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It's hard for me to post right now, because my mind is definitely elsewhere. Sky is still in JDC, and will be until the middle of March. We are trying hard to come up with a plan--think we've got one, but it is dependent on many factors outside of our control (aren't all plans?). I appreciate all the people who are praying for us now. I know it is honoring to God, and I know "the prayer of the righteous availeth much."
We finished up the Beth Moore Bible Study (on the Tabernacle) two weeks ago--what an amazing group of women! I wish we could continue, but I'm also glad to have Mondays free. Not sure what we will do next year--maybe a quick study over the summer. I'm looking at BM's Loving Well.
Dsil came with her youngest for the weekend. They are such a joy to have around. We get along well--many similarities in outlook, but just enough differences to keep it interesting and have something to talk about. She is thinking of homeschooling next year, and was kind enough to be interested in what we do with Nature Girl. I hope they can find what works the best for them.
Had to be enthusiastic about Story of the World--just love our history.
The girls made tea-stained paper on which to write their "Magna Carta" projects from the Activity Guide. Nature Girl decided today not to finish it, which is fine by me. I quizzed her on what the Magna Carta was, who signed it and where (do YOU know? lol), and she passed. Making notebook pages really does help retention! This pass thru history is all about exposure, anyway, so I'm not concerned about memorizing names and dates yet.
Had a nice trip to Mt. Vernon while our family visited. The education addition is phenomenal and I heartily recommend it to everyone.
That's it for now. More at the end of the week. (I know, this is boring! Hang in there.)
I love Saxon Math. I'll say it again--I LOVE Saxon Math.
Ok, did that sound convincing?
Actually, it is going better for Nature Girl. We hit a rough spot about 4 weeks ago, with Nature Girl obviously feeling anxiety and lack of confidence in math. As I wrote previously, I wasn't sure what to do, but decided to put Saxon aside, as we were ahead of schedule, and working a year ahead, anyway.
We are back in Saxon now, and today, for the first time in about a month---
TA DA!
she had an excellent timed test, and pretty much sailed through the lesson. Her confidence has returned, her attitude is better, and things went smoothly. Whew, what a relief.
I really do love Saxon--mostly because it's so intentional. It builds precept upon precept, doesn't let old material disintegrate into the Nether World of Kiddy Forgetfulness ("Honey, you've had this before! Why are you acting like it's completely new?" "HuuuH?" ), and teaches appropriate use of algorithms while making sure the kids handle the concepts,too. I hope we can use it for a looonnnggg time.
BTW, I'm learning to change text color and form!! Yippee for me.
Eew. Just Eew. The short and sweet? Some good things--tried Microphotography (well, sort of), finished Castle Diary, Film Buff took a practice SAT Critical Reading and didn't do abysmally, Sky is safe. Valentine's was ok, and Lost featured Sayid. Small mercies.
Our family is pretty on edge right now. Film Buff is a little disrespectful, my fuse is a little short, Nature Girl is still having some, I don't know, respect issues? Anxiety? Growing Pains? She's really such a tender little thing that anything like that is unusual, but, I feel, must be nipped in the bud. I'm careful not to slam her when she says negative things, but I also want to teach her to tame her tongue, to work hard (not fall apart if things don't come easily), and to trust us and God, that we will do our best by her. We're having kinda a...um..."human" week.
One fun thing we did was to observe crystals with the Tasco Microscope. (We found we could get the light to work by beating it against the table...) The experiment involved observing salt and sugar thru the microscope, and then describing and comparing the shapes, clarity, etc. I thought it might be fun to see if we could hold the digital camera up to the eyepiece and see if we could get a picture or two. The light finally gave out, so Nature Girl is holding a flashlight on the microscope so I could take the picture. Next up will be actually watching crystals form. I just love the Home Science Adventures Micro Kit!
Not much else I can say. Sky is in JDC for a month. We have new information that leads us to believe we may have to find another placement for him. It is heartbreaking, as we thought he might be coming home in a month. Those who pray, please do. God is so very faithful. Information came to us in the nick of time today, and in a curious way. God's timing is perfect.
Hope your eyes stay open to the blessings around you. Trust Him--He is Good.
Unfortunately, this will be quite short, until I have time to get a decent report up (probably next week).
