Snow Day!!

School was canceled for Brooke today. I jokingly asked Josh if that meant that it was a snow day for the rest of us. Well, the snowstorm somehow knocked out our internet and guess what? The girls' couldn't get into their computer school without being connected to my computer. So we all got our snow day!! I was very excited. I slept in and it was so nice. The kids slept in, too. Well, not Allison and Sophia. For some reason they were up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7:30. But Josh was up so he got them their breakfast...cookies and milk! I am sure they want me to sleep in every day that dad is home now! It was a very nice and lazy day at our house. I ran on the treadmill this afternoon and then Josh and I drove to town for a bit later in the afternoon. The kids watched a movie and played outside in the snow for the afternoon. We picked up some KFC for supper and now we are planning on getting everyone to bed and having some peace and quiet for the evening. But, it's back to the books for us all tomorrow!

Back To School

Wow, a four day weekend was just what I needed! We managed to get a lot of housecleaning done. I had time to catch up on my school grading and planning. I even made out a new schedule for the week. I would love to post our daily schedule, but I don't know how to do that on here! Here's the basics:

• We are getting up at 7:00. I run first while the older girls get ready and get the little ones ready. Then Em and Grace take their turns on the treadmill. Having them run in the morning is such a great thing. It especially helps Grace to get some of that extra energy out right away in the morning. It seems to help her through the whole day!
• I have basic school scheduled in the morning and all the leftover stuff after lunch. That would be things such as reading out loud to the girls, having Sophia and Grace read to me, and any other projects that need to be done.
• Music practice comes after school and after nap time. Then we have some time for some daily house cleaning.
• Then it is pretty much supper and evening chores and bedtime.

Today didn't go as planned exactly because I had to run into town for a chiropractor appointment and I took Grace in to get her new glasses. But, as long as we are able to finish the major school things in the morning, then an afternoon here and there of missed school isn't such a big deal. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and hoping for a feeling of accomplishment by the end of the day!

B Is For Banana Splits!

One Good Thing About Homeschooling

I have a minor cold that is really knocking me down. It doesn't really bother me all day, but by the middle of the night my throat hurts, I cough a little, and my head just pounds. My head was pounding so bad this morning that I just couldn't get myself out of bed. Poor Emily kept coming in to tell me what time it was because I kept saying to come back in a half hour and wake me up. Then I would send her out again to check on me in another half hour. Finally, I woke up on my own around 9:30 and my headache was feeling better. Thank goodness! So another late start to the day. I guess I titled this post one good thing about homeschooling but now I guess I have a couple things that are good, that I was reminded of today:

• How wonderful to be able to sleep when not feeling well and know that the little girls will be taken care of. I didn't even have to ask or tell them, it just happens that way. The morning went on as usual even with me sleeping. They started school by 8:30 and had the little girls fed and ready without being told. I do love that part of homeschooling!
• The next good thing I realized today as the girls and I were taking a break and watching one of the Duggar shows. It was about two of the daughters and a trip they took together. We watched as they interviewed and followed these two girls on their trip. We learned how close in age they are and how good of friends they are. After watching a while I asked the girls, "Who does that sound like?" Emily and Grace were thinking the same thing. They are close in age and they really are best friends. They do have their arguments and times where they don't get along. But really all in all, they are so close to each other. I don't think if they were in public school that they would get along like they do, because really public school is so completely the opposite of that!

So I guess the good point to all of this is that it makes me realize that no matter how far behind I am on our school work sometimes, I am still so glad we homeschool. There are more important things in life than doing schoolwork and getting good grades. These kids are learning about real life, about caring for others when they don't feel good, about pitching in where it is needed just because it needs to be done, and they are learning to be best friends, not enemies. Those are the things that really matter in the end if you ask me!

A Short Week

Well, since we now have a public school student in the house, we are pretty much following the public school schedule. On the bright side of that, Brooke has Thursday and Friday off of school for teacher's convention, so the rest of us get it off, too! I am so looking forward to the days off from school. I wish I had the time to just relax, but I am leaning more toward having a couple of house work days. I am so far behind on everything around here, or at least it feels that way. So I need to do some thinking and figure out what I would like to accomplish. I wonder if the kids will be as excited as I am about this!? Hee hee!!

Anyway, nothing new on the school front, other than having a short week here. I am consistently behind on correcting school, but that is nothing new. I wonder if that will ever change or if I will eventually just accept that this is who I am?

Field Trip

Today was very exciting for the girls because we got to go on a field trip! My friend, the girls' fiddle teacher, teaches at a little one room school house. She has three boys and one girl in her school. She thought it would be fun for her school kids and my kids to go on this field trip together...and she was so right! We met them at the fire station at 11:00 for a tour that lasted almost two hours, thanks to a great fireman and kids that had a lot of great questions! After that we all met up at Pizza Hut and enjoyed pizza and some great conversation. Then we were off to the bowling alley for a quick game. It was a fun time for all of the kids, they all seemed to enjoy each others company immensely. We are hoping to be able to get together atleast once a month for a field trip or some phy-ed. I only wish we were a little bit closer so we could do more activities together. I forgot to get a picture today, but hopefully Mrs. Castro will send me one soon so I can put it up on here and you can see the kids in the fire truck!

Curriculum

Okay, nothing exciting to note today so I thought I would just let you know what we are using for curriculum this year.

