2012-2013 Curriculum Choices

So, it's that time of year.  The time of year where Spawn is super excited to start homeschooling and I'm ready to run to the hills screaming in fear.

Well, maybe not.  Although, the thought has crossed my mind.

I'm having those thoughts that apparently every home school mom has at some point.  You know the ones.  I can't do this.  I must be crazy.  

Terrified.  At least I have a month left.

So since I'm working on the paperwork that my district needs, I figured I might as well lay it all out here, right?

So here's the plan for this year. 

Spawn is 9.5 years old and going into 4th grade but is working at a 3rd grade math and reading level, per our elementary school.

Math: Saxon Intermediate 3  

We started with this not long after he got out of school, very laid back about it.  We're a few lessons in and it seems that it works for him.  He's understanding concepts better now and he enjoys it, for the most part.

Reading:  Read Alouds/Reading for comprehension.  No real curriculum for this, going for fluency and learning techniques so he remembers what he reads.  We have a recommended reading list for 3-5th grade from the state, so we'll be working on books on that list.  

Spelling:  A Reason For Spelling C

Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting C or D

Grammar:  Easy Grammar

History/Geography:  Story of the World Vol. 1.  He wants to learn about the ancients and the founding fathers, so I'm not sure how that's going to work.  He's a bit over ambitious. :D

Science:  Still undecided.  Most likely Apologia.

Health:  Horizons 4th Grade Health Program

Art:  He's signed up for a 11 week program through a homeschooling group we are in, and then after that we will be using HomeArtStudio

Music:  He learned the recorder last year in school, so I think this year we'll be taking it to the piano.  We'll also study some composers and pieces that they have written.  We're going to rotate music and art throughout the year.

Physical Ed:  Our home school group has gym/park days, so we'll be making it to as many of them as we can, and he wants to sign up for flag football at the rec center.

I've also borrowed the idea of a calendar notebook.  He wants a morning meeting time with the calendar and all, so we're doing it big kid style.  It's got the usual date, weather, days in school, etc, but we also have journal prompts and a number of the day sheet.  Once I have it all set up, I'll post pictures and links.

I think that's everything.  Until we start using it all and change it up :D

Linking up to the Not Back to School Blog Hop!

The heat is on....

It's the first heat wave of the summer here in NY.  And it's H.O.T.

To top it off, Chunk got a cold that *almost* developed into pneumonia.  It was a rough weekend/beginning of the week...fevers of 101-103, lots of nebulizer treatments, antibiotics and our usual prednisone battle.  The boy can not STAND prednisone.  He won't just spit it out, he gags himself on it and makes himself sick. The last few times we went the shot route as opposed to battling him, but this time, we decided to try it.  I think we're going to stick with the shot.  Anyways, the worry was because his O2 sats were low...between 83-85.  But he's better.  Thank goodness.  I'm sleeping again instead of being up all night with a cranky baby.  And when Momma is happy, everyone is happy.

Thankfully Chunk started feeling better just as the tempratures started to climb so we pulled out his new water table the other night for him to play with.  We had no idea it was going to be such a hit with the big Goobers too!

This is the water table we have...it's pretty neat.  We also added in some of the water toys that Chunk got for his birthday from his buddy.

I'm not sure where it was bought from, but I found one here.  We keep the big boat in the bath tub, but let them take the other pieces to the water table.  The neat thing about the boat is that all the little pieces fit inside.  You lift off the top and store away!

The other hit from his birthday was this.

We still have the ball pit section and the tunnel, but the tent section got ripped at his party.  Not Happy.

He's happy though with the parts he has left...especially since he can throw the balls out and then yell when he runs out to have someone to toss them back in for him.

Sweet Nut turned 7 too this month.  And his "bestest" present by far was this

And Cute Boy-who helped us pick out presents also chose this and this for him.

I'm excited, because, well, it is a neat game.  But mostly, because I can do this with Cute Boy...and Sweet Nut too!  

I'm all for things they they DON'T think are educational, but really are.  And I love that when they are playing it together, the game kind of MAKES them work together.  The goobers are very competitive and they are slowly getting that teamwork can be fun too.

Tot School too!

So Chunk turned one this month.  I'm still not sure where the time goes, but I've finally had to accept that he's one.  He's not walking yet, but he's getting brave enough to let go when he's standing up, so I guess it's coming soon.

