Homeschool Friday: April 7-11 2014

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I know it's been a while, but I'm finally getting back into homeschooling posts. I have also decided to change the format for these a little. Instead of having them be just about the homework I did, they will be more of a review of my week in general, with the focus on the school work and homeschool activities I did.

This week was pretty average in many respects. I volunteered at the library, went to dance class, met up with a bunch of homeschoolers at the beach for what ended up being the first truly nice Park Day of the year, weather wise. My sister and I also went out to frozen yogurt with a friend. This afternoon, I'm going to the Allergy and Asthma doctor to hopefully get some answers about some health issues I've been having.

School wise, this week as a little hit and miss. I mainly worked on three subjects: Math, History, and Latin. In math, I am doing a chapter on multivariable equations. In Latin, I am just working through it as quickly as possible. In history, I started reading a book called 1066: A Year of Conquest by David Howarth. I also spent some time this week realizing what I need to accomplish each week to finish the school year in June.


At the moment, I'm really focusing on Math, Latin, and History, with the goal of finishing them all by the last week of June. While there are many other subjects that I need to do, and should really be doing right now, those three are the ones I'm trying to put my focus into.

I've been feeling pretty icky the past few days as well with this super nasty cough, so that might be affecting my work slightly. Tomorrow, I am going to the community college to take the English placement test. To start taking free classes there in the fall, I need to test into English 100, which I am pretty sure I will.

That's it for this week. I'll post an update tomorrow after I go to the allergy doctor and take the placement test. I also have a book review mostly written which should come out Monday or Tuesday.

Homeschool Friday: Week ??

After two months off, I'm finally back with another Homeschool Friday post. I'm not actually sure what week this is now (sixteen maybe?), but I'll go through and count before next week's post. This is my second week back doing school after Christmas break, so I'll try to quickly summarize both in this post.

History
First of all, we have History. Last week, I finished reading The Song of Roland. I didn't do any writing project after I finished it, but while I read it, I did a two or three sentence summary of each stanza, meaning I now have a twenty six page summary of the poem, written by me. :) This week, I moved on to India. I read about twenty five pages out of my textbook, did one paragraph bios of six people from that time and place, and then today, I am researching and writing up summaries of the five major Indian empires from the Middle Ages.

Science and Math
Science has been the subject I've done the least of this week. I finished up a unit on volcanoes, and started one on weather and erosion. For math, I've just been continuing on with what I've been doing. I finished a chapter on polynomial equations, and started one on graphing.

Latin and Spanish
In Latin, I've been working on third declension nouns. I've done this whole book before (and the one after it), so none of what I'm doing is particularly new. I'm really focusing on memorizing vocabulary and noun endings at the moment. In Spanish, I'm working on verbs. As it turns out, the verbs are almost exactly the same in both Latin and Spanish, so this has been really easy for me so far.

Other
In other random things I'm working on, I'm trying to finish Malgudi Days before our World Lit group meets on Tuesday.

So, for the moment, this is about it. I'm going to try to get into a better posting schedule soon, which will involve posting HF posts (hopefully) every Friday. We'll see how that goes.

Homeschool Friday: Weeks 9 & 10

I've been a little behind on blogging lately, but I am going to blame it on NaNoWriMo and leave it at that.

First of all, here is a short summary about last week (Oct. 28-Nov. 1). I did not get a lot done. Halloween was kind of a big deal this year, and with all the stuff going on, school did not end up being my top priority. I did no history, a little Spanish, some math, some science, and half of a Rhetoric chapter. Latin was my best subject of the week. Also, I hosted (and sort of led) a discussion for The Joy Luck Club for our teen book club (our theme this year is World Lit). I hope to write a review of the Joy Luck Club soon, but you know, it is November.

This week went much, much better.

History
For history this week, I did a short writing assignment where I did some research on the Abbasid Dynasty, and wrote several paragraphs about their rise, fall, and the various things that happened in between. I then read and summarized a long chapter out of my textbook about the early middle ages in Europe, ending with the Vikings.

Math and Science
I did not do quite as well here. I did two science lessons on earthquakes, and I did four out of the five math lessons. One of them I did terribly one, one was a test (which I did better on then I had expected), and the other two went pretty well.

Latin and Spanish
In Latin, I finished the chapter I was working, which is really good. It was pretty short, but mostly translation, which is a little more time consuming. I actaully did this book two years ago, but this year I felt like I was not ready to move on to the next book in the series, so I started over, meaning that I have done this all before. I think the repetition is helping me, and I actually know what is coming up. Right now, the translation passages are all ones written by the authors of the textbook, which means they are pretty generic, but I know that pretty soon I will move into older passages (modified for an intermediate student) that were actaully written in Latin hundreds or thousands of years ago.

