The first week in review

Overall, it was a good week. Up until this year, we have done a lot of school all together. The 3 girls and me. We've done lots of read alouds and discussions. This year I want my oldest especially to take more responsibility for her school work. One idea I had was to print out a chart of our schedule for each day. It has worked brilliantly. My older 2 can read the chart and know exactly what is expected of them each day. I can't believe I didn't come up with this idea earlier. It includes a special chart for morning chores that I expect them to get done before we start school at 10 am which includes:

Get dressed AND put away pj's and put yesterday's clothes in the laundry basket

eat breakfast AND put dishes in the sink

brush teeth AND put away toothbrush and wipe out sink

Make bed NEATLY

Brush hair

It was so nice to be able to refer to the chart to make sure they had done everything. Then once we started school the girls helped me stay on schedule using the chart.

10am - Topic Read Alouds - next week we are learning about weather
11am - break
11:15am - spelling or grammar, alternating days, Kali and Sierra together
11:30am - Writing - alternating copywork, dictation, freewriting, etc.
12:00pm - Lunch
12:30pm - break
1:00pm - Math
1:30pm - Reading
2pm - freetime
4pm - Practice Piano, Violin (Kali), Typing (Sierra)
5pm - Clean up


This is the schedule for Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday we do our weekly chores, so free time doesn 't start until 2:30pm.

Wednesday and Friday we have afternoon activities so we have to shorten our school day. I haven't exactly figured out how to do that, yet. Something will have to be skipped.

Thursdays, I have the girls signed up for a choir that meets in the morning. I don't generally like morning activities because it messes up our whole day. None of us feel like doing school in the afternoon after getting home from a morning activity. But this year I have a plan. My dh had an idea to do stations like his favorite second grade teacher. At first I thought, "How am I going to fit this into my already super full schedule?" but then I realized it would be a perfect thing to do on Thursday afternoons. Arwen was feeling a bit sick, but the older girls did the following stations this week.

1. Do math wrap ups. Multiplication for Sierra, Addition for Kali
2. Practice spelling words
3. Do a Mad Lib
4. Draw a picture and write a short story
5. Silent reading

It worked out really well. The idea was to spend 15 minutes at each station, but some didn't take as long. I helped keep time while I got the dishes done. And right now the girls think it is great fun.

It was a busy week. I had meetings Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, a homeschool planning meeting on Wednesday afternoon, and a Homeschool Potluck on Friday. And I am now feeling the repercussions of it. I am defintely sick today Of course, it didn't help that poor sick Arwen was breathing in my face all week because sick kids alway need lots of snuggles... I am hoping to feel better by tomorrow, so we can a a good first full week of school next week.

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

First Day of School - Homeschooler Style

Last week as I was reading blogs, I noticed that a lot of my friends and family members were posting First Day of School pictures. Well, we started school today and I thought I would post some First Day of School pictures of my own.

Here are my children at 8:30am:


Here is a slightly blurry picture of my youngest who is officially a kindergartner this year - Yikes! I am sure I would be sad and emotional if I weren't keeping her home with me.

I think the picture is blurry because Arwen kept sticking her legs up in the air and showing her underwear. It is probably a good thing that I am not sending this crazy child out into the world just yet.


And here is a picture of all of my students getting comfy on the couch for our read aloud time. I meant to take more pictures, but I got busy with the, ya know, doing school thing and forgot. It was a pretty good day. I will post more about it later since I should probably get to bed so I will be ready for the second day of school - homeschool style.

35

I turn 35 today. A few months ago when I thought about this impending birthday, I felt good about it. I felt like I had come to a point in my life where I feel good about myself, I know who I am, and where I am going. I have known women in their 40's that seem so confident and sure of themselves, flaws and all. I was starting to feel like I was getting to that point in my own life. Sure, I have started to notice a few wrinkles in the last year or 2 and I am still 15 lbs over my pre -baby weight even though my baby is 5 years old, but I haven't found any gray hairs, yet, and attractiveness is 3/4 confidence anyway, right?

But then I went to the mall...

