Summer’s Close

Summer is wrapping up for us and with the end of summer came the end of our summer reading challenge.  I wasn’t as organized as I usually am about this year’s reading challenge.  I think I was being a little lazy actually and the library changed their program into something ridiculous so that sort of took the wind out my sails too. Thankfully I managed to think of something and it worked to get my kids reading this summer.  I bought them Sonlight’s summer readers.   Strawberry and Chocolate shared a pack, Bubble Gum and Blue-Raspberry got their own.  It worked out really well.  Sonlight packaged them up so nice, it was like they each got a present!

Anyway, the challenge was to get the books read before the end of July and in return I would take them to Nelson’s and buy them an ice-cream cone!  They all finished the challenge earlier then the date I set, so off we went! 

        

It was a magnificent day!  Warm, bright, not muggy!

         

I was a good girl, I didn’t have any ice-cream.  I was too busy wiping up spills and dolling out the wet wipes! 

Afterward, we decided to surprise the little people by taking them to the most adorable park ever created:  Teddy Bear Park.

I love it that my teens will still be in family photos, and go to the park with us.  lol

   

Isn’t that cool?  The whole park is like a squishy Astroturf, it’s really fun to walk on.

We ended our adventure at the Stillwater Farmer’s Market, which was quaint and delightful.  My husband spoke my love language and paid the big bucks for a gallon of pure maple syrup!  I am one blessed woman!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Having a little one in the School Room

You would think after all these years that I’ve been homeschooling I would know all the tricks to getting little ones to behave  during school time.  Well I don’t.  (smile)

My last little one, Laffy Taffy, was an easy going child, he was happy to play by himself, close to us, but happily occupied with this toys.  I really enjoyed doing Tot School with him because for about 30 minutes everyday he would attentively and happily learn what ever I was teaching him and then be content to play until the rest of us were done.

Enter Marshmallow Taffy.  She is loud.  She is MOODY.  She is NOT content to play by herself and 30 minutes of my individualized time is NOT enough.  I’m not really sure how our next year will go with her in the school room.  She doesn’t understand that if Mama is talking (reading out loud) that she should be quiet, instead, hearing my voice makes her want to say, “mom. MOM! Mommy! Mom!!!! MOOOOOOOOMMY!”  Louder and louder, with more and more drama and energy.  You would think the poor thing is completely neglected.  That’s so far from the truth…but still, it does pose a problem.

So this is what I’m praying through.  Praying for wisdom in how to deal with her.  How to actually teach her to be quiet, or at least quieter during school time.  I can’t do all of school during nap time.  I would love to hear how you deal with difficult children during school time.  There might be nothing I can do…I might just have to  grin and bear it until she’s older and understands more.  I’m not sure.  It does teach all the other children patience.  It teaches us all how to be gracious and it also allows more of my ugly impatientness  to be dealt with.  Many little eyes watching Mama, what will she do?  How will she respond?

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

2013/2014 Taffy Academy

During my blogging sabbatical, I spent a lot to time rearranging and reorganizing our school room.  Being as I lost two of my students, three actually when I take into account that Strawberry does most of her studies in her room… where it’s quiet, eh hem. I figured it was time for a good old rearrange!

The view looking right.

The view looking left.

I love it.  All the books make me happy.  I would still like to replace my plastic table with a conference table.  Our plastic table wiggles when somebody uses their eraser.  That’s kind of annoying.  Mr. Taffy is also on the look out for a cheap wall TV with a built in DVD player so I can show the kids education movies from time to time without them huddling around the lap top.

My Sonlight Books  and educational DVD’s.

Here’s the fall line up for the children starting with the oldest.

Strawberry Taffy-11th Grade

• Chemistry-Apologia
• Geometry-Teaching Textbooks
• English 3 (American Literature)-Excellence in Literature
• History-Constitution 101 & 102 (Hillsdale College)
• Graphic and Web Design- Team Tree House on-line program (She’s already started this because she’s VERY interested in it.)

I put links in the text if you are interested in learning more about each of her subjects.  I’ve also got an elective planned for her called:  Training in Biblical Womanhood.  I bought her several books that she is going to slowly read and journal her way through.

