Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

I learned this week how motivation is contagious!

Back in December I was so un-motivated! It really stank and I was tired of it. I prayed and sought ways to overcome! I did, back in January. Nothin' compares to discipline, hard work, exercise and soap to get you movin'!

The motivation, the drive that I have has carried on to my kids. Oh, what joy!! The past two days my children have gotten most of their learning done, the stuff that doesn't require me to help them that much, like math, handwriting done without me prodding them. In fact, my oldest has been getting up before I do and does his math. Total shocker! I'm proud of him!

I can only hope and pray that this lasts with the kids. I know I want to stay driven!

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

I love, love, love my juicer.

Today as we were making carrot-apple-grape juice (family recipe) we all noticed how each "juice" separates. (The kids love to watch the juicer do it's thing.) I admit, it is rather fascinating.

Suprisingly, the carrots are lighter than the apple and grape juice.

On another note of fresh organic homeade juice, it brings me to mention that I have joined Spark People to give me an extra "oomph" on my weight loss and eating better journey. Best part it's FREE. Check it out. (I'm HisHappyApple). There is a Spark Peaple button on my side bar.  over there ------------------->

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

This is a wonderful article about alternatives to HSLDA.

I have had a free trial membership with HSLDA and I was a member once. Honestly, I wasn't all that satisfied with them and I hated giving them money that I could have used to buy more books. I do like to use HSLDA as a resource but I will not be a member again.

You do not need to be a member to get that feeling of protection. The best protection you can give yourself as a homeschooler is to research and to know and understand your state laws.  

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

We've taken the past month off from learning. Well, actually I took a break from leading or teaching my children... they still learned quite a bit while our on our adventures.

We have our "school year" complete according to our state law. We don't have to do anymore days until November, but since we learn year round all the time I have been starting to think about what we'll do next week.

I'll be using Weaver again with all 4 of them this year. I'm enjoying my break with not planning units or anything. I often go back and forth between Weaver and our own studies.

Boo - Math U See, Wisdom Words, Daily Bible reading, Daily journaling, New vocab. word daily.

Princess - Math U See, Wisdom Words, Daily Bible reading, Daily journaling, New vocab. word daily.

Peanut - Math U See, Alpha Phonics

Squirt - Letter of the week

CupCake - She's usually in the middle of all the action.

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Isn't that flower just lovely? We were on another hike yesterday. I forgot what these are called. (Nancy, do you know?) It's been a long time since I've seen one! If you know what these beauties are called please tell me. Below: Bee busy at work.

I feel so blessed during this season of my life. I am so grateful to be able to do the things that I enjoy or have a passion for. I get to be outdoors in the mountains with my family and friends! It took about 12 years to convince my hubby that the mountians are a fun place to be and that there is nothing like being out in the beauty that God created. He is really enjoying it. Oh, how I am thankful.

I guess I've been blogging about all of our family fun that I haven't really blogged about our learning adventures. As you can "see" the kids have been learning a lot!  We've been doing a unit study on mountains so our adventures have been perfect!

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Busy! Take a lookie!

A hike with our unschooler's group.

Making molecules: packing popcorn, toothpicks, scissors and markers. (Markers to color the packing popcorn to represent the different elements)

Water Molecules. We also made molecules of O2 and O3 (To show how they "bounce" around.) and of snowflakes.

Breakfast has gotten interesting.... Colored Cream of Wheat, anyone? I kept mine plain thank you!

After the storm.

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Today the kids and I went on a field trip with some other local homeschoolers. It was fun and better yet, the kids enjoyed it too! Bonus! We went to a mining museum. I've been there a few times and I even know some of the people who work there. The kids got to do some gold panning. I don't know of any child who doesn't like playing in water! Later this month or next I'll be taking the same group gold panning as well as rockhounding. I am looking forward to it.  

I forgot to take pictures though... whooops. We'll be going again since we get in for free and my kids like it so much. Works for me!

Tomorrow is hike day. Yes! This time I will take pictures!

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Summer is approaching and the kids and I are starting to think about what fun things we'll learn. Part of our learning will involve many hikes so I'm thinking we'll do theme hikes. One we'll search for birds, another hike will be rocks and minerals, another trees, another plants and Oh, I cannot forget insects. I like those ideas! A hike at night would be fun too. Then there are all the fun things we'll learn when we go camping and gold prospecting!

When we aren't outdoors I'd like to do some fun food science and make ice cream, slushies and smoothies. I'm sure we can come up with all sorts of fun flavors!

