School: Week 4

February 6 to February 10

This week I think I got a better daily schedule down.  Schedules, I believe has been difficult; trying to figure out how to fit everything in that I want to teach (I could probably take up the ENTIRE day if Olivia permitted me to), giving my girls plenty of free time to play and explore, clean house and still find time for myself.

My daily outline is as follows:

Breakfast:  listen to primary music and do our morning message.  If I forget to do the morning message, I'm sure to hear about it from the 2 year old!

Schedules:  After breakfast is when we get cleaned up for the day, girls showered, beds made, curtains opened up etc.  I want them to build good life habits and this is the time to do it while they are still young.

Gospel study:  We read the scriptures, draw pictures or watch a video related to the story that we are learning about that week.  We've been staying on the same story all week.  For some thing might drive them crazy to repeat the same story, but I want to make sure that my girls know the stories before we move on.  Funny thing is that I've found that as I'm doing this, I frequently will find them acting the stories out.

Writing and Math:  I turn on an audiobook, we've been listening to The Magic Tree House books, and the girls write for 15 minutes or so then followed with a few math problems.  Olivia does 15 minutes of math instruction with Rusty and Rosy (Upstart) so I use this time to see where she is needing some extra help.

Spanish:  This past week I came across a new Spanish Instruction show that my girls have fondly named Spanish TV.  We watched the 1st episode multiple times this week.

Reading:  This is more or less spread through out the day where we do independent reading, guided reading and read alouds.

After lunch Lucy heads down for a nap and Olivia does her more formal studies with Upstart.

We're not doing 'school' all morning, but this has given me a guide to follow that has been working well.

In the afternoon I try to sneak in some memorization which has happened to work out great while Olivia is dancing around the kitchen.   A few days ago I told her that we needed to do some memorization and she headed right to the kitchen and started to dance.  Perhaps the movement helps her remember what she is memorizing.

I also sneak in piano practice and try to play an educational game with them while making dinner.

Spanish School

Last week I went and looked at another charter school for Olivia.  We won't find out the results of her gifted test until May and won't know if she was accepted at that school (which is a 50/50 Spanish Immersion school- meaning they speak Spanish 50% of the time and English for 50%) until May.  Knowing that most schools have enrollment this month I decided to check out a few others.

The charter school that I looked at was not one I even wanted to consider.  The test scores are low and not located in the best area.  At the gifted test, one of the other moms told me that this charter school has changed principles and has shown improvement in the test scores.  I thought that I might as well check it out.

I felt fine driving to the school and the staff was very friendly while I filled out the application for the lottery (I've decided that I'm really not liking the idea of raffling off spots in a school).  I felt a little out of place; being very white in a school that was filled with Hispanics.  I felt less 'foreign' when Olivia started to tell the receptionist about her bisabuela in Venezuela.  This gave me a chance to ask questions about the school.

When I got home later that night  I thought more about this Spanish Immersion school.  Some things about it really attracted me like that this is a 90/10 school.  In grades K and 1 they speak Spanish 90% and English 10%.  I REALLY want Olivia to pick up more Spanish so she can speak to her Abuelos (grandparents).  Then in grade 2 it goes to a 80/20, grade 3 70/30, grade 4 60/40 and finally in grade 5 50/50.  Since total immersion is the best way to learn a foreign language this is the best route.

I also liked that Olivia would be around other Hispanics.  She is technically half Hispanic and I want her to learn about another culture besides the one that we live in.  We live in a dominate white area.

The test scores still worry me.  The scores are low because many of the children there are immigrants with Spanish being their native language.  The tests are administered in English so they don't do nearly as well.  I think that I could look pass this if I continue schooling Olivia (doing afterschool) at home.  She is already working on first grade work at home, I basically want her to learn the language.  Would you send your child to a school like this if you were in my situation?

I did ask that even though my Spanish is very small could I still come and volunteer in the classroom.  They encouraged me to come!  Is it wrong that I feel that possibly I could help these kids?

I haven't fully made up my mind yet.  There is a parent meeting at the end of the month which I will make Ed attend with me.  I have a feeling that the meeting might mostly be in Spanish and I need someone who understands the language.

