Monday, November 19, 2012

Our Curriculum Plans

Jennifer asked what I'll be using.  She probably remembers that I used to be a Sonlight user when we homeschooled until 2010.  We won't be using Sonlight this year.  It really is too much stuff and overwhelming.  We want to keep things simple this year so we are doing this:

History:  Medieval times (by student request).  Beautiful Feet medieval history.  This will provide us with a good spine and lots of good reading (not too much).  It has projects to do and links to further learning resources on the internet.  I've also ordered one or two Usborne books to go along with it just for fun.

Science:  Right now we have a science program, but I think it may be a little too hard for Jaedyn to do as an independent study, and her daddy isn't going to have a lot of time to do other stuff.  So this subject is still up in the air.  We may depend on internet sites a lot and let her study stuff she is interested in until we figure it all out.  She has an interest in geology and rocks, so we'll start there.

Math:  The Life of Fred Math.  She will be doing PreAlgebra, but may start earlier just to get the hang of it.  Last week she did the Teaching Textbook tests to see what level she is ready for, and she could do either preAlgebra or 7th grade math.  We didn't try any higher.  Perhaps she could have been ready for Algebra, but again, I don't want any pressure this year.

Home Ec/Art:  She is planning and will prepare Thanksgiving dinner this year.  I will teach her other household skills and her dad will do things with her in the kitchen.  We'll also enroll her in an art class locally if we can find one.

English:  The Beautiful Feet history program will offer suggestions for vocabulary development.  She'll also do some writing projects with her history program.  For grammar I'm looking at "Caught Ya" but I'm not completely sold on it.  Any suggestions you've liked for 7th grade?

Typing:  She is learning to keyboard with Mavis Beacon.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

A very full week

Following another crisis of returning to school, my husband and I decided to make the plunge and take our 13 year old out of school and try to homeschool her again.  This week has been filled with pouring over curriculi, planning and researching, etc. 

My husband was sick at the beginning of the week with what was probably strep throat.  Around Wednesday we got him some antibiotics and he got better quickly.    Until then I was working all day, then coming home and doing what I could to nurse him, help the kids with homework, come up with something to eat, etc.  Thankfully Tim had mad up a lot of left overs that we were able to use up during those days!

About Thursday I started with a little scratchy throat.  Determined to use essential oils and have an experience myself like everyone raves over with the oils, I opted to not use antibiotics or traditional meds.  I drank lemon oil in my water or Slim and Sassy blend.  By Friday night I was shivering with chills in bed with a fever of 102.5.  I was gargling a nasty oregano-lemon mixture, applying eucalyptus and melaleuca to my swollen neck glands, and diffusing different things into the air to breathe.  Peppermint for my fever.  Nothing was working.  I woke up Saturday morning early and my kidneys were inflammed.  Ugh!  I opted to keep doing the oils but also started tylenol and ibuprofen for the fever, now terrible headache and inflammation.  This gave me the added side effect of wet sheets from breaking the fevers, but didn't keep them away for good.  On Saturday my husband picked up a box of more oils I had ordered last weekend and I started the much acclaimed "On Guard".  I continued the nasty gargles of oregano and lemon.  This continued until this morning when I was just getting worse.  I was miserable and aching all over, my throat ached, and I had a fever again of 101.  I called my colleague and, praise God, she was willing to call something for me in to a pharmacy on her day off!  By 1:30 I took my first amoxicillin, and as of about 2 hours ago, I am feeling better than I have all weekend!  I haven't stopped the oils altogether (still using some on my wart, swollen glands and cold sore that is trying to erupt), but have come to the definite conclusion that for me when an antibiotic is known to treat something effectively, why do all the hocus pocus of essential oils?  I could have been better Friday night!

Yesterday I went to a meeting with Ciara regarding a camp for disabled children that we are going to be helping with in two weeks.  Fortunately I was feeling okay enough for that meeting during all my sickness, but went home drained and hit the bed again.  We are looking forward to 3 days of serving in this way.