Chicken Pox

C, my 9 yr old has it. So I expect the 8 yr old twins to be getting it also. The next couple of weeks are going to be just fun.

PINEWOOD DERBY PICTURES

L, my 8 yr old won 2nd place overall with Star destroyer car, C was 3rd overall with his Jeff Gordon Nascar, of course and R was 4th overall with his Jedi Star fighter.

This was a pretty busy weekend. We have the 3 younger kids in Cub Scouts and next weekend is the Pinewood Derby. Dh is doing THE CARS. The kids have all drawn the design they want. C wants the Nascar car of tomorrow, the twins want something from Star Wars. My poor dh was in the basement the whole of Saturday working.

Weekly Report

I haven't posted all week on my blog. How did we do in school this week amidst all the sniffles and snuffles and coughings? Here is a condensed version.

TWINS: Did great in math as usual. Had a test which they aced. They did narrations and dictations from Writing With Ease this week. We don't do it consistently but I am really going to have to. LA and reading were fine. Did Arts this week from Teach Art to children. They learnt about positive and negative shapes. For music, we learnt about Mozart. They concluded that Mozart was pretty boring compared to Vivaldi(the Four seasons is their favorite) and Handel. Piano concerto no 41 and symphony no 40 definitely didn't do it for them. This week we also learnt about the Phoenicians for history. We made a purple dye and dyed a white shirt, we also did Phoenician bread(pita bread) which everyone loved.

C: Worked hard this week also. His online writing class is also going well. He worked with on history, science and art this week. Latin went great, have given up on French for this year, spanish went well.

J: Continued Lial's Basic math. He started learning about the Constitution and the War of 1812 in History. Latin Alive is really going fast for him so instead of taking a week per lesson, we will start taking 2. He will also work through pretty quickly Latin Book 1 which will act as review.

This is my middle son C age 9. Behind him is my messy oldest son's book shelf. My oldest just left for a Youth Group Retreat, so he'll tidy it when he comes home on Sunday.

Weekly Report

I have never done this weekly thing and I have no pictures to show, so it is kind of boring. Next week, I promise to walk around constantly with a camera during school. That said, here goes:

TWINS: CLE math 306 is progressing smoothing. They mastered multiplying with carrying and decimals and place value. Today, they just watched a United Streaming video. LA, reading and Bible also went as planned. They are using CLE. We started memorizing from Living Memory, and continued Trumpet of the Swan as our read aloud. Chapter 12 of School Song Latin was done, as well as 1 lesson(instead of 2) of Elementary spanish. Neglected art as usual, but did the story of the orchestra and 1 lesson of Melody lane and listened to Themes to Remember for music. History was mostly review, went quickly over Ancient Mesopotamia, next week, we start The phoenicians(SOTW chpt 15). Oh, and they did 1 lesson of map skills in a geography workbook. Science- we reviewed the biomes we have studied so far, and learnt about the tundra and deserts.

C: Working on CLE math 502, no problem for him. He learnt to find the area of a square and a rectangle by formula, place value through trillions and reading and writing these numbers. He started Time4 writing, an 8 week online writing class that is costing me a pretty penny, but even though he has only done 1 lesson, he seems to love it. CLE LA 405 is progressing slowly, he doesn't like it very much but it is progressing. CLE reading is causing some problems because he doesn't like higher thinking questions, he just wants to write 'yes' or 'no'. We started Sequential Spelling Bk 1 and we are on day 5. So far, no complaining. French is progressing very slowly ( I wonder if I should drop it?) but Lively Latin was done. He also did 2 pages of Logic Countdown and 1 page of a Map skills workbook. History and music were done with the twins. He is reading Doctor Dolittle.


