Pamela Faith

Here are my choices for our homeschooling curriculum this year:

• Math: Jump Into Math by Carson-Dellosa Publishing : I’m using 3rd and 4th grade levels. It may seem odd since my children are going into the 5th and 6th grade. In my opinion, math is math. It’s all about learning certain concepts. I mean, isn’t multiplication – multiplication no matter what grade your child is in? If this seems way to easy, then I’ll buy some more materials. I’m all about keeping it simple until they are ready to delve deeper.
• Spelling: Spelling Connections by Zaner-Bloser : I’m using 5th and 6th grade levels.
• Cursive: Handwriting by Zaner-Bloser : I’m using 5th and 6th grade levels.
• Grammar: Spelling Connections, Practice Book for Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics by Zaner-Bloser : I’m using 5th and 6th grade levels
• Literature : Wonder Stories by Remedia Publications
• Journal: All About Me, Revised Edition, A Keepsake Journal For Kids by Linda Kranz
• Social Studies: World History For Us All : A project of San Diego State University In collaboration with the National Center for History in the Schools (UCLA) A project of San Diego State UniversityIn collaboration with theNational Center for History in the Schools (UCLA)

• Science: 3rd Edition of Inquiry in Action : A project of the American Chemical Society Education Division Office of k-8 Science

Along with all the curriculum listed above, we will also be using various other things too. My kids have 2 extra multiplication/division fun workbooks to go along with their math. We will be visiting the library often and they will be given the opportunity to read at their leisure. I’ve debating back and forth about having my children read certain books, but that’s not real life. I love to read, but that’s only because I can choose what to read. I can’t help but feel like forcing someone to read outside of their interest will only develop a sour attitude toward reading, especially for those kids who rather not be reading a book at all.

I use the Wonder Stories for something fun to talk about. The stories are no longer than a few paragraphs (one sheet with 5 questions). It’s all about things you’ve always wondered about, but didn’t ever learn. It’s a way for me to check their reading comprehension and their ability to read aloud.

Our grammar books are very small, but I will use their journal and spelling to increase their grammar skills.  Last year we began a study of our states. This year I hope the kids learn and retain the knowledge of what all the states are and how to spell them correctly. On top of that we will try and learn their capitals. I’m very exciting about this, because we use this knowledge in our home business.

If I had to change anything with the books I’ve bought for homeschooling this year, I’d change the spelling and grammar books. I didn’t consider the books wouldn’t have come with an answer key and to buy the teacher’s edition will cost over $100. I could have bought and might still do it a cheaper book with the answers.

Well, school starts on Monday and I am so happy about it.  We have lost our routine during the summer. I tried getting up early, only to be aggravated by the baby crying for me to go back to bed. She’s really spoiled by me sleeping beside her. As I write tonight, she’s laying beside me on the couch asleep. I’ve had to stop a couple of times and hold her a minute.

I may get some flak for saying that I believe many more teachers should be fired than what was fired in Rhode Island. For the most part I try to avoid conversations about public schooling because I hate a particular ex-teacher and ex-assistant principal  I realize that not all teachers and schools are the same and don’t deserve to be bundled together.  Many people probably think homeschooling is lame, but sometimes the alternative is much worse.

Let me tell you about my last experience with a public school teacher.  We’ll call this school, Teacher Clique Academy, and the ex-teacher, Mrs. StuckonMyself. We’ll include the assistant principal at the time and call her, Mrs. KissTeachersButts. Unfortunately, I had submitted an article to the Gadsden Times about homework and sealed my fate with the school my children attended.  Apparently they do not teach freedom of speech, individuality, free thinking, personal opinions, or self expression. Duh. I only attended this school for a few months as a child and it was the worse school I’d ever attended and I’ve went to plenty of schools, sometimes more than 2 in a school year. My Sweetie attended 13 years and we were carrying on the torture tradition.

They have a high drop out rate in the high school and if you include the kids that leave to homeschool, it’s quite pathetic. In my opinion, some of the teachers there (not all of them) have a really stinky attitude.

Mrs. StuckonMyself gave me the speech one day about her credentials making her better than me when she assumed I’d dropped out high school and was white trailer trash. I may have a little white trailer trash in me (who cares), but she was wrong about my education. I actually graduated in the top 20 of my class with a grade average of 93. I was also in the Beta Club, got chosen to be in a college typing competition my senior year, got chosen to travel to Central America with the Spanish teacher (only 3 got picked), graduated with an advanced diploma, and was a teacher’s assistant several different grades at different schools.

