Have I mentioned I am not great at blogging. I have attempted this before and like many things that aren't pulling on my shirt to get fed or telling me every 5 minutes they are bored it falls by the wayside and I forget then I am embarrassed to start again. Just like in High school when we went to baseball games I was too embarrassed to ask how to read the scoreboard. Is it me or are baseball scoreboards kinda crazy? I mean really just tell me how many times the little men have run around the bases and made it home without being tagged out. That's a whole other post my lack of sports knowledge.
This post is well, I am unsure what this post is. It's a I am not done with this blog yet post. It's an update that I am still alive and homeschooling. It's a don't give up on me yet blog.
This is what has been happening. My daughter and I are happily trucking along and keeping up with our Classical Conversations memory work. She reads 2-3 books/stories a day either from the All about Reading curriculum, our Bob books or a book I had from when I taught school. We also have finally gotten through the whole alphabet uppercase in our Handwriting without Tears and will finish the numbers soon, then it's on to new learning of the lowercase letters. We also are moving along with our Saxon Math I think my goal is to finish with the first book before Christmas and when that is done it will signal our Christmas break. That is unless we are unable to do that, but I am being optimistic. I think we have 30 lessons left in first workbook. We average 4 lessons a week and we have nine weeks. That should give us enough time, but who knows with our move looming over us. We are also moving forward with our All About Spelling. I think we have finally hit something that we might stick around and work on for awhile. We are working on c/k at the beginning of the word and makes the /k/ sound. Did you know c says /s/ when in front of e, i, or y? Gold star if you did! I didn't I even have to think about it when I see/hear words that begin with the /k/ sound. I did tell you I am homeschooling my daughter so I can learn right? Well it's definitely in the top 10 of reasons.
Did I mention our move is now looming? We picked out our apartment on Monday and signed the papers to get approved, then they had problems approving us, something about my birthday being in 1986? I don't know, but they looked up Rob and we now have a red carpet because they saw a paycheck stub. We are going to be saving money while living in the apartment to buy our house Dave Ramsey style. I would love to pay cash, but we are aiming for 10% down and a 15 year mortgage. Then when we are done with baby step 2-3 we can work on that house pay down and be done with the mortgage about the time Joy goes to college. Sounds like a plan to me!
So if you are still reading congratulations. If not well why write to you since you are no longer reading. So in conclusion I stink at blog writing, but I am trying; I am still loving teaching myself, I mean my daughter in homeschool and the move is looming. Thank you and goodnight.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
My job!
I just read a post from a sweet young lady who teaches me a thing or two every now and then. You can read Julia's latest wisdom here. She made me think. I NEVER refer to myself as a homemaker. Why is that? Honestly it's because I see myself more as a stay at home mom, than a homemaker. I stay home because of my daughter not because of my husband. Why is that? Shouldn't it also benefit him? He is making the money so that I can stay home. Why is it that if we didn't have our daughter I would still be a full time teacher in a school. God made me to be his helpmate and his partner first and a mother second. Shouldn't I adjust my job duties to reflect that?
Let me ramble here for a moment. I am one of those people who can't keep a plant alive. It doesn't ask for food, it's never underfoot and honestly if it doesn't look like it wants water I usually forget to give it any. The same thing can apply to my duties as a home maker. The laundry and dishes are things I can't ignore at least not very long. If I ignore laundry I run out of clothes. If I ignore the kitchen and the dishes we can't eat at home (which is sometimes the reason we don't). The bathroom, dusting, vacuuming and other cleaning things can be ignored because nothing happens if I don't do them. They do continue to get dirtier and eventually I notice and it gets done, but not really until it cries out at me. So I am not great at these things.
This is also true of my daughter vs. my husband. She (sometimes literally) cries out at me to get things done for her or with her. No she isn't asking to do her math, spelling and memory work, but that's all in my realm of want to with her. I want to homeschool her so to prove to myself (and others) that I am not a failure in that area I am eager to keep her learning in those areas. The fact that our school week has yet to have a full 4 days plus the one co-op day is another matter entirely.
Conclusion if it begs to be done I do it. If it doesn't I fail. What do you do to motivate yourself to do those things that don't beg to be done? How do you keep up with being a homemaker and a stay at home mom? Any suggestions on how to help me are welcome!
I want to be better! For God, for my Husband, for my daughter, and for me.
