Chris & Ruth are the proud parents of a healthy baby girl! Isabella, was born October 11th. Happy Birthday!!!!

Please continue to pray for them. Chris, will hopefully be able to see his daughter in January

Please pray for my brother-in-law Chris, who is serving in Iraq. Pray for his safety and that the Lord will comfort him and his wife Ruth who is expecting their first child in October. She is staying with her parents, while Chris is away.

Chris & Ruth

Thank you Chris & Ruth for all you two have sacraficed to keep our country safe. We are lifting you both in prayer daily for the Lord's protection and comfort.

This post will stay at the top of my blogs post. I might change the message every once in a while to update you all on how Chris and his family are doing.

In Him,

Lupe, Linda, Joshua, Annette, Caleb, Brent, Ethan and Lance<><

Today I was going over Joshua's multiplication tables. I was tired so we did them in the living room so I could lay on the couch, listen to him & keep an eye on  the 1yr old that I watch. After a few problems I'm in la la land. I'm dream that I am in a cave sitting in a canoe and looking around. I keep hearing "45" I'm still looking around and hear "45". Suddenly I open my eyes and start laughing. I apologize to Josh and explained that I fell asleep and was dreaming. I think I was a beautiful Indian Princess in my dream. We finished Island of the Blue Dolphins a few days ago

I have been looking over Writing With Ease my Susan Wise Bauer and it looks great! It's a little book with a lot of information. I thought for sure it would be something thick like First Language Lessons 3. WWE is for grades 1-4. I plan to use this with Caleb Year 1, Annette Year 2 and Joshua Year 3. I love the whole look and how it's scripted, but it's seems to be teacher intensive. I'm also going to use First Language Lessons 3 with Annette & Rod & Staff 4 with Josh and it's kind of intimidating because all of this is pretty teacher intensive. I'm scared  but looking forward to it too.

I need to wake up Lance from his nap. He sleeps so well. I put him down at 2:00 and it's almost 6:30. Yikes! I try to get him down at 1:00pm but I forget.
Good-bye,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

MFW K almost complete. Missing about 10 student worksheets. asking $70.00ppd.

WP I'm Ready to Learn Almost Complete, missing Art Start for Little Hands and Blank Letter Book (which I replaced with one that I got from Calvert) $70.00ppd

Hot Dot Flash Cards all of Sub & Add Total of 4 packs. One is still in package.. pen included. and two Wrap-Ups sub & multiplication all for $35.00ppd.

Keys to Good Language 5. Purchased from SL in Feb. Brand New. TM, Student Workbook & Test booklet  $15.00ppd

Color Phonics from Alpha Omega Publications for ages 3-adult. Practically new. 3 of the 5 disc are still in the package. Will also include Rev. Up for Reading & Rev Up For Math normally $9.99 each. These are for the computer $30.00ppd

I also have some SL Language Arts posted Here and Easy Grammar posted HERE

If interested email. I take MO and Paypal non credit card though.

 I will be off the computer this Sunday & Monday. Will get back to anyone who is interested on Tuesday.

Thanks for looking,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

 Hope this doesn't seem to complicated you, but you know me, I have to make everything concerning our curriculum complicated  oh why cant I just use it as it was intended

This year Annette will use Singapore 2A & 2B along with Singapore's Challenging Word Problems & Intensive Practice Book 2B only.

1. Primary Math 4 days a week, 3 weeks out of the month. 2A has 62 Exercises and 7 Review lessons. 2B has 67 Exercises & 4 Review Lessons for a total of 140 lessons. If we do 12 lessons a month we should complete 108 lessons, leaving 32 lessons uncompleted. 22 lessons are multiplication with 2's & 3's so we can omit those lessons, since Annette knows them already. In 2B there are 4 lessons on time that we can skip to, so that is 26. There are 40 lessons on money so I'm sure there 5 lessons we can double up on or skip.
2. Challenging Word Problems on Friday. She will finish half of the book. We might skip around and do the sections that she need most practice.
3. Intensive Practice 1 week out of the month 5 days that week. In 35 weeks she will finish up to page 75 and through the Summer she can finish up the remaining 11 weeks or close to it.

Please don't think that it's all about the lessons we complete this year. If we need to slow down we will and there is always something unexpected that comes up, so we will readjust where needed but we do need a goal so the purpose of this post . As I was looking through the math books and if all goes well this Summer. She should know most of her multiplication facts and that is where we will most likely skip some exercises. We will continue to use Math-It through out the year so we don't forget.

Once I get all the figures from Caleb's math I'll add them to. He is also using Singapore.

In Him,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

On Tuesday I was trying to get the house decluttered. We had just come back from a week away from home. We left in a hurry because it was an emergency so our house wasn't in the best shape when we go back. My Sweets loves the house to be decluttered and I really wanted him to come home to a nice home. (We left because his uncle was killed, we attended the funeral) This week has been hard fry my hubby to be at work so this is why I wanted some extra cleaning done.

While the little boy that I watched napped I had the kiddos help me downstairs. A few months ago the kids made a little library in our living room. I told the kids that we would leave one small shelf downstairs but the rest need to go upstairs in the hallway. Josh helped take the bookshelves upstairs. I sorted the books.  I wanted to keep Bible Story books & Dr. Suess books down in the living room so I can grab one and read it to the kiddos without having to go upstairs.

Lance was starting to get fussy so I sent him to my room to take a nap. Later Ethan was acting up with his high pitched voice so off to his room he went for a nap. Now I had Josh, Caleb, Annette & Brent left. As I was taking up the last load of books in  a laundry basket I could here a little bit of quarreling. When I reached the top of the stairs the whole hallway was full of book. I was hot & tired, the house still was not where I wanted it to be when my Dear Sweet Hubby who was supposed to be home my 6:00pm or so.

In my mind I was trying not to loose control but I did. In a louder voice then usual I looked at the mess and the kids and told them if dad comes home and sees this he is going to get rid of all the books and I could careless (which I would care if it really happened). I dropped the laundry basket of books and yelled at them to go to their room. As they all stared at me, I'm thinking why haven't they started crying or have run off yet. So I thought I would add some more drama and I yelled, "See I don't care about these books" I dumped all the books out of the basket and kicked the basket.

