Homeschooling on a Wing and a Prayer

Wow-"Cassandra" our PW child has found her forever fam!

2012-02-04T10:19:00.000-05:00

That is awesome for her-she has such a sparkle about her-so I guess we're down to McKenna getting her family now. :) Please continue to join me in praying for that precious girl!

[Cassandra was adopted outside of Reece's Rainbow, so we won't be able to follow her progress-but we can still pray for a smooth transition into her family and for a wonderful life for her.]

I forgot to add this to my Emma post

2012-01-29T14:54:00.000-05:00

One of the difficulties in reading the "literature of old" is the complexities of them. Lots of characters and situations abound in Miss Austen's stories-so we decided to use the white board as a diagram station to note the different (main) characters and situations in the story line. If you need a way to help your student figure out the plot or to just simply follow the intricate craziness of it all...this is a good visual option for you and your student.

You can see how we put Emma in the center and branched out the family members and suitors, while adding little symbols to highlight the love triangles or should I say none love triangles? LOL. It is definitely helping in keeping everyone straight. The pictures are for our Renoir study. :)

It's all about Emma

2012-01-28T13:44:00.002-05:00

Emma by Jane Austen that is. So my teen is mid-way through the book (which I love) and I have discovered some interesting things and thought I would share them with you.

image from Amazon.com

1. When a teen balks at a reading assignment-say because it is not an era nor anything they thought would be "interesting"-persevere. I wasn't expecting my teen to go all Jane Austen nutty on me, but I had hoped she would at least walk away with a broader sense of what good literature is, and perhaps a wee bit of "love" for Jane's writing style. I wouldn't back down when the initial complaints started and I very glad I didn't. [I will get back to this in a moment]

2. Austen's writing is still touching her audience generations later.

3. There is something to be said about well-structured sentences, and delightful circumstances in one's writing that instantly draws you into the story and the time period. [and no I do not pen my blog posts like I would if I were writing a paper, etc.]

image from Christianbook.com

Our oldest daughter loves, loves Jane Austen. In fact (this may sound odd to many) but she requested all the novels for her birthday last year (and she is 23)...she also read Emma in her literature class (I used the Gold Learning Language Arts Through Literature series) which I am betting started her love for Austen's writings. Well that and the Wishbone episode where they did Pride and Prejudice (which is adorable-I miss that show. We watched it regularly and the kids were first exposed to Austen way back then)....anyway, my heart is overjoyed to see my children actually want and request these "antiquities" because it points out the fruit of feeding our children good literature during their school years.

I am against giving children junky, poorly written, twaddle-type books (mind you I am not talking children's books that delight, or having a few fluffy pieces here and there. I mean for their main diet in their education, I am not a super purest but I do feel care should be taken in keeping the main course to good literature).

What is alarming to me is the destructive thought of "who cares what they read, as long as they are reading" which plagues the educational realm so much today. It does matter! The decline of our nation's children in regard to the exposure and knowledge of excellent literature is alarming and has great consequences-some of which are already rearing their ugly heads (have you looked over the national test scores lately?). I am speaking generally, as there are always exceptions within the PS/PS setting. Sadly too, even some homeschool families fall victim to this thought. But if students are [continually] reading the hastily penned books that contain nothing more than "dumbed-down" sentence structure, poor grammar, weak plots [or no plot] and so forth-then more likely, that is how they will write and express themselves. They will be devoid of the skill because they have not had a solid foundation laid for them. Charlotte Mason has a lot to say about this very subject-and I strongly urge folks to take the time to read her thoughts, and books from others who have studied Charlotte and her methods. Even if you choose to not incorporate much of her style into your educational plan-this is one area that you should strongly consider adopting.

image from Wikipedia.com

That said-and back to what I mentioned in #1-my dear daughter has now been drawn into the world of Miss Austen. She delights in narrating to me the happenings of Emma and has even picked up a couple lines to toss around in every day life ("Badly done Emma." is one of them. When someone does something in error she'll [or actually any of us] will throw that line out but replace Emma with their name...it is funny). The key to my post here is that she has a new appreciation for this writing and has discovered a liking for this era and for the author. What a loss it would have been if I had caved and not asked her to stretch herself to discover Austen (and even if she walks away not totally enthralled-she still has been exposed-and that is important). I don't think she'll be quite as enamored with Miss Austen as our oldest, but she definitely has a new love for her and her writing. Actually, this daughter loves The Great Gatsby [she likes this time period better] and has requested to read other books by Fitzgerald. That again is testimony to my point here-"feed" them great literature and you will reap a harvest of a love for the well-written word.

image from Amazon.com

And for an extra boost-we have watched 3 versions of Emma now on DVD. We have found the BBC [2009] version to be the best. It stayed the closest to the story line, and had the most believable actors. I love it when she can say, "Hey, that isn't in the book." or "They skipped a lot here." and so forth too.

Ah yes, "Well done Emma, well done."

For more info on Charlotte Mason:

images from Amazon.com

My favorites:

Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series by Charlotte Mason (this is kind of hard to read-you'll need to study it and use other resources at times)
Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola
Charlotte Mason Education and More Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison
When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today by Elaine Cooper

Cross post from my CM blog-Our little art section

2012-01-21T16:17:00.002-05:00

So I took down the poster above the white board and taped up these 5 pics the kids have done. These are my favorites ones from their projects so far. I will hopefully find some white frames to really draw attention to them and also, as ya know-we have to be matching with the room decor-LOL...

Oh, the writing on the board is for my teen's study of Emma. We have so many characters and crazy love triangles that we figured it best to plot out the story characters and some interesting facts on the board to make sense of it. :)

Left to right: the two Renoir mixed media paintings (DD decided not to add lettering to the can), the Pointillism project my DD did a couple years ago (you can read about it here) and the two 6 step paintings the kids did with our CM co-op.

I love how the kids art makes our room so cozy and personalized. I love being able to look back at what they have done too.

Art project-Renoir inspired

2012-01-20T19:14:00.002-05:00

To go along with our Renoir study, we did a Mixed Media Still-Life art project found on page 45 in the book: Discovering Great Artists.

For those of you who do not have access to this book, I will give you the directions for completing it. :)

Gather your materials:

for each artist you will need-

*cardboard or matte board

(size up to you-I used the cardboard backings from some

yellow note pad pages-those were pretty good-altho, having something

slightly thicker would have been best-

but look at those cardboard backings under

your paper pads-good way to recycle them!)

*white tempera paint (I found white poster paint and it worked)

*painters tape

(get FROGTAPE by Shurtape (green), if you can-it works better than

the blue painters tape-I found mine at Home Depot which seemed

to be the cheapest I could find. It was about $4 which is the same price
as the blue tape. THIS IS THE BEST tape for painting-

it does not leave those little boo-boos like

the blue will-let me tell ya...

and yes, we have used both-will not use blue again)

*pencil/eraser (altho try to not erase if possible)

*paint brushes, water container

*water colors

*real or fake flowers/twigs/etc. for your still life

(be creative-look around your home for fun things to use)

*type of vase

(again be creative-I used a tea pot and a container for coffee)

Process:

1. Tape the cardboard to something-painter's board, drawing board, etc. I used two pieces of white board. I had extra from when we cut down the large piece we bought/used for the classroom. Maybe even a clipboard will work-anything to secure it to so the cardboard doesn't slip. Yes, you can just place on protective cover/paper, paint it and then just do this, but I find that you'll get a better result when the paper/board is secured to something larger and hopefully, waterproof or not so absorbent as the paper.

2. I like to create about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch trim-depending on how big your project is. Will this show when I frame it? Probably not on this one because it is an ugly brown cardboard, so I will try to cover it with a matte...but with a white board/paper it looks very pretty when you have an edging.

3. Paint the cardboard white (tempera/poster paint). I did this twice to be sure the cardboard was covered nicely. The poster paint may not have given us the result the lesson wanted (for it to bleed with the watercolors) but I wasn't about to drive to the mall area to just buy one bottle of paint...so we used what the local Meijer store had and it was just fine. Let dry before you begin the drawing/watercolor part.

4. Set up your arrangement, and have student lightly sketch the image.

The boy was more focused on creating a background, and I think that jetting out image on the right side is a window sill, I think. :) This just goes to show how everyone sees/does things a bit differently. :)

5. Use a light color to wash color into the background coming close to the image.

6. Use watercolors and paint-try to let it bleed/blend together.

7. When dry, have the artist sign their name and frame it.

The teen still needs to put the writing on, but we had to let it dry first and then she had to leave to babysit, so once I have these framed, I will post them (and obviously, there will be their signatures and the writing on the can in this picture).

And there you have a Renoir inspired art project-and hey-you don't need to be studying him to do this. It is just a great, fairly easy project to do with your kids.

Introducing our new Prayer Warrior child! McKenna!

2012-01-10T21:09:00.001-05:00

Alrighty, since 2 of our PW kids found their Forever Families, and the other is sadly in a region that is without a facilitator, we requested a new PW baby and thankfully, one of our choices was available.

This is "McKenna"

She is an August baby (2003) so this year

she'll be turning 9-it is SOOOOOO time

for this precious child to find her Forever Family

to get her out of the orphanage and into loving arms!

Isn't she gorgeous? I think so! This little lady lives in an Eastern Europe country, is HIV positive and in need of her own family.

We are honored to be her Prayer Warriors. She has been on my heart for some time and I want to see her find her family this year. But, if you click on her name-you'll see that she only has 5 bucks in her account-if you are feeling led, please consider donating to her account (tax deductible) to help her future family get her sooner. I will try to put some kind of give-away together soon.

Please help pray for this precious one. Together we can pray this girlie home! :)

Ah! Starting the year off with a clean classroom for 2012-it's a miracle!

2012-01-02T17:01:00.000-05:00

I did it! I finally got the classroom organized (enough anyhoo) and rearranged to meet our current needs. Not perfect by all means but better than before and hopefully, it will be user-friendly. I don't write much on the board, but if I do the kids can simply swivel their chairs to see it-so I didn't have any issue placing their desks the way I did [IKEA chairs rock]. The teen is over at the wall area, and the boy is opposite of me since I must work with him a lot more than I do the teen. I currently have the old workbox shelf there next to my desk to hold my overflow of books/things to get to but I actually need that area for the boy to bring his chair when we need to work side by side, so I may have to find that another place to stay. We'll see.

Biggest change-workboxes. I originally bought two IKEA shelving units for the teen since the original version of the workbox shelves was working nicely for the boy-but I am tired of his books being bent and I have been giving him items to work thru that are larger and so they would take up too much space on the rack...so, since I hardly ever give the teen more than 6 workboxes, I split it up-she gets one unit and he gets one. 6 boxes per kid. Now I can easily put his overflow on the old shelf, but usually I do stuff with him on the couch so I don't necessarily need a workbox for him on those...I will see how this works out. My teen does do more than 6 boxes worth, but again-her overflow usually is in the box (above her shelf) or they are found in the holder to the right of her desk. She only has about 5 or so months left of school, so in just a short amount of time-the Boy will have both sets to use.

My son's desk to left, his "new" workboxes, the basket is for his finished work to go in if I need to see it.

Teen's spot to the left. Her extras are in the striped basket and the file holder to the right of her desk.

Looking from window side. Ignore all the discombobulated books on the shelves...I am not that ambitious today!

I still have a few totes that are full of "to get to" stuff-like the red box on the floor-that has all my lapbooking stuff and "to be" put in a lapbook materials. My desk is clean for now-trust me this won't look this sparkly for long-usually I have to dig to find the top of the desk-always have some projects cluttering it up.

I am so proud of myself, I did organize my shelf which is under the picture. That is where I have all the stuff I need pretty much on a daily basis and it holds all my folders with materials I will need to finalize grades, etc. That WAS A MESS for sooooo long-ah, I can finally see what I have there!

Notice the Well Planned Day planner there-mighty handy schedule book! The map on my son's desk is laminated and since we're covering the 50 states (and there is no wall space for this) I taped it to his desk, figured by seeing it all the time the states and their locations will "stick" in his mind. :)

The books on the shelves need some organizing and I need to prune but that is not gonna happen anytime soon. I need to figure out the school schedule still but at least we have a fresh, clean and moderately organized room to hang in.

Candy Cane Deer project

2011-12-10T15:45:00.000-05:00

I just posted the instructions and supplies for these cute reindeer candy canes, on my What's in the Box? blog. Thought I would let ya know in case you are looking for a simple, fun project to do this season.

Trip to the state capitol building and History Museum

2011-12-09T12:22:00.000-05:00

We went to the state capital (Lansing) yesterday to tour the capitol building and visit the Michigan Historical Museum, as a part of our Michigan state history study. It is a beautiful building! We took a self-guided tour but did listen in when the docent was talking to a group of elementary students (about the House of Representatives), saw the Senate in session (thankfully, they were done near the end of our tour so we could sit in the public viewing area and take pictures of that area) all the while learning about the history of this particular building. We've been to Lansing on several occasions but never had the time to squeeze a visit in. For anyone in Michigan, I highly recommend making the trip to tour it.

Standing dead center on the main floor, which is a thick glass tile, so when you come in downstairs, you can sort of see folks standing there, muted from the frosted glass, but crazy none the less. These pictures simply do not do this beauty justice!

House of Representatives-they have the pink/maroon color scheme. On the ceiling are etched glass state symbols from all 50 states-very neat.

Senate-blue color scheme. There is an etched glass picture of the Mackinac Bridge (a student won the contest for that, like $2000 [not sure when that was tho] and that is the same amount that the architect earned for his sketches for the building back in the late 1800s).

Just one of the paintings on the upper rotunda. These were painted on canvas, then were glued to the panels. Gorgeous. I took pics of all of them (I think).

Had to kind of lean over the balcony to get this shot. You can see the details and beauty of the upper part here. Love the stars.

Looking down from the top floor. That is a class down there and those white tiles are the glass ones I spoke of. This is crazy gorgeous. The other floors have painted portraits of the past governors hanging all around the circle hall area.

I had!!!!! to take a picture of this. I just wish more people would "get" that. There are many more pictures I took, but didn't want to clutter up the post too much. Even the door handles have the state seal on them-tried to get a pic but it was just too dark. The lights are unique, the restoration they did here is amazing. Again-if you can get here, do so!

We then walked the few blocks to the historical museum. It was chilly and windy and I pray we don't get earaches or anything from it-very cold. Anyhoo-we got there and walked through it. We were greeted by a dude who obviously loves his job but he is sadly under the influence of the evolution/billions of year old earth thought. My children were very gracious and didn't disagree with him (as that would be pointless and we were not there for a debate) but he kinda got the impression we were not buying the millions/billions part. LOL I just wish they would leave the dates out-it happened a long time ago and that should be sufficient...but no-they have to toss that in. Let the folks going thru decide that on their own. UGH! He at least told us how they extract the copper from the rocks and that was interesting.

He took this for us but didn't get all of the map of Michigan in it-it is huge-like 2-3 stories high huge. We look like we are bearing the state of MI on our shoulders-LOL

This sits right by the entrance to the main part of the museum.

The museum has a traveling display on the Civil War there (right now anyhoo) and that was a fun room to explore. They has a telegraph machine pinging and on a computer screen you could read what it was saying. It was dark in there so I didn't get many pictures and I had to have the camera on museum mode, which means they can be somewhat blurry...bummer-but hey it is the experience, not the pictures we are there for...

Kind of a neat wall mural there...the drum in the case is obviously from the war, very beat up and yet-when you figure someone carried that into battle-amazing and sobering.

They had a tent set up with little folding chairs and canteens for the kids to play with-some coats/hats too but my children are too old for that-but I am sure the younger visitors love that part.

They also had many flags (that I found out after reading the literature we got from the capitol building tour) that were from the Civil War here (originally they were kept in cases in that circle area of the capitol building where you start your tour)-very humbling to see these too.

Had to have them in sealed rooms and no flashes were allowed so as not to further deteriorate them.

This is a funny one-it is in the area where they talk about law making or something (we are terrible at reading the info signs) and so when across the room from this display-it looks like the dude has wings! But in reality-that is an eagle statue behind him-crazy huh? The kids were digging this. I will have to check the literature to see what this display was for.

They have an area that looks like you're heading into the copper mines-way cool (but extremely dark) and then you come into an area with all sorts of tools/mini house section to highlight what a home would be like, then you can go upstairs to a schoolroom and mini-house of the early 20th Century. There were too many folks in there to take pics, but it is awesome. We've been at least 2x before-each time is fun and again-I highly recommend it-especially if you are doing a Michigan history study. There is a small fee now to go thru, but it is not too bad.

We wrapped up our visit to Lansing by stopping in a local Zoup restaurant. The Tomato Basil Bisque (I think that was its name) was delish-the sandwich not so much-but it was food and we were hungry after all that walking and touring.

I should note here that I am currently reviewing for HEF review team, the State History from a Christian Perspective from A Helping Hand. It is a great program. I am really impressed with it. Sis is doing the upper level material and Bud is working through the Funbook. I can't wait to share my thoughts on that soon. In the meantime, you can find them here: State History from a Christian Perspective (I also have their 50 States Under God 3-12 and 3yrs-3rd and their Geography program to review!) I will be sure to let you know when it posts.

Lapbooking ideas and an update on what we have done so far this semester

2011-11-18T19:54:00.000-05:00

As noted in a previous post-we were working on a lapbook about baseball. It turned out really nice (in our opinion) and has become one of our favorite lapbooks so far.

I have the pictures on my Lapbooks and Scrapbooks

blog for you to see.

We have also completed a VeggieTale Lapbook

that I did for a review. You can see that post here.

The boy has requested a lapbook on Wilbur and Orville Wright-so I guess I will use the next few weeks to do some research and pull together a mini-study. And with my initial search, I am not finding much in the way of them (lapbook form) so I may be pulling this all together by myself.

For those who are new to homeschooling, bored with the usual routine or looking for another way to teach-the lapbook technique is an awesome way to get hands-on activities into a lesson, and provide excellent recall material for the student. Check out my blog on lapbooking, as well as visiting Jimmie's Lenses on Squidoo pages for more info. Homeschool Share offers tons of free lapbook downloads to use and this has been a blessing to the lapbooking community. Googling lapbooks will yield a ton of links to jump start your lapbooking career too.

Oh, and one more thing-lapbooks take days to complete-not A day. Do not attempt to do an entire lapbook in one sitting. I usually pre-print all the mini-booklets I want to cover, cut them out and put them into a Ziplock bag to await their usage. I then put the completed booklets into another baggie so they are safe from mishaps until we assemble it into a lapbook folder. Usually, we only work on the lapbook components 2 to 3 times per week for less than 30 mins a sitting (usually more like 15 mins.) to avoid exhaustion and disinterest on the student's part. And we only strive to do about 2 to maybe 3 lapbooks per semester so as not to O.D. on them.

