It Doesn't Take Long

Day one of week three.  Already messy!

As much as I try to stay organized, I find myself on this Monday morning looking at a cluttered mess.  Life happens and then the house, the classroom and the students are completely disorganized.  Last Friday, we had to play catch-up from earlier in the week and we didn't get our areas clean.  Momma didn't get the grading done and in the rush to get things ready for our home school group, and the late night afterward, I just found myself dropping things where they landed. 
These are the weeks that are most often the norm.  I just want to sit back and take a deep breath and begin again.  The great thing is that I can do all of those things.  I recharged this morning before getting out of bed with the Bible and today, I let my Bible app read to me.  Wake up was slow going, but the animals are all fed, the kids are up and slowly getting to school and I'm cleaning up one small space at a time.  It's the only way I can keep from being overwhelmed.  Leftovers out of the fridge... check.  Last week's assignments graded ... check.  Desk cleaned off and unimportant papers tossed ... check.  Laundry started ... check.  Bills ... check.
I can't stay around the computer today.  I gotta keep moving, so see you in a week!  I've got some catching up to do!

To grade or not to grade? That is the question!

People outside the homeschool world may not realize that this is even a thing, but it really is something that we ask ourselves as homeschool parents, especially in elementary years.  Do I grade, or do I not grade?  Letter grades are given in multi-student classrooms as an objective way to monitor student performance.  One could argue that it should be a must for any student as it is concrete, but I'm not sold on that for the younger student.  In fact, I even look back on my own report cards from public school and see that early on I was given some pass/fails and some Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory/Needs Improvement type grades.

Some opt for a all-in-one school program where a transcript is provided by the curriculum company.  I just am not satisfied with the price or the product of all-in-one high school programs.  Let me clarify, I think many companies do a great job with one or two subjects, but I haven't loved a package deal enough that I'm willing to pay the price to try it out.  AND I love a few of the companies that I've chosen through the years.  I can't say enough about Apologia Science!  My kids and I have enjoyed that through elementary and the kids loved it less in middle and high school as they're expected to do lab reports and hypotheses.  Teacher Momma loves that they are required to do that!  Since I use a different company for almost every subject, I find myself in need of a way to keep good records, grade reports, and now a high school transcript.

I have aligned our curriculum schedule with our state's Board of Regents guidelines so that a college transition and possibility for scholarships improves.  I know there are many ways to do grading and high school.  This is just our way at LSA.  All high school courses are getting a letter grade and we are using the 4 point grading system that many high schools across the USA use as well.  I could figure out the algorithm, it's  not that hard, but I have an app for that!  One of the best investments I've made in record keeping for homeschool is Homeschool Helper.  According to AppBrain.com it hasn't been updated since 2014, but is available for Apple and Android and is still $4.99.  I've been using it for several years and it still has previous years' information on it, but that is mostly hidden.

Homeschool Helper Start-up screen

Homeschool Helper is great as I input my grading scale, all the classes with resources and my student names.  It keeps track of attendance, has a reading log, a fieldtrip log and grade book.  It also has a planner which directly translates to the gradebook by clicking, "create grade for this lesson," button.  The attendance record is by the day or half-day.  In Kansas, we have to have days that are an approximate equivalent to a 6 hour school day, so if we do 5-8 hours (yes we do long days sometimes) I select full day.  If we do 2-4 hours, I click half day.  If we only do one hour, I don't generally count the day at all.  I may record it in the field trip area, but not count it in my days.  The reality is that we really need the book days to complete our work, so I don't over-do the field trip or extra-curricular activities counting as school days.

The open book of Homeschool Helper.  Each subject has a tab.  You can calculate the grade right there and plug it in.

I had chosen a grading scale that had 69% as failing.  The reason being I don't want a care giver or even someone doing any service for me that is only 62% competent, but they passed.  In high school, I did relax my standard a bit and made it as 65% is still passing.  My reason for this decision is that most schools in our area have a 60-70-80-90 grading scale.  My kids are both interested in college and their GPA will compete with the GPAs of other smart kids who are rated on an easier scale.  Until high school, I still expect the 70-78-86-93 work.  High school's change is slight, but 65-74-83-92.  I have no ill feelings for anyone who chooses any grading scale.  I just love that we can choose those details about our home schools!  I think sometimes that I do want to prove naysayers wrong that homeschooling is not slacking.  We don't raise incompetent learners.

