This blog is my attempt to document our busy but BLESSED lives raising and educating our children for His glory. A child of God, wife to one, and mom to 6 fabulous kids. We are in our 17th year of homeschooling using a Classical ~ Literature based approach.

Come along for the good, the bad & the ugly.



Showing posts with label 2017-2018 Weekly Check-up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2017-2018 Weekly Check-up. Show all posts

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Weekly Check UP ~ week 6


It’s time for another 2 week check-up! We just finished week 6 of our school year and we have finally hit our groove. Everyone has started all the classes we have scheduled for this year too.


Madison and Mikayla both started Spanish with HomeschoolSpanish Academy {affiliate link} this week. Madison also started AP Government and Honors Physics online with Dr. Jay Wile start Wednesday. These online classes are just what she needed this year! She also took the ACT test for the first time this past Saturday.


A few substitutions have been made, nothing major though. I switched McKenzie’s spelling from Sonlight 2 to the spelling program offered from Super Teacher Worksheets


We just were not having the most success with the Sonlight spelling and I don’t quite think she is ready for Rod & Staff Spelling 3 so we are taking a more relaxed approach. I am going to be writing a review of how we are using the spelling program and more from Super Teacher Worksheets come October so be on the lookout for that.


Last week Montana received an “A” on her math test! It was quite the feat because she does not enjoy math at all. It is the one subject that can change her attitude from good to worse in seconds. She can do the work, but she just does not want too. I am hoping it is just a slump and she pulls out of it soon…until then I will be patient and we will just plug away at the lessons one day at a time.




Personally, I need to work on my own time management for the next three weeks until our 1st quarter break. I made the mistake of going into the gym Thursday morning when dropping the girls off for training at 830AM. The thing is I got to talking to my gym mom’s and I ended up not leaving until McKenzie’s practice was over at 11:30AM. I needed that talking time, but it put me behind schedule with the rest of the day. I need to pace myself with my own commitments, sometimes I am just too nice.


God has been blessing me so much these last few weeks in little ways. It is so awesome to see answered prayers literally walk in the door! I have made so many new friendships these last few weeks too, it’s been great.


The next three weeks will fly by I am sure but I am looking forward to our 1st quarter break. Until next time, be blessed!


Reviews posted:








Weekly Wrap-Up



©2008 - 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.



Saturday, August 26, 2017

Weekly Check-Up: Week 4 ~ Eclipse, Field Trips, and New Schedules

So, I completely missed getting Week 3 posted last week.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember anything significant that happened during week either. So I am going to progress to week 4 and try my hardest to not let that happen again.

Week 4 was a busy week for us. I made the executive decision to pull Mikayla and McKenzie from the gym for the week…yes, they both were going through withdrawals but it was so needed for both of their bodies to get some rest. Plus we had the Solar Eclipse, the first day of Tapestry of Grace History virtual co-op, field trips, and taking our oldest back to University for her Junior year. A full week for sure!
This week I also experimented with a new school schedule for Mikayla and Montana. It is more of a block schedule having them complete our necessaries daily and then having focus days for the rest of the subjects. This schedule worked a lot better this week for both girls. I am still trying to figure out how to get all the school in for Mikayla as homeschool 2-a-day schedule starts after Labor Day. She will only have 2.5 hours to eat and do some school work before heading back to training.  Trust me, the thought of pulling her from morning training has entered my mind several times but I know she gets the best training during the morning with the smaller groups. This year a group of gym moms and I will be taking turns sitting with the girls during break hours to make sure the girls stay on task and are not playing around. Plus, Mikayla knows that we will be working from 630-930PM every night to finish her daily work. 

Below, this is what I have for both girls:
Mikayla


Unfortunately, I have not figured out how to get our Morning Time Recitations in for September which makes me a bit sad…but I am still thinking. If you have any suggestions, please do share! My weekly goal is to only need to work with Mikayla on Saturday’s but I know that history progresses it may be necessary to work with Montana to make sure she is well prepared for Co-op discussions on Tuesday.

Madison and I check in daily.  We do math together at 9AM and then I typically make my corrections to her work she has already done for the morning right before starting school at 930AM with my younger kids.  In the afternoon, we check-in and she turns in the rest of her work for corrections. Next week, her AP Language class starts and I am so excited for her! Reading the syllabus, I know she will get the push she craves along with having some great teaching. Her teacher is AWESOME already and class has not even started! A lot of the students are from the surrounding area, including having one boy in the next town over. AP Government and Honors Physics with Dr. Wile start in September and they both are equally exciting from reading the syllabuses! 
McKenzie and Micah are my easy students, yay! They both love to learn and this past week we spent learning through play. McKenzie’s reading has really picked up which makes me happy! She wants to read now which is great. She turns 8 on Monday and will be having her birthday party on Saturday with many of her gym friends on Saturday afternoon.
On Monday, we watched the solar eclipse like the rest of the country. We did not have glasses because I was weary of them, but we did experience a darkening of the skies and saw the shadow. We watched on NASA TV and I told Madison that we will go to TX when the next one occurs to be in a section of totality.
Wednesday, we went on our first scheduled field trip to the National Weather Station that is about 5 minutes from our house. It was an awesome experience to see firsthand how they predict the watches and warnings along with the weather forecast. We learned what to do in a Thunderstorm, how they send out the weekly emergency test signal, and were even able to see the approaching Tropical Depression that turned into Hurricane Harvey. Madison is taking Meteorology as her elective science course and is working on her cloud brochure project so this was all helpful information. She still wants to be an Astrophysicist, but Meteorology has peaked her interest. McKenzie and Micah were not old enough to go to the weather station so they went on a field trip to the big park with daddy. They had a lot of fun and enjoyed the morning out that ended with eating lunch out.
Friday morning, we headed back to Lynchburg to drop Marie off for her Junior year. Sigh, it does get easier Mama’s but man it is still tough. I know she is safe and she is excelling in her Graphic Design Major and meeting so many new people. This year, she chose to work in the human resources department in the Advising office. She starts on Monday morning and I know it will be such a great fit for her! We won’t see her again until Thanksgiving break, but I know the time will fly by!
Well, that’s a wrap for now! I am knee deep in prepping my lecture slides for history class on Tuesday. I am teaching the first two weeks of the curriculum on the Rise of Egypt and Pharaohs. The kids have presentations to do on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and man the work I have received so far is impressive! The new students have put a lot of effort into their reports and I can’t wait. Montana is reporting on The Great Pyramids of Giza. If I can figure it out I will link her report next week.

Until next week, be blessed!

Reviews posted this week:







Weekly Wrap-Up


©2008 - 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Weekly Check-Up ~ weeks 1 and 2

Happy Saturday friends!


Another school year has started in our house and it feels good to be back in routine. Well, sort of a routine because we are still juggling summer gymnastics and cheerleading schedules. I'll be the first to admit that I am ready for September 5th to get here so we can get back into our real routine.


We are in our 9th year! WOW, 9 years guys! I remember the LCDR and I decided to homeschool our girls. Since then we have added two children, McKenzie and Micah, to our Academy and have graduated Marie, who is now a Junior in college! This year we have a 11th grader, a 9th grader, a 5th grader, a 2nd grader, and a preschooler to round us out. Check out our Plan of Study for the 2017 - 2018 school year,  I made a few changes for the better just before we started school because I am dealing with meeting requirements for the    U.S. Service Academies for Madison and NCAA guidelines for Mikayla.


Our first day of school this year was on July 31st much to the chagrin of a few of my students. As you can see from the picture, some were more excited than others to hit the books again. We don't jump full force into our year the first week, rather we do a few subjects based on the grade of each child and then continue to add in more subjects each week. By the week of Sept 4th I plan to be at full force schedule for everyone.



A lot has happened over the last two weeks including a few meltdowns but learning has taken center stage. I am still in the process of figuring out a schedule for me to teach each of my 5 school age children effectively this year. Our year end testing identified some gaps in some of my children's learning, I take full responsibility for that. I thought they could learn a bit independently, and I was wrong.



But you know what?! God is good and has shown me the error of my ways and already showed me how to get back on track. Is it going to be easy? No. Not in the least bit of sense. It will mean long days of schooling for me; but my children are worth it! Their education is my primary focus and I will "Do the Work of Homescholing" as I read from Brandy at AfterThoughts. We will be doing some extensive review and filling in gaps with fun and creative ways and also learning new things. Attitudes will need to be put into check at times, mine included. Since I am not one to back away from a challenge I say, bring it on and let's do this!



