End of Week 1: Kicking It Off Right

It's been a great start to the year.  We've gotten so much done!  I can't believe the strong start we've had.  Somehow I always think we're going to just slink into the year, not making much effort to really get into it, and that's what we always end up doing.  Slowly we start adding more until we're in full swing, but then we have periods of slacking and not getting through as much as we'd intended, paired with an all-out scramble to catch up once we fall behind.  It's getting everything done, but it's more than a little stressful.

Creeper working hard on his phonics

This year has been different.  We took a week off before really getting into it, but we jumped in and completely committed, straight from the start.  I'm really impressed at our ability to progress through our lessons and just keep going.  I wasn't expecting such a smooth transition.  Normally getting the kids back into the school routine results in resistance and struggles, but this time it was smooth sailing.

I started with attempting to make a schedule for the kids, but that went out the window fast.  It seemed like things didn't want to sit in the blocks they were assigned for, and with the kids doing lessons by Skype with our aunt, that made it challenging.  I think that one was on me, though.  I just wanted to be organized.  In my head there was just so much to be done, but as it turned out, it wasn't nearly as much as I thought it would.  Science and history, which I thought would be long and involved were both pretty easy and quick, at least where I was involved.  Getting their language arts done simply flew.  The only subjects that took a little more time were phonics and math, which I knew would be more time consuming anyway.

Bear's first copyork!

This year was Bear's first year doing copywork, and the first time we've decided to do any significant practice of copywork.  Pinkie and Link have done copywork before, for a co-op we used to go to, but they would only do it once a week.  Now Bear and Creeper are doing copywork three times a week and Link is doing dictation twice.  I expected them to find it boring, but they're really quite enjoying it.  Better still, they love the sentences coming from their literature.  I think that's their favorite part!

Already I'm seeing improvements in their handwriting.  Between the copywork and all of the writing for their phonics programs, they're really starting to become a lot more careful and neat.  This is especially obvious for Bear, who used to hate writing neatly.  He liked to treat his writing like it was a form of art, but that gave it the impression of being almost hieroglyphic in nature.  It was sometimes hard to read.  Creeper's work wasn't always the easiest to read either, which didn't help.  I have a feeling their copywork will be far different between the beginning of the year and the end of the year.  I even took pictures to compare at the end of the year.

Bear's first copywork of the year

Creeper's first copywork of the year

This was really exciting for us.  This is the first year we're going to have something significant to compare at either end of the year.  We've never been all that into portfolios, so we haven't kept a lot of work samples.  Most of what we've kept has been workbooks so the kids can see how far they've progressed.  This time things are different.  They're going to have two things to hold up and compare, which is going to be a lot of fun for them.

Creeper doing his literature by Skype

The biggest success of the year so far was getting things started up for Skype.  They're loving those lessons.  I think this is fantastic because it's not just a chance for them to have some educational time with someone other than me, but it's also a chance to build a relationship with another member of their family.  They get exposure to a really good reader as well.  I'm loving this Skype arrangement.  More importantly, the kids are loving this whole Skype thing.

This is also just a really funky way to homeschool.  It's given me the idea that we may want to start budgeting for some other online classes, maybe through something like Outschool.  There's something special about having a chance to work alone in my little office without any distractions, and have someone's attention just on them.  I think they'd love doing classes online this way too.  It could be something to think about for our future in homeschooling.  Maybe we'll have to consider getting them each on an online class for their birthday or for Christmas.  That could be so much fun.

Link working in the comfy chair

In other news, while this is the first week of homeschooling for Link, it may also be the last solid week of homeschooling for Link.  We just got word back that he's off the waiting list for the charter school we've been looking into for him.  While it makes me sad to think of how much I'll miss out on with him being in school, I can't help but think how good this will be for him.  The school has a reputation for having a great program, with lots of support for special needs.  It's entirely science and technology based, which is really Link's thing.  Most of all, it means he'll have a chance to make some really good social connections and make some friends, something that's been kind of lacking in his life right now.  Without a car our opportunities for socialization are limited, and he's really of an age where he needs to expand his social circle.

