It has been raining quite a bit lately, and the kids and I are loving it. We try to get out in the rain as much as we can, but with me now working full time (student teaching 1st grade) we haven’t had that much time this week. Walks in the rain are just one of many things that has changed around here, and we are all trying to adjust as best we can. The kids are actually doing just fine. It is my mom and I that are having the problems.

I hate to admit it, but I just do not like being in a classroom at all. I am working on my credential so I can work in one of the many charter schools in California that cater to homeschoolers, not so I can teach in a traditional brick and mortar school. But to get my credential I have to do just that, and so I am trying to do the best I can while I am there, but it is a major adjustment. My mom is also adjusting to being with the kids all the time, and with living in a new place. She and my stepdad rented an apartment near me so they would be able to help out, but they are still adjusting. She is hardly sleeping, I am hardly sleeping, and everyone is a little grumpy.

Back to our walk today, the kids and I searched for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The twins are a little old for this game, but they play along for Decca, and Decca was determined to find the gold. We searched for the end of the rainbow for an hour, but we never found it. It was an exciting time though, and it really is the experience that counts.

Student teaching isn’t so much about the experience as it is getting to my end goal. And that will be June 17th. I know we will make it. One day at a time.

Decca pointing to where we need to go.

We tried to get there!

Decca was so happy!

Tru played along, although he was busy thinking.

We found ducks swimming in a flooded field.

We listened to a waterfall, Decca got soaking wet in the water, and

I got to carry him all the way home. A perfect ending to a perfect day!

I have been so busy with my own school this week! I have had to write two papers, do two other projects, and finish my TPA Tasks. It is sometimes hard to balance my own work with the kids, and this week was a little challenging. On Monday the kids had a writing assignment they had to do for the charter school they are in, so we worked on that in the morning, and then we met with our ES. On days that we have to meet for their school we do not do much else. The rest of the week we just plugged along as best as we could.

Tru started a new section in Singapore Math. He is now working on bars and graphs, and he loves it. He was starting to get sick of fractions, so it was a nice change of pace. He also worked through chapter 3 of LoF. In Language Arts we began Music of the Hemispheres, and we are both enejoying this. Tru also did a few lessons in his other LA books. In history we finished our study of WW1. We read about the Treaty of Versailles, and Tru explored this BBC site and watched some videos here. Tru continued working in Singapore science, and we learned about the respiratory system. He also began reading the book Cells and Systems which is part of a series that he seems to really enjoy.

Decca worked on all his usual books. In piano his teacher got him a new book called Music by Me. This is a composition book, and because Decca likes to write his own music, his teacher thought this would be a good book for him. It seems interesting, and I hope Decca finds it challenging. So far he seems to like it. This week he worked on rhythm. Another new thing for Decca this week was TickettoRead. This is an online program where he works on his reading skills. He seems to really like this, and he would work on it for an hour a day. I signed up for the free trial, and I am not sure if I will buy it or not.

Autry had a book report due in school this week. She read Number the Stars and then made a journal based on it. We spent a few hours making the pages look old. We dipped them in tea and dried them in the oven. Then we burned the edges. It was a fun project, and I think I will have the kids make a treasure map next week using this method.

Also this week I received my student teaching placement. I will be working in a first grade classroom, and I am happy about that. I start on February 1st, so next week is my last week at home with the kids until June. I sure will miss them!

A tree fell through my mom's house.

Fortunately no one was hurt, but there is quite a bit of damage.

Another view of the tree.

Most of the damage was in my mom's studio, which she had just redecorated.

Drinks +

ice cream +

other necessary items =

three happy kids!

I thought I would post a weekly update, even though I never have before. I thought it would be a good time to take stock of where we are now since I will be handing over most of the homeschool responsibilities to my mom in two weeks.

This week we accomplished quite a bit because I am working the kids hard. I am trying to get them on a good schedule so that when my mom starts schooling  them it will be easier.

