Busy Times

So, it's been really busy these last couple of months. I started a homeschool program in the beginning of August. It keeps us really busy with doing all the work and going on field trips and such. We are using a program called Oklahoma Virtual Academy. It is a virtual public school. Pretty much we have to track attendance, chart progress and have conferences with their teacher regularly. I am officially called the "learning coach" even though I do all the teaching. We use the K12 curriculum for the program. We are able to work more at the child's pace, but we are not supposed to get too far behind in the schedule.

The kids have to "master" 90% of the required lessons to be able to pass to the next grade level. Most of the lessons have an assessment that the kids take at the end of them. If they get an 80% or better, they have "mastered" that assessment. If they do not get the 80% or better, they have to review the lesson or do some of the optional activities to help them understand it better, then they can retake the assessment.

This program is a writing intense program. Since the kids haven't done writing like this previouisly in school, it is a struggle. Matthew is struggling with writing complete sentences and he is supposed to be able to write paragraphs, so we are working on that. Jonathan was shocked at the beginning that he had to write a few paragraphs for one assignment on one day. There were tears with some of the writing at the beginning, but now Jonathan can write several paragraphs with little problem. I guess that since they never learned how to write paragraphs in school it was hard for him to come up with ideas of what to write about. Jonathan now has written two 5 paragraph essays. Matthew has written a 3 paragraph essay and is getting ready to start his research paper. On top of these writing assignments, they have to write complete sentences for most of their other assignments as well. Of course, this is how most of us learned, but aparently my boys haven't had to do this before. So, it is taking some time to teach them how to take a question and answer it with a complete sentence. Matthew is so stubborn that he refuses to copy part of the question in his answer. It's tough, but hopefully we'll get through it.

It's nice that Rachel is already learning to write complete sentences in the beginning of 1st grade, instead of waiting until 3rd like Matthew. She has to write dictated sentences almost daily, remembering the capital letters and punctuation. She's doing really well with it. She is reading better every day, and catches on quickly to all her phonics and language lessons.

The kids all take after their Dad in that they are all going through their math assignments quicker than scheduled. I don't have to worry about "how am I going to teach this" because they all seem to understand math and how it works. We mostly need to work on the memorizing of the basic 1-12 facts, addition and subtraction for Matthew and Rachel, multiplication and division for Matthew and Jonathan. And, it won't hurt Jonathan to make sure he knows the addition and subtraction. I found some good flash cards on the internet the other day and can't wait until they arrive. The program wanted the kids to make their own flashcards with index cards, but when we did that for some multiplication for Matthew, Jonathan couldn't read them. Hahaha. I'll wait until the good legible ones get here.

I have started doing some preschool work with Hannah and Lizzie. I am teaching Hannah all the letter sounds. Lizzie just likes coloring the worksheets and saying the sounds, so she must be learning it too, at least to a small degree.

I am keeping really busy in primary right now. It is time for the Sacrament Meeting Presentation, so I am really busy getting things squared away for that. I am also busy doing ASL interpretation during Sacrament Meeting since we have some deaf investigators now. I have a hard time finding time to expand my ASL vocabulary, but every Sunday I feel it necessary to do so. I wish there were more people here that I could practice with and that could help out a bit too. I feel bad running off to primary and leaving them without any ASL interpreters. The ward tries hard to make up for it by having a neat set up for someone to type onto a laptop and it displays on a screen for them to read. The only problem with this is that it makes it hard for them to ask questions. I know they have several questions and they probably don't get to ask them.

Dave got another calling a couple of weeks ago. He is now the stake young men's secretary. So, he is really excited to be working with the young men again. He is still the Cubmaster and wants to keep working with the cub scouts as long as he can. Matthew is really excited to finally be an official cub scout. Ever since we got him his book he has been coming up to Dave and I saying, "can I do this right now with you?" Jonathan has been working hard and has just about completed his requirements for his bear badge, so he will be getting that award at the next pack meeting.