It's going to be an interesting transition for us, should we decide this is the best path for Link.  He's super excited and ready to go back to school.  He wants friends his own age and a big social network.  He's already a morning person, so getting him up and out the door shouldn't be hard, and adapting our lives to work around when he's on and off the bus shouldn't be hard, but it's going to be a very different dynamic only having two at home.  It will be a big change for almost all of us.

All of us except Pinkie.  She's already back in school.  Her first week back was in her landscaping shop, and apparently it was wonderful.  She's looking forward to a great year there, though we're not sure how great it will be yet.  We won't know what she really feels until she gets into her academic week at the vocational school, which happens when she goes back on Tuesday.  So far it looks like it should be a good year though.

Pinkie has really taken off on her own this year.  She started volunteering at the local food pantry over the summer and plans to continue on one day a week throughout the year.  She's moving on into an honors class.  She's decided it's healthier to walk to and from school, so she's been doing that because she wants to stay in shape, which is especially important with her shop.  She needs to stay strong and capable.  In some ways it's hard to believe we're one step closer to her being out in the world, but at the same time, it seems right.  It's going to be a hard change when she's finally off to college or living on her own.

But this is only the first week of school.  We've had a couple victories, things the kids are wicked proud of, particularly Bear.  He's feeling especially accomplished this week.  We've even caught on video two very special moments:

Bear reading Mac and Tab (Primary Phonics)

This is Bear reading his first phonics reader, Mac and Tab, done by Primary Phonics.  I have to admit, when I first learned about this program I wasn't in love with it.  In fact, I kind of hated it, but Creeper was doing okay with it, so we kept with it.  Now that I'm seeing the incredible impact it's having on the kids' ability to read, I'm really pretty impressed with it.  It feels like we're really making progress with reading, and this program has so much to do with that, especially with the readers, which are right on target and perfectly timed with the levels.  I couldn't ask for more!

Bear recites "from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"

Also, this is another huge accomplishment.  The kids are all going to be memorizing poems this year, even Link, who has decided to continue with his poems even after he goes back to school.  Bear was the first one to have a poem due, and he did wonderfully!  He's so proud of himself and I'm so proud of him!  This year is going to be full of poetry for the kids, which is fantastic because they're totally loving the memorization and are so excited to show off to the world!

Haircuts by Daddy

In an unrelated to school front, Bear decided he was sick of having long hair (as I'm sure you've noticed in the second video), so he wanted his hair cut.  His cute new style was given to him by his dad, and it turned out great!  More often than not our idea of haircuts are clippers by the sink, or paying someone else to do them, but this worked out really well.  We may have to do more haircuts by Daddy!

Now Bear says he has "princess hair, like Mommy," which I think is the cutest thing.  It's great that we've been able to give him a new style for his first year in an actual numbered grade.  He's no longer a little kid anymore, he's a first grader!  Now he has more of a big kid style to go with it, or at least that's how he feels.

As for going forward, we're really excited about continuing our work for this school year.  We've got some really great stuff coming our way as the year goes on.  The plan is to keep at least weekly updates, possibly more often if we're up to fun and interesting things.  It's shaping up to be a great school year already!

First Day Down

It's morning, and that means I'll be getting into it soon, but I figured I'd at least pop on and give a little bit about how everything went yesterday.  After all, it was the first day of school!

First Pinkie went back to her high school, which was great.  I guess she was in shop for her first day, which meant she didn't have terribly much hard stuff to do, but talk about starting off on the right foot!  Shop is her favorite, so that was a perfect way to start the year!

As always, she started off the first day of school late, apparently.  I guess she's taken to walking to school, which is good!  It's definitely healthier for her than just taking the bus!  She didn't really talk about it much, but she was in a good mood the whole day, so I guess that's a sign that her first day went pretty well.  At least there were no complaints.