My kids are still staring at me and Josh looks like he wants to laugh. I asked him what so funny and his reply "Your throwing a tantrum" In my mind I am thinking I could either say something that would hurt his feeling or I could laugh. I chose to laugh and we all bursted out laughing.

We kept laughing for the rest of the day because their mama had a major tantrum. Later that day I gathered the kiddos and told them that what I really wanted to say was lots of mean things that would hurt their feeling, but I knew if I did I could ask for forgiveness but I could never take the words back. I went over some Bible verses that we had read just a week before talking about this very same thing. I told the kids that it was very hard for me but I chose to laugh with them instead of going deeper into sin and not pleasing the Lord.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful kiddos and we have been laughing all week about mama and the tantrum.

In Him,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I can't tell you how much I love Math-It! I have  gotten so speedy with my addition & muliplication. I have been practicing daily and I can almost say all my facts without hesitation . It was so worth the money.

But I'm sure you all want to know how it's working for the kiddos though Although my kiddos aren't requesting to do Math-It or sneaking it to improve their scores, they are getting faster. Just like any school subject it's somthing that they have to do not because they are excited. BUT..........once we get started they enjoy it. In fact today while I was timing Joshua, I asked him what he thought about Math-It. He said that he liked it and it is helping him remember his math facts faster. In his own words he said, "Mom,  I am learning these (facts) a lot faster. It works a lot better than all the math books. You should have just started me with this. It's not as boring as my mathbook and I'm learning faster." I was really happy to hear that. Whew, I didn't waste my $72.00

Annette my 8 year old, doesn't "care" for it but she to is trying to beat her previous time. She gets really frustrated sometimes, so I don't always time her. We  will practice a lot before timing her. She is also getting faster.

Caleb, has always been good with his facts but lately has slowed down, so this is getting him back on track and he too is improving.

There are two math-it programs out there. One is from Lovetolearn and one from Christianbooks I got mine at Rainbow Resourc since I was buying enough for free shipping. The one at LovetoLearn is less expensive. It says it comes with all three game & a manual. By manual I don't know if they mean the instructions, How Steavie Learned Hist Math or the Guide Book.

If you purchase the complete program you get the:

• Three games, ADDIT, DUBBIT, TIMZIT & the instructions
• Math-it Guide book. This is a guied book for all levels. Pre Math-it, Math-it & Advanced Math-it
• How Stevie Learned his Math. This goes beyond the three games. It shows you other ways to quickly add. For example 9+3+8+4+6+7+8+2. It shows you can can add these up in just seconds. Same with multiplication
• A cd. this is an instructional cd (we are not using it)

I am happy we got everything, but if you just want the basics learned than you would be fine with the one that Lovetolearn sells. I can't tell you how excited I was to learn how to add so fast, I can't wait to teach it to my kiddos. Can you tell I love this program. Again I am so glad that I ended up getting the one with everything.

Hope this helps someone. Next time I'll let you know how Happy Phonics is working

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I think I got most of what we are going to use for Joshua's 5th grade year. I won't add links to this post because I have them on my sidebar under "Our 5th Grade Curriculum"

Because Joshua is struggling with Spelling I decided to go with A Reason for Spelling Book C. This program is colorful, something I think Josh will like. It also has hands on games suggestions in the Teacher Manual. A note about this program is you do need the TM. It has all the spelling list and teaching notes. The student workbook only has the student pages.

You start off your week with a story that is in the TM, gives you tips for the spelling list, has General, Visual, Auditory & Tactile games to do through out the week. You do the whole look, say, hide, write, see & check with your spelling words. Gives you optional activities & Journaling. If I would have found this a long time ago I think I would have used this as a whole Language Art's program on it's own. Lots of great ideas!

Math we will use Rod & Staff 4. I chose to go a grade below because Joshua is still memorizing his multiplication & division. Rod & Staff is a bit advanced anyway so I think we will be okay. I will add in Math-It and supplement with Math-U-See when we need a change. For some color we are using Times Tables the Fun Way. This is an optional part of our homeschooling though.

English/Writing he will use Rod & Staff English 4 & A Journey Through Grammar Land Parts 1 & 2 minus the scrolls/worksheets. Rod & Staff English has writing assignments included. This is a full program and really doesn't need any thing added, but I thought that A Journey Through Grammar Land would be a fun way to memorize some grammar and would be a nice break now and then.

Bible/History/Science/Art/Read Alouds are all included in My Father's World "Creation to the Greeks". I am still undecided because I haven't received my Heart of Dakota "Preparing Hearts for His Glory" yet.  We already own MFW GtG so for now we will go with that.

Reading I went with Drawn into the Heart of Reading. Joshua needed something new with some exciting books. I needed something that would guide me. I love the idea of the book basket from MFW, but I still feel like I need some guidance in this area, so DITHOR was our choice. It's exactly like the title says. It draws your child into the book plus an added bonus; it goes over Character traits and has some Bible verses. It really is a neat program.

Penmanship I chose Pictures in Cursive. I love how they will study a picture for a week while learning cursive. Hopefully this will be our last year with cursive. For some reason it 's not coming natural for Josh .

That is the basics of Joshua's 5th Grade Year. I will update this post if we add anything. Most likely I will add any extra Read Alouds here. That way I can keep a record of his school year.

In Him,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

This Summer we are working on Math daily. My goal is to have all their addition, subtraction & multiplication facts down. I know that it seems that I have been working on this forever, well that's because I have. My kiddos seem to get them and forget them. Even though we do math regularly. Other times they know their facts but when I drill them it takes a few seconds before they give me the answer. Both Rod & Staff Math &  Math-U-See wants the kiddos to know them instantly. Since my kids haven't gotten them down cold (fast) I am not moving them forward and so my older ones are getting behind. Josh will be in 5th grade and should be a bit okay a lot further. Soooooooooooo, I purchased two programs to help my kiddos out.

