Flexibility - something that I've never been all that great at that I'm learning I need to deal with. Today started off a little later than I like. The kids have a hard time waking up on Monday mornings after a busy weekend so I've started letting them sleep in a little. This pushed the whole entire school schedule back and I was starting to feel frustrated and was pushing the kids by 11:30 when I remembered that if our school work goes into the afternoon - SO WHAT? If we take a break for 3 hours before we finish our last subject - SO WHAT? By the time we had worked through our schedule and were ready for reading - the last subject of the day - the twins were having a very hard time concentrating. So I said, "Okay, let's wrap up and we'll come back down later this afternoon and finish our reading." It wasn't the end of the world and we still got all our work in plus all the piano practicing/chores that I had written down. Well, that's not entirely true - I have things on my to do list for today that won't get done until later this week but...SO WHAT? Flexibility is the name of the game around here!
Happy Monday!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Week Interrupted
Week 3 didn't start off so well! I was planning on having school on Monday since Tuesday we were going to be off doing other things BUT Ryan didn't think it was fair that all the neighbor kids were off and ours had school. So, I gave in and regretted it:) Turns out the neighbor kids didn't come over to play until after 1pm - plenty of time to have gotten in a school day. Now today, Wednesday, I feel like we are playing major catchup PLUS getting the new Teacher's Guides (that just came last week) figured out. Frustrating but once we get going we'll be fine. I have the next few days planned already and now that we've done one day with the Teacher's Guide I have a better idea of what's expected from me and how much prep work I have to do.
Yesterday I had to take a turn teaching at Ethan's church preschool so the twins came along to help out. It was fun but I'm glad that's over! We went straight from there to Target (minus Ethan who went home with Keegan and plus Tayden) to get goggles for the twins' swim class. From Target we headed to the Elgin Rec Center for one hour of gym class and one hour of swim. It went MUCH better than last week where Kenton refused to get into the water. Sometimes he needs to hang back and check it all out before he's ready to jump in and participate.
We left the Rec Center around three and ran a few errands on the way out to Jamie's to pick up Ethan and for supper before jetting off to my mother-in-laws for Bible Study. By 8:45 last night Ethan had enough and was melting down big-time. So we packed up a little early and headed home straight to bed! Whew!
I was hoping homeschooling would allow us to slow down more than it has. Some of it is me being unable to say no to things and some of it is that we are busy doing the same things as last semester just in a little different order and together rather than having the twins gone for 8 hours a day.
Yesterday I had to take a turn teaching at Ethan's church preschool so the twins came along to help out. It was fun but I'm glad that's over! We went straight from there to Target (minus Ethan who went home with Keegan and plus Tayden) to get goggles for the twins' swim class. From Target we headed to the Elgin Rec Center for one hour of gym class and one hour of swim. It went MUCH better than last week where Kenton refused to get into the water. Sometimes he needs to hang back and check it all out before he's ready to jump in and participate.
We left the Rec Center around three and ran a few errands on the way out to Jamie's to pick up Ethan and for supper before jetting off to my mother-in-laws for Bible Study. By 8:45 last night Ethan had enough and was melting down big-time. So we packed up a little early and headed home straight to bed! Whew!
I was hoping homeschooling would allow us to slow down more than it has. Some of it is me being unable to say no to things and some of it is that we are busy doing the same things as last semester just in a little different order and together rather than having the twins gone for 8 hours a day.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Week 2
Week 2 is almost over and I feel like we are finally getting into a groove of sorts. There have been a few ups and downs as we've gone through some "growing pains" this week but overall we have made some progress academically so that's what counts, right?
I had made the decision to back up in Math and take it slower which has turned out to be a good strategy. I'm not fighting the twins during Math time so much to do the work. When it was way over their heads it was turning into a huge battle to get the math work done in 45 mins instead of it taking all morning! Now it's taking the appropriate time with a little time to spare. I'm slowly introducing them to multiplication facts and reviewing addition and subtraction.
It seems like the first 2 hours of the morning goes great and than the next two kind of fall apart! Right now they are supposed to be reviewing for a History quiz tomorrow but they are rolling around in the basement on the chairs Ryan bought for them yesterday! I keep telling them that as soon as they are done with the review we can eat lunch but that's not proving to be much motivation this morning:) We really need to get a big carpet remnant down so that they can't do so much rolling!
Kaitlyn asked me at the beginning of the week if we could do "marbles" like they did at school where they accumulate marbles for good behavior and get them taken away for bad behavior. They work towards collecting 50 marbles at which point they get to have a "Marble Party". I'm not sure what the Marble Party is going to consist of and gauging on how today has gone I've got a little bit of time to get it figured out:) At school they usually had a special dress day and got to bring in drinks and snacks and watch a movie. Instead of that we may go roller skating or bowling or something. I'm open to ideas!
