Day 145

Today we did no schoolwork.  Yesterday, each kid did a math lesson, but today is Earth Day.  My daughter wanted to go to Minnewaska State Park for a clean-up day as we have for the past two years, but I hadn't heard anything from them, so we concentrated on an area closer to home, namely, our woods.

The Rail Trail cuts through our property so that when we leave our back yard and go into the woods, after crossing a small stream and going up and down a little hill with cedars on it, you come to the Rail Trail.  I don't have a problem with this.  Actually, if we had a little trail through the woods, it would be nice.  The trouble is that sometimes people decide to go off the trail.  Actually, that's not even the problem.  The problem is that some people go off the trail to have a snack, and leave their garbage on our property.  Granted, there was some very old stuff back there in the woods.  We took apart a bed spring, and picked up a tarp that must have been there for years, and there are some other things back there I'd rather weren't but there's nothing we can really do about it.  However, when we have to pick up lighters, bottles, cans, and (this is the most unbelievable) organic healthy snack packages, that's too much. 

So anyway, we did our Earth Day chore, and cleaned up the Earth a bit.  I feel good about it, and I know the kids do, too.  I'm not so sure about my poor husband though.  We picked 6 ticks off him when we were done!

Day 145?

Ok, this post isn't about homeschooling per se.  Well, not about my day today.  We'll watch a weather video and do a math lesson, and I'll read from the book Hatchet, but today I'm going to complain about work.

I started a part time job working evenings doing data entry.  The job is fine.  The people are nice, patient, friendly, there's even a bunch of people I know and sit with during break now.  The problem isn't the job, it's the time. No, I'm not working 50 hours a week, only 20.  Such a small number, but with such a big impact!  Five days a week, I hurriedly make dinner, get it on the table, snarf it down, and bolt out the door not to return until 10:30 when the kids are already in bed, and my dh is pooped out.  Anything dh wants to do in the evenings is now a major ordeal, and I don't do anything in the evenings but work.  On top of that, right after I started was when everyone got the major illness, including dh, so I had to leave two sick kids with a sick husband.  Not cool.  At least everyone is finally on the mend now.

It's not that I mind some time away, just that I wish I still had SOME time with the whole family that wasn't spent with me in a hurry to get out.  It also limits when I can get my errands done.  Food shopping, shopping for holidays, etc. take place after work when I'm already tired and prone to buy things I don't need, which defeats the whole purpose of working!  I also find myself constantly in anxiety about getting other things done in time to get to work.  Will the car appointment be done in time for me to get everything done before I have to be at work? 

Ok, I'm done now.  I'll be fine.  Really.  What time is it?  Do I have time to...?

Day 144

Did a bit more today.  Actually, we did more today than we did all week last week!  This weekend I started reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen to the kids.  It's a bit more graphic than I had hoped, so I had to skip over a bit when the pilot of the plane died.  It's about a boy on his way to his father's house in northern Canada from the US when the pilot of the plane, the only other person, dies of a heart attack and the plane crashes in the wilderness.  It's more of a book about his relationships with his parents than I thought it would be, as he has issues with his mom and his parents' divorce.

I also started reading a book about weather, but it talked a lot about mythology and who finally started to try to explain the weather scientifically rather than deistically (is that a word?).  We then watched a short video or two about weather including one on spanish words for weather.

Finally, we tackled a math investigation and it went pretty well.  We did it all together, and I think they had some fun with it as it was probability so we learned about probability being from 0 to 1, or a fraction in between, and chance being a percentage.  We then rolled dice various ways while trying to predict what would come up the most. 

Now we are watching an ocean video.  If the kids were in school, Luke would still be home, and I'd be, I don't know, working or something.  We wouldn't have been able to have such an 'educational' day, and one that I think has worked out very well.  I'm so glad that I can do this!

No Day

So we have done almost no school since the kids and the husband acquired the nasty virus going around.  Luke has had a fever for 7 straight days and spent today with me in the ER finding out that, yes, he has a virus. 
Husband is on the mend but exhausted, daughter is on the mend but exhausted, son is just exhausted.  Still has a fever of over 101 tonight.  More another day...

Day 140, 141, 142, 143

The days go by in a blur these days!  What I can remember is this:  Dance on Wednesday, Chorus for Emily, and Aikido for both.  Our new method of math seems to be working out so far, so we managed 4 math lessons plus a test and we tried one of the 'Investigations', but it was deemed beneath them (Ok, it really was.  I think we're beyond 1/2=2/4 by now). 
We started a writing project but got nowhere.  I think I'll get further with having them write fiction and making up a story.  They did both manage to get through the second level of the Sylvan program, and they seem to be enjoying it, so we'll keep that up next week, and start trying to implement some of what they are learning.
One of the reasons the days are getting away from me is the class I'm taking online on American History.  The text books are awsome, and I would highly recommend them.  I plan on using them for the kids when they get to higher levels.  They are written like a story, and are very readable.  The first one is America: A Narrative History (Eighth Edition) (Vol. 1).  This semester we're into Vol 2.
Another reason is that I just started working part-time in the evenings.  You know, the time most people have for posting these sorts of things. 
The last reason is that I'm a forgetful sort of person (see my other, less-posted-to blog, Homeschooling with Fibromyalgia).  Next week promises to be even worse, as we have doctors' appointments mixed in as well, but I'll do the best I can!

Day 139

Other than the very beginning, it was an average Monday.  We had orchestra, and someone didn't want to go.  Got ugly, but got him in in the end.  Played our instruments, then raced to Aikido.  Afterwards, we stopped to get rat food, and ended up getting parrot food for the rats instead.  We are still nursing our one guy back to health, so he's still getting babyfood twice a day.  Tomorrow, we'll be going back to the vet for another round of antibiotics and pain meds.  Emily is very good about getting him his medicine if I forget.
We also started a program we picked up this weekend.  The program is called Sylvan Complete At-Home System: School Success, Ages 8-12, and it takes them through the reading/comprehension/writing process. It includes 4 CDs, an organizer, tablets for each CD with diagrams, etc to fill out for school projects, stickers and progress posters, and seems to have multiple grades. The kids started it today, and went through the first CD very quickly. I'm thinking that when we finish with the fourth grade levels, we can move on to the fifth after they show mastery. It's a relief to have something like this to make sure we are on target! It doesn't seem like workbooks are enough to make English relevant, and they seem to like the program! Yay!  I've already told them that they should be mindful as they work through this as they need to apply the things they learn to their writing projects this year.
In all, turned out to be an ok day.

Days 134, 135, 136, 137, 138 (Yikes, again!)

Yet another sickness last week.  Emily had a cold, so we didn't make it to dance on Wednesday, but we managed everything else that was a 'go-out' thing.  If Luke catches it, it might be a diferent story.  It's funny how different the kids are.
Anyway, things we did thilast week included a walk on the rail trail, book club meeting at the library for City of Ember, which I didn't read but I hear is very good, and had the kids sign up for Vanished, which starts this week.  Turns out they really DO have to be 10 1/2 years old to fully participate, but they got what they call 'watcher' accounts, so they can see everything that it going on.   Anyway, it's a program put together by MIT and the Smithsonian, so it has to be good!  It incorporates an online component with 'field work', and even some museum events if you are local to one of the 30-some participating. 
Looking forward to starting it today!  April 4th!
In other news, got to get my 3rd quarterly out this week!