1. Math-It
2. Addition the Fun Way and Times Tables the Fun Way

Both are great programs. Addition the Fun Way uses stories to memorize the facts. Each number represents something. For instance the 3 is called "three bee" the 8 is "eight gate" and so forth. Here is one of the problems. The Sick 6 bumped into the 4Door and had to go to the 10 fix it men. The stories are a little longer but they summarize it at the end of the story. There are colorful pictures of the numbers. I purchased the workbook, cd, storybook, Teacher's Manual & fact cards, but all you really need is the storybook. The cd is nice because the kiddos can listen to it in the car, during nap or quiet time. The workbook reinforces by having the child draw the stories, it has timed drills and fun worksheets. My kids are really enjoying this. This can get a bit pricey, so if money is tight I would only get the storybook. If you have a little extra pocket change than my second product would be the cd.

The other program Math-It is lots of fun, well at least I'm having fun. This program is $72.00 and all you get is a guide, a story about how Stevie learned (very interesting), 3 card-stock games & a cd with instructions. At first glance you would think this should be about $35.00 TOPS, but what you are really paying for is the knowledge/information. Once you get past that you paid a mini fortune for card-stock and see how much learning your children get from it than you see the big picture and it's worth the $72.00.

Now that we got past the price issue.......lets get to the games. My children started this today and they liked it. Annette got frustrated and started crying but she said that she liked it. She just couldn't do the facts fast enough. I told her to put it away and we will try again later. The boys really loved it and me, well I spent an hour trying to keep my score under a minute.

I love how Addit one of the games starts with the 9's it gives you some tips, you practice than you go onto the 8's. Again you practice only the 8's. Once you know them pretty well you mix them up with the 9's and practice some more. You keep doing this until you are finished with all the facts. Once you know the facts you try to get them done in less than a minute. once you can do them under a minute you move to the next game called Dubbit & the last game is Timzit (I think that's their names. I don't have it in front of me)

That is our math for the Summer. I'll have to report back in September to see how these two math supplements worked out. So far my children are enjoying them. I also got Pre Math-It. Again over priced. I paid $52.00 for a set of dominos, two cardstock gameboards and instructions, but like Math-It your paying for the knowledge and that makes it worth it. I jsut have to stop thinking that those are the most expensive dominos I have ever paid for

If your children like colorful than Addition the Fun Way might be the way to go. If they like games than Math-It is a good choice, as long as they don't mind it taking a while for them to get the facts under a minute.

Blessings,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I think I am finally seeing a path of what I would like to stick with. It's about time after searching for five years. 

Okay here it goes. If all goes well I would like to use MFW 1sg grade for 1st grade. That makes the rest of my broods 1st grade year pretty easy. The only thing I don't like is I won't get to use Rod & Staff 1st grade. I love R&S reading program.

2nd Grade Students:

1. Reading- I would like to use Rod & Staff. I would most likely start them with their first grade programs even though this is their 2nd grade year. R&S is pretty meaty and we can always pass over the first half quickly if we need to.
2. Spelling- Rod & Staff. Although I am still interested in A Reason for Spelling, but I love how R&S goes over rules. I only own A Reason for Spelling 3rd grade and am not sure what their 2nd grade program looks like. But then again Phonics Pathway has spelling built in to their phonics program. Okay, so I'm still up in the air about spelling. Hee hee.
3. Phonics-Rod & Staff 2nd grade phonics.
4. Writing- From the Well Trained Mind "Writing With Ease Workbook 1"
5. Grammar - I'm not into too much formal Grammar but if we decide to add it I would choose Climbing to Good English. Either 1 or 2 depending on where the child is at.
6. Math - Singapore or Rod & Staff. I still like Math-U-See but I can't fit it all in.

3rd Grade:

1. Reading-  Rod & Staff
2. Spelling- Rod & Staff or A Reason for Spelling. I like A Reason for Spelling because I have boys. Annette does good with R&S Spelling.
3. Writing- Well Trained Mind "Writing With Ease Workbook 2"
4. Grammar- First Language Lessons Level 3
5. Math - Singapore, Rod & Staff or MUSee (depends on which the child is using) I am looking to sticking with Singapore for the rest of my kiddos. Josh like R&S.

4th Grade:

1. Reading- Rod & Staff combined with Drawn into the Hear of Reading by Heart of Dakota. Again I love that R&S is Bible based but the kids might need a change. I wonder if you can use Drawn into the Heart of Reading witha read-aloud. I'll have to look into that.
2. Spelling- Rod & Staff or A Reason for Spelling
3. Writing- "Writing with Ease" not sure if they will have their workbook out yet for Annette, but the other's will be able to use it. They plan to have the 4th book out late in 2009. You don't have to have the workbook so Annette can still continue with this program.
4. Grammar- First Language Lessons 4
5. Math- Hopefully everyone in 4th grade and under will all be using Singapore now.

5th Grade:

1. Reading- Rod & Staff and/or Drawn into the Heart of Reading
2. Spelling - Rod & Staff or A Reason for Spelling
3. Writing - Will switch to R&S
4. Grammar - Rod & Staff
5. Math- Singapore

If I get to homeschool Joshua next school year 09/10 for 6th grade I would like to use.

• Reading - Drawn into the Heart of Reading
• English/Writing- Rod & Staff. Their English progam has writing too.
• Spelling- A Reason for Spelling
• Math- Rod & Staff

Well that's about as far as I have gone. I'm not sure if I'll even be homeschooling for 6th grade. I hope to sick with the above for Reading, Writing, Spelling & English. With the Math if Singapore is not working than I can try one of the other two programs. Rod & Staff or Math-U-See. I plan to keep all my TM for them just in case.

I forgot to add in penmanship. I most likely will use R&S and in Queenhomeschool Picture Study Cursive. Queen's Cursive books are for 12 week at a time so it seems easy enough to add in.

For History & Science I'm still not sure. I plan to continue (I think ) with My Father's World with Josh & Annette, use MFW1st Grade program with Brent, Ethan & Lance. Than switch them to Heart of Dakota.

So next school year Ethan & Lance will use MFW 1st grade together, Caleb & Brent will switch to HOD, Josh & Annette MFW. Following year Ethan & Lance switch to HOD, Caleb & Brent HOD & Annette & Josh MFW. If that makes sense to you.

