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Tuesday, 12 February 2008

well...

it's been a while since i've posted anything. We've had alot going on. We are getting ready to move again but, I believe this will be our last rental before we buy again. Casey and I have talked about me working some and putting the boys in school till the end of the year but that is definately not in God's plan. I got hired on with LiveOps a few weeks ago so I can do that around our schedule (probably early mornings, late nights and some weekends) and make some extra money. We have a "plan" that we are very excited about and hope to pay off my car and a few other things before we buy again. I really want a place to call home before the boys are grown!!! I think if we do what we are supposed to do, we will be blessed by it sooner than we thought.
We have been working hard with our school work and Cameron is getting burnt out with the English we are doing now so I have looked into buying another program for him for next year. I'm pretty sure it's going to be Shurley English. I've heard great things about it and that kids love it and are really retaining information. To be quite honest, I really don't think they need to learn so many details in grammer at such a young age. It's like teaching them spanish words without knowing what it translates to in English. Sometimes, they are just not ready to comprehend the depth of grammer. I know that Tristen is still doing (in public school) alot of the same material he did in 4th grade. He remembers it and it's a breeze for him but kids in his class are acting like they learned it for the first time. He's like "oh, that's a direct object" and he gets bonus points because he knew that before the teacher taught it. I'm sure that public school has been teaching the same monotonous information for years as well. Surely, my child is not the minority that has already been taught this information? So, that confirms my point, the kids are not able to really understand some of the jargon until they are older. I'm not sure there is much point in it unless you can move on. I'm going to talk to Tristen's councilor about him being in the Gateway Program at school. Why not? If he's going to be there, he may as well be challenged. Oh, it's like Wesley has been working on capitalization rules this year. Just yesterday I asked him, "What are 3 things you need to capitalize in a sentence?" Wesley said, "I forgot" Of course when I remind him he remembers but quite frankly, he doesn't give a rat's rear parts. He's more interested in planning his army game with his brothers and where his walkie talkies are. I think that's just as it should be....

Wednesday, 28 November 2007

My First Post

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Type your first post here and click "Save Changes" to publish it to your Xanga Site!

Well, I'm new here. I thought I might be able to collect my thoughts somehow if I blog. I've seen so many homeschool moms that have these need sites showing off their kids and well.....I need to show off mine too. Also, I thought I might have a place where my family can check in on what we are really doing all day:^) I guess I'll start with our curriculum that we are using this year. I'm really excited about what we are doing. I've had more fun this year than ever!
Science-Exploring Creation Through Astronomy. LOVE IT!!! The boys are keeping journals and we are doing lots of projects with this study. I'm looking forward to doing more of the subjects in this series. I love how it honors God in every way and backs up the bible and the truth of creation! I'll try to post pictures of their work soon.
History-Story of the World Vol. 1 I"m reluctant to repeat this again because I have already been through it with Tristen, but it is good and has great literature suggestions throughout the study. Although, we haven't had a whole lot of time to do a lot of projects with this, so far. Too busy with other things.
Math-Math U See. Now why didn't I happen on this years ago!!!!!! This makes total sense and it's fun. YES, IT"S FUN! And the boys understand it! It really makes for happy days.
Reading-Reading Detectives are great for comprehension. Tristen really learned to analyze passages and pieces of literature with this book. Just using it for Cameron this year so far. I make up my own questions for Wesley while we/he reads.
Cameron English-Rod and Staff-I love the way this book is laid out. It really helps them to be able to dissect every word in a sentence and write correctly.
Wesley English-Abeka. It's good for now. Probably the last year I will use it. I love Rod and Staff
Vocabulary-Vocabulary from Classical Roots 4 for Cameron. I love this because it teaches Latin and Greek roots. It just makes sense to me to learn words this way. I don't have vocab for Wesley. I have used Wordly Wise in the past and may again, but right now, Wes has enough work!
Spelling-Spellwell A and C. I really like these books. It has a lot of activities in it and I believe it keeps their interest without boring them with monotonous copy work. Test scores are excellent! Maybe I just have smart boys:^)
Critical Thinking-Think A Minutes, Mind Benders, Highlights Magazine, Puzzlemania (Highlights), and will be buying more.
I'm hoping maybe I can put our favorite read a louds on here. The boys love for me to read to them a good book. They never want it to end. I remember Tristen especially laying on the floor building something with blocks or Kinex and listening to me read on and on. Wesley is enjoying it more now. Before this year, his attention span was about 5 minutes. I used to be the same way and I grew out of it. I really try not to pressure them to do things because I believe they do it when they are ready. Mary Hood really helped me settle down and not have so many time constraints with my children. Tristen went to public school this year and is doing absolutely fine. I'll talk about that later. I miss him greatly. I think he's missing being home some too (probably wouldn't admit it) but we are going to finish the year anyway.