SOS and more

It's been about 3 weeks now since my son started doing the SOS English and History programs. It's going well for the most part. I've been checking over his work either before I go to bed or when I get up in the morning. He's doing well in all his subjects. His problem seems to be the projects and essays. I did not set up a term so there are no due dates on any of the lessons. He has skipped over the essays in English and some of the Projects/Experiments in Chemistry. I told him he is to have the essays done by the end of this coming week, or I will go back in and set up a term. Then he WILL have due dates. He's been doing two or more lessons/quizzes a day which is good. So I'm happy about that. I just wish he'd do the essays/projects/experiments a little faster.

He is suppose to be doing Wordly Wise too. I get frustrated with him because he doesn't tell me he's completed something and then give me the paperwork. He says he puts it on the cabinet, but how am I suppose to know unless he tells me? I guess I'm going to have to redo my assignment calendar so that he will do the other work that I want him to do. I still want him to do some of the worksheets I printed out for History. We are watching a video on English grammar from Standard Deviants that I hope will help him to understand grammar better. We have other videos to watch also.

I've thought about finding a tutor to work with him on his writing/composition. Maybe that's why he's been putting off the essays in English? He has some problems with writing complete sentences that actually make sense. I think he writes the way he talks sometimes. I should have made him write more when he was younger. That's mostly my fault. My own reading disability caused me to shy away from having to try and understand what he had written. I should have had someone else (like my husband) do that for me. So now we have to buckle down and work extra hard on that.

I am concerned about my son's social life or rather lack of it. He is more interested in playing his online video games than anything else. If he didn't have bowling, judo and now teen court to do, he'd never go anywhere. He likes being around other kids his age and always has a great time whenever there is some sort of activity going on. Unfortunately, there aren't that many kids his age to hang out with, and the ones there are, don't live close by. Everyone else is so busy, that I can't even get the teen group I started to do anything. I've tried to plan a couple of events but only got a couple of responses so ended up canceling the event. I'm getting real discouraged and have thought about doing away with the teen group. I could always keep in touch with those people in the group if I wanted to have a get-together.

I remember when I was in high school. I had a core group of friends that I always hung around with. Unfortunately, I am no longer in touch with them. My daughter has a few people she knew in public school that she still talks to, and there are some from the youth organization she was involved in she still sees. Who will my son have to talk to from his childhood? That really makes me sad. When we left a couple of homeschool groups that just weren't fitting our needs anymore, the few teens that were in those groups have never gotten in touch with him. I have since found out that they are all buddy-buddy with each other. It makes me wonder then, what's wrong with my son? Did he do or say something to the other teens to make them mad? I don't think he did. I'd like to think it's one of those "out of sight, out of mind" type things. I guess I just worry so much about him. It took a long time for him to come out of his shell. I'd hate to see him go back into it. It would be nice if he found someone his own age to be his "best friend" rather than only want to hang around mom and dad (although it's nice he likes to be around us, but he needs more than us). I will continue to do what I can for him to see that he has other teens to be with. He should be out there just hanging out and talking on the phone or perhaps going on a date, doing something besides sitting at home all the time.

Changes

I have been having a difficult time going over my son's English and History work. I find that I have a hard time comprehending what it is that he's doing. For some reason I just don't focus as well as I use to on what I am reading. I've always had a problem with comprehension but in the last couple of years it's gotten much worse. I think it's a result of the medications I am on, coupled with the fact that I have Hypothyroidism (which is being treated). Unless his answers are a straight yes/no, true/false or multiple choice, I sometimes am not able to make heads or tails of his answers. When I read the answer that is in the book to my son, he says that's what he has written. Either I'm just not "seeing" it or he is lying to me, and I don't think that's what it is. lol! So to make things a little easier for me and him, I have decided to use Alpha Omega's SOS for English and History (we already use the Geometry and Chemistry).

My reasoning was this: he is assigned a lesson/project/quiz/test and it grades it automatically for him. He gets instant feedback. The only time I have to grade a problem is when he has to give a written answer or it's a project. It's not that the work is easier, it's the end result that is easier. I can spend more time on other things and not so much on reading and grading papers (no wonder the public school teachers complain about that all the time).

My son likes to know exactly what he has to do and when. SOS can provide that. It will let him know exactly what his lesson is and even when it's due. He does tend to put his projects off until right before they are due. In the past he never really got in trouble for not getting his work done on time but that will change this year. If he doesn't get it done on time, he will have his computer time taken away from him. The only time he won't be punished for it is when he has a good excuse such as these last few days when he's been sick with the flu.