Truffaut:

Math: Tru finished up the fractions unit in Singapore Math 4a. I am not sure how he is doing the work because he does it all in his mind and just writes the answer down. When he brings me his book to check his answers they are always right, so I guess that is a good thing. If I ask him to explain to me how he got his answer he just gets very impatient with me… On Friday we did Life of Fred Fractions. We worked through the second chapter. Tru loves Fred! He also worked daily on math on Time4Learning.

Language Arts: We finished the MCT’s Building Language. Tru has all the Latin stems memorized, and he feels good about knowing them all. He was a little sad when we finished the book, but he is looking forward to Music of the Hemispheres. Tru started Writing with Ease book 4. He informed me that although he hates writing he is actually is a great writer (I still am questioning that but it is nice he thinks so). He continued working through Winter Promise’s Solving the Mysteries of Grammar. He is half way through case 5, and he still seems to enjoy it. For reading Tru finished the third Harry Potter book and began the fourth. He also worked on language arts daily on Time4Learning.

Science: We finished our first book (Cycles) in Singapore Science My Pals are Here, and we started the second book (Systems). I bought the HOTS book to add to this, and he and I are both enjoying this additional book. We did a few science experiments with celery, flowers, water, and food dye. Even though we had done this before it was fun, and all the kids enjoyed seeing the outcome.

Our science experiment: We were trying to see if the colors would mix.

Tru decided he wanted to put a white flower in the blue water to see what would happen.

The anthers started to turn blue first, followed by the leaves.

History: We have been continuing our study of WW1. We are using several resources for history now, although our primary source is History Odyssey Modern Times Level 1. Tru did map work, and we read Where Poppies Grow and After the Dancing Days. Tru has been enjoying reading The Story of the World again after such a long break.

Latin: Autry is doing Latin with us after school (along with Life of Fred), and she and Tru both love Latin for Children. We are on chapter two, and if the kids retain their enthusiasm for this throughout the year I will be very happy. They love the DVD, the CD chant work, and the worksheets. I am very impressed with the program and so happy we have found it!

Decca:

Math: We continued working through Singapore 1A, but he was so bored. He wanted to skip through it. Instead I made him go through it very quickly (and mostly orally). He did this in three days, so we started 1B. He likes it better, but he wanted to continue using Math-U-See. I am not sure which program should be his primary program as of yet. I am hoping to figure this out soon.

Language Arts: He started the third lesson in ETC book 4. He seems to have a little trouble with the concept of cv-vc, but I think by the end of the week he was understanding it better. Decca did numerous pages in his Handwriting without Tears book, and he worked from lesson 75 to 80 in Language Lessons for Little Ones 3. In addition he read many books this week, including a Buzz Lightyear Easy Reader (Buzz Lightyear vs. Torque) we found. He loved that!

Science: We worked through our car kit putting together several models while we watched the videos at Science Castle. This is a great resource for us, and Decca is finally enjoying science! In addition we watched several movies on gears, and we listened and watched Here Comes Science about a hundred times (if I hear any of those songs again I will scream!).

History: I read to Decca from The American Story, and he listened to some of Tru’s history. Some of the history is too old and advanced for him though, and much of what Tru is learning is scary to Decca. I am very aware of what he listens to in history and what he doesn’t.

Latin: Decca is on chapter 4 in Song School Latin. It is a review chapter, and so we did a few worksheets and reviewed the songs. He has a strong grasp of the material, so it was an easy week for him. I did add Latin Monkey Match to his studies, and he enjoyed playing the game a great deal.

Autry:

She is going to a great school, and she loves it. She HATES the homework though, and it is taking her and I almost two hours a night to do it. In addition to homework and school, she started back up in acting this week at the South Coast Repertory. She is very happy to be back there. She also practiced her cello and her singing this week. She has recently begun private singing lessons, so she is working hard on that.

Overall I think it was a great week, and I am starting to realize how much I am going to miss these kids in a few weeks.

Autry has been busy crocheting this week. This is her new cat!

