Revamping the Blog!

So I've done some brainstorming and have decided the direction to take this blog in. Yes, I will still talk about our adventures in learning and the books we are reading but I am going to start expanding into other topics - like what I'm reading! ;)

No, seriously, mostly what I am going to do is start expanding on the topics we already cover (so, yes, my books that I am reading will be mentioned) and slowly introduce other topics that I always wanted to talk about but never felt were really relevant to the blog (like cooking, working out, our daily lives, etc.) as well as topics that I've touched upon briefly when it directly related to homeshcooling but never really expanded upon (like our family trips, autism, our holidays, etc.)

I'm going to recatagorize everything, delete some pages, put up some new ones, fix the layout, and probably rename the blog. I haven't decided what yet - right now I've figured everything out BUT the new name.

I figure it'll probably take a full week for me to get all of this done with all the other changes in our lives going on around us but I look forward to the blogs new look - and new name!

So keep checking in all week to see anything new going on!

Moving

Well, that's that.

The moving van is pretty much loaded, our bags are packed, and the car is just missing us in it.

Tomorrow we leave to drive across the country and start our new life.

Obviously, while we are going I will not be putting up any new posts. As it is I'm not even sure what any new posts for this blog will look like. It should take us about a week to get to our destination then it'll take us a day or two to recover.

Then in the midst of job hunting, job interviews, apartment hunting, enrolling my kids in school, etc I will figure out this blog.

I hope I'm not gone too long.

Good-bye... Or Not?

I put this post up on facebook today and wished to share it here with you:

That's it! As of THIS moment, we are officially DONE with homeschooling finishing our final week early so we could end before we moved.

For the past 7 years I have homeschooled Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. 5 of those years we homeschooled for 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year for 1-6 hours a day (depending on their age, their grade, the topic, etc) and for the last 2 years (after I started Scooby-Doo on a fuller schedule) we homeschooled for 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year, for 5-6 hours a day.

For the past 3 years I have homeschooled Scooby-Doo. For the first year, it was for 5 days a week, a full 52 weeks, for an hour a day. After I switched Optimus Prime & Bumblebee to a lighter schedule for a year Scooby-Doo did school work for 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year, for 1-2 hours a day. For his final year I wised up and combined some subjects that Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were doing with what Scooby-Doo was doing. Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were doing Norse Mythology for a few weeks? So was Scooby-Doo. Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were doing animals in Science? So was Scooby-Doo. So while his final year was also 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year, 2 hours a day one of those hours overlapped with his big brothers.

I don't even want to think about how many hours of schoolwork that was!!!

During this time period we covered so many topics I couldn't even begin to remember them all!!! The food pyramid, how to grow a garden, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, knights, pirates, mythology (including Norse, Greek, Roman, Mayan, Incan, Aztec, Native American, Chinese, etc), religions, seasons, holidays, outer space, dinosaurs, the ice age, early humans, sharks, Texas, Native Americans, King Arthur, elephants, horses, volcanoes, earthquakes, ancient China, germs, desserts, bugs, the food chain, bats, whales, wild cats, farms, the arctic and antarctic, oceans, rainforests, robots, and a MILLION other topics I can't even begin to recall.

We learned about geography, history, math, English, Spanish, cooking, spelling, reading, handwriting, and a ton of other subjects I can't remember off the top of my head.

Plus there was t-ball, archery, fitness classes, Scooby-Doo's therapy, cloverbuds, whatever else I can't remember, and twice a week trips to our local library for new books to read.

We've lived in Alaska & Texas, visited multiple zoos, dinosaur parks & museums, national & state parks, many caves, gone hiking, seen glaciers, taken cruises, gone panning for gold, and who knows what else.

And somewhere, in the midst of that, I started reading the boys chapter books every day. At this point in time, we've read over 200 chapter books in over 15 series together as a family!!!

It has been a crazy, fun-filled, information packed 7 years!!! And while I am sorry to see it end - especially since I never thought it would - I am so excited for me & my babies to start our next chapter together in New York!

Celebratory End Of Homeschooling Night Out To Dinner here we come!!!

It WAS a fun ride, and I am very sorry to see it go, but we are excited to move on to the next chapter in our lives. After I posted this I recieved an overwhelimg amout of support from my family and frieds who openly admitted to being "in awe" of my "dedication!" I also recieved comments begging me not to end my blog but to continue it on in another form. I've decided to do that. I'm not wholly sure yet what form that will be (it will definetly include books) but once we get to New York I look forward to figuring that out.

Until then, though, this is it. Our FINAL homeschooling post! It is very bitter-sweet. Bitter because I thought we would always do this, sweet because we are looking forward to our new future...

Quarterly Curriculum May - July 2016

I had to do a bit of reshuffling this quarter to the schedule I had initially written up to ensure that we finished certain workbooks we had started before our move. I did not include page numbers because they varied day by day to ensure we finished our started workbooks.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday

Subjects:

Science - Learning about different animals (broken into units) with some reading comprehension thrown into the mix.
Days - Every other day.
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Animals Grades 1-3 (American Education Publishing).

Art/Logic - Painting, other activities, etc.
Days - Every other day.
Textbooks - None.

Math - Addition, subtraction, fractions, counting by 5's & 10's, time, money, etc. 
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - ARandom started books.

English - Learning the difference between vowels and consonants, learning how to sound words out, synonyms, antonyms, compound words, rhyming words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, sentences, punctuation marks, reading comprehension, etc.
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - Random started books.

