Caz
It's been a hell of a month... and honestly I'll be glad to see October. DH has started a new job that he seems to love, he txt'd me earlier this week saying " loving it so far, it's just like questing in WOW" (for those of you that don't know it, we are serious World of Warcraft players LOL) He likes that it's something different every day ... once this week he went to both coasts for work.. in one day! lol

With all the stress in the house (new family member, dh losing his job, etc) things have been rather hit & miss in the realm of schoolwork, but we're getting back on track. Our co op activities on Monday are finished for the year, but the group has other great things planned and we're looking forward to it. The boys will be finishing up their swimming in November, and in a week or so we'll start tennis lessons with the home ed group. The hobbits are VERY excited about that! I really considered the ice skating lessons they have planned, but Frodo is not overly coordinated ;), and Merry would not be tolerant of hanging out for an hour. Maybe next year I guess!

At our last co-op, I purchased the next TWO levels of Math U See for Frodo (gamma & delta) and he pestered me for days to start Gamma instead of finishing boring old Beta hehehe. I've never seen a kid so excited about multiplying ;) The Teen is sure I've ruined them, no kid should ASK to do math! lol Sam is just finishing Primer now, and will start Alpha this coming week.

A week or so ago I got a discount voucher in the mail from Learning a-z for their writing program and checked it out. It looked really great, and for 20bucks even if it wasn't it still wouldn't be much of a waste. So far I really like it, I think it will help Frodo with his 'creative' writing a great deal. He is good with the mechanics of writing, and can write sentences with no problem, but grouping those sentences together into an organized, related, collection of thoughts... not so much! They have some neat exercises, and good printables, like a 'graphic organizer' for writing a personal narrative. They have them for various levels, from a beginnging/grade 1 writer (generally expected to be able to write one paragraph with 5 sentences) to a more advanced student (grade 3ish, where they 'should' write 3 paragraphs with more developed sentences) We're going to give slot that into our days this week and see how the hobbits like it. They DO have a free intro lesson as well, that includes some of these things, available for download from the site :D

I also got sucked in by the raz-kids reading site (also on learning a-z) and we're doing their 7 day free trial membership. I'm thinking we may pick it up (well, once dh gets regular pay! 80bucks is not in the budget at the moment!) The boys are really enjoying it. There are tons of levels (all the way up to about age 9-10) .. Sam is doing aa for the second time, his choice.. and Frodo is doing level Q which is a lot more involved and even has web based 'quizzes'. Bonus is that it is paid for by the 'classrom' so I have one classroom, and my two students at their own levels.... so no purchasing the program twice :D

There's a noticable lack of photos today, sorry 'bout that. A couple of garden ones to come, but I haven't been great about keeping the camera handy lately! Sam on the other hand, is becoming quite the shutterbug according to the memory card heh... maybe I'll share some of those in the near future.
4 Responses
  1. Kylie Says:

    I'm right there with ya on the 'hell of a month'!!!


  2. Anonymous Says:

    Just happy to see you posting, despite the insanity. Glad the hubby found a new job - that certainly minimizes stress! It sounds like you are well-organized with your homeschooling. Ah, multiplication!


  3. Caz Says:

    Thanks ladies! Wendy, yeah it's been hard to find the oomph to post because life has just been CRAP this entire month! But I'm pulling myself up by the bootstraps and trying to remind myself of the positives :)


  4. Kez Says:

    Glad it's October :)