I tried so hard to keep up with him on his U.S. History. I had this big idea that we could just sort of wing it this year. I printed out handouts of information, time lines, tests, work sheets and an outline of each period that he would be studying. I wrote up each lesson outline and put the correct handouts with each one. I put each lesson in the folders I'd made up for each unit. I posted what pages he was suppose to be reading each day in my planner and what unit he was to be working on. I had good intentions, but not enough know-how I guess. I still plan on using some of the handouts I printed out. I'm not going to waste the time and money I spent printing those out. And he will be watching the videos I have. I may not make him do some of the lessons that I printed out for those videos but we will definitely go over the discussion questions. Depending on what the lessons want will be the deciding factor. He'll also be reading some historical books and biographies. I want him to continue to read "A Patriot's History of the United States". I think it will give him the facts and not someone else's view points which is what almost all of the public school textbooks do. That will be discussed more later. I may just go through the book and have him read sections of it.

The English really wasn't all that hard. I just never got around to correcting his work. Between the lessons in the book, to the pre/middle/post tests he had to do, then the vocabulary tests and the Wordly Wise lessons, I was overloaded with paperwork. When I looked at the English for SOS, I saw that it covered exactly what we were covering, except for the fact that it requires him to read "The Old Man in the Sea", which he has already read. We will skip over that section. No sense in making him suffer through it again. I have novels and stories that I want him to read this year. Those he will continue to read. I told my son that I wanted him to read more this year. In the past, he only read maybe one or two books. He needs a variety and hopefully I've done that with the books he is reading.

I'm real happy with the SOS program. We've used it in the past. My only issue with it, is that it comes with a Christian perspective. My son does not mind if religion is mentioned when it is presented as part of what he is studying. His problem comes from when it says things like "What you want to remember is that God has uniquely created you with the capacity to think and reason." My son has already stated that he does not believe in God. That is his choice. If God gave us freewill like everyone says, then my son is using his freewill to choose not to believe. I have told him that he has the right to believe whatever he wants but that others may not agree with that belief. So to avoid confrontations and any problems in the future, I have told him to be tolerant of religious people even if they are not tolerant of him. We've already discussed the religious issues. If there is a problem that is religious and it has nothing to do with his subject, then he is to skip it and I will go back later and grade it so that his total grade will not be affected.

Now I am waiting on the new cd's to arrive so that I can install them. Then I'll have to go in and see if there are any parts that he can skip over. That should be fun. We will work on the schedule later, when he feels better.

New school year

Tomorrow begins a new school year. My son will be in the 11th grade. Wow! Hard to believe he's so close to graduating. If he had continued with public school, he would be graduating this year. That's an eye opener! I'm glad though that he won't be graduating this year. He just turned 17, and I feel that that's too young to graduate from high school. I was 17 when I graduated and I remember I was the youngest one in my grade level. Of course, I graduated from public school, so it might have been different since we homeschool. I'll never know though.

I am not quite as prepared as I normally am. I think I've gotten all the English lesson written in the planner. I haven't finished the U.S. History yet. I still have to write up the Chapter/Lesson plan, then fill in my daily planner. Whew! Lots of work. Thank goodness his Geometry and Chemistry is on the computer. I didn't have to do anything there except put in the beginning and end dates and any holidays. It set up the lessons for me. I still have to sign him up for the online Photography class. I'm not too concerned about it. I'll wait until we know exactly what we are doing in the other subjects, then add it. I won't have to do anything with it either. I will have to come up with some lesson plans for his Foods and Nutrition course. It's mostly reading some information online and watching videos. Not too hard. He'll put what he learns to practice in the kitchen and when we go grocery shopping. I'll start him on his Current Events in a week or so. Probably after the Republican Convention and the hurricanes are over. Too much other stuff going on right now. We'll work on his Bowling lessons. He knows how to bowl, but he needs to delve more into the history and techniques of bowling. I've got to get some Critical Thinking books for him to do. I've looked into a couple so I just need to decide which one(s) are best. We have got to get to the museum to see the impressionist paintings. I can't wait for that. Just to see something by Van Gogh or Renoir or Gauguin up close is exciting. I've also got a video on the impressionist and some other types of art for him to watch and complete the lesson on.

