New Job

I left my job at Teleperformance on Sept 13, for it was literally making me go nuts.  Thank goodness that on Sept 8, I got word that I was hired at America First.  So a new job was waiting for me. 
So far, I really love it here.  I feel more freedom.  The thought that I actually look forward to coming to work is a feeling that I haven't had in a very long time.  I can get paid more than $14 an hour as long as I put in the work.  Who knew that I could feel like this?
What is the best thing ever is that the kids have noticed that I have been coming home happy.  That never happened at Teleperformance.  Bree has never experienced a happy daddy coming home from work in her life.  Things are improving!

New Year's

It has been a traditon for us to spend New Year's at the Swenson's for 5 years.  This year was a little sad because things happened where we could go, but tha t didn't stop us from having some fun.  This year we played at the Scherbel's.  The kids get to sleep over, but not Shelly or me.  I have to work in the morning.  First time that I've worked New Year's Day at Teleperformance.  I will not go into how disturbed I am about that.  However, we had fun.  I cannot win a game, but I had fun nonetheless.

Easter 2013 (I know it's late, but still)

I'm using the blog for ideas for the final.  I found some Easter pictures that I don't think have been posted anywhere yet.  I just added my first picture on here and holy cow, I thought I was going to have to find a computer with Photoshop.  Luckily it worked!  :)  I'm liking this.  Anyways, if I use these pictures, I'll be able to make a background and story this up. 

Audrey and Marissa Easter 2013

These first few pictures are actually on Easter Sunday taken after Church.  They were Easter egg hunting.

Breanne Easter 2013

Trent Easter 2013

The next few pictures are celebrating Easter at Shelly's parents house in Provo.  That was one monster Easter egg hunt.

Marissa at Grandma's

Audrey at Grandma's

Breanne and Momma at Grandma's

Trent at Grandma's

I think I can work with this one for the next little while.

Labor Day Week

This week started off with lots of fun. 
Sunday brought Ben's parents to celebrate Audrey's 9th birthday. 
Monday brought a BBQ with some friends. 
Tuesday brought a homeschool holiday for us, as we celebrated Audrey's 9th Birthday.  My parents came up to join us.

Audrey at her Birthday Party with one of her presents.

Wednesday - Friday brought us back to schooling where we learned about Columbus, made Telescopes, did science experiments, and painted our own planets in addition to math, reading, and writing. 

Trent and his Telescope

Marissa's planet earth

 

What did you do this week? 

Faith in God

I have been asked a few times what Audrey does during her Faith in God time.  This is how we do Faith in God over here.  (I was going to load my checklist, but I can't figure out how to load a document, so you just get an explanation.)

Audrey has a checklist I printed off for her that tells her what to do each day. 

Every day she prays and reads her scriptures.  She grabs the kitchen timer, says her prayers, then sets the timer for 5 minutes to read Scriptures.  I decided this year that she would read from the Scripture Readers. My parents bought these for us a few years back and we use them for our morning devotionals as well.  Audrey wasn't doing so well reading straight from the scriptures, so we're giving this a shot to see if it helps her understand what is going on better.  

After the timer goes off, she sets it again for 5 minutes and does one of the following:
Works on Faith in God Goals, Writes in her S.O.A.P. notebook, works on memorization, or writes in her personal journal.

On Tuesdays she works on Faith in God goals.  For her Goals, she decides what goal she wants to work on and writes the page number down on her sheet (it is in a page protector so she can use a dry erase marker on it).  Then she asks herself some questions:  What do you need to do to accomplish the goal?  Can you do it alone or do you need Mom's help?  How long witll it take to finish?

Wednesdays are for S.O.A.P. Her S.O.A.P. notebook is a place to ponder and study specific scriptures I choose for her.  Again, she sets her timer for 5 minutes and gets to work. 
S is for Scripture:  She reads and copies the scripture I have assigned her for the day.
O is for Observation:  What does this scripture mean?
A is for Application:  How does God want me to apply this scripture to my life today?
P is for Prayer:  Keep a prayer in your heart, asking God to help you apply this scripture to your life today. 

