Homeschool Bowling is a HIT!!!

Well, today was our first homeschool bowling day. It was so much fun! I didn't get to bowl of course but I got to help the boys and it was so much fun. I wish I would have remembered the camera; oh well. I did take a few pictures with my phone but I'm not sure how good they will be but I will post them later when I figure out how to get them off my phone (whole new world...lol).

D couldn't really get the ball down the lane...well, that isn't true, he could it just took forever. So, they let him use the ramp (really cool thing that you push the ball down) which help a lot. His first game he scored a 51 and the second game he got 79. J did much better; he bowled on his own with little pointers here and there. On his first game he did a 75 and on the second he got a 67. Not bad at all for their first time really bowling (granted they did have the bumper lanes).

We also found something to do on the Wednesdays J has Science; we can play bowling at $2.50 per person per game or we can take a 15 minute drive to the museums in Tacoma. I couldn't believe it today when I tried the route to downtown from the bowling place...it only took 10 minutes to get to the Glass Museum. That is so great since we have about 3 hours to kill 2 times a month.

I'm so happy how things are working out....now if we could just get up on time in the mornings we would be perfect (well as close as one can get...lol)

YMCA, bowling league, and other fun stuf

I thought I should write a general post about some of the things we do since a lot of people I have talked to seem not to know about them.

Group Games and PE
YMCA - Morgan Family Center
1002 South Pearl St.Tacoma, WA 98465
$30/month membership for youths and with the membership includes PE classes, Creative Movement Classes, Gymnastics, Swimming, Group Sports (current is basketball), and Karate Classes.

This is our second session at this Y and we love it!!! The kids get love all the classes they can take and I love the price!

Cheap Movies
Gateway Movies
82501 S. Gateway Center
Federal Way, WA 98003
All movies are $2 except on Tuesdays when it is $1

The movies are cheap but the concession stand is full price ($3.75 for large coke). We like this theater since few people seem to know about it and we have the theater to ourselves most of the time (3 to 5 others at the movie with us). Granted these movies are just about on DVD or just came our on DVD.

Homeschool bowling
Narrows Plaza Bowl
2200 Mildred Street
University Place, WA

Practice is at 10:45.am and league begins at 11 .am.Two games per week for bumper league costs $5.75 per week.Three games a week for older children costs $6.50 per week.This includes shoe rentala certificate of completion that lists hours attended and completion of physical education coursean end of class bowling partyThis is a great place for children to meet new friends, develop bowling skills and have fun. It is a great place for parents to either bowl or socialize with other homeschool mothers/fathers.If you are interested please contact for further information or to registerLee Greenfield 253-565-1007 ext

We have just signed up for this class and will review it as the weeks go on.

Budding Scientists
Adriana Hess Audubon Center
2917 Morrison Rd. W
University Place, WA 98466
Ages 5-7, $8 per child, 10:30 am - noon or 3:15 pm - 4:45
Young homeschoolers and other children begin science and nature exploration through games, walks and crafts. Register at least two days prior to the session. They also offer homeschool science for older kids; done through Tacoma Metro Parks

My oldest has been taking these classes since he was 5yrs old (currently 7) and loves them. He doesn’t like to miss a single one and wishes they happened more often. He isn’t looking forward to next year when he moves up to the Homeschool Science since it is only once a month (but for a longer time).

***I have started to post all the things I'm aware of to do at the Jordyblue blog. As we do different things I will be review them on the Jordyblue blog also***

Schedule changes...lol...again

It changes by the day around here. The boys expressed an interest in bowling recently and my hubby suggested I find a place for them to bowl. I started to setup a homeschool bowling day when I found out there already was one. The only issue is the bowling league is the same time as science. I went over today and found out there is an opening and signed up both boys. Then I remembered the science issues (and why we couldn’t start today…lol). I was thinking D would do it every Wednesday and J would do it on his off days but that seems a bit unfair. Well, I talked to the science teacher and we could most likely get Jordan moved to the afternoon class instead that way he could do bowling every Wednesday morning. So, I think I might do that.

Oh, talking about science class, the reason I didn’t get a call when class was canceled was “J doesn’t show as enrolled in that class”. This is the same reason I wasn’t called when they rescheduled the class for last week. Now, I have to call to switch classes and show we did pay for the class he didn’t get to take which shouldn’t be too hard since I have the recipe.

