By, George, I think she's gettin' it!!

I must say that I am super excited I went to Homeschooling works(see last post). Since I bought 20 Boxcar Children, Sassy has been wanting to read them. So today, Little man and I read five chapters and Sassy kept asking to try. She'd read a paragraph every now and then. She did struggle with many of the words, but she wanted to do it. I cannot explain how happy I am because of that. She NEVER asks to read. Then, after I was done reading, she went and got another reader, and continued to try. I am hoping this is a sign that it's finally starting to click.

weekly highlights

OK, so I said that I was gonna do school everyday, well....... Does only math on Tuesday still count as school? I did school school every other day, but that day I went grocery shopping and hit a million stores while Hubs helped them with math.

We are loving our Geography game that comes with ECC. Sassy struggles, but Little man and I try to beat each other, while Sassy tries to read the names for us. Even though next week we start Africa, we still haven't mastered Europe. But we are getting a general knowledge of where the countries are, so that's all that matters.

We were moving kinda slow through our Olympic lapbooks, but to day we plowed through a bunch of it. Little man likes it, and again Sassy is being a stinker. I think the task of reading frustrates her. Oh well. She'll get it when she gets it. She did like the word search though. I have to find more for her. Or I can just use this site and make our own. I think I'm actually gonna do this for our spelling words. Little man will do much better if he gets to practice them like this. Sassy got excited when I showed her the one I made this morning with all the countries we're learning in Europe. I made an extra master copy, for later in the year.



This is the first of three lapbooks that we've done. I'll get a picture of the rest when we're done. I was in the process of taking bread out of the bread maker and sticking it in the oven, so we didn't ge as far as I wanted. :) Such is life.

I started Phonics Pathways with Sassy this week. So far, she's more confused than before. But we're gonna keep at it. It's hard for her to learn the first two letters as opposed to word families.
So far she's done Sa-se-si-so-su, Ma-me-mi-mo-mu, Na-ne-ni-no-nu, Ra-re-ri-ro-ru. I review previous letters and teach another letter each day. I decided to give her a penny for every lesson she does without complaint. So if we get two new letters done in a day she gets two pennies. Then when the jar is full, I'll take her to the penny candy store near our house. Candy is the key word around here. :) I am determined to have her confidently reading by next school year.

Little man is trying my patience with reading also. He can read, but doesn't like to. He says it's boring. I get every book he asks for from the library. I think a trip to the library is due for us today. He will find books that interest him. :)

Usually at this time of the year, I feel like giving up, but not this year. I'm having fun staying home and teaching. They actually want to stay home, which helps. In the past we were always going somewhere and always falling behind. But we're figuring it all out this year. I think it helps that they are older now. Sassy just turned 8 last Friday, so I think she wants to learn. And the promise that she can join American Heritage Girls next year helps a bit also. :)

Hope your week went well.

weekly highlights

I wish I could say that we did an awesome job, but I cannot. Chalk up another week of incomplete. But, it wasn't all my fault.

Ass you know, the kids stayed up WAY too late watching the Superbowl. So we didn't do school on Monday. Then we did do school before the dentist, and had every intention of finishing afterwards. But I got to thinking that I didn't want to have my cleaning before MAFA, and be rushed. So they told me that she could clean my teeth after the kids. But I'd have to wait an hour, cuz she already had an appointment. So that means I couldn't go home, but it was lunch time and they were starving. So I took them to Burger King. I really hate eating out, but I had no choice. The roads were starting to get slick, cuz of the snow that decided to grace us with its presence, so we had to go somewhere close. So never finished what we started. We'll do it another day.

Looking back, I'm glad they got me in when they did. We got 7-9 inches of snow overnight, FINALLY!! So all the schools had their first snow day, which meant MAFA was cancelled also. So we did school on Wednesday, then played outside with Daddy on his day off. We made forts and things. :) Gym class, right?

Thursday we did double the work, cuz I should've done school on Monday. Then we went sledding with some homeschool friends. It was perfect, since all the public school kids were back in school, we had the rule of the hill. Gym again!!

Sassy's birthday is today, so we don't do school, so we had to do extra. Movies and eating out all day. Yuck! Go to my family blog for a Sassy update. :)

We never got a chance to work on our Olympic lapbooks at all this week. Little man kept asking, but we were too busy. :( Maybe today we can. They don't consider that school. :)

Next week will be better!! Nothing is on the calendar, except MAFA. So I have every intention of completing the entire week on time.