Gym & Swim on Tuesday was interesting. Kenton joined right in on the gym portion of class but wouldn't get into the water for the swim part. He's a good swimmer so I'm really not sure why he decided not to participate. He did say something about being scared of sharks being in the water...
I had made the decision to back up in Math and take it slower which has turned out to be a good strategy. I'm not fighting the twins during Math time so much to do the work. When it was way over their heads it was turning into a huge battle to get the math work done in 45 mins instead of it taking all morning! Now it's taking the appropriate time with a little time to spare. I'm slowly introducing them to multiplication facts and reviewing addition and subtraction.
It seems like the first 2 hours of the morning goes great and than the next two kind of fall apart! Right now they are supposed to be reviewing for a History quiz tomorrow but they are rolling around in the basement on the chairs Ryan bought for them yesterday! I keep telling them that as soon as they are done with the review we can eat lunch but that's not proving to be much motivation this morning:) We really need to get a big carpet remnant down so that they can't do so much rolling!
Kaitlyn asked me at the beginning of the week if we could do "marbles" like they did at school where they accumulate marbles for good behavior and get them taken away for bad behavior. They work towards collecting 50 marbles at which point they get to have a "Marble Party". I'm not sure what the Marble Party is going to consist of and gauging on how today has gone I've got a little bit of time to get it figured out:) At school they usually had a special dress day and got to bring in drinks and snacks and watch a movie. Instead of that we may go roller skating or bowling or something. I'm open to ideas!
Gym & Swim on Tuesday was interesting. Kenton joined right in on the gym portion of class but wouldn't get into the water for the swim part. He's a good swimmer so I'm really not sure why he decided not to participate. He did say something about being scared of sharks being in the water...
pictures of the classroom
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| Our Arts and Crafts center and soon to be added Science center |
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| Teacher's desk:) |
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| The couch in the background in the reading corner that we use for centers and for reading the history lessons. |
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| kids desks and front of classroom |
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
We Want Heat!!!
Lennox Consumer Affairs
2100 Lake Park Blvd.
Richardson, TX 75080
P.O. Box 799900
Dallas, TX 75379-9900
Richardson, TX 75080
P.O. Box 799900
Dallas, TX 75379-9900
Dear Michelle/Les,
I spent over an hour on hold waiting to speak to a representative today learning about the Energy Star Efficiency award that Lennox received in 2007.
Congratulations on this achievement! I just wanted to let you know, that my 4 year old Lennox furnace should be included in your future statistics, as you will be sure to win more awards.
It is January 11, 2011 in Chicago (26F), and my furnace has not used 1 unit of gas in almost 2 weeks… What an incredible accomplishment! Unfortunately, I have been told that it will not use any gas for at least one more week as well.
Below are the details of my furnace:
Model Number: G43UF36B07008
Serial Number: S906F01713
Part Needed: Draft Inducer 83M56
Order Number: 1000009977
*When it is convenient for you, please advise when I should expect this furnace to start using gas again.
Kind Regards,
Lennox Customer
Ryan Weiss
12430 Lions Chase Lane
Huntley, IL 60142
630-715-5154
Friday, January 7, 2011
New Feature
I've added a new feature to my blog. If you look in the right hand corner above the "About Me" section I've added links that I have found helpful for both homeschooling and being a mom! I will add more websites as I find them that prove helpful in providing worksheets or projects to help kids learn - whether they are in public, private, or homeschool!
Survived the First Week!!!
Our first week of homeschooling is officially over and we all survived! There were a few moments of tears and frustrations as we worked things out but over all I think we got off to a good start and the classroom is set up and is slowly beginning to fill up with evidence of our work.
We made the decision to start off our homeschooling experience with the A Beka DVD program where the twins watch a master teacher teach all the lessons in a classroom setting. We discovered that this wasn't the easiest way for us to start out since we are beginning in the middle of the year and they don't re-explain classroom procedures and are ahead in some of the subjects of where the twins were in school. The Math for example - A Beka is teaching fourth grade concepts already in third grade and while the twins were in accelerated Math class in school they are still behind the A Beka program. So today Ryan and I made the official decision to ditch the DVD's and ordered the teacher guides so that I can go back and start where the twins left off in school and try to get them caught up to A Beka by fourth grade. We may switch to a different Math program next year but in case we don't I want them to be able to start off fourth grade caught up to A Beka.
