Countdown

Ah, I thought I would have written more this school year than I did, but we're making it through the year without any lasting hitches.  Even though my dreamy picture of what our homeschool should look like is just that, a dreamy picture, we still have accomplished a lot.  We now have 185 hours left of school this year and I only have one true regret.  I forgot to get good pictures taken of the kids last fall.  I do have plenty of snap shots and I will grab a few good ones this weekend I think so we're not in a total loss.  We got our annual family pics on Father's Day and got some individuals then too, so we're not picture-less.
Watching my kids grow and learn has been very rewarding even in their worst behavior moments.  My baby boy has gained almost 15 pounds this year and I know he has grown at least 3 inches too.  I'm just amazed when I look at him in bed and he takes almost the whole twin bed.  Good bye 5# 5oz baby boy!  At least he still has a tender heart and gentle spirit.  My teeny girl is still teeny, her most of her kindergarten friends are bigger than she is as a 2nd grader.  Its okay and she actually has grown too.  Her shoe size seems to stay the same for a long time and then BOOM!  They're all too small.  I bought cowboy boots intentionally too big at the beginning of the year and now she cant squeeze into them.  Growing, growing, growing!
This school year I picked out our dream curriculum from various publishers.  I am discovering that not all of it is their dream curriculum but mine.  I have started to let them review things with me and we have chosen a new science curriculum for next year from Apologia (I think).  The kids don't like sharing a text book and fight over it, so we're going to split up and learn different things this year.  Now Answers in Genesis has been fantastic for me.  I love reading the book, but the kids didn't care for the presentation for their reading.  Both are above average readers and they still didn't care for the text.  Some families read the lessons out loud and I don't do that with all subjects because the kids retain more when they read the chapters.  Science is one of my favorite subjects so I would rather change up curriculum to find what will instill a love for science to my kids.  The rest of the subjects I think we're sticking with the same thing we used this year.
I knew that splitting up the curriculum was coming anyway because I'm getting close to having a middle-schooler.  Agghhhhhhh!  I know I've told them that my job as a parent is to equip my children to leave my home and be successful adults ... I don't know if I like that now.  No, we're really not that close to graduation, but as fast as these few years have flown by, I bet the rest goes faster.  I will keep them close to my heart while I can.
So I'm very random in thought just like I'm random in our school day.  We have some things that are regular and we are doing well with academics, but as no person is perfect, no school is perfect.  We are going to be done by mid-May and my kids will go on to the next grade with flying colors.  3rd and 5th grade.  That seems impossible.

Stewardship Follow Up

Our Stewardship session was a great success!  There was a week in the midst of it where each of us were sick with a head cold and so we were a bit lazy ... I was more lazy than anyone.  Man colds drag me down.

Enough of that, here's what happened.  Both kids earned a little over $200 and were excited.  It was about 1/2 of what was possible to earn because they left things out or had to be reminded a lot to do their work.  I didn't get the store items set out in advance because of my cold and I thought I was going to buy more things to put in the store.  Well it turns out that was unnecessary.  As much as I want to do things over the top for school, it can be effective to do them "just right."
I had bought some Bibles to give as prizes for Sunday School and it turned out that the kids already had good Bibles, so there were new Bibles on the shelf.  My kids had been eyeing them and begging for them... They went into the store at the highest price of anything.  I had some candy that I'd bought on holiday clearance for special occasions and that went into the store.  I had a couple of pencils a couple of hygiene items that were bought on sale and a couple of notebooks.  I used a TV tray to set up this small collection of items.  I priced the Bibles at $150 each and the other items between $2 and $15.  I didn't think the kids would get everything off the table and didn't compare my numbers to the dollars, it was completely random in that aspect.
Store morning and the kids woke up earlier than they had all week.  Go figure!  They had already divided out their wares and decided how much money they had and were ready to just go crazy.  I told them that they had to wait.  I casually got my coffee and my breakfast and finally said, "OK its time for school!"  The kids begged to do the store first and I obliged.  My rules had never been shared, so they started toward the table and I stopped them.  What is the first thing we do with the money we earn?  We give tithes!  They showed me a disappointed understanding, but did not complain.  We calculated each of their tithe and the first to get the answer right was the first to shop.  They took turns shopping for each item and the first shopping turn was given to the child who could answer a tithing or Bible question first.  It turned out that after tithing, the kids had nearly cleared the table and each got almost everything they had hoped to get.  My daughter had only $.50 left and there was a $5 item on the table at the end of the session.  It was great to be able to tell her that I had noticed her faithfulness in tithing and was holding a sale.  The last item was reduced to the price of $.50.  In the end every penny of their fake money was spent and they got everything they wanted.  I really didn't plan it that way and was going to put the extra stuff in the prize box that I keep for good behavior.
All in all I would rate this as a good experience.  KONOS Character curriculum didn't detail the lesson, but gave the suggestion of how to get it going.  It has so many suggestions for each subject that we cover and tells which subject(s) for school that each suggestion will relate to.  We can make it fit our family.  The neat thing too is that another family can do the exact same curriculum and never do any of the same activities taht we choose.  I was blessed to find book 1 and 2 at a second hand store.  I do believe that in 2 years when we are ready for book 3 I will spend the $100 to get it.  It helps round out our school day to cover a multitude of topics.  With it, I feel comfortable only having a regular Math, Language, Science and History/Geography curricula.  We integrate art and music and social studies and health and Bible and life skills with the Character curriculum.  Our, "Story of the World," History/Geography has activities that include the elective type subjects as well.  I am pleased with what we are doing and the progress my children are making this school year.

Money money money

Kids love earnings and had done pretty well until the sniffly junk hit our home. Maybe we can put in a lesson about ambition and pushing through even if you don't feel like it. Store opens Friday!

