Our new schedule - Fridays

I forgot to add that our new schedule is a 4 day week. I have left Fridays to be the day we do fun stuff and extra stuff. Right now on Fridays we do an art project, a poetry lesson, work on memorizing states and capitals, and freewriting. I have grand plans to also play educational games, but that hasn't happened, yet. It has been nice to have a day set aside for all of the activities that we never used to make time for.

The other nice thing about planning a 4 day week is that if we end up missing a day of school during the week for things like doctor's appointments or going to town for shopping, we can make up the work on Fridays. For several weeks in a row we ended up missing a day and we were able to still accomplish all of our work for the week. This last week we had a full week and we able to have do our other activities again. So far it has been working out really well.

Our new schedule - yes, again!

Wow, this whole homeschooling thing is constantly changing. Well, at least it is not boring... After quitting K12 it was time to redo our schedule yet again. We started this schedule right after Christmas Break and it has been working pretty well so far.

7 am - my alarm goes off. I’m not gonna lie. I am not a morning person. My kids aren’t either, really. I used to set my alarm for 8am, but our school day was going too late in the afternoon, so we’re trying to start our day earlier.

Once I drag myself out of bed, I exercise, check my email, facebook, google reader, and eat breakfast.

7:30 am - the kids are supposed to get up. Sometimes they set their alarm and sometimes I wake them up. Lots of times I let them sleep in until 8am, especially if they have stayed up late the night before.

7:30 – 8:30/8:45 ish – the girls eat their breakfast, do their morning chores, get dressed, etc. they are allowed to watch one TV show while they eat their breakfast.

8:45 – this is when the older 2 girls (ages 9 and 11) are supposed to start their school work. Some days we do a good job starting on time and other days it is closer to 9am.

My older girls have a bunch of school work that they can do mostly independently (thank goodness!). During this time they do their math, spelling, typing, handwriting, reading, writing, and grammar.

Once they get started with their work, I jump in the shower.

9:30 – After I am showered and, I start working with Arwen, my first grader. We do reading/phonics, math, grammar and handwriting.

10:30 – Snack time and read aloud. This is a new addition to our schedule and I LOVE it! By this time, my older girls are ready for a break and are usually hungry. I love having a chance to read aloud to my kids. I used to read to them at bedtime, but as they have gotten older we have a gotten away from that.

11am – Group school time – I do history and science with all of my kids together, so at this time we gather for history reading, working on our timeline, map work, science reading, or an experiment.

Noon – lunch time and break. The girls go off and play while I make lunch. They usually watch a TV show while they eat lunch. I use this time to check email and regroup.

1pm – usually my older girls have some of their independent work to finish now. Occasionally my youngest has some work as well. They are usually done by 2pm.

Afternoons are playdates, classes, and lessons, and sometimes the beach :) All three girls are in a choir, Kali is taking violin lessons, and Sierra just started flute lessons. Sierra and Kali are doing an Ocean Awareness class through parks and rec.

Evenings have pretty much stayed the same except that I am less exhausted than I was when we were doing K12. We eat dinner, hang out with Daddy, watch our favorite reality shows (American Idol and Survivor). The girls go to bed at 9pm and are allow to read until 9:45. Rand and I hang out watching TV and reading and staying up too late. Then it is off to bed.

My Funny Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day, Honey



I have a feeling that my life would be very boring without you!

Hawaii is a paradise, right? The good, part 2

2. The food

I love all of the food here (even the poi). Pineapple, coconut, Kalua pork. Yum, yum. Here is just a sample of the yummy stuff we have had to eat since we moved here.
Rand went spear fishing and got this bugger. He deep fried it and even our picky eater liked it.

Some more fish from Rand's fishing adventure.

Dragonfruit. I had no idea it looked like this. We got this in Chinatown. You scoop out the white part and seeds like you would a kiwi. And the texture is a lot like a kiwi with the seeds, but the flavor is much sweeter.