tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765764879467025612024-03-13T09:19:59.876-07:00Academic HomeschoolingWe will share what works in our homeschool and how we do it, the best curriculum and the plans we follow and the journey along the way!Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-83841158388399142762014-10-01T04:32:00.000-07:002014-10-01T04:32:04.037-07:00new post on Mexico City trip-- lots of pictureshttp://academichomeschooling.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/mexico-city/Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-85351008611783815252014-07-05T08:45:00.000-07:002014-07-05T08:45:38.823-07:00Moving the blogI will leave this stuff here, but new posts will be found here:
<a href="http://academichomeschooling.wordpress.com">http://academichomeschooling.wordpress.com</a>
I hope you will follow me there, I've posted pictures, getting high tech!!Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-79888587120120247522014-06-23T17:09:00.001-07:002014-06-23T17:09:35.517-07:00Summer!!My oldest daughter took off to music camp for the piano for a week in Utah. She flew by herself, my husband was able to get a gate pass to take her to the gate and her flight was non stop. She was a bit nervous, but she did great. She got to see some family and friends while she was there and she said she learned a lot at the camp. She started out worried because she felt like it was somewhat of a competition, but after some reminding of that it's OK and that she is there to learn and gain experience, she found her groove. She made some good friends and we didn't even hear from her for 2 days, phone issues, apparently. But I am very proud of her. She felt good about her performance at the end and she gets home tonight!! Yay!!
This week we discovered our town beach at a smallish lake, it is so incredibly awesome. I could seriously just go there everyday and will for at least the next 2 weeks since my kids have swim lessons. So much fun. The older ones are participating on swim team. The sand is great and there are a lot of fish. My oldest son is pretty determined to catch one and is hounding us for a net. We also took the family camping with our ward (church). It was very nice and I'm glad to have such a nice support group. The kids had a fantastic time.
We are still plugging along on our school stuff, but kind of took it easy this week with all the swimming and camping, somehow we are going to have to still get a few things done since we took so much time off to pack and move earlier in the year. I love summer!! It is just awesome to go outside all the time and I love the lake!! We aren't far from the ocean so I want to go there too!! Nature study!! We are also having fun with perplexors- logic puzzles and games. So uch to do and learn, so little time!!!
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-5606776198160994312014-06-14T21:52:00.001-07:002014-06-14T21:52:07.783-07:00A Bit on Teaching Kids Moral Reasoning, Logic and Relationships<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is from my husband, he really does find the greatest stuff and we are finally getting to implement some of these things, I'm really happy about it, here it is:<br><br>Here are a few things I've discovered that others might enjoy:<br><br>1. I've been reading some books about how to raise kids to not easily be indoctrinated by anything, political, religious, soc<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">ial, whatever. Something that stood out was the importance of teaching "moral reasoning" which is reasoning through your decisions about what to do and what is right. I bought the game Scruples (and the kid version) which is about what you would do when faced with certain scenarios of ethical dilemma. Most of the scenarios fall in the gray area and don't have an obvious right or wrong, so you have to do some "moral reasoning" to decide what you are going to do. Actually the game is guessing what your opponents will do. <br><br>2. I got the kids some books of logic puzzles called Perplexors. There are different levels and different types. They are kind of like the questions you might see on the LSAT about there are thre people, with three colors of shirts, with three pets and they give you clues and you have to figure out which person has which color and which pet. That's just an example. The kids did a few and seemed to really like them. I think is is good for teaching logic before learning formal logic. <br><br>3. #1 is going to fly to music camp by herself and be gone for over a week. I wanted to get her a prepaid Visa card to use for incidentals, ex regency, and just experience using cards for payment. It turns out there are a lot of prepaid cards but most require SSN, birthday, and address and you must be at least 18. However, I found that there are non-refillable MasterCard gift cards that have no fees except the initial purchase and they work immediately with no setup required. You can't get cash from an ATM and you can't use it online but you can do everything else. Initial fee is $5 and you have to fill them using cash. You can get them at Walmart.<br><br>4. I've been looking for a book ( or game, games are always better) on teaching what healthy relationships are, and which is geared to teens. There are a lot of books on healthy marriages and a lot of books on bad relationships of all types, but I was looking for something on what healthy relationships are. And not just romantics relationships, but between friends, with your boss, with a neighbor, with your parents, etc. I haven't really found anything that covers all that but I did find a good book on what it means to be a good friend. It's called "A Good Friend: How to Make One, How to be One" and it's geared towards teen. It's good for friend relationships but I'm still looking for the others. There are some good books on boundaries, but nothing yet on what healthy relationships are.</span></span>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-45490574864136989492014-05-25T06:27:00.001-07:002014-05-25T06:27:10.766-07:00NYC and Philadelphia-- Travel log<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6972012147739138755" itemprop="description articleBody" style="width: 568px; position: relative;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our schooling for the week consisted of major field tripping in NYC and Philadelphia. It is no small task to get 8 children around the big city, and we did it with few mishaps and to prove it, we are all home now and alive and tired!</span><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Last saturday we drove down through Brooklyn and Queens to Statten Island where we took the ferry to Manhatten. Our strategy for all of this was to have the 3 little boys wear flourescent yellow shirts, the 3 bigger boys wore matching neon blue and white striped shirts and the girls had matching pink and purple tie dye shirts, but it didn't really matter because the oldest wore her sweatshirt over the top most the time. My husband wore an orange shirt and the backpack with diapers, change of clothes, water and snacks and pushed the baby in the umbrella stroller, he would lead the way through the city and I brought up the rear holding the twins' hands most all the time. That way when we got to stairs he could easily hold the baby and carry the stroller because it's fairly light. The matching shirts made it easy to see that we had everybody and that system worked pretty well for us.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We were able to see the Statue of Liberty pretty close up from the ferry which was free although there were a lot of people. Then we took the subway to Times Square, walked around a bit, we had some street falafel sandwiches, then we walked on over to Grand Central station and had dinner. They had an amazing assortment of all different kinds of food and it was all good, Iwa s glad to get my salad and be able to buy fairly healthy stuff. Then we walked over to Trump Tower and looked around because we have watched a few seasons of the Apprentice. It was starting to get dark, but we were able to walk to the edge of Central Park and take the subway back to the ferry station. One of the lines was closed though and we didn't realize it, so we had to do some backtracking, but we did make it. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We headed on over to our timeshare trade hotel/condo in Pennsylvania, it was about 2 hrs. away and we couldn't find the check in office and it was late enough that they were closed and not answering the phone, that we had to get a hotel, so our cheap week, they gave us ended up not being so cheap, but I chalk it up to travel learning-- make sure of their hours and make sure you know where you are going. The other places we've stayed with our timeshare have had 24 hr. check in, so that was not wise of me to assume in this case, but oh well.