Goals instead of resolutions...

So I have decided, rather than make a bunch of resolutions I very likely won't keep, since they're usually "I won't ...", I am going to set New Year's Goals, which I have been mentally tinkering with for the last few days... Some of these are personal goals, some goals for the house (that will involve assistance from other household members), some are for the kids, etc.

1. Paint the house, inside and out. Thanks to some very generous gift cards I recieved for Christmas, this goal is now immediately possible, rather than something I'd like to do someday. Of course, the weather will have to cooperate!

2. Improve the yard, front and back. This includes tearing out the front lawns and putting in more interesting stuff - grasses, flowering plants, a few big rocks, two trees, and so forth; installing and planting raised veggie beds in the back; redoing the clotheslines as they sag terribly; putting in a sandbox/play area for the kids in the back; planting, planting, planting.

3. Set up the "playroom" and family office in our garage. Mostly this involves clearing out miscellaneous boxes, putting down some of my many area rugs, and setting up good toy/book/etc storage. We also need to get a heater that is efficient.

4. Lose (at least) another 20 pounds. I lost 21 pounds this year, and hope to do better in '08. Things that would help me accomplish this would be getting more exercise, and eating more healthfully. I want to keep working on this because I need to have energy for my kids, and to set a good example for them. I want to keep them healthy as well.

5. Find a better job. Part-time, decent pay, regular hours. It'll definately help that M will be going back to work fulltime in the next few weeks, as this gives my end of the financial contributions a little more wiggle room. I am looking at both secretarial jobs and instructional assistant positions.

6. Finish at the local community college and transfer. I have this planned, and in the works, for Fall of '08. I just need to actually accomplish it!

7. Follow my plans for the kids' schooling through early June. I have figured out what we need to actually do each week to accomplish my goals for them (mostly goals for Elf), so I need to make sure we do it. I won't reach my original goal of finishing SOTW volume 1 this year, and there are a couple of other things we won't get done, but that's okay and we'll just move on with what we can do, without undue stress!

So, there they are. My 7 goals for 2008. I have tried to make them realistic, so we'll see how it goes!

A day early...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sort of a weekly wrap-up...

Ummm... we really didn't do much of anything this week. Ooops. With work, Christmas shopping/planning, and my finals, etc., it was a busy week. We did finish lesson 8 in ETC and did 3 math lessons, plus Elf spent a bunch of time on Timez Attack (3's this week, which he is still working on mastering). That's really, unfortunately, about it.

I am still planning on being evil and doing some science (anatomy) and history (Mesopotamia) over the next couple of weeks of "vacation". It's not really evil if your kids love and ask for it though, is it? I also found this website (British) that relates to our history unit studies, so I may cull some further resources from that.

This week is our week of frenzy! It's busy at work (gotta love holiday retail), so I have more hours than normal. We have company coming this afternoon (so I had better get busy finishing cleaning soon), company on Christmas Eve (my dad, sister and brother), and then MIL will be here for Christmas Day, along with the kids' great-great uncle. Tonight, after company leaves, we're making cookies, and decorating them. I have to run to the store to get a couple of picture frames sometime today. Plus I still have to shop for Christmas dinner, though not today.

Well, in case I don't make it back before then... Happy Holidays!

Yaaay! Done with...

my classes for the semester, as I just submitted my final essay to my online child development class. I also checked the gradebook (online) to make sure all my assignments were in and found this message from my professor - "G...., thank you for sharing your first hand experiences and knowledge of home schooling. You truly educated your fellow classmates on home schooling and dispelled many misconceptions... The homeschooling discussion that took place on the message board really, I feel, changed people's preconceived notions about home schooling." Sweet! Changing people's misconceptions was the entire reason I wrote that essay.

Wow, I'm 35 now. Can't say it's much different than 34! Today's plans - a late breakfast, since it's 10 and the kids are still asleep (we stayed up really late last night watching Christmas movies). A little homeschooling - calendar work, math, phonics, human anatomy. I was going to take the kids to homeschool ice skating, but it starts in 15 minutes, so we'll save that for another time. M wants to take me out later to pick out my own gift, and then my closest friend is coming over for dinner. My mom also offered to make a special dinner for me tomorrow, so I have to figure out what to ask her to make! It's hard because she's an awesome cook, and I really love a number of her dishes. Hmmmm, maybe we'll finish decorating our tree today. I did get a lovely early present from Elf yesterday - all the art I've been helping with on Wednesdays got made into a 2008 calendar of birds, and he gave me his, after wrapping it himself, very carefully. He was practically dancing with excitement when I was unwrapping it. I have to say I think it qualifies as the best gift ever, partly because I love his artwork and partly because there was such joy in giving it.

