Cotton ISD 2013-14

Last year I swore up and down that I would NOT start school this early ever again.  Never say never!  I'm up early, can't sleep.  Funny how that doesn't change from when I was a student, when I taught in school and now while I'm schooling my children at home.  With Witten coming on or around November 18, we had to get a head start.  The beautiful thing about homeschooling is that we can stop for a good while and enjoy family life/take time to adjust.  Unlike other years, I have our lessons planned through his potential c-section date.  I remain incredibly thankful for the simplicity of Classical Conversations and how easy it makes our "everything else" of science and social studies.  Here's a quick glimpse into our year.  My goal is to make it as simple as possible.  

One thing I feel that I have not done well is incorporating scripture into our school day.  I want to start by focusing on 2 Peter 1:5-8. 

"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Pastor Danny preached on it and I felt it was really appropriate in this aspect of our lives. While it deals with spiritual maturity, I believe that their education is part of that growth process.  I want them to apply excellence in everything, school time is just practice for what they will eventually do/be later in life. 

Coralee - 3rd grade

Coralee will continue with Saxon Math.  This year is 5/4 for her and I am SO excited!  It feels like real math.  Even in the first few lessons we use the CC memory work about the commutative law.  Yay for that application and more to come.  She has started to love to read (and get in trouble for reading when she's supposed to be asleep).  The Greek Mythology book (how I love the D'Auelieres) and a Little House book are up on a shelf she can't reach because of the not going to sleep issue.  We'll continue to listen to books as we commute.  We started The Hobbit in June but our vacation interrupted that and after a library trip, we're listening to Hank the Cow Dog.  The idea is to have her read a lot of books and listen to things that are above her level.  She will start Essentials at CC this year.  That will take care of our English Grammar/Writing curriculum and hopefully help with some multiplication facts motivation.  I'm really looking forward to our parent orientation in a few weeks to see how to use all these wonderful resources.  We'll be using the same Spelling curriculum as last year but the name has escaped me.  It really is her most difficult subject which baffles me.  Spelling was so easy for me; she takes after her Daddy in this!  We'll also be using English from the Roots Up for vocabulary. I'm excited about it but I'm not sure she is.  Gotta work on those skills for the PSAT.  ;-) Joking although it will be here before I know it!  We'll look at 2 words a week which won't quite get us through the first book this year.  She also has a French book that will be absolute last priority.

Lincoln - Kindergarten

Lincoln, oh my boy!  Last year I let him coast.  He no doubt knows way more than I think he does.  Like his Uncle Keegan, everything is on a need to know basis and I don't need to know.  I didn't push him last year because he's a boy and it was a bigger fight than it should have been.  He is so cute and giggles when he is learning new things and I really think he's ready now.  His behavior and attitude (with the exception of last week - what on earth was that?) has taken a huge turn for the better in the past few months.  We had a coffee date last week and talked about how he wanted to learn to read.  We're going to try Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.  I'm still a little scarred by how Coralee hated it so much but I think that the not a workbook aspect will work well for him.  I'd like to believe that feeling like he had a choice will be a good thing, too.  He'll continue with Horizons K for Math.  As much as I love Saxon, I can't stand the K book.  This is prettier and covers much of the same information.  

Lauramae - Pre-Kindergarten

It remains to be seen how this will go this year but Little Miss has been my most eager student.  Unfortunately, her fine motor skills didn't match up with her desire.  She will be using some workbooks from the dollar spot while I figure out where she is and we'll be attempting Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading as well.  I honestly don't think it will take long for her and Lincoln to be at the same point academically.  She'll start CC this year, which is very exciting for her!  Her tutor is in for a treat!

So, there we are!  I am armed with prayer & scripture this morning and a plan!  May our day be sweet! Oh, and this will be our trial week.  God willing, we will be in Houston next week for our annual trip to the zoo and Shakespeare in the park..... Also known as getting out of dodge during NI week.

 

The Ultimate Beautiful Thing

I have meant to post this for a while but haven't sat down to do it. 2013 has been an interesting one so far. We started the year with me applying to be a Support Manager with Classical Conversations (our homeschool group) and on the same day Ken got an email about an opportunity at work to move to India for two years. It took a month filled with prayers before we had the "no" on that but what a month it was. I don't know if I've ever prayed so much and so intently for anything. The Sunday before he got that email, our pastor leaked that our church would be adopting an unengaged, unreached people group. When Ken mentioned the position to me, there wasn't a question about whether or not we were interested since the group was nearby. There were more people applied than normally would. Some were above Ken's level of management but I was convinced that if God wanted us in India, we would be going. Here are some of the verses I prayed:

Proverbs 3:4
So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God & man.

