Changing it up!

We have changed things up.

I thought I had our year all figured out. 

I was about to get on Currclick and buy some lap books for science and an idea struck me to show the girls the website and see what they wanted.  I thought they would pick science.  But they found a lot of stuff they wanted.  So, everything has changed.  And I am happy about it.

Allie's Choices

• What Do You Think? (writing)
• 16th Century Fact Finding for High School students
• Veterinary Science
• Allie decided when we were camping that she wants to learn all of the constellations we can see in our night sky, so we are working on resources for that

Allie will also study for her driving permit (driver's ed - half credit).

She is also running the Literacy Circle at e3 and will pick the books, read the books, come up with discussion questions and lead the discussion.  I am counting this as her Lit component and participation in this as Piper's Lit component this year.

Piper's Choices

• Physical Science
• Favorite Medical Breakthroughs
• Roman Art & Architecture
• Frank Lloyd Wright Unit Study
• Math in the Real World of Architecture

So, I think our schedule will look kind of like this:

Together we are going to do Artist's Way for writing for the beginning of the year (I am SO excited about this!), we will fill in any gaps on our graphs of the Presidential candidates and keep up with news stories about the candidates and work on selecting who we like best for the next President, we will also finish Word Up vocab and work on a Personal Finance program that I designed for the girls.

Our Schedule

**This is what I THINK our schedule will look like, it may change as we find what works and what doesn't work.

Monday 

Mom works all day.  Each girl does three pages of freewriting (Artist's Way) and one page of Math and works on their independent projects that they chose from Currclick.  The girls always have chores on Mondays like cleaning the bathroom, washing floors, dusting, etc. and one girl makes dinner on Monday and one on Tuesday.

Tuesday

Mom works in the afternoon.  We will meet in the morning to do our freewriting (or they may do it in their beds), Word Up vocab, Presidential Politics and Personal Finance and anything else that I think we should do together.  We will also discuss how they are doing on their independent studies.  The girls will do math and their independent studies in the afternoon when I am at work.  One girl will make dinner.

Wednesday

We have e3 all day.  The girls will each do their freewriting and a page of math.

Thursday & Friday

We might do our freewriting together or independently while still lying in bed.  I will meet in the morning to do vocab, check out the headlines for the presidential candidates, work on our personal finance program and discuss the girls progress on their independent studies.  The girls will work on math and independent studies in the afternoon.

**I have been asked a lot what Artist's Way is.  The premise is that God wants us to be creative, but the world puts obstacles in our way.  The author, Julia Cameron, lays out a twelve week plan to tap those creative juices and keep them flowing.  This initially started as something I was going to do, but I was listening to the audiobook in the car when I picked up the girls from somewhere and they thought it sounded cool, so we decided to all do it.

Summer 2015

The Girls BOTH Had Summer Jobs

Allie worked this summer for a friend of mine who is an editor of a website and has to go to Manhattan twice a week for work.  Allie watched her kids on those days and was paid quite well.  We made her put 75% of the money she made into the bank; the 25% she kept was enough to buy a designer handbag and wallet, go to the movies several times with friends, go shopping and out to lunch with friends, etc.  She had a blast.

Piper continued her dog walking business.  She also got into reading.  Thank you, God!  I love to read and Allie loves to read and I had such a hard time understanding that Piper did not like to read.  But I tried to accept it.  Not everyone loves books.  Not everyone loves to sit and read.  But this summer Piper discovered John Green and was hooked!  Then she asked Allie for some recommendations and off she went!  She also spent TONS and TONS and TONS of time with our former homeschool neighbors who went to school last year; I am SO GLAD these girls have stayed close!

...And Volunteered

Both girls volunteered at the library.  Allie helped me with my summer programs and she also volunteered for my boss, arranging displays of Juvenile, Mid and YA books.  She is volunteering in hopes of a paid Page position this time next year that will take her through high school (as long as we don't move).  Piper volunteered to help with a hippotherapy program that we received a grant to run this summer.  It was quite successful and Piper even got into the local newspaper!

We Had Fun...

We went to the boardwalk...because that's what you do in New Jersey in the summer.

We found two new swimming holes with friends (and thought we might prefer swimming holes to crowded beaches).  How did I never know things like this existed before I met other homeschool mommas who are driven to get their kids hanging out in nature??

We had many barbecues with friends on the deck.

We had fun at cookouts at friends' homes.

Allie and Jason went to several concerts.  Piper and I went shopping and out for fro-yo and Starbucks--more our speed ;-)

We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream...outside Shakespeare is AWESOME!

We Accomplished Some Things...

I drove in Manhattan during the day for the first time ever!!  i have driven in the city in the middle of the night with friends 20+ years ago, but there was no traffic, we had no destination in mind, we just cruised around in the middle of the night.  Daytime traffic, looking for parking spaces, parallel parking...quite different.  But I did fine.  I would do it again.  Nothing can stop me now!!!!

I also completed some projects, like painting my bedroom furniture and sanding down a rough finish on this armoire we got from my in-laws, repairing the veneer and repainting it.  Jason and I worked together to turn it into a wine cabinet.

I realized I am not a gardener.  We have tried having a garden for several years now and last year (2014) was awesome.  Otherwise...not much luck.  It may be that we just don't have a great spot for it that gets enough sun (we have a lot of shade from huge mature trees that my tree-loving husband won't cut down) or just that I don't really like weeding...but this summer we had an issue with white flies and I got so grossed out that I threw the kale back in the garden and ran back inside.  A good friend and avid gardener who grows MOST of their own food, told me to try either chili oil or Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap, both of which I had...and I wanted to try...but I was so skeeved out that I never did.  Moving to a house where we can grow our food may just have to wait until we retire and my husband, who LOVES to work with soil and grow things, can take care of it.  Til then, I am going to stick with learning more about holistic remedies and herbs and essential oils.

