Junior Year Belated Update

Oops, once I started Fast Times this blog sort of fell by the wayside. It’s not Fast Times’ fault, it’s a really busy schedule’s fault. Michelle is busy.


She’s working two days a week at Burrito Brothers (order some frozen burritos to be shipped to you, tell them Michelle sent you!). She goes to the community college, five days a week. She’s never there more than a few hours a day but that takes a lot out of a girl (and her moms).


Here’s what she is taking:

English Composition

American History

Art Fundamentals

Intermediate Algebra

She’s still working on that blasted FLVS SAT prep course. She’s in the last module which is full of practice tests and essay writing and she’s grumbling her way through every step of it.


Once the SAT prep course is finished, she’ll be back here with updates about homeschool and dual enrollment classes on a regular basis. Probably not daily, but often. Particularly to share book reviews. (I’ll get her reading list for the year posted in just a second, so you can follow along.)


Technorati Tags: homeschool, junior, highschool, dualenrollment

Some long overdue updates

Let’s see…. Michelle is reading Sense & Sensiblity for that SAT Prep class through FLVS. She’s hating it. I believe she had to read the first chapter three times in order to sort out who was who. She was on chapter 4, on Thursday. She’s probably still on chapter 4.



Michelle went to “school” on Thursday and I will be blogging about that, very soon. It made me nervous. It’s making me a little nervous for the fall.


Speaking of the fall, she goes into the college in 2 weeks to choose her classes and get her ID.


And speaking of blogging, I will be blogging about homeschooling Michelle at a brand new blog, Fast Times @ Homeschool High. Be sure to bookmark it or add it to your feedreaders. Michelle (and I) will be blogging here together, as usual, in the fall – or whenever something interesting happens. I’m sure she will blog about Jane Austen, SAT stuff and Michelle Tea’s “Rose” before school starts in August. So don’t ditch this blog, :-).


Happy Summer!

Consider Homeschooling?

Mary Tsao has blogged about homeschooling over on Blogher. Anyone interested in commenting? (Either about her links or her post itself?) I certainly hope you comment…. you do have to register (it’s free) to comment but it is worth it, right? 😉


Technorati Tags: homeschooling, blogher, homeschoolcarnival

End of the year update…

Last weekend was the second anniversary of our decision to pull Michelle out of public school in favor of homeschooling which then turned into a combination of homeschool and school at home.  The only reason I know that it was the second anniversary is because it was the local homeschool faire.  We missed it this year because we were at RJ’s synchronized swimming meet.  I was a wee bit sad that we missed the faire but it was ok because there’s nothing we need in the way of curriculumn for next year anyway.  A combination of homeschool and dual enrollment at the community college is ahead and we’re all set with that. 

Michelle finished Geometry 1 and Spanish 2 last month – weeks ahead of schedule and she’s been sitting here with just the Chemistry final in front of her for almost a month.  We’re procrastinating that in hopes of getting a better handle on one module that was difficult for her.  She’s going to take the exam this week because she wants the 20 points of extra credit promised to those who finish before their 16 weeks in the class are up.  I’m not big on grades but they still mean something to her. 

At that point we could take her portfolio in for review and she could be considered a 10th grade graduate but I’m holding off – she’s got 3 books to read, a paper to write and 2 modules of language arts to complete before I’ll consider her really finished with the year.  We’re about to start work on a big project related to her kitchen explorations too – oops, I just ruined the surprise for her by posting this.  Ah well, I’m not good with surprises and she knows that.  😉

This summer she’s taking an SAT testing prep class.  I registered her because I worry that she may have poor testing skills, like both her brother and sister, even though her scores have never indicated she does.  I also worry because she puts a lot of pressure on herself in testing situations so the more prepared she feels, the better for her – emotionally.  And of course there’s the whole lack of "real testing" for the last two years.  We haven’t participated in the FCATS and the FLVS testing seems too much like her normal school work because it’s all done in the same sort of environment as the everyday coursework and mini tests/quizzes.  I haven’t assigned any real testing since we fiddled with some test booklets that first summer and I was trying to figure out exactly what she knew and didn’t.  So… this test prep course is going to reassure us both, I think – hope. 

It’s been a relaxed year – even with some struggles in Geometry and more struggles with Chemistry.  Her FLVS grades stayed solid.  Her dual enrollment testing went very well.  She’s read a lot of books and expanded her horizons in quite a few areas.  I wonder what next year will bring.

Technorati Tags: homeschool, endofyear, 10thgrade, portfolioreview, SATprep

Fundraising?

One of the really nice things about homeschooling Michelle has been the lack of fundraisers.   We go to Barnes & Noble once a year and buy books during the FLVS promo and our purchases provide a small bit of funding.  Other than that, no fundraising at all.  But look at us now, we’re encouraging you to renew your magazine subscriptions or order a new magazine subscription in support of FLVS! 

We don’t have to do this but because this online program HAS really been helpful to Michelle’s education over the last couple of years we’re willing to ask you to fork out the dough!

Technorati Tags: flvs, schoolathome, magazines, magazinesubscriptions, fundraising

Meal Planning Redux

We made it through week one with just a few bumps in the road.  $30 over budget.  Tons of food in the fridge and cabinets because we over-estimated our food needs.  And of course we didn’t properly plan for weekend "Michelle excursions" when she wasn’t home to cook or eat (which means her moms did not eat according to the pre-planned menu). 

For the week ahead, we have to plan differently taking care to plan for the following issues: Wednesday Michelle starts a sewing class, 6-8pm and we don’t get TW home from work til 5.  So something quick and easy is called for.  Friday – Sunday we have little kids to plan for.  Three meals plus snacks and believe me they won’t skip a meal because they didn’t have breakfast til 12:30!.

Here’s the menu we attempted to stick to last week:

Tuesday
B – Eggs, Toast, Juice
L – Cheese quesadillas, chips, salsa
D – Leftovers that were already in the fridge
S – Cheese nips and apples

Wednesday
B – Oatmeal and banana
L – grilled cheese w/tomatos and carrot sticks
D – Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
S – cookies (baked from school band sale cookie dough), oranges

Thursday
B – Banana rolled in peanut butter and cereal
L – Leftover spaghetti
D – Veggie Burgers & fries
S – BLT dip and crackers

Friday
B – Cinnamon Rolls, banana
L – Taco salad
D – pizza (Boboli crusts)
S – Deviled Eggs, oranges

Saturday
B – Apple Fluff Pancakes
L – Grilled cheese w/tomatoes and apples
D – Veggie Lasagna, salad
S – Banana Bread

Sunday
B – Banana bread, oatmeal
L – Leftover lasagna
D –   Chicken w/dumplings, green beans
S – veggies, dip, oranges

Monday
B – French toast, oranges
L – leftover chicken & dumplings
D – Veggie stirfry w/rice
S – chips & Salsa

Due to the weekend excursion, we never made it to the stirfry so I am expecting this will be tomorrow’s meal, though Michelle seems inclined to choose recipes from Francesca Lia Block’s books (which is scaring the little kids – apparently pink mac & cheese does not sound good to them).  She used recipes from her Teens Cook book that TW bought her for Christmas a couple of years ago.  She was pleased with the bacon dip, but it needed more bacon.  The veggie lasagna had no red sauce and was surprisingly good.  The chicken & dumplings (moved to tonight) were a hit with the little kids but not with Michelle (TW and I did not eat those – vegetarians that we are).   The apple pancakes were a hit with everyone and should stay on our regular recipe list.

Technorati Tags: mealplanning, cooking, homeschool

Sidetracked by Oprah?

Like M-mv, (who I voted for in the best literary blogs category of the BOBs),  I never thought I’d say "you go girl" to Oprah in regards to her book club selections and I’m not sure I’m actually saying it now but… I am not disappointed, for once.

