The kids are counting down until "summer vacation".

I always laugh at them because they truly love school.

Many "first day of summer" days, my kids could be found somewhere reading a good book.

We tend to do school through-out the year.  We just change up what we are learning and how it is being taught.

We are finishing up our ocean study by actually going to the ocean!

Technically, we are going on 'vacation' on May 28th.  Then, on June 1st we are headed to South Carolina!!  Yea!!!!!!!!!!

How are you spending your 'summer vacation'?

~Candy~

I've been spending the day reading over Karen Andreola's book, "Charlotte Mason Companion".

I could just read it over and over; couldn't you?

~Candy~

We only have four and a half weeks of our regular school year left!  Wow!

The funny thing is that we never actually stop learning, we just switch up the way we learn.  We also focus more on science and nature studies.  We get to spend a lot more time on learning crafts too.  The kids are getting pretty good at crocheting!  Read alouds never stop!  We actually do so much learning during the summer that we shouldn't even call it summer vacation.  Oh, well, it makes the kids feel better thinking they are on vacation.   lol

We are preparing to go to the ocean in June.

What a great way to complete our ocean unit study!

I have never been to the ocean before.  Many of the kids have been to the ocean, but this will be my first trip.  Yahoo!

What are your summer time plans?

~Candy~

We just got three new Drive Thru History DVDs!!

I love them!

Have you seen any of them?

~Candy~

One of my all time favorite kid's book is the story of Peter Rabbit.

What is one of your favorites?

~Candy~

Here is another awesome site.

There are a lot of free worksheets available for multiply grade levels.

It's a wonderful resource.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.tlsbooks.com/miscellaneousworksheets.htm

~Candy~

http://donnayoung.org/index.htm

This is an awesome site!!

~Candy~

We love Vocabulary Cartoons.

They are really awesome!

My kids are not only learning, they are learning fast!

Do any of you use Vocabulary Cartoons?

We have just started our second book.

~Candy~

No school today!!!  Today is Jacob's thirteenth birthday.

Happy birthday, Jacob.

Do you have a favorite book to share today?

Stop by every Monday this month and share about one of your favorite homeschooling books.

I really love Vocabulary Cartoons.  My kids pick up these books without having to be talked into it.

They learn from them quickly and painlessly.

Not only that, they these vocabulary words weeks, even months later.

It really sticks with them.

Have any of you used Vocabulary Cartoons?

Your turn.  Tell me about one of your favorite sources.

~Candy~

We have been having fun collecting things in preparation for our ocean books.

I picked up some ocean stickers at the dollar store, but they didn't have very many.

I picked up a book on sea creatures at the junk store.  We are going to use it to cut pictures and paste them inot our books.

Preparing seems to be half the fun.

What kind of lapbooks are you working on?

~Candy~

I am trying to get stuff collected and organized to make lapbooks on the oceans.

Any ideas?

~Candy~

The more that I read this book, the more I love it!

It is written as a letter to a nephew from his uncle.

It is written very clearly.

It is really a no tears economics course!

It is endorsed by John Taylor Gatto, Mary Pride, Cathy Duffy, and many, many others.

Have any of you used this book?

Let's share different books that we truly love in our homeschool.

Each Monday in March come back here to read which book I love, then share which one you love.

Sound like fun?

I'll start. 

We just got, "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?" in the mail.

It is an economics course, but don't let that scare you.

This book is wonderful!

It truly captivated us. 

It is really a 'living' book.  I love it!

The chapters are short, but you get a lot out of them.

When I told my 16 year old that we got his new economics book in the mail, he wasn't excited.

That is until we started it.  He was really impressed with it too.

Have any of you tried this book?

Are any of you thinking about it?

Go for it!  It is a great resource.

Don't forget to go over to candyfoote.com and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

You will get a free sample of one of our books just for signing up!

~Candy~

Have you thought about teaching Shakespeare, then decided to think again?!?

Do you think it sounds a little overwhelming?

Don't worry - there's a solution!

Charles and Mary Lamb have put many of Shakespeare's plays into enjoyable stories that even your little ones will enjoy.