I got ALL of our digital photos on Shutterfly.  I made photo books for our Disney Trip and our Jamaica trip and I started working on a 2008 Year in Review photo book, but then I decided to just work on gluing the photos back into the scrapbooks.  It was easier.  I had great hopes and intentions to have our entire lives in photo books...but my interest kind of waned.  At least all the photos are there if I ever want to do it!

And Dealt with Some Health Stuff

I was diagnosed with Adrenal Fatigue in the late winter/early spring.  It's crazy to me how it took going to a holistic health provider to find out about this and it is something that effects me and has affected me in so many ways for so many years.  So many of the different things I deal with (allergies that seem to be getting worse and worse, feeling like I can't keep up with stuff, irritability, insomnia, stomach issues) are all tied up in the fact that my adrenals have been taxed (stuff from when I was a kid, an eating disorder, etc.) and are not functioning properly.  As I am in my early forties and heading into perimenopause (sorry if I am getting too personal) some of the symptoms are being exacerbated and I seriously felt like I was crazy sometimes because of the high levels of cortisol that were being released into my bloodstream for no apparent reason at 11:30 am (heart pounding as I am happily driving somewhere on a beautiful back country road) or 3:30pm as I am sitting with friends by a creek knitting and talking as our kids splash in the water or 9pm as I am giving in to my guilty pleasure and mainlining Friday Night Lights or 1:30 am when I wake up from a sound sleep, heart pounding and can't get back to sleep until 6am (this has been going on for several years now).  Anyway...I am grateful for an HSA that allows me to pay for the functional medicine doc and ASI tests with pre-tax dollars and I hope and pray that someday health care in this country gives us the choice of WHAT KIND of health care we want...because I am tired of putting a band-aid on this stuff, I was on Prozac at 20 and have had a Rx for Xanax for almost ten years and NO ONE ever tried to repair what was wrong, they just put these Big Pharma band aids on it.  Now thankfully, with Vitamin B Complex, Magnesium and Relora (cortisol blocker) supplements, I am seeing VAST improvement.

One of my really good friends, who helped me get the right kind of medical care, also turned me on to essential oils.  I had bought some essential oils at a yoga studio and from another hs mom, but no one really told me how to use them and I did some research online and well, I ended up using them half-assed and didn't see what the fuss was about.  Having someone say, "Rub this on the cartilage above your earlobe when you can't sleep" or "Rub this RutaLava all over you when you can't sleep" or "Smell this lavender oil when your heart starts pounding" made a HUGE DIFFERENCE.  HUGE.  I had been interested in aromatherapy years and years ago but I never took the time to learn about it and understand it, until now.  I got my Member Kit and Diffuser from Young Living, but I have to say that I prefer Aura Cacia oils - you are not paying the MLM prices, the quality is very good, you can buy them at Wegman's, they are not putting down other companies by trying to get you to buy from them, they do not advocate ingesting any oils, they seem more holistic and less like a marketing ploy to me.  A friend suggested I try Whole Foods Oils 365 or something, but I have not had a need yet...although the Lavendar is getting low--we use it for everything!  We made a mist with it to spray our pillows, the girls added it to their coconut oil and put it in little tubs to prevent breakouts, we diffuse it, we use it almost every day.

All in all it was a really good summer! <3

Should We Stay or Should We Go?

We are no closer to making a decision about moving.

To be honest, our neighbors were really not that noisy this summer.  The construction is done, where ever they keep the radio now that the construction is done we can't hear it inside our house; they didn't have a lot of parties.  If it's just the family that lives there hanging out outside, we can't even hear them from inside our house, but get 8-10 kids and grown men who torment and try to drown them in the pool and it can get noisy, but even at that it was never noisy past 8pm.  Ever.  

 But, we still like the idea of more land.  We still feel "closed in" here, like everything is too close.  Our first house was on 2.8 acres on top of a mountain and that was what we had always wanted, BUT there was nowhere for kids to ride bikes, it was far into town, it was far from friends, it took one full day on the weekend to maintain the yard.  I grew up in a fairly rural area and always LOVED visiting my friends who lived in condos or my grandmother who lived in the city because I could walk and bike places.  So, when we bought this house, that was what we wanted: an area where the girls could bike and walk to friends' homes; where I could get to the store in under an hour; where lawn maintenance took a few hours and left time for barbecuing with friends or heading to the beach or on a day trip on the weekends; where we could bring take-out home without it getting cold.  Little things like that.

And for a while that was what was important. The girls did ride bikes and walk to friends' homes all the time.  But...Allie will be driving next year and Piper two years after that...the time of being able to bike is not so important, having more space is more important to us now; having roads that are not super congested for young drivers to learn on is becoming important.  We loved being closer to stores, being able to hop in the car and get that missing ingredient and be back in ten minutes, running to Home Depot for that thing we forgot for the project.  But, having more control over our food is becoming more important.  We want to grow more of what we eat and we need more land for that.  

So, we continued to look at houses this summer.

One was too close to high tension wires for my comfort.

One was across the street from 5 busy soccer fields.  Noise.  Traffic.

One had 2 acres behind it, but on the sides was closer to neighbors than we are now.

One was in the middle of a town, and although it had beautiful property, we decided we didn't want to be that close to a busy intersection.

One was perfect, but they had to sell that house to buy another house and couldn't entertain an offer where we had to sell a house to buy a house.

The real goal is a view like one of these, all of these photos are from homes we looked at this summer.  I will miss not having a view like this.

The girls are on board with the idea of moving.

In fact, they are getting excited about it and looking at realtor.com and sending us photos.

They want a second full bath and bedrooms that have more character, even if the rooms are smaller, than what they have now.  

