Christmas help anyone pt 1?

 

So I've done a lot of odd jobs during Christmas time over the years; primarily of the retail variety. It puts you smack dab in the middle of the Christmas rush. You have random conversations with people, you get to see what's on sale, etc. etc. I make a little Christmas cash and everyone's happy right?

Well this year truly takes the cake. My husband saw a commercial about amazon.com needing seasonal help at their fulfillment center 25 minutes from where we live. It took an hour just to fill out the application online. Next you show up at a strip mall for further testing and an interview. I got to the strip mall one hour after the place opened because I wanted to be there early. I waited in line with other "characters," and I do mean characters for an hour. Once inside, it was another 2 hours before I walked out of the door with my schedule to report to work on 12/4.

My head was spinning. I thought I could work about 20 hours per week until Christmas. Little did I know they only had full-time shifts. My choice was 7:30 - 5 pm or 5:30 pm - 4 am! My mouth hung open but I had 3 hours invested already so I took the night shift. You know I homeschool during the day so it was just no way to do the day shift.

My husband laughed so long when I told him the story. But hey, I like a challenge, they promised 5-20 miles of walking a night; and I could stand to lose a few pounds. I actually looked forward to it. I knew I could only do one week realistically. There was no way to keep this type of schedule through Christmas. By night 2, I was wondering if I would make it to my last night.

Stay tuned for part 2........

Second Full Week of School

Well school is off to a great start.  We are working through lessons and getting things done.  NuNu is enjoying her Marine Biology online course through Bridgeway Academy which I will be reviewing soon.  Princess is adjusting well to her two public school courses.  Whoever said Algebra 2 starts with a review of Algebra 1 was uninformed.  Granted we didn't complete Algebra 1 in its entirety but they are doing standard deviation and beginning statistics none of which isn't in any Algebra 1 curriculum I've seen.  Princess is definitely up to the challenge.  She seems to thrive on challenge.  She says she asks more questions in class than other students but she wants to make sure she understands everything.  That's my girl! 

The girls started their weekly CrossFit class today as well.  Boy did they get a good workout.  Just what they need.  I wished I couldv'e joined in maybe next week.

Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.

Flu season

There is no fun in being sick.  Tuesday two of my daughters and I were in bed all day.  My oldest daughter took care of us and the baby.  Wednesday all of us except for the baby were in bed or on the couch all day while my husband stayed home from work to take care of us.  A visit to the doctor revealed that two of us tested positive for strep throat and the flu.  We are all on antibiotics and tamiflu as we all have the same symptoms.

Thursday my husband comes home from work and barely makes it up to the bedroom.  He said it hit him like a ton of bricks when he left work and the 2 hour commute home almost did him in.  It has been a miserable week to say the least.  One bright light to my day was having the lady in front of me in the grocery line give me her BOGO free strawberries just because the kids looked as if they would enjoy them.  God bless that woman for her small act of kindness!  It wasn’t even about the strawberries as much as it was about her thoughtfulness.  She has no idea what kind of week I’ve had but she really did make my day.

Needless to say no school happened this week.  Because I am on the upside of healing I managed to crank out a study guide for my daughter’s science test and we finished the video for a poetry curriculum I am reviewing.  I am looking forward to next week being completely different – better.

 Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.

The kid who never has enough to do. . . .

Is this really an issue, a 6th grader who no matter how much you give her to do finishes before noon?

We have daily bible readings.  I try to start our day with this but if for some reason it doesn't happen the kids read the passage on their own as scheduled on their grid sheets.  She does one lesson daily in her grammar book, one lesson daily in her math book.  We do geography and science together but more times than not she is waiting on me to sit down to do it with her.  On occasion I'll copy the mapwork or worksheet for geography and she does it on her own.  I purchased a Prentice-Hall literature workbook to give her more literature work to do.  This is usually reading a short narrative, taking notes on the concept, answering a few questions about the story, and doing short assignments in a reader's journal. Finally, she is suppose to read an hour a day (may or may not happen).  She doesn't like to read.  She says it makes her sleepy.