Give them a taste of Shakespeare!

Check it out for yourselves at http://www.eldritchpress.org/cml/tfs.html

And don't forget to have fun!

~Candy~

http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks.htm

This site is great!  It has a lot of free stuff to help you make those lapbooks!

Have fun!

~Candy~

My kids love to make little books.

Not only are they fun, but they make it easy to remember what's being taught.

You can use them with any subject.

My kids really loved their fraction books.

We just use card stock or even construction paper.

They can be put together with paper fasteners or simply yarn.

The topics are endless.  They can be simple or complicated, so they work well for any age.

- shape books

- color books

- math books (like our fraction books_

- China books (any place)

Well, you get the picture.

Have fun!

~Candy~

Have you ever heard of Charity Tapes Minisitry?

They have a website where they take donations for all

of their tapes.  If you can't afford anything, you simple

click a button and can receive them for free.

They also have a quarterly magazine entitled,

Charity Christian Missions.  You are able to copy anything

you would like out of their magazine.  This makes an awesome

homeschool resource.  Their newest volume has an article called,

Blood on Our Hands.  It is a little history lesson on the American Indians and missionaries.  It includes awesome pictures of early American Indians. It also has a United States map showing where the different tribes lived.  There is a worksheet included where you can match up a picture of a 'house' to the tribe that used that type.  To end with, there is a little biography on the missionary, David Brainerd (a young Puritan minister to the American Indians).

I printed out a copy of this story for each one of my children.  They are going to turn it into their own little books.

After this sparks their interests, I'm going to encourage them to dive deeper through the use of our local library and the internet.

Have fun!

~Candy~

I just joing the Homeschool Lounge!

There is so much to see over there.

It's going to take me awhile just to find my way around.

From what I have seen so far, it looks like a great community.

Although we have been homeschooling since 1993, there is always room to learn.

Hope to see you over there!

~Candy~

My kids love to have schedules.  They are always asking to see if I have taken the time to make up their daily and weekly schedules.  They are able to manage their time when they know what is expected of them during the day.  My favorite part is that they are always setting the alarm to get up earlier and earlier in the mornings.  They want to be able to finish up their school work and move on with the day.  One of their favorite things to do when they are finished is to walk across the road to help their grandfather.  They enjoy cutting and staking his wood.  They like shoveling his driveway in the winter and raking the leaves in the fall.  Their favorite thing is helping him while he works on building an apartment.  They have even helped him mix and pour cement. 

We encourage our children to learn where ever they are.  My father really loves having them learn from him.  The kids have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins that all teach them different things in life. 

They have helped to teach them to drive, to do construction, to mow lawns properly, mechanics, mixing and pouring cement, drawing, writing letter, and the list goes on and on.

Don't be afraid to let your extended family help to teach your children.

Everyone will enjoy it!

Next time the artist in the family comes to visit, get out the paper and colored pencils.  Ask him to show the kids a trick or two.

Let me know how it turns out.

~Candy~

We are on a six weeks on one week off schedule this year.

I really love this schedule.

Out of our 16 years of homeschooling, this will be our 2nd time using it.

We couldn't use it a lot of times simply because we needed to use our vacation time as maternity leave for the teacher.

Well, anyway, we don't seem to need maternity leave this year, so we opted for this schedule.

We just completed our first six weeks yesterday.

Vacation has begun.  Or, so called vacation!

My goals for this "vacation" are to get all of the laundry caught up, plus prepare for the next six weeks of school. I also need to make sure that the house is put back into order before the chaos, I mean school begins again. 

I am excited about this school year. 

My kids tell me that I say that every year.

http://candyfoote.com/

I am sooo excited about my newest book entitled,

"The Parables of Jesus Christ".

Just as the title implies, it is filled with only the Word of God!

I am excited about using it in my own homeschool this year.

I love having my kids do copywork using God's word.

I have been wanting them to memorize the parables.

What better way then having the parables all available in one book!

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that learning Jesus' parables would be a great logic lesson also!

I can't wait to get started on them!

Hmm, am I suppose to be so excited about using my own book?!?

http://candyfoote.com/

I have experience some great benefits of homeschooling!

