Another one bites the dust

Curriculum that is...

We've thrown out IEW's Primary Arts of Language Reading and Writing.  I slogged through that for a semester with Jack before I threw it out.  I thought surely starting with a kindergartner rather than a first grader would be better so I hauled it back out with Sam.  9 weeks in and I'm tossing it out again.

I sooo wanted  this to work but after 9 weeks I can honestly say that it's not.  Sam isn't learning phonics rules and truthfully I think his reading is suffering (he was progressing better before we started this); he seems stunted.  So I'm chunking it out in favor of Explode the Code.  Grace is using the preschool version and I've been very impressed with what she's been able to learn with just a little instruction every other day.

Not one to wait around once a decision has been made, I postponed the start of school today and drove to Mardel to buy the books.  We started this morning; three pages in and I'm hooked.  So much success so early!! Hoping this does the trick!

And yes...I know I only talk about homeschool.  It's a safe topic around here while we still work through a lot of the mess the last 2.5 years made. I'll get deeper at some point!

Two weeks in review

Here's a shot of our homeschool room.  All my little ducks working hard.

After 2 weeks I can definitely find some positives and some negatives.  

Positives:

1. Rosetta Stone for Chinese.  In the pic, Jack is actually working on typing but he'd just finished Chinese.  He's already speaking in phrases and understands quite a bit of what he hears/reads.  I'm impressed. How much will he retain?  I don't know but he's definitely learning.

2. Rod and staff preschool for Grace.  Simple, basic.  She loves it.  She's my workbook kid so this fits the bill.

3.  Our word wall catepillar.  I started this with Sam (and realized while writing this I should've posted a pic).  He adds a "body" piece each time he learns a new sight word.  I found the idea here.
This has been the best motivator for that little boy. 

4.  Our morning routine.  I bought, from Teachers Pay Teachers, a booklet of morning work for Jack and Sam.  In the morning, the kiddos, independently (read -- without mom) say the pledges, recite a weekly memory verse, fill out "today, yesterday, tomorrow" and complete one page of morning work.  FABULOUS!  They love the independence; I love the last few minutes to finish my coffee or fold the laundry.  I also love that the morning pages provide simple review for skills that either I overlook or that could use a little enrichment or that don't require a lesson but still need a little practice (like rhyming or alphabetizing).


I love most of my curricula choices -- Tapestry of Grace is awesome; Jack is in love with Growing with Grammar; Kay Arthur's Bible study is tough but so rich. There are a few negatives though.


Negatives
1.  This biggest negative -- and this is a doozy in the homeschool world -- is science.  I just do NOT like Apologia.  I know, I know, I know. Everyone loves it.  It's great.  The best.  Blah, blah, blah.  I think it is soooooo boring.  Dry, dull, snooze fest.  And I like science.  So Apologia is on the cut list for next year.  It's like first round draft pick that just didn't pan out.  I paid too much money to not let it finish the year but I don't think I'll be renewing that contract.
2.  IEW's PAL.  This isn't a HUGE negative.  I actually think it's a fantastic curriculum.  Sam is learning a lot and his reading is improving with leaps and bounds.  BUT...it is very, very, very cut and paste heavy.  And Sam (just like Jack) is so done with cutting and pasting.  It's hard for a kid to learn if he hates the method of teaching.  I'm improvising and I think it will work but I don't like having to even do that.  This is the only year we will use IEW for Sam so I don't have to think too heavily about that choice.  And I'm pretty sure I'll use it with Grace -- although as much as she likes arts and crafts, she may love it -- turning that negative into a positive.
3.  Muzzy Spanish and our typing software are kinda stinky.  Muzzy is odd -- very short lessons but games that are too difficult.  The teaching seems incomplete.  The typing is just boring.  It takes too long to get to the games; it also presents this fantastic "island" to explore but then forces you to master one section before exploring another.  The kids are bit burnt out on that one.


Other than that our first two weeks have been a success.  Enrichment Fridays were a great idea, allowing the kiddos to either do something fun like Foam Dart Physics or to catch up on work from the week since we have so many doctor appointments with Sam.  If the first two weeks are any indication, I think we are looking at a great year!

Second week slump

It's official.  We've hit the second week slump. Maybe not all homeschooling families experience this, but we do, annually -- hence the actual name I've given it.

The first week of school is always rough for me.  The kids are uber-excited to get started and to learn new things and to crack open those books they've watched me collect all summer long.  Their excitement can be a bit exhausting, between the what-now's and the what's-next's and the can-I-just-do-a-little-more's, mama needs her space by the end of the day.  We spend the first week working and reworking order and routine and procedure back into our days.  Ex.haust.ing.