Allie's best friend has moved over an hour away, but we still see her.

Piper's friends - our former homeschool neighbors - we are close enough with that we know they would come and visit often.

So they know they will still see their friends. 

And just as we get to point of saying, "Let's just list this house!  Let's do this!"

Something happens that makes us re-think it.

We head to the beach for the day and realize...we are 40 minutes from the beach.

We head to the city for the day and think how awesome it is to be 40 minutes from Manhattan.

We drop the girls off at the mall with friends and head home to finish a project and realize there are no malls where we are looking at houses.

The girls have been talking about working at the mall since they were tiny.

This move will add another 40 minutes on to those times, 80 minutes round trip, too long to drop the girls off and run home.

Jason's company makes the decision to transfer him to yet another branch...which, since we live so central in our state is an easy commute, but if we had moved...it could have been a nightmare commute!

We bought this house in this area because it was so central, close to so much...and there is something to be said for that as well...

So we are no closer to coming to a decision about moving.

But the girls and I do LOVE looking at houses - online and in person - and dreaming about how we would decorate them.  We spent A LOT of time this summer painting rooms in our minds and discussing fabrics and furniture layouts.

2015 ~ 2016 Curriculum

The girls will be in 8th and 10th grade this year.  Planning has become so much different as we know what works for us and what does not and the girls have become more and more involved in what they want to learn, setting goals for themselves and selecting resources.

Language Arts

A few of my friends have formed an Artist's Way Circle and asked me to join.  In looking into it, I thought it might be something the girls would benefit from as well.  I don't know if they are blocked, but I do think they probably have some fears and hesitations about their work that this program may help them with.  I really like that the program looks at creativity as God's work.  We listened to the audiobook in the car on several road trips this summer and the girls have decided they are interested.  So, this fall, we will embark on the Artist's Way journey.  No grading, no judging.  I am just going to make sure they do the work and the rest is personal for them.  It is liberating in a way for all of us to trust the universe that this is the right path.

We usually take a few weeks off around the holidays, when we get back down to it, we will start Writing Strands 5.  Writing Strands is one of those programs that works for us.  The girls like that they get to be creative with the assignments and I like how their writing grows and develops with this program.

We have always studied Latin and Greek roots for words.  As Allie contemplates the PSAT and the SAT (not sure whether or not she will take it, as she is planning to do her first two years of college at community college and she won't need to take the SAT to get in), I am aware that continuing a study of Latin and Greek roots will benefit her.  We will complete Level 1 of Word Up and review with Critical Thinking Company's Word Roots.  Allie also has an SAT Word a Day App on her phone, she share the word with us every morning and we all try to use it throughout the day.  We will also use Think Analogies and Mind Benders, both are good for test prep or just deductive reasoning and critical thinking.

Compass Classroom Word Up Lessons 5-10

Word Roots

SAT Prep Words App 

• A Midsummer Night's Dream - read in July (went to play at the beach)
• The Crucible - read in August (trip planned to Salem early September)
• Allie is running a Teen Book Club at e3 with a friend, reading those books and prepping discussion will count as part of her literature grade; Piper is required to read the books and participate in the discussion (So far, she and a friend have chosen The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, Life As We Knew It and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  Allie has learned SO MUCH already just attending planning meetings for this teen-led group in terms of differing opinions and strong personalities.

History

Dark Ages Project - research topics, write paragraphs, correct MLA format for resources

Renaissance Project - research topics, write paragraphs, correct MLA format for resources

Early Modern Times Project - research topics, write paragraphs, correct MLA format for resources

**I created our research based projects last spring for history and they worked well, so we are going to continue that this year.  I have found a few movies and documentaries to go with the topics.  

Science

We have used lapbooks from CurrClick for different topics we wanted to learn about and the girls really enjoyed them, found them interesting and liked the creative aspect of working with them.  They would prefer to use lapbooks over textbooks.  We may combine the lapbooks with additional research at the library and some experiments and field trips.  I am, however, concerned that this may not be high school level work and if I feel we need a little extra, I may bring in the free books from CK-12 for additional work.

The Earth Lapbook

Weather Lapbook

Extreme Weather Lapbook

Earthquakes Lapbook

Environmental Science Lapbook

AND/OR

CK-12 Earth Science for High School 

CK-12 Earth Science for High School Workbook

CK-12 Earth Science Concepts for High School interactive games and activities app

Math

Complete Key to Algebra - Allie 

(still undecided if we will go back to Teaching Textbooks because I like the scaffolding/spiral approach and review or if we will try Key to Geometry when she finishes Key to Algebra as she finds the Key to books easier to understand.)

Complete Key to Fractions, Key to Decimals, Key to Percents - Piper

(again not sure if we will go back to Teaching Textbooks for the review or just continue with the Key to series as both girls find the Key to series easier to understand for new concepts, but the review may be helpful)

Foreign Language

Rosetta Stone Italian Levels 2 & 3

Film Study 

a continuation of what we did last year; we may see if we can get a group of friends together to watch movies every other week like we did with Art/Writing Club last year.  We just have to see how much time we have and if our friends' are free when we are.

Cooking & Baking

The girls each make dinner at least once a week.  They use pinterest to pin recipes or our collection of cookbooks.  They get credit hours for each new recipe they try.  Allie also loves to bake and we only bake from scratch, so she gets credit for that as well.

E-Cubed

Teen led group on Wednesdays.  Both girls attend and LOVE it.  Allie has volunteered to lead the book discussion with a friend.  It has been a learning experience already and she has not even started leading yet!  In addition to book discussion, there will be skills (kind of like shop class), performing arts, music appreciation, mock trial and art.  All lead by kids.  Based on North Star.

Personal Finance

I have a few ideas for this, not sure what is going to work yet...

