Not Back to School Blog Hop 2013: Classroom-Keeping it real people plus UPDATE PICS

So week 2.  School room.  Yah-OK, well here is my keeping it real post for ya.


It is only the second week of August and so far this summer has proven to be crazy busy. Between our two boys' birthdays in late June/early July, the exterior of our home needing to have some wood and trim replaced (by hubby), then 4 days with the painters here, then the two older kiddos moving from their shared apartment to two separate places in two opposite directions (with all of us helping), to planting a few flowers and moving some other landscaping about the yard, to packing up and heading out on a tag-a-long with dad (work) for a week around Michigan, to barely getting home to having our oldest dd's birthday (and dad's this week), to my jumping into about 3 other sewing projects for our adoption fundraising to well-life..yah-we've been pretty darn busy.

Why did I tell you all that?  Well to highlight why it is that my classroom area looks like a nuclear bomb of supplies, books, projects, papers, etc. and some more-blew off leaving the area decimated. That is why. Folks-getting the classroom ready for the coming year has been on the bottom of my 'to do' list. That is why I am posting this pic of how the room looks now. Well except for the rockets-those have been moved..but my new projects have taken over the space they created!  I kid you not.

This is about being real.  This is about how an area can become a masterpiece of chaos (albeit temporarily) in the midst of life.  And I am OK with that.  You'll be looking at some awesome rooms on your blog tour, but you won't find that here. I will get to my ever growing list of 'GET IT DONE' soon enough. Until then, I leave you with these...

  

I told ya it was a disaster.

If you need to see a clean/organized room-

you can check it out at the beginning of last

year when it was all pretty and neat-

Before d'explosion!

Join the fun at NBTSBH-classroom week

UPDATES TO ROOM!! 

SO far I have rearranged the workbox/tables to create a nature study table under the rain gutter shelves. I have been wanting a nature area for a long time but never got around to actually creating one. I want (very badly) to get myself a nice unit to store all sorts of nature things but alas-not in the budget right now.  So I will make do with what I scrounged up from around the house.  I am using of all things-a doll armoire as a focal point. Just dug around the home and found little this and thats to make the table early fall inviting. I added the backyard birds from the recently purchased Safari Ltd. set and a few from the exotic ones since we have hummingbirds and have spotted owls-altho not sure about the snowy one but hey-he is representing the owl clan for us.   I am still working on the other side of the room and have decided to declutter the shelves from books and programs/curriculum that we are not using this year to clean up the look and make it feel less busy.  

Nature Study Table/Book Display plus Art Picture study prints area (using the pics we studied a few years ago when we covered J. J. Audubon who will we re-cover this year as well).

Not Back to School Blog Hop 2013 : Curriculum

Wow-it's that time already?  I am not in the mode yet but have done most of my purchasing for the upcoming school year-thankfully.

Link up here for Curriculum Week

Curriculum:

12 year old son

This year I again (sadly) only have one student-my son and I are heading back to our roots this year with doing our own thing (verses using a pre-planned curriculum like we used last year). I am excited about that because even though we learned and expanded our knowledge using the other style, it just left us without much 'us'.  I don't know even how to describe that really, but we kinda like doing our own thing on our time schedule.  It is how I began homeschooling way back in the early 90s and I missed it. We missed using our workboxes too. Probably me more than him tho. I saw how he began to wander and 'escape' the second I left the room b/cuz he didn't have those boxes filled with his activities and he needed to wait on me for much of the lessons so-as you can imagine [an active boy] took any chance he could to go MIA as long as possible.  Workboxes equal order around here and even tho they can be a pain to fill day after day-it is worth it in the long run....but that is another post...

I copied/pasted the post I did recently on what we have planned so far.  I still don't know about the math or the Bible or the artist/musician studies.  I am hoping to have that figured out by next week so I can order those and be ready to roll after Labor Day when we start. 

Here is what we're gonna do this 

coming 2013-14 school year:

*Beautiful Feet:  California History and Westward Expansion

Beautiful Feet Website

*Beautiful Feet:  Geography study using Hollings C. Hollings books.  

*Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 and 2 plus the notebooks 1 and 2.  

*Italic Handwriting by Getty-Dubay.
Getty-Dubay Website

Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading

image from Scholar Pub. site

*Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading Level 2.

This is a continuation to the first level that has been working for him. I am holding off starting the Little House study til September. With his dyslexia we are a bit behind but this year we're gonna power our way to his reading more smoothly and efficiently and get him caught up to where he needs to be. :)

Common Sense Press website (LLATL)

image from Common Sense website

*LLATL Purple level.

*Math-Still TBD

*Artist/Musician study: TBD  

*Nature Study: TBD 

*Latin:  Prima Latina and then quickly move to Latina Christiana 1
Memoria Press website

*Bible:  TBD still working on this

And of course we'll get back to our workboxing to pull this all off!  Which means I need to get a general plan on what I want to put in those for each month (extra stuff like seasonal lapbooking/notebooking, projects, etc.). 