Let me ramble here for a moment. I am one of those people who can't keep a plant alive. It doesn't ask for food, it's never underfoot and honestly if it doesn't look like it wants water I usually forget to give it any. The same thing can apply to my duties as a home maker. The laundry and dishes are things I can't ignore at least not very long. If I ignore laundry I run out of clothes. If I ignore the kitchen and the dishes we can't eat at home (which is sometimes the reason we don't). The bathroom, dusting, vacuuming and other cleaning things can be ignored because nothing happens if I don't do them. They do continue to get dirtier and eventually I notice and it gets done, but not really until it cries out at me. So I am not great at these things.
This is also true of my daughter vs. my husband. She (sometimes literally) cries out at me to get things done for her or with her. No she isn't asking to do her math, spelling and memory work, but that's all in my realm of want to with her. I want to homeschool her so to prove to myself (and others) that I am not a failure in that area I am eager to keep her learning in those areas. The fact that our school week has yet to have a full 4 days plus the one co-op day is another matter entirely.
Conclusion if it begs to be done I do it. If it doesn't I fail. What do you do to motivate yourself to do those things that don't beg to be done? How do you keep up with being a homemaker and a stay at home mom? Any suggestions on how to help me are welcome!
I want to be better! For God, for my Husband, for my daughter, and for me.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Contest! http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
I don't know about you but I like a good contest. I have a friend who is an amazing photographer (see Joy's 5 year photos!). Reflection by Rosie is her business name and can be found here or here on facebook. She is partnering with Two Little Bugs Boutique (first I have heard of them but looks like good stuff) for a free photo shoot in an outfit. You can choose to purchase the outfit or not, and you will get a discount from both businesses for future business. Anyway go ahead over to Reflection by Rosie's blog and sign yourself up, or not better chance I will win if you don't! :)
(Must be local to Houston/NASA area or willing to come down here).
(Must be local to Houston/NASA area or willing to come down here).
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Slow to post...
Sorry, not really good at sitting at the computer and writing. In my head I wrote 4-5 different posts in the time that I have written nothing here. Unfortunately I am not great at remembering great ideas for more than 20 minutes so those posts are gone. What I can say is this....
My daughter is now 5. In Texas that means she would have to wait another 337 days give or take a few for the actual school start date to start school. In our homeschooling life this means she is reading fluently Bob book set 3. She is also working on the basics of addition in Math. In spelling we are flying through our spelling curriculum and finishing up the lessons on the short vowels next comes hopefully something that will slow us down I wasn't planning on buying the second spelling curriculum til at least after Christmas! We just re-started on handwriting with the Handwriting without tears Kindergarten book.
If that isn't enough I think we have settled on a November 15th date for the exchange of possession of the house!! That means I have a little more time to get things organized or go insane whichever way you see that.
This past weekend was the big celebration of the birthday. We got a huge bounce house with princesses on it and a slide in it. We ordered pizza and I made cupcakes for the celebration. The best friend got pink eye and was unable to attend, but otherwise the party was perfect! She had a great time we played some classic games princessed up a little.
First was what's in the bag? We have a set of pink paisley t-shirt sheets that came in a great little baggie that my daughter (like many other non toys) has attached herself to. So I decided that is the perfect bag to play this game with. The best part is it has a drawstring and since it's t-shirt material they didn't stick their hand (and eyes) in the bag I just held it by the drawstring and let them guess. Boys were a little clueless except for the one with a younger sister, he knew what was going on!
Next was a classic Hot Tiara! You know the game where you pass around a tiara and sing "Hot Tiara Hot tiara who has the hot tiara if you have the hot tiara you are out." The boys who were clueless on the previous game had this one down! What boy wants to hold onto a tiara that long anyway?
Last was not that great at least not for an unprepared 5 year old. We attempted Princess, May I. She wasn't sure on what instructions to give and they weren't great at taking small steps it was all large steps! Oh well we can try again next year?
All in all the birthday was a success we have another Precious Moment to add to our 5 year collection and we have another Mickey picture to add to our 5 year collection. Now to see what else this year will hold!
My daughter is now 5. In Texas that means she would have to wait another 337 days give or take a few for the actual school start date to start school. In our homeschooling life this means she is reading fluently Bob book set 3. She is also working on the basics of addition in Math. In spelling we are flying through our spelling curriculum and finishing up the lessons on the short vowels next comes hopefully something that will slow us down I wasn't planning on buying the second spelling curriculum til at least after Christmas! We just re-started on handwriting with the Handwriting without tears Kindergarten book.
If that isn't enough I think we have settled on a November 15th date for the exchange of possession of the house!! That means I have a little more time to get things organized or go insane whichever way you see that.