Like M-mv, I thought she’d pick a race relations topic or a book that I’ve already read or a book that falls on the typical "must read list".  She didn’t.  She chose a book I have not read but have often thought about reading.  She chose Night for her National High School Essay Contest assignment. 

But now we have a problem.  Do we slip Herland back in the plan and read this now (and enter the contest)?  Or do we stick with the plan and simply add this to the schedule later in the year.  Or do we just skip it entirely?

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that we do not have to follow the leader.  We don’t have to do what every high schooler in the country is doing or learn what they are learning.  But, I am a firm believer in doing some of the things the "regular" kids are doing.  There is benefit in having similar experiences, which is why Michelle took both Economics and American Government over the summer – all high school kids in Florida are required to take those two classes. 

I never thought Oprah would play a role in deciding our curriculumn.  Never would have guessed.  Stay tuned as we ponder our options.

Technorati Tags: oprah, oprahsbookclub, nationalhighschoolessaycontest,

Food Budget and Meal Planning

We are finally beginning the long promised and long planned (at least on my part) month of homeschool meal planning and food budgeting.  Michelle seems less than enthused.  I’m hoping tomorrow when we begin doing, rather than reading and thinking and researching, she’ll show a bit more interest.

Here’s where we started: Shave $150 a Week….  From there, we explored the Hillybilly Housewife, focusing on the areas: Beginner Shortcuts and Shopping Strategies.

I am pondering the idea of playing The Grocery Game with her for a month, just for fun.  We shall see how it goes.

So tomorrow – planning one week’s worth of meals, for four people (the little kids will not be with us).  $75.  Can she do it?  With our "food needs"?  I think she can, maybe.  It will be fun though to see what she thinks we can give up and what we cannot give up. (As an aside, when we went to the grocery store yesterday we spent $140 on food that was just for the weekend – plus the 4 cases of soda and box of laundry detergent.  About $100 was just for the weekend food – for five of us – the 1/2 child and Michelle were gone all day Saturday and most of the day today). 

Stay tuned, Michelle will begin blogging about the topic tomorrow (or Tuesday since she’s a wee bit behind with chemistry).

Technorati Tags: homeschool, mealplanning, foodbudget, menus

Homeschool vs School at Home? Does it matter?

Tenn over at School @ Home put out a request for submissions on the topic “What Makes a Homeschooler a Homeschooler” and I truly wanted to send her a submission. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time or the energy. I still don’t have the time or the energy but I am vowing to make time for this sort of thing, so here goes.



First, some history. Michelle was enrolled in public school until April of 2004, she was in the 8th grade when we removed her from the school system. We didn’t plan it in advance, we simply did it because it was the best option for her. We spent the rest of “8th grade” continuing with the subjects and topics she had been working on and then we spent the summer figuring out what she knew and what she didn’t know and just getting an idea about how we might schedule our lives and her education once the “real school year” began in the fall.



None of the school in a box options felt right for us. We are not a “religious” family and curriculumn with religious education built in was not for us. I did buy two literature workbooks, Frankenstein and To Kill a Mockingbird, that included discussion questions that coincide with Biblical study. When it came time to study Frankenstein, we simply skipped the Biblical questions. (Though I think Michelle would find it interesting at some point to go back and ponder them a bit on her own.)



It’s tough to find curriculumn for a just starting in homeschool at the high school level child, religious or otherwise, and I was pretty worried that this was not going to work. But, we made a plan and we got busy with it in late August. It worked well except we quickly realized that I simply could not give her the assistance she needed in Algebra. Higher level math is not my thing, it never has been. She moved quickly through the Algebra workbook that we’d chosen for her but by mid October she was beginning to struggle all by herself and I was in search of a tutor or a curriculumn or an online class – something had to be done.



Lo and behold, Florida Virtual School! My older son’s teacher had mentioned it in passing when I expressed concern about his placement in a high school math class when we first moved to this fair city but I never really needed to research it. I should have, it would have done him a world of good.