He started last month going to the daycare that Cute Boy goes to, but he's only going one day a week.  He wasn't too sure about it at first, but now he has a bit of a cry right when I leave-but that's quickly solved because he gets dropped off at breakfast.

Spawn's math books came a couple of weeks ago and he's been begging me to start them, so we did.  We're not full force in them, because he still has a week of "school" left...if you can count field day today and 3 half days next week.  Usually, Chef will take the middle goobers out to play while Spawn works and it's just me and Baby Chunk inside with him.

I've been toying with the idea of Tot School for Chunk for a few weeks.  The plan is to have some safe "educational" things he can do while Spawn works as well.  I didn't plan on starting for a few months yet-you know, I'm still in denial that my baby boy is 1.  But we decided last night to go for it.  Accidentally.

I had stopped off after getting Cute Boy from school at the grocery store.  And of course, he asked for candy.  But he asked for his brothers too, so I couldn't really say no...that and they were on sale.  He picked Mini M&Ms for them.  Spawn inhaled them and left the tube on the table...so I started playing with Chunk, putting his puffs in there and he'd pour them out.  Then I decided to see if he would put them in and he did!

So I went digging in our "homeschool box" (which is a box of stuff we bought to do Cute Boy's homeshcool Prek before we started at this daycare he's at) and pulled out some pom poms.  Tossed a bunch on his tray and a few more into a cup...and it kept him occupied for about 15 minutes-putting them into the tube, taking them out, putting them into the cup...

Of course there were a few times that he tried to taste test them, so please don't do this with your tot if you can't be watching them.

And here's a shot of Spawn working on some math while the Tot School was having fun.

So, we're adding Tot School to the mix.  I've got a few other ideas that he can do with things we have around the house...I encourage you, if you have a tot, think about it.  It's really nothing that you aren't doing already.  We teach them new things all day long.  

If you are interested in learning more about Tot School or seeing what other Tots are up to, check out 1+1+1=1.  Carisa's son is the one who coined the phrase Tot School for his little brother and she ahs a weekly link up where other Tot Schooler's post what there tot is up too.  I've been reading her blog for awhile for things with the older boys and I'm excited about starting Tot School with Chunk.  The nice thing about her link up, is that the Tot's age is listed right in the links, so you don't have to sift through all of them to find what other tots the same age as your tot are up too, although I have been to get ideas for when he's older.  We'll also be doing her Summer Challenge with the Big Goobers once school gets out, so look for a post coming on that as well!

And so it begins...

The beginning of the end.  Of Spawn's public school experience for now anyways.

It's officially official.  Spawn will become a homeschooler as of July 1st 2012.  The decision has been a long one coming, and we think, that at least for now, this is our best option.

Spawn was diagnosed with ADHD Mixed Type at the end of the school year last year. It had been coming (and I knew it) but to get the official diagnosis was a bit scary.

This year was even more of a struggle.  The psychologist had warned us of this though-that the harder things got in school, the harder we would have to work.  And just as we decided to maybe start looking into medications to help, we were thrown another curve ball.

See, poor Spawn has quite the beginning of summer last year.  June we got the ADHD diagnosis, and then in July he got an asthma diagnosis.  Which led to inhalers and monthly doctor visits to do lung function tests.  The dr switched his inhaler, upped the inhaler all to no avail.  He was still scoring high 70s on his lung function test most of the time.  So he sent us to a specialist.  In the last month, Spawn has had allergy testing, had his adenoids checked by an ENT and done a course of prednisone, nasonex and antibiotics all trying to piece together the puzzle that makes it hard to be him.

The current thought is that he has asthma, but there was so much swelling that wasn't treated originally that the daily inhaler is just like putting a band aid on it.  He's been a bit better since the round of prednisone-which was meant to knock out the swelling so the inhaler can work.  And that there's something going on in his sinuses that is making him have constant post nasal drip, as well as issues sleeping.

Right now, he's on a round of antibiotics to see if it helps with the postnasal drip, and we go back in 2 weeks for a check up.  But they don't want to do anything medically with his ADHD until everything else is figured out, because it's causing sleeping problems, and that could be making his ADHD worse.

That and based on his last teacher conference we had-he's reading at a level that he should have been at in September.  He's a full grade level behind in math.  But the school only pulls him for remedial reading.  He was in an extended day program for a few months, but that ended once they had their state tests.  But there are "kids that are farther behind than he is and they are all fine to go on to 4th grade".  Seriously?  My kid is working where he should have been a year ago, and it's ok to push him another year ahead?