Fall activities that are the best!

2011-10-23T12:24:00.002-04:00

Fall is my favorite time of year and I soak up the smells, colors of the changing leaves, the cooler air and the over all beauty of it. Two things we strive to do every year is visit the local Cider Mill for their awesome blueberry frosted donuts and their cider, and the local pumpkin patch to take a hay ride to the fields to pick some pumpkins. I happen to love the look of pumpkins, and gourds and fallish decorations about the house, it seems so homey and festive. It allows for a last bit of splash of color before the dreary days of winter are upon us. When we lived in Arizona, I truly missed the fall season-it wore heavy on me and even though we'd try to take a drive north to see some fall near northern AZ, it just wasn't the same. I have to say, I am very glad to live in a state that produces beautiful Autumn displays of color.

Bud's a sprinkles kind of donut kid

Buddy was the only one dressed right for this day-it was like almost 80 degrees at times! It started chilly and progressed to be quite hot for fall. But the cider refreshed us!

So we first did the Cider Mill (the big kids met us there) a couple weeks back, and yesterday we took the hayride to find our pumpkins. I love it. I love the smell of the fields and watching my big and younger kids running around searching for their pumpkins. Like Mary [Jesus' mother], I treasured up these things and stored them in my heart. I also took a few pictures too-I mean, I have to scrap these events ya know.

Those bumpy pumpkins were kinda cool, may get one next year

The fam and their selections-well not that broken piece in the forefront

Not many pumpkins left in this field. But it is striking to see the bright orange against the brown and little green of the fields.

Dad assisting-Big Sissy needed some help with that big pumpkin!

The bunnies are always a hit! So soft!

There were some crazy goats off to the right there-they are very greedy and kinda scary! LOL The bunnies are our favorite.

This is a dark shot-I am not on the right program to fix it yet-but I love it because I captured all four of them in it. Big Bro was the only one to not handle the bunnies-it's not his thing. Ah, love my kiddies.

Now, let it be noted that I am not a fan of Halloween-let me tell ya. I can handle the kids getting into character to go on a sugar fest escapade, but I loathe all the other things associated with it [not comments about that please, this is my personal take on it]-esp. the dark side of it. Outside of some pumpkins, we do not really decorate for it. I do not spend money on expensive costumes and go overboard with it. We usually gather up some items from the house, get the bare necessities to finish the costume, and let the boy run thru our "Y" shaped street to get his candy. And that is it. We even had the kids research the beginnings of Halloween [a few years back] and present their cases for keeping or disowning it. That was an interesting activity. We decided that we would hand out candy, let the youngest do our little street and praise God when the day was over. Not every one holds this belief. Some totally dig Halloween and get into it, others get into it but just enough to satisfy their little ones need for dressing up and getting candy. Others totally shut it out. To each his own.

So this year, it is a bit different. My son is working for a company that sponsors this different approach to it. They allow their staff to decorate their cubicles and the best one wins a prize (cool) and then they open the office up for friends, family, vendors and such to bring their little ones in to go cubicle to cubicle or so to get some candy. So since we hadn't see where our son works (inside) and since it sounded like something easy and not too crazy, we decided to go. We did not have a costume ready for the boy. We spent 20 mins. rushing around to come up with a pirate costume for him. And we invited my brother and his son to go too. Since my brother won't have D on Halloween, we figured this was a close enough activity for him and D to do together. So off we went. I was shocked at what they created, some really got into it-there was one cubicle area dedicated to the Wizard of Oz [couldn't get pics due to all the people stuffed around it]. They had it all set up, even a tornado funnel with a Dorothy (Barbie) in it and a cow! LOL...an old house like Dorothy's farm house with the witch's socks/shoes under it and a yellow brick road....tons of stuff. My son and his area did a nice job too.

The two "D"s -Big D and Little D, what begins with D? (that is a snippet from a Dr. Seuss book)

He's a bit young to be dating but I think they make a lovely couple-she is the strong, silent but cheerful type. LOL

Frankenstein welcomed visitors...I said he'd make a terrible employ-laying around all day!

I overheard one employee mention that "this was their prison" [jokingly] so I had to take a picture of their mascot.

The end of the session-they got some really nice candy, chips, and other snacks. They offered up pizza too-but we chose to not eat there. It was very nicely done.

So that was a pre-Halloween event for us. Yes, I guess we'll muddle thru the dreaded Halloween day and then look forward to roasting the 20 lb turkey we have awaiting us for Thanksgiving this year. Ah yes, fall-with all its football games, cooler days, crunching leaves under foot and gloriously amazing colors.

Our annual pumpkin catapult project

2011-10-09T11:27:00.000-04:00

A couple years back, we purchased a catapult kit (from Rainbow Resources) for our boy, since we were covering Medieval history that year. It also happened to be the time of year when those little candy corn pumpkins were flooding the stores with their sweet goodness, and so one particular day the boy decided he wanted to see how far a candy pumpkin would go. It was then that our annual pumpkin catapult was born. So each year we now make an effort to see how far the pumpkins will go, and then add in a variety of other items to test their fly-ability too. The winner is noted to see what can break it the following year.

Mind you, this is not just play time. The boy must mark out with a tape measure, the distances and mark them (math)-then once we have the distances marked, we will (do this next week) average out each item's distance traveled (math again). We also are seeing physics and aerodynamics in play. We make predictions on which item will go the furthest (so we're calculating mass to figure this out)...and so on. Plus, it is just plain fun. We had a gorgeous day and our results were fun.

not sure where the ball was-but these were the main contenders

Results:

Pumpkin did the worst-but was consistent
Frog was quite the flyer actually, beating pumpkin by at least 4 ft each time
Rock, well it did pretty good-it was all over the place
Ball went fairly far but wasn't giving us the results we expected
Die was the champion hands down! It rocked the competition and the winning catapult was at 29 ft. 6 in.!

Facts:

We didn't touch the tension at first-so pumpkin could have gone farther after we tightened it right? Nope. Didn't go but an inch or so farther after-interesting heh?

Once tightening the tension-things did go further.

The catapult we have cannot withstand our grueling tests-we needed to tape the bar that the catapult arm slams against-so hopefully, next year we can do this with a new one. This baby needs to retire.

I pointed out the pumpkin-I actually caught it just before it landed-cool!

And there you have it-our annual pumpkin catapult results.

Salt Dough Projects that really burned an impression on us

2011-09-28T21:16:00.000-04:00

Working thru the Considering God's Creation-unit 4, we came upon this activity for the Sedimentary/Metamorphic rock lesson. I have not done salt dough projects in a long time-so after making the dough-I had to research to see how long we needed to bake these babies [this info was sadly missing from the guide]. Well, after a small fire (a hot pad fell down outta my pile I had used to pull the parchment paper/dough off the cookie sheet to cook the underside. I didn't see it when I closed the door-luckily the hubby spotted a small flame rising from the bottom of the oven) and then forgetting about it b/cuz it takes oh, 4-5 ish hours on about 212 degrees to bake it right [yes, it is easy to forget, and then hubby jacked up the oven to get ready for dinner]-we ended up with a decent (albeit slightly toasted looking) project. [sheesh!] Let's just say this is one project we won't soon forget! LOL....it is a great way to illustrate the idea of what happens with sedimentary rocks and fossils.

We did shell impressions, Bud's hand print (sentimental value) and used a big plastic dino to make tracks and then used a rubbery dino to make a skeleton impression.

In case you want to try this yourself, you will need

1 cup of salt
1 cup of flour
and water to make it pliable
a cookie sheet and parchment paper if you don't want it sticking to the pan
items to make impressions

spread out to use, bake at 212-220 degrees for 4-5 hours until baked thru. Flip at least once 1/2 way thru to bake underside. I pulled the parchment paper with the goodies on it off the cookie sheet after it had baked for about 2-3 hours-it is safe to sit on the rack. Note to self: check for dropped hot pads. Cool-use for demos. :)

2011-12 Curriculum for the elementary boy

2011-09-09T21:41:00.000-04:00

As promised, here is what I have [sorta] planned for the boy's year.

Math:

We'll get to this soon, [Abeka Arithmetic 4] as we have a few things I held off from the 3rd year math because the child was not "getting" a few things and I simply didn't want to skim over it and then wait to see the fall out years down the road. So we're working through the few goodies we didn't get to (and we started the 3rd level in Jan. so we haven't had a lot of time to go thru it) and then the 4th level will be used.

I also use lots of hands on activities, file folders with games, flash cards, and more, to help him understand and retain these vital skills.

Science:

We are continuing to work through the Considering God's Creation science program. We just started the unit on the earth (discusses the atmosphere, core and more). We'll get into Rocks and Minerals soon and that should be fun (the boy loves rocks) and we'll finish it (with the body unit). Now this is best when supplemented with fun, hands-on activities and so I have a bunch of materials here and there and will order some fun kits soon. I will post once I have those. I love the mini-notebooking/lapbooking approach and it is short enough to maintain his interest without boring him with too many details (he's only 10-we have time to get "in depth" down the road).

Depending on how long it takes to work through it, we'll probably get back to our Apologia's Zoology 1: Flying Creatures on the Fifth Day. We started it but switched to the Astronomy one (which we completed this last spring). I wanted him to be old enough to truly get the material and he'll be ready for it this year. We'll lapbook many of these units too.

History:

We love history in this house, and since we just wrapped up the Beautiful Feet Books, Early American History-we wanted to carry on a bit to cover the Civil War (my son is interested in this stuff-yes, because of guns and wars and all things boys tend to like), and I want to touch on the expansion west. I had thought of using the new guide by BFB (Westward Expansion)-but it is just a bit too over his head at this point. So, because he loves to do hands-on things...I have been debating getting the Homeschool in the Woods two Time Traveler units on the Civil War and Early 19th Century. My quandary is that he is still working on fine tuning his reading skills and I wonder if this too may be over his skill levels-some of it anyhoo. So my history section is void right now. I am praying for wisdom and discernment as to what avenue to go. I wonder if I should hold off another year (from all this reading/writing stuff these programs require)....it's a tough call. I don't want to create a loathing for history, but I also don't want to not do anything...I do want to keep in the US right now (I move into Sonlight's Eastern History by 6th grade). Then we go back to Egyptian and early history. So-I have my history work cut out for me. Once I make a decision, I will let ya know.

Language Arts:

Yes, we are still using this [Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading]. Let me just say-when you are working with a child who struggles so with dyslexia...it takes a long time to get them where an "on track" kid is in regard to their reading skills/writing skills. It is the plain and simple truth. Thank God for homeschooling! We can take as long as our precious son needs to work on this skill. At his pace. He likes this program (and retains a lot of it-more than other ones I have tried) but it is huge and takes time. I lapsed over the summer due to some difficult, and trying issues that befell our family (not necessarily our immediate family-but family none the less). So we just did not get a chance to work on it like I had planned. I think though, in God's infinite wisdom-this was a good thing. The boy needed a rest and we are seeing things "connect" much better than we had earlier this year. Sometimes, it just takes longer. I have learned this by having not one, but three children struggle with reading/dyslexia issues. For those of you who have been blessed with children who do not struggle-thank GOD every day-because it is a huge and daunting (at times) path to walk. Not only for the ones trying to teach the subject (and I mean struggle with any core subject-not just reading) but it plays games with the child's self-esteem, confidence and more. So we plug along and pray, pray and give our child the time he needs to get this. I am also working with my friend, who recently took a course that now makes it so she can teach reading skills using that particular program (sorry cannot recall the name just now but will get that soon). SO with me and her piggy backing, working on it daily and with time-he'll get it and still retain a love for reading! Yes, it is possible folks-it just takes time. :)

He will also continue to finish his George Washington's copywork book, wrap up the Memoria Press copybook III. I have lots of times where we use copywork and dictation through out our studies-so he gets plenty of practice copying and transferring material to paper.

Added to this, is the continuing on with the next level of the Getty-Duby Italic Handwriting. We usually do this about 2-3x per week. I have used this program with all my kids and have seen they are retaining legible, lovely handwriting. It looks so close to print-making it a great choice for kids who have trouble reading different fonts/cursive.

Lapbooks:

Like I mentioned above, we'll do some lapbooking with the science, but also, I try to do a couple FIAR books and subjects the child enjoys. So far, we have been working on one about baseball (free components from Homeschool Helper), and I have not gotten to any more planning of what else we'll cover. Sad but true. I wanted to do the FIAR book 4 story: The Raft.[free from Homeschool Share]. But again-the summer flew by and other things took precedence, so we didn't get to it. I want to get it going as soon as we wrap up the baseball unit. While it is still nice out so he can build a raft to test float in the pond nearby. I also want to the Another Celebrated Dancing Bear (this is in 1st volume of the FIAR series) because I finally bought it and he has yet to hear it (the library could not get it for us)- and I love that story a lot! I have other reasons too-but that I guess, will have to wait til later and another post. Anyway-I have not sat down long enough to pick the FIAR books we'll cover this year, outside of the fore-mentioned ones. Will post once I have those figured out.

Bible:

As for Bible-we're wrapping up the Apologia Who is God? book and will continue on with their Who Am I? from the What We Believe series. I am also working through a product for a review and when that posts, I will let you know-

The rest of the typical subjects: Nature Study, Artist/Composer study and so forth are being finalized and figured out still. I did post who we'll be covering for the artists this year, on my CM Sampler blog. This post is long enough-so I will call it quits. Thanks for taking a peek at what we'll be covering this year for the elementary (4th grade-ish) boy.

Starting our school year officially tomorrow-look at teen's courses

2011-09-05T19:58:00.000-04:00

Well, ready or not (and I am not ready) we are starting our school year. We won't be doing a full course of classes, but work back into it for a week or two. I have not decided what we'll do for a couple subjects yet-but have enough stuff sitting on the shelves to hold us over for a time...

So what is on tap for the teen's year?

Math:

Abeka's Consumer Mathematics program
(not real difficult but a vital necessity for everyone to have covered).

I want my dd to have a good idea of how to function financially in the world, and also have a general idea of how the economy works. So next semester she'll have the Econ. class. The math is a full year course.

Plus: Bluestocking Press' Economics course, in combo with Basic Economics by Clarence Carson. I do a more minimal approach to the econ course, to give them a good intro to it without drowning the students in too much info. The BS Press Econ uses the book "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?" as one of it's main texts. My dd has already read this, but will need to review it for the program.

Science:

Lapbook: In the Hands of a Child Advanced Astronomy Pack along with Signs and Seasons (still need to buy) and will add in snippets from the Astronomy Book for good measure. This is going to be a piece meal type of study but a full year course. I have to still work thru the layout of the study so I am winging it here for the first few days.

Government:

For Government, since they have to retake it at the college-I just do a basic intro. We'll go thru the Bluestocking Press "Are you Liberal, Conservative or Confused?" guide with the book of the same title as the main text. I will also have the dd watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and use the Zeezok Z-Guide for the movie to get a more in depth study of the issues it addresses. I have my son's college text to go thru for additional help when I need it. Again-we keep it general because dd will have to endure a whole 'nother semester of it at the local college.

Language Arts:

We'll hodge podge most of her studies here too-she is wrapping up the final parts of the IEW program (the research and essay writing) from the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style program, which we'll take our time on so she "gets it". I have this, so it is just a matter of working thru the suggested activities. I do not have the Level C book for her, but no matter, the program offers enough for us to figure it out.

I want to get her thru most of the Learning Language Arts British Literature program...but have yet to organize and plan for that. I do have that on the shelf-so it is only being held up by the summer disappearing and my not getting to it yet.

I have the books and a couple of suggested movies-so we'll mosey thru this, and see how much we can get done by spring.

I have not decided what exactly we'll do for the Bible instruction, besides learning verses and working thru the Bible. I also have not determined her minor history study. Mainly because she'll be working so much on Gov't and Econ...there is not enough time for an in depth history study. She's had a quite a bit of it-so we'll see. Per usual, she'll continue working on copywork, nature study and artist/composer studies and German.

I'll post the boy's stuff soon.

Convention Post 3: Ludy's When God Writes Your Love Story

2011-06-14T20:38:00.001-04:00

All the information I note is available in their books. I have been using the Ludy materials for years with my kids and I can honestly say, they are some of the best. I will list (at the end of the post) the ones I have personally read and own. I must say, they are doing a great job with our youth! They are causing them to really think about what they are doing (not just in the dating arena, but what they are doing-or not-for God). Now after so many years, I have had the pleasure of hearing them speak, and am convinced that the Lord has one powerful call on their lives!

Session: When God Writes Your Love Story
Ludy's Website

Eric spoke about how we, as Christians, [usually] will pitch our tent just past the line of demarcation [barely past the desert line] over on the Promised Land side-to then simply set up camp, and call it quits He stressed we should not quit, or settle just past that Promise Land entry. Due to the expanse being so great, we shortchange ourselves by being content with stopping there. Keep moving inside of it, toward the other side to see what God brings. Great concept actually. This would make for a great convo with your teens for sure.

He also pointed out that we should never measure ourselves with everyone around us (worldly view on things) but rather compare and measure ourselves to Christ (to go deeper into our faith and walk with him).

Now I must say, if you have never heard Eric speak-well, he has the gift of preachering (new word there) like those old timers who would set up a tent and fire up the town with their message. He is the "Love Brother Love Traveling Show" [Neil Diamond song there, in case you are wondering] kinda preacher! Seriously! He has that kind of anointing on him and it suits his personality well. He definitely is passionate about what he lectures on and teaches, and it is a nice, refreshing change. Then his lovely wife, Leslie is much more subdued and gentle. It is nice to hear them both speak during the session so you can get a change up in presentation, as well as a male and female point of view.

Leslie got into the 4 points that allow God to write your love story (and again-all of this is noted in their book with the same title). Ok, here is where it gets a bit muddled...they spoke so fast to cover the points, that I am not entirely sure which is which and if I have em right exactly. Suffice it to say, I am slightly guessing but it sounds right (if my ole brain can recollect right).

Point 1: Give God your pen. IF you try to write your love story-it will come out a mess and can lead to well-nothing good. (my words not hers) [Eric popped back into the chat with this ditty]...When God comes knocking we only let him in the front hall and a few rooms. We need to allow him in all of our rooms, even the locked ones-so that He can lead our lives-not the other way around. He noted that most of us cannot trust God because we cannot see His heart but by doing so-He can get into all the areas of our heart to make them ready.

Point 2: Build your life around Jesus Christ. I think that goes without saying.