*I also need to sit down and tweak the history out b/cuz the Cal. History and the Westward Expansion co-exist and even tho there is a little ditty on how to combine those-it is not detailed enough for me...so I need to sketch out something so I can stay on target and add a few extra things (like more study on the railroads per his request and such)...and whatever else that needs to be done.  I simply haven't had any time to truly do this...so it is my goal here to get this all figured out so I can get the last minute things ordered, do some pre-work to have it ready to go and so forth.  

And that folks is where I am at right now.  Frankly, it is the beginning of August and I am still on vacation (from my problems....or in this case-homeschooling) LOL  I will get serious soon enough.

You can read the whole post I wrote on the Heart of Dakota and this year's choices here.  See you next week!

Reflections on this past year with Heart of Dakota C to C, and changes for the coming 2013-14 school session

So, my thoughts are a bit scattered lately and that is just mostly due to the outside distractions going on.  Namely the baseball season.  Our son is the first of our four kiddos to actually play in an organized league for sports and wow-talk about a commitment of time and energy. Whew.  Almost to the end of the season and looking forward to it.  Anyway-on top of that, summer is here (well we keep telling ourselves that b/cuz the weather apparently missed that memo) so there is much outside work to do as well.  I frankly haven't been much into blogging/FBing or anything lately either.  So my long promised post on the HOD program and other thoughts sit idle in my brain.  I want to change that tho and start blogging a bit more frequently and after bball season, I may be able to truly start thinking and planning out the coming school year.

That said...I have decided to do just a basic pros/cons ditty on the HOD program.  Since everyone's experience and tastes/likes are so vast and probably unlike mine-it only makes sense to just note those bullet points instead of launching into some long post about it.

So here we go:

Heart of Dakota Creation to Christ Program thoughts:

image from HOD site

Heart of Dakota website

Pros:

*Nicely laid out and easy to follow. Little or no prep outside of the arts/poetry sections.

*Covers Bible, history, science, math (if you want to follow the suggested program), writing, geography, poetry, literature/reading, lang. arts (to an extent, as I am not 100% sure on that since I didn't do their suggested program). [I may have missed a subject as I don't have my guide anymore-so check the website for all that].

*4 day program allowing for 'catch-up' on 5th day or family activities/fun (or whatever) on non-scheduled day.

*Non-overdrawn assignments that are adequate and not overwhelming (esp. for younger/struggling students) with extension options for those kiddos who want more to do.

*Not extremely expensive compared to other lit/larger 'all in one' programs.

*Many of the books they suggest are easily found via the library for those on very tight budgets.

*Charlotte Mason inspired. offers good supply of literature (well for all the reading/history so yah) to satisfy most literature loving families. (You can always supplement with more for the veracious readers).

*My son enjoyed learning about these eras and he walked away with a new knowledge of it-which means he learned something-and believe me when I say this: that doesn't always happen when you use a program.

*Great appendices that list all the info needed for suggested books, supplemental work for older students, etc.  Very helpful and easy to use.

*Loved the Bible choice!

*Copywork and diction, very CMy.

Cons:

*Art lessons for Poetry are very redundant.  Would have liked to see different mediums/styles taught (not that one cannot do that, it is just when not all are artsy and can figure that out/do it).  I understand the need to keep supplies limited but more techniques and mediums should be taught.

*No personal study of the actual poet (Robert Frost) is included.  What?  That defies CM methods and needs to be added (see my post about adding extras into the program) to get a better feel for who he was and why he chose those type of subjects to write about.  I added it but I am used to finding that stuff and teaching it-to those new to CM or not having ever done an Artist study it could prove to be too much to pull together and therefore,  discarded.  :(

*No musician study. [She never advertised it would be included, but if following the CM method, it would be nice to have the musician and artist study included] Again-another "What?" There are plenty of choices and should have been included at least one dude. Since Robert Frost was studied and he is totally not in the era of creation to Christ (which is to be expected since we really don't have that data on poets or musicians from that era) then a composer or musician from his time frame could have and should have been included.  

*No artist studied either but there are drawing/crafting activities that pertain to the eras so that is OK here for this time frame.  There is enough to give examples of what art was like/used to express in those cultures.  Could there have been more-yes.  Necessary-eh, probably not.  Like the poetry and musician concerns, you can always add in more to your liking.  The point here is that when you buy an 'all inclusive" (well for the most part) program, you expect to see it there.  I knew this going in (say for no personal study on Frost) so it didn't surprise me.  If you read the descriptions you can see it isn't there. But boy would it be nice for future printings.  :)

*Like many programs-I feel the age range is not correct, meaning I would suggest this particular one for kids in 6-8th grade for most families.  The suggested 9-11 seems -well WOW, I don't know many 9 yr olds that could handle this.  I have my thoughts on aging a program and it usually is below what the author/publisher suggests..but that is another post for another day.