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

Since I never take the time to add any links that I find to my sidebar link. I thought I would put my math links here and have a button to link back to it.

Math Curriculums that I have tried and liked

• Rod & Staff Math Grades 1st-2nd are workbooks. The children can write in them. 3rd grade and up they are to copy the problems onto paper. Since the textbooks are so inexpensive I have let Joshua write in the 3rd grade hardback textbook. The 4th grade and up he will have to copy the problems onto paper because there isn't enough room to work problems out. IMHO R&S math is a mastery program with a touch of spiral. They have the child master a problems before they move on and they do add review. Some days I have Joshua do all the problems. Especially if he hasn't mastered it and other days I have him only do half (by doing every other row). R&S does have you drill. The Teacher Manual is easy to use. Each day is broken up into Before Class, Class Time & Drill time. Before Class is basically you having everything ready. Class Time is drilling students, and doing problems on the board. I usually use problems that are in his workbook since there are plenty of them. This way it cuts down on time.
• Singapore Math Singapore math is usually a year ahead of US math. I have three students using Singapore. I have them start with 1A at age 7 years. You can start younger if you like. We have only used up to 3A so far. There is a textbook and a workbook. You will have to add in drills. You can easily find free printable online for this.
• Math-U-See Math-U-See is considered a mastery math program. I personally would skip the Primer and wait until your child is ready for Alpha. I  didn't feel like it was worth the money for the Primer. MUS first book concentrating on addition, 2nd book is subtraction, 3rd multiplication etc. They do have review of the concepts. I love the dvd's. Even if you do not plan to use MUS the dvd's are great. The only thing  I don't like about MUS is the shipping & tax. It's expensive. I could purchase another student book with it . MUS is a bit expensive to start but once you have the blocks you only have to replace the student workbooks.
• Liberty Math A is a great 1st grade math book. I am using it with Brent right now. It's inexpensive. The TM is simple to use. Liberty Math A reminds me of the math books we used in school.
• The Complete Math Book Series is a fun way to add some variety to your math. I wouldn't use it alone but more as a supplement. The pages tear out easily, so if you have more than one student you can use it with both of them. They are big books.
• Math-It I can't comment on this just yet. I ordered it and am looking forward to using it. I bought both Pre Math-it & Math-it. I will have to come back to give more info. I would recommend this as a supplement to any math program to get those math facts down.

Other programs that we have tried and did not work for us was:

1. Right Start Math This is a wonderful program but with teaching so many it was overwhelming. All my kiddos where at different stages and it was taking me all day to teach. I'm sure there are other's with a large family that has worked this out but I'm not one of them. Love the idea of all the games though. It was expensive to start if you want everything that they suggest. I know I spent about $300.00
2. Miquon Math This is the only math program that I truly didn't like. I couldn't figure it out half the time and if I did it took forever. The TM at the time I used it was not user friendly. Sorry but this math program I gave away and never looked back.
3. Ray's Arithmetic Ray's math was what Laura Ingalls most likely used. I love this program but I needed a Teacher's Manual that told me what to do and how to explain it. Ruth Beechick has written a schedule but IMHO it's not a TM. It helps but I need more help . There are workbooks for this series now but you don't need them to use this program.
4. Horizon Math These are great math books. They are colorful. The only reason we are not using this program is we don't have time for another program..  These came in handy when my kiddos wanted a "fun" looking math book. Great program especially if your kids need some color in their math book.

Well that ought to give you a start with looking for a math program. How about some math sites.

• Don Potter Free math program & printables.
• Mathamatic Teaching Free workpages for grades 1-6th
• Mathwire Using Dominos
• Olney's Series of Mathematics Print out a free mathbook used in the 1800's

Here is a site for Kindergarten Math. The first 5 lessons are free. There are some good printables and tips.

Here is a site called Living Math lots of information. You will need a nice cup of tea and the children need to be tucked in bed I still haven't looked at the whole site.

Online Games;

1. SpaceTime Arcade
2. Virtual Media
3. Timez Attack a fun way to learn multiplication. Does have a monster.
4. APlus Math games & printables. Lots of links.

As I have time I will add more links and sites to this page.

Blessings,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I am amazed at how much Josh & Annette has improved with reading in the last two months. Two months ago I had them take an online test from "Lets go Learn" it test different parts of reading;

• High-Frequency Word Sub-test
• Word Recognition
• Phonics (Word Analysis)
• Phonics Principles Mastered. This is a total of ten boxes. The firs being short letter sounds, 2nd being vowels sounds, 3rd consonant blends and so forth. Last being Multi-Syllable words.
• Spelling
• Oral Vocabulary (Word Meaning)
• Reading Comprehension (Silent Reading)

The first time I tested Josh (4th grade) he got (and I'll put this in the same order as above):

• mid 2nd
• mid 2nd
• high 1st
• The first four boxes mastered out of the 10
• high first
• high 3rd
• low 3rd

Pretty much he was at a below 3rd grade level with reading. I had the kiddos take the test again yesterday because they have been reading so many books. Here is Joshua's test, just two months later. (same order)

• Maximum
• low 5th
• mid 4th
• all but the last box mastered
• high 1st (pretty much new his spelling wasn't going to change. We hope to bring this up)
• mid 3rd
• low 8th

Now Josh is almost at grade level with reading. Spelling he has to work on and this test does not include writing. I will have to find one for that.

Here is Annette's first test (same order as above) 2nd grade

• Maximum
• mid 3rd
• mid 4th
• mastered all but the last box
• low 2nd
• mid 3rd
• low 6th

Annette was at or above her grade level.Even though she reads a lot she was reading lots & lots. Here is her 2nd test just two months later

• mid 3rd (she actually is half a grade lower than last time. Not sure what happened with her high frequency word)
• high 8th (she went up five levels)
• maximum
• mastered all ten boxes
• low 3rd
• mid 4th
• mid 7th

What have they been reading. Most of the books have been the series called The Box Car Children and a few others that I have them read for school (history & science)

Ruth Beechick says, to have a struggling reader read books below their grade level and that is what I have been trying to do with Josh but he has not been interested in reading. He has been collecting the Box Car books for a few years but only because their covers looked interesting. Josh said that once he started reading he really enjoyed the mysteries and that is how he got started. I have him read a book here and there that is not from the Box Car series. This school year I'll add some that will challenge him more.