J, my 7th grader, started Lial Basic College Math. He is the least 'mathy' of my kids. He completed CLE 709 but I don't feel comfortable with him going into Algebra 1 at the moment, so he will work through this book, at least until September. He also started a Write at home online class but he is also working through IEW SWI B with me. CLE LA and reading are coming along slowly, but he is just like Callan when he comes to the higher-order thing questions. He worked through 2 lessons of Spanish Education from United Streaming, did a chapter of Latin Alive 1(mailed the National Latin Exam application in also), and did Fallacy Detective and Building Thinking Skills for logic. He is working throgh the Pass guides for geography, which he is finding a bit challenging, but those are really high school books and he is doing great with them. He d1d history- read through Chpt 25 of SOTW 3 ( The French Revolution), did the corresponding outline from Kingfisher, read and answered the questions about it also from the Pass Guides, watched a US video on the French Revolution and prepared a list in the form of a chart about the political, social and economic problems that led to the French Revolution. He started Meet the Masters(the introduction) in art, did about patriotic music from the Listen to Learn Book in music. Science was neglected this week. UPS delivered our box from Singapore math (Science Interactive 1) missing the textbook, so they are sending me the text.

Yikes, I will definitely make this shorter and post pictures next week.

This is my mom. She is staying with me indefinitely unless the cold drives her back to Freetown.

Mammogram

I got one of those scary letters on the 24th of December(yep! Christmas Eve. It really made my day) saying that further tests ( more mammogram screening and if warranted an ultrasound) were needed because they found a mass. That was it. I couldn't call back that day or the next because they were closed, so I had a really 'fun' Christmas worrying myself sick about what 'the mass ' was and had all these thought racing through my head. I called them on the 26th to sechedule an appointment (hopefully for the Monday before I drove myself and my dh crazy with worry) but of course I couldn't get one until today.
I knew then that I had a choice, drive myself sick with worry about what it could be, make dh and the kids miserable for the next 2 weeks or just hold on to my faith and leave it all in God's hands. So I did just that. I drank a lot more wine and Mike's than usual because nights were the worst and I couldn't fall asleep even with Calm Forte, chamomile, Natural Calm and everything else that I drank.
We started school on Monday. Of course I wasn't as prepared as I should have been and was distracted more than usual but today finally came and I went for the appointment. Did the mammogram, waited a while, then they came to tell that an ultrasound was warranted. Did the ultrasound, then the technician says that the doctor was going to come in to talk to me, and to just lay there and not to get dressed. She went out and by then I was trying not to panic. Fourteen minutes later just as I was deciding to get dressed and go get dh from the waiting room, the doctor comes in. Fluid-filled cysts, see you in a year's time.
I didn't know if I should burst into tears or just laugh and hug her. One thing I do know is that I would never again do a mammogram in December, it will be January from now on.

Today ( or is it yesterday already), the 5th anyway was the first day of school and also my twins birthday. They turned 8. Time really flies. I remember the crying for about 5 months of my pregnancy when I found out I was having twin boys ( 4 boys in all). But they have turned out to be the joy of my life. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without them in it.

We don't usually do parties, but the kids usually choose someplace to go. It is usually Chuck E Cheese but this time they want to go to this arcade place not too far from our house, so we will do that on Saturday. They got board games and puzzles, Legos sets and the Leap Frog globe.

School!! Now, what can I say? It went well considering not one of us wanted to start. We had a slow start but picked up the pace later on. We did most of the subjects except art and science ( for the twins and my 9 yr old) and science for my 7th grader( still waiting on Singapore Interactive Book 1 to arrive). I got a lot of " I don't like school" and " why can't we start next week" and my 7th grader declared this to be 'the worst day of the year so far'. Tomorrow, we will see how it goes.

I will post a weekly report for each of them on Friday.

Salone Mama

Why this name for my blog? I am actually from Sierra Leone although I have lived abroad for 22 years. I actually think I am the only Sierra Leonean who homeschools. It is just not done. Heck, I actually kept it a secret from my mom for 5 years, but she is now living with me, so it is no longer a secret. She actually took it quite well. She probably saw that the kids are doing great academically and are very well-adjusted socially, and they are my kids after all, not hers. I also have the support of my dh, so any complaints and comments are going to be addressed to him , not me.

2009

So, I really think I should start taking this blogging thing more seriously. This is my 2009 resolution. I am going to start with really good intentions.

Today, I've been trying to organise myself for school. We start on Monday. This year, I have signed my 4th grader and 7th grader for online writing classes. J will be doing Write at home 7th grade composition and C will be doing Time4 writing. Writing is a much neglected subject in our homeschool so outsourcing it makes sense.


So we will see how this year goes.