Update on what's going on...

Well, hello all!  As usual my crazy life has not allowed me to blog as I would like.  But I thought I might drop a few lines to keep you posted on what is going on around here since January 1.

We made some changes in several school subjects which I will tell about in a later post.  Most changes have been in the area of everyday life and dance.

As most people we struggle to keep to a budget, especially with the rising cost of everything.  I began this year using a free program for budgeting call Mvelopes.  It is really easy to use and I even have an app on my phone to track spending.  However, tracking is the only thing we have to do to trim the budget.  I have been experimenting with making more food items from scratch and I have to say it has worked wonderfully. 

I received a new Ninja Cooking Systems for a holiday present and I have been putting it to use regularly.  Between the Ninja and my bread maker I have been able to make decently healthy and cheap meals for my always hungry family.  

I hope to share more of my cooking from scratch adventure in the months to come.

In other news, my sweet Poogie had an exciting January.  She was put on pre-pointe at our dance studio.  It was so much fun and exciting.  It just reminds me of how fast she is growing up.

 

T also has news in dance.  He auditioned for and received an invitation to go to the Kansas City Ballet Summer Intensive.  We initially just let him audition for the experience but low and behold he got in.  His dance ability has improved so much since moving here I am amazed.  This experience will only help him improve to become quite the dancer.  I am so proud of him.

More to come. 

 

It's Nutcracker Time!

I can't believe it's time for Nutcracker again.  This will be our 4th season being involved in a production of this wonderful holiday story.  We are in a different city, but we found our way back to the world of Sugar Plum Fairies, Clara and dolls.  T will be in this production but my little Poogie will not.  The new dance company has older dancers in it, so Poogie will have to wait a year or two.  But she is totally fine with that.  After doing this for 3 years and dealing with the stress and craziness of it she was ready for a break. 

T will be dancing in Act I as a boy child and a mouse.  He has had a blast, stress free.  This studio has been a blessing.  The schedules are up by Wednesday.  They start and end on time.  Everything runs like a well oiled machine.  It has been wonderful.  I will post pictures of the production. Sadly, we are not allowed to post video like I have in the past due to copyright concerns. But I understand this as our director has worked hard to make this production her own. 

Since we had more free time this season we were able to go to see a professional performance of the Nutcracker by the Moscow Ballet.  Such a wonderful treat for my kids and me. It has been 3 long years since I got to set in the seats and watch a production with them. It was a magical night at the beautiful Peabody Opera House. 

Now we are off to the Land of Sweets.

Trash and Keep Pile

As I have done every school year since I began this journey I find myself making changes.  By now I have discovered what works for us as far as homeschool curriculum goes and what doesn't.  I am disappointed to find that some of the things we loved last year did not make the cut this year.  It may be we are just burned out with the daily repetition of some of these books.  It pains me to say that two of these are classical education curriculum's, Writing with Ease and Writing with Skill.  Both of these are great writing curricula, and we haven't ditched them for good.  It's just the day to day repetition of the curriculum has become tedious.  I do not feel that either one of my kids age getting any thing new out of these right now so on the shelf they go. 

Another casualty from the first quarter is the Novel Units literature guides.  Ug,  I have to say I did not like them.  There are so many reasons I won't take up time writing about it.  Let's just say that they were not user friendly.  I still had to do alot of prep on my own and some of the questions in the books did not line up with the novels.  I won't use them again. 

For Poogie history was a big flat failure.  I tried using The Story of the US and The Complete Book of US History.  They just didn't offer enough comprehsion and geography work.  So we are using something I already had, Abeka US history and geography.  I will be adding historical reading to go along with the time peroids. 

So things we are keeping but using as a supplement, such as First Language Lessons.  Great curriculum, but not our daily cup of tea.  We are returning to Easy Grammar for Poogie with FLL added for diagramming and extra practice.   Poogie will be using EG 6 since I had the teacher's edition. 

Poogie is also keeping Rod & Staff Arithmetic 5 but we are supplementing with Math Mammoth on subjects that she doesn't master in the text.  Right now we are doing a MM unit on fractions because she just didn't get it in R&S. 

For Poogie's writing we are going to give Writing Strands a whirl.  I have it already so why not.  For T I have ordered Jensen Format Writing to replace WWS.  We will use WWS but not on a weekly basis. 

I have decided to let T read the novels we have chosen and give him writing assignments and projects to complete for them from free sources on the internet.  The Novel Units just killed his love for the book, and mine. 

Finally, on The Well Trained Mind Forum I found a link to a free PDF of a curriuclum I have been wanting to try for reading for Poogie.  The Reading Detective from The Thinking Co. offers this.  I am going to try a few lesson with Poogie and then I may order the software version.  T has liked the Editor in Chief software so it would be fun for Poogie to have her time at the computer too.

I guess we just need to see how the next 9 weeks go...

ps please forgive the typo's spell check wasn't working and I've run out of time.