College Prep Algebra 1 and A to Z Writing Prompts for 6th Grade

I am not sure if I shared this before, but 2015 has been an interesting, and challenging year.  When I resigned my LPN position in Dec of 2014, my husband and I decided I should go back to school and finish up my RN that I actually started over 15 years ago.  This has been easier said than done, for a lot of reasons.  After much research, praying, and thinking, I have decided that I will start with my pre reqs.  Because, even though I have been an LPN for 30 years, you still either have to take the classes for the credits, or challenge the exam.  This applies even for bridge, or speedy RN classes.  Most people take the test, and get the credits.  So, I am starting with college level Algebra 1.  I know I am crazy, but it is most applicable to the class my son needs the most help with, and the most challenging test probably for me.  I was going to do the English's first, but decided for the Math classes.  I can not take a test for all pre reqs but almost all of them.  Then as I get closer, I can enroll and hopefully get accepted into the nursing program.  Anyway there are several websites, that I will be using to basically take the course for free, then take the paid exam for the credits.  There are paid courses, but why would I want to do that?  I am using Saylor for Algebra 1, and I hope to have it finished, and ready for the test in 30 days.  I know that is ambitious, but some of this stuff I actually know already. 

For my 6th grader, I am working very hard with her this year on her writing and grammar skills.  She is getting frequent writing assignments, almost daily, this year.  So far, they have been fairly short and without too much difficulty.  Since, I want her to learn research too, I will starting a new endeavor for her.  I will give her a letter, in order, from A-Z per week.  She can pick a topic that starts with that letter, that interests her.  She will have one school week, to research, do a rough draft, edit, and then publish to her blog.  I will only be giving her basic help, and tips esp in the editing dept.  All three of us are using a free app called Notebooks, on our devices, to save on paper to take notes, write, and edit our information.  This is a nice way for them to learn to take notes, and use their devices effectively.  Plus, it never seems I can find a pen in this house, lol. 

So, that is what we have been up to.  We have family coming to visit from out of state, next week, so we won't be getting a lot of school work done.  DJ will have to keep up with his FLVS, but neither of those are horribly time consuming. 

Disappointed in Science Curriculum

It just is not what I thought it was, a full year curriculum, that was being offered to free to the first certain number of people who signed up.  Guess what, it was three lessons for free, and I advertised a lot for this curriculum.  Oh well, live and learn, should have asked more questions, should have investigated more.  Bleh!

So, instead Caitlin and I will be doing Geography and Geology for 6th grade Science.  She needs to work on map skills, and Geography in general, and we all love rocks in this house.  So, this will work out just fine.  Here are some of the links to websites we will be using.  We actually have a rock tumbler, and some rough.  So, as soon as I remember to buy some grit we can polish some gemstones.

I also have a world History book, but I will be using it for the awesome world maps in this book.  I love maps, especially old maps.  I think we will do some map crafts, and sell some in my Etsy store.

http://www.neok12.com/Geography.htm

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/geography.html

http://www.kidsgeo.com/

http://www.rocksforkids.com/

http://www.onegeology.org/extra/kids/what_is.html

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.

A Change to 6th Grade History and Tests

While looking for construction paper, that I was certain was in the garage, I came across The Story of the World Medieval Times.  Now, Caitlin was going to do the Wild West, this coming up year for History.  But, now, I have changed my mind, and she agreed that Medieval Times sounded pretty interesting.  I mean who doesn't love castles, princesses, and dragons. 

I have started the very daunting task of putting our homeschool portfolios together.  Our evaluation is next month.  I am kind of picky, and meticulous, so it takes me a while.  Plus, it gives me lots of time to continue to evaluate and see where we need improvement.  I say we, because I need to constantly adapt, and improve as well as the children. 

I also changed the tests that I am going to give them, before our evaluations.  Caitlin is not super confident in computer testing, as indicated by her ck12 lessons that I went through with a fine tooth comb today.  So, she will be getting a printed paper test.  DJ will be doing a practice online SAT test.  We have been doing the question of the day, for sometime, and I think he is ready to give it a try.  It is free, so it can only be a great learning tool.

I want both of these tests done before our evaluations.  DJ will be doing his next week, and I will order Caitlin's probably next Friday.  We were supposed to go to the springs today, but unfortunately the weather, and both kids caught a cold, so we were unable to go. 

6th Grade Homeschool ELA Language Arts Curriculum Lesson Choices

I finally decided what I will be using for my 6th grader, next year, for ELA Language Arts.  There are actually a few websites I will be using.  I really like the K12 that follows the Common Core Standards.  I know, I can't believe I just said that either.  I just like the set up and the quality of the worksheets provided.  So, we will be using it.  She will continue to read books I choose, and some she chooses, with book reports for each. 

http://www.k12reader.com/grade-level/grades-k-12/grades-6-8/
http://www.scholastic.com/freebiecorner/
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/free-lesson-plans/search?subject[]=303
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/writerschoice/course/grade6/pt1_sr.shtml
http://www.cpalms.org/Public/Search/CriteriaSearch?search=Resources&subjectId=39&gradeId=11&resourceKind=Mea

Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills Grade 6

I love these books. I usually buy one each year, up to say 8th grade, then I move away from them. These are not meant to be stand alone curriculum, but a fun way to refresh or fill busy work in a day. They are fun and educational. This year I had one given to me, by a homeschooler who put her kids in public school. Even though it is a grade ahead of where my daughter will be this year, I want her to be challenged. So, I will use it.

DJ's curriculum is all planned out. That just leaves me to finish up Caitlin's and get our calendar together. My FIL is coming to visit the second week of Sept, so our new school year will be delayed slightly by a week. That broke the kid's hearts.

We continue with our Geography State Capital game, and the kids are starting to remember a lot of them. Plus the Math money game, I posted in the previous post, is working wonders for Caitlin. I did have to add some regular coins to the jar, just to be sure she actually knew the coins not just the decimal amounts written on the bottle tops. I could not be more pleased with the results.

She is also playing a Math card game, made by myself, that I will share as soon as I remember to take some pictures. She is doing addition, subtraction, multiplication and place value to millions with the cards. One more game, the noun, verb, adjective and adverb game. This is easy to do. I ask her to tell me the definition for each thing. After that I tell her to write three nouns on her paper, three verbs, three adjectives that would describe her nouns, and three adverbs to describe her verbs. Then she has to write a sentence with a noun, adjective, verb and adverb from her choices using proper spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. So far it is working amazingly well. I hope to add conjunctions and homophones before the end of Summer.

We are currently only doing school two days a week, over the Summer.