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The Beginning & Intermediate Algebra book by Lial finally arrived. I was surprised though because it is the Teacher's Edition. I tried to locate the Student Edition on the LIAL website, but the only thing it had was the Student's Solution book. I don't know if that is the correct book or not. I can still use the teacher's book. No biggie. I just have to figure out how to keep my son from seeing the answers. I figure that on the exercises, reviews, quizzes, and tests I'll have to either copy them or retype them so that I can print them out for him to do. I did download the InterActMath plugin so that now he (we) can go to the website and get some help with any problems that may arise. It looked pretty good considering I know nothing about Algebra.
Received the Teachers Edition of the Earth Science book yesterday. I like it better than the one for history. It has more helps in it and I understand it a little better. There was a sticker on the outside of the book that stated it was for 11th/12th grade. Oh well, guess my son will be doing that grade level next year. Still working on some forms. I'm trying to keep ahead of schedule this year. I've got a couple of forms I need to redo, and I had to download the correct calendar. Now I'm waiting to get the math book. No biggie, it'll get here soon enough...I have time. More later after I've returned from my shopping excursion.
I received the student Earth Science book by McDougall/Littell the other day from the Amazon.com seller. I'm very excited about using this book except for one thing. I don't have the lab sheets I need that go with a few of the lab activities. I checked the website and I didn't see anything there, so I'm not too sure what these are. Maybe I'll find out more when I get the Teacher's Edition. I got an email from the person sending me the algebra book by Lial. They "found" it just sitting somewhere and realized that they had forgotten to mail it to me. So they are going to refund me my shipping cost. I was surprised. The website said it could take from 4 to 14 days, so I wasn't worried about it. I guess I'll have to write a note to the seller and thank them. That was nice of them to do. Guess if you want peoples business, you'll be nice to them and refund their S&H for forgetting to mail out their order even if that person didn't know it was late!
So, I've been working on some of my paper work for next year. I've got several forms that I've downloaded from the internet that helps with getting things ready for next year. I've used some of the goal charts, curriculum planners, and transcript planners. I don't know how useful these forms will be during the next year, but I feel like I'm doing something useful, so I figure why not. I will at least have a record of what we wanted to cover and what we actually covered when it comes time to fill in that transcript form. Plus when I get rid of the books we used for those years, I'll have a record of what books we used and what they covered. Not that I really need a record of what I teach. I'm in Texas, I don't have to show proof of my curriculum. Mostly I decided I needed a record of what my son is learning because of the problem I had when I made up my daughters transcript. She was trying to join the Air Force and they needed a copy of her transcript. Since she went to public school for 9th & 10th, I kind of figured out what she took those years by going to the schools website and scanning through the courses for the years she was there. I did manage to find some old report cards for those years too, which helped to straighten out some confusion on some of the classes we thought she had taken. When I went to get the records for her homeschooling classes that she took from School of Tomorrow, I could not find them. Luckily I still had the books she had been using and was able to record the subjects and grades from that. It wasn't until a few days ago that I found the actual report card/progress report for both kids stuck in the back of a folder in a filing cabinet. I was really relieved to find those reports. I knew I had them but just didn't know where. With all the moving around we did a few years back, I'm surprised I can find anything!
My son has fallen behind even more in his school work. I asked him why he hadn't done any work in some of his subjects. His answer was that he was stuck. I asked him what he should do when he is stuck, and his answer was "Ask you?" I couldn't believe it. I could understand not wanting to "raise your hand" in public school when you have a question, but at home? He got in trouble for that. I asked him if he wanted to be grounded from the computer? Of course I got a no from him. lol! We will be working on those subjects more intensely. There's no excuse for him to not do the work. I think he was just too lazy and was way more interested in playing his computer games (even though he's not allowed to do that until 4 p.m.).
