It's been almost 2 years since I last posted on this blog.  Last year (2009/2010 school year) we left Catholic Heritage Curriculum and elected to follow our school district's online curriculum (with extra stuff added in)  Both boys did well, and ended the school year with averages in the high 90's.

This year (2010/2011) we made the decision to enroll the boys in the local public school.  This decision was not made lightly, but we believed it was the best for our family at this point.  Thanks to the recession, I returned to work on a part-time basis, and was able to increase my work to almost full-time status over the last 6 months. Child care for the older boys became an issue, and we decided that we wanted them to have the opportunities that would be available via enrolling.  Another factor was the speech therapy my middle child was receiving from the school.  His appointments meant that I had to block out 2 days in order to get him there, which decreased my available work time, which decreased our available funds.

I'll also admit that I enjoyed my return to work, and receive quite a bit of satisfaction from teaching others (I'm a technical trainer for adults.)

More went into the decision, but the final decision was that the boys would go to the local school this year.

It's been a bit of an adjustment, but they're doing fine.  Academically, they're at or above grade level in every subject and socially they're finding their groove.  They will begin chess club soon, and my oldest began orchestra.  My middle child is receiving his speech therapy during the school day. 

We loved our homeschooling years, and often I was too busy enjoying that time to update this blog. We explored quite a bit, learned a ton, and had the opportunity to spend plenty of time together as a family.  None of that will stop, just the circumstances a bit.

I wish you luck in your schooling journey!!  I know that some people still stumble across this blog and read it, so I won't delete it.  I wanted to leave an update post though, for anyone wondering if we still homeschool. 

3 years ago, I took a class on lapbooks and was very excited. I bought some books and materials . . . and then the stuff sat in my cabinet because my boys really weren't old enough to create lapbooks.

This morning, one of my friends on facebook linked to this lapbook -- Advent Lapbook -- and I knew that my boys were now old enough so I ordered it.

I've just taken a few minutes to go through the materials, and I'm very excited to print everything out and have the boys get started making their own lapbooks for Advent this year. It includes so much information about the season! Things like feast days and prayers and plenty of space for their own writing. She includes both colored pages and blank ones if the kids like to color their own (mine do!) There are 84 pages of information to create this lapbook -- so you know there is plenty to do over the 4 weeks of Advent!

I was trying to find a project for this season, and am so glad this popped up for me today! I will post pictures of their progress as we get started.

One of the advantages of homeschooling is the ability to visit the park when it's deserted. It makes it much easier for me to make a fool of myself on the playground equipment when I don't have an audience :) Over at Prevention, I wrote about the fun of playing with the kids at the park. Read it here: Don’t Forget to Play

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Yes, we're still moving along! The boys are zooming through their math books, which makes me wonder if we need to bump to the next grade level, or try different things that are mathematical. I think we'll stick to their current math books and see where we are at the end of the calendar year.

Nate is reading very well these days - he's still not sure of himself, but he's sounding out words that he sees on signs and other places, which is a good sign. He enjoys the reader we're using now, although he was completely astounded that they showed the kids without seat belts! (The book was written in the 50's) It's amazing to think that my kids have never known a time of not being strapped into the car.

Colin is doing well and not struggling with anything. He is a little sloppy when it comes to spelling tests, but I think that's more laziness than anything else.

The weather is cooling off finally around here, so we'll start heading to the botanical gardens, zoo and the parks much more often. We met a friend at the park last week, even though it was almost 100, just because we were so tired of staying inside.

All is still going well. The most exciting thing I can report is that reading has clicked for N! I am so thrilled about this, and so is he!

We were sitting in our reading spot, and he read through a book with little to no help from me. I looked at him and said 'Hey! Have you been practicing without me??" He laughed and said "no!" I said "I don't know . . . I think you've been practicing on your own."

He was tickled pink and got even more tickled when I shared the conversation with his dad and his aunt. Whatever has to click has truly clicked for him and he is on his way to becoming a completely independent reader.

I'm working on reading out loud with C. He is an excellent reader with great comprehension skills, but his out loud skills need some work. He's rushing through the words and skipping over words. I know he's trying to read as fast as he can in his head, and I'm sure he's reading all the words in his head, but I also believe that reading aloud well is a skill that is important. So, we're working on having him slow down and make sure he reads each word out loud.