I didn’t want to rub it in her face, because I don’t have to prove myself to her ego, but my family business filed over $200,000 last year.  Some Teachers don’t get paid enough that’s for sure, but for Mrs. StuckonMyself to think because she went to college to be a teacher makes her more successful than me is stupid.

Unlike her, I don’t shove my success at other people to look snooty. It was actually funny to me, which only pissed her off more. I guess she couldn’t understand why I’d laugh at what she thought was an insult. I’m happy with my little 1400 square foot home brewed dwelling that my Sweetie built with his own hands. At least now we have a paved drive way (yeah, I still get teary eyed over that) and an in-ground swimming pool that costs too much to maintain. We own 2 vehicles and paying on the third. Those of you who know me are laughing. Two of our vehicles are more like yard ornaments because to actually drive them require hauling gallons of water to refill the thingy on the front that overheats and the other needs its batteries recharged before every journey.

Anyways, the newspaper article caused quite a stir. It caused me to be banned from the school’s open house that year for fear that I’d cause other parents to rebel against authority. I find this interesting because apparently I was the only parent who had ever complained about the amount of homework their child had to do. If this was true, why were they so worried that I’d cause a revolution? Wouldn’t the other parents just look at me strangely and wonder why I had a problem with the beautiful idea of hours and hours of education being shoved down my kids throats during bedtime?

Like I said, this is a very touchy subject for me. Although, the whole mess was a “blessing” for my family in the long run. We are enjoying vasts amounts of free time to learn how to be free thinkers, individuals with opinions, exercising the right to freedom of speech, and self expression (thanks to Rock Band & Guitar Hero, Facebook Games). As soon as the weather warms up, my children will be enjoying recess and physical education in the pool, while her fat butt is plopped down somewhere in a school building making children hate school and parents wonder what they did so wrong to be looked down on by a crazy woman who thinks she is better than everyone else.

I will be skipping around some today, but I don’t think I can stay very focused and I’m tired of fighting it.

Today I was reading a blog “Because I Said So” and I have to wonder about the toaster settings too. Why do they make toasters with so many different levels of toasting. I doubt anyone has ever intentionally used the higher settings. Why not just have a light or dark setting?

I accomplished one of my New Year’s Resolutions. (#14 Make a friend on facebook or myspace with the same name as me) I’ve actually made friends with 2 people who have the same name as me. That’s pretty cool.

Homeschooling News:

• The kids and I discussed whether stores should charge .20¢ for every plastic or paper bag. I don’t know about you, but I reuse the plastic bags for my bathroom garbage cans. Most of them do end up in the garbage though. I use to collect every grocery bag until My Sweetie pointed out how ridiculous it was to do it. I think the desire to salvage every plastic bag came from always moving around as a child. We used a lot of bags.
• We learned that the Himalayas have a lot of undiscovered animals and plants.Click here to read the pdf of the Weekly Reader.
• Motormouth reads too softly and way too fast. Princess reads like a robot. Between the two, I had to take a nap today. I yawned the entire time they took turns reading the Weekly Reader magazines. I rather read silently and it’s hard for me to listen while someone reads aloud.
• I was reminded how difficult it is to teach Princess something new. She doesn’t like to be instructed. Motormouth claims to know everything, even when he doesn’t have a clue.
• Having a baby distracts me constantly. My 6 week old baby was smiling at me and it was hard to stay focused on our lessons. I found myself stopping and playing “Patty Cake” several times.

I had a couple of days that I felt rested this week. The feeling has since come and went. I don’t want to say that I wasted the time and energy that I had, but now I wonder if I should have used that time cleaning my house or planning meals so I can grocery shop more efficiently. Instead of doing the more adult things, I played outside and went visiting family. I enjoyed myself a lot. Between the uncomfortable last month of pregnancy, having the c-section & recovery, lack of sleep, and the freezing weather, I’ve been feeling a little bit of cabin fever.

Now I need some sleep. Perhaps I might just need some coffee. That’s never been my choice of drink, but I’ve been making a pot every morning this week, but now I’m out of creamer and it’s just not the same without it. I noticed the coffee seemed to have given me a little pep to my step when I drank it. I could really tell that I didn’t have some this morning. I am not sure if it was the headache or the inability to keep my eyelids open.

