End of Year Records

We "school" year round, with a few well-placed breaks among the un-planned breaks throughout. We typically go from July 1st to June 30th each year, which means we are nearing the end of this "school" year (I really don't like the word school...it reminds me of mindless fish). I take all of the records we've kept throughout the year and place them in a new binder.

The records I archive on June 30th are:

• Each person's individual planner for the previous year.
• The lists of books read by each person that year.
• The calendar used for attendance.
• The Course of Study plan.
• Previous Compass outlines, the current Compass stays in their Binder.

Beginning the "new" year - the first week of July is when I usually get the Binders ready for the new year. This time of renewal is always a fun time when I feel jazzed up about what the new year will bring. I try to have new resources ready by this time, but I've learned that new resources just seem to naturally begin showing up when they are needed. More on that next month!

Yearly Breaks

We used to take all of July and December off as our yearly breaks, but as the kids became teens we discovered there are many other conflicting things in the summer that get in the way. This year is no exception. There is Girl's Camp in June and Scout Camp in July. Seminary lasts into the first week of June. We've already had several visitors who feel we are sufficiently settled and can come visit on their terms. My mother is nearing the end of her life and we are taking more trips to visit her...and a wedding in another state at the end of July. With all this going on our calendar is rather disillusioned compared to the simplicity we used to experience.

We will be taking two weeks off in June and two weeks off in July instead of the whole month of July. We've already had too many breaks with the move and all the company we've had lately (I won't even get into some of the comments company made when they were here). It feels like we are really not making the kind of progress we've made in years past. We discussed these issues in our recent Family Council and discovered that we are all feeling a bit out-of-sync. With the new break schedule on the calendar, I think it gave everyone a much needed overview of what to expect this summer.

Life Skills in the Home

I know this post is not about homeschooling...but who can homeschool effectively without some sort of organization to their home. Teaching life skills are an important part of educating all children regardless of where they get their education, so I discuss this topic here a little.

I decided that this house needs a better plan that what I've had in the past. There are three floors and it is VERY easy to overlook areas, like the basement. Which, by the way, attracts a LOT of dirt from the backyard as it is the only way to use the backyard, passing through the basement and upstairs to the main living areas. We live in a dry, dusty area of the country now and so the dirt is a constant issue.

Anyway, my new plan to keep on top of things is moderately based on Flylady principles where I take a space and spend 15-30 minutes on it for that day. Routinely doing each space will keep it up so that less time needs to be spent on it than if I just attended to it when it is so bad no one can use it. So, here is our current Cleaning Calendar.

My children also have "Zones" to clean, similar to Flylady. They are now old enough to be in charge of the entire Zone for a week at a time. We've been doing zones for several years now. The children are required to check their zone 4 times a day, cleaning as needed during those times.

The 4 times a day to check the Zone are:

1. After Breakfast, before education hours start.
2. After education hours are done.
3. After dinner.
4. Before bed.

This new cleaning calendar allows me to keep up with all those nooks and crannies that only need sporadic or monthly cleaning, like windows, organizing the storage room, or desk organization...along with the weekly maintenance items like vacuuming, bathrooms, and grocery shopping.

We've been on the new schedule for two weeks now and I love it!

Yearly "School" Calendar

After I have contemplated the Course of Study and made that plan, I typically decide on our "school calendar". Our state requires that we have a formal start and stop date. I have chosen July 1st for the last several years. Even if we do not officially do much in July, we include all of our studies during that month (books read, fieldtrips, classes, etc.) in our education hours. Some states require specific start dates, so check with your state laws before you determine a date to make sure you are in compliance.

Again, I like donnayoung.org for her free forms. Here is a link to all the calendars she has available. I personally like the 12 month ruled calendar that fits all on one page. I place it in the beginning of my binder right after the Course of Study and before the weekly planner. I write in and/or circle the dates that we are "off" as a kind of attendance record. I am not required to send in attendance records, so this system makes it easy for me to give an accounting of days attended if we are ever asked. We school year round take two annual breaks a year, typically June and December. This year we are taking July off instead of June because of various camps and things we had going on.

Here is a picture of last year's calendar.

Course of Study for 2011-2012

Each year is a new experience in preparation for the next year. One of the things that I like is to get a general plan in order with some of my thoughts on what we need to study together. I like the files at donnayoung.org for helping me get organized. I'll be featuring a few of the forms that I personally use over the next few posts.

