DAY 7

I purposely planned a short day for today; we finished by 11:30. I was hoping to get plugged into the homeschooling group at my church, and I thought they had open gym hours on Thursdays, but no one was there. It's possible we got there too early but I didn't want to wait around. We went to Kroger because I actually made out a grocery list for dinners and lunches next week! (As an aside, my new favorite website is www.ziplist.com, which makes it a breeze to make out a grocery list. It automatically catogorizes your items by section of the store. Love it!) I forgot how much I dislike shopping with the boys, but did use it as an opportunity to test Joel on some math facts in the produce section (if limes are 5 for $1, how much are they each?) I lucked out in that one of Jason's friends was there and the boys hung out with him for awhile leaving me in blissful silence. I also miss the freedom of being able to walk to my van without having to worry about the safety of two boys who aren't always paying attention.

Joel is VERY SELF-CONSCIOUS about being out and about during the day. I've tried to tell him that people that actually give a darn assume that either he is homeschooled or on year-round (and hello? there were a lot of kids out today shopping!). Still, on the way to Kroger he told me he was going to pretend to be sick. So he coughed a few times on purpose in the parking lot. Honestly I think most people would notice/ care more about me dragging a kid with TB around than someone missing school!!

Joel said something funny yesterday too which at first struck fear in my heart: "Mommy, do we have one of those signs that says 'Caution: Wet Floor'"? Turns out a bottle of rubbing alcohol had fallen in the laundry room and spilled a little. (It had been on top of the refrigerator...)

Also took the boys to Target and then to Borders to buy books as their consolation prize for not having any fun today. Joel picked out another bird book; he is obsessed with birds, especially vultures. (Have I mentioned his science curriculum includes birds :)) I swear, this homeschooling is going to suck up all my money and time. It's all worth it.

DAY 6

A full week down! I will let Jason blog today so it will be short!

Doing an experiment about the movement of atoms using boiling water, cold water and food coloring.

Teaching Joel about the Amazon Rain Forest

Logo for animation class

DAY 5 Planning, the Internet, and experiment

Last night I finally finished planning out the year. I'd already spent hours on it. Think of it: I know I want to get in 32 weeks of schooling between now and the end of our homeschool year. I have curriculum I want to follow with each boy for science, math, science, social studies, and grammar. I had to go through each of these and find out how much needs to be covered each week in order to finish up by June 10. Throw in novels, art electives, typing, Spanish, cursive writing, economics, spelling, and logic that also have to be worked in. My head hurts!!

Weekly schedules

I have decided at least for this year to largely follow the Wake County traditional calendar since J&J began that way and our neighbors are on this calendar. However, I prefer to take off an entire week at a time just to make it easier planning wise (since I don't have the mental capacity right now to break up my weekly plans). Thus, there will be 8 days we are in school that Wake County will have off. I hope this goes okay! What if all the kids are outside playing? Maybe I will have to move school to my parents' for some of those days. All the logistics are overwhelming challenging.

I have two favorite things from today: the Internet and our Apologia Science Curriculum (thanks to my sister-in-law Rene and niece Katy for filtering through the curriculum and arriving at a winner, saving me work, heartache, and time!!). Since we homeschool in the kitchen/ dining room area and keep the laptop on the kitchen desk, we can spontaneously look things up on the Internet and not even get off task for long. Today, Pangaea came up in Joel's curriculum. I was explaining how the continents nearly fit together like a puzzle. Jason was on a break so he immediately searched the Internet and found a website with a wonderful graphic of the continents put together as they once were. Also, Joel was to find a few interesting facts about one of the animals from the Ice Age and stumbled across a YouTube video from BBC that had an animated video of what the woolly mammoth, sloth, and saber-tooth tiger looked like and how they moved and hunted.


Pangaea




looking up Ice Age animals on You Tube

Jason got to do a science center experiment today on density. It was simple and I had everything he needed on hand!  Jason recording data in his notebook.

conducting the experiment

Final results of experiment involving layers of vegetable oil, water, and corn syrup. The rock he dropped in went all the way down to the bottom through all the layers, the grape tomato stayed on the second layer, the ice cube stayed on the third layer, and the small piece of cork stayed on the very top. Cool!

DAY 4



Joel putting together a US puzzle as part of his US Geography center. I am using the lids from plastic bins for the centers because they can easily be slid under the couch put away!  I am  trying not to have homeschooling materials take over the entire downstairs but am only somewhat succeeding.