This past weekend was the big celebration of the birthday. We got a huge bounce house with princesses on it and a slide in it. We ordered pizza and I made cupcakes for the celebration. The best friend got pink eye and was unable to attend, but otherwise the party was perfect! She had a great time we played some classic games princessed up a little.
First was what's in the bag? We have a set of pink paisley t-shirt sheets that came in a great little baggie that my daughter (like many other non toys) has attached herself to. So I decided that is the perfect bag to play this game with. The best part is it has a drawstring and since it's t-shirt material they didn't stick their hand (and eyes) in the bag I just held it by the drawstring and let them guess. Boys were a little clueless except for the one with a younger sister, he knew what was going on!
Next was a classic Hot Tiara! You know the game where you pass around a tiara and sing "Hot Tiara Hot tiara who has the hot tiara if you have the hot tiara you are out." The boys who were clueless on the previous game had this one down! What boy wants to hold onto a tiara that long anyway?
Last was not that great at least not for an unprepared 5 year old. We attempted Princess, May I. She wasn't sure on what instructions to give and they weren't great at taking small steps it was all large steps! Oh well we can try again next year?
All in all the birthday was a success we have another Precious Moment to add to our 5 year collection and we have another Mickey picture to add to our 5 year collection. Now to see what else this year will hold!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Moving!
As promised from my first post here I wanted to let you in on our moving situation. The company my husband has worked for since 1995 was sold (not suddenly we knew they were looking for a buyer and had endured a 10% paycut for over a year). They were promised the whole time before the sale they would find a buyer who would keep the people who had already endured seeing over half the company laid off. Well I guess after over a year and a half of looking promises like that are minor in comparison to actually getting the company sold. So everyone was laid off. A few were hired back as consultants but eventually everyone has lost their jobs with the company.
My husband job hunted for 3.5 months and was blessed with his amazing, wonderful new job. The only problem the new job is an hour away. That's an hour straight driving no traffic. Did I mention we live in the 4th largest city in America and no traffic would be an amazing thing. So for 10+ hours a week my husband gets to be alone in his car, in traffic with a million other people. My daughter and I get to be at home waiting for him. The man who was home for 3.5 months, and before that worked 15 minutes away. We had lunch with him almost every day, we had dinner at what my friend inform me is old people time 5:30pm. We got to see him in the morning and wave goodbye as he headed off to work. Now I might turn over as he unlocks the door to the garage and leaves. My daughter complains for the whole hour of driving across town if we are going to see him or do other things over there. Dinner that's at 6:30pm at the earliest. Life is turned upside down.
So we are moving. We called a realtor put the house on the market and kept the place cleaner than it's been in the 5 years we have lived here. People came one every 2 weeks to look. Then nothing for 2-3 weeks so we dropped the price. People came again, we got an offer for about the same as we owe on our house. We won't pay closing costs out of pocket just can't happen. So one Sunday I turned around in church and asked a couple I know might possibly be interested if they were interested. They were!! We are selling the house to people we know!! They are leasing for a year or so to build up the deposit needed for purchase, but as far as I am concerned it's done! We will move by November 1st.
Now to find an apartment cheap enough to pay off debt and truly Dave Ramsey our life, but not scare us so we can't go out at night.
My husband job hunted for 3.5 months and was blessed with his amazing, wonderful new job. The only problem the new job is an hour away. That's an hour straight driving no traffic. Did I mention we live in the 4th largest city in America and no traffic would be an amazing thing. So for 10+ hours a week my husband gets to be alone in his car, in traffic with a million other people. My daughter and I get to be at home waiting for him. The man who was home for 3.5 months, and before that worked 15 minutes away. We had lunch with him almost every day, we had dinner at what my friend inform me is old people time 5:30pm. We got to see him in the morning and wave goodbye as he headed off to work. Now I might turn over as he unlocks the door to the garage and leaves. My daughter complains for the whole hour of driving across town if we are going to see him or do other things over there. Dinner that's at 6:30pm at the earliest. Life is turned upside down.
So we are moving. We called a realtor put the house on the market and kept the place cleaner than it's been in the 5 years we have lived here. People came one every 2 weeks to look. Then nothing for 2-3 weeks so we dropped the price. People came again, we got an offer for about the same as we owe on our house. We won't pay closing costs out of pocket just can't happen. So one Sunday I turned around in church and asked a couple I know might possibly be interested if they were interested. They were!! We are selling the house to people we know!! They are leasing for a year or so to build up the deposit needed for purchase, but as far as I am concerned it's done! We will move by November 1st.
