Day 1

This- is day 1. Of homeschooling 2010-2011. I have just read something super disturbing, something about exposing a trojan horse. A film on how homeschoolers rights are being taken away from under our very noses without notice. This worries me very much for a variety of reasons. Many of which I will not list. Just stating that I have felt for some time that our rights in this area are at risk, and I fear so even more today. So for those of you who support homeschool, pay attention to the small print in bills and laws, vote against things that take our rights. Even if you do not homeschool, remember, you do not want to lose your rights to live your own life and neither do we.


On a lighter note! We start school today. Now, what I am showing in this blog post is something that should have been done BEFORE the start of the first day, and technically today wont be "first" but Nathalie wants to call it that. I am not ready, my schedule isnt done. I dont have a good, solid plan for record/bookkeeping and that has to be in place. So for today, review, and test taking. I want to see how fast they are at multiplication tables.


I spent this morning printing out handwriting sheets, math sheets and maps. I found a website that gave free printables (they ask for donations and I gladly complied) for maps. I printed a map that wasnt labled, and one that was for the entire world. For continents, the whole world, regions, and then of course the US as states both abreviations and capitals.


Then, I laminated. I have a roll of laminate that Frank bought in Sc. I used a lot of it for shapes, colors, numbers, site words etc in Sc for Nathalie in Kindergarten. Now I am using them for all the printables I did. I peel back the laminate, lay the sheet on, smooth, lay over the other half. I do end up with some bubbles, but they are on the backside. It isnt as perfect as a machine would be, but its cheap!


Next, I punch 3 holes and put them into a binder. I have a 3 ring binder just for geography and history, both laminated print outs and non-laminated work sheets and projects. I also have one for math and handwriting, math in front handwriting in back. The kids are doing cursive intensivly this yr, they will be expected to write all their journal entries and spelling words in cursive. Tad says this is tedious for him.


The website that I used had answer sheets individually for math problems, and also 1 sheet that had 12 blocks each with the problems/answers for mult, div, etc. So I laminated the 1 answer sheet. Tad is doing the 6 multiples here on a timer, when he finishes he has to grade it, circle incorrect and turn it over and write out problems/answers 3x each for any incorrect. Multiplication was from last yr, as well as division but we are reviewing and staying up on speed.


Frank found these expo markers that are a fine tip, they are as fine as a sharp pencil and are wonderful for handwriting or small spaces. Essentially, all of our practice sheets are now wipeable/expo sheets. In order to keep track, we will use a 3 subject notebook that is unused, and each day each child will write in there what numbers/letters they do on wipeoff practice sheets, and their number correct IE 9/12 if they missed 3. They have curriculum books as well, math, language arts. But their science, history, geography are in unit study, project, wipe off, game, puzzle format so they/I will need to record their daily work in this manner. I wont have proof because we used wipe off for some things, but I have their core curriculum saved as well as their testing scores. Tad will do state tests the end of this yr, and possibly Nathalie as well and those will be kept on file. This is a necessity in my opinion in order to keep track of their work. They have to test in highschool to apply to college, and they will be used to it and better at it if they test from 3/4th grade on.