Some of the stuff (like the study of the History of Medicine) was kinda deep and heavy.  Younger kiddos may have a lot of that stuff fly over their head.  For HOD, I wanted to actually get the guide below this one but it had too much stuff we had already done-and we really needed to do C to C-so I went in knowing it may be too much at times since my son is dyslexic and struggles with reading.  I suggest you know your kid and make your decision (for any program) based on their skill level.  My son had no problem understanding the material-he just could not do a lot of on his own or we had to tweak/drop some things b/cuz he simply was not ready for it. 

*Didn't like the geography choice. Dry, boring and so we actually dropped it mid-way.  I couldn't do it.  There are other great programs out there and I am not the only one to say this about it.  

And that is that.  As with anything-it all depends on your family, your kids and their personalities/learning styles and skill level.  It was a good fit for what I needed this year, my son learned and I didn't have to 'think' too much.  Which with all we have swirling around us was the point for purchasing it in the first place.  For this coming year, I am going back to what I know works super swell for us and the things we missed.  There is a reason my shelves are stocked with this particular program and I am happy to report we're going back 'home' to it.  

SO what is on tap for the coming year?

I am glad you asked (well if you didn't, you're gonna read about it unless you click off this post now...).

Ah-well I am excited to report that we are going back to our old fav:  Beautiful Feet Books history guides! WHEW!  I guess I am more of a control freak than I thought as I like to 'cut and paste' different things together to create a program for our year that is tailor made to us.  We're going back to workboxing too!  With a program like HOD you kinda don't have the option (without a ton of unnecessary work) to workbox.    My son spent a lot of time 'wandering and wondering' and I just got sorta checked out this past year b/cuz I was a passenger not the driver.  Not gonna happen again unless we are knee-deep in the adoption process or something....

Here is what we're gonna do this 

coming 2013-14 school year:

Beautiful Feet Website

*Beautiful Feet:  California History and Westward Expansion

(I just need to get the W.E. guide cuz it is relatively new and gasp! I don't own it-yet)

This is a fun one-takes us from Europe when exploration was just getting revved up, to seeking out different continents/peoples and faster ways to the Orient.  Then we'll move on to the expansion of the US to the west coast.  Think gold rushes, transcontinental railways and pioneers with steely souls searching for their little paradise. Literature based and notebooking and timelining and all that fun stuff.  

*Beautiful Feet:  Geography study using Hollings C. Hollings books.  We're done one map so far but I saved the other 3 (due to difficulty and the subject matter) for now.  [I have the older guide, not sure what improvements have been made but since he is our last student (at this point) I am not repurchasing. I am satisfied with the one I have.] 

Apologia Website

images from Apologia site

*Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 and 2 plus the notebooks.  

We've done the Astronomy and Zoology 3 already. Looking forward to these two this year.

Getty-Dubay Website

*Italic Handwriting by Getty-Dubay.

Simply moving along to last two books.  Love these. 

Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading

image from Scholar Pub. site

*Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading Level 2.

This is a continuation to the first level that has been working for him. Dyslexia sucks people-just sucks. There I said it.  We started with it a few weeks ago and so far, it's working great. I am holding off starting the Little House study til September. 

Common Sense Press website (LLATL)

image from Rainbow Resource website

*LLATL Purple level.

I am going to cherry pick thru this because he get a lot from the Phonics Road study but it will give us a few more literature options and cover grammar, copywork and dictation. I think I could put him in the Tan level but we haven't done much with grammar and this one highlights Farmer Boy-so we're keeping with the Little House theme with this level.

*Math-well here is where I am stymied.  We've been using Abeka but I have Saxon and when I get a moment I will go thru the Saxon 54 or 65 to see where he'd fit best. Otherwise, I will get the next level of Abeka and go from there.

*Artist/Musician study: TBD  (working on selections and will post once I have them)

*Nature Study: TBD on the focus 

Memoria Press website

*Latin:  Prima Latina and then quickly move to Latina Christiana 1

I have held off on this due to the reading issues but want him to start on it.  He should be able to handle the switcheroo to Latin back to English (esp. since much of our language is Latin based) so we're gonna try it. This will also help with our nature study and science lessons.

Apologia Site

image from Apologia website

*Bible:  Apologia Who Am I? and scripture study

We did book one already and will just continue on with the series.  We'll also do verses and prayer study like we did this year.

And of course we'll get back to our workboxing to pull this all off!  We missed it and altho it is more work for me, the organization and his knowing what to expect are so worth it! 

So that in a nutshell is our experience this past year and what we're looking forward to exploring this year. Now to get some energy to start planning, get the final products I need and come up with some fun works and projects too.  

Couponing Tips

So for those who coupon, you know the difficulty that occur in regard to the storage of said useful pieces of paper. So how does one solve those pesky issues of properly storing them or more plainly-keeping them safe and snug in the binder? Fear not-I have some quick fixes to help you out.

The Issue:

The 3-Ring holes are torn and my pages fall out!