Our holiday break ended and school started up immediately(the kids and mine), and I have been busy ever since. I am trying to get in as much homeschooling as I can before I start my student teaching, and I am working hard at getting everything done with my school work, so that I can indeed due my student teaching.

There are so many hoops to jump through to become a teacher in California, and to be honest, I am suprised anyone does it at all. There is the CBEST, CSET, and the RICA. Then there are the TPA tasks. In addition there is all the classes you have to take, the four and a half months of student teaching, and the seminars. Then there is the Constitution class, the CPR class, and the electronic portfolio you have to create. It is so much, but I am happy to say that I am pretty far through that list. I still have to take the RICA, do some of my TPA’s, and do my student teaching, but I feel that at least I am fairly close to my goal. I should have my credential by July, and I will have my masters in January of next year.

Thinking back on everything I have done already I would have to say the CSET was the hardest test I ever had to take. A year ago I was debating going to law school, so I took the LSATs, and I can honestly say this test was harder. Here is a sample question from a CSET practice test I had:

Cell membranes will allow small molecules such as oxygen, water, carbon dioxide, ammonia, glucose,etc. to pass through. But they will not allow larger molecules such as sucrose, starch, protein, etc. to pass through. If an animal or plant cell is placed into a liquid containing water, one of three things will happen. What are they?

That was one of the essay questions in the science area. Here is a math essay question:

The diagram above is a triangular prism. The triangular faces are 10″ at their base and have sides of 13″. Of the three rectangles, two are congruent and have dimensions of 9″ by 13″, while the incongruent rectangle has a dimension of 9″ by 10″. Using your knowledge of algebra and geometry, calculate the volume and surface area of this polyhedron. Explain how you got your answers.

Anyway when I first saw these sample questions I freaked a little, actually a lot. There are three sections to the CSET. There is math and science section, a language arts and history section, and a physical education, human development, and arts section. I actually passed all three sections the first time I took it, and that was because I studied day and night for a month. My results were interesting to me though because they showed that my knowledge is strongest in math, science, and history. The area I performed the weakest? The arts.

For those of you who do not know this, I majored in film in college. Film is a visual art. I found it  interesting that I did  poorly in this area. I always knew that my strengths lie in math and science, but I thought I possessed some artistic knowledge. I find myself questioning that now.

But if I could go back and change my major, would I? Not a chance. In what other major does a twenty year old kid get to intern at Disney and Sony studios. In what other major would I have been able to take classes on the back lot of Universal for a whole summer? What other major would have given me the opportunity to make an animated film and a wonderful murder mystery film. I loved film school from my first class, Film as Language Arts, to my last, which was Film Theory. I may not have an aptitude for the arts, but I do have a passion for it, and I am glad I majored in it.

We went birdwatching yesterday in honor of National Bird Day.

As you know, I will be starting my student teaching in February. While I will be doing this my mom has agreed to stay with the kids during the day, and she will be homeschooling the boys. I have decided that one thing I need to do this month, in order to make her time with the kids easier, is to simplify. I am going to go over all our curriculum (and I hate to admit this, but there is a good deal of it!) and decide what the bear minimum is that I want each child to do each day. Obviously there needs to be math and language arts. I also need to have science and history. I have Latin, and I was going to hold off on it, but I think this will actually be fun for my mom, so I think I will keep that too. The problem is what math, what language arts, what history? I have more than one program per subject that we are working on now, but I think I will have them finish up the year just doing one. I want their days to be short and sweet and easy.

The other thing I need to work on this month is preparing myself (and my kids) for my student teaching. I will be out of the house everyday from seven to five. I will be at a school teaching a student body that is 100% ESL, and I will be doing it for the first time ever. To say I am nervous is an understatement. I am not sure how I will do, and I am worried about it. I am trying just to prepare as best as I can, and I am trying to deal with the stress of it. In addition  I  want to enjoy this time with the kids without constantly worrying about it.

By June it will all be over. I just keep thinking about summer, and I feel if I keep my mind on that, I can get through it.