Annette has always been a strong reader. She is almost done with Rod & Staff Phonics 2 and she mentioned that although she doesn't like doing her phonics that it has helped her figure out words and has helped with her spelling.

I also tested Caleb & Brent and they both are at a high K level. Caleb does not like to read but hopefully in another year he'll find a series.

This really takes a load of my shoulder because of the first test Josh took he was mid third and below. His phonics where 1st to 2nd grade level. We are still going to work on his phonics but seeing that he has improved greatly has really helped me to sleep better .

If any of you have any struggling readers out there find books below their grade level that they are interested in. We get a lot from Half Price Books. In Texas we have tons of Half Price Books. This alone would be a good reason to move out here.

Hopefully next I'll get to blog about some energy boosters.

One more thing. When I test them I don't tell them about grade levels. I will mention that we need to work on his/her spelling. I'll comment on how well they did, but I will not say "you are at such & such level". I don't want them comparing.

Blessings,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I just came from a website where they are discussing the Dugger's. It so sad to see people so blind about large famlies. Before you continue reading, please note that I'm not against mom's who work or career women (My sister is a career women. Lucy Swindoll is a career women and they are both amazing to me) Wether you work or not, it's between you and the Lord. So please don't take this the wrong way. I'm only trying to address what was said on the website.

My question is; why do they think that just because you have more than two kids & homeschooling them you are:

1. Uneducated
2. You are some kind of cult
3. The husband is on some male ego trip
4. The wife is brainwashed by her husband
5. Selfish (we should only be breeding enough to replace us, so we should only have 2 children)
6. We are not doing our part to help the environment
7. We are government dependent

There were others but I don't remember them all. It so silly the issues that they are raising. My Dear Hubby is one of the most humble people I know and I love that he takes care of the children and me. I enjoy cooking for him, folding his laundry etc. It's not a chore, but because I say this I'm considered brainwashed. (My Sweets does do his own ironing)

To say we are not responsible; My Sweets an I are not having anymore children. I really believe that each of us has our limits emotionally, financially and tiredly So we are done. But I'm not against having more. If we were it would be a true miracle and a blessing. Mrs. Dugger looks great and healthy. I believe she is one of the few that can handle it. My take on the whole "Quiver Full" is you can have your quiver full with 2 kids or 18. God never put a number and He knows what each of us can handle. Mine is 6, my two other sister's have 2 children each. That's their quiver. Who am I to say "Oh, ye of little faith....."

Oh and to go with the whole unresponsible part about what if something happened to a spouse. As hard as it is we have talked about and are still trying to put all our finances in order (dept free) just in case the unthinkable does happen. With the Dugger's having so many mouths to feed I'm sure they have talked about it too.

Then to say we wives don't have a brain or say because we keep birthing children for our ego selfish husbands. I am truly happy following what the Bible says about women. Being my husbands helpmeet is what God intended for me. Not to raise up against him trying to be the dominate one. I can imagine how tired & stressed they must be. It takes a lot of energy to go against what God never intended for us women.

I'm not taking what the people on the board said personally, just saddened. Haven't they seen what feminism has done to America. Women are leaving their families to fulfill their own needs and it's destroying the family. Who is left to take care and nurture the children? Who is home to help them make good decisions? Who is teaching them about God's Word? And the list goes on. Our children are the ones suffering. There are more single moms and some by choice because they don't want a "man" around. They have the "I can have it all" attitude. I don't mean to burst their bubble but you can't have it all. Something has to give. I worked until my 5th child was born. And I did not feel like I could do it all. I was tired  and saw my kiddos from 6:30pm until 9:00pm and then it was their bedtime. I was so happy when I finally got to stay home.

The environmental thing well, we use cloth diapers, cloth napkins, we don't leave the water on while we are brushing our teeth and if I didn't have so many crows outside I would hang my clothes during the Summer. We don't buy a lot of toys (that's a lot of plastic, pollution and water saving right there )

I am so encouraged here at homeschoolblogger to see so many families, small or large raising up a generation of children for the Lord. To have a purposeful life. Not that we are perfect but hopefully our children will do better and their kids do better etc.

Sorry it got long. I just had to voice myself. It's not the only time I have seen these discussions. A few months ago I read about couples who do not want children because they pollute the world. I tried to leave a nice comment on the "feedback" part, but it wasn't posted (I only went back once to check). My heart goes out to these people. If they could only see Jesus.

In Christ,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

Last week my sister Ruth and I went to the hair salon. I haven't had my hair cut by anyone but my Sweets in years. I can't even remember the last time I have had my hair cut in a salon.

I have am starting to get gray hair now and have been wanting to get some highlights for years (not that I'm that grey yet) but to spend so much money on my hair is hard for me. Now if it were books I can hand over the money but hair .

The day arrived and as I sat in the chair is saw the price for a hair cut was $42.00. I mentioned to the hair stylist that I just had my hair trimmed. I was hoping she wouldn't have to cut my hair so I can save $42.00. Than I saw the price for Shampoo & Style $25.00. Eeeks! Highlights were $95.00. What about the products she is going to recommend & my eyebrow. I was adding this all up in my head and thinking about how my Sweets and I are so trying to stay on a budget.

Once she got started I tried putting the price tag of it all at the back of my mind. I don't mean to sound selfish but I don't do this everyday. I started to relax and have fun. It took four hours to finish my hair. The stylist was experienced with frizzy out of control curly hair like mine and she did a miracle on my hair. My hair for once was not dry looking. Almost forgot to mention. She didn't charge for washing and the highlights ended up being $70.00 instead of $95.00. Still alot but.....................