Thursdays are her memorization day.  Currently she is working on the Articles of Faith since she needs to pass those off for her Faith in God award.  When she has passed those off we will start working on other scriptures such as scripture mastery, common verses, verses from her S.O.A.P, ect.

On Fridays she writes in her personal journal.  She can write whatever she wants.  She just has to work for 5 minutes. 

She does not have a Monday assignment because that is her Options day where she is at school all day. 

At the end of each day she is instructed to come talk to me about what she accomplished, what she learned, and what she read about. 

When she turns 12 this box will become her personal progress box. 

What's in the box: Audrey's 2012-2013 edition

I know you have ALL been DYING to know what's in Audrey's boxes this year.  Well, the long wait is over.  Here is the post you have been sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for!  ;)

So, here we go.  Take a look at Audrey's new workbox set up.  If you look back to older "What's in the box posts" you will see that her boxes are not as varied in color scheme.  There is a reason for this.  I have color coded her boxes according to what type of activity is in them.  The top yellow box is for her school supplies (pencils, markers, scissors, ect.)  The next two green boxes are her independent study boxes.  The four purple boxes are her "do with Mom" boxes.  The bottom blue boxes are her group school boxes.  Now....what is IN each of those boxes you ask?  Read on, my friend, read on!

 Here we have box #1.  It contains her Evan and Moor Geography book.  She will do this independently and complete one page each day.  The tag for this is on the left side of the box.  On the right side is another tag, which is her practice piano tag.  She will be doing this independently this year.

 Box #2 contains her Faith in God activities.  It has her book, her check list, her journal, Article of Faith cards and other things she needs.  Each day she works on some aspect of Faith in God whether it is reading scriptures, writing in her journal, memorizing Articles of Faith or working on goals. On the right side of the box is a tag for her Typing.  We have typing instructor and she works on this every day.  This year I will be monitoring to make sure she is progressing.  Last year I just let her play around. 

 Box #3 is her first "do with Mom" box.  It has her spelling in it.  We use spelling power.  I like this curriculum because it keeps words together in rule groups and goes all the way through 12th grade.  PLUS, with this curriculum she never has to study and practice words she already knows how to spell.

 Box #5 is Math.  We love Singapore Math.  Audrey will be finishing up Math 2B (which is equivalent to beginning 3rd grade level Math) then moving on to 3A.

 Box #6 is for English.  This year we are trying out Rod and Staff grammar.  I am very excited to try it out! 

 Box #7 is not pictured.  It is her reading box.  Whatever book she is currently reading will be in it.

Box #8 begins our group school activities. All of the kids (excluding Bree, who will be napping) will participate together. This box has her Science notebook.  We are doing Elemental Science's Earth Science and Astronomy for the Grammar Stage this year.  It looks fun, and we really liked Biology last year, so I'm hoping we have more success with this curriculum.

 Box #9, and her last box, is her History notebook.  This year we are trying out Elemental History's Adventures in America.  It will take us on a trip of America from the Native Americans and first settlers up through the Civil War.  It looks like a lot of fun!  Unfortunately this is their ONLY curriculum so I will be on the hunt again next year.  :(

That concludes our session of What's in the box.  Tune in next time for........oh who knows what will pop up next!!!!  Hope you enjoyed seeing what Audrey will be doing this school year!!!

