One of our homeschooling friends had a great “playdate” for kids around K’s age in Queens. The theme of their get together was - Apples! K had a wonderful time with his buddies painting & baking. It was a nice experience for him being on his own without me or big sister. After his big day, he brought me home some delicious apple pie (which I polished off!!) LOL. Here are a few pictures, he looks too cute

Dates are wrong, again.

The NYC Arts & Culture class that the kids belong to unveiled their fabulous window display for a local comic book shop. We were all very excited to see their hard work appreciated and shown off for all to see

Their cardboard box city and papier mache lion took a few weeks to complete. They were coming home covered in paint, glue, water etc… the more colors they came out of art class wearing, the better! When my kids come out of art class I want to see them with paint on their ears and glue stuck in their hair. Art is not art to me if its not messy. LOL.  Here are some pictures of their masterpiece!!! ENJOY!

So far so good with the choice of getting The Big Kahuna the Singapore wb’s. He’s enjoying them! We still use Saxon, since it only takes about 15 minutes. We continue working on the calendar & jumped ahead a bunch of chapters in Saxon. I’ve given him the assessments suggested in the program, to be sure he has the material before skipping the chapters. He knows how to use the manipulatives, so he uses them during his playtimes & when I want to give him a quick assessment for the Singapore wb’s. Now that I have a math & phonics routine going well, I’ve added some “history/social studies” into his curriculum. He now is sitting alongside The Pop Tart during her History readings (books from The Complete Book of… series), then I have them look at photo’s or videos online. I will also print a coloring page that corresponds to the reading for both kids.  He gets most of the discussions, I don’t force him to memorize anything or answer the textbooks questions, like the Pop Tart does.

The Pop Tart is enjoying Saxon, especially now that the second grade review is pretty much over. The set up of the program works very well for her and I will not change a thing. I was not a fan of math throughout my school career, and to see someone looking forward to it is a major blessing for me

My new focus for the upcoming semester, is finding all things FREE!!!!!! Everything has become very expensive and I will have to be VERY thrifty when it comes to enrolling the kids into their extracurricular activities. If it were up to the children they would continue all of their classes, but with the economy being the way it is, I’m left holding the axe For me all their activities offer important skills and purposes. I haven’t a clue as to what will have to be cut out! At the very least, the economy & our cuts will serve as a very REAL LIFE math experience. UGH!!

Well, life is happening in between the homeschooling. Let me rephrase that… homeschooling is happening despite life. Some family emergencies have occured and juggling priorities has gotten a bit difficult for me. Yes! I did have a moment where I wondered “Why the hell am I homeschooling??” My answer was found in a 5 year old man when he simply told me “You are a good teacher, mom.” He said this with such pride, like I was HIS student. I just laughed, and thanked him. We then closed up the books and jumped in bed and read a story. Life is homeschooling & homeschooling is life. The Big Kahuna set me back on track and later on in life I will tell him about the day he saved homeschooling.

The kids are still attending their various enrichment programs. Unfortunately, educational trips have been put on hold due to our family obligations.

Pop Tart & The Big Kahuna are working on a display for a local shop for their NYC Arts & Culture class. All the children are very excited about the project. Of course, the usual fall & halloween theme is alive and well at home with pumpkin carving & decorations.

On an academic note: Saxon Math (for Kindergarten) is going rather slow for the Big Kahuna. I think the program is a bit behind for his level. We’ve had to skip far ahead in the program, to find some challenging work. I’ve ordered Singapore Math, to supplement and maybe eventually take over for math. Saxon Math K, may work well for a child that has never had “school” experience. But, he has been in a schooling environment since birth, so this program is not a good fit for him. He has a strong foundation of math concepts & enjoys being challenged.

Saxon for the Pop Tart is going well, she as well is a bit ahead, but I don’t want to push her too fast. She believes she is a math genius, so shall she remain. LOL.

I will be updating the blog regularly, now that the colder weather is upon us

I promise you, we are still homeschooling and have had some cool events take place. All in between a nasty bug that refuses to leave our systems!!

The kids are still shooting it out in Archery class, dad goes with them and I stay home catching up with school work or housework. Gymnastics is in full swing, a special homeschooling class was created for us in the mornings, so now they have more time with their homeschooled friends. The kids are also attending an awesome NYC Arts & Culture class here in Williamsburg. They studied Keith Haring last week, my kids love his art and we continued throughout the day checking out his artwork online.

We also joined in on a monthly homeschooling activity : Passport to the World. The children research a country/location and create a speech about anything they find interesting about the country. The point of the program is to provide the children with public speaking experience. I was extremely nervous for the Pop Tart, but of course, she stood up their without fear and read her speech on Surfing, this months destination was Hawaii. The Big Kahuna sat this one out, I just wanted him to see how comfortable other children were with their presentations. If I make a big deal about something for him, he tends to become very shy. It was amazing to see children between the ages of 3 – 13 have such confidence in themselves. I know that I tried to avoid any public speaking during my school years, and even now getting me to stand up and speak would be like pulling teeth!

