May. 2, 2008 - Praise God From Whom all Blessings Flow!
SchoolinRhome is having a contest right now, giving away some devotional journals and a book about cooking with kids. The whole question was, how you feel blessed as a mom. All of us here could probably write a pretty lengthy blog entry about all the blessings that come along with being a homeschooling mom. I put my entry in, and I about wrote a novel in the comment!
With Mother's day approaching, it is good for all us to ponder our roles as mothers. Why do we do what we do? What does God ask of mothers? What can we do or continue to do for our families that will bring glory to God?
I have had some major conviction recently. One of them being the fact that my husbnad and I have been very susceptible to taking things in life into our own hands, rather than putting our full weight of trust on God. We have let the things going on in our lives take precedent over our relationship with the Lord. Our homeschooling, fertility, jobs, finances, everything. Once that starts happening, hearts start to become hard. And a hard heart means no place for God's word to grow and flourish. Like the seed that falls onto the thorny soil (Mt. 13:7). The thorns sprout up and choke the plant. When situations and things in life become a priority, the work God wants to do in our lives gets choked. I am always so glad when our sin (even though it can be hard to face) is brought to the surface, and we are able to take a step forward in our walks with the Lord.
I am pretty sure I found my daughter's art medium. Pastels!
We bought Madie some pastels for christmas, and she has taken to them like a natural. During the summer she I have noticed that she loves to use sidewalk chalk, and loves to blend and shade with them. Just recently she picked up her pastels and drew some really good pictures with them. I was so impressed! Here is her best one so far, that she named "Little Farm on a Hill"
Today Madeline and I redesigned her blog so we can start putting narrations back up on a regular basis. I scanned more of her little drawings, and made graphics with them. You can see her new remade blog here. She was very excited to see her drawings turned into something like this!
We have had quite a stressful week. But we are all doing good, and pressing on! Tuesday was my HSG test (which went really good!), but the Saturday before that, we spent most of the night in the hospital.
Adam woke up around 3:00 AM Saturday morning, with a terrible side ache. We thought it was a tensed up muscle, so I proceeded to massage it, trying to get it to feel better. But as soon as he sat up, the pain became excruciating. I looked at his face, and I could tell that something wasn't right AT ALL. He started to put on his clothes and said...I gotta go to the hospital now. So I went into emergency mode. It was now around 3:30, and I was hurrying to get the kids up out of bed and dressed. I got to Gable, and he sat up and yelled "My nose is bleeding!". There was no time to pamper a nose bleed, so I calmly (as much as I could be calm) handed him some toilet paper to hold on his nose, and got him dressed. The blood drips on the carpet would have to wait! By 4:00 we were all in the van headed to the hospital. I am sure we were quite a site walking into the emergency room. 4 dishevled kids (and mom), and a husband who was in the most pain he had ever felt in his life.
The nurses and dr. took SO long to get to Adam. He actually got a little snappy asking the receptionist what is taking so long. (we can all understand that level of pain, having gone through labor). It is a horrible thing to see your spouse in pain like that. Now I know how Adam felt watching me in labor. About an hour later, the nurse finally hooked Adam up to an IV and gave him some heavy duty pain killer. Come to find out, it was kidney stones. I have heard that the pain from having kidney stones is the closest a man will ever get to feeling what labor pains are like. After seeing Adam like that, I wouldn't doubt that statement.
I took the kids to my in laws house around 5:30 AM, then went back to Adam's side. We were in the hospital until 8:30.
They sent us home with some more of those heavy duty pain killers, and I am keeping those babies on hand just in case the pain hits him again.
Adam has changed his diet quite a bit this last week, hoping that he can keep from getting more stones. One of the big changes for him is not drinking coffee. We aren't sure if that could cause stones or not, but he stopped drinking it anyway. That is BIG for Adam, who could easily drink a pot a day.
Tuesday was my HSG test. That was an experience! It didn't take too long to do, but there was a moment during the test that reminded me of labor. But then it was done. My leftside drained normally, but the rightside did go slower. So there may have been a blockage. Now we are just praying that this will be the month!!
