Changes Coming Soon / Update for next school year

I had mention before how we were considering using Texas's virtual school next year. Well, we have decided that that program just didn't fit us right now. We will keep it in mind for the future.

Now, the changes. Starting after the New Year we will begin several new programs and new grades.

Rod and Staff English Grade 3 - we have finished 2nd grade.

Prima Latina - will be our language program. Not that we are dropping Spanish. We will continue to try to use it daily we believe that Latin will be more useful and Zachary is excited about learning it.

Abeka 2nd grade math - We are dropping Saxon Math for Abeka. Zachary grew up using Abeka and we believe the program fits him better than Saxon. It is an all workbook based program. Also, Abeka 2nd grade is equal to Saxon 3rd and parts of Saxon 5/4. So, the program seems to be more advanced.

Classical Writing - Classical writing starts the child out by copying good literature, rewriting stories in the childs own words and then moving on to writing without copying or retelling.

I hope to also start doing weekly updates as to what Zachary is learning.

Brooke has also been learning. Her vocabulary is increasing. She now says "Thank You". She is also learning to recognize the colors Red, Blue, and Green. We have also been working on couting. Normally I would only do 1-5 but she insist on going to 10. She knows the numbers 2, 5, 6, 7 and 10. Ten being her favorite number.

Health

Well, the Alexander household and been sick a lot since my last post. Brooke got strep the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and then we all got sick too. Zachary lost his balance playing in the kitchen and fell into the diswasher. A knife cut his left side and he had to have 3 stitches. Brooke has had a runny nose and a small cough. So, today I took her to the doctor. She was diagonosed with bronchitus and a sinus infection. Mark's grandmother was put into the hospital. She had cut her finger and it got infected. They said at first she was to have surgery but after a high dose of antiobotics she doesn't need surgery. I am praying that nothing else happens for the rest of this year.

Saxon Math 3 - Fractions

Here is what Zachary was working on one day last week. Sorry the picture is so bad. He had to make up fraction addition sentences by dividing the whole into parts. He has been enjoying math. Especially the day that he was learning about measuring cups. He got to make brownies.

English Issues!

A few weeks ago Zachary had been complaining that the English we have been doing was boring and easy. We have been doing Rod and Staff English grade 2. So, I finally gave him the unit test for verbs. He made a hundred. Well, I guess he was bored. So, we started doing the next unit. I could tell he was bored. So, I gave him the unit test again. He only missed 2 questions. I was right! So, now we have started unit 4 with only unit 5 to go. We did 2 lessons and then I gave him the unit review quiz. He did alright the only issue is that he didn't want to write. UGH! That is our biggest issue right now. So, tomorrow I will give the next unit review for unit 4 and see how he does. If he does OK we will move on if he doesn't we will go back and review. So, in doing all this I believe he will start Rod and Staff English grade 3 either in December or January.

Abundant Crosses and Cross Parties

Well, I am trying to have a side business to the online company of www.AbundantCrosses.com. It would be Cross Parties. All the items sold at these parties would be different than what is sold online. I will also have for sale items that have rhinestone paw prints and tigers on them so that you can wear these to the local football games. I am trying right now to come up with a catalog, hostess rewards, and a commission plan. I will announce later when I will start signing up hostesses.

On another note www.AbundantCrosses.com will be at Deck the Halls. The Christmas event held at the civic center in Mount Pleasant, TX on Nov. 22 and 23. Everyone is invited to come and see what is for sell. I will be selling cross jewelry there and taking orders for shirts and wall crosses. Come out and purchase a cross for someone special for christmas.

School Next Year

I found out a couple of years ago that there was a Texas Virtual Academy at SouthWest. But, it only covered the Houston area. This is a virtual public school. The kids stay home as if they are homeschooled but they have classes through TVAS that uses the curriculum of www.K12.com.

Since it is a public school everything is free. They send you a loaner computer, software, all class materials, access into k12.com, and a stipend for your internet service. They also say they can cater to gifted children more so than a regular public school b/c the child can work up to 2 grades ahead.