The Course of Study form is one of my favorite all-in-one-place forms to show my general outline for the entire year. I combine my two youth still at home on the same Course of Study. Many things we do together but for those things that are separate it is listed by their initial. To some this may seem a bit vague. Basically, I am outlining the mentoring portion of what we are studying. The rest will be determined throughout the year as the Scholar finds new interests and passions to study. It is important to remember that this is not a complete layout of the year, but this is a list of the things that I want to inspire them with and what I will share with them during our devotional, read aloud, and do-together portions of our education time.

Some are just resources for further study in specific ares. Some items are review, something we often turn to when we need to brush up on certain skills, like grammar and spelling. These resources are on the list for sporadic use. A few items are curriculum that has been purchased for that use. Each student chooses which resources they will use at any given time.

Getting it Together

When life throws you some curve balls, it can be hard to get back on track. Having challenges is part of life. We all have them at various times, some more than others it seems. With educating our children at home, we often find that difficult circumstances greatly alter our ability to stay with our education plan. We find ourselves detoured as we meet the challenges we face. Sometimes we are detoured far longer than we expected and it is easy to feel guilty, depressed, frustrated, or all of these things combined. If our trials have been of a very severe nature, like death, loss of job, new baby, etc. then we may find ourselves so discouraged that we may give up completely.

How do we overcome challenges that slow down our education?

1. First, realizing that everyone will face challenges in life at some point makes it a bit easier. We need not feel alone or that we are the only one. Yes, other people's challenges will be different than ours, the focus is on that everyone HAS challenges that derail their education at some point, even though they may be very different in nature.
2. Next, we need to not beat ourselves up over lost education time, passion for education, and loss in attitude towards education. When we face difficult trials in our lives, we turn to what is often called "survival mode". We cut back on things that are non-essential and turn towards getting through the day. This is a built in coping mechanism that is given to us by our creator to protect life first. We shouldn't feel guilty about doing this during the most difficult parts of our trials. Over time we can add more of the non-essentials back in. I know, how can education be non-essential? In terms of survival, education is not on the level of essentials, it takes back seat to food, shelter, safety, and personal relationships.
3. The first two steps are mental preparation and giving ourselves permission to cut back. The third step is to look forward to a return to our educational plan in a timely manner. Depending on the trial, it could be months before you can return to a full educational path. Trials that derail us completely like death, severe health problems, and a new baby will take the longest to recover from. Trials of a financial nature, discipline problems, moving, etc. will often take a change in attitude and a few weeks to get back on track. You are the only one that can determine when you are ready to return. Your children may even be very happy to be off-track! That will discourage any mother and make you wonder why you do it all. But, you will find that one day you will feel inspired to return to the schedule and you will feel the pull to bring the family back to the way of education that you need.
4. Once you feel that pull to return your family back to education, take some time to write notes or make a plan to ease back into the schedule. One of the most damaging things I've done in returning to our education plan was to "jump in with both feet". My children were suddenly told that the next day we were starting back to a full education schedule. It was a difficult day and I've learned since to add things in week by week rather than all at once. Usually it is the guilt that drives us to suddenly return to our education schedule in full force.

As we are getting it together after a month of trials, it feels good to get things back into action one step at a time. Our approach is to:

1. Pick a date we will begin returning to our education schedule. For us, that will be after our oldest goes back to college. We decided to extend our annual break a few more weeks to allow us to have more quality family time together. Normally I would start to feel guilty about this, but with so many deaths and health issues in the family, I think we need this extra time.
2. Decide what parts of our schedule are the most important to start first. One area that has crept in is a lot more entertainment than I normally allow. The first thing to change will be a reduction in our entertainment and to make the hours it is allowed to be firm again.
3. Make a plan for which week to add in schedule/rules to the plan. Our next schedule changes will be adding in devotional, kid school, and classes outside the home. These will have various start dates and will be added into the schedule with a plan in place, knowing that our schedule will steadily increase in demands.
4. Follow through with the plan to return to full education schedule. Knowing the plan helps everyone have an understanding of what is expected and when it will be expected. We typically discuss the schedule and the "step-up" plan a few weeks before we start it. Having the plan laid out helps everyone transition with a good attitude and makes the transition much less painful.

There will always be hiccups to any great plan. Learning to roll with it and adjust and tweak the plan as needed is important to remember. I'm feeling much better about our return to home education and hope to have a smooth transition.

Please share your tips and experience on getting back to home education after life's trials.

A Month of Service

Sorry it has taken me so long to post. We live near enough to the Joplin, MO area to be asked to help with clean-up and several other service projects to help those in need. Our church (locally) has designated the month of June as "A Month of Service". Our family typically does this anyway during our month interval when we take off from educational times. We typically take off July and December, focusing those months on service projects and our annual projects, as well as family trips. We decided to change our month of service to June this year, but keep our month "off" in July to coincide with various camps and youth conference that is planned for July.