Point 3: Live in an Act of Faithfulness. Be single in your mindset-that yes you are taken but not with a dude or chick-but with Christ himself. Live as you should-with a pure heart and mind. Not to be a "somebody" or attract attention of the opposite sex. I will save my opinion and preachering on this for another post someday (I am totally agreeing with them on this, in case you are wondering-and have brought our kiddos up to follow this point).

Point 4: Draft a Winning Team. Use your mom and dad to help you along in your story. Have a good relationship with them. See their assistance not as a pain but rather as a blessing-esp. since mom and dad may have some inside info/feelings that you the prospective bride/groom doesn't. You know you are in a Godly story when your relationship pulls you closer to God/Jesus Christ instead of farther away. Use your mentors and such too-but (I don't recall if they said this exactly but it is a good way to live) always check your spirit (not your heart b/cuz it can be deceived) against the Word. This is one that you will have to work on (mom and dad) to help build that bridge of trust and respect. Being overly involved to the other spectrum of taking a vacation to the moon, in regard to your child's life/love story, will not work-find the middle ground. Pray for clarity and wisdom.

Also-they touched on the fact that -we (mom and dad) need to be praying not only for our children, but our children's future spouses! How awesome is that!? God is so amazing and wants nothing but the very best for our kiddos-including our children's spouses! :)

Ludy Books we use/have read and recommend:

When God Writes Your Love Story
When Dreams Come True
When God Writes Your Life Story
When Dreams Come True
Authentic Beauty
Set Apart Femininity
God's Gift to Women
Teaching True Love to a Sex at 13 Generation (this one is for the folks more than teens)
Bravehearted Gospel (new-still reading)
Wrestling Prayer (new-still reading)

Convention Post 3: Generations Past, Present and Future by James Muffett

2011-06-03T14:13:00.001-04:00

**Please keep in mind that I am going by my notes and may not have it all 100% correct as stated, altho I am pretty sure I have the gist of it correctly. You will need to decide if what is penned here agrees to your family's beliefs or not.

This session focused on how we need to be aware of future generations as we are focusing on every day life. How our actions will directly change (for the better or worse) the lives of our children, their children and their children (and so on).

Mr. Muffett is the founder and president of the Student Statesmanship Institute, which is a wonderful program meant to teach our children all about government, how bills become a law and so forth. How it is vital that they become, and stay involved to help make changes in our laws, for the betterment of our state and country. My two oldest did the summer program a few years back and truly learned a lot (not to mention they had fun and made a lot of new friends). If you are in Michigan or one of the surrounding states, this is a worth while program to look into.

As the session progressed, Mr. Muffett stressed how God requires us to be story tellers, to teach our children about Him and his Word and our very history [lest we fall away..sounds like today's world doesn't it?] by using Deuteronomy 32:7 as confirmation of this-

Remember the days of old;

consider the generations long past.

Ask your father and he will tell you,

your elders, and they will explain to you.

But what kind of legacy are we leaving our children? Are we teaching them the foundational basis of our country's beginning-based on God not man? We should be raising a generation that is not afraid to shine and be the light of the world. We have forgotten to look at our past with gratitude [well not all of it is worthy of that but most is-was until corruption set in and God became a passing fancy]. The genealogical, spiritual and cultural heritages we have been given all have molded and set precedence to where we (our country) are today.

The most thought provoking moment was when he highlighted Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's* statement....

"To destroy a people you must first sever them from their roots."

Which is exactly what the undercurrent is in our country right now-the removal of God in our laws and the very fiber of our nation as we once knew it to be.

All is not lost though, if we forge through the wilderness and teach our children the truth of our past (that many have attempted, and unfotunately succeeded at removing from our children's history lessons, or as Mr. Muffett noted-"huge chunks" of it) by using primary source documents as resources and other books which acknowledge the Truth.

Suggested texts:

The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall

The Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan

America's Providential History

by Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell

*I do not believe Mr. Muffett agrees with or would care to promote much of what this man had to say about things. He simply found this statement to be most appropriate for his lecture. Now, I know not of this Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn except what I quickly scanned off of Wikipedia. I can say from what I did read about him, I honestly don't agree with much of what he touted. But I do agree-as Mr. Sozhenitsyn correctly reconfirmed, (after studying and researching why Russia had so many great disasters and hearing the old timers explanation for this) that "Men have forgotten God, that is why all this has happened." [resource: Wikipedia.com]

I wonder too, if that is why America has seen such a downward trend in all that is good and right. I suspect it to be so. You simply cannot remove the Lord from the very essence of a country without disastrous results.

Obviously, this session gave my daughter and I some food for thought! I hope these bullet points also cause you to research this some more as it certainly worthy of pursuing. If you ever have the opportunity to hear Mr. Muffett speak-do so, as you will learn a lot!

I suggest the following

history programs that do teach the truth:

Beautiful Feet Books Early American, US and World History Guides, All American History I and II from Bright Ideas Press . I haven't used Sonlight [younger grades-we have the 20th Century World one that does touch on some AM. history, but it's been a while since I have gone thru it and I am not so sure how well it highlights the beginning of our nation as following God first...] or My Father's World histories for American studies, but am sure they follow suit and do teach it as HIStory. If you have used those and can comment regarding them-please do so. If I missed some, also leave a comment so others can find those curriculum programs that do stress GOD as our foundation. Thanks.

Convention Post 2: Help for the Distractible Child: Birth thru Primary Grades Session

2011-05-26T21:02:00.001-04:00

I purchased this book from their vendor set up. I am about 2/3 thru.

This is an insight behind the beginning of their mission/company

and discusses the challenges of having a distractible child,

and ways to help minimize the behaviors. And after hearing her speak,

I am not surprised that this is punctuated throughout with Melinda's humor.

Helpful insight for anyone dealing with these issues.

The Distractible Child-part I

birth - elementary age

Speaker: Melinda Boring

(degree in Education, and Masters in Speech Language Pathology)

I actually was able to talk with Melinda and her hubby, Scott prior to this session. I wanted to be sure to introduce myself because I had reviewed some items of theirs for the TOS review crew (love the Heads Up! Frames they sent). I am thankful for those because they help my son stay on the line he is reading [and not skip around] as well as help target areas I want him to focus on. For more info on them, you can read that review here. These folks are wonderful. It was clear that they truly want to help other families and it shows thru their kindness. If you ever have the opportunity to hear them speak or visit their vendor booth at a convention-do so. I also know that Melinda wrote an article for the Special Needs Planner for TOS-which is especially designed to address SN issues.

I knew the minute she started this lecture that it was going to be a fun and informative one. Melinda spent some time highlighting life at the Boring homestead (which is far from boring) and then dove into some ways to help eliminate or at the very least, minimize the distractions that cause the child to not focus or putz thru their work-making the school day drag on and on. I am considering applying some of these techniques to my lovely hubby because if he were in school today-he'd definitely be labeled as unable to sit and focus without being distracted. I noticed a few things I also do-so I guess we now know the apples did not fall far from the tree. :)

I will highlight some of the lecture for you, but it certainly isn't all of it. Her book is a great source for ideas and their website has the goodies she suggests.

Tips for the learning environment:

Keep everything off the work area (this is for those that seem to find anything and everything grabbing their attention)
Allow for controlled movements (I am thinking this is where the little do-dads come into play-they can select one to a couple items that they can manipulate while working. Such as a squeeze ball or wind up critter [like the frog I bought] or a stetchy man or the Wikki-Stix) something that allows for a release of their energy without them bouncing off the walls themselves.
Avoid cluttered worksheets or reading assignments (she blocked off areas with paper that was not written on and left only open the area she wanted her son/daughter to read. Clever. It meant he read only that little area and his eyes were not overwhelmed with the other business on the page)
Use contrast (so put the worksheet/assignment on top of a colored piece of paper [folders, larger paper that is colored] to outline or frame the worksheet. I should think at least a 1/2" border or more would suffice in getting their attention. Kinda like a frame for a picture except the frame is bright and the picture is the paper they working on).
Have a reminder weight on them (for her daughter, they made a kitty that was filled with sand [now gravel] that weighed enough to help "hold her down". I am thinking this is a good idea for those kids that "fall out of their chairs" or get up constantly and may not even know why-esp. when they are not done working on their assignment/project. She said to have it on their lap about 20 mins. and then take it off for 20 then if need be put back on and so forth. That way they don't get too accustomed to the weight which would make it ineffective). Visit their site and take a look at their weighted kitty and turtles. I picked one up at the vendor booth and they do weigh more than I thought-so these are serious stay in your seat critters. We have a real kitty that does take over one's lap so I think we have this covered in our home. But if I see we need one-well I now know a good solution to fixing it.

Tips for Structuring Time:

Predict time needed (this is done with a timer. If your child gets distracted by the noise of the ticking, then use a timer that is silent [which they sell])
Give assignments one at a time
Provide feedback in a timely manner
check with the child frequently during tasks (this may not always be possible tho)
Reward attention (this is the positive approach-mention how well they are working and whatnot instead of always noticing what they are not doing)

HERE IS WHERE WORKBOXES will be a HUGE blessing to you. They met just about everything she mentioned as a help. They have all the stuff they need in the box so the child won't get distracted and become "lost" looking for a pencil or a glue stick b/cuz it will be right there for them. The assignments are in small slices and they only do one box at a time-so they know how much they need to do and what it is they are to do. They can see where they are at in their day of assignments and know that when they finish the last box, they are done. These have changed the way we do school and I even have an entire blog dedicated to ideas/helps and how to use them. You can visit my What's in the Box? blog to get more insight regarding this awesome method of organizing and streamlining your schooling.

General Tips:

Use auditory signals to get their attention (I do this and never even realized I was-LOL. Use a sound of a bell or whistle or clap to get them to get back on track)
For fidgeters: using the little toys that keep their hands busy will help redirect their attention. She mentioned something that I have noticed a lot in my life-that many adults will jingle their keys (or snap the pen or the like) and that is because they are in need of fidgeting to focus (my words not hers but you get the idea). Wouldn't cha know-just the other day at the doctor's office a guy came in and was constantly jingling his pocket change/keys (I wanted so badly to go to the guy and give him a busy item like a flour balloon**). LOL Maybe I should carry around several of those goodies to give adults, so they will have a less noisy item to fuss with!
Use novelty, props or storytelling to help promote their focus and attention (her daughter enjoyed getting her stuffed critters together to re-enact a story or lesson, which I am sure she would then remember much better than if she was staring at some words on a page).
Allow child to draw or be busy whilst the teacher is speaking/reading (I HAVE to use this technique with my kids all the time-always. My dd draws and my son will color, play with something or build with legos/toys or literally be rolling on the floor or walking around the coffee table whilst I read/instruct. They DO retain better when they are moving/fidgeting and I stand by this recommendation whole heartedly!)
Take a picture of say the toy area all cleaned up proper like. Then have that picture handy and say to the child that you want them to clean up and make the area look "like the picture" (this is a Waldorf method idea and is effective-esp. for visual learners).

**flour balloon is a high quality balloon filled with flour and then tied off. The child can squeeze and squash this to release their energy. I made one at home using a funnel and flour. Altho it isn't as big as theirs, it works. There are those squeeze balls that do the same job too.

And that wraps up this lecture. There are so many easy, little ways you can help your child-so don't despair. It is possible and it can help all of you have a smoother, less stressful day.

Oh, I wanted to mention that they have this hall pass timer thing I am seriously considering. It has two parts-one for the child (or husband who disappears whilst on a mission for ya) and the base. You program in the allotted time (up to 5 mins) and then it starts timing them when you turn it on. The base keeps track of the time too and supposedly, it will keep going [until the removable part is put back in] so you know just how much past the 5 mins. they are "late". This is a visual reminder that they have to move it to get the errand done to then quickly get back to "headquarters" to finish their work. Thinking of all the times I see my kids disappear to "go find something" or "check on something" during our mini breaks-which then becomes a lengthy vacation for them- I am so thinking this would help us out a lot. You may need one for your family too. :0)

Convention Post 1: Dyslexia: Neurodevelopmental Causes Session

2011-05-26T18:15:00.001-04:00

First off, the INCH convention (held in Lansing, MI) was set up where you could attend one of the 12 options available during each time period. So after the General Session in the morning-there were 4 periods of classes to attend. The 4 started after lunch and ended prior to dinner. On Friday, the closing General Session was at 7 (and in this case, included recognition of graduates too) Now anyone who graduated this year and wanted to walk on stage/have their name read and have the fam look on could do this. It was more of a gesture or official way to end the journey, it was not where they received their diplomas-which was the family's responsibility and to be done at home. I am not sure what my take is on this...I guess for us it is not a priority...but some folks, esp. their family members "need" to see something like this, it is a way to accomplish the look of a formal graduation And some kids want to experience that type of event-so hey, whatever floats your boat. We chose to not attend the closing session. I was pooped and my ankle was swelling up-but I bought the Keynote speaker's Cd to listen to later. So this all started Friday, and ended on Sat. afternoon. I am penning the sessions as I attended them. Some may sound mighty familiar b/cuz they were given by the same speaker (just a wee bit different topic). I will also highlight the General Sessions in their own posts.

Up first: Session on Dyslexia

given by Stephanie Lankhorst who is certified by the

International Christian Association of Neurodevelopmentalists (ICAN)

*they work with kids that have all sorts of issues, not just dyslexia

so if you have an ADD, DS, autistic, etc. child,

it would be worth investigating them

Disclaimer: I am detailing this stuff from my notes and info I received at the session-I cannot guarantee the accuracy. Research the material on the site and speak to them if you need more clarity and help.

Three of our four children have some form or another of Dyslexia-so this lecture caught my eye immediately. I wasn't so sure if it would go anywhere when the speaker first started, she seemed a bit shaky and I honestly almost got up and left. I am glad I didn't. She offered some insight as to how the brain works and what is going on when dyslexia is involved. She also mentioned several ways to work with the student to help them. I was going to stop by there booth and get a free booklet on how to do the hearing stuff, but totally didn't find them/forgot. But I did write down some ideas and helps. There are some articles on their site worth reading and you can contact them too (helps if you are in their area-check their Members by State icon/page to see if anyone is certified by you).

Basically-the goal is to get the child to use one side for all their methods of inputting information. So if you have a right handed child-you want them using their right ear/eye to collect the data so the brain isn't getting switched around when it receives it (hence dyslexic tendencies). Problem is-many will be right handed, but use their left eye more or their left ear more and that is when the issues arise.

She passed out a worksheet to check off issues your child had. So on one-I could check off that my son reverses letters or groups of letters-then scan to the right and see that means mixed-dominance issues. Ah, this I suspected for a long time and when I think back to when he was a baby-he used both hands almost equally-so perhaps this is where it became an issue-no hand seemed to "take over" which means he became interdependent on both (I am that way too). [I will see if I can scan that and get the info uploaded for you to see-] Another example on the sheet is "Does your child read slowly?" (that would be a yes) so that shows possible visual issues, mixed dominance, low auditory processing, eye tracking issues. Is he all of those? I don't think so -but it helps point toward some possible issues.

Anyway-after going thru the sheet she moved on to ways to help change the dominance or improve the skill.

To check dominance:

Hand the child a camera, Kaleidescope, paper towel tube or rolled up paper (I used the toy pirate telescope thingy) and watch which hand they pick it up with and which eye they use to look thru it. That should be there dominate hand/eye...but I am thinking one should do this a couple times, esp. if they pick it up the next time with the other hand and use the other eye. I guess that would definitely show a mixed dominance.

To check their hearing dominance: stand behind them and ask them to keep their head straight until you say something (she suggested holding up a sheet of paper and then speaking behind it) -watching to see which way they turn their head. Also-ask them to pick up a phone (play or real) and see which ear they put it to initially to answer it; or give them a large sea shell and tell them to listen to the ocean sounds in it. That will tell you their dominant ear.

If they are using the opposite eye/ear than their hand-you know there is an issue.

Ways to help improve correct use (same side):

Army crawl 2x a day for approx. 3 min. each set.

(this works to help vision issues. I didn't write down what she meant by central vision issues but I know not being able to correctly copy something that is written is one clue they may struggle with it. I wish I could remember what she said were some of the other signs but alas-I cannot...sorry.)

Pinhole glasses 15 mins. per day while using computer or watching TV

I think you can buy them thru them or on line..not sure really

These are for those children struggling with central vision issues

Flashlight w/penny taped or glued over light bulb (center)

2 mins. per day (so as many times as you can get on each eye during that time)

3 seconds on eye 10 seconds off-alternating the eyes as you go

so 3/10 on right, 3/10 on left, back to right and so on

(She said you would cover their other eye with your hand while you are flashing the light in the other-I believe this is meant to get the center eye focus)

Changing eye dominance via an eye patch or cheap glasses

I didn't note a time frame here but bet that if

they will be reading for a reasonable amt of time

(maybe 20 or more mins.)

that using the patch/glasses while doing so, will help

train the correct eye to become stronger.

The eye you do not want them to use is blurred out (she used clear nail polish on the lens). One could also use that clear contact paper (maybe a couple layers) on the lens of a cheap pair of glasses-or if your child has prescription glasses, then the contact paper would be a better idea since you only want to do this for a while each day and can take it off without ruining them. I bet the dollar stores and even Wal-Mart/Target have those glasses that are for reading (I haven't looked yet, but there has to be some that don't change the focus much). Or even sunglasses, where you pop out the eye you want them to use and keep the dark lens in the other eye and maybe darken it a bit more. This would have to be done for some time, but it is meant to get the weaker correct eye to now become the dominant one.

To change hearing dominance:

Like I mentioned, I forgot to get that brochure which I am sure had a great list of ideas-but what she mentioned was the swimmer's ear plugs and just put it in the ear you don't want them using (2 hrs per day) to help get the correct side to become dominant.

That was basically it-time ran out. I believe the folks will test/evaluate and then you can go from there, but if no one is near you or you cannot afford the program-then at least these little helps noted above should assist in lessoning the issues for your child.

Goodies we purchased at convention

2011-05-25T23:12:00.000-04:00

Like any good convention goer, we had to walk away with some goodies-and we did. I didn't find a few things I had wanted to preview and possibly purchase, so I have to just order them later. I also still have to figure out a couple things regarding our history. But for the most part, with my previous buys from used sources, and my vast collection of curricula already, I won't need to get much more. The only thing not pictured here is the Abeka math I ordered for the boy. Sad to say, the vendors simply did not have the merchandise like they used to. Many vendors I had hoped would be there were missing and those that were, well-many are not what I need. Rainbow Resources did not have as much as they used to carry either.

