The Flu ...

The flu hit us - and it hit hard. Five children fell like dominoes over the course of a week, and we are only now getting back to "normal". My oldest son developed pneumonia, the other four were in bed for days on end, and I could barely do the stairs until today. It has been two solid weeks of illness. For almost fourteen days we did not see the outside world (aside from the trip to the emergency room), did not care about life outside of our microbe-infested abode. Body aches, fever, stomach problems, coughing, coughing, and more gut-wrenching, rib-crushing coughing, boxes and boxes of tissues, laundry piled up and overflowing the baskets ... We were able to do school today, and the kids are finally eating again. Horrible thing, the flu. I may just re-think the whole vaccination thing next year - maybe.

It's Time for ...

The Weekly Report!!!

In school news this week, much was accomplished. Despite my continued health struggles, the kiddies plodded on. Having chosen resources for each level has been the best decision I have made thus far. My twins have their own ancient history resources and are working independently. The oldest twin completed another full week of My Father's World: Creation to the Greeks. She has the teacher's manual, and is completely responsible for her work. The highlight of the week was listening to the Vivaldi biography on Classical Kids. (I think that is the name - forgive me if I am confusing it with another.) We did supplement a bit with extra readings in both Story of the World, and Child's History of the World. But, those are like treats to my kids - time to color maps and extra coloring pages, play quietly while Mom reads. Even Rocky has requested the maps to color from the STOW activity book. I love when he asks to join it.

The younger twin completed his second week in The Mystery of History. This is working out well for him - bite size readings with a bit of meat. He likes to ask for supplementary readings to correspond with what he was reading about. We had a conversation about dinosaurs, the meaning of "behemoth" in the Bible, references to dragons in ancient literature and their cultural significance in ancient times, especially in Asian countries. We then happened to stumble across the movie The Water Horse on Netflix. They really enjoyed that. In case you never saw it, the movie explores some of the myths surrounding the Loch Ness Monster. It was very good. I showed him how to do a time-line to sum up what he learned this week. (Of course, I inserted the picture here, but blogger put it at the top.) And he completed all three books I had assigned him for the month of February - a biography on Louis Braille, a complilation of Arabian Nights, Aladdin, etc, and The Incredible Journey. Finding books that fit him has been a bit of a struggle, but we are doing well now.

In grammar, we completed Chapter 5 lessons, minus the ones related to writing skills. We will do the review lesson, and the writing skills next week. I continue to be impressed with Rod & Staff. The lessons are simple and clear, and the worksheets help to bring it all together. Plus, they serve as automatic documentation for the portfolio (Blah!!!). I purchased the R & S 6 science for my oldest twin, 'cause, you know, she wasn't burdened enough. I felt it was time for an actual science text. She is liking it, so far. I am teaching her how to outline the chapter, paying particular attention to vocabulary, and answering chapter summary questions. She did complete the first two lessons. And she is on lesson 17 in Life of Fred. I am having her complete some fraction worksheets from Math Mammoth because Fred is a bit light on the number of problems. The younger twin is still working on Singapore, all on his own, no more complaints since he can write in the books. I think he will be done with all the 3B books in a month or so, and he wants to continue with the program. I am glad he found a niche in math, too - finally!

We reviewed our Shakespeare play, read our "life" (Plutarch), began reading Homer Price and The Tanglewood Secret, and continued to work on drawing skills. The oldest twin completed another lesson in Latin, and read Plain Girl and All of a Kind Family. (She is a bibliophile in making - she has a stack of no less than 20 books on her nightstand, and is currently reading three books at once, not assigned reading, just for fun. One she keeps on the dining room table, one open on her desk, and one in her bed - I am so proud!) Little Bear has completed 5 lessons in ETC 4, is on lesson 15 in Primary Language Lessons, and completed lesson 6, a review lesson, in spelling. We decided to continue with Rod & Staff for math, and, once the books arrived, she began them immediately. She is reading through the literature selections from Sonlight level 2 readers, and is doing very well with them.

All in all, a good week. Thanks for stopping by.

Why Do We Even Bother ...

Well, if a single woman, who lives with her parents, and has six children already, can willfully get impregnanted with seven embryos - resulting in eight pre-term infants, in need of NICU attention - and then hire a PR firm to get the word out that she is in need of financial help so that she does not have to go on welfare ... And if government workers - who are public figures, in the public eye, for Pete's sake (doesn't anyone care anymore about their image or reputation, PERHAPS SETTING AN EXAMPLE?) - are not concerned about paying their taxes ... And if I have to scrimp on clothes or food or other necessities so that I can afford a new book for one of my kids but the school district can approve a four percent per year raise for the teachers when my husband has not seen a four percent raise since ...never... I just have one question -

What the h-ll are we all doing going to work, paying our taxes, and our mortgages, struggling to make ends meet and live within our means, etc?

