Family Scripture Study: 2 Nephi 2
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 12:34
Theology: 1st chapter from Gospel Principles
Literature: We read The Taming of the Shrew from Usborne's Tales of Shakespeare. The comment was made, "I love Shakespeare" by my 10 year old.
Geometry: Circles and vocabulary words
Read-a-loud: We started and read 2 chapters from Alex Rider: Stormbreaker.
Animal Care/Chores
Caleb: Read his scriptures, spelling practice, played BLINK, played with some geometry solids, read a book about Egypt, played a geography game, learned about toucans and woodpeckers, and wrote a blog post about it.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, read about ancient Egypt, spelling words, spelling rules, and read The Ranger's Apprentice.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, played 15 min of Wii Boxing, played chess, spelling, played Music Ace, read Peter and the Shadow Thieves, and played with Lego's.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, went to scholar school and read in Pride and Prejudice.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, and went to the temple.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, went to work, finished The Ranger's Apprentice, and went to the temple.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Geometry
Family Scripture Study: 2 Nephi 1
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 10:34
Greek/Read-A-Loud: We read several chapters in Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief and finished it.
Greek/Movie: We watched Hercules (Disney) together and we pointed out all the Gods and situations we recognized. I'm not a huge fan of cartoons and my kids rarely get to watch them. So this was a treat!
Math: We received our new Lakeshore Geometry Activity Kit Grades 4-6 in the mail today. It is very cool. We talked about all sorts of Geometry concepts. They have very neat manipulates. We worked especially on graphing with positive and negative numbers. The kids are still playing with the kit right now. Here's the link, it says it's discontinued, but at least you can get an idea of what it is. Maybe you can find it on ebay.
Spelling: I quizzed the boys on spelling words from the book Dr. Fry's 1000 Instant Words: The Most Common Words for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling by Edward Fry, Ph.D. They wrote their answers down on wipe boards and then revealed their answers. They thought it was fun.
Club: We had cub scout pack meeting tonight. Jared earned some more awards.
PE: Playing in the snow and fort building.
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, learned about sharks, wrote a blog post about sharks, and 30 min of Wii Sports.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, spent a lot of time working on his creative writing story, did some silent reading in various books, and played Wii sports for 30 min.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, and made a skills list for cooking. Did a dictionary search and located the words coconut, hydrogen, Neptune, rain forest and coat of arms. These were just random words I picked and then he told me about them. We added some dates to our times line, worked on scout requirements, did 30 min of Wii fit, and listened to a book on tape for a reward. He has misplaced his chapter book and so didn't read it today.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, wrote in her journal, practiced the piano, worked on math skills, and read in Pride and Prejudice.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, practiced the piano, worked on cub scout things, played ping pong and reread Prometheus Bound for my mentor meeting this weekend.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbook, did cub scout things (Unit Commissioner), listening to Ranger's Apprentice, played ping pong, and went to work.
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 10:34
Greek/Read-A-Loud: We read several chapters in Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief and finished it.
Greek/Movie: We watched Hercules (Disney) together and we pointed out all the Gods and situations we recognized. I'm not a huge fan of cartoons and my kids rarely get to watch them. So this was a treat!
Math: We received our new Lakeshore Geometry Activity Kit Grades 4-6 in the mail today. It is very cool. We talked about all sorts of Geometry concepts. They have very neat manipulates. We worked especially on graphing with positive and negative numbers. The kids are still playing with the kit right now. Here's the link, it says it's discontinued, but at least you can get an idea of what it is. Maybe you can find it on ebay.
Spelling: I quizzed the boys on spelling words from the book Dr. Fry's 1000 Instant Words: The Most Common Words for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling by Edward Fry, Ph.D. They wrote their answers down on wipe boards and then revealed their answers. They thought it was fun.
Club: We had cub scout pack meeting tonight. Jared earned some more awards.
PE: Playing in the snow and fort building.
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, learned about sharks, wrote a blog post about sharks, and 30 min of Wii Sports.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, spent a lot of time working on his creative writing story, did some silent reading in various books, and played Wii sports for 30 min.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, and made a skills list for cooking. Did a dictionary search and located the words coconut, hydrogen, Neptune, rain forest and coat of arms. These were just random words I picked and then he told me about them. We added some dates to our times line, worked on scout requirements, did 30 min of Wii fit, and listened to a book on tape for a reward. He has misplaced his chapter book and so didn't read it today.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, wrote in her journal, practiced the piano, worked on math skills, and read in Pride and Prejudice.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, practiced the piano, worked on cub scout things, played ping pong and reread Prometheus Bound for my mentor meeting this weekend.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbook, did cub scout things (Unit Commissioner), listening to Ranger's Apprentice, played ping pong, and went to work.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 21
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 12:34
Greek Fantasy Read-a-loud: We read 9 chapters in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.
PE: Lots of snow play.
Chores and Animal Care
Today the kids wrote letters to their pen pals. This took a lot of time. They loved it though! Writing with out pain and writing with a purpose. I love it! They were able to work on good handwriting, sentence structure, paragraphs, spelling and grammar. They aren't perfect by any means but it's a whole lot more meaningful that random workbook assignments! (Thank you Heather!)
We also spend a lot of time on Percy Jackson. We read in three different sessions today. The kids really like the book. It's fun, but it definitely requires editing by me as I read a lot.
As always I know I've forgotten many things. But hopefully our blog is helpful to generate ideas out their for your own homes!
Caleb: Read his scriptures, drew pictures, practiced the piano, played with clay, wrote a hand
written letter to his pen pal, and addressed an envelope.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked on his creative story (this one is handwritten), wrote a handwritten letter to his pen pal, addressed the envelope, did subtraction wrap ups, read in The Ranger's Aprrentice, and played a math game for 15 min on V-Flash.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, wrote a handwritten letter to his pen pal, addressed an envelope, worked on division and multiplication problems, played with clay and made figures of all the major characters of the last several books he's read or heard, read Peter and the Shadow Thieves, read a book on Raz-kids.com, read 1 Greek myth from a chapter book we have, worked on the multiplication wrap up, played a V-Flash math game for 15 minutes, worked on his Faith in God, and listened to Harriet the Spy as a reward.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, wrote a handwritten letter to two of her pen pals, addressed a letter, made home made doughnuts, worked on math problems, read in Pride and Prejudice, and finished some writing assignments for scholar school.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, practiced the piano, finished the book The Last Days: Types and Shadows from the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and played ping pong.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbook, went to work, listening to The Ranger's Apprentice, played ping pong, and went to mutual and did bishopric things.
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 12:34
Greek Fantasy Read-a-loud: We read 9 chapters in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.
PE: Lots of snow play.
Chores and Animal Care
Today the kids wrote letters to their pen pals. This took a lot of time. They loved it though! Writing with out pain and writing with a purpose. I love it! They were able to work on good handwriting, sentence structure, paragraphs, spelling and grammar. They aren't perfect by any means but it's a whole lot more meaningful that random workbook assignments! (Thank you Heather!)
We also spend a lot of time on Percy Jackson. We read in three different sessions today. The kids really like the book. It's fun, but it definitely requires editing by me as I read a lot.
As always I know I've forgotten many things. But hopefully our blog is helpful to generate ideas out their for your own homes!
Caleb: Read his scriptures, drew pictures, practiced the piano, played with clay, wrote a hand
written letter to his pen pal, and addressed an envelope.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked on his creative story (this one is handwritten), wrote a handwritten letter to his pen pal, addressed the envelope, did subtraction wrap ups, read in The Ranger's Aprrentice, and played a math game for 15 min on V-Flash.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, wrote a handwritten letter to his pen pal, addressed an envelope, worked on division and multiplication problems, played with clay and made figures of all the major characters of the last several books he's read or heard, read Peter and the Shadow Thieves, read a book on Raz-kids.com, read 1 Greek myth from a chapter book we have, worked on the multiplication wrap up, played a V-Flash math game for 15 minutes, worked on his Faith in God, and listened to Harriet the Spy as a reward.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, wrote a handwritten letter to two of her pen pals, addressed a letter, made home made doughnuts, worked on math problems, read in Pride and Prejudice, and finished some writing assignments for scholar school.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, practiced the piano, finished the book The Last Days: Types and Shadows from the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and played ping pong.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbook, went to work, listening to The Ranger's Apprentice, played ping pong, and went to mutual and did bishopric things.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Neat Web Site
I don't know if any of you are familiar with Academic Earth. There are multiple free online lectures that you can listen to. It's been super helpful for me in my BYU English class. Here's the link:
http://academicearth.org/
http://academicearth.org/
Snow Fun
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 21
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 10:34
Read-a-loud/Greek Fantasy: We read 3 1/2 chapters of Percy and the Olympians.
Social: Played with some home school kids for a couple of hours. They had killed and skinned a coyote that morning so my kids had quite the "biology" class with the skin they are tanning, the blood all over the barn (and now all over my kids snow clothes) and the carcass outside the door.
PE: Hours of shoveling and playing in the snow making snow forts.
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, read to his teacher and got his best score ever, made a robin and nest out of clay and painted it (it turned out pretty darn good), learned all about mollusks, and wrote a blog post about what he learned.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, read some random books slightly below his reading level but they are good for fluency, working on a creative writing story, and lots of army man imagination play.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, read in Peter and the Shadow Thieves, worked on division math problems, played Quarter Mile Math, and listened to Harriet the Spy for a little while.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, when to scholar school and discussed The Screwtape Letters, read in The Screwtape Letters, worked on some math problems, and is working on a report about Williamsburg. (We are going there for her 12th birthday this fall and she has to write about the places she wants to go and see).
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, practiced the piano, worked on piano theory, started a theology book, listened to a lecture about literary theory from Yale to help with my English class, word of the day, and played ping pong.
Alex: Read his scriptures, reading in the church handbook, word of the day, went to work, lots of Republican Party things going on, listening to The Ranger's Apprentice, and played ping pong.
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 10:34
Read-a-loud/Greek Fantasy: We read 3 1/2 chapters of Percy and the Olympians.
Social: Played with some home school kids for a couple of hours. They had killed and skinned a coyote that morning so my kids had quite the "biology" class with the skin they are tanning, the blood all over the barn (and now all over my kids snow clothes) and the carcass outside the door.
PE: Hours of shoveling and playing in the snow making snow forts.
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, read to his teacher and got his best score ever, made a robin and nest out of clay and painted it (it turned out pretty darn good), learned all about mollusks, and wrote a blog post about what he learned.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, read some random books slightly below his reading level but they are good for fluency, working on a creative writing story, and lots of army man imagination play.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, read in Peter and the Shadow Thieves, worked on division math problems, played Quarter Mile Math, and listened to Harriet the Spy for a little while.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, when to scholar school and discussed The Screwtape Letters, read in The Screwtape Letters, worked on some math problems, and is working on a report about Williamsburg. (We are going there for her 12th birthday this fall and she has to write about the places she wants to go and see).
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, practiced the piano, worked on piano theory, started a theology book, listened to a lecture about literary theory from Yale to help with my English class, word of the day, and played ping pong.
Alex: Read his scriptures, reading in the church handbook, word of the day, went to work, lots of Republican Party things going on, listening to The Ranger's Apprentice, and played ping pong.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Pen Pal Letters arrive!