First day shopping finds

One of my favorite FIAR books is the Another Celebrated Dancing Bear, which is about impossible to get thru our library-so I caved and bought a beautiful hardback edition (not too spency-I think it was about $15ish) and I also bought a few new Berenstain Bear books too. My daughter bbsits these little dudes who LOVE the stories, but after going through our rather large collection a zillion times, she was hoping I would get a few new ones-which I did. I love them. I think my kids have all read the ones in our set at least a zillion times too.
The diving sub is a little gift for the boy. Plans changed and he couldn't come, so I bought him this. We have the volcano and now the sub (so of course he went right to experimenting with them when I got home)-cheap entertainment for sure. My daughter bought that popcorn pen-which really does smell like it. When she was using it during the sessions, folks kept looking around for the source of the popcorny smell-too funny. And I decided to try those crayons for the white boards (the pens seem to never come off or make a mess when we clean it) and they work pretty good. You have to rub a bit harder to get it off the board, but won't stain it up like the markers. So that was a fun find. Oh, and the cinnamon covered almonds were delish and never made it past an hour or so of buying them. That is our tradition when we go-buying warm, toasty cinnamon nuggets of awesomeness. :0)

The second day-I just couldn't decide on a couple things-so I felt it best to not get them right now. I can always order them later. So I didn't get much the second (or was it 5th time thru) around the vendor hall. The little frog and timer are from Heads Up Now! The gray and red color pencils and erasers we actually bought in an art store in downtown Lansing. We seem to always be shy of the deep red and gray colors, so I was happy to be able to buy some. I also ordered the CDs of the three main speaker sessions. Very good stuff-which I want my hubby to listen to and then I will also lend em out-too good to not share! The Ludy's and Voddie Baucham were excellent speakers. Gained some new nuggets of wisdom and thoughts to ponder (I will highlight the sessions in separate posts later).

I did have the opportunity to stop by the Heads Up Now! booth and introduce myself. I ended up chatting with Melinda and Scott Boring quite a bit. Very, very lovely couple...so if they are at your convention-be sure to stop by and say hi to them and check out their wonderful gadgets that help highly distract-able kids. I bought her book too-and am enjoying reading it. I actually reviewed their reading frames for TOS. Melinda had some great sessions (I was only able to attend one) and I learned some great new ideas for keeping the kiddos focused and on task without losing my mind or voice! Oh, and Melinda told me she wrote an article about special needs in the current Special Needs TOS planner-so if you own it, or are looking to get it-look for her article too.

Those are our goodies from convention. Look for the individual posts regarding the different sessions I went to soon-they were awesome! I also have more pics of the time with my dear daughter, but have to use the other 'puter cuz this one doesn't have the tools I need to fix red eye and to flip them....so those will be coming soon too.

Back from Convention

2011-05-21T22:05:00.002-04:00

I am dog tired and will get to the convention nitty-gritty soon (hopefully)....but thought I would leave you with one of those quips like David Letterman would do: top 10 kinda thing or "you know you are _______ by..."

yah...

so being that this is a Christian convention (altho you don't have to be to attend) they do a little "warm up" with some singing of some Christian songs-well the power point or whatever you call it was not working quite right this morn, at first..so they just dug in and belted em out....cept they forgot something....not all churches sing the new music that is so popular nowadays-leaving some of us sitting there looking pretty stupid/lame or just looking like we were refusing to sing but...here is the real issue...[at least for my daughter and I]

You know you are an old timey Lutheran when everyone about you is singing some new fangled Christian music that you have never heard (nor most likely ever will in church) before and haven't a clue as to what it is or what the words are.

And there you have it-my "top of the morning to ya" convention experience. I breathed a sigh of relief when the words came up on screen and then they sang some I actually knew. Whew.

**if you are wondering-we usually attend the service with Traditional music-so we could prob'ly belt out the oldies and most of the attendees this morn would have sat there scratching their heads. 17th, or 18th century hymn [old German like]-oh yea. New music that is all fresh and alive-not so much. They do offer a service a couple times per month with hip new music, but it is the late service and we usually are long gone by then. I also do have some music on my iPod "wanna be" MP3 player, that I listen to and love-but not all that stuff...and I simply don't listen to music enough to know this stuff. So yes, there you have it.

Water Color Project instructions

2011-05-04T18:23:00.001-04:00

I just copied/pasted my pal's instructions. I am hoping I put the right pictures with the steps, to help you see what it should do-but folks, I am kinda guessing, so please forgive me on that. :0)

Just go for whatever happens -happens here-esp. if it is your first attempt. I actually cut down to size, some left over white board (from Home Depot-the stuff I used for our white board in the classroom) but anything that is slightly larger than the paper size, and is hard enough to not absorb water, will do. We used painters tape to seal around the edges. About 1/2 inch or so around the edges-keep it tight or it will bleed, losing that nice edging. The rest of course, will stick to the board. Try not to move the boards if possible. Otherwise, wait until they are dry before doing so. Otherwise, paints will run, plastic wrap will pop off and so forth.

1. There are 3 main kinds of watercolor paper -- rough, cold press and hot press (smooth) -- we used rough. As for the paper-it is expensive-we just purchased out right from Michaels and tore them into 6 pieces each. If you only have a few students-obviously, you can have larger papers.

Arches brand is the best and you can get books (called blocks-so you won't need a board then) .. like this... http://www.dickblick.com/products/arches-watercolor-blocks/ -- it is glued down on all 4 sides so you have a flat surface that doesn't move until you cut it off the block. OK here is from Michaels ... http://www.michaels.com/Arches/products-artsupplies-arches,default,sc.html

2. Using painters tape, tape paper down to a solid surface (example white erase board) not cardboard.

3. Have plenty of water, watercolors (cheap Crayola works fine) and a "good" paint brush that holds water (not one that comes with the Crayola paints), and a rag or paper towel

4. You will need some leaves-real or fake to use on the day they trace. Variety is good!

5. You will also need a pencil, saran wrap, reg. table salt, a couple Q-Tips and Rubbing Alcohol. Oh and an old toothbrush if doing the spatter technique.

Steps to paint the picture:

1. Paint the whole blank paper with water, with a big brush drip yellow and blue and red (primary colors) onto the paper. This is called WET ON WET painting. The colors will blend on their own, if there is enough water and fill the page. Let dry with out working on it.

Here you can see the various early stages....

2. Trace leaves "artfully" across your dry painting. We used artificial ones of various sizes and shapes.

You can see the red, yellow, blue bleeding in the background,

the sketching of the leaves there and the saran wrap.

Actually the purple leaf has the rubbing alcohol affect on it too.

3. Pick a leaf outline and paint it with water then with paint, again this is WET ON WET painting. You can try part of the leaf yellow and part red = if there is enough water and paint the colors will blend and make orange. Do other leaves that DO NOT touch. You can also try WET ON DRY -- leave the leaf outline dry and paint on it with just wet paints. These will not blend, they will stay the exact colors you pick. Let dry.

Saran Wrap look.

4. Now that everything is dry again... pick another leaf and do WET ON WET again -- take a small piece of plastic wrap (Sranwrap) and place it on the leaf while still wet. Do not crinkle it up too much but it should have lines and over laps on it. Do not push down on it either, it will push the paint and water out of the leaf outline. Let it dry with the wrap on it. When it is dry you can peel off the wrap and it will look like a crinkled leaf.

Red leaf has the Rubbing Alcohol technique, the light blue and purple ones

also appear to have the Saran Wrap look.

5. Pick another leaf that has everything around it dry and do another WET ON WET (use fun fall colors like green, yellow, orange, red, brown) and then use a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol. Dip the Q-tip in the alcohol and dot the leaf. Let it dry. It will look like a bug was eating the leaf or cool mold was taking over.

Notice the spattered look this student got from using the toothbrush. Very nice.

6. After all leaves are painted there are a couple of other techniques that you can play with. You can use a toothbrush and splatter wet paint on dry paper. You can add a new layer of paint to an already painted leaf that you think needs more color. Try not to over work your picture, watercolor should flow like water.

This one shows the salting results quite nicely.

Be sure there is plenty enough water on it to absorb the salt-

not enough, the salt will just stick.

7. When all leaves are done the negative space needs a wonderful dark wash. We used a beautiful dark blue with some people adding a touch of purple or green (depending on if they had lots of purple leaves -- they added green, or green leaves -- they added purple). Remember to use lots of water and it should be WET ON WET again to get it to flow and blend. While it is still wet take a pinch or 3 or 4 and scatter it over the "water" let it dry with the salt on it. The salt will move the paint and water out of the way in a fun star-like way.

Nice mix of the techniques on this beauty.

8. Once you are all done and it is dry, take off the tape and look at your painting. Notice how the different layers (or washes) show through. That first step of yellow, red and blue can be seen in interesting places, like where the salt moved the water. Or where a leaf has a sunny hue under it but is painted green too. Figure out which side is up and make sure you sign and date your work.

This is a very young 4 yr olds. So even the little guys can make a keepsake!

Be proud of your hard work and patience. It is amazing how everyone can use the same instructions and they all look so individual and unique! Remember to not worry about "mistakes" after it is all done and you look at the whole picture it looks like you wanted it to do that and it wasn't a mistake after all!

Another 4 yr olds-quite impressive~

Here is a good website to see some more watercolor techniques... http://www.watercolorpainting.com/watercolor-tutorials.htm

Darker background choice on this one-bleeding, salt

and Rubbing Alcohol show up nicely on this one.

Good leaf color changes, outlines and leaf variance

(and my boy is color blind so he cannot even appreciate

some of these dark colors, esp. the deep purple

and grays-but still not too shabby!)

There you have it-our co-op kids' works of art! I will post the stray student's pic once I get it-she was absent that last day.

Hey, when you all get yours done-link the post to my comments section, as I would love to see what you all did! Be sure to frame your beautiful pieces of art too!

Easter Craft-mini bunnies

2011-04-19T13:44:00.000-04:00

Now, Easter is my fav. holiday/biblical celebration, and we know full well that it isn't about bunnies and chocolates and plastic eggs. But it is fun to create a few crafts that scream "spring" and this is one of them. If you don't like to mix bunnies with your Easter celebration, this would still be a fun craft for spring or when you study bunnies/animals and what not.

You will need to do the following to make your bunnies:

*1/2 and 1/2 or small milk containers-one per child (rinse and rinse and then do a final rinse with a touch of bleach in the water to kill any milk and smell that may remain-let dry completely)

*stapler (staple close the opening you pour the milk from. I waited until I cut the ears/sides out to make it easier to get that area cut out-but you can do this first if you wish)

*Sharpie pen to mark out the ears and sides to cut along (I did this and even cut it out-saves time and it is not that important for the kids to do). They should take up the better part of the top, you can trim it down a bit so the ears don't touch (b/cuz the cotton fuzz will)-stop at the fold near the pouring area.

*scissors and a sharp pointed cutter to start the ears. I cut the ears out first, then did the side trim.

*hole puncher-make a hole in the middle of the top rim of the container. This is where you will pull the whiskers thru. I actually had the kids put the pipe cleaners thru before gluing. I had 2 pipe cleaners per bunny, but it is up to you. You can use pipe cleaner or yarn or whatever you have that looks like whiskers.

Yes, have the kids wear old clothes: glue, fuzzies and reg. boys gone crazy junk

will get all over their shirts.

*Pink paper for the middle of the ears. Cut out smaller than ear size but it doesn't need to be perfect, the cotton will cover a lot of it. Glue on the ears in the middle of them.

*glue, a container for it and paint brushes. It is simply easier to "paint" the glue on the box than squeeze it on.

*Cotton balls. I had a bag of 100 and I have plenty left (we did 2) so hopefully, that will help you judge the amt you need [1/3 bag or so was left over]. Have the child glue the sides, add cotton balls and keep going until the outside of the bunny is filled in nicely. We tore the balls into smaller pieces for the ears (front) and to fill in spaces. I suggest packing them in good on the facial area, esp. around the pipe cleaners. Pack them in tight to hold those in place and puff up the face as they wish with layers. Glue a big puff on the rump for the tail. We glued/cotton balled the back of the ears down a bit and my ds also did one row on the insides. You will stuff the center with Easter grass, so you don't need to be too worried if it is plain on the insides.

*add googly eyes, and a pom-pom nose (or you could use a button, paper, etc.) and your bunny is ready to go. Let it dry good though, before adding grass and placing on your table. Stuff with grass and add some eggs/goodies to finish it off.

Hippity Hoppity Easter is on its way.

6 Step Water Color art project-cross post

2011-04-15T11:26:00.001-04:00

I am cross posting this b/cuz I am not sure where to put this-LOL...art idea (so obviously on my Scrap and Lapbook one, but also CM co-op, so yes-on my CM blog and thought you all would like to see this too).

During our Co-op the kids worked on a 6 step water color project. I have to get the exact directions still, but thought I would share the results-they are beautiful (and they didn't even turn out like they were "suppose" to-so we'll do this again to see how we do the second time around. Doesn't matter-I am quite pleased with them!)

Using watercolors, a series of steps, saran wrap, salt, rubbing alcohol, and lots of water-plus a black pen for outlining-this is what we got and I cannot wait to frame and display these beauties!

Final results are striking. DD's is horizontal, DS's is vertical

close up of dd's-salt is the white splashes, round dots-I believe is rubbing alcohol...have to check tho

close up of the saran wrap leaf-it is suppose to leave these marks-dd's didn't work right-prob'ly b/cuz we had to move them to dry (due to being at the church and we couldn't leave them out)...so when we do this at home, they will stay put to see if we get better results.

I will post some more of the other kids too-have to get them transferred to this puter first-but they are gorgeous! I am so proud of our little watercolor artists! Look for the update soon-

A great hsing moment-kinda wordy but well worth it

2011-04-07T21:18:00.001-04:00

So invariably, there comes a time in a young student's life when he just cannot be bothered with "schooling" you see, and is much too busy with thoughts of toys, playing a game on the computer and/or other boy thoughts (like busting loose from his mother's staring green eyes as she tilts her head in the manner that means nothing other than serious business)....

So here we are having another one of "those" weeks. Things are getting done on a smaller scale than the head mistress is wanting and 'tudes are teetering one step below "this shalt earn some discipling if it continues" ...so as we gathered the day previous, to settle into our usual meeting place (the couch) to listen to the story of the day (Matchlock Gun) for our history lesson-this little "AH gottcha" moment occurred. Fear not newbies to hsing, these days will come and for those who haven't seen one of these in so long you are beginning to believe it is merely an old wives tale....hang tight, as it will happen again and when it does-your heart will sing!

Walk with me down this memory lane, if you please. Mother is seated and poised to vocalize this story to a boy who not only will be interested in the subject matter, but most likely will "eat it up" due to the boy theme, gun toting and adventure loving moments. She calls said student over to hear this enrapturing story (OK, I may be stretching it but hey I can peal out a story like a fine trained story weaver if need be~ and I needed to be spot on this day). Head Mistress waits and calls again-perhaps student's ears are full of wax and he simply didn't hear the request (even tho he was but a mere 15 ft away, in the same room). Request reverberates across the room, this time with a sternness that indicates punishment may soon follow, if not met quickly. Student bemoans the entire 15 ft walk to meeting place, asking "why" and "how long". Head Mistress is confused, after all of the books we have been reading of late (minus the Chronicles of Narnia) this one meets and exceeds this student's awesome factor list. Mother Mistress beckons child to her side and promises-just 3 chapters then.

image from amazon.com

The book (acquired from library not so nearby, seemingly unopened and never read-the HORROR) is cracked open and the intro read. Boy asks how long this will take. Mother dear chokes back a rhetorical statement that would probably be followed by tears (hers not his), and chose to simply ignore rude comment. Mother reads and completes the intro, looks up triumphantly to see twisted face of student (as though his skin is being pricked by a million quills from a porky porcupine)....she pushes on.

First chapter brought mild interest, a bit of confusion until the page with the Matchlock gun is displayed. Hmm, he has seen those on historical shows/at museums. Interest peaks slightly. Mother moves to chapter 2...mind you in pure story telling splendor with voice inflections that would make a professional ooo and ahh in delight. Mother is pouring it on thicker than a chilled maple syrup. Suddenly, a student of despair speaks out (wiggly, distracted and just about to spring from his "imprisonment" if not released soon)..."Are we done yet?"

from Nat'l Firearms Museum site

Mother dear has had it. Insulted perhaps too. "What is so important that you cannot sit for 15-20 mins to hear this wonderful boy story?"

Guilt flashes over boy's face, "Forget it." is heard and mother says, "OK fine, just one more chapter. You will survive."

The third chapter begins to wind down, mother's voice growing dry and raw from the dramatic inflectional reading skills-she too wants this misery to end. Deflated and sad that that she somehow misread the student's love of such things, she looks at puppy dog eyed boy and says just a couple pages left. But here is where that moment occurs. The MOMENT educators across the globe yearn for....

But wait! What is this dear reader? Could it be?

Perhaps due to Mother Mistress's distress, she doesn't notice that the boy has snuggled deeper into her side, and that he genuinely has become "drawn into the story". Then Mother finishes last sentence in chapter 3.

About to shut the book, to go find some water and chocolate to drown her deflated self in-the boy loudly protests. DID you catch that dear reader? He asked, no begged, to have another chapter read. Trying to not alarm child with a major "WHOOHHHOOO", mother dear quickly records this event into her memory scrapbook, deep within her mind.

Then another chapter comes to an end and the request stands, with a flourishing, "Let's just finish it."

WHOA there. That is what we call the "moment", where the child begs for something they originally thought they had no need to hear/learn or partake in. Ah joy. He did like it [Mother isn't so off the target after all]-the fleshy desire to not want to "do school" because he had other intentions, was flipped over to "I want to hear it all."

Mother Dear and Student Once Protester melted into one cuddly, learning bundle of sweetness. Boy walks away having stated he really enjoyed the story, that he really liked the gun, and how the boy was able to fire it. And how scary it would be to do it, but he'd have been brave and done it. Ah. Ah and ah again.

These moments do exist and they do increase in frequency. Mother Mistress' mistake was to start the day way too late...and boy's mistake was to think he could balk his way out of a lesson. Fight for those moments dear reader, they are worth it.

And there is my great homeschooling moment of the week. It's been a good week indeed.

**and Mother did get that water to replenish her wasteland dry throat from reading the entire book, and that chocolate too.

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

2011-04-01T08:00:00.017-04:00

BOOYAH! It is party time. I am excited to once again take part in this fun Blog party! So the gist of the party is to you know-work the "room" and meet folks, mention a little ditty about yourself and so-here we are.

This is my main blog. I started this one to serve as my welcome center and basic "what's going on in our lives" update blog. My name is Sheri, I am Christian, I have been a wife for 23 years to my BFF Dave, and a mom for just about as long-as we have 4 beauties.

