First Day of School 2012-2013

This is our first day of the new school year.  Yes, it is a Wednesday, but Madyson and Mackenzie are attending the public school this year and this is their first day, so I decided to start Katy and Ava Marie on the same day.

After reading Psalms 15 together I worked with Ava Marie first.  We started by watching the Hooked On Phonics video for Pre-K 1, Letters A through H.  Then we used the workbook and read the story that came with that.  Then she wrote her A's in her Letter Book.  After that I gave her a choice to have me read some books to her or she could color a picture on plain paper with her new markers, she chose drawing the picture.  So we will read some books after lunch.

While Ava Marie and I worked together, Katy started her science.  I gave her a list of what she will need to do each day:
Read
Journal one page
Science
Math
Handwriting

And she can choose what order works best for her, unless we have something planned and I need her to get one of them done first.  She is in the 7th Grade now, so I want her to have more control over when and how she completes her work.  Also, we are focusing a lot on writing this year.  For the last 2 years we have mainly focused on Reading and History.  This year I want her to focus on Writing and Math.  She loves to read and I have noticed that she is likes to create stories and also to journal.  I told her if she can keep up her journal for the next 2 weeks, I will help her create a Blog of her own.

This will be helpful in teaching her about the internet also.  Up until now I have not allowed my children to use the internet except under my watchful eye, which won't really change. But I have also not allowed Katy to do much research on the internet, I just feel that old fashioned books are better!

But...I love to Blog and I love to read other's Blogs, so I want to be able to share this with Katy, I just want to make sure she is safe.  I will link her Blog to this Blog and also to my personal Blog, Defying Gravity.  I don't get a lot of traffic, so I am not concerned about who will read her Blog.

And here is our traditional First Day of School picture on the front porch with our Public school girls.  The sun was shining in their eyes.  Mackenzie is in 4th Grade and Madyson is in 3rd Grade.

It is a half day of school today, so the girls will be home for lunch and then  think I will take them swimming!  We won't have very many days left of this great weather or the time to swim.  Our twin boys are due any day now and dance classes will start back up in September.  I need to remind myself to take advantage of every opportunity to get them outside and using up their energy!!

I hope everyone as a great First Day of School!

Update on Mackenzie

She is doing great! She is just finishing up her 2nd week back to public school and I have to admit, she is really loving it. Her teacher, Mrs. Haines is thrilled with her, she told me this morning that Mackenzie fits in great and is a great asset to the classroom.

Mackenzie is pretty much on track with all they are studying, she has slipped right in with her friends and I am pleased with that. We are still doing our Teaching Textbooks math at home and also continuing to read from the Sonlight list of books that we have.

And things have really settled down at home during the day. Katy is able to focus better and I have been getting all of my work done...on time. I don't know what the future will bring for all of us, but I think Mackenzie will stay in public school at least for the remainder of elementary school. It suits her and after all, isn't that the best part of being able to homeschool, to give each of your children the unique combination of what they need to be successful in learning.

Homeschool Dropout

I am sad to say that I have decided to send my 2nd daughter, Mackenzie, back to public school.

This is not a rash, reactive decision. I have been thinking about this for a long time.

You see Katy and I had the most awesome first year of homeschool. I am not saying everything went according to plan. It definitely wasn't a perfect year. But it was a great year. She learned so much, both academically and emotionally. We became so much closer, spending a lot of time together working on the same goals will do that for you. And I dreamed of including Mackenzie with us.

And I am glad that I did. I think she learned a lot also, and I have to say here, this decision had nothing to do with our curriculum or her learning. Homeschool itself went great! It is after school that did not work.

You see the girls are finished with school around 12 noon or 1pm. We eat lunch and then they are supposed to pick from a myriad of choices what to do for the rest of the afternoon. That is if we don't have dance or voice or errands or whatever...you get the picture.

And most days we really do have a lot of things to do after homeschool is finished. But right now is tax season, and I need to work. So during lunch I head to my office which is about 10 feet away from the kitchen table! I need to be able to close my office door and work for an uninterrupted 2-3 hours...that's all I ask! I do the bulk of my work at night when they sleep.

The girls have a list they can pick from, and they can do these together or separately:

Read

Chores

Art (We have a 700 square foot art room in the basement with every kind of supply you can think of!)

Sewing

American Girl Dolls & Accessories

Puzzles

Games

Dance

Sing

Listen to books on tape

And more that I have probably forgotten. But the only thing they want to do is fight and torment each other! One pokes the other, then the other hits back. This goes on for the whole afternoon!

I scream from my office, "Don't make me come out there!" Yeah, they're totally scared!

I know what is going on. They want my attention, I get that. But at this time of year, for the next 4 months I can't give them my undivided attention. As I tell my children..."If I don't work, you don't eat!"

So last Tuesday, as Mackenzie was crying for the tenth time that day that Katy was being mean to her. I announced that we were giving up! I made Mackenzie get dressed and we drove up to the school. I think she thought the whole way up there that I was NOT serious, until we walked into the school office and I started filling out the paperwork.

They had Thursday and Friday off because of conferences, so she will officially start back to school on Monday. I am not excited about this, and I may live to regret it. But I am fond of food and so are my children!

A Good Reason to Homeschool

One of the reasons we homeschool is to have more time for extra curricular activities. My daughters love to sing and dance and act, so by homeschooling we have plenty of time to take classes and go to rehearsals.