Ski Club

Allie has found a sport that she LOVES.  She has been talking about skiing every single day since the last time she was on the slopes.  She dreams about it.  She LOVES it.  She CAN NOT WAIT for ski season!

Volunteering

Both girls will continue to volunteer at the library on Mondays.

DogWalking and Babysitting

The girls will also continue their jobs.

Divided We Stand

A rule of etiquette --in business, at the dinner table, at the barbershop and elsewhere—is “never talk about religion or politics.” These subjects are highly contentious and usually result in heated argument instead of general agreement. “Never discuss religion or politics with those who hold opinions opposite to yours” has been cited in print since at least 1840. “Do not discuss politics or religion in general company” is from 1879. (Source)

My family has always talked about politics.  My mother's family leans to the right and my father's family leans to the left and there is almost always a heated debate at every family function when both sides attend.  Growing up I learned so much about why each side feels the way they do about things and that, I believe, has helped me to have informed opinions.

I have tried in the last couple of years, as my girls are getting older, to not share much of my political feelings with the girls because I don't want to influence them, but they are present for the heated family discussions where they get to hear both sides of the debate.

But that is not really what I want to write about.

In my day to day life I have several close friends with whom I can discuss politics and religion.  It started out tentatively, like when a friend clutched her cell phone tightly in her hand during a playdate, checking it every few seconds because her husband's company was giving out pink slips and she was so afraid he would get one.  That lead to a discussion about the economy and we kind of "felt each other out" and got into politics once we realized we had similar feelings.  That has happened with my other mom friends, as well as with people at work and with people at church.

But on social media, people often share not their feelings, but memes.  Very confrontational memes.  Without regard to who will see it, which of their friends will agree or disagree.  It can seem very "in your face", especially if you disagree.  Then, sometimes you might feel (as I have) that you need to post memes to counter the memes your friend posted to show your feelings and to find your little regime of friends that agrees with you.  It can all get your blood pressure elevated and it's just not healthy.  I stayed away from Facebook for a while because of it.  (Now I am trying to be on a little more because there are a lot of Teen Homeschool postings that I find informative and helpful).

I had a conversation recently with a very close friend at a Fourth of July picnic with whom I have never really discussed politics; we talk about our kids and our husbands and our parents and our pets and our homes and our vacations and our plans and our dreams, but not politics.  The conversation went something like this:

"We don't all have to agree.  I don't agree with everything you post on Facebook and you probably don't agree with everything I post, but we are still friends.  We don't hold it against each other.  But some people get so offended if you post something they disagree with," my friend said.  "If we are friends and we enjoy hanging out, that is all that should matter.  You have to let the rest of the stuff go."

I thought about it and I thought: She's right.  I was petty for getting upset when someone posts something that I don't agree with.  I need to grow up and put on my big-girl pants.

But then my very good friend made a statement about the Confederate flag that was opposed to my view on what was going on in South Carolina.  WOW.  I didn't know that about her.  WOW.  I asked some questions and we talked a bit and I ended up finding out that her view was not really THAT different from mine, we just saw this one thing a little bit differently.  She saw the Confederate flag as a piece of Southern history and it could/should be flown; similar to the Gadsden flag.  Ok, I can see where she is coming from.  The conversation made me see the issue in a new way.

But on Facebook or Twitter or a blog post when someone says something, you don't necessarily get that same kind of back and forth as you would face to face.  Sure, you can comment.  But they may not respond for a while and during that time you might get more upset about things.  Something is lost when there is no face to face contact, we tend to write things we would never say face to face.

In those friendships where we "felt each other out" and found we had similar views on one or two things, that would open the door to talking about more things and often I would find we viewed many things similarly.  We agree that it is a gross use of capitalism to profit from someone's illness, then we find that we agree that Big Pharma is profiting from keeping us sick and having us take multiple medications because of the side effects of our medications, that leads to realizing we agree that our food should be labeled, which then leads to an agreement that we don't like the idea of government subsidies to farms, etc.

Likewise, I often figure that if someone views something differently than the way that I do that they view many things differently.  When I read a blog post that states that the person thinks Wall Street should hold no responsibility toward the financial crisis in 2008, I figure that person favors de-regulation of Wall Street, they probably feel that CEOs should make millions and workers should make a lot less money, they are probably against collectivism and workers' rights, they probably favor the Citizens United ruling and agree with corporations sinking tons of money into the elections to favor a certain candidate....and it goes on and on and on.  Maybe I am right, maybe I am wrong, but before long, if the person continues to post or say things I disagree with, I start to dislike the person because I feel that they are against me and everything I stand for and I decide I am probably better off leaving that person alone.

Studying history with the girls, I have come to realize that there has always been issues of abuse of power, economic issues, differing opinions on government policy, threats from other countries...none of this is new.  There were always people who had different opinions.  But social media is new.  Social media, it seems to me, is dividing us further.  We are posting things in response to other people's posts and reposting things because we think it makes a statement and that statement is like drawing a line in the sand.  I have little patience for apathy and I definitely encourage being informed, but posting and reposting memes just to make a statement, that is dividing us further.  We are digging in our heels with each meme and oftentimes it seems like we are becoming more and more extreme to one side or the other and that makes me fear our future.

My Teacher Review

Here in the United States, teacher reviews in the public schools have become tied to standardized tests.  If their students did not do well, the teacher is reviewed poorly and may not get an increase in pay.  In my opinion, this encourages teaching "to the test" so that students do well on the test and discourages creativity in the classroom.