Emily - Emily is using Switched On Schoolhouse sixth grade this year. We actually had to buy the curriculum this year because Brooke didn't start SOS until 7th grade. But atleast I know I will be able to use it for Grace. The money savings with this curriculum is so great. Emily also has a composition notebook that I would like her to write in twice a week, but we are lucky to get in once a week. I have her write atleast half a page about anything she wants and then I correct grammar and spelling errors. This was a great idea I received last year from another homeschool mom. It really shows me exactly where she needs improvement. I just started having her do a Bible Copy notebook, too. I would like her to write in that twice a week also, but again I am lucky to have her do it once a week. I am hoping next week to be more organized in this area, ha ha. So what I am doing the Bible copy for, other than the obvious of learning the Bible, is handwriting because I decided not to order formal handwriting books this year.

Grace - Grace is using SOS 4th grade this year. I am also doing a separate phonics and spelling program with her. I just feel that she needs some(a lot) of review in phonics. So I ordered a program called Vo-Wac. The public schools around here use it and I think it worked well with Brooke having had it in public school in K and 1st grade. I did have to go back to second grade with this curriculum though because it is pretty hard to throw them in to the middle of it. But it has been very good for her to learn these rules and sometimes easy is a good way to start. Grace is also doing the composition and Bible copy notebooks.

Sophia - First off I have to say that Sophia LOVES school. She is so disappointed when it is the weekend and we don't do school. I am using Vo-Wac phonics with her, too. She is already learning to read some and just loves it. She is doing Saxon K for math. That has been going great. I really disliked that program with Emily and Grace, but I seem to enjoy teaching it to Sophia. I am glad that I had saved the teachers manual and only had to spend around $10 on the meeting book.

Allison - I can't leave Allison out. Last Christmas, my mother-in-law bought her some Kumon workbooks that I had told her I thought Allison would like. I don't think she was quite ready for them yet at that time, but she sure is ready now. It literally takes me less than ten minutes to do a page in all four books and it makes Allison feel so big to be able to do school like her sisters!

Lydia - I guess you could say Lydia has some school, too. I have been trying to do some "blanket time" with her each day. Which really means a couple times a week. I love blanket time because it teaches her how to stay where I tell her, how to play quietly, and how to sit still. She isn't crazy about it but she does get really excited when I tell her all done. She gets right up and starts picking up her toys and even carries her toys to her bedroom to put them away. Now Allison actually asks everyday if we can do blanket time and Sophia even wants to join in. It works good for me because it helps Lydia to see her sister's sitting nice. It just helps her to know what is expected. I guess the other thing Lydia does for "school" is get the "Lady With the Alligator Purse" book read to her. That is her favorite book right now.

It's Me!

The big smile says it all! Allison came up to me this afternoon and she was so excited. She was saying "Look, it's me! It's ME!" She was so proud of herself because she drew a picture of herself on her magna doodle. I thought she did a great job, too!

On the school side of things, I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning last night so I didn't get up until 7:30 and I let the girls sleep in even later because I knew Emily hasn't been feeling all that great. So I spent most of today trying to convince myself that I don't really need a schedule. We function just fine with this "get done what we get done and call it good" philosophy. I think I spend way too much time worrying about how to do things instead of just doing them. Is there hope for me? Probably not. I mean I've been this way as far back as I can remember so why would I change now. So anyway, I did manage to get school done with Sophia today. Emily and Grace did their SOS school. Grace did read aloud to me. I got a lot done on reformatting my blogs, yeah that's important. But all in all, if I look back, I would have to say that it was good enough. There's always tomorrow to catch up on things!

Not Such A Good Plan

We did it. We actually all got up at 6:30 this morning. It was nice. School was started by 8:00 so goal accomplished. I think most of the computer work was done by noon, too. You would think I would be happy. But after lunch when it came time for me to read aloud to the older girls, well, I guess you can see what happened in the picture! We all fell asleep! Well actually in this picture we are fake sleeping because we woke up when Josh came out and I had him take a quick picture of the sad mess we were! So needless to say, I'm pitching the 6:30 idea. Tomorrow we will wake up at our usual time of 7:00. But with me showering at night, mostly because Brooke and Josh use up all the hot water in the morning, I am out earlier and able to keep the kids moving. So starting school by 8:30 should be doable. It was a pretty good day though. We got quite a bit done. I guess the only thing I didn't finish that should have been done was helping Emily take notes on her History lesson. But I bet it will still be there waiting for us tomorrow! And I should have time to help her during the little ones' naps because hopefully we won't all fall asleep again!

A New Plan

That's what I do. A new plan, a new schedule. I just can't seem to ever get it "perfect". So the new plan this morning was to skip morning chores and get right to work on school. Well it seemed like a good idea until after breakfast when I realized that we absolutely have to do morning chores. I will go crazy if I have to sit all morning in a messy house. So tomorrow we will try to get up at 6:30 so we can all be ready for school by 8:00. My purpose for this is to be done with school everyday by noon. Doesn't that sound wonderful? That will leave the afternoons for projects, music, exercise, cleaning, or whatever we feel like doing! We used to get done with school by noon every day. But that was back when it was pretty much just Brooke and she was SO easy to homeschool. Now with Em and Grace it is a bit more work and Kindergarten with Sophia is fun but it also demands some time. Of course not to be left out, Allison is now getting to do some fun Kumon workbook stuff with me. So the good of this is getting done with the serious school by noon. That will be a relief. The not so good? Well, it leaves no time for exercise for me or the kids in the morning and it means getting up much earlier than I like to. So I guess it'll have to do for this week. I'm sure by next week I can think up a great NEW plan for us!