Well I have mentioned keeping them in a binder (zippered) in the lovely plastic sheets usually used for photos or sports cards.  But these were not designed to be flipped, stuffed and handled so frequently.  The 3-ring holes tear quickly from the constant flipping of the pages. Now what good are a bunch of pages that fall out of the binder every time you go to look for your coupons?

Enter duct tape. Yes-and now thanks to some very creative person or persons-we now have duct tape that is hip, stylish and/or all snazzy with designs for your taping needs.  I bought (of course with a 40% off coupon at Joanns) a Hawaiian style one to secure up my ripped up pages.  I had already had these pages, so they were somewhat stressed to begin with, and then from the wad of coupons and my use they were tearing at an alarming rate!  I needed something very strong and durable-the duct tape was the perfect solution.

yes, I had to fuzz out all the bar codes

So I grabbed my binder, the tape, scissors, and a hole punch and went to work.  All you need to do is simply tear or cut the length needed and tape onto the hole side of the page.  Do not cover over too far on the side that that has the openings or you'll cut down the size with which to stuff those coupons in it. Then simply feel for the area that you need to punch the hole out and whallah!  Pop back into your binder and they are good to go. Mind you-this is tape so they may not swoosh over the rings as nicely, so you have to take a bit of 'not-so-cool it kind catches/sticks' with the keeping them in the binder part. Give it time, as I have found that with frequent use they don't stick as much and I can flip 'em a lot easier now.

What about those printed coupons I have-they are huge and 

I don't want to mix them with the insert coupons?

Since I began seriously couponing-the printed [via online] coupons have always been kept separate.  I put them in envelopes labeled by general categories.  These expire a lot quicker than most insert coupons and they are generally a lot larger too-so it just made sense.  But that got old real fast....flipping thru those trying to see what I had.  I finally found a lovely solution at Michaels and only because the clerk was slow.  For once it was a good thing.  As I patiently waited-I looked about and saw behind me on the scrapbook end cap [the shelves at the end of the isle] a display of smaller-sized scrapbook supplies [insert stars, music and glassy eyes] where this two-pocket, clear-paged doodad beckoned me.  Mind you these are not full size like the sports page inserts but are  8.5"  x 6.5" (not including the 3-ring part).  Problem?  I didn't have a binder for 'em.  Or did I? 

OK so it hangs out over the edge. 

Not pretty but efficient.

I do not pay full price unless absolutely necessary (oh and yes-I used a 40% off coupon I hadn't used to buy the pages)...so I didn't want to purchase a binder right now since it is not Back-to-School time. Those babies are full price right this time of year, and man do they over charge for those! I also wasn't too sure they would work since I didn't have any coupons on me to visually see if they would fit. I bought one packet. I wanted to be cautiously optimistic they would work before even thinking of going on a binder purchase spree. Of which I have yet to do.  Waiting for August to do that.

  

I thought I took a pic of the pages, but cannot

find it right now. Will get the name brand for ya soon.

When I got home, I found that yes, they would fit if I clipped them very close to the edge of the coupon (or just stuff those puppies in) and lo-and behold they have a lovely home til I pull them to save money!  I had a smaller 3-ring binder from my Stampin'Up! days.  Well almost-it isn't as 'fat' as it needs to be. I am not picky and it will work for now.  So I typed up a cute label, put my duct tape on and punched out the holes.  I also cut up some old, and kinda ugly in color card stock to provide double side storage too.  Ah.  I have solved my problem.  I was near the Michael's store a week later and used yet another coupon to get another pack.  I may need more but prob'ly not since those coupons are less reliable and I can have sections with nothing in it or have it over flowing, depending on what is available at the time.

Pre-paperclipped

The first two pages are where I put those store catalinas.  Now those kinda want to jump ship so I have just put a paper clip at the top to help hold em in.  It works.  

What was that about inserts in the sections?

I cannot recall where I saw this, I believe on one of the sites where a lady who sells kits for coupon binders but it is really quite elementary.  I have copy paper [actually from the scraps from printing coupons] in my main binder to separate the pockets giving me two sides to use, instead of one without them.  Problem is the paper tends to slide out a lot when I pull coupons.  I will be switching those out with card stock soon.  The printed coupon binder has them already.  They seem to stick better when I am pulling coupons which is a huge blessing.  I do have a nice paper cutter so making them was a snap-if I had to cut them with scissors-well gosh I dunno.  If you don't have a paper cutter, use one of the Joann or Michael coupons to get one or better yet ask a pal who does have one if you can borrow it.  I just eye balled the size and went with it when I found it fit.  I have been scrapping long enough to do this but you may need to properly measure to be sure.  

Yes the dividers are too small-on my 'to get' list.

And there you go.  Nice and tidy ways to keep those precious coupons safe.  And even tho my printed coupon binder is not zipped, I find it works well for this application.  I wouldn't suggest it for one with tons of coupons because as the pages get more stuffed they tend to want to pour out the contents a lot more too. 