The blog designing has slowed down a little this last week. I have been able to spend a little time getting my website all set up and ready for visitors. Blog designing is fun, but I had no idea just how much fun it is to design a website! I am still very new at it, but am learning all the time. If you want to come by and see, you'll find me at www.missionfielddesigns.com I will probably be moving my design blog over to my wordpress, but I can't bring myself to abandon my HSB. I love you guys too much to do that!!
I hope you have all had a blessed week! Although most of my week was spent trying to regain my composure, sleep, and routine, I feel blessed to be able to stay home with my little ones, and teach them on my own.
I am up early today. My nerves woke me up an hour before the alarm was to go off. We are all heading out today for my HSG test.
I am preparing myself, thinking that it is probably going to hurt somewhat. But it could be the answer to why we haven't been able to concieve over the last year and a half. It would be the biggest blessing, to be able to conceive right away after having this procedure done.
We were hoping that my mother in law would be able to watch the kids for a couple of hours while we went and had this test done, but that isn't going to happen. So the kids are coming with us. Perhaps it will be a good bonding time with Dad. We'll just pack some books, and snacks, and make the best of it.
School has been going pretty good. Everyday we do Bible reading, copywork, math, and read alouds. Once a week I try to throw in some grammar, history , or science. I tried to do a lapbook last week, hoping that it would be fun for the kids, but all I got back was complaints. I heard alot of "I'm bored..are we almost done?" Madeline was the only one that kept working on her lapbook. Maybe lapbooks aren't for us. What subjects do you all cover everyday? I worry that I am not covering everything that needs to be covered. But after hearing seminars like the ones by Cindy Rushton....maybe I am doing just fine?
How do you over come complaints in your homeschool? How do you keep your children on track when all they want to do is play? How do you keep the nasty attitudes at bay? It has been a constant battle with my kids, keeping them on track and having attitudes in check. Gable has been espcially hard. The little guy is in constant war mode, cocking and shooting his invisible guns, and throwing invisble grenades. Then ends it with a loud explosion. He'll do a math problem, and then run off into his invisible battle. It is cute, and funny. But I need to be able to keep his attention. Any ideas? I am always telling him that it's time to cease fire.
Well, I am off to get my little darlings up out of bed. I hope to have good news to report soon!
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Have you ever had a subscription to TOS? If you have never had a subscription, you are really missing out on a wonderful thing. I have been getting TOS for the last 2 years, and every time I get an issue my heart is extremely blessed. Everytime I get an issue, it's like having christmas all over again! I can't wait to rip open that plastic.
Recently, I gave a stack of my old copies to a good friend of mine. When I saw her next she was almost in tears. She said she had no idea that there were so many other like minded ladies out there. She had felt like an island, homeschooling her children without much support. TOS blesses so many families, in so many ways.
Learning how to balance a budding home business, homeschooling, bible studies, church, 4 little bunnies, 4 children and a home is quite challenging. I took some time off, and have been able to catch my breath before jumping back into things.
School has been going ok. This week Adam took Monday off so he could take me to a dr. appointment (a fertility dr! I gotta update everyone on that too) When the kids have a day when Daddy stays home, for some reason everything falls apart the next day. Tuesday's school was a complete disaster. Keeping the kids on task was like trying to hold back the tide. It was impossible. They all have so much energy when they are playing, but as soon as I sit them down to write, all I hear is "I am tired" as they lay their heads down on the table, flinging the pencils onto the floor once again. What am I to do.
Today went a little better. We got math, Bible, and some reading done. Hopefully tomorrow I can throw in some grammar, copywork, and maybe a history or science lesson. But I am not holding my breath.
The weather here in Oregon the last couple of days has been beautiful. The weather has been so crazy, it's nice to have a few solid sunny days. I can hardly keep the kids in the house on days like that. Which is ok right? Charlotte Mason puts alot of emphasis on the importance of being outdoors. So I am just doing what she recommends.
I am excited to announce that I will be having my own website for the Mission Field Designs. Doing all of this work from a blog is getting harder and harder to do. I will most likely be moving my blog over as well. We will see when I get to that point. I really want to have a place where people can come and if they see something they like, they can just have it. I will keep everything available on a donation basis.