The products she recommended were fabulous. Here is a picture of what she recommended. I would show a picture of my hair, but I my photobucke is freaking out on me and I don't want my face to scare you. I just figured it out so here is a picture. Oh, and I took this pic myself. Hee hee. Sorry if it doesn't look like anything great, but after having such a hard time with my hair before, well it's major for me. Only the other fizzy, out of controle, curly hair people will truly understand

The Magic Bullet spray is a conditioner and I'm supposed to use it everytime I wash my hair. The next to products I use after a washing but the last one I am supposed to use in the morning & before I go to bed. The Paul Mitchell is what is really helping with controling my curls & frizz. It's some kind of greasless oil and it works great. The stylist said to use it whenever my hair looks a bit frizzed but I only use it in the morning & night like she said. I can't afford to use it all day. The Hair Healer was $14.00, the Smoothing Lusterizer $27.00 and the Paul Mitchell was $17.00.

After my hair is under controle I will see if I can replace the Smoothing Lusterizer with something less expensive. The Paul Michelle oil is what I don't want to skimp on. Another tip the is don't wash your hair everyday if you have frizzy, out of controle, curly hair like mine. She said it's the dryest hair out there and by washing it everyday is NOT good. So now I'm washing it every other day. Hope that's acceptable.

Here is Brent holding his penmanship book.

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

Today has been quiet. Mathew the little boy I babysit stayed home so it gave us a chance to do some Spring Cleaning in June .

First we all got some great books to read. The ones who can't read yet had to look at pictures. Than we all read out books for an hour. Once the hour was done we started cleaning the house. The kids went upstairs and I started working in the living room. I even took the rugs out for a good beating .

I let the kids have ice cream sundaes for lunch. Right now we are having quiet time. Lance is sleeping in a wheelbarrow that my Sweets got at Costco yesterday. I'll have to take a picture.

My Mother-In-Law arrived June 1st and has been a big help with the kids. She came down to help Ruth drive back to South Carolina. They left yesterday. We are sure going to miss her and Isabella. So we did light schooling. Monday we are going to start "Summer" school. We are putting most of our school books away and will do school the Charlotte Mason way for June, July, August and start back with regular school in Sept.

So what are we doing for Summer School. We are going to use QueenHomeschool and some Magic School Bus from Scholastic. We are going to have a total Charlotte Mason Summer School.

Josh, Annette, Caleb & Brent will use their Language Art's. I love it because it doesn't take that long and I know they are learning. I'm normally a workbook mom so it's going to be nice to relax for awhile.

Annette, Josh & Caleb will use their new cursive program. It's beautiful. It includes full color picture studies! I couldn't find Joshua's so I only have two in the picture. Brent is using Rod & Staff Penmanship 2.

Read Aloud are also from Queenhomeschool. I'll add in other's but these are the ones I want to make sure we read.

Math isn't from Queenhomeschool. Josh, Annette, Caleb & Brent are using Addition the fun way & Josh & Annette will also do the multiplication one too.

For Science we are using the Magic School Bus for fun experiments & Queenhomeschool more Biblical based one about Dinosaures.

I hope to have the kiddos finish two lapbooks as well. One on Bees and the other is from a book "Blueberries for Sal' I have had these for a few years now and need to use them.

So that is what we will use for the next three months. Bible time will be added naturally with some of our reading & science. The Language Art's workbooks from Queen's is really  a whole years worth so we will use it to sprinkle or spice up our curriculum once we start back in the Fall.

Sorry the pictures are so big. I don't know what is going on with my photobucket account.

Blessings,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

"Mom, I love to read & write!!!" this is what my struggling reader/writer/spelling told me today. I'm so excited!!!! If you have been following my blog over the past few years  then you know how my oldest child Joshua has struggled with learning to read, how he forgets to indent and use capitals even though we have been going over this for a year and his spelling is not so good.

Many times I have wondered if I am ruining him by homeschooling him. I have wondered if he would do better if a 'real' teacher told him what to do and how. For months I would remind him to indent when he started a paragraph and many time his paragraph would not be indented, it wouldn't even be where it was supposed to be on the paper.

We have been using Intermediate Language Lessons & Writing Strands (WS for a few weeks now) and so many times I felt like he wasn't learning but today he rewrote some of his paragraphs from his Writing Strands lesson AND added more sentences and more detail. It wasn't even school time when he did this. It was his own idea. How great is that! Not only is his writing taking a turn but he has devoured every Boxcar Kid book we have in the house. I have to take his book away from him sometimes. What a wonderful problem. I have to TAKE the book away.

Now if we could just get all those words that he uses in his story to be spelled correctly. This year we are going to really work on his spelling through copywork from Heart of Dakota and a little traditional spelling using A Reason For Spelling Book C.

I know we still have a ways to go with his reading, writing & spelling but today has let me see that every child is different and in his timing they will learn . Josh wants to write now and loves to read. I have assigned him a book for History & Science too and he is enjoying those as well.

Thank you Lord for being so patient with me doubting my ability to teach my own children.

In Him,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I was disappointed when my sister informed me that some of the Little House books were changing. Not the original Little House on the Prairie books but the "Martha Years", "Caroline Years" etc. are going to have a 100 less pages. That's a lot of chapters to take out. The books are all ready out-of-print. They are not making them anymore . You can still find some at www.christianbooks.com and a few other places but once their gone they are gone. I have been looking high & low. I found about 17 of them. I'm not sure how many there are. I'll have to see when my books come in.

If you find a book with a 'real' person and copyright in 2007 than those are the ones that they have taken a hundred pages out. If you find the books with the drawing or painting and dated before 2007 than you have the original one.

Next week we are going to start a Unit Study from Queen Homeschool on Daniil the Triceratops. (I would post a picture but my photobucket is not working.) It looks like something fun to do. I think we will stop some of our other subjects to do this. Except math, we'll continue because I don't want them to forget those facts .

Today I started Blueberries for Sal lapbook with Annette, Caleb, Brent, Ethan & Lance. I bought these over a year a go from "Hands of a Child' and thought we should finally start it . I purchased the project packs. It cost a little more but I think in the end it's the same or less. By the time you are printing all those pages out in my humble opinion it's about the same as purchasing the project pack. Using ink, color paper and time.

I read the story, we talked about it and did one project. Hopefully we'll finish it . I have a few more that I purchased and I would like to get those done as well. I would like to start doing at least one every three month and work our way to one a month. There are so many good ones.Once my Photobucket account works again I'll post some pictures.