Just noticed this link on another blog - win a $50 certificate at Homeschool eStore, so here are my answers!

1. How many children do you have / homeschool? 2. One is in first grade and the other is pre-K
2. How long have you been homeschooling? Since my oldest was born! Technically for about a year and a half.
3. Have they always been homeschooled, or did they ever go to public/private school? Always homeschooled. We planned on it before even concieving our oldest.
4. Do you plan on homeschooling until graduation? Yes. No doubt about it!
5. Do you belong to a co-op? No, but we "belong" to a charter school that functions much like a co-op.
6. Do you school all year long, or use some other schedule? We basically follow a traditional school year schedule (that of the charter school), more or less. It's fun because we have an annual "not Back to School" celebration day in the fall, and the kids get the bliss of long summers of freedom (unschooling), during which they pursue their own interests.
7. Do you use textbooks only, or do you like to supplement with other materials? We supplement. I think our only textbooky textbook is science. We do use some workbooks, a lot of hands-on learning, lots of coloring/art, lots of reading.
8. Are field trips included in your school plans, or are they just family time? Both. I do plan some field trips (none lately though, oops), but we also do fun things just for family time that I could count as field trips.
9. Do you and your kids do crafty stuff together for school time? Yes, but not enough of it recently! My kids both do really well with a hands-on approach, so crafty projects work out well for us.
10. Would you consider everyday household life stuff ‘home ec’? Definately. I count their assistance with grocery shopping, preparing food, and much more as "home ec". It's a part of living, and I think they do need the skills they develop this way.
11. Do you have any advice for new homeschoolers? Go with what feels right for you and works well for your children. Don't think you need to buy a homeschool-in-a-box, or follow someone's advice to the letter. Feel free to tweak things so that they are right for you. After all, homeschooling is all about following your own path!
12. Do you have advice for homeschoolers with little ones under foot? Have things ready for them, from coloring pages, to a box of beads/blocks/trinkets. My daughter (pre-K) will play happily for hours with math manipulatives. If they want to be part of the homeschooling process, indulge them with some simple work, but don't get stressed over whether or not they complete it.

A decent week...

We didn't get an awful lot done, but we did cover the basics: phonics, reading, some writing and math. Elf is in Lesson 8 of 11 in ETC 2, and we've decided to skip 2 1/2 and go right into 3, since 2 1/2 is, from what I can tell, review of 2. He's roughly halfway through Saxon Math 2 (maybe a little less), so we're about on target with that for the year, so far. I'm saving our new biology stuff to start after the Christmas break, so for now we're focusing on human anatomy. I have a great resource book for this, and found a site with free coloring pages. Yes, I am completely evil, and am giving the kids a few light science and history lessons during vacation. Nothing else though lesson wise, except maybe Timez Attack, which Elf is now hooked on (thank you Jenny). He's actually doing well with his two times tables so I really can't complain!

In other general news, I will be officially done with this semester on Monday, when I take my algebra final. I have already submitted my final essays for political science and child development. Then no classes until mid-January! We also spent part of last weekend tearing out the wall-to-wall carpeting in the main bathroom. Yes, wall-to-wall carpeting. I don't know why, but it was there! Now we have bare (high quality) plywood, until we can tile it. Still better than the carpet though. I have a sort of milestone coming up this week when I turn 35. We got a Christmas tree today, and I put some lights up on our little front porch. And that's about it for our exciting life!

Almost forgot - small brag here...

Elf read Green Eggs & Ham to me yesterday, of his own free will! It is the biggest book he's read yet, so I thought it was pretty cool, especially since he even read with expression.

Got my science stuff!

Well, curriculum that is: pre-level biology and chemistry from Real Science 4 Kids. Elf's charter school ordered it for us to test out this year, as they have limited science stuff available for the lower grades. So, we're supposed to go ahead with it, and then at the end of the school year give the charter school our feedback. So far, from what I have seen perusing the pages, it looks fantastic. Very kid friendly, great layout, simple projects with stuff I actually have on hand... we'll start the biology next week and save the chemistry for next fall.

I also got my SOTW units figured out, including library lists for the first 2 units (Mesopotamia and Egypt). We'll be saving Rome for next year (oops). I just can't bring myself to hurry through history! Plus, if we take longer than 4 years, that's okay, especially if we do stick with the charter school, because they follows California education content standards to some degree, and in 6th grade, Elf would be doing Ancient History again anyway. So, 5 years, about, for SOTW 1-4 works out well in the long run, after which we may move to History Odyssey for Elf, in conjunction with SOTW for Fairy, or just continue with SOTW for both, with additional books, etc. for Elf.

