A few Favs and a 'bright' idea! (not)

This Weeks Homeschool Memoir Theme is Favorite Websites and Blog. There is a list of categories and she has multiple entries under the different categories of sites she visits weekly.

I do not have that many online places I visit. My favorite things in life are life, not online websites. Not that her favorite things are online sites, but she sure has a LOT of online browsing weekly to visit all of those.

BLOGS- the blogs I visit are listed on my side bar. My 15 yr old son has a blog, so does my mom, and my top favorite homeschooling mom's blog. I'll mention those in particular. But I always read all the blogs listed on the sidebar! Go say hi and meet a new blogger friend!

BLOG MEME SITES- I frequent the Homeschoolblogawards site to get a new theme and read what other homeschool moms have done. And on Mondays I go to the Simple Woman's Daybook to read what other moms write and do my on Monday Blog with her Meme.

OTHER- I read my Gmail and I have a little group for housewives. we talk about balancing housecleaning and family and stuff like that. I use GOOGLE frequently to research. I guess that's about it for online blog/website type favorites. My kids have some school stuff online.

Another of my favorite things is just to blog about my day and share it with friends and family.

Yesterday was my youngest son's birthday. He is 12 now. He and my husband are in Ohio (we live in CA). So they got to celebrate Ki's birthday with grandparents. I'm so happy for Ki to be able to visit back in Ohio, but I really miss him. I miss Brian a lot, but I am used to being with Ki most the day, every day and I'm used to Brian being gone 10 hours a day often (with driving and a little extra work time) and being gone on occasional TDYs. So I don;t miss him as much during the day when I'm used to him being gone I guess. Whenever I talk to Gavin and Connor or take them somewhere or call them, I keep looking for Ki.

Yesterday I rode my bike to my doctors appointment. Gavin calculated my average velocity, my MPH, the distance, changed miles to kilometers and told me it'd take me an hour. I doubted that. Then I got out my GPS unit and it said the distance was only 5.2 miles. So I figured allowing 40 minutes would be plenty. I learned it is mostly UP HILL to the doctors and that Wendy (my GPS) must have calculated the distance as the crow flies. I also learned that Gavin's physics lesson are beneficial.
So- it was about 7 miles and it did take an hour to get there.
But coming back was down hill and took 43 minutes.

FAVORITE DAY- Wednesdays are my favorite day of the week right now. I ride my bike (about 1 mile) to the Farmers Market. Connor is going to come with me today. He has never come. G&K have. I'm not sure if Gavin is coming today or not. Wednesday are WAFFLES for Breakfast. Today Connor made them.

Something New

This week's topic at Homeschool Memoirs is "Something New": "This week I hope you’ll share something new you’re using, why you’ve decided to use it, and if you have used it how you like it. Make sure to include the publishing information and where you got it from so others can look into if they like."

We always do something new, but in that sense, it's not new to try something new, because it's the thing we always do- trying something new.

The biggest change this year is that my boys actually requested to try some curriculum. This is our 8th yr homeschooling as we have never really used a curriculum. We have take a part of 2 from a curriculum and made it work for us, but have never just used a curriculum. "Here's the workbook, read and do it daily like it says"

My youngest asked to use a 'curriculum' (something we buy that is all planned out with each page and we just do it like it's written and says). He said he wanted to actually work through the same thing until we get all the way through to the end. I guess he's not as "ADD" as my brain is- always hopping from 1 thing to another in search of that PERFECT lesson.

I decide the best (easiest & cheapest) way to try out a curriculum for a subject would be to just get some ACE workbooks for Social Studies. (I don't want to mess up math and science and Language Arts with a boring curriculum, LOL. I like to mix those up and do different things. I am not good at, nor do I like, patching my own Social Studies together). And a Bible Elective.

So I gave them a list of what was available and let them choose.

Ki choose Missions (a missionary study with is just reading biographies and a lot of boring questions that I decided we can just do orally) and a General Social Studies.

Connor chose Civics and Life of Christ. But I messed up my order and forgot the Life of Christ- Oh well.

Gavin choose Economics and Early Church History.

Also, new this year, is we decided to go with Apologia for the Science that Ki (zoology) and Gavin (physics) chose. Ki with a Textbook and Gavin wanted the CD-ROM course.

So we are going through those and doing them like the book/CD-ROM says. the notebooking, the tests, the questions, the experiments. i also bought the Experiment Kits for them, so they can look in their book, read what they need for the next experiment, go to their kit, and get out their supplies.

Last Spring we found http://www.aleks.com/ for math. Brian really likes it (I do too, but I am happy with our 'uinschooling math') and Brian actually said he wanted the boys to use it. So we use that for math. They can choose their levels and choose which areas they do and what to do first and they can keep track of the progress and play a few games. So it's nice.It's thorough and yet not strictly scheduled. (it's not a 'do this today and that tomorrow'). Ki just used the Multiplication Drill on it and he chooses other things to do for math. So he does the http://www.aleks.com/ quicktables (multiplication drill) M/W/F and I have him work on the regular Aleks stuff for his Monday math. He's perfectly fine doing it like that because he knows his dad likes him to use the ALEKS. And he gets a Chocolate Covered raisin each time he does a problem.

