Tomorrow Is Our First Day of School

We will be starting our first day of grade 10 tomorrow.  We will be trying our new daily schedule, and she will be starting Drama on Wednesday.  So, we have a full week, and I am hoping that Hurricane Dorian continues to track off the coast of Florida.  I hope it stays off the coast, period.  The poor Bahamas have just been hammered by this awful storm.

We will be starting with ASL on VHSG.  This is a free course, and at your own pace.  Right now that is all I can say about it.  The first week is preliminary stuff.  I registered her for FLVS today, so she can take Driver's Ed in January.

While Caitlin does 10th grade stuff, I will be continuing to get my Health Coaching business going, plus taking a Reiki class, and finishing up Integrative Therapies classes.  I am hoping to have at least one client by the end of the year.  Most of this year I have focused on building my following and writing good content blog posts on my Health Buddy Melissa blog.  I finished my first Guided Imagery voice recording for Better Sleep.  I hope to get more done soon.

What are you working on this week?

American High School Civics

Each Monday, I will try to do a post on either our History, or Language Arts.  Since the Science and Math, are not created by me, there isn't much for me to share about those subjects.

We will be studying American Civics and Government in Grade 10.  I chose this year specifically because next year is an election year.  Just like I did with my son, 4 years ago, we will follow the primaries, debates, and candidates with some hot discussion, and topics.  I can not find the book I used for my son, so I chose the video below.  If you prefer a book, the book below has the same title as the video.  We have not officially started back to school, yet, so I am getting ready.

Did you check out my new Health Coach blog, yet?  Click here, if interested. I am doing a live group session on, Better Sleep, in September, on my Health Coach blog. 

Waiting for the New School Year

Well we had our evaluation last week, and all went well.  Caitlin now moves on to grade 10.  We have been discussing how we want our school days to flow, and we have come up with a unique plan, for us anyway.  She will do one class a day, for at least 3 hours a day.  We will start with a 4 day school week, with one day for friends, and socializing.  The second half of each day, will be for chores, PE, reading, etc.  She very much likes this idea, and though I am skeptical I am willing to try.

Since the last 3 years I have with my youngest are most likely going to fly by, I have been contemplating a lot what I want to do when I am an empty nester.  No, I don't want grand babies, and just sitting at home does not really appeal to me.  I also contemplate, as I get older, how much longer bedside nursing will be feasible.  This is one of the reasons I do not return for my RN.  I am 50, and the strain, and stress only gets more demanding.  While it is true, I am healthier now than I was since my daughter was born, I still don't want to kill my body.  So, at the end of last year, I started a Wordpress blog, for Health Coaching.  I finished the Health Coach Certification, Kidney Health Coach Certification, and am now taking Integrative Therapies classes.  I just finished, today, updating all of my available plans.  There is still a lot to learn about having an online coaching business, but the hardest parts are done, I think.  Now, I need some clients.  I will only work with 4 clients at a time, with the exception of the monthly group session plan.  If you would like to check out my new health coaching business, it is called, Health Buddy Melissa.  There are lots of interesting articles there to read, and I add new ones each week.  

10th Grade Language Arts Option

I have actually decided on my choice for 10th grade Language Arts, for Caitlin.  After much thought, it made much sense to me to have her prepare for the PERT, using the standards she would need to know.  The PERT does not really concentrate on her writing abilities, but rather on her ability to edit someone else's writing.  I think that is perfect for her at this point, and time.  Over the Summer she will do a short, one paragraph writing assignment, so that will give her lots of practice.  She did fair, with note taking this year.  Her studying could still use some improving, and techniques besides just looking at something and trying to remember it.  Below you will find the links we will be using for both Reading Comprehension, and Writing (Editing) for grade 10.  She actually reads quite a bit, not classical literature or anything, but stuff she is interested in.  So, I guess I won't quibble with that.  Our 9th grade school year is officially over.  She just has her History final Wednesday. Oh and our photography challenge for this week is the color red.

http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5592/urlt/0078248-pert-studentstudyguide.pdf

https://www.test-guide.com/free-pert-practice-tests.html

https://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/edit/edit01.shtml

https://www.quill.org/activities/packs/31    This one looks particularly good!

https://www.readworks.org/  This one also was a top pick of mine.

First Day of Homeschool for 6th and 10th Grade

We survived the first day of 6th and 10th grade. Minus some 6th grade Math drama, the day went very smooth. My 6th grader, and I, are doing a lot of hands on learning this year. I am hoping it will help her memory for remember facts and such. This greatly limits my time for other things including, house work, yard work, and crafting. Three things I love, but there will be plenty of time for that later in the year. Note, I do not love house work, lol, but I do love a clean house. Of course we took first day of school pictures. My kids hate these, now that they are older. The first image is of a very small lizard attempting to eat a rather large moth. He actually froze in place for us to take his picture. The Passion Vine, I did not plant, has produced tons of Zebra Longwing and Gulf Fritillary caterpillars. We have witnessed the hatching of three chyrsallis' and that is always fun. The last school year was full of drama, stumbling blocks, and family emergencies. Here is to a more stable school year. We do have family coming to visit, the first week of October, so we will be on an early break for a few days. Tomorrow we start up our daily walking, and Charity Miles app. My new phone should be here soon, so my 15 yr old can finally replace the phone he drowned, and leave mine alone. Happy homeschooling! I will try to keep up with this blog, at least a few times a week. Lots of goodies, and ideas we are trying out this year. We get to be your free guinea pig, lol.