Friday, March 28, 2008

What's for dinner tonight...















Homemade Chicken Pot Pie and Original Nilla Banana Pudding

YUMMO!

New books

I'm so glad I've learned to be flexible! It allows me to change Science curriculums in March! Ben was going to a Mom school Astronomy class in Utah. Mrs. Roberts used an Apologia book. I've never opened a textbook and saw the word "God". Besides that, it has great resources. I love it so I'm scrapping McGraw Hill for now and switching to Astronomy. I'll probably use their Botany and Zoology books next year. Of course, I might start using this curriculum and change my mind. Sometimes I feel like an alien is inhabiting my mind! I can't beleive how flexible I've become!

I also received the books that Ben was using in Mrs. Roberts' classes for Art and Music Appreciation. I really like the look of these books so we will be incorporating them into our schedule next week.

Benjaman's curriculum this year is a mix of 5th and 6th grade books so we'll use the same books next year. It takes the pressure off finishing the text in one year. Of course, public schools never finish a whole text in one year either!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Back to Saxon

This week we started back to Saxon Math after taking a 4 month break. Ben just wasn't getting his times tables. He understood them, but didn't care if he knew them. When he started taking 4 Mom school classes in Utah we were just overwhelmed with school work, especially since Saxon Math was taking 2-3 hours per day. So I decided that since one of Mom school classes was Math Games that I'd just work on times tables with him for awhile. Well, in the course of that I realized that his fundamental math skills were not as sharp as I thought they should be. Of course he knew how to add, subtract, multiply & divide, but he just wasn't fast at it. I've struggled with Math my whole life and never learned my times tables. I want Ben to be able to worry about Algebra and Geometry without having to worry about his times tables and being slow in his basic fundamental arithmetic. So we just started back to Saxon Math this week. It's going well and only taking a little over an hour to complete a lesson. He is completing 2 timed tests a day: 100 addition facts and times tables. He's still not as fast with his times tables so he has 3 minutes to complete 1-4s. He's doing good and more importantly, he's happy with his progress. I love to see that self confidence. One of my greatest rewards as a homeschooling mother is seeing that amazing smile when he finally "gets it", whatever "it" might be that day.

I gave Ben the San Diego quick assesment for reading level. It's a list of words. Basically they are arranged into grade levels and based on how far down the list he can read or sound out that is the grade level he is at. It doesn't test comprehension, just reading ability. He tested at 10th grade! I knew that he was reading far above his 5th grade level, but I didn't know how far! I guess I need to find challenging reading material for him before he gets "lazy minded". I believe that if children don't have challenges in life and academics they get used to everything always being easy and then can't concieve of how to work for something. Thus becoming "lazy minded".

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Here we are...

Well, I'm going to try keeping an up to date detail of our lives as homeschoolers and amature farmers/ranchers.

Ben's 11 and has been homeschooled his whole life. I've always had an ecclectic curriculum and frequently change the materials I use. Although, this year I finally found curriculum that I love and plan to use for at 2 years! I check out Cathy Duffy's book The Best 100 Curriculum Picks and was able to match texts to Ben's learning style and my teaching style.
So here's what we are using:
Saxon Math 6/5 (5th grade)
Winston Grammar - Beginner (4-6th grade)
Wordly Wise 3 Vacabualry (6th grade)
Debbi Edmund's Creative Writing (not grade specific)
McGraw Hill Florida Edition Science (5th grade)
Apologia Astronomy (4-6th grade)
Story of the World - World History
A History of U.S. - American History
I also use math games and various workbooks and History and Discovery Channel shows to supplement his learning.

On our farm, we only grow a garden. We haven't made our final plans this year about what to grow. We need to find a new place for our corn patch. We'll also have Anasazi beans, green beans, peas, carrots, pickle cucumbers. I'll also have some flowers. Probably mostly petunias because they do well and we haven't landscaped yet so I don't want to plant to much that might have to be torn out later.

As far as animals, we have 3 horses (2 quarter horses and 1 quarter horse/Arabian mix), 3 chickens, 2 rats, 2 cats and 1 dog. I just ordered 51 more chickens, but they are backordered until June 2. The hatchery had never had so many 1st time chicken buyers. I guess people are sick of all the hormones and additives in their meat and eggs. Bo is going to build a divided coop for me so that I don't get attached to the chickens we plan to eat. Also so the meat chickens stay in a smaller space getting fat for us. Our egg layers get to free range on our acre after they start consistently laying in the coop. So between 4 and 6 months they'll get to free range during the day and go to the coop at night. My 3 older hens are already free ranging all day; I hope they can keep the flies down by themselves this summer. We plan to buy a steer to finish for meat. We'd also like to buy a cow/calf pair and raise the calf for next year and AI the cow every year for a continuing meat supply. We have talked about having our own dairy cow, but even the minis give at 3 gallons a day! I don't think we'd go through that, even if we gave some to our neighbors! I know there are lots of other products to make from milk , but my life is so busy as it is that I can't see adding that stress right now! I have a friend who does it though, I guess I'll talk to her some more and visit her farm.

So that's a good starting point for the blog for now.