In Spanish, I finally am almost done with the intro chapter, which is really good. It will be nice to move in to some real grammar and useful information.

Rhetoric
In Rhetoric, I worked through the chapter about statistics, which was fun. They gave me statistics (some straight numbers, others summaries) which I had to analyze, and decide whether or not you can draw conclusions from it, and, if you can, what kind of conclusions. Definetly the most fun I have had in Rhetoric all year!

English, ect.
I am not doing any official English until the new year, which is really nice. I am, of course, writing a novel, but there will be another post about that later today. I am also rereading Things Fall Apart for the World Lit group.

So, that is pretty much it. I have finished several books in the last few weeks, all of which I really want to review if I have time. I am thinking about taking today off of NaNo (even though I am behind) and get a bunch of blog posts written up. We'll see.

Homeschool Friday: October 21-25, 2013 {Week 8} + Life Update

I'm sorry this post is so late! I'm going to quickly go over school stuff here:

School Stuff
School didn't go super well this week. With being sick and busy, a lot didn't get done. In history, I read 20 pages out of my textbook, did a bunch of mini bios on important people from the reading, did a map, and added some dates to my timeline. That was everything I had wanted to get done for the week. For math, I was supposed to do five lessons, but only did three. Also, in science, I did two of the three I had hoped to do. In Spanish, I got almost all of it done, and in Latin, I only did about half a week's worth.

So, school didn't go too well, but I need to make some allowances. This was certainly the busiest week of the school year so far, and I was feeling pretty crappy for a lot of it. On that note, here is the promised Life Update:

Life Update
On Monday, I felt terrible, and skipped dance, though I did still volunteer at the library (mostly because I was able to choose tasks where I could sit the whole time. In dance, that's not really an option).

Tuesday, we hosted the current events discussion group, where we talked about (and voted on) many of the local ballot issues this election.

Wednesday, I went to park day, and got to see a friend I don't see too much any more, as well as her new puppy.

Thursday, I was feeling somewhat better, and I spent the afternoon at a friend's house, helping them decorate from their annual Halloween party. The family has two boys about the age of my sister and I, and we split into teams, Isabelle with the younger boy, and I was with the older. I may need to go back before the 31st though, since the project we were working on (which is a HUGE project) was not done when I left, and I think they might need help finishing. I'd say what it is, but I know some friends of mine read here, and I don't want to ruin the surprise before the party. :)

Friday, I went with some friends to the Washington State corn maze, which was amazing. It is 12 acres, and in the shape of WA. All the paths through it are major highways. We had maps, and went around looking for landmarks, which all had mini versions in the corn maze. We found the Grand Cooley Dam, the Space Needle, and the Peace Arch. Almost every town had a sign, and we found many, including Bellingham, Ferndale, Blaine, Concrete, Mt. Vernon, and many more on the East Side.

Saturday (yesterday), my Mom and I went to see the Joy Luck Club at a local theater. It was an amazing performance, and very true to the book.

Today is my sister's 12th birthday, and we are rushing around trying to prepare for all the celebrations, and to host choir at our house this afternoon as well!

So, that's why I didn't too much school done. I mostly feel better now, though there is a pesky cough that doesn't want to go away.

Homeschool Fridays: October 14-18, 2013 {Week 7}

It's Friday again, and that means it's time for another school update. I have mixed feeling about how this week went as a whole, but I think it didn't go too badly, school wise. I have been feeling pretty icky for a lot of the week, so that has not helped my productivity in general. I've had a lot of chest congestion for several weeks, and a runny nose for about a week. Over the past few days, my eyes have gotten really sore, and I've developed a headache and a sore throat. I was originally thinking allergies, but maybe it was just a really long start to a cold? Time will tell, I suppose.

Anyway, back to school. Here is the breakdown:

History
I don't feel like I did super well with history this week. I have read a really long section out of my textbook about Byzantium, and I did a bunch of those little mini bio things I've talked about before. I was also supposed to do a map of the Kiev Rus in the early middle ages, but I did not do that. It shouldn't take very long though, so I'm hoping to do that after I finish writing here.

Earth Science
I finished the chapter on renewable and nonrenewable energy sources, and started the one of plate tectonics. I only got two sections done, though I was hoping to do three.

English and Rhetoric
In English, I finished the chapter on verbs. In Rhetoric, the chapter wasn't all that long in terms of the number of pages to read, or exercises to do, but the exercises were all quite long and involved a lot of research and writing, which is partly why I only finished about half of it.

Spanish
In Spanish this week, I have had to find more time to work on it with my mom, since it is really focusing on having simple conversations, and learning conversational language.

Math
I'm not thrilled with how I did in math this week. I was supposed to completely finish the chapter on quadratic equations yesterday, and then take the test today, but I only got through three of the lessons for this week.

So there you have it. I ended up with a small amount left over in each subject, but I think I need to realize that some weeks are just going to end up like this. Overall this year, I've done relatively well, especially considering I do have a pretty heavy workload. I should be able to absorb this work back into the schedule, so long as every week isn't like this. :)

Homeschool Fridays: October 7-11 2013 {Week 6}

I'm sorry this post is late two weeks in a row. Today, I really do not have a good excuse.

History
This week for history, I did more of those mini bios that I did a bunch of last week (and will be doing more of next week). I did a worksheet on the spread of Islam in the early middle ages, and I wrote a couple of paragraphs on the differences between Sunni and Shiite muslims, both in the middle ages, and today. I was also supposed to read another chapter out of my textbook on Byzantium, but I did not get to that. Luckily, it was the only thing I was supposed to do this week that I didn't get it in all my subjects. :)

Science
In Earth Science this week, I finished up the chapter on rocks, and then moved into the chapter on energy sources. The last section of the week had to do with unrenewable energy sources (oil, natural gas, coal, ect.).

Math and English
In math, I finished up the chapter on roots, and started the one on quadratic equations. I have done all of this before when I did Life of Fred Advanced Algebra, but since I started back at the beginning when we switched to Teaching Textbooks, I have been doing a lot of review. In English, I continued through the section on verbs, nothing really new or interesting there.

Spanish and Rhetoric
In Spanish, I finally started moving out of number, and began learning the months and days of the week. I am finally nearing the end of this introductory, conversational chapter, and will be moving into some actual grammar and vocab soon. In Rhetoric, I just continued through the section I was in.

Other Stuff
I got a start on blogging for November this week. I want to make sure there are posts going up, but I'll be too busy with NaNoWriMo to do a lot of blogging, so other then two update posts a week, the rest will have been written ahead of time. I also wanted to do some editing this week, and while I did get some done, it was not as much as I would have liked.

All right, that's it for this week. I have cleaning to do, and a Halloween costume to try to finish. Does anyone know where you could find some rather authentic looking hobbit pants? And what to do about the feet...

Homeschool Friday: Sept. 30-Oct. 4, 2013 {Week 5}

I'm sorry this is a day late! My poor cat got cut claw cut a little too short yesterday morning, and I spent most of the rest of the morning trying to get her to sit in one place long enough to make sure the bleeding had totally stopped. Luckily, she is fine, though I lost several hours of my day cat wrestling, and later, cleaning many tiny drops of blood out of the tan carpet. I think they all came out, which is kind of amazing. Then my sister spent the evening watching a movie with our Dad at his place, so my mom and I watched Lost.

Anyway, all of that was to say, yesterday was kind of crazy, and I didn't get a chance to get this written until this morning.

History
In History this week, I did a lot of textbook reading about Islam and the Middle East in the 800-1100's. I also did a map about the spread of Islam through Europe and Asia during that same time period, I did mini bios on several of the people I had read about, and added a bunch of dates to my timeline. I was supposed to do more bios and add more timeline dates yesterday, but I did not get that done.

Science
For earth science this week, I was studying rocks. I did one day on an overview of rocks, and then on on igneous rocks. I did not get the last on of the week done, which I think was on metamorphic rocks.

Math and Spanish
With both of these subjects, I have just been continuing on without anything particularly new this week. The math lessons I did were on radicals and roots, while the Spanish was on learning the numbers 13 and up.

Rhetoric, English, and Vocabulary
For Rhetoric, I finally finished the chapter on definitions I have been working on for weeks. In English, I did more stuff on verbs, and I did a chapter in Vocab.

Other Stuff
This week also marks the beginning of a few discussion groups I have joined. Both are made up of local homeschool families, and one is being led by a homeschool dad. That one is a Current Events group that will meet twice a month, with the first day being next Monday. The topic this time is the government shutdown, and so I read some articles he suggested about it. Our new World Lit groups will also be meeting once a month, and October's book, which I started this week, is the The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.

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Homeschool Friday: September 23-27 2013 {Week 4}

We are now at the end of week 4 of our school year, meaning there are only 34 left to go (that sounds like kind of a lot). You might have noticed today that the Summer Reading 2013 page up top went away, and was replaced with 10th grade curriculum. That way, if you are curious about any of the curriculum I am currently using, or see in a post that I did two lessons of math, and are curious what math program, you can now find out!

History
I finished Beowulf, and worked on a writing assignment about Christian and Pagan influences throughout the poem. I did not do as much work as I would have liked, but I think it should be fine.

Science
I did a lot of science this week. I've been reading mostly about minerals and mineralogy.