We've been HSing for over 16 yrs, and I love to blog-hence the reason I have 5 of them. We're starting our path toward adoption of a special needs child, and so be sure to come back often and follow up on our life, our hsing adventures and just stupid, random posts.

I also encourage you to visit Reece's Rainbow's homepage to read about these precious, precious babies. Even if you have no intention of ever adopting, many families have that calling and are in need of financial assistance to procure their child's "ransom" from a sure death sentence, and most assuredly can use your prayers!

Finally, I penned a ditty on each of my blogs, so that you could read up on their purpose and intent. I hope you will decide to follow me and visit often. My whole goal is to help others and bless them with ideas/projects and info. And if you are on FB-I have the link on my side bar-hope you FB friend me too!

A Charlotte Mason HS Sampler Blog

What's in the Box? (workbox blog)

1 of 100 TOS Crew Review Blog (hs and various product reviews)

Scrapbooking and Lapbooking by Sheri (my artsy blog)

OH and one more thing-I am a prayer warrior for 3 precious Reece's Rainbow children...to help build their adoption funds-I will be hosting some give aways on my blog.

Up first will be Bridget (who is nearing the aging out age and that is not good folks). I will be hosting a

Scents and Sensibility Give Away

for her near the end of May/early June.

Please come back and visit to read about how you can enter to win a great prize package and help a family bring their child home.

Grab This!

Be sure to right click on the box below and then select all.

Visit my Give Away Needs page to see if you can help

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you enjoyed meeting me!

Posts on the books we're doing in our co-op based on FIAR

2011-03-22T17:55:00.000-04:00

I have a couple posts done now, regarding the FIAR books we are doing in our co-op. I have very limited time to do stuff and with only 2 sessions per book, I have to be very persnickety about what projects we can do. I would love to delve in deeper with the booklets, activities and crafts-but alas-just not to be. Hope you can glean a few ideas for your own studies.

I will also have a another post on our last book, Miss Rumphius, which the teens will be teaching...and I will have another post showing how I decided to pull the goodies together into a book for the kids. My son has a FIAR lapbook that we are still working thru-so he has plenty of room to add his booklets/projects there, and so I will showcase that as well, once I get the 3rd book completed from the co-op. The nice thing is that even though I have limited time, I am still able to get a few things done and the kids are getting drawn into the stories...which is huge! :0)

You can read about

A Pair of Red Clogs
Mailing May
Miss Rumphius
Cop-op student's book to pull it together
My son's FIAR book (I actually have some posts regarding this, so I have those posts linked here-but not the 3 from the co-op yet) Higgins Bend, Main post on the FIAR book (Arabella and the Pumpkin Runner are highlighted)

SO yesterday was about how Sissy showed up to enjoy Brother's activity

2011-01-31T14:39:00.000-05:00

Here is what happens when Sissy and I were working thru her biology. His math manipulative set (we used earlier to get the division thing visual-which may or may not of done the trick...still working on it) became, well- a town. So I guess he found a way to occupy himself whilst we discussed the innards of a fish. Wish he'd on not done it on my dining room table-those matchboxes tend to scratch the surface of the table. Hmm-
Well-who says math can't be fun? LOL Just another slow Monday here-not much going on but what is-is creative.

When Sissy sees what brother is up to for his studies (on Diamonds)

2011-01-30T15:32:00.000-05:00

So we are wrapping up our Curiosity Files: Blue Diamond studies by TOS. One of the activities was to chip away at cookies to reveal some "diamonds" and hey-chocolate ones are so awesome! So he was doing the project and big Sissy was like, "How come I don't get cool projects like that?" So we offered her up one of the 4 to do. Ah-gotta love moments like that. You can read about this unit study, over on my 1 of 100 (Plus 25) TOS Crew Review Blog. I actually have reviewed another-the Puffer Fish one and am working on the Quick Sand unit study too.

Anyway-this is one of those moments where-

"You can learn your lesson and eat it too!"

Homeschooling thoughts-not to give up

2011-01-23T14:13:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are-almost done with January of a new year and I wonder if I have lived up to my hopes for this school year. I started out all geeked and ready-huge difference in getting into the groove and accomplishing things. Then we had the unexpected trip to Hawaii with my hubby, so that took out about 3 weeks worth of time-mostly recovery from the time change! Then it started rolling into the holiday season and I felt overwhelmed, like I didn't do much. But after going back through all the paperwork, lapbooks, and such-I see that we did do some stuff and mostly stayed on track. So that was definitely an uplifting moment-cuz I really felt like I bombed it.

But even though we have not accomplished what I had hoped by this point in the year-I can say we are working toward our goals and that alone is worth a high five. My biggest problem is that I have not simply had the time I wanted to get my pre-planning and printing/cutting/packaging for future use done. I dunno why really, but I am sluggish in that department of late. SO my goal between now and mid-Feb. is to get some of it done and sketched out to help guide us. I need to be focused and sadly, I have not been. I wonder what is up with me? I only have to do a quick flip thru my memory cells to know that answer, and need to cut myself some slack-but I also need to get my rear in gear.

SO what do I want to accomplish with the kiddos this next term?

For the teen: get her through her Life of Fred book (which is so not how I learn math) and move her into Consumer Math. Wrap up the dreaded Biology that has taken forEVER to get thru (b/cuz we don't do it every day) and start her in Astronomy soon. Continue working her through the IEW module and then carry that idea over to other subjects so she gets plenty of writing experience. Start her on ACT practice (which I am not sure if she will even take yet-testing is a struggle for her and I dunno if she really even needs it...I know our local Comm. College doesn't require it to be admitted)...and continue on with our artist study (Winslow and Grandma Moses), another Composer (??) and one more Shakespeare play. She will also move along in her Copywork material, LLATL (almost done) and History. Once that history is done-I may have her go back to Medieval or Ancient history...or simply read more 20th Century books covering the Vietnam war and beyond. I haven't decided just yet. That is the basic hope anyway.

For the boy: continue working him through the Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading and get him fluent in reading (huge struggle that is taking forEVER due to his dyslexia), continue him on with his copywork, history (American), wrap up his Astronomy and move him to a bunch of fun experiments until we start the Flying Creatures on the 5th Day, in the early summer; and keep up the pace with one FIAR book (IV set) per month, and a couple various lapbooks too. He is continuing through his Abeka grade 3 math book but has hit a snag with division-so I have to stop for a week or two and have him work on hands-on projects that get that concept thru to him.

Both kids are working through their Bible studies as planned (Yippeeee) and we started the Narnia Chronicles and will work through each book until we are done. That is their big lit. projects and when I can I add some fun, out of the ordinary things to liven up our days.

Can I do it? I dunno-but I have hope and am praying for perseverance. I will try my best. Only time will tell...but the reason I am posting all this gobbleygoop is that I am seeing that this is a huge time of the year when others are fading so fast and losing hope. They are toast- and many we simply cannot blame, they have some big issues to deal with-but I so hate to see others throw in the towel. I am not foolish enough to think that everyone is meant to homeschool, or continue hsing all the way thru to graduation...but too many are giving up too soon. It is a battle and a big one. And there are plenty of Satan motivated days that almost snap even the hardiest warrior in half. Those are the times when you must pull back and hit the floor in prayer. Stop all extra commitments and clean house (meaning getting rid of laborious, tedious and non-essential curriculum/work) to just focus on being a family. Take more days off during the week to do some game playing, snuggling whilst reading a good book, baking, crafting, field trips and laughing! The math will always be there. The science can wait. You can work back into a reg. routine soon enough. Changing up how you homeschool can bring in such refreshing change that you'll wonder why you didn't try it sooner. Sometimes we (the parent) are so fearful we'll mess the kids up, set them behind their peers, or miss teaching them something utterly important-well, after these many years of hsing, I can tell you this...

you will miss stuff
you will mess them up at times
you will be behind in things
and you will on occasion-lose your marbles
you may yell
you may cry
you may wonder why God created children
you may plot a one way trip for yourself to Rancho Relaxo to never be seen or heard from again
and you may, you may
think you will never get through another day with these creatures

But as someone who has been there and felt the whole gamut of emotions-turn those thoughts around and consider these things too-it makes all the difference:

you are your child's best teacher
you love your child and know them best
you have the Lord on your side-where you miss, mess up and/or (unavoidably)create gaps-HE can fill and bring those lessons to them when HE needs them to have them
you cannot be it all and neither can a school system or someone else
GOD provides you with everything you need-you just need to pray, ask and wait
you will never get back those moments (good, bad or indifferent) and they fly by!
you will never, ever regret those tender moments and prob'ly will get a good family chuckle out of the bad moments down the road
and most importantly
the most worthy, and noble things in life come only by hard work, dedication and a lot of sweat and tears. This is not a picnic folks-it takes grit. It takes more than most are willing to even try for because it is hard! Let it instead, be a part of who you are, the way you live-not something you compartmentalize into "school stuff". Lowering our expectations to their abilities, not what we think they should be-but what they really are, then add a dash of encouragement, so they push for just beyond that. Recognize your child's "trigger" points and work the schedule around them-not the other way around (so if you child has frequent melt-downs by 1 pm-focus on getting the work done before then so they can have free time all afternoon). Do shorter lesson periods (this is a biggie-no 6 year old needs an hour of math per day-15-20 min is way more than needed), engage in more hands on things that yes-teach (baking, building, sewing, etc.), and most importantly-
stop worrying about everyone else's kids and how yours measure up to them-no child should ever have to bear that albatross around their neck. God created each of us to be individuals, with our unique and beautiful talents/skills. Encourage them to work past their road blocks, and always expect just a bit more than what they can do-and even if they don't reach it-praise them for their dedication, hard work and effort.

And remember-if they are being little stinkers and are fighting you tooth and nail-that is not an academic issue-
it is an issue of the heart.
and that needs to be dealt with before any of the disruptive school behavior is resolved.

I hope this brings some thoughts and ideas to you and helps you to continue forth. Look to God to help you walk the tough times, so that you can bask in the blessings you will bear when your journey ends. Sometimes it is us-the parent-that needs to die to self and start walking as Christ demands us to-in love and not out of selfish gain. Tall order, but doable. He will always provide for you and He will never ask more of you than can tolerate.

Trying it again-The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading program

2010-09-14T18:30:00.000-04:00

So, if you follow my review blog 1 of 100 (plus 25) TOS Crew Reviews, then you may remember a product I was given to test out the Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading back in 2008/09 {I didn't seem like a good fit for us then}. At the time, I was overwhelmed with several things, and so this one just seemed to frustrate and confound me and the boy. I knew it could work, I just wasn't sure if my dyslexic child could "handle" it and if I could ever figure out how to teach it. I had to put it aside for a time....well to just last week actually.

Our biggest struggle with this child, is that he is the most dyslexic of our [only our oldest child is not] children afflicted by it (and yes-it is an affliction....doesn't mean you cannot succeed and do well in life-it just means it takes longer to learn some things-such as reading; and one needs to find ways to work with and around it). So we have been going over and over and over the same concepts and getting just about no where. I am exhausted, he is downtrodden by it and yet-we cannot give up and "chuck it" out the window. He needs to read-for life! So, after trying several dyslexic friendly programs, reading several books (some more than once or even more than twice), and repeating (kind of like the movie "Groundhog's Day") the same material hoping for a break thru....(and granted we have had some) but it is not where he needs to be-we're giving this a try again.

Now this post is not meant to slam my precious child-but rather to give hope to those who are in the same boat with me...to encourage and offer another option to try. I want to write about this because I have watched my other 2 precious dyslexics struggle, struggle some more, start to figure it out, get on track and then with patience and time-read and read well. LIKE really well-so there is hope- it can be worked through, it can be squashed folks-it can.

If you personally do not have a child with dyslexia, then what I am penning may sound well-odd. Aren't all kids suppose to be reading fairly well by oh-6 or 7? If you don't have a child who has more than the average struggles in reading-then you cannot understand the depth and scope of the issue. That is a whole 'nother post...but suffice it to say-most children with it (depending on the intensity of it) it is a daily battle to have their brain interpret the printed word. It is also a struggle for the one trying to teach them to read (and retain what they know) and to persevere. It simply breaks our hearts and can (if not properly handled) destroy any love of reading (let alone the ability to do so) for the child.

Anyhoo-I am all about giving the dyslexic child the time they need to "get it" and some kids take longer than others-but he himself has shown he is embarrassed at times by it, and definitely frustrated that he cannot read as well as his counterparts. So our goal this year is to get him reading at a level that is closer to his age mates. We'll take it as it comes, and keep plodding along-hopefully, with more success.

That said-I was in prayer, and lo and behold-the Lord put that program in my heart. OK, I can do it -as long as I can figure out what I am suppose to do and do it right. I watched the intro video again, scoured thru the material again, and decided to give it another shot. So-here we are, 2 weeks into it and so far, so good. He knows some of what we are covering, and that is making it easier. We didn't need to do the alphabet part and such, and we have been able to go thru most the vowel teams fairly well...so we are into week 4 now and finding (his words) that he "likes this program." GOOD! That is half the battle. So one of the ideas is to have the children make letters/vowel teams, etc. out of clay or write in sand (altho his father would whoop his behind if he wrote the letters on a dirty car [one suggestion by the author]-bad, BAD idea there-writing words in the dust/dirt of a vehicle scratches the paint-and if it is a newer car, you can kiss that shiny coating good-bye....don't do it!) so I had him make Play-Doh ropes to build the vowel teams...here are some shots to 'splain it....

I had him use different colors for the different groups. The red dots are above the ones that are "never" used at the end of a word-kind of a visual to help his remember (and it worked).

I was finding he could remember the sounds these teams make when shown the flashcards-but (common for dyslexics-at least my kids)...but when the time came to write it "cold" or do this activity...he struggled. This uses several areas (visual, kinesthetic, and tactile) which is helping cement them into the brain there for him. It will have to be done a lot tho (he forgot a few sounds today when I quizzed him)-but we'll keep on keeping on

I am excited to see if this may be the answer we have been so prayerfully looking for. I think I will cry when we get to week 5. Especially if he gets through it successfully-without too many glitches. I will keep you posted....

I am going to update (probably once per month) on his progress. Perhaps this will bless a few other folks who are in this battle with me. If anything-someday my boy will be able to read about this journey we've been on. I think this will be quite a lesson in perseverance for us both.

**now some tips just in case you wanna borrow em :

for the ay and ai-we say "this is what the Fonz says" (yes, my kids know the Fonz cuz we watch the Happy Days reruns) so he actually remembers with that clue. [aayyyhhh]

for the oy and oi-I tap my forehead like I forgot something-it helps him too. [oiiiiii]

I will add more when we create em as we go thru this....I am all about clues man-all about em. :0)

The Outdoor Hour Challenge -Queen's Anne Lace

2010-09-12T19:38:00.004-04:00

Today was a beautiful day-picture perfect. I couldn't resist the call to nature-so I printed off the notebook page on the Queen Anne's Lace study, grabbed Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study, the kids' nature supply totes and well-the kids. We went to up the to the "hill prairie" (another section of our sub that has not been developed)...and found quite a abundance of the precious weed...here are some pics.....

We chose to use on pencils in our sketches this time. Since this is a year long study, we have plenty of opportunities to use several other mediums...which will be fun to compare. Unfortunately, it doesn't photograph well-I tried to darken them a bit so you could see.

The boy's (he dictated and I wrote what he observed)

The teen's (she decided she would do more observation than drawing

because once she starts-she gets very detailed..so this is her quick sketch)

I did a bit of both. The object here is not to sketch a perfect looking likeness, but to

learn to observe, and take in the amazing handiwork of our Lord.

You can find out all about this great The Outdoor Hour study on Barb's Handbook of Nature Study blog-which is an awesome place to visit!

New site for homeschoolers offers free stuff-yes!

2010-09-01T09:48:00.002-04:00

So lookie what I had found out about...Lapbook Lessons and Curriculum Share are giving away this awesome new Time Travelers kit from Homeschool in the Woods. I love HS in the Woods stuff! I was even fortunate to review a couple items of hers whilst on my TOS cruise...you can read about those here:
Olde World Maps and the New Testament Lapbook Kit.

HS in the Woods Giveaway

Visit this great new site: Curriculum Share

This is one sweet idea!

I am always excited to share ways for HSers to expand their repertoire and jazz up their studies-and this is certainly one way to do so!

*I am simply sharing info here-no financial or other compensation was received for doing so. I could win this giveaway-but that is not necessarily my reason for blogging about it.

Homeschooling is a Labor of Love-and that is why TOS is offering this great deal for a year's worth subscription

2010-08-31T18:44:00.002-04:00

I have said this over and over again-the Old Schoolhouse Magazine is one of the best magazines out there! NO-the best. SO why not take advantage of this awesome promo? I mean, you get in depth articles, advice, product reviews and more, in a glossy-well designed periodical.

I get all excited when I see a new issue stuffed in our mailbox. I savor the time I spend going from back to front (yes, a weird thing about my reading habits there-I flip thru it initially from front to back; but read the articles from back to front-go figure hey?) in this most needful magazine. I love gaining new insight (and even tho I am considered an ole pro after this many years of HSing-I still love to learn new things and about new products) to help me be a better homeschooling momma.

For just slightly (although after stepping into a few trendy coffee houses, this actually is about the same price) higher than one serving of a name brand coffee-you can have 4 beautiful issues to flip through over and over again.

Labor of Love Blow-out special from TOS

Aug. 30-Sept. 15 or until the 5000 mark is reached

Now here is the "skinny" straight from the TOS headquarters:

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is extending an extraordinary

subscription offer to homeschool families. Receive a one-year print

subscription for just $7.95 or a one-year plus current issue

subscription for $12.95. One-year subscriptions start with the winter

issue. The one-year plus current issue starts with the fall issue.

Only 5000 of these special subscriptions are available from August 31

through midnight on September 15. Once the 5000 are gone, they'’re gone!

Hurry and grab this crazy price today!

This won't last-so join the hundreds and hundreds of other wise HSing parents-get yourself a subscription now!

***This is part II of a a post agreement to help promote the sales at the Old Schoolhouse Magazine. I will receive the free October Expo to Go Kit, in exchange for blogging about these exciting happenings. No other financial compensation was received for doing so.

CSN review time-What'd I pick?

2010-08-23T14:17:00.001-04:00

So awhile back, I posted a ditty on the CSN Stores and a few options I had narrowed my spending spree to. I lamented and pondered, then hashed it out with my hubby, before we made our decisions.