I had a very embarrassing moment lately. Last Friday (Jan. 15th) I got up early and went to my postpartum check up. I left all the kids, even the baby, with My Sweetie. I had a bottle of milk pumped and everything. Got to the doc right on time and signed in. The ladies at the desk called my name within just a few minutes. I went back up to the desk and the secretaries wanted to know why I was there. I told them it was for my postpartum checkup.

“You’re appointment is on the 18th.” The secretary informed me.

“I know, that’s why I’m here. Did someone forget to put it in the computer?” I began rummaging through my purse for the appointment card.

“Honey, Monday is the 18th.”

I stopped digging and looked up at them. “Are you serious?” At this point I looked around the waiting room and remembered that my doctors do not see patients on Fridays. I told the ladies (who get to sleep more than a couple of hours every night and probably have a calendar on their refrigerator and wouldn’t ever get their days mixed up) that I just figured the doctor made an exception for me and scheduled me on a Friday.

Anyways, I left the office and got in the elevator. I immediately called My Sweetie to inform him that he had dealt with the fussy baby for no reason and that we’d be doing it all over again on Monday. Let’s just say that I now have a calendar on my refrigerator and one hanging in my bedroom above my desk. All doctor appointments are marked on the calendar in red ink.

Sarah learns to patch up a quilt.

One afternoon Sarah was lying across my bed fingering one of the many holes in my quilt. Unfortunately my children love to do acrobats on my bed and my quilt takes a beating. She asked me why I didn’t fix the holes. It was like a light came on in my head. What better way for her to learn to sew. I got out my sewing kit and showed her how to get started. Believe it or not, it didn’t take us long to repair the many seams on the quilt.

She did a wonderful job and I can just about guarantee there won’t be any seams coming apart that we repaired.

Sometimes other people accuse me of starting a project and never finishing, but that’s not the way I see it. I seem to enjoy so many different activities that I dabble a little in all of it, all of the time. Every once in awhile I will complete a project in a short period of time, but during the process I can’t help but think about all the other fun stuff that I’m working on. I recently finished the small cross stitch project (the one I posted about), but I still have the big cross stitch pattern unfinished – the one I started probably 10 years ago.  Yes somebody could say that I started it and not finished it, but I don’t see me never finishing it. I will complete it one day.

I’m currently working on organizing my new floss on bobbins. I consider this pretty important, so I choose to work on it instead of the actual cross stitching. Who wants to dig through a plastic shopping bag for floss and hope the paper with the number hadn’t fallen off the floss? Not me. Yesterday I bought the plastic container to put them in and I’m a little sadden that I bought one that had too deep of pockets in it. I am not sure if I’ll take it back or make the best of it.

In our school room we have a very long table (8 foot). I have it covered with another project that I started recently. I am digitizing all of my photos. I am not sure if this was very wise considering my due date (for baby) is in 4 more days. However, it’s been going through my brain for a very long time and I figured if I didn’t get it started that I’d just keep putting it off. This will be a task that will take awhile and yet another project someone could say that I haven’t finished. I say – not yet, but I will.

Considering that my table in the school room is full with pictures and albums, I have moved all my recipe books onto a rolling cart that will slide easily under the table. I did have the books on one of our shelves, but I just can’t hardly get down there right now to get my books. I am working on digitizing my favorite recipes and maybe find some new ones. This is a project that I somewhat started a few months back and haven’t really gotten far with it. I would get my books out and laid on the table, then we would need the table and I’d put all the books back on the shelf. Lazy me, I just don’t like moving the books back and forth. That is the reason I put them on the rolling cart. I will eventually have all those great recipes on my computer.

As I was sitting at the library yesterday watching my daughter read a stack of 20-30 books in the children’s department, I was thinking that I needed to start a quilt for my new baby. I didn’t do a quilt for my older 2 kids until they were about 2 or 3 years old. The desire to quilt was very strong, but I did not drag out all of that stuff. I am really thinking that I have some photos and recipes to tackle first, considering they are taking up my working space in the school room. I will admit that I have a folding table in the living room right now covered with the floss organization stuff. I don’t think the family would want me to take up the kitchen table with my sewing machine and fabrics.