**** ANOTHER NEW THING THIS YEAR: THROWING WAFFLES!!!

Our waffle iron makes round waffles. Today while I was making waffles, Connor called the next waffle. when it was done he told me to throw it to him. So I did. I flung it like a Frisbee. So the other 2 asked their waffles to be thrown, too.

Today was Waffle Throwing Wednesday.

http://homeschoolblogawards.com/ for other Homeschool Memoirs

Tuesday Tour and Monday's Update

Our First Day Of Homeschool (click road sign link get to other blogs with this theme)

was nothing fancy or exciting. Last year for our first day we walked to the park to see a juggler and as we were the only ones there, he gave all my boys lessons and let them use his stuff. When the boys were younger we always started with a fun short unit study. There were a couple years we statrted with a homeschooling camping trip with other homeschoolers and fun activities (F.I.R.E. Camp)

This year there was nothing like that. We have just moved from Ohio to California and were still in boxes. We moved into this house around July 9th and school slowly started the first week of August. Due to moving issues we didn't do much school as of April last year. Once we got to April the boys just read daily a did multiplication drills on the computer or the Leap Pad.

Over the late spring and early summer they decided what they wanted to study and what kinds of things they wanted for a couple of the subjects. Gavin wanted to do physics to get ready for his career in robotic engineering and Connor decided on geology as he has always liked shiny rocks. So I gathered some websites that talked about different careers in those fields. Ki choose aquatic animals, zoology.

The 1st week of school all they did was read and do 30 minutes of math every other day. The 2nd week they did 30 minutes math daily, read, I read to them from Story of the World and Gavin and Connor read through their websites about different careers in their fields of science they are studying. By then the things I had ordered had mostly come and we took time to look through our schooling stuff and wrote names on notebooks, etc.

By September we got pretty much into school full swing. Ki has a daily list of work in the areas he asked to study. He can do them in any order. Connor has a weekly list (math and reading daily). Gavin has a list that is due Jan 1st with math and reading daily.

****************************************************************************

Monday- Gavin finished his physics test quickly. We walked to the coffee shop down the street and had muffins and a hot drink while he took his test. He had a blueberry muffin and Mexican Hot Chocolate. I had a blueberry muffin and Chai Latte.

Ki and I read in his zoology book some and I helped with making his notebook. He read part of Gloria Rising which is a book by the author who wrote the short story he read last week. This is about the same character. Then we looked up how to make a paper kite. This is an activity he choose from the story he read last week. I really do not know what Connor did. He did his daily stuff and a bunch of push ups for extra computer time. I don't know if he did Social Studies or Geology.

I had a nice little bike ride. I rode to Target to buy some flea drops for the cat. Then I stopped in a fabric store on the way home to get the other fabric I need for my sewing project.

In the evening I went to a Homeschool meeting to get tips on filing the Private School form for homeschooling in California.

HOMESCHOOL ROUTINES ( hsba theme)

hsba- HomeSchool Blogger Awards- My good friend, Stacie, does these HSBA themes. I thought I'd try one from time to time. Today's themes is ROUTINES. This is right up my alley, so I figured it'd be a good theme to start my HSBA journey.

Now the debate. Shall I post daily routines? Or weekly Routines? Maybe both. Daily routines are pretty easy to post.

Our Daily is pretty relaxed I guess.

It goes something like this:

• The boys wake up when they want- as long as they are up by about 8:45
• If they have their morning chores done by 8, they can have 'free time' on the computer until I call them to breakfast
• 9:00-9:30 is breakfast
• I read from Story of the World during Breakfast
• Sometimes after Breakfast/clean-up We have a GEO MIND BUILDER question. The one who gets it right, first, gets a quarter.
• Then when the whole breakfast routine is over, the boys start school and I do some housecleaning and help with school as needed
• Ki (almost 12) has a daily school list. A list of everything he needs to do that day. He does it in any order he wants to and often there are choices. He usually chooses what he wants to do for math, science, social studies. Sometimes he has other choices. So it is a daily list, which he likes and needs) but also the freedom to choose and steer his own ship, which he needs
• Connor(13) has a weekly list. The things he needs to have done by 3PM Friday. He can do them in any order or amount. So he can do all 3 Science Sessions in 1 day if he wants. BUT Reading and Math need to be done daily. I give him more choices than what he needs usually, so I will give him a choice of 4 science activities even though he only has to do 3. stuff like that.
• Gavin (15)has reading and math daily. Reading is to be at least 50 minutes. Math is any amount as long as he has 3.5 hours done by the end of the week. ( www.aleks.com is what C&G use for math). His science and social studies and some specific reading needs to be done by Jan 1. I decided to once a month do a notebook check, as he seems to be having some minor problems in that area and if he doesn;t get his stuff done by Jan 1, Brian will insist he goes to 'done at the end of the week'- or even Daily Lists. I don't think that's be good, so I'll do the occasional checks to make sure he is on the right path.
• NOON- sometime close to noon (11:30-12:30) we have lunch. If lunch is not had by 1, they have to wait till 3 for a healthy snack.
• 3PM- this is when their daily chores and school need to be done if they want 'After School Computer' of 45 minutes