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We were unable to check in to our condo until 10 am so we missed church, but we were all pretty tired so it was ok. The town in PA was actually pretty weird. It was a beautiful place but the people there were just strange, really not helpful and hard to communicate with, it was just weird. But the condo ended up being nice and big and the pool was saltwater so that was nice since it was indoor, we swam a lot. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> On Monday we drove 2 hrs. To Philadelphia. The tours for Independence Hall were completely booked probably because of school field trips, but we did get a tour of where the Congress met and where the the first passing off of the presidency took place. It was actually pretty cool. Then we walked over to the Liberty Bell and the visitor center. I really enjoyed the film they showed. We were not impressed with the overall presentation of it all though, security was very meticulous and the attitude of the rangers was authoritarian and a bit joking. They didn't seem to have the same appreciation we saw displayed in Williamsburg. That was all we really had time for, but there is a lot to see and do there, we went to Trader Joe's and got food for the week and drove past the Museums and the planetarium which looked pretty cool. We also drove along the river, I think Philly is an alright place.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tuesday, my husband worked online, which is why we could just take off, he can work from anywhere. The girls did some of their online school and the boys slept a bunch. My brother and his family got into town that evening and we had a good time hanging out with them. It was really nice to be able to do that sort of thing again. I am really glad they were able to meet us, it was a last minute thing, and it worked out pretty well. I did a little bit of schooling with the kids on Wed. and we went swimming. Thurs. we explored the area and got muddy in the Delaware River and played mini golf and Friday we swam a bunch and cleaned and packed.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then on Sat. again since my husband didn't have to work, we were headed home and decided to hit the Metropolitan Mueum of Art in Central Park in NYC. The place I looked at to park said it would charge $15 extra dollars for oversize vehicles, which we have a 15 passenger van, when we got there, the guy said his garage wouldn't fit our van. I asked him where we could park and he directed us to a garage just down the street. That garage could fit us, I got out to talk to them and make sure. The manager didn't want to take us, but when I asked him where else we could go, he said they might charget riple and I said fine, we need to park somewhere, he reluctantly said OK! I was so relieved because I think his garage was not even online and I don't know how we would find one that would take us.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We walked about a mile to the museum and through Central Park. It was much more relaxed than the previous trip and more like what it would be if you lived there. So it was nice for the kids to have this new perspective of NYC. We ate bread and oranges for lunch in Central Park to save money and time and then we walked on overt to the museum. There were tons of people outside on the steps and food vendors in front and lots of people inside, but the museum is HUGE, it really didn't matter how many people there were. I wanted to make sure and see the Renaissance paintings so we went there first. It was so cool! It was really nice when saw one we recognized from our studies. I was more excited than the kids though, but I was really glad we could take them there, because it is going to make our studies more meaningful and will give them points of reference when we study them again. I think we will put more emphasis on art study now, especially with the access to art museums we have now.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For each of the areas of the world, they had large displays to make it feel like you were there, a cathedral type space for Europe, a pyramid type space, actually a couple, for Europe, a Roman villa, an Indin temple with an amazing ceiling, a Japanese garden, etc. I really liked being able to walk through many cultures and periods of time of the world all in one place, I hope the kids remember and it gives them perspective now as we continue to study history. So cool, we only lasted about 4 1/2 hours before the kids were just too tired to go on. We really just walked through most of the museum, we skipped most the American and Modern stuff, but we saw most of what we wanted to see. I think the kids especially liked the Anciet Egypt displays, but it was all fantastic and nobody complained til the end when their little legs were so tired. Even the little guys were interested, there was so much to see.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On the way home I saw we would be walking past The Candle Cafe of which I have their cookbook and everything I've made from it is super good, so my family graciously stopped there with me and waited in the rain while they made us a $15 vegan quesadilla. Then we made it to the parking garage, got our van and gave the guy a huge tip, he was only going to charge us $20, my husband gave him $40 and his response was totally worth it, he was pretty happy and told us it was no problem for us to park there. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All in all it was a great trip, I'm so glad we could go. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div class="post-footer" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; border-top-style: dashed; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(119, 119, 119);"><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="post-author vcard" style="margin-right: 1em; margin-left: 0px;">Posted by <span class="fn" itemprop="author" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><a class="g-profile" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574" rel="author" title="author profile" data-gapiscan="true" data-onload="true" data-gapiattached="true" style="text-decoration: none;"><span itemprop="name">Amber</span> </a></span></span><span class="post-timestamp" style="margin-right: 1em; margin-left: -1em;">at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://todoron.blogspot.com/2014/05/nyc-and-philadelphia-travel-log.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link" style="text-decoration: none;"><abbr class="published" itemprop="datePublished" title="2014-05-25T06:23:00-07:00" style="border: none;">6:23 AM</abbr></a> </span><span class="reaction-buttons" style="margin-right: 1em;"></span><span class="star-ratings" style="margin-right: 1em;"></span><span class="post-comment-link" style="margin-right: 1em;"><a class="comment-link" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2175278814778171946&postID=6972012147739138755" style="text-decoration: none;">No comments: </a></span><span class="post-backlinks post-comment-link" style="margin-right: 1em;"></span><span class="post-icons" style="margin-right: 1em;"><span class="item-control blog-admin pid-233302212" style="display: inline;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2175278814778171946&postID=6972012147739138755&from=pencil" title="Edit Post" style="text-decoration: none !important;"><span style="position: relative; vertical-align: middle; margin-left: 0.5em !important;"><img alt="" class="icon-action" height="18" src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" width="18" style="border: none !important; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.5em !important;"></span> </a></span></span></span></div></div>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-45451875555327819492014-05-21T05:11:00.001-07:002014-05-21T05:13:33.642-07:00Clarification of my previous postI just want to make sure my homeschool groups in Utah know that I appreciated them and that my statement on homeschoolers in Utah was not describing all of the homeschoolers there, my friends and the groups we joined were great, and I do miss those good friends and hopefully they know me better than to be offended, but still, I felt I should clarify. There were a lot of groups I did not join because I didn't like their philosphies and in the end, the best thing for my daughters in Utah was to do part time public school. I need to be careful making generalizations, but generally, I did not like the prevailing homeschooling attitudes in Utah. I find New Hampshire to be very different in that regard with a strong emphasis on giving their children a better education than they would get in public school. It is refreshing! I will add this statement to the end of the other post.Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-10811458062224509632014-05-15T20:12:00.001-07:002014-05-21T05:13:17.329-07:00Lots of Good Things Going OnWe have had so much going on, and school really is smooth, although cleaning the house is not, ;). Anyway, the biggest thing is that the 5 older kids are all doing Recreation Track and Field through our city. It is also a USATF team, so the kids have the option of really working and going for it, or just doing it for fun. The coaches are really professional and good working with the kids, teaching them to warm up and stretch in addition to helping them with their running form and doing the various events. They've all had chances to throw the javelin and shot put, do the long jump and triple jump and try various races. They will even get to learn how to do the hurdles. Last Saturday, they got to do a fun run obstacle course at a beautiful horse farm in the country that was situated on a small lake. I loved it. In retrospect, one of the best things I did in High school was Cross Country and Track and I have kept up my running pretty much except when I was hugely pregnant. I love it, so it really did my heart good to see my kids get to experience that. It was hard for them, they ran 2.5 miles, but they all said it was fun and they would do it again! Yes!!!<div><br></div><div>We took the kids to Boston last weekend, that is an awesome city. Once my girls are finally done with their online classes-- we are definitely going to be doing more field trips around here. Last weekend was fun though too with the fun run in the morning and then going to see American Idol's Alex Preston who went to our local high school. It has just been great. We are headed to NYC this weekend and Philadelphia, so excited!! We've got matching shirts for the different groups of kids so we can keep track of everybody easier.</div><div><br></div><div>The girls have had some rough patches with their online school-- learning to use the computers more effectively, learning to take tests, learning to be accountable to a 3rd party. It has been rather difficult, they have had to really step it up and have spent a lot of time on it. They are both getting As in their classes, which is encouraging, I just hope they will get to the point where they can do it at a faster pace. The boys are moving right along. It makes me very happy to see their progress and watch the light come on when they make a connection. It can be so hard to get them to focus and pay attention, but it is worth it. We have not been able to do as much as I have hoped, bit we are building a very good solid foundation and I'm happy about that.</div><div><br></div><div>I love the homeschoolers out here, a bunch of them have advanced degrees and they are serious about education, it's such a nice change from the myriad of homeschool moms I interacted with in Utah who did not expend the required effort it sometimes takes to teach math in the name of not spoiling their kids' love for learning. I have a lot to learn from these moms. I love the environment here. I actually get to learn from them instead of shocking them with the things I know and the things we do. It is so nice. They are giving me and my kids a higher standard for which to strive. It's so nice to be validated especially for my kids so they can see that , wow, maybe my parents do know something! I could seriously stay here the rest of my life and be just fine. </div><div><br></div><div>Statement of Clarification Added:</div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I just want to make sure my homeschool groups in Utah know that I appreciated them and that my statement on homeschoolers in Utah was not describing all of the homeschoolers there, my friends and the groups we joined were great, and I do miss those good friends and hopefully they know me better than to be offended, but still, I felt I should clarify. There were a lot of groups I did not join because I didn't like their philosphies and in the end, the best thing for my daughters in Utah was to do part time public school. I need to be careful making generalizations, but generally, I did not like the prevailing homeschooling attitudes in Utah. I find New Hampshire to be very different in that regard with a strong emphasis on giving their children a better education than they would get in public school. It is refreshing! I will add this statement to the end of the other post.</span></div>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-25403774326716213372014-04-24T04:36:00.001-07:002014-04-24T04:38:49.929-07:00Williamsburg and Revolutionary War historyWe took a week long trip to Williamsburg, we spent 3 days there and itw as just plain awesome. I let my husband take the older kids to see and tour some of the stuff that the little ones just were too loud for, like the courthouse where they acted out a proceeding fort het ime and sentenced someone to the stockade for stealing a pig and attending aogan concert at the local church whichw as used then and still is in use now. I did get to see the governor's palace and the capitol building where they made the laws for Virginia before the governor dismissed the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry ( that didn't go so well, they reconvened at a nearby tavern). It was just super cool to be there where real history actually happened. The kids liked it, but not nearly as much as my husband and I did. Butt hey learned a lot especially since we have been waching the Teaching Company lecture on American history, it really made it come alive. We also went to Monticello, and Jamestown. They were both pretty good although the reenactments at Williamsburg really brought the whole thing to life. We also drove by Yorktown after we went to Jamestown, the 3 little guys were asleep and I was on my own and everybody was super tired, so we just looked att he battlefield from the car and took a pic of the monument. There is actially a lot to do in Yorktown. There is a state park where the battlefield is, then there is an old town complete with a beach and another hands on museum, so I really would like to go back there someday. We also swam a lot and got to see my mom and my brother and his family. It was a great trip. I hope that revolutionary spirit stays with the kids, it was just good.<div><br></div><div>The following weekend, last weekend turned out to be not only <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Easter, but the anniversary of the battle of Lexington and Concord. So there was a bunch of stuff going on all weekend. Lexington is only about an hour away, so we drove down and saw some cool military stuff including a revolutionary band with fifes, drums and horns. We also got a tour of the battleground which was awesome, and then we went and saw a reenactment of the Tower Battle which was supposed to represent a couple different battles, anyway it was mostly from the minutemen attacking the tedcoats on their retreat to Boston. They started in a field, battled down through a wooded area and ended in another field, surrounding the british and firing their cannons. We had awesome views of the entire thing and it lasted about an hour and looked very authentic.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Then we celebrated Easter on Sunday which was nice. #1 accompanied the church/ward choir and the piece was beautiful, very nicely done, #2 sang with the choir, we have some very talented choir directors. Then my husband took the 4 older kids to see thet reenactment of Paul Revere at midnight, the sound wasn't so good and they left a microphone on, so there were conversations and laughing that shouldn't have been there. So that was kind of a heavy price. Also, they slept in the van and then got up for the reenactment of the Battle of Lexington at 5 am, there were tons of people so the kids really couldn't see and it was unseasonably cold, so that was a very heavy price indeed, but worth it overall.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Needless to say , the kids caught up on their sleep Monday instead doing schoolwork. But that's OK. We are plugging along on everything. The girls are not enjoying their online school classes, because they are challenging, but also they have had some technical difficulties, hopefully we have them worked out now! I hope they will feel a great sense of accomplishment when they are finally done!</span></div><div><div>.</div></div>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-82870385260187066672014-03-16T19:33:00.001-07:002014-03-16T19:33:27.513-07:00Online classes, Choir, and SickThe girls have been working super hard on their online classes. We are hoping they will be able to finish by June 30 because that is the end of the year and they can only take 6 credits per year. It is fairly flexible though so if they are close to finishing, they will still be able to take more classes for the following year. The classes are fairly challenging though, and there are a few things the girls haven't done before like do a power point presentation, make a brochure, write arguments for and against certain positions, run a scientific experiment complete with a theory, hypothesis and method and then write it all out and use graphs to illustrate the results, as well as graded quizes and tests. They also have to make sure to schedule the oral assessments with the teacher and get their stuff turned in when they are done. So it has had a learning curve for them, I'm hoping they'll get used to all that and start moving a little more quickly and use their time better. If they can be done by June, they will have completed 4 full year classes in 4 months. We'll see!! But if nothing else whenever they do finish, I think they will have a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I think they already recognize the value of it even though it has been hard.