While I have these projects, I am still squeezing in time to read. I’m currently reading 2 books. One is completely for fun (historical romance) and the other is a book about homeschooling that I recently bought. I’m also having the time of my life writing for my blog. I have never been as consistent with writing nearly every day until I started this project. It’s been so wonderful and I look forward to it every day.

I guess its a good time to mention our homeschooling projects we are starting next week. I bought several different ornament kits from http://www.orientaltrading.com . Some we paint and others we assemble. It looks like these will be done at the kitchen table, considering it’s the only available space at the moment. We also need to get out all of our inflatable decorations for the front yard. This is a big task. I’ll have a picture of this within a couple of weeks hopefully. I don’t know if Baby will delay the decorations or not.

Sometime in the next few days I plan on making 4 cheesecake pies for Thanksgiving. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make much else. My feet and back give out very quickly right now and I have to sit down quite often. I don’t think anyone will mind. I’m not the best cook.

I have another project that I’ll be working on next month. It’s the midway point in our homeschooling year. This is the time I go through all of our lesson plans and tweak them a little. I also need to go through and clean out all the stuff we’ve finished so far. I need to completely catch up our grade books. The last month, I’ve not marked all their assignments completed, so I need to do that before we store these away.

So far as I can tell, these are the things that I am working on or will be soon.

1. Digitizing Photo Albums
2. Digitizing Recipes
3. Big Cross Stitch Project
4. Floss Organization
5. Contemplating a Quilt for Baby
6. Reading 2 books
7. Blogging
8. Christmas Ornaments
9. Christmas Outdoor Decorations
10. Homeschool Lesson Plans & Cleaning Out

I’m so happy that I have all these things to do. A busy bee doesn’t have anything on me.

www.highlights.com

I received an email from Highlights.com the other day. I felt the need to share some of the articles from a survey they did with kids. This is the first article that I’d like to mention.

But by far the most common complaints were related to schoolwork (23.4%).

Respondents said they struggled with completing homework on time, finishing projects

and/or studying for tests.

I can’t help but be reminded of my family’s struggle with the local school system about the amount of homework that they required of the younger children. After our local newspaper published an article I’d written about our frustrations, the school became agitated and in the end asked that I remove my kids from their school. Actually they said it was in my best interest to remove them. Here is a link to the article (http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20060913/NEWS/609130327) .

I didn’t have any idea that some of the teachers had any problems until I attended the Open House Meeting at the school and my son’s teacher met me at the door and said that I was not allowed in the classroom with the other parents. If I wanted to see what my child was doing, I would need to make an appointment. I went to the Open House to see my child’s progress and I didn’t even have plans to say anything about the homework. It wasn’t even on my mind.

Lucky for me, the school did my family a favor in the end. At the time that I wrote the article, I didn’t feel like I could possibly homeschool my children. When they didn’t give me a choice, I figured out real quick that I needed to learn all that I could about home education. Since then, I feel that I am very qualified to help my kids learn how to become independent successful adults who function very well in society.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have all the answers and I don’t suspect that I ever will. However, I have my children with me and I get to watch them grow up. I would have missed so much if they had stayed in the public school system (in this area). My kids would have missed so much if they hadn’t been brought home to learn. I feel like the world has opened up to my kids in a way I’d never thought possible.

At night in our house, we are not worried about finishing a homework assignment that’s meaningless. Instead we fill our evenings up with family time. If we want to play Rock Band for hours, we can. If we want to play a board game or cards, we can. If we want to read books of our choosing, we can. If we want to sit and eat our healthy suppers slowly, we can. No more running around trying to finish homework and get baths so that we can get up at the crack of dawn. It’s a lot slower paced and we love it.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking for the perfect grade book for homeschooling. Most of the time I stay wishy-washy whether to even have a grade book. My son doesn’t really care one way or the other, but my daughter thrives on seeing grades wrote down for her. The biggest problem with grades that my family has is that we work on lessons together. On the rare occasions when they do lessons on their own, I mark the wrong answers with a pencil and let them make corrections. The only lesson I grade without them being able to correct their mistakes is Spelling. So technically my grade book consists mostly of check marks. I give them a check when they complete the assignments for that day.

The grade books that I’ve found at the local book stores are set up for lots of students and multiple classrooms. I wanted something more customized. So I began with a 3 prong folder for each of my children. I found this website http://donnayoung.org. It had the best selection of grading materials that I’ve seen in my homeschooling experience. I printed out the following sheets – enough for 180 days of school (which I think are 6 copies per child).