Changes ...

We've made some changes around here in the past few weeks. While I am fighting this illness that grabs hold of me every couple of months, I needed my oldest daughter to be able to continue her work on her own - something she is quite capable of, and willing to do. So I purchased My Father's World: Creation to the Greeks for her, and she is loving it. It is for grades 4-8, so I look at it as a middle ground between the Dialectic level work she was doing with Tapestry of Grace (which required too much from me) and the grammar level of SL Core 1. My 9 yo son is working his way through The Mystery of History, Volume 1, and my little ones will still do SL. When we do get together as a group, we still do SOTW, and the activity pages, as well as CHOW. But the pressure is off to make sure the group is all together every day. My 10 yo is loving MFW, and she loves the freedom of getting up early, beginning her work, checking off all the things she has completed. She is very much the independent learner.



So since this blog is to serve as my "diary" of our homeschooling journey, I should take a moment to jot down where we are for the new school year.



Oldest Twin, 10, 6th Grade

My Father's World: Creation to the Greeks (history, geography, theology, music and art history, art applied, literature)

Rod & Staff: Grammar, Spelling, Science 6

Life of Fred: Fractions

Rod & Staff Mathematics 7

Lively Latin

Latina Christiana

Ludere Latin

Literature from MFW, SL Core 4 (readers and read-alouds we did not get to)

Shakespeare and Plutarch, one per month from each



Younger Twin, 9, 4th grade

Mystery of History, Volume 1

Our Young Folks' Josephus

SOTW, Volume 1

Studying God's Word, Book E

Rod & Staff: Grammar, Spelling

Singapore Math 3B with all the supplemental workbooks

Saxon 65

History of Medicine, supplemental science encyclopedias and lit.

Lit. from Ambleside On-line, Years 1-5 (anything we missed)

Shakespeare and Plutarch, one per month from each



*They are both still working on an independent lap-book project of the United States Presidents.



Assigning a grade level has been a difficult thing to determine. The 10 yo just took the 5th grade CAT, and the 9 yo took the 3rd grade one. I only gave them those levels because I did not want to be forced to give them the higher levels at a mandated time in the future (every two years is required here) just because the school district expected it. In other words, if I gave my 9 yo the 5th grade test this year (which he could have taken with ease), then he would have to take the 7th grade test at the age of 11. I do not want that, because who knows if he will continue to be as advanced in his work as the work gets progressively harder? I am calling my 10 yo a sixth grader only because she just took the 5th grade test. And it provides some structure for me as I plan out the higher grades.





I am looking to add a writing program to our studies. My dilemma is I really enjoy R&S Grammar. Most of the writing programs that teach the progymnasmata have their own grammar programs scheduled, or incorporate grammar. I did use Imitations in Writing one year, and my daughter enjoyed it. I may choose that again for her, and allow her to continue with R&S. As for my son, I think Writing Tales is looking promising. Working within the framework of the LCC for him is the best approach. The structure of Writing Tales, as far as I can tell from the samples, seems to fit that very nicely.



Well, I've updated, droned on for a bit, and now it is time to do some actual work. So, adieu for now.

It's Been Awhile ...

It's been a while since I posted. I have not been in a posting mood. And I question my reasoning for keeping this blog. The blogs I enjoy reading are those through which the blogger shares glimpses of her life. I am not good at sharing - it makes me feel exposed, vulnerable, and ashamed. Those are not good things to feel. So, while I enjoy detailing our home-schooling journey, I am finding it difficult to straddle the line demarcating home-schooling from intimate life details. Because, as any true home-schooler knows, that line is fine, and the two spheres often overlap, and blur. My life is home-schooling. All that happens happens in the context of my obligation and responsibility to my kids, whom I home-school. Still with me?



So, as I continue to ponder my thoughts - which are, as usual, deep and dark - I ... well, that is it. I will continue to ponder, and question, and ultimately decide if I have what it takes to be a blogger in the blogging world. 'Cause, right now, I don't think so.

