Where o Where have we been?

Ahhh.......school. Time consuming, essays, papers, APA format....

No, I'm not talking about the children. In May 2011, I returned to school to advance my nursing degree. I am so very close to being done with this phase of my education. I will graduate December 2012, and I am ready for a break!

First the updates.....Next summer, Big Bro' is getting married! One of the first blogposts that I made was about his graduation. Now he is getting married. Miss my boy but love the man he has become!

Big Sis' has moved on to university. We only see her 1-2 days per week , and the kids miss her like crazy! Charlotte has always called her "H-mom" and honestly I didn't realize just how much she did around here. I now have to go grocery shopping with the younger kids in tow. It has taken some getting use too...

The younger kids and I have gotten in a nice routine with school.

Sam has finally made the jump to reading chapter books. Although he does not pick up a book to read on his own, he can and will read a chapter book. What a relief! He felt that he was "forgetting how to spell" with Spelling Power so we are back to using All About Spelling. He hit a wall with WWE and a change to IEW has been a much needed spark to get him to write. He can and does write short compositions! First Language Lesson continues to be a great resource for him. He continues to prefer systematic studies of language arts. He has really enjoyed using Teaching Textbooks and will usually do his math while I'm cooking lunch.

Charlotte has done well with All About Spelling and I have been using the tiles to do phonics lessons with her. I have also been using Phonics Pathways which she does not enjoy as much. She is slowly working her way with phonics instructions. Thankfully, not as slowly as Sam did. She has turned out to be a good little student. She can work through a MUS lesson almost entirely on her own once I have taught her a concept. I have added in FLL 1, WWE1 with her and she has done will with these lessons. She has also been able to sit in on some of Sam's lessons! During the past 3 months, I have been doing far less separate activities since she has been able to sit in on so much of Sam's history and science lessons. When she gets bored, I let her walk away and this has worked well. She is an excellent oral narrator!

One interesting note, we removed all food dyes from Charlotte's diet this past year. Last year, I had thought that we might need to work her up for ADD since she was having so much difficulty sitting still. I found a study online that stated that artificial food dyes could trigger ADD type symptoms in some people so we decided to eliminate and see what happened. The difference is remarkable! After she eats artificial food dyes, she states she feels "sparkly".

Since we have re-started working together, we have also re-started SOTW. Sam really, really likes this resource. He prefers doing a SOTW routine.  I follow a modified pattern as outlined in the WTM. Typically, we do....

Day 1. Read the chapter, narrate, do map/coloring page.
Day 2. Read related text (usborne), write list of facts ( modified outline), timeline, find on globe.
Day 3. Finish chapter, start a written narration.
Day 4. Finish chapter, Finish/rewrite narration.

The closer that I stay with this pattern the happier he is. Charlotte participates in all these activities except listing the facts and the written narrations. She enjoys helping him with the list of facts and ques him in the narrations.

Science has also become a routine. Sam enjoys using the Apologia texts. We follow the schedule in the notebooking journal and do this resource for 2 days per week. He is not writting the narrations but that is a goal for this year. Charlotte does not participate with science for the Apologia days. Apologia is over her head. The other two days of the week I follow a similar pattern using on of the Usborne science texts, library books, etc. that I own. I do not expect Sam to participate but he usually does. He really wants to get involved on the 2nd day when we do experiments.

Our literature readings are done at bedtime. Typically, Sam will read outloud for a bit then Mom or Dad will read a selection. We pick from this list when looking for something to read at bedtime. Of course, a little bit of twaddle makes it into the bedtime bookbasket....this week's fun favorite is a about a motocycle dude and a princess. Quite funny!

2.5 more months and I will be done with my BSN. Cannot wait to be more focused on homeschooling!