My Plans for the Week (And Into Next)

This week we've got some new stuff going on around here. To start with, Bob got a new job working at the local airport! He started yesterday and he loves it! I'm so glad. :) I was worried that he would have to go away for an internship for the summer but it turns out he's too he's over qualified for internships. They just want people who have no experience in the field - he did the same thing in the Air Force - so he applied for a job at our local airport and got it instead. It'll be so nice to have him home all summer! :)

Bob finishes his classes this week and has independent study all week next week. He will also be taking all the tests for the FAA for the Airframe part of his A&P licensing. Next year he will be doing the Power plant part. He's pretty excited to be done with school for the summer.

I plan on doing our daily lessons with the kids through next week - they have already finished with their Math for the year. They are still working on Spelling and Handwriting though. I am going to try and keep some lessons going a couple of days a week through the summer to finish up their spelling and then work on memorizing their times tables. I'm signing them up for the summer reading program at the library as well.

I am going to go to Sioux Falls this Friday for a different community rummage sale. I think I'm going to go with my neighbor while her kids are in school. I kind of wanted to leave earlier so we are there when they open but I guess if I'm meant to have whatever is there, it will still be there when I get to it! :)

We had an incident here yesterday - while I was typing this very post - involving Jozie, 2 of her friends, some neighbor boys, and a BB Gun. It wasn't fun. Nobody got hurt but when Luke came in to tell me that there was a police officer talking to Jozie (I was inside making supper) my heart was in my throat and I went outside to find 2 very terrified little girls.

It turns out that Aiyanna brought out a BB Gun to show Jozie and Shakiah while they were playing yesterday. It was her uncles and she wanted to play cops and robbers. She didn't want her mom to know she had it so she hid it behind our apartment and told the other girls not to tell. Aiyanna went home because her mom was calling her and Shakiah thought she would take the liberty of showing it to some boys from across the street. When she handed it to one of them he took of running home with it and she chased him to try and get it. When he got home he told his mom that she was pointing it at him and he took it from her. She called the police and they came over and confiscated the gun.

When I talked to the police officer I told him that Jozie would never point a gun at anybody, she has been taught respect for them and even shot them with my dad. He said that she wasn't the one who did it (this morning I got the above story from Jozie so I'm pretty sure that the boys lied when they said that Shakiah pointed or "waved" it at them) and he was glad to hear that we had educated our children about guns. I also told him that we have been having quite a bit of trouble from those boys from using swear words - writing them on our front step and calling Jozie the B word - them stealing Luke's toys - which we got back a day later - and one of them taking apart Luke's bike. All within a couple of weeks. Luke even came in crying one day because the older one threatened to beat him up. Joey - Luke's friend who lives right next door - stuck up for him and said it was the other boys problem and he was just being mean to Luke. I asked the police officer to talk to the mother and tell her to keep her kids off our property. I don't send my kids over there to cause trouble and I would expect she would show me the same courtesy.

My next door neighbor, Jennifer, got home about then and the other mother Jennifer to tell her that she didn't call the cops on her kids, just on "the other ones" and her boys still want to play with Joey. She told Jennifer that Joey would have to go to her house to play though because the police said that if their kids come over here anymore they will get a ticket for trespassing. I was grateful that I wasn't the one who had to do the calling! I sort of considered it after all the negative things that have been happening when those boys are around but I didn't want to be one of those moms. I tried to be calm I was upset! You mess with the cubs and Mama Bear gets a little angry!

Looking for Math...

I have decided to completely break from A.C.E. for next year. This year I went "eclectic" in our home school approach. I think I have things pretty much figured out for everything else, I just need a new math. I want to find something that we love that will carry us through to the end and also prepare the kids for the future if they choose to go to college.

I have been thinking about Saxon math because it is so widely used not only in HSing but also in public and private schools. It looks like my kids would pretty easily transition into it for 4th grade from what they have been doing in ACE (that concerned me because I thought ACE was a little slow) and I've heard - from several people I know personally - that their kids found Saxon easy because it has so much review. That concerns me slightly because both my kids hate repetition - though Jozie can really use it - but I can always assign odds or evens as need be so I wasn't overly worried over that point. BUT...then I G00gled reviews for Saxon HS and read several negative reviews. Ranging from the kids thought it was boring and HATED math as a result to using it all the way through High School and not being prepared for college math courses. Of course there were those who said their kids loved it and one Med. Dr. who said her parents used it for her and all of her numerous siblings and she found it one of her favorite subjects through college because it throughly prepared her for college math...hmmm. I suppose if you hate something you are more likely to complain about it than praise it if you like it.

As you can see, I'm confused over that subject.

I am also thinking about Math-U-See because both my kids like using their hands and it's so much easier for Jozie to physically see her math like if she uses blocks or dots or even her fingers. But do you have to use the manipulatives if you don't want to? Luke seems to breeze through math without much instruction at times - sometimes I tell them to do what they know how to do and when they get to a certain page to stop because it's new and they need instructions. Luke will usually just keep going. I don't want it to be boring for him because he has to count blocks if he doesn't need to. I still have to do a little more research on this one - like is it something that you use all the way through high school or is it done by the end of elementary grades and they you have to switch again?

Jozie's GS leader has used Saxon math through for all of her kids except the youngest which she switched to Math-U-See for this year. She's got 6 kids I think and has home schooled them all most of the way through. I'm going to have to give her a call and pick her brain on the 2 different approaches.

Sorry this got so long - sometimes it helps me organize my thought to get them out in "print". :)

I Corinthians 13 For Homeschoolers

I just got this from Jamie in my email today and though it is written for homeschoolers, I think it is great for any parent. I don't know who wrote it though.

Though I teach my children how to multiply, divide, and diagram a
sentence, but fail to show them love, I have taught them nothing.
And though I take them on numerous field trips, to swim practice and
flute lessons; and though I involve them in every church activity,
but fail to give them love, I profit nothing. And though I scrub my
house relentlessly, run countless errands, and serve three nutritious
meals every day but fail to be an example of love, I have done
nothing.



Love is patient with misspelled words and is kind to young
interrupters. Love does not envy high SAT scores of other homeschool
families. Love does not claim to have better teaching methods than
anyone else, It is not rude to the fourth telephone caller during a
science lesson, does not seek perfectly behaved geniuses, does not
turn into a drill sergeant, thinks no evil about friends' educational
choices.



Love bears all my children's challenges, believes all my children are
God's precious gifts, hopes all my children establish permanent
relationships with Christ, and endures all things to demonstrate
God's love.

Love never fails.



Where there are college degrees, they will fail; where there is
knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we teach in
part. But when the trials of life come to our children, the history,
math, and science will be done away and faith, hope and love will
remain; but the greatest of these is love.