Now about my dr appointment, for those of you who have been following our fertility journey since the vasreversal in January 2007. Everything on my hubby's side is perfect. We are now thinking that the problem could be on my side. So on the 14th of this month I am going in for an HSG test. I am a bit nervous about it, and am afraid it's gonna hurt, but it will be a good step forward to figuring out why we haven't concieved yet. I am hoping that I will be able to come back in a couple of months to show off a picture of a positive pregnancy test! Believe me. My blog will be one of the first places I share that good news.
John 18:4, "Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?"
Jesus knew what He had to face. He had just come from the Garden of Gethsemane where he sweat drops of blood in agony of facing the cruel cross and taking upon himself the sins of the world. He prayed that his Father would take "this cup" away from him. But knowing all he would face, he went forth. He went forth to face the agony. He didn't hold back.
This is a challenge to me. We will never have to face what Jesus faced. But what do we do about the problems we have to face each day? Do we cringe from them? Do we turn a blind eye so we don't even have to face them? Or do we go into depression and self-pity?
Perhaps you find it hard to get up out of bed and even face going out to the kitchen each morning. Do you have a hard time facing dishes, the big pile of laundry, or that room that is in such a mess? Can I encourage you to get up and "go forth", even as Jesus did. Tackle your task little by little. Don't think you have to do the whole overwhelming task all at once. Make a start, and keep going until you finish.
Perhaps you are facing a huge challenge in your life--a mountain that looks impossible in front of you. Mountains look impossible to us, but they are nothing to God. Go forth in His name and His power. I think of a chorus that we used to sing as young people.
Got any rivers you think are uncrossable?
Got any mountains you can't tunnel through?
God specializes in things thought impossible;
And He can do what no other can do.
It wasn't until recently that I found out that the source of this chorus came from the Panama Canal builders who faced a nearly impossible task and where well over 25,000 people died in the building of it.
You may be facing a raging battle in your life. It seems too much for you. It is bigger than what you can handle. Don't look at the bigness. God is with you. He will handle it for you. Read the instructions God give to the Israelites when they faced battles and armies who were far bigger than them. In Deuteronomy 20:1-9 He tells them not to be afraid because He will be with them. "There must be no faint hearts among you, no flinching, no yielding, no trembling ..." Of course you can't win this battle on your own, but God will fight for you. Trust Him. Go into the battle, not in your own strength, but trusting totally in God.
The name of God is a noun, but God is also a verb. Jesus said in John 5:17, "My Father worketh, and I work." God, who lives in you by His Holy Spirit, wants to work in you to do His will. Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Will you allow Him to work in you? Will you allow Him to "go forth" in you? He will face your problems with you. He will go with you. He will help you.
Perhaps you are facing a cross. Can I encourage you to embrace your cross and go forth! Go forth by faith! Go forth, knowing that Jesus lives in you. He has faced more than you will ever face and He lives in you. He wants to live His in life in you. He is in you to help you. You can go forth in His name.
Love from NANCY CAMPBELL
PRAYER:
"Father, I thank you that you are with me. I pray that you will work in me and help me to go forth to do the tasks that you have given me to do. Help me to trust in you as I face my problems. Amen.
AFFIRMATION:
We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.
We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.
P.S. The above words are an excerpt from the hymn which the five missionaries sang before entering the Ecuadorian jungle to bring the Gospel to the Auca Indians over 50 years ago. Their names were Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Jim Elliott, Roger Yoderian, and Peter Fleming. After reaching the Aucas, the Indians murdered them on the Curaray River. (January 1956) The hymn comes from the Scripture in 2 Chronicles 14:11 where Asa faced an Ethiopian army of one miillion men. He cried out to God, "Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power; help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let no man prevail against thee."
My chances are pretty slim, seemingthat there are close to (or over by now) 300 entrants into this contest that JenIg is having, but there is always SOME chance right? I would love to have rosetta stone!
Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!
This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.
This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.
To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.And good luck!The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!
Today has been one of those days, where I just feel like I don't have the energy or the drive to do any homeschooling. We did some copywork/dictaion, and went on a walk. That was it.
Last weekend, Adam spent all day building a rabbit hutch, because one of his co workers had a pair of rabbits that had a litter of bunnies. We offered to take 4 of them, one for each of the kids. The kids have been so excited about having them! Anna is a bit rough though. The other day she informed me that her little bunny needed a bath, and brought in a little white sopping wet ball. I told her that rabbits don't need baths! I put an old towel in the dryer for a few minutes, and then wrapped the poor shivering bunny up in it. I am surprised that it is still alive.