I initially wanted the rug for the front hall-but alas, seemed everyone else did too. I began to wonder if there was some sort of rug-buying spree of which I was unaware...but no, they are just that popular, and remarkably cute (if rugs can be cute that is). So, due to my wanting to partake in the CSN experience before summer's end, I went with the next most needed item, the Winsome 24" Counter Stool Set for the kitchen island.

$62.99 for set (includes shipping)

We unpacked those puppies faster than a hungry dog devours a plate of leftovers-and we giggled in delight as soon as we saw them (you'll have to read why in part II of my pre-review post and here is part I- just so you can follow the whole story) . They are very, very nice and for the money. Man, I have been looking at a variety of stools at the stores, and have not seen much to equal them, especially for that price! What made me more excited, was that I did not have to dash out and buy some of those nail-in plastic caps to place on the legs. You know the kind-so one's hardwood floors don't end up being trashed due to rough, scratchy-bottomed stool legs raking across it. They came ready to go with nice little white protectors in place. Sweet.

The final test was the quality level of these stools. Can they withstand the daily wear and tear that 5 adults and one kid will surely put them through? I would have to say that they most certainly can handle this family-as they are made of thick, solid wood; and are strong and sturdy, and are comfy too. So they are definitely a keeper. We're very pleased with these and would highly recommend them!

Next on the line up was something of a curve ball really. Altho, we could have chosen any number of things, especially something on our original list of 6-we decided that sheets for our king-sized bed took precedence. Yeppers-so I took a look see in the Bedding and Linen section, narrowed it down to my price range and needs and found these babies...

Wildon Home Sateen Sheets (300 count thread) $35 for set (any size)

See the flowers there-we chose the sheet color they are sitting on, called "Sand".

These are exactly what I had hoped they would be (after all, sometimes buying on line, you cannot be sure of the quality of the product) as they not only met, but exceeded my expectations! They are so soft, and comfy-I didn't want to get out of bed after our first nite of trying them out! They have deep pockets to fit our thicker mattress, are "Sateenish" in nature and best of all-they are not falling apart or coming unraveled in the wash. I am very pleased with these, and will be snapping up a couple more in the future.

So both items proved to be winners for us. But one of the biggest aspects of supporting and/or continuing to shop at any store-is their customer service. I was very pleased by CSN's care and attention to the details. Amazingly, I purchased them on Friday; and by Monday (sheets) and Tuesday (the stools) of the following week, I had them in my possession-no joke! I guess you could say that truly is speedy delivery! And upon placing the order, I received notification concerning their status, with an estimated delivery time noted, as well. Very professional and prompt! I am sure there are items that may take longer-but "Golly gee Wally", that is something to behold. I have also received follow-up emails to rate the product/service, so that they can continue to strive to be a great company-one you'd want to not only recommend to your family and friends, but one you'd shop at again.

So all in all-this was a great experience and I do recommend the CSN Stores for your online purchasing needs. I hope you take a moment or so to look through their 200+ stores-loaded with the most needful items one could use-as I am sure you won't be disappointed.

**Please be aware, I received an electronic gift certificate from the CSN Stores, to be applied toward a purchase from from any of their 200+ stores, as their way of thanking me for writing a preview review, and a review of that/those product(s). No other compensation was received in exchange for my honest opinion of their company, or the products I chose to review.

Not Back to School Blog Hop-My Classroom week 2

2010-08-09T18:31:00.003-04:00

OK, week 2 and it is all about the classroom area/learning area. Well now folks-before I go any further you need to understand something. I have not always enjoyed the benefit of having a space I could call our "classroom" and in fact, it only within the last 2 years or so that I have had one that I am satisfied with, and actually enjoy. You see, I have been doing this for so long, and due to space limitations of the homesteads over the years-have had to adjust and make do. So here I am today, with the almost (cuz I am lacking the table area and rain gutter shelves and a few odds and ends) perfect room for us. So please don't feel sad that you don't have something like this. For years I had to run to the basement, find the right tub of books, heave it out into an open area, dig thru it and pull out what we needed, then heave it back into the pile, run back up stairs and try to teach. Usually at that point, my students had gone AWOL or just lost interest...and we would sit around the dining room table and clutter it up faster than the shelves are cleared out at a Kmart Blue Light Special event! LOL. We have shifted and tucked books into any nook and cranny we could find, moved and repositioned areas-to try to get a somewhat helpful area for it all- and usually it was not a success. SOOOOO, this is a room that has been 16 ish years or so, and the sad thing is, I only have 2 students left to enjoy it.

OH, and we do not use only this room-we move to the "office" which is our couch for a lot of the read alouds and activities, the kitchen table (when Dad doesn't have it all jumbo-gumbo'd up with his office work/puter) and yes-we even school in the teacher's lounge (IE: my bed) so this is our central station, then we scoot out during different times, to get a change of scenery.

The tables are MIA at this point (taken prior to purchasing them) but they are there now, so once I get them cleaned up enough to see them (not the piles of books and junk on them) I will post it.

so this is what you see when you turn to the right upon entering our home-not the most ideal location, but it was the only free room. So much for my stance on keeping the library a retreat room for adults-LOL. We just rearranged the room within the last month or so and if you wanna see what a nightmare that was-then check out this post I wrote earlier this summer, it gives you a glimpse of just how many books one can squeeze on those shelves! LOL

There will be a table (from IKEA and a couple chairs dead center there-so it won't be so roomy. This is not a huge room, so it'll be tight, but it is nice to have the area dedicated-mostly so I can find the stuff rather easily.

Those shelves on the left-that is my teens workbox system (IKEA Trofast series), then those 3 cabinets under the dry erase board are where I hide all my science goodies, math/reading stuff, then my paper cabinet which is loaded with spiral ntbks, cardstock, glues/painting stuff, folders, loose-leaf paper, and my collection of construction and drawing papers. That is my favorite cabinet!

yes, this is blurry for whatever reason-I think I had it on the wrong setting but cuz the sun is up front on the house now-the flash won't work and so what I get is a dark shot...but I have included one that is a bit less fuzzy. The TV will be used on occasion for history videos and such, then I have an old fashioned radio that plays cassettes cuz yes-some of us still have those (and I refuse to buy a new CD when I already own it in a cassette form cuz I only have one main student left-my teen has already used those such things), and those 3 totes are where I am storing my current FIAR books, lapbooks, and State Study materials/books.

our goal is to create a window seat and curtain-but alas, there is not enough time right now...so it is an all-purpose shelf. This faces the front of the house, we get a pretty view most of the day til the sun comes in and blinds the snot out of us...[UPDATE: I laugh at this part-what's there now- a discombobulation of a laminator, a radio, several 3 ring binders for my son's stuff, and a couple piles of stuff....so as pretty as this looks here-this is not how it looks now].

found these babies at the Dollar Tree-wasn't that nice of them to stock their shelves with these fold-able totes that just happen to match my decor? [UPDATE: these are no longer used for this stuff-the lapbooks are in 3 ring binders, the other stuff in various areas and these have workbooks and projects stuffed in them].

The section with the teacher's shelf and another shelf is on the other side of the window, but right now it is a total disaster, so no pic. Sorry.

OK, so you have moved from the front look to the right around the room-after my work area is the large opening/door that is open to the front hall (bath across the way-very handy for potty breaks and with the front door there, I can make a mad dash outta the house and off to the looney bin when things get tough) and are now looking at that wall on the left of the first pic. This is where a 5 ft section X 2, of the rain gutter shelving units will go. I want to display the history and science books that we will be using or are extras discussing the subjects we are studying. That little curved shelf to the right, is where I have some of those mini-totes which hold my son's readers, misc. stuff and the bottom has my boxes with my cards for their schedule books. Their number cards and schedule books are temporarily in their dump/finished work holders til I figure out where they will live.

UPDATE (Nov. 2011): I have IKEA tables but not the fancy ones I wanted, instead we bought the $20 ones that have a white top and black pole legs. They are perfect and light weight enough for my need to constantly move stuff around. We bought some black rolling chairs from them too. I actually bought 4 tables, but it was too crowed in this tight area so I took one out so we now have a bit more room to walk around. We still have not put up any gutter shelves. OI. Just not enough room...and I don't see where I could put some outside of over the IKEA shelves. That still may happen-not sure.

I just didn't get to organizing much this past summer and so the classroom is a bit of a mess. Not something I am proud of and it is rather embarrassing b/cuz as I already pointed out-it's the first room folks see when entering the house. Perhaps over Christmas break I can figure that out. What I need is a room double the size-I have too much school stuff! LOL But seriously, a big room where I could have some areas specifically set aside would be awesome. But this is a good set up for now and I will continue to dream.

Anyhoo-that is our education area. Of course, the couch wins every time and lately the kitchen island has become rather popular for science experiments, crafts and other fun time activities.

The "Not" Back to School Blog Hop-Week 1, Curriculum Choices

2010-08-01T19:18:00.003-04:00

This is the first time I have taken part of this fun blog hop and am looking forward to reading what others are going to use (nosy I guess? LOL).

I have 2 students this year-one Jr in HS and the other will be in mostly 3rd grade materials. I will start with the high schooler and then do the boy's materials.

HS Jr Girl:

Math: Life of Fred-Beginning Algebra this year. We will focus on math the entire school season, and do the Advanced Algebra level, once the first book is completed. After struggling terribly with just about every curricula for it-we took the year off (outside of some minor math projects, etc) to recoup. Her career choice is not math dependent so we do not need to have her complete Calculus prior to graduation-we'll be satisfied with a good general knowledge of algebra and then focus her Senior year on consumer math.

Science: We just need to wrap up a couple more modules of her Apologia Biology to be done. I had hoped to get this completed over the summer, but after the crazy busy year we had, esp. the spring, along with a couple trips-we didn't get to it. We will also be working on her science notebook (general post about it) (and also, you can read about the additional post about some pages we included too) like before. Then once done-we'll not do science until next year. We need to make the math priority-so outside of nature study projects, that will be it.

History: We will pick up where we left off in the All American History Vol 2 book that we started last fall. We do a variety of activities, such as notebooking, projects and such to go with this.

Geography: Continue with Mapping the World by Heart. We started it, then had to set is aside, and altho she knows the basics, I would like her to have a better detailed knowledge than she does, so we'll give it another go. Plus, I am covering the US States with my son, so she will do a lighter level of it as a refresher [since we haven't done it in several years with her]. The maps we'll use are from a great map set by HS in the Woods-their Olde World Style US Maps. I love these, and they will make a lovely notebook from it.

Language Arts: Continue wrapping up the Learning Lang. Arts Through Literature-Gold/American series-we have just a few more sections I want to hit. Once done-we'll move on to the Brit. Lit or focus more on the writing criteria. I want her to have one good research and one good essay done by the year's end. This will require time to do the research/reading/actual paper(s)...so that is our focus. I will also have her do the Advanced Winston Grammar series...I like to spend time on the structure and details closer to when the student will need to take the ACT tests-we work on it generally all through the school years, but this series is excellent and really keeps it fresh for that testing purpose.

She will also work through a couple ACT Prep books a few times per week, to start getting her into that mode. We use the Real ACT Prep Guide and the Procrastinator's Guide to the ACT 2011 (altho we have the 2004 book and it'll have to do). With all the good literature my kids read, the narration, and copywork-they have a pretty good prep for this. Our goal is not to have them get a perfect score-but take it to help with poss. scholarships and over ride some of the entry level courses colleges have as prerequisite...sometimes they can jump ahead to the higher levels simply by their scores.

Like I mentioned-we do copywork from various sources and this year-we'll include Queen's Copywork for girls and the Thematic Copywork Lessons-Lessons from Leaders (which actually is for the history lessons).

Bible: I saved this one for last, because I simply do not know exactly what I am doing here-I have a couple ideas, and will have her read literature based on Christ and his life and so forth-but have not made my final decision-so this remains as my last hurdle to tackle when it comes to her line-up.

We'll also throw in 2 artists/musicians to study as well (for both kids to do). That is on top of working on getting her driving time in for driver's ed, and the usual life things.

We do NOT do every subject every day (except for Bible/Character study)-I try to do keep it so it doesn't become so mundane that they fall asleep whilst doing their lessons. By having history/math and L.Arts on some days-science/copywork/nature study/etc. on the others [or whatever] it helps avoid the boredom.

Remember too-in college and lots of high schools now a days-they do not have the same subjects every semester/all year long (math, science, history, lan. arts) but rather do a semester's worth of whatever and may not hit that subject again for another year or 2. So don't feel you have to do every subject, every day, every year during the high school years! You don't. In fact, by not doing so-you will give your student a better idea of what they will experience in college. Sorry, just had to point that out. If you have a high schooler or will soon-you are welcome to download the notes on a lecture I presented-it offers up more ideas/links/helps on schooling your teens...you can find that on our HOPE Ministries site.

As for my 3rd grade son:

Science: We'll continue wrapping up our study of Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy. I don't push a ton of science in the earlier years-formal that is, so we are taking our time. We have to finish Mars and the rest of em. I also have him working on continuing his Lapinder on it (first post) [another post] in conjunction with our Science Center activities. We will also have some projects through our FIAR Bk 4 studies too. My goal is to do much more nature study too. So I will work that in when ever I can.

Math: Abeka Arithmetic 3, various games, math living literature [list of books and another list], little tie in activities [great site: Home Education Resources and Enchanted Learning (membership is so worth it) and Homeschool Share (lapbook and FIAR projects, plus check the Workboxables cuz there are lots of ideas there too) to just list a few].

History: LOVE, LOVE Beautiful Feet Books history programs! We'll be continuing on with this series-Early Am. History with our notebook too. Since he is young enough-we stroll through at a leisurely pace and truly take the time to enjoy this stuff. We'll be picking up with George Washington (which is awesome cuz last summer we visited his house MT. Vernon)...we'll probably do some crafts, mini-projects and such done along with it.

Geography: We'll be starting the Study of the States. Now, this is a bit early on the scale of when others start this, but we're going to only cover 25 this year. We'll visit each state and mull over them a tad, create our notebook and do various projects with it. He will have a much more detailed notebook than Sissy's and we'll do lots of puzzles and such too. We will use the maps by Homeschool in the Woods mentioned above. I have a whole geography post that you can read, It's all about the States on my What's in the Box? blog-it give more details on what I am using. Oh, read the comments section too-a gal linked in another help to go along with it as well.

Language Arts: We do a mixture of things-mostly though my precious boy needs to have some major reading skills/spelling skills work. Being that he is dyslexic-this has been a true struggle-so we'll focus most of our time on improving and working on this vital area.

We use All About Spelling and their All About Readers (along with Hooked on Phonics-I have an older set, but hey it works, so we piggy back it with other basic readers I have collected through the years).

Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting and Memoria Press' Copywork books (he is on book 2). I may throw Copywork for Little Boys from Queens HS in there after he completes the third book. I reviewed those MP copywork books and love em...so we'll continue on with where we last stopped.

We will also be doing lapbooks (most are from Homeschool Share) to tie into our Five in a Row BK 4 (digital downloads) studies (but I am mostly just doing my own thing using the lapbook info for ideas) and the books. I have one download but simply do not want to drop that kinda cash right now...these are side dish studies. I will use what I can find for free and work around others' ideas to get a mini study for now. I am planning on one book per month.

We also do narration too.

Bible: Again-I am unclear as to what exactly we'll use as our backbone material. I want to work on character study this year with him and have a few resources but am unclear as to what that all entails right now. So like his Sissy-I have to figure this out (and soon) too.

So there you have it-the basic layout for the kids this year. And as past experience has taught me-the best plans can be laid to waste due to well, LIFE...so I keep an open mind and stay flexible. I also am reviewing again for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine on their Homeschool Crew, so I will add in the goodies we get, as well. You can read about the products I have reviewed on my 1 of 100 (plus 25) TOS Crew Reviews Blog. There is lots of info for ya there.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's all about the states

2010-07-24T21:55:00.001-04:00

So if you have read my previous Busy as a Beaver post, then you realize I have been working on the geography stuff for the up and coming year. And I promised to do a geography post...so here it is.

I stumbled across this State Symbols USA site-and boy was I like whooping it up over the wealth of info and such here. Good place to start. I used this one to get the seals and other goodies to really make our state study "pop" with neat stuff! I noticed on the side-bar there was this book for Alabama (since we are going in alphabetical order here) and thought-could it be? Could there be a book for every state? Yeppers! Now, since I did the study before these were written with my older 3, I was unawares. So stop giggling if you already knew about em. The most exciting part-outside of the fact that now I can start each study with a book as the lead in and it fits the Charlotte Mason method, and it is just so beautiful and, and, and...can ya tell I am excited about it? Best yet-our library has em all-now that is like a one in a thousand chance and I am so geeked! So-then I searched and saw that they also have this baby available-so I put it on hold (since it was one thing our library didn't own) and got it today-not that I am big on teacher's guides (always seem to not follow em too closely) but figured I could glean some useful ideas to make this a great stroll thru the USA. Take a look-see here...

Look how nicely each book is illustrated and ties into something major the state is known for!

The series is called Discover America State by State-but when I did the search thru the library-I had to look for each individual state's book-guess our library website is a bit fussy-LOL, so anyhoo-when you go to the State Symbols site-just look on the side-bar for that state and you will have the name.

I will take some notes and let the rest be (in the guide) but I am always looking for ideas-now to find time to go thru it!

The HIP Pocket Change (US Mint) site has lots too. I actually downloaded the quarter info-the background about the decisions behind the state's quarter design-look under the extra resources sections for each year...they are about 2 pages long each. I just ran those off. There is also the full quarters listing in picture form under the 2008 stuff. If you go thru the earlier years, you won't have em all. I ran those 2 pages off and then cut out the quarters to add to the info packet for the individual states. There are also coloring pages that you can run off (good for younger siblings to keep em busy) and lots of other links/activities.

Found this one, but haven't explored it yet: Teacher Guide to the 50 States

A to Z Teacher Stuff has a recipe for edible state maps (why not enjoy a wee bit of food when doing this heh?)

Maps that Teach offer up some good online links/activities

This 50 States Book List is going to come in rather handy during our study. I will just use what I can get thru the library-on top of the cool state books noted above.

The US50 site offers up those stamps I downloaded. I did have to shrink the size of em a bit, and tried to fit as many as possible on the page too. They have more state info to help you with your studies as well. The license plates are from MS Word-images, I think the only one I couldn't find was SC, so I searched the internet and found one that would work-sized it and added it to the document to print.

I will also be using a few goodies I was able to review whilst being on the TOS crew:

The Little Man in the Map This is a delightful way to learn the states and where they are located on the map.