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 19
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 10:34 (Jared's turn to pick for the week).
Goal Setting: Each family member reported on their goals from last week and set new goals for this week. This is really going well especially for our goal oriented children (Jared).
Economics: In an effort to do our part to stimulate the economy (and do 4-H horse projects this year) we bought a horse trailer today.
Financial/Money Management: Alex presented a real life investment situ
ation to the kids. They had to do all the math problems in it. Then we all talked about it and decided if was a good deal, and based on Rich Dad, Poor Dad principles we decided to do it.
Music: We had piano lessons today. We are really pushing the music theory.
Pen pals: The boy's pen pal letters came today. They were beyond ecstatic! They have been checking the mail for a couple of days in anxious anticipation. They've read, and reread them and won't let them out of their sight. Pen pals are fun! Our pen pals are from Texas where it is warm and we are jealous!
PE: Played outside and made snow forts for over two hours.
Chores/Animal Care
Note: The kids have really enjoyed doing their math problems on a wipe board. I recently ordered some lap size ones, but they haven't arrived yet. It reminds of slate work in Little House in the Prairie.
Caleb: Read his scriptures, learned about contractions, played a Happy Phonics game with me (about contractions), worked on addition problems, learned about octopus, asked for a piano lesson from me and I gave him one (hoot, hoot! our plan is working), listened to Farmer Boy on tape for an hour, and played ping pong.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked on a creative writing story, wrote four blog posts, reviewed sentence structure, pronoun usage, spelling, learned about mummies and the Valley of Kings (structure time not content), listened to Farmer Boy on tape for an hour, read for an hour in Ranger's Apprentice, and double digit addition practice.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, practiced double/triple digit multiplication problems, wrote a blog post, did a dictionary search of words I picked out then he read to me a definition, read in Peter and the Shadow Thieves, and listened to Harriet the Spy on tape for a reward.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, read for two hours in The Screwtape Letters, made banana muffins, listened to Harriet the Spy for fun for 30 minutes, and wrote a blog post. (I'm forgetting some things????) Today we also had her, for a math problem, take our check book for the month and then categorize our income and expenditures into categories. She then had to hand-add them up and check her work with a calculator. She then will make an Excel sheet at some point. Also at the end of the month she will check our percentages in each category to see if we spent the correct amount for that category. This is a "real life" problem to teach her money management skills.
Deanna: Read scriptures, wrote in journal, practiced the piano (heavy emphasis on theory also), finished (finally!) Othello by William Shakespeare, worked on my English class by reading an extensive essay about Historical Criticism (not a favorite topic or class right now-BYU 314), and played ping pong.
Alex: Read his scriptures, reading in the church handbook, worked on our investments, spent several hours working for the Republican District Committee where he serves as vice chair, went to work, played ping pong, and he's listening to The Ranger's Apprentice.
Family Home Evening:
Songs: We'll Bring the World His Truth and The Spirit of God
Testimony Bearing: Alex, Deanna, Olivia, Jared and Luke
Character: 21 Rules of This House- #3 We do not lie.
Strength of Youth: First Presidency Message (restarted again)
Proclamation to the World on the Family: 1st paragraph (restarted again)
Article of Faith: 11th
Lesson: Gifts of the Spirit by Alex from Gospel Principles
Activity: Sorry!
Refreshments: Homemade Tapioca Pudding (by Olivia) and fresh curds
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 10:34 (Jared's turn to pick for the week).
Goal Setting: Each family member reported on their goals from last week and set new goals for this week. This is really going well especially for our goal oriented children (Jared).
Economics: In an effort to do our part to stimulate the economy (and do 4-H horse projects this year) we bought a horse trailer today.
Financial/Money Management: Alex presented a real life investment situ
ation to the kids. They had to do all the math problems in it. Then we all talked about it and decided if was a good deal, and based on Rich Dad, Poor Dad principles we decided to do it.Music: We had piano lessons today. We are really pushing the music theory.
Pen pals: The boy's pen pal letters came today. They were beyond ecstatic! They have been checking the mail for a couple of days in anxious anticipation. They've read, and reread them and won't let them out of their sight. Pen pals are fun! Our pen pals are from Texas where it is warm and we are jealous!
PE: Played outside and made snow forts for over two hours.
Chores/Animal Care
Note: The kids have really enjoyed doing their math problems on a wipe board. I recently ordered some lap size ones, but they haven't arrived yet. It reminds of slate work in Little House in the Prairie.
Caleb: Read his scriptures, learned about contractions, played a Happy Phonics game with me (about contractions), worked on addition problems, learned about octopus, asked for a piano lesson from me and I gave him one (hoot, hoot! our plan is working), listened to Farmer Boy on tape for an hour, and played ping pong.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked on a creative writing story, wrote four blog posts, reviewed sentence structure, pronoun usage, spelling, learned about mummies and the Valley of Kings (structure time not content), listened to Farmer Boy on tape for an hour, read for an hour in Ranger's Apprentice, and double digit addition practice.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, practiced double/triple digit multiplication problems, wrote a blog post, did a dictionary search of words I picked out then he read to me a definition, read in Peter and the Shadow Thieves, and listened to Harriet the Spy on tape for a reward.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, read for two hours in The Screwtape Letters, made banana muffins, listened to Harriet the Spy for fun for 30 minutes, and wrote a blog post. (I'm forgetting some things????) Today we also had her, for a math problem, take our check book for the month and then categorize our income and expenditures into categories. She then had to hand-add them up and check her work with a calculator. She then will make an Excel sheet at some point. Also at the end of the month she will check our percentages in each category to see if we spent the correct amount for that category. This is a "real life" problem to teach her money management skills.
Deanna: Read scriptures, wrote in journal, practiced the piano (heavy emphasis on theory also), finished (finally!) Othello by William Shakespeare, worked on my English class by reading an extensive essay about Historical Criticism (not a favorite topic or class right now-BYU 314), and played ping pong.
Alex: Read his scriptures, reading in the church handbook, worked on our investments, spent several hours working for the Republican District Committee where he serves as vice chair, went to work, played ping pong, and he's listening to The Ranger's Apprentice.
Family Home Evening:
Songs: We'll Bring the World His Truth and The Spirit of God
Testimony Bearing: Alex, Deanna, Olivia, Jared and Luke
Character: 21 Rules of This House- #3 We do not lie.
Strength of Youth: First Presidency Message (restarted again)
Proclamation to the World on the Family: 1st paragraph (restarted again)
Article of Faith: 11th
Lesson: Gifts of the Spirit by Alex from Gospel Principles
Activity: Sorry!
Refreshments: Homemade Tapioca Pudding (by Olivia) and fresh curds
Friday, January 22, 2010
What's the most important? My brain on paper.
The beautiful thing about home schooling is that we are able to study and learn about anything we want! We can also focus on anything we want.
I've read so many wonderful blog posts and articles about some of the things that others have done. They have inspired me to great ideas within my own family. I love it! I have read about nature study, composer study, history of all shapes and sizes, science of all shapes and sizes, science experiments, music theory, art study, biography study, art techniques, creative writing, grammar including diagramming sentences, spelling, time lines, life skills, violin study, piano, a multitude of other instruments, literature (this list is huge!), money management, geometry, algebra, astronomy, Shakespeare, Greek, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, French, Geometry, PE, logic, rhetoric, and the list keeps going and going and going......
I've been thinking what are the most important things for my family. I feel that I only have a short time with my kids before they are gone and I'm no longer their teacher. I need to narrow this list down! I've simplified it to the most essential and then identified within that what is the most important. I don't know what to label these?
Level 1: Core Phase Behavior
Level 1B: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic in it's basic sense
Level 2:
I've read so many wonderful blog posts and articles about some of the things that others have done. They have inspired me to great ideas within my own family. I love it! I have read about nature study, composer study, history of all shapes and sizes, science of all shapes and sizes, science experiments, music theory, art study, biography study, art techniques, creative writing, grammar including diagramming sentences, spelling, time lines, life skills, violin study, piano, a multitude of other instruments, literature (this list is huge!), money management, geometry, algebra, astronomy, Shakespeare, Greek, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, French, Geometry, PE, logic, rhetoric, and the list keeps going and going and going......
I've been thinking what are the most important things for my family. I feel that I only have a short time with my kids before they are gone and I'm no longer their teacher. I need to narrow this list down! I've simplified it to the most essential and then identified within that what is the most important. I don't know what to label these?
Level 1: Core Phase Behavior
Level 1B: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic in it's basic sense
Level 2:
- Life Skills: House hold management
- Theology: Specifically narrowed down to the Gospel Principles Manual
- Literature: Greek classics, Shakespeare and Dickens
- Math: Money Management and Geometry (if our roof is X size, how many shingles do we need?, etc)
- Music: Piano and specifically Music Theory
Level 3:
- History: Specifically American History
- Science: Physical Science?
Level 4:
- Art
- Astronomy
- Foreign Language
The farther down the list you go the less I've actually thought about it. I have put a lot of thought in the first two levels though. A lot! What is the most important? If I didn't teach them anything else what is absolutely essential for our family.
My husband and I absolutely love history and so do our children. We don't even have to teach that subject in our home, they just know it. It just is. That is why that's not more of a focus. Science? I just didn't think it was the most important for our family to focus on. I'm certain that some families will have that focus instead of music like we have.
I'm not saying that we won't do science or art, I'm simply identifying my focus. Everything after that is a bonus. I just need to get my bases covered. I'm still thinking. Like I said, "My brain on a paper."
So have any of you narrowed down your focus and really thought about what is the most important for your family to know and understand?
Home Schooling Day on the Hill
Today Caleb and I had the house to ourselves! Alex and the kids were in Boise to attend "Day on the Hill" for home schooling kids. I'm afraid Caleb and I were slobbed out and didn't do a whole lot that was beneficial.Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 18
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 4:12
Chores/Animal Care
Alex, Olivia, Jared and Luke: Awoke in Boise at their cousins. They had a great visit. Went to the capital. They had a tour of the newly rededicated capitol. They meet and talke
d to several legislators. They each had to argue a bill that they had written. Luke was so scared that when he sat down he was shaking and crying. He rallied after that to ask questions and debate bills after his. Lots of good public speaking opportunities. It was a long day, but they loved it and they learned a lot about our government.Caleb: Read his scriptures, read in the Ranger Rick to me, started a blog, learned about bears from his Animal DK book, wrote a post about bears on his blog, coloring, played Money, Money! with me, played Book of Mormon Who?, played Stratego, watched a science video, watched a Miss Spider video, watched a Clifford video (all from the library) and went on a walk with me.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, wrote a conference talk, word of the day, practiced the piano, read and finished Trojan Women, read in Othello, went on a walk, played ping pong, made dinner for a family, and made food for a 4-H project tomorrow.
State Testing
I am happy to report that we are still plowing on course for a leadership education. There have been some bumps in the road but we are still on course! Yeah! The kids are happy, I'm happy, dad's happy....
There is one "thing" we still do though that has us occasionally showing up in the public school world. The dreaded state testing. I know several of you wonder why we are still doing it if we've chosen leadership education. It does seem contradictory.
I also wanted to throw in that we don't practice to the test. We just show up and take the test. It's not a big deal. it's just what you do. No stress. Secure, Not Stressed (the 8th Key to Great Teaching).