As for school I'm still trying to figure out what to use next year. With Annette I am almost certain I am going to continue with Rod & Staff reading. Bob Jones Reading 3 looks really good and it's still in its box under the bed. I just can't give up Rod & Staff's Bible Reader yet. I love how much of the Bible she is learning and the Reading Workbooks really help to reinforce it, plus it sneaks in some grammar . Another thing is I purchased Bob Jones Reading for 3rd grade. If she switches over from R&S Annette would end up doing two 3rd grade reading programs. I probably should have ordered Bob Jones Reading for 4th grade.

With Josh I think I know what I am going to use with him. His has been the hardest because he is behind with his basic subjects so I'm trying to find some remedial programs or just use some lower grades with him . I'll have to post about it later. The kiddos movie ended  and it's time to get them ready for bed .

Blessings,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I so dislike loosing my post  it just never comes out like the first time. Let me give it another go (like I have the time)

Brent has been coming home from school wanting to do homeschool. He is working through Rod & Staff Math 1. Most of it is review for him. I am not currently using the Teacher's Manual. I staple a weeks worth of worksheets and let him go for it. If he has a problem he will hunt me down . He takes these worksheets in the car, to the park or where ever we are going. Lets hope this  last once we start school.

Today we worked on his phonics using The Reading Lesson which is recommended from Heart of Dakota Curriculum.

I love how uncluttered the pages are and the cute pictures are great for Brent to color. I think this is a consumable book because it doesn't give you permission to copy the pages or at least I couldn't find where it said you could. It is pretty thick and it can be used again if you don't let your child do the work-pages & color in it. I figured if I let him actually work & color in it he would be more excited to do school. There are not to many work-pages and the ones that are in it are pretty simple.

Brent completed 2 lessons which consisted of 20 pages. I figured the first couple of lessons would be easy for him but I can see him slowing down soon. He did have to sound out some words but he did pretty good.

After seven hours at school Brent loves to come home and play in our mud pit in our back yard . My Sweets has been trying to get our backyard looking at least decent. The other day Josh asked if he could play with the water out back. It was hot so I said they could. Nex thing I know Josh is asking me if I want to see their pond that they made. 

I asked Brent to stand by the wall so I could take his picture and he accidentally leaned on it. Yikes! There is a Brent mark on the wall now.

Blessings,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I'm busy getting ready for Summer. We will but our regular school books away for awhile and do "Summer School"  It's really hard for me to let their regular school go and start Summer School but we need the lighter schedule and I need more time with the Lord to figure out what to do next school year. I'm really having a difficult time deciding.

With Josh, Annette, Caleb & Brent we are going to test them from "Let's Go Learn" and once they are done, the program will customize a program for them. It's called Unique Reader.

Joshua will start Saxon Phonics Intervention. It's a remedial phonics program for grades 4 to adult. I plan to do this in the evening with him or during quiet time. Maybe some nights dad will get home early and take the kiddos to the park so I can work with Josh. Hopefully between Unique Reader & me helping him he will get a good phonics foundation.

Caleb & Brent will continue with their Phonics too for most of the Summer.

Josh, Annette, Caleb & Brent are going to use "Fun Tables the Fun Way" They seem to learn their addition and then forget it. This has been going on for two years now (at least with my oldest) so I'm going to see if doing addition the Fun Way will help get it ingrained in their little minds

Josh will hopefully whip through the addition one and continue with the "Times Tables". It would be nice to finally have more time for something else rather then drill time and we can move on to long division.

I'm still going through all of our school stuff and am thinking of getting rid of everything we are not using. Yikes . I am not one to ebay it so I'll probably take it to Half Price Books and see what I can make off of it. I think they pay you a $1.00 a book, so it may look like a lot when I take it but it won't be big bucks. Oh well, if I make $20.00 at least I'll be rid of feeling guilty for not using the stuff .

It just takes so much time to get it all out, figure what condition it's in, how much to charge & to ship it.

The baby that I watch woke up.

Blessings,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

Another school year is ending. Annette will be done with her

• Rod & Staff Reading 3 Unit 1 (She has completed the 2nd grade books and started on the 3rd grade)
• Rod & StaffSpelling 2
• Singapore 2A
• She finished her Cursive book
• Primary Language Lessons (first half)

She has completed lots of workbooks this year. We will continue through June, take July off and start back in Aug. (through July we are going to continue with math facts) One thing Annette really needs to improve with is her penmanship.

I feel guilty with Josh again. He has not completed anything because I switched his curriculum again. He is progressing but there is never an end for him because we start something else before we finish the first. I really feel bad about this because I know he feels it. Today I asked him if he would like to finish Saxon Intervention Phonics Program (something we started but it was too intense back then) and his reply was basically and "I don't care" answer. That was the first time he had a "Whatever" kind of answer.

This next year I am really going to commit to NOT changing anything. If he is struggling with a subject I am going to work through it with him instead of switching. I really dislike to say this but Joshua is a hard student. He doesn't stay on task, he has trouble with reading (although improving very much), writing & spelling. It's scary because these subjects are very important. He needs to be able to read, write and spell. He is good in grammar & math. I do have to add that Josh did write a nice paragraph Friday. I was so happy. He INDENTED!!!! His spelling wasn't the greatest but it actually looked like a paragraph.

It's not that he has trouble with some major subjects. I don't mind working with him. This is why I chose to homeschool, so we can work with our children. We can go at their own pace. What makes it hard is his unwillingness to do his work. I don't mean disobedient unwillingness but his non critical thinking skills, he is always in a hurry, he can't seem to concentrate on his work, that sort of thing.

The kiddos are back from the park.

Blessings,

Linda<><

My sister-in-law Ruth has been helping me with Ethan's schooling. We are using My Father's World K with him.

I'll have to post some pictures of his writing & coloring. Ethan pays a lot of attention to detail when he wants too. If he doesn't want to do school he does not do his best. He gets that way if we are not doing it his way . He could be a pain sometimes when it come to doing school. I am so thankful that my SIL is helping me out with him. She will be leaving in July and I'm going to miss her .

