We are moving right along this school year.  So far we haven’t had any long breaks, or major breakdowns! ha! )  Bailey is getting up every morning and starting his school and about 99% of the time, he does it without us asking.  That is a huge step for us.  We are struggling with helping Bailey remember his daily routine.  He’s doing better and his love for Time4Learning is helping.

Today, I had to be out of the house all day so Daddy got to stay home with the kids.  While I was fully expecting to come home and find the boys duct taped to wall with daddy wearing ear muffs in the corner, I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything I had asked them to do had been done.  Yay for me! )

Bailey not only did his school without being asked, he was able to tell me what he had done.  This may not seem like much to some, but for my Bailey, this is great improvement.  He told me that he did 2 language arts, 1 math, 1 science and 1 social studies.  I was surprised that he remembered that, and wasn’t sure that he would recollect what the lessons were about.  Again…pleasantly surprised.  He told me he did 3 digit addition today in math, told me about Alaska and Eskimos in social studies (he really enjoyed this subject the most today), and he told me he did the same thing in language arts as he did in science.  He couldn’t remember the word though.  Well, I thought that was a little strange, but when I logged in to check, sure enough he learned about inferencing in L.A. and inferences and predictions in science.  HA!

It was a good day for Bailey, and I just keep looking forward to what he’ll do and learn next. )

Well we have been busy and thing are still rocking and rolling with normal “stuff”……   We were gone all day Saturday and although it was not freezing, it was chilly.  The boys had a great morning with Kati’s kids at the park and then we flew almost 2 hours away to a Master’s Institute program that was a reenactment of the Oregon Trail.  It was an incredible day all around but the kids were outside all day from about 9-6pm and Q ended up a little bit under the weather.  He had been fighting the same cold that we all have had and the day out in chilly weather got him.  Sunday was a very quiet day for him and this morning he is still under the weather…. No big deal, the boys never get really sick and this will hopefully be our only sickness of any kind this winter!

With that being said I am bound and determine that they are going to stick with the schedule and they are going to not get out of school work for any reason other than loss of limb or the one day that we are actually traveling all day to go to Florida.  There will be no excuses, no begging, and no skipping of days this year for any reason.  So I was ready….  Armed and prepared.   They woke and did their normal routine for the most part, turned on water for hot cocoa (but I talked Q into hot green tea with honey for quicker healing), got breakfast, and got on the puter to play a game.

Enough time passed for them to finish breakfast and wake up and I told them to get started on school work.  They both signed on.  Of course, Z said: “Q’s sick so we should not have to” but that is as far as it went.

I know that I tend to gush…..  But hey…..  When you have something that is working it is fun to gush….

First off let me say WOOOHOOO to Z ( and mom) for completing the LA lessons!!!  That brings to mind a question about the LA section.  Are the extensions a part of the LA curriculum or are they just “extensions or extra practice” ?  ( Is that proper punctuation…the ” followed by the ? …  I think mom needs more grammar….aaahhhh) Also, has anyone come across the need for using the writing tool ?  I am wanting my children to do weekly writing assignments but have not seen where the writer is used?   

As you know we are new to homeschooling.  We have had the usual objections from parents…they are supporting but reluctantly. On Tuesday my son will go and take a academic assessment test given at our local university, ( the girls already took it last week during the appendix issue) ….so the girls will spend the morning with my mom.  Thanks again to T4L I will not have to worry about their school work.  Hopefully seeing how great this program is and how much fun the kids have with it my mom will be less reluctant…..   I will keep you posted!!

Hi everyone! ) I hope this finds everyone doing well. Our family is STILL coughing and sniffling, but I suppose with the weather changes in our area (warm, cold, warm, cold), that is to be expected.

I was wondering, with the holidays approaching (and approaching so fast…I just put away my Christmas decorations from last year, didn’t I?!?), what kind of schedule does everyone keep? Homeschoolers – do you take the same breaks as the school system in your area? What about the public schoolers – do your children do their supplemental T4L even though school is out?

In the past, when we used a different curriculum, we would literally take from Thanksgiving to New Years off. There was just too much to do between family visits and shopping, cub scout stuff and Christmas caroling at a nursing home with our homeschool group… and more shopping… ) Not to mention how intensive the preperations were for the other curriculum, it was just SO much. I am really looking forward to this Holiday season. Having Time4Learning in our lives, I don’t really see any schedule conflicts, which is such a relief. Not only do I not have to feel guilty about Bailey not doing any school work over the holidays, we won’t have to make up so much time during the summer. )

Also…I would LOVE some recommendations for some good Holiday (we celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we are interested in teaching about the other holidays that occur in this time of year as well) activity type lessons. The last couple of years, I just Googled information and printed some worksheets and stories. That worked out, but I noticed last year that a lot of the stuff I was finding we had already done, or it wasn’t age appropriate.

Thanks and I hope everyone is having a great week! )

I knew it would happen.  I predicted it back in August.  I said that Zachary would burn through any English that I threw at him.  Thankfully because of Time4Learning it came without pressures and without stress.  He set his own goals and this morning he read the line to me that he was so excited about “You have completed all the lessons in the second grade, please hit your back button and start in level three” or something like that.

Inside I was bursting with pride.  Scott is home today and asked what that means.  When I explained that he finished the second grade work in LA extensions  he said “Oh really?  Well that figures, should we start looking into colleges now?” and laughed.  We had a little celebratory family “dance” and Zachary in his nonchalant way about him said “Can I finish my school work now?”

YAY for us!  Now it is time to “push” the older one a bit more….  I was the older sibling to a younger one that surpassed me, the age difference between my brother and I and my two boys is about the same.  I hated when my little brother was  compared to me but I don’t know what to do about what is going to happen between my oldest and my youngest when that time comes.  Any suggestions would be great.  I know all the normal stuff, “everyone is different, everyone learns differently, etc etc…  blabla…”  What do you really say to an older sibling when the younger one is passing them by?  Of course then you have the little one trying to “pump up the older one” with comments like “Your really good at reading Q..”  Yea, I loved that when my brother would say something to me like that…….

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions you might have.