FROM MOM: We will have a 2-hr. delay on Mondays and skip Reading/ Writing Workshop. Today is the first day the kids have had separate grammar and science lessons, and Joel also got to start his United States Geography center. I am making some progress. I still want to implement typing and Spanish, but not have the days be too long. I love how quiet the house is during homeschool!

Jason and Joel (below) are making little flip books using binder rings. They have their vocabulary words on one side and the definition on the other. Jason is writing in  his definitions; I typed up Joel's using a flashcard maker I found on Scholastic.com. This site has a ton of things to use, including lesson plans! Joel also needs practice using scissors so he cut his cards out as part of his work today.  The vocabulary words come from the novels they are studying (Jason: To Kill a Mockingbird, Joel: How to eat Fried Worms)

FROM JASON:

In science I just went over the beginnings of science. In social studies I reviewed landforms. Grammar had a pretest. In animation, I finished my model in LeoCad, which took about half an hour. Then I exported it in about five minutes. Then I had to import it onto Blender, which took about half an hour.

DAY 3

Our school T-shirts

From Mom: The boys finished early today, which hopefully may give me some time to get some planning in before Reading/ Writing Workshop (which is scheduled for after lunch). I found some great online resources to help Joel learn the states and their location. He learned the New England states today. The website even pronounces the state's name for him as he clicks on it so he can hear it said correctly. He also listened to a book on the states. So far, Math has been easy for both boys since it is still review. Next week, I will be adding in some things but hopefully morning work will be done by 1 at the latest, followed by an hour break for lunch/ chores, etc., then R/W Workshop and exercise (treadmill). This is the plan anyway!



Mommy/ Joel's art Lesson 2 Surface/ Foreshortening



DAY 2

Mommy's day: Still having to take this slowly because honestly I haven't had the time/ energy/ mental clarity to learn all I need to know about some parts of the curriculum to implement it. We are taking our lunch/ free time break now from 12 until 1, and then we will do reading/ writing workshop. The boys did well with using the Workbox System (by Sue Patrick). I spent a lot of money on the Math U See curriculum, but am glad I did because it includes a DVD where a competent person teaches them each lesson. The lessons are quick, they can use the math blocks that come with the system, and the instructor is male so they won't always be just listening to my (female) voice.



Math Center manipulatives



Joel doing his Math practice after watching lesson

The Social Studies book that Jason is using includes access to an online site where he can do charts/ graphic organizers online and then print them out. It even adds his name and date.

Jason reading from SS book



Printing out graphic organizer



Joel's Social Studies: file folder center on US map

  Jason spray painted a back drop to use in his animation video and then taught Joel a drawing lesson. Today had lots of good quiet work time (and lots of review) but I do think when they are doing all the subjects it will seem like a long day. I hope they adjust. I have a lot of work ahead of me.


FROM JASON: (not a man of many words.... yet)
Animation is not going so well. I have a computer animation program that is impossible to figure out even with how to videos explaining it. There is also a program that allows you to build legos with computer animation then export it to the above program. That will not work because every time I try to open it, it makes me download it. On a good note the other subjects are going well.

J&J Academy Day 1

This is mommy posting. We enjoyed a leisurely morning so the boys could have a little downtime. They were eager to get started. Joel was disheartened that he had to listen a lot today as I explained the procedures for using the Workbox system and Reading/ Writing Workshop. Once we got into generating a list of writing ideas (our "Writing Idea Bank")  he was a lot more excited. In Writing Workshop, Joel started a story about an evil gumball machine that is following an unsuspecting family. Jason began prewriting a story about demons and ninjas. He drew some of the things he will have to describe in the story. (Teaching note: drawing a picture is the best prewriting you can do for descriptive writing!) Apparently, the boys like a little violence with their writing. I journaled about the first day while they wrote. We put together a folder with a copious amount of writing topic ideas. There will never be an "I don't know what to write about" day!

Jason worked on some animation things while Joel learned about "foreshortening" in drawing (3D). Jason and I also discussed some of the topics he will be exposed to in To Kill a Mockingbird. We talked a little about the author, setting, and characters.

My new printer/ scanner arrived and Jason is almost done setting it up. All the math curriculum came in the mail today as well. I am overwhelmed by the sheer amount of books/ information. I need a teacher workday!