I don't have time to list a lot of them, but I wanted to share some

of the top ones.

#1 - Hey, my kids like me!  No kidding!  They like their father too!

When my oldest son was 15, he was working on a farm.  He couldn't

wait to get his first paycheck  so that he could take his mother out to lunch!!!

#2 - My kids like each other!

I blame this on the fact that they weren't in the public school around their peers, so

there wasn't anyone to tell them that they are not suppose to like their family.

My father always laughs because if he gives one of them a treat ,

they want to know where everyone elses treats are!

#3 - They love God!

My oldest son just became an ordained minister at the age of 22!!!

My ten year son loves to spend his time writing worship songs!

My seven year old makes sure that we don't get too busy and forget about morning prayer!

When one of my daughters was ten, she came running into the room saying,

"Mom, Mom, look at this great Scripture I just found while reading the Psalms!"

Oh, there are great benefits to homeschooling!

My daughter has been studying the globe.

She wants to know if our one hundred year

old house is unlevel because the world is round

and not flat!

Hmm, what do you think????

The Adventures of Being Married to a Homeschooling Mom

"What is that smell!?!" my husband asked. "What smell?" "It smells like something dead on the porch?" "Really?" I asked while headed to the porch. After looking around for a few minutes, I triumphantly returned. "It's our science project!" I proudly announced. "What is it?" "Well, it's old hamburger and flies. It's our 'Life Cycle of a Housefly' experiment!" No words...only shocked staring.   This is a true story. I mean what better way to teach science, right? Right now we have a wooly caterpillar in a jar on the counter. And one crawling around the house...umm, somewhere. The kids love it! As mom/teacher, I love it! My husband, on the other hand, well, I told him that he should write a book entitled, "The Adventures of Being Married to a Homeschooling Mom".

I have had such a busy summer! Sad to say, but most of  it was spent in the hospital with family. My mother-in-law died last week. Thanks to everyone who has been holding us up in prayer. Since I haven't been on much lately, I thought I would just post a past post.   I layed snuggled in bed with my nursing baby. It was an early spring morning, and I was enjoying the peace and quietness of it. Suddenly, I heard, "Thu thump, thu thump, thu thump!" I smiled. Jaimie and Matt were already up and out. They had the horses on the run. In the distance, I heard the school bus coming. They were racing the bus again! I couldn't help but think of all of the public school children across the north country. Parents were dragging their children's exhausted little bodies out of bed. The children's first thoughts were dread. As they dragged themselves onto the school bus, only cooped up buildings, long hours, and pressure awaited them. The excitement of school had died somewhere during their kindergarten year. In contrast, my children excitedly got themselves out of bed. "Come on, we have to get the horses saddled! Let's go!" Their minds awoke to joy, excitement, and fresh air! What a joy to be homeschooled!

I spend each summer vacation planning out

the upcoming school year. (Everything always

looks great on paper!!)

The problem is that while I am busy coming

up with the "perfect" plan for my little darlings to

learn from, they keep interrupting me with, "Mom,

can I read to you? Mom, can you  help me look

up the name of this flower I found? Mom, is it okay

if I write a letter today?"

I have tried to explain to them that they need to stop

learning while I am trying so hard to come up with

a plan to teach them!

I love summer time! It is so relaxing. There's no pressure to make

sure math lessons are done. There isn't a stack of papers that

need to be submitted to the school district.

Not to mention, it is just beautiful outside! I love to look at all

of the green meadows and leaves on the trees.

My kids couldn't wait for "vacation". So, how are they

spending their free time???

Reading!!! We are reading, "On the Banks of Plum

Brook," as a family read-aloud. The kids are constantly

reading on their own. They read out of their McGuffey readers,

library books, and even encyclopedias!

My eleven year old just asked me this morning if she could go

to the library.

Nature notebooks have been another favorite. The kids love

walking outside and identifying all of the flowers. They collect

everything to add to their notebooks. Snake skins, feathers, robin's

eggs, turtle eggs, leaves, and of course all of those flowers.

