A long, long time ago there was

blog that kept up with our progress and activities. Then an evil monster named Too Busy began to slowly make it disappear. One day in October, the teacher called Grandma stopped and watched the leaves fall and the branches blow. She realized that Too Busy had taken her away from the blog and was even halted some progress with regular educational needs. Grandma did some talking to God about this thing called Too Busy. She talked to Him for hours about it.

You see, Grandma was at the pool in the middle of October and was finally draining the water and pulling out the leaves that had already fallen into the waters. It seems Too Busy had kept her from doing this at the end of summer so she had to do it in the cold. She could not get the water as low as she wanted without standing for hours at the pool and holding the large flexible tubing that she had created a suction with to drain the waters. Each time she released the hose the end would float upward and she would loose suction. Grandma watched the tall, old trees and their branches blow in the wind the entire time. Each time the light would hit a red leaf or a golden glimmer would catch her eye she realized that this year she was even missing the beauty of her favorite season, Fall. 

This would not do!  Grandma looked at what had been accomplished in school so far as well. Although the girls were learning she found that the progress that she wanted to see and that the girls needed to make was shamefully slow. Others comment all the time about the flexibility of home school. They talk, write, and post about it as if to give permission to shift focus each day. Agreeably there is some value to that idea but flexibility can not be the excuse every time one turns around. The world itself is structured and the whole purpose of raising a child is to mold an independent, effective adult. It seems that the flexibility also leads to something that others either deny or do not see for themselves. It creates children who can manipulate the situation as well. Grandma, being an insightful soul, adjusted her mindset a bit and took inventory of what all has been taking place.

As it turns out, the house has been under remodel for way too long. The deck work is complete but the floor layer, as talented as he is, is a bit lazy. The floor layer always finds a reason that he cannot finish up something today, just yesterday he ran out of nails for the nail gun. Really?!  How does a person run out of something as critical as nails when laying a hardwood floor or placing floor molding?  Lesson learned here as the carpet still needs to be purchased but if the house is to be put together anytime soon it will be necessary to find a way to have a "real" company lay the floor. The mess that the house has been in has truly been a distraction to the learning process. Not to mention that the floor layer does not respect the lesson time and is constantly interfering and causing girls to get goofey and distracted.

It seems as we go through life everybody finds Too Busy wanting to ride along. Too Busy can be a real distraction to a person's thoughts. The day flies by and because we invited Too Busy along with us for the day we do not get to lessons that need to take place so some degree after a trip away.  On Monday the crew will go to the Missouri History Museum for a "Who Was the Real George Washington" theme. Now, the MHM is a welcome distraction to the day as it is honestly a valuable learning experience but it will be necessary to keep Too Busy away when we are finished. We can pack a lunch and eat it in the car on the way home. In the reflection of events it is clear that lunch break after field trips is a huge time eater and next thing you know Too Busy has hitched a ride. 

There is not Master's Lyceum this semester and to be honest it is not missed at all. We have all been too busy with Too Busy to miss one more event.  One may wonder what we have done since the last post. Well, the answer to that is that we have been to Disney World, corn mazes, zoo classes, Magic House, wildlife education centers several times, MHM, Girl Scout office, doctors offices, birthday parties, swim lessons, gymnastic classes and so many other things that one brain cannot remember it all. 

Just a final note, today was a pretty good lesson day. Distracted by floor layer who only works 5 hours or less each day.  Big excitement today was Grace's start of a new health lesson that began teaching about the human body. When she learned there were 206 bones in the body she was amazed.

I have decided that I was wrong about school into the summer months

This teaching through the summer really stinks. I dislike it immensely. I had thought last fall how much I wanted my fall time weather but it is just to difficult to me to do this in the summer. Heat drags me down. I want to be in the pool. I can't sit out on the deck to teach anymore. Now, if we only went until the first two weeks of June I would be fine so the idea of beginning at the end of Sept. would still work.