Now to find an apartment cheap enough to pay off debt and truly Dave Ramsey our life, but not scare us so we can't go out at night.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Patience
I follow some blogs (okay allot of blogs) and the majority of them have multiple kids, homeschool, are Christian or are just funny. Some of my favorites are the 4 Moms, 35 kids posts. As it says their are 4 moms, and they each have large families. You could say I am jealous as I love kids, but I think also what applies to the multitude applies to me. Jesus did the sermon on the mount in front of many, but more importantly it applied to each one. He also was pretty good at the one on one relationships (as Jon Acuff pointed out in his blog today). Anyway where I was going with this is the 4 Moms today talked about patience, something it seems that they all can struggle with at times. Having more kids does not make you more patient! I can even say having only one kid does not make you more patient! First I will let you read their thoughts on patience...
Raising Olives has my favorite line of all the blogs today - “I’ve asked you to pick up your room three times already.” which means that I’ve already allowed three instances of disobedience. Wow! isn't that the truth it's not their fault I told them 3 times it's mine where was my follow through the first 3 times?
Smockity Frocks talks about the chaos, and while my one doesn't create much chaos (it's usually my own making!) Smockity reminds me that it's for God's Glory. " If I keep my eyes on eternity, I remember that my goal, to glorify God, is more important than an entire gallon of spilled milk."
Life in a Shoe First of all this blog always makes me smile! She redefines patience from the secular view to a Godly view. Taking it one day, one moment at a time is the way it should be! God didn't dish us a years worth of patience and expect us to patiently use it one bite at a time He dishes as needed!
The Common Room I have to admit I don't read this blog as often because it doesn't come in a full feed on my Google Blogger reader thing. I did pop over there today cause I am loving this topic, and without fail she has some good things to say also. It's the honesty that she (at least that is what I surmised) is the crazy one 5 minutes after she is supposed to have left the drive way that makes me smile. That and prayer is the answer. Isn't it the answer to everything?
Now for my two cents. Am I patient. NO! Where is it I fail, it actually comes from only having one. Shouldn't she be perfect? I pour hours into her each day and then she wants me to play dogs or baby or some other pointless game. I just spent hours with you can't I just do this one pointless thing that makes ME happy? Wait no I want to spend time with her, I need to be patient and eventually we will learn to love the same games and will enjoy playing together. I should be glad in the moment. The moments are fleeting. I should have the patience to spend the time with her when she wants me. Their may be a day she no longer does. So here is my prayer God give me the patience to play the games my daughter wants to play and let me not always have to be in charge.
Raising Olives has my favorite line of all the blogs today - “I’ve asked you to pick up your room three times already.” which means that I’ve already allowed three instances of disobedience. Wow! isn't that the truth it's not their fault I told them 3 times it's mine where was my follow through the first 3 times?
Smockity Frocks talks about the chaos, and while my one doesn't create much chaos (it's usually my own making!) Smockity reminds me that it's for God's Glory. " If I keep my eyes on eternity, I remember that my goal, to glorify God, is more important than an entire gallon of spilled milk."
Life in a Shoe First of all this blog always makes me smile! She redefines patience from the secular view to a Godly view. Taking it one day, one moment at a time is the way it should be! God didn't dish us a years worth of patience and expect us to patiently use it one bite at a time He dishes as needed!
The Common Room I have to admit I don't read this blog as often because it doesn't come in a full feed on my Google Blogger reader thing. I did pop over there today cause I am loving this topic, and without fail she has some good things to say also. It's the honesty that she (at least that is what I surmised) is the crazy one 5 minutes after she is supposed to have left the drive way that makes me smile. That and prayer is the answer. Isn't it the answer to everything?
Now for my two cents. Am I patient. NO! Where is it I fail, it actually comes from only having one. Shouldn't she be perfect? I pour hours into her each day and then she wants me to play dogs or baby or some other pointless game. I just spent hours with you can't I just do this one pointless thing that makes ME happy? Wait no I want to spend time with her, I need to be patient and eventually we will learn to love the same games and will enjoy playing together. I should be glad in the moment. The moments are fleeting. I should have the patience to spend the time with her when she wants me. Their may be a day she no longer does. So here is my prayer God give me the patience to play the games my daughter wants to play and let me not always have to be in charge.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Benefits!
As most homeschoolers know their are many benefits of homeschooling. Today I am focusing on one of them. Schedule, it's flexible! I had the intention this year of starting in Early August and adding a curriculum each week or every other week until we had them all incorporated into our days. We did start our math on August 5th and were consistent for three weekdays. Then we got a call that one of Rob's Aunt's passed away suddenly. She was the one I called during my first miscarriage. She was the one that we talked to about Rob's Mom's cancer. She was the one we talked to about the family drama was it important or silly? She was gone in an instant. We didn't even have to talk about it, we knew we were going to the funeral. I started to pack the math and then decided not to, most likely we would not have time and we had started early. It worked perfectly for us to stop and pick it up again on Monday the 22nd when we had been home over a week. We were able to take a week plus off part for travel and part for travel recuperation. Yeah for no stress!
The second level of flexibility is in the day to day. The day we called our first day of school was August 22nd. Since the public schools were starting we decided to go ahead and start that day also. Joy and I put the schedule up Math, Recess and Cleaning floors/dusting were our morning activities. Then I got the call, the one I always dread, someone would like to view your home in about 2 hours time. Okay, one little tweak to the schedule dusting and floors moved up math moved back and recess is definitely going to be at the park! Done a little mad woman and grumpy child cleaning and we never missed a beat!
The third aspect of the scheduling is the actual daily schedule. We have this schedule for our school days:
My daughter and I meet each morning to go over the schedule and decide in what order our day shall happen. The green are the every day items. The yellow are the someday items (the ones on rings indicate something from that ring happens daily but the actual activity varies). The pink are the fun extras. No two days are alike, and she gets to choose which she wants to do when. The problem we ran into the last 2 days was afternoon I don't wannas. So today I put the important you have to items in the morning. That and we have a meeting this afternoon that I am unsure of the length of so I am avoiding accidentally not having time for an important subject.
That is flexibility at it's best... we decide which days we homeschool, we decide which hours we homeschool and we decide which order we homeschool. It's a great plan for those without a plan!
The second level of flexibility is in the day to day. The day we called our first day of school was August 22nd. Since the public schools were starting we decided to go ahead and start that day also. Joy and I put the schedule up Math, Recess and Cleaning floors/dusting were our morning activities. Then I got the call, the one I always dread, someone would like to view your home in about 2 hours time. Okay, one little tweak to the schedule dusting and floors moved up math moved back and recess is definitely going to be at the park! Done a little mad woman and grumpy child cleaning and we never missed a beat!
The third aspect of the scheduling is the actual daily schedule. We have this schedule for our school days:
My daughter and I meet each morning to go over the schedule and decide in what order our day shall happen. The green are the every day items. The yellow are the someday items (the ones on rings indicate something from that ring happens daily but the actual activity varies). The pink are the fun extras. No two days are alike, and she gets to choose which she wants to do when. The problem we ran into the last 2 days was afternoon I don't wannas. So today I put the important you have to items in the morning. That and we have a meeting this afternoon that I am unsure of the length of so I am avoiding accidentally not having time for an important subject.
That is flexibility at it's best... we decide which days we homeschool, we decide which hours we homeschool and we decide which order we homeschool. It's a great plan for those without a plan!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Future Tense to Present Tense...
This week marked a milestone. I am not sure when it changed (although technically it was Monday at 8am), but I changed from future tense I will be homeschooling Joy to the present tense I am homeschooling Joy. It struck me Friday as Joy and I were apartment shopping (I will tell you more of our home situation later) I was about to say we are going to homeschool and had to change that to we are homeschooling. It's really happening. Really? It's happening? Wow when did that happen? It's always an interesting moment when you go from the planning and preparing to the doing stage. Then a week later you realize hey I am on the next step! Now to enjoy it and not look towards the next step until it's time.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Kindergarten has started!
Hi! I am a homeschool mom of one child. My daughter is currently 4.9 years old and we started kindergarten this week! I have no other children and although I would welcome more it looks like our life will be complete with our one.
So why homeschool if I only have one kid? Why not? Should only families of 2, 3, 5, 19 kids homeschool? No I have the right also and this is what we think is best for our child.
How did we come to this decision? A few things added up to wanting to homeschool. First her birthday is 19 days after the cut off for getting into the state schools and most private schools follow that same cut off. Second I found a group/program I fell in love with and can't imagine my child learning any other way or with any other curriculum. Some might say I am a control freak (which I will admit I am a little). I can't see anyone else being able to teach my child better than me. So here we are homeschooling one.
