Finished up the first quarter

It took us a little longer than it probably should have...but we did it!! Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, the kids and me being sick, and me being incredibly exhausted....we did it. This week is spring break for the school district, so I can't return the stuff this week. Hopefully next week I can get the stuff returned and pick up the second quarter stuff.

The kids love doing the online work and they love the spelling. They also love reading the books. The English book is a huge struggle with them though. I hope the next quarter goes much better and much faster, but with the upcoming move, that might put a wrench in the works.

Spelling

My oldest two kids LOVE doing spelling! It's a far cry from when I was a child. I HATED spelling (and still do). Right now we are using the spelling program that the school district gave us. It is "Trophies-Spelling Practice Book- Grade 2" I think if we homeschool next year, I will get this spelling workbook for them. They do so well!!

Today Will did an entire weeks worth of Spelling work!! I didn't even ask him to take the spelling pretest, he asked me. then he proceded to do the 3 work sheet pages and I will give him the post test soon. He got 100% on the PRETEST!!!

Next year's list

So, apparently, I like to obsess about things. Once I have this all figured out, it won't be on my mind constantly. Here is the list of curriculum I need to get for next year. I am hoping to hit up any sales that these companies will have this spring. If not, I will get them hopefully at the homeschooling convention in July so that I don't have to pay for shipping.

1. Math-u-see Gamma for N & W
2. Math-u-see Primer for K & R
3. Switched on Schoolhouse 3rd grade (language arts, science, history)for N & W
4. McRuffy Handwriting for N, W, K & R

This is the tentative list that I am still working through and trying to decide what to get. I might have to look at them at the homeschooling convention.

1. Horizon or Lifepac reading for K & R..or maybe even McRuffy

After doing some research, I think I won't do McRuffy. The reveiws say it goes over things very slowly.

Mid year update and next year

N and W are almost done with Math u see Alpha! They are going to take the lesson 26 test tomorrow. I anticipate they should be done with it by the end of January or the first week in February. Thankfully I already have Beta ready to go!

Their doing ok in the school districts 2nd grade program. They struggle with all of the writing but they love reading the books, doing the online work and they even love the spelling! Yes, you heard that right, they like doing spelling! They learned how to spell appreciate this past 2 weeks and they love spelling it!

I work with K on some reading, but we aren't to serious about school yet. R always wants to do school too :)

For next year, I plan to use Math-u-see again. N and W should be on Gamma by the fall. I am not sure if I am going to have K start primer or alpha, but I know R REALLY wants to start doing it.

I am leaning toward Switched on Schoolhouse (SOS) for N and W next year. They would use the language arts, history, and science. It is a computer based program that they could basically do themselves. This will help me focus on the other kids schooling. My husband is a little hesitant on using SOS because of the religious content. We are Christian, but we don't want someone else teaching our kids incorrect principles.

Personal narrative

For the last week or so, N & W have been working on personal narrative stories. They did a lot of editing on their stories. It was a frustrating project for all of us. This is their first big writing assignment and they didn't understand what they were suppose to do. But, we got threw it and hopefully next time will be better. So, here they are....

N's (she loves dogs)

My family and I went on a walk to the Temple. On the way home we met a dog. His name was Luther. He was big and brown. He licked my hands. We then started walking home, but he started following us. His owner took him to the sidewalk across the street so that we could go home. I was excited to meet Luther.

W's (he loves anything that has to do with fighting)

We were playing in our room one morning and N. and I wanted different monsters. We pretended we had duel cards so we wouldn't get hurt because we wanted to fight. Nicole and I started fighting because we didn't have duel cards. We dueled with our fists and hit each other. We stopped because N. hurt me on the head.

Getting into a routine?

Well I have figured out it take us at least three hours to do everything that is on one day's lesson plan for the school district thing (which is only language arts). The kids really like writing in their journals and free reading. Tonight N & W had a work sheet to do and they did it together. It was great to see them helping each other.

K & R keep begging to do school. K is working on Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics until I can get something else. She is doing really well! She still gets her b's and d's mixed up...but then again so to N & W! Tonight R. was REALLY begging to do HOP K...so I gave it a shot. I was flipping through the letters asking her what letter they were and she was actually just giving me the sound they make!! We tried to blend words, but she isn't ready for that...but I was quite surprised to know that she knows the letter sounds! Thanks Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD!

3 full days in

This is our 3rd full day of doing the school district's program. It is going ok. N. and R. LOVE doing their journals. They do those first thing in the morning before breakfast. W. hasn't written much, so anything he writes is awesome. Especially since he has essential tremors, his writing may be a little sloppy. He will be getting plenty of writing done with this program. Yesterday we did everything on the list and it took a good 3 hours to do it all. The journal time takes longer than 20 min. and they read for more than 20 minutes usually. Plus, all of the writing they have to do takes them a LONG time and they don't even write in complete sentences most of the time (we are working on that). They have yet to read any of the books that we brought home, they really want to read them too.

Today K. even did some reading! She is reading some CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant)

R. LOVES doing school and begs to do it with the kids. I need to get her started on something. I am going to get K. and R. MUS primer next year because they really want to use the blocks that the other kids are using.

That brings me to Math-u-see for the older kids. N. & W. have been doing a whole chapter each day this week. Since we are reviewing 1st grade stuff, they already know this material. We are now officially 1/2 way through 1st grade math (Lesson 15/30 was finished today). The hardest chapter was #8. That was solving for the unknown word problems. W. still gets hung up on them. He understands how to do it when it is written out, but if he has to write the problem from reading the word problem he has problems.

N & W's placement

They are placed into 2nd grade 1st quarter. Although their reading is at a higher level, their grammar stuff isn't. They don't know when to use punctuation correctly and when to use capital letters. Also some of the harder to read words like -ough. I got the stuff from the district on Friday. Since I got two of everything there was A LOT!

I looked at the lesson today. Only 25% of it is online (30 min. out of 2 hrs). We will see how it goes. I was really excited to start.

3rd grade assessment and K. & R

N & W took the 3rd grade assessment yesterday. N. got 63% and W. got 42% (although he wasn't able to do one of the problems because he took a break and when we went back in to do it, it had disappeared). Their teacher emailed me back today and she doesn't want to put them in 3rd grade...even though they should technically be ok with starting at the beginning of 3rd grade. She wants to give them some more tests. She wants them to take the post chapter tests for 2nd grade (all of them) and see how they do with that to see where to put them. Although they did so well, I think they will just be put into the last chapter of 2nd grade, but we shall see.

On another note. K is turning 5 in about a week!! R turns 4 in the Spring. R begs to do school all of the time and K does sometimes. I have decided on what I am going to get K for Kindergarden. I am going to get her and R Math-u-see Primer for Math. I am going to get K Lifepac or Horizon from AlphaOmega. I am leaning toward Lifepac and using Hooked on Phonics with that if need be. Lifepac is a lot cheaper than Horizon, but I like the look of Horizon more. Horizon also has a preschool program too, so that would be perfect for R. We will see as time goes on. I am going to get them when AOP has their big sale on stuff in the Spring.

2nd grade assessment

Today N. & W. took the 2nd grade assessment.
N. got a 97%! She only missed 1 question that was matching the short vowel sounds in two words.
W. got a 93%! He missed 2 questions that were matching the short vowel sounds in two words.
Their online teacher is going to have them take the 3rd grade assessment. She said that there is a big difference in 2nd and 3rd grade vocabulary though. She wants to see how they do on that test and we will go from there. I know their writing is no where near 3rd grade level though.