I know it sounds like a lot of stuff to do, but it will keep him busy and hopefully interested. He'll have to do a lot more thinking this year. He's been kind of lazy in that department. There is a lot of writing and reading too. There will be times when he's reading two novels at once.

I was reading today about the CLEP exams and some of the other tests for college credit. I never even thought about those. I'm hoping that my son will be able to take some of those tests by the end of the year. That would be great if he could get some college credits now. Who knows, if I help him study for them, maybe I can take a few of them too and get some more college credits under my belt! Not that I plan to go to college. Plus it would look good on his transcripts.

I just hope that he enjoys this year of school and that he will be more excited about learning than he has been in the past. I don't want him to just muddle through school like I did. I couldn't wait for school to be over. School was not exciting for me.

I'm off to bed. I know I usually get up early, but tomorrow I have to get my son up early. He's not happy about getting up at 8 a.m. ha! He tried to convince me to get him up at 9. The thing is, he never gets up when I tell him to. He may come out of his room 30 minutes to an hour later. Not tomorrow though. If he's not out within 5 to 10 minutes, I'll be in there waking him up again. He'll get use to it.

Preparation

I am in the process of preparing the lessons for this coming years courses. Thankfully I don't have to worry about Chemistry and Geometry. Both of those are SOS so all I have to do is put in the start and end date and any holidays. Then the program does all the rest. It will assign a lesson for each day that class is in session. I think the same will be for the online Photography course my son is taking. I will find out more when I enroll him in it. So right now all I really have to work on is the plans for U.S. History and English. English isn't going to be all that hard. My son is using a textbook, so it's pretty much a lesson per day, maybe longer depending on what all the lesson requires. U.S. History is another story. For this class I have made up my own curriculum. I have found some wonderful resources on the internet and have saved off any lessons, tests or facts that I think would be useful. I also have some great websites for my son to use for researching certain elements of each area that I feel he needs to learn about in more depth. I have to be honest, I have not read any of the books that my son will be using. I don't pick up much when I read. I'm more of a visual person. I get so much more out of watching a video on a subject than to read about it. I'm still trying to figure out how my son learns. I think he's a little bit of each. Anyway, I have managed to find some great outlines of U.S. History that I am going to use. We will skim over certain parts of U.S. History and delve more into others. I'm hoping that by doing this, my son will learn the actual facts of our nation's history and not so much what is politically correct now a days. He is also going to be learning about foods and nutrition. There's a couple of websites that will teach him about cooking and baking. They also go into food safety, planning and more. Current events and critical thinking skills will also be included. Of course he will get his P.E. from bowling and judo. Not too stringent of a schedule but enough to keep him busy and hopefully not too bored! :-)

Hours, lessons and credits.

I have had conversations with some of my homeschooling friends concerning awarding credits for classes and how to determine what a credit is. Some of these conversations have gotten rather heated, especially by those who seem to think that you have to have credits in order to get into college. Not so. But I won’t go into that. That’s a whole ‘nother subject altogether! I found some interesting information regarding what an “hour” is and what might be considered a “credit”. Sounds reasonable to me, especially since that's the way I’ve been doing it all this time. But some people you just can’t convince that they are the ones who decide what an “hour” and/or “credit” is. They are determined to follow what the public school system says is an “hour” and “credit”. As for me and my house, we choose to follow the homeschool way!

Requirements.
As a homeschooler in Texas, you legally have to teach reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics and a study of good citizenship. Other states require that you teach the “core subjects”. What do they mean by “core subjects”? In most states those subjects would be science, social studies, language arts, math, etc. In Texas the public schools are required to meet 180 days per year and students must attend school for 170 days. This does not apply to homeschools. Texas also does not require you to teach a minimum amount of hours in a day. Some states require that you log hours for the school year. What does that mean? In some states the “hours” must be logged in each of the “core” subjects during that school year. Some require that your student must have 1000 hours total of logged “class time” to complete a full school year.

Logging.
Now “to log” means to record that a “lesson was completed”. To “log an hour” of class time is to record in a ledger or log book that the student has successfully completed the lesson in that subject that was assigned for that day. Remember, an “hour” is not necessarily 60 minutes of time. The class could take 10 minutes; 20 minutes; or 1 ½ hours. You are just verifying that “legally” the child completed the assignment.

So where does the 1000 hours come in—well, let’s say that you take your child to choir or band—you record that your child attended the class. You can then also record each time the child practices. If you do “art” projects or take lessons—that can be part of the 1000 hours. If you take a field trip—mark that as well (the way to mark a field trip is the time it takes from when you leave the house until you return). If your student only does 1 or 2 other subjects that day (and they normally have 8 subjects) log the field trip as “6 hours”.

“How” to log the hours.
You need to understand what an “hour” is. The word “hour” does not necessarily refer to actual minutes of an hour—but refers to a “complete daily lesson”. For instance, if you were teaching your student in mathematics, you would have a set lesson to teach your child that day. If your child learns and does the work in 3 hours, or in 3 minutes, it makes no difference—the “hour” refers to the completed lesson for that day. You have to get past the idea that you are clocking–in and clocking-out, as if you were on a time card. What if your child does not understand the material and they work for several hours and still do not understand it? Just as in the public school, “hours” are not just determined by whether a child masters a lesson, but is determined beforehand by the instructor. There is a difference between mastering a lesson and completing it. I will explain: you can spend 1 week on a particular lesson in math and that would be “logged” as 5 separate lessons (or hours) even though you were working on 1 lesson in the math book. On the other hand, you might have the opposite situation— your child handily finishes an assignment in 15 minutes, instead of taking 45 minutes to an hour. Can that be logged as “1 hour”? Yes it can. They have successfully completed the assigned lesson for the day. The critical idea is that “hours” refer not only to time spent in a subject, but also material covered. And an “hour” specifically means a predetermined lesson assigned for that day’s work. Who does the predetermining? YOU do.

How much is a lesson?
How do you find out “how much is a lesson”? Here’s a very easy method—look at the textbook you will have your student use. Find the last page of the “text” in the book. Take that number and divide it by 150. The answer will be the number of pages that should be covered each day (the number of pages for each lesson). Since the student should be in class 180 days in a school year (a normal school year), by dividing by 150 you have 30 days to “play with”, days that can be used for field trips, tests, working on papers or project, etc. And then, if your child completes the textbook in less than 180 days—they are done! That’s it. They finished that subject early! Yippeee!

Credit Hours and GPA's.
The High Schools assign “credits” to each subject—normally a subject is worth “1 credit hour” if it last the entire school year. If your child takes a subject for 1 semester only, then that course is assigned “1/2 a credit hour”. The standard used in computing a student’s G.P.A. (Grade Point Average) is usually a 4.0 for an A; 3.0 for a B; 2.0 for a C; 1.0 for a D; and 0 for an F. Advanced Placement courses, honor courses, and all college level courses are often given 1 additional point since the material is more difficult: in other words, for a dual enrolled student, they would receive a 5.0 for an A in that college level course; 4.0 for a B in the course; 3.0 for a C.

I have discussed credits in a previous post so I won’t go into too much detail about that. YOU as the parent/teacher determine what the credit is for the class, not the public school system (at least in Texas). Even though my own son used one book for grammar, one for vocabulary and one for writing, I only gave him one credit for English. I could have given him a credit (or ½ credits) for each subject but to me they were all related to English. My son spent two years doing World History, but I only gave him credit for one year. Normally World History is covered in one year in public schools but then again, they don’t cover everything in the book whereas we did. To me it all depends on how in-depth the subject is as to how much “credit” I give.

End of the first week

Today is the end of the first week of the new school year. Even though he hasn't started todays work, it has been a fairly good week. There were only three days this week so it wasn't all that strenuous. My son managed to do all of one assignment in one day so that left him extra time the other days. In fact yesterday he only had to do Algebra, Geography and Biology. Even though I have things assigned on certain days, it doesn't mean that he can't work on the other days assignments that day too. He can work ahead all he wants but he is not to do so much work on one subject that he neglects the others like he has done in the past. I told him that I don't want him to become overwhelmed by the amount of work he has to do each day. He still hasn't started some of his other subjects like computer and foreign language. Those will come later when I see how well he is doing and what days he will have more time to work on other subjects. He hasn't started his outside classes yet either, so that will be a challenge for him once he begins those.

Now if I could just get him to get up out of that bed when I first wake him, instead of getting up an hour later!

It's getting closer!

The new school year is getting closer. My son finally picked up one of the novels he was suppose to have already read, and has started reading it. He still has to read "Antony & Cleopatra" and do the book study on "Hans Brinker". All this I want done by Aug. 1st. Think we'll make it? I'll make sure of it, even if it means cutting him off from the computer. He seems to think that I'll just let him carry over his work from this last year into his next year just because "we homeschool". He's got another "think" coming! Bwahahaha! lol!