<div><br></div><div>#2 is 2 yrs. ahead taking Geometry and Latin, I'm sure she'd do fine in any of the 9th grade classes, so it is not too critical for her. She really likes computers though and would like to program, so she's also taking a computer class that is the pre requisite for all the other programming and design classes she wants to take. #1 is just right on track for finishing up credits for graduation, and we are hoping these classes will just give her a good transcript for when she applies to colleges. It is a little more critical that she finish on time so she can take more credits this upcoming year or prove to the school if she decides to go full time that she can mange the harder classes. We'll see though, for 9th and 10th grade, the high school here puts the kids in groups and they stay together like elementary school for the 4 core classes, just rotating teachers, and there are no bells and it is a pretty casual environment with little room for movement between. She is also getting some opportunities to accompany and keep up her music. I am going to need to start researching how to get a music scholarship and where. I really don't know anything about it. I woukd like to get her into lessons, but with the super cold winter, the price of propane gojng up and our house in Utah unsold, she will just have to keep going on her own. I will probably order another keyboard for her so she can work on recording some of her songs and getting the music written, I think those things will help.</div><div><br></div><div>We got rid of all screens for kids except TV when I need it for the toddlers except on Friday and Saturday. So the kids still earn minutes diring the week for finishin their schoolwork, but they don't get to play them until the weekend after their chores are done. It has een so much better! All thise boys wanted to do ever was play video games! Since we spent so much time packing, moving and unpacking and it was freezing outside and we didn't have most of our stuff, the screen time had gotten a bit out of hand. And then with 8 kids and everyone wanting a turn, it had become ridiculous. Even #7, one of the 4 yr. old twins, would say k mom After I do my math then can play? There was a lot of complaining and crying about it at first, but they have all koved on to playing board games, reading and going outside. It is nice.</div><div><br></div><div>I have realized that my boys' lessons are much more effective when I do them individually which I had always done for math, but it has to be done for Greek also. I did Greek with the girls together, but that hasn't worked with the boys. #3 in particular does much better without his younger brother yelling out the answers first. I have also learned that I have to do the middle often overlooked child #5 first or we may not get to him because the older kids all have these massive needs and his stuff really doesn't take long. He is particularly smart, it is really nice to teach a smart kid, they make it so easy!</div><div><div><br></div><div>This week was super busy. Monday we had some homeschool families from our town come over for Olympic Fun. We did some races and shooting and sledding. I think it will ne a nice social group for my older boys. #2 had a great time running the event, she even made country flags and medals for the kids. I like the people out here too, they are just so genuine, they're not like particularly outgoing or extra nice or anything, they just are who they are and don't put on airs. It's very refreshing.</div></div><div><br></div><div>Tuesday, the kids performed for a nursing home with their choir and ensemble. The residents really liked it and there was a lot of nice comments from workers walking by and just in general. I'm really glad the kids have this opportunity, and the kids they perform with are just nice and genuine also, and they sound great. It's just good. Most of the kids in the ensemble and choir are also in our church ward, so it has been interesting to be on the majority side in the ward where I see more wardmembers outside of church than other ward members see each other. The other members are so spread out that they don't all go to the same school, so that is quite a switch for me, since I was pretty much always on the outside at church since my kids didn't go to the same school everyone else did, so I like that a lot too. But that was a busy day, we were near Costco and Trader joe's so we did that shopping and then I had to go to scouts and then everybody seemed to be getting sick. I still made the kids do their schoolwork, but they all slept a lot and didn't get as much done as usual. Then Thursday, the girls went to the temple with the youth group and Friday we had choir practice and stopped by the library (I'm trying the library again) and Saturday was a Relief Society activity and the girls were asked to babysit. And then my husband came down with the sickness and one of the twins puked, and so only the girls and I went to church today, but it was great, but now I have a headache, so good night, I'm gonna try to get a lot of sleep!</div><div><br></div><div>Looking forward to a calmer week, knock on wood!</div>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-27563166500033531102014-02-26T05:59:00.001-08:002014-02-26T05:59:42.326-08:00Regular goings onOur lives are quiet and comfortable we're getting things done, the house is cleaner, we're going to bed earlier, it's just a really nice season for us. We only have 3 1/2 years til #1 will leave for college and then it will just keep going, kids leaving, and our lives will change dramatically over time, so I am just enjoying every minute with all my kids home. Plus #1 may want to go to full time high school next year or the year after, so all the more reason to enjoy this season. Our church group is fantastic, #3 is going on his first overnighter this weekend with scouts. The girls are going to a girls' night out when he's gone. I'll just have a house of little boys to myself. Not sure what we'll do. <div><br></div><div>The state of New Hampshire has an online charter school that is fantastic. The girls are both taking online classes. I am so glad they'll have an official transcript and grades, and they have a teacher that will correct their work. I have been working daily with #3 on Greek and math, he is doing so much better at focusing and getting the work done. 11 yr old boys sure know how to push buttons and waste time! The worst is piano lessons, I can't express the amount of patience and energy this boy's lesson takes. But as with everything, he is finally realizing the quickest way out is to just get it done.</div><div><br></div><div>We have had to eliminate screens- all gaming that is during the week. It is tempting to let the boys play when they are done with school and chores because they work so much better when they have something like that to look forward to, but it is such a hassle keeping up with everyone's time and inevitably after the computer and wii have been on for over an hour and they all need to go do something else, someone will cry because they didn't get their turn yet. So we're back to screens only on Fridays and Saturdays.</div><div><br></div><div>We had a book club last week on White Fang. The girls wrote really great papers on it and the kids had a pretty good discussion. The kids performed for choir at a nursing home last month and did a great job and #1 got to play the violin with her ensemble at church. I also took the girls for a trumpet and clarinet lesson. We can't do regular lessons til moving expenses are settled and I think I'll try to find another teacher. Also our huge propane heating bill is a big damper on lessons and classes, maybe our house will sell soon, that will help!</div><div><br></div><div>We have had a ton of snow, we still have a bunch of boxes to unpack, plenty to keep us occupied, I have been looking at museums, I can't wait to go!</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-50964431695730065392014-02-12T16:24:00.000-08:002014-02-12T16:47:07.162-08:00How far we've come!I found an old homeschool journal I kept of our schooling from 2005-2008. It is really interesting how much the same I am, the journal really mirrors this blog, what we've done that week, and writing something about each child. We did a lot back then, my oldest was just 6, it was really fun to remember some things and to think about everybody as babies. It was also interesting to see that as babies my kids had a lot of the same personalities and tendencies now that they had then. Recording things is such a good thing to do.