I found this awesome book holder at a garage sale.  This was on my list to find for our school room!

Blue-Raspberry Taffy- 5th Grade

• 5th Grade Math-Teaching Textbooks
• History-Sonlight Core D & E (combined American History)
• Latin- Song School Latin 2
• Science- Considering God’s Creation
• Language Arts: Sonlight Core D & E (Reading), Easy Grammar, All About Reading Level 4

Strawberry Taffy-3rd Grade

• 3rd Grade Math-Teaching Textbooks
• History-Sonlight Core D & E (American History)
• Latin-Song School Latin 2
• Science-Considering God’s Creation
• Language Arts: Sonlight Core D & E (reading), Easy Grammar & All about Spelling Level 4

You can see Blue-Raspberry and Bubble Gum are pretty much doing the same curriculum, I just have different expectations for each of them.  Bubble Gum read’s terrifically and won’t have any trouble with the reading, Blue-Raspberry reads terrifically too, he just doesn’t enjoy it as much.  (smile)

Laffy Taffy- 1st Grade

I did things differently with Laffy than I did with my other children.  I couldn’t stomach another round of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  It’s a great book, but it’s SO boring and I’ve been through it 5 times already…ugh.  So I used All About Reading PreReading with him.  Usually my children are reading by the end of Kindergarten, granted he just turned 5 toward the end of kindergarten but still, he’ll be starting 1st grade and he doesn’t know how to read yet.  Though he knows all the letter sounds and how to write them on demand.  This year we’ll put all the pieces together and he’ll be reading like a champ before I know it!

• Reading-All About Reading Level 1
• Spelling- All About Spelling Level 1
• Math-Miquon Math Starting in the Orange book and working our way through them all, I’m not sure how long it will take, might take a couple years, might only take 1.
• History/Literature/Science-Sonlight Core A or K depending on what you’re used too.  I primarily wanted a list of age appropriate reading material, to read to him and to have him start reading to me. 
• Handwriting-Just a work book I got from a friend.

I’m using workboxes for him this year so he can visually see how much he needs to do and consequently know when he’s almost done. 

I read on the Duggar’s Blog that during school hours the children aren’t allowed to talk about anything non-school related.  I am totally considering copying this amazing idea.  So much chatter and so many uninteresting questions and too much redundancy, it really makes me crazy sometimes!

The Tot School Area.

We are starting up August 5th, with a four day a week schedule so we can still enjoy the summer weather and meet our friends at the beach once a week.  Until we start up, I have a BIG issue I have to pray through.  I’ll share that next time.  Here’s a hint:

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

School’s Out!

We have officially completed the 2012/2013 home school year!  What a great accomplishment.  Can I just say that this is probably the first year that I feel like I have been completely faithful to my plan, completed everything and didn’t burn out.  It’s taken 15 years to feel this way.  I wonder how next year will go.

My two oldest sons are graduating.  The oldest is off to a Bible College in Southern Florida come August, the other one is off to the University of Nebraska come fall 2014.  Granted both need to still be accepted into the colleges of their choice, but I’m confident that God will bless their efforts or else lead them elsewhere. 

Our plans for the summer include a summer reading program, beach days, garage sales, gardening, and regrouping for the next school year.

Our family is going to the Teach Them Diligently Conference in Omaha, NE at the end of May.  We’ll visit Chocolate’s school during that time as well.  We’ve got a formal graduation coming up, visits from family, our 20 year anniversary…so many amazing things to look forward too.

May’s Joy Dare:

1) 3 gifts tasted: coffee, tuna with tomatoes and pickles, Salmon on lettuce with lemon juice.

2) 3 gifts flat: garage sale money, curriculum catalogs, toilet paper.

3) 3 gifts found in difficult people: The opportunity to bank grace, practicing humility, lessons in how NOT to be.

Redeeming the time,

Mrs. Taffy

Weekly Wrap-Up #??

It’s been so long since I’ve written one of these that I can’t even figure out what number I’m on.  Well, we are almost done with our 2012/2013 year and that’s all that REALLY matters!