Spanish
I got stuck early in the week with an exercise where I needed to learn the alphabet. I can't move on until I have it down, and I'm not remembering any part of it, not matter how many times I listen to it on the CD.

English
I've moved into a section on verbs, but I didn't get a lot done in English this week.

Math, Rhetoric, ect.
In math, I did about five lessons, which is good, but not enough to get me caught up. In Rhetoric, I've been continuing to work on a chapter about definitions.

Well, there's not a lot to talk about this week. Mostly just more of the same. I'm going to try to get some more Rhetoric done tonight if I can, and then maybe some math and English this weekend if I have time, which I very well might not. We will see how that all goes. I posted this late today, because I wanted to see how much school I got done today. Hopefully next week will be a little more interesting.

Don't forget I'm going a Q&A post soon, so if you have any questions about homeschooling (or really anything else) for me, please let me know, and I will answer them.

Homeschool Fridays: September 16-20, 2013 {Week 3}

Wow, it's the end of the third week of our school year already! I ended last week a bit behind, and I'm ending this week the same way. Luckily, I actually did a little more then a week's work, so I'm less behind then I was. As confusing as that sounds, it means that progress is being made! In these posts I'm going to focus more on the topics I'm covering, and the things I'm learning rather then the number of lessons or chapters I completed.

History: Middle Ages
History has been tough this week. I have read all but about 30 pages of Beowulf, and I hope to have it finished this afternoon. The version I'm reading is a very literal translation, and I've found it to be a bit of a struggle to understand. I also did a little research on Germanic tribes (Goths, Vandals, ect.), and did a small writing project. I also had a map on the Viking expansion to complete, but unfortunately, I don't think that's likely to get done this week. Next week, I hope to do the map, write an essay on the Christian vs. pagan influences in Beowulf, and begin the textbook reading on the spread of Islam.

Earth Science
I did a LOT of science this week, and am finally finished with all the intro stuff, and the section on maps. Hopefully that means things will start getting a little more interesting next week.

English, Vocab, Rhetoric
For English, I was a bit stalled out at the beginning of the week, and am still a lesson behind. Vocabulary is pretty easy, though I still have a a few paragraphs to write for this weeks review assignment. Rhetoric was a VERY long lesson on definitions, which I only did about a third of. Since there are only 25 lessons in the book, I can affoard to slow down and spread these long lessons out over several weeks.

Math and Spanish
For math, I'm just plodding along. I'm about a lesson behind where I want to be, but I'm not too worries about that. For Spanish, I did some number practice, and learned a lot of pronunciation rules.

That's it for this week! I have a lot of other thing I want to talk about today, but I think I'm going to make them into a separate post. Expect another post later this morning!

Homeschool Friday: Sept. 9-13, 2013

This is the first week in my new HF series. I'm going to quickly go over each school subject, and talk about what I've done, and what I hope to do next week. Just so you know, most weeks will have much longer posts. I'm heading to a friends' house for a sleep over in a few hours, so I don't have a lot of time. I also didn't do too much in school this week, so this post is going to be more about goals. Also, which subjects I cover will change week to week, depending on if I did anything interesting. I'm not including English this week, for example, because all I did was two lesson on paragraphs in the book. Not interesting.


History
For history this week, I did a map of the Barbarian Kingdoms, and did some research on some of the tribes (the Burgundians, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, ect.). I also started reading the introduction to Beowulf. My goal for next week: Finish Beowulf.

Earth Science
I didn't get as much done here as I would have liked. I am going over the different types of Earth Science (Geology, Astronomy, Meteorology, ect.), but I only did about half of what I would have liked. My goal for next week is to do four lessons (a lot, but doable).

Spanish
This was my very first week of Spanish, and I only did some basic stuff. I learned some phrases like "Hello" "Goodbye" "How are you?" "My name is..." and the numbers. Next week should be more of the same.

Other Subjects
I did one lesson out of my Rhetoric book, which was quite interesting (it was about the four idols of Francis Bacon). I actually hope to write a blog post about it soon. Latin has been a struggle to find time to do, but I hope to dedicate more time to it next week. I got a bit stuck on one math lesson this week, so I didn't do as much as I would have liked, but I think I just need to watch the lesson again, and give the problems another try. My goal is to do five lessons next week.


Well, there you go. Is this boring, or do you find it interesting? I would like to know. Also, I know I've been talking about lesson and things with out explaining what curriculum it is, which might be confusing if you're actually trying to follow it (are you?). My goal is that every week to talk about he curriculum for one subject, along with everything else.

I've got to go attempt to get some school done before heading off for a fun party at my friend's house (the goal is to watch all the LOTR movies in a little less then 24 hours, and hopefully have time to sleep and eat. Impossible? Time will tell.).