I filled in and faxed the letter to the publisher of the biology book I wanted. I only ordered the teachers edition because my son is suppose to be able to access the book online at their website. I'll get the code when I get the book. That not only saved us money but I don't have to worry about having another book on my bookshelf. He'll be able to read his assignment online, then do whatever activities and tests he is required to do. If the internet is down for some reason, he can always use the teachers edition for that day. If the TE is like the others I have, the text will be the same but the answers will be in a different section.

I have already changed my mind on one of the books I had planned to use. After looking through the student workbook, I realized that I did not have the answers to the worksheets. I could probably figure out what is right or wrong, but just in case, I don't want to have him think it is correct (plus I don't want all that extra work!). Since I decided to discard that book, I decided to not do any of the lessons suggested in the teachers book I have too. It's not really necessary for me to use these books. He will already be doing a writing program that covers what was in these other two books. I'll have to throw in some vocabulary and maybe some grammar, but that's no big deal. I'll probably just go into that when he writes out his lessons or posts things to his journal/blog.

My next project is getting his assignments written up and all the other paperwork done. Since we have decided to go with a weekly assignment chart for each individual subject, I have to figure out what I want him to do when. That's not really that big of a deal. I did it when I had all of the subjects on the same chart. My problem is, he has two algebra books and he suggested that he do both at the same time. I'm a little concerned that he'll be going over the same topic at the same time and get bored, but then again having him go over the same thing might be a good idea since he had such a hard time last year with algebra. I just have to figure out how to assign these two books so that he doesn't go into overload. I'm thinking of doing it "2 on 2". Do two days out of one book, then the next two out of the other then just start over again. What I have to do is figure out how many pages/chapters he'll have to do each day. Then I'll have to divide up his schedule so that he does each book on different days.

I'm kind of trying to go by a regular 6 week, 2 semester schedule. I don't want my son to be in the middle of a chapter or lesson, then have the next week or two off and have to come back to what he was doing. That would mean reviewing what he had been doing which would take time away from his new stuff. That's part of my problem in this scheduling. I want to try and stay on this type of schedule because I want him to get use to it so that when he goes to college, it won't be that new to him. But we are also flexible and as long as he gets what I want him to get done before the "next semester", then I'll be okay with it. My schedule though is a little bit weird. I have him on a 6 week, then one week off type thing. I decided to put a week break in there just to have a kind of "vacation". He won't actually be on vacation. It will be for him to work on other stuff, catch up on work he hasn't completed, watch instructional videos, etc. It'll be time for me to have him do projects that don't actually follow what he's suppose to be learning this year. But it will be more relaxed (as if we aren't already relaxed!).

I am going to make myself be more involved this year. Last year I was kind of ho-hum in my involvement (slacker was more like it). I started off the year by checking his work and making sure it was correct but after a while I quit doing it. It just became too much work and I just didn't have the energy to do it. I'm sure that his answers were not what they were suppose to be on his lessons but hopefully he actually learned something. If not, then I'm in trouble! EEK! I'll especially have to be on top of things when it comes to his writing. I'm suppose to go over his writing and make sure he's doing what the lesson says he's suppose to do. That will be hard for me because I have such a hard time comprehending anything and I'm finding that things are just not clicking as fast as they use to. I'm going to have to rely on my husband to check some of these things. Thank goodness for the internet. I can type in my sons writing and email it to my husband to read. He can give me his opinions and suggestions. A homeschool friend is doing the literature class using "Movies as Literature" so I won't have to worry about anything there. I may have to help him format his reports or essays or whatever he decides to do but she'll be the main person to help him with all that.

Most of his work now is just reading the information and then telling others in some format that he knows what he just read. He's pretty smart about some things but it's his mechanics that need work. He has a hard time articulating what he has to say. That he will be working on this next year not only in that literature class but also in his theater and chorus class. He's also going to be doing Y.A.G. which is "Youth and Government" through the YMCA. He'll have to get up and speak in front of other people and that will help him in that area.

I'm also looking at some type of grading system. I'm not really keen on grades but I think he needs some type of good/bad, pass/fail type of thing. I may look at percentages. This will not only let him know what he's doing wrong, but will help me to know where he needs help. I'm not so interested in the grades for his transcripts though. I've already covered transcripts in another post so I won't go into that here. It will be just another little helper for me to gauge where he's at and what he needs to do.

