The Summer of the Viruses

Our school plan for the summer was totally upended by several viruses. First some of us were ravaged by rotovirus--especially Morgan. She was down for almost 3 weeks. That was really scary. Next it was H1N1--commonly known as The Swine Flu. I began our mini epidemic with 2 weeks of really scary stuff. We were successful in containing it to me until I sent the fam to church on the 3rd Sunday and Hunter and Morgan picked it up there. They came down with it 3 days later--the very day the 3 older kids went to camp--confined on a bus with a couple sick kids. Nearly everyone on that bus was sick 2-3 days later. So ensued another 2 weeks of sickies--now it was me caring for them instead of them caring for me.

But now, finally, the viral siege that began on June 19th with Rotovirus and July 10th with H1N1 is over. That's 10 weeks--just gone. On the bright side, we are now (hopefully!) immune to H1N1! Praying that a solid Autumn, Winter and Spring of school will commence.

We have been doing a purge/deep clean of the house interrupted by much water removal for the many-pronged leaking problem over the last couple weeks. I'm taking one more week to try to grab the reins of domesticity and thennnnnnnn (drumroll)

We will start school on September 7th--A Monday!

I actually think the break was good--Hunter and Morgan are begging for school. Morgan has been dragging around a math workbook I bought at Target's $ aisle. Hunter is reading simple words. Amanda's starting to think about it again. Sydney and Shelby aren't exhibiting excitement about school (they're 13 & 14--What do you expect?) but they're not whining about it, either.

Upcoming: Outlining the Plan for this year.

Ok, I totally forgot about this blog!  We've been learning, I just haven't been documenting very well.

So...I'm going to add it to the routine I'm trying to implement around here.

I will say I've been trying to focus on writing this summer (we school through the summer--too hot to do much else anyway).  Oldest is writing a research paper on the Evolution and Art of Photography since she's obsessed with cameras right now.  Middle two are writing about Slavery in America.  Littles are just practicing writing but we may get a story out of dd4 if we beg and plead.  :-D

I'm still deciding whether or not to do Sonlight Core 4 in its entirety or finish out the last half of Core 3+4.  I'd love to do the whole core but we need to move on from American History and finish the last half of Core 5.  I hate the way I'm jumping around but with 5 to school, it's gotten a little more complicated and I find I can handle only one time period at a time.  So everyone did American History since oldest dd needed American History on her transcript. 

That reminds me:  I really need to make a new long-range plan for my middles.  I think the old one is quite out of date.  DD13 is heading into high school soon and really needs a new plan!

So, the plan for today is to read more of The Journeyman and Bible.  

Have dd8 read to me and help her with her ETC and Math.  

Ds6 will do math and work on his reading, too.

DD12--help her with her Winston Grammar, check her math and talk to her about catching up in The Story of the USA workbook and her reader.

DD13--Go over math (since we found the teacher key, finally!)  Look at her Winston Grammar Adv and see where she is in her reader .

Talk to middles about their research papers and set deadlines.

DD17--Touch base on where she is in her work and help her with her math.  Assign deadlines for her paper.  

I've pulled everything off my school shelves and am trying to sort through.  I need (a lot!) more room for books!!!!  :0)

Tuesday, 1/20/09

Inauguration Day!

While we were cleaning up in anticipation of cousins coming over to watch the Inauguration with us, Jerry and I had a discussion with Amanda about career planning.  It seemed to be very productive and we worked through some of her options, including the option of transferring to an umbrella school for the rest of this year and taking another year of high school next year.

We watched the inauguration all the way through, commenting about Rick Warren's prayer, the oaf  (LOL) and  President Obama's speech.  It was interesting.

That was pretty much school for the day.

Oh, I saw Amanda working on photography.  I need to remind her to log her hours there.  And get her a Photoshop book so she can learn to use the full program, not just Elements.

Monday, 1/19/09

Yay for me, I remembered it was 2009!  Considering how foggy my brain has been lately, I think that's worth kudos today.  :-D

Monday, we did some regular school, Math, etc.  But here are some special things we did:

Amanda:  We mapped out what she needs to get done to qualify for the Bright Futures scholarship here in FL.  It's a lot.  In her words:  "I could have gotten it done sooner but didn't choose to."  Yeah.  sigh.  But, now we're here and we're working on trying to get her another year of high school since she's young for her grade.  It might cost me an arm and a leg, though!

The rest of us read aloud If You Lived in the Time of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Very interesting.  Amanda insisted on listening, too.  They commented that they didn't know that black people were so discriminated against or that segregation was so pervasive.  (Well, not in those words, LOL)  They had a little discussion about it.

Then Sydney and Shelby watched Johnny Tremain for their American history.  

Shelby went to ballet.

Remembering

I'm finding it increasingly hard to remember things.  It could be the lack of proper nutrients to my brain (if only I could remember to take my vitamins!) or the sheer volume of things I need to remember or the looming 4-0 number that does it.  Regardless, I don't remember everything I need to remember.

So, this blog is to remember these fleeting days of facilitating this beginning stage of my offspring's lifelong process of learning.  I'd forget, I'm sure.

Some of it will be boring (Morgan read 4 pages of I Can Read It, 2--Yawn!).  Some of it may be exciting--like all the dead things preserved in glycerin we've all been eager for Amanda to dissect!  Yeehaw!  Or mummifying a chicken--which I'm sure is the pinnacle of homeschooling!  Maybe we'll do it on our next sojourn through Egyptian history.

This is our 11th year homeschooling.  We use Sonlight  Curriculum, and have for 8 years now.   We absolutely love it and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.  (And I've looked around.)   We've used Math-u-See math curriculum for about 5 years, I believe and it's been wonderful for us, too.

So, welcome to our homeschooling journey--we're glad to have you along!