This year, my girls asked for grades and report cards, so they knew how they were doing.  Piper is very much like me and needs to have a way to measure her work and know "this is B work, so I need to improve and how can I improve and where can I improve?"  I admit, at the beginning of the year, I was into this, but my interest waned and we did go back to just working on something until we had made it as good as it could be, sometimes that took one edit, sometimes several.  I do not have end-of-the-year report cards and grades for writing or history or science (Math and Italian are computer based, so I do have grades).  But, I did write each girl a letter (as I have at the end of each year we have homeschooled) and told them what I think their weaknesses are and what I think their strengths are, what I was happy about with their effort and where I think they fell a little short (my kids are great, but not perfect).  I also recapped a lot of highlights of our year, because these letters are keepsakes for us.

But where is my Teacher Review?

The other day, Allie was reading on the couch and came across a word she did not know, but she knew two of the roots in the word from our vocabulary so between the roots and context clues, she was able to figure out the word.  She asked me if she had deduced it correctly and I said that she had. That is my teacher review.

Often I lay with the girls at night before bed and we talk.  The other night, I was laying with Allie and she told me how ever since we learned about camera angles in Film Study, she doesn't watch movies the same way, now she picks up on camera angles right away and knows if something emotional is happening or who the filmmaker wants her to suspect or pay attention to.  That is my teacher review.

I made the decision to study Presidential Politics with the presidential election this year because Allie will be voting in 2.5 years and I want her to be able to make informed, educated decisions about our government and leaders.  Piper has astounded me with her interest in this.  She wants to understand all of the ideologies and issues.  She is interested in the candidates and comes to me to tell me that another one declared candidacy and she already knows a little about that candidate.  We were in the car the other day and they were discussing the GOP Budget and she asked me to turn it up, since she has an understanding of the ideologies of each party, she was able to better understand what was going on and discuss it very thoughtfully with me.  That is my teacher review.

The girls are working on history independently.  I followed the outline of the Table of Contents in Story of the World 1: The Ancients and they are researching and writing about each topic and including the websites in a Works Cited document.  Every evening at dinner, Jason asks the girls what they learned about today and they always start with something about history--and then proceed to educate Jason and I on what they learned.  Sometimes they disagree and then one or the other jumps up or gets out a device and figures out who is right and who has incorrect information.  That is my teacher review.

Last week, they wrote about The Great Wall of China, they were fascinated by this and spent quite some time looking at images, discovering that because it was so narrow it can not be seen from space, wanting to know how long it would take to walk it, how long it took to build it, etc.  They dug in DEEP and then informed their father and I all about it.  That is my teacher review.

Jason took over science for a good portion of the year, but when work got really busy for him, I finished up the last couple of chapters.  The curriculum I used built on itself--you had to remember things from prior lessons in order to understand subsequent lessons -- and the girls DID remember things from prior lessons, they understand positive and negative charges and exchanges of gases and release of energy.  That was Jason's teacher review.

I have provided my girls with the conditions to learn many things.  Some facts they will remember, but what I am really proud of is not the fact that they will remember, but the fact that they have trained their mind to learn and to think beyond what they are being taught.  That conversation about the GOP Budget?  It was not just facts, it was educated opinions based on facts.  That conversation about vocabulary?  It was not just regurgitation of a word, it was applying what she knew about the roots with the context of the story to figure out the meaning of the word.  That conversation about film study?  It was not just remembering what we read about camera angles, but it was allowing what she learned to change how she watches movies.  Those are the things I am proud of.  That is my teacher review.

Spring Fever, Splash, Tree Change, & Hyperbole

Spring Fever

We made the decision a couple of years ago to follow a traditional September - June school schedule.  The girls like having the summer off to relax and do things with friends and I need the time to relax, plan and get my head cleared from one year and ready for the next.

I have several projects that I am itching to start...

• When the girls were tiny and scrapbooking was the big thing, I had made them each scrapbooks with photos from when I was pregnant with them until they were two.  I also made Year in Review albums up until 2009, when I started making photo books.  Over the years, for different reasons, I have gone through the scrapbooks and pulled out photos for memorial collages and #tbt or #flashbackfriday or to scan and make into prints to frame and then just sort of shoved them back in the page protector but didn't glue them back on--and the books are A MESS!  I want to scan all of those photos into Shutterfly and make photo books, I can keep copies and if when the girls grow up and move out, they want a copy, I can have another copy printed!

• When we cleaned out my mother and father-in-law's house, we took a beautiful antique armoire that my brother-in-law didn't want.  I want to clean it and sand it down and refinish it.
  

• I also want to paint the desk and night tables in my bedroom with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE working with this paint!

• Also, I would like to make a decision about moving or staying.  We would LOVE more land for gardens, privacy, to have chickens.  We have been looking for a few YEARS and we have had a hard time finding something with gas heat (oil heat is 3x the price of gas heat and some towns near us are outlawing woodstoves because they say they are fire hazards) or what we have found has the acreage we want but shares a driveway with a neighbor--we want more space from neighbors or one house had toxic mold, another needed A LOT of structural work (was really a tear down)...part of me wants to hold out for that Craftsman bungalow on three plus acres on a not-busy road...but another part wants to make the decision and feel settled.  A few years ago, before all of this wanting more land started, we had started saving to remodel our kitchen, but we have been putting it off and if we are going to stay--I really want to get rid of this ceramic tile floor and counter! We bought this house because it is close to a lot of major roads and as the girls are getting closer to college, we have realized they could commute to at least 8 great schools from here (that is not counting the schools in the city).  While we want them to have the college experience, neither my brother nor I lived at school and felt we got the experience and I don't see paying 15k or more to share a room and a bathroom and eat crappy food...but of course, it will be up to the girls what they decide to do.  Hopefully, we will get closer to making a decision this summer. 