Oh did I mention that my son took the exit exam for the Texas TAKS test? He passed all of them except the math which was no big surprise. I was really proud of him (am proud of him!). That told me that he was on track with the public schools. Now we are just filling in the blanks where his schooling is concerned.

It will be a busy year but I think it will be one of the best.

Behind again but catching up!

I was really hoping that my son would be through with his school work by this time but he still has a few things left to do. He has three books to read. I have downloaded book studies for two of these books that I wanted him to do with them. Now I'm thinking that I will just have him read the books and have him write up his thoughts on the books. Now that's an idea. Have him read the books then write his thoughts on them into his blog. I can kill two birds with one stone so to speak. I've been wanting him to write stuff on his blog but didn't know what. What a great idea! I knew that if I starting writing about something, I'd come up with something else. I know that doesn't make sense. What is something? My old 11th grade English teacher used to get on to me about using the word "thing". She always asked what was that "thing". I still do the same "thing". lol!

But back to the school year. He has completed most of his school work. He's still working on the computer lessons but that isn't any big deal. Mostly it's the books. I am trying to get him to read more. I wasn't into reading at his age either. It wasn't until I got older that I started reading. Now that I am older still, I find that I can't keep my mind on my reading and end up losing interest in it. I have so many new books that I really want to read and finish but I just can't get into them like I use to. That makes me sad. But I'm getting off subject again.

We will beginning our new school year in a few weeks (Aug. 1st). I would really like to get these books read before then. I guess it's not a big deal except it will mean that he has extra work to do. Instead of concentrating on his new school year, he will have both years to do. I don't think he will care if reading these books will overlap into the new school year. He's pretty flexible about it. I guess I should ask him. I know he'll say to just let him skip reading the books (and before I have discarded some of the lessons) but I really want him to read them. I think it's important for him to read these books not just because they will improve his literary knowledge but it will help him in his reading ability.

It's partly my fault. I didn't make sure that he was on task. I got sidetracked again by other people in our lives when I shouldn't have. I should have been concentrating on him and his school and I didn't. Now I'm paying for that mistake.

I've been working on all the preparations for next year. I'm getting all the forms I'll need printed and filled out. Now I've got to sit down and start working on lesson plans. We both decided on a chart that is for each individual subject but covers the whole week. He'll have individual binders for each subject, so all he'll have to do is open that binder, and there's his chart showing what is to be done for that week. Each chart will cover 6-weeks so it will be easy to keep track of when the next break/grading period is. I really think this will be easier for him and me too. I will only have to just take the binder I need to look at and will be able to go right to the work that needs to be checked. Before I had to look through several pages in order to find what I was looking for. Plus the chart has lots of room for me to write his assignments. Most of the pages have separate columns for the books or materials we will be using, so I will be able to write in exactly what he is to do from just that book. He said last years assignment sheet was just too small. There wasn't enough room for me to write assignments in that didn't make it hard for him to read. I'm going to type in his assignments this year but I'm sure there will be times when I have to handwrite something in.

