Eclectic Education

The Homeschool Mother's Journal- Best Laid Plans...

2012-01-21T02:37:00.001-05:00

This week in my life...

The boys were sick this last week... :( One Saturday evening Little One started developing a snotty nose, cough and sore throat. Hubby and I decided we would probably not go to church the next morning and that was for the best! Over night PC woke me up and told me that his stomach was hurting. I told him to try to get some rest. About a half an hour later, we were awoken again to him throwing up. It took me awhile to get back to sleep after that. The next morning it was obvious that Little One had a nasty cold and PC had a stomach virus. PC went on to develop a fever and body aches. We took it easy most of the week.

In my homeschool...

Not much happened this week since the boys were sick. The only activity that made it to was drama and that was only because the boys had improved enough by then. I had all of these wonderful plans, but you know how that is when life gets in the way.

What I'm reading...

Seed Catalogs!!! Still reading these! I've gotten a few orders done, the biggest ones, but I have a couple more to do.

In my garden...

I didn't get any gardening done this week since I am still busy with the seed ordering (and taking care of sick kids) but I did get a lamp put together that I hope to use as a grow light. I ordered a plant growing bulb from Amazon, so I guess we will see how it works.

I hope you all had a wonderful week! To read more Homeschool Mother's Journals, go to The Homeschool Mother's Journal.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal- Happy New Year!

2012-01-14T12:42:00.001-05:00

This week in my life...

I just realized that I haven't posted since the New Year! Things have been really busy around here and the new year didn't get off to the best start, but things are getting better now. PC hurt his back the day after New Year, helping my brother and his wife move furniture and rip up carpeting. He's better now, but boy did he complain a lot there for awhile! Then last Sunday PC woke up with an ear infection. That caught us off guard since he hasn't had an ear infection since he was a little boy. Hubby took him to the Urgent Care and he got on antibiotics right away, so he is feeling better now.

In my homeschool...

The boys have been doing some various work, but no fun stuff. I plan to start reading with Little One about Victory Gardens. My kids are really into gardening and I thought that would be an interesting way to combine gardening with history. I also want to continue with our gardening studies, so they are more prepared to help me when planting time comes. The boys have started back to drama and AWANAs, but 4-H had to be canceled due to a conflict for the leader.

What I'm reading...

Seed Catalogs!!! I haven't had time to read much else.

In my garden...

Right now I am busy in the planning stage. You wouldn't think that January would be a busy gardening month, but since I have never planned a larger garden before, I am busy, busy, busy!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! To read more Homeschool Mother's Journals, go to The Homeschool Mother's Journal.

Homeschool Mother's Journal - End of December

2011-12-30T13:56:00.001-05:00

This week in my life...

This week has been busy, busy, busy! Hubby has been on vacation and we have celebrated Christmas 4 times this week! First was Christmas Eve with just our immediate family. We went to Christmas Eve service at our church. It was wonderful. Then we came home, had dinner and settled down to watch the new version of Miracle on 34th Street with our children. On Christmas day, we went to my family's home for dinner. My brother, wife and two girls were unable to be there because they were in Florida, but my aunt, uncle, cousins and their families were there. It had been over a year since I had seen them. It was a very enjoyable day. Then the day after Christmas, we went to my husband's family home. His brothers were not there, but my mom and dad joined us there along with my husband's step dad's mother. It was good to see her again. All of the family that we hadn't seen for awhile, barely recognized PC because he has changed so much. lol!!! Then on Thursday, we were back at my mom and dad's to celebrate Christmas again with my brother and his family. We plan to go to my brother's home on New Year's day. It has been an enjoyable week, but pretty tiring.

In my homeschool...

We did not school this week. PC got a portable dvd player for Christmas and has been watching some documentaries on it. Little One has been on break all week. I have started making LO some copywork pages for him to work on when school resumes the beginning of January. Some goals I have are: get PC caught up in math; (we are lagging behind there!) do more copywork with LO; (He really needs the writing practice) continue to work on gardening with both of the boys especially LO; work on Presidents, countries, and states with LO; work harder with PC on biology (which he hates, but I would like him to know the basics).

What I'm reading...

I haven't gotten any reading done this week. Just too busy! I plan to get back to reading after Hubby returns to work.

In my garden...

I haven't gotten anything done in the garden this week except saving my coffee grounds for the compost.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!! To see more Homeschool Mother's Journals, check out The Homeschool Chick.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-12-23T13:17:00.001-05:00

This week in my life...

This week has been kinda slow and weird. I keep getting my days mixed up and thinking it's the wrong day. Today starts Hubby's vacation and with Christmas coming, it is throwing us off. We plan to go to a Christmas Eve service on Saturday and then come home and eat dinner (crock pot!). After that we plan to watch the new version of Miracle on 34th Street. We are trying to get through our Christmas movies before Christmas. We took a short break from them because Little One stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's for a few days. Since we watch them mostly for his benefit, we waited until he got back. While he was gone we watched Master and Commander staring Russell Crow with PC. He loved it. We try to watch movies that LO isn't allowed to see with PC whenever LO is not around.

In my homeschool...

About two weeks ago I ordered the "I Ate a Rainbow Today" kit. I thought I was only ordering it for Little One, but PC became interested in it too. :) Now both of the boys are somewhat competing over who has the most magnets on the chart and who has eaten the most fruits and vegetables. They are eating (small amounts) things they wouldn't normally eat and trying to fit in as many different fruits and vegetables as they can. I LOVE IT!!! :) This was a great addition to our health studies. I can't wait until we can start gardening again. I plan to grow all kinds of stuff for my kids to try.

We're sorta on Christmas break right now, but the kids have been spending it watching Liberty's Kids. :) I got the complete series on dvd when it was on sale at Amazon. The kids love the series.

What I'm reading...

Real Food Nutrition and Health and The Heirloom Life Gardener. I am still working my way through these books.

In my garden...

I finally got my stuff out to the compost and walked around the garden to make sure everything is ok. My compost bins are getting quite full. I hope to have some good compost this spring. You can follow my garden progress at: Lynn's Urban Garden Diary

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!! To see more Homeschool Mother's Journals, check out The Homeschool Chick.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-12-16T13:34:00.003-05:00

This week in my life...

Well, on Saturday we did our annual holiday outing. We had so much fun! We went to a place called The Greene which is an outdoor shopping mall. They always decorate it so pretty for the holidays and it just makes for a really nice place to go. First we went to the movie Hugo, which we enjoyed very much. In my opinion, it was one of the best family films I've seen in years. It is a period film taking place in 1931 in Paris, France. The movie was a very clean movie with the only real "moral" objection was that Hugo stole to survive. But I feel that because that really is how orphans survived back then, it is a good teaching tool for children to show them what life was like for the poor in the early part of last century. The film is based loosely on a true story (which I didn't know until after we saw it) of the life of Georges Melies, an early film maker. After we saw the movie, we took Little One to see Santa. He talked us all into getting our picture taken as a group with Santa. :) So, yes, even PC got his picture taken with Santa again. lol!!! Believe me, it's no small feat getting a 15 1/2 year old boy to get his picture taken with Santa! :) After Santa, we went and had hot cocoa (for the kids, mochas for Hubby and me) at Caribou Coffee. After hot chocolate, we went on a horse- drawn carriage ride through The Greene. Very fun! After the carriage ride, we went to a restaurant called Potbelly Sandwich Works for dinner. Then we went home to decorate the Christmas tree. What a fun day! Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures. :( My camera was out of juice and I didn't know it. Luckily, Hubby was able to get a few pictures on his phone, but not many.

In my homeschool...

We are slowing down on homeschool right now for the holiday season, but we are putting in some time here and there, but we aren't starting any projects or anything. PC was at grandma and grandpa's this last week and I sent some work with him. Little One will be going next week, I will probably send a bit of work with him too.

What I'm reading...

Real Food Nutrition and Health and The Heirloom Life Gardener. I am enjoying both of these books. The first is teaching me a lot about nutrition and the second was written by the owner of Bakercreek which sells heirloom garden seeds.

In my garden...

You can read about it here: Lynn's Urban Garden Journal

I hope you all had a wonderful week! To read more Homeschool Mother's Journals, go to The Homeschool Mother's Journal.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-12-09T15:18:00.001-05:00

It's been awhile! We have been busy, busy, busy!

This week in my life...

We are a part of a drama club. The boys really enjoy it and they learn a lot. We recently had our production, so the kids and I are recuperating right now. These productions happen twice a year and they take A LOT of energy and time. In addition to this production, LO is about to be in a church play that the elementary kids put on. He lives for drama, so it is good for him. Both of my boys have come so far since we have joined the drama club. These productions involve singing and dancing and I'm not talking about a minor bit. They really had to learn some complicated dance moves for kids that are not use to doing this sort of thing. For LO this is especially difficult since he was diagnosed with gross motor delays. It is helping him so much!

In my homeschool...