So, Chef and I talked it over.  And we decided it was worth trying.  If all else fails we send him back.  It took awhile to convince my ex, but he is on board with it now as well.

So, I'm in the planning process.  The plan is right now that Spawn will do 4th grade at home.  Sweet Nut will go into 2nd grade at the public school at his request-he's ahead of where he should be, so I'm not worried about him.  Cute Boy will start Kindergarten at school in the fall, but based on talking to one teacher at his screening, we might be pulling him too.  I knew he has issues with his letters.  But she comes out saying they are recommending my bilingual, but primarily English speaking son for ESL because he tested borderline on whatever their test is for that.  I can guarantee though that is he didn't look Hispanic and have a Hispanic last name they would have never tested him for ESL.  I know based on some of her comments that they ASSumed things based on his color and last name.  Never mind that the kid is terribly shy and doesn't do well in new situations.  I've talked to the K teacher the big goobers had and she said that she's going to try and get him in her class and recommend him for the extended day program-which her her and my opinions (and his prek teachers) is what he needs-NOT ESL.

Anyways, where was I?  Oh, our plan for next year.  Baby Goober will take Cute Boy's slot 2 days a week at daycare/prek.  He already goes once a week and does pretty good, so I'm looking forward to him going more.  And we love it there, so that's a plus.

I'll post more about our curriculum choices soon.  We're going the classical route, so I'm just nailing down a few more decisions and then it's on to purchasing.

Hang on folks...it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Why hullo there.

I know, I've been neglectful.

We've been busy here.  School, work and battling germs.  You know the usual things in a family with 4 goobers.

On with the updating!

Spawn:  We're still dealing with problems in school.  Our ped wants the school to evaluate him to see if meds would help.  His teacher thinks he's doing ok without them.  Although we have been getting notes home about behavior.  He's doing better, but is still just below where he should be.  Chef and I have been talking, as well as some conversations with Spawn, we're going to be pulling him after he finishes 3rd grade this year to homeschool.  We're in the process of going through different materials and figuring out what will work best for us.

Otherwise, he is doing pretty good.  He loves helping with Baby Goober and often disappears to hide and read...he says as long as he hides that his brothers can't find him and make him read to them.  He does love to read to them, but I get needing some time to read alone.

Healthwise, we had another long function test a few weeks ago.  The last one, they upped his inhaler to 2 puffs 2x a day.  While his lung finction isn't perfect, he did the best on the test that he's ever done since we started back in July.  They're keeping him on the same regimin for now, and he goes back in March for another check.

Sweet Nut:  Loves first grade.  He finished all 120 sight words before Christmas and is working on the second list now.  He moved up in reading again, I'm not sure where he is because by the time I figure it out, he's moved up again, LOL.  He has a love/hate relationship with Math.  Depends on the day.  And he's loving spelling.  I'm not sure where we got this kid!

Healthwise, he's been the healthiest of the bunch.  He's taken it upon himself to watch what he eats...he's been watching me.  He's been picking fruits and veggies over other snacks and drinks a TON of water.

Cute Boy:  Loves his prek.  I love that it's not as harsh as the one Sweet Nut went to.  It's a daycare run in a private home, but she has it scheduled day like a prek.  He's looking forward to turning 5 in less than 2 weeks.

Healthwise, he's been pretty good...a bit of a fever ad cold a few weeks ago that knocked him down for a bit, but nothing major.

Baby Goober:  Is almost 9 months old...and I'm wondering where the time went!  He's thisclose to crawling, although he's got the army crawl down, and he's pretty fast.  He's got 4 teeth now, and he's loving food.  And he's got the Mama down when he feels he needs attention or something isn't going his way.

Healthwise, he's been battling a cold.  Even with that though, the last time we were at the doctors he said that Baby Goober's lungs sound better than they have in months!  Yay!  He's still on the nebulizer 2x a day for his pulmicort with albuterol as he needs it, and we haven't used any albuterol in over a month!  Yay!

As for me, thigns have been ok.  I've moved up at work to marketing director.  It's perfect because I'm dealig with graphics which I love, and I can do it from the office or from home.  It's played a big part in our decision to homeschool Spawn.