When they were all in public school, it was hard to balance school, dance, voice lessons, rehearsals and HOMEWORK. Of course the biggest problem was the homework. When my son Randy was younger I had him attend a private Montessori school. He started when he was 3 years old in Preschool and stayed there until 5th grade. Part of the philosophy of the school was that school was for school work and home was for family life. Therefore there was no homework!

It was wonderful! Although he was in school until 4pm during the week, we were free to pursue lots of fun things after school and on the weekends. There was never a night that we would arrive home after a late soccer practice only to remember that he had to finish a project or a math page or whatever!

I am certain that if I had known more about homeschooling when Randy was ready to leave the Montessori school that I would have definitely homeschooled him rather than put him in public school.

Katy during a performance at Miller Marley School of Dance. She takes ballet, tap, jazz and performs with the Senior Showbiz Performers. She also takes Voice lessons with Elizabeth Luthi at her Voice Studio.

Mackenzie with her group at Halloween. She is dressed like a "Nerd." Mackenzie takes ballet, tap, jazz and hip hop and performs with the Junior Showbiz Performers. She also takes voice lessons with Elizabeth Luthi.

Standing for Spencer

We got to take part in a very patriotic and emotional farewell to a young serviceman from our area who died in Afganisthan. His name was Spencer Duncan and he attended the local High School, he was just 21 years old.

My Mom was here to go with us. People from all over our city and the surrounding cities lined one of our main streets and they brought his coffin from the airport and drove down past the High School and Middle School and past a lot of businesses.

It was very somber and everyone held flags and wore red, white and blue. There were a lot of police motorcycles, and the Veterans Motorcycle Club that escorts a lot of our soldiers funerals. Luckily there weren't any protestors.
It was actually very quiet. Spencer's family also drove behind the hearse, they held up signs that said thank you. You could see they were very moved by the communities outpouring of respect. There have been too many of these.

We are standing across from the Middle school and the high school is to the right of us. All the kids were also standing out on the street. They were very respectful, no shouting or pushing.

Togetherness

I think this picture captures it all for me. If homeschooling accomplishes nothing else for my children but brings them together as a close family, then I will be absolutely satisfied!

Last year Katy and I became so close after spending so much time together. I noticed that she showed more respect for me. How else, but by spending your days together will a mother teach her daughters how a life should be lived. How else would I show them what is important to me, how I do things, what kinds of ideas should be embraced?

We start our day at breakfast, together at the table. Then I drive Madyson up to the local public school and the girls clean up after breakfast. They clean off the table, wipe the counters, sweep the floor and put away anything else.

At 9am we sit down at the table in the school area, and we start with a prayer and then bible study, and then we sing a couple of songs or learn a new one.

Next we do History together and talk about the lesson. By this time it is usually around 10:30am, I give the girls a list that has Science, Math, Handwriting, Spelling and Word of the Day on it with boxes to check off when they are complete.

At this point I work one-on-one with Ava Marie by doing a letter lesson or just reading to her. She does towel time while I am with the big girls. Sometimes she chooses a towel time activity to play with me.

By 11am I am in my office and the girls are finishing up the rest of their schoolwork on their own. After they are done they make lunch and play with Ava Marie or watch Math-Tacular or How It Was Made videos. We also set up an art studio in the basement so they like to go down there and work on projects. They love to paint and sew and create little cities out of cereal boxes.

We also have voice lessons on Wednesday, dance on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, and Youth Group on Wednesday night. We are just starting to get involved with a local group called The Homeschool Hookup, a Facebook group that organizes all sorts of activities and fun stuff for homeschoolers. Most are pretty young, but we have had fun in the things we have gone to so far!

A Recap of the start of our 2011 School Year

And this year we have 3 students! Wow! We had such a great school year last year that I made the leap to bring Mackenzie home also. And this year Ava Marie is really ready to do some table work with the big girls.

So here is our 2011/2012 Homeschool Curriculum:

Katy - 12 - 6th Grade

Sonlight History of the US combined yr 1&2, Horizons Math, The Reason For Handwriting, Sonlight Science F - Health, Medicine & Human Anatomy, Bible Study - Book of Psalms.

Mackenzie - 8 - 4th Grade

Sonlight History of the US combined Yr 1&2, Horizons Math, The Reason For Handwriting, Sonlight Science A - Animals, Astronomy & Physics, Bible Study - Book of Psalms.

Ava Marie - 3 - Pre-School

Various Workbooks, All About Reading - Level Pre-1, Hooked On Phonics - Pre-School, Bible Study - Listening to the big girls read from Psalms.

Ava Marie has her own table, though she is welcome to sit with us at the bigger table. I reconfigured the formal dining area, which had never actually been used as a dining area but instead was called the "children's area" with a small size table and chairs, play kitchen, book shelves, etc. I made it our schoolroom , moved from the kitchen table. Mostly I did this because this room is directly outside of my office and my office door is all windows, so I can be in my office and still see what is going on at the school table.

Mackenzie had been asking to be homeschooled last year. At the beginning of summer I told her I would think about it. It kind of all depended on her behavior. By the end of summer I told her I thought it would be a good idea. I also decided to skip her up to 4th grade. She has an October birthday and so the public school made her wait to start until after she was 5, this means she is older than most of the other children in the class for most of the year.

I know it suits boys well to wait, and I kind of think it depends on the child, but Mackenzie was sooooo ready to start school the year before they allowed it. And every year since then she has been so far ahead of what they are learning, both in performance and perception. She can read the same books as Katy and totally understands what is going on.

I am ready for an awesome year!