Look for another post soon about what kinda coupon gal I am...a flipper or a clipper (as the Krazy Coupon Lady gals labeled it).  Love that site! 

Supplementing Heart of Dakota-Creation to Christ Poetry unit and Human Body unit

If you are a follower or if you just pop by to read up on the Heart of Dakota [HOD] program we have been using this year, you are probably familiar with my feelings on it by now, but I wanted to highlight a couple things we have done that has taken outside the box.

I found we (personally-as this may not be for every family so keep that in mind) needed to do something different regarding one recommend book for science; and that one area definitely needed a more in-depth investigation-the poet Robert Frost.

I have the Considering God's Creation [CGC] curricula (which I have been plucking units from for about a year and 1/2 now) that has a section on the body. After we read the book Exploring the History of Medicine (very good book!) we simply have moved into this study.  I ditched the An Illustrated Adventure in Human Anatomy book that was scheduled (I had received it via the library inter-loan prior to the Exploring History one...and it needed to be returned before we came to this section-I didn't feel it was worth trying to re-hold/check out again as I have enough human body books on our shelf that are very similar to this one) and that is why I chose not to follow that part. Plus, being we are lapbooking/notebooking sorta folk-the CGC fit the bill perfectly. So we have been working our way through this unit and are just about done.  I am very satisfied with it and find it is just the right amount of info/work for our boy.  Again-this stresses the need for the instructor to look at what does and does not fit the student or situation when using an all-encompassing type of guide such as HOD.  Just because it is listed and recommended does not mean it must be used.  Esp. when you are at the mercy of library loan books, and other circumstances that require tweaking. [image from eagleswingsed.com]

As for the lack of any biographical data/study on the poet Robert Frost...well here is where I was sadly disappointed with this section.  It is very Charlotte Masony to study the person and not just their work.  So being that I am versed in scrounging up data-I found a few things to offer the boy as a backdrop into who this dude was. The one I got via the library is older-so not everyone will be able to find it.  It is Robert Frost: America's Poet by Doris Faber. I have to say it was a very nicely written book that hits all the key points a book should when following the CM method for choosing books-it was twaddle free. :)  Anyhoo-I saw the other listed book below via Amazon, but was not able to get a hold of it...so not sure how great it is but looks to be written for children and looks lovely.  If I do get my hands on it-I will come back and update my thoughts on it.

Robert Frost: America's Poet by Doris Faber

Papa Is a Poet: A Story About Robert Frost by Natalie Bober

image from Amazon.com

I also downloaded these free notebooking pages on Robert from 

The Notebooking Fairy

to give him some opportunities to jot down 

some essential data and such.

I have also pulled those noted human body books from the shelf and we refer to them when needed. Again-I am using what I have to wrap up this unit and it is all good.  Just not what was originally outlined in the study.

And now for one of my favorite projects the Boy has done so far...and yes, it is a fav because he put some personality into it.  Our floating-head skeleton boy with a Barber of Seville curly mustache and a rocker dude goatee. [I say-if you do this study-dry place the pieces prior to the child gluing unlike us. Otherwise, you too will end up with a lovely floating, non-connected skull]

And that my blogger peeps is how we tweaked our HOD study to fit us and our current needs.  

Ultimate Blog Party 2013!

 

Hi and welcome to my blog. Well, I actually have 6 blogs, all created to highlight different aspects of our life/education methods, but am working toward putting them into one soon. My main blog is this one-Homeschooling on a Wing and a Prayer. I post about our home education projects/adventures, but also about various other things-like couponing, being a mom and other life stuff. I am a crafter by nature (scrapbooking, various projects and sewing) and have become a big fan of Pinterest.

I have been married 25 years to my best friend, and we have four wonderful (bio) kids (OK, well 3 are adults now) and we're working toward adopting a special needs child (or two) from Eastern Europe or Asia-hopefully very soon.

That is me-us-in a nutshell (and because I know you have lots of other blogs to visit-wanted to keep it short and sweet).  I hope to come across your blog soon, as I work my way thru this year's Blog Party!

And if you have time-come back and visit!  You can also see my other blogs by clicking the links below.

Blessings-
Sheri

My Workbox Blog

I am retired, but I have several (like a hundred or so?) 

reviews about homeschooling material

My Review blog

HOD C to C History Project: Ancient Roman Meal

As we are winding down in the study of the Romans, we were to partake in a mock "ancient" Roman meal.  We managed to find some similar foods (we avoided other kinds the kids would not touch with a 10 foot pole) and we think it came out lovely.  The only big thing we didn't do were the togas.  Just couldn't get the fam to go that far.

We had the yellow bowls with water and the blue cloths for wiping one's fingers clean between food changes. They didn't use flatware. We had cucumbers, almonds, salami, provolone cheese, grapes, mango (OK, not sure if they had that-probably not but I had one we had to use and it went well with the selection...we were progressive thinking Romans); also olive oil/ feta cheese/Italian seasoning together with hot bread to dip in it. I didn't make a suggested dessert they listed b/cuz I had just made brownies the day before...and we did not need any more sweets around here, but there is that option if you choose to do so. I wanted to get some sparkling grape juice to represent wine but I simply forgot to go down the isle when I was shopping for this stuff..ooopsies.  All in all-it was a fun activity that even dad was able to partake in with us!

