Our Life Lately

Okay, so maybe I'll just turn this into a once a week blog! lol I guess we've been pretty busy lately. Last week we went to see the play, "Freedom Train." It was really good. It was the first play that Josh and Megan had ever seen. Isn't that shameful? I didn't realized it until I sent off the check for this play, but "Freedom Train" was the first play that we'd been to since our first year of homeschooling....and we've been homeschooling for five years!!


I've made a conscious decision that we're going to try to go to at least one or two each year from now on. We're going to see "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" tomorrow. We're all excited about that one since it's one of the kids' favorite books. In May, we're going to see "Peter and the Wolf" with a local symphony orchestra. That should be a really unique, cultural experience. I guess we're making up for lost time.


We spent a wonderful time at the home of some friends after the play last week. On Saturday, Brian took Brianna horseback riding with her AHG troop. I was going to take her, but after being only in and out for most of the week, the house was a disaster and the laundry was piled high. So, I decided that my time would be much better spent cleaning house and doing laundry. I offered Josh and Megan each $1 if they'd help me -- really help, not just move things around. Josh is saving for a Star Wars gun, so I knew he'd help. They both really did a great job and it was totally worth $2.


After Brian got back, we went to look at some furniture and had dinner out, as a family. We're still trying to decide between patio furniture/living room furniture and a new roof. Although we need a new roof, I think the furniture is going to win by default for two reasons. One, is that we don't quite have enough cash for the roof and we're trying to avoid using credit since we're finally out of debt. And, two, we'd rather have the furniture! We're not just going to go sit outside and look at the roof every day.



We spent Sunday at Brian's parents house since his mom's birthday was Monday. Monday and Tuesday we were busy with school. I did something that I haven't done in a really long time. I let the raving of others sway me and I completely changed math curriculum! I spent about $200 switching from Horizons to Math-U-See. We used MUS for the first time Monday and I was ready to use the 30-day money back guarantee that afternoon! I talked to Brian and we agreed to give it two weeks, so I'm not letting the kids write in the books. Tuesday went a little better, but I'm still not quite sure it's for us.


Megan and Josh cracked me up Monday. Josh had an old video camera and he was "videoing" (pretend) himself and Megan doing their schoolwork. They both were so cheerful and cooperative...because they were being "taped." They kept telling me to smile until I finally gave them my "Barker's Beauty" (a la The Price Is Right) impersonation every time I turned over a card for our bingo game. The funniest thing, though, was Megan. I called her Meg and she hissed at me in a stage whisper, "Don't call me that!"

"Don't call you what," I asked.

"Meg," she replied. "My name is Megan."

Sorry! Gee whiz!


In other news, I've been giving a lot of thought to long term scheduling. This was brought on by the switch to MUS because I decided to go back a bit for Brianna to give her a firmer foundation in some of the basic operations (I started with multiplication) since she's not very confident there. If we stick with MUS, she's going to have to move pretty quickly through the next few levels in order to complete pre-algebra by the end of 8th grade so that she'll be ready to go into algebra in 9th. I talked to a cousin and she said that the current college prep requirements for our state are four years of math in high school.


So, that led me to think about what I wanted to do with history. I really like the Truthquest guides for history, but I want to combine them with Story of the World for Josh and Megn. So, I've figured out that I can do the following schedule and have it come out nice and neat for everyone. ;-)


TQ Ancient Egypt/Greece (Brianna 6th gr), SOTW Vol. 1 up to Greece (Josh & Megan 2nd/1st gr)


TQ Ancient Rome (Brianna 7th gr), SOTW Vol. 1 Ancient Rome (Josh and Megan 3rd/2nd gr)


TQ/ SOTW Middle Ages (Brianna 8th gr/Josh and Megan 4th/3rd gr)


TQ/SOTW Renaissance (Brianna 9th/Josh and Meg 5th/4th gr)


TQ Age of Revolution I (Brianna 10th), TQ American History I (Josh and Megan 6th/5th)


TQ Age of Revolution II (Brianna 11th), TQ American History II (Josh and Megan 7th/6th)


TQ Age of Revolution III (Brianna 12th), TQ American History III (Josh and Megan 8th/7th)


TQ Age of Revolution I (Josh and Megan 9th/8th)


TQ Age of Revolution II (Josh and Megan 10th/9th)


TQ Age of Revolution III (Josh and Megan 11th/10th)


If we actually stick to that schedule, I may go back and pick up TQ Ancient Egypt/Greece for Josh's senior year and Megan's junior. Then, I may go through TQ Ancient Rome with Megan for her last year. Of course, that's a long way off, but I figured that if we're really in this for the long haul, I've got to start getting at least a general idea of what Brianna's high school years are going to look like since they're only three short years away.