I've just created a new page on my website:  Parenting Think Spot - a collection of short parenting tips, ideas and thoughts.

Two short thoughts are already uploaded

5 Keys to Consistency  The key to training our children is consistency - but how do we maintain that?

Instructions or Example?  When we are teaching our children what is more effective? Our Instruction or our Example?

I’ve had several pages open in my browser for the last little while waiting to share them with you.  Since I have to shut down my computer for a while now seems like a good time to post them.

I love the idea of these Narration bookmarks.  These prompts help the children to think as they are reading.  Most of my children are sharing their narrations in their reading journals these days, but they go through seasons of needing prompts.  This post was listed in the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival – if you haven’t read it yet – there’s plenty to read!

 

I love this list of what a true friend is like – as per scripture.  These are good scriptures to remember for anyone – not just us ladies!

 

Not sure how I came across this site though it has been open for a week or so – neoK12 – Educational videos and lessons for k-12 school kids.  This will be a handy link to keep!

 

I’ve printed this off to keep in my Bible study folder.  Not sure when I’ll get to this study but I’d like to do it myself or help my older ones to do it as their Bible Study.  Getting to know God through His Names and Titles.  I like the list in that it is just some prompts/scriptures – you have to do the thinking and applying.

 

Also need to be  more diligent with Scripture Memorisation with my younger two – not sure how I’m going to do this yet, but with AmblesideOnline’s list and this one I think we’ll have enough to work with.

 

 

I love that they have bricks hanging off trees, bushes and shrubs here- to shape them. What a simple fix!  

They do it, to trees often, to create larger bits of shade and the bouganvilla grows like crazy here – so you see this over fences all the time.

Now.. if only my kids would wear them…. Ü

 

“ “Ya, I can just see it now, you’re going to home school them through college!”

 

It seems like just the other day, that I as getting ribbed by friends for not wanting to send Devon to school. Thirteen years later, without a day spent in a classroom, and Devon is nearly finished with his first term of college, and YES! He is taking his classes online, so in a way we are homeschooling him through college!

 

With a college freshman, a junior taking 12 credits (also at Liberty) and a 7^th grader-

 

It seems like a good time to reflect on the things we have loved and that have really *made* our homeschooling.  These are the things that are tops on my list, that get us all excited and going a mile a minute… in random order as they pop in my head.

 

Five in a Row.

~ This curriculum was really the backbone for our homeschool journey. Using wonderful children’s literature, FIAR seamlessly crosses subject lines and leads learning on-course. All of us have fond memories of our time in the pages of the books that Jane Clare brilliantly and lovingly selected. 

 

With the self doubt that can attack HS parents throughout the years- I have heard, read and even thought-

“This is too easy!”

“Is it going to be enough?”   

It is! It really, really does work!

 

So very often Paul would come home and ask the kids, “What’d you learn today?” and they would answer” We didn’t do any school work today”  Huh, we didn’t do any school work?! Can you tell Dad what country Madeline is from? Where is it on the map? Hey show him what the French flag looks like. Doesn’t that French bread smell yummy- did you tell dad you made it? What does ‘solemn’ mean again?  Can you tell dad where your appendix is? … That is how easy the kids learn with FIAR, they don’t even know they are doing it.

 

I think that learning with Five in a Row is like… taking a sponge and placing it in the ocean, the sponge has no choice …it is inescapably, effortlessly saturated with the salt water. The learning that happens when a FIAR manual has been placed in parents' hands, along with those great titles- those poor kids don’t stand a chance.- they are thoroughly, completely and effortlessly soaked in learning.

 

Reading Made Easy (RME):

 

The first big hurdle for a new homeschooler is really teaching your child to read, isn’t it? If we can figure out how in the world to teach them that- they just might be okay and we just might make it. (grin) RME really takes the pain out of this process and ever so gently leads the parent and child down the path together.

 

Spelling Power:

 

I love the way that spelling power works. Spending time focusing on the words that a student needs help with and then moving right along. Love it!

 

English from the roots up:

 

We love these simple flash cards for building vocabulary.

 

Omnibus:

 

We really enjoyed the book selections and the discussion type learning that took place using Omnibus. As high schoolers it was nice to find a “unit style” that we were able to continue along with! It made for some great thought provoking conversations.

 

History Alive:

 

We fist started using History Alive in its old format. We really enjoyed learning with Diana Waring. Her enthusiasm for history is contagious and we loved the reading selections. On car trips we will still listen to her CDs today!

 

For English:

 

A Reason for Handwriting

The Writer's Jungle

Write Source

 

Science:

We loved-

Amazing Animals that Defy Evolution.

Jonathan Park

 

Other favorites throughout the years:

Princess and the Kiss

AWANA

Keepers at Home

Story of the World (read by Jim Weiss)

Books on CD have been a huge blessing to our road trip time.

Prairie Primer

 

Still looking forward to going through Where the Brook and River Meet, with Addison. =0)

 

 

Wanna know how the guys did on their first few classes? I’ll tell ya!

 

Dylan
Coms 101- 82.55%
Eng 100 – 91.4%

Devon
Coms 101 87.78%
Eng 100 94.2%
Humanities 96%

I’d be thrilled with those first grades regardless… but oh! Is it ever a boost to my homeschool mama’s heart to know that I didn’t stuff ‘em up!

For all my homeschooling friends who think ObamaCare will solve their financial and health insurance woes, think again. It may give you temporary relief for your financial headache, but it may also invite government nannies into your home to improve your child's well-being and health.