Click The Picture Below to Visit http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/grade.htm

I don’t use the days of the week. We go by which day of 180 it is.

This year for spelling I decided that we wouldn’t use any spelling books. Of coarse I love the different varieties of spelling workbooks out there for homeschoolers. Last year I noticed the kids were frustrated over some of the activities and were beginning to get bored with the worksheets. So I researched word families and created my own spelling lists. Every week I have the kids look every word up in the dictionary and write a definition. On another day, I have them put the spelling words in alphabetical order. Every week I write the spelling words on index cards with their definitions on the back. The kids sometimes uses the flashcards to put the words in alphabetical order and the other times I have them write it down on paper.

I usually have them study together a couple times a week. They have  a test to see if they learned the spelling of the word and they also have a vocabulary test before we go to the next spelling list. I don’t separate their lists by grade either. They get the same words. Here is the vocabulary test that they took today. This week they each added 5 words of their own choosing.

I create the vocabulary tests every Friday right before they take the spelling test. I wish I’d had these all finished over this past summer, but I wasn’t sure how well it would go over with the kids. Now that I know this system works, this next summer I hope to have every test ready before school starts.

I have to remind myself when I consider what materials to use with the kids schooling that the work they write down on paper isn’t as important as the stuff they actually learn in their heads. I would love to have a mountain of worksheets, but they hate that. My kids would rather have discussions and hands on learning. So I try to keep the written work to a minimum. They seem to like school better than when they had to write every lesson down.

I’ve noticed that other homeschool bloggers like to post pictures of their school rooms. I wanted to include some pictures of our school room and tell how we have it organized.

Our school room

Currently I have my rocking chair in the school room. The office chairs hurt my back and I usually have the footstool in front of the rocking chair with my legs propped up. I’ll probably move this back into the living room once the baby is born.

On the table, I have my laptop which is connected to my fabulous printer/scanner combo. By the way, anyone looking to buy a printer or scanner (it’s also a fax), should consider this one. The ink lasts forever. If you want to buy one, check out Amazon.Com.  We actually bought ours from NewEgg.Com. We got it for nearly a third of the price that Amazon sells it for. I don’t think New Egg sells it right now, though.

You’ll also notice the pink and purple keyboard on the table. Sarah is currently learning how to play the piano. If you want your kids to learn how to play songs on the first day of practice, check this out PianoIsEasy.Com. I bought the books and stickers for the piano. You won’t regret the purchase.

Here’s what Sarah’s school desk looks like.

Sarah's School Desk

Here’s Andy’s school desk.

Andy's School Desk

On our bookshelves, we have a little bit of everything. One bookshelf contains school supplies: folders, plastic protective sheets, binders, notebook paper, 1 subject notebooks, manila folders (lapbooking), construction paper, wite-out, pencils, markers, crayons, paint, paintbrushes, & craft supplies. Then we have our Language, Math, Social Studies, Science, Cooking, Sewing, and our Self-Help section (computers, woodworking, website design, parenting, xbox game guides, biographies of successful people, relationships, and more).

The kids have a shelves for their books. I’ve got some of them separated in the boxes that ramen noodles come in. For example, I had a box full of Halloween books. I’ve got to move them back to the shelf and put Thanksgiving and Fall books in their place. Sarah has a box full of Junie B. Jones books and Adventures in Babysitting. Andy has the Animorphs, Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot, and The Magic Treehouse Collection. They’ve recently been interested in Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.

I have my section for my novels. I did have all of our books arranged alphabetically by author, but we ran out of room. I had to start stacking books the best way I could so we’d have room for more. We have a huge collection of board games. They use to be on top of the bookshelves, but I noticed the kids didn’t like climbing into chairs to get them down, so I moved them to the bottom shelves.

There is even a shelf for puzzles. I have jigsaw puzzles, books with puzzles in them, and the kids have the puzzle books from Highlights.Com. They’ve just about gotten too old for these books, but they also have Hidden Picture Books by Highlights. They have the older set.

We also have lots of cross stitching things, fabric for sewing, science experiment kits, and other goodies stacked on our shelves. I wish for a bigger room to have more space. Hopefully one day we can add onto our home and have a library, school room, and a craft room.