This year I found out that extended the school to include the Dallas area and parts of East Texas. Mount Pleasant is now in there zone. I started checking into them more and found out that they don't start taking kids until they are 3rd graders. I called and talked to them about Zachary. They said he was too young this year but I really wasn't interested in signing him up for 3rd grade this year. I asked them about next year? He will technically be the age to start 2nd grade but he is now working on a 2nd-3rd grade level. Could he enroll into 3rd grade next year? This would mean he would on paper skip 2nd grade, but he is not skipping the material b/c we have already covered it or we are covering it this year. They said they would accept him next year as a 3rd grader.

They start enrolling for the following year in Jan. or Feb. So, Mark and I have to decide if we want to try this type of public school or not. The pros are that it is free, we wouldn't have to dish out a lot of money to school him at home. We could get a stipend for our internet. It would be more stuctured. He can still work at his own pace. And if we decided to put him back to MPISD he would go in with a one year grade skip. MPISD would have to accept the skip and the trasfering grade placement. The cons are that our interent goes down doing bad weather and we couldn't get online. I don't know if he would like learning from a computer (only 25% if from the computer the rest is through textbooks). If they allow the one grade skip does that count towards the only can work 2 grade ahead? What if he is working more than 2 grades ahead, will they allow him to move forward or hold him back? And i'm sure there are more.

Or do we just not do this at all and continue doing what we have been doing this year? We have a lot to think about in the next few months.

Mom and Me Cub Scout Campout 2008

This is the monkey bridge made out of rope.

The boys learned how to bowl.

Zachary and I go exploring by the river.

The place was so pretty.

Somone feel asleep on the way back home. He had such a good time.

This past weekend Zachary I went to the Mom and Me Cubscout Campout. Zachary is in Pack 777 and is a Wolf Cub. We walked up and down many hills. This was my first camping trip and my first time putting up a tent by myself. The tent went up fine and we all had a blast.

Are Christians Racist?

I ask this question because of a post I read the other day. A little girl ask her mother if that couple (the lady was white and the man black) was married and if that was wrong. The mother then ask the little girl does me and daddy have the same color hair? The child said "No". The mother ask do we have the same color eyes. The child said "No" again. The mother said are we the same height, the same weight, etc... The child's answer was always "No". The mother then said that God created Man and Women. He didn't create a White Man and a White Women. And that the color of one's skin is just like the many other differences in our appearence. The women ask they child why she thought it was wrong but the little girl couldn't say why. The women blames society and living in the South.

After reading this post it got me to wondering. I have always heard from one person in particular, who I go to with question about the bible and he has always said that the bible says marriage of a different skin color was wrong. So, I did some digging into the bible. This is what I have found.

Numbers 12:1-16. It tells how Moses was married to an Ethiopian women and how Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses. The Lord became angry with Aaron and Miriam for speaking against Moses. He then made Miriam White with Leprous. Moses pleaded with the Lord and eventually she was let back into the group.

There are other passages in the bible that says that the Lords children shouldn't marry a particular group of people but it doesn't say because of the skin color. It says that they will turn your sons against the Lord and towards their Gods. He also says that we shouldn't marry others who are not Christians, but still nothing about different color skin.

So, far I have found no passage in the bible saying anything against marriage or dating of someone of a different color than yourself. So, this gets me to wondering if Christians have become racist because the world sees marriages of different colors as wrong? Even if the bible doesn't say it is wrong to do so anyone who does will have to deal with a harsh life. With the looks from others who believe it to be wrong and sinful.

School Schedule 2008 - 2009

This is a tenitive school schedule. After a week I will advise it. I am concerned that I'm not giving enough time for certain subjects and too much time for others.