My Review

HS in the Wood Olde World US Maps I will be using the states maps and notebook pages, and the brochure document too-I think that one is under the World maps tho. I will have to double check-but these are sooooo nice and perfect for this study. I am also the materials for the Geography Center. But if you are on a super tight budget, you can find most downloads for free from various other sites-they simply won't be as detailed or have all the data, but they certainly can create a lovely notebook for your student. I suggest Googling or doing Swagbuck searches, which frankly is a great way to get free $ (Swagbucks that is-you can join and earn-I have already earned $20 worth of free Amazon gift cards just by searching!) Click the icon below and it'll get you there. :o)

My Review

TOS Travel the World eBook I will pull some elements out of this eBook to help with our studies too.
My Review

I also have a mishmash of atlases, coloring books or map books about the states, and of course-where would I be if I didn't tie in some kinda lapbook to this? Well-I purchased

Hands of a Child State by State lapbook and will pull out components as needed.

10 Days in the USA

This is on my wish list-a nice to have but not totally necessary...

I have found flashcards at the dollar section of Target, a poster listing the state names/capitals at the Dollar Tree and so forth. Been building the collection for some time and now when we get to it-I can draw from all sorts of good products to make this a fab project.

HTH ya out too. So that is the big stuff-I am sure I have more, but it gives ya a good idea of what one can use to pull together a study. I have seen a few other great ideas from my pals via their blogs too-but since I am pretty sure I have enough to make this a detailed enough to remember kinda study-I am using what I have available. :0)

Boy have I been busy as a beaver!

2010-07-22T19:59:00.000-04:00

So as the new year approaches, I am busting my tail to get some things done to make my life easier and to be sure the year runs much more smoothly than the last few. What that means is that I have been planning, organizing, printing, cutting, laminating, packing into Ziplock bags, and filing. The goal here is to have this stuff ready to go so that all I have to do is pluck out the necessary items and load the workboxes, files or whatever and call it a day. I kept finding that the only thing I seemed to be doing was running from pillar to post trying to find the stuff I needed to pull off a lesson, or frankly-have the stuff so I could teach it-which wasn't happening as much as I would have liked over the last couple years. Instead, I was not getting as much done simply because the prework was not done.

SOOO-my totally MOM MAKEOVER for the year is to be as organized and prepared as possible. I am currently working mostly on the boy. He has so much more prework for his curricula. Lapbooks, notebooking pages, materials to put into them, or on them-and so forth. Plus, getting the centers updated and re-done to go with our current studies. Which has taken a lot of time. But I try to do a little here and there and not do a major hyper-burnout frenzy to get it all done. My hands and elbows couldn't take it anyhoo, with my carpel flaring up. So-this is what I have been doing lately-

Working on getting the Lapbook components for July-Nov done. That is finding the mini-books and other goodies, printing them and then cutting em out. After I am done-I put it all into a baggie to hold it. I still have to get the Raft figured out-I may just do notebooking or may throw some lapbook stuff into it-not quite sure yet.

So each book has all the necessary goodies in one place-I printed off the cover of the books to use in our lapbook book

The forms for the FIAR books and my form of what I want to cover

Since I am focusing on BK 4 of the FIAR series for the boy this year-I wanted to have a print out of which country/area the story is centered around-so that I can tie it into our geography studies this year too. So I typed up a chart I laminated to use (actually for all 4 of the books). I have that up on my scribd pages, if you are interested. Then I made a paper noting the books I want to do and which months-where to get the resources and if it is completed. I am finding I really like this form. I just keep adding my info and will use it to get those projects completed B4 the time comes to present them.

I have had these tiny envelopes in my stash-so I used it to keep the mini-components together in one spot. The flag is from the US Maps from Homeschool in the Woods, the stamp and seal are from State Symbols USA {awesome place to get a lot of info and these goodies}, and the Quarter is from the US quarters section on the US Mint section for educators site. I will do a Geography post with all the details soon.

For Geography-we are doing the US States. So what I am thinking is that we will hit about one state per week or so. Figure if we hit 25 this coming session (Aug-May) I will be happy. My son is only going into mainly 3rd grade materials-so we can lean this out and take our time. I am also having my teen do the notebooking pages and map work for each state. It has been quite some time since she did the state study and it wasn't near as cool as this one I am planning-so she gets a refresher course to go along with the boy's.

I have found tons of state links to get some really neat things to include in our States Notebook. I have found a way to have them ready to go too-but again-included a lot of printing, cutting and organizing. I chose to do color printing for this, and normally I wouldn't-but because it is detailed and BLK/WHT would lose a lot of the appeal-I splurged. I will share those links on another a post.

Put together 2 folders (one for each student) with the first 6 states and their info in them-all they do is pull the current state of study and go to town on their assignments. Not a new process by any means-but something I have failed to do in the past-so now, we're ready. I will continue to copy the materials in batches of 6-10 to not over drain the ink in the printer. That will be easy to stay up on. Maps from HS in the Woods site noted above. LOVE these sets-not only are the maps awesome, she includes the NTBK pages that go with em, and the maps-plus a ton of other map related things.

Organized the postcards I have been collecting for some time-by states-so that I can put those into the mailbox I created for the Geo Center-still searching for a few MIA postcards I need to finish the States of the Union book we're making. But I did jot those down and have begun my search for em again, so we're getting somewhere.

I built the postbox like the one that is in the NT Lapbook of Amy Pak's. Loved it-and so why not reproduce it to fit the postcards? Yes, lots and lots of work-oi. I still need to get the title typed up and laminated for this section. Now, if you looked at the post about my World Geography center-well I just removed the World globe and sign to the US ones. Then changed out the maps and other things to what is now US related materials.

Put together new components for the Geo Center, which I had to either create, copy, laminate, figure out the areas I want on it and so forth. But it is really coming together. All I need to do is type a couple titles and figure out what I want the kids to do to the main USA map-thinking of just having the boy put star stickers on the states as we learn em. I will get to it when my brain is refreshed.

Each state will get a moment in the spotlight in this section-I printed and then just colored the water and rivers on these maps. Laminated 2 per sheet. When done, we'll have a nice map book to use. My teen needs these to fill out her blank sets, and I am having them work together to find the other top 5 cities and mark em with a marker on these maps. The boy struggles with a lot of writing-so he has the maps that are already printed. He will just color and add a couple cities to his. The coloring book is from the dollar store. It has the info they need to fill out the other notebook page with the state stats. It also has some mazes, word searches and such for the boy to do.

Did ya see the State Facts Wheel? I posted about that in a post on my WKBX blog. Found at the Dollar Tree. Just swirl the arrow to the state of interest and look across the way at the answers. Neat. I added the State Songs CD here-and that is about it for this side.

Printed off 2 more planet and the lapbook parts for the Meteor and Asteroid chapters in the boy's Apologia Astronomy book. Again-since he is young enough, we are moving slower through this series. I figure we'll be done by Jan. and can start the Flying Creatures then. These go into our Lapinder and this update on the Lapinder shows how it is moving along. I still have the moon, and Mars to glue into it-kinda behind in that, so I guess finishing those go on my list of to dos.

I worked out my goals and materials but still need to type that up-

Working on my To Get list still, keep finding little things I don't have that will help with our focus studies this year...and starting to do my school supply shopping as I see good deals. Love doing that-love it!

Still need to fine tune the classroom-but since I am in the midst of creating stuff-it can wait. It will take a couple days-but once done, it will be nice. It will remain like a disaster site until I am done doing what I need to....

and that is sorta it-
also been working on TOS reviews/projects, trying to enjoy some summer stuff, and so forth.

WHEW! And I have not even touched the teen's stuff (outside of the Geo materials) and still need to wrap up the boy's things. But slow and steady, surely I will get at least the first couple months done.

So here is something fun! A peek into what I am about to review-a CSN store product

2010-07-19T16:07:00.003-04:00

When it comes to finding goodies for your home, children, or yourself [OK gift giving too] it can be very tiring to have to stroll through store after store to the point that it has turned into some nasty chore, and all you are left with is one exhausted shopper without any goodies to show for it. So when one can find a multi-plex online center which directs you to oh, say 200+ stores-it is only natural to become very curious about this site. Could this be that there exists such a thing? Some place that will direct you to just about every needful thing one could imagine, and have it be all organized and professional looking-and you won't even have to leave your home to shop?

I am delighted to report, that yes-such a place exists and not only that, but I get to review a product or 2 from one of the many stores they own! The CSN Stores have so much to offer, it is like one giant playground for the adult shopper. No kidding! They have stuff for just about every need, in every category. I have already spent a lot of time bee-bopping through the many stores, drooling over the wonderful good products, so much so, that I am like that proverbial "kid in a candy shop"!

It is truly amazing what one can find there-and I have some ideas of what I think I would like to try out for review-but I am remaining tight lipped on which one(s) it could be. I will be posting a review once I receive and test the product (which is what one would expect right?) and then you will know what goodie(s) I picked.....

SO here are some options and the reasons behind the possibilities: (and yes-I am all about red in these selections)

Option #1

Being that we have been a family for 22+ years, and we have 4 kids-our dinnerware looks like something the Clampetts would not even dare set their table with. Chipped, mismatched and sadly lacking a full set-I first went directly to the dinnerware collection to find these babies. Not only does the color match my theme in my kitchen, but they look very sturdy. I can get just what we need [I have no desire or storage space for 8-10 more coffee mugs and their respective plates!] -we need dinner/salad plates, and cereal bowls [by the dozens, as those disappear faster than the speed of light around here]~

Signature Housewares Sorrento Burgundy Dinnerware Collection

Option #2

Now with all the traveling we do, we always seem to come up short in the luggage department! This baby is so cute! I could easily spot it on the belt at the airport, and best yet-it is a wheeled apparatus, which saves one from having a sore back and arms. Man-it is so Scottish plaid-ish, and someday when I have my Scottish Terrier-named Scotty (of course) I can stuff him in there (obviously, with the top unzipped) for the full-fledged Scottish experience~

CalPak Terminator Multi-Pocket Rolling Duffel bag

Option #3

When it comes to first impressions, well our front hall is rather lacking. It is missing that zippiness due to the "grungier than an hound dog at the local junk yard" of a rug that lays there to welcome our guests. The sad thing is, that the rug I am speaking of was a carry over from our previous house, and well, it matched that decor very nicely-but here-not so much. And it now has had about 8 or more years of traffic beating down on it. It is sad, and it needs to go. So, I did some rug browsing. I found a lot that I would love to get, but due to the color scheme, and need to not make it too frilly [after all it is a front hall, not some snazzie dining area]...the hubby and I found a couple that would be most suitable for our lackadaisical entry way. But have yet to decide which one...

Wainwright Rugs Couture Times Square Burgundy rug

This may be a bit too over the top tho, for me-I just am a bit sheepish with too much design stuff....

or

Safavieh Courtyard Circles Indoor/Outdoor rug , because it is a bit more tame. I simply dunno. Golly, if we go with the rugs-I may find some other one all together-there are so many to choose from....

and there you have the 3 of the 6 choices I am debating. Well maybe that is 3 1/2? LOL...so once I get the other post up on my Workbox Blog, I will come back and link it...but for now, I will leave you pondering...

**Update: here is the post with the 4-6th options, over on my What's in the Box? Blog. I have some exciting info on there-so don't miss it!!!

**Please be aware, I received an electronic gift certificate from the CSN Stores, to be applied toward a purchase from from any of their 200+ stores, as their way of thanking me for writing a preview review, and a review of that/those product(s). No other compensation was received in exchange for my honest opinion of their company, or the products I chose to review.

Lots of neat form downloads for organizing your school

2010-07-18T11:37:00.000-04:00

Found this link via the The Homeschool Mom Site (sign up for her free eNewsletter)-

It is a great place to download some most needful forms to help you organize your year:

Highland Heritage Forms

Enjoy!

For those who are FIAR rowers-esp. for bk 4, need help

2010-07-10T12:44:00.001-04:00

I am compiling a listing of the locations of where these stories take place (well as close as we can get for some) and b/cuz I don't own them, and I haven't received them yet from the library inter-loan...was wondering if you all could help....

I need to know the specific/general location for these (BK 4)

Arabella (I know it is an island-does it pinpoint any specific region of the world?)
Roxaboxen (any place?)
Higgins Bend (?)
Hanna's Cold Winter (?)
Mailing May (I remember it being out west, OR or WA?)
Hickory Chair (southern USA?)
Albert (would NY be a good guess?)

Just leave a comment with the answer if you know it. Thanks. I will Scribd these for ya all later-I was trying to get a fix on where these books take place so I can pick ones that match our continent studies/state studies, etc. and will also need it for the new co-op, so I figured I would compile it and hey, why not share it too-just in case someone out there wants a quick rundown of where these take place...:0)

**Elinette at His Wonderful Works directed me to this lovely resource on Homeschool Share-not sure why I never thought to click that master link-thanks! Because I need boxes and not so linear layouts for my info-I am going to still publish what I created, since I see theirs is hard for me to follow-but there are plenty of good links there at HSS's FIAR section, so do head there if you need more FIAR helps.

For those of you who have or will soon have high school aged students

2010-07-06T20:56:00.001-04:00

I have now posted the lecture notes from my HOPE Ministries session. There are 3 different documents...one with additional notes, the lecture notes themselves and then the resources listings. Also, Leah has her notes there too. They fit so wonderfully with what I spoke on. Her notes are pretty self-explanatory...just fill in the areas as you feel best answer the questions asked of you-it can be a great baseline for your homeschool career. All of them can be found on our site. I hope that this blesses you, helps to ease the fear of teaching high school, and offers you enough sources to get you started in your research.

HOPE June Lecture Notes

Oh, and I found a fellow TOS Mate has some good links to her article and more on high school too-take a look!

All American Family

The IKEA trip and it's consequences

2010-06-15T19:45:00.002-04:00

So...for quite some time now-like over a year or so...I have been wanting to experience the IKEA store thang. We have one about an hour or so from us, but to get the hubby to make a drive there just for that has been difficult. So when we were on our "tag along" trip with him, the moment arrived. As we were driving to the hotel in Charlotte, for the nite (we were in a new one every night due to his needing to see folks all over NC) I spied with my little eye a HUGE IKEA store just mins. from the Holiday Inn Express. SOOO, I made it clear, that under no circumstances, could my hubby deny me my experience. I planned/looked up info on line, I even called the hotline to double check if the TROFAST shelving units and totes were at that store, then I waited....ever so patiently....fell asleep [barely-but that is another post] then we did our usual "get up and out the door" as he needed to check on a student/dog early...and then on the way back through the area on our way to Raleigh, we stopped. I almost quit breathing. Then, like a kid in a giant candy store...my eyes the size of dinner plates..I entered the lower level area and just about passed out. I literally could have bought up 1/2 the area of organizing stuff alone...like 5 mins. after entering....but I had to remember that we had scarcely enough room in the vehicle for the shelves/totes we were gonna get..and we needed to you know-pay bills/feed the fam, etc. too.

So, I did the circle (if you have been to an IKEA, then you know what I mean...if not-they have you walk the store in a circle....of course, so you walk by all the areas..kinda hard to "cut thru" to get to where you want) to get to the self-service area...which was like a giant Sams/Costco store....ever so gently...slowly, I made my way to the shelving unit isle [23 at that store] and about passed out again. My longed for TROFAST system stared back at me begging to be plopped down into our very misdirected cart [the wheels would shimmy the pusher all over, like a cart on "Johnny HopUp" pills]...so...now the dilemma....

I have studied the online section of the T.F. System for about a year straight, so I had it narrowed down to either the [white, as that is our color theme in our classroom area] 12 shelf unit or 2 of the 6 drawer units. I didn't like that the 12 drawer one was so high, and wondered if the kid getting the drawer out would bop their noodle trying to get it down. But space is tight...hmmm. Then I saw what I knew would work...the 6 drawer ones. But that meant more floor space..oh wellers-at least we won't have frequent visits to the ER due to workbox bopping noodle moments.
Then I loaded up 12 white totes [was in a panic for a time...all I saw were the green ones, some pink and no white...til I re-examined the shelves and saw em there..right where they were all along] plus one big red one [for those bigger project moments]. Then hubby decided that red tote would make a good tub to rebuild carburetor and such in...NOT ON YOUR LIFE buddy! I think he said that to bug me. Well, whatever-I finally have the system for my teen that I have wanted from the beginning.

We were short on time...so we didn't even step on the escalator to go upstairs...I have to save that eye popping moment for a day trip to the one by us. I was actually laughing with the dude working there-that I had to come to NC to get my stuff/IKEA experience [and wouldn't cha know it? He is from MI too-so he was like "there is one in Canton" and I am like "but where is the fun in that?"] so yes-I love Charlotte, NC. I love that I was able to pack those puppies [shelving units and 13 totes] in the back of the rental car and still have room for our luggage and cooler. I love that I found a new place to practically live at. I love that they have decent prices! I love that TF system...I love that my helpful son offered to "build em" for his old lady. And I love that I remembered to document the experience....

but what I don't love is the fact that I now have to rearrange the entire classroom area to accommodate the new TF shelves. Hmmm...almost made me cry [and not in a good way].

My assistant

one down, one to go [ah they are sweet, and so is the assembly man]

Assistant helping unload the shelves...lots of the room already pulled out of there...

That's a lot of STUFF! [and one of 3 big shelves!!!]

Now here is where I want to cry...it was spread out over the dining area

and the front hall

and over into the family room area

ah, and this shows it near the beginning-it grew all around that area too.

Mind you tho-some of that stuff is for my new niece, the baby stuff on the couch...but gracious!

Over there on the one side of the couch is my 50 cent find [the mall game] from the garage sales a week ago last...figured it could be used as a "money management" item for math/life skills...and it looks cool [my older nieces had this when they were younger and I remembered they enjoyed it]...

So how is it possible to have so much stuff? I know that I have 17 years worth of major HS materials here, and lots of stuff from reviewing for TOS...but I mean this is crazy. I will whittle down some of it, and I have to move some stuff down to the basement too-but I became so overwhelmed, I had to step away to try to regain some strength. Plus, with the help of my daughter-we had to shift the shelves/bookcases all over and back again, to find a way to do it [meaning back ache time-my son reminded us 1/2 way thru that we have those slider things that go under such heavy stuff and yes-could have saved ourselves some strained muscles] so that we could put the TF shelves in, and a new desk we're gonna get [and you guessed it..from IKEA]...and still have room to move about. Now, it is not even close to being done. We scooted all the stuff we didn't get to, back into the room, so we have living space again...and so yes...my project for the next couple days is to finish it.