Psalm 90:16
And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of The Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands-- yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it.

1 Samuel 16:7
God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outer appearance but God looks at the heart.

Matthew 5:16
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Zechariah 4:6
Not by might nor by power but by My spirit says The Lord.

Job 42:2
Job answered the Lord and said, "I know that You can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

Philippians 1:6
And I am certain that God, who began the good work in you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Ultimately the answer was "no". Poof and my dreams of serving God in another country while being able to still live reasonably comfortably, living somewhere else for a short time and truly experiencing new and different, having someone else clean the house,.... were gone. In that "no", God was so sweet and good to us, though. This clearly was not our time to be anywhere else but where we are.

Not long after that, Ken found out for sure that he was taking a business trip to Shanghai in March. Let me admit that I am a complete and total wimp when it comes to being away from my husband. I also didn't look forward to being "on" all by myself for most of a week. It's actually embarrassing. It took a lot of thinking to realize I was jealous. We love to travel and I was jealous he got to see/eat new things while I was at home with the kids by myself. Not pretty but thankfully we were able to talk through a lot of things thanks to the good stuff from him teaching Intimate Encounters. In the end, my support manager training in Virginia was the same week. Our parents graciously took care of the kids and his parents brought them back which was a big relief for me. And yet, I was still a mess. I cried; I didn't sleep well. The two together probably didn't help any. Still, I would say that separation and the preparation for it was one of the sweetest and most intimate times in our marriage.

While I was gone, I started wondering if I might be pregnant. All those really normal cycles I'd been having didn't happen in February/March and that's the pattern for my pregnancies with everyone else. I had bought two tests before I left. Took one the Monday before I left for training and it was negative. The next Monday, I woke up at 2 AM and took the other test. I've always hidden that ordeal from Ken and just told him when I had a plus but in light of all that had gone on in the month before, I shared the moment. There were two definite pink lines although the important one wasn't all that dark. That began the frequent blood work since my progesterone is always low. The day I went in for my first ultrasound to check for the heartbeat, Ken had a big presentation to give at almost the same time so he wasn't able to be there. Thankfully, the ultrasound was with my favorite nurse practitioner, Kelly, who was there with a good bit of our infertility treatments. We worked through my cycle and had a pretty good idea of how far along I was before she did the scan and there was baby, measuring right where he/she should be.

If you would've asked me in high school how many kids I wanted, I would have said 4. I loved the family dynamic of my Mom's family but really I think it was more who my aunts & uncles are. They're just fun! I didn't know that wasn't always the case. Those 4 years of trying to get pregnant with Coralee didn't take away that desire but it did temper me saying a number. It is very strange that 13 years after stopping birth control, dealing with infertility treatments, then waiting on God's timing for subsequent kiddos to have that intense desire fulfilled. Truly my fears have been stilled and strivings cease. I am thankful, humbled and awed because God could have chosen to leave that desire unfulfilled. I would look at Lauramae and think, really, this is not a bad way to end. In the past few months, I felt like I needed to get rid of a good bit of our baby stuff. It was almost an idol sitting in the storage building. To truly release control of having another child, it had to go. I saved a good bit with the intent of making a quilt from their baby clothes and saved a ton of blankets to pass on to them one day.

Lincoln initially said he wanted twins.... A boy and a girl. Now that we know there's just one, he wants a brother. Balance is good but a little scary for me, too. He still rocks my world with his boyness sometimes. Lauramae wants a sister. Coralee is far more flexible because she can logically see a good reason for a brother for Lincoln. All I have to go on is that I don't like the boy name we've discussed (Witten - my grandmother's maiden name) and I love the girl name (Annmarie - my Mom's middle name and mine). We've never agreed on the wrong name.

To turn things back around, I see that while my prayers for Ken at work weren't fulfilled the way I thought they should be but they were answered indeed. Maybe there will be another opportunity to go another day, another place. For now, I'm glad to be at home. Ken's brother & sister in law are expecting in September, my sister & brother in law are expecting in the end of October and we're due in early December. I prayed that my sister and I would be pregnant together so yet another answered prayer. What fun these cousins will have together!