The Sunday after the Joplin Tornado, a meeting was held during the last hour of our church meetings to give information about the way we can help, which included:

• Priesthood assignments with Mormon Helping Hands to clean-up.
• Visiting those critically injured that were moved to our city (The hospitals in our area are FULL and we have had public notices to go to Urgent Care instead of the hospital if at all possible.)
• Donating funds to the LDS Humanitarian Fund.
• Donating time to various organizations as we wish.
• Helping with specific needs for families in our church.

In all, we have been able to help with several needs and service opportunities. It has been an uplifting experience to visit severely injured people who have nothing, not even a pen and paper to write down their story of survival. As we talk with these survivors, they don't even know where to start. 

Now, most are waiting for insurance checks so they can purchase household goods and rebuild there lives.

Weekly Planner #1

We have several different types of planners that we have used. I've been asked a few questions about what each planner is, how it is used, and what we liked or did not like about each one. So, here is the first planner I used. It is a weekly planner that is pretty generic. It is a two-page per week planner style, with lots of room to write the basic details of what we accomplish each day.

In the beginning I wrote in the subjects down the left side - Grammar, Math, History, Science, Music, Physical Education, and Other. Chris uses the planner in this way. He writes in what he accomplishes each day in each subject.

Then, I changed the headings to - Devotional, Read Aloud, Chirs, Nayna, Do-Together, and Me. This is how I am still using the planner now.

The Notes and To-Do sections are very helpful for planning the week, adding in notes on special events and fieldtrips, and gathering details on things we may be planning to do in the next few weeks. In the To-Do section I often write in things that need to be gathered, details about upcoming curriculum purchases and Mentor Meeting things I need to remember.

2011 Winter Schedule

I feel like I am always writing about schedule changes on my blog. LOL! I guess that is because we are always adapting our schedule, which is one of the perks of educating our children at home. With my part-time job as a substitute teacher, my schedule is never fully known from day to day. I am thankful for this part-time work and that I had a regularly scheduled classroom to work in one day a week, then I received news that my regularly scheduled classroom was cutting back and didn't need me every week anymore. Hmm, well that just makes it a little bit more difficult, but still manageable, I hope.

So, our new schedule is like this...you may find it quite strange...and that is OK. It is not you schedule. But, I hope anyone out there who wants to educate their children at home, but has to work part-time, will see that it is possible!

Days I am HOME - School time is 9am-3pm.

Days I am WORKING - School time is 3pm-9pm, except for Wednesday's. I can take a half-day job and do school from Noon-6pm and then we take off to Mutual.

Some days are reserved and jobs are declined, even if we badly need the money. These days are Friday's because of music classes and some Thursday's because of our homeschooling friend meetings which include Park Days and our TJED Teens Club. It has been a challenge to do so, especially with medical bills, Christmas break and the basic decline of available substituting jobs. The temp company I work for decided to hire another 100 substitutes, making job availability MUCH less.

Father, Husband, Mentor

Every six months we re-write our Compass as part of our Six Month Inventory, Six Month Purge, and Six Month "No". These three six month activities help us to reorganize our time and efforts. Mike is taking a major role in our weekly Mentor Meetings (also know as FEC - Family Executive Council) and wrote his own Compass as well. I am very happy to see the entire family working together in our education efforts.

I mention this about my husband, because it has been a long time in coming. He has always been supportive of what I have wanted to implement and has always helped me to carry out our schedules and plans. That said, he has not always been super involved in a "hands-on" way. I could tell it made a difference for all of us, my son especially, to see him participate and join in doing the Compass exercise as well.

New Plan - Check!

With the addition of substitute teaching, I needed to come up with a new plan. I have become more of a list maker now that I am older. My brain just can't seem to store things in it's proper place as it used to. Things on the "priority list" seem to get dumped to the "things I can't remember list". Things I don't need to obsessively think about end up on the "priority list" and clog my thoughts with mundane tenacity. Thus... planners and lists have become my friends.

Planner #1
It first started with foster parenting that I began keeping a simple weekly planner for appointments and such. When we moved and stopped fostering I was happy to place that little planner in a drawer. Five months later I pulled it out when I realized that work, callings, and homeschool commitments were getting missed or I would reschedule because I couldn't remember something else was already planned. The main thing missing from my current planner is a weekly "To Do" list, a must have in next year's planner.

