First Test Pack and Daily Workbook Plug

We finally completed 20 lessons in ALL subjects.

We had to restart Phonics on a different level because Gabe was having so much trouble. I would have to spend hours going over sounds and working with him until he could achieve any sort of mastery. Prior to our switch in levels, 2.5 hrs was pretty standard just to get through what should be a 50 minute lessons. Now, in the lower level of Phonics, he is achieving the lesson in 50 minutes time and doing so much better. He is also focusing his pronunciation.

I now have a fair bit of scanning to do.

However, it feels good to have all lessons on track starting Monday with Lesson 21.

Now, a little plug. I went to the Atlanta education store, The SchoolBox, and came across these work books with TRADITIONAL writing for manuscript and cursive. I'm sorry, but I hate contemporary penmanship. Also, Gabe is not writing fluidly. Therefore, we are going back to basics and retraining his hand memory for manuscript. Next year, we will start on cursive. He will be a little behind cursive writing, but I think we'll catch up over the summer.

The workbooks we are using can be found at Evan-Moor. We are using Daily Practice Traditional Manuscript and Daily Practice Traditional Cursive. Because traditional penmanship is so hard to find, I already purchased the cursive. Nana, even with arthritis, has beautiful penmanship in the traditional method. I think she'll be great to help guide Gabe on his writing practice.

One Month of Single Parenting and Homeschooling - Thoughts

One month has flown by for us. I haven't had much time to update the blog but I wanted to share with everyone what one month can do to change your world when you homeschool. Especially when in that same month I become the defacto lead (and only) application developer for a multi-million dollar project at work. No pressure right? I'm only responsible for my son's education and carry the burdens of many at work.

Time Management became the motto of the month as I struggled with keeping up for my son and his challenges, and then trying to not work too late as well. Since I worked 8-5pm, our school usually starts around 5:30-6pm and goes until 10-11pm at night. Any time my work schedule messed up, led to us trying to shuffle school, and during the day, Nana would work to make sure vocab and concepts were worked on to ease the load of the night.

As I mentioned last month in our initial posting, we're using Verticy for our homeschooling curriculum. I do not think I could do homeschooling without this curriculum. I work on average 50 hrs a week, the joys of being salaried, and I simply do not have the time to plan lessons. I don't even have time to prep for the ones we have but these learning manuals from them have made homeschooling possible for my family. I am mother and father in our little house, the primary breadwinner and teacher. I was busy to begin with. At some point, I have to add Saturday classes for myself at college...

That also brings me to my number one answer when someone asks me how do I homeschool and maintain a stressful and challenging career... Sacrifice. I sacrifice everyday to give my son the very best in life. It is not easy. It is hard. But the rewards are worth it. To see my son improving by leaps and bounds just surprises me every day. This last month has shown me great sacrifice and great reward, and I think everyone should be homeschooling their children. Leave collegiate subjects for college days like they were during Revolutionary times, where our greatest heroes and changers of this world were home-educated. That's right, home-educated.

Anyways, I've lingered too much today on this blog post, we have Lesson 20 testing to finish still. :)