This is going to be a more challenging year for her because she's got her first honors class.  It's going to be interesting to see how it goes once everything hits full swing with academics again next week.  I have to wonder how much that will change how she feels about school.

As for the rest of them, it was a rough start.  Bear fell to pieces somewhere around lunch time.  He didn't get much sleep and that resulted in a really rough spot for him.  I ended up carrying him to bed and staying with him until he was sleeping, so he didn't finish his work.  It was frustrating, but at least he hit the big points.  We got through his literature, history, and science, which left us with only the subjects we've been really going hard at to get on track.  Having one day off isn't really going to hurt him at this point.

Creeper did great for his first day.  He kind of broke down on his reading at the end of it all, but it was a long day.  I can't blame him for just being done with the whole thing.  It's a longer day than we've had in the past couple of years, so it's going to be a challenge for him.  Plus, it's an adjustment with a new routine and a new curriculum.  He doesn't love the idea of having to do more work, but we're getting through it.  At least he knows some of it is fun because his science had him drawing space yesterday.  That was a lot of fun for him.  It worked out pretty well!

For Link, I think, it was the hardest.  He wasn't even done with his work on the computer until almost five, and then he still had his math, phonics, and science to do, as well as some more reading.  As it stood he didn't finish his math.  We didn't even start with his science until this morning, and he's finishing his reading now.  We're going to see how this is going forward, especially once babysitting starts.  He's not going to want to work once there are more kids in the house.  I'm hoping we can just start finishing his day by 4:30.

But that's our start to the week.  I'm wondering how things will go from here, but I'm thinking now that Bear is more well rested it's going to make all the difference.  I have a feeling there's going to be some adjustments we need to make, but one we get it settled out it'll all be just fine.

It's Only Been, I Don't Know, Forever?

We're back!  We're moving!  And it's about time to start school again.  No, I'm not kidding, we start school tomorrow.  I already have the stack of books sitting beside my chair for the first two weeks and everything.  All we need now is the schedule to be tacked to the wall and we'll be good to go.

So what's coming up for us this year?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  This year we're going to be starting a whole bunch of things on the homeschool front.  We've kind of scrapped our old unschooling ways in favor of more involved pursuits.  However, it's going to be a really fun year and I think the kids are going to absolutely love it!

But before we get to that, I'm going to talk about Pinkie.  This year is going to be Pinkie's sophomore year in high school.  Yes, high school!  She's studying landscaping at our local vocational school, and she's in love with it.  Part of that was being able to drive a tractor, but most of it is her love of working outdoors and being involved with plants.  It's always been a thing of hers, ever since she was pretty little.  She's always been into plants and animals.

But what about the homeschooling crew?  We're checking out a new program (well, new to us) called Build Your Library.  It's a secular literature-based curriculum, so basically everything we need.  I found it through a group called Secular, Eclectic, Academic.  I don't remember how I encountered them, but I used them to vet out other literature-based programs available.  While I have to say I wasn't worried about "truly secular" curriculum by their definition, I think I definitely found my home with Build Your Library.

So, why did I choose this one?  I'll be honest, I loved some of the book selections and I got excited that the creator chose things like The Hobbit and some other more modern titles.  It also helps that it wasn't a small fortune to purchase the books (though my aunt did do us a huge favor and got most of them for us used!)  As I explored the curriculum and learned more about the creator, I got more and more excited.  The woman who put it all together is really my kind of person.  She loves to read, but she's also into fantasy and science fiction, and we even watch some of the same shows.  She reads comic books, too, and goes to the local Comic Con.  There's definitely something appealing about a curriculum written by someone that's my kind of people.

Truth be told, I wasn't even looking for a curriculum when I started finding them.  People just started referencing them and I got curious.  This resulted in me checking them out, and then finally starting to really get drawn into the idea that these kinds of curricula even exist!  Next thing you know I was trying to figure out in the budget how I was going to afford to provide one for my kids, and then the whole idea of unschooling went right out the window.

