Distract Me, Please.

My daddio had bypass surgery a couple of months ago, and today he had to have another surgery. I'm feeling weepy and on the verge of tears. I need something to distract me, so I thought I would come here and post.

Hmmm....let's see what I can blah, blah, blah about.

January is a time of revival for our homeschool. We are literally trying to revive it. Think CPR here.

DD10 was easier than the rest. We had a nice routine going before the break started (Thanksgiving week), so all I needed to do was copy one of our old planning pages and forge ahead. We've done quite a bit of review. We've revisited Hercules (Greek Myths), Nigeria (Geography), and keyword outlines (writing) to name a few. In a couple of weeks we should be finished with some of her current books (D'Aulaires Greek Myths and Rod & Staff Science 3) which will help her schedule be more flexible. We're adding cursive handwriting - again.

DD6 - I'm about ready to give up on this child ever learning to count from 12-16. I said about. We are now doing calendar daily to help pound those pesky teens into her head. I've decided to move forward whether she can consistently count to 20 or not. We started her Math 1 workbook and she is loving it! We also started working in her phonics and reading workbooks. Rod & Staff's 1st grade reading program seems to move rather fast, so we're going at a snail's pace trying to keep things fun without leading to discouragement. We are reading through the Core Knowledge book What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know.

DD13 - (Okay, she's going to read this. Warning....teasing ahead ;) This girl loves The Teaching Company courses. She gets excited about these like some girls get excited about boy bands. I kid you not. And, she's very good about doing her school work without being reminded. But...well...you know, everyone has things that they avoid. For example, some people enjoy planning and writing fiction, but they tend to wiggle out of learning to write nonfiction. And some people (not naming any names of course) have decided that they shouldn't have to study English grammar. Why would a future best-selling author need to do that? (wink, wink). Seriously though, the thing I really want to do with her is spend time learning together. It is nice when a student becomes more independent, but we've swung too far the other way. I miss the days when we sat on my bed tripping over all those crazy Greek names in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Sigh! " Hippolochus fled, but him too did Agamemnon smite; he cut off his hands and his head- which he sent rolling in among the crowd as though it were a ball."(Iliad, Butler, book XI) Sniff, sniff. Such fond memories. ;)

52 Books in 52 Weeks

I've joined a "Book-a-Week in 2009" reading challenge (a.k.a 52 Books in 52 Weeks). I'm hoping it will motivate me to read some of the books I've amassed over the years. I want to join the great conversation.

I read Of Mice and Men today. One down and only 51 more to go.


Wanna join me?

1. Read an average of a book a week - 52 books in 52 weeks
2. Re-reading a book counts--as long as you first read it before 2009
3. School related books don't count (unless you want them to)
4. You can start reading on 1-1-09 at 00:00:01AM