I hope that answers some questions I've been getting. I love the personalization of home school. Homeschooling is the best!!!
There is one "thing" we still do though that has us occasionally showing up in the public school world. The dreaded state testing. I know several of you wonder why we are still doing it if we've chosen leadership education. It does seem contradictory.
- The money. Sometimes things always come down to money, huh? We get several thousands dollars a year from the state to buy curriculum (if we test) of all sizes and shapes. We can get computers, internet, classic books, math books, games, art supplies, office supplies, copy paper, on line resources, magazine subscriptions, reading resources, music lessons, etc.
- The accountability. Even though I'm a fairly motivated person it's nice to k
now that I have to keep inspiring, keep asking them to play games, and just plain keep going because I've got a report to fill out at the end of the month! - I still get to do everything my way. I just have to give a monthly report, a year end report and state test.
- Testing is real world. In my husband's occupation he regularly has to take tests of all shapes and sizes from state testing, national testing and business testing. We just have to take tests in this world. So in our family we find it helpful to have them experience it.
- Protection. In our world you never know when the law is going to come down on you. Since we are technically enrolled in a public school we feel a sense of protection.
I also wanted to throw in that we don't practice to the test. We just show up and take the test. It's not a big deal. it's just what you do. No stress. Secure, Not Stressed (the 8th Key to Great Teaching).
I hope that answers some questions I've been getting. I love the personalization of home school. Homeschooling is the best!!!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Another Thursday
Thursday's are nuts around here and today was no exception. Scholar school is on Tuesday's now and so that should help!After dinner Alex and the three older kids left for Boise where they will spend the night and beat the snow storm. Tomorrow the kids have a home schooling day on the hill where they will learn about the legislative process at the capital.
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 18
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 4:12
Animal Care/Chores
Greek Myths/Read-a-Loud: We read 3 1/2 chapters from Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1.
Book on Tape: Listened to Farmer Boy for two hours.
Caleb: Read his scriptures, read several books with me, read Sir Circumference and the Dragon of Pi: A Math Adventure, practiced fractions, tally marks, addition, subtraction, telling time, played Turtle Mania with me, played Guess Who with me, shoveled snow, watched a science video about fish, and drew a big animal mural that he's going to hang on his wall.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, drew for several hours in his sketch book, listened to the Hardy Boys #1 while he drew
his pictures, he learned about ancient Egypt, painted some hyroglifics, wrote a blog post, used the dictionary, went to scouts and played with a friend.Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, made a time line that includes events from his life, shoved snow, practiced his division, played Music Ace, read in Peter and the Shadow Thieves, wrote a blog post, wrote a silly story, and went to scouts.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, worked on her loom, read in The
Screwtape Letters, made breakfast, worked on some things for her pen pals, saved my life and made dinner for me because grandpa was coming over and I couldn't be home to cook it, and went to activity days.Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in the journal, read a conference talk, practiced the piano, played ping pong, had a scout meeting, practiced singing with some other women for a ward activity, and read The Trojan Women.
Alex: Read his scriptures, went to work, played the ping pong, and listened to The Ranger's Apprentice.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
State Testing
We had to leave for state testing at noon. Since it's an hour away we stayed and went grocery shopping and ran errands while we were in "town."
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 17 (finished last half)
Weekly Family Memorization: 1 Timothy 4:12
Chores/Animal Care
Testing: Luke and Caleb had state testing.
Library Trip
Lots of Grocery Shopping
Music Store
Book on Tape: Harriet the Spy
Caleb: Read his scriptures, played Raz-kids, worked on a phonics game for an hour, shoveled snow, learned how to play Stratego, looked at and read several books.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked in his sketch book, read in The Ranger's Apprentice, wrote a blog post about his day, played Risk and Stratego, read a book about World War II, wrote a blog post about what he learned, played Rush Hour, Jr., and worked on a lot of math problems dealing with double and triple digit addtion and subtraction.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practice the piano, read in Peter and the Starcatchers and the Shadow Thieves, played Quarter Mile Math and was quizzed on his typing skills, played Raz-kids, learned about the Periodic Table from a short science video, and played Stratego and Risk.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, read and finished The Red Scarf Girl, finished her scarf that she made on a loom (it took her a couple of weeks), did a lot of price comparison and helped me a ton with the grocery shopping, played Stratego and Risk, and read several articles in a horse magazine while she waited for her brothers at the library.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, word of the day, practiced the piano, read and finished Agamemnon by Aeschylus, and started The Trojan Women by Euripides.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, word of the day, went to work, attended a district scout meeting, finished 10 Great American Short Stories and started The Ranger's Apprentice.
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 17 (finished last half)
Weekly Family Memorization: 1 Timothy 4:12
Chores/Animal Care
Testing: Luke and Caleb had state testing.
Library Trip
Lots of Grocery Shopping
Music Store
Book on Tape: Harriet the Spy
Caleb: Read his scriptures, played Raz-kids, worked on a phonics game for an hour, shoveled snow, learned how to play Stratego, looked at and read several books.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked in his sketch book, read in The Ranger's Apprentice, wrote a blog post about his day, played Risk and Stratego, read a book about World War II, wrote a blog post about what he learned, played Rush Hour, Jr., and worked on a lot of math problems dealing with double and triple digit addtion and subtraction.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practice the piano, read in Peter and the Starcatchers and the Shadow Thieves, played Quarter Mile Math and was quizzed on his typing skills, played Raz-kids, learned about the Periodic Table from a short science video, and played Stratego and Risk.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, read and finished The Red Scarf Girl, finished her scarf that she made on a loom (it took her a couple of weeks), did a lot of price comparison and helped me a ton with the grocery shopping, played Stratego and Risk, and read several articles in a horse magazine while she waited for her brothers at the library.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, word of the day, practiced the piano, read and finished Agamemnon by Aeschylus, and started The Trojan Women by Euripides.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, word of the day, went to work, attended a district scout meeting, finished 10 Great American Short Stories and started The Ranger's Apprentice.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Foiled!
Today I woke up with a smile on my face. There was not one single thing that we had to leave the house for and nothing going on that I had to do! We were going to get a lot of reading and studying in. Yeah!
The morning started out well. The kids were slow in doing their chores for some reason. It took a while to get them herded into reality. No stress though, we had the whole day. At 11:30 I got a call and my friend said, "I'm just checking, you are coming to scholar school today right?" Huh? I guess they'd changed it from Thursdays to Tuesdays. They had been talking about it and I'd said that Tuesday's would be fine if they changed. So I guess they did. We were free though so we left 45 minutes later, our afternoon blown. Then at the last minute I got a call that I needed to watch my 10 year cousin for the rest of the night-no problem! He's great and I am happy to help.
The kids did have a fun day though. Jared was a little stressed initially because he was only able to get about half of the things done on his list. But that is what real life is like so he was okay. Here's the low down. (Of what I can remember of course).
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 17 (half the chapter)
Weekly Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 4:12
Chores/Animal Care
Pray/Pledge/Motto
Music: We sang The Lord Need Valiant Servants, The Valiant Song, Holding Hands Around the World, and My Savior Loves Me (or whatever that new song is called.
Fantasy Read-a-loud: We started and read two chapters in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. They love it! I'm doing a lot of editing. I really do not like the way teenagers talk to each other in books like this. I think my kids are to young to sort it out just yet. But the story line will be fun. I'm glad I've previewed this already.
Social/Logic: While Olivia was at scholar school the boys played at some homeschooling house. They played Risk and Stratego and ran around in the mud outside for a long time. They had great fun and didn't want to leave.
Caleb: Read his scriptures, read to his public school teacher over the phone, played Yahtzee, played Rush Hour, Jr., and worked on some core phase problems.
Luke: Luke got to start a blog today! He was very excited. He has already written two blog posts. One of the posts is a journal entry about what he did for today. It's fun to see what he remembers and what he sees as important.
Here's it is cut from his blog: I did lots of things today. Here are some of the things I did. First of all I said my prayers and read my scriptures. Second, I sketched in my sketch book with all these mythical creatures. For example, The Flon Lizard that has the power to turn itself invisible and attack their enemies from behind. The bat rat that can fly into space and still live and they have huge bat like wings. They can grow up to be as large as today's elephants! Third, I played the piano in twenty minutes. Next, I made lunch because I'm "Lunch Specialist," so then I made lunch. Then my family went to Dietrich and played with the Harris family and played Stratego and Risk, a game of armies that was cool. Then we came home and were just playing around with Tanner who had come over when his mom and dad were gone.
He also learned about two and triple digit adding and subtracting. He also learned how to carry to the next column. He thought this was very cool. He practiced a bunch of problems on the wipe board. He also got to apply his skills when he played Yahtzee. He also played Rush Hour, Jr. He getting really good at it.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, wrote and typed a blog, learned how to log into blogger and some other computer skills, read in Peter and the Starcatchers and the Shadow Thieves, he played Quarter Mile Math and was quizzed on subtracting fractions, he played lots of extra Risk and Stratego-these are great logic geography games, played Rush Hour, Jr., he worked on the multiplication table and pretty well has it down, and he also is working on doing the division table. He handled the change in his day well. He was discouraged about the other things he didn't get down, but there is always tomorrow.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, made breakfast, practiced the piano, worked on her loom, making a knitted scarf and ironed on some decals that went with it, Rush Hour, Jr., Stratego, Risk, attended scholar class, studied more about horse pedigrees, and read in The Screwtape Letters.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, word of the day, practiced the piano, spent the time with some home schooling mommies, and read The Landing of the Pilgrims.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the handbook, word of the day, went to Boise for a long day of appointments, and he listened to a book with short stories from famous American authors. It was a long day for him. He's down to only two of these a month now though.
The morning started out well. The kids were slow in doing their chores for some reason. It took a while to get them herded into reality. No stress though, we had the whole day. At 11:30 I got a call and my friend said, "I'm just checking, you are coming to scholar school today right?" Huh? I guess they'd changed it from Thursdays to Tuesdays. They had been talking about it and I'd said that Tuesday's would be fine if they changed. So I guess they did. We were free though so we left 45 minutes later, our afternoon blown. Then at the last minute I got a call that I needed to watch my 10 year cousin for the rest of the night-no problem! He's great and I am happy to help.
The kids did have a fun day though. Jared was a little stressed initially because he was only able to get about half of the things done on his list. But that is what real life is like so he was okay. Here's the low down. (Of what I can remember of course).
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 17 (half the chapter)
Weekly Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 4:12
Chores/Animal Care
Pray/Pledge/Motto
Music: We sang The Lord Need Valiant Servants, The Valiant Song, Holding Hands Around the World, and My Savior Loves Me (or whatever that new song is called.
Fantasy Read-a-loud: We started and read two chapters in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. They love it! I'm doing a lot of editing. I really do not like the way teenagers talk to each other in books like this. I think my kids are to young to sort it out just yet. But the story line will be fun. I'm glad I've previewed this already.
Social/Logic: While Olivia was at scholar school the boys played at some homeschooling house. They played Risk and Stratego and ran around in the mud outside for a long time. They had great fun and didn't want to leave.
Caleb: Read his scriptures, read to his public school teacher over the phone, played Yahtzee, played Rush Hour, Jr., and worked on some core phase problems.