What homeschool? lol!!! Seriously, we've had to take a bit of a break to recoup, but we will be back at it probably a bit next week. We are now doing year around school, so breaks here and there when we are tired are important. Right now we are doing a lot of our work using worktexts from Edhelper.com. They are a lifesaver. These sheets are easy to print out and then I just put them in a three ring binder and they go with us to what ever activity we are doing and my kids do their work on the way or while they are waiting in a doctor's waiting room or whatever. The yearly membership is quite reasonable and it helps us not get behind in our busy schedule. My only complaint is they are not Christian based. I wish there was a resource like this for Christian based material. But the kids do still get lots of Christian based instruction especially on days when we are not on the go. It just gets too difficult to carry their text books around. There are too many of them.

What I'm reading...
Real Food Nutrition and Health- This is suppose to be for PC's health class, but I'm reading it first. lol!!! I hope to have more information on this program soon. I'm really enjoying the book and learning a lot.

What I'm looking forward to...

Christmas!!! I totally love the season and all of the family things that we do. My kids get pretty wild this time of year and I can barely keep up with their energy. Some fun things that we do is we take our kids to see a special movie in the theater. This is a treat for them. They rarely get to see a first run movie. If we do go to the theater with them (not often) it's usually to the cheapie theater. But at Christmas time we take them to a first run movie in a nicer cinema, then we go see Santa and this year we will probably do a horse and buggy ride again. The movie we are planning to take them to is Hugo. Another thing we do during the holiday season is watch several Christmas movies. The traditional ones for us are The Santa Clause 1-3, Polar Express and Miracle on 34th Street (new version). We watch Miracle on 34th Street on Christmas eve. But even though I love the season, it will be nice to get back to normal after it is over. I can only keep up the energy so long! lol!!! So what holiday traditions do you have?

I hope you all had a wonderful week! To read more Homeschool Mother's Journals, go to The Homeschool Chick blog.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T01:45:00.000-05:00

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! Our Thanksgiving was really wonderful. We went to my mom and dad's for the day. My brother and his family also joined us and we got to spend time enjoying each others company. I do wonder how many more times we will all be together. My oldest niece will be going off to college next year. My oldest son is 15 and their youngest daughter is 14. It is inevitable that the children will be going in their own directions possibly with their own families within a few years, so I love spending these moments with them all while we have it. Don't get me wrong, I know my nieces aren't just going to disappear as soon as they become adults, it's just I doubt that everyone will get together for every holiday like we do now. I feel blessed to have such a wonderful family. :) My sons are blessed to have relatives that love them so much. And my husband is loved by them just like me and the kids. I am very fortunate. (Oh, and I should mention, my mom is the best cook in the world. lol!!!)
So how about you? How did you spend Thanksgiving? What blessings has God given you?

Day in the Life of our Homeschool

2011-08-22T00:32:00.000-04:00

We don't have a "normal" day. I cannot remember the last time we had an entirely, "normal" day. I don't exactly "unschool", we do have some structure, but I have to follow it very loosely. See, my children are special needs. Both of the children have pretty severe ADHD, both have OCD, both have sensory processing disorder even though my little guy is the only one diagnosed with it and my little guy has pretty severe dysgraphia (writing disorder). They also have some physical issues that they have to deal with. They spend a lot of time at doctor's offices and my little guy goes to Occupational Therapy. The doctor visits are random, so each week can be different as to what we are doing when. In addition to the doctors and therapy, my children are also in drama, 4-H and church activities. So we are busy, busy, busy! I prefer being at home, but since my kids need to be around other people (my oldest is especially social) and they need more than doctors in their life, I make the concession and let them stay busy. A therapy day looks different from a drama day that looks different from a 4-H day that looks different from a doctor day. You probably get my point. lol!!! On therapy day, we have to drive to Cincinnati which is about an hour away. The boys take their school work with them to do in the car. I have special work for them that is more like a work text (read some info, answers some questions) for those days since lugging a bunch of books is kinda hard. Drama days, they may do a bit in the car, but I kinda consider that school (fine arts) and since it can sometimes be as much as 3- 5 1/2 hours for the day, I figure it is a pretty full day. On 4-H and doctors days, they will probably do a hybrid day. It will be part work text in the car and in the doctor's office waiting room and part work at home since neither of those take a full day. At home we have the luxury of doing more books, computers, educational videos, and hands on activities. It would be nice if we could spend more days a week doing that, but that is just not our life right now, so we had to adapt. Sorry if I wore you out reading this! lol!!

"Not" Back to School - Student Photo Week

2011-08-14T12:15:00.000-04:00

PC and Little One looking at Lego display at the State Fair

Well, it's the "Not" Back to School blog hop again. This week is student photo week. Well, this is a bit challenging for me since my husband doesn't want me showing our kids on the internet. Well, at least not their faces. So I decided I would introduce my kids (again) and show some highlights from out year. So, here it goes:

PC is my oldest child. He's not much of a child anymore, he's a young man. He just turned 15 this year and is going into the 10th grade. He is a history buff and wants to major in history in college. He hopes to be a museum curator.

PC watching a Civil War reenactment at the fair.

Little One is not so "little" anymore. In fact he is getting to be quite the big boy, but he is still my "baby". He is almost 9 years old and is entering into the 4th grade. He is still very imaginative and loves imaginative play. He makes up the most delightful stories. For about the last year or two he has wanted to be an author when he grows up and write children's books. I think he would make a great author! He also loves nature and animals.

Little One petting a sheep at the fair.

Both of my boys were involved in drama, 4-H and church activities this last year. It kept them very busy!!! They had a great time and learned so much. I hope they can be a part of some fun (educational) activities this year too.

Little One's Drama

PC's Drama

At one point, while preparing for the play, we had to drive out to barrow PC some boots. Well, it was quite a ways away, so we took advantage of being in an area that we knew we wound not return to for a while. It became a field trip!

We stopped to look at a "castle" along the way. PC didn't want a picture taken, but I got some of Little One with the "Castle".

The playground at the ranch where we got the boots from. :)

Little One on the playground! :)

Well that is some highlights from the last few months. I hope you enjoyed getting to "know" my children.

Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-08-12T20:07:00.000-04:00

Little One Milking a Cow

In My Life This Week…
Last Saturday, we had a wonderful time at the Ohio State Fair!!! :) Little One was selected to represent our county in his Exploring the Outdoors 4-H project. There was so much to do and see at the fair. The kids did get to ride a couple rides and play a game, but that is not where we spent most of our time. It truly was a learning experience for the kids. First Little One had to go and present his project to the judge and then after that, we were free to go look around. Some of the highlights of the day were the 9/11 Memorial (that was an awesome and sad experience), animals animals animals!, Little One got to milk a cow (PC wouldn't do it.), the kids got to play with physics, there was a Civil War camp set up (that was really cool!), drive a tractor simulator (PC did well, Little One was about to crash through a fence when it stopped. lol!!!), look at food-borne bacteria under a microscope, and sit in the cab of a 16 wheeler (the guy insisted PC do it so he could see how truck drivers can not see other drivers well since PC will be old enough to drive soon). Over all, it was a very educational and fun day. I love when the kids get to learn like that. I'm glad it was so education since we are going to have to give up a field trip or two because the trip cost so much. It was worth it, though.

In Our Homeschool This Week…
I am still doing a lot of planning. Does it ever stop? lol!! PC is staying at my parents for the week and I sent some work with him. Little One has gotten a bit of schoolwork done, but he's had a few days off so I can get some work done.

I Am Grateful For…
I am so grateful that I got to spend the day at the fair with my family. It's days like that, that really makes memories.

Things I'm working on...
I have been busy working this week (my online job). One of my big projects was this page: Homeschool for Free. It took me a bit of time to make it. But now that it is done, I have a lot of resources to reference for myself and others.

What I'm reading...
I've not been reading much this last week, not enough time, but I have been looking through my Dinah Zike books today to get some ideas.

More Pictures from the Fair...

To read more Homeschool Mother's Journals, then click here!

Back to Homeschool - Resource Links

2011-08-10T11:19:00.000-04:00

Are you a resource junkie? I know I am!!! Well, it's back to homeschool time around our house so I wanted to share some homeschool resources with you. Here they are:

Cheap Homeschooling
Lapbooking Through the Year
Notebooking
Unit Studies
Nature Studies with Children
Homeschool Geography
Art Studies for Children

Homeschooling by grade:

1st Grade
2nd Grade
3rd Grade
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade
Jr. High
High School

I hope these resources help you in your homeschool. :)

Check out Weblink Wednesday here: Weblink Wednesday

Farm Unit Study

2011-08-09T21:00:00.000-04:00

I want a homestead! This is very strange for me, because I have always been a suburban chic with some leanings towards wanting to be a city chic. Unfortunately, my family has health issues and many of them go back to poor nutrition. Don't get me wrong, I don't feed my children garbage and junk food. In fact, we are pretty strict here about those things since we do have so many health issues, but it seems like it is not enough. We seem to be hyper sensitive to it or something. What got us started on this quest was a news article about there being a connection between pesticides and ADHD which my boys both suffer from. We have tried to buy more organic, but many things are hard to find and it is expensive. I feel like I am running all over Dayton to buy food some days because one store has some of the items another store has others. While my health has improved with some of the changes, I would like more. My husband and I have both came to the conclusion we would like to raise our own garden, raise free range chickens and goats and also a cow or two. We can not do that where we currently live. While I am busy growing a garden, I don't have as much room as I would like. I feel like I am practicing for where we hope to live next. lol!!! My boys both love the idea of moving to a small hobby farm.