I also realized half way through the week that I needed to make school more "fun". I was trying to do all the subjects back to back and wasn't taking breaks for activities that don't require sitting at a desk or to decompress a little. The kids are only 8 after all:) so we added in "Centers" where they get to pick an activity to do for 20 minutes - Art, Math game on computer, Science Experiment, or Reading Corner - that helps to break up the morning a little and gets them out of their seats. We also started doing our history lesson in the "Reading Corner" of our classroom which contains a couch so that they are getting a little break from the desk and chair.
Our schedule for the day looks a little like this (more or less as some days we started later or took more time for Math):
8:00 - 8:15 Bible Lesson
8:15 - 9:00 Math
9:00 - 9:20 Centers
9:20 - 9:40 Language
9:40 - 10:00 Journaling/Penmanship
10:00 - 10:15 Snack break
10:15 - 10:35 Spelling
10:35 - 10:55 Reading
10:55 - 11:15 History
11:15 - 11:30 Health
I've had to remind the twins several times (as well as myself) that the schedule is just a guide and that the beauty of homeschooling is that we can take things faster or slower depending on the day and interruptions that come up:)
After lunch we take time to practice piano, do chores, and read. We also set up a big puzzle on the dining room table that we've been working on when we have free time. Once a week (Tuesdays from 1 - 3) we will head into Elgin for Gym and Swim...they have a one hour PE class followed by a swim lesson with some free time at the end to just swim around the pool and play. We start next week and we are excited to see how it all goes!
Evenings consist of activities: Ballet, Cheerleading for Kait, Piano for both, and Chess club twice a month for Kenton.
It'll be a learning process this semester of what works and what doesn't for our family and I expect that the above schedule/subjects might change a time or two until we've worked out the kinks! So far it's been fun and I'm finding that I'm learning Math the second time around like I didn't the first time around! I've also fallen into bed each night mentally exhausted and I'm exercising brain muscles that I forgot I had:) I've found that I'm enjoying the teaching MUCH more than I thought I would and the kids are enjoying being done with school earlier and not having homework in the evenings.
PS) I'll save Ethan for another post!
We made the decision to start off our homeschooling experience with the A Beka DVD program where the twins watch a master teacher teach all the lessons in a classroom setting. We discovered that this wasn't the easiest way for us to start out since we are beginning in the middle of the year and they don't re-explain classroom procedures and are ahead in some of the subjects of where the twins were in school. The Math for example - A Beka is teaching fourth grade concepts already in third grade and while the twins were in accelerated Math class in school they are still behind the A Beka program. So today Ryan and I made the official decision to ditch the DVD's and ordered the teacher guides so that I can go back and start where the twins left off in school and try to get them caught up to A Beka by fourth grade. We may switch to a different Math program next year but in case we don't I want them to be able to start off fourth grade caught up to A Beka.
I also realized half way through the week that I needed to make school more "fun". I was trying to do all the subjects back to back and wasn't taking breaks for activities that don't require sitting at a desk or to decompress a little. The kids are only 8 after all:) so we added in "Centers" where they get to pick an activity to do for 20 minutes - Art, Math game on computer, Science Experiment, or Reading Corner - that helps to break up the morning a little and gets them out of their seats. We also started doing our history lesson in the "Reading Corner" of our classroom which contains a couch so that they are getting a little break from the desk and chair.
Our schedule for the day looks a little like this (more or less as some days we started later or took more time for Math):
8:00 - 8:15 Bible Lesson
8:15 - 9:00 Math
9:00 - 9:20 Centers
9:20 - 9:40 Language
9:40 - 10:00 Journaling/Penmanship
10:00 - 10:15 Snack break
10:15 - 10:35 Spelling
10:35 - 10:55 Reading
10:55 - 11:15 History
11:15 - 11:30 Health
I've had to remind the twins several times (as well as myself) that the schedule is just a guide and that the beauty of homeschooling is that we can take things faster or slower depending on the day and interruptions that come up:)
After lunch we take time to practice piano, do chores, and read. We also set up a big puzzle on the dining room table that we've been working on when we have free time. Once a week (Tuesdays from 1 - 3) we will head into Elgin for Gym and Swim...they have a one hour PE class followed by a swim lesson with some free time at the end to just swim around the pool and play. We start next week and we are excited to see how it all goes!
Evenings consist of activities: Ballet, Cheerleading for Kait, Piano for both, and Chess club twice a month for Kenton.
It'll be a learning process this semester of what works and what doesn't for our family and I expect that the above schedule/subjects might change a time or two until we've worked out the kinks! So far it's been fun and I'm finding that I'm learning Math the second time around like I didn't the first time around! I've also fallen into bed each night mentally exhausted and I'm exercising brain muscles that I forgot I had:) I've found that I'm enjoying the teaching MUCH more than I thought I would and the kids are enjoying being done with school earlier and not having homework in the evenings.
PS) I'll save Ethan for another post!
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