Our choices for curriculum this year are simple! The group/program I fell in love with is Classical Conversations (CC). So we will take from what we do with them for our History and Science and Latin. I decided to go with the CC recommended Math which is Saxon Math, and so far so good. I did get the recommendation that if my daughter already knows her numbers and can count to skip the K curriculum and go ahead with 1st grade. I am so glad for this because 5 days into the curriculum and my daughter knows more than they expected her to so it's real fun and easy for her. Next I wanted a phonics program, and I stumbled upon All About Spelling. No it's not really a total phonics reading curriculum, but they do go through phonics to teach the spelling. They also have books for the kids to read and I believe are coming out with an All About Reading curriculum. I am also doing Handwriting Without Tears with her. I was fortunate enough for someone else to pay for me to attend a HWT workshop and so I have allot of the materials and we use that for our handwriting. That rounds out our official curriculum choices. In addition to those we are reading each day from her Bob book sets, and I will continue to find readers at her level.
We had a daily schedule from 8am-7pm with each hour having an activity. Few if any of the activities take a full hour so it's not as crazy as it sounds. We start the day looking at the schedule and deciding what we will do and when we will do it. Some things like Math, Spelling, Reading, and when we start CC our Memory Work are the no choice do every day things. We then have chores and an elective which we pick from each day. Last she has some fun choices to add to the blank spots.
I actually had the intention of starting about 3 weeks ago (and we did with our Math) and adding something to our schedule each week. Two kinks happened, first I didn't order my All About Spelling in time to get it for our 2nd week. Then one of my husband's Aunt's died suddenly and we drove 12 hours to be with family. When we returned I took a week off doing other stuff that wasn't done while we were out of town. Then the public schools were starting and so I got in gear and decided to start also this past Monday. We used our regular schedule on Monday and Tuesday then Wednesday we took the day off so I could teach the teachers at her former school about Handwriting Without Tears. Thursday (today) we were back on our schedule. Tomorrow we have our CC Orientation. So first week of school was only 3 days. I love it!!
So why homeschool if I only have one kid? Why not? Should only families of 2, 3, 5, 19 kids homeschool? No I have the right also and this is what we think is best for our child.
How did we come to this decision? A few things added up to wanting to homeschool. First her birthday is 19 days after the cut off for getting into the state schools and most private schools follow that same cut off. Second I found a group/program I fell in love with and can't imagine my child learning any other way or with any other curriculum. Some might say I am a control freak (which I will admit I am a little). I can't see anyone else being able to teach my child better than me. So here we are homeschooling one.
Our choices for curriculum this year are simple! The group/program I fell in love with is Classical Conversations (CC). So we will take from what we do with them for our History and Science and Latin. I decided to go with the CC recommended Math which is Saxon Math, and so far so good. I did get the recommendation that if my daughter already knows her numbers and can count to skip the K curriculum and go ahead with 1st grade. I am so glad for this because 5 days into the curriculum and my daughter knows more than they expected her to so it's real fun and easy for her. Next I wanted a phonics program, and I stumbled upon All About Spelling. No it's not really a total phonics reading curriculum, but they do go through phonics to teach the spelling. They also have books for the kids to read and I believe are coming out with an All About Reading curriculum. I am also doing Handwriting Without Tears with her. I was fortunate enough for someone else to pay for me to attend a HWT workshop and so I have allot of the materials and we use that for our handwriting. That rounds out our official curriculum choices. In addition to those we are reading each day from her Bob book sets, and I will continue to find readers at her level.
We had a daily schedule from 8am-7pm with each hour having an activity. Few if any of the activities take a full hour so it's not as crazy as it sounds. We start the day looking at the schedule and deciding what we will do and when we will do it. Some things like Math, Spelling, Reading, and when we start CC our Memory Work are the no choice do every day things. We then have chores and an elective which we pick from each day. Last she has some fun choices to add to the blank spots.
I actually had the intention of starting about 3 weeks ago (and we did with our Math) and adding something to our schedule each week. Two kinks happened, first I didn't order my All About Spelling in time to get it for our 2nd week. Then one of my husband's Aunt's died suddenly and we drove 12 hours to be with family. When we returned I took a week off doing other stuff that wasn't done while we were out of town. Then the public schools were starting and so I got in gear and decided to start also this past Monday. We used our regular schedule on Monday and Tuesday then Wednesday we took the day off so I could teach the teachers at her former school about Handwriting Without Tears. Thursday (today) we were back on our schedule. Tomorrow we have our CC Orientation. So first week of school was only 3 days. I love it!!
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