The Cat & Pool Club

As we were driving around yesterday Coralee & Lincoln decided to form a "club". At first it was just the two of them but later she decided it was for all three of them. They were supposed to go on the front porch & read their Bible. That was too complicated since she'd have to read from three different Bibles. She had already picked out some recipes to try from her fairy cookbook earlier in the day. Ironically we read about how the March sisters had made a club in Little Women last night. She started making cookies without talking to me. Being her mother's daughter she didn't bother reading the instructions. We had a discussion about the importance of following directions while baking. She had used half the butter called for in the recipe because she didn't think we had any more. She was also using a wire whisk to mix everything together. I got more butter and put the dough in the mixer. All's well that ends well because they tasted really good. This is the plate she made for Mae since we were out shopping.

Pre-K Curriculum

Last year I was pretty much a slacker with Lincoln.  He would occasionally do work and then want to play.  Coralee would get mad that he wasn't working as hard as she was but I told her that when she was his age, she just played.  We didn't do anything formal.  Well, now we're officially pre-K age and the only year Coralee went to "school".  It's time to do something. 

Here are my simple goals for him:
1)  Write numbers
2)  Write letters - upper & lower case
3)  Read lots of books

I have tried to use Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.  Coralee absolutely hated it.  Still haven't figured that one out except maybe she knew what the sounds were and was miffed I thought she didn't.  Lincoln & Lauramae had fun with the poems last year.  I love the simple, classical approach but I really felt like he needed more.  I also liked the idea of being able to plug through an actual, factual consumable book.  So, in a moment of excitement at the 20% off sale at Mardel, I bought First Start Reading by Memoria Press.  I think it might be a little much for him in the beginning but I still have the rest of the alphabet sheets I'd printed from education.com last year.  I think we'll finish the rest of the alphabet (we ended on "N") and then move on to those books.  I showed them to him a few days ago and he got the excited giggle about writing and reading.  That did this Momma's heart good!  I'm also planning to buy more of the BOB books to use with him.

For Math, we'll be picking and choosing things out of Saxon K.  A wiser woman would just chunk the book, work on numbers and simple addition and be done with it.  But I bought that book and by golly, we're going to attempt to use it. 

He'll be in CC again this year.  I hope that he will be sweet to his tutor.  We were very blessed that he had Mrs. Cox who loved him in spite of his behavior.  As I've told him since he was a baby, it's a good thing he's cute!  Hopefully he has matured over the summer.  I'm still a little scarred from being in his classroom for VBS in Boston a few weeks ago.  But that's a blog post for another day.  :-)

2nd Grade Curriculum - Coralee

How can my baby girl be a 2nd grader already? 

Math - Saxon 3
Saxon is the one part of our curriculum that I've never felt the need to change.  I'm so looking forward to 5/4 next year because I taught it years ago and loved it.  I didn't feel like she was doing as well as I thought she should at the end of last year.  Perfectionist Momma translation.... she didn't make a 100 on every worksheet like she did with Saxon 1.  The benefit of Saxon is that the beginning of the year is all review.  The math facts I was concerned about are coming back around and I'm hoping a summer's worth of maturity and growth will get them in her brain.  I'm also hoping that fractions will click, too. 

Reading
We're starting the year by reading D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths.  We'll keep it simple and read the stories and do an art activity to go with them.  This will be all skate.... Lincoln & Lauramae will hopefully join us.  I plan on us making Zeus's family tree and then making cards with pictures of everything else from the book (etc. Midas, Heracles, etc.).  My general goal for her is to read lots of books and attempt book report type projects.  Again, I'm trying to make this fun for her and she loves to make things & be creative.  My only concern is comprehension and that will check the box for me.  I tried pre-made curriculum with questions & vocabulary words but so many of the questions were way above her level of understanding and they took so long that it took the fun out of reading a book. I would love for my kids to actually enjoy reading good books and what we were doing wasn't helping. I also want to make sure to read higher level books aloud to them.  Right now, I'm reading Little Women to Coralee and I'm not sure who's enjoying it more. 

Greek
She loved Songschool Latin last year so we bought Songschool Greek.  After slugging through some of Climbing Parnassus I decided that I would do Greek with her.  We had ordered two books because the cd was damaged (by my sweet baby girl) in one of them. I'm a little overwhelmed by actually trying to read Greek.  Sure I can recognize most of the letters but putting them together is altogether different.  She's already learned the alphabet.... woohoo, she's ready to join a sorority.