Luke: Luke got to start a blog today! He was very excited. He has already written two blog posts. One of the posts is a journal entry about what he did for today. It's fun to see what he remembers and what he sees as important.
Here's it is cut from his blog: I did lots of things today. Here are some of the things I did. First of all I said my prayers and read my scriptures. Second, I sketched in my sketch book with all these mythical creatures. For example, The Flon Lizard that has the power to turn itself invisible and attack their enemies from behind. The bat rat that can fly into space and still live and they have huge bat like wings. They can grow up to be as large as today's elephants! Third, I played the piano in twenty minutes. Next, I made lunch because I'm "Lunch Specialist," so then I made lunch. Then my family went to Dietrich and played with the Harris family and played Stratego and Risk, a game of armies that was cool. Then we came home and were just playing around with Tanner who had come over when his mom and dad were gone.
He also learned about two and triple digit adding and subtracting. He also learned how to carry to the next column. He thought this was very cool. He practiced a bunch of problems on the wipe board. He also got to apply his skills when he played Yahtzee. He also played Rush Hour, Jr. He getting really good at it.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, wrote and typed a blog, learned how to log into blogger and some other computer skills, read in Peter and the Starcatchers and the Shadow Thieves, he played Quarter Mile Math and was quizzed on subtracting fractions, he played lots of extra Risk and Stratego-these are great logic geography games, played Rush Hour, Jr., he worked on the multiplication table and pretty well has it down, and he also is working on doing the division table. He handled the change in his day well. He was discouraged about the other things he didn't get down, but there is always tomorrow.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, made breakfast, practiced the piano, worked on her loom, making a knitted scarf and ironed on some decals that went with it, Rush Hour, Jr., Stratego, Risk, attended scholar class, studied more about horse pedigrees, and read in The Screwtape Letters.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, word of the day, practiced the piano, spent the time with some home schooling mommies, and read The Landing of the Pilgrims.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the handbook, word of the day, went to Boise for a long day of appointments, and he listened to a book with short stories from famous American authors. It was a long day for him. He's down to only two of these a month now though.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Today Alex stayed home so we enjoyed playing with him.
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 16
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 4:12
Family Counsel: New changes (see below) and we reviewed our goals from last week and set individual goals for this week. The kids each pick their own. We are teaching them to adjust based on how well they did accomplishing them last week. Most only have 2 or 3 goals. For example: learn to skip count by 6, read 50 pages in my book, write a paper, read Othello, read 45 pages in the church handbook, etc.)
PE: While I was gone Alex and the kids watched ping pong videos on You Tube. They can up with all new strategies.
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, watched two science videos, and played numerous games. Caleb decided that he was going to deep clean his room for some reason. I don't know what got into him, but he worked on his room for several hours. He made everything look great, rearranged dressers and he even hung up pictures. He also vacuumed and used attachments. All I said was make sure your pj's are picked up!
Today I wrote down instructions that I had for Caleb to do. I think he has a hard time orally hearing things or processing them I should say. (I'm terrible with my auditory. Our hearing is fine, just to clarify). He can't seem to remember or stay focused in any activity requiring more than one or two instructions. I wrote down his extra chores on a piece paper and used a clipboard. He was focused on got everything done with out needing to be reminded. I just need to work on speed. If he were a creature he would be a turtle or a snail. I do everything very quickly. I need to chill and not rush him.
Luke: Read his scriptures, played lots of random games with Caleb, practiced skip counting by 4's, drawing in his sketch book, played several Rush Hour, Jr. games (logic practice), practiced the piano, and had piano lessons.
We implemented Structure Time, Not Content for him. He set the timer for one hour and read in any of the books we have that he wanted. The Usborne books were coming in handy. He was really excited about this. He read numerous books about history. He was going to tell me about the things he learned and then something happened and we didn't get to it. Tomorrow!
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, had piano lessons, played several Rush Hour, Jr. games, had a math lesson on decimals and percentages, he created his own blog, he wrote a blog post, drew and colored several animal pictures from an art book, played two games of Stratego, read Peter in the Starcatchers and the Shadow Thieves to me, played ping pong and listed to Brisingr. He also learned a new vocabulary word from his book: marooned.
Today we started some new things for Jared as well. I had a meeting with him in the morning and he choose from a list of many things what he wanted to do that day. Then he decided when he would do them (before piano lessons or after, before lunch, etc). He also decided for how long he would do them. He set his own goals. I encouraged him to choose things from several different areas to help him be balanced. He also got to choose a reward for himself if he accomplished his own goals. He picked 30 min of a book on tape. He had a much better day. He carried around a clip board and checked off everything. He felt more empowered and ownership. He needs structure, but I don't want to tell he always what to do. I can't do that when he's an adult. So I'm helping guide him to make good choice, have balance and manage his time. This is all about personal responsibility.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, worked on her scarf with her loom for a long time(3 feet long so far), played ping pong, practiced her vocal solo, practiced the piano, had piano lessons, started the Screwtape letters, played Rush Hour, Jr, played Stratego, and made breakfast. She wasn't real motivated to do a whole lot today.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, journal, read a lesson in Gospel Principles, practiced the piano, had piano less sons, spent a lot of time with Jared, played ping pong, started a book that I decided not to read, went to a song practice for a Relief Society meeting, and VOCABULARY WORD OF THE DAY!!! (I keep forgetting to type that we learn our word of the day and my dad keeps asking me why I didn't do it. We did, I just need to type it! So now I'm repentant dad).
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, word of the day, did some work at home, helped a friend with his business finances, helped another friend get some wood, helped a HS basketball player who was injured (the HS coach will occasionally send injured players over for some physical therapy-Alex is a jack of all trades), played lots of ping pong, and played Stratego. We wish he would be home all the time!
Family Home Evening:
Songs: I Will Be Valiant (twice)
Testimonies: Alex, Deanna, Luke and Olivia
Strength of Youth: Go forward with faith.
Proclamation: Last paragraph
Character: 21 Rules of this House-We will pray for each other.
Article of Faith: 11th
Lesson: Caleb-About the Second Coming from the new Gospel Principles manual. Great lesson which led to an hour long discussion.
Activity: Played Dinosaur Days. This game Luke made last year in scouts.
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 16
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 4:12
Family Counsel: New changes (see below) and we reviewed our goals from last week and set individual goals for this week. The kids each pick their own. We are teaching them to adjust based on how well they did accomplishing them last week. Most only have 2 or 3 goals. For example: learn to skip count by 6, read 50 pages in my book, write a paper, read Othello, read 45 pages in the church handbook, etc.)
PE: While I was gone Alex and the kids watched ping pong videos on You Tube. They can up with all new strategies.
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, watched two science videos, and played numerous games. Caleb decided that he was going to deep clean his room for some reason. I don't know what got into him, but he worked on his room for several hours. He made everything look great, rearranged dressers and he even hung up pictures. He also vacuumed and used attachments. All I said was make sure your pj's are picked up!
Today I wrote down instructions that I had for Caleb to do. I think he has a hard time orally hearing things or processing them I should say. (I'm terrible with my auditory. Our hearing is fine, just to clarify). He can't seem to remember or stay focused in any activity requiring more than one or two instructions. I wrote down his extra chores on a piece paper and used a clipboard. He was focused on got everything done with out needing to be reminded. I just need to work on speed. If he were a creature he would be a turtle or a snail. I do everything very quickly. I need to chill and not rush him.
Luke: Read his scriptures, played lots of random games with Caleb, practiced skip counting by 4's, drawing in his sketch book, played several Rush Hour, Jr. games (logic practice), practiced the piano, and had piano lessons.
We implemented Structure Time, Not Content for him. He set the timer for one hour and read in any of the books we have that he wanted. The Usborne books were coming in handy. He was really excited about this. He read numerous books about history. He was going to tell me about the things he learned and then something happened and we didn't get to it. Tomorrow!
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, had piano lessons, played several Rush Hour, Jr. games, had a math lesson on decimals and percentages, he created his own blog, he wrote a blog post, drew and colored several animal pictures from an art book, played two games of Stratego, read Peter in the Starcatchers and the Shadow Thieves to me, played ping pong and listed to Brisingr. He also learned a new vocabulary word from his book: marooned.
Today we started some new things for Jared as well. I had a meeting with him in the morning and he choose from a list of many things what he wanted to do that day. Then he decided when he would do them (before piano lessons or after, before lunch, etc). He also decided for how long he would do them. He set his own goals. I encouraged him to choose things from several different areas to help him be balanced. He also got to choose a reward for himself if he accomplished his own goals. He picked 30 min of a book on tape. He had a much better day. He carried around a clip board and checked off everything. He felt more empowered and ownership. He needs structure, but I don't want to tell he always what to do. I can't do that when he's an adult. So I'm helping guide him to make good choice, have balance and manage his time. This is all about personal responsibility.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, worked on her scarf with her loom for a long time(3 feet long so far), played ping pong, practiced her vocal solo, practiced the piano, had piano lessons, started the Screwtape letters, played Rush Hour, Jr, played Stratego, and made breakfast. She wasn't real motivated to do a whole lot today.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, journal, read a lesson in Gospel Principles, practiced the piano, had piano less sons, spent a lot of time with Jared, played ping pong, started a book that I decided not to read, went to a song practice for a Relief Society meeting, and VOCABULARY WORD OF THE DAY!!! (I keep forgetting to type that we learn our word of the day and my dad keeps asking me why I didn't do it. We did, I just need to type it! So now I'm repentant dad).
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, word of the day, did some work at home, helped a friend with his business finances, helped another friend get some wood, helped a HS basketball player who was injured (the HS coach will occasionally send injured players over for some physical therapy-Alex is a jack of all trades), played lots of ping pong, and played Stratego. We wish he would be home all the time!
Family Home Evening:
Songs: I Will Be Valiant (twice)
Testimonies: Alex, Deanna, Luke and Olivia
Strength of Youth: Go forward with faith.
Proclamation: Last paragraph
Character: 21 Rules of this House-We will pray for each other.
Article of Faith: 11th
Lesson: Caleb-About the Second Coming from the new Gospel Principles manual. Great lesson which led to an hour long discussion.
Activity: Played Dinosaur Days. This game Luke made last year in scouts.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
What does Core Phase Look Like in Our Home?
Core Phase. Hmmm. Yes, I'm going to discuss core phase. I think that core phase has been the phase I have least understood in Leadership Education. Here's some ways we have applied it in our home. These are only ideas. Voltaire said, "No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for." Please don't burn me!
First, let's review. There are four major phases of learning in a Leadership Education. There are more phases, but only four that will likely happen in the walls of your home with your children.
Core Phase- Roughly 0-8 years old
Love of Learning- Roughly 8-12 years old
Scholar- Roughly 12-16 years old
Depth-Roughly 16 and up
In the phases each one has a specific curriculum. Also in Leadership Education grades are thrown out the door. With grades we tend to hold them back and say they can't start that until next year. Or we push them when they are struggling to accomplish more than they are able to. I have had both early bloomers and late bloomers in my home.