Mike likes to rub it in that he has a Palm (which I bought him two years ago for his birthday). I wish I could afford the fancy cell phone with data service and Blackberry apps. How sweet that would be! But, alas, our budget can't handle that kind of luxury. I guess I'll just have to cowboy up and use pen and paper. *sigh*

Planner #2

The second planner change was to add a check list type of planner for Nayna and Chris so that on the days that I am at work they do not get off track (keeps me on track too). They are both in Scholar Phase, but not all levels of Scholar Phase are the same. You can see this week's plan here. This is a form of Structure Time, not Content. They have certain criteria that needs to be done each day, but there is some choice as to fulfilling that criteria. We have been doing this for four weeks now and it is working really well. We had a few trial and error moments, but make-up work is a consequence...so my kiddos are much better at completing the list. ;-) The 2 child-planner sheet is from donnayoung.org. I filled in the basics that are the same each week and then copied the sheet. The things that change I just write in every week. I prepare this on Sunday during our Mentor Meetings (same as FEC meetings).

We still have our individual binders with student planners that I shared before. This one-page plan also has the appointments that affect them and the days that I work listed at the bottom.

Planner #3

My kids are very proficient at making meals, they have been for some time. We have come up with a system that the kids and I each make meals two nights a week, except Sunday. Mike is not home for dinner or he would take a turn in the rounds also (working 60-70 hours a week I figure makes up for it). You can see our meals listed here and who is cooking that night. The kids typically cook on the days that I work. Chris and Nayna can make a pretty awesome spaghetti from scratch.

Sunday is a day of rest for us. We typically eat left-overs or simple meals. I remember reading about Sister Kimball and that she didn't want to spend all day preparing meals on the Sabbath so she would prepare on Saturday. I felt that this applies to me, I also don't want anyone to slave away on Sunday in the kitchen.

Over time I have learned a great deal from Mike on organizing and planning. I'm thankful that I have a husband who values a "house of order" both temporally and spiritually.

Part-Time Working Homeschool Mom

I've had many questions about how I can possibly work part-time and still homeschool. Well...it is a bit tricky...

Job #1 - Kohl's
I worked a couple years ago part-time at night doing ad-set at Khol's...making a few cents above minimum wage. I often worked from 8pm until 2am two or three days a week, slept until 11am and then we did homeschool until just before dinner. That was difficult. I was always tired and sleeping was sporadic at best. However, the job was easy and I had great friends at work. I took that job to pay for court expenses and had that job when Mike was laid-off, a huge blessing as they gave me extra shifts and daytime work hours to help us get by. The main thing I miss from that job was the discount! Not that I can afford to shop there anymore.

Job #2 - Foster Care
After moving to Flagstaff we decided to become a Foster Family. This is NOT a part-time job, but a 24/7 endeavor to raise traumatized children. I spent all my time doing this and homeschooling was difficult to "fit in" sometimes. However, we learned a great deal from this, grew as a family, and learned to love and serve the less fortunate. We miss many of the children who lived with us and wish we could have kept little Bryce forever. The money was....well it is practically non-existent. Anyone who THINKS foster parents make money doing this is crazy.

Job #3 - Substitute Teaching
My current endeavor is to substitute teach part-time, one or two days a week. So far, so good. I make much more per hour than Kohl's or foster care (which I didn't make anything doing), I can choose to work or not work on any given day, and I can request more or less work days as needed. My young adults are doing the majority of their work while I am gone and I can check their progress, teach concepts that need my extra help, and oversee their education without too much being taken away from our routine. I have installed good work habits with my scholar phase kids and they are doing the same amount of work as if I was here. In fact, I think they are becoming much more responsible students.

Conclusion
Anyway, with our current status financially, I doubt I will be jobless again. We have missions and weddings to prepare for even after all our debts are paid. I miss the stay-at-home days. I had hoped to adopt and continue to be a mom at home, but it appears that this is not to be. **sigh**

From Bored to Busy

Nayna and Chris' Art - A Combined Effort

I don't know why I always do this, but every time we move to a new place I always feel like we will be eternally bored. Yet in a matter of weeks or a few months our lives are just as busy and hectic as they always are. This move is no different!

We are now busy as bees...

• Callings - Mike is a Sunday School teacher for 16-17 year olds. I am the 2nd Counselor in Young Women's. Chris is 2nd Counselor in Deacons.
• Weekly - Nayna (changed from Marly, she doesn't like Marly anymore) will be in homeschool choir. Chris is still hoping the football team works out. Plus, we have weekly park days for socialization and our Mutual activities.
• Monthly - TJED Teens Club, book colloquium, scout campouts, Temple trips, and church dances (called Super Saturday's here).
• Work - Mike is still working 60-70 hours a week. I am starting my part-time substitute teaching job.
• Volunteering - I am organizing several events including a Face-to-Face with Greatness seminar in October and trying to recruit other speakers for this area. Chris and Nayna help with that as well.
• Daily - Of course we are still homeschooling. I am only working 1-2 days a week. The kids will have their tasks to complete and will suffer the consequences if they have not completed them.