Michelle and I registered her with the system, and we registered her as a homeschooler. We requested Algebra 1 and while we were at it we went ahead and requested Biology 1 and Spanish 1. We faxed in a copy of her official “We are homeschooling” paperwork from the school district and we waited for placement. A couple of weeks later, Michelle was officially enrolled in the Algebra class. A couple of weeks later, she was assigned a Biology teacher and then the Spanish teacher shortly after that.



These three classes are considered “full credit” classes and should be completed in 36 weeks. 18 if you are on an advanced pace. You can also choose honors if you like. Public school children must have taken the prerequisite courses to be eligible for honors but if you are homeschooled, the parent simply needs to request the honors track. Students can work at their own pace in terms of moving quickly through the course, but they cannot move “too slowly”. In our experience you’d have to be doing almost no work to not be able to keep the “pace”. For a homeschool child, the pace is slow, slow, slow. For a public ed student who goes to school a full day and is working on FLVS courses at night and on the weekend, the pace is probably tough at certain points.



To recap – “9th grade” consisted of Michelle doing “school at home” through FLVS for 4 classes (we added a Webmasters class that we heard was awsome, and it was in February of that year) and she “homeschooled” the rest.



This summer, Michelle took Economics and American Government (honors) just because we thought it would be interesting to see what other Florida high school students were required to take. She loved AG and hated Economics, as I expected she would. This year, she’s taking Chemistry 1, Geometry 1 and Spanish 2 through FLVS and the rest of her education is created and directed by us.



Yes, FLVS receives state funding. Yes, someone other than me grades her work. Yes, she receives grades just like a public schooler in Florida does. She can even print a transcript of her grades if she wants to. BUT, ultimately it is me who is responsible for her educational progress. On the rare occasion that I’ve had issues with the curriculumn, grading or expectations of Michelle’s FLVS teachers, I’ve addressed those issues with them and they’ve been very accomodating and helpful. To me, those FLVS teachers have been exactly what a tutor would have been, if I’d been able to find one.



I understand that many homeschoolers are concerned that they will lose the right to create their entire curriculumn and somehow be required to choose an option like FLVS. But to me it feels a wee bit silly to insist that those of us who choose to use “school at home” option not call ourselves homeschoolers. Isn’t there enough division amongst us without creating this us/them feeling between us? How is this division between us going to help the cause of homeschooling?



I’m in support of every single person who chooses homeschool, regardless of the curriculumn choices (or lack thereof) that they make. I don’t care if you call yourself homeschoolers, unschoolers or school at homers – it’s all about making the best choices for our children. What’s worked well for Michelle may not work well for your children and what works well for yours, may not work well for Michelle – isn’t that really what homeschooling is about? Isn’t that what makes a homeschooler? Finding the educational path on our own and following it?


Technorati Tags: homeschool, schoolathome, usthem

Homeschool Update

Well, we’re surviving – that’s about it at the moment, I think. Spanish 2 is drving Michelle nuts and me nuts. Geometry and Chemistry are just a bit too boring for both of us. Michelle’s easing her way through The Good Earth and of course her daily journaling and daily religion entries. Boring.

The only two things of interest around here, on the homeschool front, are as follows:

• The school board seems to have misplaced her evaluation from last year – twice. They sent a nice note saying she was no longer considered homeschooled and would need to be enrolled in a “real school” immediately. Ha. I stopped by the office and took another copy in and handed it over in person. All better.
• Michelle is anxiously awaiting the opportunity to start dual enrollment at SFCC. The question is, will they let her? For homeschoolers you have to be 16 and she doesn’t hit that magic number til 3 weeks after the paperwork has to be turned in. We need to give those folks a call next week and see whether she qualifies. Fingers crossed, please!

Michelle slicing potatoes for Thanksgiving

Technorati Tags: homeschool, dualenrollment, evaluation, update