YES! Spelling success!!!
This was our first week back after the 2.5 weeks of Christmas break. While it was nice to be on holiday it is even nicer to be back in routine, or at least working towards routine.
We normally school 4 days a week, however this week we celebrated Mikayla’s 11th birthday on Wednesday, aka her “personal holiday”. You can read about her day in this post here.
Tuesdays we normally attend co-op during the morning but this week because of the polar vortex that swooped down from the Arctic and froze much of America we stayed home. The temperature on Tuesday morning was –2 degrees. Now, that was “warm” by comparison to other parts of the country but with Marie’s asthma I was not taking any chances. Not to mention the fact that I have been battling a bit of dehydration. It’s nothing serious just something that happens to me during pregnancy. While it is happening a bit earlier than when I was pregnant with the girls I am trying to up my water intake. Monday night I had an intense contraction while I was at the gym with Mikayla & McKenzie. Of course I had forgotten my water bottle and so had McKenzie because we were running late. A fellow gym mom tossed me a water bottle from the storage room leftover from the Christmas party and thankfully with a little walking about I only had one more minor contraction. {Now Grandma if you are reading this, things are well and the baby is fine and moving as normal. My doctor told me that as long as I don’t have more than 4 contractions in a hour I am good}.
Monday we started our new changes in curriculum that I had planned. You can read about our History change here. Not much else has majorly changed but I did want to mention here what has changed.
~ Montana has switched up her spelling from Memoria Press to Rod & Staff, grade 2. So far she likes the workbook aspects of the R&S program and she complains much less about spelling which is a win-win for all involved.
~ Since we are no longer using TOG I needed a writing program for Mikayla. Yes, Rod & Staff provides opportunity for writing but I was looking for something else. A good friend of mine, Michele, is letting me borrow her copy of Essentials in Writing. Mikayla used the 4th grade writing portion last year during our review of the program and liked it so we are giving it another shot. We will most likely continue with it until she can take an IEW writing class at co-op in the next few years.
~ Right before Christmas break I was able to find a deal on Amazon for a brand new copy of the ChalkDust Pre-Algebra teaching DVD’s from a private seller for $30. I was so excited as the reason I didn’t purchase them in the first place was the price. Madison now has a second tool available for learning her math and so far so good our new system of her watching Mr. Larson’s lecture and taking notes then me reading through the section with her is working and she is comprehending the material. We are no longer battling over pre-algebra and having math take all day or carrying over until the next day. or the next day. SCORE!
There have been no major changes for Marie or McKenzie’s programs. They both are progressing along. Marie has applied for a job at our favorite frozen yogurt place, Sweet Frog. She is supposed to hear back from the manager next week of their decisions. I think this will be a great first job for her. They are looking for people on the morning shift so it would be a perfect fit for our schedule right now without her being out too late at night.
We are also in the midst of registering to take the ACT in Feb. and filling out an amazing scholarship opportunity for this summer to her dream college in Michigan. For me that means making sure the transcript is in order and tracking down references, etc. For Marie’s part she needs to score a minimum of a 20 on the test. She is a good test taker and her PSAT scores estimate she can score between a 20 – 25. I am still nervous for her though, I don’t want to pressure her too much. I did however have to remind her of how much it snows in Michigan but she still has her heart set on attending in the fall of 2015 and I guess we will just purchase her a new winter wardrobe if all goes well. I will keep you posted about the scholarship opportunity. If you could say a little prayer for her to be selected for the summer program, if it is God’s will, then that would be great! She would be gone for a whole month right after I have the baby but it is such an amazing opportunity I want her to go if even I am going to be without my helper!
So that’s about it for our week. Next week we should be full steam ahead with Sonlight and with our routine. I hope you had an awesome week!
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