If am able to get J changed to the afternoon class we will now be spending days as follows:

Mondays – Tacoma Museums or Movies

Tuesdays – YMCA

Wednesdays – Bowling and Budding Science

Thursdays – YMCA or Earth Scouts

Fridays – Lego Club or Museums or Movies

Not too bad but I will need to find something to do for a few hours on Wednesdays unless we want to come home for an hour and go back out there. I have done that before and it isn’t all that fun but then again if you can’t find something to do…

I guess tomorrow before the Y I should call and change J’s classes…I will talk to him some more tonight to make sure he is ok with that.

Monthly Review - Jan 2008

Language Art - Satisfactory
J continues to excel in Language Arts; during this review period we covered the Lion, Witch and a Wardrobe on Beyond Books. This included doing writing on what Plutoians and humans look like to each other. J did a very good job with this assignment but did not really enjoy it. We started Bridge to Tarabithia (next book for Beyond Books), J quickly became bored with the story and we decided against continuing the book (we have put Beyond Books on hold for now). In his Calvert studies J has done comprehension questions, plurals with ies, es, s, using pronouns, four compositions and six spelling tests on which he missed a total of 6 words out of 60 words (because, school, flew, should, orange and morning). J can now spell these words correctly most of the time (he still has issues with should). He started to show boredom and distraction again by making silly mistakes on things like forgetting to do questions, leaving name and date off papers, indenting, etc. so we changed our days around a bit. Everyday we start the day the same, then subjects are done differently daily (instead of always starting with math each day is different), after lunch is active activities. J's overall grade in this subject is currently an average of 96%.

Technology - Satisfactory
J continues to use his computer on a regular basis. He is still slow and hesitant to type much of anything but last week he started typing his Weekly Contacts himself. J started typing some of his school work and posting them on his blog. We are still looking into typing programs to help him in this area. J is currently averaging a 96% in this subject.

Fine Art - Satisfactory
We are still working on the picture Pinkie by Lawrence; during this period we have done two drawings to go with it called (a colorful bird and wrapping paper). The poems we covered were "Hiawatha's Brothers", "The Purple Cow", "A Centipede Was Happy Quite", "Block City", Things I Like to Do, "The Land of Story-Books", "City Rain", "The Rain", and "Who Likes the Rain?” J enjoyed the poems about the rain the most since we get so much rain here. We received our Discoveries in Music this period and have started working on it also. We have cover two lessons so far (strings and percussion); we love this part of our school day. We highly encourage music and recently got a full drum set and mic to help encourage J in his music; he has been having a blast and learning so much. We have not used the Music Appreciation through ClassTool yet and will be waiting a bit longer; don’t want to overload him. J's overall average in this subject is 99%.

Math - Satisfactory
J has been learning adding and subtracting using regrouping. He finds this very easy and has a hard time understanding why it is important to show your work (he looks at the problem and just knows the answer). We have been working on taking the time to show how you got your answer; he is starting to understand this is for the future and is just a good habit to have. J has also continued to do his Perplexors, CodeBreakers, and Deducibles; along with playing online math/logic games. J really enjoys math. His overall average in this subject is 96%.

Science - Satisfactory
J has continued to take nature science every other week and is still really enjoying while learning a lot. He has become reenergized with the Calvert Science since we are covering the night sky and sound with hands on activities. J loves to look and learn about the night sky; he also loves to have reason to play with the musical instruments (not that he needs one). After we finished the Chemistry on Beyond Books J informed me he was not ready or quite interested in covering science on that level yet. He is more interested with having hands on experiments. Most of the Calvert material is things we have covered before, given this we will continue with it and adding many hands on experiments to reinforce the concepts instead of using Beyond Books. J is currently averaging 95% in this subject.

Social Studies - Satisfactory
J really enjoys his social studies lessons; we have been learning about Indians and the War of 1812, Custer's Last Stand, how to making tepees, slavery and abolition, the red cross, Biology, Medicine, and Mathematics. He loves learning about our country’s past and how it became what it is today. J has also learned about elections and what is currently happening. He is very interested in the presidential election and asks questions often about different topics. It is wonderful to see his enthusiasm for politics. J is currently averaging 94% in this area.

PE/Health - Satisfactory
J did a wonderful job in his YMCA classes last session. This session starts Feb 19th and he will be taking PE, Gymnastics, Basketball and Swimming. He is looking forward to starting the new session since last session was so much fun. J is currently averaging 96% in this subject.

Oh, how we love Calvert....