We also need to come up with a good read-out-loud list. (We have to finish Lord of the Rings first) Any ideas for good, fun summer reads?

We'll also have more veggies grow. We grow most of our veggies in pots. I have dreams of having a big yard someday to have a nice sized garden.

What are your plans for fun summer learning?

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Dry erase boards have become the newest rage in our home.

Each of my kids have a small one that they use for various things.

Boo boo uses his for writing his spelling words and drawing.

Princes uses hers to do her multiplication problems on.

Peanut uses his to practice writing his letters and numbers. His is also magnetic so he uses magnetic letters to help him read and spell simple words.

The kids also like to take their dry erase boards in the car.

I have one on the fridge to jot down things I need at the store.

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Responsibility - the state, fact, or position of being accountable to somebody or for something. Accountability.

Time for a new season of teaching my two older children responsibility. We've done the pet thing, chore charts, routines... you name it.

Now that Boo Boo and Princes are older (10 & 9) and they can read, I thought I'd give them a list of things that I want them to get done each day. This includes chores and learning and as they do them they can check them off. Example: Make bed, wash dishes, math sheet, devotion, journal, computer learning to name a few.

Both of my children are excited about doing this and even my hubby is happy about them doing this so hopefully the excitement will last. We have our normal daily routines, but I think this will add another level to their learning. This will help them prioritize what is on thier lists. It will also give me a break in having to remind them to do things each day. Bonus!

At the end of the day they can show me their checked off lists.

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

My middle son, Peanut, has a Tactile/Kinesthetic learning style. Recently, I started teaching him phonics using Alpha Phonics. The first few days he just wasn't getting it. As a result, I went out and bought a magnetic dry erase board and magnetic letters. Now that my son is doing his Alpha Phonics lessons on the board, he has been soaring! He is able to touch, feel and move around the letters. He can also write the letters and words on the board. He gets proud when he can read his new words to Daddy every night.

Speaking of my son, whom has to touch everything (looking at yarn is totally fun when he is along!), broke his left arm right above his elbow and now has to be in a cast for 6 weeks.

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

What have we been up to? We've started on a unit study on Protection. This includes God's protection as well as how parents, police, firemen, government, and military all protect. Read-out loud book is "Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring."

Boo Boo - He just finished his Gamma Math-U-See book this week. He has also been playing math games this week - Math Wrap-ups, and some online math games. I'm having him write more this year. Yesterday he had to research the American Red cross and write a paragraph. He reads books to his younger brothers. Boo boo is also working on a history scrapbook where he scraps all the things he has learned so far. It's been wonderful for review. He has started learning whatever he can on the different branches of the military and he notebooks what he learns.

Princes - She is halfway through her Gamma Math-U-See book. She rocks at math! (Just like her mom.) She started reading a horse book, that I gave her as a reward for her reading improvement. Princess is also working on her history scrapbook.

Peanut  - He is almost done with his Math-U-See Primer. He is learning how to read by using Alpha Phonics.

Squirt - ABC's and 123's. He hangs out and does what we all do. It is amazing what he learns by just being around us. I love it!

Cup Cake - She is 6 months old now and is quite the inquisitive little one!  

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Karen at Wired Wisdom asked on her blog if there was a "more sophisticated" way to say "We school year round."

My answer:

Yes, It takes us a whole solar year to learn!!

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Ever been bitten by a snake?

I have a few times. Back around 20 years ago, I used to feed and take care of the animals once a week at our local nature center. I was a docent there. I fed snakes, turtles, pond sliders, taranchulas, scorpians, a black widow, a wolf spider, toads, salamanders, and lizzards. I did this for a few years. One time as I just finished feeding a large, rare blue and black gardner snake when the thing bit me on my right ring finger. I have a scar to remember the thing by. Needless to say, I still love the creatures!

Yesterday we went on a field trip to see a local man who rescues reptiles. He brought a skink, another lizzard that was yellow and bumpy (I can't remember the name), some sort of baby lizzard which was very cute, a corn snake, tortoise's, corn snake and a monitor lizard.

   Corn snake (good pet)

Monitor lizzard (bad pet)

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

I did it! I finally did it!

I sat down with my children this morning and we wrote our daily routine on the dry erase board. I've been feeling led to do this for quite some time... boy, how time flies!

It is a simple routine and it allows for our daily 'rabbit trails' and other learning meanders. I was suprised at how the children really took to doing this. (My organized hubby will love me for doing this. hehe. I get major brownie points when I make attempts of organization.)