This was a part of the Heart of Dakota Creation to Christ study.  But if you are going on your own or with another curriculum and are studying Rome, it is an easy and fun way to bring history alive.

Rose Dissection

So my precious husband gave me a lovely red rose for Valentine's Day.  But alas, it is now crumbling and so-being the clever homeschooler I try to aspire to be (but fail to be actually, a lot of the time), we are going to dissect it today.  Yes-my rose will have served two purposes. One as a token of love and affection-the other as a great botany specimen.  So the table has been set with the goodies needed to disassemble it so the boy can see the parts of the plant we have been learning about for the last several weeks.  Since it is winter here, finding plant life to investigate has been a challenge. Thanks to Valentine's Day-we're going to have a real live, up close and personal view of a flower and its seed boxes, stamen, pistols, dust bags, etc.
Of course, the boy will be drawing what he finds in his plant book we have created for this study.

Using the ebook: Plant Life in Field and Garden by Arabella Buckley (thru the Yesterday's Classics collection which I reviewed a few years back-you can read about that program here), we have discovered a lot of interesting facts and along with the study notes provided in the Heart of Dakota program for the Creation to Christ program, this is shaping up to be a fun study.

Hey, if you are interested in the Yesterday's Classics, they have a sale going on until February 28, 2013 at half off! That is an awesome price for all those books!  I use it all the time-and I don't have an eReader, but just have uploaded the free Kindle PC app to my computer.

Ancient Greece and Archimedes study continued

As previously noted, we are moving through the Heart of Dakota study: Creation to Christ. We're currently up to our laurel leaves in ancient Greece.  Here are some notes and projects on what we have done these past few weeks. I put the name of the study in ( ) for those who are new to the abbreviations.

Reading:

images from Amazon.com

MTH: Ancient Greece   Hour of the Olympics

With HOD (Heart of Dakota) we have been able to substitute a few of the suggested books under the historical reading area.  I came across the Magic Tree House books (again-I sorta forgot about them but my older kids liked them way back when) and found they have one devoted to the Olympics/ancient Greece. I reserved it through our local library and also found they created an additional book to go along with it to give more info on Ancient Greece! Score. So These two books served as our mystery book selection.  If you decide to use these two just look for them via your library or maybe you already have them on your shelves. It was not a difficult read or challenging to say the least, but the additional info book served to rehash what he was learning throughout the study itself.  [They are: Magic Tree House #16: Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne and Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #10: Ancient Greece and the Olympics]

Art/Projects:

Sorry it is blurry. I found this idea via a MOH (Mystery of History post...sorry not sure where it is tho...). Basically the student colors with yellow crayon a wide area all over the paper. Then colors over it with black. This is the tricky part-if your paper is not higher grade, when you etch, it will rip or not work right. So anyway-yellow then black over. Press very hard to get a nice thick coat of black. Then etch out a vase shape, and then design.  We tried many things and found-get this...the Pampered Chef scraper tool to work the best. I know-go figure.  If you don't have one, try a sculpting tool used for clay projects or Play-Doh (seriously, check your kids stash) or an edge of something sharp but not dangerous.  They will get that black shavings everywhere so I had the boy do it over a spread out sheet or two of newspaper.  Messy.

He decided on an octopus and waves for his. We had a book open with various pics showing different art/vases found from that era.  The people [very popular theme] would have been too complicated so the four legged [must have been in an accident or something and lost a few limbs] octopus made the cut (or in this case 'etch'). Be careful about what books you use.  I keep thinking of the movie The Birdcage.  I silently chucked when thinking back on that moment in the movie when the dude's dad and his mate had the table set with their dishes that were Greek inspired (cough...dudes playing 'leapfrog' not).  Yah. Go thru the material first unless you want to explain how the Greeks were very, very free with some things.  I found these books to be safe enough [some may want to cover a few images if they seem a bit too racy]...and again-got them via the library:

The Nature Company Discoveries Library:  Ancient Greece  

(this is a Time Life book and shows no official author)

 Uncovering History: Everyday Life in Ancient Greece 

by Cath Senker

(images from Amazon.com)

Science:

We did an experiment found in the Science Projects Ideas in the House by Robert Gardener.  This is noted as a part of the BFB HOS (Beautiful Feet Books History of Science)  program that I am piggy backing with HOD.  I didn't think it would work but it did. 

                                     

Games:

I spotted this beauty on Ellen McHenry's site some time ago, then had to wait til we were into the Greece study.  Just look under the free downloads icon, then Geography/Maps.  You can find some ancient China, Rome and Japan stuff there too. This does take a lot to print so be sure your ink and paper levels are good to go.  This is fun once you get the hang of it.  Dad, the boy and I managed our way thru it by mostly guessing, but learned along the way. And he was getting (well us too) some geography lessons in there too. Score again. 