The week was going fairly well, with Nature Girl's history and LA providing our framework, as usual. She was showing signs of stress with Saxon, so I decided to go to Barnes and Noble and find a nice, colorful math workbook. I just wanted something easy and cute, to provide a break. I found a wonderful workbook, containing not only math exercises, but also writing and reading comprehension. Yippee! NG agreed, looked great.
Well, we cracked it Wednesday only to find the math problems were really too challenging. She is very good in the computation side of things, but this was asking for pretty serious thinking skills that were just a bit beyond her. We did several of the problems, but went back to Saxon on Friday.
History was fun, as usual. We had started Adam of the Road, a lovely book about a minstrel boy, but ended up putting it down, as it got too scary, and the language was just a little difficult. I'm sure it will be fine the next go-round, or even next year. We then went on to Castle Diary--what a great book! Highly recommend it. It's the story of a boy, Toby, who lives in the 13th Century in England. Toby goes to his uncle's castle to learn to be a page. The book is full of information told in a diary format--great illustrations, and its large format makes it a pleasant book to pour over.
Film Buff is quite pleased that the Writer's Strike has been settled. He keeps abreast of all these things. We both are thoroughly enjoying the new season of Lost, and hope it will go beyond what they've written already--and we enjoy all the theories and spoilers we can get our hands on!
All his work was fine this week. He is reading Alas, Babylon, and watched Dr. Strangelove to supplement (what a weird movie). I'm glad I preread it, because I can really check his understanding.
And that brings me to Sky. Ah, Sky. He is my teacher. I am learning to love unconditionally thru him, and Mama, it ain't pretty. Sky was terminated from a treatment program, and is now in JDC. I know many of you pray for us, and I really appreciate that. There is more to the story, but I am conscious of how public I make his life, so all I want to say is, please hold us before our Heavenly Father, and ask for the gift of discernment for us. We would like to bring him home and do outpatient therapy, and I really have a strong feeling of the rightness of this, but I don't honestly know if that is a good idea.
I'm sure I'll have some pictures up during the week.
Blessings to all.
Welcome to February! Our week was a little "hit and miss,' but not too bad.
Nature Girl continues to be a little stressed with math, but did very well on her timed tests. I think I may slow Saxon down, as I think it is catching up with her--we are using it a year ahead, which has never been a problem, but even so, I don't want to quench her confidence.
Spelling and Phonics went well--SWO C is also starting to get a little more challenging. She did a chapter and a half this week. It's great review, and it just meshes so well with Adventures in Phonics. Nature Girl is also learning cursive writing. She started up again, learning c, d, o, q and g. Here are her d's.
History remains intriguing, and we did a lot this week. We are finally in the 1000's! I loved the way Susan Wise Bauer, in Story of the World, ties people and events together so well. I finally understood that the Normans were the Vikings' descendants, and that made the Norman invasion of England more interesting. We found a youtube video of the Bayeux Tapestry that helped us visualize the events of the invasion and the Battle of Hastings. Check it out here!
We also did a quickie castle project, using the Activity Guide for Story of the World--we mixed marshmallows, butter and Kix (marshmallow treats w/Kix instead of Rice Krispies) and molded them to make a motte and bailey castle. I actually just wanted to eat the treats, but it only took 10 minutes to mix it, mold it, and read about that sort of castle, so hey, that was history. You can read about the development of castles here, like we did. Here are some pics of Nature Girl's history notebooking this week.
Film Buff finished Old Man and the Sea last week, and we discussed it. He started and finished China's Long March, a book about the Chinese Communists in the 30's. He viewed Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, and we have FailSafe and Dr. Strangelove coming. I read Alas, Babylon last week, and will assign it next week. His driver's ed on-line class is 1/5 finished, so we had to pay for it finally--he's taking that on his own time, but I am giving him credit for it as an elective. I'm going to have him plan a trip to Orlando and grade it to add some content. Math is going well, but since Dad is teaching that, I have no idea what he's doing. That feels good, actually! He got a B on his chem test, and we started listening to Naxos for classical music history. I had a book called The Classical Music Experience, but didn't use it because I had lost a cd that went with it--come to find out, we got a free subscription to Naxos with it, so we are thrilled to have access to all the music. His other curricula for music history has been interesting, utilizing Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers and The Gift of Music, but this other book gives more info about the actual music.
That's about it for the week--oh, we also had a couple of visitors yesterday. I'll see if I can post a pic of them.
Hope your week was filled with blessings, large and small.