HR 3200 that passed the House of Representatives, currently has a provision for funding states that implement a "voluntary" home visitation program for parents with young children or who are expecting. (See Sec. 1904 sec. 440)

The intended purpose is to " improve the well-being, health, and development of children by enabling the establishment and expansion of high quality programs providing voluntary home visitation for families with young children and families expecting children."

In America we used to believe that was the role of the parent, but now it's the role of our benevolent and compassionate Uncle Sam. A gaze over the Atlantic will show us exactly where we're headed,

"Health and safety inspectors are to be given unprecedented access to family homes to ensure that parents are protecting their children from household accidents.

New guidance drawn up at the request of the Department of Health urges councils and other public sector bodies to “collect data” on properties where children are thought to be at “greatest risk of unintentional injury”.

Council staff will then be tasked with overseeing the installation of safety devices in homes, including smoke alarms, stair gates, hot water temperature restrictors, oven guards and window and door locks.

The draft guidance by a committee at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has been criticised as intrusive and further evidence of the “creeping nanny state”.

Where are the safety devices for the "creeping nanny" who keeps sticking her nose into our personal lives?

Why homeschoolers support this bill or President Obama is beyond my understanding.

-Spunky

Cross-posted, with permission, from SpunkyHomeSchool

I was recently asked what do we 'use' for homeschooling so I've compiled a list.  It isn't a complete list as it would take me forever to walk around the house and list everything that the kids use, or have used over the years.  I prefer to use resources other than curriculum (at least I make this distinction in my head).  When you use a resource you are in control, you use what you want, what you find helpful and what solves your problem and then you move on.  With a curriculum we tend to have this inner commitment to use it all, to be solely dedicated to it, to be honour bound to it (obviously that is a bit extreme but there is a glimmer of truth there!)  So we these are some of the resources we use:

Bible - I have not used a set curriculum for Bible though I have drawn heavily from Heart of Wisdom's approach - read, discuss, research, record etc. We've done both chronological readings as well as topics. We cover a lot of our language arts in the writing/notebooking/narrations that happen in Bible. By older two (15/16) have been doing Bible independently for a year or so - they have used various studies but our main goal has been to teach them to use Bible study tools for themselves.

Character - we study one character trait a month and have done so for many years. We use primarily Character First material.

Language - We've used a variety of methods for teaching to read, but largely guided by Ruth Beechick (even if we were using a curriculum such as Jolly Phonics, or an Australian one - LEM) For writing we've used Charlotte Mason's ideas of oral narration and then written narrations. We use notebooking or Lapbooks. Once the children are comfortable with writing we've used Institute of Excellence in Writing.

Math - our core is Math U See though I supplement that with math literature, drawing on livingmath.net

Science - this is one of my weakest areas. I have largely relied upon Magic School Bus dvds, and anything Peter (dh) wants to show them. He is the scientist. We have probably focused on Creation Science in the primary/elementary ages and used magazines, dvds, audios to help the children see the importance of this aspect of science. As the children have got older we've used Noeo Science and Apologia for different children. Next year I intend to use God's Design for Life by Answers in Genesis as my spine/core guide. I also use Topscience intermittently - it also covers some math concepts.

History - Josh has used Diana Waring as a spine/outline. Jess is using Mystery of History. We read lots of historical fiction, biographies and non-fiction books. Notebooking is our primary output for history (and science)

Geography - another weak spot for me and a strong point for Pete. We do a lot of this by talking around the dinner table as well as taking notice of things in the books we read. Currently we are reading through Exploring the World around you by Gary Parker.

Each of our children pursue a variety of different interests and we've all sorts of curriculum and resources but this covers the main stuff.


If you are thinking about homeschooling I have some thoughts and ideas for you over on the homeschool section of my website, Lifestyle Homeschool

If you are looking at curriculum and wondering, then this article may help you:  Choosing Curriculum

Mike Huckabee, Chuck Norris, and Michael Farris talk about how the new health care bill that will allow the government to enter our homes and tell us how to parent our own children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSqmDC28jPk

You can read Chuck Norris' article about the bill on World Net Daily.

Huckabee, Norris, and Farris also discuss how international law may be used to judge a case on juvenile heinous crimes instead of American law. This is important for homeschoolers to know because because the international law that may be used is from Europe and Europe has made the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. So Europe is telling us how we have to judge our juvenile criminals and that can lead to telling us how we have to raise our children as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrtiEAC1wlk&NR=1

Hat tip to Lisa Barthuly

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

As my previous post said, I had my plans all laid out for today.  We were going to have a good day.  Well, we did have a good day, but it had nothing to do with my plans!

Pete had to get his plane back into town and pick up his car so that meant a trip to town for me.  We got talking and it was so tempting to head out for coffee but because I'd made plans I decided to head back home and carry on with whatever we could.

I wasn't home long before we got a phone call from a friend who was able to drop in to help Nomi with a craft project she is making for my Christmas present (which is why I couldn't help her!).  So there went Nomi's study.

Then Pete needed help down in the paddock and Daniel was the best kid for the job so there went Daniel's study!

Josh was processing mangoes and listening to an audio and Jess was busy with her studies.  After lunch Jess took over with the mangoes and Josh took in a little study.  Then there was "Bedroom Bless" the time when the kids deep clean their bedrooms, and then we headed over to a friend's house for swimming practice.

While I was in town the kids all (except Josh) worked on their independent work so their basic skills were covered today but the Bible lesson, the character lesson, and the living math lesson I had planned just didn't h\appen!  But lots of good stuff did and that is what we have to remember when life happens - that if it is good stuff then we need to make the most of it, if on the other hand it is drivel that happens we need to get control of our day - but for us today, it was good stuff.

Tomorrow is a new day!