She still is often finished between noon and 3 pm.  There is also 20-30 minutes of piano practice.  Honestly, I don't always hear the piano.  If I didn't have 6 kids (3 homeschooled and one running around in diapers) perhaps I could make sure she dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" then she wouldn't finish before the end of the day but that just isn't possible.  She really is on top of everything she just often skips the hour reading and piano practice sometimes.  I grapple with feeling guilty that I haven't planned adequately for her but then realize she will often get ....(as I'm typing I hear the piano :) and its 11:56 am)...... all the academics out of the way so that she can run off to the basement to do what she wants to do in solace - sewing, writing in her journal, building with Legos, or nod off :0.

This is where being a part of the TOS review crew is really a blessing.  While my other two older kids are swamped daily and often need the weekends to catch up, the products I have to review for the crew are a sneaky way of giving my 6th grader extra work in the name of helping mommy do a review.

I suppose having this "problem" isn't so bad I just don't want to slack off in keeping her challenged.  I desire for them all to reach their full potential.   I'm off to look at curriculum for next year perhaps a change is in order.  Something that is more challenging and takes a full academic day to complete.


Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.
   

Better To Give than to Receive

"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ " (Acts 20:35)

 I briefly mentioned in a previous post that my daughters entered Landry Academy's "helping people" contest.  My oldest child won so we had the privilege of using the cash prize to help others this month.  It was hard deciding how to use the money as there are so many needs around us.  Her essay mentioned helping widows based on Deuteronomy 14:29.
“...the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”   I began to pray to ask God where we should use the money and he directed me to a nice lady in the dentist office the morning of that prayer.  We talked about many things that morning as we waited in the office.  I gave her my phone number as she wanted to contact me later to give me an answer to something we were discussing.  It wasn't until that phone call that I realized that she was to be the recipient of some of the prize money.  It was so strange to ask a person if there was something she needed assistance with as I was in a position to help.  She broke out in tears as she began to tell me what her prayer had been recently regarding some needs in her life.  She was a widow raising two granddaughters and definitely needed some help.

I met her at her small church that next Sunday morning where I was put on the spot to come to the front with her to tell the congregation what God had done for her.  I realized while speaking to the congregation that they were also the recipients of this blessing.  I saw how encouraged they were by what we were saying, most of all that God still answers prayer and you never know where your blessing will come from.  

This past Friday our family volunteered at an emergency shelter preparing and serving meals to the families living there.  The day started with grocery shopping for the items we needed for the meal then Princess made 25 sandwiches to leave at the shelter for lunches on Saturday.  The shelters mission is to provide relief, foster hope, and self-sufficiency to area neighbors in crises due to hunger, homelessness, and personal violence.  We enjoyed lending a helping hand to these folks.  

I can't help but think we probably would never be able to do something like this if we weren't homeschoolers and what a HUGE blessing we would be missing out on.  There are life long lessons that are being learned as we serve others.  

Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.

Bonjour...visiting France

In our studies this week we visited France...Monday morning we had a french breakfast of croissants, yogurt, and other pastries compliments of Panera.  We also had hot chocolate with whipped cream, peppermint mocha for me ;)  Of course school got off to an enthusiastic start.  NuNu asked if we will have a french breakfast every morning while in France.  :0  Ahh ....no.

I'm taking this opportunity to study the Impressionist artists while studying France - Monet, Renoir, Degas.  I've been trying to figure out how to include artists studies with all the many things we must do each week and this just seems to work perfectly.  I'm using the following resources and notebooking to accomplish the study:

The usual mapwork was included this week- identifying the physical features of the country, famous landmarks and other interesting facts.  I purchased french bread and brie for tasting this week as well.  We made sandwiches out of the bread but didn't get to the Brie, maybe next week.