• In the last few weeks we started looking at YET ANOTHER HOUSE, this one on 6 acres and a bungalow (not quite the wide front porch Craftsman type bungalow that we had in mind, but a bungalow style home), on one side was protected open space, BUT the other side is a nursery that is for sale and the rumor is that it may become a corporate complex (it is not that close to the house and it's kind of "off the beaten path" but our realtor told us that the current owners have filed paperwork with the town to turn it into a complex of office buildings, the paperwork has not yet been approved--I guess we can hold out and see if it gets approved? Or if someone snatches the place up in the interim?)

Princeton Splash

The girls attended Princeton Splash a couple of weeks ago.  It was a great experience!  I admit, I wanted them to do it and they were hesitant.  But when they heard about the course offerings, they became a little more enthusiastic.  I have learned with my girls that I often need to push them to get them out of their comfort zone--but usually when I do, they end up having a good time.  

I am reposting this from Piper's Instagram

On the day of Princeton Splash, I was nervous about dropping them off and leaving them to navigate a university campus all by themselves.  I almost said "let's forget it", but I am glad I didn't, because the girls had a wonderful day and navigated the campus just fine, made new friends, came out smiling and confident and eager to share what they had learned--about why Kanye is a genius, how to persuade people (which Piper told us she couldn't tell us about because she might want to use it on us!), how to make a video game and making marble cupcakes in a dorm with a bunch of college girls, just sitting around and talking!

Jason and I went out to lunch, reminisced about when we lived in Princeton, visited one of my high school friends who now owns a very chi-chi shop in Princeton and just enjoyed having some time alone together!

Winding Up Academically

Since I tracked our hours this--Allie's first year of high school--year, we have enough hours in Language Arts to consider it one credit, although there are a couple of more things we are still going to do, like read To Kill a Mockingbird together and work through this packet together.

We have finished our Chemistry curriculum, but we still have 7 hours to fill, which the girls will fill with experiments from the Caveman Chemistry book my brother-in-law used in a college class and the girls are interested in trying some Kitchen Chemistry, plus we have a membership to Liberty Science Center and plan to spend some time there this summer, so I don't think rounding that out will be a problem.  I am also considering asking them to write an essay about what they learned in science this year, sometimes I think writing something makes you think about it more and understand it even more clearly.  They can use the Student Reading from our curriculum, which they have been dutifully highlighting and taking notes in the margins on, to write the paper.

Measuring pH, we did this for HOURS, using red cabbage leaves and water.
Baking soda, hand soap, lotion, make-up, etc. we just kept finding things to test!

The girls are working independently through a research and writing project on Ancient Civilizations, they have about 10 hours until they complete the 120 hour requirement for a credit, but about 8 more topics to cover (they cover one topic a day, 4 days a week and it takes them about 2 hours to research the topic, write an outline, write the paragraph(s) and enter the works cited in proper format) so they will go over hour-wise in history as well.  I was considering one of these Lapbooks for the Middle Ages, but we had such good luck with this research and writing project and the girls truly learned and were able to discuss so much, that I am considering doing the same for Middle Ages and maybe even Renaissance.

We have completed Level 1 of Rosetta Stone Italian and accompanying Italian grammar worksheets. I am not counting this at all.  I will count all five levels of Rosetta Stone Italian, plus an Italian school grammar workbook as 2 years of Italian.

We have almost 60 hours (half high school credit) of quality work in  Film Study, Art and Cooking & Baking, we are undecided as to how long we will log hours for these classes.  Presidential Politics will be an ongoing full high school credit project until November of 2016 (I just bought this US Government Studies Lapbook from Knowledge Box in part because I thought it would be a cool addition to this study and in part to see if we want to go this route with the Middle Ages or continue with the research-based learning project).  E-cubed ends in about a month and by that time, Allie will have over 120 hours there, she learned about geography, art, discussed books, learned how to hang drywall, tape drywall and use a drill, among MANY other things there but I am undecided if I should count it as a "Club" or a half credit or a full credit.  Other moms who are using this credit hour system all have different ideas, so I am going to have to go with what feels right.

We are considering Writing Group like a high school club.  A group of girls that get together and share their writing, provide feedback, hang out.  It didn't start out with the goal of being a positive group for girls.  It started out because Allie loves to write stories and Piper enjoyed writing plays with the idea of her friends acting it out and her filming it and I thought they could use a writing group to share their ideas and get feedback.  One of the things that I knew was most important in this group was that everyone feel safe and comfortable and so, in looking back over the year, we ended up doing a lot of things to learn about and accept each other--from writing what we admired about each other in each other's journals to writing positive descriptions of each other to learning to give AND take positive feedback AND constructive criticism. I think the group is tighter for it.  We are having our last meeting for the season this week.  We may do Writing Club next year or we may do Film Club instead as all of the girls love movies and it could be fun to watch movies and discuss them together--cinematography, lighting, camera angles, choices the director made, etc.

The girls have also happily logged many hours volunteering to help me with programs at the library and volunteering at the soup kitchen.  Both things, they have said, make them feel good and they are going to continue both indefinitely.  Allie is considering a career working with children and is also hoping to volunteer at a children's hospital this summer--if my mama heart can handle letting her, there are just some things I want to shield her from!  Allie, ever the book lover, also talks frequently about becoming a librarian, she has approached my boss about other volunteer opportunities or possibly a paid position in the future, when something opens up.

The girls are continuing and expanding their dog walking business and Allie will be doing more babysitting this summer.  We are looking forward to beach days with friends, several trips we have planned and just relaxing...and, of course, I have my list of projects I want to do.

Math

Math has been...tricky.  Piper has struggled so much with fractions.  We have been using Teaching Textbooks which is a software program that offers an explanation and hints and help and solution explanations...but just not enough practice of new concepts.  I was printing out worksheets for Piper to supplement what she was learning and that was helping.  Then, Allie started struggling with Polynomials and while she understood the basic Rational Expressions and Quadratic Equations, eventually as it got more complex, the explanation on Teaching Textbooks was not enough.  The girls had meltdowns.  I had a meltdown.  Math is not my thing and Algebra is not something I can explain, although I was able to solve the problems, I just don't feel like I can do enough here on my own to help her.