Well, I decided this year, maybe in school we can learn about farming. If we are able to do this, I want my family to be somewhat prepared. I will probably start with a farm unit study for Little One and PC. I am planning on us making an interactive notebook about farming. I plan to use farm lapbook and garden lapbook minibooks, farm coloring pages and garden coloring pages, and farm copywork/ notebooking in the interactive notebook. I hope to continue to do hands on projects like growing a garden with the children (you can read our garden journal on this page: Garden Diary) and maybe do some projects like making homemade butter or yogurt.

We were lucky to get to start off this unit by going to the Ohio State Fair! We had a blast! Little One got to milk a cow and they got to see all of the farm animals. Over the summer both of the boys did vegetable gardening as a part of 4-H. PC is going to have some extra jobs since he is older helping out. He is going to be responsible for building the raised garden beds for next year among a few other garden chores.

I know the homesteading life is not for everyone. I'm not even sure if it is for us. lol!!! But if anyone is interested in it, please check back to see what we are doing.

My Schoolroom

2011-08-07T15:23:00.000-04:00

Old Schoolroom

I had an awesome schoolroom... So, what was the problem? Not enough room! It quickly became very cluttered and cramped. Plus it was so cut off from the rest of the house (it's an upstairs bedroom). So I tried moving part of the homeschool area to the back portion of our living room. That didn't work either. *sigh* A few weeks ago, my hubby suggested that we move the schoolroom into the family room (that we really don't use). Well, I think I'm going to like that idea. The biggest problem with that room is it does not have very much wall space, so I will probably continue to use some of the upstairs room (the original schoolroom) for books and extra supplies, but have the main teaching area downstairs in the family room. This room is also convenient to the living room, kitchen, laundry room and computer room and it's not cut off and isolated. I probably should add, that we don't stay just in one area. If the kids want to read in their room or do their school work there, that is fine. We sometimes do schoolwork at the kitchen table. Little One and I curl up on the couch to read a book. They watch documentaries in the living room, we are all over the place. I just like having a place that we can retreat, that doesn't have to be cleaned up for meal time, ect. Well, here is a plan of what I would like to do with the room:

This particular room has 2 entrances into the room, one from the kitchen and one from the living room. It has an entrance from the outside (a big sliding glass door), a closet and one entire wall floor to ceiling a brick hearth. Like I said, not a lot of wall space. lol!!! I will be keeping the entertainment center in the room. I will be able to use it for educational videos. We already have some bookcases in there, but I would like to get a couple more. Since there is not enough wall space, I would like to use 2 short bookcases back to back. Since my kids are older (ages 15 and almost 9) and I don't have any little ones left, this should be safe. When I first mentioned this to my husband he thought I was talking about the tall bookcases and he about had a cow. lol!!! No, my boys are too rowdy for that to be sure! :)

We have a couple wing-back chairs that we are going to have to move out of the family room and move some place. I am thinking that we move them to the back area of the living room where I currently have my homeschool stuff. I may leave the bookcase there. Basically I would like to set up a nice little reading area in the back of the living room with the two chairs and a bookcase. We need more areas where we can curl up with a book.

Well, there you have it... the room I hope to have... hopefully soon. I'll try to think to get pictures to show you all when I am done. If you want to follow this blog, there is a follow button on the side, please feel free to follow our progress and please feel free to leave a comment! I look forward to meeting you all! :)

To see what curriculum we are using this year, please check out this post: Back to Homeschool.

This post connects to the "Not" Back to School blog hop.

Back to Homeschool- More Planning!

2011-07-30T15:19:00.000-04:00

I am trying to get organized! (I'm always trying to get organized... lol!!!) I am really, really bad at planning for a school year. I am a winging it type of person and while that is ok, it is a lot more difficult now that I have a highschooler (in addition to an elementary-schooler). I tried to get really planned out last year. I wrote down what all I expected done for each subject by day for PC (my highschooler) last year. That lasted for about 1 month. lol!!! I am not one that can plan out things to the littlest detail. It just doesn't work for me.

Part of the issue is my life is very chaotic. Both of my kids are special needs. We spend a lot of time at doctors' offices, and at therapies. And we may be adding more soon, so we are on the go a lot. Some of the appointments have regular times, but most do not, so we can not plan for them more than a month a time. Second, my kids are active in activities such as 4-H, drama, and church. The drama takes up an entire day of the week, so we really only have 4 days a week for other school work. Then when you start adding doctors' appointments and likewise, we have to take school with us, and sometimes do school when we can fit it in. It doesn't help to plan for an elaborate science project for a time in December, only to get to December and find that is the only day one of the doctors can get one of my children in. So, basically, I have to loosely plan and plan by week, not month, not year.

One of the tools I am using this year is the Well Planned Day planner. The planner is not only useful, it is beautiful.

Like most school planners, it has pages where you write down assignments by day of the week and subject. The page also has a place to write weekend stuff (I have it covered right now with a post-it), it also has a place for weekly menu and weekly priorities. One draw back is it has only two blank subject areas beyond the basic Bible, Math, History, Science and English; so if you do a lot of other subjects in a day, you may run out of space. I don't think this is going to be a problem for me, because I don't do that many additionals each and every day.

I write in pencil, because well, like I said, my schedule changes a lot even on a weekly bases. Some other things that are in the Well Planned Day are: Family Memories from this year, Greeting Card Registry, Household Budget, Emergency Contacts, Semester Goals, Shopping Lists, Progress Reports, Holiday Organizer, Report Cards (for 4 children) and more.

Another planner that I am using is the Unit Study Plan Book. I want to get back to doing unit studies with Little One. I love how I can plan out each unit study on a two page spread in this planner.

I love making my own units and using the resources that I have, so this is a good way to plan it all out.

I also have this binder. I plan to keep field trip info, contact info, activity info, ect. in this. I decorated the binder with some scrapbook stuff I had on hand. I love the way it turned out. I have the Schoolhouse Planner from the Old Schoolhouse Magazine. It has tons of planning pages and things to keep you organized that you can print out and put into a binder.

This planner document has so many things to choose from. I have the 2010 version and this is some of the things in it: annual plans, curriculum planning sheets, field trip planning sheets, report cards, homeschool requirements contact sheet, highschool transcripts, audio/ video log, reading log, science lab sheets, library items sheet, community service record sheet, daily schedules, chore charts, prayer journal, Bible reading recorders, garden planning checklist, tv show reminder list, weight loss journal, and so much more!

I really want to keep my field trip, activities, book lists, video lists, ect more organized this year. It seems like at the end of the year as I am preparing for a review, I am scrambling to figure out what all we did over the year. It will also help save time if I am not always have to re-look up the information.

Another thing I am going to plan to do differently, is I am going to prepare my sons' portfolios now. I am going to go ahead and put the page dividers with subjects in the binder, and have page protectors in the binder already, ready. That way as they finish an assignment instead of sticking it on some pile to sort later, I can go ahead and stick some of their better work in the portfolio and that will be one less job I need to do at the end of the year. I know this is kinda one of those "duh" moments, but I have planned to do it in the past, but never did. Well, this year, I already have the binders, have bought the page dividers and protectors, so I just have to take a couple moments to get it together.

This year for my oldest son and some for my youngest, I plan on using edhelper.com a lot more. It is so easy to print out their stuff and put them in a binder to take with us to doctors' appointments and while driving to other activities. My biggest hang up with them is they are not Christian based, but I figure if the rest of their stuff that they are doing at home is Christian based, then I think it will be ok. It will really help up with timing. I'll just have to be careful in what I select.

I also got myself an android phone recently and now I can access the internet while I am out and about. There are several websites that have good learning videos that I can use while waiting in a waiting room with the kids. The first is khanacademy.org and the other is Zane Education and of course you can find a lot of good videos on YouTube. My kids also both have a Literati which is an ebook reader. I can download a lot of public domain e-books onto their e-readers and take it with us on the go. Another thing that will help is we have MP3 players now and I have some radio shows that can be put on them. Also I was able to get PC's biology book on audio, so I will try to put it on a MP3 player so he can take it with him too.