We received the second essay graded by the community college professor this week.  Princess received a similar grade as the first paper with helpful comments included on improving.

I've decided to take a different route with Literature & Composition with Pumpkin starting next week.  We've been working diligently through Excellence in Literature (Intro to Composition) but it takes her longer to read the works assigned.  She just finished Jane Eyre with the help of an audio book.  I've been helping her with outlining for the essay assigned when I realized she could use additional help with writing instruction.  My normal routine has been read (which takes about 4 weeks) then write which takes 1-2 weeks.  Too much time goes by before we get to another writing assignment so she doesn't get as much practice as I think she needs.  I purchased 3 public school texts about a year ago at a library sale and as I read through the 9th grade text I knew it was the perfect solution. 


I have already scheduled out 2-3 months of assigned reading and writing.  I am excited about this new direction and I am so glad I go to the library sales religiously.  I purchased 9-11th grades for $1 each!

The book gives her directions to jot down ideas after reading short stories that become notes for writing a paper a few weeks down the road.  Her first writing assignment will be writing a narrative.

15 weeks of working through this text will give her good experience in knowing what it takes to write a good paper.  It teaches her to annotate and keep notes in her writing journal as she reads the assigned stories. 

I've told her to do this as she reads as it will help her locate the information she needs for writing but she never does it.  Now she has a text that specifically tells her what to look for while reading and to ask herself specific questions and jot down the answers in her reading journal.  Excellent!

I'm hoping this text will start some good habits that she will then take into her lit/comp studies for next year.

Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers and Daisyhead to see what other moms were up to this week.

The Kennedy Center

I always get inspired to do a weekly wrap up after I read other bloggers' wrap up.   I'm inspired by their week and maybe just maybe someone will be inspired or encouraged by my week.  I decided to try a different format this week to switch it up a bit. 

My Favorite Thing this Week...  seeing Sphinx Virtuosi with friends at the Kennedy Center.  I was surprised at my reaction to this performance - simply exhilarating.  One solo performer was 15 years' old and I was just in awe of her performance.  There is a Q & A session after each performance.  An audience member asked how long she practiced and she answered 5 hours per day!  She then said she was homeschooled so she had time to do that.  Of course there were homeschoolers in the house who cheered loudly after that.

From their website:
 The Sphinx Virtuosi Tour offers a diverse program featuring well-known repertoire in addition to works by African-American and Latino composers, including works by Mozart, Piazzolla, Michael Abels, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and others. The Sphinx Virtuosi (formerly Sphinx Chamber Orchestra) is a conductorless ensemble comprised of alumni from the Sphinx Competition for young Black and Latino string players. This unique group has earned rave reviews from The New York Times. Allan Kozinn of the Times described their performances as "first-rate in every way" and the ensemble to have "produced a more beautiful, precise and carefully shaped sound than some fully professional orchestras that come through Carnegie Hall in the course of the year."

 We're Reading...well we just finished Around the World in 80 days.  It's part of the Excellence in Literature curriculum that Pumpkin is doing this year.  We often like to look at the movie of a book after we read it so we got this copy from the library.  This version was not very well done.  There is an updated version with Jackie Chann but it isn't at my library yet.

 Places We're Going...  the usual weekly routine of co-op, the YMCA for Zumba, Art & Piano.

 Things I'm Working On... staying ahead of the kids with the weekly lesson plan sheets.  If I'm organized it makes for a smoother week.

Random Things I'm Thinking about ...  preparing Princess for 11th grade that looms right around the corner - ordering drivers' education materials, talking to the local PS to make sure I get a spot for her to take PSATs,  application to VCU's Art intensive for high schoolers, and talking to the local CC for dual enrollment. 


Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.