In Core Phase the curriculum is clearly established and basic. It is:
Good/Bad
True/False
Right/Wrong
That doesn't mean that you don't teach them how to read or write. Far from it. But the most important thing that they learn first is that there is good and bad and that there are right choices they can make and wrong choices. In each family you establish what these things are. I think that most of us will have almost the same idea about what these are. Here are some of our core phase absolutes:
There is God and there is Satan.
God loves you.
Jesus Christ is our Savior, Healer, and Advocate.
We speak to God through prayer every day.
We read our scriptures every day to learn of Christ.
There is a living prophet and we will follow him.
Our family is our most important focus.
Each family member is valued and loved.
We each have responsibilities with in our family.
We are expected to carry out our responsibilities.
Dad's job is to provide for our physical needs and to spiritually lead our family.
Mom's job is to nurture each family member.
The children are to learn.
Learning includes life time skills. ( household management, cooking, cleaning, car care, etc...)
We don't hit people. (pinch, bite, etc.)
We are polite to others, especially the elderly.
We respect and honor women.
We learn to control our emotions.
We do not eat more than our body needs.
We go to bed early and we wake up early.
We bathe and groom our bodies.
We wear appropriate clothing.
Those are just some general ideas. No child is going to have those mastered by the time they turn eight obviously! These things can take a life time to master. But what they learn in these young ages is what is right. It is wrong to not hold the door open for the elderly at church or anywhere. It is right to do our chores with out complaining. It is right to pray daily. It is right to brush my teeth everyday. Practice, practice, practice! And it's our job to teach them how.
Another fundamental part of core phase is "The Redo." Oh, how we love redo's in our home. If a child back talks me, I say, "Please redo that and say it the correct way." If a child doesn't wipe off the table to his/her ability we say, "please redo the table." If a child gets angry and hits his brother we say, "That's not appropriate. Please redo the situation and deal with it appropriately. Would you like some suggestions on how you can redo it appropriately?"
Besides chores and redo's core phase is a time for games. Use games to reinforce love, teach basic principles, and spend time with them.
Core phase is foundational for our whole lives. Everything else is built upon it. If they know they are loved, that God is available to them through prayer and that they need to get up in the morning and greet the day, they are going to be okay! I've seen adults on the other hand that do not know how to manage their house (and there house controls them), I've seen adults so selfish they won't to anything for anyone in their family (if they have a family), I've seen men who have expected their wives to provide for the family, and I've seen emotionally unstable adults who feel that they are not loved or valued. These are examples. Know one has had the perfect upbringing. But we can make sure that our children know core truths that will be the rock upon which they can build the rest of their lives.
In our home only two requirements are expected from our children to graduate from core phase. The first is that they want to move to the love of learning phase. The other is that they agree to submit to these guidelines. For example, if they refuse to pray we need to keep going over some things!
There's a lot more to core phase. Maybe I'll get on my soap box later and post more! We need to remember to not neglect core phase and run straight for the academics. In the "olden days" kids didn't start school until they were eight anyway. They were a more literate society than ours is at present. Your kids will learn all they need to, especially if you taught them to discipline themselves first!
First, let's review. There are four major phases of learning in a Leadership Education. There are more phases, but only four that will likely happen in the walls of your home with your children.
Core Phase- Roughly 0-8 years old
Love of Learning- Roughly 8-12 years old
Scholar- Roughly 12-16 years old
Depth-Roughly 16 and up
In the phases each one has a specific curriculum. Also in Leadership Education grades are thrown out the door. With grades we tend to hold them back and say they can't start that until next year. Or we push them when they are struggling to accomplish more than they are able to. I have had both early bloomers and late bloomers in my home.
In Core Phase the curriculum is clearly established and basic. It is:
Good/Bad
True/False
Right/Wrong
That doesn't mean that you don't teach them how to read or write. Far from it. But the most important thing that they learn first is that there is good and bad and that there are right choices they can make and wrong choices. In each family you establish what these things are. I think that most of us will have almost the same idea about what these are. Here are some of our core phase absolutes:
There is God and there is Satan.
God loves you.
Jesus Christ is our Savior, Healer, and Advocate.
We speak to God through prayer every day.
We read our scriptures every day to learn of Christ.
There is a living prophet and we will follow him.
Our family is our most important focus.
Each family member is valued and loved.
We each have responsibilities with in our family.
We are expected to carry out our responsibilities.
Dad's job is to provide for our physical needs and to spiritually lead our family.
Mom's job is to nurture each family member.
The children are to learn.
Learning includes life time skills. ( household management, cooking, cleaning, car care, etc...)
We don't hit people. (pinch, bite, etc.)
We are polite to others, especially the elderly.
We respect and honor women.
We learn to control our emotions.
We do not eat more than our body needs.
We go to bed early and we wake up early.
We bathe and groom our bodies.
We wear appropriate clothing.
Those are just some general ideas. No child is going to have those mastered by the time they turn eight obviously! These things can take a life time to master. But what they learn in these young ages is what is right. It is wrong to not hold the door open for the elderly at church or anywhere. It is right to do our chores with out complaining. It is right to pray daily. It is right to brush my teeth everyday. Practice, practice, practice! And it's our job to teach them how.
Another fundamental part of core phase is "The Redo." Oh, how we love redo's in our home. If a child back talks me, I say, "Please redo that and say it the correct way." If a child doesn't wipe off the table to his/her ability we say, "please redo the table." If a child gets angry and hits his brother we say, "That's not appropriate. Please redo the situation and deal with it appropriately. Would you like some suggestions on how you can redo it appropriately?"
Besides chores and redo's core phase is a time for games. Use games to reinforce love, teach basic principles, and spend time with them.
Core phase is foundational for our whole lives. Everything else is built upon it. If they know they are loved, that God is available to them through prayer and that they need to get up in the morning and greet the day, they are going to be okay! I've seen adults on the other hand that do not know how to manage their house (and there house controls them), I've seen adults so selfish they won't to anything for anyone in their family (if they have a family), I've seen men who have expected their wives to provide for the family, and I've seen emotionally unstable adults who feel that they are not loved or valued. These are examples. Know one has had the perfect upbringing. But we can make sure that our children know core truths that will be the rock upon which they can build the rest of their lives.
In our home only two requirements are expected from our children to graduate from core phase. The first is that they want to move to the love of learning phase. The other is that they agree to submit to these guidelines. For example, if they refuse to pray we need to keep going over some things!
There's a lot more to core phase. Maybe I'll get on my soap box later and post more! We need to remember to not neglect core phase and run straight for the academics. In the "olden days" kids didn't start school until they were eight anyway. They were a more literate society than ours is at present. Your kids will learn all they need to, especially if you taught them to discipline themselves first!
The "deslobbed" child.
Here is a core phase thought. This is something we do in our home.
At the beginning of the day all members are expected to be at breakfast table at 8:30 A.M. with their Big 5 done. (The big 5 correlates to changing out of p.j.'s/putting them away, brushing teeth (this is actually done after breakfast), fixing hair, making bed, and saying personal prayers. After you have done your Big 5 you get a high 5).
I'm kind of Nazi about what I call "deslobbing" yourself for the day. I think that even though we are home all day we can still wear something besides sweats and pjs all day. We can put on shoes. (Think Fly Lady-some will know what I mean). We can fix our hair, and mom can wear make-up if she chooses.
There is an exception to every rule of course! You know when those exceptions are. Every once in a while I'll say we can have a "slobbed out day." That probably doesn't sound the best, but I want to teach them it's right to get up and get dressed and its wrong to (always) slob around. (your husband will love it) I find that everyone is more motivated when dressed for the day instead of in their pj's.
Okay, I really need to step on to my soap box at this point. We'll I guess this whole post is a soap box, it's going to get worse for minute. What is it will home school kids always being in sweats? It seems that a great many large gatherings of home school children that I've been to I have seen a great number of children in sweats. I mean come on! If we want to be leaders let's start dressing like them!
And that's the point. Know matter what your dress codes are, let us remember to dress the part of what we really want.
At the beginning of the day all members are expected to be at breakfast table at 8:30 A.M. with their Big 5 done. (The big 5 correlates to changing out of p.j.'s/putting them away, brushing teeth (this is actually done after breakfast), fixing hair, making bed, and saying personal prayers. After you have done your Big 5 you get a high 5).
I'm kind of Nazi about what I call "deslobbing" yourself for the day. I think that even though we are home all day we can still wear something besides sweats and pjs all day. We can put on shoes. (Think Fly Lady-some will know what I mean). We can fix our hair, and mom can wear make-up if she chooses.
There is an exception to every rule of course! You know when those exceptions are. Every once in a while I'll say we can have a "slobbed out day." That probably doesn't sound the best, but I want to teach them it's right to get up and get dressed and its wrong to (always) slob around. (your husband will love it) I find that everyone is more motivated when dressed for the day instead of in their pj's.
Okay, I really need to step on to my soap box at this point. We'll I guess this whole post is a soap box, it's going to get worse for minute. What is it will home school kids always being in sweats? It seems that a great many large gatherings of home school children that I've been to I have seen a great number of children in sweats. I mean come on! If we want to be leaders let's start dressing like them!
And that's the point. Know matter what your dress codes are, let us remember to dress the part of what we really want.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Today it seemed all they wanted to do was dress up in characters from the last couple of books we read and act them how. They had great fun! They also spent several hours being incapacitated because they were so excited for their cousin to come and so they couldn't think to do anything. We did spend several hours on reading Treasure Island. This is a day I know I'm forgetting several things. The brain is gone for the day.
Family Scripture Reading: 1 Nephi 15
Weekly Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 1:1-2
Prayer/Pledge/Motto
Music: We sang The Valiant Song, How Firm a Foundation, We'll Bring the World His Truth and The Books of the Old Testament. They each pick a song and we sing all the versus.
Math: I drilled the boys on times tables. I should Caleb how to read the multiplication chart. We played several games of Rack-O for number sequencing.
Science: We did several experiments having to do with sound, frequency and resonance from the book 501 Science Experiments.
Literature: We read and finished the last 1/2 of Usborne's Treasure Island (abridged).
Social: We have a cousin (age 10) spending the weekend with us.
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, played Sum Swamp (addition/subtraction), played with homemade bubbles, played chess, played checkers, and lots of creative play.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, played chess, played ping pong, and read for an hour in The Ranger's Apprentice #1 by John Flanagan.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, played chess, played ping pong, and did a math assignment.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, went to scholar school, delivered her memorized Declaration of Independence to her scholar class, worked with Alex for two hours (her scholar class ride drops her off at the office), read the The Red Scarf Girl (about communism with Mao) for an hour, practiced her vocal solo, practiced the piano, wrote some blog posts, and did some research on horse pedigrees.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, practiced the piano (a lot!), had to take care of a Relief Society welfare/compassionate service situation that took a lot of time, played ping pong and read in The History by Herodotus.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, went to work, finished Stormbreaker, played ping pong, and started a book called 10 Great American Short Stories.
Family Scripture Reading: 1 Nephi 15
Weekly Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 1:1-2
Prayer/Pledge/Motto
Music: We sang The Valiant Song, How Firm a Foundation, We'll Bring the World His Truth and The Books of the Old Testament. They each pick a song and we sing all the versus.
Math: I drilled the boys on times tables. I should Caleb how to read the multiplication chart. We played several games of Rack-O for number sequencing.