With that said, we are making progress toward the end of the school year for Grace. For both but again I do not plan to get Faith to the next grade level. Grace is so on the edge that I intend to see her over the wall.  I have done math test every day this week and they are doing well. Faith is getting it all correct and Grace is scoring 94-100%.  Her two mistakes today that she added instead of subtracted. Had it been an addition problem she would have gotten it correct. 

As I type they are participating in the local library summer program. They did the one in their community and now doing the one in my community.

On another note: only 24 more days before we all go to Disney World!

Day 1 of Completion Study

So today I began completing the school year.
It was time for Grace to take a Language test on plurals. I offered her the ability to review in her book but she felt sure she could do it. Later it turned into an open book test. I was not thrilled but overall she understood the material and an open book test encourages independent research and work.  She did well.  Then I gave her a math test right off the bat and she got a 97%.  She still stresses and hates math but she knows the material we expect her to know. I will spend all week giving her math testing that is long overdue and see how well she retained the material. When she struggles I will resume there and not where we left off in the book.  I expect to reach the same level however, she really knows this better than she thinks.

Faith did so well today. Her written work was very neatly completed. I also will test her along in math. I did two test and two time test with her today and of course she did not miss a single problem. We talked about our goal for her grade and she is in full agreement that she wants to still be in first grade so she is about the same as her girl scout and other friends her age. I looked at the book and calendar and she will be in second grade near Christmas. She is fine with that. Faith still seeks attention so it is getting bad when I am teaching Grace something while I expect her to finish her work quietly as she says everything she is doing step by step and it gets real annoying.

Their bloodhound is about to give birth so the house is preparing for that.

I am still in remodel nightmare. I have the new doors in and the new deck and porch but waiting for floors to be laid. Once they are laid I will we will begin in completing our "one room schoolhouse". We have tons of ideas and I am eager to have them here full time for school. We had been doing class outside on the deck but now it is too hot so today I went to their house again. My house is just to torn up to do anything.

So that is it for now, we are once again off and moving. Let us hope I can complete this school year sometime before the next one is suppose to begin.

Still Kickin'

We are STILL not finished with this school year. We started up full steam as the dust began to settle in our lives and then two little girls began to cast a cloud of impossibilities over us. It was not Grace or Faith but two girls who Kelley was going to care for during the summer. It was a live and learn moment and one that has now ended. Knowing that it was going to end and not stress the environment we declared a summer break while Faith and Grace attended Girl Scout Day Camp. That took two weeks as they did not attend the same one. Then we ran into the week of Independence Day.

So, you may ask how I intend to get these girls school years completed. We will go full force for the next four weeks, then we have a Disney World vacation planned. Followed by four more weeks and then a two week break. At that time we will be prepared to begin our new year.

I do not expect Faith to go on to the next grade level as we are taking it at her pace right now. She tends to have a natural arrogance about her and it would not be in her best interest to be five years old and in second grade. When she gets together with her new Daisy Troop she needs to be first grade as well. I to expect we will go on earlier however.

Our new curriculum is mostly here. There is a back order on the 4th grade language package but all other items are here.  We are remodeling and in a halt mode. Waiting to lay the new floors in my house as all the doors and plumbing work is done as well as the new deck and front porch. When my floors are laid we will paint the one room school house that we are making in the old jacuzzi house and laying a new floor. The new doors are completed to that house as well. I look forward to seeing what our new learning environment will look like.

Over the next few weeks I will also create a new class for Master's Lyceum. I have a great book about weather and creating a weather station that I am going to use.

So this little moment I had to myself has been spent updating a blog. I am going to go have a relaxing cup of hot tea and thank the Lord for the rain He sent us last night.

Summer Reading

So here I sit, in the local library, during the summer reading program. This morning I am at the library in the community the girls reside. Later, we will also attend the one in my community library. I think the girls will enjoy it better but for now we will be doing two different reading programs. Kelley and her family live outside of their community and it really is between hers and mine. So there are a few changes that are taking place.

Kelley is going to be a leader for a new brownie troop that Grace will participate in. Long and dramatic story but it will be what is best for Grace overall. Her current troop is doing NOTHING on a routine basis and a hit and miss program is pretty useless. With that said, I will be a leader for the Daisy Troop that Faith will be in. I thought I had paid my dues in this organization but will once again begin a ten year commitment.  Let's pray I can stay alive that long! 

