Goodbye home schooling, Hello public school!

With sadness in my heart, I will no longer be homeschooling Jenna. She will be attending public school and will be in second grade. She is very excited and is ready for this. Me not so much. I am proud of who she has become after all she has been through these past couple of years. A year ago she would of never been ready for public school. I know this is the right decision I have made, she will thrive and I will be able to go to work while she is at school. My ultimate goal is to take care of my daughter and to raise her to be a well adjusted adult some day. meanwhile giving her the best childhood I can give her and being a good role model.So with that said, I am thankful to have had the opportunity to have home schooled her and have a bond with her not only as a mom, but as a teacher as well. Best of luck to my Jenna, may your transition go smoothly into your new school. love you so much!

First grade has been off to a great start here at Jenna Academy.

First let me say I know how lucky I am to be able to homeschool Jenna. I do not take any of this time with her academically or in every day life for granted.

So we did a little hit and miss school in August, more miss than hit lol. But that is okay, I just wanted to do some review and make it easier for her to get back into the routine of school. With that said , here is what we have been doing in first grade.

Math - We are using Horizon math 2 book 1. She does this 4 times a week. Right now we are doing two lessons a day (because it is mostly review, soon we will do one lesson a day) and on fridays she does drill sheets. This week we finally got to something new, the thousands place value was introduced.

Reading - We finished Pippi Longstockings, which we started in mid August and we are now on the last chapter of Ribsy. We read these books aloud, taking turns reading. Jenna's been busy reading on her own. Her independant reading for school consits of some Judy Moody books and diary of a whimpy kid. books so far. She needs to read 10 chapter books to get a free kids meal at Apple Bee's. Oh and mom has to get a meal as well so, yay me! She has two more chapter books to read. I don't let her count our read aloud books. We will also be doing book it from pizza hut, when it comes in the mail. Mmmmm pizza!

Writing - We are in the middle part of Writing with Ease 2 (started this last year after Christmas). I am having her do this every other week, 3 times a week. I like this program because it incorporates copy work, narration and dictation. On the week we don't use the program we still do copy work, narration and dicatation but we take it from our reading, science and/or history. She also pen pal writes once a week and friday I let her free write. This past week she wrote about her wanting to be a vet when she grows up.

Spelling - Spelling Workout C seems to be such a good fit for her. I don't feel it is busy work at all, she seems to be learning from the short activities.

Grammar - We are using First Language lessons 2 I only have her do this 2 days a week. Even though we did this after Christmas I have started at the beginning of the book reviewing and having her do the memorization of poems. We will be done with the review before you know it and back to where we left off.

Science - We are using Real Science Odyssey Life. Jenna enjoyed learning about living and non living things. And about plant cells and animal cells. I loved her exciement about science. We examined an inside of a chicken egg and she filled in her lab sheet. We also learned that plant and animal cells differ with some jello, grapes, orange slice and 2 different shape pans(rectangle and round). She filled in a lab sheet for that as well. We also learned about the skeletal and muscular systems. Learned some names of some important bones.

History - Story of the world 1 - We finally got to this at the end of last week. We did the intorductory of what history is all about. She is looking forward to learning about the Ancients.

Art- she got some new liquid watercolors which she is enjoying. A more formal art will start next month. But Jenna is creative, so art is done on a daily basis in this house.

So this is what we have been up to. Jenna told me her favorite subjects are Science, Spelling and Art. She isn't a big math fan, but as I told her math is a very importamt part of every day life. And she does well in math. I have a feeling that once we get into history more, that will be a favorite as well.

Jenna is very strong in the launguage arts, which I am very happy about. On her own time she likes to read, write reports on what we are learning in science and animals as well, and narrates about the books she is reading without me asking her too.

She also is a typical kid who loves playing her ds and wii. And now on my fb playing Angry Birds lol. And as I said she is very creative in her daily life.

So hopefully this is a good sign that we are going to have a great first grade.

First day of first grade September 4, 2012

Back to school celebration

IHIP done

Thank goodness I was able to finish up Jennas IHIP for the school system. Now let's just hope they accept it with no problems. Last year for K was alot easier. This year all subjects are to be reported on. I give the school system just what the laws require and nothing more.

Now the good times begin of organizing and planning the school year. Takes me a month to do that. So I better get my rear in gear lol. September will be here before i know it.

