I can see it!!

I can see the finish line just around the corner... finally scheduled our EOG tests for next week. This week we (Shane and I) are getting ready for the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live Show in Kansas City, MO. So for school I have been a little relaxed in adding new things to our schedule, the boys have some review sites and worksheets that they are doing right now. I just want to make sure that they remember things that we did last summer. Since I still have tons to do for the art show, to help hubby out, I have them go onto sites that help them review everything. They are doing everything from some typing games to making flashcards for those things that I can't find sites for OR for personal favorites that they want to quiz themselves on. I personally use our EOG tests as a guideline of what we need to work on... the last couple of years it has been spelling and writing. So I am interested to see how they do this year.


I have something else to share.. Anthony was telling me about the Titanic the other day. Things about the boat that I remember talking with him about that first year of homeschooling. He was very interested in why boats sank that year, we went over a ton of them and found out all we could about different ships/boats. As he is talking I can hear Shane coming home from work and I feel like this is going to be my moment to shine.... cuz you know I need to know that they are actually listening to me right??? So before Shane comes inside I said, "Do you remember us talking about that? Wasn't that fun?"

Wait for it... "Mom, I learned that on Time4learning the other day." Then he continues to tell me everything he learned. So while I am happy that T4L is teaching him things I am wondering why oh why they don't remember us doing that together!!  HOPING that the thing special things that we are going to be doing this summer will be remembered as something they did WITH MOM!

Wrapping it Up with a Bow

We are well past the preschool flashcard phase.. but sometimes you just have to go back to basics when you are learning something new right? Every year when it is almost time for our homeschool standardized tests, it means its time to go back to the beginning and review, review, review. Now like most states NC, requires that you test at the end of your school year/grade and even though,unless you are audited, you don't have to show anyone the test scores. I personally like to know where the boys are at, and see if there is anything that we can work on during our lighter months of the summer.

 Usually over the summer we tend to do anything that we didn't have time for during the year. This summer, I am planning a geography course and religions study that I will combine together. As we study a certain place in the world we will also study the major religion of that area. After much searching on my favorite secular site, I came up with this list of books for teaching both religions and geography. Because to be honest I am a member of A LOT of different forums and online homeschooling groups, and they are are very helpful. But I always seem to get more out of the discussions and trust their options more when it comes to a secular way to teach my boys.

Books on Religion
My Friends' Beliefs
The Usborne Book of World Religions
The Usborne Book of World Religions Internet Linked (newer version)
One World Many Religions

Books and Courses on Geography
The Complete Book of Maps and Geography
Trail Guide to World Geography
Trail Guide to US Geography
The Geography Coloring Book
The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide
Mapping the World by Heart

I am hoping to make this a fun but VERY educational summer, giving the boys an intense look at geography and the religions that are out in the world:)

OH man...

Well another week and another way to disrupt our day! We were gone at a class and came back to this! Neighbors told me that 30-40 geese flew over the house and ONE flew into the window, thank goodness for double pane glass.  I am seriously getting to think the animals are against me, LOL!!

This week we are working on getting a better schedule going to help with our spelling ( yes our never ending struggle), found some cool prefix games to help Anthony;) Also bought a Vocabulary Builder DVD to help Alex start getting ready for the SATs and fun SAT games.  Like always, we are seeing if we can make some improvements before we take our end of the year tests. (For us that is in May, even though we go year round)  It is always the most stressful for me then for the boys, I think of it as a report card for how I am doing. Even though, the vets in my homeschooling group always tell me that it is not! It is so hard for me to think that way, I went to public school (and yes it failed me in a number of ways) and the boys went for at least a short time. Testing was always a way to see what you know right? Well sure if you just want to know what you learn about the night before,haha.  I am happy if I can teach my boys in a way that they will remember it for a life time not just for some test. That alone is the hardest thing for me, realizing that it is not ABOUT THE TEST!! So how do you feel about testing?? Do you test because you have to OR because you want to know how your kiddos are doing?

PHEW:) Another year bites the dust!

   OK, why is it that every year I am a mess before and after our yearly testing??? Let me get something straight here and now, I DO NOT TEACH TO THE TEST!! One of my pet peeves with the school system, when oldest son was in there that is what they did right after X-mas. I mean for my right-brained visual learner it was a night mare, cram as much as they could in him and just hope that he finished ALMOST at grade level. So my take on tests, are well.... a little twisted to say the least. I feel like it is not a test of what the boys have done all year BUT more of a test of my teaching skills. The things that I managed to teach them in a way that they actually retain the information forever not just for the test! Wondering if I am the only homeschooling mama that feels this way??