Homeschool Friday: English {School Subject Indepth Series}

Sorry this post is so late! I intended to write it this morning, but, well, I got busy. Anyway, this week is going to kick off a series of Homeschool Friday posts that will go indepth on a particular school subject. I'll talk about all the curriculum we've used through the years for that subject (at least everything I remember), and I'll talk a little about how I feel about the subject.

This week we're going to kick it off with English! I'm going to try to fit all Language Arts type stuff in here, so that might take more then one post. We'll see. To make it a little easier to navigate, I'm going to divide it into individual topics (spelling, grammar, reading, and writing), and cover one at a time. Hopefully I can fit it all into one post, but if not, I'll cover the rest next week.

Spelling

When we first starting homeschooling, we used Spelling Workout, which is what Susan Wise Bower recommended.The link will take you to the first book in the series, which I believe is the first half of first grade. While it worked fine, I don't feel like I learned a whole lot with it. It focused a lot on wrote memorization, which has never worked well for me. Both my sister (who is going into 6th grade) and I used it through part way through 4th grade.

At that point, we both switched to Megawords, which is absolutely amazing. Each day, there is a page to do in the workbook. It is always a game, or dictation, or some kind of copy work, but all based on phoenetics. The thing that I think is really great about it is that there were never weekly spelling lists to memorize. Each chapter took as long as it took (often several weeks, and at the end was a spelling test. Each chapter focused on one phonetic rule (i before e, or suffixes for example, and had a list of 30-60 words. After I finished the whole chapter, my mom would pick out 20 words to test me on. With this method, the test is about how well you know the rule, NOT how good you are at memorization.

Grammar

I started out in 2nd grade by doing First Language Lessons .  I think it really helped build my foundation in grammar.

From 3rd grade through 8th grade, I did Growing With Grammar. Honestly, I can not say enough good things about this program. It is done completely independently. The student textbook provides a brief, compact description of the lesson topic, with several examples. The student would read this, and then do the designated two pages in the student workbook. The first page is always new material from that lesson, and the second page is review from previous lessons. Another great thing is that this book teaches outlining every year. This program was perfect for me, and I absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it.

Reading

I have never really done much of a formal reading curriculum. My mom regularly assigned me books to read and do book reviews on when I was in elementary school, but for the most part, all the school reading I have done has been part of history, particularly the last few years. 

That's it for today. Writing is going to be a somewhat long section, so I'm going to save it for next week, along with some of my thoughts on English as a subject.

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Homeschool Friday: Year in Review {9th Grade}

Today I am restarting (a week late) Homeschool Fridays. I'm going to start this week by doing a quick overview of the school year. I'll go more in depth about each subject in the following weeks.

This year, I did school completely independently. I had no teachers in any subject, and my mom only helped me with things occasionally. This worked out pretty well in most subjects, and (more because of necessity then anything) that is how things will continue next year. There are a few subjects where that was not a great method, as you will see later.

English

Having done eight years of grammar already (1st through 8th grade) grammar was not a necessity, but I love grammar, so I did continue doing it. The program I had been using (more on that in an upcoming post) only goes through 8th grade, so I switched to Rod and Staff. It has a very strong Christian influence, which was a big reason we had not used it before, but it really seemed like the best idea at this point. I did half of the book this year, and will do the other half next year.

Math

For math, I used Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra, but it was not working very well, so at the very end of the year, I switched to Teaching Textbooks. Again, that will have it's one post soon enough.

History

I used History Odyssey Level 3 Ancients, which I loved. It had a lot of writing, so it was most of my English too. I did a lot of reading, including The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and The Boys and Girls Herodotus, among others.

Science

I started the year doing Oak Meadow Biology, but quickly switched to CK-12 Bio. The online textbook is pretty good, and was far more ingageing then Oak Meadow. I did not do almost any expirements, but it does not really matter since I'll be taking Bio again at the community college in a few years with Running Start.

Latin

I did Latin Alive. There is a lot to talk about here, so expect another post soon.

Art, ect.

I took a print making class this spring, as well as a stained glass lantern making class.


I hope you enjoyed this very quick review of the year. I'm in a bit of a hurry today, and we are leaving town in less then an hour, but I'll be back on Monday to add all the links and stuff. What did you do last year?

Homeschool Fridays: Classes

This is another rerun from my old blog.

Our homeschool group usually has several classes which are open to the families each school year. Soon, I hope to do more in depth posts about each of the classes, or subjects that have been offered, but here is an overview. Once I have written those posts, I will link to them from here.

First of all, it is important to note that we are NOT a co-op. We have never had one, and most likely never will. That is not to say that we don't like, or approve of homeschool co-ops, but our group has never been part of one.

