Week 18 – Done

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And that’s a wrap – Semester One has come and gone. We have learned so much through it all. The biggest change from last year was that we dropped violin lessons and orchestra. The kids did not feel they wanted to practice anymore than they usually did. Therefore, we did not see much progress. Why bother? Besides, orchestra would have put us back home at 10pm every Monday – not exactly ideal.

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls I make from scratch – the bread machine makes the dough, so I don’t have to work that hard.

One other big change: both children take Saxon math and we love it. We have even discovered that we can work through two lessons per day. This helps with making up for co-op days or hiking days. Continue reading »


Weeks 9 and 10 – Done

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Somewhere along September and October, I lost track of time. My blog lagged behind but, you know, we still homeschooled. The biggest change for us as far as school was that we switched math curricula for 8th grade. My daughter was finishing up Math Mammoth 7B this semester when I realized we were just going in circles.

Black bear on patio

One of the black bears who venture onto our patio

She needed more pre-algebra concepts but Math Mammoth 7B was starting her on Statistics and Probability. Those are great topics, but not what my daughter needed. We bought Saxon Math 8/7 and liked it a lot. It gives her step-by-step more pre-algebra practice and we can advance quite fast. Continue reading »


Algebra Going Well

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Our son is in 8th grade and taking Algebra I for high school credit. He has always found math easy to understand. Our curriculum of choice was Math Mammoth since 2nd grade. We tried Singapore Math and found it too easy.

Thunder on book

Thunder, our cat, used to keep us company before he disappeared.

Then we tried Right Start Math Level B and found it so great, we ordered Level C for the following year. Level C proved too weird for me to teach. I do not understand math in that way. So we had to ditch that and tried Alpha Omega Publishing’s math textbook, which we found too colorful and printed too closely together on the page. Picky, aren’t we? Continue reading »