Help for Home High School

Instead of focusing on the home high school seminar manual that I'm supposed to be working on...I'm listening to Lee Binz on Blog Talk Radio.

Are ya'll like me? When you are having an issue with something, you avoid it by reading and listening to more stuff about it, hoping to hear or see the magic thing that will turn a lightbulb on? Probably not.

I Am Not Ashamed (for you to see this mess)

When homeschooling fails, it's far more often due to issues with organization and discipline than it is to academics. ~Sheila Wray Gregoire

That one sentence is probably what prompted me, more than anything else to decide to limit my blogging activity. Since I quit blogging, this is only the second post that I've written. :-p Since then, I have unsubscribed from a handful of blogs and dozens of email newsletters. I was easily getting a hundred emails a day, most of them newsletters and updates. I felt like I needed to check email every 15 minutes, lest something actually go unread, or at least, undeleted.

I am unorgaized because I just don't do it. Let's just say that I am occupied otherwise. We have been doing school in the dining room because we can hardly get into the school room.

I started cleaning it last night. Really cleaning it. We need a better system for getting books and notebooks out and replacing them. I sat down and started making a list of what we needed to make the school room more efficient. In reality, new Rubbermaid bins and drawers are not going to help. Sure, they might look cool. And for one day, the room might appear more organized and be more efficient.

The truth is that organization and efficiency are by-products of the fruit of the Spirit, self- control.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

One of the biggest issues in the school room was loose paper. I had this stack on the table that I would sort and restack. Over and over. The definition of insanity, right? I also had several notebooks filled with things I printed off the internet over the last 8 years. I guess when I first got online, I thought the internet would shut down, or something, because I printed nearly everything I liked. Have I looked at any of it recently? No. Thus began the Great Paper Purge of 2009. I did come across a set of papers that I had printed out and even started. It was the Clean Heart, Clean Home Challenge. 


See, the problem is a lack of self-control on my part, which the boys have perfected. All this mess is a heart issue. I would rather ignore needs to cater to temporary wants. The ramifications of my choices...let's just say they are far reaching and I end up yelling at people to clean up.

I am going to start the Clean Heaart, Clean Home Challenge again. I may or may not keep you updated. Ideally, I would have a set time for blogging and other internet usage, but I know myself well, and it may very well take the whole 52 weeks of the challenge to get it together.

Amy V's blog, for more great stuff to motivate you to become a better woman.

Evaluating Math Textbooks

No, I have not given up not blogging. Remember that I said I was going to post occasional relevant homeschool information? That's what this is.

I am having another math crisis with N. I bought Jacob's Algebra for him for 9th grade. I went with Jacob's for two reasons. The first reason is that I wanted him to take the two classes he would be taking in 9th grade at the same place. As opposed to this year, where he takes speech at one place and math at another. It ruins two days for us. OK, not ruins, but slows momentum down significantly. The second reason was that I read all these reviews that basically said, "If your child has trouble understanding Saxon, he'll do great with Jacob's." I was sold.

Turns out the debate class that he wanted to take is not going to be offered. And eventually, he'll have to move to Saxon anyway, since Jacob's only has Elementary Algebra and Geometry, no Algebra 2.

The last two math tests that he's done using Saxon in a once a week class, have been 90 and 85 percent. First time. No corrections. I think that shows that the class situation is working out for him.

The place he takes math at is opening a new campus that will be a bit closer to home. I'm seriously considering changing his math for next year back to Saxon and sticking with the once a week program we are currently in.

I borrowed a Saxon Algbera text and thought I'd sit down today and compare the two books. Only thing is, I don't have a clue what I'm looking for or at. What to do? Google it, of course.

I found this site with a list of what to look for in a math text.
Also this site which appears to be very in depth.

As a total non-math person, I got lost on page two of the second link
And according to the 10 criteria on Dr. Callahan's site, the texts are pretty much the same. There are two differences between these two texts.

