The Weekend

We finished out our week on a good note. Today was a good homeschool day. The kind where you say "Oh right, this is why we do this." Lessons were completed with a minimum of fuss. Everyone got everything on the first go around. That is always very pleasant.

Mister B continues with multiplying decimals, reviewing Complete and Simple subjects in grammar, learning about metric measurements in science, and Galileo for history. He is almost done with his poetry unit. He wrote a couple of clever Haiku today. My personal favorite:

Lawn perfectly mowed
the grass is nice and smooth
You do it next time.

Little Miss M continues with adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators, reviewing direct objects for grammar, Galileo for history, and tools of the scientists.

Both kids are excited about trying to teach themselves to play the guitar. Mister B will be learning on an electric guitar and Little Miss will be learning the Bass. This should be interesting.

I can not believe it is snowing again!

There, my header says it all. More snow. 6-10" of snow expected. Sigh.
Other then the snow this week has been going fairly well. Okay, Monday wasn't so hot for Mister B but Tuesday was better.

Lesson progressed. Little Miss continues to work on adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators. Mister B continues to master multiplying decimals.

Discussion Group was canceled today due to the snow. Disappointed and sad children. Yes, disappointed and sad adults, too. I look forward to my weekly chat with the other moms.

Lots of snow play today as we wait for it to stop snowing. It is supposed to snow all day and all night.

Long Morning

This Monday has been a tough one. Not for Little Miss. Her studies went very well today.

In math she learned about adding and subtracting numbers with different denominators. It took a few tries before she really understood that this was equivalent fractions with a new step. Looking for the common denominator. Once she grasped it she was off and running. Grammar-review of action verbs. History-she completed her book report on Isaac Newton (she did a history of his childhood). Vocabulary-The root Terra. Science-she checked on her mold experiment (so far no mold on any of the 3 specimens) and then learned how to make a simple microscope. I had no idea that you could use 2 magnifying glasses for this. A neat little trick. She then observed a strand of hair, salt crystals, and sugar crystals and drew pictures of what she saw.

This brings us to Mister B. His morning not as wonderful. He learned about multiplying decimals today. This was not easy for him. We spent about 2 hours going over the concept. Sure, I could have just taught him the trick I was taught. Multiply the numbers and then count the spaces for the decimal location. That would have been quick and easy. But then there would be no understanding of the place value. Thank you Math-U-See for teaching me something new. I never knew why I counted spaces for the decimal point. It is just what I did because the teacher told me to do it that way. Back to Mister B and his morning struggle. He understood the factors when building the problem. He was having difficulty with the place value. 2 tenths x 2 tenths is 4 one hundredths. This is difficult. We tried building the problems. We watched the video lesson again. His father took him upstairs and showed him a method (and he thought he had it but he didn't, although he was closer). This was closely coming to total melt down territory. Mister B was already grumbling that he had been doing math for 2 hours. But, I persevered. I was like the Chinese mother in that article that has been making the rounds. We went through the video lesson. Step by step. Pausing after each step to make sure he understood and trying to find where the breakdown was. It was all the place value. As we went through it again step by step he had his breakthrough. He got it. He then finished his worksheet in 10 minutes. He solved the problems, wrote them out in place value notation, and solved the 2 word problems. Success!

I then sent him off for a 10 minute break. He still has science, grammar, vocabulary, and history to do. I think that meltdown may still happen.

Falling Down on the Job

I just realized it is Wednesday and I have not posted an update all week. I am falling down on my blog to keep myself accountable goal.

Lots of running around this week. I had my annual Endocrinologist appointment. I am now sporting a huge bruise on my arm from the blood draw. The good news-nothing has changed. My prescription remains the same. Since Monday was Martin Luther King Day I had plans to do our annual discuss civil rights and watch the I have a dream speech. Man plans, G-d laughs. Mister B was sick and my Little Miss wanted to spend the day across the street at my neighbors because her granddaughter was visiting. Since one child was out of commission and I had that doctors appointment I decided she could spend the day across the street. I come home to discover that hubby made Little Miss come home and do math and grammar because she neglected to tell him when she left. Lesson learned. It is not enough to tell your brother that you are leaving after I gave permission to go across the street.

Tuesday-Mister B was still under the weather a bit but he managed to get through math and grammar. Little Miss completed math, grammar, and Spanish. She also did some work on her biography of Issac Newton.

This brings to today. I had plans for some school work before we headed out to philosophy class. No such luck. I overslept. Philosophy went well. They discussed reality. How do you know if something is real? Because of your senses. But your senses are not always correct so can you trust them. Is a movie real? It doesn't really move. Each scene is its own picture and they move really fast. They really talk about some pretty deep stuff.

Tomorrow is another day. I can't wait to see what it brings.

All dug out, again

Another foot of snow fell. We spent the morning shoveling. Thankfully, one of my neighbors with a snow blower did our sidewalk, again. When it snows is when I really dislike living on a corner. He also did the corners and dug out the fire hydrant. He is a prince. Meanwhile, it still took me and the children 2 hours to shovel out the driveway and the walk to the door.