I am hoping all of this will help us have a better year this year. Last year, was really tough. We got behind and stayed behind. For PC (highschooler), I was using a lot of textbooks because I didn't feel confident trying anything else and that didn't work very well. We have to make changes this year. He is running out of time (3 more years) so we can't really afford another year like last. Luckily, there is summer and if we are careful, we can make up for lost time.

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This post links to: Back to (Home) School 2011, Carnival of Homeschooling, Hip Homeschool Hop and Simple Lesson Planning.

A Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-07-29T11:54:00.000-04:00

In My Life This Week…

This week we had a couple more doctor appointments. We are caught up for now. Hubby and I got to go out and Grandma and Grandpa watched the kids over night. I started school back up. I tried to go with something easy, a Imax video about the ocean, but Little One had a VERY bad attitude. I hope this is not a sign of another very tough year. *sigh* He used to be a very eager learner, but not any more.

In Our Homeschool This Week…

Imax video and a bit of reading was it for this week. Not one of our better weeks.

I Am Grateful For…

That Grandma and Grandpa took our children over night so we could have a much needed break. Sometimes it is very hard for parents of special needs children.

What I'm reading...

Great Garden Companions

Cute Quote...

I was talking to little one. He was asking why daddy and I was going out on a date if we are already married. He asked if he will go out on dates with his wife someday. I said "probably". He said, "Well, I'm not kissing her... well, maybe on the cheek, but not the lips, that is unsanitary!" lol!!! Well, I hope he keeps that attitude for a few more years. *grin*

To read more Homeschool Mother's Journals, go here.

Back to Homeschool- Notebooking Sale

2011-07-25T01:07:00.000-04:00

Debra over at NotebookingPages.com is having a NotebookingPages.com Back-to-School Sale Event. For those of you that have known me for a long time, you might remember that I am a BIG fan of Debra's work. Her notebooking pages are beautiful and I feel they are really worth the money. I own most of the sets that she sells and have used them with my own son (PC). As Little One gets a bit older he will be using them too (maybe even this year!). That is one of the great things about notebooking pages, is you can print them out for all of your children. I really feel that notebooking helped PC become a better writer in many ways. After we started using notebooking, his spelling, handwriting and what he wrote all improved. I really feel it helped him. She has a lot of samples on her site if you want to check them out.

A Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-07-24T13:42:00.000-04:00

In My Life This Week…
This week we had a couple of doctors' appointments. We are playing catch up on them. During the drama product (most of June) and 4-H, I tried to avoid any doctor's appointments that I could because of timing. Now I am paying for it! lol!!! We have had horrible heat lately, so my children are stuck inside. The heat index has been over 100 (and up to about 112 heat index). I am trying to keep my garden alive during this time. It's doing ok, but looking kinda wilted. The good news is I'm getting some tomatoes!!! :)

In Our Homeschool This Week…
We have been on break this week. I know kinda dumb since they were stuck inside anyways, but after 4-H, I needed a break. lol!! I still need to order some printer toner for school. We really can't start in full swing until I do that.

I Am Grateful For…
That the tree that fell on our garage (and took out our power for 2 days) during the last storm did not do more damage. It appears to have just crinkled our gutter a bit, but we saw no roof damage. I'm also grateful that my parents were able to take us in for the 2 days. We had a heat index of about 105. Much too hot to stay in the house without power.

Things I'm working on...
I am still getting prepared for next school year and I am already starting to plan my garden for next year. I want to get the garden boxes done in the fall after we harvest so they can be ready for next year.

What I'm reading...
Kitchen Harvest and The Backyard Homestead

To read more Homeschool Mother's Journals, then click here!

It's One of Those Weeks...

2011-07-14T00:42:00.000-04:00

This week has been one of those weeks... Monday night we had a really nasty storm. First our power went out. Ok, that is bad enough. Well, while we were in the dark, we heard a crash come from the backyard. We went to the door to look out and at first we didn't see anything. I saw my plastic fencing rolling around and at first thought, maybe that was it. But then out of the corner of my eye, I saw something strange. At first, my brain was telling me "why is there a tree there", then I realized what I was seeing in the dark was our tree had fallen over onto the garage part of our house! I told my husband what I saw and he took a closer look and saw that the tree took down the power line from the pole to our house. Oh oh! We became worried if they got the power back up to our neighborhood, then we could have a live wire in our backyard. So we called the power company back. We also knew at that time, it would probably be awhile before the power would be restored and they were calling for heat indexes to be over 100 the next day. My parents said we could stay with them until we got our power up again.

In the meanwhile, we were needing to finish up our 4-H projects. So we had to take all of our 4-H stuff to my parents' house to finish up the projects. That was a real pain, but I am glad that we had a place to go. Well, it's Wednesday night now, and we are finally back in our home. The kids have their 4-H done (except photography) and they did really well. We lost probably about half of our food, mostly in the fridge. The freezer did a bit better job. We thought we were going to loose it all, but luckily we salvaged some of it. One of our fishies died and another was acting strange. Not sure if he is going to make it or not. The strange thing was, the water was too cold, not too hot like we thought it would be. Hopefully our garden is ok. I haven't got to check it yet. It rained, then it was steaming hot, then cooler, (2 days without water). I'm hoping it is fine, I will see tomorrow. We think we have some gutter damage, but we will know more after Hubby gets the tree completely off the house. I'm just glad no one was hurt and that it didn't actually crash through the garage. Anyways, I am really tired. My schedule is completely off now and my kids have been spoiled by grandma and grandpa for the last two days. lol!!! Tomorrow, I hope to take it easy and maybe get some gardening done. Maybe sleep in a bit.

Garden Science

2011-07-10T18:21:00.000-04:00

Don't you love those impromptu lessons? I sure do. Well, I had another one today. Little One and the little boy from next door were helping me water the garden. Both of these little guys are really interested in what is going on. We discussed the vegetables that were growing and the little boy next door "discovered" one of our squashes. Well, while were watering, the little boy from next door noticed a rainbow in the mist. And Little One asked "is that really a rainbow", so we had a discussion on how rainbows are formed. Nature is such a wonderful way for children to discover science. Well, if you are growing a garden this summer or want to grow one, here is a resource you may want to check out: Gardening Ideas for Kids. You may also want to check out: Garden Lapbook and Garden Coloring Page. I think the garden has been a wonderful learning experience for the kids. I can't wait to make it even bigger next year! :)

A Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-07-09T02:28:00.000-04:00

Picture from LO, PC and Hubby's field trip.

I saw this at my friend Jenn's blog and thought I would join in! :)

In My Life This Week…
This week I have been recovering from a very, very hectic month. My kids were in a musical production and our whole family got involved. Hubby and I were behind stage helping the kids get on stage. My kids were going to bed after midnight for a couple of weeks and practices/ production days were grueling, but we survived. Unfortunately, I have health problems so it takes me a bit longer to recover than the rest of them. On Tuesday, we had a cast pool party that was really fun, but now I am just hanging out at home trying to rest up a bit.

In Our Homeschool This Week…
Right now our homeschooling is working on the kids' 4-H projects. The above picture was taken when Hubby took the boys to a local park to work on Little One's nature projects and for both boys to work on their photography projects. We still have a bit more to do before we wrap up 4-H for the year.

I also have been working on homeschool planning. I just received another package from Rainbow Resource today. Oh how I love getting homeschool curriculum!!! I got some really fun stuff in today's package like Middle Ages hands on activity books. I really want to get better at doing the hands on stuff.

I Am Grateful For…
I am so grateful that my kids got a chance to be in such a wonderful musical production. It was so good for them. I don't think I have seen PC work so hard for something before. He has really changed a lot over the last year. He has grown a lot, not just in maturity but in height and weight too. He's like a different kid! This is a kid who we were really worried about. At the beginning of the year, he was a scrawny, little runt. lol!!! Around December he shot up and put on weight. Over the last year he has put on about 60 pounds and grown about 6-7 inches. We went to his doctors office in February after not being there for about a month or two and the receptionist asked me if I had another kid that hadn't been there before. I was like what and she said "that kid out in the lobby". I laughed and said, "that is (PC)", The look on her face was priceless. At that time he had gained about 40 pounds and 4 inches. Nope, no longer a waif. He is becoming a young man...

Things I'm working on...
4-H projects and homeschool planning are the big things. I am also working on our first vegetable garden ever. It has been a really big learning experience for the whole family. It's been quite the experience. If you are interested in reading more about our garden, please check out my Garden Diary blog.

What I'm reading...
Right now I am reading a lot of books on homesteading and gardening. I am trying to learn all that I can about each of those. One book I have on my Kindle that I have been reading is One Magic Square and a book I got from the library that I am reading is The Kitchen Garden.

To read more Homeschool Mother's Journals, then click here!

Back to Homeschool- Planning Time!