<div><br></div><div> It feels really good to get back in control of my life, we had so many difficult situations coincide with the birth of our twins, that we essentially just survived, but did not thrive and sometimes we weren't sure if we were even going to survive. But we did and it was nice to read and remember some really good times in our lives before all the craziness hit. And school has been going well here on the home front, it takes a ton of patience and work, but we are beginning to thrive and I just can't express my gratitude enough. I will post more about that later, for now I want to type in this funny occurrence in from our church primary program, FYI-- the primary is our church's children's organization and the program is done once a year for the entire ward/congregation. I was the primary chorister for this program. It was nice to remember I had good times at church there too!</div><div><br></div><div>This was written by me on Nov. 6, 2005</div><div><br></div><div>Sunday was the program. The girls did a great job singing and saying their parts. #2 had 2 parts and was so cute quoting Moses 1:39 from memory, it was really sweet how she said the same things at practice that she did at the program. It was kinda hard because her 2nd part ended with Heavenly Father's plan which rhymes with eternal life of man from Moses 1:39, so it was a little mixed up, but very cute. #1 needed only a little prompting but then she said her part perfectly and must have looked just adorable because there were a lot of sweet laughs. I lead the music and all the children sang well. #3 joined us for some of the songs, (he was 3 at the time and not in primary yet), and then he tried to climb up on the pulpit. He finally went out to foyer with his Daddy, so my husband missed a lot of the program. </div><div><br></div><div>It was really spiritual and very sweet. Some funny things happened which I am sure not many people noticed. The primary pianist was just cleaning her glasses and they broke right in half. She was really panicking and tried to put them on so they'd stay, but of course they didn't. I had to stop looking at her so I wouldn't laugh. She called to another primary person to come play for her and then she taped them together with blue tape, but finally got the attention of her husband who got a spare set out of the car, so it all worked out. Then one of the Sunbeams (3-4 yr old class) threw up at the very end, but it was already over so no big deal!<br><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-76154096248533607462014-02-08T05:38:00.001-08:002014-02-08T05:38:22.515-08:00Some Great Booklists!Ok, so I've heard about Sonlight curriculum, but yesterday while waiting for choir, I got to discuss books with some other homeschool moms and they said throat Sonlight has great lists, so I checked it out and wow, they do! All those books look great, I am excited to get some and get started! www.sonlight.comAmberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-26269969386700405892014-02-03T07:21:00.000-08:002014-02-03T07:21:22.451-08:00book list I don't want to loseI still love New Hampshire, it is so awesome! That last post was actually supposed to go on my venting blog, I try not to complain too much on here, oh well!! I will write more about that later as well as school which is going well. We've been to a science class taught at an environmental center in our town divided into 5 age groups, we have joined a choir and we joined a book club and a teen activity group, unfortunately the book club and teen group are going to coincide, so we will have to decide. There is a good online charter school that I will be signing the girls up for a couple classes. The high school turned out to be lame, so we are homeschooling everybody this semester again and won't be doing any part time. We have been doing aerobics and yoga videos for fitness instead of organized sports for various reasons. We will in the next month find some good music teachers and ensembles for the kids, hopefully start some karate or at least join the YMCA. scouts at our church is the best we have ever seen. All the scouts meet together as one group with the various classes being quorums. Young Womens is so much better than what we had anytime in Utah. The leaders are mature and have teens of their own, and the girls are all really nice and have been very welcoming to my girls. This is an extremely good move for us. I love our location, we have 3 acres at the end of a wooded lane, with tress everywhere, total privacy, cute little towns with a corner market and gas station, awesome local cafes and excellent variety of stores for furniture as well as the standard big box stores, the grocery stores all carry organic foods and high quality foods with few preservatives and chemicals. There is also a co-op I can order from weekly to get better prices!!! so far, I just miss my mom and the scenic Utah views, the weather is about the same as Utah so far, although it does get dark an hour earlier here than in Utah, that is a bummer, but spring is coming! I do appreciate the new scenery, I like the little roads and trees everywhere and cute little houses, everything is colonial style, I like that too. The people are fantastic, I have been welcomed to New Hampshire by every person I tell that I am new, restaurant people, gas station people, corner store people, people at church, at homeschool groups, even the guy who picked up the moving trailer.
School is going well, unpacking is going slow. We've just left everything in the garage and it will take a while, we have a couple bookshelves up now so we can start putting books away. But the kids really needed to get back into their studies and I think they like it.
I just got on the computer to print out their lists of assignments for the week and I found this booklist I wanted to remember and ended up writing a novel, oh well. Here's the list:
<a href="http://info.infosoup.org/lists/ClassicsForTeens.asp">http://info.infosoup.org/lists/ClassicsForTeens.asp</a>
this site has a bunch of great books listed I want my kids to read and that I want to read also. The girls read the Bronze Bow for a book club last week and they are working on reading White Fang for next month. I really liked the book club, parents were invited, but the kids were encouraged to do most the talking. It was a great discussion, hopefully we'll be able to work out a decent schedule, if not we may have to start a new book club.Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-1054104087287813712014-01-23T21:06:00.001-08:002014-01-23T21:06:44.426-08:00I love New Hampshire!OK, so we have moved, been here a week and a half. It is so awesome! People have been great, church has been great, the schools have not been so good, but there will be other opportunities here. I am especially glad my kids will finally have a decent church experience. There is a lot to get used to, I'm not used to being included at church, I'm not used to people acting normal and not purposely ignoring me or trying to avoid me. I've forgotten how it feels to enjoy going to church too. I feel vindicated in a lot of ways too, the contrast is stark in some respects. It will take me some time to mull it over, and be ready to process it all. I have decided to not talk about my past experience with people here, it doesn't do anyone any good and it just reminds me of the pain. It's just time to look forward. In time I will be able to compare and contrast and really learn from the whole experience. But for now I'm just going to enjoy being left alone, being allowed to live my life the way I see fit and not having to expend so much emotional energy just to stay afloat. Go New Hampshire, I love the "live free or die" state! I'm sure I'll write more about it some day, but I am looking forward to some good times and meeting and getting to know some nice people and spending some good time with my family. Life is good!Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-36827463131024680772014-01-06T06:29:00.001-08:002014-01-06T07:24:12.125-08:00Learning from LivingWe have enjoyed our time off school work, Christmas get togethers, parties and lots of saying good bye. We spent more time with family and got to see most of our extended family. My dad's side didn't get together this year, so we missed them, but we saw everybody else. Everybody was great, there was no drama for us this year. It was awesome to leave and feel a positive connection with everybody. It was my favorite Christmas. It didn't leave us much time for our usual family traditions and that was fine because we know we won't be here next Christmas. We did have a nice small Christmas with the kids getting most family gifts for the trip, tablets to be exact to make the 45 hrs. In the car go a little more smoothly. Anyway, it was all good but very busy with us getting our van fixed up for the trip and packing in all the spare minutes.