Last week we had the opportunity to take a nice tour of our church during the day while it was mostly empty. We also did a couple art projects.

This week will be more of the same. Baseball season ends this Saturday and we'll be adding in a few more lessons now that we don't have those practices to fit in.

We just finished up our 2nd week and did very well. All expected work was completed. N needs to read a bit to me today, but other than that, everything has been checked off!

The checkoff list is working wonderfully! C wants to work ahead some days, and he can. N wants to know how much more before he's finished, and it's right there on paper for him. I'm happy with this system right now!

We missed art this week because our dvd player is without sound for some reason. Hopefully DH can figure out the problem this weekend.

Nothing out of the ordinary -- pretty much the same old thing. For science this week, we watched the Nature of Dogs which was very interesting and well-done. And, then we all worked together on training our new puppy. Science at work!

We also worked together to make a new recipe. It was sugar-free peanut butter/banana bars. I took pictures and was planning to post the recipe, but they were AWFUL.

Now I remember why I got away from updating this blog regularly. It's a bit boring. I still like the idea of having it, however, so I will continue to update weekly.

This is my 3rd year maintaining this blog, and I confess that I'm not sure what direction it will take this year! I have a feeling that it will be sporadic once again, as life tends to intervene. I do like having it encapsulated here, however, so maybe I'll try for weekly updates.

Last week was our first full week of school. The boys both had great attitudes and we got every bit of work done that I had hoped for.

Daily, both boys completed math workbook pages. C worked ahead of the number of pages assigned, but that's fine. N did just as he was asked, but did so with perfect accuracy.

Each day, we worked on reading out loud. N is definitely a beginning reader who is easily frustrated, so I'm trying to work throughout the day in very small chunks. C is an excellent reader, but he tends to skip words when he reads out loud. I know he reads them to himself, but he reads faster than he speaks and leaves things out. We're working on having him read more slowly, and address each word.

On Tuesday and Thursday the boys worked on their spelling workbook and took a test on Friday. N was terrified of the test and terrified that I was making him write out the words instead of spelling them orally as we had done last year. He scored 100% on his test. C refused to look over the words before the test, insisting he knew how to spell them all. He missed 3 words. For each missed word, he wrote it out 3 times.

Both boys work on journals during the week. On Tuesdays, C wrote in his topic journal (the journal page gives them the beginning of a sentence and he runs with it.) The minimum I ask him to write is 7 sentences. N also has a topic journal, but it is just completing one sentence. On Thursdays, both boys draw a page in their nature journal and write an entry. So far this year, I'm still writing N's entry as he dictates it to me. On Fridays, C writes in a free journal. The 7 sentence minimum applies here as well. On Saturdays, the boys both write in their book journals. This got skipped this week because of baseball and a few other obligations.

C worked in his grammar workbook 2 days last week, while N worked in a phonics workbook. Both boys completed handwriting lessons each day.

Both boys had religion. I read N's chapter to him, and he answered the questions orally. C read his chapter out loud and he answered questions orally. C has religion studies 2/week as we are preparing for his First Communion in the spring. His second lesson was about touring a church.

On Tuesdays, we'll have Art and Science. The boys completed an art lesson that focused on drawing different kinds of lines and created a design-filled caterpillar. For Science, we're studying mammals and after some discussion, the boys watched one episode of the "Life of Mammals" from Netflix.

On Wednesdays, the boys attend their enrichment program, and then come home to play baseball, so we don't do any lessons that day.

On Thursdays, the extra lesson is Maps. We're starting to work in Map workbooks and will also begin CHC's Tour of the Continents. We haven't started that yet, but will in the next week or so. They did do a few pages in the map workbook.

On Fridays, we also do History. We're using the Story of the World for history. I have the book, but I also have the cd's. The boys listened to a number of chapters while drawing at the kitchen table.

On Saturdays, it's a day like the others, and also built to be catch-up if needed. Right now, the boys are playing baseball on Saturday mornings, so I'm trying to get all we need to do done by Friday. It worked this week!