Classes have generally come about in one of two ways. Often a parent or group of parents decides there is a need for a class in a certain subject area (such as Biology, or Literature), and they then go find a teacher who they can hire relatively cheaply, or find a good textbook that they would like to teach a group from. This usually only happens for the high school and upper middle school aged kids. These types classes can also by more like study groups led by a parent, like the AP European History which was offered last year by a mom who wanted her twin daughters to take the test, and wanted some people for them to study with. So, she cam up with a text and syllabus, and offered it for free to other parents. The kids would then meet once a week for discussion and activities.

The other way is when a parent has a skill or training in a certain area (such as archery, painting, or basketball), and decides to give a class on that subject area. I have gone to wonderful archery classes, print making classes, and stained glass classes which came about in this way.

Though the second type of class is of course always taught by a parent, the first type has a few more options. We have had middle school science classes taught by students from Western Washington University ( a university in our town),  and we have done online classes taught be teachers in other states. I participated in a British Lit class taught that way. I hope to do a full post on that class very soon, so I won't say any more about it now.


I think that is a pretty good representation of the different classes that have been taught in our homeschool group. Questions? Comments? I would love to answer them!

Homeschool Fridays: Susan Wise Bauer

Before I go into any of our school subjects in any great detail, I feel that I must first describe our general philosophy about school. For the most part, it revolves around a woman named Susan Wise Bauer and her book, The Well Trained Mind. We use the classical approach she suggests. Describing the classical method here would take up at least one whole blog post. So, I will only talk about the most important parts. I highly recommend you read this article Susan Wise Bauer wrote about the classical method. It is long, but thorough.

After you have read that, you will have a much better idea about how we do things. Basically, we follow the four year cycle she suggests. I will describe the different subjects in more detail in the coming weeks, but here is a quick overview.

Since I only went to school for Kindergarten and 1st grade, most of my ideas about school are based off our homeschooling. One of those ideas is the priority that school subjects take. In our house, there has always been a hierarchy of subjects. At the top is History. History is by far the most important subject. Number two is Science. These are the two subjects that we do/did in the evening after Mom got home from work. Every other subject was done during the day.

After those two, English and Latin are the next most important. Math is just below those, and everything else is after that. I think that mentality is one that I would never have picked up if not for The Well Trained Mind.

Really, we have followed Susan Wise Bower's suggestions for pretty much everything. Mom is rather devoted to her, and loves all her books. There is not much more that I can say on this topic. Really, just read that article I linked to up at the top. It will all make sense then.

Homeschool Friday: An Update

I am sorry there was no Homeschool Friday post yesterday. I had a plan, but it some how did not happen. Anyway, here is an update about my plans for Homeschool Fridays going forward.

1. I am going to start only posting in this series every other week, which will help me stretch out my topics longer. This way, I won't run out of ideas until like October, by which point I will hopefully have some new ideas.

2. This is going to start next week, which will be about how an average school day is structured. After that, I will probably go in to various school subjects, but no promises on exactly how that will pan out.

3. I am considering doing some other planned series on the off Fridays, but I don't know what yet... Any ideas?

4. I was also thinking about doing a live blog homeschool week at some point. That kind of ties in with the question about the average school schedule, except it would not just be the school I was doing.


That's it for today. I hope to get a few posts out in the next few weeks in adition to the Homeschool Friday ones, including a book review, a movie review, and the rest of the Banned Books series.

Sorry this post was so short. See you later this week. :)

Homeschool Fridays: Help Wanted!

Sorry, there is not going to be a full Homeschool Friday post. Instead, I am going to talk a little about what I am thinking about doing for Homeschool Friday in the future.

My general plan is to start next week by posting about each school subject that we do, one by one. I will probably do Math, History, Science, English, Art & Music, Latin, Physical Education, and Logic. Are there any other academic aspects of homeschooling that you have questions about? Let me know, and I will do a post on that subject.

After I finish with that, I am not really sure what I will go into next for these posts. These will take me through the last week of May, and maybe a little longer, so I will be good until then for sure. I think that that is close enough to summer that I will probably talk a bit about homeschooling laws and testing (that should be about two posts), and a bit about how we do summer, and how homeschooling fits into that. That will take me to the end of June, or the beginning of July.

So, all of that was to say that some time in early July I will be out of topics. Do you have any ideas for topics? I actually have a few more ideas then are written here, but they are not quite ready for the internet, and so  I can't count on them.

If you are a homeschooler, do you think that there are any aspects of homeschooling that I should talk about that I haven't before? If you are not a homeschooler, what would you like to hear more about? Remember, these don't have to be super school related questions. Ideas that relate more to how homeschooling has affected parts of my life that are not academic are welcome as well.