Considering that the St. Louis Temple is a 3.5 hour drive each way and we are trying to go once a month, which takes up a whole Saturday (and 1 1/2 tanks of gas), then I think we have successfully booked all our weekends. LOL! At least the yard is cared for by the owner. I thought our Flagstaff house had a lot of mowing, but Missouri is a whole other story...it MUST be mowed every week or it is a jungle.

Mistake #6 - Ignore the Written Agreement

Reference: Leadership Education by Oliver and Rachel DeMille, pages 212-224.

This is an area that I needed to work on. I only had a written agreement with my son that I did two years ago and it had more to do with him choosing to be here than about academic work.. My daughter is so intently particular about her education that I never felt like I needed one with her. I can see that the biggest problem is me. I am a lax mentor at times. I do not always follow through with checking over their progress and their work. In fact, I have about 2 weeks worth of journal writings to read. I tend to procrastinate the feedback part of mentoring. I find that I am more of a "weekly check-in" type of mentor.

Basically I realized I need to get my act together and that this is an area that I am making BIG mistakes in!

I decided to work on written agreements as follows based on the level of Scholar Phase:

Practice Scholar Agreement - see Leadership Education pages197-204.

"Do not make a formal scholar agreement with your student yet; just give her a daily option of doing Scholar studies that are more demanding than her normal Love of Learning schedule. It is not going backwards if she is on for a while, then off. For most kids this is normal and healthier than just going into Scholar and never backtracking into Love of Learning. Expect her to back out numerous times in the first one to two years. Support her when she does." - Leadership Education, pages 202-203

I was relieved after re-reading this passage. My agreement with my son is more of a commitment to educate himself at home since he went back to public school a couple years ago for a few weeks. That agreement was about him choosing to be at home and not bouncing between school and home. It worked really well, but most families will not need this at all unless you are detoxing your children from public school.

The main part of our agreement is a verbal one that study time is between 9am and 5pm...there are NO electronics unless for researching an approved topic or typing up a written assignment. Television is only used for watching items like a recorded Shakespeare play or a classic movie I have chosen as part of their education. After 6pm and all the family work is done, free-time allows for some limited TV and game play.

With Chris, I have found that in the beginning of Practice Scholar he leaned heavily towards Love of Learning and rarely towards Scholar. In the last couple of months he is gaining momentum on Scholar Phase and spends a larger portion of his day studying and reading. I don't have to ask or prod, he just chooses to do so.

Project Scholar Agreement - I am basing these items on Leadership Education pages 204-207. Another factor in considering what to include in a written agreement is learning styles and personal mission.

Responsibilities	Benefits
Family Responsibilities - Your own laundry once a week and Family Work chart as designated.	Ownership of responsibilities, not errands.
Study Hours: Daily: 9am - 5pm Weekly: Mon.- Fri.	Yearly Breaks: June and December Weeks of YW Camp and Youth Conference.
Assignments: Daily - Written summary due 5pm. Weekly - Fill-in own Scholar planner.	Mentoring: Getting a great education. Pursuing your mission with mentoring as needed.
Act like a Young Adult in morality and righteousness.	To be treated like a Young Adult in the home instead of a child.
Act like a Young Adult in continnual nurturing of relationships in the family.	To be included as a Young Adult by parents in settings outside the home, instead of a child.

This is a basic agreement and the one we are putting into practice has some specifics added that apply just to Marly. All I can say is that I am SOOO glad I decided to study the mistakes that can be made in Scholar Phase so that I could correct myself and gain better mentoring habits.

Week in Review - 16

I have gotten away from posting what we do on a weekly basis. We are settled into our new home and routine. Some great things happened this week, so here is a Week in Review.