Where is my magic ball that tells me which school is the absolute best option?

School: Week 3

January 30 to February 3

School went very well this week.  We kept on schedule and covered many things; although at times I feel like I am repeating myself everyday.  I don't want to move on from some things until they fully understood and other things like handwriting are repetitive in nature.

Writing:  Since we are still working on the same things, I thought I would show what I am doing.  With the Rusty and Rosy Learn with Me I have access to tons of worksheets.  I printed off all of the letter practice sheets and slipped them into page protectors.  Can I tell you how much I love page protectors and dry erase markers!!  This allows Olivia to practice her letters and numbers several times and I don't have to throw away the paper.  She does about 4 uppercase, 4 lowercase letters, 2 numbers and a few random sheets with her first name, last name, birthdate and my phone number each day.

Olivia writing in the letter practice book that I printed for her.  I have noticed a huge different in her handwriting since her started back in September!

Lucia naturally wants to sit down and do writing just like her big sister.

I have Lucy sit on my lap and I write on each letter while I am saying the letter.  She knows all of her letters and starting to work on the letter sounds.  Here she is trying to trace each letter.  She actually has good fine motor skills!

I also trace over her name several times while spelling it out.  She recognizes her name and gets very excited when she sees it in print.

Math:  We are still doing the website xtramath.org and seeing an improvement daily.  I made up some dry erase worksheets for her to do some basic math skills.  This week we started with the 3's which is proving to be a little harder than the previous numbers.  But she is understanding it and doing very well!

Social Studies:  Since we live in a very rural area, we usually drive through at least one if not 5 other small cities before we reach our destination.  Olivia loves to call out what city we currently in.  My problem has been that she refers to them as countries rather than cities.  So to help her tell the difference we made up this little project that I found on pintrest.

We talk about the earth which is very large and our continent is a smaller part of that earth.  From there we talk about how our country is a smaller part of the continent and so on until we are to our house.  Olivia really enjoyed putting this together.

This also opened up the discussion of continents.  I found some printable flashcards online to help her visualize this.  Since Olivia has been to 4 countries in her short 4 years, it was fun to point out where those countries would be on the continents.

Selling Our House

It's official!  We have placed our house for sale.  Ed has decided to go back to the university for a graduate program and doesn't want to drive over an hour each way to increase his education.  So we made the difficult decision to place our beautiful house for sale and move back to the big city.  I'm looking forward to this for a few small reasons namely to have a decent library, grocery stores nearer (currently I drive 9 miles to the nearest store) and tons of places for my children to enjoy.

Last week we went and looked at the student family housing near campus and left feeling disappointed. I know it will all work out and thankfully it's only going to be for 2 years.  I have owned a house for the past 10 years and it will be hard going to a space that isn't fully my own.  But this will open doors for our family!

Ed took the GRE last week and did pretty good.  He won't have the official results for a few weeks.  In two weeks he will be taking the FSOT once again (Foreign Service Officer Test).  He passed it last year but didn't move on pass the personal narrative questions.  I am still hopeful that this is something for our family!

My first look at the campus housing.  There are worse things in life and it will only be for 2 years.  I can do this!

School: Week 2

January 23 to 27-

This was a harder school week since Ed was off work all week.  I did manage to sneak some educational things when we weren't busy doing things as a family.  Olivia also was tested for the ELP or gifted program for the local school district.  We won't find out if she has been accepted in the program until May!  It's killing me not being able to plan!  The school that I have chosen has all day Kindergarten (5 days a week) and is a Spanish Immersion class.  This is my first choice mainly because of the gifted part of it.  I have been afraid that Olivia will be bored in a typical Kindergarten setting.

Memorization: Olivia has pretty much mastered the first 3 Articles of Faith.  I am thoroughly impressed with her memorization skills.

We stopped at our local library (can I say here that I can't wait to have access to a fabulous library again after our move!) and picked up some easy readers for Olivia to do guided reading each day.  This is certainly helping her improve her reading skills.

Field Trip:  After Olivia's test for the gifted program and looking at student family housing on the university's campus we stopped at the Church History Museum and spent some time in the children's section.  The girls had a blast!