Weekly Report, Winter Term 2009 Week 2

Another week, come and gone. It was a hard week. It lacked flow. The whole Tapestry/Sonlight meshing that looked so great on paper just sucked the life out of me. Three days in and I chucked the schedule. Instead, I just began with Sonlight, and added from my home library so there was something age-appropriate for all. And we just read - every day, for two hours straight, we sat on the couch and read. Charlotte's Web, Hero Tales, Child's History of the World, Story of the World - no concerns over properly fitting the chapters to correspond to one another. We colored some maps and reviewed our US Geography. We also enjoyed The Bard of Avon, and some videos on United Streaming about early Egyptian life along the Nile River. My 9 yo son made up a skit - he names each US President, and does a bit about something "significant" that happened during his time in office. Now, "significant" is a loose term when it comes to this particular child - his favorite book on the Presidents is "Don't Know Much About the Presidents" . (I believe that is the title, anyway.) His performance was actually quite humorous, especially when he has William Henry Harrison delivering a speech while uncontrollably sneezing and coughing, and Ulysses S. Grant turning his pockets inside out while declaring, "I could have sworn I had twenty dollars in there."



In grammar, we learned how to diagram predicate nominatives, and how to properly use lay/lie & raise/rise. The younger twin polished off Doctor Doolittle in two days(loved it), completed a summary of each chapter, and parlayed it into a book report - all without any complaints! This was an amazing feat for this child. The older twin is working her way through The Golden Goblet. She did another Lively Latin lesson, took a test in Rod & Staff Math 7, and is now working her way through Life of Fred: Fractions by herself. She has always "hated" math, in her words, so I have high hopes for Fred. Don't let me down, boy!



I made the switch to Singapore for the younger twin. And I started him in book 3B. I felt there was some stuff in there that just had not been covered by Saxon. He did all of Ch. 1 in the text, WB, Challenging Word Problems, and Intensive Practice. Having a write-in book for this child has made a world of difference. And he is very much a mental math kid to begin with. It will be a challenge to get him to show his work.



Little Bear is doing so well with her 2nd grade work. Rod & Staff Spelling has been a wonderful addition to her written work. She loves it. She loves all workbooks - ETC, Wordly Wise, Spelling, copywork ... The more, the better. And she is loving the addition of the Story of the World activity pages. She just loves school.



Rocky listened in when he wanted to, continues to announce multiplication facts he has just figured out for himself, and keeps us safe from the dragons and demons that are in our midst. I took all five kids to the dentist yesterday, and he was so wonderful. He has really matured this year. There are times when I really question myself, my parenting, my children's "normalcy" & appropriateness. But, he was just so amiable with the staff, and allowed them to take x-rays, and even did a fluoride treatment. I guess, when my older children went through all this, I did not pay much attention because there was always someone younger to fret over. But, with my littlest guy, he just seems so little. Everything he does seems so ... big to me - too big for such a little guy. Interesting, huh? Yup, that is some insight into how my brain is operating these days.



As for my Prince, he has been working at a ski shop, and started his senior year of studies. He is studying for his permit, and conquering the mountain of work that is required of him in Anatomy & Physiology. He is doing Life of Fred: Statistics, but, so far, I am not particularly enthusiastic about this course. I think it leaves out too much in the way of explanation. I can better judge it as we get further along.



So, that's about it. Other than trying desperately to keep warm, life here is plodding along. Hope the week went well for all. Thanks for reading this far!

A New Year, A New School Term Begins ...

Today was the start of our Winter Term. Since we homeschool year round, I have scheduled three 12-week terms, with one week off each month, and plenty of days available for ... whatever. I finally decided to use Tapestry of Grace, Year 1 with my 10 yo and SL Core 1 with my 5 & 7 yo, and allow my 9 yo to sort of glide between the two as the assignments fit. TOG is the challenge my 10 yo needs and wants, and I did not want to deprive my little ones of SL. The years I spent doing SL Cores 1 & 2 with my now 10 & 9 yo were the happiest, smoothest days of our homeschooling journey. Combining the two programs was not that difficult, and was just the intellectual exercise my brain had been craving.

It may be hard to imagine it - five kids, a house to keep up, piles of laundry, extra-curricular activities, complete and total responsibility for their education resting on your shoulders - and yet, you are bored. There are days when I look around and wonder, Isn't there anything I could be doing right now? But it really isn't just anything that I am searching for - it is something to challenge me intellectually, that requires a bit of creativity, that will cause me to feel a sense of physical exhaustion afterwards. Tweaking our schedules, finding creative approaches to our studies helps to keep things interesting around here. But there needs to be more than academics to make our lives interesting. My challenge in the new year is to find affordable, interesting things we can do with some sort of regularity to spice things up. My tendency is to become complacent in my home life, satisfying the introvert in me. And when the weather is so cold my fingers refuse to dance for the keyboard, it is even harder to motivate me to venture beyond these walls.

Speaking of cold, does anyone else have a desire to seek out Al Gore in his McMansion, with his "borrowed" carbon footprint, and strip him of his Nobel Peace Prize? Just wondering ...