Summer 2012

We took the month of July off and are doing a light summer session. Then in September 1st grade will begin. I really like the fact of schooling year round, it works for us.
This is what our scheduling of our school year. We start the end of July with reviewing the basics, and then in September we start the new grade level. School is a full day, five days a week. If she gets alot done by the 4th day then sometimes we have a short day on the 5th day. We have a break on November 15th for Jenna's birthday, Thanksgiving week we take 2 days off, December is at least a two or three week break, my birthday in February deserves a day off, lol, and then we take most of July off. Of course there will be days that come up that we may have to take off because life is unpredictable.
This is what we have going on for first grade.

Math-
Horizion grade 2 book 1 and 2 some timed addition and subtraction math sheets and flash cards

Spelling-
 Spelling workout C
        

Grammar -
 continue with First Language Lessons 2

Writing -
continue with Writing With Ease 2 and penpals
              

Reading -
8 to 10 chapter books that we will read aloud, 8 to 10 chapter books for her independant reading, Science/history books that we will read aloud and  Any books of her choice for free reading at night.

                

Science -
Human body (Real Science Odyssey Life) and Animals (Kingfisher First Encylopedia of animals) and lots of reading supplements on each topic. And a nature study using The nature connection and various nature books,
             
               

History -
Story of the world 1 and activity book 1. Lots of supplement reading as well.
             
Geography -
continue using the weekly readers Mapskills for today and Using maps in your neighborhood grade 2. And using geography from The Core teaching your child the
foundations of classical education
                   
                     

Health -       
Personal hygiene, good eating habits, diseases, and general saftey rules 

Physical Ed -
Wii sports, Wii fit, bike riding, walking, cardio workouts and sports.

Art -
 How to teach children art and online art sites
        

Music -
Classics for kids

Tea time - which will be filled with poetry reading and writing.

I am reading bravewriter and I am so inspired by it, Also The Well Trained Mind has been the inspiration to give my daughter a classical education.
It is going to be a busy and full year. Looking forward to the growth I will see this school year in my daughter's academics and everyday life.  

                         

First school week of 2012

Jenna started back to school on Tuesday. I was a little worried after being off from school for over a week and sleeping in, how she was going to behave when break was over. But she did wonderful, actually I think a break was just what she needed. She got right down to business and got right back in the grove of things.

Math - Horizon first grade book 2, she did 4 lessons this week. And we reviewed addition flash cards daily and did a quick review on her coins on Tuesday.

Spelling - She didn't do a lesson in spelling workout book b this week, instead we did our own words, which were the days of the week. She copied words on Tuesday, reviewed on Wednesday, alphabetized them on thursday and reviewed and tested today. As a bonus we added the abbreviation of each day of the week.

Grammer - First language lessons level 1, she did 4 lessons this week and reviewed all her poems she has learned so far. She did very well reciting each poem. She learned about abbreviations, she did very well, reviewed pronouns and nouns.

Writing- She didn't do Writing with Ease 1 this week instead I had her do copy work from her narrations that she did after doing her science reading. She also did some copying of spelling words and penpal writing.

Reading- Well she got some more Ramona books and Diary of the Whimpy Kid for Christmas, so she has been reading those for school independant reading time. Yes she has two chapter books going on at one time, that's my girl she likes a variety. As far as reading aloud time we have read books on dinosaurs and fossils this week.

Science- We are studying dinosaurs, she read about them, narrarated to me what she learned, then I wrote it down for her to copy. She also drew pictures to go with her narrations. She learned about fossils and made her own fossils.

Art-  Drawing was a daily thing her for Science and her penpal got a beautiful drawing. Also she made me a girl snowman to go with my boy snowman that she made me last year. It is on our winter board.

Gym - We both did some Wii fit and Just Dance Kids.

She also worked on her dictionary skills looking up words from her reading that she didn't know the meaning of. It was a good week.

It's been a long time since I blogged

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged. Schooling has been going great here. Jenna has joined daisy's which she loves. She has lost two teeth so far. And celebrated her 6th birthday this past Tuesday.

Math - Horizon math grade 1 book 1 - she has around 20 lessons to go. We do this 4 times a week. She also goes over math addition facts and money 4 times a week as well. Soon we will start working on her subtraction facts. Timed math drill is done on Fridays.