We're also heading back to Catholicism.  It's been a big decision for me, but it's the right one.  So right now, I'm in the process of getting some things ready to teach the boys about Lent.

Anyways, that's what's been going on here...I'll be posting some of the Lenten projects we do hopefully really soon.

And so the schooling begins.

We're officially in schooling mode over at the Goober House.  Sweet Nut and Cute Boy LOVE learning, so it's been pretty easy so far.

Spawn finished school yesterday, and he was asking for things to work on during the little boys "schooltime".  Chef was working on him with some math review, since it seems like Math is not going to be one of his strong areas.

We hit Target the other day, and scored in the dollar bin area.  We got 2 packages of small foam shapes that we're using for math manipulatives.  They had a ton of workbooks so we got some of those.  They had some weather stuff that we picked up, as well as some small whiteboards.  We ended up picking up a 3 drawer plastic cart that we can use to store school stuff.

So here's the plan this summer:

Spawn:

Math-work on reviewing math concepts learned during 1st grade, review telling time and counting money

Reading-he as a summer reading assignment that we'll be using for this.  He's going to be reading 20-30 minutes for his reading log, and then once a week he'll chose one book he read to use for his Story Quilt piece for school.  It's like a basic book report.

Writing- He'll be doing copywork once a day.  We're going to be working on spacing and neatness.

Sweet Nut:

Letters-We're working on letter recognition.  He wants to work on a different letter each day, but we're trying to slow it down a little bit :D.  We work on writing the letter, practice the sound the letter makes, and try and find things when we're out and about that start with that letter.  We're also making a letter wall using Sesame Street coloring sheets from sproutonline.com.

Numbers-He can recognize all his numbers now and can count to 20, so we're working on writing them and counting items using manipulatives.  We're also working on patterns.  We count when we're out and about, and he's also doing Sesame Street coloring pages from Sprout that we'll hang up.

Colors-We've been playing with color, seeing what happens when you mix colors etc.

Shapes-We've been practicing drawing shapes and finding shapes when we're out.

Writing-we're working on writing trying to get our letters facing the right directions.  We're also starting with some basic sight words.

It seems like a ton, but he's doing some here and there.  We basically write out on his white board what we're working on and he can go to his school drawer any time and pull out the work.

Cute Boy:

Letters-we're working on singing our ABC's.  He's almost had it for awhile, so we're trying to get ALL the letters in there.  He also copies whatever Sweet Nut is doing.  He also has the Sesame Coloring pages.

Numbers-He can count to ten, so we're just working on finding things to count.  He's also been playing with patterns.

Colors/Shapes-  we're working on recognition.

Writing-we're working on some basic writing skills-drawing lines, curves etc.

All 3 boys want to learn more about the world around them and are always asking questions, so we let them pick topics they wanted to learn about.  We'll basically stick with a topic for a week, learning about it.  For the next 3 weeks, we'll be learning about water, trees and cows.  Where they come from, how they benefit us, etc.

June Blogging Challenge...

So I decided bravely to enter a blog challenge.  It's a pretty simple one.  Just to blog every day in June.  Head on over to Peanuts are EVIL if you want to join in!

So I know...I'm writing this at the last minute, coming in under the wire, and it'll probably be after midnight when this posts...but I tried, so I get points for that right?  LOL.

I'm still adjusting to being home during the day.  I haven't been home during the day normally for a LOOONG time.  But I'm enjoying it!

We jumped into homeschooling for preschool for Sweet Nut and Cute Boy today with both feet.  We kind of played around with it last week, but today we hunkered down and got some learnin' done.

The big goobers were gone all day (one with Dad, one at school) and so that left me and Cute Boy all alone.  We watched some dark clouds roll in, watched the rain and talked a little bit about how the rain gets in the clouds.  We also talked about trees and how they drink the rain and they make air for us to breathe and they make good homes for birds.  I was pleasantly surprised because he REMEMBERED it and when we picked up Chef at work, the Chef quizzed him (I hinted about our day) and he remembered most of what we talked about!  I guess at 3 I shouldn't be surprised, but I was.

After dinner we worked on our letter for this week which is B.  Sweet Nut did a word search left over from the letter A, and then did some B writing practice and a B word search.  We're making an ice cream cone to help us remember our colors that we're going to put on the wall so he worked hard on cutting that out (with some help from Spawn.)  Cute Boy got the Chef in on the action.  They worked on a B coloring sheet and attempted to trace some B's, and then Chef worked with him on cutting.  He holds the scissors weird (which we're trying to correct) but he cuts pretty well for a goober.