Week 3 of School & Landry Academy

To say its been busy around here is an understatement.  I've heard it said that the busy people get things done.  I think psychologically you know you have to stay on top of more things so you just get it done.  Not an idle moment here.  Using grid sheets for each student keeps everyone on track has been working really well.  Everything is planned out down to how many pages to read each day to when to ask mom for the quiz or test.  No one has to wait on mom to go to the next thing and they know to ask for help immediately if they get stumped. Of course this requires me to stay on track of grading work but that's a topic for another day. We are starting out our day together around reading the bible and this book:

It is part of the MFW ECC curriculum which the younger girls are doing this year.  The stories are fascinating and we can't wait to find out each day what will happen next in this adventure.  There are some great discussion questions at the end of each story which makes for great conversation among us.  The reviews at amazon.com all same the same thing - enjoyable book that captures so many truths of the Christian faith.

I've been so busy with The Old School house curriculum reviews that I've hardly had a chance to write a weekly wrap up.  What prompted me to write one this week is Princess' experience at Landry Academy's 2 day lab intensive.  It was great!  I dropped her off Monday morning at 8:30 am.  My mom who lives in the city where the intensive was held picked her up and took her back the next morning.  The intensive was held about 1 hour from our home.  What an experience.  She dissected a pregnant lamb, a frog, a sheep's heart, and a cow's eye.  I know gross and so much more than what is required in a high school biology course.  I was concerned that it was too much in a short period of time and would she remember all the details as she studies the text throughout the year.  Let me tell you my concerns weren't warranted.  She took lots of pics and Landry provided a nice book of notes with lab reports for her to fill out.  I was able to look through and see her diagrams and write-ups.  She also worked within a group to perform the labs.  I could've never replicated this experience at home or at the local coop.  I can't believe I was so broken up about not getting in the coop biology class back in June.  This was so much better and all for the cost of the microscope I would've purchased to do labs at home. This was worth the money. 

If Landry comes to your city do not hesitate to sign up.  I know this sounds like a review but it is not.  I am looking at other classes they offer to see if there is anything we should sign up for.  I'm thinking we just might tackle Chemistry at home next year and do the 2 day intensive for Chemistry with Landry.  

This was such a great experience I'm hoping other Landry classes are this good.   Dissection pics to follow, look at your own risk:

Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.

Summer's end is quickly approaching

It is really a challenge to do a weekly wrap up with so many product reviews going on around here but I have a lot of neat things to share.  I was literally twittling my thumbs last summer looking for things to do to keep busy.  This year I can barely keep up.  I've had 3 new children join my household since July 6th so I know that has a lot to do with it.  We went from consuming 1 gallon of milk in 10 days to 3 gallons in a week!  BIG adjustment and a lot of store runs but that is a story for another time.

Princess needed to recover from her 2 week leadership institute 2 weeks ago at JMU but she only got one week's rest before we I signed us all up to volunteer at a summer camp for kids.  It was only two days, 2.5 hours each and lunch was provided.  It wasn't bad and a lot of fun to work with an agency dedicated to bring great programs to underprivileged kids.

Then she started an 8 week SAT writing class through time4writing.com (review coming up in a few weeks).  Lastly, she has been attending a Math & Science camp all this week at George Washington University.  I have to drive every morning during morning rush hour to drop her off by 8:30 am then back again to pick her up by 3:30 pm.  I use the HOV lanes so I am able to get there in about 40 minutes if I don't take a wrong turn which I do every.single.day.  If anyone has ever driven in the metro DC area you understand!  The things we do for our kids.  

She has spent the week designing and constructing a bridge model.  She has tinkered with computer design software, she budgeted funds for material costs and built a mini-model to withstand weight.  It has been a great experience for her.

mini model

the final bridge

She is so tired and I feel a little sorry for her but I know it is all good practice for her.  She is using the skills we learn during the school year and putting it to work in the outside world with kids her own age.  Her one consistent response to me about her experiences this summer is "now I remember why I hate group projects!"

While Princess is all work and very little play, we spent a day at Kings Dominion.  The weather was perfect and there were no long lines.  I didn't feel bad leaving Princess behind since she went to Six Flags while at JMU without us. 