At the same time - the week after Easter - their school friends were on spring break posting pictures on social media and I started questioning if we made the right decision to homeschool or if the girls would have been better off in school.  I beat myself up for everything.  It was a pretty bad time.

Jason came home, saw the state of us girls and took us all out to dinner.  After a margarita and chips and some of the best salsa ever and grilled cactus and fish tacos, we were all feeling better.  The girls NEVER questioned being homeschooled--they want to continue and feel lucky that they are homeschooled.  We just need to figure out the math thing.

One IG friend mentioned CTC Math Tutoring, which is a bit pricey, but might be what we need.  We also might need to hire a personal tutor.  A friend from our little local homeschool group loaned us Life of Fred Beginning Algebra, but I don't like that the answer key is on the same page as the questions.  Allie is reading it, but she really doesn't have to solve the problem because the answer is right there .  I cover it with Post-its...but still....  Another friend mentioned Key to Algebra series which she said saved her sanity and starts very basic, but it seems to be out of print :(  I have had a hard time finding it anywhere and as it is consumable, her kids wrote in it and she threw it away. 

My plan is to take this break and let the girls breathe and let me research things and come to a decision and maybe in a couple of weeks, when we have wrapped more stuff up and can focus almost exclusively on math and do it at a relaxed pace, we will try something new...or go back in to Teaching Textbooks (someone told me they have a one-on-one tutoring available over the phone, but i have not looked into that yet) or hire a tutor or something.

I love that homeschooling allows us time to take breaks when needed and find the curriculum that works for our individual children.  

Tree Change Dolls

Since we abandoned CNN Student News because I didn't like starting our day with violence and anxiety-producing images and stories, I have been sharing things I find with the girls every morning (sometimes they share things they find online with me, too!).  We all LOVED this story, this idea, these dolls, how creativity was celebrated, how social media was used positively, how industry was created, how there is a need for this, how innovative this mom was....the list really goes on and on of all the reasons we love this and I wanted to share it.

Hyperbole

The girls and I have been going over different literary devices.  I found this youtube video for yyperbole and I thought it was so excellent that I had to share it.  I don't think anyone would ever not understand or remember what hyperbole was after watching this!

YA Authors, Planting Trees & Prom!

Writing Club Meets a Real, Live YA Author!

My friend and former co-worker, Sandy Hall, published a YA novel.  And not only did she publish a YA novel, she entered a manuscript into the online forum of a major publisher that was starting a new YA label and after lots of feedback and edits, her manuscript was voted the best.  And not only that, but she got a multi-book contract that allowed her to quit her job as a youth services librarian and write FULL TIME!

This is her book.  The girls and I went to her book launch party last summer.
It was very exciting!

I ran into Sandy at a party a couple of months ago and we got to talking and she said she would come and talk to my writing group!  The girls were super excited to have a real, live author talk to them in person!  We talked for hours about the writing life, getting ideas, character development, plotting, plots, favorite books, Dr. Who, making stories timeless and many, many other things.  She encouraged the girls to get involved with online writing forums and communities.

Sandy shared how she plotted her first novel with these notecards and a ring to bind them together. Characters got different colored cards; she had a card for each month and what happened that month; a card for what happened to each character during that month and cards for plot and other things all arranged chronologically.  She also shared how the story came to be: a story about what it is really like to go to college; a story about a guy and a girl who meet and like each other, but never talk, but everyone around them knows they need to be together.  She also shared this video with the girls on Three Act Structure by KatyTastic that she said was really, really helpful in plotting her novel.

It was such a great experience!  Sandy and I always used to talk about our favorite authors and we even used to travel to meet them and go to book signings and may or may not have discussed stalking them.  As readers, authors are more exciting to us than movie stars!  And now Sandy is one of them!  She told us how she was invited to a dinner with different famous YA authors and just kept giggling when she met anyone because she was so excited to be there!

1000 Trees PLUS!

The year we started homeschooling, Jason set a personal goal to plant 1000 trees in his lifetime.  Through his work and volunteer efforts, he met that goal last year.  But that didn't stop him from planting even more trees!  He arranged to get 600 MORE saplings and is distributing them to garden clubs and at Little League games and Earth Day celebrations in our area this month.

It really upsets Jason that so many people take down trees and don't replant them.  He could go on and on and on about it from how it affects wildlife to air pollution to oxygen needs.  I love and admire that he doesn't just get mad, he does something about it!  He gets out there and he volunteers his time and he educates people and he gives them free saplings to plant!

In a cool turn of events this year, some of his friends from when he was in his teens and twenties showed up to get trees to plant to support his efforts!

The Prom

I write this blog mostly for friends and family who want to see what is going on but are not on Instagram.  So, I will share that my girls are not missing out on any of the traditional high school experiences.  They go to a Masquerade Ball in the autumn with homeschool teens from all over our state.  They attend Game Nights 3-4 times a year with homeschool teens from all over our state.  And now that she is in high school, Allie attended her first PROM!

Allie and her friend Katie

The NJ Homeschool Prom is held down the shore, near where my brother lives.  Allie got ready at my brother's house and then we took a bunch of photos.  Our family is REALLY SILLY.  The tennis racquets were my niece's idea. But, of course we had to go with it, because...tennis racquets!

Jason and my brother hung out and jammed on their guitars and my sister-in-law and I took Allie to her prom.  First we stopped and took photos on the beach.  It was a really fun bonding experience with my sister-in-law who is really funny and was telling Allie all kinds of things to do and not to at the prom.  It was hysterical!