I have been wanting to move stuff around, kinda changes the mood and helps everyone feel like a new year is about to start [which it will soon], but not so soon after returning from being gone a week. Guess the desire to place those TF shelves into the room, all proper and such, put my better judgement on hold. OH wellers, it needed to be done. I will feel better when it is completed. Will post after that happens. Til then pray for me...I am going to need it.

And there is my IKEA and it's consequences story.

Ohh, my first guest blog post thingy! How cool!

2010-05-10T18:56:00.000-04:00

I originally wrote this ditty on how to organize one's eBooks and then a new bloggie pal asked if I would mind having her highlight it on her blog-well of course, I am honored!

So please take a moment and visit the Shining Dawn Books post (of my post) and then take some time to look around this awesome site! They have some unit studies called NaturExplorers that look really interesting. This is especially timely, because I want to really get some more nature studying in with the kids. I also see they offer up some useful ideas and books for nature study (and I have to second the Keeping a Nature Journal book recommendation-it is beautiful- and just so happens to be our main text for our co-op's nature study class!)

Thanks ladies~wish you lived closer, it would be so nice to meet ya, and hang out-seems our hopes and goals for homeschoolers is pretty much the same!

Mother's Day Gifts-Tea Cup Bird Feeders

2010-05-08T11:53:00.001-04:00

I found this neat idea on my friend Heidi's blog, and just couldn't resist making a few for Mother's Day. I ended up making myself a couple too! Why not? So the only thing I tweaked was the post. I saw some metal rods right by where I was getting the copper caps at the hardware store, and knew that is what I wanted. They are zinc plated, smooth rods (1/2") and will do nicely for us. Then the hardest part of the craft mission-well, that was finding the darn tea cups! Now I have been seeing these big mugs all over the place and sure thing-when I wanted to actually buy some-I couldn't find any! Well, I did find a few but they were way too spency~ and I just about gave up. I spent an entire day hunting well over 7 or more stores to try to find them-I couldn't believe it~ but isn't that the way it goes? Then the Lord popped "donation store" into my head. So I gave the local Salvation Army a quick call and sure enough-they had several of them~! Whoop it up. So off I went and I had fun trying to mix and match cups to plates. Then I went back for another plate, similar to the house/maroon one because I couldn't get it out of my mind-and I knew it was perfect for my mom. [the blue polka dot one was what I originally wanted for her, I found out it was simply too heavy and I worry it will fall off, or the cap will pop off due to the weight. So, I have decided to use that one as a ground or deck hand railing feeder. In fact, I am giving my MIL the option between 2 (one being the blue polka dot one) b/cuz she has trouble with raccoons in her feeders, so this way she can just pull it in at night. Plus, there are not a lot of areas in her yard where a feeder on a pole could be seen (for her to enjoy watching the birds)...so that is where we are at with these.

I don't have a pic of my mom's here-it is similar but with a boat/bay theme (similar to the house one in the lower right of the pic) with a white cup.

The top one is what I originally thought for my MIL, the watermelon is for me. I just love the whimsical nature of it and am a big fan of watermelons (even tho I am not into the taste of em-I like the colors)

The top one is mine too (for the front yard) I just love it~ and I couldn't believe I found that cup which looks like it was made for it. The heavy weight champion of the group-ole Polka Dottie.

Thanks to Heidi for linking that project, as I was in a bad state of affairs trying to think of something original and unique to give the mums this year. I am planning on making a few more for birthday gifts....this is a very versatile gift!

With times being financially tight right now

2010-05-07T10:33:00.000-04:00

Wanted to remind ya all about Swagbucks. It is a search engine that pays you to use it. You can earn points by doing your usual internet searches, by shopping thru their site (and they have a ton of excellent companies-like JoAnns-so when you go thru your account via Swagbucks, to that site and then purchase-your spending earns you more points) and by referrals, point searches on the site and more. I have gone from 0 points to close to 800 in less than a month-it is that easy. Fridays are extra good days to search cuz you can win bigger point caches and when you get the total points needed to get what you want in the Swag Store-like gift cards for Amazon, Target and more-you can turn em in and get your free gift cards! How sweet is that?

just click this and it will take you to the site

Thought you all would enjoy knowing about a way to help you out a little for something you probably do every day-search the internet! And if you do online shopping-and they have that company in their collection-you can earn even more points-so why not partake? It is free to join, and free to earn points! Love it!

Another Let's Get Real here post

2010-05-06T11:37:00.000-04:00

Just a few things that I find so annoying and down right irritating:
1. Swallowing a sip of water, but having an explosion of air somehow get ahead of the liquid, to have the water go down so painfully that you feel like you swallowed an elephant.

2. People who mosey themselves up right in front of you, seeing quite well, that you were there first in line-to just whoosh by ya and claim the "next in line" spot. Almost as bad as those folks who do not know what "Personal Space" is...you know the ones...practically breathing down you neck as you are trying to swipe your goodies at the self-check out, looking all impatient like, to then being in your face as you try to make your payment. THOSE people (and gosh I hope you dear reader are not one of those, if you are-back off please).

3. Neighbors who think your backyard is their personal sidewalk to get to the other neighbor's yard. Esp. those who feel it necessary to walk but a mere 5 or less feet from the back of the house...several times a day. I do not like that I have to now go to (supposedly) these adults to lecture them on proper yard etiquette, and look like a crabby neighbor because we do not enjoy the invasion of our space. The rudeness now creates a difficult situation that somehow will make us the bad guys. Yes, after a whole summer/fall of that last year-I am speaking up. I am sorry, but we do not weed/feed/mow, and pay for a yard so you can stand there and have your chats, drag wagons and dogs and children back and forth and have you invade our privacy-esp. when we are trying to have a family dinner in peace. Ah-that felt good to unload.

4. Folks who simply cannot read a "No Soliciting" sign and understand I mean NO soliciting! I cannot tell you how many people I have leaving their flyers, or ringing the doorbell to sell us something we do not want! If we want it-we will find you...thank you very much.

5. Toilet chains that fall off continuously to render the toilet to a constant state of running-which costs us more money cuz we pay for water.

6. Fruit and veggies that look marvelous on the outside, but are bruised and or damaged to the point that I have to say-"great, there goes [such and such] dollars down the toilet [probably the one with the faulty chain]"
leaving us fruitless or veggieless for that situation and upset because we were unable to get our monies worth.

7. Carpal Tunnel in the hands, and fingers. Numbness and tingly digits are not what I consider exciting-esp. when I know I have lots of hands on activities to do.

8. Lady Bugs [which are really those impostors with the orange backs-where did all the red ones go?] that decide to stay in your home over the winter, free of charge-to either die or leave themselves scattered about...to then get sucked up the vacuum to stink. Or poo on your windows. Oh Ladybirds-fly away, fly away home.

9. Telemarketers. Need I say more?

10. Bats. Not that I am against these creatures in their natural settings-but I am so against them shacking up in our attic space, to scratch, squeak and leave a disaster up there. To torture our family with the threat of being swooped upon in our sleep [thankfully, they haven't broke thru] or to leave me with nightmares of having the biggest colony in the county up there. The cost it will take to now get rid of these home invaders, plus the cost of replacing the insulation up there because their poo and the fungus' it creates. Yes, just another day in the neighborhood.

So there you go-my ranting and raving for the month.

Now to be fair-I have to say that: I praise God...

1. Because I have clean drinking water to painfully swallow
2. I have enough money [barely lately but still] to be at the store making food purchases
3. My husband still has a job so that we still have a back yard
4. We have a doorbell/door solicitors can approach to sell their wares
5. We have a toilet to use, in a house that has water
6. We live in a country where there is a wide variety of fruits and veggies available from which to select from, due to the vast amount of free market [well at least for now] and transportation to provide such things
7. I have hands and fingers that work-let alone actually having them to begin with
8. That there are good bugs to eat the bad bugs and they look good doing it
9. That we have caller ID and a list of standard "no thanks" we can apply to those that slip past the caller ID
10. That there are bats that eat the pesky squitos and such that are most annoying of all. That we have an attic to even be concerned over when many a families no longer have a door mat-let alone an attic. [speaking of foreclosures, fires, natural disasters like in TN and so forth]

SO I guess it is up to me to decide if I will dwell on the negative aspects or remember the positives...it is fun to spew the frustration, but it is all done in jest. As annoying and overburdening these things can be-I praise GOD that we have them at all.

Have a blessed day and stay real folks-stay real.

How do you instill the love of learning in your child?

2010-04-11T13:21:00.003-04:00

Finally-I have some spare moments to pen a response to this great Blog Cruise series.

The topic is "How do you instill the love of learning in your child?" but I think I will switch that up to the opposite end of the spectrum to

HOW CAN YOU DESTROY THE INNATE LOVE OF LEARNING IN YOUR CHILD?

Because that really is where the heart of the matter is...the adults coming in and paving over the natural wonder and curiosity that the Lord has woven so beautifully into our children. Think about how an infant's face just lights up with well-just about anything interesting-that toy you are dangling in their face, big brother or sissy "showing them something" as they place it just a mere centimeter or 2 from their eyes, the cat sailing by overhead-due to you finding it with it's face 2" deep into the cereal bowl that was left there by your lovely husband, and so forth (now you must know that I am being over the top silly with these examples, but you should get my meaning). They light up because of the wonderment of it all-after all, it isn't a chore to watch, investigate and explore their world. It is a joy.

So how does one destroy that love? Well, stroll thru some mistakes many have made and will continue to make. Mind you, I have either witnessed these acts or (more often than not) found myself committing them. I have swung from the more rigid way to instruct (pretty much reproducing a school in my home) to not much structure at all (usually due to burnout, situations that required my undivided attention and well-no longer having that joy within me either).....and after so many years on this homeschool trek-I can say with some confidence that these are the best ways to

DESTROY THE LOVE of learning-and if it is your personal mission to do so, then by all means (I say this in love my friends-in love)

1. Never, under any circumstance veer off the scheduled lesson plans for the day-ever. Doing so may disrupt their thinking and circumvent them into becoming "behind" in their subjects.

2. Ignore the child(ren)'s individual interests and likes when considering what you will cover each school year, the materials you will use to expound this information, and the approach to which you use. This stupid train of thought must be avoided at all costs.

3. Continue on your way through the said planned material, pounding in this vital information because the teacher's guide says you must, your neighbor expects you to, and it's just what "we must do"-even though you have lost the attention of your student(s) and their eyes have long been glazed over. This one is a sure bet here...after all no better way to slay the love than to beat it with a dead horse.

4. Make it a federal crime if the student moves away from the desk and chair you have so carefully set up in your little "classroom away from classroom" spot. The punishment must match the crime-therefore, have them experience step 3 until 7 pm at nite and perhaps even on Saturdays, until you are confident that they have learned this valuable lesson. No one ever learns anything unless glued to a chair for at least 8 straight hours (minus a 30 min. lunch and a few bathroom breaks) with shoulders squared, back straight, eyes forward and lips zipped-EVER! Remember that-

5. Have your homeschool completely devoid of any worthy reading material that is not found deep within a textbook or is not on the "list" of to dos. Use only "Snippet Sources" from which they are to "learn from"-never offer well-written literature that is considered "above their heads" or that requires more than 15 minutes to complete. The child(ren) simply could not handle that sort of thing. Do not read aloud to your students after they turn the rip old age of 7-after that point, they are to be carrying the burden themselves. They should never experience the nightmare of closeness, the invitation to crawl up on your lap, or to snuggle around you-all the while YOU, the teacher, are reading to them. And especially never let a child over 12 do this (I doubt highly the lap crawling would apply, so this addresses the snuggling or frankly, just being in the room with you whilst you are reading)-it may taint them for their entire lives. They do not (repeat DO NOT) need to hear the stories read aloud-they do not need to listen to the inflections and voice changes you would normally apply to the under 7 category-it simply will not suffice in creating a well-rounded individual.

6.. Here is a true winner in this onslaught attack against that crazy notion of "loving to learn"...these are sneaky and destructive annoyances that you must be sure to keep far, far away from your children. Never, ever, ever use anything remotely close to what one would consider to be: a toy (I mean not even blocks-they are of no real value anyhow), a non-educational games (because if it were educational, the game company would be sure to note that on the box), an outdoor adventure during regularly scheduled school hours (like I dunno-taking a nature walk at 1 pm when they should be in the classroom being drilled in their multiplication facts), fun (oh it hurt to write that word) activities like baking (ouch) or crazy craft projects (you know the kind-ones that have no lesson plans or ultimate goal to teach something important) or the likes. And by all means-never let the child(ren) experience the "hookey" syndrome-you know, where you toss the day to the wind and watch it blow across the field like a bad thought. Where you just poo-poo anything "schooly" and hit the movie theater, spend the afternoon at the park, or lazing around the homestead doing (dare I say?) NOTHING! Yes, that is the worse of the worst kind of events that will throw your education train right off the tracks, and into the river below. If exposed to such things, the child(ren) will never want to return to their main studies-it will spoil them like the hot sun aimed at an egg salad sandwich. Besides, the guilt you (the instructor) will experience is beyond painful-it will rip you apart and destroy your capability to effectively teach again.

7. And lastly-never put school aside to relieve yourself of the pressure. You must never give yourself a break, or take a couple days to re-evaluate the goals, direction or failures/accomplishments of your little family's educational trek-never. It will cause a riot in the home and the children will never again want to return to anything remotely close to a schedule or routine. You do not need to refresh and renew yourself-you are a robot, and have no right to require any time what-so-ever to not spend your entire day/life thinking upon, pondering and planning the education of your children. It violates the very nature of a really great mother/wife and teacher. There is nothing else out there besides that and to even consider taking a few days to do something that interests you, is beyond comprehension and a total violation of the soul. You'd be selfish and self-absorbed to want to spend a few waking hours not devoting yourself to the future success of your children, or to spend a moment or two with your lovely husband. There simply is no time for self-care, marriage-care or simply having no cares for even a moment. It is un-motherly of you and you should squelch those desires immediately-IMMEDIATELY- then feel guilty for pondering such foolish thoughts.

There you have it-7 ways to flush the love of learning right out of your children's very nature. If you don't believe these time tested activities will do it-try em out for yourself. It will make a believer out you-it surely will.

Be sure to read what my TOS mates have to offer concerning this very subject-just click the Blog Cruise Icon above to get to our TOS Crew Review homepage!

For my new UBP friends-thought I would pull up some posts I have written

2010-04-10T13:12:00.000-04:00

Ones that talk about HSing areas-to get you started....

History for elementary age
History for elementary age-part II

High School Ideas

Science Ideas

Nature Study with Teens
Nature Study-part II

Language Arts
More Lang. Arts

Charlotte Mason Sites
Charlotte Mason Books

The Ultimate Blog Party has begun-and we're having a giveaway too!

2010-04-09T12:01:00.008-04:00

Well, I am excited to be a part of this again-
Little about me first: I am Christian, and a homeschooling mom (16+ years) who happens to love lapbooking, workboxing (schooly things) and scrapbooking. I am sorta crafty, well I attempt to be when I get a free moment or two.

I am married to my best friend-22 years now (today the 9th is our anniversary), and have 4 wonderful children (21 yodd, 19 yods, 15 yodd and 8 yods). I manage 4 main blogs for 4 different subject areas, I also am a product reviewer for the Old Schoolhouse Magazine (soon will be entering my 3 rd year on board) and am currently working on a Speaker's Series for our local homeschool moms/dads/HS Group teachers with a pal of mine. We are in the process of trying to get a local HS co-op started as well. So I am pretty busy. Plus, I try to escape from it all a couple times per year to do a weekend scrap-a-thon with my scrappin buds up north-and I anxiously await our getaway coming up this May-now to get organized and set for it! LOL...anyway, that is a quick overview of me and my life, it is so nice to meet you and I hope you'll continue to stop by in the months ahead!

PLUS!!! We are hosting a giveaway too-if you would like to win an adorable stuffed German Shepherd, and a couple bandannas for your real dog(s) (you don't need to have a dog to enter :0) these can be used as babushkas for the littles too) -be sure to leave a note in your comment and way for me to contact (if you have a blog it should come up as such-and that should do-otherwise, leave your FB page info or another way to find ya) you if you should win-we'll notify the winner after the party has ended.

The German Shepherd plus toy and dog bandannas have been donated by Guiding Eyes for the Blind (where my husband is employed).

To be entered in the drawing all you need to do is let us know in your post that you want to win this pup! That is it.....Oh, and you can visit Guiding Eyes Fan page on FaceBook to learn more about this great company.

Guiding Eyes for the Bling FB fan page

(***Allergy alert-the pictured pooch is not the one you'd receive, as your critter will be shipped to us directly from Guiding Eyes headquarters-meaning that if you have dog allergies, you may want to pass on this because I cannot guarantee that it will be free of dog allergens [as obviously-there are dogs on the premises] that may get into the packaging or on the stuffed animal [even though it is coming from the office/supply area]-so please be aware of that.)

If you would like to learn more about me and my family-please scroll through this blog (my main one) or thru one of my other blogs which can be found here:

Blog about Workboxes and all sorts of goodies to go in them

Blog about Scrapbooks, Lapbooks and all things artsy

Blog where I discuss the Homeschool materials I review for TOS

Thanks for stopping by!

Prize choices:
Pedal Cars and Retro Collectibles #1
Amy at Earnest Parenting $100 eCertificate to Restaurant.com #11
Amy Peter's pewter charms birthday kit #80

plus, #95, #112, #73, #87, #75, #49, #25, USC3, USC19

I have this idea for organizing your eBooks on my other blog and wanted to share

2010-03-25T10:49:00.000-04:00

I have this ditty up on my Scrapbooks and Lapbooks by Sheri, that shows you how to organize all those eBooks you have in your computer/CDs. It shows how I am doing my lapbooks, but one could easily do this for any type of Ebooks (TOS eBooks/Weebooks/Molly etc.) and was not sure if you followed that blog or not. Wanted to share the idea just in case. HTH you out.

Have your DNA and eat it too?

2010-01-27T21:58:00.000-05:00

Yes, well you do have DNA, and you can eat it too! Build yourself one of these clever edible strands-this is what happened when I gave my kids the project...

The supply plate (which is one of those Mak-It plates I made many moons ago, and no, I didn't misspell that -as that is what the company is called) with the licorice, toothpicks and marshmallows.

Supplies ready to go-oh, the boy is wearing it?!

the end result (before labels-which they didn't do-only I did for a sample DNA project)

careful b/cuz those toothpicks are "picky" and when trying to shove them into the licorice, you may get poked..as I did! LOL....

You can find the directions here: PDF file for Have Your DNA and Eat it too

DNA and RNA page from this mighty helpful site: Awesome Science Teacher Resources.

That site has lots of goodies to download for your science notebook too!