And there you go.  Some more ideas on studying Ancient Greece.   

Archimedes project

Here is a fun project we did as a part of the BFBooks History of Science guide/curriculum.  The boy wasn't being super neat but he was also using a big, chunky charcoal pencil from our art supply so that probably didn't help.  I just taped the paper to a dowel and we stuffed it in the labeled paper towel tube. I still have to scrounge up some yarn for the carrying strap, but wanted to share with ya now.  I will get pics of the notebook up soon-once we have more stuff in it as it is pretty sparse yet, since we just started it this week.

Again-as the other post noted:  I am piggy backing this unit with the HOD study to beef up the Greek section    because it is fun :) and adds a bit of spice to it.  It is just my way, nothing against what is already in the HOD program.  I also found a neat art project to do via the Mystery of History website and will share that once we have completed it.

HOD: Creation to Christ updates on projects

If you have been following the Heart of Dakota posts, I guess you'd appreciate an update right?  It's been a while.  Sorry about that, but here is a snippet of some of the projects.  Mind you-I failed and did not order the notebook that goes with this program, so I have had to create a lot of my own stuff.  I am still considering it but with only 16-17 weeks left, I dunno if I can now justify the expense.  I may just continue to make my own pages and call it a day.  I will let you know what I do, but for now-here are some of the poetry and history things we have done so far (we're at week 18).

Poetry:  

As stated in earlier posts, I am not super impressed (sorry Carrie, not meant to be a slam-it is just me I guess, I like variety) with the likeness of the art projects.  I would love to see some revision with a  few more techniques taught for this area.  Since I do love art, I have been able to bring in my own flare here but for those who don't have such an artsy background-well it could prove to be too monotonous for their student (as it was with mine) but they may not know how to fix it. I suggest getting a few art books or programs and adding in projects that closely relate to the original if possible [yes, I am aware this defeats the purpose of an all-inclusive program.  Since no one curriculum is going to hit a bulls-eye every time, it goes without saying..you're gonna have to add your own personality here and there in order to keep the boredom and ho-hum away] .

Anyhoo-in the leaf one, we did splatter painting on top of the leaves (quite close to her instructions) so that is not a new one there, but the blue one has salt added over the watercolor to give it texture and a different look.  It is one of our favorites so far.  The bottom one with the tree is OK, neither of us were liking that look too much.  My son actually begged me to not make him paint so much these past few units. I agreed, so I have only required the copywork for a lot of them-hence the lack of pics to show you.  The reason I am even going down this bunny trail here is that  it totally illustrates the need for you to remain in control of your curriculum. If it doesn't fit your student or needs help-well by all means TWEAK away!  The coming months should prove to provide more opportunities to add in some projects that may not be included in this program. Once we encounter that, I will be sure to post. But for now, thought I would share that little tidbit.

History Projects

This is the salt dough project we did.  I had trouble finding a good map, so it is probably not super accurate. Oh wellers, he got the gist of it.  LOL....

I believe this has it's own page in the notebook, but obviously without it-I had to improvise. It illustrates how the tribes were divided and the student can take the cloth strips and place them into the appropriate sections, like the prophet Ahijah did, as described in the bible.  I do like a lot of her history projects so that area requires few changes (would be a lot less around here if I had just bought that darn notebook when I got the guide..but hey, money was tight and I had to get the minimum...lesson learned)....

Supplemental:

Seen now this is where I cannot leave well enough alone.  I have loved (since I pretty much began homeschooling) the Beautiful Feet books programs (I have a much older version, I am sure it has been updated since I bought mine many moons ago).  The History of Science is no exception.  I like to have the student focus solely on this program for their science either in 5th or 6th grade...but with the HOD program...I let it slide....until now.  I knew it covered Archimedes.  I wanted to beef up what is in the program because the boy just isn't doing (too much and over his age/abilities at times) of the rest of the program so I knew I could add some stuff, yet keep it from being overwhelming.  So we're going to at least do the Archimedes lessons in the BFB program along side HOD's reg. schedule (the Archimedes and the Door of Science is a part of the HOD program as well).  I have  created his science notebook that he will keep his notes, pictures and discoveries in (as per required in the BFB program), along with the timeline and the books for this unit.  I also reserved a boat load of books from the library on ancient Greece, scientists and such too.  I will probably have him cover this 2-3 times per week.  I will see how it goes and obviously, post once I have a good handle on it.

Right now that is pretty much all I have considered and am working on. I will hopefully start the artist study soon and composer. We're still working on the reading and writing so I have to keep that as his main focal point but all these things should prove to make this coming month more exciting.  Now if I can just get the gumption to post more frequently.  :)

oopsies accidentally deleted post 3 for the Not Back to School blog hop

well if you're looking for it-it is gone and I dunno how to get it back...but that is OK, it was just showing my students and that one wasn't getting the hits like the classroom area and the curriculum choices...so I won't bother redoing it.

