To Co-op or Not to Co-op...

At the end of the last school year, as I contemplated having all of the girls home with me, I worried about the transition from public school days to homeschool days for Mackenzie.  

I also had some worries about our science and math and even writing curriculum for Katy who would be entering the 9th grade in the fall.  I always knew I would homeschool her for High School, and I did not have any second thoughts about that.  But I wanted to be sure that all of my children have the correct classes and knowledge if they choose to further their education by attending college.  (I have an idea for a blog post about college that I will do in the future! *Smile*)

So I started investigating Co-ops in the area.  A Co-op is an enrichment program for homeschoolers that basically involves the parents getting together to teach some extra courses to a number of students.  They pool their energy and talents and work together for one or two days a week.

I found a Co-op called Mighty Oaks Enrichment Center that met two days a week, Mondays and Wednesdays from 9am to 2pm.  They could accommodate children from Kindergarten to 10th Grade.  (The founders of the center had daughters in 10th grade, and each year as their daughters got older they added another grade level.)

Ava Marie is in their First Grade program, she has 5 other children in her classroom and there are 2 First Grade classrooms.  She studies Reading, Science, Art, History, P.E. and Writing.

Madyson is in the 5th Grade program, she has 6 other children in her classroom.  She studies the same things that Ava Marie does with Speech  & Anatomy, additionally.

Mackenzie is in the 6th/7th combination class.  There were more of each of these classes, but not enough to add a complete new 6th or 7th Grade classroom.  She studies History, Physics/Chemistry, Writing, Speech, Art, Choir & Drama.

Katy is in the 9th Grade program.  She studies Physical Science, Drama, Writing, Art and World View Discussions.

My original idea was to have the girls attend on Monday and Wednesday and then do our Sonlight schoolwork at home on the other 3 days.  I also enrolled the twins at a little pre-school down the street for the same days the girls would be gone.  That way I would be home alone for 5 hours on two days and would use that time to meet with clients or work in my office!  Great plan, right?!!

Alas, it has not turned out as planned.  First of all, the Enrichment part of this idea is not like that at all.  I imagined that the girls would learn a lot of things, but that the classes would be more supplemental to what we were learning at home, not too heavy or too much work, just extra.  Not so much, it turns out these are full blown classes...with homework!!  Yuck!

Katy has so much homework for her Science class that she spends almost all of her days home working on that one class!!  There are additional books to read, projects to work on and papers to write for all 4 of my girls!  I have been pulling my hair out trying to keep up!!

So last week I finally had a breakdown/breakthrough!  Since the girls love the interaction with the other kids, and I don't want to just quit, we are going to stick it out this year.  In order to make it work, I have basically put away almost all of the Sonlight...(insert sad face here!)  

At home we are doing Bible, Math and Reading.  It is definitely NOT how I wanted the year to be, but we are trying to make the best of the situation.  I figure that when Tax Season rolls around, I will be grateful to not have to do as much work at home and everyone will be pretty independent!

Getting Ready for a New School Year

*I actually did all of this back in July, but I am just now getting around to writing about it.*

This will be our first year homeschooling everyone!  Mackenzie is coming back home and Ava Marie who went to half day Kindergarten last year at out local public school will be a full time First grader here!

I will admit now that I am pretty scared!  I have never had all of them home together for school except on Snow days or public school holidays.  But I am led to do this by the Lord and I know He has my back on this!

So, back to my planning sessions:

1.  Check in all of the books from Sonlight.
2.  Set up all of the Binders.
3.  Put away last years curriculum.
4.  Put this years curriculum on the shelves.
5.  Write Daily Schedule for our homeschool.
6.  Put together 12 Busy Boxes for the Boys.

We always buy new binders for each year.  This year we bought Aqua Blue for Katy and Mackenzie and Lavendar for Madyson and Ava Marie!

Can I say this is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling?!  I am such a Binder Nerd!

Katy and Mackenzie's books for 9th and 6th Grade.  They are both studying Core G History of the World Part 1.

Ava Marie's books for 1st Grade.  She is studying Core B History of the World.

Madyson's books for 5th Grade.  She is also studying Core B History of the World.

Now that the books are all organized, I need to focus on my Daily Schedule and the Busy Boxes for the Boys!

Curriculum for 2013 - 2014 Homeschool Year

I ordered our curriculum for the new school year back in April and got it right away!  I don't care how many years you have been homeschooling, I think it never gets old when those boxes arrive!

We order from Sonlight and most everything I use comes from them.  We received 2 boxes this year, one with Katy's and one with Ava Marie's books.

Katy - 8th Grade:

CORE F - Eastern Hemisphere which includes the Language Arts and the Bible Study this year.
Science G - Geology, Physics & Origins
Math - Teaching Textbooks
I am also using Keys to Good Language 5

Ava Marie - Kindergarten:

CORE A - Intro to the World: Cultures which also includes the Language Arts and K Readers.
Ready, Set, Go for the Code
Math K Workbooks - I picked up several at Costco.
Reason for Handwriting K


Can I say how excited I am for this!!!  I pulled all of the books out to make sure we received everything, and we did!  I check them off of the list and make little piles on the table.  Then I pull out the binders we will use.  We buy new binders every year and I let the girls choose the colors.  This year Katy chose Teal and Ava Marie chose Pink!

Then I put all of the Instructor's guides into the binders for me, I get 2, one for each girl's core.  And then I use 2 binders for each girl's core for her.  I divide them up Week 1 - Week 18 and binder 2 is for Week 19 - Week 36.  This way they are not as heavy.  I put the Activity Guides in their binders along with any worksheets.  Each week has the Weekly Activity Guide for the Core, then the Guide for the Language Arts, then the Worksheets for the Language Arts, then the Guide for the Science, then the Worksheets for the Science.  At the end of the week we pull it out of the front of the binder and place it at the back of the binder.  On week 5, for example you will open the binder and the first tab you will see will be Week 5.  By the end of Week 18, the book will be back to how we started, but all of the worksheets will be completed.

This year will be a little crazy, because Ava Marie will be attending our local public school for the mornings.  I decided that since she is prone to a bit of mischief, it would be better for me to have her in public school for the first half of the day.  Then she will come home, have lunch with us and then do her homeschool work in the afternoons.  The twins should be asleep by that time and I will be able to give her my undivided attention so we can get her work done.

You may think this is too much school, but the reality is that in a half day kindergarten program at the public school there is a lot more play than school.  I am not saying they won't teach her things, but it will definitely be different than what I am teaching her, so...it's all good.

This way she will also have time to make friends in our neighborhood and since 2 of her sisters are there also, I know she is safe.

Can't wait to get started!  Only a couple more weeks left to go!!

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.