Spelling - Spelling Workout B - 14 lessons to go on this. We work on spelling 4 to 5 times a week. We do a pretest, the lessons in book, I have her put the words in alphabetical order, write sentences for some of the words and then we test at end of week.

Grammer - First Language Lessons 1 - around 25 lessons left in this. We have slowed down somewhat to make it last til at least the end of the year.

Writing - Writing with ease 1 - I believe we have 12 lessons left in this. So we are slowing this down as well to make it last til at least the end of the year. I am going to begin in January having her do narrations and some copy work from science as well.

Reading -  She likes to read with me and independently as well. I would say she reads for an hour or more 5 times a week.

Geography - we will start this back up next month for a couple of weeks before the holidays.

We also took some time to learn about the five senses, pumpkins, spiders and Thanksgiving.
This coming week is a short week, I'm thinking 2 days. It will be filled with some Thanksgiving crafting and maybe some Christmas list making.

week of the October 10th

Another successful week here.

Math - Reviewed coins, addition facts and did 5 lessons in her Horizon 1st grade book 1(learned to add double digits)

Reading - Finished up Ramona and her Father, read lots of fall books together. And she did alot of reading on her own throughout the week.

Spelling - She did lesson 17 in Spelling Workout B, she can spell all the words coorect except for people, for some reason she keeps putting an a instead of o. This coming week is review so hopefully by the end of the week she will get that word spelled correctly.

Writing - Writing with Ease 1 narration is slowly getting somewhat better, copy work is okay when she takes her time.

Grammer - First Language Lessons 1 - finished up learning about Pronouns, she loved it. reviewed all her poems she learned so far.

Handwriting - Daily writing Today is .........day, month, date and year. Sometimes I add a second sentence for her to copy about the weather or something that has happened.

Geography - Worked in her Weekly Reader, she learned about map symbols, how to read them and to locate them on a map.

Art -            she made a cute owl and scarecrow for our Fall wall.

Science - read a lets read and find out book about leaves.

It was a good week.

2 week post

I forgot to blog last week. So this will be a two week update. Jenna's excitement about school this year is priceless.  Everyone was telling me to put her in school, but I had no doubt that schooling her at home was the right thing to do. In school she would not be thriving academically as she is at home. And for the socialization part which seems to bother people more about homeschooling than the academics, well there are many other resources for her to thrive socially. Now I have two older girls that attended public school and I know for a fact that homeschooling wouldn't of been a good fit for them. Some of my favorite parts about homeschooling is that I know my daughter better than anyone else, so I know what works and what doesn't. I know her learning style and can   pick her curriculum to fit that learning style. She is in K this year, but is in a different grade level in most of her subjects. I love that she gets one on one attention in all her subjects. We can get a day of school done in shorter time than public school and accomplish much more.  Also, sleeping in, staying in jammies and eating while going over math facts or money is all advantages. But the best part of all is playing a major role in my daughters education and seeing all her acomplishments first hand.

Okay enough of that, now about Jenna's schooling the last two weeks.

Math - Horizon book 1 1st grade we ended with lesson 35 and she is excited to start adding double digits next week. We also did some addition math facts, money and some apple graphing.

Reading - She finished up Ramona and her Mother and started Ramona and her Father today. And lots and lots of fall books. Explode the Code book 7 is done yeah, Jenna is happy that we are almost done with explode the code, one more book to go.

Spelling - Spelling book B lesson 15 and 16 completed. She loves the profreading the best.

Grammer - First Language Lessons 1 she finished up nouns and made a poster to show what she learned.  4 poems memorized and working on the 5th she has it almost all memorized. Also did some worksheets here and there for reinforcement.

Writing - Writing with Ease book 1 - she doesn't mind the copy work but doesn't like the nararation, but isn't bad at it. we also worked on some worksheets about sentences in their proper form. And some unscramble the sentence sheets.

Vocabulary - Wordly Wise K she did one lesson

Geography - We did some review and started working on a weekly reader grade 2 that I picked up at a yard sale. She really enjoys it.