THE SUBJECTIVE

Here is the rough part about grading.  I'm their mom!  Everything they do is wonderful, right?  Well it's not.  I do think my children are bright.  I have high standards for them, but there are places I push them and places I don't.  My husband pushes them in places that I don't and that is a great balance for them.  We support each other as a team!  Here are subjects that really mess with me, though.  Physical Education, Art, Music, Projects, Speeches, Creative Writing.  I know that if they say 8x7 is 49, they are wrong.  One child had a 5-day project to tell how other nations influence our culture today.  They had to make a visual representation.  I gave them input that they could draw arrows on a map that are color coded to imports and exports, etc. and they ran with it.  I received a printout of a world map.  There were 4 colors of ink used and a scribbled key and a bunch of curved lines that look like a sloppy airline map of where this and that airline flies to.  5 days to make this???  So I shared that I will try to rate these projects as if they were submitted to the fair.  "What color ribbon would this get?  It looks like you only spent 15 minutes on it!"  The response I got from the child was, "I did only spend 15 minutes on it."  As a parent/teacher I don't even know what to do with that!!!  I have nothing to compare it to with other students.  What should I expect of a child that age?  It hasn't been graded at the time of this post.  I'm searching the curriculum company for advise on objective ways to grade this type of project.

You choose whether you want percentages or the E, S, NI, U grading systems.

Art, Music and Physical Education are graded mostly by effort applied.  That is changing in high school.  So far, I have nothing to grade, but I'm looking on how to navigate that.  I really prefer the younger grades with a pass/fail.  I have a page that I've developed for writing criteria.  It includes whether or not the subject is covered, grammar, sentence structure, use of a variety of adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and descriptive nouns.  How many paragraphs are in there and what the topic sentence and closing sentence looks like.  I have a speech grading criteria as well.  I'm looking forward to forensics, though and I will grade by the rating they receive.  Someone who doesn't love them and think they're adorable can give them a score for those things.  I am likely to find a grading criteria for the other subjective subjects so that I can be confident that I'm grading as an unbiased teacher would grade.

ELEMENTARY YEARS

I started homeschool as many homeschool parents and tried to format it like a public school, but after experiencing it for a while, I relaxed my approach.  It adapted to where during the elementary years, I hardly graded anything.  A handwriting grade just killed my little girl!  I switched to putting a heart around the letters or words that looked really good and making a mark by those I could not read.  Homeschool Helper App has an option to give grades of Excellent, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, and unsatisfactory.  They don't have a pass/fail option, but I would appreciate that.  I understand why a teacher of 20 would need the NI option so the parent can see it.  Personally, I know when my child is not doing well and help them before moving on.  I have been guilty of not grading something for a few weeks and not realize that they need improvement until they've moved on.  I feel terrible as they are circling the verb, too, when they were supposed to circle the complete subject.  Things like that do happen and we review instead of grade.  Coming up to middle school, I began to grade the concrete things and I guess I always graded math.  I do give 1/2 credit for answers that are close, but incorrect.  I would much rather see a try than a skip.  For instance I recently received an answer that was correct in some instances, but not in what the text just explained.  I gave half credit.  The next question asked something specific and the answer written was not remotely about the content in any setting.  They got no credit for that answer.  I do want my kids to thrive outside the walls of my home.

Would you fail your own child in a subject?  Yes.  I have done it and will do it again if I need to.  Now there is a math concept that one of my children could get correct for the tests last year, but in review, it was like they were never taught how to do it.  I will just say it.  Fractions!  We could do great with adding, we could do great with subtracting, we did great with multiplying, but then forgot how to add and subtract.  Once we got to dividing, we forgot how to do all of the others.  Conversion factors make sense while in the unit where we do them every day, but get past it and come back to it and its gone.  I have a rough time with explaining them, because I do all of it in my head and have to step back and slow down to explain it again each time.  We are redoing 2 whole math books.  No shame!  We use Life of Fred math and supplement with YouTube o
n occasion.  The program is fantastic and has brought us back around from hating math to somewhat enjoying it again.  There is no rush to complete everything, and by high school the concepts should be solid.  I would rather that than try to push through just to say we did.  Why push through something that isn't understood?

I'm just beginning in high school so I found a credit planner that I really like so far.  You can find it here.  They have many more printables and template downloads, so you might want to check out their whole site! 

I'm not paid to advertise for the people I promote, I just want to share things that work for me!

Another First Day of School

     Interestingly, it seems I named this blog incorrectly.  It was named "Day by Day," when it should be, "Year by Year."  I have good intentions, naturally, but life happens and school happens.  I have decided to plan on my plans being ruined.  My kids are healthy and strong and well-educated.  I have nothing to complain about!

I got my workspace cleaned off and ready to go. 
Add coffee and a cool drink and I'm on it!

     Today marks another first day of school for Life Song Academy.  This time, I have a high schooler and a middle schooler!  That sounds so crazy to me!  I want to slow the progress somewhat, but I don't want to reverse time.  I love watching my children mature and grow in so many ways.  We have relocated and have a wonderful school room.  We have space for recreation and we're near a few towns so we can get supplies we need.  However, Amazon.com is my friend.
     With all the changes and "maturity" that we are experiencing, I should have expected that there would be no hiccups for our first day.  WRONG!  First of all, my hubby recommended I just get up with him so I could get the kids up on time.  My daughter came in at 2 AM saying she hadn't fallen asleep yet.  We prayed and I sent her back to bed with a few suggestions to remedy why she couldn't sleep.  Then hubby's alarm went off earlier than I thought I had agreed to.  Well, I kissed him goodbye and fell back asleep thinking my 7 AM alarm would wake me in time to get things done.  Yeah, I must have ninja skills in my sleep because I don't remember shutting off my 7AM alarm.  I awoke at 7:30 and did my morning Bible reading and slowly got around to waking my kids up at 7:50.  Not a good habit to keep.  So it was after 9 AM that the chores were finally completed and breakfast eaten and we were able to begin the day.

Schedule

The optimal week schedule.

     I made this handy dandy optimal week schedule and I think maybe I'm maturing a little as well.  When we start school, I really want things to go as planned ... at least for the first day.  I gave instructions and prompted for things to get done with very little yelling and frustration.  I spent a month this summer doing a devotional about taming the tongue and this time it helped.  We decided that it is due time that the children wake themselves up.  When they're out of the house, mommy isn't going to hug them awake any more and urge them out of bed until they're on the verge of being late and the, "hurry it up!" yelling commences.
     So another discipline that I've never implemented is self-motivation and record-keeping.  I have typed up lesson plans by subject and then put them on a planner sheet and then typed them into my record-keeping app and then adjusted according to the type of week we have.  That's a lot of work to keep rewriting things.  I listened to a webinar by Kim Sorgius from Not Consumed and it really put me into a new mindset.  If we were a younger homeschool family, I would have bought most of her material.  Through trial and error, I have already created similar templates that work for our family.  My students now have blank planning sheets with their subjects listed down the left column and blank squares for each weekday where the kids fill in what they did each day instead of me writing  and rewriting it for them.  Seriously, if the child doesn't understand that Unit 3, lesson 4 comes after Unit 3, lesson 3, then I've done a terrible job thus far considering their ages.  My weekly schedule is also patterned after Kim's.
    Here are my 2 students on their first day of 9th and first day of 7th grade!  Aren't they cute!

First day of high school and first day of 7th grade

Cell Phones

     In our family we decided that a rite of passage into high school includes the gift of a cell phone, as long it is used responsibly.  Not that we don't trust our kids, but temptation is really strong, so we opted for iPhones and have parental control limiting the features our kids can access.  Our younger child may borrow the phone that is considered the home phone since we don't have a land line, but we've locked up the parts that make it a smart phone, except the "find my friend" feature where we can track where the phone is from anywhere.  All that said, today I also learned early on why many schools of every type have a cell phone collection at the beginning of the day.  When your high school student has their phone out of pocket and has been on the first page of a lesson for over 20 minutes, it is pretty evident they are not really reading it.  Enough said.

     Here's to a great school year!  Hopefully you'll hear from me in less than a year this time!

Books for young teen boys

I am so thankful that my children have developed a love for reading!  They both had a brief period of time where they hated reading assignments, but reading interesting books aloud to them really sparked their interest in reading.  Kate DiCamillo, Laura Ingals Wilder, Paul Hutchens, Lois Gladys Leppard and others helped pave the way to a love for reading.  My daughter is still satisfied with an array of books and though she has excellent comprehension, she enjoys easier books to read.  My son, on the other hand, enjoys a challenge and was reading high school level books in late elementary school.

My challenge as a mom has been and continues to be finding books for my son that are challenging, but remain at his maturity level.  As a Christian mom, I want to keep his mind pure as long as possible, while giving him enjoyable escapes into the world of books!  I will NOT go to an AR list and randomly pick a hot title for my kids and that has required me to read youth books.  This has not been disappointing for me in the least.

Here's the part that will stir some hostility toward me, but I will raise my children, you can raise yours.  Harry Potter is not going to be read in my home.  The author has stated that she looked up incantations and put them in these books, she has also made derogatory statements about my Savior, Jesus Christ.  There are books that introduce sexuality of all kinds. I'm not ok with that for tween children.  There are Christian books that talk about some realities of the haulocost and war and desire in marriage.  I'm not going to hide these things from my kids, but they don't need to read them yet.  There are so many books that have supernatural tones, it is hard to draw a line.  Which fantasy is ok and which is not ok?  With any fantasy, we have discussion and will continue to discuss reality vs fantasy.

C.S. Lewis

I read all of The Chronicles of Narnia to my children.  Along with them, we read a devotional guide that took us through the underlying meaning of the series.  I personally have only read a few other books by Lewis, but I enjoy his writing.  Representation of good and evil, and creation's song, and the battle for righteousness and justice are themes I can support and discuss with my kids.  When you hear the author's intent, it is easier to come along side the book.

Classics

I do force classics upon my children.  They are an easy pick because I know a few of them, I read them with my kids and I use literature guides.  Among the list is Gulliver's Travels, The Jungle Book, and Much Ado About Nothing.  I have shared that we use Learning Language Arts Through Literature and many of the books we read which are classics, we have discovered through this curriculum.  It is a Christian curriculum and I've come to trust this to give books I approve and trust.  I've been enjoying the books along with my kids because I've not read many classics. 

Books and Series that we've checked out

This list is complicated, so I will share a little about the books.  First we'll do the earlier books.  We read The Boxcar Children and The Sugar Creek Gang.  Both of these series have a group of kids and their adventures, they are pretty easy going and great for younger readers to develop a love for chapter books.  We then moved into The Hardy Boys.  These books have mysteries and introduce crime at a level that is not overly scary.  The adventures of the Hardy boys include car chases and kidnappings, but I did not read them with my son, I went off of others' reviews.  My son gave me a play by play of many of the books, but they began to bore him after about the first 20 books.  He said they became quite predictable.  

Hunger Games, Divergent, and Maze Runner.  I have read or listened to these books on audiobook and watched the movies.  I find each series fascinating.  I haven't read the third Maze Runner book yet.  The first 2 I have not let my son read, but the third I have.  First of all, it was because we watched the movie of the first book.  I didn't realize it was a series and was not being very proactive at that point.  I am still ok with that choice, and I think he is close to being able to handle the others.  My daughter, however, isn't and what he reads, he wants to watch and I think she would have nightmares.  We have watched fantasy like Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, but each of these series are an alternate post-apocalyptic world of sorts where kids are forced to do things in social experiments.  Hunger Games has 2 children from each district fight in a war game until only one child survives in an annual televised event.  Divergent has factions that are determined by testing that teens are categorized into.  A youth who does not fit into a category is a divergent and then other youth are mind controlled to hunt any divergent.  Maze Runner has teens trying to survive in a maze and then a post war setting.  They are needed to give an antidote to a disease that turns people into monstrous creatures.  The creatures make Maze Runner less believable and because my son doesn't have a fear of monsters, that was easier for me to let him read.

Books not made into movies take more effort to inspire kids to read them, but they are sometimes better.