We've gotten most of our Christmas shopping out of the way. Everything for the kids, except a few stocking stuffers, has been safely hidden away. I still have to shop for M, and get something for my MIL. I shop for most of my own family later on, since my mom doesn't celebrate Christmas until the Twelfth Night (ever since she lost her best friend to cancer on Christmas Day). So I also give gifts to my brother and sister then. We celebrate with my dad and my MIL on Christmas Eve. Very long holiday season for us, in other words! Every year I promise myself I'll shop early and get it all done ahead of time, but somehow it never quite seems to work out that way.

I'll have to take a picture of Elf's turkey vulture pic from yesterday. We saw several of them by the side of the road eating a dead opossum, and the kids insisted we stop and watch. So we did. It was kind of disgusting, but at the same time, it was funny watching them fight. They would cry out loudly (the kids said they were "yelling") and hit each other with their wings. So, Elf drew a picture of one, and did a narration, so I am counting that as science. Today we read Chapter 7 in SOTW and had a great discussion about laws and rules. We also had art and Elf had Spanish, plus we got some math and phonics done.

I am now off to a review for next week's algebra final. Yaaaay, ha ha.

Hmmmm....

I had a slightly lunatic thought tonight (which I will admit was inspired in part by a post written by Pixilated Mum)... what if I go through all the chapters in SOTW, and divide it into unit studies? I know, I know - it sounds a bit off considering the whole point of the book is chronological history, but then my kids seem to do really well with unit studies, and it would be easy enough to do. A unit on each ancient region: Egypt, China, India, the Americas, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. Maybe a unit on the Hebrews? Each unit's length would depend on the subject, i.e. Egypt would be a lot longer than the Americas.

Anyhow, today was a pretty normal day. After Elf's class, we played, and had lunch, then eventually settled in for lessons. We actually seem to have a pattern to our days now! First calendar work (Saxon Math Meeting books), then memory work, then math, followed by phonics, and finally a variety of other subjects (history, geography, science, handwriting, music, etc.). So, Elf worked on measurements while Fairy worked on finding, counting and coloring "hidden" sea creatures, then we moved on to phonics, only Fairy chose to work on handwriting instead. Elf also read another of his leveled readers aloud, and actually read it fairly fluently.

That was it, and then I had to rush off to algebra myself. We started late, so we didn't get to the "extras" today, but there's always tomorrow!

Good start to the week....

Yesterday, I took Elf off to class, while Fairy slept in (poor baby is fighting a cold). Ran some errands, came home, picked Fairy up, and got back to the charter school just in time for free play outside, which Fairy loves to be a part of. Then, a stop at Trader Joe's, where the kids acted so-so, and then home, where we finally hung a wreath on our front door. They played for an hour, and then we sat down for lunch - yummy split-pea soup, perfect on a cold, almost rainy day - and finally, after another hour or so of play, we sat down to lessons.

Over the weekend, we got a new dining table, so I at last have my homeschool area in the family room, and the kids couldn't wait to sit down! I put on some music in the background (classical Christmas stuff). We started with calendar work: Fairy has her new color pattern for the month memorized, red green green, and Elf's IST gave me a bunch of weather symbols he can use in filling out his weather chart, which he thought was a lot of fun. Then, on to memorization - a review of the days of the week, and then the poem "Hey diddle diddle, the cat & the fiddle...". I think next week's poem will have to be more challenging, because they both got this one down fast! Some phonics work, where Elf made this week's words with his little letter cards, and Fairy worked on alphabet printouts from Enchanted Learning, and then a new subject. GRAMMAR! Finally, we got started with this, doing an intro to nouns from Teaching Treasures. Afterwards, the kids spent the whole evening naming things and seeing if they were nouns, so I think they got it, but I have a review planned for later in the week anyway. I also read them the Poco a poco story again, so we can restart musical studies. Smoothest day of homeschooling we've had in a while. A light day - no math, etc. - but I figure with Elf in an hour and a half class in the morning, a heavy schedule at home would be too much. He was really funny, scolding his letter cards when he misspelled one word, telling them they were out of order and had better get it straight, fast.

After all this, we drove to my MIL's house. My SUV is on her last wheels, so to speak, and is running very poorly, leaving me with an imminent sense of doom. I know I'll get stranded somewhere! But, MIL has an extra vehicle, so she's letting me borrow that until I can figure out how to afford a new (used) car. It's a truck, which is really not me, but it's fairly new, runs well, has enough room for my family with the extended cab... now if I can just figure out how to get rid of all the awful bumper stickers my step-father-in-law had put on it!