Leaves and apples have been our science and art the past two weeks. She made some really cool coffee filter leaves for our big tree on our fall wall, made some trees out of papertowel rolls to go with what we learned in The Seasons Of Arnold's Apple Tree, made an apple man, a tree with pencil eraser apples, learned about our 5 senses with the apples, wrote an acrostic poem about apples, made an apple man and did some apple picking and growing sequencing.

Penpal - She finally started writing to one of her penpals again this week.

Well that's about it. We have had lots of learning and fun these past two weeks.

2nd full week of school

I can't believe how fast this week went. Jenna is excited that fall has arrived and is looking forward to some fall crafting. She picked out her Halloween costume the other day.

I came up with an idea to give jenna an incentive to push her out of her comfort zone. I am going to start her treasure box with little dollar store items(maybe even some candy which is a big deal to a kid who hardly ever gets candy) and doing things out of her comfort zone will earn her points. After so many points she gets to pick from the treasure box. I was very pleased and proud of my little girl this week. Yesterday we went to visit Miss Patti at her hair shop and Jenna recited two poems from her grammer lessons to her. Jenna has a very hard time doing this in front of anyone but me, so this was a huge thing. She stood up straight, looked right at her, and spoke very clearly.

Reading - Jenna flew through explode the code book 5 this week, what I forgot is we did some of book 5 and book 6 before book 4 this school year. So at her request I am not going to make her finish book 6 and go right to book 7. I am not too concerned because Jenna is only using this program as a reinforcement of everything she has already learned. We finished reading Ramona The Pest today and started are fourth book Ramona And Her Mother. We havn't purchased the other 4 books yet, but they are on our wish list.


Writing - She started back up with Writing With Ease 1, lesson 14. She did this twice this week and we will continue doing it twice a week. I like the idea of doubling up the days. She also worked on some sentence worksheets the rest of the week.

Spelling - Spelling Workout A, lesson 14. She spelled all the words correctly on monday, but i still had her do all the work for that lesson, so 3 days of workbook pages. Then I requizzed her on Thursday and again she spelled them correctly. So that puts us at spelling 4 times a week.

Grammer- First Language Lessons 1 - She finished with lesson 29 and worked on memorizing her third poem. We also did some worksheets on nouns.

Handwriting - I had her practice daily, writing her full name, the day, month, date and the year on line paper.

Math - She is still working on addition facts need to make up some subrtraction facts as well. We did this and working on money 4 times this week. She also did a bunch of lessons in her Horizon 1st grade book 1 and took test 2 today. So she ended with lesson 20.

Geography - We reviewed the world map and then talked about our continent. She identified the countries in North Americia and then we looked at the map of Untied States. She can identify New York, California, Texas, Flordia, Hawaii and Alaska. She also worked out of a workbook about being able to read neighborhood maps.

Phys. Ed. - The weather was beautiful yesterday so she went bike riding. The rest of the days are spent running around the house pretending to be a super hero, dancing to moms radio thats on everyday, hopping and skipping.

Well this was Jennas week of school. I spent this afternoon after school pulling out some fall colored paper in hopes of creating a fall banner this weekend. That will be Art class, lol.

Kindergarten started Wednesday, September 7th

 I never expected to be on a break for as long as we were. From now on we are schooling year round with only short breaks in between.  A new school year has begun. Jenna's first official year of homeschooling. We are both excited. The last week and a half has been filled with lots of review. I am surprised at how much she has retained from last school year. She is eager to get right to work each day and get everything done without any breaks. So are goal is to start school by 10 and be done before 2.

So here's what we have planned so far for this year. With more to be added as I see the need or Jenna asks for to be added.

Math - Horizon math 1st grade book 1
            Addition and subtraction math facts
           
Reading - Explode the code books 4 - 8 (book 4 was started last school year)
                Chapter books reading aloud (her reading to me and me as well to her)
                Silent time reading were she will pick a book and go of and read by herself

Spelling - Spelling work out book B (started this last year up to lesson 12)

Hand writing - Working on neatness and still working on some formation of some letters
                       hopefully handwriting without tears 2nd grade book

Grammer - First language lessons book 1
                  some worksheets from online to reinforce what she's learned

Writing- Writing with ease 1 (which we started last school year and will be starting again soon)
              http://www.growingwithgrammar.com/1www_Level_1.html I really hope to purchase this

Vocabulary -  Wordly Wise K (used a little bit last year)

Science-        Dinasaurs and hopefully nature study
                     In January Real Science Odyssey life

Geography - I have a mixture of material to use from different resources

History -       I would like to do some pre history before starting Story of the world 1 ancients
                   
Art -             Some fun seasonal projects
                     Artistic Pursuit the preschool book (did a handful of lessons in this last school year)

phys ed -      Everday play and hopefully soon our wii will be fix to do wii fit plus

extra things -  Jenna wants to learn sign language, cursive writing and I want her to learn latin (song school 
                     latin is suppose to be a good start for her age)


So this is our agenda for this year.
 
