When Are We Going to be Done.....

This has been one wacky kind of school year. It started off pretty good the first 2 months. Then November came. That starts a busy 7 weeks for us. Starting November 15-January 1st we celebrate 3 birthdays and 3 major holidays. It seems like every week there is something. Because of this, we have be taking this time of year off or doing a much lighter load.

Every January we take the week of our anniversary off from school because Chris always takes the week off for vacation (Chris and I usually go away for 2 days). However, this past January Chris had surgery on his nose for a devated septum. Poor guy was miserable. Surgery was on a Tuesday---I found out was pregnant 3 days later on Friday and morning sickness started a week and a half later. There were many days during my first 16 weeks of pregnancy that I couldn't make it off the couch because I felt so horrible. This made for a very tough time homeschooling.

During those 10 weeks of extreme morning sickness, I was happy with the kids just being quiet and not killing each other. The kids did try working in their books independently but that came back to haunt us in the end (more about that in a little bit). Chris would try to work with them on his days off or when he got home from work but there is only so much time in a day. He was usually spending his home time taking care of me, the kids and the house. He cooked, cleaned, ran errands....basically he took over my job (which I will forever be grateful).

Like I said, the kids did try to do work independently, however, when I was finally feeling better I went back and started correcting the work they did during that time. Oh the horror. Have you ever tried correcting 10 weeks worth of school for multiply kids!!! Needless to say, concepts were missed or not understood, they got sloppy with their work and all in all, I had a mess to clean up. In some of the books, we had to actually go back and start back where we were before I got sick.

So now here it is, the middle of June and where does that leave us......BEHIND!! There are some subjects we really didn't even touch this year, like bible, art, music, history or science (the kids did get some science this year though. They had science once a week in co-op, so maybe 20 classes for the whole year). I am not even talking about THOSE subjects. I am talking about them behind in phonics, reading, math, spelling and grammar.....you know, the 3 R's.

I have been trying to figure out what to do about it and the summer. At first, I was going to do school until June 26th. But I can't justify taking the whole summer off when they took A LOT of time off January-April. Then I thought of just taking July off. But you know what I find, when my kids don't have something constructive to do, they get into more trouble!! So I think (maybe) that I have an alternative. I think we will be schooling through the summer (gasp) on Monday, Tuesday and Fridays. We will take Wednesday and Thursday off since they are Chris' days off plus the weekend. This is of course subject to change and at any time I could change my mind. CJ needs to do school atleast 4 days a week this summer----it really should be 5.

For the 3 elementary age kids they will be working on the 3 R's. I am starting to see progress and I don't want to lose steam now. We are getting into a flow with me sitting at my desk and helping one child at a time. During this time, I help with math lessons, check to make sure they understand a grammar concept and listen to them read outloud to me. The others sit in the other room working on their working independently. Of course there is always room for improvement and I am hoping to have a real schedule up soon for this. If everyone cooperates and does what they are suppose to do, we can be done in 2 hours (or less). I think that leaves plenty of time for them to have summer fun : )

CJ will be working on Algebra (still), Bible and History. Sports and co-op took up a great deal of time this past school year and now we need to play catch-up. I suspect we will be doing algebra the whole summer but the other 2 subjects he doesn't have too much more to do and I keep encouraging him to do extra in those subjects to get them done faster. Still, with those 3 subjects we are only talking about a few hours of school a day and he could easily be done before noon.

With 9 weeks until I want to start the new school year (my goal is August 17th), I am hoping this schedule will give us the needed push we need to catch up.

In the near future I am hoping to do a few other posts regarding the upcoming school year and decision we have made (like curriculum choices and why we won't be doing co-op again).

To the Convention I Go

For over a month I was going back and forth about going to this year's homeschool convention. In fact, as of Tuesday I was not going. Usually I go up on the Thursday, stay at the nice hotel (all by myself) and bright and early on Friday I am at the convention doors ready to go in. I then spend all day Friday enjoying myself and Saturday missing the kids and wanting to go home (except I always ride with someone else so this isn't possible). This year the money just wasn't there for me to be able to go overnight for 2 nights. With only 1 car, I knew I couldn't use ours to go. All this, plus I didn't want to leave the kids for what would end up being almost 3 days by the time I get back.

Yesterday I got a phone call from Wendy. She had been going back and forth about the convention too. She said she was actually thinking of driving up for the day on Friday. HHHMMM, VERY INTERESTING. This, I could actually see myself doing. I would save money by not staying overnight (hotel and food expense for 3 dinners, 2 breakfast and 2 lunches) and I would only be gone for 1 day from the kids. It would give me the opportunity to see curriculum that I have been thinking about and soak up the atmosphere of homeschooling. YES, WE HAVE A PLAN!!!

So we are a go. We are leaving bright and early and going to the convention tomorrow. I can't wait. I am going to get everything ready tonight---clothes, money, snacks--lots of snacks. I had an extremely low blood sugar earlier today (all the way down to 49). It was horrible, the worst I have ever felt. I literally felt like I was getting ready to pass out. Not good. I am doing better now. So snacks are a must, especially since I will be walking around, burring calories all day tomorrow.

Any suggestions on curriculum to look at?

History----- Help!!!!!!!

Okay, I am going to throw this out there----just promise not to throw tomatoes at the screen. I DON'T LIKE HISTORY. {duck} So I said it out loud. I know most are shocked because homeschoolers thrive on history. Believe it or not I got an "A" in high school but remember very little about it. Don't believe me. How about I didn't know that Marco Polo or Pocahontas were real people until a few years ago. I know whole curriculums have be made revolving around history. Me, I try to avoid it as much as possible. In fact, I can probably count on one hand how many times I have done history with my middle three this year.

Hubby on the other hand, LOVES history. Like I am talking about he will put on the history channel just for fun. The first 3 years we homeschooled he was in charge of teaching it to CJ. As Zachary and the other kids came along and life got more busy, I took over. This unfortunately meant that CJ did history (Abeka) on his own and the younger ones hardly get any.

I do try. I start with Leif the Lucky and move forward. However, each year we stop around the Pilgrims and the following year we start all over again with Leif. I have to tell you, I am sick of reading about Leif and Columbus.

So this is where I am hoping that someone out there can help. I know there has to be others that don't find history enjoyable but they found a curriculum they like. I am looking for suggestions. got any??