The amount of blogs that I am now designing is insane. I am getting at least 3 ladies a week, asking for help. I am in total shock with how this has all taken off. I am trying to find time to teach Ethan how to do the html, so he can help out, and even do some designing of his own when he gets it down.
A new friend of mine, had a wonderful idea. I don't know why I hadn't thought of this before! I experimented with some ready made headers, (which didn't turn out so great) but now I have a whole template up for grabs.
I am calling this template Daisy. I was trying to go for a springy flower look, and still keep the whole scrapbooky theme going. Here is a snap shot of the template. Any personal photos or graphics can be added into the header.
If you are interested in having this template, email me (missionfielddesigns at gmail dot com) and we can get it all set up. My templates are free! Although they are free, with the amount of time and energy it takes to make a template, I do appreciate any donations. That is up to you, and what God lays upon your hearts.
I hope to have a collection of different templates available. It is getting easier and easier to make color schemes, graphics, and headers to match.
I got bold today, and hung a sign on my door. It may offend some people who come knocking, but hopefully it will make them think.
About twice, sometimes three times a month, public school kids (and even their parents during school hours) come knocking on my front door asking for money, cans, or for me to buy things from them, in order to raise money for their schools. It always rubs me the wrong way.
Yesterday we came home to see a bright pink note on our door, saying that a certain group of kids in some sort of school club will be coming around on Saturday collecting cans so they can raise money. This time I am prepared for them! I printed out a sign today, and hung it on my door for all to see.
It says..."We have already given the public schools thousands of dollars through our taxes. Since we homeschool, we pay not only for the public school children's educations, but our own children's as well. We don't need to give anymore money to the public schools, or their activities. Please do not ask us for any more. Thank you."
It doesn't seem fair, to have to pay so much money out every year to support the public schools, and then have to give them more when they come knocking on my door. Perhaps a bunch of us homeschoolers should band together and go door to door asking for money for our state standardized testing, that we also have to pay for out of our own pockets. Just an idea! Do you think that would fly??
About the door to door solictors...I love it when they come knocking, and our replies to them leave them speechless. Over the last few weeks (which is why part of the reason why my blog has once again been neglected) we have been working really hard remodeling our downstairs. We had a light color laminate flooring in our kitchen, and nasty stained up carpet (which was nice when it first was put in) in the living room. For the last couple of years, I have wanted to rip out that carpet and put laminate flooring throughout the whole downstairs. Now we have had the chance to do that! It doesn't even look like the same house. We repainted the kitchen and living room, and Adam has put up a really nice white moulding around the perimeter.
So about the solicitors..we had carpet cleaners knock on our door last night, right when we had gotten home with some new floor rugs for the living room. They wanted to give us a demonstration. I opened the door part way, and he looked down at our brand new laminate and I said...sorry...we don't have carpet! Yay!! Well...it was partly true what I had said. Our downstairs no longer has carpet. Our upstairs does have carpet, but there is NO WAY I'd be inviting him into that war zone. They guy would have probably gotten lost amongst the junk toys, papers, and dirty laundry.
I will have to post pictures of our new remodled living room. I feel so spoiled! It has been fun watching it transform over the last two weeks.
I am sure most of you are already familiar with has happened recently in the state of California. The Lost Angeles court of appeals ruled that parents in the state of California do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children. The official ruling can be read here.
I am sure that this ruling has probably put a lot of fears into the hearts of our fellow homeschoolers in California. But there is something that we, in other parts of the country can do to help out, and support the homeschool families. We can sign the petition put forth by the HSLDA (homeschool legal defesne association). HSLDA is calling on the courts to depublish their ruling.
I just finished listening to today's broadcast of focus on the family, which covers this topic. It is alarming. We need to stand up for our rights, and freedoms to school our children how we see fit. It is times like these when (although some homeschoolers are upset about the HSLDA supporting Huckabee for president) I am SO very thankful that I have the HSLDA on my side.
I encourage EVERYONE to sign the petition, andlisten to what Focus on the Family had to say about the situation. You don't have to be a member of the HSLDA to sign the petition either. You probably don't even have to be a homeschooling family to sign it. Anybody who wants to help protect our freedoms in this country can sign. Let this court know that they are wrong, and have jeapordized our parental rights.