It been a good week.  Curriculum planning looms in the back of my mind but I just can't bring myself to pick up any books.  I'm praying it will just all come together when I need it to. 

Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.

Trying to get back to "normal" isn't easy after a vacation.  We spent last week in Orlando and tried to recover this week.  We escaped the state right before the rain from the coastal storms.  Orlando wasn't as hot this year as it has been in previous years.  Pumpkin got it right when she said our vacation week was the calm before the storm.  Well said.  That is exactly how it felt.  It was a relaxing week.


I did manage to send off my Notice of Intent and Test scores to the county board of education and I gave Princess a two week math schedule so that she could review her Algebra before we move on to the newer concepts.  Not bad for one week after vacation.  We finished our Homeschool Spanish Academy lessons this week.  My review is in my previous post (Wednesday).  The experience motivated me to seek out online resources to continue our Spanish studies.  I found a Spanish 1 scope & sequence for high school Spanish and I purchased a used Spanish 1 Abeka curriculum from an area homeschooler.  There are great Spanish videos on YouTube to help with pronunciation.   I am really considering tackling Spanish 1 on my own for Princess' sophomore year.  I am intimidated but I know I can do it.  I just don't know if something else would suffer as there is so much ground to cover next year for all 3 girls.  My homeschool budget says I need to try the do it yourself route.


What else happened this week.  We are enjoying a teen bible study based on the Revolutionary Love book.

What a great time of fellowship for the girls and the moms.    My friend, who facilitates the group, is so very creative.  There is a craft and snack time that she really puts a lot of thought into.  What a great thing to do in the summer for a small group.  Last night's snack was cupcakes.  Aren't these cute?  He was almost too cute to eat...almost. 

Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.

The State Convention

Last year I spent 3 days at the state homeschool convention as it was my first time attending my own state's convention.  This year I spent only 1 day and I took the kids. My mom tagged along as well curious to see what it was all about.  I got there at 7:30 am and by lunch time we were all tired.  The girls and I spent the first couple of hours volunteering in the Used Curriculum sale.  I didn't even have a chance to attend workshops as I was on a mission to get everything on my list before leaving for the day.

The girls were excited to find Focus on the Family Odyssey tapes & CDs.  I had to say yes because they worked so hard volunteering.  NuNu met new friends roaming around the hall.  She definitely isn't a shy girl.

The Convention didn't seem as well attended as the previous year but it was still a very nice showing.  Perhaps next year I can take my time and experience the entire conference and glean nuggets of wisdom from the conference speakers.


What else is happening around here?


My garden is growing!  It is the first time ever I've tried to grow vegetables.  I have yellow and green squash coming up and salad leaves. 

We are hit or miss with school work.  The younger girls are enjoying Spanish lessons with Homeschool Spanish Academy (a review coming soon).  NuNu started reading Little Women this week.  I'm not sure if I want to use the Veritas Press literature guide for Little Women that I picked up at a curriculum sale. Maybe I should just let her read for fun then we can look at the movie.  Princess is still working through MFW WHL!  I have no idea what is taking soooo looong.  I guess its just a consequence of time not well managed.  Sigh..


When I was thinking about this post it seemed as though I had so much more to say but for the life of me I don't know what was on my mind before.  Well until next week check out what other homeschoolers did this week over at weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers

How is it possible that it is June 1 already?  Really?  It really makes me wonder if I am truly redeeming the time.  I am constantly overwhelmed by the many options facing me from day to day.  It is hard to stay focused on a daily basis. One of the many things I took from my years of being in the real estate business is that one question looming in the back of my mind - am I doing the best possible thing I can do with my time right now?  Every year I would set goals for my business:  How much money do I want to make?  How many houses must I sell based on the average home price in my area to meet my goal?  Finally how many clients/customers must I "touch" by way of phone, emails, face to face contact to generate a closed transaction?  I haven't sold a home in over 4 years and that formula still rolls right out of my head.