Three and on the computer

I found this picture on my laptop. I usually don't put pictures on the laptop but onto the big computer. This was taken when Zachary was 3 years old. We were moving from Dallas to Mount Pleasant and he needed something to do while we were loading the U-Haul. I thought this was just too cute. They way he was sitting and that it is amazing that in our society today 3 year olds can work the computer. Man, hasn't the world changed so much since we were 3 years old. I didn't get a computer till I was in high school and really didn't work on it much till college. Things have changed.

Science Fair '08

Zachary entered his first science Fair this week. He had been working on it for the past month. His topic was "How does Tap, Bottled, and Salt Water effect the growth of a plant? " He had 3 plants all the same and watered them everyday. The day before the science fair his conclusion was that Tap water was OK, Bottle water killed the plant and Salt water made the plant grow the most and look the best. Yes, that's right Salt water wasn't killing the plant and bottle water was killing the plant. We were starting to wonder what was in the bottle water. The day of the science fair our results changed. The bottle watered plant was sooooo pretty and the salt water plant was dying.

We entered the project anyway even through his poster board didn't match the plants. He talked to the judes and they were impressed with his reading ability. He just read off the poster board instead of presenting his project. Hey, it was his first time and he did great. He didn't place but he did get a ribbon and 3 free tickets to the local fair.

I took pictures on my cell phone. I will try to post the pictures later.

First Post - What is this about

I will attempt to post about everyday life here at the Alexander's house. I will even try to write articles that I am passionate about. I also would like for this to be an online scrap/baby book for both of my kidos. So, let me introduce everyone.

My oldest son is Zachary A. Alexander. He was born November 2001. He is now 6 years old. We are currently homeschooling him, thus the title of the blog "The Alexander Academy". Zachary has always been a bright kid and ahead of his peers in academics. By the time he turned 2 years old he already knew all his basic colors, basic shapes, could count from 1 - 100 (by himself) and had a huge vocabulary. When he was 2 he learned all his letters and their sounds. He started sounding out 3 and 4 letter words. He also was corresponding counting objects to the correct number. When he was 3 he read his first book. He also started doing simple addition and really got interested in science topics. He was working at a Kindergarten level. At 4 his reading progress and he could read most any children's books his math had increased also. At 5 when he was enrolled into public school Kindergarten he was reading Magic Tree House chapter books, adding with carrying, starting to borrowing with subtraction, and knew his 0's, 1's and 10's multiplication facts. I really hadn't exposed him to upper level math b/c I knew he was already ahead of the other Kindergarteners. Kindergarten didn't go very well. He had behavioral issue because he was bored in class. We asked son to be moved up but they told us he was social behind the other kids b/c he didn't know how to act in school. He wasn't place in daycare as an infant so he didn't grow up in a childcare/preschool environment so this made hims social behind his peers. We had Zachary tested during Christmas of 2007 using the CAT (California Achievement Test) for 1st graders. He made a 97% on the test. We presented the test to the school and they still would not move him up. We requested that Zachary skip 1st grade and go to 2nd the next year per the school policy. They said he would have to meet all 3 criteria to skip and one of them was that he needed a districts representative to recommendation and the principal wouldn't give it. So, we are homeschooling this year. It is going great and Zachary is loving being able to work at his academic level.

My youngest child is a beautiful little girl. She was born December 2007 at 5 weeks early. She might have been early but she was just right. She weighed 6 lbs. 7 oz. and 19 inches long. She is now 9 mths old and weighs 20 lbs. and wears 12-18 mths cloths. She is in the 90th % for her height. She is beginning to crawl, plays peek-a-boo, signs "more" for food, has her 1st tooth, says da-da and has told her NaNa "No" by shaking her head no.

My husband is Mark Alexander. He is the owner of Superior Mortgage Service in Mount Pleasant, Texas. www.SuperiorMortgageTX.com He has been in this type of business for more than 10 years.

And My self. I am Katherine Alexander also known as Kathy. I too run a business an online business called www.AbundantCrosses.com. I sell all different type of products that has a cross on it like shirts and items that are a cross like wall crosses and jewelry.