Micah is all boy and I love it! He is a 3 year old trapped inside of a 10 year old body, LOL! The things he says are hilarious at times. I am learning very quickly that he is not a sit down for long type of child to learn lessons. He likes to move, wiggle, and dance to his own beat so I have been tailoring and sneaking in learning time. One big change over the last few weeks is that he is sleeping through the night in his own bed! In turn, that means I am getting a great nights sleep too. Really, it's a win-win!

Madison has been hanging out with friends all summer and preparing for her upcoming AP and online classes. The process to get her IQ tested has fallen through because of loop holes, we still have the option to pay for the test out of pocket and we may or may not pursue that option. We are praying for direction as we go forward and hope that the online and AP classes she is signed up for will give her the challenge that her brain needs and craves. She was also just recently republished in the Homeschool Literary Magazine, The Phoenix.

You know the saying when one door closes, another will open? Well it's true! Two weeks ago Marie had an interview with what she thought was her dream job at school and after a good interview we found out she did not get the job. A few days after that she received another interview with another program and yesterday morning we found out she was hired! They are enthusiast to have her because she did community service last year with another division of the group and she left a great impression. The hours for this job are better and she will have her weekends free for spending time with friends and studying.

Montana started cheerleading with Pop Warner. She is enjoying it and this sport suits her personality to a "T". She comes alive when on the field cheering. Right now they are conditioning and selling products because the coach has every expectation that they will travel to Disney in December for Nationals. I am started putting a little bit aside from our monthly budget because apparently we will find out Thanksgiving weekend and will need to pay as soon as they make it. Our fall will be just as busy as our winter and spring, but I am excited to see my girl cheering!

Mikayla attended the NCAA College Showcase at Hills Gymnastics last weekend. It was an awesome experience for her and I. She was the only girl from our gym's location to be invited to go, which is a huge honor! Her session started on beam which is not her strong event and she kind of almost let her nerves get the best of her. I am so glad she has the training she does to cope with the fears that beam brings her and push past the fear. She was able to do her series, front tuck, and a jump series before moving on to the next event. If you want to see her videos here is a link on my Instagram. She had a few recruiter/coaches looking at her and making notes while she was on floor, which is super exciting! God has big plans for this girl, so excited to see them falling into place.

McKenzie loves school, hands down! She is a hard worker at home in her studies and inside the gym. The TOPs results came out yesterday and we are so happy that one of her teammates she looks up to is going back to TX for the 3rd year in a row for National Testing! This year was a training year for McKenzie, not to take anything away from her skill and ability, but we had no expectations she would make the cutoff score, especially since she started officially training TOPs mid-February. I can tell you this though, she is more determined now to make the cutoff next summer. After her birthday party, I am going to really try and change her diet for good. She needs to cut out the grains and refined sugars, as she has had many flare ups the last few months. It hinders her training and daily life because its not any fun with a bloated, hurting belly. The only thing is she is super picky! Like, seriously P-I-C-K-Y! Any suggestions?



Friday has been declared our new library day. We won't go every week, but every two weeks and bring home a gaggle of books I'm sure. Yesterday a little boy who was about the same age as Micah cleared two bookshelves of books! The librarian was visibly perturbed but she kept her cool when explaining to him that they would now have to re-shelve the 75+ books he put in a heaping pile on the floor. I am just glad it wasn't my son!


Back to Homeschool Annual Blog Hop - 2017

Next week we will be participating in the Back-to-Homeschool Blog hop with my CrewMates from the Homeschool Review Crew. Be sure to check out the site and come back and read what we will be sharing.

Happy schooling friends!

Weekly Wrap-Up


©2008 - 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.
http://astablebeginning.com

Friday, August 11, 2017

2017 ~ 2018 Weekly Check-Ups


Hi Friends!

A new school year is upon us and I am ready to hit the ground running! Let's just pray I feel the same way come February, LOL! This will be the landing page for each of my weekly check -ups for the 2017 - 2018 school year. I hope you will follow along on our educational journey!






©2008 - 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.
http://astablebeginning.com