Thanks!

Thank you, everyone, for all your kind words. I feel 100% better. We even did school this week. We are loving the Olympic lapbook. We are doing do parts everyday. It says if you do one part, it will take a month. So, I'm hoping to be done around the start of the Olympics.

We only did two days of France this week. We're going to Splash Village tomorrow, so we're done with school for the week. Today is MAFA. So, it's a light day. So, we only did lapbooks and math. Sassy did have to write, but not by choice. 25 sentences of "I will obey my mom" She whined and crabbed and talked sassy and she earned sentences. Lucky girl. :) She earned her name today, too. :)

I remember learning the countries of Europe when I was in Jr high, I think. Well, I forgot almost all of them. We're really trying to do the geography game, but we are doing terrible at it. :) We have forgotten almost every country. So we decided that we are gonna work on one at a time, not all three at the same time. Way too confusing. But they know more at their ages than I did, so it's all good. An understanding, not perfection, right?

Hope your week is going well.

Back into the groove

I don't know about you, but I'm soo ready to get back into the groove of school again. We've had the best, less stressful December ever. That is a goal of every year, be done by the first week of December. We had a great Christmas and we are looking forward to a wonderful year. Go to my other blog for my thoughts on this coming year.

My school goals are very simple. Sassy will learn how to read securely by the end of 2010. We will be "caught up" to the other kids out there. By caught up, I mean Little man will be doing math that everyone else is doing. We do math-u-see and he isn't very motivated, so we're farther back than I'd like. But I am determined to rearrange my teaching habits to more of a sit down with him and make sure he understands before I send him to do it by himself. I've just sent him to do it, then when he gets it all wrong he has to do it again with me. I'm hoping if I take the time to work with him, he will understand and be less stressed about it.

I've always loved the fact that we're done by lunch time, but I think they aren't "getting it" in that time period. So we're gonna take our time and have fun, and if it takes til after lunch, that's fine by me.We're gonna be doing Europe, so that will take a while. And, I am NOT gonna stress about them learning where the countries are. As long as they have a general idea to where they are, I'm good. Less stress.

As for Sassy, I need to her to read. She can't go into third grade without secure reading. I refuse to read everything to her next year. So she's gonna have to do it and try a little. She's stubborn and won't even try to sound out a word, she just moves on and forgets about it. Arg!! I need her to read. She is embarrassed when other kids find out, but that's not enough to motivate. Maybe bribery will work. Money always works, right?

Well, here's to 2010. May it bring everyone health and wealth, with a bit of smarts rolled in. :)

She can be taught!!

I am having the best time teaching Sassy this week. I know I said this last week, but I am just so excited. :) I have been using Phonics made plain with her since last year. But I really wasn't doing it often. She was also doing the reading/language books that go along with McGuffey readers. But this year I decided, after much agony and confusion, that I was gonna take a step back and get back to the basics with her. I stopped using the reading books and I bought a $10 phonics book. She is still doing a lesson in her McGuffey reader every day and I have her do a page or two in her phonics book. I've been doing the letter flash cards so she learns ALL the sounds, and now we're into a few blends. I'm gonna slowly throw in a few more blends every week, just to keep her trying. She has also, just this week, completed all the pre primer and primer sight words. She recognizes all but 6ish. She is so proud and I am super excited. While I watch Transformers2 tonight with Hubs, I am gonna make flash cards with the next batch of words on them. I can hardly contain my excitement over this. I never thought this would happen.

What's even better, is that she reminds me about her letters and words. I get so caught up in the everyday teaching and preparing, I sometimes forget. But, thank God, she never does.

Also, the website that I use for everything, but My Father's World, is Homeschooling books. It's about an hour away from my house, and we used to drive there every year and look around and let them look at all the homeschooling stuff. But they moved to a warehouse, so now we can't look around, only pick up our orders or have them shipped. They are about the same price, if not cheaper, as some other homeschooling catalogs. We like to support our Michigan businesses as much as possible. That makes us very happy. And, as you know, Michigan is going downhill very fast. So if you need anything, check them out first. I just thought I'd add my two cents in. :)