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Preach My Gospel" - Finished Lesson 5 and started Lesson 6 - a section a day.
• Read A-Loud Book:  "The Little Town on the Prairie" - book #7 of "Little House" series. We started the Doctrine and Covenants for family scriptures.
• Math: Chris - Finished Math-U-See: Delta a couple weeks ago. Whoo hoo! Math-U-See: Epsilon He has worked through lesson 10 - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - She is up to lesson 14 - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!) I have not been working on my Algebra lately and I getting back to it.
• Exercise - We are using the Wii Fit Plus, walking the dog, and going on nature hikes.
• Writing - Chris - daily journal entries. Marly - writing her own book and daily journal entries.
• New Era and Ensign Reading, Scripture Reading, and Individual Reading - See each person below for their readings.
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Weekly Library Trip, Grammar Lesson - Chris "Winston Grammar".
• Tuesday: Nature Center Fieldtrip, Government Lesson - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 18
• Wednesday: History Lesson - Chris: "Story of the World", Vol. 2, Chapter 11 - Marly: "Story of the World", Vol. 3, Chapter 8.
• Thursday: Spent time in Urgent Care with Chris. 
• Friday: I attend the local SHEM homeschool conference, Science Lessons - "Concepts and Challenges of Physical Science" - Chapter 6.8 - NEW -"150 Captivating Chemistry Experiments" - Gases, Liquids, and Solids - Exp. #2

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Practice Scholar) - "Sackett", Scriptures, and New Era magazine.
• Marly (Project Scholar) - Re-reading "Harry Potter" series, "Jane Eyre", Scriptures - "Book of Mormon", and New Era magazine.
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar - back to looking for a mentor) - "Villette", "Ann of Avonlea", The Constitution of the United States, Ensign and New Era magazines, and Scriptures.

:: Projects ::

• Chris- Chemistry Labs - Programming Palm PDA and Windows PDA, wrote a lesson for Runescape and posted online.
• Marly - Seminary. Latin - Latina Christiana I.
• Celeste - Organizing details for In The TJED Trenches website and design Utopia Carpet Care website.
• Family - Finish unpacking and hanging pictures.

Feb. '10 - Week 4

OK - I really stink right now at keeping up with posting what we are doing for our education. I missed the last couple of weeks. Sorry, I don't have time to go back and log it in.


We attended a conference last weekend that was truly inspiring and uplifting. Please see my other posts about what we learned.

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Preach My Gospel" - Finished Lesson 4 and Started Lesson 5- a section a day.
  
• Read A-Loud Book: Finished "The Long Winter" book #6 of Little House on the Prairie series and started "The Little Town on the Prairie" - book #7.
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta (he is studying for the final test next week) - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Exercise - We are using the Wii Fit Plus while "the weather outside is frightful". It is harder than it looks!
  
• Writing - Chris - daily journal entries. Marly - writing her own book and Transformational Writing class assignments. 
  
• Guitar Practice
• New Era and Ensign Reading, Scripture Reading, and Individual Reading - See each person below for their readings.
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Government Lesson - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 14
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons, Weekly Library Trip, Grammar Lesson - Chris - "Winston Grammar" - Review for the Unit test - Marly - "Transformational Writing" class and "Grammatically Correct"
• Wednesday: History Lesson - Chris: "Story of the World", Vol. 2, Chapter 11 - Marly: "Story of the World", Vol. 3, Chapter 8.
  
• Thursday: Friend Outing was Canceled - "The Fallacy Detective", Lesson 4 
• Friday: Science Lessons - "Concepts and Challenges of Physical Science" - Chapter 6.3 - NEW -"150 Captivating Chemistry Experiments" - Gases, Liquids, and Solids - Exp. #6
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Practice Scholar) - "Jubal Sackett", Scriptures, and New Era magazine.
  
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "The Fellowship of the Ring", Scriptures - "Book of Mormon", and New Era magazine.
  
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar - back to looking for a mentor) - "TJEd for Teens", "Plutarch's Lives", "The Professor", Ensign and New Era magazines, Scriptures, and Primary Lesson.
  

:: Projects ::

• Chris- Chemistry Labs - Exploding water bottles with #1 baking soda and vinegar, #2 Alka-Seltzer and water.
• Marly - Transformational Writing class at TJED Academy and Prep School and Seminary. Latin - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 8.
• Celeste - More packing.
• Family - Selling items to prepare for move, packing, packing, and more packing.

Feb. 2010 - Week 1

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Preach My Gospel" - Lesson 4 - a section a day.
  
• Read A-Loud Book: "The Long Winter" book #6 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Exercise - We are using the Wii Fit Plus while "the weather outside is frightful". It is harder than it looks!
  
• Writing - Chris - daily journal entries. Marly - writing her own book and Transformational Writing class assignments (see Marly's projects for more info.)
  
• Guitar Practice
• New Era and Ensign Reading, Scripture Reading, and Individual Reading - See each person below for their readings.
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Government Lesson - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 12
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons, Weekly Library Trip, Grammar Lesson - Chris - "Winston Grammar" - Adverbs - Marly - "Transformational Writing" class and "Grammatically Correct"
• Wednesday: History Lesson - Chris: "Story of the World", Vol. 2, Chapter 10 - Marly: "Story of the World", Vol. 3, Chapter 2.
  