All that shoveling was worth the effort when we made it to Discussion Group. Everyone had a great story. One of the girls had the funniest story of all. Hers was all about how she did not want to do the writing assignment about the picture. Very clever. They all did well. Little Miss wrote a story about a fun race and Mister B wrote about trying to find a buried treasure (along the lines of It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world). This is the photo they all used:

http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/1569R-9020746

The kids really enjoyed it and it is nice to see their growth at presenting. When the group first started 2 years ago it was like pulling teeth to get them to go up in front and share. Now they were all anxious to go as soon as possible. One of the goals when we set up the group was to give the kids the experience of presenting to a group and it nice to see that the goals are being met.

Another Snow Day is looming

This winter is turning out to be a snowy one. We will be getting hit with another snow storm starting tonight. The kids are enjoying it but my feeling is enough already.

School work has been coming along nicely. Little Miss continues to master adding and subtracting fractions and Mister B is mastering the metric system (something I have never been able to do). Little Miss is working on a biography of Isaac Newton and Mister B explored 3 artist/architects from the Baroque period. We are anxiously awaiting the audio CD for our Spanish program. I took it as far as I could go.

Tomorrow they are supposed to have discussion group but I think that just may get canceled.

Friday Snow Day!

I can not believe that we survived last weeks blizzard (over 2' of snow) only to have another storm today. They say it will only be between 3"-7". I am over the snow for this year. I have moved on and am ready for spring.

The kids woke up and said "Are we having a snow day?!" My original thought was no but the public schools were having a half day today so I told them we would keep it light. Just Math and Grammar.

Little Miss spent a good half hour playing in the falling snow with the dog. Mister B has spent his free time playing a computer game. He doesn't know it yet but he will be going outside in about 20 minutes.


This week went fairly smoothly in the lessons department. Everyone is moving along. They had philosophy this week which is always a good time. Although the instructor told us they really only had about 20 minutes of good dialogue. Which was to be expected after the time off and the Holidays. They should be back on track soon.

Interesting Day

Today was interesting. I had a meeting with an administrator at The Rockland County Day School (http://www.rocklandcds.org/). My former bosses son is a teacher there. He asked if I would be willing to meet with them to discuss offering classes to homeschoolers. Which I was. High School is rearing it's head and we are trying to decide what to do. There are classes I am more comfortable outsourcing (Chemistry comes to mind).

They are definitely interested in the idea. The administrator asked about possibly doing an AP class after school, such as 3:10- 4pm. It is a good idea but not feasible. For example, my kids have Hebrew School 2x per week after school. Many kids are involved in athletics. I asked about online auditing of the classes and then coming in for labs. That would certainly be workable for many people who are 30+ minutes away. Another possibility was offering a 2-3 week seminar type class for 3 weeks in June. Their school year ends the 1st week in June. Camps don't start until the end of June.

I have to admit, I liked what I saw when I was there. They are a small school. Teacher ratio is 8:1. They are college prep. They are not caught up in test scores. They do not participate in the NY State standardized tests. If I had the $$ I might even consider sending my kids there for high school. I would prefer a la carte classes but the campus was appealing. I do hope they come through with classes in September. I would like Mister B to try one.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Jumped Right In

A new year and a fresh start. I am feeling somewhat recharged after our official winter break so we jumped right back into the pool. I added a new feature to our school day. Current Events. I realized that my kids were missing out on the thrill of reading the newspaper. Both my husband and I read the news online. I refuse to watch the news because I do not enjoy all that negativity. We do talk about current events but I realized there is a lot going on that they really are not aware of. Some of that is good but at the same time they need to be well rounded individuals. So, today when I took our pooch out for his morning constitutional I headed to the newspaper kiosk and purchased the paper.

I will admit, the newspaper was greeted with very little enthusiasm. Little Miss M was excited to read the lifestyle section. I explained that the subject is current events. She needed to choose an article from either world news or local news and write a short summary on what she read. That went over like a lead balloon. However, she did it. For a first attempt at summarizing a news article she did okay.

Other subjects Little Miss covered today: Math-fractions. Grammar-Possessive nouns. History-she started the age of enlightenment. She read a bit in the Usbourne Internet Linked Encyclopedia. In there was a blurb about Galileo and his telescope. I then asked her if she remembered looking through his telescope when we were at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. She did. I pointed out that this is the telescope they are talking about. Her eyes lit up and she said "That is really cool". She got to a coloring page on Galileo and learn a bit more about his telescope. She also looked up Discovery in the dictionary and copied the definitions. Critical Thinking-Descriptive comparisons. She ended her official day with independent reading.

Mister B-he was slightly more enthused about the newspaper assignment but not by much. He also covered Math-Metric system plus review of fractions. Grammar-Interjections. Literature: Rhyme in Poetry. History: he started a unit on 17th Century art and literature. He also ended with independent reading.

All in all, a full day and a good start to the new year.