• Saxon uses a spiral approach and Jacob's uses more of a mastery approach. 
• Jacob's also has some (real, not "math") cartoons that are relevant to the chapter. It's cute. Will they distract him in class? Does the teacher use them? 

In the end, since he is going to be taking math classes from here on out, I guess I need to evaluate the classes, rather than the books. That was a real help to those of you who got here by searching for information on how to evaluate math books, huh? I apologize.

Some review sites that I frequent are:
The Old Schoolhouse Reviews
Homeschool Reviews
Discussions on The Well Trained Mind forums

Notice

I just wanted to let all 6 of my faithful readers know that I will no longer be updating this blog. From here on out, it will strictly be a homeschool information blog. I will update it occasionally, but not with any personal information. How boring, right? I'm sorry. I know each and everyone of you have this internal struggle as well. Blogging is a release and it's self-expression, but can be such a time consumer. You know you are in serious blogging trouble when you only take pictures for your blog.
I will still be around, reading and commenting on your blogs, and if you really need to talk to me you can email me at hsplanners at gmail cot com. Or you can befriend me on Facebook, leave a note though, cause if I don't recognize you I won't accept. Christy Green Bryson is how you find me on FB.

TOG Workbooks

Inspired by this TOG Blogger, I have decided to try my hand at making workbooks for Tapestry Of Grace. I am making one per unit.

The Grammar books for unit one of year one are 64 pages long. I used #24 white paper for worksheets ($1.10 per book) and pastel blue paper for the planner pages (.14 per book). I took them to Office Depot for spiral binding and covers ($4 each book). I print them on the ink saver feature on my ink jet printer, no idea how much that costs. They cost me about $5.24 each. I spent one whole day going through the first unit writing down what would be needed for each "thread." That's what they call each subject in TOG :-) Then I spent about 8 hours total printing everything out.

The cover:

The books are set up by week. Each week has the following pages and there are 9 weeks in a unit:

Throughout the book are weekly planner pages:

Reading and Writing Assignments that I typed out:

Even/Person/Culture Response sheets to be filled out after reading:

Writing assignment talking points, printed out from the Writing Aids CD:

Then any graphic organizers they will need for prewriting.
They will be doing their actual writing in composition books. They like the wider lines, and I like the fact that no pages can fall out or are easily torn out.

Bible Survey Questions, copied and pasted from The Loom. When you purchase TOG, you get a CD called The Loom. It has all the printables for that year plan, plus other useful resources.

Literature worksheet, printed from The Loom.

Geography assignment, copied and pasted from The Loom.

Map printed from Map Aids.

Hands-on Activities copied and pasted from The Loom.

The rhetoric workbook is 110 pages long. The literature selections and the corresponding assignments are top notch and more than I ever did in high school. They remind me of my college level lit class. The cost of the rhetoric book is $7.56, it cost more to bind because it is thicker.

The Cover:

Planner Page: I am hoping by not putting things in "day order," and giving check boxes that the boys will not be overwhelmed. I am probably fooling myself. 

Reading and Writing Assignments, that I typed out:

Writing assignment talking points, printed from Writing Aids:

Graphic organizers, printed from Writing Aids:

Charts, printed from the Loom:

Accountability and Thinking Questions, copied and pasted from The Loom:

Bible Survey questions, copied and pasted from The Loom:

Timeline, printed from The Loom:

Government questions, copied and pasted from The Loom:

Geography assignment, copied and pasted, or printed from The Loom:

Map, printed from Map Aids:

Literature worksheet/chart and or questions, copied and pasted or printed from The Loom:

Fine Arts Activities, copied and pasted from The Loom:

I am doing this one unit at a time, in order to tweak as necessary through the year. That way, if one of the boys needs to move up or down in level, I won't have to trash a whole book.

A word on copying and pasting from PDF format.; After you highlight the part you want to copy, press the CTRL key and "c". Then you can right-click paste in the word processing document, or wherever you are copying to. You may have to reformat it, with numbering or bullet points, I did.

The clip art on the covers is from Microsoft Word.