My sister-in-law also set up this pose...

We were walking by this car and my sister-in-law INSISTED that Allie pose with it!  We were three silly girls, let me tell you!  But we had such a blast!  I am SO GLAD that my sister-in-law came along--she made the whole thing so much fun!

these poor kids, it was like they were on the red carpet and the moms were snapping pictures like the papparazzi

Back at my brother's house, Jason and my brother were jamming.

Jason, Piper and I had a great time hanging out, eating Surf Taco, talking, laughing and playing games with my brother, sister-in-law and niece while Allie danced for 5 hours with friends, enjoyed a Shirley Temple fountain and a Nacho Bar and was part of a million prom selfies!

Presidential Politics

My high school had a Presidential Politics class each presidential election year.  In order to take the class, a student had to have a certain GPA and be taking AP classes.  I think these requirements were just because they only offered one session of the class every four years.  As luck would have it, I had a decent GPA and was taking AP classes and I got to take this course.  It is probably the single course in my entire high school career that I refer back to the most.  I learned so much in that class.

I decided that with Presidential hopefuls declaring candidacy for the 2016 Presidential election, I wanted to have the girls learn about each candidate.  I thought creating a handy-dandy chart of the candidates would be a good way to keep the information organized.

Ted Cruz's website for his presidential campaign is not yet online.
We will update his platform on key issues when it goes live.

I needed to give them more information than just charting candidates.  They need to understand the role of the President and how the United States Constitution provides for a separation of powers.  They need to understand how the electoral college works.  They need to understand how Congress and the President are supposed to work together and why that is important.  They need to think about the character of a great leader.  They need to know about the ideologies of the political parties.

This will be a long process - we still have 20 months until the election! - but with Ted Cruz announcing his candidacy, I thought it was time to start.  This will probably be something we do a little at a time and I am sure it will evolve over time.  I am probably not covering everything necessary for this class, but since we are starting so early in the presidential election season that many of the things I have missed I believe will present themselves over the next 20 months and we can dig into them then. (Since I started writing this post, we have added Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul to our list of candidates).

We laid the ground work by refreshing ourselves on and/or learning about:

• The Three Branches of the US government
• How Senators and Representatives are elected, who ours are, what ours stand for
• What the US Constitution says about both who is eligible to run for President and the roles and limits for the office of President
• How the electoral college works
• Electoral vote versus Popular vote and this
• How a Bill becomes a law and this video and this poster; we also discussed "pork" and "filibuster" -- the girls love these words
• What makes a great leader - the girls researched this using a variety of websites and created a poster
• I recently purchased this lapbook: US Government Studies Lapbook by Knowledge Box
• And I am considering purchasing this one: Presidential Election Process 6th-12th grade lapbook by Knowledge Box
  
  

**The girls got a kick out of some of the terms--like Hopper for the box a bill is put in when it is introduced and "pork" referring to all the things politicians layer on a bill that has nothing to do with the bill.  Gerrymandering was a another favorite.  And of course, muckraking.  We can't forget filibustering.  

One of the things that I remembered from the class I took in high school was the fundamental differences between the two main parties -- Democrats spend on social programs whereas Republicans spend on military; Republicans are pro-business whereas Democrats are pro-worker.  It was difficult to find information that did not pertain to specific issues on these topics or that was not slanted.  Once I added the word 'ideology' to my search, I had to weed through a lot but found a couple that were helpful, if not exactly what I was looking for.

• Democrat vs. Republican
• Political Ideology Definitions - I printed this out and we took our time going down the list issue by issue.  While I am not sure that the girls are old enough or have enough experience in life to have opinions or strong feelings toward one side or the other, I do want them to understand both of the two main political parties stances on topics.  I think this is a much easier way to understand where the parties are coming from when they disagree about issues relating to the environment or civil rights or equal pay for equal work.

The girls learned about propaganda from the following images I found in my search for the political ideologies of the two main parties.  We looked at these and I asked which party do you think created this propaganda.  It was an interesting way to show how people in the party view themselves and view the other party:

Additionally, these articles were running on-line and getting attention by some of my friends on Facebook, so I shared them with the girls as another example of propaganda:
           

•               New Study Shows that Liberals Have Lower IQs than Conservatives
• 
  
•               Are Conservatives Dumber than Liberals?

            The headlines gave us all pause-is this true?  Who did the study?  Allie scoffed, didn't believe either but Piper was not so sure.  It was investigated and this was a satirical piece.  Anyone can write anything on the Internet.  The girls learned the importance of digging deeper, checking sources.
         

We also looked at this.  Although it is from the UK, I found it interesting and pretty accurate in terms of American political ideology.

At this point, about three weeks in, we have spent close to 20 hours on what I thought would be a 60 hour (or half high school credit course).  Most candidates have not even declared candidacy yet.  We will spend quite a bit of time perusing each candidate's website for information.  I foresee us watching debates as well as the party nomination events...and I am certain a lot of other things will come up in this study, so it may end up being a full high school credit.

****I was asked a question in the comment section of my blog that was actually an impetus to us beginning this study.  I feel that one of the big detriments to homeschooling is that sometimes children are only exposed to their parents' point of view on certain issues.  I had an experience that I was grateful for, which made me realize how when we say things around our children, they pick up our feelings on things and take those feelings and beliefs as their own.  I feel that I have a responsibility to my children to allow them to form their own opinions.  There are certain values that Jason and I have set forth in our home, but as far as politics and even religion, we want to provide a foundation to allow our children to make their own decisions.  When I present anything controversial, I try to present it without bias and to present BOTH sides.  Sometimes, in the case of the civil rights movement or poverty, it might be a story.  Other times, in a study like this, it would be articles written on both sides of an issue--or on ALL sides of an issue.