We’ve been doing some interesting things this week…

I put our normal stuff on hold because I found this hidden on my laptop.  My oldest daughter is still VERY much interested in all-things-Irish, so finding this was fun.  Now her little sibs will have something interesting to tell her.

           

Their copy work has been a famous prayer written by St. Patrick and when they finished the tracing and copying portion, I had them highlight all the prepositions, because there were MANY! 

We’ve started our Sonlight History.  I’m not really on any schedule so to speak, but I am going in the order they suggest.  So far the kids LOVE it and during the reading time they are finding interesting things to do.

They took the big markable map and matched up the state pieces from another puzzle.  I didn’t instigate this, they just thought it looked like fun.  This map…for some reason, has become the delight of the school room and somebody is always looking at it or playing with it, or if you are Marshmallow Taffy, rolling up in it like a burrito.

Marshmallow was such a good girl this week.  This is the first week she hasn’t drove me crazy…she was actually content and quiet.  We discovered she can handle dot painting and she LOVED it!  She also discovered she can maneuver the plasma car with great pizazz!

Strawberry Taffy has had a very special week.  My sweet daughter was blessed with a trip to Florida, to see her very best friend. 

Her friend is a snow bird, so she’s only here in the summer and fall.  We don’t normally, or haven’t in the passed let her, or any of our other children do something like this.  When questioned about it by a friend, this is what I said,

I know…it just sort of happened.  I’m so beyond arguing about anything and so desperate to let my children know how much I love them.  Mr. Taffy and I both had peace about it.  Strawberry and Gracie have such a special relationship, it may be a once in a life time opportunity for her.  Gracie’s Dad flew down with her and is flying back up with her too.  I don’t think we would have been okay with it had she been all alone at the airports.  I’m so glad she’s getting a break and having some fun.  She is tireless in her help to me, always cheerful, willing to do anything I ask.  She works so hard at school.  She deserved a GREAT reward.  We even gave her spending money and I bought her some new (Goodwill) clothes too.  We lavished her.  She will not forget this.  She called me Monday night in tears…she NEVER cries.  She’s just not a crier like me…but wow was she having a hard time being away.  She was SO embarrassed to be crying.  She was just homesick.  So sweet.

Obviously I changed some names, but that is what I wrote, and this still pretty much sums up how I feel about it.  She comes home Friday evening.  We can’t wait!  I’ve missed her terribly. She keeps me company during the day.  We are both introverts so we know how to give each other space, but we also know how to be silly and yak, yak, yak and she makes me the BEST smoothies EVERY afternoon!

While she’s been gone we had an epic snowstorm!

School was cancelled for the older two and Mr. Taffy stayed home! Of course, our homeschool went on as usual but they got plenty of time to play out in that delightful white fluff!

I think we got at least a foot of snow.  And, believe it or not, we had our bedroom window open all night during the storm, it was pretty mild out and I KNOW I could smell spring on that back of that storm.  I can still smell it if I breathe deep enough.

Breathing Deeply,

Mrs. Taffy

Homeschool stuff (LONG!!)

It’s been a while since I’ve done a homeschool post.  I did post the used-curriculum stuff, but I thought it might be encouraging to know that we are still plugging along here.

We started school in August and have about 10 weeks left.  Unbelievable!  It’s going by so fast!  We’ll be done the first week of May.  I just got my 4th and 2nd grader planned out through March.  Blue-Raspberry will be finishing Teaching Textbooks 4. That’s pretty exciting!  Strawberry is finishing Algebra 2 this week!  I love it when stuff starts dropping off the agenda.

I’ve mentioned a couple times how a friend of mine blessed me with an incredible amount of Sonlight material.  I’m still absorbing the magnitude of her gift to me.  I think it may be more than a gift from God, I think it may also be the “thing” that keeps me moving forward.  I’ve been homeschooling for 14 years!  That’s a long time.  I have at least 18 more years to go too.  Wow, I’m almost at the halfway point.  Interesting.  Anyway, sometimes it can get kind of dull using the same thing over and over again.  But this Sonlight stuff seems to be so interesting, if I can keep from expecting too much from myself and my children, I think this may get me through the rest of my homeschool journey!