<div><br></div><div>The kids were doing well helping and things were running pretty smoothly except our sweet little dog got sick, she was shaking and trembling a lot, so we finally took her to the vet. He told us it was a neck injury, gave us some medicine for the inflammation and pain and said she'd be fine in 2-3 weeks. She took her medicine that first day and was doing much better, but the following day we couldn't get her to eat or take her medicine, same the next day, she seemed to need to rest a lot and I thought it was just part of her recovery. But the reality was that she would not eat and then she stopped drinking too. The kids also found her outside fallen in the snow being looked at by a big black dog. They carried her in, but she was super scared. She never complained once or made a sound. So we don't know exactly what happened, but by the time we realized she wasn't getting better on New Year's Day when we were busy loading all the heavy stuff and our vet clinic was closed, it was too late. We ran her over to our neighbor who is our vet, but she was already 10% dehydrated. He also said for her to go downhill so quickly there must have been something else going on or her neck was hurt much worse than we realized.</div><div><br></div><div>We were getting ready to take her to the emergency animal hospital, I ran in for my coat, #1 waited with her in the car, and when I came back, she told me the little dog was gone. She had taken one last breath, stretched out and made a sound, probably her spirit leaving her body. We drove a little ways because her heart was still beating, but I had to accept she was gone and we returned home, wrapped her in a blanket and our friend, the vet, came and got her. Everyone was super distraught and very very sad. It is terrible without her. We also gave away our cat that day so it was a very emotional sad time. It is super weird to not have a single animal to care for. At one point we had goats, chickens, a cat and a dog. I thought they were kind of a pain even though the kids do most of the taking care, now I realize all that care and work is so worth it. Those animals are our friends and they are my kids' friends. </div><div><br></div><div>Some of the kids are still having a hard time with her death, so it has given us the opportunity to talk about death and the grieving process. Life is rough, and animals just don't live as long as people. So we just have to remember the good parts and we have to think that it was her time to go, we needed that dog, she was there for us when my husband started his job where he had to commute a lot, she was there for my daughter when all her friends moved away and our ward was crazy and she was so vulnerable. The dog was there for me when I sent my babies off to public school for the first time and for when I became isolated this year. In some ways, I think the dog or The Lord knows that happier times are ahead for our whole family and that it was time for us to face the future alone without our beloved dog, especially #1 who was the main caretaker of the dog and had the closest relationship with her and will be starting full time high school in a brand new place. So for us the New Year is a fresh start in more ways than one. </div><div><br></div><div>For me, Maple was my first dog, I did not understand dogs at all, I had no idea what we were getting into, this dog was sweet and kind and gentle and good with the kids, otherwise, she wouldn't have lasted. Now that she is gone we all realize how much she meant to us, sometimes you just don't realize it til they're gone. It is so much of what education is, learning about life and people and how we interact and now how important animals are to us. I think even in her death, Maple has taught us a lot and we will all be better and stronger.</div><div><br></div><div>Will we get more animals when we move? I would like to, but I also plan on visiting and seeing places and doing things, so it just may have to wait. But someday, we will get another dog, not to replace our Maple, but because we understand the value of animals and how they show us what unconditional love really is.</div><div><br></div><div>In the midst of all this, we are still trying to move. I took a day to mourn and rest, and I let the kids be distracted with media, so we are behind. It looks like that may be OK with these crazy cold temperatures. We are going through Memphis and up the Atlantic coast so we'll miss the worst of the temperatures, but it is still abnormally cold, there isn't a lot going on on I-40 so it's probably good we're not on the road right now. We might be able to get out today, but we'll have to see on the weather, we don't want to get stranded somewhere or have it be so cold our van won't start in the morning. So we'll see.</div><div><br></div><div>Lots of changes, learning from life!</div>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-67983776888246086122013-12-30T21:50:00.001-08:002013-12-30T21:50:15.686-08:00End of the semester and getting ready to moveThis semester overall has been pretty good. It is such a relief when your teenagers turn out to be nice people, and they start to really develop their talents and interests. We had he final performances for the Middle school girls. #1 accompanied the women's chorus and was then asked last minute 1 week before the performance if she could also accompany a couple of the other songs for some of the other groups. She did great. I am really appreciative of her choir teacher who took the time to work with her and help her get the songs the way needed to be for the performance. I was very impressed with the choir teacher overall, the kids looked like they were having a good time, they sang very well, the music they sang was really nice and the whole performance was just great to watch. I was a very proud parent, and very relieved since I have been #1's sole piano teacher all this time, the past 3 yrs. though I have just been more of a coach, making sure she practices, she is very talented and has done well, and I am glad I didn't ruin her! She is doing great and has definitely surpassed me on the piano. She also played the piano for jazz band. They did great too, and she had some snazzy, jazzy solos. Very fun, I'm glad she made some good friends there too. For math, I think she is finally getting it. She's much better at focusing and figuring things out, that is a relief too! So far teen years are pretty good!
#2 started playing the trumpet this year. She loved her band teachers, they had really funny jokes we would hear about everyday. Her teacher also recommended that she be moved up to the next band class because she really did well on the trumpet, well actually a cornet. Anyway, it was a great experience. She also took art at the school and did well in that class because she loves to draw, a couple of her drawings even got selected to be put on display in the lunch room. She has done well with her at home school work too, academics is definitely a strong point for her. She is definitely growing up too, which is of course as always, good and bad.
#3 did so much better with his school work without his little brother around. I taught Greek to the girls together and I was doing my boys together too, but it looks like for them the time I spend with them is more effective with one on one instruction for math and Greek. Having his little brother at school gave him some time to get ahead and gave me some good one on one time with him. It was great!
#4 enjoyed school a lot. He made a lot of friends and his teacher really liked him. He really got tired of getting up everyday though. I think that was enough school for him to satisfy his curiosity and know that he could do it. I will be glad to have him home again, we missed him.
#5 has been my easiest student so far. Reading has come the easiest to him, I'm sure a lot of it is because I'm more experienced, but this little guy is a quiet smart. He's not loud nor is he a show off, but he just does things and asks questions and reads. It's a little hard being the 3rd boy and always trying to keep up with older brothers, but he does alright. I tell him he's lucky to be in the middle cause he can choose to go with the bigger boys or the little boys, he liked that.
For the 4 little boys, I have held singing time and story time so I can make sure to read to them. It is pretty fun. The toddler really likes books. I love having time with them. Not that it's not hard or demanding but it is very fulfilling, and they are sooooo cute!
We are packing this week and hoping to get out of here as early as Thursday for New Hampshire. There will be all sorts of new adventures waiting there for us. I am really excited to explore and learn about a new place. I am excited to see what sorts of homeschool groups there are out there. It's looking like #1 will do full time school, the high school has 4 yrs. of Latin and about 15-20 AP classes. Those were 2 big reasons for us to homeschool high school, so we'll see how it goes. I hope she will also be able to participate in sports at least cross country and track. I am so looking forward to this!