Sure hope your new school session is going well...once I get things settled down I will try to get a post for ya .  Until then-happy schooling.

Not Back to School Blog Hop- Week 4 - A Day in the Life

This is the hardest post to write for the Blog Hop.  Honestly, each day around here is usually different than the one before or the one yet to come. When the kids were little, we did our best to maintain a regular schedule but since they became teens/adults (say for our youngest), that went out the door.  And since my husband travels for at least 12-14 days per month-things can get nutty. Sometimes when we can, we'll tag along with him and car/hotel school.  We have to be very flexible and we have been doing this for so long that it is second nature to us now. Generally I shoot for the basics and get ecstatic when we go beyond that.

My general schedule:

This is to be read in a somewhat joking manner as I truly love being a mom and having the privilege of being their main educator. It is truly a blessing and one I wouldn't trade for the world...but you have to have humor when you homeschool, so here you go...

-Spring out of bed all chipper and ready to tackle the world (boy do I wish. Sometimes I pray for a 'school closing' [and actually call one when need be] and at times I get up hoping that it is the FUN DAY I have some great situation/field trip planned that will whisk us off our 'normal' and refresh us with a "Wow that Awesome!" kind of a moment." Otherwise, I will trudge head downstairs then

-Check my mail/FB and other 'puter things (I can do this in 15 mins or less usually) and slug back a cup of coffee to start my morn.

-Stuff workboxes (if I haven't done that the nite before) and look over the general plan to see if I need to have any other supplies, books, etc. ready to go for the day's lessons.

-Eat breakfast (I need to wait for a bit before eating due to the thyroid med I take) and pray.  Yes-gotta pray people-I am telling you our days go so much more smoothly and without as much 'drama' if I pray for willing/content/right-hearted students and for me to not want to run away...so that requires patience, love, kindness and fortitude.

-Ring the bell (aka: in mom talk that means to shout out to the kids upstairs to get moving and get down to start). This indicates it is time to get up, take care of personal biz, eat and be all excited and ready to tackle the day's schedule.

-Once we have settled, we do a morning prayer, then we start up.  The workboxes are a life saver here because they can start on their work immediately and I don't have to have my brains explode trying to answer a zillion questions in regard to what they are suppose to be doing. Helpful hint: I put the stuff in the first two totes that can be done without my help so that I can gather my marbles together before I start losing them.

-Then I work with the student who needs direct instruction first to get them started to I can move to the other one(s) on a rotating basis. OK this will be different this year. I will only have the boy-so I guess my rotating days have come to an end...for now.

-End whatever we're doing by lunch and feed the troops (who can really do this themselves) and this is where I try to catch up with the hubby (when he is home) or I just 'zone out' for a bit (usually means getting some chores done or checking the 'puter or hiding away in my room for a moment of solitude).

-Wrap up whatever we didn't get done in the morn right after lunch so that the majority of the afternoon is 'free time'.  Especially since I need time to work on some projects that need to be completed (scrapbooking/sewing/creating material for the boy to use for learning, or for writing blog posts such as this.) Weather permitting, I have the kids get outside or go do something (like bike).  This is a very Charlotte Mason moment.  One I love and will cling to with all my might.  All of it people-unless I need them to get some cleaning done or assist me with some project-then they are called to duty first.

-Declutter school area/any project areas and set up workboxes/material for next day (if I am not doing errands or have other things to attend to). My main goal this year is to definitely have this done each afternoon.

For the Student

We're using the Heart of Dakota study this year, so it is pretty much laid out for us.  I just have to decided the order we want to tackle the material and to avoid boredom or burn-out I try to vary the order a bit a few times per week.

One thing I found is that the study has science almost 4x per week and that is just too much.  I feel like I am rushing thru the material and he is not getting the main gist of it. SO, I am moving it back to what I have always done and we find best suits us-2x per week only. This is a general listing of what I like to get completed:

Math: 4-5x per week

Science: 2x per week

Language Arts: HW 2x per week, reading 5x per week, copywork (depends) but usually 2-3x per week,  dictation 1-2x per week, notebooking (depends) but usually 2-3 per week. LLATL-prob'ly 3x per week depending on what the lesson requires and our schedule.

Bible: 5x per week

History:  4x per week

Fine Arts: 1-2x per week for Great Artist study. 1x per week for Great Musician study [these fall under a 6 week long study].  Varies on art activities which are based on what is going on with the history/science studies. Nature study depends on the weather and my motivation-goal for this year at least 1x per week.

Lapbooking:  1 per semester. This is usually an on-going process related to the science or history. At times, I also will add a shorter lapbook study in sometime during the semester, if the boy asks for a particular one.

No foreign language this year (at least not this first semester) because he needs to get more fluent in his reading which is our main goal for the year.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you around this year! Blessings for a great new school adventure!

You can link up to the blog hop here: