Clan Morrison Academy Update

I just realized its been almost a year since my last post and I have fallen way behind on it all. Things are going pretty good though. We started back today after almost a month of being off for the holidays. Conor's reading is getting better everyday. Emma can identify all her letters and count to 20. Jordans cursive writing is amazing. I am very proud of all my kids and I am looking forward to getting into more this year as we progress. Today we started the new year off with a worksheet review of the last year.

We are slowly getting through everything and I think by May we'll be done and ready for the new school year. I have lots of ideas on things I want to do with the kids and some specific books I want Jordan to read. All in all I am very happy with all the progress everyone is making.

Fun with Science!

Today in our science portion of school we made Lava Lamps. No not real electric ones. We took vinegar, oil, food coloring and alka-seltzer to create them. The kids had fun and it was a great project out of our chemistry book. We are using Apologia for science this year and so far I am really liking it. Here are a few photos of how we made them.

Our ingredients. 

Jordan prepping his.

Conor starting his.

Me helping Emma.

Adding the food coloring.

Watching the food coloring settle.

After we added the alka-seltzer.

Finished products!

Just A Little Update

Its been awhile since I posted here so here's a small update.

With my husbands blessing we are back to homeschooling. He dictated some guidelines and conditions and we have been sticking to them. The kids are learning although sometimes it seems like a slow process.

The line-up this year is great. My oldest expressed that he was bored with American history and quite frankly I was too, so we have moved into Ancient History. The curriculum I chose is from Veritas Press, its different from what I am used to, very few worksheets, mostly reading and reciting back. It starts with creation and moves through the Bible ending with the fall of Egypt to Rome. I am very excited and I have several supplemental books as well as documentaries on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. It looks like it will be lots of fun. We also changed up our science and went back to anatomy, which I already had from SonLight a few years ago. Jordan is a little older so he understands it better. I have been incorporating Conor my almost 6 year old into these lessons as well. For math we stuck with Bob Jones. I also discovered that Netflix has The Magic School Bus for a science supplement and so far the kids love it. Emma is very eager to learn and is always right there when we are reading or watching something.

We start off our days with a Bible lesson. Right now we are learning character traits, today's was arguing. It was neat to read about Joseph and his brothers and how they sold him. We also got off talking about Moses again which led to Youtube and clips from The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston. We then started talking about the other movies hes been in which led to Ben-Hur. We watched a few clips there too, including my favorites: the chariot race, ramming speed and the scene where Jesus gives him water in the desert. I found that I can buy Ben-Hur on Amazon Prime for $2, so I'm thinking that will be something to do soon. These kinds of lessons and discussions are the things I live for. After Bible lesson its time to start school. We generally get done around noon or 1 p.m. Then its chores and free time.

The past few weeks have been bumpy and Ive had days where I literally want to give up and send them back to public school. But then I think about days like today where we were able to talk about and see something so cool. Its times like this that make the days worth continuing.

A Time of Change

 

As most of you know I have been homeschooling the kids for about 2 years now. I have greatly enjoyed it and although I had bad days the good always outweighed those days. I have really enjoyed having the kids all together. Watching them learn, play and just be together.

Without going into too much detail, the decision has been made to put the older kids in public school. I have to admit that I am not very excited about this at all. I am however trying very hard to be positive about all of this. I believe that God has called me to be a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom. I have to pray that if this is true then their public school visit wont be long. However, I am open to the possibility that this is not the case and they will be okay in public school.

In the mean time I will be home with just Emma for the first time ever. My plan is to homeschool her. Preschool obviously as she is only about to turn 3. Im hoping that if I can prove to my husband and I can effectively homeschool her then I really can do it with the boys.

I am praying that Gods will be done. That if public school is where He wants them then so be it. But if they arent thriving then hopefully I will be able to bring them home and teach them.

Please pray for my family as we embark on this journey. I will certainly need it, as will my boys!

Wireless Wednesdays

 Right now we are on summer break. My original plan was to start back to school in mid-July but there's still a lot going on with getting settled so I decided that an August 1st date sounded better. In the mean time we are messing around and hanging out together as much as we can.

With that in mind I have decided to try to implement a theme for Wednesdays. I'm going to call in "Wireless Wednesdays." For some of you this notion of never being "attached" to something may not be foreign but around here where we have 2 iPods, an iPad, a kindle, 2 computers, two Xbox's, a Wii, a super Nintendo, an original Nintendo, a PS2, a Nintendo 64, a gamecube, an original xbox, 2 dvd players and 5 TVs, we seem to never be away from an electronic device. I am just as bad with my iPad which I love. So I was thinking that it would be beneficial not just to me but to the kids to not have any of those devices turned on.

We are going to be implementing starting tomorrow. I am excited and nervous. Its not like there's nothing to do here. We live in a small enough town that I can go walking and take beautiful pictures, we have a big back yard with tons of room to play and we are about 2 miles from the lake and a beach where we could swim. I have no excuse other than pure laziness. I get all kinds of stuff done during the day yet there are days where I don't even realize the TV had been on all day or the kids have been watching videos for hours.

When I was a teenager I loved to read. I read mostly true crime books about serial killers ( I know how that sounds) which I still like to read. It seems like ever since I had Jordan that I'm just too tired or distracted to even try to start let alone finish a book. Now that I have the other two its just easier to sit and play games on my iPad than attempt to read, not to mention I need glasses. But I WANT to read. I have 10 or so books sitting by my bed waiting and don't even get me started on the list of books for the kids to read.

So Ill be posting in the next few days updating (for those interested) on this new experiment. I'm going to start with Wednesdays and go from there.

Changes

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” -George Bernard Shaw


We started our school year February 18th. I bought all the curriculum from Bibliomania this year. I decided to go with Lifepac. About a week into it Jordan tells me he doesnt like the English or the math that came in the Lifepac series. So we changed. I went back to Bibliomania and purchased Bob Jones Math 5 and English 5.

So we're back on track so to speak. I plan on supplementing history with documentaries as soon as we get our router back online. In the mean time we're using other things to "bulk" up our day. But this is whats nice about homeschooling. I have the ability to change whats not right for us. Jordan likes the Bob Jones math better because its a little more detailed and I like the Bob Jones English because the teachers guide gives me a better layout and I feel like I am actually teaching him.

As I have it planned now our last day of school will be December 13th. Then I guess we'll just take the rest of the month off and start again after the first of the year. I like homeschooling year round because I feel Jordan retains more. Conor is continuing ABCmouse.com and hes actually doing quite well. Emma likes to "do school" too as I also have her doing ABCmouse.

Change is hard for me depending on the situation. Im glad I have the choice to make changes as I see fit.

Its a New Year!

Clan Morrison Academy

Its a new year here at Clan Morrison Academy. I decided to go with Lifepac curriculum this year because it is a little more structured than we have previously done and I think we need that for now. I manged to get all I need for the year for half of what I had budgeted! I am excited.

Conor will be starting this year as well. Im going to put him on ABC Mouse. A learning website that tracks progress. He seems to like to work on the computer so I think this will be a great tool for him to learn on.

Emma and I will take time reading and working on the iPad. She's already very smart and picks up things easily so Im looking forward to working with her.

All in all I think it will be a good year. Im also looking forward to taking lots of field trips. We joined a homeschool group and I think that will also enrich our year.

Heres to the new school year!