Wow. I have put so much thought into this year's curriculum that it's crazy. I truly have had to abandon all thoughts of doing it my way. The curriculum that has worked so well for Therese is just not going to work so well for the rest of my kids. I am happy to say that it's not my vanity talking, thinking that Therese is two grade levels ahead. I got her SAT scores back. That girl is at least two grade levels ahead. I'll just say I am one extremely proud Mama and leave it at that. Nicky's scores prove one of two things: either he is not a test taker, or he just didn't try. I just can't believe that he scores "low" when compared to other 2nd graders in math. Given that I sit next to him every day as he whizzes through 4th grade math, I am just not buying it. I also watch him write story after story, and I teach him spelling. Hence, I'm not buying that he's a poor speller. I *know* what an awesome speller he is. I know where the holes in his curriculum are, and anyone reading this knows that I have *no* problem talking about his shortcomings (ahem!), but academics -- not one of them. It is a very interesting revelation to me about how absolutely meaningless those test results can be, though, for kids who are not strong test takers, or who flat-out don't care to do well. It remains to be seen which one he is. Fact is, he was only six when he took the 2nd grade test. It could be that I was asking too much of him. If he were going to school, then maturity-wise, I would have wanted him to be exiting K at that age. He would have been one of the youngest 1st graders. Sigh.

In any case, here's the breakdown. I have made a tremendous amount of work for myself (but when don't I?).

Therese

Figuratively and literally. I've been looking at some blogs written by some amazing Catholic moms, and feeling completely inadequate. Where do they get the time? I hardly have time to glance at anything non-school or work related! In any case, I'm doing some housecleaning. On the literal front, that means I'm cleaning out the school room - not because we take the summer off (are you kidding?), but because it provides something of a transition point. We're also cleaning out the kids' rooms as best we can, and we re-sodded both the front and the back yards (not so impressive - small yards). I'm cleaning out this blog, too. Why? Surely not because I have too many posts! I really like reviewing for The Old Schoolhouse, but those reviews are not well placed here. I'm creating a separate blog just for reviews. I'll then move them there.

July 24, 2009

I have to confess that I have not loved our mini-vacation. If one cares about the children's grade levels, than I feel that we stopped just short of finishing their prior grades. To a Type A like me, that feels like we're starting in the middle, never mind that we are just taking three weeks off for summer (one more week to go!). Still, I guess it will help me to organize my thoughts as to where we will be picking up. It seems as if I do that quite a bit. So, the kids' curricula will be as follows:

T - turning eight and starting 5th grade
Language Arts - Saxon Grammar and Writing 5 and Writing with Ease
Math - Saxon 6/5
Latin - Latina Christiana (but I'm still awaiting a recommendation from an expert on that)
History - Connecting with History (a Roman Catholic history program) VERY loosely, but
mostly my own devising. We'll spend at least a couple of months in Egypt (more if the kids want to), aided by a WEB interactive unit study by Brandenberg Studies. We'll then spend as much time as we want to in Ancient Greece. If we get to Rome this year, great. If not, we'll continue next year. Along the way, I'll document what we do and what we read, because I still feel very called to write a curriculum.
American History - Joy Hakim's books will be our spine here, but I plan to use many OOP books available on Project Gutenberg (and pray that a Kindle drops into my lap) to really make this a living books, read aloud subject for everyone except T (about whom, ironically, I am writing now). Again, I am going to document how and what I teach as I go.
Science - Exploring Creation with Astronomy. I really think the kids are going to enjoy this one, especially once we get past all of the young earth nonsense.
Religion - Our Holy Faith 5 - Living Like Christ, in Christ. I'm really happy with this series. T likes it, too. It's comprehensive, meaty (but not on Fridays), and highly readable. We'll also continue with Fr. Laux's Chief Truths of the Faith. She *really* likes that book. I'm trying to figure out how I can work in Bible History. Maybe I'll wait a few years until I get get all four together.
Handwriting - cursive practice combined with copywork/catechism on magistra-created worksheets with the aid of Startwrite.
Art - Meet the Masters online edition

I'm really excited about the Saxon Grammar. It starts with Grade 5, which is just right for us. I can tell that much of it will be repitition for us (thanks to the awesome work of FLL), but I can't skip her to 6 because of the writing lessons, which look really good. The format is just right for her learning style, so she's happy about it, too, although she was originally skeptical. I think this year will work really well for us. I bought her an assignment notebook, and every day I will write the assignments that she and I have to do together in one color of pen, and those that she can do alone in another color. That way, she will always know what to do, and she will never have any "dead" time.

