First Two Weeks of New Homeschool Year Planned

I love it when I am on the ball!  The last two years have been rough, with illness, and rehabs, and such.  While we were still learning, it just seemed unorganized and chaotic, two things I don't really like.  I am hoping this year will be different.  Yesterday, I sat down and planned out the first two weeks.  DJ is easy, he is a senior, and all of his classes are online this year, at least the first half of school year.  Though I have a ton of things that need to be done for him, none are right now.  Caitlin, is the one I have to get on track.  She has no motivation, and it drives me crazy.  Hopefully a more structured routine will help that.  She already has more responsibilities.  For example, forever I have been telling her to not throw clean clothes on the floor, never wear them, and then put them in the wash.  So, now she is doing laundry, all of it with my assistance, washing, hanging, and folding.  She already wishes she had listened, lol.  Seriously though she is old enough to do more chores.  So this is what her first two weeks will look like.  Again, even though I keep a log, this is a very easy way for myself, and my evaluator to browse through what we have done.  I could probably stop the daily log on paper, but that is just a habit, no sense stopping now.

Week 1 is Sept 5-8, and week two is the week after.  Week 2 will be the same as week 1, as I think all activities will take that long to complete.  It may go longer.

History:

Start chapter 1 of Blaze New Trails, this is a very active series.

Cooking across America:  She will cook twice a week, and the first four states are Florida, Alabama, Alaska, and Arkansas.  She has already picked her dishes, and I will be modifying them for CKD, so be sure to watch for those posts.  I think she will cook on Tues and Thurs.  I also need to find a state info printable for each state, and she will need to read the history of food for each state.  See previous posts for the link to that.


Math:

This is an easy one, Easy Peasy Homeschool, middle school Math.  No prep needed, and she will just move from lesson to lesson each day, as she masters each one.  Random testing by me will be done.

Science:

The first item of Weather will be clouds, and she has several hands on activities, along with videos and reading to do.  I think this will take at least two weeks to finish this series.  Lots of fun stuff here.  Plus she got a Ranger book with her Blaze New Trails book, and the first activity is squirrel sightings.  This one is easy, we have tons of them.

Language Arts/Reading:

Read the first chapter of Little House in the Big Woods.  This goes with the Literature unit study, Prairie Life.  There are a ton of fun activities, like make a rag doll.  This also will probably take more than one week.  The unit study is 12 units, so we can definitely stretch it out.

For Language Arts, Daily Grammar.

Writing:  Nanowrimo with the goal for her to write a book on wolves, in November.  Lesson one in the Nanowrimo series.  We will progress through the lessons each day, hopefully, and she will need to do research on wolves for writing her story.  They have a workbook, but I think I will just use the online version.

French/Piano:  These will be 30 minutes each, as time allows.  These are video lessons, and hands on lessons.

Weeki Wachee Springs and First Day of the New School Year

Well we survived our last two weeks of a very busy Summer Vacation, and are ready to start the new school year in full. If you read my blog, then you know we had already started Math, and bits of other subjects. DJ, and I are also doing a Christmas choir, this year, and that has already started for practice too. So, yeah very busy. I wanted to make sure I mentioned our trip to Weeki Wachee Springs. Caitlin did not feel good that day, so it wasn't as much fun as it could have been. It really is a beautiful park, with plenty to keep you busy. The swim area is clean, and does have lifeguards. You can take a quick boat tour, watch the mermaid show, and there is an animal show. The one downfall, is even though it is a state park, and we have a state park pass that allows up to six people on our pass, they have their own yearly pass and would allow only two people in at no charge. So, we had to pay full price for three people, not cool in my mind. If you live near there, the year pass would definitely be worth it, but if you have a FL state park pass like us, not so much. Plus, the slides at Buccaneer Bay only run on weekends, again not real cool considering the price.


Since last year, first time ever, I lost my log book twice, I will be posting our daily logs here on the blog. They are boring, and not worth reading, but I have to have them. It may end up being a weekly post instead of daily.

We have our first Marine Ecology team practice this Wednesday. So, a field trip already, lol. 4H also started this past Saturday. A new group, and both kids happy with their new group.

Daily Log for September 19, 2016

DJ:

Chemistry: 60 minutes
Language Arts: 60 minutes
History: 60 minutes
Geometry: 60 minutes
Digital Media: 60 minutes
Psych 1: Still waiting

I do not log homework or study hours. I also do not log time spent for Caitlin, just generic what she does.

Caitlin:
Math, Science, History, Language Arts, Spanish and Bible

OMG Watch Out For Bill, and The Evaluation is Due

I never met a Bill I liked LOL. Seriously though, yesterday Hurricane Bill, was upgraded to a cat 4, back down to a 3, but still a major hurricane. While this monster is not headed for Florida, the East coast needs to be paying attention, very closely. If anyone remembers Hurricane Charlie, and Katrina, then you know that the slightest change in weather patterns, can completely change the direction of this thing. Places like NY, Massachusetts, and Maine are not used to hurricanes, especially this size. Please, please, please keep your eyes to the skies. Joe Bastardi meterologist, and hurricane expert, was just on the news stating that you still need to be on alert, as the path is in no way set in complete stone, as they never are.

Today is the day, DJ's homeschool evaluation is due. I am not at all nervous, like last year, because I know what to expect, and I know the evaluator now. Last year she fussed about the way he held his pencil. Well he still holds it the same way, so I anticipate some fussing again. I still can not figure out why she focused on that so much. As long as it doesn't hurt his hand, or his writing abilities. Oh well, I guess she had to fuss at something. Last year, though I kept everything, and made the portfolio, I did not realize I was supposed to keep a log of daily activities as well. So she told me to be sure and do it this year, which I did. Yay so it should be good!