Let me know what you would like to see! If I really feel like I am going to run out of things to do, I might switch Homeschool Fridays to being every other week, instead of every week. That would help things last longer, especially if you don't like posts like this. :)

Homeschool Fridays: First Day of School

 This is a rerun that originally was published on my old blog, Living Homeschooled, in September 2012.

 For the last four or five years, we have always done something special for the first day of school. What exactly that means changes from year to year. Several years we have gone to a pottery painting place and painted pencil holders, and little boxes, and things like that. We also usually go out for a special lunch, or a treat of some kind.

Usually we start school on Labor Day, since my mom works at a community college, and so has that day off work. This year, we were in Oregon over Labor Day, and so we started on Sunday, Sept. 9 instead. Here is a look at our first day of school 2012:

We went to a bakery about five minutes from our house to get donuts for breakfast. We brought them back to eat. After breakfast, we went to start school. As tradition calls for, my sister and I each also got a gift of some kind. I got a new clip board a and a chocolate bar. She got a dog-drawing book with her chocolate.

We did our school work, and then ate the macaroni and cheese and fruit salad that my mom had made for lunch.

After lunch, we went to the Teen Game Day that the homeschool group does for the teenagers. We all get together once a month and play games. This time was really boring as none of my friends could make it, and there weren't any games I wanted to join.

After that, we went home and had pizza for dinner. Really bad food day, I know, but it is kind of nice to have a day where you really like every meal every now and then. Just not too often. :)

Homeschool Fridays: Q&A Post!

This is an old Q&A post that was published in October 2012 back over on my old blog, Living Homeschooled.


I asked around on Google+ and in some past posts for questions about being a teenage homeschooler, and here's what I got. I was surprise by the turn out! If I keep getting questions at this rate, I might have to make these a regular thing!

Lewis Miranda asked-

Here. Is it hard on you, being outside the influence of school groups?

The school as a place that brings people of similar ages to a single location, where they both learn and interact. in that environment, there is good and bad. there may also be some things you would be curious about or (want) / (would like) to explore/experience.

So, what is your think on this one? What is your feel? your handling? why?

Wow, interesting question!  I think this one is a lot like many socialization questions that every homeschooler has heard many times. As far as that aspect of it goes, no, it is not hard on me. Our homeschool group has many (probably close to 50) families, with kids of all ages (17-15 months). There are lots of activities that are all ages that I participate in, and also ones for just the high school group. So as far as that goes, no, it is not really hard on me.

As far as things that I might want to experience, I have not had much trouble with that either. With such a large group, we have done a lot of classes (one mom used to make stained glass as a career and now teaches it to the older kids who are interested, another used to be a high school art teacher, and teaches that). I can also take individual classes or sports at the local high school if I want to. The only things that some of us older girls wish we had were dances and other similar formal activities. We could go to the ones at the school, but we don't know any of the people there.

Emily L. wanted to know-

 Have you ever gone to public school? What are some of the major pros/cons between the two types of schooling?

 I went to kindergarten and first grade at the local elementary school. I actually liked it, though I was really advanced in reading and writing, and so was bored a lot of the time. As far as pros/cons go, I think they are different for every family. For me, the main pro of homeschooling is that I can go at my own pace. That means that I was able to do a 8th grade level English program in 5th grade, because I was ready for it. I also spent two years doing Algebra 1 because I was not ready to move on yet. The main con for me is that it can be a bit too easy to get pretty far behind in something by just procrastinating, even if it is not really a difficult subject.

Another pro of homeschooling is that the people are a lot nicer. :) I do things with school kids sometime, and they are a lot less accepting of people they don't know. With homeschooling, at least in our group, there is a lot less pressure to 'fit in.'

These are just my personal pros and cons. They vary from family to family.

 Robin, age 11 asks

What do you do if you get overwhelmed?

The best answer  I have to that question is take a break. :) I am assuming you are meaning when I am doing my school work.

That certainly happens to me.  Usually with things like Latin, or Algebra. If I am getting frustrated, or overwhelmed with a particular subject, I will either take a 20 minute break, and read a book, or eat a snack, or sometimes do some writing. Then I come back to it. Sometimes, I am overwhelmed because I am not sure how to to do the assignment. In those cases, I put it aside until I have a chance to talk to my mom about it.


Ginger, age 8 asks

How tricky is your schooling?

Well, that varies. :) Personally, my strongest subjects are English, History, and Logic, and I think those are all pretty easy. Biology and Latin are the ones I struggle with the most. I am in my 7th year of Latin, and I found it really does not get much easier. :)

I spend about 5-6 hours a day doing my school. Those 'trickier' subjects easily take up half of that time.