I had to find a place to put all those books.  So, we went to Menard’s (which I personally detest) and found these black book shelves for under $15.00 each.  Oh what fun I had putting these together and organizing them!  Most of these books are for Sonlight, but I did move our science stuff out there as well.  I was able to put our graphic novels and other special books in a place that the kids could get to them without asking for help.

It’s fun to be able to display some stuff on top too.  Now these book shelves have overflown into the playroom.  Which isn’t ideal, but the kids are all in love with them so it worked out well.  Besides I’m still on this “get rid of stuff” kick so it keeps us from lining the wall with plastic toys.  I’ve gotten rid of some really special thing lately.

I put a few things on the shelves for Marshmallow.  She’s pretty good about not making a mess of my shelves.  Mostly she likes to push the books toward the back of the shelf.

I’ve got each shelf labeled by core level.  My friend was VERY organized and has each book labeled on the inside  for what level and what subject.  She made it so easy to organize them!  I think I am getting one more core, she loaned it out to another friend, if that’s the case I’ll have to  do a little rearranging but that will be a fun challenge. 

Since I was able to move my All About Reading posters, I had room to put a few things up to interest Marshmallow, these color cards and another of shape cards. 

This is our “All About” center.  I got rid of the easel and bunch of other little stuff that was hiding behind it.  This is much better place for that huge metal board.  I just flip it over when we aren’t using it so Marshmallow doesn’t try to start spelling words, which she enjoys VERY much.

The white board is often covered with Spelling too.  They are cruising through level 3.

My window to the world…our current Read-Alouds and the kid’s assigned Readers.  I’ve also got all our supplies hanging there  See all that white outside?  At least it reflects the sun and makes the basement even brighter!

These are my book baskets that hold the teacher books.  I’m thinking of getting another one of those black shelves to put there instead, some of those soft cover books are getting kind of mangled in the basket.

With all the other things going on, the hard emotional things of a healing marriage and a rebellious teen, I’ve been trying to simplify and streamline our day better. I’m so happy with how our school time is going right now.  We start about 8 and are usually done by 10:30.  I’m just working with Blue-Raspberry, Bubble Gum and Laffy Taffy, Strawberry is completely independent though she does spend most of her mornings down in the school room with us.

Here’s what we do.

I start Latin with Bubble Gum and Laffy Taffy while Blue-Raspberry does his math on the Lap Top.  Then I teach reading and math to Laffy Taffy while Bubble Gum does her independent work of: handwriting, math and reading.  While she is doing that Blue-Raspberry is working on his Latin, sometimes on the laptop, sometimes not, reading, and Word Roots.  When Bubble Gum and Blue-Raspberry are done, I read to everybody from our current Read-alouds.  After that we do grammar and spelling together and call it a morning.  Come March I’ll be including History in that schedule so it might take a little longer.  But I’m trying to cut myself a little slack and we only do AAS 3 days a week and Grammar 4.  Some of the younger kid’s things only last 4 days anyway, so if we get behind we can always make up stuff on Friday’s.  We’ve been doing our school time this way for weeks and it’s working very nicely.  Not too much for anybody.  They watch an episode of the Magic Schoolbus and the Kratt Brothers everyday for science.  It’s not ideal, but I figure it’s better than nothing and they ARE learning, so I’m satisfied.

On a side note, having a toddler in the schoolroom is VERY stressful.  If she’s not making  mess she’s unhappy about something, she wants somebody’s pencil, she wants a snack, whatever.  When I read out loud I have to be REALLY LOUD because she interprets my talking as, “it’s time to talk with Momma!”  Phew!  It’s exhausting.  Her presence is building character in each of us and for the most part she is delight, but I don’t want you to think it’s all perfect and wonderful.  The reality is, it’s difficult when she’s with us during school.  Thankfully I know this difficult time will pass, I’m just looking forward to that day with GREAT anticipation!

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy