It has been awhile

We tried to start back to blogging and allowing the girls to blog on their own page but for some reason the app on my phone did not work. 

We moved into a travel trailer 3 years ago and man was learning to homeschool there an adventure.  It still is if I am honest with 2 kids in middle school next year.

Plus we are doing some educational testing on Bubby to see why he is having so much trouble.  We suspect ADHD and possibly dysgraphia.  Baby Girl has had a really hard time with Reading, writing and Math.  We have found that she has dyslexia and possibly dysgraphia and dyscalculia.  It has been a tough journey for them the last few years but we are learning and adding in all kinds of supports to help out.

Princess is working on skipping 7th grade.  She is testing well and I believe we will do that but have not finished looking at that option.  She wants to graduate high school at 16.

Fairy is working at grade level and moving right along. 

We are with a new charter school that is helping us with the Baby Girl to an extent. But she will get all the support she needs to become the doctor she wants to be. 

Next year we will be changing up our curriculum some as well to adjust for issues I have found in a few kids learning.  I will talk more about that at another time.

Curriculum for Next Year

Well it is time again to start researching and deciding on what to teach the kids next year.  Here is what I have come up with so far.

Baby Girl

Phonics- Sing Spell Read and Write has a Letter Program and I am going to start her on that next year.  I am hoping she learns to recognize the letter and possibly the letter sounds.

Buddy

Math- Saxon K (we are starting this year and if we finish I will either go with Saxon 1 or Math U See, still researching that).

Phonics and Writing- Sing Spell Read and Write  I love the curriculum and it should be fun. We also have Ring Around the Phonics which I think will be a great tool.

Lit (Baby Girl and Buddy)- We will be reading, acting out and discussing classic fairy tales.

Fairy

Math- Teaching Textbooks 3

Princess

Math- Teaching Textbooks 4 or 5.  I want to test her close to the end of the year to see which would be the best fit.

Writing, Spelling and Lit will be the same for both Fairy and Princess.

Writing- IEW Intensive A

Spelling- All about Spelling Level 3

Lit- We will be reading The Chronicles of Narnia together and discussing it along with a few projects.

History and Science will be covered for all 4 children together.

I do not have my curriculum picked out yet for these yet.  I know in History we want to study American History and in Science I think we are going to do life science.  Still lots of research for these two things.

But I have a plan and some time.

Oh I forgot we are starting Bible lessons to add on to our other curriculum.  We are starting at
cullen's abc's Bible Study

I know it will be to easy for the older girls but hope it will help them learn more about our Lord.

Our New Year and a fun New Game

Well life got crazy busy before Christmas and is just now slowing down.  My husband has fewer doctors appointments and so no we will hopefully be home more often to school here instead of on the road. 

I was blessed with a Saxon Math for Buddy as well as a Sing, Spell, Read and Write for him and Baby Girl.  We just have to get the workbooks.  I think they are going to enjoy the games and will learn even more. 

We were also blessed with an awesome Phonics game that we are using till the books come in.  It is called Ring Around the Phonics.  I was picked by the maker, Ms. Roma Cox, as one of 3 homeschool moms to get one for free.  She asked that we give honest feedback on her page and because we have had so much fun I decided on my own to post here about it as well.

We got the game in time for Buddy to open it for Christmas and we played a bit Christmas day.  It was fun.

In the pictures above Buddy and Baby Girl were playing Ring Around the Phonics with their cousin Bumble Bee.  I have not asked her mom is I could post pictures of her here so I cut her out of the pictures.  There are green cards for actions they do, they are doing jumping jacks here, and blue cards where they answer questions about their phone number, address, what they want to be and many others.  As they go around the board they have to get the letter sounds right.  There are also books that come with the game and I have the children who are reading read a page before they can do the blue or green cards.  It is a four player game, but I played it with my co-op class with 5 students and they had a blast and wanted to play again.

You can find Ring Around the Phonics at http://www.ringaroundthephonics.com/.

A Little Nervous

Monday I am calling to pull Fairy from CAVA (k12).  She will be homeschooled without a charter school as Princess' teacher can not take on anymore students and I do not want to add other teachers and expectations on to my already crazy schedule.  That is the main reason we are pulling Fairy early.

I have a full week of lesson plans for all the kids completely outlined.  I am as ready as I can be.  I know I have to call the school, then on Tuesday I file the paperwork with the state.  So I am prepared.  But still really nervous as now it is completely on me and there is no real back up.  But I know after homeschooling for almost 3 years that I can do it and once I get over the nervousness we will do great. 

Fairy will be using Teaching Textbooks grade 3 for math.  I had her try it yesterday and she loves it and she is doing well so far. We will also be doing a general math class as a family.  I want to ensure we hit all the basics and that all the children are where they should be.

For language arts and reading she will be using Complete Curriculum Workbook 1st grade and Little House on the Prairie.  She will be doing the same spelling as Princess so she will be working out of Spelling Workout B.

For science we are continuing as a family to study the human body. This week we will be studying the circulatory system and the digestive system.  And in history we are going to be working from Vacation under the Volcano.  We will be studying ancient Roman, especially Pompeii. But first we will be making a video of an interview with the caveman and drawing cave paintings.

For languages Fairy, Buddy and Baby Girl are studying ASL with Signing Time.  I am currently looking for more ways to teach Fairy more as she is learning the signs very quickly.  I am trying to learn them as well but am not doing that well.

Princess is continuing Spanish.  Her teacher is ordering Little Pim for her.  I know it is a young level but with that, the workbook and the computer programs we have I think she should be covered.

This is going to be an exciting week for our family but I hope it all goes smoothly.

School at Home and More Changes

We finished studying ancient Egypt at the start of the month. As our final project we made Egyptian bracelets and amulets from salt dough.  The kids had so much fun.  I took pictures of them making the bracelets and amulets, but not of them painting them.

 

 

We also finished the skeleton unit we were studying in Science.  We watched Stanley the Skeleton and the kids learned so many of the bones.  I took some pictures of them watching, measuring their bones and filling in their lapbooks.

 

 


I paired Princess and Buddy together.  Fairy and Baby Girl worked together.  I explained to the older girls I wanted them to ask the younger children the answer first to give them a chance.  They worked well together and found all the answers with no fighting.
 

They used the computer to look up how many bones in the body.  The bigger girls looked it up then the younger kids remembered it so that the older girls could write it down.
 

 

We are pulling Fairy from the K12 school we have been using.  The girls will be working together to complete all the things they know for school.

School on the Go!

We have been so busy and Daddy had a motorcycle accident so I have not posted lately but we have taken lots of pictures so I am going to post them and add descriptions on a few posts.  I do not want to over do it.

 Princess doing math at the Veterans hospital.  Daddy had appointments all morning so I took a crate with our school supplies and we fed the ducks and then sat down to do school.  All the kids did great and focused really well.  We have had to do this a few times lately.

  The kids loved feeding the ducks.


We have also went to a field trip to the local pet store (went to get crickets).  The workers were taking care of the snakes and were nice enough to allow the kids to hold one and to talk about their care, though they new we were not getting any.

 

Princes loved the snake.  She kept asking if we could get one.  I am not getting a snake! Fairy did not want to hold the snake though she did pet him.  Buddy enjoyed the snake too and was extremely careful with him.  Baby Girl was fine until the snake moved, then she dropped him and refused to hold him or go near him anymore. 

 

Yesterday is the last away from home group of pictures I am going to post.  Daddy had more all day appointments and I did not do school at the hospital because the kids were all out of sorts.  They finally calmed down when we took Daddy to school last night so we did school at Daddy's school!

 


The two smaller kids played with Lego's as I read from their history book.  The older girls worked on math and literature.  They finished it up pretty good and listened for the most part though at one point I had to put Fairy and Princess on separate tables because they were distracting each other.


Oh I almost forgot!  Her is a picture of our school in a crate!

 

 



Trying Something Old Again

When Fairy was a preschooler and Princess had just started homeschooling we found a great website.  The kids loved sitting down around the computer and listening to Ms. Cullen, more than they did just me.  We had a plan and stuck with it.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were preschool.  I used it to set things up and give me some great ideas.  We eventually went out and made some of our own lesson plans to add in the other two days.

Now that Baby Girl is showing such an interest in doing school, and Buddy will enjoy it also I have pulled the website back up.  They have changed it up a bit and added so much more.  It is a great site!  We will be using it with the younger to kids this week.  We will be working on the Space theme.  I think they will love it. 

Buddy will also be working some off Lesson Pathways, another great lesson plan site.  Here are both their websites if you would like to visit.

http://cullensabcs.com/ninasmommy/DIY_Online_Preschool

and

lessonpathways.com