• Thursday: Friend Outing was Canceled - "The Fallacy Detective", Lesson 2 
• Friday: Science Lessons - "Concepts and Challenges of Physical Science" - Chapter 6.1 - Experiments crystals and solutions.
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Practice Scholar) - "Jubal Sackett", Scriptures, and New Era magazine.
  
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "The Fellowship of the Ring", Scriptures - "Book of Mormon", and New Era magazine.
  
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar - back to looking for a mentor) - "Plutarch's Lives" Ensign and New Era magazines, Scriptures, and Primary Lesson.
  

:: Projects ::

• Chris- Chemistry Labs - Crystals and learning about Chemical Formulas
• Marly - Transformational Writing class at TJED Academy and Prep School and Seminary. Latin - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 5-6.
• Celeste - Crazy week with a lot of drama. Trying to sell items and get ready to move.
• Family - Selling items to prepare for move.

Jan. 2010 - Week 4

OOPS! Forgot to post this one....better late than never.

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Preach My Gospel" - Lesson 3 - a section a day.
  
• Read A-Loud Book: "The Long Winter" book #6 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Exercise - We are using the Wii Fit Plus while "the weather outside is frightful". It is harder than it looks!
  
• Writing - Chris - daily journal entries. Marly - writing her own book and Transformational Writing class assignments (see Marly's projects for more info.)
  
• Guitar Practice
• New Era and Ensign Reading, Scripture Reading, and Individual Reading - See each person below for their readings.
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Government Lesson - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 11
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons, Weekly Library Trip, Grammar Lesson - Chris - "Winston Grammar" - Adverbs - Marly - "Transformational Writing" class and "Grammatically Correct"
• Wednesday: History Lesson - Chris: "Story of the World", Vol. 2, Chapter 10 - Marly: "Story of the World", Vol. 3, Chapter 2.
  
• Thursday: Friend Outing was Canceled - "the Fallacy Detective", Lesson 1
  
• Friday: Science Lessons - "Concepts and Challenges of Physical Science" - Chapter 3.3 - Experiments on heat energy - we made fire balls with cotton and kerosene.
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Practice Scholar) - "Jubal Sackett", Scriptures, and New Era magazine.
  
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "The Fellowship of the Ring", Scriptures - "Book of Mormon", and New Era magazine.
  
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar - back to looking for a mentor) - "The Fourth Turning", "Jonathan Livingston Seagull", "The Great Conversation" Ensign and New Era magazines, Scriptures, and Primary Lesson.
  

:: Projects ::

• Chris - Chemistry Labs - "Fire Balls" and Vinegar and Baking soda explosions. - Palm programming, Windows App Programming - Christian collects Palm and Pocket PC's to learn programming applications on. He is a very talented guy!
  
• Marly - Transformational Writing class at TJED Academy and Prep School and Seminary. Latin - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 4.
• Celeste - Tax preparations, purged items laundry room. - Made "Thank You" gifts for upcoming Southwest TJED Forum. - Latin - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 4.
• Family - Selling items to prepare for move.

Jan. 2010 - Week 3

OK - with the amount of snow we had this week a lot of our time was spent digging out the driveway and digging out the driveways of the elderly in our ward. One of Christian's responsibilities as the Deacon's Quorum president is to organize the shoveling of driveways for the elderly widows in our ward. So, with all that we did not get as much done on book work, but we did gain a lot in the service of our fellow man (woman).

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Preach My Gospel" - Finished Lesson 2 - a section a day.
  
• Read A-Loud Book: "The Long Winter" book #6 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Exercise - We are using the Wii Fit Plus while "the weather outside is frightful". It is harder than it looks!
  
• Writing - Chris - daily journal entries. Marly - writing her own book and Transformational Writing class assignments (see Marly's projects for more info.)
  
• Guitar Practice
• New Era and Ensign Reading, Scripture Reading, and Individual Reading - See each person below for their readings.
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Government Lesson - We took Monday off from our regular schedule and just studied Martin Luther King, Jr. We watched the video of his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at http://www.mlkonline.net.
• Tuesday: Grammar Lesson - Chris - "Winston Grammar" - Adverbs - Marly - "Transformational Writing" class and "Grammatically Correct"
• Wednesday: History Lesson - Chris: "Story of the World", Vol. 2, Chapter 9 - Marly: "Story of the World", Vol. 3, Chapter 2.
  
• Thursday: Not much school work was done.
  
• Friday: Not much school work was done.
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Practice Scholar) - "Jubal Sackett", Scriptures, and New Era magazine.
  
