Apple Picking...

Hey there everyone. Monday and Tuesday were such good days of school. Everything went fine and I had the epiphany that there's no way we're going to be able to ONLY do 4 hours of school like last year. With Zack's math program taking an hour along with the other things I feel are important to learn, it isn't going to happen. I like the Saxon math, it's very intensive but it's what I feel he needs in order to do math and he doesn't complain. So far the only thing he doesn't like are the timed facts sheets (where he has 1 minute to answer as many of his facts problems as possible) but he's even getting used to that. :)
I'm okay with this realization though, I just had to understand that there was nothing I could cut out, or would want to. The work that they're doing is just going to take longer. So if we start at 8 (including lunch break) we'll be done around 2 and then have 1 hour for p.e. (which is play time outside OR a kids exercise video).
But anyway, onto the good stuff. We included in our school work a home ec moment of making Chili since it was chilly...I know I'm full of cheesy jokes. We picked apples yesterday after our school work was done. We had so much that we ran out of buckets and pots to put them in. The kids loved it and did so good in helping. Now today we get to do the fun stuff of figuring out what to do will allllll of these apples!

Our First Field Trip....The Fair!

Today we went to the fair. It was so fun. I had read ahead of time of the schedule so I could plan what I wanted to be sure to hit.


Of course, the first stop was the exhibits with canned goods, and cakes and crafts and art. And the livestock place "Old McDonald's farm."

Then we stopped by the Reading Roost that one of the local libraries had set up. The librarian loved the kids instantly. She was raving about homeschool, said she even used to be a science teacher with the ps but hs'ers had such higher scores on testing. She read them three books (and was dressed as mother goose). I asked how many visitors she had had today because we were the only ones there and kids were passing us by and she said 0! We were the first! I hope she got more before the end of the day!!!!! I was so proud of my kids though because she first asked them 'do you all want to hear a book' and they enthusiastically said 'yeah!' (which, if you've read the post about my ds you would understand why that was shocking!).

Anyway...moving on, we had lunch then checked out the Remnant Yuchi Nation Native American Tribe and their stuff, it was so cool! The kids were really into that and (big surprise) no other kids were.
But ds loved the dart gun, he thought that was the coolest thing ever!
Then we moved to the rides, they had a good time overall. I enjoyed it myself!

I'm also including a pic of a really really cool entomology display that someone had submitted, it isn't ours but thought it was so cool we might start working on something like this in the future!

Additional note on the schedule....

I've still not got it right! I was thinking that it wouldn't take as long for math but it's averaging an hour per child now so that throws off the schedule terribly and we can't keep going much after lunch because 1) the kids are usually tired and ready to head outside and let out that energy and 2) I need to utilize that time to work on my own school work.
We've been running to 1 or 1:30 (before the hour p.e. outside) and occasionally to 2:30. I've been having some problems starting at 8 on the dot, but I am determined that it is possible and we WILL accomplish this small goal!
I spent a while last week trying to work out a new schedule and it looked good on paper, it always does, but putting it into the works today didn't work out. We didn't start until 9, then we just had a hard time starting, and a lot of interruptions. Well, at 1:30, I called it a day even though we hadn't done math. We'll hit it harder tomorrow. I am determined that I can get all of this done from 8am to 12 or 12:30. It has to be possible.
I am also working on a 4 day schedule with a 5th day for extras. My problem is that when I worked it up I didn't move much from the week to friday, instead I ADDED EXTRA STUFF! No, no! quit while you're ahead! :) I'll post the new schedule when it's perfected, if that ever happens! :P

Up to my elbows again!

Well, my school is back in full swing. I just completed the first week and already I'm tired. :)
But I'll get it done. I'm trying to work on my time management better and scheduling things right.

The kids school is going good, we're into week three with them. Zack is actually getting his work done without much fussing, day dreaming or complaining! I wonder if it's because she school year is new, he's finally mature enough to embrace what needs to be done and when, or....the threat of no games if we have problems.

My school work is still mostly packed, but I was able to get to a lot of it without unpacking boxes. Some things are still packed away and I REFUSE to open them until we've moved! ;) There are only a few subjects that we're completely improvising with.
History is one of those. We typically do Story of the World, but it's packed, so we were using a social studies book about communities and maps. Now we're moving to our Weekly Reader study on the election. It should carry us through till the actual election in November.

My new system of reading a little in a 2nd grade science text then working on lapbooking is going great! We are learning about how plants grow and change. For a science project we are growing green bean seeds. I'll post the pics soon and detail it more but the kids are loving it!