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Monday, August 22, 2011

My School Monday: In The Beginning

Good afternoon! Are you ready for a new week? I heard from our ES (Education Specialist) a few days ago and our first meeting is Thursday. I'm excited to get set up and get Kait some fun classes like pottery and horseback riding perhaps. The math curriculum I wanted was unavailable from the lending library so I'll have to purchase it but hopefully it will be worth it. Math is our biggest challenge this year and I'm not fully convinced she should be tackling so high a level. I'll have to monitor that and if a change is needed, pray for strength because she won't want to get "bumped back" no matter how advanced the math she's attempting is.

Trevor's color this week is yellow. In the car this morning, we looked for yellow things out the window. We saw plenty of fire hydrants, busses, signs, and Trevor spotted yellow cable coverings all by himself. Back home, we glued yellow strips of construction paper onto a black paper bee, added wings, stinger, face, and antennaes and viola!

Kaitlyn is having trouble with diagramming sentences. I suppose if you learn how to do this from the beginning, it's very helpful. But even for me, learning how to do this now is frustrating and feels like a waste of time to me. Maybe not for her since she's still young. But if it continues to be a source of stress I may have to change curriculums to one that doesn't use diagramming at all.

Amy came home today having begun learning history in class. They are starting with the Ice Age and unfortunately I am unprepared with very much material for her on that. I might try to order a couple DVDs but they may not arrive in time. However, there are some free streaming videos like this and this at AIG's website that we can watch. I think we'll do that this evening. She can even get extra credit for it!  Awesomeness. =)

5 comments:

Joanne Sher said...

Sounds like a good start, Michelle! Busy little household you've got there. My kids don't go back for a couple weeks.

Michelle Massaro said...

I envy you, lol.. I wish we had more summer left. Enjoy it! =)

Susan said...

Ah yes...diagramming...a joy in our house too. We do First Language Lessons which has a lot of that in it, though a friend just recommended Easy Grammar as an alternative. I've not looked at it yet myself - so I've got my disclaimer if diagramming is found in it!

Tracy Krauss said...

Ah, this brings back memories. I homeschooled my four children for nine years, juggling diagramming, colors and science just as you are doing now. I wouldn't trade it for anything. A quick note on diagramming - English grammar is an inexact science at the best of times, and even now as I teach high school English in the public system, things don't always fit into their assigned box! I do think it's good to know, but at some point you just have to carry on to real writing without too much of it or it'll suck the life out of you! (Just my advice!)

I finally got around to sharing that Liebster award and it is up on my blog today. thanks again.

Michelle Massaro said...

Susan, thanks for adding your experience and recommendation! I've heard of Easy Grammar but haven't given it a try yet either.

Tracy, thank you very much for that encouragement and reminder. It is true, but so often it's easy to get hung up on the "rules" and freak out about getting something wrong. I appreciate your calming comment! Also, so glad you got that award up and given. Fun!! =)