The second week is always rough for the kids.  Truth be told, the second week slump can actually last a month.  The second week is when they realize that school work is actually work.  The new has worn off the books, the lessons are no longer reviews, and the call to return to summertime play is louder than ever.  Yet mama-teacher insists that this work be done, daily.

So it's during the second week slump that I start to hear lots of agains, can'ts, don't-know-hows. The second week slump is when the tears begin to fall for minor reasons and a simple math mistake is cause for quite the temper tantrum.  It's usually during the second week slump that my math-minded kid forgets basic addition facts, making his pre-algebra almost impossible.  And it's during the second week slump that my blossoming reader forgets what letter his name starts with, the whole ordeal ending with tears because he insists it's an F.  And it's during the second week slump that my preschooler no longer sits contentedly and practices matching but decides to be a bit avant-garde in her definition of what color a watermelon is.

For me, the second week slump is hard because I don't want them to be miserable.  I like giving in to their wants.  It's also a bit hard because I start to look for reasons why the slump has started, which means I grow discontented with my less-than-fave parts of our curriculum...the curriculum I've spent all summer researching and procuring.  We're 3 days into this slump and I've already got plans to scrap things for next year.

The silver lining in the second week slump is that it begins with regularity and it always ends.  In about a month, the fog of the slump will disappear, giving way to the comfort of routine and consistency.  Here's to hoping this is a short slump!

A little venting about our medical team

I heard from Sam's rheumatologist today. Well, actually I heard from her nurse practitioner.  She passed us along to him after the first visit.  No diagnosis but not sick enough to warrant her time?  I don't know the reason for sure so I shouldn't speculate but it's hard not to think that might be the reason.

We just repeated bloodwork (for the 3rd time in 4 months) and a bone scan; all to re-check for malignancy (doctor speak for cancer).  I've mentioned before how tired I am of hearing the word "cancer" in Sam's medical visits.  We've checked for malignancy before and everything came back clean.  I guess because we have since ruled out arthritis we are returning to other possibilities to make sure nothing was missed.

Anyway, all the re-checks came back normal.  Now we are expected to re-do an MRI (pelvis and spine) to check for lesions and possible malignancy.  The best part of this is when the original MRI was done, a lesion was seen and deemed an undefined contusion, probably a bruise.  Now, that lesion is cause to re-scan.  I'm struggling to logic that one out.

We've also been referred to a neurologist to investigate possible nerve issues.  If the neurologist comes up empty, then it's on to a musculo-skeletal specialist and a urologist (an urologist? unsure of the proper article there...) to search for more, rare possibilities.

Here's where things begin to stick me a bit.  We are re-scanning for cancer -- kind of a big deal.  But since the newest round of testing was normal, and the upcoming scans are presumed to be normal (but still necessary?) we don't need to be seen by the rheumatologist until November.

So let's get that straight.  Son has been in pain for 15 months; we have no diagnosis; search for diagnosis leads to potential cancer diagnosis; quickly perform scans; no cancer found but kid still in pain; we don't need to see the doctor for 2-3 months despite not having a diagnosis.

Urrgggghhhh

I don't mean to complain.  I just need a place to purge all the things that rumble around in my brain. I'm grateful for the doctors; I'm grateful for the no-cancer diagnosis; I'm grateful that despite being in pain, my son is really healthy.  I'm just ready for some answers.

Random Thoughts -- Cooking fail

I like to cook and bake and do all things kitchen-y and I'm pretty good at it.  But every cook has an occasional mess up, a flub, a flop, a big ole ugly FAIL.  There are few things in life that make me as frustrated as a cooking fail.  Luke doesn't get it. I think to his science-bent brain even failures are an experiment from which to learn.  To me, it's just a fail.  And I hate to fail, avoiding it if all possible.  Neurotic much?

This week has seen two fails and I'm about ready to hang up my proverbial apron (not real because that would mean I'm a clean cook and nothing could be further from the truth).  Monday saw the dinner hour arrive with the chicken breasts still solidly frozen in the sink, despite being thawed all.day.long. (Just remembered to check the settings on the freezer, might be set a bit low...)  So we ate out and I sulked over my can't-remember-what-we-ate dinner.  Wednesday I tried a new recipe from Pinterest (failproof right?!?! wonk).  My pizza rolls turned into pizza scented hockey pucks. Knowing I make rockin' good cinnamon rolls, the fact that the pizza rolls failed just about ruined my night.  I soothed myself with some brownies...I won't mention how many.