More my pace, is the American Sign Language class they are taking. A great homeschooling parent has made these classes available to us in her home. The kids have all surprised me with how well they can pick up a new language. So we’ve been practicing asking eachother things in Sign, which is really cool.

The Pop Tart continues to also take her formal art lessons as well.

As far as “academics” I am focusing on Language Arts & Saxon Math for now. For Science we’re discussing weather & nature. As the weather becomes less comfortable I’ll add in some more subjects.

Well that’s all for now. Wish me luck that this bug disappears from our bodies!!!!

P.S. The date on my camera was incorrect.LOL.

As the sloth’s do, we are entering our schooling days “slowly.” Over the weekend we had lots of fun outdoors & fun indoors getting our feet back into T4L. On Labor Day we had a fun picnic with friends and came back home with the darlings asking to color & work!! Pop Tart went on the pc & worked on T4L for a while then flipped through her Chickadee mag.  Before bed, the kids put their names on their workbooks, and went through them briefly. Everything was ready for our official start today. We worked on Saxon Math K & 3, I worked with both of them at the same time for the initial Math Meeting. Big Kahuna went off and played with Lego’s and the Pop Tart & I spent about 20 minutes working on the lesson. The kids went to the park with their dad, which gave me some time to set up for tomorrow. It was a great first day for all of us, without the stress of the “unknown” I used to have when they attended “regular” school. It was just another day at home, peaceful, fun & educational

OMG!! How could I have totally forgotten to blab about my little girls starring role as the Little Red Hen in the “Little Red Hen!” What a horrible mother I am, someone call children services!

So the Pop Tart had taken an 8 week theater class at a local community college. She loved waking up early on Saturdays and getting to her class. The Big Kahuna was enrolled in a “Mommy & Me” art class (but we changed that to  “Daddy & Me”). While they would be coloring their hearts out, my drama queen was getting her feet wet and exploring this acting bug that has afflicted her. The show was fabulous, two thumbs up! Her role as the Little Red Hen could not be played better even by Julia Roberts. The girl had her lines (and everyone else’s) memorized and was always right on cue. Do you think this raving review is a little biased?? I was amazed at how she seemed to not have an inch of stage fright. I looked at her up on that stage and just admired her guts, if anyone asks me who my role model is… I’d have to say that my 8 yr. old princess is!!

This is a photo of the Little Red Hen, taking the wheat loaf bread out of the oven… awww.

We’re winding down the beach days, pool, & lazy days. Pop Tart, The Big Kahuna & I have sat down and started planning our fall & winter trips. Aquarium, Zoo’s, Ice Skating, Science Centers, Museums etc… are all on the list. No more water activites, sob, sob  

We have been watching a few TV shows being made in our neighborhood, first an episode of “Rescue Me” with Denis Leary & today an episode of “Life on Mars” with Harvey Keitel. That has been cool, the kids enjoyed watching the behind the scenes activity.

The kids have gone to archery class, 2 more times since my last archery post, and still rock at it! Pop Tart celebrated her 8th birthday last weekend we treated her and her friends to a day at Splish Splash Waterpark in Long Island. We always use her birthday’s as a great way to end our summer’s, it falls at a perfect time. Back in Pennsylvania she would have started “school” a few days later, so I want to continue that rythm for her. She started back on Time4Learning today and by next week I’ll have her full schedule started again. The Big Kahuna also worked on T4L today, and had his usual joyful response to it.

BTW… The paperwork I sent to the homeschooling office, miraculously appeared today in our files. I called them today and told them that I had the receipt of the delivered mail. Funny stuff.

Today I felt like calling the Homeschooling Office to be sure they received our 4th Quarterly, Assessment & the LOI for 208-2009 school year. When I started homeschooling, I sent my husband with the paperwork and he hand delivered it to the office. The last paperwork in question was sent “certified,” I did send the 3rd quarterly certified and all went well. THIS time however I have not received the receipt for the letters so a call to the office was needed. So what do I find out??? They have NOT received, the last of my mailings!!! I am so furious. So now my paperwork will be received late, yes, I will take it in person this time. BUT not before I go to the Post office and find out what is going on.

ARGGGHHHH!

Today the Pop Tart & the Big Kahuna started their Archery class. I have to admit I thought that this would be really boring, but the children took to it like a fish in water. The class ran for 3 hours (it didn’t even feel like it) and the instructor was great with the children. It was great hanging out with the other mom’s and just chatting The Big Kahuna was the youngest and even though I questioned his ability to participate in such a sport, he so totally rocked!!! The first few minutes were spent going over safety rules. After that they practiced with minimal guidance. Although, the instructor spent extra time with the Pop Tart & Big Kahuna.

The other families and I had a great time, and can’t wait to go back! Here are a few photo’s.