Yes, No, I don't know!

Saying yes or no seems simple.  When you have several opportunities to do things you enjoy, of course the answer seems simple, "yes!"  There are times that everything seems to be well-balanced, but then it turns out that everything you say yes to, lands about the same time.
Yes, being a homeschool family gives you freedom to start and end your school days when you can or want to.  It gives you freedom to have days off when other schools are in session, and hold school while area schools are in recess.  It doesn't mean that you have more time than other families, though.  Well, not in the same way at least.  And we still must meet several state requirements to be in compliance with the law.  I got so busy this last few weeks, I didn't review my lessons for this week and it makes a big impact! 
There are weeks that we are all less prepared than others, but I was convicted last year to make sure that I am as prepared for my own kids as I am when I teach a class at church or lead worship.  When I was working full-time, I studied before my meetings and when I was on committees, I gave my best.  My kids deserve no less!  I would be furious if I sent my kids to another style of school and the teachers were ill-prepared and yelled at my kids when communication failed.  Yeah, that happens here on occasion.
There was a time that I tried writing some of my own material to save on money or other reasons.  It was an ok thing and I do enjoy that, but it turns out that it is not for me!  I am more of one to adapt the material to fit my kids and their needs.  They somehow learn in spite of me at times, but I love the interaction of them learning because of me.  If I plan to adapt the material to fit the lesson theme and don't even know what we will be discussing, that is a problem!  Some weeks I can prepare during the school hours, but other weeks I can't. 
For me it takes a good 5 + hours to plan for a week of school for 2 kids.  I have already made a layout of what I want to accomplish through the year in each subject and that took some time as well.  I would say that I am at the point in preparation that people who get a boxed curriculum set are in.  The disadvantage is that I don't have a concise list of supplies laid out for me.  I choose not to make these lists in advance because it requires too much redundancy.  I just do it when I make my shopping list for the week.  I preview the language material so that I know that I can help with questions.  I preview the science experiments to make sure they are doable in our home.  I look through our history curriculum because I don't remember most of it and I like to learn with the kids!  We also have many activities to choose from in history and some of them that I chose when I laid out the year aren't going to work out at this point. 
Another part for my planning that takes plenty of time is my digital gradebook.  I have chosen the Homeschool Helper (HH) app for record keeping.  It is less paperwork and more paperwork all at the same time.  I use weekly planning pages from donnayoung.org so that I have a layout of what is happening with everyone all in one spot.  On the HH app, I have to click on each student individually and that is ok.  It is so interesting that because there is such a variety of styles of homeschooling parent as well as family size, curriculum choice and state requirements, that there can never be a one-size-fits-all solution to record keeping in a homeschool.  This is working for me, but takes a bit of effort.  I transfer daily assignments to my weekly planning page and then enter them into HH.  The beauty of it is that I don't have to rewrite the assignment to put a grade in.  I can alter things and make comments, but all-in-all, the entry at the beginning saves me time with grading in the end.
So I will let my yes be yes, and my no be no!  BUT I will keep in mind before giving a yes or no that I only have a short time left with my kids and open-ended dates will be considered differently than solid dates.  I need to be intentional about keeping a good universal calendar so that I don't over-plan!  Outside experiences and watching the good and bad parts of a parent juggling activities are an education in itself.  Oh the joys of figuring out balance! 

Spelling ..... Noooooooo!