I tried to explain my issues with kitchen failures to Luke.  Tried to compare it to him failing at his job.  He's sweet and reminded me that cooking gourmet food (ha! as if) is not actually my job, that it's much bigger than that.  It didn't do much to salve my wounds.

Now I'm gun shy about trying anything new again.  My goal tonight?  Get the spaghetti on the table. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Anyone else struggle with this?

2013-2014 Pearson Academy First Day of Class

It's that time again.  School has started!  We have a brand new school room now that the boys have been moved back upstairs. I'm hoping the new space will help a bit since all the furniture is more kid-sized and the littles now have a place to play out of ear shot of the Jack.  Here are the obligatory first day pics and the curriculum we're using this year. 

 This guy is in third grade.  Thank God for grades at church or I would forget half the time.  Between the varying levels he does in all the curriculum I can't keep up! This promises to be a challenging year for him -- he's reading 99 books in 36 weeks! And that's not including any "for fun" reading he may do!  This year Jack's curriculum is:

Math -- Singapore 4A&B, standards edition

Reading/Writing/History/Geography/Worldview -- Tapestry of Grace, Year 3, lower grammar level

Bible -- How to study your Bible for Kids by Kay Arthur

Grammar -- Growing with Grammar, level 3

Chinese -- Mandarin by Rosetta Stone

Typing -- Typing Instructor for Kids

Handwriting -- A Reason for Handwriting C

Science -- Apologia Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Not a lot of change from last year as far as publishers go. We just added in a few subjects.  And it wouldn't be the first day of school if I wasn't already wanting to change something...but that will wait for another time ;)

 This little man is officially in Kindergarten, although if you ask him he'll tell you he's in first grade.  Some of his curriculum is first grade work but some is Kinder.  We are actually using this year to see how he progresses.  If he flies through stuff like he seems bent on doing, this may actually count as his first grade year.  We don't want to rush him or push him but I can only pull back on those reigns so hard! Sam's curriculum this year includes:

Math -- Singapore 1A&B, standards edition

Reading/Writing -- Institute for Excellence in Writing's Primary Arts of Language

Bible -- ABC Jesus Loves me (a free online curriculum)

Science -- Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Sight Words -- a whole mess of stuff I've gathered ;)

Typing -- Typing Instructor for Kids

Spanish -- Muzzy Online

Last but not least, Little Miss isn't schooling much at home.  But she was not about to be left out of the picture taking this morning!  Grace will attend preschool two days a week but that doesn't begin until September.  The other days of the week she will be working through some Rod and Staff preschool books, Get Ready for the Code A (prequel to Explode the Code), busy bags and art projects.  She's also going to spend quite a bit of time in mommy's lap reading books.  We are slowly introducing her to Spanish through Muzzy Online, but only because she asked.  The same is true of typing.  I don't expect her to type at all but perhaps it will help with letter recognition and she likes it.  If ever she decides she doesn't, it (and Spanish) are easy to leave out.

Our schedule this year will be a little different than in years past.  We are only schooling Monday, Wednesday and Thursday on the "traditional" subjects.  Tuesdays we will participate in a local coop where Sam will do some Five in a Row, and Jack will work on Texas History and Science of Simple Machines.  Fridays are for enrichment and we will work on Health (it's that time for Jack...sheesh!), science (experiments with dad, fun lessons like nerf gun physics, lego building, etc), and humanities (artist studies, composer studies, cooking lessons, etc).  I'm figuring that by the time it all gets added together, the days will count as a very full school year.  

All in all the first day went well.  We all struggled to get the cobwebs out and as Jack said, we needed to "figure out how to get [our] brains working again."  even mom! It's now lunchtime and the kids are all basically done with the boys finishing up some co-reading during quiet time.  I'll call it a GREAT first day!

Where I've been

Things are slowly returning to a new-old normal around here.  That's where I've been...trying to upturn my upside-down life.  We've moved the boys back into their room, moved the school room back where it was planned to be, moved thoughts of forever to thoughts of experience.  Truthfully though, we can clearly see that the move to a family of 5 is a good thing.  Our kids are adjusting well.  They no longer strive to be older than they are, no longer look to impress.  They are learning to play together again, something that hasn't happened in a year.  We've spoken with the girls and they are thriving in their new-old home.  They have reconnected with friends (something they hadn't managed to do the year they were here) and family.  They have sparkle in their voices and seem to be fitting in nicely.

Other than all things moving, I'm preparing for a new school year.  Again, this will look a bit differently than those before it.  Sam is excited to start -- he's insistent that he's in first grade. In some areas he is; in others, not so much.

I'm hoping to be on here more now.  There are plans for Jack to make appearances here as a guest writer so look forward to that!