They absolutely love to draw. The art notebooks are always in use.

Summer is also a fun time to do science experiments.

Everyone has been working on the family garden. That is always so

relaxing. The funny thing is that this year almost all of the kids decided

to plant their own gardens too. They have been soooo excited.

They have been identifying plants, distingushing between weeds and plants,

and learning the names of the part of the plant we eat. They even did some

experimenting. They planted seeds "upside down" to see if they would

really grow towards the sun.

One of my favorite things that they have been learning is how to set

up alternate power.

Summer vacation???

Well, it makes everyone feel good to call it that!

Family worship and Bible reading,

family read a-louds,

family nature walks;

This stuff isn't just for school.

It's for life.

Create memories!!!!

Remember, it only seems like they will

be young forever. Be careful! Don't blink

your eyes, or they will be grown!

Set goals that you would love to reach for

your family.

One of our goals is to make a very big deal

out of birthdays.

We invite all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles,

and cousins!

I make homemade pizza...a lot of pizza!

We have cake, ice cream, and presents.

Everyone in our immediate family gives

the birthday kid a gift.

It is usually something from the Dollar Store.

Mom and Dad give a big gift.

Usually a pinata!! Woohoo!!!!!!

This is a goal for our family. We work

hard to create memories for each child.

We want them to have great memories of

happy birthdays surrounded by love, family,

and a lot of fun.

Go ahead!

Make a memory.

"Ahh, Mom, not alphabetical order!"

Do you hand your kids a sheet of paper with

a list of words on it, and tell them, "Put

all of these into alphabetical order."?

What kind of response do you get?

It was never a pretty one around here!

That was until we came up with "the cards".

I took an old set of "Charlie Brown" dictionaries

and cut out each entry. Most of the words

included a picture along with the definition.

I cleared the living room floor, handed the kids

the cards, and had them lay them out in alphabetical

order. They loved it! I loved it! It was a painless

way to teach alphabetical order.

Need a place to keep all of that Bible copy work?

Boy, do I have the perfect place!

Have them start a Bible notebook.

I absolutely love our Bible notebooks.

All you need is a three-ring binder and some loose-leaf paper.

First, make a Table of Contents. Number and name all of the books

of the Bible. Next, make title pages for each book. Ours also give

the relationship that Jesus has to that book.

 For example:

         Genesis

   Jesus is the Seed

Stick numbered tabs on  each one of the title pages . Make sure that

the numbers match the ones in the Table of Contents. This way it's a

cinch to find the book you're looking for.

Then simply file all of your memory work, copy work, notes, favorite

Scriptures, etc. in the right "book".

Hand your kids a Bible and a timer. Tell them to copy out of a certain book

for a certain amount of minutes. At our house, it's Luke for 20 minutes.

For younger kids, you may want to copy down a certain amount of work, then

have them copy from that. Just handing them a Bible and saying go to it may

be too overwhelming.

When finished, you will have a wonderful keepsake.

My kids are copying out of the Gospel of Luke.

They each spend twenty minutes a day just copying out of the Bible.

The results are almost unbelievable!

The kids are memorizing Scripture, asking thought provoking

questions, learning to write grammatically correct sentences, working

on penmanship,  and learning to spell correctly in just twenty minutes a day!

This is low cost, minimal time, and highly educational learning!

It is also a very natural way of learning.

As soon as my kids start to learn to write; they write!

They copy everything they see without my directing them to do so.

Make sure you have plenty of paper on hand, though. How many of

your little ones practice their newly acquired writing skills on the walls,

the doors, the table, the......?

I absolutely love the old ways of doing things.

Recitation has to be close to the top.

It just takes the pain out of learning.

My kids recite Bible verses, states and capitals,

the multiplication tables; the list could be endless.

Give recitation a try. Skip those multiplication

worksheets for a couple of weeks. Replace

them with simple recitation. Hand the kid

a book with the problem written out and have them

just "read the book."

I promise you will be surprised!

Do you have a child with a speech problem?

Our son, Jesse, was born with a speech problem.

