The Finish Line is in View

We’ve been plugging along here, this weekend I’ll be planning our final few weeks of homeschool.  We started early, in August if you recall.  I love to finish up by spring so that we can enjoy the spring activities:  getting our garden going, garage saling, used curriculum sales, etc.  I took a few pictures last week, of the different things that were going on in our homeschool.

Highschool/College~

Banana and Chocolate are quickly approaching the end of their Junior Year and their 2nd semester of college.  Finals are in the middle of April, they are busy working on final projects and studying for tests.

The three highschoolers, and myself are taking the Constitution 101 class given freely by Hillsdale College.  We watch 1 lecture a week and take the quiz following the lecture.  They get highschool credit for this class, but not college credit.

You can see we have some mixed reactions to the class.  lol 

She likes to do her science in her bedroom, off she goes!

As soon as they are all done with their classes I’ll work on making up their transcripts while everything is still fresh in my head.  Thankfully the college that the boys are going too sends me a “report card” that I can easily add to for a complete transcript.  It’s hard to believe they will both be seniors next year! 

Banana is trying to find employment, he’s got a second interview at a local restaurant today.  Chocolate wants a summer job too, but won’t start looking until after finals.

Elementary~

This picture cracks me up!  Various stages of dress, waving goodbye to Daddy!

We’ve been starting school at promptly 8:00 am.  They like to get right to work so they have more time to play later.

    Bubble Gum was pretty happy because she finished her final 1st grade reader in the Bible Nurture Series from Rod and Staff. 

Starting a new 1st grade reader from Christian Light.

We’ve been doing a little poetry on Friday’s.  Blue-Raspberry and Bubble Gum practice reading a grade appropriate poem orally several times until they can read it with proper rhythm and pronunciation, they really enjoy this.

Preschool~

Sorting the letters he’s learned in All About Reading PreReading. 

Look at his tongue!  It was going to town while he was doing this activity!

He put these all in order, without any prompting from me so that he could easily do this-

Tiny-Tot School~

Oh, to have a busy baby in the school room…tests my patience that’s for sure!  She’s at the height where she’s always bonking her head on the little table and getting stuck under the big table when she stands using somebody’s chair. Still, she’s so adorable, that fuels a lot grace!

She LOVES this poke-a-dot book that I bought from Timberdoodle!  It holds her attention for a good long time, in baby minutes anyway.

        

Everyday is not perfect and the week that I took most of these pictures was an especially emotional one.  Bubble Gum had a hard week, with victories and challenges.  One day she was crying and mad because the Greek Alphabet didn’t have certain letters from her name!  Really?  That kind of silliness really gets to me!  But we made it through and this week we’ve been focusing on obeying mom quickly, without delay and with a cheerful attitude.  I have a certain 4 year old who can be so ornery.  Thankfully he responds quickly to discipline, as long as I stay consistent, he’s much easier to be around!

And since it’s still winter and I’m getting a little cooped up feeling and a little weary from all this consistency, I bought myself something to cheer me on.

I love Above Rubies.  Nancy Campbell never fails to encourage me and keep me on track and inspired!

So there you have it!  That’s what been going on in our homeschool!  How are you doing?  Are you hanging in there?  This is a tough time of year for most homeschoolers, but the end is close!  Don’t give up!  Spring is coming!!

joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Homeschool happenings

It’s been a while since I’ve shared what we are up to on our homeschool front.  I have lots to share.

Earlier this month I registered Banana Taffy and Chocolate Taffy for their second semester of College.  It’s going by so fast, I can hardly believe it!  They have finals over the next few weeks, each class seems to do it a little differently.  Friday night Banana Taffy has his final business presentation, we found a suit for him to wear.  Be still my heart…he’s looking like a young man!  Here’s what they are taking next semester:

Banana Taffy~

Principles of Marketing

Communication in Business

Principles of Management

Chocolate Taffy~

General Psychology

American Literature

Health Education

We’ve also made an agreement…since they are only taking 12 credits, they are also going to fast track their way through their Geometry book and study to CLEP out of Biology. 

It’s actually going to be nice because all of their classes are on the same day, so it’s less driving during the winter.

Strawberry Taffy is plugging away.  She’s finished her first novel using Write the Novel Way.  She’s patiently waiting for me to get it printed for her.  She’s about done with her Composer’s Study and is about to start her second unit in Excellence in Literature.  I let her take a break after the first unit on short stories so that her history and literature would be in sync, she’ll be reading Around the World in 80 Days for both classes at the same time. 

We have just three weeks of school between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break so we are taking this time to do some fun things.  We are still doing math and Latin.  On black Friday I took advantage of some deals at Hands of a Child.  Two of the things I ordered (downloaded) we unit study lapbooks. The one we are doing this week is on the book Katy and the Big Snow.

It’s for grades PK through 3rd grade.  Perfect for what I have here!  Even Laffy Taffy can participate.  It took a long time to print out all those little things and cut them up and organize them.  But it was totally worth it!

The next two weeks of school we’ll be doing a horse study in honor of Bubble Gum’s recent obsession with horses.  I haven’t started printing and cutting all that stuff yet, but I did reserve some books at the library!

Sweet Marshmallow, she got to check out the Little People Nativity today!  She especially loved sucking on the lambs!  (See the hand print on the side of her forehead?  She woke up like that, she must have been sleeping on her hand.)

That’s about it!  We are just moving along, slowly but surely.  Soon I’ll be ordering tests and packing up stuff to take to a used curriculum sale!  Time just moves by so fast!

