2009 - Week 4 - This Week in Homeschooling

This week my children began a babysitting job for a sister in our ward who had a very preemie baby (1 lb. 10ozs.) I am happy for the experience my children are receiving, but greatly saddened by the situation of this dear friend and her family.

Kid's School:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 10-11 (spent 3 days on lesson 11)
  
• Classes/Clubs Attended - Principles of Leadership
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - Review last week's words - New Words - dilate, doleful, conciliatory, insolvent, fawn
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries on each book read - The Winston Grammar Program: Basic Level - Word Roots Level A A1 & A2
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Nervous System - Useborne Science Encyclopedia pg. 364-367, How the Body Works pg. 115-121, Human Anatomy Coloring Book p. 24 (College level book - we do not memorize the terminology, but the detailed pictures are really good).
  
• P.E. - Daily dog walks. We were supposed to attend a hike at the Arboretum, but we had car trouble. :-(
  
• Math
• Marly: Math-U-See - Epsilon - Chapters 5-8
  
• Chris: Math-U-See - Delta - Chapter 14, Review for Unit 2 Test, online math drills (see below)
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: The Story of the World: Vol.2 2-17, Princess Academy, The Seventh Tower, Book of a Thousand Days, Johnathan Livingston Seagull
  
• Chris: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Vol. 1, 1-35 thru 1-37, finished Dragon Rider, started The Silver Chair.
  

Mom's School:

• Reading list - How to Be Totally Miserable: A Self-Hinder Book by John Bytheway, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis (quite an eyeopener - I recommend this book as a MUST READ!)
• Projects - (1)Drupal theming - see batchelorfamily.org where I converted the theme from this blog to my Drupal website. I know I'm the only excited about it, but that's OK. :-) (2) Prepared our taxes!
  

Free Online Math Drills!
I hate wasting paper on printing math drills. Math-U-See has free online math drills for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The website allows the student to drill on specific facts (multiply by 7's) or select a mixture of practice questions. I do not keep grades for drills, only for tests because we focus on mastery, so for me this works out perfectly. It has a timed factor that I love, it tells the student how fast they accomplished the drill, but it does not have a countdown visible to the student. I like this because some students have difficulty with "test anxiety".

What's in a name?

My friend KT had a cool post about the meanings of their names. I thought it was interesting and thought I would post ours too.

Michael - Who is like God?

Celeste - Heavenly, divine

Samantha - Listener (?)

Marlayna - Contraction of Mary Magdalene (I could only find the preferred spelling of Marlena, so I'm posting to add her spelling to the website.)

Christian - Follower of Christ

Living on Food Storage

I'm feeling thankful for the counsel that I followed in gathering food storage today. Although, it is quite a bit of work to organize it in such a way that we can use it. With Mike out of a job, we decided to live off the food storage as much as we can. We do not have nearly a year supply, and our three month will get us by, but not without some sacrifice.

My bread making skills are sorely lacking! I am trying a new bread recipe each time I need to make bread until we find a recipe that works well for sandwiches, does not include milk (Marly can't have that), and does not need extra gluten added. I've been making bread every other day without a bread mixer, since ours broke. I have to say that I am EXTREMELY thankful for electricity and running water. I don't know what I would do if we had to grind the wheat by hand. Please, please Lord allow us to keep electricity and running water!

If you have any good wheat bread recipes that do not require milk or added gluten, please send them my way!

"In the TJED Trenches" posts

I am a contributor on a homeschooling blog called "In the TJED Trenches". TJED stands for Thomas Jefferson Education - which is also often called Leadership Education. I choose to call it Leadership Education. If you follow my blog or our family website, you have read my thoughts and how we apply this type of home education. I decided to link to each of my TJED Trenches writings here as well. So, here is today's entry:

Mentoring Adults

I post about 2-3 times a month. The other contributors are phenomenal and I hope that if you are interested in homeschooling that the information written by these women helps to support and encourage you. To see all of my posts, click here.

2009 - Week 3 - This Week in Homeschooling

We had a great Monday with everyone taking the day off. Marly was sick this week and so we did not expect the level of study she usually applies, but she did a ton of reading while she was sick.

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 7-9
  
• Classes/Clubs Attended - Principles of Leadership
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - Review last weeks words - New Words - supple, avow, brazen
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries on each book read - Winston Grammar - Word Roots A1 & A2
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Muscles
  
• P.E. - (Marly was sick this week)
  
• Math
• Marly: Math-U-See - Epsilon - Chapters 1-4
  
• Chris: Math-U-See - Delta - Chapter 13
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: Story of the World, Vol. 2-11 thru 2-16, Oddest of All, Nelly in the Wilderness, Fablehaven - Books 1 & 2, Crystal Mask
  
• Chris: Story of the World, Vol. 1-34, Dragon Rider
  
• Mom School: Reading list - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Young Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews (I highly recommend this book!)
  

SAT Prep - Vocabulary and Spelling words:
I subscribed to a daily email of SAT words through Peterson's Word of the Day. It is a free service and we get the definition, example sentence, and synonyms. I write the word of the day on the dry erase board and we discuss it right after devotional. The website also has test prep questions.

Why do we do this? - I feel that we should focus on getting into college and part of that process is the SAT test. We do not do AIMS testing - that is for public schools to be graded and for funding. They really have nothing to do with the students.

Scouting Snow Trip

Mike and Chris went on a scouting snow trip this past weekend. It looks like they had a blast! Do you think Mike deserves a 10?

Chris said he didn't need his coat because he had thermal underwear on. I think he is crazy! Thermal underwear or not, I would have my coat on.

Fed up with the Government? What do we do?