7:00 - 7:30	Wake up, Make bed, Get dressed, Exercise
8:00 - 9:00	Breakfast, Clean up, Devotions
9:00-12:00	Learning
12:00 - 1:00	LUNCH
1:00- 3:00	Learning - read-out-louds, library trips, outdoors, finish projects, crafts,
3:00 - 5:00	Play-time, clean-up, dinner prep.
5:00 - 7:00	Dinner, clean-up, family time, baths
8:00 - 9:00	Bedtime story, bedtime routines.

©Dianna A 2007

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Thanksgiving was wonderful! It was so nice to be home for a change.

 Today I've been thinking about what the kids and I will learn next week. (Tomorrow I'll probably write it all down on paper.)

We'll do the "normal" stuff:

~Math - Math-u-see

~Reading - library books, read-out-loud, comic books...whatever else they want to read. For the little ones, we'll be doing phonics.

~Writing - work on their blogs, journals and writing prompts.

~Science - Chemistry (Does is matter?) *snicker*

~History - Moses and timeline.

I think we'll start making Christmas presents. Knitting hats and scarves. I found some neat ideas for making Christmas ornaments. I'd give you a link to them, but it was a freebie in the Bernat yarn e-letter.

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

It's been about three weeks since I've had the new precious one.

Last week we started getting back into learning again, but just some very basic stuff. (Mostly craft stuff) while I nursed the baby. The kids built wooden dinosaur skeletons last week and  then painted landscapes for Grandma Moses' Day.

I'm slowly figuring out our new routine again now with the new babe. I must say that this baby has been so much fun. I'll even brag a bit on how easy she is. She only cries when she's hungry, has a messy diaper or just wants to be cuddled. She has been sleeping 5 to 6 hours at night. (A luxery I didn't get with the other four.) She is such a peaceful baby and I have been enjoying cuddling with her every moment I can!

Back to learning...

This week we started adding more. We are a

unit study/unschooling/eclectic/eccentric type of homeschoolers. Well, maybe that describes me more... tee hee.

We got back into our study of the "Miracles of Egypt" aka the plagues. We've learned about snakes, blood, frogs and today was lice. (Tomorrow, to review frog stuff we'll be making frog frappachinos! m mmm) 

Lice - Praise the Lord we've never seen one of those on any of our heads. I can say that my 8 yo daughter was getting pretty disgusted at our discussion today and at one point said, "Mom, can we talk about something else?"

On the other hand my boys were quite intersted.

Then it was off to the park to meet with our homeschool support group for us moms to chit chat while our kids played. =) (Of course I had to show our new blessing off too. tee hee)

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

Boo boo (9ys) and Princess (8ys) have made up a spelling game. They usually play it while we are eating lunch or having a snack. They look around the room for an object and ask the other to spell it.

They take turns giving each other words to spell. When one of them spells a word wrong then its the other persons turn to spell.

Many times they'll find a word off of a book, some sort of object, or a food item.

This is one of those games I encourage them to play.

I'm proud of my spellers!

Posted in Glimpses of our homeschool

It always amazes me what will spark learning in my children.

Yesterday I bought my daughter her own small spiral notebook with a dolphin on it. She has been a slow reader and speller but she continues to make progress. Anyway, she has been writing bible verses that she wants to memorize in it and just whatever she feels like writing. Today while we were running errands she would write down everything we did.

The kids and I have done journal time together where we all take 5 minutes to just write whatever we want, and in the past she would draw pictures. (which was fine with me... she was a youngin'.)  

"Mom and Dad got kofee and chocolate milk for me and my brothers." "It's 10:30 and Dad is putting gas in van."

I am thrilled to see her doing this! It has given her such a boost and she feels really good when she spells a word correctly.

The kids have all been in to watercolors lately. I wish I had more space to put all these lovely works of art!

Baby stuff:

I had another OB appt. yesterday. My BP was 105/70. I'm 80% effaced, but not dialated yet. I do, unfortunatly have the Group B strep again. The good news is I don't have to be induced this time because I don't have gestational diabetes.

The only thing I kind of have to 'worry' about is getting to the birth center in time to get the antibiotics. I have quick labors and deliveries... 3 or less hours.

The only thing at this point that concerns me is getting a bladder infection after having the baby due to the antibiotics. I had that happen after the birth of "Squirt" (#4). It was the first bladder infection I have ever had. I rarely ever need antibiotics because, to G-d's glory He has kept me pretty healthy. On the few times I've had to be on them I get yeast infections. *Bleah*