N - just turned six and starting second grade
Language Arts - FLL 2 and Writing with Ease
Phonics - Explode the Code 4
Spelling - Spellwell Aa
Math - Saxon 3
Latin - Prima Latina
History/American History/Science - same as above
Religion - listening with T and bible stories
Handwriting - my creations with Startwrite
Art - same as above

M and M-C - four years old and starting K
Phonics - ClickNKids
Math - Saxon 1
Handwriting - Startwrite worksheets
Spelling - All About Spelling One
Religion - Bible stories
Any part of any other subject to which they want to listen.

How do I plan to schedule all of this you ask? Good question - I have actually been doing most of it prior to now. I'll post my schedule in a coming update. I am blessed with independent workers (mainly T, obviously) and all-around great kids.

As for me, I still work for edHelper, and I love what I do for them. I also review materials for The Old Schoolhouse and for Teacher Book Bag. Further, I am rolling around a plan for a business of my own...it's just all about the time! N started coach pitch this year (he sort of had to "try out" for his team, and they've already started practice, even though sign-ups don't even end until the end of September! I can't believe how competitive they are already at this age. M is still in t-ball, so we won't even know his team for at least a month. Thank goodness! I expect to be at the field five days a week this fall! T has dance for 1 1/2 hours, and M-C for an hour. I should get a lot of knitting done once the year begins in earnest :)

Why is it so hard to find time to write? I write in my head all day long! Or maybe that's just my talking to myself...

School wise, T has finished First Language Lessons 3 and had moved on to Level 4. They literally published it just in time! Unfortunately, she is CHARGING through it, and I don't know how quickly they are working on Level 5. We may have to move to Rod and Staff after this level, and I'm not sure if I will be able to place her correctly. She will be at least Junior High level. She's 7. Sigh. When a kid loves to diagram and loves to read, what are you going to do? On a similar note, Writing with Ease has turned out to be the perfect complement to our Language program. N's narrations have improved, and all of my kids have become intensely interested in The Good Books. We are reading Alice in Wonderland now, and they can't wait to finish so that we can move on to Doctor Dolittle, Pinocchio, and others. God Bless Wise and Buffington for making it so easy.

N is 28 lessons away from Math 2. Again, I see no reason to artificially slow him down simply because he is 5. He is doing well, and demonstrating mastery of the material. He makes high As on all of his tests. Hence, we move forward. When he needs to slow down, we will. This summer, I fully anticipate spending more time on Tapestry of Grace, and somewhat less on the core subjects. That way, we can really immerse ourselves in History and Geography, giving those subjects the consecutive hours that they deserve. As always, we'll play it by ear.

A Holy Family Mom is starting a Little Flowers Girls' Club in the Fall, about which I am so excited! I have always opposed Girl Scouts, and I refuse to support them by putting my daughters in Brownies, much less in a higher level. However, I would love for them to have a girls' group to which to belong. Now they will. A Catholic Girl Scout troop is still a Girl Scout troop. I don't understand why other Catholic moms don't understand that point! Little Flowers is Catholic through and through - and, of course, it is named in honor of my beloved St. Therese!

My twinners are just being twinners. M loves school much more than M-C. That's okay. More and more, I truly think that she will make her way on the stage. She loves dance, she loves to sing, and she is an actress through and through. I am going to look into drama for the girls, at least, this summer. I know there's a program near here...now to find it.

