Friday, August 31, 2007

Teacher Notebook part 1

Over at the WTM boards, there had been talk about setting up a "teacher notebook." I read the posts and thought "Oh, that's nice." But I really didn't consider putting together my own notebook. I have a tendency to over organize which causes me to burn out before I really get a chance to implement my plans!

However...last year was a rather disrupted year. My husband was in Iraq, we had to sell our house, and we moved clear across the country. I've really been looking forward to and uninterupted school year this year. In the past I had made an assignment sheet for each kid and it really worked. I liked it because it kept us on track; the kids liked it because they knew exactly what was required of them that day. I'd print up the sheet on Mon and the kids would cross off each subject as they completed them. Sadly, there was one flaw in the plan. Each week one of my kids would loose their sheet at least once. It would get very frustrating.

This year as I was planning the kid's assignment sheets the idea of printing them up and having them comb bound for each child started appealing to me. BUT...what would I do if one of them lost their assignments? Faced with this very real and annoying possibility I played with the idea of putting them in a notebook. At the same time I created a weekly supply list for all the materials I'd need for history and science. It's very frustrating having to postpone an experiment just because you don't have a rubber band. Then I started thinking I should go through the STOW 2, print up the corresponding timeline figures, run them through my Xyron sticker maker, put them in weekly envelopes so the kids could find them very easily during history class. I also need to print up the History Scribe sheets that I'm planning on using this year for narrations and paragraph work. (Which Trivium Academy inspired LOTS of us to use on the WTM boards.)

Yep, couldn't deny it anymore...I had been planning my teacher notebook.


On the front of my notebook is a rough schedule so my kids know what subject they are doing and when. It's just a guideline and not set in stone. I slipped in in the front cover of my notebook so the kids can look at it all they want and it wont get lost!!!









I open my notebook up to whatever week we're on, and the first thing I see is what supplies I need. I've pretty much have science done, but I can always write in what we need for history projects later on.









Flip the page, and there we have both kid's schedules. They can look at them, cross off any subjects that they've completed, but they can't loose them!

This is all I've completed so far, and I may not get much more done today becauese I'm going to the American Red Cross to get certified in First Aid and CPR, but hopefully this weekend I'll have a completed notebook to show everyone!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

We're slackers over here!

Wow, reading all these blogs from homeschoolers who are already taking some well deserved breaks! No breaks for this household. Public Schools out here start in Sept, and heaven forbid we start a second earlier than everyone else. (sheesh!)

There's a resource out here for called Homesource where homeschoolers can take classes with other homeschoolers, and the best part about it is that it's paid for by taxes so it's free to homeschoolers. Each student 3rd grade and above must sign up for 4 1/2 hours of classes. Each class is 1 1/2 hour long and only once a week. They have serious classes but my kids prefer doing those at home. Here are the classes I signed them up for:

World Geography -They're going to do all kinds of neat projects and eat ethnic foods and I think they'll have more fun doing this in a group.

Improvisation- Cassandra wants to learn how to act and this is something I definitely can't do at home.

The Human Body- This class is at the same time as Cassandra's Improv class, so I figure Matthew would like this one. Besides, I have to stay at the facilities at all times so Matthew would just be sitting around anyway. Might as well have him do something.

Science: NASA Sci Fi- Based on three different Magic Tree House books, they'll solve 3 different mysteries using science. This one is mainly for Matthew.

Destination Imagination- They get together into groups and problem solve using critical thinking skills (mainly based in math). This class is really popular.

I told myself that I would sign them up for no more than three classes, but got a little carried away. They kids really like Homesource though and as great as homeschooling is, this does provide them with different opportunities to work with other kids. I did inform them that they had to stay current with their school work. We're going to try it the first week and if the kids think it's a little much we can drop a couple of classes. We're only going to be in Oregon for 1 1/2 more years before the Army ships us someplace else, so I think this will be something we can really have fun with before we move.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Eclipse

We got up last night to watch the eclipse. The kids thought it was pretty cool, especially Matthew. He can be a VERY hard sleeper and we weren't even sure he'd wake up, but he was very excited to watch the shadow move across the surface.


We took a few pictures of the moon but this was the only one that turned out at all. Of course it would have been nice if we could have zoomed into it more.


Here's Cassandra watching in our front yard.


At first all Matthew had was a blanket to keep himself warm, and he wasn't pleased AT ALL having to move his face from underneath the covers for me to take his picture! (Unfortunately that's not a great way to view the eclipse.)


Ahh...much better. I brought out Matthew's sleeping bag, zipped him up in it, and he was much happier. This picture doesn't quite show it because he was squinting in anticipation for the very bright flash about to come, but he's actually smiling and very content.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Exciting day 2 of my blog

My goal was to figure out how to post pictures. The problem is, even though I like to scrapbook, my husband is the digital camera person. He's the one that downloads all the pictures to the computer and I have absolutely no clue how he does it. I know it can't be hard, it's just pure laziness on my part. Unfortunately he's gone overnight so he's promised me he'd show me tomorrow.

I've been browsing around other people's blogs today and they all have really neat features in them. I have some catching up to do.

Also, I've made a promise to myself. I was so excited that I actually had 4 comments on my blog yesterday! So I checked out their blogs...and I've visited all their blogs quite recently, but never posted any comments. I'm not going to start posting comments on every little thing, but I am going to start being a little less "comment phobic" from now on.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Welcome!

Hello to my one reader so far that has promised me she would check my blog out as soon as I started it. That was 3 days ago. No one can accuse me of being on the ball.

Okay, I guess I should state a few things about myself. I've been homeschooling for four years this Christmas. My husband is in the military so we've seen more of this country than most, although we have yet to be stationed in Hawaii. I mean, what's the point of being in the military if not to get an expense paid trip to Hawaii? Unfortunately I guess the military is more concerned about things like work and stationing soldiers where they are needed and not where their spouses want to take a two year vacation. (After 12 years in the Army my husband has basically told me if it hasn't happened yet it's not going to.) Sigh.....

I have two kids, Cassandra 11 and Matthew 10. Cassandra is about to turn 12 within the next month. Cassandra actually picked out the name for this blog. I was thinking something along the lines of Military Homeschoolers, but my husband thought it implied we were holding boot camp in our back yard or something. I hate trying to decide title and names for things. Everything seems to corny. So if anyone thinks my blog title is corny then I can blame my daughter and not myself.

Okay, I guess my next thing to learn is how to personalize this thing and how to post pictures and all that fun stuff.