Wow the last 3 months have flown by!

It is hard to believe we are already ending out 12th week of homeschooling. It has been 3 months since we started and the kids are doing great. Don't get me wrong there have been days when I look at them and wonder if its worth it.  Then I look at how  far they have come since leaving public school and I know we did the right thing.

Kat... Well she is doing her grade 11 and 12 year together , if  she finishes up her classes the way we expect her to she will be finished around November 2012.  KAt plans to work through the summer as well.  She is very excited. The school work seems to come to her very easy and she does alot of her work independantly.  We have booked her grad pics to be taken in the late spring .

Alex.... Alex is doing very well since starting homeschooling. He enjoys reading more now and he gets his work done quickly and is usually done by noon.  He cant wait to go to the library and take out new books and graphic novels to read. I was so shocked! He is progressing right where he sould be for grade 7.

Michelle....Michelle is doing great in her grade 2 work. Spelling and mathe seem to be comming very easy to her and her sentence structure is improving each week. Her favorite class is art as she loves to look at drawing and sketces and tries to copy them. Some of the attemps are close and some are just funny.

I have noticed so many of improvements in all three of the children that I wonder why we didnt do this sooner.  So I wanted to take this time to thank each and everyone who has been an encouragement to us as we started this journey. Your support and thought have ment a great deal to us as we figured all this out.

Thanks   Tracy  :)

Week 3 And 4 in review

These last 2 weeks have been  a reflective time here in our house. The kids have learned that mommy means business( well most of the time).  They have finally buckled down and are doing their work.  We have done field trip to the park, the library and to another homeschooling familys house.  It has been a fun two weeks.

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Kathryn has decided to fast track her High School as she is bored so she will be doing extra classes. If she sticks with it she will be all finished by Christmas of 2012 She is excited to maybe be graduating at 16 . She has picked up photography as a new hobby.  Here are a couple of the ones she has taken this week.

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Michelle is doing well...plugging along and doing her work and working on her flat people project. Thanks for all who helped the pics and notes have been great. She is learning a lot about the two countries  :)

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Alex is actually reading books for fun ( shocking I know!!!). When we went to the library this week he actually took out 2 large books and is actually finished one of them . I am so proud of him. I hope he learns to love reading as much as we do.



So our weeks have been good . Hopefully the next few will be great as well.


 Tracy

week in review

Well this week was fun. Lots of work done, lots of reserch on the comp.
It was going great till Thursday when Michelle came to us and said "Look mom I can play connect the dots".

 I looked and the monkey had caught the chicken pox( for the second time).  So we spent a lot of time in the house over the weekend and did a lot of baking and playing.  Alex learned to make biscuits by himself.

And the two of them made muffins to make Michelle feel better.

The older two did their work and looked up new things to research.

 Alex is now good friends with another homeschooling family down the street. This is a good thing. He is a little antisocial.

So our week in review was a good week just long and tiring and we are all very happy Michelle is feeling better  cause I dont think I could take the whining any longer   lol.

Our first week

Well Our first week has come and gone and I have to say it was fantastic.  the children took to it like ducks to water. They are sitting down and doing the work with very little complaints.

We were even able to do a  field trip on thursday. Tim and I took the children to the Irving Nature Park and we talked about the animal and marshes. The children loved it.

Michelle  (8) has sent off her flat people for her Sept project. She is waiting eagerly for the pictures and notes from the "flat's" journey.....BTW  Ty to all who helped with this. It is appreciated.

Kathryn  (almost 15)is still working on her book. Also doing a fall project on Mars. Kat does a lot of independant studies. She amazes me each day. She studies hard, practices her guitar and helps with her siblings, and still has time for a evening job.  She has a great head on her shoulders.

Alex ( 13) is working his way through a lot of english sheets and math. These are his worst two subjects. With the right incentive( playing on the computer) he completes his work properly and on time. It is a joy to see him want to read his books.

(These pics of flowers were taken by the kids during one of our daily walks.)

So as you can see the children are settling in well and hopefully next week will be as great as this week was. I only wish we had done this sooner!!!

Tracy  :)

Our first day

We decided to start our first day of homeschooling  week early. The children were ready and willing and I was tired of hearing when can we start...lol,  and so our adventure begins.

We have started off easy and have done a lot of review today. Reviews of numbers , math facts and sight words.The children are all going to be keeping daily journals. The children will also be involved with doing a couple of projects this year.

Michelle is doing the Flat Stanly project. We have sent out Flat People to friends and family all over Canada and the US. They will take pictures with our flat family and when the pictures and people come back , Michelle has decided to do a scrapbook about their journey to the different towns and cities.
This is a woonderful project and should keep her busy.With this project we went to the library here in Saint John and Michelle borrowed a couple of Flat Stanley Books to read as well.


Alex is doing his project on Tornadoes.  This is something he is interested in and he wants to learn more. There are a lot of books on tornadoes  from the library, and anything to encourage him to read is a good thing.

Kathryn is doing a lot of independant studing. Finishing her book and stories seems to be her main goal. So she is looking at Math and Science as a close second to finishing all that. She wants to learn about photography and Art . 

It loks like the children and Us are going to be very busy. We will still have time for Family and long walks .  This is the time the children can discuss things and enjoy nature and our beautiful enviroment.

Thanks for joining us on this adventure!!

Homeschooling

We have decided that the public school system is not for us or the children We have decided to homeschool the three of them Kat is now almost 15 going in to grade 10. Alex is 13 and in grade 7 and Michelle is now 8 years old and starting grade 2.

This was not a decision we came to lightly. We did a lot of research and studing before we decided to actually follow through.

So Our first day here starts Sept 6/11 . this is when the public school system here in Saint John starts.

We have our list of classes and projects and places we want to visit.

We will update this list as the children find new and exciting things they discover.

Life

Have you ever wonder why life is the way it is? Life has a way of sneeking up sometimes and kicking you in the butt. Sometimes it kicks you down and sometimes it kicks you going in the path you should have taken all along.

I think this week has been one of those kick along weeks. I have been going over the more recent choices in my life to see what improvements I can make to my life. A good Job, a less hectic house etc. So we will see where this leads in the coming weeks. Hopefully I can improve the quality of life I have and in so make others lives happier as well.

Well enough of my rambles for today.

Take care.