2011-07-07T14:25:00.000-04:00

It's homeschool planning time again!!!! We are doing things a bit different this year. We really aren't stopping school over the summer. Right now we are concentrating on 4-H which is health, home-ec (cooking), science and fine art (photography) for PC. And it is science and fine art (photography) for Little One. We will be wrapping most of 4-H up over the next couple weeks and we will begin on other things. I am still somewhat in the planning stage right now. But this is how it is shaping up:

PC (10th grade)-

Algebra and start on Geometry- Switched on Schoolhouse (We tried Teaching Textbooks last year and it did not work for him. I think it is a good program, but it did not mesh with his learning style) I also plan to fill in with Khan Academy.

English- Research Paper- The book we are using is Writing Research Papers with Confidence. I think it is going to be a good program. PC wants to be a history major. His goal is to be a museum curator, so I feel good research skills is a must. Obviously, he could change his mind, but research skills would still be a good thing to have no matter what and I found it is a bit harder to find research paper curriculum.

History- PC said he would like to study the Middle Ages this year, so I ordered Mystery of History Vol. 2. I will need to supplement some since he is taking it for high school. That is not a problem since he loves history. I will probably use this some with LO also.

Science- We are going to try biology again this year. We didn't get too far last year. We will be using Exploring Creation with Biology again with a bit of a twist. I ordered the audio cd for PC to use so he doesn't have to read the entire textbook. I think that was what was hanging him up last year. Biology is not really his thing, so he just really had trouble getting into it. He is more of an Earth science kid.

Spanish- We are going to try Switched on Schoolhouse with this one.

Bible- He will be continuing the AWANA program. It is pretty intensive for the high school students. He also helps in our church with the little kids in AWANAs.

We will also be continuing in drama and 4-H.

Little One (4th grade)-

We will be using an older book that I have called the Learn at Home Series, grade 4.

Westward and Onward Unit Study curriculum. We will loosely be using this. LO is not ready for some of it since he is a very young 4th grader that has trouble with dysgraphia so I'm not going to push it. We will do some of the reading, vocabulary and activities from this, but we will definitely skip a lot of the writing and spelling.

Prairie Primer- I hope to read the Little House books this year. I have been saying this every year since kindergarten. lol!!!! I also plan to use this Little House Unit Study and Little House Lapbook page.

Math- Math Mammoth, Practical Arithmetics book 1 and Khan Academy. We will still be covering some 3rd grade math and hopefully work into 4th grade math soon. His dysgraphia has gotten in the way in math also.

History- Story of the World Book 2- Middle Ages. I plan to use this and Mystery of History.

Science- Probably Apology, not sure yet. I am considering Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures Of the 5th Day since LO really likes birds a lot.

Bible- AWANAs

We will continue to do drama, children's choir and 4-H. We also plan to do swim lessons when we can.

With Little One, I use what we we want from each curriculum and skip what I don't want. I really piece together a lot of stuff for him. .

I also plan to use Zane Education with both kids. They have a ton of really good online educational videos.

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This post links to the "Not" Back to School Blog Hop and A Season for All Things

Happy 4th of July!!!

2011-07-04T19:19:00.000-04:00

Happy 4th of July!!!

I hope everyone has had a good holiday! We went to my mom and dad's yesterday for a cookout and then went to fireworks last night. Today we are trying to get some yard work done, and worked on some of our 4-H projects. It has rained a small amount a few times, but we got a lot done in between rain showers. Luckily it cooled things down a bit, but it's suppose to be hot again tomorrow. I'm about to head out and water the plants a bit more before tomorrow's scorcher. If you want to check out the progress of our garden check out: My Garden Diary

Busy! Busy! Busy!

2011-06-27T13:37:00.000-04:00

Little One at Mac-O-Cheek Castle

We have been so busy this spring and summer! Both of the kids were in a big drama production, we are gardening, I am getting ready for next school year, doing the library book club and working on 4-H. We have our 4-H judging coming up soon and both of the children chose 4 projects each to do and we are so behind because drama took up so much time. Luckily, drama is over for the school year and I am so tired. Their production went really well and the audience thought the show was wonderful. We are lucky to have a bunch of very talented kids. We visited the Mac-O-Cheek Castle earlier this summer because we had to drive to Logan county to pick up some of our costume for the play in Logan county. I figured while we were out there, we should check out the castle. We did not go in since it was a half an hour before closing and there is an entrance fee. But it was neat to see and LO let me get some pictures of him there. As for our garden, I am hopeful that we may actually get some veggies from it this year. lol!!! This has been a hard spring and summer for growing things, but our plants are looking pretty good considering everything. I am hoping once 4-H is over with, we can start on school again. I am trying to keep my kids busy so they don't sit around watching tv or playing video games all summer. Oh, Little One and Hubby built a bird feeder for 4-H and that has been fun to watch. I think the squirrels are enjoying it more than the birds. lol!!!

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!

2011-04-26T15:59:00.000-04:00

Ugh! I am so sick of the rain! I know how important rain is, but this spring has been ridiculous. We have delayed our gardens. We never did get our cold crops out, so I am bummed over that. We are trying to be ready to start planting our hot crops in the next few weeks.

A week in a half ago, PC (my oldest son) was playing freeze tag at drama club and ran into a brick wall. He came up to me with his hand all tore up and bleeding all over his clothes. I wasn't sure if they could stitch it up or not since he got a chunk tore out, but I took him to the ER anyways. Well, they did indeed stitch it up. He got a total of 6 stitches. Well, yesterday he got the stitches out. It was starting to look irritated, so I was glad he had an appointment. The put what they called steri-strips on it and said he needs to keep it covered for about 5 more days. He still needs to keep it clean and dry for those additional days. He has not been able to build any garden boxes during this time between his hand and the weather, so we are really going to scale things down.

On a more pleasant note, we had a nice Easter. First we went out to my brother in law's farm. Little One adored the animals. He had been waiting all year to see the goats again. :) My brother in law had added several more goats, some chickens and a couple calves since we were there last. After playing with the animals, they had an Easter egg hunt for the little guys. LO had a blast with that. I'm glad he is still young enough to enjoy those type of things. :) Then we left the farm to go to my parents' home for Easter dinner. When we got there, (after LO had a bath! lol!!!) my mom sent the kids on a hunt to find their Easter surprises. She created riddles for each of the grand kids (4 in total). The riddle would give a clue where the next riddle was hidden until they found all the clues that lead to there Easter surprise. The kids had a lot of fun with that. It worked out better than just a strait Easter egg hunt since 3 of the kids were teenagers. After that we had our family meal with my parents and my brother and his family. It was a very enjoyable day.

Tomorrow, we may be facing more nasty weather. They are talking about maybe an outbreak of tornadoes. Hopefully, we won't see any of those! Hopefully soon all this nasty weather will be gone. I hope May is more pleasant!

Blog Carnival!

2011-03-22T23:58:00.000-04:00

Just letting you know the new Blog Carnival of Homeschooling is up at The Homeschool Post! It's a really good one. Here is the link:

Blog Carnival

What to do with Coloring Pages...

2011-03-21T00:35:00.000-04:00

Sorry this picture is so fuzzy!

Some homeschoolers really love coloring pages, while others feel like they are a waste of time. I am one that likes coloring pages. I feel they can be very usefully to use while educating your child. Here are some ideas that can help you incorporate coloring pages into your homeschool:

Lapbook- Coloring pages can make a great addition to a lapbook. Use them to add a visual image to what you are studying or use them for a decorative cover on the lapbook.
Notebook- Educational coloring pages are a wonderful thing to add to a notebook! It can give a visual of the study or it can give the child something to write about using the picture as a jumping off point for the notebooking.
As story starters- Give your child a coloring page and have your child write a story about it.
Dioramas- Use a coloring page as a background for a diorama. You can cut out the figures in a coloring page and attach to little "stands" to be the figures in a diorama.
Cultural coloring pages- These along with map coloring pages work well in a cultural or a country study. You could also add coloring pages of native animals to this study. Use them in making a country study notebook.
During read alouds- Some children get "antsy" during read alouds, they need some to "fiddle" with. Allowing them to color may fit the bill. Choose a coloring page that fits the story or subject you are reading about if possible.
Field Guides- Use the coloring pages to decorate your nature field guides. If you are doing bird watching, print out pictures of the birds that you are studying and ask your child to color it in the colors that they are naturally. This will probably help your child remember what that bird looks like. Add these pictures to their field guide.
Art Studies- Color replicas of famous painters. This will help your child really study the detail of the painting, especially if they are trying to match their coloring to the original.
To make the study more interesting- Sometimes a beautiful or fun picture will get their interest up. An example, print out a picture of a beautiful horse and use it as an intro to studying horses.

If you have any ideas you would like to add, please leave it in the comments. I have a directory of educational coloring pages and I'm adding to it continuously. If you are interested, please check it out at: Kids Coloring Pages. There you will find a directory of lots of different types of coloring pages. I hope it is helpful to you.

Spring Lapbook Ideas!