Against what everyone recommends, I've decided to do a different level for each of the kids.  This is in part because of my own personal discomfort at the idea of having them work off "grade level" and instead having to modify the whole thing to make it appropriate for all of their skill levels.  On top of that, there's something nice about being able to give them each the individualized attention of their own plan and assignments.  Yes, it's more work, but I think it will result in each one of them getting a little bit more individualized attention.

So this year Bear is going to be in level 1.  That means we're going to be studying the ancients in history.  This is paired with some great literature, including a couple books that actually tie into the history, something that must have been challenging to find.  It's hard to find a book that appeals to that age level and matching that period of history.  There isn't a ton of lit written in that period.  This is all put together with a nature study, which seems like a really good "introduction to science" kind of thing.  Finally, we'll be adding our own math and phonics, sticking with what we're already doing, since it works so well for us.

Creeper gets to study the middle ages, though we're going to be including a little bit of a gloss-over for the ancients.  We've done it before, but it's been a little while, so this will be a review.  More than anything I wanted to get the timeline figures up there for him so he can have a full timeline when he's finished.  He's also got a great lit selection, which I've really been enjoying.  Science for him will be broken up into Earth science and space.  It should be a fun year.  Also, he'll be doing the same math and phonics, just like Bear.

Finally, there's Link.  He's doing the first level of American history.  I could have had him work on grade level, but as one of the things they learn is the 50 states, half in each year of American history, I thought we should start at the beginning.  His books are pretty good too, and they provide the link between his history and science.  For science he's doing biology, and it seems like there's a little bit of emphasis on diseases, which should be fun because I'm highly interested in infectious disease.  It all just packages together so neatly!  This is also going to be his last year in the elementary math books, as next year he's going to be doing pre-algebra.  We're also going to be working on finishing out his phonics curriculum, so that should be one thing to mark off the list.  I still can't believe he's already in middle school!  They grow up so fast!

And we're not homeschooling in isolation during the day either!  My aunt is getting some time in with the kids via Skype this year, which is huge.  Now, I'm not excited about this because it means I have a little less to worry about every day.  Yeah, she's taking some of the burden on history and poetry and almost all of lit.  However, this is a chance for her to build a strong relationship with the kids!  When they grow up and think back about their family, they're going to remember all those times working on the computer with their aunt.  She's a great, engaging reader.  She's always ready with funny comments to keep things lively.  The help with homescooling is just an added bonus.  It's also great to be able to have a resource who used to work in education and knows tips and tricks that I'd never even thought of before.  I don't know what we'd do without her insight.

Okay, time for a little nostalgia...  Thinking back about my aunt helping me out, I keep going back to the same thought over and over again.  Years back, when I was still pretty young, she made me a collection of poems.  She illustrated the book and everything.  I had that thing for years, and my parents might even still have it in their basement somewhere.  It was my favorite thing to pull out to read, and I still have one of the poems, a very short one, memorized.  It's one of those things that stuck with me for years.  Having my kids work with my aunt, it feels like it's that kind of thing, only less physical and tangible.  They may not have had a book to pull out and look at, but they get to see and talk to their aunt daily, which is great.  When they grow up they may not have memories of a collection of poems she made, but they'll remember reciting the poems they memorized to her.  They'll have memories of the books they read together and all the conversations they had.  They're going to be close, and that's wonderful.

But that's basically it for our planning this year.  I'm sure I'll have more to write after we've kicked off the year, which is tomorrow!  I still have things to do to get ready, like writing up narration cards and getting all of that sorted out, but we're almost there.  It's down to the finer details now, and anything that doesn't come along perfectly smoothly will be sorted out as we get rolling.  These first couple of weeks are going to be a challenge, but we'll get there, and it's all going to be so much fun!