This is what we've done so far this school year
 
Math - Horizon first grade book 1 - She did lessons 1 - 10
            Also worked on addition facts and money
 
Reading - Read two chapter books Beezus and Ramona
                                                      Ramona the brave
                 Explode the code book 4 -  did 8 lessons 2 more to go
 
Spelling - Reviewed words from last year will be starting new words next week
 
Hand writing - I have her writing her full name, the day, month, date and year everday on lined paper
 
Vocabulary -  Wordly Wise K - we did one lesson
 
Grammer - First Language lessons 1 - still working on nouns from last year and she has memorized two
                  poems
 
Geography -  we reviewed from last year
 
That's it I am thankful daily to have the chance to be able to be a major part of my daughters education.
 
                                                     
 
 
           
 
                     






                 









              
      

I need to start updating weekly again

wow its been a whole month since I posted. I had no intentions on waiting so long. Jenna did school the whole month of May. I have seen such a maturity in her when it comes to schooling. She doesn't give me a hard time at all, just sits right done and does her work.




Math- She finished up her Horizon math K book 2 earlier this month. She has been working on her addition math facts and I will be also adding some subtraction ones as well. If she continues working on them, maybe she will have them mastered by fall.



Reading- She is still doing very well, I think that I should start challenging her more with harder books. I wish that she would like to read independantly, but it hasn't happened yet.



Spelling - spelling workout B - I pretest her on monday and whatever words she gets wrong are her spelling words for the week. By the end of the week she spells them all correctly and if not I add them to the following week.

Geography - Jenna drew the world map and labled all the continents. She knows all the continents, which one is ours and the countries in North America. I need to figure out where to go with geography next.
 
Writing - She writes daily for herself, but I need to get my rear in gear and have her doing some formal on the lines writing.
 
Science - we are study plants. We have read alot and did some worksheets. She is doing an experiment with been plants right now.
 
Thats about it. I am going to try to start including more to her schooling and to start posting more.

homeschooling through a divorce

Divorce has been one of the hardest things I ever delt with in my life. Unfortunatly Jenna's homeschooling has gotten the short end of the stick. Adjusting to everything has been a slow process for both of us. But we need to get back to our daily routines which includes school. So what better way to start but at the beginning of a brand new month. So with the start of May, we will begin school again on Monday. Of course Jenna is not to thrilled about starting school, so I am going to plan some fun for after school. Yes I am going to bribe her with some fun if she doesn't give me a hard time during school.




Reading has been here and there as well. But a couple of days ago we began reading daily once again. I was very pleased with how well she read. I was thankful that the lack of daily reading didn't set her back. It was so easy with everything going on for me to give in when she protest reading, but not no more she can complain all she wants,lol, we are reading every day.



Spelling is still improving daily through her own personal writing that she likes to do. We will be doing spelling ball once again for some of her words she uses alot in her writing.



Writing, well what can I say my daughter loves to write. The girl writes daily. She has been bugging me to learn cursive writing, so I guess we will be starting that some time soon. I will still work with her printing as well, she needs some practice using the line paper (which she doesn't like to use).



Math Horizon k is almost done she has a handful of lessons left. We will also be working on her addition and subtraction math facts. I feel that the young elementary age is best for learning these.



Art will be going on in May. We plan on doing a spring art show at some point.So we need to do that before summer.



Thats what is planned for now. But who knows once we get back in school mode we may add on more.I am really looking forward to starting up again. I think getting back into a routine will be good for both of us. I also hope to be posting on this blog more next month.

quick update

Homeschooling has been very light this month. We have worked on the basics and then just had some fun together playing. We have alot of life changes going on so it's hard to say how much schooling will get done in April. No matter what we will continue with the basics and just enjoy having fun playing.

slowing things down was just what Jenna needed

We took it easy all week and it worked out good. We had a four day week. She worked on Math(Horizons k book 2 and online math facts), reading, writing and geography practice online. Next week is winter break for the schools around here, so we will have another light week. She will begin working on some art projects for her upcoming art show.