End of "First Semester" Evaluations

It's the middle of November, and over here at the Stephen home it means the end of our 2011 school work.  I'm going to give a quick evaluation of each of my kids, mostly for my own benefit.
Audrey (2nd Grade)
Reading:  Audrey has improved a LOT in her reading since we started in August.  She still isn't where I'd like her to be, but we're slowly getting there.  I hope to have her successfully  reading chapter books on her own by the end of the year.
Math:  She ROCKS at math, in my opinion.  She has mastered how to add and subtract large numbers even with borrowing and carrying.  I'm VERY proud of her.  My goal is to keep going forward with her math curriculum and try to help her memorize math facts along the way so she doesn't always have to use her fingers.
Handwriting: Her handwriting deteriorated greatly over the summer so I have been having her do an alphabet book to help remind and reinforce her writing skills.  It has helped a lot.  My goal here is to get her doing copywork starting in January and help her improve on formatting and writing her OWN sentences.
Piano:  Great strides are being made here.  I think I may have underestimated her ability and gotten books that were too easy for her.  She's almost done with her second set of books, so I'll have to look and choose more carefully for her third set of books.  She needs more of a challenge than her current books are giving her.

Marissa (Kindergarten)
Reading:  Marissa is doing EXCELLENT in this department.  She is now on lesson 65 in teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.  I like this curriculum SO much better than what we used with Audrey.  Marissa is already leaps and bounds ahead of where Audrey was half way through kindergarten.  I wish I had been using this curriculum when Audrey learned to read!
Math:  She LOVES to do math.  She doesn't always GET the math but she loves to do the workbook with me.  We have just finished up a unit on addition and subtraction but it hasn't gellled in her head yet.  I plan to work more on helping her understand addition and subtraction more when we get back to work in January.  She IS doing first grade math as opposed to Kindergarten math though, so I figure I've got plenty of time to slow down and help her master things better.
Handwriting:  Marissa is doing the same book as Audrey, but it takes her longer since she is learning how to form and write the letters.  Audrey is just getting review and reinforcement.  She is about half way through her book and doing well.  I can already tell that she has improved in her pencil control since August. 
Piano:  I DID start Marissa this year, but I don't think she's fully ready for it yet.  I've put it on the backburner for now and only give her a lesson when she asks for one.  I think it will be much easier for her if we wait until next fall to really get going.

Trent (Pre K)
ABC's:  We have been working on one letter a week and he does well during the week.  He is still not retaining the letters much right now, but I don't feel any pressure about that.  He's got plenty of time, and right now I feel like it's more about EXPOSING him to all the letters than about him KNOWING all of them.
Numbers:  Trent can recognize the numbers 1,2,and 3.  We're working on expanding that to 5 right now.  We're also working on counting.  He's improved a LOT since August.  My goal is for him to be able to count to 10 and recognize the numbers 1-10 by the end of the year.
Colors and Shapes:  He's great at colors and can recognize about 10 different colors.  Shapes still need work, but we'll get there.  He knows circle, triangle, and star really well. 
Other Skills:  He's getting really good at doing puzzles by himself.  He is learning how to do prewriting worksheets where he follows the lines.  We need to work on cutting skills as he's still pretty shaky with a pair of scissors.  Overall he's doing great for only being 3!

Bree (Bree School)
Each day for Bree school we pick an activity out of a jar to do with her to help her learn and grow.  The activities range from singing songs, learning sign language, playing games like patty cake, and helping her master motor skills like rolling over and reaching for things.  The kids LOVE this part of the day.  My goal with Bree is to train her to do "blanket time."  Blanket time is a time where she will be given ONE toy and expected to stay on her blanket and play with her toy for a certain amount of time.  This is going to take time and lots of work, but it will pay off so much in the years to come!!

Since some of you are probably wondering why I'm talking like this is the end of 2011, that's because for traditional school in our house it IS.  Next week (Thanksgiving week) is a complete holiday week for my kids with no school at all.  Starting November 28th and going to December 24th we will be having "Christmas School."  Christmas School will consist of singing 8+ carols/day, reading Christmas books, studying the story of Jesus' birth, doing a craft/activity every day, and doing a family activitiy each day.  One of the reasons I am glad I chose to homeschool is because I CAN take all of December and focus on the reason for the season!