Science: We did several experiments having to do with sound, frequency and resonance from the book 501 Science Experiments.
Literature: We read and finished the last 1/2 of Usborne's Treasure Island (abridged).
Social: We have a cousin (age 10) spending the weekend with us.
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, played Sum Swamp (addition/subtraction), played with homemade bubbles, played chess, played checkers, and lots of creative play.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, played chess, played ping pong, and read for an hour in The Ranger's Apprentice #1 by John Flanagan.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, played chess, played ping pong, and did a math assignment.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, went to scholar school, delivered her memorized Declaration of Independence to her scholar class, worked with Alex for two hours (her scholar class ride drops her off at the office), read the The Red Scarf Girl (about communism with Mao) for an hour, practiced her vocal solo, practiced the piano, wrote some blog posts, and did some research on horse pedigrees.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, practiced the piano (a lot!), had to take care of a Relief Society welfare/compassionate service situation that took a lot of time, played ping pong and read in The History by Herodotus.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, went to work, finished Stormbreaker, played ping pong, and started a book called 10 Great American Short Stories.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
We were not home much today for them to do much.
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 14
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Science: Watched two science videos
Health: Had an extensive First Aide lesson. (CPR/choking/bites/bleeding/burns,etc)
Club: Had a 4-H Meeting and an Archery Meeting
Social/Logic/Math: Attended their first boys social home school group that I organized with a friend with other home school boys. They played multiple games of chess and just "played." We will meet weekly.
Chores and Animal Care
Caleb: Played Raz-kids, watched an additional science video, worked on his 4-H record book (handwriting), did a dot-to-dot even numbers past 100 (math), and listened to a Magic Tree House book on tape.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, and read in The Ranger's Apprentice for two hours, worked on his 4-H record book (handwriting), worked on his secretaries book for his club (more handwriting and some math), and listened to a A Magic Tree House book on tape.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked on his scouting requirements, worked on his 4-H record book (handwriting), studied/prepared his demonstration for archery about the different types of arrowheads, gave an oral presentation on arrowheads for his archery class, filled out some paperwork with me for a doctor's appointment, listened to me read the last 100 pages in Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories by Ian Beck, and went on a walk.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, read in The Red Scarf Girl for two hours, went to her scholar class and discussed Whitman's poetry, researched/prepared a demonstration for archery about the history of archery in the Olympic games, gave an oral presentation about archery in the Olympic games for archery class, worked on her 4-H record book (handwriting) and went on a walk.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, Peterson's Word of the Day, had a meeting with my mentor, went on several visiting teaching appointments, practiced the piano, spent a couple of hours with a home school friend (see Leadership Education Ingredient #47 -The Friend) while the kids played chess and socialized.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, Peterson's Word of the Day, was gone extra early today with meetings on the edge of the state, went to work and came home late, and listened to Stormbreaker.
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 14
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Science: Watched two science videos
Health: Had an extensive First Aide lesson. (CPR/choking/bites/bleeding/burns,etc)
Club: Had a 4-H Meeting and an Archery Meeting
Social/Logic/Math: Attended their first boys social home school group that I organized with a friend with other home school boys. They played multiple games of chess and just "played." We will meet weekly.
Chores and Animal Care
Caleb: Played Raz-kids, watched an additional science video, worked on his 4-H record book (handwriting), did a dot-to-dot even numbers past 100 (math), and listened to a Magic Tree House book on tape.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, and read in The Ranger's Apprentice for two hours, worked on his 4-H record book (handwriting), worked on his secretaries book for his club (more handwriting and some math), and listened to a A Magic Tree House book on tape.
Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked on his scouting requirements, worked on his 4-H record book (handwriting), studied/prepared his demonstration for archery about the different types of arrowheads, gave an oral presentation on arrowheads for his archery class, filled out some paperwork with me for a doctor's appointment, listened to me read the last 100 pages in Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories by Ian Beck, and went on a walk.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, read in The Red Scarf Girl for two hours, went to her scholar class and discussed Whitman's poetry, researched/prepared a demonstration for archery about the history of archery in the Olympic games, gave an oral presentation about archery in the Olympic games for archery class, worked on her 4-H record book (handwriting) and went on a walk.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, Peterson's Word of the Day, had a meeting with my mentor, went on several visiting teaching appointments, practiced the piano, spent a couple of hours with a home school friend (see Leadership Education Ingredient #47 -The Friend) while the kids played chess and socialized.
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, Peterson's Word of the Day, was gone extra early today with meetings on the edge of the state, went to work and came home late, and listened to Stormbreaker.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 13 (finished)
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Math: We played Fractions Supreme by Discovery Toys. We had a long discussion about fractions, ordinal numbers and decimal numbers. Caleb really enjoyed playing with the pieces.
Geography/Science: We talked about Haiti, earthquakes, poverty, Caribbean and the history of the region.
Fantasy: We read 10 chapters from Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories.
Character: Watched Adventures in Honesty (George Washington and the Cherry Tree).
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, played a Happy Phonics game w/ me, played multiple games of Sum Swamp with me, read The Sword in the Stone by Grace Maccarone (level 2 reader), read a book about reptiles, read a book about eels, played Raz-kids.com, sorting and folding socks, and listened to Brisingr.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced his piano lessons, practiced his multiplication tables with me, listened to Brisingr, watched a documentary about George Washington (with Olivia) and read The Ranger's Apprentice #1: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
Jared: Read his scriptures, played with Lego's, worked on a science experiment of his creation, listened to Brisingr, and having to do with bubbles for two hours.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, practiced her voice and picked out the song she is going to sing for Governor Otter (she sang for him and our congressman and senator last year, as was invited to sing again this year for them), worked on memorizing the Declaration of Independence, read The Red Scarf Girl (about Mao's Communism China) for two hours, worked on her investments on Lending Club.com, worked on some math problems, watched a documentary by the History Channel about George Washington.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, studied this month's visiting teaching message, read in The Histories by Herodotus, started Othello by Shakespeare, played ping-pong, read the last half and finished The Ranger's Apprentice #2, and took a Saxon math placement test
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, he is listening to Stormbreaker, went to work, played ping-pong, led a scout training and went to mutual.
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Math: We played Fractions Supreme by Discovery Toys. We had a long discussion about fractions, ordinal numbers and decimal numbers. Caleb really enjoyed playing with the pieces.
Geography/Science: We talked about Haiti, earthquakes, poverty, Caribbean and the history of the region.
Fantasy: We read 10 chapters from Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories.
Character: Watched Adventures in Honesty (George Washington and the Cherry Tree).
Chores/Animal Care
Caleb: Read his scriptures, played a Happy Phonics game w/ me, played multiple games of Sum Swamp with me, read The Sword in the Stone by Grace Maccarone (level 2 reader), read a book about reptiles, read a book about eels, played Raz-kids.com, sorting and folding socks, and listened to Brisingr.
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced his piano lessons, practiced his multiplication tables with me, listened to Brisingr, watched a documentary about George Washington (with Olivia) and read The Ranger's Apprentice #1: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
Jared: Read his scriptures, played with Lego's, worked on a science experiment of his creation, listened to Brisingr, and having to do with bubbles for two hours.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, practiced her voice and picked out the song she is going to sing for Governor Otter (she sang for him and our congressman and senator last year, as was invited to sing again this year for them), worked on memorizing the Declaration of Independence, read The Red Scarf Girl (about Mao's Communism China) for two hours, worked on her investments on Lending Club.com, worked on some math problems, watched a documentary by the History Channel about George Washington.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, studied this month's visiting teaching message, read in The Histories by Herodotus, started Othello by Shakespeare, played ping-pong, read the last half and finished The Ranger's Apprentice #2, and took a Saxon math placement test
Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbooks, he is listening to Stormbreaker, went to work, played ping-pong, led a scout training and went to mutual.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
4-H Livestock Judging
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 13 (1/2 the chapter), lots of great discussion
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Mom School
Pray/Pledge/Motto
Music: I Know My Savior Loves Me, How Firm a Foundation, We'll Bring the World His Truth and the Valiant Song. We also worked on a rhythm poem.
Character: We read two articles from The Friend about friendship.
Fantasy: We read 5 chapters from Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories by Ian Beck.
Science: We attended a 4-H Livestock judging clinic that lasted 5 hours. What a joy! The kids all really enjoyed it though and they learned more about horses, beef, swine, sheep and goats. I went with them to each class and did learn a thing or two myself. I managed to read 1/2 of a book so it wasn't a total waste of time for myself.
Library visit
Music store visit: It's a shame that I have to keep going to the music store to buy more piano books because they keep tearing through the ones they have.
Caleb: Read his scriptures, read to his public school teacher on the phone, read a McGuffy lesson, did a Evan-Moor geography lesson, worked on his story that he is writing, listened to a Magic Tree House book on tape for an hour, and read in some books.
Luke: Read his scriptures, listened to Brisingr for 30 minutes on tape, and read the Hardy Boys #1 for over four hours and finished it.
Jared: Read his scriptures, did a Saxon Math 6/5 lesson, did a Daily Grams lessons, practiced his multiplication tables, listened to a book on tape for 30 minutes, read a book to Caleb and read for 30 minutes in Peter and the Starcatchers.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, finished The Freedom Factor by Gerald Lund, read several Whitman poems for scholar school, worked on her math, practiced the piano, and read Red Scarf Girl for two hours.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, worked on organizing a Mom School for the boys with some other home school families, Peterson's word of the day, read in The Histories by Herodotus and read 1/2 of The Ranger's Apprentice #2.
Alex: Read his scriptures, reading in the church manuals, Peterson's word of the day, went to work and went to Roundtable for scouts.
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Mom School
Pray/Pledge/Motto
Music: I Know My Savior Loves Me, How Firm a Foundation, We'll Bring the World His Truth and the Valiant Song. We also worked on a rhythm poem.
Character: We read two articles from The Friend about friendship.
Fantasy: We read 5 chapters from Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories by Ian Beck.
Science: We attended a 4-H Livestock judging clinic that lasted 5 hours. What a joy! The kids all really enjoyed it though and they learned more about horses, beef, swine, sheep and goats. I went with them to each class and did learn a thing or two myself. I managed to read 1/2 of a book so it wasn't a total waste of time for myself.
Library visit
Music store visit: It's a shame that I have to keep going to the music store to buy more piano books because they keep tearing through the ones they have.
Caleb: Read his scriptures, read to his public school teacher on the phone, read a McGuffy lesson, did a Evan-Moor geography lesson, worked on his story that he is writing, listened to a Magic Tree House book on tape for an hour, and read in some books.
Luke: Read his scriptures, listened to Brisingr for 30 minutes on tape, and read the Hardy Boys #1 for over four hours and finished it.
Jared: Read his scriptures, did a Saxon Math 6/5 lesson, did a Daily Grams lessons, practiced his multiplication tables, listened to a book on tape for 30 minutes, read a book to Caleb and read for 30 minutes in Peter and the Starcatchers.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, finished The Freedom Factor by Gerald Lund, read several Whitman poems for scholar school, worked on her math, practiced the piano, and read Red Scarf Girl for two hours.
Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, worked on organizing a Mom School for the boys with some other home school families, Peterson's word of the day, read in The Histories by Herodotus and read 1/2 of The Ranger's Apprentice #2.