2011-03-16T15:15:00.000-04:00

Spring is the air! I really love the spring season and I am so sick of winter right now. Here are some spring lapbook resources and ideas:

Spring Lapbook
Plant Lapbook
Butterfly Lapbook
St. Patrick's Day Lapbook
Easter Lapbook
Weather Lapbook
Bird Lapbook
Tree Lapbook
Garden Lapbook
Insect Lapbook
Bee Lapbook
Woodland Animal Lapbook

Here are some other studies you may enjoy this spring:
Nature Studies- Robins
Nature Studies- Cardinals
Nature Studies- Hummingbirds
Nature Studies for Children
Wild Tracks- Nature Study
Nature Journal Pages
Nature Walks for Children

I hope you enjoy the spring weather!

School Update

2011-03-07T00:19:00.000-05:00

I have been so busy lately!!! Right now homeschool is in flux. I am still trying to figure out how to fit homeschool, working from home and all of the kids activities and appointments into the same week. lol!!! Two new activities that we added in December is Drama Club and 4-H. The kids have smaller roles in the musical that we are going to be putting on in and that is ok since this is our first year at doing this type of thing. It really would be too much for them to take on a big role. PC is also helping with the sets. I think this is going to be a great educational experience for the kids. In 4-H, Little One is doing projects on bird watching, exploring the outdoors, photography and (vegetable) gardening. PC is doing 2 projects on health, photography, (vegetable) gardening and woodworking. I was already planning on doing a vegetable garden with the children, so doing a project on it fits right in. I am planning on doing raised- beds for our garden. I hope PC can work that into his 4-H woodworking project somehow. If not, it will still count towards a shop credit for him.
I have been struggling with motivation with PC in school. He is really struggling. Right now, I am filling in with letting him watch documentaries, but we can't just watch documentaries for the rest of high school! It's working in a pinch, but I have to really work on getting him motivated. I've got some ideas and I've been praying about it. I hope to get it settled soon. I know we will be schooling through the summer.

Working

2011-02-11T18:58:00.000-05:00

   Ok, this is an unusual post for me, but I felt I needed to write it. About two years ago, my family was having terrible financial difficulties. Our medical bills had become overwhelming and we were using our credit cards to buy food because our bills were not leaving enough left over to buy for with. We went to talk with Consumer Credit Counseling and we were told we pretty much had two choices, get an extra income or seek a lawyer. Well, considering my goal is to soon sell our house and build a new one (lol!!!), the thought of bankruptcy was not one I wanted to consider, but we weren't sure where we would get the extra money. My husband works on salary and many times works overtime. He has to be available when his company needs him, so a second job was not an option. I homeschool and I have a lot of health problems, so working outside of the home is not really an option for me either. Not to mention, child care would eat up most of what I would make. I have done in home childcare before, but due to my health problems, I no longer have the energy for that. Well, I had just started doing some work online a month before this CCC meeting. I hadn't really made any money yet, (well, I had made around $2.00 but I hadn't been paid it yet! lol!!) but I told my husband I would make the money we needed online. He scoffed! He really thought I was being silly. But I convinced him that we should wait to talk to a lawyer at the last result.
      We went ahead and slowed things down by talking to the credit card companies and getting on a pay down plan. Then we talked to the student loan people and asked to put our loans on hold and they did. This slowed down the rate that we were sinking and gave us a bit of wiggle room, but we knew it was temporary and we had to get an additional income. Well, online earnings do take a while to take off. It's like owning a business. It starts off slow, then picks up a bit. My husband really thought I was nuts! But I was determined. I got discouraged at times, but I kept going. I really felt this is what I was suppose to do. I also started off not having a clue what I was doing, I was learning a whole new trade. But it paid off. I am happy to say, two years later, we still haven't had to file for bankruptcy! :) We still have struggles, especially now that my husband's salary has plateaued and our cost of living has gone up, but my income has come in handy. Just recently, we got an $300. added to February's mortgage to up our escrow. If I did not have my income, I have no idea where that $300 would have come from. I also completely paid for Christmas the last 2 years. This year I will be paying for our homeschool books out of my income. Now don't get me wrong, I do not make a fortune by no means, but I am starting to make a nice part time income. The last several months I have been making between about $300 to almost $700 a month. I am hoping by year end of 2011, that I will be making an average of $700 a month regularly. That is my goal, and so far it seems to be an obtainable goal.
   Why working from home online? I mean, I know I could make more if I got a job outside of the home, but my job has so many benefits! I get to work in my PJs! lol!!! Seriously, I have no childcare costs, I get to continue to homeschool my children, and I can take off anytime I want or need for my family. If my kids need me, I am still there for them. I just work in my spare time. Making almost $700 (in December) just working in my spare time, is pretty cool! Well, anyways, if anyone is interested in working online, I wrote this page to try to help others get started: Working Online . If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section (I will probably miss the email if you try to contact me that way) and I will try to answer them. You can see a breakdown of what I make online at this page: Work At Home Mom This page will give you an idea of what it is like. Please remember, I can not make any guarantees. Working online has so many variables to success. I can only report how it has helped me and my family. I hope if your family is struggling financially, you will give it some thought and pray about it. I will be glad to help any way I can.

'Tis the Season....

2010-11-26T02:10:00.000-05:00

I love this time of year! We have so much planned. My little guy has a Pinewood Derby race, a part in the church musical and both my kids have a 4-H activity to do. We are also planning a family fun day to see the new Narnia movie when it comes out. I love this time of year!!! I wanted to share some resources that I have put together that may help you in your homeschool this December. Here they are:

Christmas Lapbook
Reindeer Lapbook (Much of this focuses on the animal reindeer)
Polar Animal Lapbook
Animal Study- Caribou
Reindeer Coloring Pages
Christmas Coloring Pages
Christmas Unit Study
Christmas Around the World

I hope you all have a wonder Christmas holiday!

Math File Folder Games

2010-10-24T14:04:00.000-04:00

My little guy needs a lot of hands on learner. He has dysgraphia, so handwriting is an extreme challenge for him. To keep him from getting behind on his learning while his handwriting is catching up, we do hands on activities. Little One also has ADHD, so game playing also helps since he gets so antsy. This is Little One playing a math file folder game, one of the games that he plays for his hands on learning time. If you want to find math file folder games for your child, please check out:

File Folder Math

Ooops! Upside down. Sorry!

You can find more file folder game links to other subjects at:

File Folder Games

Printable File Folder Games

You can find supplies for file folder games at:

File Folder Games Supplies

File Folder Games

2010-09-13T14:32:00.000-04:00

My little guy is really smart, but he has several challenges that make learning harder for him. He has ADHD and we chose not to give him medication mostly because he seems to be borderline Tourettes and stimulant medication can bring on tics. He also has Sensory Processing Disorder. Between the two, he's pretty antsy. He also has dysgraphia, which is a handwriting disorder. Little One has extreme trouble with writing out his work. So even though he is in the 3rd grade, his handwriting is on about a kindergarten level. It makes it very hard to do the 3rd grade work. We do a lot of oral work and reading. Another avenue I plan to explore is file folder games. I have been busy gathering up file folder game resources to use with Little One. I still need to make them up, but I wanted to share the resources. As I make the games, I plan to share them on this blog. Here are the resources:

File Folder Math
Science File Folder Games
Reading File Folder Games
Social Studies File Folder Games
Money File Folder Games
Printable File Folder Games
File Folder Games Supplies

Here is a directory of all of those game pages. If I have anymore resources for file folder games, I will add it to the directory. The directory makes it easy to bookmark, so you can always find the file folder game resources. Here it the link to the directory:

File Folder Games

I think these file folder games will be an easy and inexpensive way to help supplement my little guy's curriculum so he doesn't fall behind, while he is trying to catch up with his handwriting. I hope these resources will be useful to your homeschool also! Please leave me a comment if you plan to use any of these resources. I would love to hear about it.

Lapbooks for Autumn

2010-08-30T16:54:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is enjoying back to homeschool! We had our first day today and it went really well. I hope to write more about it soon. I think lapbooks are great to use in homeschool, especially in the younger grades. I have made several lapbooks with my children and hope to make more of them this year. I though I would pass on some lapbook resources that I have gathered for fall. Just click on the title and it will take you to the page full of resources.

Fall Lapbook
Harvest Lapbook
Pumpkin Lapbook
Apple Lapbook
Nocturnal Animal Lapbook
Woodland Animal Lapbook
Turkey Lapbook
Owl Lapbook
Native American Lapbook
Weather Lapbook (hurricane season)

If you want lapbook resources through out the year, check out this page:
Lapbooking Through the Year

For more lapbooking resources, check these out:
Lapbooking Resources
Lapbooking Supplies
Lapbooks

I hope you are having a great year so far!

Do not provoke your children to anger...

