This is the 100th post on this blog! I never thought I would have so much to say :)

I looked at my college website yesterday and started gathering info on my study abroad in England next summer. I have a lot to get done. First steps include getting my passport renewed and getting up the $200 application fee. I also have 2 scholarships I'm going to apply for so I'm working on that as well. I wrote my essay on why I want to travel abroad and I hope it helps me. William liked it, anyway.

I've wanted to go to England since I was 9. I'm now 33. I figure it's now or never, right? And I'm so lucky to have a family that supports my dreams.

I've posted a couple more links on the "blogs I read" list. Unless anyone gets confused, I don't post just homeschooling blogs that I read. Usually anything that catches my eye or seems interesting I'll read for a while then post a link to it. So far I have 2 celebrity blogs and a blog from an Army wife, although most of them are homeschool blogs. I'm considering adding Dave Barry's blog to my list when I find it again :) I do want to issue a disclaimer for Wil Wheaton's and QT's blogs and Heather's World - language may not be suitable for young children.

I tried posting this before and the computer froze, so now I'm doing it all over again. Ugh!

What we've done over the past week and a half - things are going pretty slow right now and I'm fighting an urge to say we are behind. After all, I'm the first one to tell someone that we are never behind!

Copywork - cursive is going well, but no copywork really except for one day.

Math - addition is going well. I think we're going to go over a few word problems then skip on over to subtraction review.

Science - One experiment day with dad. They turned steel wool different colors by using copper sulfate. The atoms switched back and forth. We also spent a day at the zoo with 2 of my brothers, one brother's girlfriend, my neice and my mom.

History - Chapters 4 & 5 of This Country of Ours was read.

Biography - We read one chapter of Poor Richard.

Geography - Nothing. I misplaced the Kon Tiki book, but I found it again so we'll read it tonight.

Literature - We read chapter 2 of Robinson Crusoe, we finished a synopsis of Taming of Shrew and I'm still looking for the movie. We read chapter one of Age of Fable. We read chapters 12 - 13 of Princess and the Goblin.

PE - no karate for a week. He should go tomorrow.

English - Unit one on sentences was finished today. Tomorrow will be review day then Friday will be the unit test.

Poetry - One poem by Tennyson was read. He also copied the first 4 lines.

Art/Music - he read about Mary Cassatt and looked at "Woman and Girl Driving". We discussed the painting.

Nothing on notebooks.

We did spend the past 2 days cleaning the house and laying some vinyl tile in the hallway, so it hasn't been a waste.

Looking back over the list of what we've done over 2 weeks here is what I've come up with -

Copywork - Done pretty much every day. He picks out the short pieces of paper saying they have the shorter sentences to copy. He's also started practicing writing his name in cursive. He thought the loops for the Ls in his name were cool :)
Math - Basically reviews on addition, subtraction, carrying, borrowing and word problems. He's doing very well. He also counted some money on his own and has made some store purchases without my help. It helps to do role playing for the store purchases. He gets flustered when he actually gets to the register and is asked for the money. He does a good bit of math in his head now.
Art/Music - nothing
Science - Electricity experiment with dad and some reading in a textbook.
History - Read chapters 1-3 of This Country of Ours, covered Leif Erikson and Christopher Columbus.
Literature - Began on Taming of the Shrew. About half way done with story line. We are not reading the play yet. I have Tivo searching for the play or the movie "Kiss Me, Kate". We read the preface to Age of Fable. It's one of the most enjoyable prefaces I've ever read. We read 1 chapter from Robinson Crusoe. We stopped every now and again to discuss what was happening. Some words are hard to understand and it's written from the POV of someone in the future looking back on the past. I've discussed "foreshadowing" a few times when we've come across something in the story, like "If I had known..." We read another chapter of Princess and the Goblin, which was left over from last year and we both want to finish it.
PE - Karate classes 2 nights a week. William is getting ready to be tested for blue belt.
English / Grammar - Working in a textbook he's gone over types of sentences and is now working on correcting run-on sentences.
Biography - Read 2 chapters of "Poor Richard" about Benjamin Franklin.
Geography - Began reading "Kon Tiki".
Notebooks - nothing

Other things that life has thrown us - He spent the night in a tent at his grandmother's house. We rescued 4 orphan kittens and were bottle feeding. Unfortunately none of them lived. The vet thinks they caught some type of virus. We've been decluttering the house. William has found a few toys he is enjoying once again and has decided to give up a few as well.

We had a deep conversation the other day. It went something like "What if we aren't really here? What if this is all a dream and we are on another planet?"

I'm off this weekend so I'm going to update our "to-do" list for the next week, format and print out some more stories and work on notebooks.

I think instead of a weekly checklist I just need something for every 2 weeks the way things are going. We have done nothing for art or music or poetry, just basic math and english. We need to catch up on the read alouds. I'm going to try to do that tonight or maybe work it into the rest of the week and the weekend. It's Wednesday of week 2 and I haven't checked off everything from week 1 yet. But he is moving forward on some things and music, art and poetry can wait. I don't want them to wait forever, but it will be okay. Dh is still doing science planning but with his new schedule he hasn't been able to do a lot. Basically this week will be reading in the science book then they'll do an experiment this weekend while dh is off.

Some examples of work - In our English text William is doing sentences and fragments and how to recognize them. One of the exercises is making complete sentences out of fragments. Here are his examples - spelling and all -

1. After scool the teacher ate brains.

2. Sledding down the hill we fond snowballs with faces.

3. I have never seen a Brain.

4. When he looked up, we fond a brain on the roofy.

I have no idea where this fascination with brains came from today.

I'm breathing a sigh of relief.

Some days went better than others. Thursday only a few things got done and Friday nothing planned was done. We bought a used car to replace the car lost in an accident so Scott spent Friday running errands - getting insurance added, tags, etc. I was also sick yesterday so wasn't able to facilitate school yesterday.

I'm telling myself - We are not behind...We are not behind....

I've added a new blog to read called "Guilt Free Homeschooling". I like it a lot and I'm enjoying reading more on that site.

William said the first week was "good". Not exactly what I'd hoped for, but maybe one day.

Oh, I thought I'd include why I'm starting early compared to some. One reason is because I like to take December off. There is just too much going on around the holidays to properly concentrate. Starting early we are able to do that. Also I want to be done by the end of May because I'm planning to do a study abroad in England next June. I'll be gone for 5 weeks so I need to have everything complete by then.

Well, today is day 1. I had some grumbling but not much. William has finished math, copywork, and some reading. He's home now doing a science experiment with his dad. They are conducting electricity through lemons and copper wire.

Today was actually pretty good. I hope the rest of week does as well.