Spelling
We'll continue using Spelling Plus. We'll just do fun things to practice the words.  I found a lot of great ideas on Pinterest and they're already in her binder.  I also want to make sure that we use the dictation sentences that go with it this year. I pretty much stunk at using those last year.

Handwriting
New American Cursive Workbook 2 from Memoria Press
I had bought Cursive First last year and really didn't care for it that much.  This is a nice blend of instruction on how to make the letters, practice & room to write her own sentences, stories, etc.  I'm just hoping she's ready to move on like that!

English
This will be the first thing to go.  I bought a Bob Jones 2nd grade English workbook last year and we started on some of it.  I'm trying to trust that CC has it all taken care of in Essentials but the fact of the matter is this doesn't take much time or effort on my part.  That being said, it will be the first thing crossed off the to do list if we get overwhelmed.

Classical Conversations
This is truly my lifesaver.  Instead of having to pour hours into science & history (as well as the other subjects), I'm able to focus on quick glimpses there.  We'll try to add some projects to those two areas and will at least attempt to read some of Story of the World that coincides with our history sentences.  I'm so excited about the new CC timeline cards and new song to go with them.  Veritas was good but this seems to fit so much better with CC.  I'd love to have Coralee be a Memory Master again this year but I'm going to try my best to keep up with things better this year.  We'll plan to keep up with the memory work so it's truly in her brain instead of having to stuff it in later. 

Other goals
Poetry - Memorize 1 poem/month; use as handwriting practice

Memorize Romans 1:18-23 - I think it coincides well with our study of Ancient History in CC.  All of that points me back to Precept's Covenant study.

 

Homeschool Planning

I wrote this a couple of months ago but never got around to posting it....

We were blessed to have a week without the kiddos.  It was nice to be able to have uninterrupted conversation and get so much stuff around the house done.  One of our conversations was about school and planning.  I love planning.  It makes me happy but it also makes me very unhappy when things don't go as I had planned.  When I read what I had planned out for last year, it's a little frustrating to me because we missed the mark in so many ways.  A friend of mine told me that as long as they get through 1st grade without eating paste, we're really doing well.  I can check that box!  Yay! 

In all seriousness, we had a great discussion about how projects are planned at work and how to apply that to homeschooling.  "Manager" Ken had some great insight to planning our year.  He said that they start out planning which features they need in a product.  That's the macro version, big picture.  Then, they set up the smaller steps to accomplish that.  There's a monthly plan but also quick weekly status meetings so the monthly plan can change as needed when the inevitable problem or difficulty arises.  So, as I think through our school year, I'm trying to plan what we want to accomplish for the year but instead of trying to work out the entire year on a day to day basis, I'm going to plan the details in smaller chunks and try not to be frustrated when I don't get a checkmark for each subject each day.  As a classroom teacher, that didn't happen so I don't know why I expect it to be different in schooling my kids at home.

I love that our CC practicum is at the beginning of the summer.  I've had a little time without doing school work and I'm ready to think about the next school year.  One of the subjects addressed was a Classical Christian Education Made Approachable.  The speaker talked about how CC is meant to be simple.  The Foundations program needs a reading & math curriculum added and that's all.  As a homeschool Momma, I feel like I have to prove to everyone that we're doing "enough".  I think about all the things kids do in a regular classroom and I'm scared there are areas where we lack.  Then I have my kids recite the presidents and I feel better. ;-)  The thing is that a Classical Christian education is a different animal from the way I was educated and the way I was taught to teach.  So, this year I'm going to try to relax some and be confident in the choices we've made.  I'm going to try to add more fun things (thank you Pinterest) so we can all enjoy it more!  This Spring, Andrew Pudewa also came to speak and what he said about reading & writing really clicked.  Good writers are well read was the basic idea.  I wish I could say I've done everything he suggested but it gave us some good direction and confidence about keeping our reading curriculum simple.

The School Room

I've moved so much furniture around in that room it's not even funny. But, I'm happy to report that I think I'm the happiest I've been with the set up. We were able to get the trim up on the white board and I think it looks great! It isn't as perfectly organized as I'd like but since we have a couple of months until we start up again, I'm just going to be glad most of the junk is hidden!