Caleb is doing well with school. Today we were working on problems like 16-10. I was surprised he caught on pretty fast. When I first starting these problems I had to figure out what they were trying to show me, I had to finally ask my Sweets

Caleb's reading is picking up. He still has to sound out a lot of words, but then there are a lot of words that he doesn't have to sound out either .

Lance fell on his face today. When I went to pick him up, I thought I was going to see a bloody nose and some loose teeth. I was surprised that he barely cut his lip. Thank you Lord. Lance has had lots of Dr. visits. He has had three trips to get his blood drawn, three trips to get his knee's x-rayed & 6 trips to the doctors.  About a month ago he was running in the front yard and of all the place with grass he falls on the one piece of cement. The top layer of his skin was gone. It wasn't that big and it wasn't bleeding yet. You know how it takes a while for the blood to show up. I put a bandaid on it. A few days later I changed the band aid after cleaning it. Some how the bandaid moved and the sticky part was over the cut. This caused some puss spots.

A few weeks ago we went camping and he fell on the same knee. I'm not sure if his knee was already swollen (I know bad mama) but it swelled and it hurt for him to walk. Monday we took him to the Dr. and they put him on antibiotics. They said  to come back Wed. to see if it clears up. Wed. it was worse and there was puss coming out of his knee. They had him go for some test. Thursday they wanted to put him in the hospital but decided on more test instead. If the x-ray showed anything, Lance would need to have an MRI done. Everything came up good. Friday the Dr. was happy that the swelling went down and Lance was walking without pain. This Tuesday the swelling hasn't gone completely away so they had more blood drawn & x-rays done. He is supposed to go back next week.

Here is a picture of his knee before it got all pussey and gross.

Here are a few pictures of Brent and his 100th day of school lamb.

I am going to serve the kiddos some watermelon now

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I'm having fun deciding what Caleb will use this Fall. Here are some of my ideas.

For Bible he will use 'Studying God's Word" from Christian Liberty Press. I'm not sure what Bible he will use with it. I have two that would work fine but I have heard so many good things about "The Child Story Bible' that I am tempted

The Bible that I am tempted to get. It is recommended in "Studying God's Word B" but I should save the money and use one of the two that I already own.

For Reading I am going to continue with Reading Pathway's and when Caleb is more fluent with reading I will have him continue to use Rod & Staff Reading 1.

Here is the full R&S Grade 1 Reading. He won't use 'Printing Practice' though.

For Penmanship he is going to use Rod & Staff 2.

Science is from Christian Liberty Press. He will also join in on Brent's Science from My Father's World 1s Grade program.

History is also from Christian Liberty Press and he will also join in on Brent's History from MFW & Annette's & Joshua's. I'll mostly have him sit in on Brent's history time. I wanted Caleb to have a little something of his own, so I purchased History for Little Pilgrims.

Math he will continue with Singapore.

Phonics he will continue Phonics Pathway, Adventures in Phonics & Noah Webster's Reading Handbook.

Spelling I'm not sure how we will continue. Currently he is copying sentences from Phonics Pathway. I also dictate word or a sentence to him. Building Spelling Skills came with Christian Liberty Press curriculum so I'm not sure. Here is a picture of what he is using now.

And if we add in Building Spelling Skills (I think I might just skip it and continue with how we are currently doing spelling)

Music will be combined with what Joshua & Annette are using. Art will be incorporated in with Science. I am going to have him copy pictures from his Science book.

As you can see, I'm still unsure of a few things but I'm sure I'll get it all figured out by September.

So, hope you enjoyed taking a peek into Caleb's 2nd Grade year

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.

I love Caleb's schooling. I posted about it below this thread. Knowing that I'll have him home at least until 5th grade makes all the difference with teaching him. With Josh I never know and became so stressed about what he is not learning. I forget about how much Josh is learning. But back to Caleb

We worked on Reading Pathways-20 minutes, Noah Phonics-10mintues, dictation-10 minutes, Click N Read-20 minutes  (on the computer) and math 20 minutes (also on the computer). It takes about an hour and a half to complete his schooling. Once we start Rod & Staff Reading again it will take a total of 2hrs. With Caleb I am not rushing him through lessons. He is going at his own pace.Hopefully by the Fall he will read more fluently.

Annette does most of her work on her own. She is still using Rod & Staff Reading 3,  R&S Phonics 2, Singapore 1B, R&S Spelling 2, & Primary Language Lessons (informal English). I usually have her come to me for math & phonics. If she needs help with anything else she will hunt me down.

Annette is almost done with her spelling book  in another two weeks and she will move on to the next level. She is a pretty good speller, but I'm sure she will get stumped soon. She gets frustrated when she doesn't know something. So far her work has not been too challenging for her. She whizzes right through it. I can see that in the next couple of years she will be challenged more as her work load increases. Currently she is not doing any writing assignments (that starts next year 08/09 school year)

Her penmanship has gone down hill. Especially after seeing her cousins penmanship. While we were in Ca. my niece Ali needed some help with her homework. She was showing me what she was working on and she had to copy a paragraph in cursive. It was beautiful. She goes to Hueneme Christian School that uses Abeka. I'm considering having Brent, Ethan & Lance start cursive first.

Josh, still gets very distracted while doing school. He keeps putting off doing his work. We are working on that. One subject that really needs improvement is his writing. We are still using Intermediate Language Lessons and today he was supposed to write a letter. The lesson gave him two options to write about. He chose the one about a friend who sent him a puppy. We went over how to write a letter yesterday and I reviewed it again today. He sat at the table and looked like he was working hard. I went to my room to make my bed and next thing I know he is right behind me. I told him to go back and finish his assignment. He said he was done. I looked at him in a funny way because it was just minutes ago that I left the kitchen. I looked at his letter and he DIDN'T INDENT!!! All year I have been showing him how a paragraph looks, I have showed him by writing a paragraph, I have gone over the whole indent thing dozens of times. And he FORGOT TO CAPITALIZE the beginning of some sentences. Again we have gone over this one for TWO years NOW! I was ready to pull my hair out but I didn't. I calmly told him to make the corrections.

He did do well in math. We are taking a break from Rod & Staff Math for a while to pick-up with Math-U-See. He has memorized his multiplication for 0