I wish I could find a similar formula for homeschooling. How do the daily activities I undertake help me to reach my goals?  First, what are my goals?


To raise confident, God-fearing woman in a culture that seeks to steer them otherwise.   I want my girls to leave my home having placed their faith in Jesus Christ and armed with the tools needed to live a life for his glory.


I guess that is more of a mission than a goal.  What goals feed that mission?


1.  Spiritual preparedness by way of biblical steaching & apologetics
2.  Academic preparedness by way of challenging curricula that meets their needs to think critically and communicate effectively.
3.  Practical life skills to know how to live independently and interdependently with others.


What drives these goals?


1.  Curriculum choices.  Do they allow me to reach my goals while catering to the learning styles of my children?
2.  Extra curricular activities.  Do they allow my kids to learn skills that are in step with my goals?


So what choices am I making everyday that hinder my ability to accomplish my goals?
The one thing that comes to mind is T.V.  It is a complete waste of time in my opinion.  With the exception of the news and shows that are historical or scientific in nature, what is really the point?  I have really been contemplating whether or not to cut it out all together but I just can't bring myself to do it.


I really could break down these goals into daily tasks but I would make everyone absolutely miserable trying to follow them.  However, these tasks could be a benchmark to see where we are more so than a schedule to follow.  I'm really trying to sell this to myself because I am trying to figure out why we didn't accomplish all the things I set out to accomplish this year.  For now, I think I'll end on a more encouraging note and focus on what we actually accomplished this year (with the younger two):

• 10+ writing assignment on various topics.  Grammar and Style improvements through the revision process and concentrated grammar instruction in specific areas (pronoun/antecedent agreement, proper comma usage, varying sentence structure, summaries, constructing narratives, organizing from brainstorms, etc.)
• novel completions (Almost Home, Amos Fortune, Mary Jones and Her Bible, Tom Sawyer, Bound for Oregon, William Carey, many personal pics)
• Poetry study
• Lots of bible reading and prayer
• Math skills progression (multiplication speed drills, fractions, decimals)
• Garden planting
• Improved spelling skills
• new friendships & maintaining fellowship with those friends
• Science knowledge, lab reports, and experiments
• Science Wrap-Up with Disney Imagineering Videos (all 11 of them!)
• Music study / one great piano recital

• Drama production (stage presence)

Join the weekly wrap up by visiting the weird, unsocialized homeschoolers blog and sign up and see what other homeschoolingfamilies have been doing this week.

Strawberry Picking & EOY Testing

This week was spent during our state mandated end of year testing.  Because coop is over and the testing is over my kids think the school year is over.  Uh...no.  I had to make some adjustments to my lesson plans b/c if we stay the course we will never be finished.  I just don't know how the weeks got away from me.  Maybe I took too many detours.  Not sure.  One thing I do know for sure is that we will be continuing with Math & Reading throughout the summer.  I feel sad that we probably won't finish all of our history studies but Math is more important IMHO. 


No matter what I have planned for school I couldn't pass up an opportunity to go strawberry picking.  The weather was so very nice this week.  We've never been picking before so I had to go.  To my surprise is was a lot of fun.  We were joined by a few friends which added to the experience.  The atmosphere in the "country" is so very different from the atmosphere in the 'burbs.  Wide open spaces, slower pace of life, I don't think anyone wanted to leave.  The farm at the strawberry patch had a nice market with homemade goods including ice cream and organic meats.  I purchased a sample of steakburger that I put on the grill - yum.  I want to purchase a side of beef to freeze but it isn't cheap. 

Other happenings this week included being accepted for the summer TOS product review crew.  I've already been approved to do my first review.  So look for that review mid June.  In the meantime check out this giveaway at fellow TOS crew member's blog.

Join the weekly wrap up by visiting the weird, unsocialized homeschoolers blog and sign up and see what other homeschoolingfamilies have been doing this week.