Didn't really get a chance to update on how homeschooling has been going.

Well...

I guess it's just kinda going at the moment.

Manling #3 says he's completely bored with his math program, which is unfortunate 'cause I have no more monetary resources to sink into curriculum this year. He's just gonna have to suck it up and DEAL until I figure something else out.

Manling #4 is steadily learning to read. I am slightly shocked and mildly confused. He just decided overnight to start reading....but he flat-out refuses to practice or read anything other than his reader and school book. I don't know if he scared himself with the fact that he actually CAN DO IT now or what. *sigh* Boys.

Manlings #1 & 2 are being your typical teenagers. One day they don't mind doing anything I ask them to. The next day it's like I've infringed on every conceivable liberty they've ever possessed or dreamed of possessing. *headdesk* Heaven help me till the testosterone wears off a bit! I've been told repeatedly by other mothers that they do eventually become human again. I'm not going to last that long....

I am feeling the pull toward going back more into lapbooks and notebooking. That way the guys can work on stuff they really WANT to be working on. Manling #1 and his train/electrical stuff. Manling #2 and his WWII history. The younger two can work with me on fun stories (like Black Beauty and The Trumpet of the Swan) and do some lapbooks for them. They both told me yesterday that they really like their lapbooks from last year. They like being able to look back over them and seeing the results of what really wasn't all THAT much work!

So at the moment, I'm looking up stuff to use in a lapbook for Black Beauty. All I never wanted to know about horses..... LOL But since it's set in England, we can do a chart on the Peerage, and look at pictures about hunting, and read about hounds, and do some horsey knowledge too. Not to mention English geography. Throw all that into a lapbook, and they've got a pretty good little reference to use later.

Now if I could just motivate the two older ones a bit. They're way too content to spend their free time in front of the TV or computer....playing games or watching crap. I'm not happy. But at least they're doing their science and math and grammar. Manling #1 is doing the Botany unit with the two younger ones, and Manling #2 opted to read through Joy Hakim's science books. (He was bored with plants.) I'm going to start M#1 on Joy's History of US this year too. Count it as US History for high school credit. We're gonna make a Civics Unit out of their Citizenship in the Nation merit badge this year too. Work M#3's Citizen Webelos badge into it. It's all good.

Yeah....now let's see how this all pans out....