2010-08-25T17:18:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about Ephesians 6:4 a lot recently. "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Ephesians 6:4. First of all, I don't think this just applies to fathers, I think mothers also have the responsibility to follow this verse too. I think a lot of parents (myself included at times!) have selective memory when it comes to the Bible. Almost all parents remember (and have probably quoted in one form or another) the verse about honoring your father and mother, but the verse that says "do not provoke your children to anger" seems to get forgotten much of the time. This verse does not mean let your children run wild and never get on to them about anything, but I do think it means to be fair about it and that as parents we need to set the example for our children. I do think it means not to discipline our children in anger and be so harsh about it that they become rebellious. Yes, I do think that parents play a huge role in a child's rebellion. I think we sometimes forget that. We are quick to point the finger at our children when they are bad and tell them that God is watching. We need to remember that God is watching us as parents also. If we say hurtful things to our children that damages their spirit, God is watching! We need to follow what the Bible sets forth for us parents. We need to be the example for our children. We need to show God the Father to our children. Our children are one of the most important things that God in-trusted us with. We are a witness to them. How we live our life is important in showing them who God is. Do we make time for our children? Do we show them forgiveness? Do we show them a loving heart? Do we show them joy? Do we show them compassion? Do we show them peace? Or do we show them scorn? Show them that spending time with them doesn't matter? Show them worry? Show them harshness? Show them bitterness? We need to be careful the example we are setting for our children. They are watching and internalize all that we do. We need to pray before we react. We need to consider what was the child's intentions before we react. Were they trying to be bad or were they just acting out of childish curiosity or inexperience. Where was their heart? We always remind children that God knows their heart, but we should also take what was in their heart into consideration. We need to allow children to make mistakes without them worrying that we will come down harshly on them. We need to remember that Jesus said, "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Matthew 18:6. As parents we need to be showing our children the very best of ourselves. We shouldn't just save our Christian love for others, our children should be getting the best of it from us. We were instructed on what attributes we should show others, including our children in Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Everyday we should ask ourselves, if these are the traits that we are showing our children. If not, we need to get on our knees in prayer. Prayer needs to be the one constant in our walk as parents. Life may change, our children may change, how we deal with our children may change, but God never does. Allow God to lead you as a parent so you can "train [your] child in the way he should go", so that "when he is old he will not turn from it" Proverbs 22:6. Pray daily and do not provoke your children to anger...

Oh, and by the way... I'm going to try and take my own advice! lol!!!

A Day in My Life :)

2010-08-23T01:07:00.000-04:00

This week's Not Back to School Blog Hop is about "A Day in the Life" of your homeschool. I will have to tell you, I am not a real scheduled person. So, this is going to be about how I want our school year to go this year. We haven't started yet, so I have no idea if it will work out or not. lol!!!

8:30 Wake up
8:45 Boys unload dishwasher and I check on work stuff (I work from home)
9:00 I fix breakfast
9:15 PC cleans up dishes
9:30 PC starts on his school work, and I read to LO
10:00 I work with LO on his work
11:00 LO Reads
11:30 LO does independent work
12:30 LO chooses something from his educational to do list
1:00 PC makes lunch for him and LO, I make my own lunch
1:30 PC cleans up kitchen, LO sweeps, I do my chores
2:00 PC finishes up his school work, LO chooses something educational to do, I work from home
4:00 Send the kids outside if the weather is nice.

I'm sure it won't flow that smoothly! lol!!! But that will be kinda the order that things go in. We are not morning people here, so getting up at 8:30 after sleeping in all summer is going to be tough. To see more posts on the blog hop, click on the button. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here!

Mommy, I'm Bored!

2010-08-22T17:55:00.000-04:00

We've all heard those words at one time or another. :) This year, I am going to limit TV during the day (before 3:00 pm) to only educational shows that I pick out. So for those in between times that my children do not have school work to do (or transitional times), I going to have them do "educational" fun things. I have drawn up a list of a bunch of things they can choose from, so hopefully I won't hear "Mommy, I'm bored" quite as much. I'm going to hang the list where they can see it and point them to it if they aren't sure what to do. Here are the things I have on my list:

Read Bible
Work on AWANAs
Math Center
Read a book
Practice drawing
Study artwork
Make a card
Color a picture
Do a science experiment- ask first!
Look through old notebooks and lapbooks
Do a word puzzle (crossword, word search)
Dress up and act out history event
Use play sets to play a history event
Use animals to make an animal habitat
Study another country
Study Giant space book
Study map
Study globe
Nature journal
Bird watch
Play a board game
Do a puzzle
Learn a foreign language
Listen to an educational tape
Legos- build a history model
Practice music- ask first!
Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Dance Dance Revolution (up to 45 minutes)
Write in journal
Make up silly sentences

Do you have any suggestions to add? I would love to hear them! I would love to hear what works in your family and homeschool!

More Goals

2010-08-16T15:59:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I started listing my goals for next school year. This is a continuation of those goals. I'm still not finished, but I am getting closer to being done. You can see the previous post here: Goals!

We use a mixture of textbook (mostly with PC who is going into highschool), unit studies, living books, lapbooks, notebooking, interactive notebooks, educational scrapbooks, dioramas, nature studies and field trips.

To help my kids stay organized, I may try this cute homeschool file folder that I just found. Check it out here: Homeschool File Folder

I have included links to most of the resources that we use. I hope they will help you in your own studies.

Little One (grade 3)

History
Little House on the Prairie - Read the books and create an interactive notebook using Little House Lapbook templates.
Native Americans - Make both an interactive notebook (using Native American Lapbook templates) and a Educational Scrapbook.
Wild West - I might make a diorama with this and maybe a lapbook.
Pioneers - This will be a continuation of the Little House/ Native Americans/ Wild West study.
Magic Tree House - interactive notebook

Science
Backyard Nature Studies - Study and read about the backyard. Have LO do a small square study in the backyard and fill out his nature journal.
Backyard Birds - Maybe keep track of what birds we see, do an interactive notebook on our backyard birds.
Insects - Do an interactive notebook on insects using Insect Lapbook templates.
Nocturnal Animals
Woodland Animals
Animal Tracks
Pond Animals
Coastal Animals
Animal Studies- I plan to continue to use The Complete Book of Animals and do an interactive notebooking page on each animal.

I want to continue our nature walks and nature studies through the school year.

Art
Van Gogh
Monet
Degas
Rembrandt

We will do a art scrapbook for the different pictures we study.

Literature
The Rag Coat
New Coat for Anna
Atlantic
Crawdad Creek
Cranberry Thanksgiving
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Grandfather's Journey
The Gullywasher
How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA
Down, Down the Mountain
Klara's New World
Leah's Pony
Lentil
Make Way for Ducklings
Marguerite Makes a Book
Maria's Comet
Night of the Moonjellies
Nico's Octopus
Polar Express
Rechenka's Eggs
Rocks in His Head
Snowflake Bentley
Storm in the Night
Time of Wonder
The Very Last First Time
Wee Gillis
When Frost is on the Punkin
Who Owns the Sun
Wild Horses of Sweetbriar
Abuela's Weave
Angelo
Annika's Secret Wish
Apple and the Arrow
B illy and Blaze
Boxes for Katje
The Bravest of Us All
Daniel's Duck
Day at the Fair
Empty Pot
The Duchess Bakes a Cake
The Glorious Flight
Goody O' Grumpity
Hana in the Time of Tulips
Hill of Fire
Isabel's House of Butterflies
Long Night Moon
The Bears of Hemlock Mountain

I plan to continue the Picture Book Unit Studies and we will make an interactive notebooking page for each book.

Geography
We are going to be studying various countries and start studying the states of America.

Character
Character Lapbooks
Character Studies

Bible
Explorer's Bible Study- God's Promises

Grammar
Primary Language Lessons

PC (Grade 9)

Grammar
Simply Grammar

Geography
Trail Guide to World Geography

Math
Teaching Textbooks- algebra

Writing
Adventures in Fantasy

Literature
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
Eragon

Science
Exploring Creation with Biology

Art
God and the History of Art 1

Bible
Explorer's Bible Study- In the Beginning

Have a great school year!

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Meet My Children

2010-08-16T00:40:00.000-04:00

PC and LO

I have two children, both boys. I currently homeschool both of them and by God's grace, plan to continue homeschooling them until they graduate. Both of my children have some special needs so life has been a bit more challenging for them. This post is to introduce you to my sons.

Prince Caspian (PC) is my oldest son and he just turned 14 years old. He is my builder. He has loved building with Lego blocks since he was a little guy. He is the type of child that likes to take everything apart and figure out how it works. He has always been an avid reader, but only likes reading at night. lol!!! He loves reading mystery stories and in the past has read many of the classics. He loves science and history.

Little One (LO) is my youngest son and he will be turning 8 in September. He is my pretender and loves living in a fantasy world. He loves playing with action figures and other types of figures that he can make interact with each other. He has just started reading well and has been enjoying reading The Magic Tree House books and The Magic School Bus chapter books.

Little One on a pony

PC and LO looking at animals at the fair.

This post is a apart of the Not Back to School Blog Hop. Please click the button to check out more blog posts! Check out these posts: Our Curriculum and Our Schoolroom.