Have I said recently how much we love Calvert? I know that sounds funny but I truly love their material. The boys and I are interested in most of the subjects and even the ones that we (J and I mostly) find too easy are still fun enough that we get through them quickly. Today I ordered D the PreK material; I understand he is only 3 but he loves to sit in on J’s stuff and do as much as he can. He even gets upset if he can’t do some of it. This is why I decided to get the PreK for him; he should be able to do most of it with some help if not on his own and he would be so happy. I find it amazing how much he wants to be just like J including being able to do “school work”.

From lonely to busy and loving it

I’m amazed…I went from feeling the kids were lacking in activities to being gone most of the time. Over February it has been hard adjusting to the new “school” schedule; it was harder on me than the kids. I guess it was really January since today is only the 7^th of February. Most of my issue has been entirely my fault for not paying attention when registering the kids for YMCA classes. We had to register at late registration since we became members after normal registration was over with. I wanted certain things for the kids and when I couldn’t get them into the classes I had wanted for them I took whatever I could get.

Bad move…we have been at it for about a month now and it has been a long month. Every Tuesday and Thursday we go to D’s class where I have to participate with him while J sits and watches (normally he listens to books on CD), then we have 2 hours before the next class (which is just enough time to drive home, sit for an hour, if we are lucky and drive back) which is J’s 2 classes then we have another 1.5 hours before the next class for J. That is about 6 to 7 hours at the Y with a lot of time to kill. If the Y was closer to the house then it wouldn’t be so bad but it is a good 30 to 45 minute drive each way and we haven’t found anything around the YMCA to do for free in the cold wet weather.

The boys LOVE the YMCA so we have to continue and the one closer to us doesn’t offer the things we want (whole different issue that I have already vented about); we are changing how we do things and with any luck it will work out for the best. We will still spend 5 hours 2x a week at the Y but at least both boys will have classes and we will only have an hour each to kill (one hour for D to wait and one hour for J to wait), except Tuesdays when D has 2 hours to kill but that is ok we will find something to do (maybe even his new Calvert stuff if it is here by then).

When looking at our current schedule I start to wonder, “Do we really homeschool?” Everyday we get up eat and get ready for the day. Then from 8am until noon we do our Calvert material (J is doing 2^nd grade and D is starting PreK) and whatever we don’t get done by noon is homework. Noon is lunch time and after lunch we start getting ready for that day’s events; each day is different.

Mondays – Tacoma museums and bowling

Tuesdays – YMCA

Wednesdays – Budding Science, Free Day or Movie Day

Thursdays – YMCA or Earth Scouts

Fridays – Lego Club or Museums

We normally try to make it home by 5pm to start dinner and homework, while I cook the kids do their homework; if they don’t have any they are free to go play or hang out with Dad. When dinner is over, we have family music time, and then it is time to get the kids ready for bed.

When I look at this I see we are as busy as or busier than most families that have two working parents and children in normal public school (I say normal since my oldest is a public school student at home; times they change). We seem to never been home and it has improved everyone’s attitude and outlook on life. We are all happier and the boys even get along much better (not bored anymore). Now if we can just keep it up and it keep us happy.

Budding Science

We normally love these classes but yesterday we drove all the way out there (we live a good 30 to 45 mins away) to find out the class was canceled. What kills me is they didn't even call to tell anyone. How do I know; because my number is the only one on file for our house and there was NOTHING on my phone from there (not even a missed call)!

I don't think this was a good example for the kids in this class. I can't speak for the others but it killed J's day. He looks so forward to that class; he was crushed when we got there and found out that the class was canceled. Worse for him, we heard that they want to reschedule the class for next week, but he already has plans for that day.

The whole thing was just really uncool how they handled it.

Discoveries in Music

We got our Discoveries in Music yesterday. My hubby didn't let it sit long before he had the kids downstairs playing with it all. They were having so much fun. Today we watched the first lesson on the DVD and the kids seemed to love it. I think we will watch it again tonight as a family before we do our family music time. I think this is going to be a lot of fun; we just started a family music time last night and it was a blast. This weekend we are going to go look at drums, keyboard stand and mics; we might even get a few things.

We definally want to encourage the kids as much as possible when it comes to music. My hubby wants to get software that does mixing and burning so that we can record, mix and burn cds which would really encourage the kids to play. I think it would be great to be able to do such a thing. If we do get that software maybe we will offer to do a music club or something for our homeschool co-op. That would be a total blast!

Anyways, I should get this paperwork off to the school and go cook, clean, and other unfun things of the sort.