Friday, April 26, 2013

Week 13

This week we returned to our normal school schedule after having 2 weeks off.  Chloe started 305 for English.  We are almost half way through the course already, the year is going so quickly.


Hannah started Rod and Staff Unit 2 { for reading but not the workbook }.  I've been really swamped out with the other children and life in general, so I'm currently going to be minimizing Hannah's workload.



She also had a little fun with making words on our magnetic trays. I've since bought a nice big pink one for her to try out and use.



Phebe also started a new reader and workbook.




Science went well this week.  We've only done 2 lessons but the girls have already learnt some cool things.


I'm wondering if we should make a vocabulary book or not - since I know that there is a HEAP of vocabulary to come, or should we just ENJOY the book for what it is?



I managed to get some nice photos of the baby - one while she was reading, and one while she was playing "librarian" and pushing a trolley of books around until she was ready to put them back on the shelf.  Notice her handful of Pony Pal books. 




Phebe continued to work on through her CLE maths module.  As it turns out it has been a very good fit for her.

Phebe also worked on this throughout the week.  Today she got to color in the whale.  



I've been trying to encourage the girls to start giving me their oral narrations for me to write down for them to copy, but today they struggled, so I just gave them copywork out of the Activity book.  I love that I can fall back to that when we are tired and can't think for ourselves.

{ The girls finished up Chapter 17 in SOTW III. }  


Todays SOTW copy work plus map:



We have now done the first 5 lessons from Life of Fred - Butterflies.  The girls have been doing great with learning to skip count by 5's and as a result are reading clock times much easier.  We've also started skip counting by 2's.  { We've obviously looked at these before, but are doing the rounds with them again because that's what are in the books. }  



Overall, this week has been a bit of hard work.  I am really feeling the weight of the 6 children - with 4 of them being full time homeschooling.  { The additional two little boys have gone home to mum permanently - so that is a good thing and has made the load a little lighter. }  I'm also struggling with a little resentment over the fact that hubby WANTS me to homeschool but has totally abdicated and left me to the job by myself.  I don't feel overly confident, or feel that I have enough mental stamina for the highschoolers.  Sure, I can provide work.  Yep, I can read and follow teachers manuals, but it's the overall process.  The time involved.  There is a LOT to run around in circles with.  I'm tired.

Thanks for visiting.

4 comments:

  1. Hugs Deborah, you're doing a great job. Glad you're load is a little lighter now that the little ones are gone. Keep pressing on. Soon the boys will be finished with high school and it will be a distant memory.

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  2. Hang in there. There is more to homeschooling than getting the academics in there. And I find most men leave it to the ladies to do the school thing ~ but maybe there are other things hubby could teach that are more his thing ~ motor mechanics? Woodwork? Simple plumbing work...you know, the sort of practical fix it things that never go astray.

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  3. I love Rod & Staff. We have used them for the past two years for spelling and Bible. Very thorough and grade appropriate.

    I have heard good things about Life of Fred. I will have to look into that. So many great choices out there for us homeschoolers. :)

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