Alex: Read his scriptures, reading in the church manuals, Peterson's word of the day, went to work and went to Roundtable for scouts.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Ramping up on the piano
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 12
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2: 1-2
Today I had to go into "town" with Jared for a doctor's appointment. We were gone for the morning but Alex was home with the kids. So here are some of the things that I know that we learned today, I don't know everything since I was gone for the morning.
Things are going VERY, well for us with our Leadership Education. We could not be more happy. We'll ,if they would learn to keep their hands to themselves that would really make the world go round. haha
Caleb: Played Raz-kids. His reading fluency is really improving. This would not be my first choice (computer game), but Caleb has had a hard time connecting with other learning methods and he is really doing well with this one. He worked on several core things today!
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, had piano lessons, worked on his 3's times tables, worked on his story, and read for almost two hours in The Hardy Boys #1. (He's so funny because he can't say jalopy, which is in the story, he keeps asking me and he keeps getting it wrong). Played ping-pong and Wii sports. He prepared the Family Home Evening lesson. Luke has the stewardship of lunch. He's doing well it, but still needs a lot of help.
Jared: Helped me with grocery shopping, went to the library with me, practiced the piano, went to piano lessons, did a math assignment, did a multiplication drill sheet, did 5 pages of Explode the Code, read for well over an hour in Peter and the Starcatchers #2 (he read most of that out loud to me), and played Wii sports. We also reviewed several vocabulary words. His core behavior was very good today. He had some redo's in some things (we made him retake his shower when it was discovered he had not used soap, for example).
Olivia: Read over 2/3 of the Freedom Factor by Gerald Lund for her scholar class, read her scriptures, wrote her bill for her "Day on the Hill", wrote half of her compass, read a poem by Walt Witman, practiced the piano, and had piano lessons. She also worked on her investments on Lending Club. She gave an oral report to Alex over dinner. Her stewardship is breakfast. She has done very well with this over the past several weeks. Tonight she prepared the sourdough starter for pancakes tomorrow. When it comes to cooking Olivia needs no help and learns things on her own. Yesterday she made a homemade carrot cake, which she's made multiple times before. Later she discovered that we were out of powdered sugar. I told her that she could make powdered sugar, but I didn't know how, so she googled making powdered sugar with floor and found a recipe. She made it and it turned out great. Today she made homemade pudding, with out a recipe, that she made up. It turned out great. Sometimes I wonder were she came from.
Deanna: Wrote in my journal, read scriptures, finished The Ranger's Apprentice, practiced the piano, played ping pong, and went to my piano lessons (she's working me!).
Alex: Read scriptures, reading a lot in the church handbooks, went to work, had lots of business meetings, played ping pong, and worked on our investments (I guess he does this everyday though).
Family Home Evening:
Songs: The Valiant Song and I Know the Savior Lives
Testimonies: Alex, Deanna, Olivia, Jared, Luke and Caleb today all bore their's
Strength of Youth: Serving Others
The Proclamation to the World: 8th paragraph and discussion on the degeneration of the family
Article of Faith: 12th
Weekly Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Character Rule: We restarted 21 Rules of this House, Rule #1-Obey the Lord
Lesson: (Luke) He based his lesson on this page off of the church website. We had a great lesson on self-reliance and what it was. We also discussed several scripture stories (Lehi & his family, Noah & the Ark, Joseph in Egypt, Lachoneus & the Gadianton Robbers) of those who were or were not self-reliant.
Activity: We played a new math game I bought this weekend. I think it was called Real World Math: Unexpected Events. They had to keep a ledger though out the game of the money they made and spent. This required reading cards, writing in the ledger and doing math to keep your statement current. You can't beat a game that covers so many subjects! The kids really liked it and did well. I was surprised at how much they all caught. Especially at Caleb's ability to figure things out.
Treats: Homemade pudding and carrot cake, thank you Olivia.
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2: 1-2
Today I had to go into "town" with Jared for a doctor's appointment. We were gone for the morning but Alex was home with the kids. So here are some of the things that I know that we learned today, I don't know everything since I was gone for the morning.
Things are going VERY, well for us with our Leadership Education. We could not be more happy. We'll ,if they would learn to keep their hands to themselves that would really make the world go round. haha
Caleb: Played Raz-kids. His reading fluency is really improving. This would not be my first choice (computer game), but Caleb has had a hard time connecting with other learning methods and he is really doing well with this one. He worked on several core things today!
Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, had piano lessons, worked on his 3's times tables, worked on his story, and read for almost two hours in The Hardy Boys #1. (He's so funny because he can't say jalopy, which is in the story, he keeps asking me and he keeps getting it wrong). Played ping-pong and Wii sports. He prepared the Family Home Evening lesson. Luke has the stewardship of lunch. He's doing well it, but still needs a lot of help.
Jared: Helped me with grocery shopping, went to the library with me, practiced the piano, went to piano lessons, did a math assignment, did a multiplication drill sheet, did 5 pages of Explode the Code, read for well over an hour in Peter and the Starcatchers #2 (he read most of that out loud to me), and played Wii sports. We also reviewed several vocabulary words. His core behavior was very good today. He had some redo's in some things (we made him retake his shower when it was discovered he had not used soap, for example).
Olivia: Read over 2/3 of the Freedom Factor by Gerald Lund for her scholar class, read her scriptures, wrote her bill for her "Day on the Hill", wrote half of her compass, read a poem by Walt Witman, practiced the piano, and had piano lessons. She also worked on her investments on Lending Club. She gave an oral report to Alex over dinner. Her stewardship is breakfast. She has done very well with this over the past several weeks. Tonight she prepared the sourdough starter for pancakes tomorrow. When it comes to cooking Olivia needs no help and learns things on her own. Yesterday she made a homemade carrot cake, which she's made multiple times before. Later she discovered that we were out of powdered sugar. I told her that she could make powdered sugar, but I didn't know how, so she googled making powdered sugar with floor and found a recipe. She made it and it turned out great. Today she made homemade pudding, with out a recipe, that she made up. It turned out great. Sometimes I wonder were she came from.
Deanna: Wrote in my journal, read scriptures, finished The Ranger's Apprentice, practiced the piano, played ping pong, and went to my piano lessons (she's working me!).
Alex: Read scriptures, reading a lot in the church handbooks, went to work, had lots of business meetings, played ping pong, and worked on our investments (I guess he does this everyday though).
Family Home Evening:
Songs: The Valiant Song and I Know the Savior Lives
Testimonies: Alex, Deanna, Olivia, Jared, Luke and Caleb today all bore their's
Strength of Youth: Serving Others
The Proclamation to the World: 8th paragraph and discussion on the degeneration of the family
Article of Faith: 12th
Weekly Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Character Rule: We restarted 21 Rules of this House, Rule #1-Obey the Lord
Lesson: (Luke) He based his lesson on this page off of the church website. We had a great lesson on self-reliance and what it was. We also discussed several scripture stories (Lehi & his family, Noah & the Ark, Joseph in Egypt, Lachoneus & the Gadianton Robbers) of those who were or were not self-reliant.
Activity: We played a new math game I bought this weekend. I think it was called Real World Math: Unexpected Events. They had to keep a ledger though out the game of the money they made and spent. This required reading cards, writing in the ledger and doing math to keep your statement current. You can't beat a game that covers so many subjects! The kids really liked it and did well. I was surprised at how much they all caught. Especially at Caleb's ability to figure things out.
Treats: Homemade pudding and carrot cake, thank you Olivia.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Family Counsel
Since we are off the "conveyor belt" I can post on a nontraditional school day right? Tonight we had an extended family counsel.
Luke: Read 50 pages in the The Ranger's Apprentice. Memorize his 3's and 4's times tables.
Jared: Read 30 pages in Peter and the Shadow Thieves. Get quicker on his times tables, especially the 12's.
Olivia: Read The Freedom Factor for her Key of Liberty class. Finish her compass. Write her bill for the homeschooling "Day on the Hill."
Deanna: Read 100 pages in "The Histories" by Herodotus, find and online placement test for math so I can find out which book I should be in, and read Othello by Shakespeare.
Alex: Read 30 pages in the Church Handbook (the Bishopric has a goal to reread all the handbooks over the course of the next month), order a CLU class (a professional class for his industry, long story) and write his compass.
- We reviewed with the kids what they learned and how they felt about the week. This included Alex and I reporting on our phase and what we did for our learning for the week. They hadn't realized I had done some Algebra, so that was a good time to talk about that.
- We reviewed the curriculum for core phase. (true/false, good/bad, and right and wrong).
- We let Olivia know that she will now be responsible to give Alex an oral report at the end of every day about what she did for her studies. When she's older and more entrenched in scholar phase we'll make this written.
- We each set a couple of goals of things specifically we wanted to accomplish for the week. Here's our goals:
Luke: Read 50 pages in the The Ranger's Apprentice. Memorize his 3's and 4's times tables.
Jared: Read 30 pages in Peter and the Shadow Thieves. Get quicker on his times tables, especially the 12's.
Olivia: Read The Freedom Factor for her Key of Liberty class. Finish her compass. Write her bill for the homeschooling "Day on the Hill."
Deanna: Read 100 pages in "The Histories" by Herodotus, find and online placement test for math so I can find out which book I should be in, and read Othello by Shakespeare.
Alex: Read 30 pages in the Church Handbook (the Bishopric has a goal to reread all the handbooks over the course of the next month), order a CLU class (a professional class for his industry, long story) and write his compass.
- We also had a very long, emotional discussion about 4-H. We narrowed it down to just Archery for the three older kids. Horse for the two older kids. And Caleb will do a Clover bud Bunny. That's it. Two of them are officers in their clubs. That's plenty. We've scratched a couple of extra classes. I'm teaching the Clover bud program this year also.
- After the kids were asleep and I'm sitting her catching up on my blogging Olivia and Alex are here having an hour long discussion about conservatism, being involved in the political process and our local, state and national leaders. I'm glad Alex is so involved. He's a good example to the kids. Right now he's the VP for the District Republican party as well as an officer in our county. Very busy guy he is!
Friday, January 8, 2010
"Today" (I'm backdating again), we went to Boise to spend time with our family. In the morning we worked on our piano and did some reading. We also worked on our multiplication tables. Caleb progressed another level on his Raz-kids. Olivia went to her scholar class and the common wealth school.
We swam in the hotel swimming pool with our cousins and had a great time. We hung out at a curriculum store and bought some maps, games and music tapes. So fun! We also spoiled ourselves at Barnes and Noble. Stay tuned to our good reads accounts to see what treasures we found!
"Tomorrow" Alex is going to the a Republican Convention. He was able to go to the rededication of the State Capitol also.
Life is good. We are staying of the "conveyor belt." It's hard, but we are still smiling.
We swam in the hotel swimming pool with our cousins and had a great time. We hung out at a curriculum store and bought some maps, games and music tapes. So fun! We also spoiled ourselves at Barnes and Noble. Stay tuned to our good reads accounts to see what treasures we found!
"Tomorrow" Alex is going to the a Republican Convention. He was able to go to the rededication of the State Capitol also.
Life is good. We are staying of the "conveyor belt." It's hard, but we are still smiling.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 10
Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Nephi 4:6
Pray/Pledge/Motto
Music: Lots of Primary song singing
Christian Living: We read almost half of the January Friend.
Math: We discussed the principle of multiplication and practiced the multiplication tables.
Idaho History: We filled out some papers for the home school day on the hill in a couple of weeks. They had to fill out several Idaho State facts. It also included lots of information about the State Capital building. We looked up the answers to these questions on several different websites.
Government: We discussed the purpose of bills and what makes a good bill. We brainstormed for a while. Luke wrote a bill about having a state essay contest that promoted the attributes of Idaho aimed at attracting revue through tourism. Jared wrote a bill petitioning Idaho to create a "State Dog" and that being the boarder collie. Olivia is still working on hers. They will present there bills at the Day on the Hill event. They will debate them and try to get them to "pass" in a mock legislative meeting.
Chores/ Animal Care
Caleb: Played on Raz-kids for a long time and graduated to another level. He worked on a story, which included handwriting.
Luke: Read his scriptures, working on his 3's multiplication tables, worked on his story, made macaroni and cheese for a life skill, he is reading a book about Marie Curie, wrote in Let's Write, practiced the piano, he went to scouts and he played with Lego's.
Jared: He has his multiplication tables memorized, but need to work on speed. He played the Wii for some exercise, he played with Lego's, practiced the piano, and went to scouts.
Olivia: She finished The Real George Washington, worked on her memorization of the Declaration of Independence, she is spending a lot of time on her loom, she made a hand stitched pillow for activity day girls today at church, she practiced the piano, finished her writing assignments for her scholar class tomorrow, wrote a pen pal, wrote an article for the 4-H newsletter-she's the club reporter and she read her scriptures.
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, conference talk, practiced the piano, finished The Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, worked on some Saxon Math (so fun!-inspire right!), helped at activity day girls, read several chapters in the Bible (reading as a novel for my goal to read the 100 great books, I'm in 1 Samuel) and I started A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation by Daniel Menaker.
Alex: Scriptures, went to work, listening to something on tape ?, and had a great day!
I'm sure I'm forgetting many things....
Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Nephi 4:6
Pray/Pledge/Motto
Music: Lots of Primary song singing
Christian Living: We read almost half of the January Friend.
Math: We discussed the principle of multiplication and practiced the multiplication tables.
Idaho History: We filled out some papers for the home school day on the hill in a couple of weeks. They had to fill out several Idaho State facts. It also included lots of information about the State Capital building. We looked up the answers to these questions on several different websites.
Government: We discussed the purpose of bills and what makes a good bill. We brainstormed for a while. Luke wrote a bill about having a state essay contest that promoted the attributes of Idaho aimed at attracting revue through tourism. Jared wrote a bill petitioning Idaho to create a "State Dog" and that being the boarder collie. Olivia is still working on hers. They will present there bills at the Day on the Hill event. They will debate them and try to get them to "pass" in a mock legislative meeting.
Chores/ Animal Care
Caleb: Played on Raz-kids for a long time and graduated to another level. He worked on a story, which included handwriting.
Luke: Read his scriptures, working on his 3's multiplication tables, worked on his story, made macaroni and cheese for a life skill, he is reading a book about Marie Curie, wrote in Let's Write, practiced the piano, he went to scouts and he played with Lego's.
Jared: He has his multiplication tables memorized, but need to work on speed. He played the Wii for some exercise, he played with Lego's, practiced the piano, and went to scouts.
Olivia: She finished The Real George Washington, worked on her memorization of the Declaration of Independence, she is spending a lot of time on her loom, she made a hand stitched pillow for activity day girls today at church, she practiced the piano, finished her writing assignments for her scholar class tomorrow, wrote a pen pal, wrote an article for the 4-H newsletter-she's the club reporter and she read her scriptures.
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, conference talk, practiced the piano, finished The Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, worked on some Saxon Math (so fun!-inspire right!), helped at activity day girls, read several chapters in the Bible (reading as a novel for my goal to read the 100 great books, I'm in 1 Samuel) and I started A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation by Daniel Menaker.
Alex: Scriptures, went to work, listening to something on tape ?, and had a great day!
I'm sure I'm forgetting many things....
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Family Scripture Reading: 1 Nephi 9
Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Nephi 4:6
Chores/Animal Care
Today Alex was home all day so the kids enjoyed working with him too! He took them all out to shoot their bows, he helped them with their writing lessons that they wanted to do and played games with them.
Caleb: Played lots of Raz-kids, played several Happy Phonics games, helped write a letter to his new pen pal, addressed an envelope, read his scriptures, played with the addition and subtraction wrap-ups, read books with me including learning about insects, fish, birds and big cats.
Luke: Read his scriptures, started an essay about freedom, wrote a letter to his new pen pal, addressed an envelope, practiced the piano, played an Happy Phonics game, listened to a Magic Tree House book on tape, played with his Lego's, played ping pong and did some reading.
Jared: Read his scriptures, wrote a letter to his new pen pal, addressed an envelope, practiced the piano, listened to a book on tape for a short while, played with Lego's, played a rounding math game, and sewed and worked on some bags for his detective/spy things.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, reading in The Real George Washington, memorizing the Declaration on Independence (has it all memorized, just working on a few words), wrote two emails to pen pals, worked on her Lending.com account for investing, wrote an essay for "fun" about a horse, practiced the piano, and went on a walk.
Deanna: Scriptures, Journal, practiced the piano, helped my brother with something for a couple of hours, played ping pong, took a nap (because I could, haha), and read in the Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers.
Alex: Scriptures, stayed home and worked, played ping pong and went to Stake Standards Night on a Bishopric Assignment.
Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Nephi 4:6
Chores/Animal Care
Today Alex was home all day so the kids enjoyed working with him too! He took them all out to shoot their bows, he helped them with their writing lessons that they wanted to do and played games with them.
Caleb: Played lots of Raz-kids, played several Happy Phonics games, helped write a letter to his new pen pal, addressed an envelope, read his scriptures, played with the addition and subtraction wrap-ups, read books with me including learning about insects, fish, birds and big cats.
Luke: Read his scriptures, started an essay about freedom, wrote a letter to his new pen pal, addressed an envelope, practiced the piano, played an Happy Phonics game, listened to a Magic Tree House book on tape, played with his Lego's, played ping pong and did some reading.
Jared: Read his scriptures, wrote a letter to his new pen pal, addressed an envelope, practiced the piano, listened to a book on tape for a short while, played with Lego's, played a rounding math game, and sewed and worked on some bags for his detective/spy things.
Olivia: Read her scriptures, reading in The Real George Washington, memorizing the Declaration on Independence (has it all memorized, just working on a few words), wrote two emails to pen pals, worked on her Lending.com account for investing, wrote an essay for "fun" about a horse, practiced the piano, and went on a walk.
Deanna: Scriptures, Journal, practiced the piano, helped my brother with something for a couple of hours, played ping pong, took a nap (because I could, haha), and read in the Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers.
Alex: Scriptures, stayed home and worked, played ping pong and went to Stake Standards Night on a Bishopric Assignment.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Today was back to the grind! Here's some of the highlights:
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 7
Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Nephi 4:6
World History: We listened to two hours of Story of the World vol. 2 while we traveled. We also studied the kings and queens of England.
Caleb: Played Blink, worked on a Lego set, read lots of little books, read a book about seashells with me and played Raz-kids.
Luke: Read his scriptures, did some math lessons, did some Explode the Code, wrote an essay about what makes a hero, read several books, typed his books read into goodreads.com, had a piano lesson, and worked on his story.
Jared: Totally rearranged his room. I had him measure everything before hand and he had to decide where things would fit the best. He also worked on his compass. He came up with his goals and typed them on the computer. He practiced the piano and had a piano lesson.
Olivia: Spent hours working on her scholar class. She is almost done reading The Real George Washington. She is also memorizing The Declaration of Independence. She also worked on her compass, but has not finished. She read her scriptures. She practiced the piano and had her piano lesson.
Deanna: I read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, and read a conference talk. I made dinner for some family members who were in from out of town. My big news is that I started piano lessons up again! It has been 25 years since I've had lessons. I'm very excited. Aunt Margaret (our piano teacher) is putting me to work though. I'll be practicing lots every week to keep up with assignments. I'm hoping to continue to keep my kids excited about music. I want music to be a very important part of their lives. I also read a couple of chapters from The Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers.
Alex: Read his scriptures and read several articles in the Ensign. He went to work. He is listening to a Christmas book by Dickens.
Family Home Evening: For Family Home Evening we went to the viewing of my Uncle that died. It was good to visit with family.
Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 7
Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Nephi 4:6
World History: We listened to two hours of Story of the World vol. 2 while we traveled. We also studied the kings and queens of England.
Caleb: Played Blink, worked on a Lego set, read lots of little books, read a book about seashells with me and played Raz-kids.
Luke: Read his scriptures, did some math lessons, did some Explode the Code, wrote an essay about what makes a hero, read several books, typed his books read into goodreads.com, had a piano lesson, and worked on his story.
Jared: Totally rearranged his room. I had him measure everything before hand and he had to decide where things would fit the best. He also worked on his compass. He came up with his goals and typed them on the computer. He practiced the piano and had a piano lesson.
Olivia: Spent hours working on her scholar class. She is almost done reading The Real George Washington. She is also memorizing The Declaration of Independence. She also worked on her compass, but has not finished. She read her scriptures. She practiced the piano and had her piano lesson.
Deanna: I read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, and read a conference talk. I made dinner for some family members who were in from out of town. My big news is that I started piano lessons up again! It has been 25 years since I've had lessons. I'm very excited. Aunt Margaret (our piano teacher) is putting me to work though. I'll be practicing lots every week to keep up with assignments. I'm hoping to continue to keep my kids excited about music. I want music to be a very important part of their lives. I also read a couple of chapters from The Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers.
Alex: Read his scriptures and read several articles in the Ensign. He went to work. He is listening to a Christmas book by Dickens.
Family Home Evening: For Family Home Evening we went to the viewing of my Uncle that died. It was good to visit with family.
Another Luke poem
Luke wrote this during church yesterday. Alex and I are far from poem writers. I'm not sure where he gets the urge.
Church is where the Savior comes
Hear the Spirit whisper lovely words
Under Heaven we sit here in church as reverently as ever
Redeemer He is and He will come again
Church is such a lovely place
Holy Ghost guide me.
I love Jesus so much
See the gentle love of the Spirit
A great time is this for the Holy Ghost
Love is the way of the Spirit
Oh, I love Jesus
Valiantly will I be
Ever will I be true
Love is my way
Year after year I grow
Prepare for church every Saturday
Love is the best
A mother and Father teach us good things
Could He live today?
Every day I write in here.
Amen.
Church is where the Savior comes
Hear the Spirit whisper lovely words
Under Heaven we sit here in church as reverently as ever
Redeemer He is and He will come again
Church is such a lovely place
Holy Ghost guide me.
I love Jesus so much
See the gentle love of the Spirit
A great time is this for the Holy Ghost
Love is the way of the Spirit
Oh, I love Jesus
Valiantly will I be
Ever will I be true
Love is my way
Year after year I grow
Prepare for church every Saturday
Love is the best
A mother and Father teach us good things
Could He live today?
Every day I write in here.
Amen.
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