The last few weeks have been really challenging. We have had some personal issues going on which makes it really hard to focus on school work. I am again having doubts whether I am cut out to do this.
While visiting family in California for the holidays my Grandfather became ill and was hospitalized. We stayed as long as we could but had to come home so DH could keep things running at the shop. On our way back home to Oregon, we recieved a call saying that Grandfather's situation had deteriorated greatly and he was not expected to live much longer. I had some things I had to take care of before we could return, so I dealt with my commitments and "tried" to do some school work with the kids. But my mind really was elsewhere. What little school work we did do was mostly done while we were at home on Monday and Tuesday. We ended up returning to California only having been home for two days. I packed hastily but did remember to pack a few school things. Some of them didn't get used, but at least I had the right intentions...
Next week we will still be in California. The funeral is on Monday so I don't expect too much school work to get done then either... I am really wondering if we can pull this off...
BIBLE-
Window on the World- Gypsies
Hero Tales- William Tyndale
Memory Verse
LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
Dictation of Memory Verse (They did not memorize it this week as we only worked on it two days)
Months Book- December writing activity and colored cover page for MONTHS Book
DS- Yellow Book Pages 87-94, Spelling Test (%100)
DD- Workbook #4 Pages 58-61 (She is reading most of the directions herself now and starting to work more independently)
DS- Scholastic Reading Placement test ( I wish I had access to it when we first began!) He got 90% in each category- placing him above 3rd grade reading level.
SPELLING- DD & DS Spelling DVD 4 x each for 30 mins (I remembered to pack this so they were able to work on it while we were away from home)
MATH-
DD- Saxon Lesson 43, 5 worksheets ( I didn't bring out math program so I found some cool worksheets at http://www.math.about.com/ ) 5 worksheets- time, word problems, addition and subtraction, Order.
DS- Saxon Lesson 47, 5 worksheets (Multiplication, word problems, triple digit addition, number squares)
DRILLS- DD- MATH DVD addition and subtraction 1x 20 mins.
GEOGRAPHY-
Illustrated World Atlas- Farming and Industry
Another Trip Around the World- Language- FRANCE
Another Trip Around the World- Activity- made homeade hot cocoa- the kids loved this one!
Played Geography Game with all 3 boards (North America, South America, and Europe) We brought this with us so they played it in California too. 3x for 30 mins+
SCIENCE-
Living World- Endangered Species, Describing Living things
Unfortunatley, when we left for California the first time we left a neighbor in charge our tadpoles care. When we returned home one was dead and the other two were not looking so good. They are still living at the moment, but I don't have high hopes for them. We were all very disapointed :(READING-
I read aloud from George Mueller- Chapters 3-10
DS read 39 Clues. Finishing it just an hour before book club was to meet- Unfortunatley we were already on our way back to California so he was unable to participate in the meeting, but the librarian was nice enough to give him next months book to start.
DD read Hippo wants to play 2x this week.
ART-
SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-
Cheer, Church- the kids got to go to Grandma's church in California. I opted not to go and spent some much needed quiet time at my Dad's house.
2 comments:
Don't be so hard on yourself. A death in the family - or when family/friends are ill - is certainly more important than whether or not you get through a lesson plan or complete a new list of spelling words. Breathe in. Breathe out. Take care of you. Take care of the family. The schooling will come.
Makita told me you could use some encouragement, and I was all set to email you some links from my blog, when I realized she'd given me a blog address and not an email address! So first a few words from a "been there, done that" homeschooler, then a few links to some of my blog posts reflecting on it.
Never forget that every experience your child has is a part of the homeschooling adventure. My mother-in-law was quite sick for a three year period of our homeschooling, and then she passed away. We spent many a week in the hospital waiting room, reading long chapter books out loud - and that comprised our homeschooling for those weeks. But you know, learning how we care for one another when someone is sick, how family pitches in, how hospitals work, how funerals work, how Grandpa and Grandma help out when Mom and Dad are stressed, having sick Grandma live with us for a month, seeing the effects of short term memory loss, all those things - those were invaluable lessons that cannot be gained any other way, and couldn't have been had if they had attended school. Sometimes its not about formal learning, but about life learning. So here are my posts:
http://backofpack.blogspot.com/2006/03/homeschooling.html
http://backofpack.blogspot.com/2007/08/time-for-reflection.html
And the happy ending:
http://backofpack.blogspot.com/2007/06/graduation-day.html
http://backofpack.blogspot.com/2007/08/oh-happy-day.html
I wasn't blogging when our older son graduated, so no story on him.
One more thing. The son who is featured above? We missed most of his 9th grade year, due to some personal stuff, seriously, he got very little of my time and attention and look at him now!
Hang in there, and good luck!
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