Stewardship

We are doing a stewardship unit in our Character curriculum by KONOS.  We are going to have a way of earning play money for a shopping day on March 1.  Kids are excited to shop away.  We've done stewardship of our bodies and will do stewardship of time, but right now it is stewardship of time and resources.

Our pay scale and expense sheet.  Feel free to copy or adapt if you plan to do a store of your own.

We are excited to start this in the morning.  Today is practice.  So far the kids are on fire.  Chores are getting done without warning.  We'll see how long that lasts.

We just got off of a vacation that lasted 11 days.  The kids did math at Grandmas and went on a field trip to a train museum and played in the Rocky Mountains.  Mom and Dad enjoyed some R&R in the Caribbean.  We still have jet lag, but hopefully with this incentive it will help us to get back into the swing of things.  Silly me... we should have put the gifts from vacation in the store and let the kids buy them from us.  LIVE and LEARN.  We might do this once a year because it is so fun!   Valentines Day is tomorrow, so I gotta get something together for that.  Fun times!

Why haven't I heard of this before?

First of all, we went to an AMAZING presentation with our local Christian Family Educators group.  The kids learned about Antarctica from a woman who traveled there, and then they (we) learned interesting things about the attack on Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field from another woman whose father was in the Army Air Corps at the time of the attack.  I love it when my kids can learn from others' experiences.  Due to our crazy family issues and schedule, we haven't been able to attend many group meetings and it is such a pity because we learned a lot this time.
It is good to have a community to learn things from and to bounce things off of.  I have done a couple of things on Facebook where I would post thoughts, I've found educational videos and websites by search engines and I've talked with a few homeschool families, but I really like the idea of this group.  I found that the kids are more social than I am.  DUH!  I have a hard time meeting people face to face and don't know who I should talk with or how to strike up a conversation sometimes.  Thankfully there are a few more outgoing types at the places I visit.  I look forward to more meetings with our group.  As the faces become more familiar, I think I will anticipate each meeting more too.
Now for the great resource that I never knew was out there...  (drumroll please!) .......................  can you hear it????  The Old Schoolhouse Magazine  I can get it free on my iPad and phone.  I liked it on facebook.  I can order paper copies (for a cost)!  I'm pretty sure this will be a new favorite for me.  I admit, not all of the articles are appealing to me, but most of them are.  I may get tired of ads at some point, but I really like the fact that curriculum companies advertise here.  I am looking for a new math program for next year and my daughter is finished with her 2nd grade language, so I'm debating on moving on to 3rd grade or supplementing with another curriculum for the rest of the year.  I would not have found it if I were antisocial and stuff.  A member of the homeschool group was kind enough to share the info with us all.  Thank YOU Mrs. C!
A fun thing the ladies are looking at is a mom's night out and they want to call it a teacher's in-service or something like that to make it sound too important to miss.  Isn't that great!  Well that's my fun inspiration for now.... for parent's week out ... coming soon to an ocean near someone.  ... to be continued...

Where did my motivation go?

I really enjoy teaching my kids and I enjoy it more when the day goes smoothly.  The main factor in the day is actually not the kids... it's me.  If I am ready and show them outwardly that I'm ready to take the day seriously, they fall in step more easily.  I've been sluggish since the holidays, but have determined to make this an enjoyable experience for us all too.
I've been assured that homeschooling is great and you can just do it any time and be laid back.  Well, you can, but I find the days that are more organized are the best days and the laid back days are really pitiful.  We take for ever to get through our content and then end the day grumpy.  NOT GOOD!  Starting my day in the Word of God is the best for us and then we spend time together doing devotions and the days really go well.
Once the kids have proven they are ready to work, I am more apt to give them fun breaks.  This morning we did mirroring exercises and it was not only good for us, but it is always hilarious to see the way they mirror and comments during the fact.
We are doing 4 day weeks through the first week of February due to family vacations and weekend plans and birthdays and that is really seeming to be great.  I might consider doing a longer school year and 4 day weeks because it is just more freeing.  We'll see.
Tomorrow is the big guy's 10th birthday and he and sis are taking to calling him a "preteen."  Not sure I was ready to hear that.  Happy weekend to all!

Randomnesssss

Wow, the school year is nearly half over and I haven't posted much.  It's been an interesting few months so I never did get a good schedule in place.  After Thanksgiving break, the teacher was wiped out from travels and didn't want to get up in the mornings.  We got a little lazy needless to say.  Now we are getting back to a better routine.
I got a new phone and this nice little feature "Siri" is handy for getting things done.  I've set timers before, but something about pressing a button and saying, "Set timer for 15 minutes," makes a bigger impact and her response, "15 minutes and counting."  Lets them know that we are counting time down.  I originally was going to not give them points for incomplete work at the end of the timer, but changed it to taking away their stickers.  If they accumulate 20-25 stickers depending on how many squares I draw on the index card, they earn a trip to the prize box.  It is a great incentive.  Now, if I can tell they've been working the entire time, but couldn't complete a task, I give them "grace" and reset the timer for a time limit that I think is reachable.  So far its working for us.
Another thing that I'm using for school this year is a Pinterest idea.  The idea was Walmart plastic plates, but I bought a serving tray from Target for a buck or two.  I write the date and weather and assignments for the kids.  We erase the completed items or put an x through them as the day goes on.  It is pretty cool.  I've done different things with the arrangement.  Today, we have bubbles and the kids "pop" the bubble when they are done with that task.  I clean it with Windex at the end of the week, but dry erase it during the week.

Sample day on our white board tray.

12 days until Christmas!  Shall we sing the song???

Here's what's on the agenda for next week!!!