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It is Wednesday, but I forgot to take the camera to Ren Fest, so I am too upset with myself to post pictures. Old pictures just will not do, we had such a good time there I want pictures from there for this week, darn it. Wordless Wednesday will return next week with pictures of our portable circle and first day of school. This week I have found a blogwarming contest to join as shown by the banner at the top of this post. I'll be putting it in the sidebar as well, me thinks. I love a lot of things about homeschooling. I love spending more time with my son, and learning alongside him. I love the planning when I am in the right mood, and I love it when he spouts some information that I know I have helped him learn. I love that I taught my own child to read. I want to improve in the planning and fun departments this coming year, and think I have the tools to effect that change. We will be doing more lapbooks, a timeline, and I am trying to find more "computer lessons" that I am comfortable with O. doing, for that was his suggestion. We will be using the Usbourne books we have more effectively, I did not get to a lot of the internet links this past year and wwant to change that this coming year. Happy homeschooling to all who are starting back this week, and I'll be joining you this Monday!

Insomnia aka early Wordless Wednesday

Not entirely wordless...



I have it. Totally stressed about planning next year. Think I might have sent my notification out late. Nope, we're good. I've got the good old home school planning blues, deathly afraid my plans won't be academic enough, fun enough, just enough. Fear of failure always kills me. We finished FLL 1 today! That leaves SOTW 1 and the bible that should be finished by the beginning of the year. Which is in TWO WEEKS. I have four weeks of science, the year of history and lit readings planned out. Not all the activities for history and lit though, have to see where it goes. I bought notebooking pages from CurrClick - Notebooking Nook.com - Medieval World Combo. I might just use the timeline pages though. Kind of a Book of Centuries with mini books for each event. Yeah, I could put the SOTW cards on mini books and have O. color and write inside. Trying to make writing happen, but more fun. Using WWE, going to place him the second week of school. I need to break down and make it as fun as possible while still keeping all our subjects and proof thereof. Damn portfolio reviews. The lady is nice, though.

Trying to cut down to just the readings we have to finish. O. won't die if we don't do the last few pages of SOTW. We're reviewing the fall of Rome in two weeks anyway. I have to remind myself that some things are just do the next. I'm going to streamline the Saxon Meeting with the portable circle idea I found here: http://wayzleyacademy.homeschooljournal.net/2008/08/02/portable-circle-time-revisted/,
though mine will be somewhat different. Anyone know of a good place online to print out a free US map and World map? I'd be so appreciative.

We have a school...corner!! YEY!

So I spent all day yesterday organizing my son's room into a better space for school this coming year. This is his reading corner.

This is his desk, with all his little pattern blocks and squares in order. I should have taken a picture of his desk drawer, as it is not an ungodly mess now. Notice the space to the lower right of the desk. I can store his workbooks in his room now, yey!

Supply corner and whiteboard - there's a chalkboard on the other side.


All in all I am pretty proud of myself. It was all worth it, too, when he came home from his father's and jumped up and down about how awesome it was that I had done this for him. I will have to stay on him to develop a habit of putting things away when he is done with them, but now we have a good place to start. I tackle his closet next week.

Something different for WW 8-13-08

Album cover for the little demo CD I recorded yesterday on my only no child no brother no husband day in like forever. Forgot how much I enjoyed doing this.

Wordless Wednesday 7/23/08

So, about this planning thing...

I am in the beginnings of planning our next year of school and feeling slightly overwhelmed about it. I have enough books for sure, especially with the local library being so great. However, I keep getting sidetracked by everything else that is out there, and by the thought of going to a completely CM style of homeschooling. Maybe it would be better for O.. But I don't want to switch unless I'm entirely sure, and a lot of the books involved in Ambleside Online are pretty christian in scope. I don't want to go real bibley in my home school, sorry. Those are not my beliefs entirely, and they are definitely not his father's. So, I guess I am at a crossroads, wondering how I want to do things next year. This year has gone pretty well, despite our procrastination and laziness. We will probably not finish all of Saxon 1 before beginning Saxon 2, but that is ok. It goes over stuff so much I am sure we will be fine even if we only get to lesson 120. We should be able to finish everything else. Science for the rest of the summer is going to be nature study probably, though I may do some stuff with alligators and crocodiles to end our discussion of reptiles and get the most out of my model kit. I'm still torn on where to start our earth and sky studies next year, and how we're gonna prove we did anything. Will O. like lapbooks? Maybe notebooking? I have a month and a half to finalize these decisions. At least I've decided on a planning program - Homeschool Tracker - and spelling/handwriting - SWO and HWT both worked well last year. Though, I am not sure if I want to continue with my plan to start cursive, or buy the second grade printing book. Think I'm off to do the latter, it's seven bucks and he needs the practice.

Wordless Wednesday 7-2-08

Feeling Unmotivated

So, I am feeling unmotivated at the start if this week, I think it is a result of PMS setting in. All I feel like doing is crying right now, and life really isn't all that bad. I just got Getting Started with Latin n the mail way earlier than I thought, this is a good thing right? I even made some new friends at a party this weekend, which, like, never, happens. Anyway, think I need to get more sleep, so I am motivated and have more time. I just hopped on the internet when I woke up this morning and haven't really gotten off since. Well, at least the math fact sheet for Saxon has gotten done. In writing about being unmotivated, I have found at least a bit of motivation, so I am going to go do our read alouds now. Wish me luck on actually finishing everything I want to do this school day.

Jumping on the bandwagon...

So it seems to me that a lot of people have blogs these days, especially in the lovely community of homeschoolers that reside on these here internets. As I need an extra little bit of accountability in my life, I thought it might be a fine idea to start one myself. I have another blog on my myspace page, but that's mostly random stuff found on the internet and general rambling. I hope for this here blog to have more purpose. I have been struggling with naming our homeschool for a few weeks now, ever since I started using Homeschool Tracker, and maybe even considered it slightly pretentious to do so. I see the point now, giving yourself something to call your child's school by for lots of official purposes, and also giving you some direction in your homeschooling. I am calling us FreeWill Academy right now, because I am trying to educate my son in a way that leads to him making the right decisions later in his life but still exercising his free will. I'm not entirely happy with it though, so any suggestions are welcome. We school year round, so we are in our summer term, which is finishing up any books we did not finish during the "normal" school year. They are listed to the right. I will be listing our books for next year in the next few days. We are behind a day now, due to a death in his father's family, but I am not worried. Homeschool Tracker lets me reschedule stuff, and while I am not trying to abuse the function, it will help in this case. When I sit down Monday to plan next week, I can just move the things we missed forward. It is a beautiful thing. Anyway, I should probably go teach now. More tomorrow.