Hope your homeschooling is going well too!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weekly Wrap-Up~6

Another successful week behind us!  We actually had a field trip this week too!

Tiny Tot School- 5 months old

Having some organic sweet potatoes!  Yum!

This is what Marshmallow does during school time.  It keeps her busy for long enough to get through 1 subject!  I love it how she’s getting used to the camera.

Preschool~3 years old

Nothing too out of the ordinary for Laffy Taffy.  He felt like playing with Monster Trucks and Little People more than anything.  This child knows so much Latin.  He listens to his Song School Latin CD at nap time and bedtime.  It’s a crack up listening to him singing them!  I’ve also recently purchased the CD from Steve Green-Hide 'em in Your Heart Vol. 1.  To say he loves it would be an understatement!

1st Grade~6 years old

One of her major accomplishments of this week was completing her second knitted hat.  She made it will a loom under the tutelage of her big sister.  Bubble Gum was so happy to be able to give it to Marshmallow!

3rd Grade~8 years old

Blue-Raspberry had a great week.  He had to double up one day of schoolwork so we could go to the zoo.  For being such an active squirmy boy he sure enjoys school!  In this picture he’s working on his copy work for Latin.

9th Grade~13 Years Old

The highlight of Strawberry’s week was the Kari Jobe worship conference we went to on Friday night.  It was an amazing time for our whole family!  I haven’t been to a worship service like that in years.  I could have LIVED there!  She also seems to have turned a corner in her personal appearance.  That’s a weird way to say it, but you know how it is with young teens, it’s like they have to reach a certain point and then all of a sudden they start doing things like fixing their hair and wearing cute clothes without prompting.  That happened to Strawberry this week.  She’s never been resistant to getting dressed up or fixed up, she just wasn’t confident in her own ability to do it “correctly.”  I wish I would have gotten a picture of how lovely she looked last night at fellowship.  Such a lovely young lady.

11th Grade/PSEO~15 & 16 Years Old

I’m just combining them together, nothing really new happened this week.  They had their traditional Wednesday night freak-out, after getting all their assignments from school, but I’m happy to report that they are mastering their time and managing to get everything done consistently.  They even came with us to the zoo!  I didn’t expect them to come, but was so glad they did!

Field Trip~Como Zoo

Don’t you love it when public school starts back up and you practically get the whole zoo to yourself?  The weather was perfect too: cool and crisp and sunny!

Lord’s blessings on another great week of homeschooling!!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

I’m linking up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Weekly Wrap-up~Week 5

I took lots of pictures this week, to make up for the previous weeks.  There wasn’t anything particularly special about this week, but we made it through our 6th week of our new school year and I’m just feeling very happy about that. 

Preschool~Laffy Taffy (almost 4)

I laminated his name and he’s been having fun practicing writing it.

He actually had these in order, correctly, I think they must have gotten bumped off the table and put back wrong or something, he’s actually a little better at number recognition than his 6 year old sister, scratch that, WAY better is the correct description.

He loves the gluing!

1st Grade~Bubble Gum Taffy (six)

Fun with Song School Latin, last week and this week we learned animal names.

3rd Grade~Blue-Raspberry (8)

He’s getting straight A’s in 3rd Grade Math.  I <3 Teaching Textbooks!  Blue-Raspberry has also been using Easy Grammar 3/4, I am amazed at how quickly he’s picking this up.  Honestly, I can’t find the difference between this book at the one that is called Easy Grammar Plus for the highschool kids.  He’s going to be so much more prepared for the standardized tests this year!

9th Grade-Strawberry Taffy

Doing Latin Alive!  I splurged and bought the DVD’s to go with the workbook and I’m so glad I did.  She’s really picking it up and enjoying it.

Here’s a map she’s been working on for US and World  History.  She’s making a lovely notebook with the all the great books she’s read through Beautiful Feet.

10th/College~Chocolate Taffy (15)

I guess I didn’t get a picture of him working.  Wow!  This child is really starting to blossom, if it’s okay to use that term with a boy…he’s really enjoying his college courses and can’t stop talking about them.  I never really knew what Chocolates gifts were until recently.  I think he’s been blessed with the gift of teaching.  Tuesday night he talked to me for an hour straight, telling me all the details about his classes and what he’s learned.  I was laughing and laughing.  He was so animated and energetic!  And to top it off, this child, with the worst oral hygiene habits ever, didn’t have one cavity at his dentist visit this week!  Lucky!

11th/College~Banana Taffy (16)

This is how he feels…he took this picture himself.  He’s a little overwhelmed, but he’s committed.  I’ve had to give him a few pep talks, “Take it one day at a time.”  “You can do it!”  “Should I make some coffee?”  There’s a little learning curve there, but he will overcome! 

Getting ready to write his first paper for college!  (Ignore all that sugar…it’s actually for the bees, but my pantries are too full to store it.  Mr. Taffy has had to feed our bees sugar because the summer has been so weird.)  I’m so proud of my sons!

Just for fun~

      

Need to relieve some stress?  Just give your hair a little “do.”

Even though these two didn’t participate in the spraying, they had fun watching!  And laughing…and advising…see?  He can’t stop talking!  lol

The last thing I’ll share is the fact that my big sons are a little too busy now to do chores. Not the big stuff like chopping wood and mowing the grass, but little things like vacuuming and dusting.  So to rectify the problem, I’ve declared Friday afternoon clean up time.  After we give the homeschool room and playroom a good cleaning we move on to other areas.  All the little ones help.

       

It worked pretty good and now I have a clean house for the weekend!  I hope your week was wonderful too!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

I’m linking up with Kris over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.