Oh and the trip out will be awesome too, everybody got a scratch magic book in their stocking and a travel journal. We are going to be on the road for 10 days because we're taking a detour through Memphis and Virginia to visit family. So much to observe along the way, I am just so excited!Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-90975500926413417312013-12-06T08:15:00.001-08:002013-12-06T08:15:47.086-08:00Singing TimeI hold singing time for my littles about 3 times a week. What I found with my twins which was not the case with any of the other kids is that whenever we have singing time or recite a scripture or poem, they don't even try to participate. All the other kids would try to sing or say the verse and would demand a turn, not these guys. So I started singing time just for them. One of the twins would sing along, but the other would have nothing to do with it. So then I bought some new stickers, wrote out which songs we would sing and told them they'd get a sticker for every song they sang. It has worked like a champ and they both look forward to singing time. The one twin sings all the songs and he will sing with me and the older brother, but the other twin, the more stubborn and somewhat shy one will only sing by himself or repeating the song after me. This makes singing time take a very LNG time and it ceases to be much fun, but he is singing! Although yesterday he refused, one other time he just cried and ruined it for the other 2 who were really excited so, I learned to just go ahead without him when he doesn't want to, but I told him he couldn't cry and he fell asleep instead. So I think it is working, I think he will eventually join us in singing together instead of a solo all the time. Some of these kids come very very stubborn!Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-64002708903239380222013-11-19T23:44:00.001-08:002013-11-19T23:44:45.336-08:00Greek Myths CDI was so lucky this week to receive a new CD that tells the stories of some of the Greek myths through story and song. It happened to be a bit of a harder day for me, and I was the only one in the kitchen making dinner which actually doesn't happen that often, when the cd came so I went ahead and put it in the CD player. I LOVED it! It made me so happy. I really like Helen Slater's approach to the myths, in the beginning she talks about why the Greeks had these myths and how the myths helped them to understand the world around them and explain so many things. Her explanation is set to happy, uplifting music, and then after each story or part of a story she sings a song to go along with it and it was just so refreshing and fun. My spirits were instantly lifted, and it makes me happy just thinking about the songs now. My husband and kids all wanted to know what it was and we all enjoyed it and have listened to it a few times. I have a greater appreciation for the Greek myths now and I feel like I understand them a little better because of the CD. One of the songs is called "It's Never Nice to be Mean", and it goes along with the story of Echo and Narcissus when Narcissus was so mean to Echo and then Nemesis sings this song to Narcissus. One of the most valuable things I think I can teach my children is to always be kind, and apparently the Greeks also thought that was a good lesson to learn, but I didn't really realize that lesson was there in the myths until this CD. So I even incorporated this particular story and song into our family home evening lesson this week which was on kindness. It's nice to have different ways to share the stories, I am going to have to buy another D'Laires Greek myths book for the kids and brush up on it ( our first book was very loved and pretty much in pieces now). Very fun and very fun to be learning Greek along with it, really a fresh approach to the old myths. A big thumbs up from me! Here is the website if you'd like more info!:
<a href="http://helenslater.com/moag/ ">http://helenslater.com/moag/</a>
Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-3316130072819462172013-11-11T12:02:00.002-08:002013-11-11T12:02:44.889-08:00Events Website -- happen.ioSo this post is just to let you know that there is a great brand new website out there where you can post your own events to the public or make them private, you can even make your own group for whoever you want to join, it's easy to communicate through the comments and it's easy to use and search. It is brand new, been out about a week, so most of the public events so far are in Utah, so definitely if you are in Utah, go check it out!
<a href="http://happen.io">Http://happen.io</a>Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-51585958646098823302013-11-05T21:54:00.000-08:002013-11-05T21:54:21.654-08:00Happenings-- #4 goes to school and other stuff#4 was disappointed when his older siblings went to public school last year, at the girls' concerts as we were walking out of the building he said how he wanted to go to school. We told him he would get a chance. Then the following Friday he ran over to the park near our house because he saw some friends there, but they all left when he got there and never said hi. He told me he thought it was because he wears glasses. I assured him it wasn't. But he told me how much he wishes he had friends. Later when I talked to my husband about it, he said, well, let's send him to school. I of course don't like sending my babies off not to mention getting up super early every day, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it probably is the best thing for him. He is super smart although short for his age. His eyes are working pretty much normally now and his reading is consequentially better because of it too. He is ahead in all his school work and very conscientious about everything, so it did seem that it is time to let him grow socially and have fun at school. Our school and the teachers have been outstanding, so on Monday I got all the paperwork ready, and on Tuesday, he went to school for the first time.
So far he is loving it. There were four boys in his class that he already knew and his teacher seems really nice. The only problem he had is that he was supposed to ride home on the train bus, but he forgot his lunch bag and thus got separated from his classmates after school and could not find a bus that looked anything like a train. Fortunately he had his cell phone and called home, but his sister answered and by the time I got there he had started walking home. But all's well that ends well. I do miss him, but he doesn't miss me and I am proud of him.
It is also giving me some extra time with his older brother who got a little behind academically when he went to school last year and was getting frustrated that his younger brother could memorize faster and easier and may soon overtake him in Greek. So that has been nice. He doesn't have anyone to compare himself to anymore and he can feel good about learning and persevering which is what I try to emphasize. That boy is incredibly stubborn, but he will do just about anything to play screens, so it ends up working out fine. I also set the timer for him and tell him I need his undivided focused attention for the set number of minutes and he actually gets through his work pretty well that way with the promise of it only lasting a set time with an instant reward when he's done. It's also nice to have one less student to worry about, although #4 was pretty self motivated and easy, every little break helps.
I bought the whole collection of Roald Dahl books at Costco the other day. All my readers love them and my new reader even read his first chapter book by himself that way! He is reading everything now it's great.
My girls are enjoying part time school, but have expressed the desire to take more classes. I looked at the classes to see if it would be worthwhile for them to at least stay one whole day instead of one half day, but they just didn't appeal to me. Finally yesterday for the first time this year, they both got their school work done early and spent some time working on other projects. This whole year, they have just kind of lazed around and barely get their stuff done. The oldest spent a bunch of time adding music and special effects I to a movie the kids made last year. That's what I hoped my homeschooled kids would do eventually, I swear they don't appreciate the freedom they have, but maybe just maybe they are finally going to take advantage of it. It does help that we are more settled with the baby turning into a boy-- sad, but good.
The twins are really into coloring. I bought a subscription to <a href="http://www.education.com">www.education.com</a>, they sent me a discount email and I signed up. I'm so glad I did. I love their coloring pages and their online workbooks. I am also using their state maps for geography. It helps that I am feeling better, I was sick last week and we didn't do hardly anything beyond the basics. I really love homeschooling even though it is dang hard sometimes, days and weeks like we've had this week make it all worth it. I hope it continues this week!Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-42639440313146880692013-10-24T23:04:00.001-07:002013-10-24T23:04:14.679-07:00Busy but Rewarding weekSo our extra curriculars are winding down. Flag football and volleyball are both over. The kids enjoyed them both and developed their skills and made some friends. Some of those football games were sure cold though! The girls had their band and choir performances this week and we ended with the Cub Scout pine wood derby.
#1's volleyball team was excellent. They really played well and improved a ton, their coach was excellent, he knew the game and he really helped them. They took second in the tournament. The team they lost to had some really good players which our team did not. It was exciting to watch their games, they really did well. She played the piano with her jazz band and did great. She also accompanied the Song Bird choir. I really like the choir director and my husband was actually impressed with one of the songs and would have liked to hear it again ( which says a lot coming from him, he knows his music, he was not impressed with the orchestra at all last year). A lot of the girls said their parents cried on that song and my husband also said that it was really like the choir was complimenting her piano playing. Unfortunately, I missed the performance because my baby was screaming so loudly I had to take him outside, turned out his shoes were too small, it's partly my daughter's fault for giving us the wrong time we showed up an hour early and I never took his tight shoes off that whole time so by the time it came to be her turn, it was over for him. I was really sad to miss it, but I am so proud of her. I expect there will be many more performances to come and this is just some of the hardship of having babies and teens at the same time! She was scared to accompany the choir since she had never done it before, and she wanted to give up a few times, but she persevered and learned the songs well and did an excellent job.
