FINALLY, I AM FINISHED, FOR NOW

I just completed the Year 4 Modern History copybooks in the various fonts to put up on LULU for sell.  However, I have to proofread the final copies before I can do that.  And that wont be for a few weeks.  I have to first upload them and then wait for LULU to send the info back to me.  It’ll be weeks because my books are so big and new to their system.  I’ve noticed that the first order is usually the longest.

Anyway, I feel sort of dazed and cross-eyed.  I am so glad that is done.

Btw, I also did the ancient history books too.  But I only did them in ZB print for the lower grammar and print and cursive for the upper grammar.  These are the ones my kids need for school for the upcoming year, so these are the ones I did first.

Still to be done, The Fun Spanish Level 2.  I’ve started formatting, but it might take a few weeks.  We need these for school too, so I’ve got to get moving on them.

But first, I have got to catch up on laundry and clean my house and feed the kids some veggies.  All of these things have been seriously neglected over the past month.  Bad Mama! Bad Mama!

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

I have been on vacation for 2 weeks and then had my nephew here visiting with us for a week.  Around that I’ve been working on the copybooks for Ancient History.  I’m thrilled to be almost done.  Year 1 lower grammar is finished for ZB manuscript.  and Year 1 upper grammar for ZB cursive is almost done.

After I finish these two–sometime Monday, I plan to update the year 4 for modern history books and put them in the various fonts and then place them on LULU.  My kids have actually used the modern books over the last year and I am really pleased with how they’ve turned out.

Once these are done, end of next week, I have to start formatting The Fun Spanish Level 2.  The Level 2 material has been translated and only has to be cut and pasted (that doesn’t sound right, but I’m in a hurry) into the new books.  The covers for all of these are done and ready.

Also, when I have taken a break, I’ve purchased all of our supplies for next year.  I need to come up with a schedule still.

5th grader

CW Homer B and GWG 5 (I still have to purchase GWG)

TLP (co-op)

MFW Geography (Co-op)

TOG (yr 1 redesigned)

Analytical Grammar

(I know this is too much stuff.  But I wanted it all.  So here is my plan:  Do TLP, MFW with co-op and AG at home for 10 weeks.  When AG is over, do CW Homer B with GWG spliced in their rather than Harveys.  Our literature will all come from TOG.  We’ll do TOG lite.  We’ll do TOG rather than Bible study, so I think it will work.  But if necessary, I’ll drop stuff–probably CW Homer.  Actually, I think my dd10 can handle it because she has already read the first semesters books for TOG and the TLP books covered at co-op.  So she’s already ahead.  Basically, she reads a book or more a day–an oddity in our family.   MFW Geography seems really lite, especially since it will be at a co-op.)

Lof Fred Decimals followed by

Dolciani pre-algebra for the remainder of the year

Latin Prep with the workbooks

Fun Spanish Level 2 (once I finish it)

Apologia Zoology (coop)

Piano lessons weekly

Drama coop

Art lessons weekly

3rd grader

Same as his sisters, but replace CW Homer with WT 2.  If it’s too much I’ll drop it as well as TOG ancients.  I dont require as much from him.

Rather Latin Prep, he’ll be doing Lively Latin.

1st grader

Various Readers

Shiller Math

Copywork

Writing with Ease (When he is ready using our copybooks for models.)

Geography pop up book

Punctuation pup up book

3 yo (Various assortment of mess prone projects.  He loves messes.)

I AM SOOOO BUSY :(

I’m trying to write The Fun Spanish Level 2. My father-in-law will once again do all of the translations for me. It’s much easier with him, a native of Cuba, doing that for me than me trying to do it on my own. The hard part of writing level 2 is trying to keep the grammar tight while at the same time preparing kids for reading in Spanish.

Basically, I’m trying to cover the past tense of the most frequently used irregular verbs–those that don’t follow a pattern. I’m also trying to cover direct and indirect object pronouns because those are frequent in children’s books and in everyday life.

This book is going to be laid out a little different than The Fun Spanish level 1 because only three days will have sentences to copy and illustrate. But there will be longer and more complex sentences to copy. On day four and five there will be memory work and reviewing. It should go well.

I started writing The Fun Spanish when my dd expressed a desire to be able to read in Spanish. I purchased a bunch of curriculum, but while many of them were quite good, very few of them focused on reading and writing in Spanish. By this I mean, they didn’t cover the past tense.

Now I know the important thing to learning a foreign language is the ability to hear and understand the separate words. But if you can’t understand the verbs in the past tense then you can’t read most children’s books. And if you can’t read in the target language then it’s even harder to acquire new vocabulary in the target language.

So The Fun Spanish books give children a background in the high frequency words and try to equip them to read and write in Spanish leading to more independent learning.

Eventually, my dh who is also a native speaker will make audio CD’s to accompany the books. But this will probably be a long time coming. He is just too busy working now.

I’M ALWAYS WORKING ON SOMETHING–I CAN’T HELP MYSELF

In addition to working on a new little project that will hopefully help my children with school, I’m trying to improve the plasticity of my brain. I picked up this little concept from Nova on PBS last week. So now when I nap, I listen to Spanish TV. I’m trying to train my brain to be comfortable with the idea of another language, and make my brain more open to learning Spanish, hopefully with less effort.