I've got all of his curriculum except Biology. I am planning on contacting the publisher of the textbook I want to use to find out info about accessing the website. The book itself looks pretty good but there is stuff for him to do on their "classroom" website that I want him to be able to do also. If that is only accessible to public school students, then I will have to find another book which I don't look forward to doing. He's not into science but I want this year to be more interesting than previously. He did mention that he'd rather be doing chemistry but I don't want to get into that until his 11th grade. I'm trying to stay along the same lines as the public schools when it comes to what they study when. I know last year I ventured away from that when he took Earth Science but it was one of the suggestions from another place. He is also doing Algebra I over again. Not because he "failed" it but because he didn't quite grasp it. I just feel that he needs more practice. If he zips through the Algebra and finally understands it, then we will move on to Geometry. He will have a lot to do this coming year but I don't think he'll mind too much. He won't be bored that's for sure! He will have several books to read along with doing the literature study called Movies as Literature. I think he'll like that class even if he doesn't care for some of the movies. Maybe after watching the movies, he'll want to read the book to find out what they left out! His history is just a continuation of the book we used last year. He said he didn't mind this book. We will add some other supplements to the course. Then there's Geography. I've got the Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide that I have been really trying to use since I first got it a couple of years ago. I am going to use the country study that's in it for this year. Then in 11th grade, I will use the history section to study U.S. history. I don't plan on buying an actual textbook for that. He's already learned so much U.S. history over the years that anything he does now is just a refresher. We can delve into a topic that piques his interest at anytime. I know he has an interest in wars...Civil War, WWI & II, Vietnam and quite possibly some that he has heard of but can't remember. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The UGTG has got a good country study section. He doesn't know the location of most countries (and I can't tell you the names of some of them since they have changed since I was in school). He will also be learning about manners and etiquette. He is kind of rude at times (what teenager isn't?) but he also needs to learn how to act in different situations so that mom isn't embarrassed! lol! He'll continue with his theater and chorus at Arts Fifth Avenue. He was so wonderful in the play he did and he has come so far in his socialization skills. I'm so proud of him. A friend is suppose to be starting a Y.A.G. group for our area and I think he'll really enjoy that too since he has mentioned becoming a lawyer (what happened to being a writer?). Y.A.G. is "Youth and Government" and it's sponsored by the YMCA. He'll be learning about all aspects of government and will get to use the house and senate at the state capital! Woohoo! He has also stated that he'd like to learn Italian now. What happened to Japanese? He said that Japanese is too hard although he still wants to learn it. Italian is fine by me. Maybe my friend Judy can help him with that. I'm not too good with learning a new language but having lived in Italy for 2 1/2 years, I can kind of understand some of the words. Once we get logged in to Rosette Stone through our library, he can study any language he wants. Just so he sticks with a language for longer than a few months. It would be more useful if he learned Spanish, but not necessary. He is also going to learning more about the computer. His dad brought home a CD on Visual Basic. I want him to also learn more about html and designing web pages. In this day and age almost everyone can make their own web page. I showed him how and where to past codes into his MySpace. He picked it up pretty easy but then it is pretty easy to post stuff to your MySpace. Designing a web page is different unless you use a premade page. So we will look into those two things. The Visual Basic may be something that he and his dad can do on the weekends. Only if his dad lets him do it instead of making him sit there and watch which is what he normally does (how did his dad ever become an instructor for the military??? lol!).

Well my computer keeps bringing up this pop-up window wanting me to restart my computer so the updates can go into affect. It's really starting to bug me so I guess I'll let it do it. I'll write more later on my progress with pre-school year preparations.

It's Saturday

Yay! It's Saturday. It means we can relax and enjoy our weekend. Maybe. Hubby is out mowing the grass. Hopefully we will be able to go to see the radio control planes today. I would like to go watch the planes. They are model airplanes but BIG planes. Not little ones. These people spend thousands of dollars on these planes. I've looked at the pictures on the website and they are amazing. I'm sure we could incorporate some type of learning thing into this, but I'd rather just go look at the planes, and watch them fly them.

I finished my sons daily schedule. Of course it can be modified but this will give him an idea of when he is suppose to be working on a certain subject and for how long. My next step is working out a schedule telling him what he suppose to be doing every day or each week in each subject. In my planning notes I have down how many pages he is suppose to be doing each day. I may just let him keep his own record of what he does each day/week. I have two different forms: one for daily academic record and the other is for weekly academic record. You use a daily one for each subject. You write down the date and what pages they did. On the weekly record (also one per subject) you write down the week(s) covered, what pages were done, and what the content or activity was. I like the daily one myself. When the kids did School of Tomorrow, they each had cards that they had to write down all that they did each day in each subject. It was a way for them to keep track of what they were doing themselves and to make sure that they stayed on track. All I had to do was check their cards to make sure that they were doing something each day. They were required to do several pages a day and this helped them keep track of that. I'll give my son an estimate of how much I want him to do in each subject and hopefully, he'll do more and not less like he's done in the past. If I notice that he's not doing as much each day or if he has been skipping some things, then he'll end up having his computer game time taken away. I really don't think we'll have a problem though since I plan on being more involved in his core subjects. After all, that's why I have the teacher's editions!

Hubby is done mowing. He'll go take a shower now and then maybe we can go watch the airplanes. I hope so. See ya!

Decisions, decisions, decisions

I have been trying to work out a daily schedule for my son for next year. I can't remember what time of day they say is the best for learning things. I seem to remember that early morning was good for math but can't remember the rest. I'm sure I'll figure out something though.

Another thing too is his Algebra. The book is for beginning and intermediate algebra. I'm not sure if most people do the whole book in one year or not. I'm doing it in two years. My only problem is that I am not sure where to stop at the end of the first year and then pick up for the second year. And do I skip a year to do Geometry then go back to the Algebra or what? I'm really confused. I'm thinking of just picking up in 10th grade where we left off in 9th with Algebra, then do Geometry in 11th. It realy doesn't matter since we homeschool and we are free to teach whatever we want, when we want as long as it includes the subjects that the state requires. But I don't want him to get around other kids who have already taken the subject. I don't want him to feel out of place. Although most homeschool people are more forgiving and understanding than public school people. I've already figured out where we are going to stop in the book, I just don't know when I'm going to teach him the rest of it.

I'm almost finished with my planning notes for my son's courses. I still have to do Algebra and Computer. I'm also coordinating the pages in the "humanities" book with his history lessons. I've already gone through and written down all the pages that have some type of "art" on them and put them next to the section of the history book they coincide with. Now I just need to write down some notes about what the picture/drawing is about and how it relates to that particular period in time. I don't want to get into too much detail from this book as I want to use it as a humanities book later on in 12th grade. Hubby used it in his college class, but I think I can use it for my son. Hubby has the workbook to go along with the book, I just have to adjust the lessons to my sons age level.

I'm really looking forward to next year. I don't know why though. I think it's because my son is older and I will be able to relate more to him than in the past. He's better able to make more knowledgeable statements I guess is why. I haven't been real involved in his lessons in the past. I plan on being involved this next year. Not so much with the writing part but with the reading and discussions. Because he doesn't like to read books, I will have to stay on top of him to read. Maybe we'll read the books out loud? That sounds kind of little kidish. But it may be the only way I'll know for sure that he is reading something. There will be other things he can do on his own though. Some of his courses are on the computer. He can do those and all I have to do is go back and look at what he did. I will have to keep a record though of what scores/grades he got on the different things though. I want to keep good transcripts of his courses and the grades he got. I will also keep some of his written work in case some "proof" is ever needed. Although some of the text books I have gotten are for older grade levels, I don't think there will be a problem. They are mostly just reading material anyway. The only one that new concepts are introduced is the Algebra. That one will be hard for me. I will pretty much be useless to him un less I can really understand what is going on. I'm hoping he will be able to pick it up on his own or can find an answer at the textbooks website or some other website. I hope we don't end up getting a tutor.

I find that I am having a hard time concentrating myself. I really have to force myself to read something and not just skip over most of it. I hope that's not an early sign of something worse. I want to stay focused and alert so that I can help my son with his school work. I want to be more involved in his learning process and help him through the times when he isn't able to understand something. Hopefully by my being more involved, it will help me with my concentration too. Maybe I should see a doctor about Adult ADD?

Organization

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.

Planning for next year

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.

Schedule

I have decided to put my son on a time schedule. The schedule we are currently doing isn't satisfying me. In each subject he is assigned certain pages to do each day. He does what is required but nothing else. He has talked about wanting to try unschooling but with him not taking any initiative to do more than what is required each day, I'm not ready to do that. He usually finishes all his work in 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. His father and I don't feel that he is doing enough. My son only wants to do what's in front of him and nothing else. I guess that would take too much effort. So I have decided that I am going to "assign" him a certain amount of time for each subject. He will still be assigned a certain amount of pages a day but if he finishes with that work, then he has to find something else to fill the rest of the time. For instance, he does science and health on the computer using Alpha Omega's SOS program. The lessons are set up for him to do certain ones on certain days. There are days when he has nothing to do in either or only one of those subjects. So what he'll have to start doing, is find some other science thing to do for the rest of the time. I'm not going to be real picky on what that is. It could be cruising the internet looking at different science websites or reading a book on a famous scientist, just as long as he is doing/reading something that has to do with science. He's also going to have to start writing in a journal or even the blog that he started a while back. I'm also going to make him start doing more exercise. I need to doing something more physical because of my heart problems and since walking is suppose to be the best thing for me, I think he and I will start walking. We took the dogs out today but the park we went to wasn't very good. I think next time we will find a better one. I want to try for 3 times a week but may start off at just 2. It will do him good to get out since all he does most of the time is sit in front on the computer and play his games. I'm not going to implement my time schedule until next week. We are finishing up our Presidents study this week and since I am scheduled for about 5hrs of dental work Thursday, it will just be best to wait on my plan. I'll keep things posted here as to how it all works out.