Nepeta asked-

 I would like to know more about the homeschool group and how that works.

Eight years ago, when we started homeschooling, my dad was reading a local homeschool Yahoo group, and saw a few families mention that they met every week at a park. At that time, we did not know any other homeschoolers, so my dad emailed the woman in charge of them, and told her we would be coming that week. Including us, there were maybe 6 families at that time.

For about three years, that was all our homeschool group was. It grew considerably, to about 10-15 families.  Then, one of the families expressed an interest in doing a soccer class. Enough families were also interested that we rented a local indoor soccer field and hired a college student to teach us soccer one morning a week. Four years later, Friday Soccer is now a much bigger deal, with three age groups, each including about 20 kids.

About that time, one mom, who used to be a high school art teacher, decided to offer a art class to me, my sister, and the kids of a few other families. She has done them regularly ever sense. Another mom sets up a few field trips to local businesses each month. For example, last week, we toured a local apple orchard.

Basically, our group is made up of 15-20 "core families" who set up most of these activities, most of whom have been around a long time. There are other families who come to some of the activities, but are not as active in the group. 

Thanks for all of your great questions! If you have more, ask them in the comments, and when I get enough, I will do another Q&A post!

Homeschool Fridays: Stereotypes

Seriously. We aren't. This post will be a list of annoying stereotypes that most homeschoolers hate. Some of these stereotypes are true for many homeschoolers. They just aren't true about me, or my family. Well, I might add a few that do apply, just for fun. :D Can you think of any other stereotypes? Let me know and I'll do another one of these posts.

1. Homeschoolers are all super religious, wear denim jumpers, never cut their hair, or wear make up. We also have huge families.

Um, no. I know homeschoolers like this. I know that their are lots of homeschoolers who are like this. I am not. My friends are not. Actually, no one in our homeschool group is like this. Well, there have been a few people like this who have come to park day a few times, but I think maybe we scared them away. :)

I do know several large families (7-14 kids), but most of our group has 1-4 kids. There's just two of us kids in my house.

2. We are ultra hippie, with kids with crazy names, who don't approve of modern society or learning, and homeschool to get away from all the rules.

This is like the opposite of #1. Also, SO not us. I have known a few homeschoolers who are most certainly like this. We are NOT. As for crazy names, some popular names in our group are Henry (we have two!), Isabelle (2 or 3), and Sarah (at least two). Those all sound like normal names to me. :)

3. We never leave the house, or see other kids. We never watch TV, or listen to popular music, or read popular books.

This may just be the exact opposite of me. :) Some of my favorite TV shows include Lost (I am only in Season 2), Downton Abbey, Eureka, Earth 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Roswell. I listen to music constantly. I love popular music, though I generally go for a more indie-rock mix. :) As for books, well, I have had free reign at the library since I was seven. My parents have never censored what I read. I read a lot, and I love it. Of course, if you have read my blog at any length, you already know all of this.

As for never leaving the house, Here is a look at my week: Monday, clean books at library with two friends. Tuesday: Host American History class (includes about 17 kids). Wednesday: Park Day, which probably has close to 40 kids some weeks. Thursday is currently my day off, where we don't go anywhere and I catch up on school work, though soon I'll have a stained glass taught by a friend's mom. Friday, Isabelle has soccer, and I usually go hang out with a friend who also has siblings doing soccer, or I talk with some of the moms, though recently I have been staying home and doing school. Weekends are usually errands and activities all day long, including Irish Dance and Choir with some friends. Don't ever socialize? I don't think so.

That's all for now. I know these aren't many, but if you think of more, let me know, and I'll do another one of these posts. 

Homeschool Fridays: Soccer

This one's another repeat. 

Our homeschool group has done soccer for four or five years now. We meet at the local sports center, where we have some practice time with a coach, and then play a game.

Homeschool soccer started out with just a few families, but now has dozens. We now have three age groups (4-8, 8-11, 12+), each of which has 45 minutes with the coach (30 for the little kids), and a 45 minute game (again, shorter for the youngest ones). For the game, many of the parents play, especially with the teens, and sometimes older siblings who were not interested in getting too serious will play with the middle group.

Homeschool soccer is a great opportunity for us to get out and get some exercise, and see each other.

I didn't get too much into the specifics here, but if you are interested in more information about how we set it up, leave me a comment, and I will write more in depth about it. My goal here was just to give a quick overview of how we have organized sports like this with in the homeschool group.

This is a REALLY short post. Sorry about that. If you have a topic you would like me to write about, let me know, and I will add it to my list, unless it is something answered very easily, in which case I will just add it to a Q&A post. Those are always fun. :) I am trying to come up with more ideas for Homeschool Friday posts, so please let me know what you are curious about!