In my personal studies I have been learning about the Constitution and the way the US government is SUPPOSED to work. I am greatly disturbed by how broken the system is and how we are not really a free country anymore. I read an article this morning that has resonated within me the reasons WHY I am studying about our government. It also addresses how we can fix it....seems difficult doesn't it? I hope you will all take the time to read this article and ponder if it is something useful to you.

Education Must Proceed Activism

The real question to me is....What KIND of education do we need to correct the problems in our country? What do we need to know? How do we learn it?

2009 - Week 2 - This Week in Homeschooling

This week we had a lot going on, but we still managed to do all this:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 5-6
• Classes/Clubs Attended: Principles of Leadership, Loom Knitting
  
• Literature Focus - Fantasy - Leven Thumps series
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - gregarious, incredulous, panorama
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries - Winston Grammar
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Skeleton
• P.E. - Rollerblading & scooter riding at park day, Wii Tennis and Bowling
  
• Math
• Marly: (We are waiting for the next workbook to arrive)
  
• Chris: Still working on learning area of different shapes - we may go back and review to help him in this area.
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra, Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader, Star Wars: Secrets of the Jedi, Pirate Curse: The Wave Walkers. (This child can READ! I wish I had time to read as many books as she does.)
  
• Chris: Story of the World, Vol. 1-32 "Ancient China" & 1-33 "Confucius", Dragon Rider
  
• Individual Studies
• Marly: Loom Knitting
  
• Chris: Linux, setting up wireless connections, installing windows web browser on a Nintendo DS, networks,
  
• Mom School: Reading list - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Teachings of the Prophets: Joseph Smith lessons 24 & 25
  

Blogger Problems

For some reason, nobody can comment on my blog. I have been having several problems with my blog and I have tried to get help. We'll see if they fix it or not.

Laid Off!

Mike was laid off from his job today. We knew it was coming. The Spirit has prepared us for the past couple of months with the knowledge that this job was ending. Even with the preparation, it is still a tough pill to swallow. The interesting thing is that Mike told me a few weeks ago that if he had a job past January 15th it would be a miracle. What a coincidence that he is laid off on January 15th...well not a coincidence at all really.

I am thankful for the foreknowledge we were given to help us prepare for this eventuality. We were more careful through Christmas and have spent a lot of time making sure we do not overspend. We have already considered the ramifications and have some idea of what our plans are. Now, if those plans are in tune with what Heavenly Father has in store for us...that is not yet known. :-)

2009 - Week 1 - This Week in Homeschooling

Rather than post hit-or-miss homeschooling posts, I decided it might be better if I post once a week at the end of the week and just include the subjects we focused on.

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 1-5
• Literature Focus - Legends Unit - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Book Club meeting
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - coddle, debacle
  
• Grammar & Writing -
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Skeleton
• P.E. - Rollerblading & scooter riding at park day, Wii Tennis and Bowling
  
• Math
• Marly: fractions and decimals
• Chris: geometry - area of triangles and trapezoids
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly:
• Chris:
• Individual Studies
• Marly: Loom Knitting - creating hats and scarves
  
• Chris: Game Maker Pro - creating executable games for downloading
  
• Mom School: Reading list -
  

2009 Family Picture

I want to start a new tradition of taking a simple family picture in our home at the beginning of each year. A little bit of a late start, but I guess it is better late than never. Mike does not like having his picture taken, so we have not had many family pictures.

2008 in Review

I copied this from another friend. She always has great ideas on her blog.

The Year in Review Questionnaire:

A Great Adventure - This year I am the president of not one, but TWO homeschool groups. I'm not sure why I did that. It has been a lesson learned in leadership and taking on too many things. Not too long after I took on the 2nd group, I became Relief Society secretary and started a job. *sigh* So, check out my attempts at organizing the homeschooling community in Arizona and the Southeast Valley. Here is a picture of us at one of the fieldtrips I organized.

A Happy Event - Christian turned 12 and became a deacon this year. He passed the sacrament for the first time and spoke in church for the first time on the same day. He loves serving in the church by collecting Fast Offerings (while the other boys groan) and serving in his scout troop.

A Sad Event - The day Sam moved out "officially" to live with her dad the majority of the time. The house is a little less full and happy without her.


Looking Forward To - The end of court...I won't go into it here...but I can't wait for all this mess to be over.

Something for the Books - This year we somehow ended up in the local paper. I responded to a request for reasons why people homeschool and before I know it we are being featured in the article and a photographer is sent out to photograph us homeschooling. This was a little difficult because we are not very exciting when we homeschool. LOL! We mostly read and focus on individual needs and lessons. Here is the article we were in.


Don't Remind Me! - I'm so sick of people saying they like my current hair style. I really hate it! I cannot identify myself as a short-haired person. I look too much like a man. I need my long hair back!


New Interest or Hobby - (Foreign language alert!) This year I took some classes in CSS and learned PHP. I started some websites using Drupal. See azldshsa.org and thesolarcook.com.

Car Story - We survived teaching Sam how to drive! Both the van and truck are still in one piece. No damages have been reported. All pedestrians are still alive, although they may be running for their lives still. My hair is a little grayer and my nails are growing back, although the grip marks can still be seen in the seat I was sitting in. :-)

Kid Story - Chickens! We raised chickens this year and then the kids sold them for a profit. Our neighbors were not happy about the noise. Now the kids want to raise rabbits. We loved our chickens and will miss the eggs, but not the poop!


Miracle - It is a huge miracle that we still have a job! With all the layoffs in the construction market, Mike is currently still employed at TaylorMorrison Homes. We'll see if that lasts, but we are extremely grateful to our Father in Heaven for allowing Mike to still have a job.