I decided tonight to make a box for Sweet Nut with some letter and writing worksheets in there.  He really likes doing them, and this way he can grab one if he wants to do it outside of school time and do it if he'd like.  He loved the idea, so we'll see how that goes.

We're also working on a letter train to put on our wall.  The Goobers love trains, so this is a very fun project for them.

Anyways, I'm off to bed, night y'all!

So it's been an interesting May.

Let's see.

We found out at the beginning of the month that I was pregnant.  Unfortunately, we lost the baby last week.  We go for a follow up appointment next week, and then we'll see what happens from there.

Spawn has been getting into fights on the school bus with some 4th graders.  So he has been avoiding the bus, not that I blame him.

Sweet Nut went for his kindergarten screening and did really good on everything but letter recognition.

They've all been enjoying the weather we've been having and spending ALOT of time outside.

In other news, we're still debating whether or not to homeschool.  The ex wants Spawn to continue with public school, but with the problems he's having, between kids in his grade, older kids, not paying attention in class, having problems getting concepts down, it's a struggle.  He doesn't get it, because he doesn't see it.  I agreed to let him go until December.  If we're still having issues, we're pulling him out and starting to homeschool.  I need to do what's best for my child, and maybe public school isn't it.

Sweet Nut will also be starting public school in September (tentatively).

Cute Boy will be starting preschool at home this year.  We've done alot of thinking and praying about it, and he's just not the type of kid that I can drop off with strangers and walk away.  He'll be a mess, and we want him to like school, not be scared of it.  He really doesn't do well in new situations, but even in them, he's always at least had one of his brothers.

We actually started with a Letter of the Week program for both little goobers yesterday.  Sweet Nut is more interested in it than Cute Boy, but he'll color and read as well.  We're kind of using the internet and combining different books, projects and worksheets from different sources right now for them.

We're looking into different curriculums for the boys.  So far my favorite seems to be Sonlight.  The Core program interests me because Spawn and Sweet Nut can be doing some of the things together (history etc) and other things like reading and math they do seperate.  It's not a Catholic program, but it does use the Bible for lessons, and I've talked to people that have made it work for Catholic families.  I also like that it's literary based, and uses alot of "classic" books to teach.

We're not set on Sonlight yet, and are still looking at others to see if there's something that would be a better fit for our family.

Any one have any suggestions??

So, it's been awhile...

And we've been busy...

I was knocked down by headaches/migranes this week.  Spent quite a bit of time at my neurologists and the eye doctor.  They believe that part of my headaches are from eye muscle strain.  I need to save up some money to get the glasses they want me to have since they don't accept my insurance for lenses.

I've also had alot weighing on my mind.  Spawn has been having issues with school for awhile now.  First grade has been more difficult socially than kindergarten was.  This past week we had some major problems with other kids, and we've been looking at our options for educating our boys.  At 7, you should love school, and right now Spawn is hating school.

We're exploring the option to homeschool right now, and talking to others to see if this could be the right choice for our boys.  We're looking into different curriculum and the regulations here in NY.  So any computer time I've had has gone to homeschool research.  It's not a foreign concept to us, Spawn has been working on his religion education work at home, and Sweet Nut has been working on prek concepts since January.  We have been praying about it and discussing it to see if this is something we want to go after full time.  Our other option would be running us almost $10K next year if we pull out of the elementary school (which we're 90% sure we're doing) and then even more than that when Cute Boy enters school.

In good news, though, we have had the excitement of watching a bird's nest.  We had a mommy and daddy bird build a nest on our porch.  We've been extra cautious to avoid our front door as much as we can and been using the back.  We've been watching out our front door and seeing them build the nest, and the daddy bird bringing bugs to mommy bird to eat.  The boys have watched Mommy Bird fly to either the tree near their room or the electric wire if someone spooks her, close enough to keep an eye on her eggs.  Sweet Nut was saying earlier this week that the baby birds hatched, and we all thought he was crazy since noone else saw or heard them, but yesterday both mommy and daddy bird were at the nest and we saw at least 2 baby birds!  The littles were sooo excited!  I'm going to try and get some pictures when Cute Boy goes down for a nap today.

Never a dull moment in the Goober house.