#2 had a really lousy volleyball team. They were so focused on having fun and trying to not make the girls feel bad about losing than they were on winning and doing well, that they lost every single game. It was hard on my #2, but she improved a ton. It was her first year playing and she was nowhere near getting the ball over the net while serving, and now she gets it over most of the time. She is playing the trumpet in band for the first time also and we enjoyed her beginning band concert. She is excelling in art and one of her pieces is on display at school for all to see. I am really proud of her too. We have really great kids.
#3's football team didn't win any games until finally today they won their last game. That was pretty frustrating for my boy as he is a bit of a perfectionist, but with the help of Minecraft as a bribe, he made it to most the practices and games and he made some nice friends. His coach said that of all the teams he's coached since his son was in preschool, this team was his favorite. That was really nice and they enjoyed their pizza party. He also earned his Webelos badge in cub scouts and his Arrow of Light, I love the values the scout program encourages.
#4's football team won every single game. My boy is the smallest on the team, but he scored a few touchdowns, pulled a few flags and had a pretty good time I think. Then we ended with the Pinewood derby. He did a great job on his car and won a few races, came in 2nd, 3rd and last a few times too. It was really a lot of fun to watch, and a relief his car did not come in last every race!
I am really looking forward to having some freer evenings though, although we are moving into the holiday season, so I'm sure there will be plenty to do still!Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-14339968082273840192013-10-07T22:44:00.001-07:002013-10-07T22:44:33.787-07:00Sports, Gateway Museum, SchoolSchool has been going well. The biggest new change I have implemented is to make our big meal in the morning while the kids do their individual work and have it for lunch, which has been around 2:30 or 3:00, but the nice thing about it is with all our practices and games, I don't have to worry about making a nice healthy meal at 8 pm and then eat it at 9 which is what was happening. Now we eat at 3 and if anybody is hungry later, they can have leftovers or whatever else suits their fancy, I know they got their salad and veggies and smoothie in the morning and then everybody is more willing to help with the clean up in the evening too, except for tonight, we spent from 4:30-9:00 pm watching #1's volleyball tournament games-- so the kitchen is a disaster, but at least everybody got a good meal. Then I do group time after we eat and help the kids with the stuff I have to help them with. I am liking it. I'm trying to not get so caught up in a schedule. We will do what we can, it may not be everything I had hoped, but it is pretty good. #4 and 5 both passed their math test levels this week. #1 got an A on 2 of her assignments for independent study. We have some things to hit hard in other areas, but overall it has been a great week. We also went to the Children's Museum at the Gateway in SLC. It was AWESOME!! Maybe it's because I didn't have a tiny baby or because the twins are older and we went with friends, but my kids played the entire time we were there and did not want to leave after 5 hours!! It was so nice. They have really done a great job with that museum. I highly recommend it. We all needed that break, I didn't make them do any schoolwork that day. We need that sometimes, break up the routine and the monotony.
The kids have done better with their chores (except for today) and the house is so much nicer to be in and I am not so stressed. It is hard to make them help, but it is good for everybody. The girls were even able to invite some friends over because we were caught up, that was nice. Sports have been really fun to watch this season. 2 flag football games on Thursdays and 2 volleyball games on Saturdays. Volleyball is pretty much over, I will miss it for the girls, they really love it and have benefited a lot from it. Just a couple weeks left of football and there is nothing til basketball in Jan. We may get a pass to the rec center and go swimming and play in the gym and run around the track once a week. It is getting very cold and Sports Day at the park has petered out. Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-15211555900012510892013-09-27T06:17:00.001-07:002013-09-27T06:17:47.273-07:00Some burn out and some IllnessSome weeks are better than others! We were going strong getting a lot done, but one of the twins and the baby threw up this weekend and the rest of us didn't feel so great either so when it came to anything productive, we were not there this week. That's OK. We are all feeling better now and I'm hoping we can get caught up on our cleaning, that's really the worst part of getting sick is getting behind on stuff like cleaning. And then we'll be ready for a good week coming up. Plus we have a field trip scheduled with some friends which always makes the week go better. As much as I would like to just keep going strong all the time, life happens ad we have to rest and give ourselves time. Oh yeah, plus we had a birthday this weekend-lots of nerf gun wars have ensued this week and my and my husbands's anniversary. It was so fun to go out with him, we go out fairly often, but just for an hour or so, we took longer this time and went further to a fun little place, I loved spending more time with him. But wow, when we don't have our regular weekend time to rest, clean and recover from the weekend, I just couldn't keep up with everything, that's when I realized I had burnout and there were a couple times I just went and laid down because I knew I'd do better if I did, and I was right. The kids did most of their basic stuff and we'll do a lot today, but wow! And it's OK. The laundry is still waiting for me and so are all the other chores, we'll get there! Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-26729341698930129372013-09-18T20:49:00.000-07:002013-09-18T20:49:09.254-07:00Spanish Learning HelpI was so excited when I saw this post on teaching Spanish curriculum and it was full of resources. check it out:
http:<a href="http://www.teachbesideme.com/2013/09/homeschool-spanish-teaching-resources.html">//www.teachbesideme.com/2013/09/homeschool-spanish-teaching-resources.html</a>
The links to videos is Spanish is exactly what I have been wanting. When I lived in Mexico there was no English TV so we watched everything in Spanish and we all became fluent. When I was out of the house, my family moved back down and there was another American family whose kids did not pick up the language, the biggest difference was that they had English TV, so we are going to give watching Spanish TV a try. We watched a cute show about a little for tree today, the frat one that comes up in the page.
<a href="http://pacomova.eresmas.net/paginas/videocuentos/videocuentos.htm">http://pacomova.eresmas.net/paginas/videocuentos/videocuentos.htm</a>
While homeschooling is a lot of work and is hard, I love working with my kids and helping them with their assignments and watching their progress. We are doing way better on chores too, I may have finally developed an after meal chart and a chore chart that work for us right now. I am really liking our schedule now too, get up get going get the core stuff done, take a break for lunch, I exercise, the kids play and then we have group instruction and finish up in the afternoon. Yay!Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2876576487946702561.post-39519400967870673982013-09-08T23:48:00.001-07:002013-09-08T23:48:17.775-07:00Fun with scienceThis week went fairly well, I love having my kids home and .i love all our studying and learning. It is invigorating and fun to me. We are studying matter in science and we made some awesome stuff which sometimes acts a liquid and sometimes acts as a solid. Just mix 1 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of water for some fun and a big mess we cleaned up multiple times, it was worth it though. We'll mix it with sand next and make moon sand. We've also got a couple different crystals growing. I love seeing the kids perk up and try stuff like this!Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01770576146756130574noreply@blogger.com0