Countdown

WoW, another week has passed us by and now we’re officially down to 1 week before our family holiday for our 20th wedding anniversary on the 31st October. We are really looking forward to our break and are counting the days…

This has been another eventful week, starting off with a sick teenager having thrown up most of Sunday night & sleeping through most of Monday morning. He seemed to have picked up some stomach bug, but fortunately by Monday afternoon he was looking and feeling much better.

Hubby has offered to help some friends by letting them come to us for “school” using Jesse’s Switched on Schoolhouse Curriculum. On Monday & Wednesday we had the 2 boys over to join our boys for some learning fun. It was great to see them working along. It seems they’re loving this approach to learning and I’m happy that their enthusiasm is also motivating Misha to wanting to learn some more.

I received the 2012 & 2013 Adventure catalogue from JM Cremp’s in the mail this week and boy oh boy did this spark the boys’ interest.  It’s packed with some great gift ideas for boys. Misha’s been fetching it on a regular basis and has even been reading the descriptions of the items. I’m amazed at how his reading has improved since I’ve stopped all formal reading lessons last year.

Jesse’s Alpha Omega Academy is still going strong. I’m impressed at how much his grades have improved. I’ve always known that he was capable of distinctions, although at school his highest scores ranged in the low 70% because for him school was boring. His attitude towards learning has also changed dramatically. I’ve even found him starting his schoolwork long before his scheduled 4pm starting time. At this stage he’s halfway through his 1st semester with an average total score of 92%, all because we were able to give him the type of curriculum he asked for. I’m so happy to have found a curriculum that works for him.

Last week he seemed quite impressed at his English teacher sending him a message just to tell him that he did well in his project. He seemed quite impressed since he thought the message in his mailbox meant he had done something wrong. That’s something that’s been sadly lacking during their time at school. He was so tired of hearing teachers tell him he could do better instead of being acknowledged for what he did achieve, that he made no effort do up his grades.

I must admit, I’m quite impressed with our current setup. It’s no-stress for me, since he has allocated teachers for each of his subjects. His work is 80% auto graded and the 20% that I would have needed to grade is graded by qualified teachers within 24 to 48 hours after submission. I think Jesse has the best of both worlds here. The freedom and flexibility of being able to study when & where he feels comfortable seem to be making all the difference.

 I m still waiting for Jesse’s friend’s dad to confirm when he’ll be able to help Misha complete his cheetah painting, but this week I found he’d started out something all by himself. Unfortunately he ran out of some colours and stopped. For the time being, I’ll just make sure he has canvases and his paints are stocked. I may just have found and inexpensive art school in Cresta that could help us with singing, drum and painting lessons next year.

Today I took the boys to Loraine’s home for their guitar lessons. They have already advanced to Session 8. At the rate they’re going through this homeschool curriculum, they might still manage to finish the first year of the curriculum. I’m happy to see that they’re still enjoying it.

Misha was fetched early to go bumper car riding at Northgate. After guitar I took Jesse through to Northriding for his Junior Engineering lesson. Whilst they were busy I went to visit a friend in the area for coffee. I found him still sitting on the floor with his creation when I returned at 2pm. Misha had already left JEFA with his friends by the time I got there. I got to spend a few quiet hours at home before having to fetch Misha from his friend at 5h30. Except for having Gerhard & Keanan over for “school”and guitar lessons, next week should be a fairly quiet one. Of course I’ll need to start preparations for our holiday.

SA Home Schooling Blog Carnival ~ October 2012 Changing Curriculum

Calling all Homeschool Bloggers: I'm scheduled to host the October 2012 SACHS Blog Carnival which is due to go live on 29th October. This month we focus on the topic of "Changing Curriculum". All children have different learning styles resulting in curricula purchased that may not work for all children in a family. Many of us have found fitting curricula through trial and error. With this post we'll looking how other families have dealt with non-fitting curricula & adapted or changed it to fit their situation. Please email a) the exact URL of the blog post you are contributing b) its title and c) a brief description of your blog post to trixishomeed@live.com by 26th October.