September 2: Homeschooling in Crazyville

J shows off his calligraphy on the school whiteboard while he's supposed to be focusing on algebra. Such is homeschooling in Crazyville!

August 29: First Day of School

School planbook is splayed upon the school table, ready to tackle Week #1 of 36. Year #15 of Home Education is now underway....

June 30: A Clean School Area!

With the boys' final grades submitted yesterday and Keith's sister and her family arriving tomorrow, I cleaned up our school area today. "Normal" people might call this a dining area, but Keith made this drop-leaf table with school in mind. After selling so many school books, the bookcases are only stacked single-depth deep now, rather than the double-stacking that had been necessary for the past several years.

One thing homeschooling families always need more of: bookcases!!!

Day 67: Grading Never Ends....

Although we're off this week for spring break with Elizabeth, we still had Class Day on Thursday which meant that I still had grading to do...all day long on Tuesday.

Day 62: School Stuffola

Our white board after our lesson on Church History on the Counter-Reformation....

Day 38: More Recommendations....

I wrote and mailed two student recommendations for colleges today. I really don't mind writing them out, but doing so for so many students is a little time-consuming. One went to Point Loma, and the other to Harvey Mudd....

Day 17: Monday, Monday

Monday means school planning. I used to plan our school week on Sunday evenings, but after 13 years of doing so, I've been getting up earlier on Monday mornings and scrambling to get it all done before we start school. Not the wisest of plans, but it's so darn time-consuming....

Day 16: My Kingdom for a Kindle....

I am loving my new Kindle, a Christmas gift from the family. It's so lightweight, a wonderful break for my arthritic hands.

Here I've uploaded the Oedipus Trilogy for Timothy's SMARR World Lit course. He uses the Read Aloud function to listen to the plays (Oedipus Rex and Antigone) while he reads along which really helps him to understand the plays better.

Day 13: California History Mission Report

Benjamin had to write a Mission Report for his California History Class at Class Day. He chose to report on the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in Oceanside where our friend C. is buried in the most beautiful place.

Benjamin copied the front of the mission from a brochure; he spent nearly six hours on this drawing which is part of the overall mission report. I hope he gets a good grade on this required report for the only class required by the state of California.

Day 10: Back to School

Timothy studying world history....

Today marked our first day back to home schooling after a month off; our last school day was December 10. So here we are on January 10, with Timothy hitting the world history book, his school schedule laid out before him, in front of the wood burning stove, the warmest place in the house on a very cold morning....

Science Fair at Balboa

More photos from the Science Fair -- full story at Meditative Meanderings blog.


Botanical Garden at Balboa Park

Robot

IED Robot

Day 76: B at Work

B had done three subjects before our 9 AM start time this morning, and he's been finishing his written work by lunchtime every day this week ... what a wonderful help he is!

Day 49: J's First Essay

J is typing up his very first essay five-paragraph essay for our little writing class of three students: J, T, and a neighboring young lady. First topic: qualities I look for in a friend. Olivia is sick today, so it will just be the boys and I discussing their essays before I assign their second five-paragraph essay. They're discovering that five-paragraph essays aren't nearly as onerous as they thought they would be.

Day 44: B's Penmanship

B's favorite subject in our homeschool is penmanship. Now that he's in third grade, he has to submit all of his written work in cursive. I love seeing his copywork; it's definitely the neatest of all the boys' work.

Day 43: Cool Doing School

J had quite the set-up going for school: TV table, hot tea, comfy armchair, school books, and sunglasses. The beauty of home education!

Day 36: Long Division

B is quite proud of completing this extra-credit long division problem all by himself. Math is much more fun when done on the whiteboard, don't you think?

Day 28: A Teacher's Work Is Never Done.....

Somehow, I always seem to procrastinate and find myself grading essays the night before Class Day (our homeschool co-op). Teaching two writing classes (and grading all those essays) definitely takes time. And Patience, in large doses.

Day 15: School Daze

These are the books we use for our group schooling: our history, literature, spelling, art, science, and Bible books. The kids have their own books in their bins, such as their mathematics books, readers, handwriting, and other workbooks needed for their individual study.

Day 8: Words, Words, Words

I've been really enjoying teaching the grammar workshop at BraveWriter.com this week. Julie has invented a class that looks at grammar in an entirely fresh way that reinforces the beauty and power of words. Our first assignment is to write a list of words we like ... so here's the first page of my list of favorite words. J has even more words on his list than I do.

Day 7: Free Teen Guitar Class

Today J started the Intermediate Guitar Class with Father Acker. The Free Teen Guitar Class (FTGC) is a wonderful outreach of Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity, and J has been learning guitar with Father Acker since July. J is definitely our musically-gifted kid and it's hard to keep him focused on doing his schoolwork when he'd much rather be strumming the very cool red electric loaner guitar from the FTGC: a Silvertone Rockit 21. Today J was thrilled to start learning some chords; he ended up with quite a bit of one-on-one instruction today in his class; however, the new Beginner Class was QUITE a roomful! Anyway, J will be enthusiastically practicing until class next Wednesday.