I know I've been very lax in my blog lately. I've had some news that is very surprising and most unwelcome. My first blog post about it was slightly hysterical so I'll spare you that one. To make a long story short, I was fasting two Sundays ago for some inspiration and support with homeschooling and the impression I got was to put Chicklette and Racer in public school! Here I am, a staunch advocate and defender of homeschooling and I am making plans to enroll my two oldest in public school. For a couple days I was sick to my stomach and heartbroken. Now I am quietly depressed. :) I'm not sure which is best. My wonderful husband gave me a blessing so I am sure of the Lord's hand in this. Our plan right now is to keep Turtle home next year because we are hoping it will give him some more confidence to be the big kid at home and I just don't think he is ready to jump into the public school melee. I really feel like he would get lost. There is a charter school not too far away that actually says they follow the classical model of instruction and even references The Well-trained Mind on their website so we are hoping to get them in there. Several of our friends attend there also so carpooling is a possibility. I feel like I have failed, that I couldn't be enough so my children have to go away from me to get what they need. I also feel like a traitor to the homeschooling community that I have so many roots in. I'm also confused because I seriously studied this out in my mind and now this isn't the answer for our family anymore. I only hope I can continue to receive the Lords guidance for my children's best interests. I also feel like I am proving right all the people who said I couldn't homeschooling my children successfully so my pride is taking a little bit of a hit.
Anyways, to get on to today, we had a fairly successful day. Racer took the first two of the ITBS tests and found them to be pretty easy. Let's hope that continues. I am also really happy with how the Choice and Consequences chart is working out.
Religion - We did our memorization and then saved our actual page for lunchtime because the activity was making johnnycakes. The kids actually loved them. I didn't think they would. We tried them with apple butter, peach jam, and syrup.
Math - Because Racer had the ITBS test today and math is pretty easy for him, I just had him do Xtramath. Chicklette is starting multiplication and not finding it as easy because she still needs to work on memorizing her facts. We'll get there but she did get to experience the consequences for excessive whining by going to bed a little early.
Latin - The kids are doing their review lesson this week so today they had to write all the vocabulary for the preceding five weeks. This is always very hard for Chicklette and takes her a very long time. She did finally get it done but we have some lessons that we will have to make up this week. Racer just buckled down and did his work and his handwriting was better than I expected.
Science - Today's science experiment was pretty easy and straightforward. We explored how water bends light. We saw the pencil bend in the glass and saw it magnify letters through the bottom of the glass. The kids were so happy that we didn't have a writeup today and, truth be told, so was I.
History - We finished up the state of Minnesota on our Road Trip USA. We have a special place in our hearts for Minnesota. DH was born and raised there and we go back to visit for a week and a half every other year. We also read You Wouldn't Want to Live in a Wild West Town and talked about how words can have more than one meaning. I really like the You Wouldn't Want to books. They are always entertaining, but still full of information.
Writing With Ease - Racer tried to do his Writing with Ease but he had such a hard time visualizing the magic trick that they were describing that he wasn't able to do the narration. We had to talk about it a few times and I tried to demonstrate it, but my sleight of hand isn't that good. I think part of it is also that he kind of believes magic is real still.
Anyways, to get on to today, we had a fairly successful day. Racer took the first two of the ITBS tests and found them to be pretty easy. Let's hope that continues. I am also really happy with how the Choice and Consequences chart is working out.
Religion - We did our memorization and then saved our actual page for lunchtime because the activity was making johnnycakes. The kids actually loved them. I didn't think they would. We tried them with apple butter, peach jam, and syrup.
Math - Because Racer had the ITBS test today and math is pretty easy for him, I just had him do Xtramath. Chicklette is starting multiplication and not finding it as easy because she still needs to work on memorizing her facts. We'll get there but she did get to experience the consequences for excessive whining by going to bed a little early.
Latin - The kids are doing their review lesson this week so today they had to write all the vocabulary for the preceding five weeks. This is always very hard for Chicklette and takes her a very long time. She did finally get it done but we have some lessons that we will have to make up this week. Racer just buckled down and did his work and his handwriting was better than I expected.
Science - Today's science experiment was pretty easy and straightforward. We explored how water bends light. We saw the pencil bend in the glass and saw it magnify letters through the bottom of the glass. The kids were so happy that we didn't have a writeup today and, truth be told, so was I.
History - We finished up the state of Minnesota on our Road Trip USA. We have a special place in our hearts for Minnesota. DH was born and raised there and we go back to visit for a week and a half every other year. We also read You Wouldn't Want to Live in a Wild West Town and talked about how words can have more than one meaning. I really like the You Wouldn't Want to books. They are always entertaining, but still full of information.
Writing With Ease - Racer tried to do his Writing with Ease but he had such a hard time visualizing the magic trick that they were describing that he wasn't able to do the narration. We had to talk about it a few times and I tried to demonstrate it, but my sleight of hand isn't that good. I think part of it is also that he kind of believes magic is real still.