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "The Fellowship of the Ring", Scriptures - "Book of Mormon", and New Era magazine.
  
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar - back to looking for a mentor) - "The Fourth Turning", Ensign and New Era magazines, Scriptures, and Primary Lesson.
  

:: Projects ::

• Chris - More Palm programming in C language, learning Java programming, book report (still choosing which book).
  
• Marly - Transformational Writing class at TJED Academy and Prep School and Seminary. Latin - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 3.
• Celeste - Tax preparations, purged items in my bedroom. Latin - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 3.
• Family - A ton of snow shoveling! This was our main focus this week, as well as preparing for the blizzard that brought over 3 feet of snow our way.
  

Jan. '10 - Week 2

With some new changes to our schedule, we have had to restructure our Time and not Content. We are now doing school from 10am to 3pm, rather than 9am to 2pm. Marly and Chris have to fulfill the Daily Lessons within these hours and fill the other time with educational projects and individual study.

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Preach My Gospel" - Finished Lesson 1 and started Lesson 2 - a section a day.
  
• Read A-Loud Book: "The Long Winter" book #6 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Exercise - We are using the Wii Fit Plus while "the weather outside is frightful". It is harder than it looks!
  
• Writing - Chris - daily journal entries. Marly - writing her own book and Transformational Writing class assignments (see Marly's projects for more info.)
  
• Guitar Practice
• New Era and Ensign Reading, Scripture Reading, and Individual Reading - See each person below for their readings.
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Grammar Lessons - Chris: "Winston Grammar" - Adjectives - Marly: "Grammatically Correct" - Study subjects and objects.
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons, Government Lesson, and Weekly Library Trip - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 11.
  
• Wednesday: Mutual/Scouts and History Lesson - Chris: "Story of the World", Vol. 2, Chapter 9 - Marly: "Story of the World", Vol. 3, Chapter 1.
  
• Thursday: Homeschool Friends Outing
• Friday: Science Lesson - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" Chapter 3.2 - Energy.

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Practice Scholar) - "Jubal Sackett", Scriptures, and New Era magazine.
  
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "The Fellowship of the Ring", Scriptures, and New Era magazine.
  
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar - back to looking for a mentor) - "The Fourth Turning", Ensign and New Era magazines, Scriptures, and Primary Lesson.
  

:: Projects ::

• Chris - More Palm programming in C language, learning Java programming, book report (still choosing which book).
  
• Marly - Transformational Writing class at TJED Academy and Prep School and Seminary. Latin - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 1 and 2.
• Celeste - Tax preparations, purging broken toys, getting items ready to sell (truck, exercise equipment, entertainment center, etc.) in preparation for getting ready to move. Latin - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 1 and 2.
• Family - Ice removal in driveway, wood stacking.
  

Embarking the Insanity Train

Why is it that I have difficulty handling my schedule? I know I should get rid of some things...but what? Showering?

Here is what a normal weekday looks like...

7:00am Get Kids up, Breakfast
8:00am Seminary Drop-Off (20 minutes each way)
8:30am Foster Kids leave to visit a parent - Mom and Dad have different visitation days.
9:00am Start School w/ Christian
10:30am Seminary Pick-Up (20 minutes each way)
11:00am Start School w/ Marlayna
12:00pm Lunch
12:30pm Back to School
1:15pm Foster Kids arrive home
1:30pm Foster Kids go down for nap
3:00pm Finished with School - Foster Kids get up from Nap
3:15pm Snack Time
3:30pm Appointments - CPS Workers, Counseling, Doctors, Therapy, etc. (Almost every day there is something)
5:30pm Dinner
6:30pm Guitar Classes, Mutual, Scouts, etc.
8:30pm Foster Kids bedtime
10:30pm Mike gets home
Midnight - Bedtime for me if I'm lucky

There is not even time on here to bathe the kids every day. I have to try to wake them up earlier, which makes for very cranky kids, or bathe them only on the nights we do not have anything outside the home...like Monday and Thursday and Sunday. Thank goodness their parents feed them morning snack and lunch.

Fostering is a full-time job...and I don't mean taking care of the kids. I mean the extensive over scheduling! These kids have no down time. They never get to relax. No wonder foster kids have behavior problems. They can never be little kids. They have more appointments than a college student. I had to buy a planner just to keep track of all their meetings, visits with parents, counseling, therapy, doctor appointments, etc. I've decided that fostering is WAY underpaid. I make lass than $1 per hour, per kid to take care of all this stuff. So basically less than $2 an hour. I've been accused of doing this for money...well...you be the judge.