 25, 2013
Cub Scout Nova Award
A few weeks ago I discovered an award for scouts that is right up our ally- the Nova Award. This can be earned from Wolf Scout (the second rank in Cub Scouts) all the way through Boy Scouts and Venturing. I'm not sure how it works for the Boy Scouts since I don't have one but I do have the book for the Cub Scouts so anything I may be typing is in regards to that age group.
Basically what it is the BSA is trying to encourage the boys to learn more about the STEM subjects- Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. You can see why I'm so excited. There is also the Supernova Award that Babalu will be earning (Rookie is a Tiger and isn't old enough to begin his Nova work) for Cub Scouts and a separate one of Webelos (that he will be earning next year). It is a more in depth look at the STEM subjects and when he is a Webelo it has to be done under the direction of a mentor. Thankfully the Cub Scout award can be done with me.
For Babalu's Nova journey he has decided to begin with the science and engineering awards. I told him that he will get school credit for the work so he is excited about it. Next year he will work on the technology and math awards. It is a lot of work but he is determined to see it through. Plus he gets a really cool patch. When we plan all the work out hopefully I will be able to blog again about it.
*Sorry Mom for not blogging more*
Basically what it is the BSA is trying to encourage the boys to learn more about the STEM subjects- Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. You can see why I'm so excited. There is also the Supernova Award that Babalu will be earning (Rookie is a Tiger and isn't old enough to begin his Nova work) for Cub Scouts and a separate one of Webelos (that he will be earning next year). It is a more in depth look at the STEM subjects and when he is a Webelo it has to be done under the direction of a mentor. Thankfully the Cub Scout award can be done with me.
For Babalu's Nova journey he has decided to begin with the science and engineering awards. I told him that he will get school credit for the work so he is excited about it. Next year he will work on the technology and math awards. It is a lot of work but he is determined to see it through. Plus he gets a really cool patch. When we plan all the work out hopefully I will be able to blog again about it.
*Sorry Mom for not blogging more*
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Update
The blog has been pretty quiet (sorry, Mom!). Life has been getting in the way of blogging and even schooling (illness and injury). Here are some things I'm planning for the next few months-
- Christmas Around the world Unit Study (our main focus in December!)
- Poetry Unit Study
- Fairy Tales Unit Study
- Alamo Unit Study (since we are going to see the Alamo on our trip to Texas in February)
We had our awesome trip to Las Vegas. I highly recommend the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay and the Titanic artifact exhibition at the Luxor to people with kids (although only the Titanic exhibition if your child is interested and can handle the museum atmosphere). The Shark Reef was a blast for all of us, Snuggle Puppy especially loved it. We live 6 hours from Vegas and we only did 1 night so it was a very long two days but Snuggle Puppy did great in the car. He even used the potty! The whole way there and back! And has been using it consistently, even when he is in underwear and away from the house! Except for #2. I won't walk about that, though.
I want to throw a shout out to the Las Vegas Hotel. Their casino is smoke free so when you are eating at the buffet (which we did for dinner, we wanted the kids to experience a Las Vegas buffet) you aren't tasting smoke. Also it is off the strip a bit if that is important to anyone. The only down side was that the 2 beds in the room were doubles and not queens as is normal in hotels. But over all a nice stay. The wind in the morning when we were going back the car was so strong that poor Snuggle Puppy couldn't walk straight. Thankfully he didn't mind Mommy having to carry him.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Things have been a little nuts with appointments and errands and things so no highlights the last two weeks. I have a couple of pics on my instagram that I can post. The boys were learning about classifying animals.
Today is the end of our first "quarter". In other words, day 45 or week 9. My hope is that everything can be caught up by today. Or by the end of the weekend. The shut down has cancelled Big Daddy's military work this weekend so we have an unexpected weekend with Daddy! We have planned a few educational activities (the fun stuff we don't have time for during the week) and we are selling Cub Scout popcorn on Saturday morning. We are also thinking of heading to a local-ish Renaissance Fair (it is about 45 minutes away). Who knows. But I'm not letting this weekend go to waste!
Today is the end of our first "quarter". In other words, day 45 or week 9. My hope is that everything can be caught up by today. Or by the end of the weekend. The shut down has cancelled Big Daddy's military work this weekend so we have an unexpected weekend with Daddy! We have planned a few educational activities (the fun stuff we don't have time for during the week) and we are selling Cub Scout popcorn on Saturday morning. We are also thinking of heading to a local-ish Renaissance Fair (it is about 45 minutes away). Who knows. But I'm not letting this weekend go to waste!
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Geography revision
I have decided to throw out the old plan for studying world geography and just go with whatever country Top Secret Adventures and Little Passports has sent us. We can build around the info we receive from them and also incorporate our Expedition Earth. We have not received out first Little Passports shipment (it should be arriving soon) so I can't say too much about it but we love Top Secret Adventures by Highlights. Mystery and adventure really appeal to Babalu and Rookie so it is a good fit.
We have several TSA packets waiting for us on the shelf. They are Australia, Mexico, Greece, and South Africa (we also have Japan which we have already done). One is also on the way. I gather from LP's Facebook page that Brazil will be arriving soon so we are set for the next few weeks.
We have several TSA packets waiting for us on the shelf. They are Australia, Mexico, Greece, and South Africa (we also have Japan which we have already done). One is also on the way. I gather from LP's Facebook page that Brazil will be arriving soon so we are set for the next few weeks.
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