Here are ALL the links for you. We need to get involved in this one! To my homeschooling friends in California, you are in my prayers.
There is a very dangerous virus sweeping the Pacific Northwest. It starts out as a normal cold, but quickly escalates into viral pnemonia.
Unfortunately, it has take a life of a homeschool mother in our community.
Last Monday, the director of our 4-H homeschool program informed us that Ethan's sign language teacher was sick , and wouldn't be able to teach. Last night I got the email saying that she was gravely ill, and in the ICU with pnemonia covering her left lung, and failing kidneys. I quickly tried to spread the word thorough our community, and asking everyone to pray for her.
Shortly after, I recieved more news, saying that she had passed away. For my kids, this is the closest they have been to having someone die. Ethan cried alot last night. He has never really experienced someone close die. We are all pretty devestated about it. It happened SO quick, and she was only 37.
Knowing that this horrible deadly virus is raging in our area, makes me want to keep all of us in the house, and not go anywhere. 3 of the 5 guys that work with my husband, already have REALLY bad colds/flu. And are still going into work. So Adam is being exposed daily.
We keep pumping in the vitamin C, and drinking plenty of juice and ecchinacea tea, in hopes of building up our immune systems. Please keep the Latty family in your prayers. The husband is now without a wife, and the kids without a mommy, and teacher. Also, please keep our community in prayer. I don't want to see anymore lives taken because of this virus.
I have really slacked off on the blogger friend school assignements. I saw this one, and thought it would be alot of fun to do. The assignment, is to pretend you have $1000 dollars to spend online, for YOURSELF only. What would you buy? Well...here is what I would buy.
First off, I would purchase web hosting so I can start my own website. I am most familiar with Godaddy, so I will pick them for now.
3.65 for 36 months= 131.40
Secondly, I'd go crazy at knitpicks.com. I'd buy myself tons of different yarns, of different weights and fiber content. Their yarns roughly cost 5.00 a skein. I'd start off with 50 skeins.
50 skeins of awesome yarn= $250
To go along with all of my fantasic yarns, I'd have to buy myself a really cool set of interchangeable circular needles. I'd have to buy myself two sets, so I could knit two socks at the same time.
2 sets of interchangeable circulars= $120
And lastly, I would by myself an Ashford Traveller spinning wheel, so I could spin my own yarn. I would LOVE to learn how to spin yarn on one!
Ashford Traveller Spinning Wheel = $495
So that brings my total to approximately $996. Including all of the shipping charges that would incur, I think I have spent (or over spent) my $1000. This was alot of fun! I can't wait to see what everyone else would buy with their $1000.
I was just reading through the homeschool minute this morning (which you can subscribe to also!) and one of the articles really ministered to my heart.
My advice on comparing is: don't do it . . . ever! Don't compare yourself with your friends, the people you read about in homeschooling magazines and blogs, homeschool celebrities, or "real schools".
You see, what ends up happening is that you compare your weaknesses against others' strengths, and you can't win that game. So don't do it. You have plenty of gifts and strengths of your own, but you can't have every gift or strength.
Some like crafts - some don't. Some are organized - some aren't. Some did undergraduate work at MIT - some barely made it through high school. Instead of lamenting the fact that you're not what some are, thank God for your strengths and capitalize on them.
Now, as for comparing your homeschool to a "REAL" school: why would you compare yourself with something that doesn't work? In fact, you know what? Public schools compare themselves to us. They know that one-on-one teaching is more effective and that real-life learning is more successful. They sit around in committees and try to make their school environment more like home. They have students plant gardens, hike through the woods, learn to cook, build stuff, and learn to relate to others. That's what you do every day . . . and it's working.
So stop comparing yourself to them or anyone else. Ask God what He wants your school . . . I mean home to look like and then do it.
Now if only I can get my wife to stop comparing.
Be Real!
Todd
Have you caught yourselves doing this? I have caught myself doing this way too often. My husband's oldest brother is a public school teacher, and his youngest daughter (who is Ethan's age) likes to brag about her public school class. The last time we were with them, she proceeded to tell me that SHE is in 4th grade now, and is going to be in 5th grade. The last time I heard, she was the same age as Ethan (9), and in the 3rd grade. I shouldn't have had that bother me, but for the rest of the day I kept doubting myself in my mind. Has she really been accelerated like that? Am I doing something wrong with Ethan? Should I be teaching him more than I am? Could he be falling behind? But what Todd from family man ministries is saying in this article is so true. The public school system doesn't work. Why am I comparing my homeschool to something that is broken? I need to stop comparing our homeschool to the public school system and other homeschools, and ask God what He wants for our homeschool. I may not be organized, I may not have the drive to cover every single subject every day of the week, but I have my own God given strengths, and I need to continue to capitalize on them.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Feb. 22, 2008 - a side effect of homeschooling....??
I am so embarassed! I just got off the phone with a new dr, and when she asked me my last name I started out by saying "Capital T" I told her I was sorry, I homeschool my children and we just got done talking about how to use capital letters. She laughed pretty hard at me!
Is this one of the many side effects homeschooling will have on mamma? At least everyone knows by my mistakes, that I am actually teaching my kids at home! hahaha!!!!! I wonder what I will do next. Reward people with chocolate chips for a right answer?? hahahaha!!
I have tried a bunch of types of grammar books and curriculums over the years, and haven't been able to find something that we all loved 100%. This last week, while surfing around on the sonlight website, I ran across the grammar books that they use. It looked really good to me. So I went ahead and bought it (off of Amazon....I am sorry...but Sonlight is TOO expensive for me). The book came yesterday, and we gave it a try right away. After two lessons, I can say that I recommend this book! It's called Grammar Ace. It has fun little lessons with grammar activity ideas at the end. What has made it even better for my kids, is that they suggest watching the little videos, or listening to the songs off of the School House Rock, Grammar Rocks songs that go along with each part of speech. For us, we can check out the School house rock videos from our local library. My kids love it! It's neat to hear my 4 year old singing about verbs and interjections. So, between the new Grammar Ace book, School House Rock and our love of doing mad libs, I think our grammar learning is moving forward! And they are having fun with it.
Another well worth it purchase recently, is the 5th grade Teaching Textbooks math curriculum. Oh my goodness! I have never seen such a cool math curriculum! Ethan loves anything that has to do with computers, so this fits him perfectly. Teaching Textbooks comes with 4 CD's, a teachers manual, and a student workbook. You put the CD into your computer, and click lecture. The student watches the lecture in which they teach a whole concept. Very visual! Then they go through and have the student do some practice problems. If they get it wrong, they can click watch solution and see the problem worked out. After the practice problems the student does about 17 problems (which are the same as in the workbook). The student hears the question, writes the answer in his workbook, and then types in the answer on the computer. If they get it wrong, they can again watch the solution. The program keeps track of all of the problems they get right and wrong, and records their overall score. Ethan is already on lesson 7, and has gotten 100% on one, and 95% on the rest. For a 9 year old doing 5th grade work, I am very impressed! I have heard that the curriculum changes a bit when it gets to 8th grade. I am not sure what those changes are. We will have to see when we get there.
(Youtube may even have all of the school house rock Grammar songs! Can't beat free!)
I struggled for awhile, trying to figure out what I could possibly do to get my two youngest kids to write. I was having a real hard time getting them to cooperate with me. Until I came up with this idea!
One of the most useful computer programs I have ever had, is microsoft publisher. I can do so much with it! I made up these copywork pages on heavy machinery for Gable. I typed out some simple sentences on each machine from Wikipedia, onto a publisher document. Then I put the lines on around the text (there are lots of free school fonts on the net!) . I also googled some images of each machine and printed them out so Gable could cut and paste them onto his page. It has worked perfectly!
I also made him his own "public works, work order" folder that we hung on the wall. Daddy has one at work, and everyday he gets his orders. So now Gable gets his own orders(in the form of copywork) that go into his work folder for Daddy to see when he gets home from work. Gable absolutley loves it! We now have a 3 ring binder that is stuck full of Heavy machinery copywork.
I am currently trying to put together a stack of military, and rescue workers copy pages. For Anna, I have made zoo copy pages. She has taken to them just like Gable has taken to his machines book. They both love to be able to cut out the pictures and glue them on when they are done. They also love to go back and look through everything they have done, and even show their books to Grandpa and Grandma.
I wanted to mention these pages to everyone, because just this last week I turned the heavy machinery pages into an ebook. I have had 6 ladies ask for copies of them already. I wanted to make it available to anyone else who has little boys who LOVE Heavy Machinery. If you would like a copy, email me at weetelfers at gmail dot com, and I will gladly send you a copy!
Feb. 13, 2008 - how our tax money is spent....all fired up!
It's tax season again. I am so glad that my hubby knows how to do them. Well acutally...he knows how to type it into the efile program. I always wonder why so many people dread tax season. I look forward to it! Maybe it's because we get that wonderful child tax credit every year, when other career oriented family without children end up paying. That is one thing that Bush did during his presidency that I appreciated. The child tax credit. That extra money paid for the vasovasectomy last January. Thank you President Bush!!!
Tax season always gets me thinking about what our tax money is being spent on. And I always end up getting frustrated and fired up knowing that a HUGE chunk of our money is being given to the public school system. It just doesn't feel right or fair. We pay for everyone else's children's education, AND our own children's education. Actually...we pay MORE every year for the education of public school kids than our own (thanks to sites like Ambleside, old fashioned education and all of those free sites!).
My mom called me this morning, and I could tell right away that she was worked up about something. She told me that the other day while she was working she got into a very lively conversation with a public school teacher. OH my goodness! You all thought that I could get fired up about homeschooling vs. the public school system...my mom really socked it to him! She proceeded to tell this man, all of the things that we know are true about homeschooling (ie..well rounded, successful, smart, moral, well behaved, caring kids). One thing that my mom said was really good, and I am going to remember this next time I need some ammo. People wonder why homeschooled children go through a shock when they are integrated into the public school system, or around groups of public school children. Anyone who is raised with high morals, and raised in a Godly manner would be shocked, and feel awkward if put in a situation where they are surrounded by unmoral, ungodly people. I feel awkward some days just walking into a store seeing how the modern day kids dress and talk. I am so proud of my mom for sticking up for the homeschool community!! YAY!
I went quite a long time not blogging lately. As always, homeschooling, web designing, and life in general has kept me hopping. I have 2 blogs in process, and 1 that I am trying to figure out a problem that I have ran into. (If anyone is html savvy, and has any advice I welcome it! I am having a hard time getting the archives to show up) And I have 2 more blogs that are on hold until I can finish up these 3 first. When I came back on my own blog today I was pleasantly surprised to see that Nancy (nancysnook) passed the Excllent blog award to me! Thanks Nancy! She still gave me the award, inspite of my lack of recent blog entries. So I suppose I will have to pass it on next! Hopefully I can do that in my next entry.
My brother came over to visit us this weekend, and he showed me how to work a website. Oh my goodness! It is so much fun! I have already started on my mom's website, and even have her little store started out. I have always imagined that making a website would be hard, and I would have to take some sort of college classes to learn it. But I don't! It is way easier then I thought. You can see what I have done so far at Panther Creek Cottage. I am having way too much fun with this website/template stuff.
I have also been able to make a new kind of HSB template. A tabbed one! I am so excited to make my first tabbed blog for strs. I keep finishing these blogs, and then think....oh mine isn't that great....and I am tempted to once again change it around. I am so flip floppy with my template.
Today was a good school day. The kids got their school work done fairly quick. Gable was so proud of himself today cause he finally finished his the first book in the two book set of Saxon first grade math. The look on his face when he finished the very last problem was priceless. We also read a great little book called "Pasteur's fight against microbes" and had great discussions about bacterias, microbes, and people pasteurize things. It was so neat, cause I pulled out our gallon of milk and showed them all the word pasteuized on it. That sparked their interest! Then we did our usual googling for images of the person we read about it, wrote up a little notebooking page about the person, pasted on the pictures, and put the page into our book of centuries. I love this kind of schooling!!
Speaking of math...do any of you out there use Teaching textbooks with your kids? I had Ethan try out a sample lesson a week ago, and he loved it. I welcome any reviews or comments about the curriculum before I go and buy it for next year.
I hope you have all had a blessed day with your children, learning at home with them.
I told her I was sorry, I homeschool my children and we just got done talking about how to use capital letters. She laughed pretty hard at me!