Just a quick update

It was another 4 day week, which is okay because Jenna is already doing school work that was for next year. We had a rough start to the week, she had a couple days filled with some tears and groans of not wanting to do school. So we took it super easy this week. I am going to do the same this coming week. We will be covering math and reading, but I am not going to push her to do more unless she wants too. At this age, I believe it is best to go at the childs pace and right now she needs to slow down. Oh and we will make sure to have fun everday as always.

4 day week once again

Well it is now February and it's getting closer to spring. This week was almost the same as last week. Jenna and I spent the beginning of the week outside playing after school, but then the temps got too cold once again to play outside. Not much to say about this school week, it seems redundant, I need to mix things up a bit.

Math - Horizon K book 2 - not too much left in this workbook. I only had her do two lessons. She also worked on her math facts.

Reading - Explode the code 3 - she did one lesson. She will be done with this workbook by the end of the month. She also read aloud.

Spelling - Spelling workout B - she is working on lesson 7. We are going to continue with this lesson next week.

Grammer - First language lessons 1 - she loves her lessons.She has mastered the common and proper nouns it was a proud moment for her.

Writing - Writing with ease 1 - She doesn't like the copy work or the narration too much, but it needs to be done so she does it.

Geography - She is ready to go to Asia next, she has mastered North America.

Like I said it was a short week.

The last full week of January

Wow, this month has really gone by fast. Jenna and I are in the middle of building a snow fort. We hope to continue working on it everyday next week. Jenna had another good week of school. I found a fun way to go over math facts with her. We use her hopscotch mat and she jumps on the number that is the answer. Soon enough I will be timing her to see how fast she can get the answers.

Here is what she did this week

Math - Horizon k book 2 - she did 4 lessons, reviewed math facts and money.

Reading - Explode the code book 3 - she did 2 lessons. She also read aloud.

Spelling - Spelling workout B - We are on lesson 5. She struggled at the beginning of the week with bread and said, but by the end of the week she knew all her spelling words. So we did the Jenna got a 100 spelling dance.

Grammer - First language lessons 1 - She really enjoys this. So far she has memorized 2 poems. Knows the definition of a noun. And she is starting to be able to pick out common and proper nouns.

Writing- Writing with ease 1 - We did four lessons. She would rather not do this, but copy work and narration is important so we do it.

Geography - She is still just working on knowing the seven continents (which she she knows very well now). She nows north,south,east and west. She is also working on knowing the countries in North America. Then we will move on to a different continent. I still want to make a salt map with her. I really need to research about this online.

For some reason we did not do Art this week. I did clean off my big table so we can get creative next week. I am looking forward to making some valantines with her.

A 4 day school week

This was a short school week, but Jenna still got a weeks work of school work done.

Math - Horizon k book 2 - she did 4 lessons this week and some addition/subtraction math fact reviews. She also worked on some money review.

Reading - Explode the code book 3 - 2 lessons completed. She also did some reading aloud and some reading by herself  without me asking her too. I love seeing her do that.

Spelling - Spelling workout B - She did two word lists for spelling. So that is 20 words. She missed 2 on her spelling test on friday, have and skin. She does know how to spell have now, but for some reason she keeps putting a c in skin.

Grammer - She really loves her grammer lessons. We reviewed nouns - she is learning about person and place nouns. She seems to be understanding for the most part which are common nouns and proper nouns. She also remembered most of her second poem that she needs to memorize. Oh, and she is learning to answer in complete sentences. She needs some input from me at times about answering in complete sentences, but other times she remembers herself.

Writing - Writing with ease level 1 - She is doing very well with her copy work and her narrations.

Geography - She is doing very well when it comes to memorizing the continets and such.

Art - Artistic pursuit preschool - She did a lesson, which was fingerpainting. I really want to incorporate more art into our week.

It was a good week. I hope to have more planned out for next month. Some of my upcoming lessons are on hold because I don't have the books I want, so I will be searching for some new lessons. Maybe incorporating some science into our week. Jenna does like experiments.