Our first week of school was really good!  We started into all of our subjects except spelling.  We use the curriculum Spelling Power for spelling.  My kids are using Learning Language Arts through Literature (LLATL) which has a good spelling approach, but I like Spelling Power even better than that.
When my kids started school at an excellent Christian school, they used a certain curriculum and it was decent enough that I continued using it for a while in our homeschool.  The more we worked with it, I discovered what I liked and what I definitely did NOT like.  I would say that by far, spelling was the worst portion of it (OK I disliked the math almost equally).  It reminded me of the spelling that I did in grade school and while it has been in effect for years and years, it doesn't help you understand spelling.  It makes you memorize a list of words and how to spell them.  If you are good at that, you're good at spelling, if not you have to rely on spell check.  Judging by Facebook and Twitter and other online resources, spell check doesn't even work for some people. 
The approach through LLATL is having the child write a sentence or paragraph that you read and whatever misspelled words are on their papers becomes the beginning of the spelling list.  I am not going into the details of their method, but it is a good plan.  We even tried it for a little while and I felt like it was more beneficial than a random list.  Then I came across Spelling Power through www.paperbackswap.com.
Here is this HUGE book that covers spelling from early grades through high school.  I opened the cover and after the table of contents and introduction there is 100 pages of teacher instructions!  They recommend that you read it before beginning the program and it is very important.  Part of the reason I didn't start it right away is because of that 100-page non-entertaining reading that I needed to do.  I think they have a video now to explain everything. 
I started my kids out on the placement test provided.  It was very accurate in placing the kids where they needed to be.  The next year I did the pre-test and it placed the kids nearly where they left off the year before.  This is our third year, so I opted to just start out with the lists that we left off on last year.  It is working out well and though my kids complained on Monday when we began spelling again, they really didn't have any complaints in doing it.  They are quick to go through the proper steps and it is like this is just part of their expectations now.
Spelling Power takes 15 minutes a day for the kids and just over 5 minutes of my time per child per day.  They are placed in a level by letter and not by grade.  They get groups of words that all follow the same rule.  Every few groups they get a review test without hearing the rules.  There is a midlevel test and end of level tests.  During the daily portions, I set the timer on my phone for 5 minutes.  I read a word, give a sentence and they write it down.  Once they've written it, we grade it right then.  If they missed the word, they cross it out and write the correct spelling in the space provided.  If they get it right or they've finished writing the correctly spelled word, we repeat the process with the next word on the list.  This continues until the timer goes off.  I mark in my book where we left off and they move on.  There is a 10-step method for the child to learn his or her missed words and then he or she has to make up a sentence using the missed word(s).  This takes about 5 minutes and then they do an activity to help them remember the rule which takes another 5 minutes.  I purchased the activity task cards that are optional.
When we're doing other writing projects, I can use the rules to help them with a difficult word because I know the rules now.  It has been quite beneficial.  I've always been a fairly good speller, so I desire to pass that down to my children as well.  I know that the curriculum gives strict instructions, but I do modify them as I do with most of what I teach.  I feel that if I use my own words that I can explain things better. 
Cost seems an issue, but really is not.  The initial might seem a little steep, especially if you want to buy the deluxe pack for $175 from their website.  The book alone is $65 and activity cards are $30 and student books are $8 each.  The deluxe pack includes a lot of cool things that I don't have and can't speak for.  The thing is, once you've made the initial investment, all you have left yearly is the Student Record Book to purchase for each child.  We generally have been using 2 per child per year and I get them from Amazon.com with my Amazon Prime subscription so that I can get free shipping.
I'm not compensated in any way for writing what I did.  This is just a product I believe in and will use until I'm done homeschooling.

Week One ... Success!

Sis doing Life of Fred math

So grateful to God for the opportunity to have a direct roll in the education of my children!  This week has a few rough spots, but all in all it has been wonderful!
We have completed book work at a decent time every day!  My house is not a disaster, but it isn't spectacular either.  I'm over that!  I refuse to try to be what I see others be.  We do not live in filth, but I don't even aspire to live in a spotless shining mansion!  Mostly because I don't want to clean one.





Crystal Palace

We are still loving Story of the World and I've decided to do one book over a 2 year period this time.  It is great to have the freedom to take a closer look at each culture and spend time getting a feel for what took place in that time period.  Today we made a primitive model of the Crystal Palace from Great Britain's "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations."  It turned out alright!


I'm hoping this isn't something short-lived, but my kids are super excited about math.  Math has never EVER been something that the kids were begging to do.  We started Life of Fred this year and the kids love it!  Now I did start them at the beginning so that they would understand the methods used so that may change.  They are each doing several lessons a day and Bub has gone through the first book and a half.  I had to make him stop to do science so we could get done today.  I hope to write more positive about this curriculum later in the year.  I went through the first several books myself, too, and they are kind of fun!

Taping the sections of the Crystal Palace together.

Ready for a great weekend!  We are headed out to do physical education, which will be running today, so I'm signing off from the best first week of school for LSA to date!