I think I'll have to limit his online playing some more. He normally can't get on until 4 p.m. and has to quit at 10 p.m. I know that's a long time but you've got to understand that he doesn't have any "real" friends. The kids that are around us are either too young or too old. We have never met the family to the north of us. The one son that is close to my sons age is a real snot. He threw a diaper (whether it was soiled or not I don't know) at my son one time when he and another boy (who just happened to be a friend of this kid) came up their drive-way with their water guns. This kid told my son to get off his property. Nice neighbors huh? The boy who is friends with this kid (I guess he still is, I don't see them hanging out too much) is several years younger than my son. They really don't get along too well. When we first moved here, they played together but the boy doesn't "play" very well and broke some of my sons toys. My son is real particular about his toys and takes good care of them. They would play video games, but my son is better than this boy and he would get upset with my son because he beat him all the time. Needless to say, they don't hang out together. The kids across the street from us are a lot younger than my son. I've only talked to the parents a couple of times. We only have 7 families on our street and two of those only have adult children. Nobody associates with anyone. The one family (kid with the diaper) have a problem with one of the families across from us. I know the older boys would get into a shouting match every once in a while. The "diaper" family I don't think rides the school bus anymore. Maybe they were banned? Wouldn't surprised me. Their house is up for sale, so hopefully someone will buy it soon. It would be nice to actually get some people in that my son could hang out with. Kind of hard to make friends in the country with everyone spread out so much. I have tried to find other outlets where he can interact with other kids close to his age. He is on a bowling league throughout the school year. We did 4H but will probably quit that or find another club to join. Not real happy in the one we were in. We have been doing outtings with a Yahoo homeschool group. They are from the local area and try to have activities for the "tweens" to do. I'm thinking about getting a group going that maybe does his online game or even Anime. He likes that and I found out a lot of kids do too.
I have been gradually planning the curriculum we will be using next year. I think I am done. I just received the Earth Science student book in the mail today and it looks like it will be a good one. There is a website to use with the book that the publisher set up. It looks like it has a lot of interesting stuff on it. I am still waiting for the teachers edition to the science book along with the algebra book I ordered. It also has a website to use with the book. Thank goodness because I know nothing about algebra. This should be an interesting year.
I changed my profile to read that we are Eclectic homeschoolers. We use some textbooks (a lot really) but I intersperse other books and supplements with the textbooks. I have several educational videos that I have taped as well as print-outs I downloaded from several internet sites.
I still want to use a time schedule with my son, but it will be flexible. Mostly it's to give him a general idea of how long he should spend on a subject. I'm thinking of just using a weekly planner (as opposed to a daily assignment schedule) and listing what I want him to cover for the week. Maybe that will work. He can do as little as he wants or as much as he wants each day just so he gets that particular assignment completed during that week. That kind of blows the time schedule out the window though doesn't it? Hmmm, I'll have to think on this a bit.
I picked up some software at the bookfair a week or so ago. Some of it is very useful and some I will just be using as a reference. I did manage to find a Japanese language program. He's been wanting to learn Japanese and hopefully this program will help. It's not as intensive as a regular language class, but it will give him the basic tools he needs to speak the language. If he is really interested in learning the language, there is a place I have heard about that I can take him to. We'll see. There was also a computer lesson in the one software package I bought. It's pretty simple and he probably knows most of what is covered on the program, but it will satisfy his technology requirement. I have been writing down what is covered on all of the software programs so that I can write down the goals for next year. I'll write more about them as I get to them.
I haven't been very involved in his homeschooling except to work out his schedule. Mostly he does his work on his own without my help. He mentioned earlier about some problems with his geography lessons and I asked him why he didn't tell me. He said he did, but I don't remember him saying anything. He normally doesn't come to me with his problems. I only notice that he's having a problem when I get around to grading his work. I'm pretty lazy in case you haven't noticed. I know he's learning because I can tell in the way he talks about different things. I just don't know if he's retaining the stuff he's learning. Hubby sent me an Exit Level English, Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science TAKS test from last year that I guess he must have downloaded. I guess he wants me to administer it to our son. I don't put much "faith" in these standardized tests. Some people can't pass tests. Some people just don't do well on tests. Hubby should know that, he did lousy when it came time to test for his next stripe in the Air Force. He's a really smart person but really sucks on test taking. I'm not much better. I do terrible on tests. I get all stressed out and nervous. Anyway, I may just give my son the TAKS test just for the heck of it. I guess hubby is a little worried that his son might not be learning. Of course he's wrong...he's got a very smart son.