We are still not done with our house remodeling project. I sure wish I was married to a handyman sometimes. Yesterday we saw something on TV about polygamy. I told him I need a handy-husband as my second husband. One that once all the work was done I could loan out elsewhere.

We continue to teach through the summer but find it hard as Kelley has taken on care of two children for the summer. I feel as if I am mean when I exclude the other girls but I cannot effectively teach when the other children do not live their lives in the same manner as we do. Kelley has discovered that the average town person has an effect on her children.

OK so I am listening as I type to the library program. The theme is "Reading is Delicious" but they are talking about the flag. AND WOW>>>>>it is boring!!!!  Lets face it, these kids are 8-12 and have learned this. OH...I just heard Grace telling the speaker about the first flag and how it is different from today's flag.  The speaker ask a question that she does not intend to have them answer as she keeps on speaking and telling them the response. Grace keeps raising her hands to answer but she just keeps talking in a monotone voice.   OH OH OH    now we are going to watch a video rather than read a book about flags.

Gonna go now, I am getting headache.

Mixing Summer with School

I think I am doing a pretty good job at this. I am finding most class time is on the deck, under the huge shade trees, using my new patio table. We seem to have completely forgotten about the desire to have a recess time between major topics but move right through it all so that they are playing for a long period of time.

The obstacles are the two additional children Kelley is babysitting. They are a distraction. I know that many would say....they need to be able to work in distractions too.  But it is more than that. Grace seems to feel very inferior to her friend when it comes to her lessons. It really ticked me off when the friend said "duh that is 13."  I found myself telling her that not everyone is the same and some area Grace has to think on more to answer. I found it a bit revealing however when she wanted to do some of the same math problems but missed more than half of them.  Additionally, she had never been introduced to Roman Numerals yet.  Unfortunately, I could not point this out to Grace as it would not have been the right thing to do.

So we move along. All subjects most days. Our butterflies have emerged and we will release them tomorrow. I am still remodeling a lot and so all is out of structure but we are making it through anyway.

That will be all for now. Faith began a girl scout day camp today and I am exhausted.

Away Too Long

I cannot believe that my last post was almost two months ago. What a wild two months it has been!

No surprise if you look back to other post that we will indeed be "doing" school through out the summer. I anticipated several little breaks with Kelley's high risk pregnancy but I did not anticipate an infection, a baby that did not thrive, several weeks of flu, or this new complication. Kelley, as it turns out, has needed a very extensive surgical repair for an abdominal hernia that was caused by the infection destroying the abdominal wall fascia and "obliterating" the muscle. She is now almost one month post op but has strict limitations and will be wearing an abdominal binder for six months.
So the girls and I are back on a roll again and making great strides in education. It would be impossible to put it all here for the past two months but I can discuss the here and now.

We are back and forth from their home and mine. Doing most lessons at the table rather than our traditional environment. I have a huge remodel taking place and finally will have that one room school house done that I had been dreaming about. Kelley wants the girls classroom to go back to a room for toys that have small parts. That way Owen can be there as well. He is getting all around the place these days.Soon to be crawling.

In school we are observing our caterpillars and keeping our journal. Grace is progressing nicely in math and we still have some frustration moments but if we keep doing it on schedule she does fine. It is those times that we miss a couple of days due to doctor appointments and such. Her reading of course is great. I purchased her entire next years program this week. She is going to do every subject EXCEPT for math at the fourth grade level. Faith is making great advancement as well but I am letting her take it step by step. I do think that she will be moving into the second grade material by November.

Faith is excited that she is joined girl scouts. I am going to be the leader for her Daisy Troop. Not sure where to place her, Kelley decided that the first grade daisy level would be best. It is so hard at times to remember that she is only 5.5 yrs old because she performs at a higher level than that, but then in moments of play it is clear that she is indeed just a little girl.

I am going to stop here and try to get better again at keeping my blog updated. I know Jean is missing the postings.  Now, I will go catch up on my other homeschool friends' blogs.