Homeschooling again

Well, she’s been home for two weeks now. How am I doing? Well, I’m not too sure yet, but school seems to be going fairly smoothly! Mom’s grinning big here! We’ve only had a couple of meltdowns (both math related), and one immediate curriculum revision. That’s not too bad! Much better than I expected. So what ARE we doing? Let’s see:

Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra: We love it! I give it an A+. We were blessed with the ability to BORROW the first lecture CD from a friend whose son is also using the Pre-Algebra level, but is just finishing up using CD 2. I only had to buy the student book/answer key set (and saved $110 in the process). J’s just catching up right now, since I did have her start at the beginning of the book. She has so many gaps in her math knowledge! I’m not having her do every lesson, not at all. What she has been doing is watching the lecture CD, skimming through where appropriate, and working along with the practice problems when she needs to work on skills. In five days, she reviewed Lessons 1-33 and took tests for Chapters 1-5. She got 96% on each test! I figure that if she had started this book at the beginning of the school year, she’d be working around lesson 75, give or take a few lessons. I’m probably NOT going to be able to hold off on ordering those CDs for too long though, because it appears that she may be catching up with our friend’s son in a short amount of time.

Word-Wiz: It’s a dud. The lessons are short & easy, but there is no word usage, no sentences to put the words in context, nothing extra at all. I could create extras myself, but honestly I don’t want to! We’re starting Vocabulary from Classical Roots after Spring Break. I’ve used it before, and already had the student workbook.

WriteSource Skillsbook 7: It’s a keeper. We’ve used these before too. Self-explanatory, and very thorough, especially when used with the WriteSource 2000 handbook (black, old edition).

History: We’re kind of winging it with this. J studied early American history through the mid-1700’s at school, I so picked up where they left off. Right now we’re midway through a unit on the Revolutionary War. She has a project due in two weeks, and she LOVES projects so I’m expecting it will turn out nicely. We’ll do a short unit on the Constitution (a week or two?) and then we’ll finish off the year with a unit on the Westward Expansion. I’ve been thinking about hitting the California Gold Rush, but I don’t know if there are easily found resources for that. We’re listening to My Brother Sam is Dead audio download from the library, as well as watching some videos and using some library books & websites. One book we have is called Primary Sources, and it’s from the children’s nonfiction area of the library. It’s GREAT! Full of transcripted documents and quotes from speeches. There is NO denying the role that God played in the founding of our country! So far the unit is going okay but I really do wish I had a framework to use for this. I’m looking at Tapestry of Grace for next year, which I’m wishing I really had right now, to tell the truth!

Choir is done, for her. They went to regional competition and scored a 1+, which is a “Good+” rating. Considering they were one of only two middle school choirs there, going up against 4 high school choirs, I think that’s WAY better than GOOD! They were fantastic. The running back and forth to the school, having her day cut off near the top, every day, is a pain. I pulled her out because I wanted her out of that environment for a while. Letting her remain in choir was really negating that whole idea. Maybe next year. Or maybe next year our church’s youth choir will be up and running again! (That’s what many of us parents are praying for, anyway!)

She’s taking Lit/Writing, Science, and Art at the PPP two mornings a week. That’s enough for now.