If you are over 30, I do not recommend shopping for clothing at the mall. I haven't shopped at the mall for years. I figured I couldn't afford the clothes there. But we just moved and I wanted to check out mall here and I had birthday money to spend. So Saturday, I went to the mall. Now, I gave up shopping in the juniors section when I was 29, but what I didn't realize is that the mall (except the department stores) is one big junior's section. When I came home crying - yes, I really did cry, I guess I am not quite as self actualized as I thought - my dh pointed out that, of course the mall is a bad place for a 35 year old to shop, the mall is designed for 13 - 21 year olds to hang out at... Duh!

But here is my dilemma. Where do women in their 30's shop? The cute clothing at the mall and in the junior's section is not cut to fit a woman in her 30's, skinny or not. Nor is most of it really appropriate either. I have been looking for graphic t- shirts, but I don't think a 35 year old mother of 3 should run around in a shirt that says," I kissed a girl and I liked it." I was also looking for a lace bottomed tank to wear under stuff, but apparently if you have short waist, the lace will hit you about mid thigh and that is just not attractive at all. But I don't want to wear old lady clothes, now or ever really.

So I have resigned myself to plain colored t- shirts and jeans. And until I get nominated for "What Not to Wear," I will be shopping at Target, Ross, Marshall's, and Macy's (sale rack and store brand) And carefully avoiding the junior's section.

Maybe next year I will become the confident middle aged - ack! - woman that I dream of becoming...

My name is Michelle and I am a booklist junkie

I admit that I have a problem. That is the first step, right? I just love looking at booklists. And I can't just find one great booklist and use it for our homeschool. No, I have to search out every booklist I can find and consolidate them into my own personal booklists. So for all of you booklist junkies out there. I have published my lists on Google Docs and set up links in my side bar.

They are in excel spreadsheets. Be sure to check out all of the sheets. Some of the lists have several sheets. I couldn't figure out how to give each column a heading and still be able to organize the lists. They should be easy to figure out. I put an X next to the books we have read and stars to indicate how much we liked the book. I also noted age level for some. My kids are 5, 7, and 10, so most books are appropriate for that age range. I also noted if we owned the book. If the documents have more than one sheet, it is usually because each sheet is a separate sub category. For example, the Around the World Books are divided by area of the world. And the ancient history list has separate sheets for Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

This is just a portion of my lists. The rest are still hand written. Check back as I will be adding new lists after I get them typed into excel. Enjoy.

My 100th Post

I started this blog 18 months ago and I am finally at my 100th post. That averages out to about 5 posts a month. That sounds about right. I started this blog after reading many homeschool blogs in an attempt to figure out what I am doing with this whole homeschooling thing. And this blog started out as mostly a homeschool blog where I tried to share ideas and a place to vent when homeschooling was tough.

Lately I have been posting more about life in general. I don't know whether that is because I am more confident in my homeschooling ( I doubt it...). Or because we haven't been doing much formal schooling with moving and summer (that might be it). Or because more family members have been visiting my blog and blogging is a good way to keep them informed about what is going on in our life.

In any case, I think this has become a hybrid blog. I am sure I will post more about our homeschooling when we get back to more formal schooling in the Fall and I will continue to post interesting happenings in our life. Something for everyone to enjoy :) If you are a frequent visitor, leave comment. I'd love to know who is enjoying my rambling on homeschooling and life in general.

I am a Feeder Watch Flunkie

Last Fall I signed up for Project Feeder Watch. It seemed like a great home school project and my oldest daughter loves birds. So I paid my $15 registration fee and went out an bought a bird feeder and seeds. You are supposed to record the number of birds at the feeder for 2 days in a row each week throughout the winter. I never did. Not once. Never. At first there were no birds at the feeder each time I looked and then I could never find 2 days in a row to take the time to look. I know, seriously sad that I couldn't schedule 5 minutes 2 days in a row to look out the window, but I couldn't. I finally just gave up. I am a Feeder Watch Flunkie. I am sure it would be a great project for some homeschool family out there, but not ours. My husband even made fun of me for paying $15 for the opportunity to do research for someone else :P