    Somewhat deceiving to the boys, but after we took our end of the year tests on last Wednesday, I told them that they would have a four week break. OF COURSE, they still have writing, Spanish and music classes once a week along with daily practice for all three subjects, so they were kinda of like, it's not really break;) My evil plan has been discovered, but they now are free to discover whatever their new interests are and maybe we can add whatever they are into lessons for next year (which will be the second week in July). Oldest has been on the animal planet site non-stop and the youngest is writing another comic book! My head might explode like in youngest's comic book if I hear another fact from the River Monster' show, I mean do I really need to know that monsters are swimming in rivers?? I think NOT! My sweet little boy, who is drawing a comic book, has shown me all kinds of BOY things that make him giggle and me say "that's not very nice", and "why is that guy punching that other one?". "He's not" DS says, " he wearing that guy's head on his fist!!" (disclosure here.. they are stick figures BUT still, YUCK!! wondering if Daffy Duck has something to do with this??) What's a mother to do??

What? What did you ask? OH, what am I doing right now? Playing in the garden, eating bon-bons while watching Johnny Depp movies, sleeping in, or just relaxing?? UMMM no! I am getting all the assignments that they did for last year together to save in with the last years work, down in the storage space. And out of site, going through to make sure I have all my paperwork together for our state laws, basically just attendance,testing and immunization records and putting it in their folders. Basically doing SPRING CLEANING in June! Once that is done, I am going to be using Google spreadsheet to make up our weekly lesson plans (hoping to get a couple weeks ahead on that one) Then doing research, why?? Well as I told you before we did our testing last week, AND while I always try to focus on the positive things that the test results tell me. Like oldest comprehension skills in English and math are at 9th grade, 6th month and youngest is my math boy getting 7th grade level for his math word problems, and 5th grade,7th month on the rest of his math! Something I found out yet again this year was our spelling and writing are below grade level and I mean BELOW grade level. I have been looking into new ways to teaching them both spelling like using, sound-a-like words,sequential spelling and phonics. It is a hard subject for me to teach, it would seem but I am not going to stop until they are done with school. Will they ever be that spelling bee winner?? Mostly likely not, but why not teach them like they are?

I think I need to stop and get ready now.. even though it is summer, we are busy as usual! Today is another crazy one that will end sometime after 9ish tonight, then I can come home and maybe eat those bon-bons;)

It's almost here, It's almost here!!

So this is the part of the year is when I began to panic a little bit! In a couple of weeks, we will be taking our end of the year testing (which in NC is required by law). Now my oldest is not a test taker by any means but my youngest doesn't seem to mind, well for most of the time anyways. I am  personally,a middle of the road mama on the subject of end of the year testing. I would probably have the boys tested on a yearly basis even if it wasn't required of us by state law. If for anything else, just to see how we were doing from year to year ( I like being able to see that yes we still have to work on spelling or that we did AWESOME in math!) and for later for my oldest's high school transcripts if they are needed.

I have had a couple people ask me this year, do you do anything special before your testing?? Those first couple of years I said, "No, I don't teach for a test, like in the public schools do". Now I still don't teach for these tests but I do use end of the year guidelines like in workbook for such and such grade, you know basically like those books "What your ?? needs to know" just so I make sure that we have the basics down. I also have started doing some vocabulary in subjects like math, science and history so that the boys will have a wide range of words in their vocabulary. I usually do some kind of search on google for what I am looking for, for my oldest I did a search the other day for 8th grade math vocabulary and came up with a vary of sites online! For my youngest, I did a search for 3rd grade science vocabulary, just so we could see if there was any of those words that he didn't know that meaning of;)

All in all, it is a personal choice on what testing you like to use if any!! I personally like the Woodcock-Johnson test, because it seems to be a good fit for my boys. They are allowed to take the test as far as they can so we can see their strengths and weaknesses! Now if only they had video game level design questions or even basic animal facts my boys would score off the chart! This test has a fee associated with it, due to the fact that only certified testers are allowed to administrator it. While other tests are free and have little requirements for giving those tests at home. I like having this one thing that someone else does, so that I can sit back and relax for a couple of hours;)