As for me, I seem to suffer from a terminal lack of ambition. Apart from teaching myself how to knit and crochet (can you say hard-core addict), I can't seem to motivate myself to do anything. I know that I must have a gift of some kind that God wants me to share, but I can't find it. I try not to let that get me down. The ol' "but you have a PhD" with which I console myself is wearing kinda thin these days. I have lost the desire to post at the Melting Pot, and only do so when I fear getting fired. Something about the thought of getting fired AGAIN is rather spirit-breaking (disclaimer: Principal says that none of the other times that I have been fired have been my fault; in fact, edHelper says that I am very good at what I do, and it would welcome submissions from me. Unfortunately, there's that lack of motivation issue).

In any case, we're chugging along in school. We are supplementing All About Spelling, which I still absolutely love, and believe is crucial as a first step in spelling, with Spelling Power, mainly because I like the alphabetizing and proofreading skills. It also gives T one more independent thing to work on while I work with N. Wow - I've totally fallen into "homeschooling busywork" trap. It's not busywork, though. Not really.

I'm feeling so incredibly unmotivated that I think I'll go knit my afghan. At least I have something to show for myself when I do that. Seriously, could I be any more negative? Only the knowledge that no one reads this allows me to be so real!

After a two week vacation, the Academy is back in session. I took the first week off because my house really needed some TLC. I could not go out of town, and then face coming back to my house the way it was. Make no mistake: it still looks like a bomb went off. The collateral damage is just slightly more tolerable. On Friday of that first week, we all got up at 3:30 a.m. and left for Walt Disney World in Orlando. Along the way, we spent a day or so in St. Augustine, FL to soak up some history (it's the site of Ponce de Leon's landing in the U.S., and his supposed founding of the Fountain of the Youth, in addition to the location of the oldest Church in the U.S.). The kids did wonderfully at Disney. There was almost no complaining at all. They asked for nothing (no food, drinks, souveneirs, etc.). We had a suite at our hotel, so we ate nothing in the parks. We breakfasted in our hotel room, brought lunch into the park, and then ate dinner again in our hotel room. I know the kids must have drooled a little at the site of all those hamburgers and french fries (to say nothing of the Mickey ears ice cream), but they never asked. I was very proud of them.

I have am of two minds on Disney World. The obvious, rampant, and unrelenting commercialism disturbs me. The "buy, buy, buy" coming at you from all sides is exhausting. The kids love it so much, though, and it really is magical. The characters never break, well, character, which is special for the kids. They really think they're meeting Snow White. The "cast members" (there are no employees at Disney!) are all courteous and helpful, and everything is clean and nice. You really can disconnect there. You see two types of kids and families. There are the kids who are obvious spoiled pains who are getting everything that they want, and then you see the kids for whom this is a dream come true. There are plenty of adults with no kids, too. That was me when I was 19, when Principal took me for the first time. In any case, the kids road tripped amazingly well, and we plan many camping trips in the near future.

Academy-wise, N is reading so well! He's not sounding things out nearly as much - he's just reading. He's within a day of finishing "Explode the Code Volume 1" and we have Volume 2 all ready to break out. He loves "Writing with Ease", as the selections that he is copying and narrating are so relevant to him. The first week was all "Little House in the Big Woods", and this week is "Pinocchio", which he loved, having just "met" Pinocchio in person! It is sparking his interest to read the originals, which, after all, is part of the plan.

Since I have gone back to teaching T math, we are having somewhat fewer problems, although some problems still persist. When Principal can teach her, she seems to enjoy it more. He has the kind of mind that can make lots of connections that I just don't. I pretty much go by the book. We really complement each other well, but, of course, he can't teach her every day, and she just has to get used to the fact that I am her teacher. For some reason, I still don't think she really likes that sometimes. If we're doing anything in the Humanities, she's fine, but math, not so. Maybe in some unconscious way, I'm telegraphing something to her, even though I am trying so hard not to. Ah, who knows?

As for the Magistra: my last freelance job has ended, and I am actively seeking more work. I have a phone interview with a neat political site today. I don't know if I agree with everything that the site promotes, but that's part of the interesting aspect of it. They are looking for a more right-leaning author, and I fit that bill. I think it would be a worthwhile project in which to participate, and it is very educational, particularly for younger people who are willing to plow through it. I really appreciate that. We'll see how it goes. It would be truly wonderful if it actually pays decently.