Our School Room

2010-08-10T13:22:00.000-04:00

My desk area.

These are pictures of our official school area that we don't we don't use very often. lol!!! These were taken on a clean day. lol!!! We tend to school all over the house. The school area is more for storing our school stuff than anything else. Little One and I read on the couch and do written work usually on a table in the living room or in the kitchen. PC usually does his work laying on his bed.

This is only a fraction of our books. *blush*

It is nice to have a special place to store all of are stuff. I also use this room to store my craft stuff. I use to think that I wanted two separate rooms, one for crafts, one for school, but I have found that I use the craft stuff so much for school that I love having the two combined.

Even more books!

These are great for holding school and craft supplies!

One of the corners of our schoolroom.

I missed the "Not Back to School" post about curriculum. If you want to see what we are doing next year (partial list) check out this post: Goals

This blog post is a part of the Not Back to School Blog Hop. Please check out my fellow homeschoolers posts!

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Goals

2010-07-11T17:28:00.000-04:00

Is summer really almost half over???? Where is time going? I, like many other homeschoolers, am busy planning for next school year. This year is going to be tough! My oldest is entering highschool and my youngest is entering 3rd. I consider both to be tough times in school. Highschool of course is tough because now it really counts. Everything he does from here on out has to be recorded and it will be scrutinized for going to college. I consider 3rd tough, because it seems to be a turning point in elementary. Children start getting a better understanding at this point and the work starts getting tougher. I am both nervous and excited about the changes.

I am terrible at being organized! I tend to "wing" it a lot. I know that won't fly with highschool. Here is what I am going to try:

I am using Word to make a schedule. Instead of making dates, I am writing "Day 1", "Day 2", "Day 3", ect. If I write date, I will get off very quickly and it will throw both my son and I off. I am setting the schedule for 165 days instead of 180 so I will have some flexibility. This way we can schedule field trips and it won't throw our schedule off. Next, under each "day", I am typing in each subject with a check box in front of it. Then beside each subject, I am typing in the assignment. It's a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it. Basically when I am done, I will print it off and give my son one copy of it and keep another copy of it for myself. This way, my son can just look at the day and know exactly what he needs to do for the day and I have my copy so I can keep track too.

I am still debating on whether I want to do something similar with my little guy or not. He needs much more help, but it may keep me organized. I am also thinking about trying to use the Joyful Steward Student Planner- Primary Level with him. I really like the way it is laid out.

I have some of their year planned, but I am still trying to figure out what all I am going to doing with them. Here is some of what we will be doing:

Little One- grade 3

I plan to restart the Little House on the Prairie series. I tried this a couple years ago and didn't get to far. lol!!! Now that he is older, I think we will do better. I will be using resources from Little House Unit Study, Little House Lapbook Book, and still thinking about the Prairie Primer. Instead of doing a lapbook, we will do an interactive notebook with the study. I also plan to study American Indians and the Wild West with him. I plan to use the Native American Unit Study and Native American Lapbook to study the American Indians and I will use the Going West Unit Study as resources for studying the Wild West. With the American Indian study, I will do an interactive notebook with him instead of a lapbook. I would also like to do a Scrapbook to Learn with him on the different American Indian tribes. I'm thinking we could include coloring pages and pictures about the different tribes. I even found some Native American patterned craft paper that would look really neat in an American Indian scrapbook.

For science, I want to continue to use the Magic School Bus. Now that Little One can read chapter books, I will be assigning some of the Magic School Bus chapter books to read. I will have him do a lapbook or an interactive notebook about them. I also want to continue nature studies with him. I bought the book My Nature Journal by Adrienne Olmstead for Little One to use with his nature studies. I have been reading the book Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Leslie Walker, so I can learn more about Nature Journals and then can help Little One with his. I have been learning so much from the book!

Prince Caspian- Grade 9

He will be reading The Lord of the Rings, Hobbit and Eragon this year. I'm going to have him do the book studies for The Lord of the Rings and Hobit through Veritas Press. I absolutely love their books studies. I will probably be doing a book study on Eragon through Novel Ideas. I have never used their book studies before, but they look good. For math, I will be using Teaching Textbooks Algebra. I will be using Apologia's Biology. I will probably choose one of the lapbooks to go with it, but I'm not sure yet which one I want. I think I will be using Speedy Spanish for his foreign language, but I'm still not completely decided on it yet.

Closer to the beginning of the school year, I will post a more complete list of the resources we will be using. I would love to hear what your plans are! Please either write it in a comment or include a link in your comment to a blog post about it. I LOVE hearing about school plans and learning about new resources!!!

Summers Here! Does the Learning Stop?

2010-06-26T14:31:00.000-04:00

I love summer! But, just like a lot of other parents, I'm concerned about my children regressing over the summer. I know some homeschoolers that solve this by schooling all year round, through the summer. I just haven't been able to do that. Maybe someday, but right now I use the summer to get caught up on things, get caught up on work and to have a much needed rest while I lesson plan for the next year. But, in spite of all this, I still want my children to learn over the summer! So I have put together a list of activities that children can do over the summer that are fun but also educational. Please feel free to leave a comment about an activity that I have missed!

Outside
-gardening!
-nature walks
-camping
-nature studies (here is a link to a summer nature study)
-keeping a nature journal
-keeping a critter or jar pet (butterflies, crawdad, turtles, frogs, ect)
-go to the zoo

Inside (for those rainy or too hot of days!)
-read! (join a book club at the library or a store like Borders, Half Price Bookstore or Barnes & Nobles)
-create a summer lapbook
-make a scrapbook (of an educational topic)
-diorama
-do a craft
-go to an art museum or do an art study
-watch a family movie based on a good book (Old Yellar, Black Beauty, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)

Night
-catch lightning bugs
-star gazing (learn about astronomy)
-listen to the night sounds
-go on a night hike (Sometimes local parks offer guided tours at night. Please take in account your children's ages for the suitability of this activity. Some children get really scared of the night sounds and sights.)

I hope you have a fun and educational summer with your children! Please leave me a comment to let me know you have been here! :)

Changes

2010-05-28T00:04:00.000-04:00

Wow! It's hard to believe the school year is basically over! I'm going to still have my kids do some work over the summer, but we are basically out. LO is going to continue practicing reading and writing so he will be caught up next year. PC is going to continue to do some math over the summer.

This summer, I'm going to plow ahead with working online. I want to get a lot done on Squidoo, Zazzle and CafePress and get started writing on a few article places. The summer time is a great time to get caught up! I also have a lot of lesson planning to do! PC is starting high school. Yikes!

AWANAs is also over for the year. We just had our year end celebration recently. PC cracked me up while there! He decided to be a goof and climb a tree. Keep in mind this tree's branches were high! He had to jump to grab the bottom branch. So he's sitting up in this tree and he forgot that he was wearing slip on shoes! lol!!! One of his shoes fell of and he asked his friend "J" to throw it to him. Well, you know what any self respecting 13 year old boy is going to do with his friend's shoe that fell off while his friend is stuck up in the tree! Yes, he decided to throw it AT him, not to him!!! lol!!! In fact, he threw it at him over and over again. lol!!! Finally, PC got his shoe back, then he was like, "Um, how am I going to get down?" lol!!! I told him he better figure out a way unless he wants to be embarrassed when we have to call the fire department to get him down. Luckily, he was able to get out without the aid of the fire department and without breaking anything! lol!!!

PC is going to go spend some time with his Grandparents this summer. He's really close to them, so it will be goo for him.

Homeschool Products

2010-05-21T13:18:00.000-04:00

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Interactive Notebooks

2010-05-03T19:25:00.000-04:00

I love making lapbooks but lately Little One and I seem to be making more interactive notebooks than we do lapbooks. Here are some examples of some of the pages we have made.

Hello!

2010-04-29T13:40:00.000-04:00

With the new changes coming to Homeschool Blogger, I decided to go ahead and launch this site. I doubt I will stop writing there completely, but I think this will become my main blog.

My family consists of me (Lynn), my husband (Hubby) and my two boys whom I call Prince Caspian and Little One on the internet. Prince Caspian is 13 1/2 and is well, a teenager. He loves to build and figure things out. You better not turn you back on something, because he may try to take is a part! lol!!! Little One is my 7 1/2 year old and is not so little anymore. He got his nickname because I started blogging when he was 4 and I kept referring to him as my little one and it stuck. Little One has a great imagination and would love to be an author when he grows up. My husband works with computers and he is my "expert" that I turn to whenever I mess up my computer too bad, which happens more than I like to admit! lol!!!

I don't have a lot of spare time because I am a busy homeschool teacher and I also work from home. If I had spare time I would probably spend it reading, watching movies, scrapbook or maybe learning to make jewelry. I love crafts and I need to find more time to do them.

Well, that is a little about my family who will be the feature of this blog. I hope you will join us as we continue on our homeschool journey!