He spoke very late. When he did speak, he couldn't

pronounce one letter correctly. We started looking for

someone to teach him. We started out with a woman

who came into our home and worked with Jesse for an hour

twice a week. She didn't stay long, though. Jesse turned

five right after she started coming, and she could only work

with children under five. Since there is a huge shortage of

speech therapist in our area, we ended up taking Jesse to

our public school twice a week.

It didn't take me too long to figure out that this was a bad idea.

"How can you teach Jesse to speak correctly when you only

work with him for a few minutes a week?" I asked. "Well, it

will take quite a few years," they replied.

I had been working with Jesse myself from the beginning. I guess

I needed to see what others were doing to be encouraged. Jesse

is with us 24/7, so we are right there to correct him. He is able to

pronounce all of his letters correctly, and we are now working on

blending. We do this right along side of teaching him reading.

I want to encourage you to teach your speech challenged child

at home. If you have been in the public school system, you must

realize that they do not have the ablilty to teach your child in the way

that you do. I spent my time teaching Jesse while we sat in a class room

up at the school! The teacher was too busy fighting with children who

refused to stay in their seats and do what they were told. The teacher

asked me how Jesse was doing so she could send a report home to me!!!

I am so amazed when I reflect on God's goodness!!!!!

He called me to homeschool waaaayyyy back in 1993.

Wow, thirteen years ago!

My oldest son was in second grade in the public school system.

My husband and I had discussed homeschooling, but didn't know

how exactly to go about it. I remember reading some country magazine

about a family in Alaska who homeschooled. They said you could actually

buy books through the mail!! I couldn't believe it. I ran outside to show the

article to my husband. He was a little skeptical, but agreed that we could

give it a try. Since it was the summer of 1993, we just informed the school

district that we would not be sending Jud back in the fall.

My family wasn't over joyed about our decision. As a matter of fact,

they quit speaking to me. Well they couldn't approve of me ruining my

children's lives. God was good and sooo faithful, though. Today, they can'tl

say enough about my wonderful children. LOL

Our oldest son, Judson, graduated from homeschool in 2003. He went on to

missionary school, where he graduated at the very top of his class. When they

handed him his diploma, they also handed him a check for doing such a

wonderful job!!! From there he got his private pilot's license. He is working

his way up to at least his commercial license. All of this to be able to serve

better in the missions field!!

Matthew, our third child, will turn seventeen in June. He will also be graduating

from homeschool in June. In August, Jud and Matt will be moving to Virginia

Beach to attend an airplane mechanics school.

Jaimie graduated last year. She has held the same job since three weeks before

she turned fourteen! She absolutely loves her job. I believe that has to be

one of the greatest accomplishments. Most people absolutely hate their jobs.

What a blessing to love your work.

Jaimie is a beautiful young lady who loves her family. Even though she is the

second oldest child out of eleven, she looks forward to getting married and

having a lot of children herself. She plans on going to Africa and opening an

orphanage.

It is wonderful to see my grown children's lives centered around God and family.

You think your child can't count or add???

Break out your change bucket, or even

some m&ms. You'll be surprised at how fast

they learn!

The rule is:

If you can count it, (or add, subtract, multiply, etc.),

then you can keep it.

Does your child get confused when asked

two times six?

Try asking him what six two times is!

This little play on words is all it took

for my kids!

Jaimie finished all of her kindergarten and first grade work in one year! She was always a quick learner. Things just seemed to come easy for her.

Olivia, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. She always loved school, but it seemed to come hard for her. At five, she didn't seem to understand reading. " Be patient, and wait it out," said the Lord. At six, she still didn't get it. "Lord!" I said alarmingly. "Be patient, and wait it out," replied the Lord. At seven; nope, still didn't get it. "Lord, You called me to homeschool. I need Your help!!"  At eight; not yet! "Lord, she needs to learn how to read!"  "Be patient and wait it out," the Lord said softly. At nine and a half, Olivia went from a first grade reading level to a fourth grade reading level in four weeks!!!!!!!! She loves to read. If she would have been in the public school system, she would have failed and been labeled. She would hate school and anything to do with reading. Instead, Olivia loves school and reading. On days "off" , she is usually somewhere with a backpack full of books. Homeschooling gives us such wonderful opportunities. If your child is going through a struggle with school work right now, "Be patient, and wait it out".

Write down your goals for each day. We have a lot of responsibilities on our minds. Some days I think that we have not accomplished much, only to find that we actually did do everything when I see it written down. Other days seem like we have been quite busy,  when in reality we did little! Remember, it's so much easier to just write it down.

Math can be fun!

Start out reading math problems out loud.

3+1=4

2+3=5

After a few minutes, let the kids yell out the answers.

Grab a deck of cards, remove the face cards, and throw out some cards to be added. Move on to subtraction, multiplication, and division. Have the kids turn them into fractions. Play the game of  Life or Uno. Let the younger children play Go-Fish.. We just came across a great dice game called, "Don't You For Get It". There are 9 dice that need to be added up! Make math books. My kids just finished "graph" books, and are working on "fraction" books. They love making their own books. It seems to make a hard concept easier. My kids love speed drills and flash cards.

Learning math doesn't have to be tedious.

We have all come down with a huge case of Spring Fever. Has anyone come down with a case of it? I wake up in the morning fully prepared to stick to our schedule. Get up, get dressed down to our socks and shoes, (thanks to FLYLady), clean our assigned rooms, then meet in the living room for prayer and worship. Sounds like a great start to any day, right? Well, we have had temperatures of high sixties and mid-seventies. We live in Northern New York. I mean very Northern New York. Like, right next to the Canadian border, Northern New York. When we hit two degress in the winter, we think it's a heat wave! LOL. So you can just imagine how hard Spring Fever has hit us. Morning chores  must have the fever also, because they seem to have flown right out the window! The kids have been right behind them. Socks and shoes? Well that has been a battle with the little ones. (Sorry, FLYLady) Meeting in the living room? Well, since the departure of the morning chores, I'm not quite sure where the living room is. "What about school?" You may ask. Well, that hasn't suffered in the least. Prayer and worship has taken place in the back yard. Writing has been done at the picnic table. Reading was done on a blanket in the yard. Science???????? Well, you probably guessed, was done down at the pond. You get the picture. We may have a messy house due to a case of Spring Fever, but boy, we sure have a wonderful life!!!!!

          http://www.irenescorner.com                                                                                                        

If you have young children,

you know what a challenge

it can be to take them to church!

They need to be able to sit still

and listen for a designated period

of time. During church is not the time

to teach your children to behave.

They need to learn that while at

home. Family read alouds give us

the perfect opportunity to teach

our young children how to sit still

and listen attentively. If you have

a rambunctious child, you may want

to start out with short periods of

time. Don't stay there though, work

your way up to a longer time. Pick

books that are exciting in order

to keep them interested.

I read a wonderful article about a woman

who read aloud to her little children. The

children enjoyed their mother reading so

much that when they grew older they would

still gather around their mother to hear her read.

When the children had their own children, they

would go to Grandma's house just to hear her

read. When her grandchildren had children,

they would all go to Great-Grandma's to gather

around her while she read aloud!

Isn't that wonderful?!?

What a wonderful heritage that woman left!

If your family enjoys animals,

then you will love the book

that we are reading right now.

"Real Animal Heros"

by Sharp & Dunnigan is an

excellent read aloud.

As I prepare to graduate my third child from homeschool,

I wondered, " Have I done enough? Did I prepare him for life

and for the call of God on his life?"

God's words to me were powerful.

"You haven't taught him all he needs to know, nor were you called to."

Those words are truly a life line.

Wow, what a beautiful day! Middle seventies on the last day of March!

This is big news for the North Country. :D

We couldn't just stay inside. After all, they are calling for snow next week!

Yup, that's the North Country.

You can probably guess how the kids spent their day. You guessed it; at the pond!

Our big excitement for the day is tadpoles! That's right, we have added tadpoles to our list of temporary house guests.  :D

Isn't teaching science great???

After watching our tadpoles for a few days, we will be using, Considering God's Creation workbook. Oh, yeah, and don't forget all of those "frog" library books.

Now this is science!!