Reading - Reading books.
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - Story books.

Scooby-Doo:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday

Subjects:

Magazine - His fun character magazines that cover letter sounds, counting, picture finds, etc.
Days - Every Sunday.
Textbooks - Character Magazines.

Art/Logic - Painting, other activities, etc.
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - None.

Math - Basic introduction to math concepts like addition, money, time, etc. 
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - Random started books.

English - Learning the difference between vowels and consonants, learning how to sound words out, synonyms, antonyms, compound words, rhyming words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, sentences, punctuation marks, reading comprehension, etc.
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - Random started books.

Reading - Every day together.

Final Notes:

• This is our final quarter of homeschooling finishing up our final school year.
• There were only 4 subjects for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee
• I dropped Spelling for our final quarter and we just did reading.
• Science and Art were alternated between

Done...?

For personal reasons, my husband and I have decided that my children and I should move to upstate New York to be with my family. Because of this, I will no longer be able to homeschool.

This makes my heart very heavy. All I ever dreamed of was having lots of children and homeschooling them  - a dream that, in part, my husband shared. Now not only is our marriage over but my children and I have to move across the country and I have to enroll them in school.

This is crushing.

I'm not sure what direction this blog will move in. Maybe I'll talk about fun projects we do now that we no longer homeschool? Maybe I'll speak more about good homeschooling memories? Maybe I'll talk about autism? My job? My kids schoolwork? Our family in general? The books we are reading? Or maybe I'll just end it.

I really don't know.

I will put up our remaining posts relevant to this quarter. Normally I put them up at the end of the quarter/beginning of the next quarter but this time I'll try to have them all up by the summer quarters end.

Then we will move to New York. Then I need to figure out the path my children and I (and yes, even this blog) will take.

3rd Grade Spelling Units #25-36

I just realized I never put up this post!!! To make matters worse, I had never actually finished it and their spelling notebooks filled with these spelling words have long since been thrown out! However, I still had the rough initial post so I feel like I can go ahead and finish it up with their reading schedule.

Optimus Prime did chapter books this whole quarter. He read 1-2 chapters a day. It was a huge jump up for him and despite stumbling a LOT he did really, really excellent! I was so proud of him and he was so proud of himself!!! This next quarter we will scale back on chapter books a bit but that is information for another post.

As for Bumblebee, his reading improves each day. He still isn't at grade level but each day that goes by he does better and better. He worked on level 1 & level 2 books. Level 1 books we spent one day reading, level 2 books were split up over 2 days.

Lastly, Scooby-Doo did have spelling each day, but like I said, his notebook got tossed too so his list was never saved... However, he did enjoy doing spelling just like his big brothers!

Optimus Prime:

Units #25-28 - Pokemon Junior

1. Surf's Up, Pikachu!
2. Meowth, the Big Mouth
3. Save our Squirtle!
4. Bulbasaur's Bad Day
5. Two of a Kind

Units #29-32 - Wonder Woman

1. Trial of the Amazons
2. Monster Magic
3. Creature of Chaos
4. Attack of the Cheetah

Units #33-36 - Magic Tree House

1. Dinosaurs Before Dark
2. The Knight at Dawn
3. Mummies in the Morning
4. Pirates Past Noon

Bumblebee:

Unit #25 - Disney

1. Dumbo
2. Bambi
3. Peter Pan
4. Lady and the Tramp
5. Alice in Wonderland

Unit #26 - Toy Story

1. The Bunny Surprise
2. Buzz's Backpack Adventure
3. A Spooky Adventure
4. Christmas Toys

Unit #27 - Pixar

1. Just Keep Swimming
2. Run, Remy, Run!
3. A Cars Christmas
4. Boo on the Loose
5. Driving Buddies

Unit #28 - Frozen

1. Big Snowman, Little Snowman
2. Hello, Olaf!
3. Anna's Best Friends
4. A Tale of Two Sisters
5. The Christmas Party

Unit #29 - Tangled/Cinderella

1. Kingdom of Color
2. Cinderella's Count Down to the Ball
3. Outside My Window
4. A Dream for a Princess

Unit #30 - For a Princess

1. Friends for a Princess
2. A Pony for a Princess
3. Surprise for a Princess
4. A Pet for a Princess

Unit #31 - Thomas the Tank Engine

1. The Close Shave
2. Thomas and the Jet Engine
3. Santa's Little Engine
4. Easter Engine
5. Happy Birthday, Thomas!

Unit #32 - Thomas the Tank Engine/Batman

1. Thomas Goes Fishing
2. The Rocket Returns
3. Trouble in the Tunnel
4. Going Bananas

Unit #33 - Batman

1. Flying High
2. Brain Freeze
3. T Rex Trouble!
4. Crime Wave!

Unit #34 - Princess Seasons

1. Princess Hearts
2. The Sweetest Spring
3. A Fairy-Tale Fall
4. Winter Wishes

Unit #35 - Princess Pets

1. Princesses and Puppies
2. Snuggle Buddies
3. Sealed with a Kiss
4. Travel Like a Princess

Unit #36 - Princess Stories

1. What is a Princess?
2. The Perfect Dress
3. A Cake to Bake
4. Sleeping Beauty

Home! Home! Home!

We are home (yay!) after a nice (but busy!) trip to upstate New York. We had a nice break from homeschooling and job hunting but now it's "once more unto the breach"...

Well, that applies more to job hunting then homeschooling...